One sick puppy - Sony Vaio VCPEB3M1E - done fixed. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 16, 2016, 06:35:41 pm
content: Ok, so i need a little help cracking this nut.This is the second thread about the repair of this bundle of joy.So i was watching some 1080p video and noticed the video stuttering, which can't be right for an ATI mobility HD 5650 GPU.It's a fresh Win7 install so i reckoned the GPU needed drivers, and sure, the new driver install fixed the video issue.That's untill the damn thing started giving me blue screens every five minutes.I went to the AMD site and installed the AMD Catalyst, with which i then updated the drivers (with the hopes to fix the problem ).Boy, was i mistaken ! After the GPU driver update the damn thing became almost unusable, corrupt screen every few seconds, screen blackouts, and even more BSoDs - to top things off.Worked just enough to get the AMD cleanup utility going, and now the PC is usable again.Now what i think might be happening is that my PSU is too weak. It's a 3.95A brick, which is quite a few amps but it gets super hot - can't touch kind of hot.I guess it doesn't help that i'm running with no battery and the PSU is plugged in through a DIY adaptor ( because the pain in the ass SONY plug ).I noticed that the laptop is quite sensitive to vibration, simply tapping the bottom with a finger will result in momentary corruption in the screen image, if not cause a complete blackout.Moving the screen ( hinge wise ) occasionally causes the screen to blackout as well.Smashed corner of the plastic LCD frame and ripped out hinges indicate that the laptop did get abused by it's previous owner, could mean possible physical damage to the MOBO.At this point i'd like to narrow down the cause of the BSoDs. My money's on the PSU, i reckon with the drivers the GPU draws just a bit too much and causes a brown out.But i'm not sure, which is why i'm here.Thanks.

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 05:58:55 am
content: I would take the laptop apart and check all connections to the motherboard and screen. Also check that the fan is spinning and the heatsink is free of dust and that the thermal paste for the CPU and GPU is not dried out. Also check the heatsink mounting posts are still correctly mounted to the motherboard and have not cracked off. This will rule out overheating and bad connections as the problem. If the power supply was been overloaded the laptop would just hard shut off and you would have to reset it by unplugging the power adapter for 1 min or so. Also try booting a linux live dvd and see what happens.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 06:04:51 am
content: Quote from: poot36 on October 17, 2016, 05:58:55 amI did check the fan and the heatsink when i brought the laptop home, and they're both fine.I'll check the display cables to see it they're still ok, after all, at one point they were the only thing holding the screen from falling off.

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 17, 2016, 06:34:08 am
content: Here is another test. Disconnect the LCD cable from the laptop motherboard and use an external monitor and see if the laptop is still sensitive to vibration. If it is then there is still a fault with the motherboard itself or perhaps the hard drive has been damaged from the previous shock damage.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2016, 05:43:14 pm
content: So i went to take a look at the insides for anything obvious and i did notice that one of the connectors under the keyboard had a little nibble on it, looks like someone's taken the MOBO out before.Then i checked the thermal paste and oh boy what a mess.The i3 370M APU is fine but goddamn the ATI GPU chip had some rock hard crud under some fresh thermal paste.I suspect someone tried to repair this laptop by "reballing" it ( ie: chucking the MOBO in the oven ).

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2016, 11:49:20 pm
content: I would start by cleaning off the old thermal paste and applying fresh paste. If that does not solve the problem you can try what I call a low temp re-flow if you have a temperature adjustable heat gun. What that entails is setting the heat gun to 200C and around air speed 5 or so and than warming up the die of the GPU for a few minutes. What this will do is re-flow the solder balls on the die to PCB that the die is sitting on but not the ones that connect the whole package to the motherboard. I have fixed a few motherboards this way.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2016, 04:37:20 am
content: I'll try that, thanks.Although cleaning the old paste will be quite a chore.All the stuff around the die is rock hard.

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2016, 05:19:35 am
content: I usually use a small flat blade screwdriver to scrape the stuff off the edges of the die. If you cannot get the paste off the die itself with a paper towel and some ipa then use some fine grit sandpaper on it until it is all gone. The good news is that the die does not look discoloured so it should still work. It should look shiny like a mirror and not redish or purpleish once the paste has been properly cleaned off it. Don't forgot to clean the surface on the heatsink as well. Once you get everything back together I would use the program display driver uninstaller (DDU) to remove all of the graphics drivers from the system and then load the driver from windows update. If it is stable then I would recommend stressing it with the program Furmark and watching the temperatures of the GPU. If they go over 100°C then you most likely have a problem with the cooling that needs to be resolved. I have seen heatpipes in laptops go bad before and one of them was in a Sony system. Good luck with the repair.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2016, 11:32:38 am
content: Thanks.I did wipe the heatsink clean with a towel but i noticed that there is alot of scratching and a few deep scratches as well.At first what made me think that the board has been reflowed was the rock hard paste on the GPU chip but now that i look at it i see that it has kinda "bubbled" out, so it cooked when the heatsink was still on while it was operating.I reckon the scratches on the heatsink came from the same rock hard paste being removed.From my experience with reflowing CPUs is that before the reflow they don't operate but still get very hot, same must be happening with the GPU, because the laptop is running quite hot.

author: ip2k
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 02:16:24 am
content: I second the suggestion to try with an external monitor, and bolt an OS off a USB key to eliminate any issues with the OS interfering with your troubleshooting efforts. If you have a different PSU, I'd try that first. I wouldn't suspect that the thermal paste has anything to do with it. It doesn't look like the liquid metal type which can be conductive and cause problems if it gets off of the top of the CPU (e.g. Around the pins). I'd personally start with the easy things, like re-seating + cleaning all the connectors with something like electrosolv before reflowing things. Make sure to re-seat the RAM, HDD connectors, and mPCIE stuff, etc.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 04:36:23 am
content: I did reseat all the connectors and the i3-370M APU as well and the problem is still there.I'll try to get the old paste off and try to heatgun it, like pot36 mentioned.And if that doesn't fix it i'll have to give it the oven treatment.

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 05:30:09 am
content: Before any oven action have you tried updateing the bios and if possible the video bios and EC or keyboard controler chip firmware as well? I have seen bios updates fix the weardest of issues (like windows 10 using 50% of the cpu just sitting on the desktop not doing anything).

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 12:22:07 pm
content: I've tried everything software related.

author: Kilrah
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 12:33:30 pm
content: Quote from: Refrigerator on October 16, 2016, 06:35:41 pmThen it's pretty sure you've got broken solder joints/failing chips.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 06:15:42 pm
content: Well i done goofed something upAfter the reflow the laptop powers up but shuts down soon after.Seems like a temperature related thing as it works longer before shutting down and after i restart it then it shuts down sooner than before.But after i let it sit for a minute then it works longer before shutting down.This thing is just a gift that keeps on giving.

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 06:35:57 am
content: Ok, that is not good. I would try to find the schematics for the board and find all of the thermal sensors as well as the current sense resistors. There should be a few circuits that if they detect over temperature or over current they will trip and safety shut down the laptop. You should monitor the output of these circuits to see if they are shutting down the laptop or if it is some other issue. By the way is your power adapter the rated voltage and amperage for the laptop as it could be failing under load now that the GPU may be operating normally now.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 11:29:17 am
content: I did see a green R010 resistor, presumably a poly-fuse combo, maybe some polyfuse is heating up and shutting down?After i let it cool down it does operate long enough for me to open my browser, check for wifi connections, open task manager, resource monitors, goto properties on my computer as well as open and run dxdiag untill it goes "pew" and shuts off.And it does seem like a rather violent shut down, maybe a power supply failure on the motherboard if i'm lucky.Edit: here's the schematic link.http://kythuatphancung.vn/download/sony-vaio-vpcea-vpceb-foxconn-m960-m970-h-mbx224-laptop-schematics.html

author: cowboy
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 06:10:32 am
content: excessive heat is the No 1 cause of BSOD'sand bad or incorrect drivers are the other most common cause.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 07:11:52 am
content: So i took the laptop apart to give it a visual inspection and there i saw it - the fan connector dangling around.At least i know that the laptop is fine and that it's my dumb head that needs repairing.Edit:A few hours in with the GPU drivers installed and not a single driver crash yet.1080p 60fps runs smooth as butter.Fan is spinning fast but the air coming out is not too hot, my thermal paste must be crap.Screen blackout when moving it hinge wise ( opening-closing direction ) is still there, but the PC does not crash, probably an issue with the backlight inverter.

author: OiD
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 09:14:33 am
content: Hi Refrigerator,I also have a sony vaio (it's a vpcec3m1e) with the same GPU. I've had the same problems since updating the Ati drivers and cannot find the stable version I used before. Fresh install and everything, BSoD everywhere! In the end I extracted the drivers from the Sony website and did'nt install the Catalyst software. Missing lots of features, but at least it's stable.Also doubled the RAM and runs like a new beast.Try some older drivers and install the minim amount of features or try to unpack the drivers from the installer.Regards,

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 10:06:08 am
content: Quote from: OiD on October 22, 2016, 09:14:33 amMy VAIO runs well so far with the AMD Catalyst software (that's after the oven reflow).Before it ran with "generic GPU driver" (according do dxdiag) and it did function without any BSoDs but the performance was poor and it struggled even with 720p video, now 1080p 60fps runs without any issues.Also before the reflow with AMD drivers my screen would flicker and i'd get messages "display driver stopped responding but has recovered", which would eventually lead to BLoDs. But now i don't get any of that so i'd say my reflow was successful.Also my power brick is not as hot as it used to get.And lastly when i took the keyboard off i noticed that the WASD area had significantly more usage on it than the rest of the keyboard, i reckon someone used to play games on this machine, which does lead to thermal stress and solder fracture on the CPU/GPU/APU.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 02:47:30 pm
content: So i found out that the screen going dark is a backlight failure.

author: poot36
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 08:54:47 pm
content: Great job on finding the disconnected fan connector. The backlight going out when you change the angle of the screen still points to a LCD cable failure as the LED backlights in modern laptops are usually very reliable. If it is possible try to wiggle the cable without moving the hinge and see if it still goes out. You can also check the connection of the cable to the panel as this can also cause these sort of weird issues.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2016, 05:56:03 am
content: The cable is very easy to access since the left side of the screen bezel is completely broken and is only held on with electrical tape.Edit:I moved the cable around but it had no effect on the backlight, then i noticed that applying pressure on the CCFL area of the screen causes it to go dark.At this point it's easier to send the laptop to sleep and wake it up to restart the backlight than it is to take the panel apart to see what causes the CCFL backlight to fail.

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 24, 2016, 06:44:55 pm
content: A little update.After quite a bit of usage i can confirm that the repair was a success.At this point the laptop is "as fixed as it can get" without the need to order new parts ( eg. LED backlight conversion ).With my usage GPU temp reached 65oC max and CPU topped out at 77oC.Sitting idle CPU and GPU both get to about 6oC above ambient.I don't intend to play any games on this poor old sod and i am happy with the performance that i'm getting from it.