[vox] Help disassembling a laptop?

[Karsten M. Self]

on Sun, Jul 17, 2005 at 11:34:50AM -0700, Richard Crawford (rscrawford at mossroot.com) wrote:
> I've got an old Sony Vaio laptop which has a problem with overheating.  It's 
> out of warranty and has been replaced now by a much snazzier laptop, and I'd 
> like to put Ubuntu on this machine and turn it into a media center; however, 
> with the overheating, it shuts itself off after a few hours, and the fan is 
> very loud.
> 
> So, I'd like to take this thing apart and see if I can't clean out the guck 
> which I presume is clogging up the cooling fan (we have six cats in this 
> house, and we live in a heavy agricultural area, so I can only imagine the 
> amount of gunk that must pass through this thing).  I've removed all of the 
> components -- the battery, the CD/DVD player, the hard drive, etc. -- and 
> taken out all of the visible screws, but I still can't get into it.  I assume 
> I need some sort of special tool, or there is some special secret maneuver 
> that I need.
> 
> I've Googled until my eyes started to bleed, but I was unable to find any 
> instructions on-line for opening this laptop (it's a Sony Vaio PCG-GRV670P).  
> Anyone got any ideas or hints?  I'm comfortable opening my desktop and 
> messing around with its innards, but I've never worked inside a laptop 
> computer.

I didn't find any specific manual(s) or howtos on your specific model,
for which you may want to go through Sony's own website.  Frankly, a
manufacturer which doesn't make such manuals available online is a very
poor sign.  Several of the webpages I'm finding for user-based repair
tips offer strongly negative comments on Sony.  I've also heard horror
stories from many people who'd owned Vaios which pretty uniformly failed
catastrophically after less than a year's use.

My own recommendations in laptops run very, very, very strongly to IBM
ThinkPads.  Or Apple, if you don't mind a crippled-by-design mouse.

I did run across an eBay auction for a manual, might check there, or
post to Craigslist's "wanted" category.



Generally speaking, for laptop access, you go in through the top, often
the keyboard.  This may involve removing a bezel at the top of the unit,
which may be screwed in.  Once the bezel is removed, there may be
additional keyboard screws, or the keyboard may simply be slotted in
place.  Sliding it forward or back, and flexing it slightly, may free
it.  The references I'm finding (below) suggest this is the case with
Sony kit.

The keyboard will be connected via a ribbon cable to the motherboard.
This may or may not have a modular connector.  Move / remove with care.

Underneath you'll find most of the major components.  You may or may not
be able to access the CPU and cooling system from here.  My experience
is that most laptops offer access from beneath for this sort of thing.

Heather Stern, http://www.starshine.org/, tends to know laptops well,
you may also want to post to the Debian laptops mailing list, see
http://lists.debian.org/


Otherwise, some related hits (Sony, various models, YMMV), illustrated:

    http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/sonyhdswap/
    http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~hspgmjg/bau/SonyVaioHD.html
    http://www.divideby0.com/photos/vaio-f280/
    http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/46121/
    http://www.cgmsystems.com/Resources/Tips/SonyvaioHD/sony_vaio_pcggrt390zp_hard_driv.htm


Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
     "Stuff your own cuddly friend"
     - Sighted on a senior center bulletin board
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://ns1.livepenguin.com/pipermail/vox/attachments/20050717/639f69f3/attachment.pgp