sony vaio: a bit dissapointed

[VBmim]

Hello all,

I have bought myself a sony vaio in june 2010 and I am quite dissapointed. The battery seamed to discharge when the laptop was off, checked with sony and there was nothing they can do, it is a known issue and they don't fix it. 2 persons in my environment had exactly the same problem, so I am not the only one.

Right at the beginning it seamed to make a lot of noise, the fans were working overtime while only surfing the net. The real problems only began when I randomly started to get blue screens. When I could not find the cause myself I brought it to the store for repair. (Not a sony store by the way)I got called today, they wont/can't repair the thing. They will though give me a voucher for the same amount as the initial cost. I am thrilled at the service this store is giving me, but I am left with a dilemma. Should I go with sony again or not? I was always pleased with other sony products (tv, playstation, old 25 year old radio tuner which dad replacedwith newer equipment, camera). So did I hit a one time bad luck, or are there more structural problems with their laptop section.


What are your experiences with sony laptops? Mine was a vpc-f11s1e
Thanks for sharing

Kind greetings
LaptopMim

 

[rclarke250]

Not really the place to ask, as most here are techs, and see a lot of broken ones, and that can skew the view point on a brand. It would be better to ask about a certain model of the brand, if you had one in mind. The reason I say this, is because, there may be a problem with a certain motherboard, or chip, and that will make the brand look bad overall, but the other models that don't have the problem are fine. There are only about 6 manufactures in China that make motherboards for laptops, so no matter what name is on the outside, a Dell, or Sony, or HP can be from the same fab plant in China. That is not to say they are the same, just that the components and manufacturing facility is. For this reason I look for reviews, and forums taking about issues about a particular model before I spend my money. But to be honest I could care less what the name on the outside is, I care more about how well it works, and if it has the options I am looking for.

 

[BionicJohn]

We're on our third Sony Vaio.

The first was destroyed by son pouring hot sweet tea all over it and our insurance claim was accepted; the second melted the graphics processor after my son's ID card somehow found its way in there and the insurance claim was rejected and we don't let him touch the third.

I can't say we've ever had any battery concerns with Sonys - in my view they're just average.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[VBmim]

Hi,

Thanks for your responses.

The battery was not that big of an issue, rather an annoyance. The only thing you had to do was to take the battery out if you wanted it to last longer when the laptop was off...

The other issues though make me afraid of buying a vaio again. I never got the noise level down to an acceptable level. I even bought a laptop-stand with mounted-in cooling fan but it did not make much difference. Now the laptop is broken beyond repair (the store will not investigate it any longer) and I wonder if there is a relation between those things. I am very happy that I can just pick another (new!) laptop from that store, but I probably lost some data along the way (making a repair disc failed twice). I do not want this history to repeat itself .

The reason why I ask it in a tech forum is exactly because there are a lot of tech people around, which can make the difference between wrong use of laptop/software issues and actual hardware issues. I have to admit that I did not find a lot of posts which are negative for vaio, so this is why I ask specifically for your experiences.

Thanks for your input.

Kind greetings,

Mim

 

[tlcscousin]

You get lemons on almost any brand laptop or for that matter desktops as well. My personal choice is to stay away from Sony or Acer laptops. My first laptop was an Acer and the first 6 months it spent more time travelling back to acer than it did at home. They did eventually replace the mainboard and it is still running today 4 years later.
I know quite a few people with Sony laptops that are quite happy with them. I did have a Dell that i was given when the screen died after 4 years and replaced it and its still running.
So long story short buy the one you like that has the features you want.With almost every brand you will find some people who have had a bad experience.

 

[rclarke250]

Well, for me, the things I see the most, that are most likely not the fault of the user, are LCD displays going bad, and that is usually in the low cost models. The old adage, "you get what you pay for" holds true here. I own 4 laptops 2 Lenovo,1 Gateway, and an MSI barebones that I built out for a gaming laptop, That I am using to type this up on. None of those have had any hardware issues. I've owned Toshiba,Dell,HP,Acer,IBM,Compaq (pre HP/)And of those the only one I will not buy again is Acer. Because they don't stand behind the product they put out, and you have to fight for warranty repair that can take several months, and cost at least on my part, so I won't purchase any Acer product now, not just a laptop. Even though, they finally saw my side, and even sent me an upgraded unit, it was well past my point of "never again".

 

[Freestone]

If a company told me they knew about an issue and they (won't) can't fix it, I'd never trust buying another product from them. Fans working overtime surfing the net? Having to take a battery out to make it last? Why on earth would you even consider another product from the same maker? Product loyalty is one thing, subjecting oneself to inferior manufacturing and flawed engineering is another.

 

[xit]

If you know for a fact that a company will not honor its warranty, cross them off your list, period, then review the ones you are interested in. When you review remember that there are some people who will never be satisfied with a product, that said use your good judgement. Last but not least, to a point, you get what you pay for.

Just my opinion

xit

 

[JimInKS]

I am a Lenovo (IBM) fan. Rugged design and great keyboard. If long battery life isn't a requirement I like to buy refurb T-series like:

http://biz.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1734188&CatId=4936

If cost is no object buy a new one.