Your Sony laptop overheats and shuts down? Apparently it’s time to take it apart for cleaning. Thank you to this site for illustrated laptop cleaning instructions.

A brief search of the internet revealed that the main shortcoming of the VAIO series of laptops is the lack of cooling capacity. Apparently the overall design of the system is barely sufficient, which is exacerbated by some real design problems. For example, the intake is located on the bottom, which is frequently sitting directly on your leg if you (ironically) hold the laptop in your lap. In addition, the ductwork and heat sinks are easily clogged with dust, which severely limits their efficiency. At the very minimum, this leads to very noisy fan levels, ultimately resulting in spontaneous shutdowns as the internal temperatures begin to exceed critical levels.

Removing dust from the cooling module (heat sink and cooling fan) will take care of the overheating problem. Also, replacing old and dried out thermal compound with new thermal compound will be a good idea too.
This guide was created for a Sony Vaio PCG-GRT260G laptop.

Models affected apparently also include the PCG-FX, PCG-GR, PCG-GRZ, PCG-GRV, PCG-GRX, and PCG-NV series. However, these models may have slightly different layouts than the one outlined in the guide.

If your Sony Vaio laptop looks different and you cannot take it apart, laptop service manuals will be very useful.