G-STAR

My Sony VAIO laptop charger decided to give up on me, last week.

Over the past few months, I've noticed that the laptop has been getting ridiculously hot underneath, which could be the cause of the charger failing.

I ended up buying a universal charger, with changeable voltage. The VAIO charger uses 19.5v, but I was told that I could use the 20v setting. Now, I've tried the charger on both 19v and 20v, however, the part where it connects with the laptop is getting hot, to the point where the plastic 'covering' is melting, and in order to get the laptop to charge correctly, I now have to hold it in place/wiggle it around.

Obviously the laptop and charger shouldn't be getting as hot as they are, and I'm wondering if anyone had any idea as to why such would be occurring.

G-STAR

Bump.

Pugster

What model is it?

G-STAR

PCG-K215M.

Pugster

I think that's Pentium 4 based? Is the charger socket near the fan outlet? If it is then that's the problem. It's the CPU getting too hot.

I've got a VAIO and had overheating problems where it would shutdown without warning after it had been on for a while. I had to take it to bits and clean the fan out that cools the CPU as it was clogging up with dust. The heat sink is big bit of copper and it clogs up and won't cool properly. Because P4's were designed for desktop PC's I think the cooling in a laptop case is marginal at best.

G-STAR

P4 based, correct.

The charger is on the opposite side of the back of the laptop, but, to be honest, it's all getting hot, so I'll see what a clean does to it.

I've tried getting to the fan, but I'm having a little trouble. There are three separate 'compartments', one for the RAM, another for the hard disk and then one further one (not sure what that contains). There are also 9 screws on the bottom, and another two on the back. When taking away the 11 screws, the casing on the top of the laptop, i.e. where the keyboard is comes loose - is it a case of taking off the top, to get to the fan at the back/bottom?

Pugster

I've got a different model to yours, but on mine the keyboard had to come out to get to the fan. You can't get to it from the bottom

G-STAR

I've just had to do the same.

There was a fair bit of dust under there, and now it's gone, the laptop seems to be, so far, much quieter than previously. I'll keep you updated.

Thanks for the help, very much appreciated.

Pugster

No probs. Common problem on P4 based Vaio's

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Might be an idea to look in your task manager and check if any rogue programs are maxing out the CPU.