VGN-FZ21M is not booting

[wizardofhalcyon]

Hi there. As of today my VGN-FZ21M is not booting. When i press the  power button the small power light comes on and a small click can be  heard from the hard drive but other than that nothing else is happening.  The actions i took were the following:

1. I took off the ram sticks switched em, tried with each one by itself.  No results. I plugged the ram sticks in another machine and it seems  that one is faulty and the other is ok. I plugged in the good one with  no results, switched slots and still had no results.

2. I tried using an external monitor. No results also.

3. I opened the laptop remove the bios battery plug, wait for some and plugged it again with no results.

4. The battery is charging so i dont think there is a power issue. i  double checked every ribbon on the board and everything seems to be in  good order.

5. I fear it is the mobo.

Anyone has any suggestions??

[MurdoD]

Unfortunately it sounds like you may be victim of the common motherboard/gpu fault with the VGN-FZxxx range. (only my opinion based on symptoms / what you've tried)

There are a number of options...

Replace the motherboard - model: A1369749A MBX-165

Best price I have found is £145.00 (however you will need to have it fitted if you are not able to do it yourself) and that was on eBay ( http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LAPTOP-SONY-VGN-FZ21M-A1369749A-MBX-165-MOTHERBOARD-/120685621732?pt=UK_Comput... )

Find a repair shop which will do the repair for you... again, prices vary and services vary:

From £10.00 to diagnose and ship back if you don't want the repair, quote on inspection:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-Vaio-VGN-FZ21E-VGN-FZ21M-Laptop-Motherboard-Repair-/290529746779?pt=UK_Co...

From £63.00 including return shipment for dignose and repair

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-VAIO-VGN-FZ1xx-VGN-FZ2xx-Motherboard-Repair-/130387620047?pt=UK_Computing...

Hope this helps, let us know how you got on!

[MurdoD]

You may also qualify for a free repair under the extended warranty that sony have provided due to the recognised mobo/graphic failure in the FZxxx series!!

Look at this post:

https://www.sony.co.uk/discussions/message/642945#642945