I was updating my album artwork on my ipod through itunes. I have 8000 albums, so it takes quite a while to go through this process. I checked the computer around 9:30 pm, after it had been running fine, continously through this process since 1:00 AM that morning. To my horror, after I turned on the monitor, the screen read “no signal” then shortly after went in to standby mode. The fans were running, and the unit had power, but the cpu, nor the hard drive lights even flickered for the next 10-15 minutes. I tried to wake up the unit, restart, etc. I turned the computer off, disconnected my three external hard drives, and tried restarting several times, with the same result. The Hard drive light comes on immediately, then turns off, the cpu light flashes on then off, and then nothing but the fans, with no visual signal to the monitor. I chatted with Sony support, and was sent a generic troubleshooting link, which I tried and it obviously did not work. Really, I was basically told to “send the unit in”. I googled “Sony” and “will not boot up”, and found that other Sony’s have similiar issues, but no one issue seems to be exactly the same. I removed the three 512 DDR RAM sticks in diff. configurations, and tried booting through diff. slot combinations, as someone had a poor solder in a memory slot and removing the stick solved their issue. I used a voltage meter to check my motherboard battery, and it read 2.9XXXXV, very close to the 3V stamped on the battery, so I doubt that is the issue. I am going to take the unit into work and dissamble everything using the proper equipment and grounding strap, and inspect the motherboard and wiring. If I cannot solve the issue at that time, I believe that I am going to take it in to the geek squad, and let them deal with it, as I do not have a ton of time to devote to an old outdated computer that is completely stock, with no upgrades, and gave me 5 good years of service. Aside from the obvious answer, that is: purchasing a new computer, or finishing the one I am building, does anyone have any experience with these issues on a Sony, or any bright ideas? Thank you~
