[geeks] anyone know Vaios?

[Mouse]

I have a Sony VAIO (PCG-5G3L) for a laptop.  I got it because a friend
rescued it from someone's trash and ended up giving it to me.  (This is
why I'd use a Sony machine: I got it free.)  If anyone knows their
battery subsystem, or even somehow has a manual that explains, I'd be
interested.

The immediate problem has stopped happening, but I'd be interested in
any thoughts in case it comes back.  (This machine seems to be
developing more and more problems...I fear pretty soon I'm going to
have to just leave it on the shelf as a decently fast machine and find
some other machine for mobile use.)

It's been working fine for quite a while (months, a year, maybe more).
Then, a while back, it lost the right front foot, and very shortly
after that, the onboard Ethernet got flaky - it would sometimes provoke
"watchdog timeout" messages from the kernel; sometimes the whole
machine would wedge and/or just slow way down.  (I suspect an interrupt
storm issue.)  I think this is likely physical damage to the board,
because twisting the case properly would usually make the Ethernet stop
misbehaving.

Today, it wouldn't even power on.  Normally, when it's off, all the
lights are dark; pressing the power button turns on the power light
(and, if on battery, the battery light), then it does its power-up
routine.  This time the lights came on, but as soon as I released the
power button they went back off again, and it didn't boot.  By removing
the battery and pressing the power button, then replacing the battery,
I got it to power up and boot.  But the battery light is exhibiting new
behaviour.  Normally it is on solid when running on battery, off when
on AC with a full or nearly full battery, and flashing in a particular
pattern when charging (something like 100ms on, 100ms off, 100ms on,
500ms off, repeat - the exact times may be wrong, but the idea is
"flash twice, pause, repeat").  Now, it's flashing constantly (roughly
speaking: 100ms on, 100ms off, repeat).  Removing the battery (while
it's on AC, of course) doesn't disrupt operation, but does cause the
battery light to go off; replacing it goes back to the steady flashing.
Telling it to power down ("halt -p", which, same as always, causes it
to shut down and turn itself off) puts it back in the state from which
it refuses to power on.

I pulled the battery to have a look at it, but it's held together with
tri-wing screws and the smallest tri-wing bit I have is too large.  But
when I put it back in the machine, it went into its usual "I'm
charging" light pattern, not the broken one.  So for the moment it
seems OK, but I don't trust it to stay OK. :/

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