I think my Vaio died on me last night.

dMaN24

So i've had my Sony Vaio for approx 2,5 years now, and last night it froze up and died. No power, no fan no nothing. I sensed that it may have been overheating a bit (silly me having it on the duvet and all. But still this is not the first time)

So i did what i used to do, put it down, let it cool off, and then restart.
and it worked. I thought.

10 minutes after the restart it died again but this time it stopped responding completely.

What i've found out is that it could be some sort of short-out due to heat-issues.

So i'm left it unplugged for the night and today, and will give it a try to take it apart.

I just can't afford a new laptop at this moment, but without a computer i'm like a fish out of water.

rhonin

dMaN24 wrote: »

So i've had my Sony Vaio for approx 2,5 years now, and last night it froze up and died. No power, no fan no nothing. I sensed that it may have been overheating a bit (silly me having it on the duvet and all. But still this is not the first time)

So i did what i used to do, put it down, let it cool off, and then restart.
and it worked. I thought.

10 minutes after the restart it died again but this time it stopped responding completely.

What i've found out is that it could be some sort of short-out due to heat-issues.

So i'm left it unplugged for the night and today, and will give it a try to take it apart.

I just can't afford a new laptop at this moment, but without a computer i'm like a fish out of water.

I wouldn't go taking it apart.
Try starting it up today and use it on a table so that air can circulate properly and see will it run ok.

dMaN24

I've had it apart before, to clean out the keyboard and so on.

I just feel it starting to crumble up on me. The bluray-reader/writer has stopped working, the keyboard has keys not working etc. etc.

The big thing is my 300+ gb of data i want back.
My external drive died aswell a couple of months ago.

Question is if it's even worth to contact Sony for a possible warranty-deal even though it's OOW since atleast 1 and a half year back.

yomamasflavour

What's the laptop model number?

dMaN24

VGN AR 61S. Bought at Sony Centre in Cork in 2008.

yomamasflavour

Just to clarify does yours have an Nvidia 8600m?
(think it does, and that model number seems to say so)

If so, unfortunately your motherboard is dead (well pretty much). All the ones with that series of graphics cards eventually fail.

One possible hope, is warranty.
Other companies dell, hp etc. provided an extended warranty to cover this failure.

When did your normal warranty expire?

dMaN24

The very same. wehey.

I'd say my warranty ended in June/July last year or so. No wait. We are in 2011 now. So 2 years ago then. Ugh.

And the first hit on ebay for new mobo is about 250 euros. Holy pooh.

Never buy high end i guess :P

yomamasflavour

"In July 2008, Nvidia publicly acknowledged a failure associated with some of their graphics processors (GPU) due to a manufacturing defect in the graphics chip packaging. At that time Sony and Nvidia jointly investigated whether Vaio models equipped with this GPU were impacted by the issue. This investigation revealed that the issue had not occurred in such Vaio models.

"However, after closely monitoring the situation, Sony has now determined that a very small percentage of computers with the Nvidia graphics chips may be affected.

"These PCs may exhibit distorted video, random characters or a blank screen due to failure of the Nvidia graphics chips.

"As part of our commitment to quality, for any customer who requires repair of their Vaio due to the Nvidia graphics processor issue, Sony will cover the cost of repair (parts and labour) at no charge during the first four years following the date of purchase of the models in question (see list below).

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1528907/sony-admits-failing-nvidia-chips-months-late

Can't seem to find any updated list, though it's definitely something worth looking into.

dMaN24

Super!

I'll pop into the local Sony centre on the way home.

dMaN24

Yup. Just checked it and it's as dead as Steven Seagal's acting career.
Went by Curry's on the way home and saw a few acer's and Toshiba's that fell into my liking.
Time to rob the kitty-bank i guess. And something to transfer data from the old laptop.

Sephiroth_dude

Did you call into the sony centre?

xsiborg

OP you could do worse than go down the route of the second hand market? i managed to pick up a Lenovo ThinkPad R400 for €350-

-Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 (2.53 GHz)

-4 GB DDR3 RAM

-Intel GMA X 4500 graphics

-320 GB SATA hard drive

-14, 1-Inch WXGA TFT (1280 x 800)

-Gigabit Ethernet (that WORKS! Take that HP with your nVidia chipset that i had to throttle down to 100FD)

-Wireless N Connectivity

-GENUINE Windows 7 Business (I done a clean install with my own Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, also geuine!)

Some of the parts have been upgraded from the stock model in the review but it definitely holds it's own with some of the laptops you'll get brand new nowadays.

In fact most of the new laptops I had a look at that were in the €350 price bracket were Celerons with 2GB or 3GB RAM.

i managed to get it for €250 though with a trade in of my 5 year old HP DV9565ea, which had already been back to HP to have the nvidia 8400GM graphics chip replaced, so this was the second time it had blown out on me. last time it cost me €280 to get the motherboard replaced, so it had gone BER (Beyond Economical Repair) at this stage!

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.notebookjournal.de%2Ftests%2Flenovo-thinkpad-r400-634%2F1

slickmcvic

exact same is happening to mine for a while....not totally dead yet but on the way out with blue screen and graphic card failure....would i get any combeback on this as my model no. is listed as faulty and was bought in a sony centre?