This document is part of the site http://cip.physik.uni-freiburg.de/~zwerger/Vaio/indexeng.

htm On the first three pages of this document, you will find a hardcopy of http://www.brendonwilson.com/ideas/sony/fixit.shtml On pages 4-5 you find some more pictures of the procedure. And a link of the German supplier Buerklin (very cheap) for the caps. Cheers, Andi (strandi@web.de) ___________________________________________________________

Ideas::Sony Rant::Fix It Yourself

The problem of spontaneous hibernation has now been determined to be the result of a set of failing capacitors. Sony will perform this fix for you (assuming this is the case with your laptop) for $300 US. However, if you're handy with a soldering iron and not about to hand Sony any more money, see page 2 and 3 for details how to fix the failing capacitors yourself: This document (page 2 & 3) was provided by Anton Narkov, an ingenious Russian engineer. This fix has been implemented by several people with great success. However, be warned: this fix is not for the faint of heart! As noted by one of the people who implemented this fix successfully: Brendon, I used digikey (http://www.digikey.com) part number P11308CT-ND. This is a 220uF 6.3V TE series cap. They were 2.253 each. The guy that wrote the writeup claimed that he could get them for 15 cents. Unless you had connections in china, I don't think that I have ever seen them this cheap. I would expect about a dollar for the part. Digikey does offer convenience at a reasonable price. One comment to make. I am an EE (electronics engineer) and I have lots of experience soldering and working on SMT parts. If the person does not have any experience with soldering, I do not recommend that he try it. Also, having the right equipment does help. I have a really nice metcal soldering station with appropriate tips for SMT. Although parts are big, the amount of heat from cheap soldering irons can cause trace damage. Just something to think about. So, be warned. I accept no responsibility if this fix turns your laptop into an expensive paperweight. Well, I mean any more of an expensive paperweight than it probably already is, due to the hibernation behaviour. ___________________________________________________________________________

This problem presents in all F-series of SONY Vaio laptops with PII processors. For repair, you need disassemble motherboard and then disconnect processor module. How to do it, shown on some pictures listed below.

Disassembly procedure: 1. speakers plate 2. keyboard 3. upper frame with touchpad 4. HDD 5. plate what covers CD-ROM 6. CD-ROM 7. HDD bracket 8. power module (between battery and FDD) 9. LCD module 10. processor radiator 11. motherboard with modem 12. disconnect processor module from motherboard On the picture shown below in red circles there are bad capacitors and red arrow pints on original thermal processor interface.

So, we have separate processor module. Now we simply change capacitors round processor (new capacitors must have the same or grater capacity and working voltage, and what most important same or grater working temperature, Im using 100C capacitors). These capacitors staying between +Vcc processor and ground, so, if they are bad, processor power is abnormal, what leading to instability of processor. The cause of that is very bad thermal interface between processor and radiator.

Please notice what thickness of thermal interface is more than 1mm. Thats no good, because heat conduction of this interface is very bad, but if you plan to use your laptop less than another two years leave it as is. Im, in cases like this, usually putting copper plate with special thermal compound, but be careful in this case: thickness of this plate must be a tiny bit less than distance between radiator and processor. When I did so, the radiator fan starts running only after hour of playing MPEG4. Before that, the fan starts when windows was still booting. Please also notice what this is common problem in almost all electronic devices such as TV, Video, and so on. There is two ways to avoid this: use high temperature and quality capacitors or make better thermal design. P.S. In my case, I use 220uF 3.3v 100C capacitors with price 0.15 cents (USA) for each one. (http://www.digikey.com)

Some more pictures (provided by Stefan Nawrocki)

You can buy the capacitors here: http://www.buerklin.com Part number 25 or 25 or 25 or 25 D 522 D 344 D 1882 D 1982

I recommend the AVX-type (25 D 522) -,97 per piece Or here: http://www.digikey.com Part number P11308CT-ND US$ 2,20 per piece