PCG-F290 Mystery shutdown phenomenon

[petethefeet1]

I have a VAIO F290 running Win98. It boots fine, but after a few minutes and without warning it shuts down - or at least goes to sleep as the power light flashes - and cannot be woken up again without a hard reset. I have replaced the hard drive and reinstalled the OS using the VAIO recovery disk but it made no difference. The timing of the shutdown varies but is usually very soon after booting. Any ideas?

[kee-lo_]

Have you cleaned the fans, as it's quite an old model now?

[petethefeet1]

Have you cleaned the fans, as it's quite an old model now?

As far as I can see, there is only one fan (below the screen hinge, behind the memory module), but this does not run when you switch the PC on. Could this be the problem - the processor cutting out because there is no cooling?

[William]

I guess there could be numerous reasons besides the fan, if it is clean, but is most likely to be heat related.

It could be as obscure as the CPU heat pad has degraded resulting in poor heat transfer.

[rich912]

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum.

I am afraid that the symptoms point to the F series condenser problem. Basically there are ten by-pass condensers that, when faulty, falsely report high CPU temperature and the notebook shuts down. For further reading have a look HERE

A repair will cost in the region of £150 but with an old F series that I sill have but no longer use I opted for one of the software workarounds, ie installing a retail version of Windows 98 SE and then, in safe mode, disabling APM (Advanced Power Management) in Device Manager. All worked fine and the notebook provided another two years service – and still works!

[William]

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum.

I am afraid that the symptoms point to the F series condenser problem. Basically there are ten by-pass condensers that, when faulty, falsely report high CPU temperature and the notebook shuts down. For further reading have a look HERE 

A repair will cost in the region of £150 but with an old F series that I sill have but no longer use I opted for one of the software workarounds, ie installing a retail version of Windows 98 SE and then, in safe mode, disabling APM (Advanced Power Management) in Device Manager. All worked fine and the notebook provided another two years service – and still works!

Thats a great workaround :smileygrin:

[kee-lo_]

So it's not overheating?

[petethefeet1]

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum.

I am afraid that the symptoms point to the F series condenser problem. Basically there are ten by-pass condensers that, when faulty, falsely report high CPU temperature and the notebook shuts down. For further reading have a look HERE 

A repair will cost in the region of £150 but with an old F series that I sill have but no longer use I opted for one of the software workarounds, ie installing a retail version of Windows 98 SE and then, in safe mode, disabling APM (Advanced Power Management) in Device Manager. All worked fine and the notebook provided another two years service – and still works!

Rich
Thanks for this. The symptoms described in the links you gave certainly sound exactly like the problem I'm having. The only thing is that the VAIO will even shutdown (ie hibernate) before it has booted into Windows. Also, the fan does not start upon boot up - is this normal?

[rich912]

Peter,

 The only thing is that the VAIO will even shutdown (ie hibernate) before it has booted into Windows.

Yes that certainly happened with my F series. Sometimes windows would start normally and then run for up to half an hour but on other occasions it would hibernate during the loading process.

The easiest way to check this out is to start in Safe Mode as APM is not activated in this state - well not with the retail version of Win 98, not sure about the Sony OEM version - then see if your notebook runs normally.

Also, the fan does not start upon boot up - is this normal?

Yes this is normal also.

So it's not overheating?

Assuming that my diagnosing is correct then no – it just thinks it is, and as the problem is happening during boot actual overheating is most unlikely.

[kee-lo_]

Damn, that would annoy me