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re: Question about 'Top reasons for random, fatal crashes in Windows XP and Windows 2000'
Friday, January 14, 2005 at 12:06 am
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by ralph
(1 messages posted)
Hi. I just *FIXED* my Sony Vaio PCG-GR170K that was having a similar problem. (The
same thing happened on my older Vaio F350, and Sony Charged me $276.73 to fix it.)
The symptoms are: Laptop starts to shutdown without warning (Bang. Out cold... As
if the power got unplugged and there was no battery...) At first, this happens only
in hot weather, or once a month. Then it becomes slowly more frequent, until the
thing can't even finish booting without crashing.
On the GR170, it also did a funny thing were the speakers started making a faint
buzzing or clicking sound, whenever the processor was busy. I scanned for viruses,
and even replaced the HD and reinstalled Windows 2K without solving the problem.
The fix was to replace the 4 Tantalum capacitors mounted closest to the CPU. On
my GR170, these were E sized caps, rated for 270uF each. (I couldn't make out a voltage
spec)
I replaced them with 330uF, 10V, 125deg F rated caps in D size packages from DigiKey.
See P/N 478-1736-1-ND at www.digikey.com The D package is the same footprint as
the E, but has slightly lower height.
In addition to the 4 caps, you'll need decent soldering skills, some heat sink compound
and a good small phillips screwdriver to pull this off:
0: Unplug the laptop and remove all batteries and peripherals.
1: Remove the speaker & power switch assembly above the keyboard. (1 screw, then
slide it gently to the left)
2: Remove the keyboard.
3: Remove the 3 screws holding down the shiny CPU fan assembly (looks like nickle
plated aluminum to me)
It's in the upper right corner, roughly underneath the right speaker that you just
removed.
4: note the orientation of the 4 caps! If you solder the repalcements in backwards,
they will burn out!!! (There's usually a bar or a plus sign indicating the positive
side.)
5: Unsolder the old caps and clean up the pads.
6: solder down the 4 new caps.
7: carefully reassemble everything. (add a dab of heatsink grease to the fan assy,
but don't peel off the old thermal rubber pad, unless you have a new one to replace
it.)
8: Say a prayer and reboot your machine.
It worked for me, and the parts only cost ~$20. (You could probably find cheaper
parts that will work. I just went for the most conservatively rated parts I could
find, that would fit that location.)
Note: I was willing to forgive Sony for the design error in the F350... but when
they made the same damn mistake 3 years later, in my 2nd Sony Vaio Laptop I was pretty
disappointed. My next laptop will probably be a DELL...
But for now, I'm up and running again. (I expec the repalcement caps I picked to
last 10 years or more, but something else will no doubt bite the dust before long....)
Hope that helps. Don't flame me if you get yourself into trouble or your machine
has other issues!
- Ralph
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On Thursday, March 6, 2003 at 6:44 am, Geoff Gordon wrote:
>I have the same exact problem. I could be working on the computer, doing anything,
>or the computer could be at rest and it will still freeze. There are no error messages
>and I am unable to pinpoint the error. Could it be a HDD problem? Chkdsk reports
>no error.
>
>Sony Vaio PCG-FXA63. AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 1.40 GHz. 512mb RAM. 40 Gb Travelstar HD.
> ATI Mobility M1.
>
>I know someone with the exact same hardware, other than HD, (we bought computers
>together) who doesn't have the problem. Is it the HD or a motherboard issue?
>
>
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 |  | |  | re: Question about 'Top reasons for random, fatal crashes in Windows XP and Windows 2000' (ralph: Fri, Jan 14, 2005, 12:06 am) |
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