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Laptop won't power on; I want to get it to boot to BIOS. The background:

Friend reported laptop was making a whirring noise and getting very hot. I opened up the chassis just to look at the fan and clean out any dust. A small plastic piece fell out as I first opened it:

bottom view?
top view?

More photos of the piece.

About 2-3 inches long, 1/2 inch wide. I couldn't find where to put the piece back in. Sorry for the mediocre photo quality, let me know if better photos would help identify it. It has several round pegs on it (each just a few mm long and wide, if that). Doesn't appear to be matching up to any external buttons.

Closed up the laptop without the plastic piece (what could be the harm?) Upon plugging it in and pressing the power button, nothing. No lights anywhere, no sounds, no sign of life.

Tried:

  • Removing the battery and power adapter, holding down the power button for 60 seconds, then plugging in the power adapter (still no battery) and pressing the power button. Nothing.
  • Taking the laptop back apart, looking at the power button mechanism as I pressed the power button, it does seem to be hitting the right spot on the little printed circuit board.
  • Looked at all the internal power connectors I could see, didn't notice any problems (but I am not a bench repair tech).

I was later told that this plastic piece may be an "isolator" ("insulator"?) for holding metal away from a printed circuit board, to avoid shorts. In which case, we may be shorting the laptop by trying to boot it with the isolator removed?

The other thing I can think of is that either one of the power connectors has a problem that I can't see, or I static-fried one of the PCBs (I wasn't wearing a bracelet, and maybe I wasn't diligent enough about touching metal).

Have not been able to locate a video or service manual. Not sure if this would even help with that little plastic piece.

Any ideas for things to try to get this laptop to boot again? If we can get to BIOS then I can take it from there.

The laptop is a 13" Sony Vaio PCG-31113L (model #VPCZ13KGX I think?) It had been "refurbished" in the past: replacing the charger and/or battery, and replacing the HDD with an SSD.

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  • Did you follow any specific instructions on how to disassemble your friend's laptop? If it was turning on before the disassembly and doesn't turn on after you've assembled it, it's most definitely you did something wrong. The piece that fallen off is covering the LEDs somewhere on the case. Look for more info here: us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/35540/c/65,66/p/…
    – Alex Ljamin
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 1:59
  • @alljamin As stated, I cannot find a service manual. I can post more details about what exactly I did, if that's what you're asking. I made the mistake of not testing before I opened it, so I can't 100% say that it was turning on just prior to disassembly, but either way I don't see your second sentence as providing any non-trivial objective information or insight. Thanks for the info on the piece. Someone else has since suggested that as well. Thanks for the link. I have followed all of the steps except 6, which I thought was not worth trying because I am seeing literally no light
    – David Breese
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 20:21
  • @alljamin I got another chance to work on it. I tried number 6 in your link (removing memory) no dice at first... but then I noticed the keyboard plate's ribbon connector was disconnected (might have left it that way last time). Connecting the ribbon as well, and now had power. Proceeded to boot successfully. So what solved it was either removing the memory, or re-seating the ribbon, that did the trick. Sadly I can't identify more specifically. If you make your comment an answer though I will accept it. Thanks again. Also, you were right about the plastic piece, so thanks.
    – David Breese
    Commented Sep 26, 2016 at 18:42
  • Can't say how this relates to the laptop suddenly failing to boot, but I've seen similar plastic peices used as such: The led indicators are located furthur down the chasis, and the place on the chassis where they need to show is not in direct contact. To fix this, a small plastic peice is added so that the light shines through the plastic to the spot that it needs to be seen. So look near any indicator lights and see if it fits there
    – Blaine
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 3:30
  • You are both correct about the plastic piece, thank you. I was able to find the LEDs where it belonged.
    – David Breese
    Commented Sep 28, 2016 at 14:06

1 Answer 1

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The failure to power on was resolved by a combination of:

  • Removing the RAM, and
  • Re-seating the ribbon connector from the motherboard to the keyboard plate (and the power button).

I ended up doing them both without testing in between, so I'm not 100% sure which one fixed it.

The RAM does not appear to have been faulty; after removing it, putting it back in resulted in the computer fully booting.

The plastic piece belonged to an LED indicator on the chassis.

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