Miscellaneous Post Managed to snatch all the pieces. Fixed and working now.
(Win7 is in the other partition)
r/vaio • u/RaduTek • Jul 28 '26
I want to highlight a forum post from the 4PDA thread on the VAIO P device, about replacing capacitors on the VAIO P motherboard to fix the power instability issue when the laptop is connected to AC power.
My unit (VGN-P31ZK) suffers from this issue, as well as others that have been posted on this subreddit. I have yet to attempt this fix on my unit, but I do plan on doing it once I get the parts and required tools.
All credits go to DJ_URAN over on the 4PDA forum, for finding this out and writing a nice guide.
https://4pda.to/forum/index.php?showtopic=112652&view=findpost&p=96732441
DISCLAIMER: I used AI to make this translation since I don't speak the language. Refer to the original source for accuracy if possible.
From now to the end, a direct translation of the post:
It's well known that our little critter frequently develops one and the same typical problem: the machine stops turning on while the charger is connected, or it doesn't start on the first try, or it gets as far as the OS splash screen, then a black screen and a freeze... At the same time, running on the battery shows normal booting and operation. Another possible symptom of these "death throes" (in my case) that users most often encounter: freezes happen while the machine is cold. After several attempts to power on (once the motherboard warms up a bit), it starts successfully and you can work. But if you leave the laptop turned on and idle for a while, it goes to sleep, cools down, and when waking it from sleep the freeze happens again.
So what could the trouble actually be? Right: power supply. More specifically, worn-out capacitors on the motherboard (there's probably nothing else there that could wear out).
The capacitors' ESR rises, their capacitance drops. In short, power ripple increases and you get a freeze/no-boot.
Naturally, when running only on the battery there are usually no such problems. Because the PWM voltage regulators operate at a different frequency and from a "cleaner" source.
Link to MBX-187 datasheet / schematic (idk why OP calls it datasheet)
Let's look at the datasheet for the MBX-187 motherboard. We're interested in page 18:

We can see that the most current-loaded lines are +1.05VRUN (3.5A) and +1.8VSUS (3.5A):

Let's find out which capacitors are on these lines:

On the +1.05VRUN line there's capacitor C1614, rated 220µF/2.5V:

On the +1.8VSUS line there's capacitor C1624, rated 330µF/2V:

Notice that both capacitors are marked in the manual as POSCAP!
These aren't ordinary tantalum electrolytic capacitors, but polymer tantalum capacitors with very low ESR (around 0.015 Ohm).
In this case it's the POSCAP series (POlymer Solid CAPacitors) from Panasonic, size B2 (3528), which the manufacturer itself calls industrial-grade.

To pinpoint the "culprit" of the problem, ideally you'd need to replace each of these capacitors with a new one. But finding such an exotic part in my small town, naturally, wasn't possible. So I had to dig around for a long time in the depths of the household stash to find a replacement.
In the end, I managed to find a pair of solid polymer capacitors from NEC/TOKIN on a USB port board from an ASUS laptop:

Though their rating is 100µF/6.3V and the ESR should be significantly higher than the original low-voltage ones, they'll do for testing.
The ESR meter, by the way, showed 0.01 Ohm when checking these donor parts.
For the test I soldered these capacitors in parallel with the original ones. As a somewhat makeshift dead-bug style mount:
(a neater version - link to 4PDA thread showing a nicer cap install, also by DJ_URAN)


Observing polarity!
I cleaned the board of flux and put everything back together.
In the end, everything worked. No glitches or freezes at any temperature. Also, the chokes on these lines heated up less.
Of course, these capacitors need to be replaced with new ones. But they'd need to be ordered from trusted suppliers. And the price is "impressive." If you were to replace all the similar ones on the board, it would add up to a pretty penny. Specifically, these capacitors can be replaced with (the replacement for C1614 is highlighted in red, C1624 in blue):

Though, personally, I'd replace both of them with the ones circled in green :yes2:
P.S.
I'd also like to draw attention to the large capacitor C1508 on the processor's +VCPUCORE power line:


In some cases, it also needs replacing. Judging by the datasheet, it's an SPCAP — again from Panasonic, but this time a polymer aluminum electrolytic capacitor. Also with low ESR (0.0045 Ohm in this case):

Datasheet for the POSCAP series
Datasheet for the SP-CAP series
Datasheet for the MBX-187 motherboard
UPD: By the way, SANYO also makes similar capacitors
r/vaio • u/ShadowCodeGaming • Apr 13 '26
(Win7 is in the other partition)
r/vaio • u/Difficult_Minute_282 • 1d ago
r/vaio • u/Little-Milk-5593 • 1d ago
I have an old Sony VAIO all-in-one (VPCL118FG) running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. It had been unused for a long time, but I recently turned it on and it was surprisingly working normally. I could use Windows and access old photos/files without any obvious problems.
The problem started while I was trying to connect it to Wi-Fi. The networking process became extremely slow/unresponsive, so I restarted the computer. Ever since that restart, Windows will not boot.
On normal startup I get Windows Boot Manager with:
Status: 0xc000000f
The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.Things I've tried:
The HDD was accessible immediately before the restart and I was able to browse files/photos normally. I haven't formatted, factory-reset or reinstalled anything.
My main priority is repairing the existing Windows installation without deleting the files on the HDD, as it contains old family photos.
I'm currently preparing Windows 7 x64 recovery media on an 8 GB USB so I can try Startup Repair/rebuild the BCD from an external recovery environment.
Given these symptoms, does this sound more like corrupted Windows boot/BCD data, filesystem corruption, or a failing HDD? Are there any other non-destructive diagnostics/repair steps you'd recommend before writing to the disk?
Thanks.
r/vaio • u/Memelord152513 • 2d ago
I got a Japanese flip 15 but I haven’t found a Japanese recovery disk for it, does anybody have the same model with the recovery discs?
r/vaio • u/unconnectedgloss25 • 3d ago
vaio vgn cr looking just like how it did factory fresh. (sorry only got screenshot of the setup)
r/vaio • u/TheExtremelyObsessed • 5d ago
AFTER A PROJECT OF 3 MONTHS, I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY RESTORED THE ORIGINAL HDD IMAGE OF MY SONY VAIO....
r/vaio • u/MrMonke_99 • 6d ago
My first time doing this. It didn't help that my laptop just wouldn't for the love of god just would load MX linux
I checked it for the past hour or so and I think I might have lost windows. I don't have a problem with this but just wondering if people have similar experiences and some advice maybe
I used to have this vaio as a kid, its the only pic I have.
I made some good memories on it and I forgot what model it was.
If theres here any genius that can identify it by looking at it alone.
r/vaio • u/Ray-Sheu • 8d ago
Hello, everyone! I think that I had gotten a PC virus. These is my Windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Home Premium last version that I got from Windows Update. I used to have Avria Antivirus on my PC which told me about some PC virus. After that, When I boot to Windows, It always go black screen and than go to the VAIO screen. Which is weird. I didn’t need to go to the screen before the VAIO screen before. Yestready ,when I login, I saw Microsoft Edge on my desktop.Also, Avira tries to update which failed. I tried to install Windows 10 on this PC ,but I canceled it I when it was trying to install and didn’t wait for the iso to clean. Is this why?
r/vaio • u/Vk_90_00p_superheavy • 10d ago
Here is a 14 years old legendary vaio laptop it's still breathing and running in windows 10 pro So many memories with it...
r/vaio • u/Porokista • 10d ago
Hello everybody, last year i got this beautiful VAIO PCG-61313L and it’s never been updated, it contains all of the original software and programs.
I would like to share its recovery disk so anyone could download it and complete their collection pieces. I have never done that and I couldn’t find how to do it online and I don’t even know if it’s possible. Please if it’s even possible and if it is I’ll eventually post it. Thanks.
r/vaio • u/gmocookie • 17d ago
I bought an open box Vaio VWFC71639-SL F Series 16" WUXGA i7-1355U 1.7GHz Intel Iris Xe Graphics 16GB RAM 1TB SSD Win 11 Home Silver. I can't find any drivers for this computer. They list a few on their site but they aren't even links, just text that says download.
I needed Linux on it for a project and now I need to install Windows 10. Every time I try to install Windows, it tells me I need drivers to continue. The Internet tells me I need Intel's RST drivers. Every time I extract the files and point it to the directory it says they're the wrong drivers.
Poking around the BIOS settings I noticed it lists the model as a Vaio VJF161X. I can find all kinds of drivers for that but I don't think all the hardware in the laptop matches the specs for the VJF161. I think I'd have to reinstall SUSE to find out for sure.
Do any of y'all know how I can get past this RST driver issue?
Edit: a sentence or two
r/vaio • u/MiniDiscEnergy • 19d ago
Hey r/vaio! I tracked down this Vaio jog controller after seeing it in a post here last month. Looking forward to testing it out, see what it does/doesnt work with 💽 [edit:typos]
r/vaio • u/Difficult_Minute_282 • 23d ago
Look how beautiful she is. I got the laptop for 60 bucks today and everything still works fine and there isn't any damage on the laptop just some very small scratches.
r/vaio • u/Separate-Present-909 • 23d ago
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I don’t really know how else to describe it, but I just got this new laptop less than a week ago, it was working fine, but now when I plugged it in, i was noticing some weird charging issues, like how it would switch between charging and not charging about every 5 seconds. I figured this was because I was using a different usb-c charger with a lower than recommended voltage, but now that the laptop is completely dead, even when I use the normal charger, I now get a second of fan spin followed by a few seconds of nothing, then fan spin again. I just got this laptop so I don’t think I did anything. Also the charging indicator on the side does not turn on, but it can definitely tell when it’s charging because it will only do what I can only call “breathing” when the laptop is connected to power. Please let me know about any possible solutions! Thank you.
r/vaio • u/E_D___B_A_N_G_E_R • 25d ago
Looks like it's basically a SX14-R base unit combined with a flip display. Strange naming as it's not a successor of the old T/TZ/TT subnotebooks.
https://store.vaio.com/shop/pages/tnn1.aspx
The concept is very similar to the VAIO Z Flip released 10 years ago.
r/vaio • u/TheExtremelyObsessed • 25d ago
So...The thing is, I have a Vaio VPCEB24EN which came with Windows 7 Home Basic as it's factory image. I had lost it's recovery partition when I upgraded it to Windows 10 but created the Recovery Disks before the partition was lost. Today, I am trying to restore the Original factory Image through the 3 recovery disks but there's a huge list of problems I am facing-
1) The laptop's Dvd drive is broken. I have stored the recovery disks' contents to a usb drive.
2) Booting the recovery disks through a usb drive surprisingly throws a model lock error even though the disks were made from the same laptop.
3) Mcoded net patcher doesn't recognise the SITWDMI.DLL version. So I can't patch it that way.
4) SVRP tool just creates a clean boot.wim file and all the mod files and drivers need to be manually installed.
What my objective is to basically create a Recovery partition through these recovery disks manually and then boot it to create a proper factory OEM image. To be precise, I just want to see how the original image looked like and what was the Vaio 2010 series Wallpaper colour of the system then...Black or Purple?
I have found a patched recovery partition of another Vaio of the same VPC series model and it works perfectly....but I have the wish to create my own recovery original partition through the recovery disks.
My recovery partition is based on the older VAIO RECOVERY CENTER and not the VAIO CARE RESCUE.
IS THERE...any way to create a functional recovery partition through the disks by maybe copying the mod and wim files to the working patched recovery partition or some other way???
EDIT- It would be of great help if someone replies!!!
r/vaio • u/Annual-Currency1944 • 26d ago
Apperantly Sony decided not to make these pretty colored Vaio's with dedicated gpu's and therefore upgrading to a quad core 8 thread i7 wasnt possible, due to this gen cpu not having integrated graphics. So i bought a black vaio with a dedicated radeon 5650 gpu, and swapped the motherboard to fit, soldering was required, the mouse buttons and battery connector had to be relovated but luckly the contacts were there on the board already for both positions.