Have had an old Sony PCG-FX101 for 6 or 7 years now , only use it to do my accounts and upgrade my Technomate reciever and mobile phones .etc. I used it the other day and switched it off in the normal way , now it is dead . When I press the on button it makes a click , all the lights go on for a second and that's it.I'm really knarked as it it in excellent condition considering how old it is ,has'nt had any knocks or bumps . I used to use it to back up my photos , so it has 6 years worth of snaps ,accounts and customer invoices on the drive .Getting the stuff off was no problem , the 10g hard drive is under the keyboard and using that great little device EasyIDE I just pluged it into a PC USB port and transfered the data onto a spare drive .But I now would like to know just what has gone wrong with it .I would never take it anywhere to fix as it would probably cost as much as a new one ,so I'll just bin it. I wonder if someone has any idea what might of happend .The adapter is working , so it is getting power but there is no charging light on .I've taken the battery out and re-inserted it but still no life .Could the BIOS battery have anything to do with it ?? it's never been changed .
Sony Laptop has died !!
- Thread starter rickyt
- Start date
think it could be the battery, only supposed to last 1-2yrs then your supposed to replace them. i would see about getting a replacement either off ebay or the like. either that or take it sony service center and get them to have a nose.
Hi ,just been on fleabay and yes there's a batterys for sale , but what if it isn't the battery ? Just had a look at some second hand sony's on there ,blimey there not cheap .Loads of faulty ones for sale too . I'll give that place a miss for buying a replacement .
Try the memory seating or the mounting of the DC-DC board, you'll probably have to strip it right down to get access to it though. While you're stripping it, you'll have access to the CMOS battery so you might as well change it just in case.
Usually on laptops motherboards blow (capacitors etc) after a long while - it's pretty hot in the casing and these things just tend to go - after 6-7 years, I'd say that board failure is highly probable. Be glad yours lasted that long tbh 
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Hi hate to be bearer of doom and gloom, but that's exactly what happened to my six year old Sony Vaio F-400. Same symptoms, tried three service centres - all said same thing - "Sorry mate, almost certainly the motherboard".
Took hard drive out and put it in an £8 USB case, so at least still have access to the data.
Bought an Inspiron 9400 Core Duo T2400. (with non-combusting battery according to serial number!), and if I get 6 years out of it, I'll be equally happy as I was with the Sony.
Took hard drive out and put it in an £8 USB case, so at least still have access to the data.
Bought an Inspiron 9400 Core Duo T2400. (with non-combusting battery according to serial number!), and if I get 6 years out of it, I'll be equally happy as I was with the Sony.
Thanks chaps , Yeah I changed the BIOS Button Cell , still the same . I thought it should have still run on mains without the battery but it does'nt .It's a real shame as it has had hardy any use and cost nearly £1200 . The screen is perfect as is the keyboard , at least I can use the 10g drive .I did notice however the last time I used it ,it was pushing some hot air out the back . I wonder if it has just overheated and blew a gasket !. One question , do these things really have to be used on a regular basis ? as I bought a Packard Bell iGO [2gig] three years ago and that doesn't get used much either . Would'nt want that just to die too .
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