topic Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops? in PCs & Accessories

Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

parantha — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 21:53:33 GMT

having had a reliable Toshiba for 3 years I bought a new Vaio about 4 months ago for all the good reasons people buy them for.

But 4 weeks ago the motherboard on it died and had to be replaced - and then a week ago my hard disk died! I am just waiting for the next problem to appear now....having paid so much for my sony I now regret it.

But have other users also experienced similar problems and do they keep continuing? (when I spoke to sony - they refused to give me statistics - I have a Sony VGN-S1HP)

Since I have never had any of these problems before with any laptop I have had - I am wondering if I should just go and buy another toshiba as a reliable back up.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

kee-lo_ — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 22:08:25 GMT

Well just reading a few topics here will bring up some horror stories, but not all VAIOs are bad, it's just people who have problems who post here mainly, few happy customers post, the best place to see them is "buy a new VAIO" section.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

GBS — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 23:22:15 GMT

Remember - only the bad stories are told.
Thankfully I have not had the problems some others have had. I love Sony. I love my laptop, and I love what it does for me with absolute ease - video, music, DVD, etc -and it looks good doing it....

Hope you get your problems sorted soon. Nothing undermines confidence more quickly than several unrelated problems.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

inectarios — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 00:51:25 GMT

I've had my VAIO for 5 months and i haven't had any problems with it. I'm actually quite impressed with some of its features including the Windows XP they give it with which seems to be much more reliable than any other XP version i've had on my desktop.

Anyways..my VAIO is not perfect.. i've found a few things that dissappointed me since i paid like £1600 for it but it still does what it's supposed to do and does it pretty well to be honest..

I think your situation my friend is it's just pure bad luck..
I believe, the best thing you should do is demand a new laptop rather than getting the the faulty one fixed everytime.

Btw..i do know a few similar stories of other branded laptops but nobody talks about them - the thing with these VAIO stories is that everybody is expecting something MORE from a VAIO...because of the price and the brand name).

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

parantha — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 09:17:34 GMT

Firstly - thanks for a ll the responses.

I guess that I did expect much more from a sony reliability wise than I would normally expect from a normal cheaper computer -and thats why I am so frustrated. I did actully ring them up and suggest they replace the computer after the hard disk went down - just so that I would have confidence in using it but sony declined.....however I thought that should be the least they could do.....

but apart from these problems - I must admit I am pretty happy with the form factor/ screen quality and facilities that the vaio provides.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

TygerTyger — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 11:15:27 GMT

Did you send the motherboard off to be replaced, and then get the computer back, and then send it off again for the hard disk to be replaced? If so you may actually have a case for a replacement computer. Sony will decline, obviously lol they are notoriously tight but then any other company would do the same. I've been reading up on this for reasons I won't go into, and under UK law at least if your computer is dodgy then you have to give the company the opportunity to repair it. However if they fail to do so, or if more problems crop up afterwards then the inconvenience and poor quality would in most cases qualify you for a replacement, although you would have to strongly argue your case etc etc.
Get onto your trading standards or advice office or whatever it is you have and discuss it with them if you really want to take it further. You actually have a good deal more rights than you might think.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

kee-lo_ — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 20:25:31 GMT

I guess that I did expect much more from a sony  reliability wise than I would normally expect from a normal cheaper computer -and thats why I am so frustrated

This is one of the reasons I went to VAIO, a friend had one and his was working flawlessly, so I got my GRX, and thank god, it's been a great machine, same can be said for the RA104, though it's pricetag was higher than it's worth, but thats my opinion.

Thank god I've had no trouble with my VAIOs, would hate to have any issues, as they don't seem to be that involved with fixing stuff, but thats my opinion of the service based on day-in-day-out posts of complaints, but as GBS said, we rarely see happy punters, it's mainly people with problems.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

Eugenepang — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 01:33:04 GMT

i had my first vaio pcg-x18 5yrs ago and today its still kicking... well the hdd had some bad cluster, the original pcmcia modem card is gone..the battery is long gone (using ac only for 2 yrs) apart from that its still very good.. i still remember once i forgot to closed my windows and it was raining heavly and water been pouring into the docking station.. after wiping and blowing it with hair dryer its still working fine..

and because of that after 5 yrs the only laptop i wanted is vaio.. and i did get 1 a317s last month.. and it great !.. (touch wood) its quieter than my x18 and bigger screen ofcourse hehhee

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

seb21__ — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 02:24:31 GMT

well the hdd had some bad cluster

I don't wath is with Win98 but in WinXP you must use CHDSK.
It surched defect cluster and deleted lost Files.

I don't know how you can fix this in Win98.

I would make a backup of the Data, and after this reformating the harddisc. That fix this problem.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

Eugenepang — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 07:17:31 GMT

the bad cluster had been there for about 2 years lol, learn my lesson dont carry n baging your laptop without properly shutdown first.. thats what cost it.. can it be fix? i tot it was a physical damage on the hdd?..

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

parantha — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 08:40:23 GMT

yes- that has exactly what happened (it was with sony twice last month for different reasons). thanks for the tip - I will contact them and see what happens...

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

seb21__ — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 09:30:23 GMT

the bad cluster had been there for about 2 years lol, learn my lesson dont carry n baging your laptop without properly shutdown first.. thats what cost it.. can it be fix? i tot it was a physical damage on the hdd?..

No, a damaged cluster is not a physical damage.

You must reformating HDD complete, that is all.
But for this you need a bootable Partition or Formating Software.

You must overwrite you HHD comlpete and after this, formatind the HDD with Fat32 or Fat16 [Fat32 is good for a big HDD(max.32GB with WinXP and 2TB with Win98), Fat16 is faster (max.4GB in WinXP)].
NTSF5, you can only use with WinXP and Win2000(NTFS4 with WinNT)

I use Acronis Partion Expert 2003 , the download is a freeware licence.

Yes it's in german but it's easy to use.

1. start the installer packeg
2. click Weiter
3. Annehmen, Weiter
4. Weiter
5. Weiter
6. Weiter (LOL)
7. Fertigstellen
8. Now Partition Expert2003 is installed

here you can see a new Window:

there is a Piont : Ja, ich möchte die bootfähigen Notfallmedien jetzt erstellen.

You must activate this. Now you must insert a CD-R in your Drive and then click "Weiter".

Now Acronis burned a bootable CD. After this click Fertigstellen. Is the CD burned, you can deinstall this Software it's useless. You need only the Bootable CD.

Now you must boot from this CD.
Here can see a new Window.

1. rightclick on the HDD
2. Löschen
3. Partition löschen und Daten vernichten.
4. Weiter

5. Partition erstellen
6. Unzugeordneten Festplattenplatz verwenden
7. Weiter
8. Aktiv, Weiter
9. Fat16 or Fat32
10. Weiter
11. Weiter (:smileyrolling_eyes: german Software)
12. Fertigstellen

Now you must click the Racing Flag.

Now, Acronis formating your HDD. That's all, try it.
But after this you must install Win98 again. (logically)

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

Eugenepang — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 04:15:36 GMT

oh wow.. thanks.. its my old laptop.. with 18.1G hdd which in 2 partition c: is 10.1G and d: is 5.8G, and running on win98se i still had the 2 recovery cd that come with it last time... just one question, is there win98se software in there the recovery cd? coz i doesnt had any win98se software if i formatted the whole hdd.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

seb21__ — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 08:44:35 GMT

Normally, one of your recovery CD is bootable too. The best is, you try to start from the recovery CD.

Yes, on one of your recovery CD is Win98, if not you could not make a systemrecover (logically). On the other CD, I think you can find the Software that comes with your VAIO.

If you can start from the recovery CD, I sure you can install Win98 SE again. There must be point : Systemrestore or Systemwiederherstellung in German.
If I start from my recovery DVD, I have 3 possibilities.

1. restore drive C:
2. restore to the original System (I don't know the correct translation)
3. restore with partition.

I would use 2. or 3.. If you use 3., then you can change the partition size between C: and D:. But by both must be a point:

Overwriting HDD with zeros. You must activate this. This is the only way to get a reformated HDD. If you make this not, Windows delete only the Data entries in the Fat. So the Data are not deleted but Windows can overwrite the old Data. (But this is not a clean method).

With to partition tool (my old post) you make own partition. Or you can change the size after the Windows installation. (may be 😧 is too small but C: more as big enough, make C: smaller and 😧 bigger).

If you create a partition with the partition tool. Then you must activate point 1. (restore drive C:)

therefore :

1. start from your recovery CD
2. restore the system (with overwriting the HDD with zeros)
3.................or make a partition with the tool, and then restore drive C:
4. before, don't forget backup your Data:smileycool:

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

seb21__ — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 09:01:02 GMT

A other point: (your new VAIO)

1. make a rightclick on drive C:
2. here you see the point "property" (don't know is this the correct translation, I mean the last word on the list)
3. Extra
4. Error examine

click examine now

here you must activate the two points. If you click OK, Windows checked and repairs (more or less) the file system on your HDD.

Make this, one per month or all two months. And you have never poor Cluster.

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

Eugenepang — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 11:10:35 GMT

oh yeah i found about this 2 days ago as with win98se you a diskcheck software but not with xp.. so i was browsing try to find it and finally found it under the hdd drive properties with defragmentation n diskcheck..

thanks alot.!

Re: Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

seb21__ — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 11:18:40 GMT

no problem:smileyhappy: