Sep 3, 2009

How to replace Sony Vaio FW Keyboard?

So you spilled your Soda in your keyboard when you’re snoozing?? or did one of your stupid friend tried to wipe your keyboard with water?? But before you have the comfort of knowing that you can replace your keyboard what you may want to do is flip the laptop upside down for all the liquid to drain out and once you feel that you have drained all the water out then save your work and shut down the computer and let it dry for couple of hours.

But, if you just fail to notice the fluid getting all inside your keyboard and if it’s too late then fear not as replacing keyboard is not a rocket science, and you don’t need to pay an extra $60 to show it to mechanics either.

(But before you do this I have to warn you that it will void your warranty, so do it on your own risk)

What I will be showing you here is replacing keyboard for Sony Vaio FW but in general all the process are same for any laptop keyboards(not considering the screw locations i.e)

So without further a do here’s the wonderful steps.

(Video is at the bottom if you don’t feel like reading the steps.)

1. I don’t think I need to tell you to shut down your PC to do this.

2. Plug out the A/C Charger and take out the battery.

3. Get a Jeweler’s screwdriver, something like this.

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4. Depending on the type of screw your laptop has select the proper tool and start unscrewing.

5. Now, I will talk specifically for Sony Vaio FW for the screw part that you should unscrew. On the sides of battery and one just below the battery sitting in the middle.

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6. After that unscrew the two screw that’s inside the battery compartment.

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7. Unscrewed?? Good, now it’s time to take off the speaker cover. It might need a force but be gentle. Use a knife if you have to, there are certain locks so apply pressure on the locks and not the end of speaker cover.

As shown in image below there should be a grid to let the cover pop out.

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8. After you have unlocked all the locks you should have something like this.

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9. Before you get excited and start taking out the component of the keyboard make sure you unscrew the screw that’s shown in the image. (Sorry for the quality of image but I only had cellphone when I did this but you should know where the screw is by now, well it’s not really a screw but when you flip the keyboard you should see the screw.

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10. Now take the keyboard out, once again it has certain locks on the side and the bottom.

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11. Now take the keyboard out, it should have a wire thing plugged in the keyboard. That’s the thing that connects your keyboard to laptop. The hardest thing is taking out and plugging it back in.

In Sony Vaio it is plugged in and taped by a yellow strip.

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12. Get your new keyboard and and stick it on the red marked like above in the image. (In other laptops there should be a some kind of latch or some form that attaches the strip to the connector.)

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13. Make sure that strip is plugged in real good if it comes out then you might have to do this again, which is kind of frustrating.

14. Don’t screw yet plug the keyboard and put your battery, make sure the keyboard works.

15. If it works then make sure you lock everything, and screw everything back to where it was and your new keyboard will be ready to be typed.

If you don’t want to read all this then check out the video I made for this. (Once again, I shot this from my cell phone so you will not find the best of quality in the video either)

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6 comments:

  1. hello from Greece! thank you for this video and article. I have a problem with the power hinge and maybe could use ur expertize.

    My laptop is a Vaio FW21e. The problem is that I had an accident -laptop fell from table!- and after the fall the 1st cylindre on the left is loose and unstable. The other one next to it (the one attached to the speaker cover)is intact. Luckily there's no problem in power charging but I'd like to unscrew the laptop, remove this part (if possible), evaluate the damage and act accordingly. I strongly believe it's not broken, just misplaced after the fall and want to put it back correctly.

    So, do you think this is possible? if yes, please please give some details about the procedure...

    Matina
    ps.my english is bad, sorry...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I know many people having the problem with the power hinge with the FW model. I had the same problem with myself, Sony should definitely workaround on this weak hinge.
    Like you said the hinge is definitely out of place and hence it tends to get loose.

    Before telling you to unscrew screws I would like to tell you that it will void your warranty if you do so, if you have a warranty on your laptop please call the Customer Care Center and they will be more than happy to help. In other case though if you do not have warranty then proceed to the steps below:
    1. Look at the back of your power hinge, you should see a screw there, what you would want to do is remove that plate that's blocking your power hinge to be in it's right place.
    2. You would probably have to unscrew lot of screws to get that plate off.
    3. Once you take the lower plate off you can now freely put the power hinge back to it's place.
    4. Screw everything back again.

    And that should fix your problem.If not please send a pic of your loose power hinge to see what kind of problem it really is.


    P.S don't worry about your english, I understood every word you said.

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi shriek! I did the 'surgery' just now. What I discovered is that there is (was...)a tiny metal piece connecting the cylinder with the rest of the plate and keeping it stable. Guess what: it is broken...! The fall was really bad I suppose, but I also noticed that it luckily doesnt affect any other parts on the inside... So the only thing left to do right now is send it back to sony and have it replaced.

    So, dear Shriek, thank you very much for your advice, honestly (along with the article) it was really helpful!

    Kind regards
    Matina

    ReplyDelete
  4. ya, like I said before Sony has to make that hinge stronger in their next FW model. You're not the only one who has had problem with that hinge. And was it really broken?? care to send a pic of that broken part?? oh well, Sony should fix that in no time since it's a minor adjustment.
    Anyway even though I wasn't much help, glad that you atleast know what the problem is now.
    Let me know if you get it fixed.

    - shriek

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  5. Hi Shriek
    I have the same problem that I broke the hinge part. Thank you so much for providing this clip. But I really want to ask everybody that how do you get the KB case to replace it. I check SONY and it cost $200 to buy a new one include service. Do you know where I can find it? Thank you so much

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  6. @Christopher Chen
    Usually ebay has the great deal, doesn't give you feel of the original Sony Vaio Laptop but does the trick!!

    -shriek

    ReplyDelete