Sony Laptop

[Colh]

I have a Sony Vaio Laptop PCG -7A1M . its about 4/5 years old . It's been working fine until one day it wouldn't switch on , no power at all.

Is there anything i can try before I take it for repair .Don't think its the cable as light is still on the cable.

I've been told the only parts that an amateur can attempt is to relace the hard drive and add more RAM. Is this the case?

 

Col

[Jelly Bean]

Hello and welcome.

 

The first thing is to try removing the battery and see if it only works with the charger.

 

Are there any lights on at all on the laptop?

 

When you say light on the cable do you mean on the charger?

[Colh]

sony laptop

 

Hi

 

No it doesn't work with the charger and no lights come on.

 

col

[Jelly Bean]

If there is no lights on the laptop then it is possible it died.

 

Can you borrow a charger from a friend and test to see if a diffrent charger will power it?

 

If the power supply has failed then you will need a whole new mainboard.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, you can test the charger, (sometimes referred to as the power brick :D), if you have a voltmeter or multimeter switched to DC volts at a range above 10volts.

If that is OK, then as Jelly Bean said it may be the power supply part of the motherboard inside the laptop, in which case it does mean a new board.

However if no meter is available, the only other way is to check the supply "Brick" on another laptop that uses the same voltage.

[Colh]

sony laptop

 

Does it have to be a sony charger or will any with the same voltage do.

Does this go for replacing a charger on any laptop

 

 

Col

[Jelly Bean]

Do you know anyone who has a multi charger?

[Plastic Nev]

Hi two things are important with laptop chargers, the voltage and the power rating. As an example the one for my Toshiba is 19 volts, at 6.3 amps, which is approximately 120 watts.

 

Some may have it in watts rather than amps but providing the voltage is the same a substitute power brick should also be the same amps or watts, but the substitute will still be ok if it says a higher amperage or wattage.

 

If your present but suspect one is in amps, but the prospective substitute is rated in watts, then you need to convert one to see how it matches to the other.

A simple calculation is volts times amps equals the watts. hence 19 X 6.3 = 119.7 (Approximately 120 watts) Conversely watts divided by volts will tell you the amps.

 

Providing the plug is the same as well, then it is definitely OK to use any charger that has the same ratings, it doesn't have to be of the same make.

Nev.