Vaio VGN-FZ21S wont boot up

[philcjones]

Hi, I have a vaio which won't start up, all it does is give 1 long beep followed by 2 short beeps and the screen remains totally blank. Do these bleeps mean something ?

Its running Windows Vista Home with 2GB RAM

If anyone has heard of anything like this I'd appreciate it

Many thanks,

Phil

[Blencogo · Accepted solution]

Hi Phil, welcome to the Sony Users community forums.

The 'Beep Code' is the BIOS's attempt to tell you why your Vaio will not boot.  Have a look at this link: -

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/nonworkingcomponent/ht/beepcodestb.htm

One long and two short beeps usually indicates a checksum error and could indicate a motherboard component failure.  Were you having any problems before it failed to boot?

Try re-seating the Memory Modules and see if that helps.

Unfortunately, your Vaio Model has had a known problem with the nVidia Graphics chip which Sony fixed free of charge for up to 4 years from purchase by replacing the motherboard.  Hopefully this is not the problem. I guess your Vaio is older than 4 years?  Financially, a motherboard replacement is probably not financially viable.  If this proves to be the problem, Google for 'nVidia reflow repair' for a cheaper alternative,

[philcjones]

Hi,

Many thanks for the reply

I didn't have any problems before the Vaio packed up but have discovered I can boot it on rare occasions as once the splash screen appears it's OK so I'll get a backup off it then

I've tried re-seated the RAM simms to no avail and suspect it could be a write off

Is it the case that the graphics chip becomes un-soldered from the motherboard and could re-soldering fix it ??

The battery is also faulty as it won't hold charge for any length of time so I guess the only alternative is to purchase a new machine - ho humm

Thanks again for the advice

Phil