Sony VAIO PCQ-F360 Notebook PC Powers Off

[Sam Goldwasser]

Unit has clean restore of Windows 98. It boots all the way up but
once complete, it powers off into a peculiar state that requires
removing the DC power plug to get a response from the power button.
Windows Safe Mode runs fine so I assume it's hardware associated with
some driver not used in Safe Mode. What else besides bad memory
could do this? I don't believe the battery is required for normal
operation of this PC. All power saving features have been disabled.

Thanks.

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[Jerry G.]

Check in the power management. This you will find in "Control Panel".
There may be some parameter that is turning the computer off. Also,
check in the bias setup for any power management settings that may do
this.

--

Greetings,

Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG
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Unit has clean restore of Windows 98. It boots all the way up but
once complete, it powers off into a peculiar state that requires
removing the DC power plug to get a response from the power button.
Windows Safe Mode runs fine so I assume it's hardware associated with
some driver not used in Safe Mode. What else besides bad memory
could do this? I don't believe the battery is required for normal
operation of this PC. All power saving features have been disabled.

Thanks.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page:
http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
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| Mirror Site Info:
http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: The email address in this message header may no longer work.
To
contact me, please use the Feedback Form at repairfaq.org. Thanks.

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

Check in the power management. This you will find in "Control Panel".
There may be some parameter that is turning the computer off. Also,
check in the bias setup for any power management settings that may do
this.

Been there, done that, no change. That IS what it really looks like though.

Thanks.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
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[Rod2414738]

I missed the original post, but could your problem be that worm that has been
recently going around? I don't recall the name of the worm, but it basically
causes the PC to power up, then after 30 seconds or so overloads the system and
the PC gives the message "Shutting down" or such. I would imagine you could
find the details pretty quickly on Semantec's website. IIRC though, this only
pertains to XP systems.

-Rod

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

I missed the original post, but could your problem be that worm that has been
recently going around? I don't recall the name of the worm, but it basically
causes the PC to power up, then after 30 seconds or so overloads the system and
the PC gives the message "Shutting down" or such. I would imagine you could
find the details pretty quickly on Semantec's website. IIRC though, this only
pertains to XP systems.

I don't think so because (1) this started a few weeks ago and (2) did a
clean reformat/recover from CD.

Thanks. A virus or worm was our first thought as well.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
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[kc8adu]

i had a sony p3 note in that had all the screws loose on the cpu heatsink.it
was turning on and off whenever it wanted.many sony notes are bad for the
power jack breaking loose and getting intermittant.the high resistance
causes heat and can burn up the jack and board badly enough to need a tail
to fix it.

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

i had a sony p3 note in that had all the screws loose on the cpu heatsink.it
was turning on and off whenever it wanted.many sony notes are bad for the
power jack breaking loose and getting intermittant.the high resistance
causes heat and can burn up the jack and board badly enough to need a tail
to fix it.

Yeah, this one is VERY consistent. It will run all day in Safe Mode
but dies before normal Win98 is fully up (after the desktop and icons
appear but probably before the busy mouse pointer goes away).

Speaking of which, what about intermittent battery operation on a VAIO
PCG-531A? Are bad solder connections common on the battery connector (the
8 pin thing)? This one had the oversize battery pack which obviously
was not properly designed for it.

Thanks.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
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[H. Dziardziel]

I don't think so because (1) this started a few weeks ago and (2) did a
clean reformat/recover from CD.

Was the recovery from a Sony supplied CD for that model? W98SE
did not have very good ACPI implementation so the Sony CD may have
disabled it using APM only or supplied drivers that loaded during
install.. No pack installed may be a factor in that if ACPI
"determines" there is no ps plugged in and the battery is dead..
Or starts looking for a phantom 2nd pack at driver startup. Have
you tried stepping through the drivers at boot?.

Thanks. A virus or worm was our first thought as well.

Regards

 

[Andre]

Yeah, this one is VERY consistent. It will run all day in Safe Mode
but dies before normal Win98 is fully up (after the desktop and icons
appear but probably before the busy mouse pointer goes away).

Did you try disabling ACPI in the BIOS ?

-A

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

Did you try disabling ACPI in the BIOS ?

Yep.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
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[Sam Goldwasser]

Was the recovery from a Sony supplied CD for that model? W98SE

Yes, original recovery CD pack.

did not have very good ACPI implementation so the Sony CD may have
disabled it using APM only or supplied drivers that loaded during
install.. No pack installed may be a factor in that if ACPI
"determines" there is no ps plugged in and the battery is dead..
Or starts looking for a phantom 2nd pack at driver startup. Have
you tried stepping through the drivers at boot?.

That's what I probably need to do.

Thanks.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Home Page: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
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[its you]

Have you tried starting up with nothing selected in msconfig's startup
tab? Probably won't work and you've probably tried it, but just a
thought.