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.

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ348E Repair

I convinced a coworker that repairing their Sony VAIO VGN-FZ348E with a distorted display instead of throwing it away was a better use of their money. When I saw the display, it displayed the typical symptoms of notebook computer whose video processor has been partially detached from the motherboard due to overheating.

Sure enough, when I got into the machine, the heatsink was caked in dust.

Asus U46E-BAL5 WLAN Upgrade

Updating the Asus U46E-BAL5 miniPCIe WLAN card was more straightfoward, but the actual process of physically replacing the WLAN card is DIFFICULT. The miniPCIe slot is on the top side of the Asus U36E-BAL5 under the top case (keyboard) and to get to it, you have to remove ALL the screws from the underside.

Asus K55A WLAN Upgrade

Upgrading the Asus K55A notebook computer WLAN was a frustrating process. I went through 3 different miniPCIe WLAN cards before finally settling on the Intel 7260.HMWWB.R 802.11ac/n/b/g + Bluetooth 4.0 here from embeddedworks.net. Something to note is that the Asus Wireless Switch (Wireless Console3) Utility DOES NOT and will not display the bluetooth icon regardless of whether or not a working bluetooth adapter is installed in the notebook computer.

Asus U46E-BAL5 Repair

I received an Asus U46E-BAL5 from a friend because the hinge mount on the LCD case was damaged due to the LCD screen being closed over a pen or pencil. The computer worked for a few weeks but eventually it stopped working. I advised purchasing a replacement LCD cover from ebay.com here or search. It's expensive at $175, but it's because the cover is made of aluminum. However, the hinge mounts inside the LCD are plastic and break very easily. I would suggest that additional epoxy be placed over the plastic closest to the LCD hinge mounts.

After getting the notebook computer together, it still didn't turn on, so I'm thinking something shorted the motherboard. I've ordered a replacement motherboard part here or search. At the moment, I've got the Asus U46E put back together with the replacement LCD cover, but it's not working yet. More to come as I get parts.

HP Pavilion dv8125nr Upgrade

Enter the HP Pavilion dv8125nr. It's a 17 inch notebook computer from the post desktop processor notebook computers era. It has a single core 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 processor at 35 watts. Standard configuration is 512 MB (2x 256MB) memory with 2x 80GB HDDs. The fact that this particular computer can support 2 PATA HDDs is particularly exciting! I got this particular notebook computer from a coworker and I'm performing the standard upgrades (processor, memory, and SSD).

Another interesting aspect of this notebook is that it supports both the 32 bit PCMCIA slot (on the left) and the 64 bit ExpressCard slot (on the right). In theory, this is a 64 bit computer because the 1.8 GHz AMD Turion 64 Mobile ML-32 is a 64 bit processor. However, due to the 32 bit PCMCIA slot, it's best to leave the the operating system at 32 bits otherwise, the drivers won't work.

Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB Upgrade

When Sony sold off its VAIO computer division, I picked up a Sony VAIO Tap 11 SVT11213CXB on the cheap from Best Buy. The default configuration of the SVT11213CXB is a Pentium 3560Y, 4GB memory, and 128GB SSD. While the 128GB SSD is just enough to get by, it really is too small. I personally recommend at least a 240-256GB SSD. It's the bare minimum so that you can install software and have space for personal files. A 128GB disk is only enough for software and requires constant management to make sure you're not filling up the disk.

That said, I decided to go BIG and put in a Samsung EVO 840 500GB SSD into the Sony VAIO Tap 11. I followed the Sony published teardown video of the Sony VAIO Tap 11 and it's definitely more precarious than the video makes it out to be.

See the Sony VAIO Tap 11 teardown here on blog.sony.com.