Oh my God! It’s my fifth time reinstalling Windows XP on a Sony VAIO that just got released (VGN-TX770P). When I received the laptop it had so much crap on it (such as AOL, various Sony utilities & trial versions of Norton, MS Office, Anti-spyware, etc) that I decided to wipe out the system and install clean Windows XP Pro. Guess what…wireless drivers including cingular adapter for this stupid laptop were not present on Sony’s support website. I called Sony and they told me that I had to run a restore procedure from their restore DVD, which by the way, doesn’t even come with the laptop. So, I ended up purchasing their restore DVD for twenty something bucks including shipping. I received the DVD in about a week, booted up from it and let it reimage the machine to the factory default. Took me about an hour to uninstall all the Sony’s crap and I thought everything was back to normal. As soon as I rebooted the machine, Cingular wireless stopped working! I went to Sony’s support site again to see if there were any driver updates and everything is now available for download! Aghhh…
Oh well, I thought, screw Sony with their support and started downloading the drivers from the website. Reinstalled Windows XP, went through all drivers just like it was instructed on their support page, step by step. Everything seemed to be OK, except when I rebooted the machine all of a sudden it started freezing. CTRL+ALT+DEL -> Task Manager showed “smartwifi.exe” eating up 99% CPU time. Reinstalled all of the drivers from scratch, reboot – same thing. OK, I thought, maybe I screwed up a step during driver installation and did something wrong. Reinstalled OS again, installed drivers and damn it! The same darn thing – the process was eating up 99% of CPU. Called Sony support. As usual, an idiot technician picks up. Makes me change the process priority (duh)…tries a couple of different things and puts me on hold. After about 30 minutes of making me listen to stupid music on hold, picks up and tells me that my configuration is not supported by Sony because it’s not Sony’s image. I got mad and simply hung up.
After all unsuccessful customizations I decided to go back to Sony’s image. I had to wait for three goddamn hours for the imaging to complete on it. And guess what – right after the imaging was done I got another error from Sony’s connection utility. I’m extremely mad and frustrated about this laptop right now and I’m ready to send it back. Sony sucks, their software sucks, their hardware sucks. It’s almost like in the old days when I hated Microsoft for their Windows 95, I hate Sony for their VAIO laptops.
Read Part 2 here
Nasim Mansurov
I have hated SONY VAIO since 1998 and i would NEVER buy one, but unfortunately i’m stuck fixing one and their support has gotten worse. scrwe SONY computers stay away!!!
I have two Sony Vaio FS740/W’s and in three years have never had any trouble with either of them. Perhaps its the operators not the computers.
I must say i’ve had the same Vaio for about four year the same one and its only just now starting to slow and be difficult i’d have to agree it might just be the operators. I mean most laptops don’t last almost four years
I have two sony notebooks, a small vaio tx and a 17 inches vaio AR, which I bought on january 2006. So far, these work fine but I must agree that Sony software is crap. I also bought two Apples, a MacPro and a Mini. I think Apple notebooks are better. However, Apple software is also crap. My advice is to buy a Mac and use bootcamp to install Vista or XP on it. My MacPro with 4Gig and XP installed is the best computer I ever had in 25 years!
I got my “Pain”(that’s Sony Vaio)in Costco about 4 years ago – No more Sony for me. Every software was installed trial version and with in 3 to 6 months was expired, even Word I got to pay to install again. Computer cost me $1600.00. And after 6 months another bunch of money. When I called technical support about frame work problems, person on the other end was not helpful at all. He wants my name, my adress, phone number and so on, at the end he said he can’t help me becouse – can’t find reccords of this computer bein sold. It got 2 hard drives, one is full, the other one is empty and nothing I can do to make it work. This is a worst machine I ever have. Constant problems. Stay away from Sony Vaio!!!
I always found Sony products worthwhile but your comments are giving me jitters because i have bought a new Sony vaio and if you guys are right and the quality has gone down and not what it used to be tneeeeeeennnnn.
I just received my new Sony Vaio VGN-NS140E/S and am going through the same irritation. It came pre-installed with SO much crap (on top of the lackluster Vista Home Premium), the only thing for a normal person to do is re-install the OS from M$ CD/DVD media (not Sony’s recovery crap which they don’t provide by default and even if you purchase just puts back the same bloated crap). Sony, you f*****g idiots need to facilitate a functional driver repository. WTF??? Dell and HP, among many other vendors, make this easy for even the non-IT savvy person. Why do you need to re-invent the wheel into a square? ‘Download Taxi’? C’mon already!!! What is it, a toddler video game? I’m glad this POS laptop was free from Marriott Rewards. If not, I would actually lose sleep over Sony’s stupidity. Want my opinion? Spend the $$$, buy a MacBook Pro and install Windows Vista Business or Enterprise (if you don’t like the Mac OS). I have, and IT ROCKS and is COMPLETELY STABLE, and the hardware and monitor quality is second to NONE. You get what you pay for… or what you don’t, in my case with this freebie Vaio. The only good thing about this Sony is that it sucks so bad if it falls off the desk and breaks I won’t give a shit… I’ll just go back to the living room and watch a Mac commercial on my AWESOME Sony 1080P LCD TV… go figure!!!
OK… a few hours later, I’ve actually tossed the piece of shit in the trash. No bullshit. Free is free, no money out of my pocket. If I had actually dropped a buck or two on it? I’d be pissed! Don’t waste your money!!! Even Dell’s entry-level laptops are superior… sigh… Sony? YOU SUCK ASS AT LAPTOPS!!! Good thing you make good TVs…
I completly disagree – This i now my 6th Vaio and never had to call the Vaio line but Iam sure there support is very good. Just because you dont know how to troubleshoot s/w problems and you also seem to have issues with the O/S’s which are manufactured by Microsoft
Just waited 40 minutes on hold to get a tech support person, after he started talking to me he started saying he can’t hear me, and hung up, are you fucking kidding?
SONY DOES SUCK MAJOR COOKOO DONG
STAY AWAY
I too bought a Sony Vaio 1600VGN and it never worked properly. I even purchased the three-year warranty. After two years of nonstop repairs, the company that owned the warranty bought it back for more than the original purchase price. Avoid Sony at all costs! For those who say, “Their other stuff works well,” I respond, “Their products are no longer reliable, and they’re selling shoddy merchandise based on a reputation that is no longer deserved.”
you’re a lucky guy.
Imagine to install the windows xp in another language….
You can find some recoveries dvds in P2P systems.
Had my Vaio for almost a year but live in Africa so can’t return it under warranty. My Vaio simply won’t boot up. I’ve run diagnostics and all sorts. I’ve tried reinstalling the OS with no joy.
I chose Vaio assuming it was a quality machine. From day one it was very very slow! My Vaio is a piece of shite and I would NEVER have one again!!!!!
I just joined the Anti Sony Vaio Group. My laptop had problems within the first month of purchase and had to be sent back to the manufacturer and now a year later it has developed battery and adapter problems. I had to RESTORE the whole system 3 times on my computer because the computer kept crashing!!
I called Sony today……..and they wasted my one hour when I specifically told them if they were not gonna provide me with replaceable parts then not to waste my time.
SONY SUCKS! I AM NEVER GETTING SONY PRODUCTS AGAIN. Spread the word.
I have a Sony PCG-7K1L laptop. It worked great for about a year. All of a sudden, the disk drive stopped being recognized. Never found a driver or solution for that one. Next, the wireless stopped working. Never found a driver or solution. Then, the battery started having a charge of about 20 minutes or less. Figured I could get by using the power cord. THEN, the power cord stopped working. I purchased a new one. ‘THEN’… the dial-up capabilities (I was using dial-up at the time) stopped working. I purchased an external USB modem. I tried using the built in system recovery feature as I had done in the past to hopefully get a fresh start. Took out my entire system and nothing works now except spider solitaire, hearts, and a few other useless features. The USB ports have also stopped working. Finally I said “screw it” and just bought a Dell laptop. It has been working great for about 9 months now. I can’t speak for all Sony products, but I will never, ever purchase another laptop from them and when associates ask about which laptop to buy, I steer them away from Sony.
yes fucking sony … VGN-FS93W … as new … wont fucking read DVD-RW and hardly will accept CD-RW disks…. to top that off problems with the fucking intel bullshit pro wireless … (centrino shit) like wtf it wont read cds or dvds … wireless problems …. and im a tech head tried all the updates drivers etc… pfft. sony sucks!
my god damn sony vaio laptop sucks ass. ive been having all sorts of problems with this piece of shit after the first year of buying it. (i bought it 2006) im supprised its still working… well my problem seems to be that the goddamn video card sucks balls. some games i can play and others i can’t.. thing is its almost impossible to replace/upgrade your video card. damn things are stuck. im gonna buy my self a desktop.
I have Sony Vaio desktop VGC RC110G, given to me by my nephew when he outgrown it and baought another computer. It is still working pretty darn good. The only upgrade it had is an additional 1GB memory (it now has 2 GB RAM). It has Pentium D processor 3.00 GHz and is still using Windows XP that came with the unit. (Never bother to upgrade to Vista because I find Vista too confusing). It can do AutoDesk Revit Architecture and MEP 2009, with Word and Excel at the same time without any problem.
But I do agree. Sony service support really stinks!!!
agree… I have a sony vaio VGN CR 290 and the metallic sides have rusted and peeled off and they call their products “up-scale”? “up-scale” my ass!!!! I hate it and it’s only pretty to look at but product quality sucks big time! I’d never NEVER buy another Sony laptop again! FXXX Sony! I am going with Fujitsu next time when this crappy computer is broken or totally peeled off.
Does anyone know a laptop maker that doesnt suck ass.from experience i know that hp suck big time and dell blow goats.there must be one maker who is reliable
I purchased a Sony Laptop and within ONE WEEK of owning it, it completely died!
Customer support was incredibly useless. After dealing with them from a month, all I’m getting is a refurbished laptop that is no longer in production when I thought I was getting a brand new laptop. These people have gotten their last dime of my money. And you better believe that if this machine so much as looks at me wrong, I’m calling customer support. I will be a nightmare for this company for the next year this piece of crap is under warranty. Never again will I waste money on anything by Sony.
Hello people, I have a Vaio that I salvaged from the curb. I use it for internet. I hate the damn thing. I am really close to putting it back on the curb. The machine is completly un-upgradable, it has a lousy 180W PSU, so you cannot put a decent GPU in the thing, and you cannot put a bigger PSU in it cause the only PSU that will fit in the case is the one that came with the machine. The only decent OEM out there is HP. Dell has horrible customer service. You want a decent OEM computer, go with HP!
frigging ballgrease lying mother-stuffers!! i swear i could kill the helmet-heads that designed and passed my cuntputer, its a SONY VAIO PCG K86SP i bought it in Thailand four years ago(oct05) and have had nothing but problems since.. after 8 months months i had to send it back to get a cd/dvd drive replaced, i’d only used it to play stuff and burn a couple of cd’s.. i had to pay 100$ or so. then the hard drive started freezing up whilst playing back films and games. no explanations just another HDD incidentally they put it back with an extra 20GB, making it up to 80GB, wow!!..(80$) then i had over heating probs and had to replace fan. this time in a local laptop fixer. a lot cheaper and fixed next day.. now having probs with the goat sucking cd/dvd drive again.. can’t get any info or updates for this piece of shite.. all update and driver sites always have a list of all other series’s of vaio but not the in-famous PCG K86SP! i say “don’t waste your money on a vaio or any sony product. i say guff in their curry and spray your load on their keyboards. i’d like to give them a diarrhea smoothie for the amount of money and time they’ve wasted for me.. i think i will kill my vaio today, properly!! it’s frunking shirt! here goes… aaaaggggghhhhhh!!!*#@!!@!!*#@!!
Well, the only advice i can give people is DON’T BUY ANY CRAP FROM SONY !
I had 3 vaio laptops in 4 years time, they all died. Yes i’m an IDIOT ! The first one i haved repaired, new motherboard, $800, 8 months later broke again. My brother and i bought the same sony TV, first his tv broke down, six months later mine. I have a sony video camera, it’s broke allready twice, lucky i have an extended 5 year warranty on that camera.
Hmmdaa, shuncha negativ ma’lumotdan keyin VAIO olish fikridan qaytdim…
yes i believe 80 percent sony is chineese now and always were most parts on all computers exp oem parts made in china .calling tech suuport 80 -99 percent some guy girl hired if lucky a plus i am c +++ and prog .lic.12xxxxx but they are reading out of books of screen as you would better off checking yourself if you have any error books on programming will tell you some problems seems more bios people love change settings set back factory start there endless needed clock etc and no what u are doing but agree i quit when h.p bought compaq that was it for me mark hurd got 90,000 retards mostly from texas main facil and there english stinks and there skills are of a child 8.00 an hour better of going nearest pc tech most sre 25 tell you whats wrong or free act stupid then fix yourself if you no what you are doing if he talking code as most in error’s etc i say say what dont understand sir mam i just dont want be ripped if warranty call company tell them you smelt smoke got hot you shut down auto ubder law your box will be there to call fedex back for pickup write down all happening good way getting new laptop as somne like cars etc not perfect get good one or some one in some dept half assed that day. so if they are under warranty say i smelt smoke was real hot etc whats wrong with it since it happened then you tell them real problem after that see works and again fuc.. h.p compaq and sneaky mark hurd ceo and his ways screwed ibm why parts are so bad he is an ass. plead 5 marky boy
I totally agree that sony vaio sucks. I got a osny vaio in nove 2007. After 5months it got all fucked up and I had to give it for repair. Even though the warranty was still on , I had to pay a bit(Rs 1000). In jan 2009 the cd drive stopped working suddenly. A few months ago my speakers started acting weird. The left speaker stopped working and today the right speaker stopped working -_- this is so annoying. Can’t understand what the fuck is wrong with this piece of shit. Its extremely slow too and keeps getting stuck all the time. Now my parents aren’t even letting me buy a new lappy :( have to deal with this piece of shit -_- it was new when i had bought it. seriously looks can be deceiving :| Don’t ever buy sony Vaio!! seriously everyone should start boycotting it now. Get so angry sometimes that i feel like throwing the lappy :X
I have VGN-NR110E laptop. It sucks! It fails to boot. I tried Recovery DVD that I had to make when I first use the laptop. The recovery DVD does not work. I contacted customer support. They said I had to purchase the recovery DVD. I checked the purchase link, but could not find the recovery DVD for my model. I do not know why SONY does not give the recovery DVD (or installation DVD) from the beginning. I will not buy any SONY product any more! It sucks!
Yup, Sony still suxs big time!
Worst laptop I ever had… and they dont answer on mail to their support.
Will Never buy any sony product again.
I have two Sony Vaio 740′s each about 4 years old and they have been flawless. My next computer will be a MAc but if I was staying with this Windows POS I’d buy another Vaio without hesitation.
I totally agree except I actually kinda like the hardware, it is the drivers and support that are horrible. My VAIO has Vista and the combination is a disaster and unusable, total junk. Sony makes it almost impossible for even an experienced person to downgrade to XP plus the cost of XP and they refuse to provide drivers/support for Windows 7 upgrade.
To the person that said he did all this stuff to get it to work, should we really have to spend all this money for a premium laptop and then spend a bunch of time/money to get this to work???
Dell sent me re-install disks, I lost the originals, for free and Sony charges a bunch of money.
All I can say is I will never buy Sony crap again.
Sony sucks, never again.
Sony is horrible crap. I will never buy Sony junk again.
The only decent laptop I know of is Mac,I will spend the extra money next time and buy a Mac. I have had good luck with Dell and I hear Toshiba is not bad.
my labtop model vgn-fw180e is worse labtop I have ever had. It broke down about 14 month after purchase and of course no support for it. I needed a Recovery DVD they are going to charge me for $52. It had window vista and I had to change the drive since it broke down. now, I cannot install any operating system on it. please,advice. thanks.
My vaio sucks shit from a bendy straw!
Ok, so i have a supposed 1080p screen and hd graphics, pff, res goes upto around 720 and the graphics card is about as powerfull as a low end desktop with intergrated graphics!
Ok, it has HDMI; IT’S USELESS BECAUSE THE RETARDS AT SONY PUT NO BLU RAY DRIVE IN IT!
Crappy, buddy sound, slow RAM, keyboard keys fall off, touchpad randomly stops working, overheating, boot times of around 4 mins, log in times of around 2 mins, batary life of around 30 mins.
I have sent it back because the part where you put the psu jack in fell off and i couldn’t shut the lid down.
This vaio is a pos and i wish i never had it, i wish i never even set it up.
Not one day has passed with out a problem.
Well done sony, your laptops are worthless pieces of utter shit.
The Vaio sucks. Big time. It freezes randomly. Can’t make video calls from Messenger. And it’s soooooooooooooooooooo slow to do anything. Sony shouldn’t be making laptops at all
Sony Computers are junk, they have no business in the computer market. I’ve had 2 of their computers and had nothing but problems. As others have stated they load countless crap programs that are totally useless, force AOL on you other crap trail programs. OK that aside the build quality is very poor, sure they usually look slick but inside they’re junk and often break down or fail to boot. I have a VGE-S32LE which is basically a laptop that is attached to the back of a monitor. Looks cool enough but built on a dead end Vista platform it often will not start and needs to be totally re-loaded using the recovery cd. The recovery software is designed by monkeys as its repair function never seems to be able to repair. Keyboard and mouse are very poor quality. Yet Sony demands top dollar for this chinese crap they push on the public. If you’re in the market for a computer, laptop or desktop, do yourself a favor and don’t buy a Sony, oh and don’t allow a friend to buy a Sony either. Pure shite
I have too made the mistake of paying £800 for the heap of crap that is a Sony Vaio. Total garbage it is. Almost as bad as the non-existent support they offer. DO NOT BUY A VAIO.
I just got done reloading a friends VGN-NR110E, Holy Crapware Batman! It has something like 8 major loads of trialware (symantec, msoffice, adobe)…I wouldn’t recommend a Sony laptop after this.
Have multiple HP notebooks (like 20 of them) never any support issues, have two Vaios spend at least a hour and half each week supporting them. I would never have purchased these Sony units, but was forced as client choose them. Having said that, it is not the easiest config Vista 64Bit on the Vaio.
Just sucks!
I am a computer technician for about 15 years now and i have one thing to say stay AWAY from sony is by far the worst laptops i have ever worked. I am not the only technician that had some serious issues with vaio almost 80% of serious technician will tell you the same. The support is so ridiculous and the software support for drivers etc. is mental. Please listen and STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!
Bag of crap wish i never bought the lousy bastard sounds like a office fan and is a bag of shit! who wants a laptop that turns off when it feels like it! too late to get that hard saved cash back too :/ when i save up for a decent laptop probably a HP this vaio will burn in hell!!!
Reading all the angry comments about a particular brand is pretty damn amusing. What people fail to recognize is that all the brands on the market have seen cases just like this one, or even worse. A problem like this can and should be solved within 3-5 days without any particular difficulty. It all comes down to; Who you end up at when you call the support, How you treat the support agent in question, How busy the support department is at the moment etc etc. Having been on both sides of the phone line I feel safe to say: No problem is too big to solve, just try to remain calm and stay civil. If you don’t feel as if you’re getting the support you need, you can always ask to speak to someone else. Not all support agents are retards, I can vouche for that.
As for all the douchebags who cry about downgrading to XP, or swapping OS’ in general (I’ve personally dealth with several): It’s your responsability to check if this is even remotely close to being possible before buying the laptop. Should this be supported by your particular model it is ALWAYS solvable. I feel safe to say so since I helped customers to do so on several VAIO units (among other brands) for over two years. Sure it may require some extra know-how, but that’s what computer technicianu knows are for. You should never attempt to do something like it on a laptop unless you’re 100% sure that yo how to do it. Even though you successfully installed Windows 95 on your old work unit back in the day (with that awesome sense of accomplishment) it doesn’t mean that you’re equipped with the necessary skills to deal with a laptop since these often require a bit more work.
New Zealand – Sony support fantastic…no cost to replace vaio fan CS16G…reinstall operating system and drivers all in 2 days, email and phone post-tech follow up. All free and returned by courier post. It is possible to tweak Vista to XP display without any cost. Suggest those Northern Hemisphere responses just be calmer, and take difficulties in life re Sony with an attitude that shows composure rather than explosive anger.
I bought a Sony VPCEB 15″ laptop at Costco in June to replace a dead VAIO that I had used for prior three years. I bought another VAIO only because the HP, Dell and ACER laptops looked even cheesier. New VAIO is all plastic, screen glare is horribile in normal light conditions that didn’t affect prior model, case feels really flimsy, but worst part is how slow this laptop is to load (??Norton Internet). Can’t understand why something with an i5 core processor and 4mgb ram RUNS SLOWER than older laptops. Did I mention that the keyboard is also terrible? Cursor has a mind of it’s own, skips around to top of page, pages themselves sometimes disappear and close on their own and video stutters, finally the sound system is the worst I’ve heard. Am going to return this p.o.s and swear of VAIO’s when I return from summer vaca. Sony has gone from bad to worse, too bad – they are like Apple in reverse. How could they blow it so badly? Hard to fathom. Stuff is now really crappy junk.
The Sony VAIO VGN-NR285E is complete worthless drivel. Since day one it locked up, semed to get too hot and was, like all Sony systems, over bloated with Vista and other crap.
I did have a short run of successful operation, just long enough to get out of the warranty. Now the system will not boot, the self-made recovery disks stop loading and the ‘download taxi’ is totally useless saying it cannot contact their website!!! Drivers are a tough issue and today I contacted the on-line help. After explaining that the system would not boot I was then asked if I was using the system to chat with the representitive. Now, that says it all.
Recovery disk sets are are almost $40 and tech support couldn’t answer if the drivers were available on the disks or were they embedded into the recovery.
They, without a clue, suggested that I download the drivers one at a time from their site.
I just want to get this bottom of the ocean rock to boot so I can unload it. Never again will the contents of my wallett ever buy a Sony system. Sony has no business in this business. Hey Sony CEO, stay into TV’s and sell the Micky Mouse computer division.
So just got a VAIO VPCEB27FD white….so sleek and I was so excited until I started using Word. The stupid touchpad is so sensitive I am typing and the cursor goes crazy jumping top to bottom and deleting entire sentences. I was so frustated because I was actually writing a practice exam and the stupid cursor deleted some of my responses. Thank God I bought it a couple of days ago and still can return it for full refund. I have been searching on the Internet and iit seems that most Sony VAIOs have problems with the touchpad and the cursor. I went today and bought a Toshiba with Intell i5 and all same comparable stuff the VAIO had (exept for the bluray) and I am saving $400!! so I guess it worked out better for me and I will stay away from VAIOs for the rest of my life, lesson learned!
Pls.Dont buy sony vaio always rebooting Problem.10 day I purchase in Plug-In Al-ghurair Center
Dubai 2nd time thay check .But same problem !..they dont want to change my unit instead and sent to sony service center .Pls dont duy sony vaio!…
dont let me start about my VGN A517B. i have it for couple of years now, and its been nothing but one huge pain in the ass, especially coz its windows xp is in german and there is no friggin way to change it to english. I fkin hate that useless sony software which no one ever uses, and if u uninstall something, other stuff that has nothing to do with it stops working; like the volume up & down keys, bluetooth (which isnt working for few years now), wireless, etc…
I payed a lot of money for that crap at the time, and who is going to pay for all my wasted nerves???????
sony vaios are one big NONESENSE, i mean how can it be that my vaio runs better on battery (which lasts 1 hour, and i had to buy new one for 100+€, not to mention the 700€ for repair cause it wouldnt start up) than on the socket power…
i use this laptop for internet and couple of games, though i doubt it could run any game now.
im looking to buy a new laptop, so is there a laptop that could run like i want and not like some crazy idiot japaneese wants??? something that relies on hardware and doesnt compensate it with unnecessary software tools.
nervous guy from Croatia