My Computer is completely ruined

Callan Page

Estimable
Apr 6, 2014
2
0
4,510
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-71312M. My fan started making this grueling noise, so I opened her up and cleaned the fan out. Fan sounds even worse. So I go back in and find out part of the fan had melted slightly. I shaved it down, no harm down. The fan now seems to run perfectly, but then it would randomly turn off whenever it felt like it, as short as a minute and as long as an hour. I assumed there was an issue with the heatsink, but the solder is firm on the CPU and the heatsink was in place. So I foolishly tried to recover my laptop and restored my factory settings. The computer had of its acclaimed moments and switched off, leaving me with no Operating System. I've tried to restore it eight times now and at 75%, it switches off, every single time.

What I would request is, could someone please tell me why my computer could be switching off and other methods of restoring windows.

It is worth noting that there is a screw missing from the laptop's motherboard prior to me opening it and one screw missing from what I believe is a secondary heatsink. I also discovered that the button board for the power and adjacent buttons was broken and the tip. Whether or not those are relevant, I don't know. I also don't have a working disk drive, so I can't restore windows by disk.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help.
 
Solution
The missing screws might be a problem. If they were just left out at the factory that's one issue. The one on the secondary heat sink might cause it not to seat properly. But if they vibrated loose and are still in the case somewhere they could be shorting something out. Shake it and if you hear them rattle try to seek if you can somehow shake them out of the case. If you don't hear them rattle it's time for a complete disassembly. You may find them if they vibrated loose or not, if they were left out at the factory.

Whatever caused it you generated enough heat to melt that part of the fan you described so that is the basic problem that needs correcting. That could have been caused by one of the loose screws getting stuck in the fan...

thx1138v2

Distinguished
Jun 18, 2011
74
1
18,610
The missing screws might be a problem. If they were just left out at the factory that's one issue. The one on the secondary heat sink might cause it not to seat properly. But if they vibrated loose and are still in the case somewhere they could be shorting something out. Shake it and if you hear them rattle try to seek if you can somehow shake them out of the case. If you don't hear them rattle it's time for a complete disassembly. You may find them if they vibrated loose or not, if they were left out at the factory.

Whatever caused it you generated enough heat to melt that part of the fan you described so that is the basic problem that needs correcting. That could have been caused by one of the loose screws getting stuck in the fan which might also account for the noise. Also consider that you may have toasted the processor and/or whatever that secondary heatsink was protecting. Heat begets more heat. It's called a run away condition and can do permanent damage.

Most definitely replace the damaged fan.

If you can get all of that resolved try to restore again. If that doesn't work it's time for a disk drive or USB drive to load the OS.
 
Solution

Callan Page

Estimable
Apr 6, 2014
2
0
4,510
Would a cooling tray for my laptop work at all? My main concern is that it switches off at 75% every time, like a kill screen almost. It will last for hours doing a diagnostic repair, but cannot get past the dreaded 75 in restore. Is that normal? Also, there are no rogue screws that I can find, so that doesn't appear to be the issue. Any more advice? Thank you again, you've been a great help thus far.

Oh and I believe the tip of the fan blade melted because of the amount of dust built up inside, because the air was barely making it out from the fan.