My Experience With A Sony Laptop

[83hurstguy]

soo... I have a Sony Vaio V505 laptop that is 18 months old, which cost around $1600 new. It has been nothing but a complete pile of sh*t the last 6 months... coincidentally, the warranty period ended, oh... 6 months ago.

First the CD-rom drive failed last March. I fought with Sony and managed to get them to warranty it.

It comes back, and 3 weeks later, the LCD screen is cracking, most likely from shipping it to and from warranty Call Sony... its "my own fault" for neglect and I can get it fixed for some astronomical amount of money ($6-700 range).

I lived with the cracked LCD even though it is spreading across the whole screen... come two weeks ago, the backlight on the LCD takes a sh*t. I decide I will bite the bullet and buy a used LCD for $200 on Ebay.... but the next morning, the computer won't power on!!!! It won't charge the battery, or do anything with the battery in/out or the AC adapter plugged in.

I call Sony for the THIRD problem in 6 months and am told "tough luck, minimum service charge is $250". They even wanted to charge me by the minute for any kind of support!

So basically, I spent $1600 for a "state of the art" Sony Vaio laptop that lasted 18 months and now requires another $1500 in repair work according to Sony. I am an engineering student... and take EXCELLENT care of this thing... has its own special case for traveling, and has never once been dropped, kicked, or stepped on.

So now I gotta cough up money for parts to fix this thing, which even doing by myself is not gonna be cheap. Thanks to Sony for the valuable life lesson.... hopefully you all have benefitted from hearing my experience.

 

[Quiky One]

Wow great customer support. I'm looking at laptops now and will steer clear of Sony.

Jason

 

[83hurstguy]

Wow great customer support. I'm looking at laptops now and will steer clear of Sony.

Jason

my brother is having a great experience with his new Toshiba that's 2 months old now (with core-duo Intel)... he got it for a great deal at Circuit City, think it was like $1300 with a 3 year warranty. Watched for it to go on sale... good luck in buying one.

 

[SS_Sean]

I guess the zips can't make products any better than us, huh? FWIW I've had a HP Pavilion desktop computer running for 24/7 for six years now, and it still keeps going. I've also heard the HP laptops are second to none. You pay a little more, but it's supposed to be well worth the money. My Dell Latitude D810 laptop is a year old an is holding it's own well. Dell's customer service is sh!t, though.

 

[DAVID S.]

Same power issue with my Sony.

 

[no-nos]

dave, ,play with power cord bending etc, or mine-i have to pull it almost all the way out slowly till i see the power symbol come on.

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

i heard that sony had battery issues... you might wanna do a search... i thought they might be involved in a lawsuit.... that might be your problem

 

[simple]

dude, get a dell!!
you can pick up Dell laptop fully loaded for cheap. especially with all the instant savings/rebates there are floating around for them. (the more you spend on a dell, the more you can save)

i'm extremely happy with my Inspiron e1505

a few places had recalls on the lithium batteries. you can find a website that has serial numbers and see if your batery # is one of the bad ones. free replacemnt if so

 

[83hurstguy]

i heard that sony had battery issues... you might wanna do a search... i thought they might be involved in a lawsuit.... that might be your problem

yeah, I looked into that, my computer's battery packs are not listed as any of the "potential problem solvers"

I don't think its the power cord... as the battery was in it (and working fine with a full charge) a few hours before it died. Won't turn on with either AC power or battery pack power....

Thanks guys

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

yeah, I looked into that, my computer's battery packs are not listed as any of the "potential problem solvers"

I don't think its the power cord... as the battery was in it (and working fine with a full charge) a few hours before it died. Won't turn on with either AC power or battery pack power....

Thanks guys

I had a problem similar with a Compaq Evo... turned out that my harddrive failed.... new harddrive and reinstall OS and its fine. Alot of companies use IBM travelstar hd's which ive heard are problematic... maybe that'll fix it. Borrow or switch to a known good one and see if it at leasts tries to boot up... simple fix

 

[XxDarkSidexX]

so what are you going to do with the laptop?

 

[83hurstguy]

so is the sony for sale?

um... not yet... even if it was, I'd not really get any money for it...

trying to find out whats wrong with it right now and maybe fix it... have a couple friends that are comp engs....

 

[XxDarkSidexX]

yea im sure it can be fixed, many friends of mine are comp. eng. They said it should be able to get fixed.

 

[83hurstguy]

yeah... did they have any ideas where to start?

 

[Vendor Defendor]

I want a Panasonic Toughbook:

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webap...68952&catGroupId=12871&surfModel=Toughbook-18

Too bad they are too damn expensive (like $4500) D'oh

 

[GNandGS]

I'll second the Dell for price vs perf. Ditto on warranty!

See even if the lappy SUCKED if you pony up for the "drop kick" warranty you will eventually get satisfaction. I say "if" because Ive been quite happy having used a few in the last couple of years.

I DO wish my E1705 vid card ran cooler but its no diff than any other at this level (7800).

None of that helps you but this might (too late?)... some manufacturers offer ways to extend or upgrade your warranties - even after expiration. Also, if you paid with a CC, it MAY have doubled your manu warranty CHECK INTO THAT!

 

[83hurstguy]

None of that helps you but this might (too late?)... some manufacturers offer ways to extend or upgrade your warranties - even after expiration. Also, if you paid with a CC, it MAY have doubled your manu warranty CHECK INTO THAT!

unfortunately, sony does not do that... due to the fact it might be helpful to consumers.... thanks though.

 

[BASS]

Yeah, even though Sony products have the best features, they always have alot of bugs.... The Toshiba laptops are the best, I never had any problems with any of the Toshibas ive owned.... :smile: