Old laptop hardware problem?

[ryane]

So my SONY Vaio VPCSE17GG finally died on me yesterday. It started to have short freezes here and there in the beginning and then decided to freeze on me completely. I reinstalled windows 10 but it was laggy and froze on me even after 2 reinstalls. After I restarted the screen showed no OS found and after a couple more restarts the screen is just blank. I swapped the SSD on my laptop with my working PC one and the laptop screen is still blank. I'm guessing it should be a hardware issue since the laptop is 6.5 years old. I'm hoping to fix it at least so I dont have to get a new one. Any ideas on what might be the problem or something I can try? Anything helps. Thanks!

[Guest]

Just seems like the OS isn't applying to the SSD.

 

To be honest, I'm surprised Windows 10 even let you somewhat use it on a 6.5 year old machine. lol

 

Try a different media creation tool, such as a CD instead of USB or w/e. Sometimes the .iso image can be applied incorrectly.

[ryane]

8 minutes ago, Netivity said:

Just seems like the OS isn't applying to the SSD.

 

To be honest, I'm surprised Windows 10 even let you somewhat use it on a 6.5 year old machine. lol

 

Try a different media creation tool, such as a CD instead of USB or w/e. Sometimes the .iso image can be applied incorrectly.

I used a working ssd from my desktop on my laptop and its the same result. Wouldn't the problem be on the laptop hardware instead?

[Guest]

Again mate,

 

I would say its the way you are installing Windows. Your CD or USB stick, or whatever the .ISO is on could be corrupted.

 

It doesn't matter how old your machine is. If you have the means of running the Windows installer you have the means to install it on a hard drive.

 

I'd highly doubt its the hardware that is doing it. But I have been proven wrong before and I am always keen to learn.  

 

 

[ZacoAttaco]

What made you reinstall Windows in the first place? The freezing issue?

[ryane]

1 hour ago, Netivity said:

Again mate,

 

I would say its the way you are installing Windows. Your CD or USB stick, or whatever the .ISO is on could be corrupted.

 

It doesn't matter how old your machine is. If you have the means of running the Windows installer you have the means to install it on a hard drive.

 

I'd highly doubt its the hardware that is doing it. But I have been proven wrong before and I am always keen to learn.  

 

 

Alright I'll try it out again.

[ryane]

17 minutes ago, ZacoAttaco said:

What made you reinstall Windows in the first place? The freezing issue?

Yes. It happened before last year but after a fresh install everything was peachy again so I thought it might be the same solution this time too.

[ZacoAttaco]

12 hours ago, ryane said:

Yes. It happened before last year but after a fresh install everything was peachy again so I thought it might be the same solution this time too.

I'd keep trying to work that install, like @Netivity suggested. Windows 10 install can be very unpredictable sometimes so you may need some perseverance.

[ryane]

3 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

I'd keep trying to work that install, like @Netivity suggested. Windows 10 install can be very unpredictable sometimes so you may need some perseverance.

Ok. I'm still trying but i reformatted the laptop SSD and reinstalled windows on it but the laptop screen is just blank. I hear the fan spin a bit then it slows down (its usually louder than it is now). Will keep this post updated.

[ryane]

5 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

I'd keep trying to work that install, like @Netivity suggested. Windows 10 install can be very unpredictable sometimes so you may need some perseverance.

 

19 hours ago, Netivity said:

Again mate,

 

I would say its the way you are installing Windows. Your CD or USB stick, or whatever the .ISO is on could be corrupted.

 

It doesn't matter how old your machine is. If you have the means of running the Windows installer you have the means to install it on a hard drive.

 

I'd highly doubt its the hardware that is doing it. But I have been proven wrong before and I am always keen to learn.  

 

 

So I reinstalled everything again on another computer and its still the same problem. Laptop powers on but screen is just blank.

[ZacoAttaco]

4 hours ago, ryane said:

So I reinstalled everything again on another computer and its still the same problem. Laptop powers on but screen is just blank.

Ok, nice work. My next suggestion would be to put together an Ubuntu bootable USB. I'd follow this tutorial:

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#3

 

I used this on an old laptop, turned out the hard drive was nearly broken and through Ubuntu I could see that. Because the hard drive was nearly dead, Windows install wasn't working. Maybe we can find out something about your PC's hard drive/solid state health. If you have any trouble feel free to let us know but it's really not as hard or difficult as it sounds.

[ryane]

5 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

Ok, nice work. My next suggestion would be to put together an Ubuntu bootable USB. I'd follow this tutorial:

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#3

 

I used this on an old laptop, turned out the hard drive was nearly broken and through Ubuntu I could see that. Because the hard drive was nearly dead, Windows install wasn't working. Maybe we can find out something about your PC's hard drive/solid state health. If you have any trouble feel free to let us know but it's really not as hard or difficult as it sounds.

I'm not quite sure I understand the reasoning behind this. To clarify, what happened and what I did was:

 

1. Laptop showed signs of breakdown.

2. I reset Windows.

3. Windows still not doing well.

4. Laptop starts up with battery/numlock lights on but screen is empty.

5. Swapped laptop ssd (~2 years old) with my current desktop's ssd, still the same problem.

6. Reformatted laptop ssd and did clean Windows 10 install.

7. Ran laptop ssd on desktop and it works fine.

8. Plugged laptop ssd back into laptop and the problem is still there.

 

Was this what you understood from my original post? I just want to make sure that I am getting my point right.

[ZacoAttaco]

5 hours ago, ryane said:

I'm not quite sure I understand the reasoning behind this. To clarify, what happened and what I did was:

 

1. Laptop showed signs of breakdown.

2. I reset Windows.

3. Windows still not doing well.

4. Laptop starts up with battery/numlock lights on but screen is empty.

5. Swapped laptop ssd (~2 years old) with my current desktop's ssd, still the same problem.

6. Reformatted laptop ssd and did clean Windows 10 install.

7. Ran laptop ssd on desktop and it works fine.

8. Plugged laptop ssd back into laptop and the problem is still there.

 

Was this what you understood from my original post? I just want to make sure that I am getting my point right.

Oh thanks for the clarification. Yeah so multiple SSDs don't work so the issue isn't a drive issue. My mistake. So it's something specific to the laptop, maybe even an issue with the motherboard... It's running integrated graphics from the CPU correct?

 

Sorry for my mistake, this is a really hard one to troubleshoot.

[ryane]

On 8/4/2018 at 5:34 AM, ZacoAttaco said:

Oh thanks for the clarification. Yeah so multiple SSDs don't work so the issue isn't a drive issue. My mistake. So it's something specific to the laptop, maybe even an issue with the motherboard... It's running integrated graphics from the CPU correct?

 

Sorry for my mistake, this is a really hard one to troubleshoot.

Its alright. I think it has a dedicated one and an integrated one. This is the spec sheet:

 

https://www.sony.com.sg/electronics/support/laptop-pc-vpc-series/vpcse17gg/specifications

[ZacoAttaco]

I know you only have one drive, but try going into the BIOS and making sure the boot order is correct. I've found Windows 10 is really finicky about boot order and whether you boot into Windows or the drive itself.

 

If that doesn't change anything, I'd try installing Windows 8 and seeing how that goes and then maybe upgrade to Windows 10.

[ryane]

3 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

I know you only have one drive, but try going into the BIOS and making sure the boot order is correct. I've found Windows 10 is really finicky about boot order and whether you boot into Windows or the drive itself.

 

If that doesn't change anything, I'd try installing Windows 8 and seeing how that goes and then maybe upgrade to Windows 10.

Problem is there is nothing on screen. Its just blank when I boot it up.

[ZacoAttaco]

17 minutes ago, ryane said:

Problem is there is nothing on screen. Its just blank when I boot it up.

Fair enough. This is a really difficult problem to troubleshoot. I'd recommend you take the laptop into a repair place and give them all the information below:

On 8/4/2018 at 1:40 PM, ryane said:

I'm not quite sure I understand the reasoning behind this. To clarify, what happened and what I did was:

 

1. Laptop showed signs of breakdown.

2. I reset Windows.

3. Windows still not doing well.

4. Laptop starts up with battery/numlock lights on but screen is empty.

5. Swapped laptop ssd (~2 years old) with my current desktop's ssd, still the same problem.

6. Reformatted laptop ssd and did clean Windows 10 install.

7. Ran laptop ssd on desktop and it works fine.

8. Plugged laptop ssd back into laptop and the problem is still there.

 

Was this what you understood from my original post? I just want to make sure that I am getting my point right.

Let us know how you go. If I think of any other ideas, I'll let you know. But, at the moment, I'm stumped. Sorry we couldn't help more.

[ryane]

On 8/6/2018 at 1:12 AM, ZacoAttaco said:

Fair enough. This is a really difficult problem to troubleshoot. I'd recommend you take the laptop into a repair place and give them all the information below:

Let us know how you go. If I think of any other ideas, I'll let you know. But, at the moment, I'm stumped. Sorry we couldn't help more.

Its fine. I'll try to open it up the next few days and see if I can find anything that might be of help. Thanks again!

[Cysero]

Any luck with this? Generally Sony VAIO's are extremely long lasting but if something does go wrong it is usually the models with dedicated graphics. The chip usually goes kaput.

 

How did safe mode perform when you were last able to access it? Assuming there was nothing wrong with the display leading up to this?

 

Despite discontinuing their VAIO range a good couple of years ago now the Sony Community forums still enlist staff members to offer support to existing VAIO owners so it may be worth posting there as well.