PCTech Forums

by **zenn1999** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 2:04 am

Well so far you guys helped with two problems I had and those same two have still not been answered at ten other forums. Thank you...

But on to the new problem. I have a sony vaio pcg fx-310 laptop that has never worked since I got it about 3 months ago. When connected to power outlet or battery it does the same thing. If I push the power button the power light comes on the fan spins, and the cdrom tray will eject when the eject button is pushed. The cdrom indicator led comes on for a minute after it is closed also. There is no video form the display panel or from a monitor connected to the port in the back. There are no beeps or error messages of any kind and the power light and fan will stay on until the power button is held in for about a minute or less.

When I opened the laptop I found no visible singns of any problems. When removing the hdd I found that the disk isn't locked it just rattles around in the casing(garbage). I tried to boot it without the hdd but with the same results.

The person who gave it to me said that he was using it one day, turned it off and tried to use it again the next day but it would no longer turn on.

I checked the ram chips. It had 512 but it is now in my other laptop(it only had 128) but they work fine. I cant test the cpu because I dont want to dissasemble my working laptop. The cord to it was kind of messed up too. I ended up throwing it away. It looked like it was jerked on and swung around daily. It also didnt have a floppy drive so i couldnt try booting from there.

Am I missing something or is this one dead? It is newer and I really dont want to part it off if I dont have to.

by **brad** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:54 am

I'd try replacing the cmos battery. Not the main battery. I looked on the web and they're around $15.
Only other thing I'd try is hooking up the HD to a Desktop via a converter: .
brad

by **zenn1999** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 1:23 pm

Thanks for the reply.

The hdd is definately dead. I bought the converter about a month ago and tried hooking it up in my desktop but it wouldn't even rocognize it at all. It showed as an unknown device. But I could get another hdd. it was only a 15 gig anyway. I just dont want to go out and get another one if what it is going in is not going to work again.

I will try changing the battery when I get home today. I am at work right now. I"m not sure but I think I checked the cmos battery with the voltmeter when I first got it because I had thought it was something to do with the bios. It just looks like it isn't even posting.

by **zenn1999** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:59 am

Just got home. I tested the cmos battery again and its good at 3v. Still no go. Do you have any other ideas.

If I have to scrap it alot of good parts will probably go to waste. It has either a 15 or 17 inch display, dvd/cdrw combo drive, two fairly new batteries, now 128 mb ram(instead of the 512 that I put in my other laptop). I would use it for spare parts but my other laptop is a dell and the broken one is a vaio. Any ideas?

by **brad** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 1:09 am

I wouldn't scrap it.
Another HD isn't that much.
The first time I tried to use the converter to run the Laptop HD on my Desktop I had a lot of proplems. If you're familar with doing this then the HD may be dead. If you want to troubleshoot post back.
If you don't need the the laptop either upgrade it and sell or sell it "As is".
brad

by **zenn1999** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 1:22 pm

When I tried to run the laptop hdd on my desktop it was the first time I had done it. I am still learning this stuff piece by piece. I am always open to more help and ideas. I would rather fix it up than scrap it, since scrapping it teaches me nothing. I do this stuff for the knoledge.

by **zenn1999** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:07 pm

I just got the laptop hdd to work in the dell desktop that just got fixed. I am gonna start looking for some log files.

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