Kiss of life for a dead laptop?

elsien

I have a 4 year old sony vaio VGN BX51VN which has just completely died.
I was mid email, and it made a clicking noise (bit like when a fuse goes) and the screen went black. No power light, no wifi light, nothing. Completely kaput, nothing happens when I press the on/off button. The power lead appears ok and still has the green light showing, so the problem would seem to be internal.
Now bearing in mind that I have no technical skills whatsoever, is it likely to be something that I can fix/get fixed fairly cheaply or easily. The laptops been a tad problematic since I got it, and the dvd drive is broken so I can't use any discs to restore anything.
Happy to pay if it's worthwhile, don't want to spend silly mony if it's not.

googler

What other PC kit do you have as well as this laptop?

elsien

An even older (12 years, give or take) iQon desktop from Tesco which I have no idea of the specifications of. Other than that it is very slow indeed, and is hooked up to broadband via an ethernet cable. It has a disc drive but only one working usb port.

elsien

Anyone? -I'm a bit lost without it.

Hopster_2

It could be a few things mate but a would not advise attempting to strip your lappy if your not sure about these things, you would probably do more harm than good.
It sounds like a power issue which is usually the adapter or the connector it plugs into, inside the laptop.

Although the green light is still working on the adapter its usually the knuckle joint at the end of the cable that breaks so a green light doesn't mean its transferring power to the lappy..
The adapter would need to be tested.

The other is the connector inside the lappy that you plug the adapter into..
These fail all the time and some are harder to fix than others..

The good news is its not a very expensive fix so a would take it to my local computer shop for quote..

gonzo127

Hopster wrote: »

It could be a few things mate but a would not advise attempting to strip your lappy if your not sure about these things, you would probably do more harm than good.
It sounds like a power issue which is usually the adapter or the connector it plugs into, inside the laptop.

Although the green light is still working on the adapter its usually the knuckle joint at the end of the cable that breaks so a green light doesn't mean its transferring power to the lappy..
The adapter would need to be tested.

The other is the connector inside the lappy that you plug the adapter into..
These fail all the time and some are harder to fix than others..

The good news is its not a very expensive fix so a would take it to my local computer shop for quote..

wherease this would be something to try out, i am personally not convinced this is the problem as being a laptop it should have at least some power in the battery, and the clicking sound like a fuse blowing makes me wonder if something has gone on the motherboard.

personaly recommendation would be to take it to a local independant computer place and ask them if they do free fault diagnostic's, and if not how much would one be. i personally feel (although never had to use one myself) that a initial diagnostic should probably be less than £20, although a quick google shows that someone coming to your house for a diagnostic is around £50 - but taking it to them can be anywhere frome free to £60

http://www.computerrepairchiswick.co.uk/computer_repair_prices_chiswick_w4.html

GunJack

^^^^^^ jeez gonzo, are this lot extracting the urine with those prices or what ?????

Hopster_2

gonzo127 wrote: »

wherease this would be something to try out, i am personally not convinced this is the problem as being a laptop it should have at least some power in the battery, and the clicking sound like a fuse blowing makes me wonder if something has gone on the motherboard.

personaly recommendation would be to take it to a local independant computer place and ask them if they do free fault diagnostic's, and if not how much would one be. i personally feel (although never had to use one myself) that a initial diagnostic should probably be less than £20, although a quick google shows that someone coming to your house for a diagnostic is around £50 - but taking it to them can be anywhere frome free to £60



A did say it could be a few things mate and this type of fault is never easy to diagnose on the internet..
However a stand by what a said and it would be the first thing a would check is power.!

When most machines suffer unexpected power loss you usually here a few clicking noises, mostly from the HD..
He says there are no lights coming on, even with a dead MB the lights would usually still come on, the fans would probably start aswell..

A was fixing a laptop 2 days ago and forgot to switch the power on, it completely died on me in the exact same way as the guy described.
When a switched the power on it was fine..

gonzo127

GunJack wrote: »

^^^^^^ jeez gonzo, are this lot extracting the urine with those prices or what ?????

well yes i thought so too, but at least at the bottom its goes to show a 'in shop' diagnostic is free which is what i was thinking it might be

Drop off price list

ServiceCost
Laptop Fault Diagnosis Free
Desktop PC Repair QuotationFree
Memory (RAM) upgrade £15.00 fixed price
Data backup & transfer£80 fixed price *
Operating system installation (e.g. Vista) £60.00 fixed price
Computer Upgrades (e.g Graphics card etc) Price agreed on site

Points to note for computer drop offs

All prices exclude VAT
All prices exclude costs for any hardware required for backup purposes (e.g. CD/DVD, external hard drive or or memory stick)
Operating systen installation excludes the cost of the software itself (e.g. Windows)
Laptop or computer repair will be peformed based on your acceptance of our quotation
If you choose not to go ahead with the repair no charge will apply

GunJack

yes, true....but the callout fees ?? min £60 ???? sheesh, I wish

gonzo127

Hopster wrote: »

A did say it could be a few things mate and this type of fault is never easy to diagnose on the internet..
However a stand by what a said and it would be the first thing a would check is power.!

When most machines suffer unexpected power loss you usually here a few clicking noises, mostly from the HD..
He says there are no lights coming on, even with a dead MB the lights would usually still come on, the fans would probably start aswell..

A was fixing a laptop 2 days ago and forgot to switch the power on, it completely died on me in the exact same way as the guy described.
When a switched the power on it was fine..

i do know what you mean about being hard to work out over the internet, which is why i said your suggestion is worth checking out, but my main pointis that it would be best to take it to get a proper diagnostic from a local independant (ie - NOT PC world)