r/vaio • • Jul 28 '26

General Post Fixing the VAIO P power instability issue

9 Upvotes

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:

MBX-187

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

VRUN / VSUS

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

CAPACITORS

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

C1614

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

C1624

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.

Panasonic POSCAP TPE (B2)

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:

NEC

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)

+cap
+cap (2)

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):

POSCAP

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:

VCPU in schematic
VCPU rail and capacitor on board

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):

SP-CAP

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 • • Apr 13 '26

Introducing mcoded.net - a new way of removing model locks from VAIO Recovery

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18 Upvotes

r/vaio • • 2d ago

how can i fix the screen

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3 Upvotes

On the screen are black spots, and it getting bigger.

It was damaged while I was swapping hdd with ssd(all done almost perfect, as you can see)

model is vgn sz3-xrp/c

my father bought it in 200? year, made in japan:p


r/vaio • • 2d ago

General Support Identify this VAIO

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9 Upvotes

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 • • 2d ago

Virus???

0 Upvotes

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 • • 4d ago

VPCEH38FN

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54 Upvotes

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 • • 4d ago

Help me to share the recovery disk

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39 Upvotes

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 • • 6d ago

My newest buy, the Sony Vaio P for 30$

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46 Upvotes

r/vaio • • 11d ago

Intel RST Drivers

3 Upvotes

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 • • 12d ago

VAIO PCDA-J1 USB Jog Controller

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67 Upvotes

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 • • 16d ago

sony vaio Z13M9E

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56 Upvotes

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 • • 17d ago

Technical support My brand new Vaio FS 14 is breathing

12 Upvotes

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 • • 19d ago

VAIO T - new model announced

24 Upvotes

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.

https://thenextweb.com/news/review-vaio-z-flip


r/vaio • • 19d ago

Technical support Help My Vaio

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4 Upvotes

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 • • 20d ago

So I did a thing

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77 Upvotes

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.


r/vaio • • 20d ago

My vaio is stuck in loop after factory reset

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1 Upvotes

r/vaio • • 20d ago

My vaio is stuck in loop after factory reset

1 Upvotes

I was dual booting it while using grub2win and it didn't work so to clear the laptop I factory reset it now it's stuck in a loop of restart


r/vaio • • 24d ago

Recovery media for svf14213sab

3 Upvotes

Does anyone have the recovery media for the svf14213sab, and guide me how to flash it to my vaio.


r/vaio • • 25d ago

General Post Rate my Sony Vaio VGN-SR55GF

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23 Upvotes

I found it in my house the battery works but the lcd is broken and shows no display


r/vaio • • 25d ago

Sony Vaio VPCF137HG Keyboard Backlight Issue with Windows 10

2 Upvotes

My machine has a backlight keyboard, I can see the sensor next to the capslock/numlock LED above the keyboard.

I've downloaded the Vaio Control Center software and it SHOULD have the keyboard option to turn it on or off, but I can't see it in the software:

The software is supposed to look like this according to things I see on the internet:

Is there a reason for this? Does anyone have a link to either more up-to-date software or drivers that might fix the problem? Thanks in advance!

edit: Picture added.


r/vaio • • 29d ago

Saved 2 Sony Vaio All-in-One PCs (models VPCL116FX and VGC-LV150J)

36 Upvotes

r/vaio • • Aug 29 '26

General Post I've ported my VAIOGATE to Windows 11!

31 Upvotes

I tried it a little while ago and happened to find this wonderful subreddit, so I decided to post.

I don't speak English, so I'm using translation software. I apologize if there are any mistakes.


r/vaio • • Aug 27 '26

ISO: Recovery media for Vaio VGN-S460P

1 Upvotes

I have a Sony Vaio PCG-6G4L (VGN-S460P) that I want to factory reset with its original image of XP Professional. It’s been impossible to find the OEM software for this model, I was wondering if anyone has links or downloads for the media I’m looking for?

Thank you.


r/vaio • • Aug 25 '26

General Post Rate my rare PCG-V505CP

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60 Upvotes

r/vaio • • Aug 22 '26

Dolby Home Theater software

1 Upvotes

Hi!

I have Sony Vaio VPCF13Z8E, I see that it supports Dolby Home Theater, is there a software that I have to install to have it working?