Home
This guide will help you take apart a Sony Vaio Z1 series notebook. In this notebook all so-called user replaceable parts such as memory module, hard drive, DVD drive, etc… are hidden under the top cover making them hard to access or even find.
For cleaning the cooling fan and heat sink or replacing the memory module, all you have to do is remove the keyboard. You don’t have to disconnect the keyboard from the motherboard, simply lift it up and place upside down on the palm rest. The keyboard is secured to the notebook base by two screws marked “D” on the picture 1. You should be able to lift up the keyboard after you remove these two screws.
You can clean the cooling module with compressed air. There is only one memory expansion slot in this model and it will take a memory module up to 512MB (DDR226/PC2100).
If you want to replace the hard drive, CR-RW/DVD-ROM drive or wireless card, you’ll have to remove the top cover as it shown on the picture 7.
Static electricity can kill your laptop. I recommend wearing an anti-static wrist strap while working with internal parts of your laptop.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
December 11th, 2008 at 7:45 am
How do you replace the ac connector on the this sony vaio z1 series
December 11th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Mario,
I believe the power jack for a Sony Vaio PCG-Z1 comes with the cable already attached to the jack.
Take a look at this picture.
It means you don’t have to do soldering job. Simply unplug the old power jack harness from the motherboard and replace it with a new one.
In order to access the power jack harness you’ll have to remove the laptop cover.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:18 am
I just replaced the mother board on Sony VAIO PCG-Z1VAP. The BIOS is prompting for a password. I bought this off EBay.
I tried some default passwords found on the Net and I have also removed the hard drive cable to no avail.
Is there a way to clear this password?
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:44 pm
sure there is ie: i presume it is asking for the password in the bios
remove the onboard battery for 10 minutes & then put it back in its place the system will reset & it should stopasking for the password
June 15th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
the integrated video card in this laptop sucks. it gets a 1.0 rating with windows, and lags when i play chess. it’s impossible to watch a dvd, too. my question is how do i fix this aboue a 16 mb? is there any way at all?
June 24th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Tokellin,
Do you have correct video driver installed? Maybe you are using default driver? Try updating the video driver.
July 5th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
no, my problem was that i had windows 7 on the laptop. it does not support it in any way.
basically the only thing that works on this laptop, with windows 7, is the ram. even my wifi card wasnt compatible. thank you Laptop Tech for your help.
July 21st, 2009 at 10:26 pm
hi… i finally got everything unscrewed, taken apart and was able to install a new hard drive. now i’m getting an error “MBR error 1 (and 2) Press any key yo boot from floppy” . i have no idea what this means or how to fix it. any suggestions?
July 27th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
chico,
Did you reinstall original factory software from the recovery disc after replacing the hard drive. I guess you are getting the error message because there is no software on the hard drive.
August 13th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Hi I was wondering which harddrive is compatible for the Z1WAMP1 since i bought one and it didn’t fit….thanks!
August 20th, 2009 at 4:02 am
regarding the bios password, does taking out the onboard battery really work?
August 20th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
mike,
It did work on some older laptops. Will not work on newer models.
October 4th, 2009 at 3:49 am
can the screen be changed for a newer one?