Basic Sony Laptop Computer running Windows 7, identified by model number PCG-61611L. This guide offers troubleshooting help as well as guides on how to fix them.
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Nothing happens when the power on button is pressed.
To see if it is a faulty battery, try keeping the laptop plugged in to the power supply while turning it on. If it turns on while the computer is plugged in then replace the battery using this guide.
Make sure the power cord is properly plugged in to the wall and to the back of the laptop. If everything looks fine, just unplug and plug both ends of the power cord to make sure the cable fits properly and is not loose.
If you have a power strip in your home that ultimately turns every electronic connected to it on/off at once, you may have to disconnect your laptop from it and connect the cord directly to the wall outlet. If that does not work, connect a different device to the same outlet to verify if the outlet works
Computer sounds like it turns on, but instead of being sent to the desktop, it turns off instead or receives an error message.
If you hear the computer/fans turn on for a couple of seconds then turn immediately off, it could be a bad motherboard. The motherboard could have gotten wet or short circuited some other way. In this case, it is considered very difficult to replace the motherboard as within laptops, everything is usually soldered onto tat motherboard. With that, it could be difficult to replace it, but is still possible. Please follow this guide to replace the motherboard.
A common causes in a bad hard disk drive is physical damage like heat which causes a fault in CPU fans to overheat and crash the system. Also the hard disk drive is not shock resistant which means dropping the device might harm the mechanical components which will negatively impact how the device runs. Another common cause that results in a bad hard disks is a logical failure which can be caused by human error, malware infections and corrupted files.
If you happen to shut the computer down instantly without it going through/completing its shutdown cycle, then the hard drive could have been damaged. If this is the case you would have to either buy a new hard drive and reinstall windows operating system onto the device or try to use the same windows operating system disk to try and repair the hard drive itself. If you would like to simply replace the hard disk drive, please follow this guide here. With that, all you have to do is insert the windows operating system disk into the computer and start the computer from that disk. Then select the repair option when prompted to do so in the menu that comes up. If this does not work then you would most likely have to replace the hard disk drive or replace it with a solid disk drive.
Computer sounds like it turns on and stays running, except the screen won’t display an image.
Resetting a laptop can and will solve many issues your laptop might be facing. To perform a hard reset, you will want to unplug the battery and the power cord. Then press the power button for about 15 seconds to drain any electrical charge from the capacitors. Next step is to the reinsert the battery and plug the AC adapter back into the laptop. Press the power button to turn on the laptop and your laptop should start up just fine
If performing a hard reset does not fix the issue, you might want to get an VGA cord and try to plug it into an external monitor. If you plug the laptop into an external monitor and nothing shows up, try to press the function key F4 to try cycling through options. If the operating system shows up on the screen, then the display on the monitor is most likely bad and would have to be replaced with this guide.
As mentioned, if those steps do not work, then you would have to replace the display of the laptop. Please follow this guide to replace it.Keyboard Keys Do Not Work
When you attempt to type, nothing seems to show up.
Blow the compressed air in between the keyboard gaps. Sometimes dirt and lint do get stuck in between those gaps making it difficult for the laptop to register any key presses.
If cleaning the keyboard did not work, you would most likely have to replace the keyboard. In order to do so, please follow this guide listed here.
On screen mouse does not respond to track pad motion or clicks.
Try cleaning the keyboard off with an alcohol prep pad to clean anything residue that may be left on the track pad.
If cleaning it does nothing, you would likely have to replace the track pad. To do this, follow the guide listed here.
If cleaning it does not work, then try updating the mouse drivers by navigating to the device manufacturer’s page to see if there is an updated driver. If so download and install the new driver. To help with this step, plug in a USB mouse in order to gain access to the onscreen pointer.
Computer does not respond as fast to opening pages as much as it used to.
Update your laptop and run your laptop antivirus app to remove any malicious ware or viruses from your laptop. That could be the reason why your laptop is acting slow.
A laptop will become extremely slow when there isn’t enough memory on it to work. Try adding/updating/upgrading more ram to your laptop. This could improve the overall performance of the laptop making it possible to even run multiple applications at the same time. To replace the ram please follow this guide.
Computer works fine, except there is no sound coming from the speakers.
Often times we forget the sound bar is all the way down/muted. To check, go to settings>sound/Audio and check to see if the sound bar is low. If it is, turn it all the way up. If it works, you can then adjust it to your preference.
There could have been an issue with the volume drivers on start-up that could cause errors. Try simply restarting your laptop. That can potentially fix any software issue affecting the audio.
Unable to read disks placed in the optical disk drive.
If one disk fails to read, then try another disk. If possible try some other format than the one previously trying to be read. Be it a movie, game, or music. Try one of each to see if it could be a software issue with reading what is on the disk. If this does not work, we would recommend trying it on another device.
If the above step does not work, attempt to replace the disk drive by following this guide here.
Unable/slow to connect to the internet using built in WiFi adapter.
It could be an issue with the internet service provider instead of the WiFi adapter. Try contacting your internet service provider to see if they can send a signal boost or to see if there is an outage in the area. If not attempt to connect to the internet with another device.
Try connecting the computer to the modem directly using Ethernet. If it works, then you would have to replace the WiFi network adapter. If so, follow this guide here to replace it.
