Sony VAIO All In One Desktop - No Power

[akimba]

Hi

I have a Sony All in one pc.
Model No - PCG-2F1M or seems to be VGC-JS1E/S.

Any how when I plug the power cable in it makes a small beep and both the fans sort of shiver as if they have recieved power. so I think the power is going round the motherboard ok. but when I hit the ON button nothing happens. I have looked at the ON button and doesnt look faulty.

Do you think it maybe the power button or is there another test I should try?

Thanks

Alan

[evilsatan]

All in ones are a bit tricky as I think, like with laptops, they use non-standardised parts so I always recommend avoiding such systems as they can be expensive to repair and tricky to diagnose. If there are some signs of power then the fuse will be ok. I would suggest the RAM or PSU would be the first thing to look at. If there are two RAM modules then try removing one of them and power on, try this with both sticks in both RAM banks.

Are you certain nothing happens when you press the on button? No lights, sounds or movement in the fans? Usually a power switch just bridges two pins so you could follow the power switch leads to the mobo, take the plug off the two pins and bridge them with a screwdriver.

[akimba]

Hi

Thanks for your reply

Yeah am sure the nothing happens when ON switch pressed as have the back off it, tried with ram out to see if get a BIOS No Ram BEEP but nothing.

I am going to take to work tomm and get one of the electronic techs to do some checking of where the power is flowing.

I do alot of laptop/desktop repairs but was offered this for £50 so thought worth a punt and being a Sony thought be easy getting parts but it doesnt seem to be :-( but selling the HD and RAM from it alone should get me £50 back if cant get it working which would be a shame as good looking bit of kit ;-)

[evilsatan]

Sony spares cost a fortune and as you have found aren't readily available. Could be a PSU or mobo fault, definitely sounds like a power issue if you have no signs of life at all.

[Mickey]

Not 100% up on the Sony`s. But had to fix my daughters last year and that was a pain to get the parts. the sony website was even more of a pain as nearly every model in the VAIO range has diff parts.

Have you tried taking out the battery and useing the powerpack? Not sure if sonys work without a battery attached but some do. Could be a faulty battery that`s shorting or simply not holding enough charge

[evilsatan]

Not 100% up on the Sony`s. But had to fix my daughters last year and that was a pain to get the parts. the sony website was even more of a pain as nearly every model in the VAIO range has diff parts.

Have you tried taking out the battery and useing the powerpack? Not sure if sonys work without a battery attached but some do. Could be a faulty battery that`s shorting or simply not holding enough charge

I'm not sure but I don't think AIO PCs have batteries, I have not used one though so could well be wrong. I avoid them like the plague as a custom tower PC is so much cheaper to diagnose and repair.

[Mickey]

DOh prob right i was thinking it was a laptop

[akimba]

Yeah took it to work for them to run some tests but they not had time yet, I have looked everywhere for a replacement mobo based on model no but nothing.
I though would be easy as really its a lappy mobo strapped to a tv screen but cant find lappy mobo, maybe better searching for mobo model but it at work so cant write it down at mo.

might try the local sony store to see if can get new mobo as usually that if that not works then strip and sell parts prob ;-)

Will let you know how I get on tho

[macca7]

I have exactly the same issue, same type of PC (PCG-2F1M / VGC-JS1E/S). As with akimba, when I plug the power cable in it makes a small beep, but when I pressv the ON button nothing happens.

I wondered if its possible to remove the hard drive, then link the hard drive to a different PC so that I can retrieve my data? Apologies - I'm not tech-savvy, so apologies if this is a 'dumb' question!!

[akimba]

Yeah HD easy to take out, under every rubber bit on back is screw to back off, once all undone use credit card and run round the join of the front and back on the side of machine, then the back will come off but be careful when getting back past cd rom. Then 4 screws hold HD in place ;-)

[plug1]

I could fix both these machines for you but it wouldn't be cheap.

Best thing to do is put them on eBay , and learn never to by a all in one pc ever again even if it does say Sony on the front.

And yeh just pull the drive and plug it in a USB caddy.

Plug.

[akimba]

Just got this reply from an ebayer http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/ixtreme-repairs/ website www.ixtreme-repairs.co.uk

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Alan

This does sound like it may be a motherboard failure which is quite common with the All In One series.

If the motherboard is repairable then it would be a standard charge of £90 ex vat which includes parts & labour.

If you would like to send this for repair then please complete collection form on our website: http://www.ixtreme-repairs.co.uk/collection.htm

Kind regards,

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As you can see he is offering to fix it for £108 including pick up and drop off, going to pack it up at the weekend :-)

[muttleymacclad]

...but could plug do it cheaper? My worry would be postage costs and if they would charge you if it is not a mother board problem.

[andy262000]

Could be BGA failure on one of the chips, sometimes graphic chip, a reflow could bring it back to life but I think those ones have a huge board and it could of warped, long time since I took a sony all in one apart but just looked at a picture of yours and the last one I saw looks similar, it had a reflow and it fired up but only lasted a month. I didn't have the reballing equipment at the time or I would of tried that, probably what the ebay guy is offering but it could wind up expensive if it packs up again, unless you sell it.

[plug1]

Iv got rework station and preheater , so if the gfx chip or other has lifted I can sort that ,
Do you know if the it santa rossa chip set on these machines ?

Try this . Open it up and heat the gfx chip and both bridge chips with a hair dryer , giv it a good old heat . Then power the machine.
if you have a Meter then read the voltages on the psu .
Then get back to me.

I'll fix it for a lot less than 90

[andy262000]

Not Santa Rossa on that machine Plug1, think that one was on the centrino's, just asked my pal he said it's Intel G45 chipset on those, bare in mind takes about an hour to get to the board lol

I got a Infra red rework station a few years ago and I did a few jobs but got sidetracked with a few projects, started getting back into it but reballing this time.

[akimba]

Looking about alot of peeps are on about reballing the graphics chip, thats a bit too deep for me :-( I will try the hairdryer treatment as sort of thing you used to do to the xboxes.

Getting to the mobo takes 10mins about 20 screws on the back take heatsinks off and then 7 screws for mobo and shes out ;-)

and as for ebayer matey postage there and back is inc in the £108 and as say these seem to always go faulty with the same symptoms so more than likely he seen it before and knows exactly what to do ;-)

Thanks for all your help tho really appreciate it

[andy262000]

This could be the chip http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1pc-Intel-...item4aae5de13a
the parts are not expensive, it's the equipment to fit them that is. Maybe worth asking your man if he fits a new chip in the price because I've had some were the reflow/reball job has been bang on but the chip was at fault. Or ask Plug1 because Plug1, myself or your man would try reflow first.

You was lucky taking that apart, the old one I had to do took over an hour to get the board out. Good luck anyway

[akimba]

I thought I would ask him what he would do )make out I knew what I was talking about ;-)

He replied "If it was a GPU failure we would reball and reflow. This is usually caused by other faulty components on the motherboard."