Repairing an old Sony Vaio Laptop Power Connector
Over a year ago my wife’s Sony VAIO laptop started having issues. At first, it seemed as if the battery didn’t hold a charge for very long. Not long after, it began shutting off without much warning. We eventually realized the power connector on the back of the laptop wasn’t getting a good connection. I ordered a new power cord thinking the cord or connector on the cord was faulty or had been worn. That didn’t work; the only way to get power to it was to jiggle the connector back and forth so it would get power for a while. Any slight movement would disconnect the power. Over a period of a month or so this worked until one day it just stopped working totally. At that time, I wasn’t up to fixing it myself so I tried a PC repair shop. When I realized the cost wasn’t much less than buying a new one I bought Shelly a new laptop and mothballed the VAIO for a while.
Several months ago, I pulled the old VAIO out of the box and decided I would try to fix it and use it for a digital photo frame. I found a great deal of information on the web about the many problems people had been having with VAIO laptops – many having the very same problem with the connector. The fix was to disassemble the laptop down to the motherboard, de-solder the old power connector from the motherboard and solder on a new one. I began disassembling laptop expecting some problems, but figured I could handle it.
The culprit - A dead power connector soldered to the motherboard
The keyboard and lcd screen detached from the laptop. The fun is beginning.
My mad scientist table. I had to use the dremmel on some of the case just to get to everything! Soldering was about to begin here as I had to desolder the old connector and solder back on the new power connector to the motherboard.
