german version

DIY repair for notebook Sony Vaio F-Series



Two Sony notebooks (vaio f270 & f-305) with commonly known shutdown problems sometimes recognised as "motherboard defect", "hibernation shutdown", "intel pentium mobil processor bug" I was happily able to fix, by simply changing ten bypass condensators on the processor board.



Although the original condensators measure 180uf
epcos type "tantal low esr" 10v 100uf size="d"
obviously work perfectly as a replacement and the higher voltage rating makes temperature derating an issue of lesser interest.

Grafik 
The yellow little bricks on the picture above are the new ones.



Make sure to disassemble in right order to get access to the condensators on the processor board (unplug mains and remove the accu):

  • Upper shell with loudspeakers (2 screws, connector)

  • Keyboard (1 screw, connector)

  • Front shell with touchpad (5 screws, connector)

  • Heatpipe with heatsink (5 screws)

  • CD-ROM (connector)

  • LCD display (10 screws, connector)

  • Power-on-switch board (2 screws)

  • Heatsink with fan (3 screws, connector)


    • After having replaced the condensators, put some heatsink compound on the pads and reassemble.




    Good luck and happy working,
    Michael Gerstgrasser


    ps:
    Many thanks to the ones this paper was inspired by:
    Hardware solution by Anton Narkov
    Sony-letters-und-emails by Brandonwilson (very interesting collection of letters)
    Software work around by Andreas Zwerger


    pps:
    With the information provided above it will take you only few hours of work and a few bucks to fix your notebook, for _m_e_ it did cost

  • Many calls with narrow minded sonyists

  • Some hassle in coordination with the parcle service

  • A non neglectible amount for a wrong diagnose (defect motherboard)

  • A second notebook for comparison

  • Some month and intense investigation in the www

  • Uncounted tries and failures




    • ppps:
    It would be helpfull to have some experiance with electronics anyway an owning some sufficient tools for proper working with such small components

    Grafik 


    disclaimer:
    no resposibility for all the above...