Vaio S2HP Won't Boot up

[fboucek]

My Vaio S2HP, six months old, won't boot up on the first try. It takes many attempts, 5 to 15, of hitting the power button before it finally boots up. Symptoms are: power light comes on, hard drive light flashes once, then nothing on screen but disc spins erratically. I power down by holding power button until power light goes off. Try and try again. Have tried switching RAM slot and inserting cardboard layer under the door to the RAM area, as mentioned in other threads for other Vaio models. Also, Vaio sometimes seizes up completely once running. Any advice, besides don't buy a Vaio?

[rich912]

Hi fboucek and welcome to Club Vaio.

There have been recent reports of the VGN-S series exhibiting the memory slot problem of the GRX series insomuch as slight pressure on the module slots will sometimes cure boot problems.

As far as I am aware the S series do not suffer from memory slot problems but some models in this series do have a video chip contact problem and the slight pressure on the RAM causes temporary contact within or under the video chip.

Although this temporary fix has not worked in your particular case it may be the same fault as the symptoms you describe are similar.

As you are still in warranty, I suggest that you contact Sony support and arrange for them to have a look at it.

[fboucek]

Well, several days later, it's taking more and more attempts to get this piece of junk to boot up - 25 times at least. Sent an email to Sony's online support four days ago and still no reply. No wonder the company is going down fast. DO NOT BUY A VAIO!

[fboucek]

Well, sent the Vaio back to Sony and they returned with the old problem fixed but have included a new problem - the WLAN doesn't work now. The WLAN lights up in green but makes no connections and, under Network Connections, no wireless connection is available.

[carthorian]

What I usually do when one of my products is returned from repairing (with manufacturer) when it has new problems, just ship it back. There will be no additional costs as they generated a new problem, not you. Ofcourse you have to do this in the next days, otherwise they will say you generated the problem.

[fboucek]

For anyone following this thread, the WI-FI failure has been traced to a loose connection of one of the chips under the ram slots. Seems like the Sony staff who "fixed" the boot up probelm didn't do a neat enough job putting everything back in its place and left the WI-FI component improperly connected. That is very sloppy work indeed.

[kee-lo_]

That's terrible