Hi, reaching out for help on a Sony Vaio svs13a1 laptop.

Third gen I5 CPU with 12gb ram, crucial SSD
Separate graphic card plus built in Intel graphics (switchable)

More and more often I'm not getting the Vaio logo at startup.
 This I think indicates POST success.
So only about 1 in 8 times does it get this far.
Rest of the time it just runs the fan and sits with a blank screen and backlit keyboard.

Laptop is old, and done a lot of hours, but I love it and want to keep it going.

Tried removing the removable Ram. Worked first time I did this, but not the second.
Can't remove original 4gb.
Wondering if my next move is the CMOS battery?
Or perhaps lose cable somewhere?

Any ideas please?

An old dog might have hardware problems, motheboard probably. You can test ram with memtest software (boot cd) but ram problems normally produce beeping sounds. Try with entering bios (if you can) and load the defaut values. If you can't ENTER the bios...well, sometimes you must let go your precious ONES (joking)If I were you, I would be taking the laptop apart piece by piece. I had an older Windows 7 laptop that I too LIKED, but it was not posting at all. After I completely disassembled the laptop, literally completely, I cleaned the motherboard with some isopropyl alcohol all over, cleaned the USB ports, cleaned the keyboard, etc. you get the idea. I ALSO did replace the CMOS battery, as well as upgrading to an SSD drive. I really did not think it was going to work, but I had hope considering that after cleaning the board, there was visible brown discoloration on the cloth I wiped it with (came from a smoker). Also added some new RAM, but in your case, this does not sound like an option. It booted up just fine, I installed Windows 10 on it and I still have it.

Since it sounds like you don't have much to lose, I would recommend cleaning it up really well. Don't forget to regrease the CPU when you are in there!

Best of Luck,
Anthony