Sony Vaio VPCW21FX Keyboard Replacement

Written By: Rebecca

Comments: 4

Difficulty

Difficult

Steps

Time Required

45 minutes - 1 hour

Introduction

If you can not use your keyboard to type or it is not responsive to you typing, you might need to replace it. This guide will show you step by step how to do so.

Tools

Phillips #0 Screwdriver

Step 1

Make sure your device is powered off and unplugged to avoid electric shock.
Place your device upside down with the bottom panel facing upwards.
Orient the device so the battery is away from you as shown

Step 2

Unlock the battery by sliding the lock switch to the right.
Locate the release latch. Slide the latch to the left to remove the battery from your laptop.
Be sure to lift up on the battery while you slide the latch to the left.

Step 4

Place the laptop upside down with the bottom panel facing upwards.
Locate the screw that holds the small panel covering your laptop's Ram. This panel should be in the dead center of your laptop.
Unscrew the screw and remove the panel.

Step 5

Before you move away from where your RAM is located, be sure to unplug the wire labeled To MB. If you do not unplug this, the back panel you are trying to remove will not come off.

How to unplug this? Do you just pull it up because mine wont budge

Miyu Saije - 06/09/19

The sliver part is actually a small tab use a spuger to pry the tab away from the locked position while pulling up on the black tab. Expect to use medium force

Tyler Williams -

Thanks, Tyler. Can you explain that in a little more detail? Not really getting it. Scared I'm going to break something, but need to fathom this step.

Robin Watson -

This has to be one of the most useful comments I've found online in several years! I've been trying to dedust my fanny VAIO for a couple of years, but have always been stumped as to why the bottom won't budge with all the screws removed! THANK YOU!!

Robin Watson -

Step 6

Next, locate the panel covering your laptop's hard drive. This panel should be located on the lower right hand side of your laptop.
Unscrew the cover on the hard drive.
Remove the hard drive cover.

Step 7

Remove screws.
Remove screws and remove panel.

Step 8

Remove the hard drive by gently pressing down on it and sliding it to the right.
Remember to have a clean work space to place the parts you take off your laptop. It'd be embarrassing to forget to reassemble a part or have a screw or two left over.

Step 9

Remove the screws holding the rest of the outside panel down.
Gently lift the panel up to remove it once all the screws have been removed.

Step 10

Once the back panel has been removed, set the rest of your laptop to the side and place the panel you just removed in front of you.
Locate the headphone jack, which will be in the top right hand corner of the panel. The headphone jack board is a bright green, you can't miss it.

Step 11

Remove the screws holding the headphone jack board down.

Step 12

Gently pull the board to remove it.

Step 13

Remove CD drive by gently sliding it to the left.

Step 14

Remove screws.
Slide the small silver panel to the right to expose the wire underneath.
Gently pull on the small green board where the wire is connected to disconnect it.

Step 15

Remove wires.
Remember to move the wires away from the motherboard after disconnecting them. This will avoid them getting caught when you try to lift the motherboard.

Step 16

Remove these two screws near the fan.
Disconnect the two wires connecting the motherboard to the charging port, these are located above the space where your CD drive was.
If you do not disconnect these two wires you won't be able to lift the motherboard up to disconnect the keyboard.

Step 17

Lift up the motherboard.
Gently disconnect the large green wire underneath the motherboard that is connected to the keyboard.
The wire that is connected to the keyboard is thick and may take a little effort to unplug.