Sony VAIO sucks!
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
Related posts:
07/12/2006 - 13:53
Hej there,
Tell the truth I have bought the same kindda Vaio Sony laptop, I am 100% agree with u, it is sucks!!!
I already had problem with audio system, it have broken inside and stopped playing any sound, I been crazy coz it been only several month since I purchased it, so I called them and told them to fix it. Thanks God I had guarantee for 2 years so this goddawn Sony makers fixed it for me.
But still I donno think it will last long though…
Best G
07/21/2006 - 04:17
wy dont you try installing drivers from the manufacturer of the card?
i suppose intel
and dont blame sony for the restoration dvd
it was on your machine in a hidden system partition.
it notifies you at every start up please make recovery cds/dvd backups.
i have a S3XP and the first day i got it i played with it , saw all the crap in there, made recovery cds and dvd
and then made a clear instalation of xp pro with manufacturer drivers for everything
except those s buttons utilities witch i got from sony support site.
08/20/2006 - 01:03
As a Network Administrator, I spend the most amount of time working on our “High Dollar Sony Vaio!” Everythinbg breaks on this beast. One day things are well, and the next – who knows. The keyboard and mouse quit working about 15 months into the purchase.
I do not enjoy even looking at this beast of a machine.
What a sad excuse for a computer.
Yes, Sony still Sucks!
And to top things off, the $300.00 eMAchine is faster at everything and has the least amount of errors!
Why would I spend another $1700.00 for a Sony Vaio?
No Thanks – Sony.
09/02/2006 - 11:01
Yes, there is no doubt that Vaio computers are poorly made, prone to defects and way overpriced for the junk that it is.
The culture at Sony is to try and wiggle out of any warranty or repair issue if they feel there is a way to blame it on the customer. Many people have been told the cause of their problems was “liquid damage” or operator error. Well you know what people. Sony has made a series of Vaio laptops that have defective motherboards that cause the machine to shutdown and only boot sporadically. Do they honor their own warrant/repair alert? Heck no….
I have started a silent protest of Sony and their ne’er do well ways. I will be continuing to picket the Sony Style store at 4th St in San Francisco all holiday weekend and until they make an effort to resolve the situation.
If you have ever been screwed over on a VAIO I recommend locating the nearest Sony retail store (ie. Sony Style or Playstation stores) and going down there to let potential customers know what to expect.
09/27/2006 - 05:21
buy HP Compaq notebook – everything is cool so far!
09/29/2006 - 16:48
My Sony VAIO laptop worked just fine for 2 years and recently started slowing down. I am planning to re-image to factory default. Reading all your comments I am scared to do so. Neways I guess I don’t have a choice. I will give it a shot.
10/18/2006 - 13:16
If I could reach through the phone line ring the necks of the retard’o nerds that work there, I would feel a tad bit better. You know how some companies suck so hard that you consider living with the problem rather than dealing with their bird-brain techs? Well I speak from experience, Sony has zero, and I zero respect for it’s clients time. They outsource support to the cheapest and dumbest tards on this planet. The onsite guys “try” to sound nice and interested, but no one gives a crap anymore about offering great customer service. I actually like my Vaio noteboook, but I get better service downtown if I try to renew my passport or my registration. At least they can’t hang up on you when they get confused. I wonder who Nobuyuki Idei calls when his notebook craps on itself?
11/16/2006 - 03:40
Guess what. Same problem here. Did a clean install of this piece of sh1t Sony laptop and there is no support on their website nor even downloads for the driver! Other manufacturers can put the drivers on their website but Sony? Nooo…..I will never buy an overpriced piece of bovine excrement like this Vaio again.
11/27/2006 - 17:40
SONY VAIOs SUCK HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband and I bought a Sony Vaio last November. He spent hours on the phone getting patches for the computer because we could not get the wireless internet to work. 32 days later we turn on the laptop only to find a big white line right down the center fo the screen. My husband took it back to Best Buy. They said they had never seen anything like it and did not know how to fix it so they gave us a new computer. In April of 2006 the new computer started having problems. It would shut down in the middle of a process, would not reboot. We took it back to Best Buy once again. This time they sent it out to Sony and said the hard drive would need to be replaced. The first week of November I went to use the computer and low and behold it would not turn on. I took it back to Best Buy who sent it out to Sony once again. 3 weeks later I call Sony to find out why I haven’t gotten my computer back. They tell me they are waiting on an approval for the repairs. Approval? Yes the repairs are due to “liquid damage”. I hadn’t spilled anything on the computer. The repairs were 1400 + dollars. I told them just to send my computer back. I bought the thing on sale last year for 1100.00. Why the hell would I pay 1400 to have it repaired? We have since sent the computer elsewhere to be fixed. They tell me it needs a new motherboard and that there is no indication that the computer has liquid damage. I am soooo pissed off I am going to file complaints everywhere and post my experience everywhere. I hate those assholes!
12/07/2006 - 19:16
sony sucks ass. period. don’t ever buy a sony product
12/18/2006 - 17:49
Ya sony vios are garbage. Most sony products are.
12/27/2006 - 17:38
Have to agree. I’m sending this from my 6-year-old Compaq, ’cause y 2-month-old Vaio refused to boot and won’;t re-image.
02/07/2007 - 07:27
Well, i think it depends on how you approach the problem.
I think the main issue was with your cingular card and installation of win xp pro on your VAIO.
Cingular is a third party hardware and its not SONY’s fault if they dont have any supported firmware or drivers for cingular. Cingular should have it.
And the fact that SONY does not support Win Xp pro you installed after you bought it, is a commonly accepted terms and policy by all the computer manifacturing companies.
Peace.
02/08/2007 - 16:56
Да нифига. это вы сами шляпы. соньки ваио рулят!!!
02/12/2007 - 11:43
Got my SONY VAIO shut down by a momental loss of electric power to the house. Can’t get this VAIO work again, it looks completely dead, no reaction to the “ON” button. After 10 min. of struggle somehow it started…. No idea what happened, but next time I by a PC, or any other electronic goods it will NOT be SONY.
02/26/2007 - 13:52
I am currently looking at a sony vaio pcg-8s1m which has worked absolutely fine for the last year and a fart (enough to be out of warranty) but since last night has completely ceased to function. It has not been dropped, knocked or farted near. I have disassembled and tested the power supply, tested it with and without the battery attatched, prayed to the G*ds of circuitry and my prayers were not answered.
So what is the problem? well a quick google search told me that this is an EXTREMELY common problem usually to do with the magic and spiderwebs they keep inside it overheating and causing physical damage to a particular chip on the motherboard. Sony claim that there is no problem even though approx 50% of their laptops fail between year 1 and 2. They suggest I either clear out my bank account and take a mortgage to pay them to tell me that it is the motherboard and cannot be fixed or to go f*ck myself. Hmm. I think I will go f*ck myself thanks.
Dear Hustler,
I completely and utterly disagree with you (respectfully). I feel that if Sony supply the componant as part of their product then they should also offer the drivers for it. I think it is disgusting that as an owner of a valid copy of XP Pro that I should essentially have to repurchase it from them because they refused to do the right thing and post the essential drivers. I think it is a nasty trick in the same way that they have gone to great lengths to produce laptops (and other products) that require special ’sony’ power supplies (etc) rather than generic ones then charge £100 for them when generic ones cost approx £20. They actually lowered the milliamp rating of their entire laptop range in order to prevent any other type being used. Why? so that every time one of their own products fails their own customers have to stump up the vastly overinflated prices. Further they also prevent parts from being bought unless you are a sony authorised dealer. The idea is that once you have fallen into the sony trap you will feel it is necessary to buy only sony products to compliment it, or get sony only dealers to service it. This to me is disingenous and takes advantage of the end user, ie: you and me. Further than this have you noticed that they no longer produce camcorders with 3.5mm microphone jacks? This is to stop people who work in TV buying their lower end products and using an xlr to 3.5mm jack converter for their audio so that they have to pay out approx 10x the value of the product for the pro versions. If they can produce it at domestic cost, they should rather than taking advantage at every stage. Furhter than that I believe it was sony that released the first domestic cd burner, then tried to sue customers when it was used to pirate sony music (pirating anyone elses was fine). Do you by any chance work for those theiving bast*rds because I have never heard anyone try to defend their money grubbing antics. Having said that I have a sony car cd player which works great however it is the last sony product I will ever buy as I think they should be taught a short sharp lesson in customer satisfaction. If there was a Sony rep or salesman next to me now I would gladly punch him/her (I’m not a sexist) in their peezy nose in order to help them understand that.
Thanks for listening,
Joe
03/04/2007 - 14:18
Have a PCG-Z1VAP and it is GARBAGE. The first year or so i had no problems. Then the HD frizes. Stupid me to put trust in my computer and not back up. Had to pay a heft sum to get all my work back! After that it has been nothing but problems. The thing over heats like crazy, one AC adapter fried, my 8 hour battery upgrade never lasted 8 hours, it lasts 20min and now about 10min, even with low power settings. I am constantly getting HD not found, OS not found, corrupt something or nother. I can no longer use this POS for anything serious. If i want to use this thing, it lasts for about a month before it gets corrupt and no longer works. Off to re-install for the umpteenth time and then spend hours uninstalling all the crap that comes with the install! I’ve had sony products that have worked flawlessly. Something has happened at sony in the last few of years that has them producing crap. This laptop is my last sony buy. No thank you PS3, no thank you blu ray! Hello Apple (w/o a blu-ray drive.., which btw apple hasnt even added to any of their systems…, crossing fingers)
One good thing has come out of this, Sony has taught me not to trust technology with anything i value, so backup backup backup and have another backup plan!
04/09/2007 - 09:37
I have SONY VAIO PCV-2210 (desktop). I bought it about 3-4 years ago. Recently I noticed that the fan in the back is working all the time and is on as soon as the computer is on. Also I had problems with legitimacy of the pre-installed Windows XP on it. Also the CDROM / DVD RW are opening with a very long delay and the monitor was defective. I wish I never bought this thing. How do I fix the fan problem?
04/18/2007 - 18:44
Vaio i buy oh piece o **** i dont know oh. Smartwifi like bull, strong like fox.
Time for a Apple.
08/17/2007 - 11:46
911 what in the world are you talking about and what does that have to do with the fact that Vaio’s suck!
08/19/2007 - 07:10
I agree, Sony Vaio is the real deal. IT SUCKS. OH GOD IT SUCKS. It’s terrible on so many degrees, especially the model we have, big, fat, heavy, sounds like a vacuum and can heat up my whole house if we blew air through it. The fan doesn’t seem to do anything. Jesus Christ we can put it outside in January on a pile of snow and it will sink until it hits grass because it’s so hot.
Even its predecessors were better, even if they were less powerful in every way. Remember those early notebooks? Weighing 1.5 lbs? 3/4 inch thick? Those were decent. Now let’s compare the piece of shit VAIO PCG and TOSHIBA Satellite Pro 4600. The latter is 7 YEARS older than the first, has half the RAM, half the weight, one third the speed and 5 time the performance. It we were to talk relatively speaking it would be 10 times better performance. Let’s not forget the speakers. Toshiba wins there too. BY FAR. When you buy Toshiba you pay for a T-Bone steak and get Filet Mignon.
Vaios are so bad that they even rank lower than the Compaq Presarios. Yeah they make terrible desketops and laptops too, but they are far better. Congratulations on the Compaq Evo, because it a great improvement and NEVER gave me a problem. But one thing, 512 MB of extra ram is required.
So in the end, stay away from Sony products. They suck hard in every industry. Oh look a new failure! Playstation 3! Playstation 1 and 2 were fantastic no doubt. I hate Sony so much with their exclusive mentality. You must always buy from them in order to upgrade your product, like paying 40$ to buy an 8MB card for PS2. Bullshit. 40$ i can buy 1 GB memory stick for my computer. Their cameras do not compete either. They take too long to take a single picture. We also returned a SONY flat screen TV to get a Toshiba one.
Well thats it. Sony Vaio sucks. I hope one day the get my axe in order to release my anger until the evil spirits rise from this monster.
08/20/2007 - 18:51
I have a similar LOUSY sony experience. I have linked your site to mine http://www.sonytechsupportsucks.com
08/23/2007 - 12:18
I totally agree with all you guyz
SONY VAIOs SUCK BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Their Price is HIGH AS HELL and the features of their laptops arent that good.
09/03/2007 - 09:07
Just want to say I had a really bad experience with Sony chat support and I ended up reformating my hard drive Hit-F10 inadvertently. B/C of this, I will never buy or recommend Sony again.
09/20/2007 - 08:57
you are absolutely right/correct. the SONY VAIO SUCKS, this is my 10th computer over 10 years, and this one is C R A P. Too much AOL Software! A O L is past time, and too much Sony Software. Their tech support also Sucks! Do Not Buy The Sony VAIO!!!! HAVE A NICE DAY :)
10/02/2007 - 11:13
Sucks. Too many crap programs installed at the factory. Complete garbage, the computer and programs. And I thought I was right to pay a little more for Sony quality. Never again.
10/11/2007 - 08:49
Sony vaio sucks indeed! I bought this fe model a year ago for 1600 euros. might as well just threw away that money. 6 days old and it already started to crash. Called sony support were some fuck told me…that i had opened it myself and that why it broke….WHATTTT??? how the fuck do you know???? so here i was with a 6 day old piece of crap and they did not want to give me my waranty. Installed xp 4 time sagain and every time it broke again. Even bought a new harddrive and that one broke after just 3 weeks!!! Now some friend put vista on a few days ago and so far it seems to be working more or less. So if anybody is checking this page thinking about buying a vaio….DO NOT DO IT. If you google the words vaio and sucks…you will find a couple dozen sites full of people complaining about this piece of shit laptop. Its expensive, the customersupport just sucks, and waranty? forget about it…half the time they will come up with some bullshit reason why they do not have to give any service to you. SONY SUCKS
11/15/2007 - 06:12
Yes!! Sony Vaio sucks big time!!! I got mine in July,it uses Windows Vista Home Premium. Hell its damn slow…….and buggy…
I totally regret on buying this crap!! If you want something good,go for something like a MacBook.
11/15/2007 - 08:42
Little update on what i wrote october 11th. The vaio now is completely dead. Turned it on last friday and when i came back in the room 45 minutes later…nothing. Black screen, no lights indicating anything is still working. No way to start it up. The costs of fixing it are now almost as much as what i paye it for a year ago!!! So a buddy of me is gonna give me a small price for it and sell the few parts that are still surely working.I do NOT want to get it fixed a 6TH TIME IN 12 MONTHS!!!!!!! Unfortunatly im not a rich person,..so now i can save for the next couple months to buy a new one and be without computer in the meanwhile.
I HATE SONY VAIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11/18/2007 - 01:59
u idiots dont know how to use a pc…i’ve got a sony vaio for the last 6 months and have got no problems at all….if u use it as a chair to sit on then ofcourse it wil break :P
12/01/2007 - 20:17
LOL@U for buying Sony laptop. LOL@ME for doing the same =P
12/05/2007 - 10:14
I bought in the same day a Vaio TZ for my wife and a Mac for me. VAIO SUCKS!!!! So many trial versions installed, so slow… Took me almost a full afternoon to uninstall all the AOL, Cingular, etc crap. And still the computer runs much slower than my Mac – I told her to buy the Mac but of course she didn’t listen. Good thing it wasn’t the other way around or I would be hearing it for months.
Anyway, VAIO sucks. Unbelievable that you pay for a computer that is a walking billboard for AOL and the likes. Sony should pay us to get this piece of sh**.
12/08/2007 - 02:41
i dunno… i am using a vaio rite now.. but its alrite.. doesnt have ny crapware on it.. if they got all the updates just now why dont u do a fresh new start back up your data and use ur Windows XP cd. Then u can let it get the updates later…
oh yeah… vaios are rather sensitive.. i dont say their hardware sucks by all means..2.0 Ghz, fingerprint reader, dedicated 7400 Go isnt necesarily crapware.. i suppose u have a 120 gig rite?
12/26/2007 - 06:33
A vaio only looks good the rest is sh!t
12/28/2007 - 21:51
Absolutely. I bought a Sony VGN-AR170P for nearly $3,000. Right off the bat I could see that the construction was cheesy and flimsy. The first day the machine crashed so badly that I had to take it apart and manually clear the nv ram. Within the first year, the hatch over the ehternet connectors wouldn’t close right, the CD-rom quit working, the lcd wouldn’t latch shut. Almost to the day the warranty was out, one of the hinges broke (I discovered, due to ridiculously shoddy engineering). The machine went through a period of mysteriously locking up.
But when the hinge failed I started to really learn what a piece of shit Sony Corporation is. They don’t sell parts like hinges. They make you pay them $300 to send the machine to them so they can replace the hinge. Then I tried to restore the system using the recovery DVD’s I had had the presence of mind to burn when I got the machine. The recovery process doesn’t work. This is a well-known phenomenon with all Viao computers – the recovery DVD’s don’t work. The recovery process throws random errors and you can’t recover the drives. Then I tried to install an OTS XP system, that failed, too. There are only the simplest controls inside the bios screens.
For $3000 this machine is a complete and total piece of shit. It’s the biggest rip-off I’ve ever had done to me. Never buy a Sony computer.
01/03/2008 - 10:17
yeah, vaio rocks!
02/03/2008 - 21:25
I’m running a vaio right novv, it’s less than 2 years old and it’s crumbling. as you can already see, my “vv” button isn’t vvorking so i have to use 2 v’s to make a vv. It’s lame, and the repairs eventually vvill cost almost as much as the computer. i am no longer going to buy sony products.
02/04/2008 - 10:26
I get som much inconistency on the damn thing, I regret buying the thing. I wish I hadnt. Its the biggest pile of rubbish ever.
As a uk resident, however, customer service is nothing short of shocking.
the phone numbers are premium, and noone asnswers the phone – hanging on for 20 minutes. I had to phone two other numbers to get the phone number of complaints – and that was CustomerRelations – which, as you know, is a department that doesnt actually do anything. If anything, they defended themselves, saying that I should contact the Seller if I wasnt happy with customer service!!
God it makes me angry. I really regret buying the thing, and Sonys policy of charging premium numbers for tech support and not answering the phone makes me so angry, and their attitude is so bad, that i simply have no desire to get another Sony Product ever again.
I’m going to get a tshirt printed with the words ‘VonySaio Craptops’.
02/11/2008 - 18:06
WARNING: Before you buy a SONY VAIO…..This was my experience….
SONY VAIO SUX BIG TIME!!! I bought a VAIO/VGN-SZ640N03 three months ago when my old Sony VAIO/VGN-S260 died for the second time; (1st-motherboard and 2nd-video driver.) So, being a genius at work… I had this brilliant brainwave INFARCT! Thinking that my VGN-S260 was just a lemon by chance, I bought another VAIO!!! What part of my first CRAPPY VAIO did I not understand??? Has Sony gone Chinese with their parts? For the cost of a new laptop, you would think it will work longer than three months. I am just sick about it all. Something must be done to prevent this from happening over and over again to consumers. My mission now is to warn everyone!
03/17/2008 - 13:10
I posted 2 times about a year ago. And this will be my last time. My 1600 euro Vaio, having worked for 3 weeks, was never repaired by sony under warranty.They simply refused. After paying THey changed the harddrive once cuz they claimed itys was broken. That new one DID break for real 2 weeks later, and the old one i had checked after that by another technician and he said there was nothing wrong with it. He is even STILL using it in his laptop after more then 1 year!! So in one last attempt, a friend who is a computertechnician, tried communicating with them. After about 3 months of him calling and mailing without any reply…he finally got an answer saying they knew exactly wich part was broken…but that certain part was no longer being made. (1,5 year old laptop!!!) Then i received a nice email from them praizing their latest new models. I immediatly send them an email back to remove myself from their mailinglist. But these bastards now keep sending me emails over and over. They even send me 2 times a list of questions about how happy i was with my vaio…all possible answers made it impossible to say you are NOT happy.
My blood is still boiling when i think about the 1600 euro I lost. Sony, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!!!!!!!
03/23/2008 - 13:31
I bought a Vaio 2 years ago, and it’s been nothing but trouble. My professor in our computer department said that Sony is, in fact, outsourcing to China.
I have an iMac that runs beautifully.
04/14/2008 - 11:50
Yes it completely sux!
05/17/2008 - 22:21
Well, I agree with you to some extent. I recently bought a Sony VAIO AR series, it’s supposed to be their “best” laptop. And I have a few things to say about them.
1- Build quality is just OK, they keyboard gets easily stained and the LCD becomes loose very quickly.
2- Their customer support personnel depends on when you are calling, one time one of their agent helped me solve a complex registry problem in a matter of minutes, he knew what he was talking about. And one other time, some Indian (no offense to anyone) took 30 minutes to figure out that they can’t upgrade my laptop’s DVD drive to a Blu-Ray one.
3- The crapware they install is just horrendous. Once I restored my C drive using their software, it installed Vista first then started installing this crapware (which took 3 hours), it took me almost an hour to get rid of it. A few days ago, I installed a clean version of Windows using someone else’s Vista disk and my SN, got the drivers from the Sony website and had no problems.
4- Well that’s pretty much all I have to say, but I guess I would buy VAIO products again. But their only problem is that they’re too freakin’ proprietary!!!!!
07/30/2008 - 23:57
indeed Sony Vaio sucks
Windows Vista sucks harder
08/14/2008 - 12:16
I am on my second Vaio TXN series and it is crap. They both worked well enough for 18 months and then began slowly dying. I get constant Program Not Responding errors and have to perform hard shutdowns constantly. Pages load by scrolling from top to bottom or in sectional pieces and you can’t run more than one program at a time.
I sent the first to Sony and they claimed a bad hard drive. They replaced it and charged me $299.00. After reinstalling all my softward and removing all their crap, SAME PROBLEMS.
I sent it back to Sony and put small pieces of tape over the screws that access the internals. They claimed the Motherboard was bad and charged by $799.00. When I got it back, the original tape was intact! They never touched a thing. Having used my AMEX card for the purchase and repairs, AMEX credited me the cost of both repairs and replaced the computer. Unfortunatly, AMEX requires the replaced computer be the same make and model (or the most similar currently available modle). So here i am 18 months almost to the day and SAME CRAP!
This one is going back too. AMEX will replace it but I am going to find a way to NOT replace it with another VAIO. Stay away from this POS!
09/16/2008 - 11:26
Yeh I got a vaio in 04. Runs pretty hot about 45 C. Battery blown sooo bought a ray o vac at battery world. Sony not detecting battery and cuts off the instant I unplug it. ARRggghhhh!!
!@@#$@Q$%#$^
Even an obsolete USED Macbook probably better. and let’s not talk about the byootiful malware in ALL PCs.
thing is Consumer Reports LIKED the Vaio
09/30/2008 - 12:59
I have a Sony piece of shit Vaio too – bought with an extended warranty and it has gone back to the factory FOUR times in the last 9 months which means I had it the first 34 days and that’s about it… it comes back and dies again within a few days… what a piece of crap… I have been buying notebooks since 1992 (Microexpress) and this one is utter crap.
09/30/2008 - 13:05
If you must buy one buy it at Fry’s with an extended warranty and then Fry’s LOANS you a new one every time and so they loose all this money having to provide new loaners to people who bought shit Sony’s – THEN the stores will start telling Sony they won’t take their crap – that is the way to effect change. Fry’s in Renton Washington NOW KNOWS Sony Vaio are crap as they have to loan all these machines to Sony Vaio owners… you should see them roll their eyes when we come in. Right now Fry’s in Renton may very well dump Sony and start carrying Lenovo…
THAT will teach Sony a lesson,
buy only with an extended warranty including a loaner and let teh stores deal with the manufacturers dealing in crap.
Sony you suck!!
10/15/2008 - 15:20
Hey! A Sony POS website! I am not alone in my hate of Sony JUNK! I own a Sony Vaio laptop VGN-385. Had to return the thing numerous times in under 4 months for warranty repair and is quickly going to become a projectile. Owning a “NEW” computer, I never thought I would feel such frustration or hate for an inanimate object. I even went so far to write all over my laptop SONY P.O.S. so ALL will see the CRAP I purchased. Buyer beware, DO NOT PURCHASE a Sony Laptop. The products are cheaply made, feel like they are made of cheap plastic, inferior, feel as they they could break upon dropping. Stay away from Sony computers, they will cause you nothing but grief and CONTINUAL frustration.
10/16/2008 - 05:19
I’ve foolishly been using Vaio for the last few years and every single one has broken. Why didn’t I learn earlier?? Most recently the hinge on my Vaio AR series has snapped after about 18 months of normal use and no drops. I’m now housebound until I can get my hands on a new MacBook. Don’t buy Vaio – they are way too expensive, are loaded with crapware and will inevitably break down.
10/20/2008 - 11:11
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!!!
10/22/2008 - 11:54
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.
10/22/2008 - 17:31
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!
11/16/2008 - 19:55
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 $1600.00. And after 6 months another bunch of money. When I called technical support about frame work problems, person on the other end was not helpful at all. He wants my name, my adress, phone number and so on, at the end he said he can’t help me becouse – can’t find reccords of this computer bein sold. It got 2 hard drives, one is full, the other one is empty and nothing I can do to make it work. This is a worst machine I ever have. Constant problems. Stay away from Sony Vaio!!!
11/27/2008 - 01:16
I always found Sony products worthwhile but your comments are giving me jitters because i have bought a new Sony vaio and if you guys are right and the quality has gone down and not what it used to be tneeeeeeennnnn.
12/13/2008 - 00:43
I just received my new Sony Vaio VGN-NS140E/S and am going through the same irritation. It came pre-installed with SO much crap (on top of the lackluster Vista Home Premium), the only thing for a normal person to do is re-install the OS from M$ 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!!!
12/13/2008 - 02:28
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…
12/22/2008 - 11:51
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
12/26/2008 - 11:57
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
02/08/2009 - 11:10
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.”
02/12/2009 - 07:23
you’re a lucky guy.
Imagine to install the windows xp in another language….
You can find some recoveries dvds in P2P systems.
04/13/2009 - 03:04
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!!!!!
04/22/2009 - 09:35
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.
04/30/2009 - 10:48
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.
05/15/2009 - 16:45
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!
07/01/2009 - 19:02
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.
07/02/2009 - 22:21
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!!!
07/10/2009 - 02:35
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.
07/17/2009 - 13:59
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
07/21/2009 - 15:42
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.
07/23/2009 - 06:09
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!
08/04/2009 - 22:57
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!!!*#@!!@!!*#@!!
08/08/2009 - 02:37
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.
08/20/2009 - 02:45
Hmmdaa, shuncha negativ ma’lumotdan keyin VAIO olish fikridan qaytdim…
10/10/2009 - 03:30
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
10/13/2009 - 23:29
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
11/22/2009 - 21:53
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!
11/25/2009 - 14:56
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.
11/29/2009 - 15:09
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.
11/30/2009 - 21:10
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.
11/30/2009 - 21:11
Sony sucks, never again.
11/30/2009 - 21:12
Sony is horrible crap. I will never buy Sony junk again.
11/30/2009 - 21:21
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.
01/13/2010 - 02:15
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.