Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB Motherboard Upgrade

Ok, I confess, when I bought the Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB, I did it with the hidden agenda that I would upgrade the puny Intel Pentium 3560Y 1.2GHz processor to the Intel Core i7-4610Y 1.7GHz processor. I figured this would be possible because I saw the Sony VAIO Tap 11 teardown here on blog.sony.com.

Cost breakdown:

• Best Buy - $688.98 (with tax)
• Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB - $599.99
• SanDisk 64GB SDXC card - $49.99
• ebay.com
• Sony Laptop Motherboard 8GB w/ Intel i7-4610Y 1.7Ghz CPU A2040179A - $386.65

Total: $1075.63. That's not terrible. A couple of hundred dollars cheaper than getting the Core i7 version new.

I initially thought I'd be trying to find the actual Intel Core i7-4610Y BGA processor and get someone to BGA rework it on there, but would you believe that I actually found the motherboard here or search on ebay.com? Search for Intel i7-4610Y and the Sony VAIO Tap 11 motherboard pops up here and there. Good luck, if you're so inclined.

First things first, when I swapped out the motherboard, the system did NOT POWER ON. Yikes. I pulled out the motherboard and reattached all the cables probably 3 times and then ended replacing the original with no luck getting the system to power up. For some reason, I remembered that there was a reset button somewhere on the system and for those who stumble on this blog page freaking out because your system won't power up, here's what you do.

• Find the reset button (it's on the top edge to the left of the SD card slot).
• Plug the AC adapter into the Sony VAIO Tap 11.
• Get a paper clip or something that'll fit into the reset slot, and press and hold it down until the battery light to the right flashes. That'll let you know that the system is getting power and you should be able to power up the system now.

Now that that's out of the way, onward to actually pulling the system apart and swapping out the motherboard.

I pulled the Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB previously when I replaced the original SSD. Follow the same instructions here.

Remove the 5 screws from under the covers.

Then gently pry the glass away from the plastic housing using a nylon spudger. The metal pry tools feel way to stiff and it feels like it might crack the glass, so be careful.

Now that you're inside the system, remove the mSATA SSD and the M.2 WLAN card. It's annoying that Sony put in a M.2 WLAN card and an mSATA SSD. A more modern M.2 SSD would have been WAY cooler. COM'ON SONY!

Remove the ribbon connecting the motherboard to the peripheral card, and remove all the cables connected to the motherboard.

Remove the screws holding down the motherboard. Becareful to find them all. Som of them are behind tape and the black shielding tape.

Below is a picture of the new motherboard with 8GB memory and the Intel Core i7-4610Y (top) and the original motherboard with 4GB memory and the Intel Pentium 3560Y (botton).

Heatsink and fan assembly removed from the original Intel Pentium 3560Y. Becareful with the heatsink because the heatpipe is really thin and pliable. It will bend if you're too aggressive.

Move the yellow shielding tape over to the new Intel Core i7-4610Y motherboard. Clean off the stock thermal compound and apply higher quality thermal compound, such as Arctic Silver 5.

Reattach the heatsink and fan assembly and DON'T FORGET to PLUG IN THE FAN! On a couple of occasions, I have forgotten to plug in the fan. Oops.

Move over the black connector and the rear facing camera.

Reattach the motherboard and follow the procedure above to power up the system and and you're ready to go!

In the middle of the night while failing to get the system to power up correctly, I noticed the barcode was prefixed with FCKR and though it was funny. It was as if Sony put a little note in the Sony VAIO Tap 11 for people that wanted to pull the system apart to mod it, like me.

HEY, SONY! That's not nice.

If you've made it to the end, check it out. the VAIO is coming back to the US and the first available product is the VAIO Z Canvas. It's the Sony VAIO Tap 11!

Anyways, as some point all the VAIO's should be on their way back. Check out the Japanese page here at vaio.com. The VAIO Z still lives. Awesome.