# Sony Vaio VGN-AR51M won't boot up



## Abe1985 (May 1, 2010)

Good Morning,

I am the proud owner of a Sony Vaio VGN-AR51M laptop computer. It has been generally very reliable in the past and when there have been problems, I've normally been been able to fix it. 

However, it has recently developed a problem of not booting up when turned on.

The exact symptoms of the problem are as follows:

I turn on the power button, the laptop does turn on - there doesn't seem to be a problem with the power supply as I can do this operation in three power configurations (1. Just the power cable, no battery. 2. Just the battery. 3. Just the power cable)

After it has turned on, the fans start whirring and the CD drive clicks and whirs for a bit. 

Normally what happens after that is the screen lights up and a Sony Vaio logo pops up and it commences to boot up Windows, but the screen will not light up (not just back light failure)

After the CD drive buzzes and whirs the computer enters a stasis. Only the power button works (to turn it off again), nothing else will respond. I originally thought that I could download a recovery CD but the disk drive won't respond to the eject button!

Is there anything I can do or do I need to get it to a repair shop? :4-dontkno

Thank you in advance for advice.

Abe (first time poster)


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

Hello there and welcome to TSF. You mentioned that the Sony Vaio logo pops up and laptop commences to boot windows. Now, Does the Windows splash screen show up on the screen? The windows logo?

Can you get into the BIOS? If so, check that the hard drive is recognized in the BIOS. I mention this, but in reality if the hard drive wasnt recognized, the laptop would show a message at the very beginning when powered on that "no hard drive was found".

Try booting up into Safe Mode if you can. When you first power on the laptop, start pressing the F8 key until a list of options come up on the screen. First try selecting, "last know working configuration" or something like that. If this doesnt work, then power it down, and turn it back on. Same thing, press the F8 key until the list of options come up again. This time select "Safe Mode". If the laptop loads windows in safe mode, then I'm going to suspect a driver issue.


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## Abe1985 (May 1, 2010)

Thank you for your swift reply Techie19. 

I had said in my original post that the Sony Vaio screen _normally_ pops up after the power button has been pressed. It has stopped doing this and enters the stasis that I have previously described. 

Nonetheless, I have tried turning it on while holding F8. Nothing happens :sigh:

Since the warranty date has been and gone I've had it open and cautiously blown into it and around the fan vents to shift any build up of dust. This has had no effect either. The fans are all still operating so I doubt its a overheating problem.

When I've started it up I've listened for any beeping sounds/beep code that might denote any hardware problems. There are no beeps.

Since then I've found the manual release for the CD tray. I had a Vista Recovery CD somewhere that I downloaded for a previous fix that I'm desperately searching my flat/the net for. 

The computer did not come with a boot cd out of the box and the CD that I previously had was a free download - I forget where I got it from but I have a feeling it was before Service Pack 2 was released?? I cant remember the details properly :4-dontkno

I welcome any other suggestions (including to just bite the bullet and take it to a shop).

Abe


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## Abe1985 (May 1, 2010)

Update:

The laptop has been sat next to me turned on while I've been posting on forums on a different computer - It has started beeping at me. Still blank screen, the intervals between the beep are about 10 mins I think.


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

You're welcome. Sorry that didn't work out for you. Let's give something else a try. If you have more than one memory stick installed, remove one memory stick and try turning on the laptop. If nothing happens, reinsert the memory stick you removed and remove the other memory stick and try to turn it on again. This is to pretty much rule out RAM as the culprit. Post your findings...


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## Abe1985 (May 1, 2010)

I've no memory sticks installed. I've researched the beep codes - I think the beep I'm getting means that there's a motherboard problem. Either way the problem seems to be above my skill level to fix.

I can weld, I can work wood but a computer engineer I ain't.

Guess I'll be taking it to a shop. Wish me and my wallet luck.

Abe


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

I'm a little confused, what do you mean you have no memory installed? Without memory the laptop won't work.


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## blanka (Jun 17, 2010)

I have the same exact issue.

I recently wiped my laptop down and set it up again and I am starting to think that this a common fault. I have never opened my laptop up as I am PC-Man
so laptops aren't my thing.

This is the third time it has done this. I had it fixed but I am not prepared to pay for a repair as I know my local repairer will use it as an excuse to charge me an extorniate fee again. I.e I dont trust him seen as though I am Computer Hardware Engineer meself personally.

Any ideas???


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## Arch23 (Aug 12, 2010)

Exact same issue. 
I can power up the laptop, the power and battery (if attached) led lights turn on, the HD light flickers and turns off. I can hear the fan and DVD drive, but no bios starting. Black screen and no further signs of life. I have tried removing the battery, the power adapter, draining it by holding down the power button. I also removed the HD and tried to boot. I tried to boot up holding down F2, and then F8, but no change. I also tried to boot a linux live cd, but i guess, not having the option to change the boot option, it wouldn't do it anyways. I haven't yet done the RAM trick. It's any other option I could try? 

Thanks in advance


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## vaioInComma (Aug 23, 2010)

Suffering from the same illness here :sigh:
My 4 year old sony vaio vgn-sz51b is in a sort of deep comma. The symptoms are the same as described by the others here:
1. the power button is on but not booting happens
2. the fan seems to work and the dvd driver tries to read when I power it on but there is not further sign of life.

So far I have tried (based on my web research):
1. a hard system reset (holding the power button down for a minute without battery or AC cable)... nothing
2. changing the memory slot... no help
3. disconnecting the cmos/backup/bios battery and resetting the system again... still no love :sigh:

Please, any help will be truly appreciated.


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## itechmind (Sep 13, 2010)

Same problem here with my Sony Vaio VGN-CR35 model laptop.
It turns on the power LED
num/caps/scroll lock LEDs flashes once
battery and hard disk LEDs flashes once
Fan sound audible
CD ROM can be ejected

But nothing displayed on the screen and it didnt seem to boot at all.
Please let me know if anybody have resolved this issue.
I think it is must be a simpler issue, and difficult to find.
Unnecessary to empty our pockets taking it to the service center with the risk of data on hard disk being erased.. 

Help appreciated.

Regards.


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## Jorpis (Nov 19, 2010)

Have same problem. 
They say that the sounds when starting are most important.
Mine give three short sounds like pii pi pi - first one is a bit longer than the others.
My friend said that it could be Grafic Card. At the service they said Main Card but they wasn't sore about that diacnose. 
Anyone help.


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## galpin (Mar 12, 2011)

Its video chip problem,Someone had a similar problem and it cost him some few dollars to fix it and the thing was up and running. Am having a similar problem and this solution seems to be true since the laptop does not display anything from BIOS on its POST procedure. Ill tell my technician to check the Videochip and suggest ways of fixing it. I guess replacement....Ill be back if that succeeds but Sony should come clear on this, why are the Vaio VGN series having this problem?:sigh:.


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## imeverywoman (Aug 10, 2011)

I have the same problem with my Sony VGN-NW240, but with an additional twist. I've found that mine goes blank when I move the computer. So is something loose? Maybe a short? When the computer is cold in the morning, it has the blank screen when I press power. Then after it warms up, I can finally get it to boot. But if I move it just a hair, it goes blank again and I start the process all over.


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## juan12 (Feb 3, 2012)

I was having the same problem. I fixed by removing one of the ram memories. It boot up really quick. So maybe is a memory problem


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