After all the ‘positive’ feedback here, I decided to post some additional notes on the VAIO VGN-TX770P. After using the laptop for about 6 months the following issues came up:
1) The left side of the VAIO keyboard started to get stuck (near the left CTRL & SHIFT buttons). No drinks were spilled on it & no accidental drops.
2) I started seeing the image of the keyboard on the LCD (mirror). This one particularly because of the bad design of the laptop – the soft pads on the sides are not thick enough to prevent the keyboard from touching the screen. I did not clean the monitor so that Sony could actually see the keyboard buttons on the LCD.
I called Sony and tech support asked me to send the laptop to Sony. Since the laptop was purchased less than 6 months ago I didn’t have a problem showing proof of purchase to Sony. They told me that I would receive a shipping box in a couple of days. I waited for a week and didn’t receive anything. I got mad and called Sony back and guess what – the last support technician forgot to get the model number from me, which is why the box was never shipped! I ended up yelling at the guy and he promised me that I would get the box next day. I did get the box next day with instructions on how to package the laptop… I put the laptop into the box and sent it back to Sony repair. After waiting for about a week I called Sony to find out what’s going on with the laptop (I didn’t expect any kind of follow up, of course, duh!). The guy on the line tells me that the keyboard and the LCD need to be replaced for $699. Check out the emails below:
One of our first emails:
From: XXX XXX
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 3:25 PM
To: ‘xxx.xxx@am.sony.com’
Subject: Regarding Sony Work Order #W5232Z59Hello,
I am writing in regards to the conversation we had earlier today about the Work Order #W5232259. It’s about a laptop that was “cosmetically damaged” due to poor manufacturing and/or design.
We are asked to pay $699 to fix the LCD screen that broke through normal use and by no fault of ours, in my opinion it should be fixed by Sony at no charge.
You mentioned that you will talk to your manager today and will let me know what decision you came to. I need this issue resolved today, since we need this laptop back ASAP.
Thank you,
XXX XXX
Their response:
From: XXX, XXX [mailto:xxx.xxx@am.sony.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 5:28 PM
To: XXX XXX
Subject: RE: Regarding Sony Work Order #W5232Z59I had to go to another of my bosses because my Manager was unreachable at the time the only thing we could do is accommodate the price of the repair by 100 dollars according to my supervisor these are phys damages done to the unit and not a manufacturer defect. I would recommend that if you do repair this unit you should buy ADH or accidental warranty a company called Service Net Solutions can provide you with this there number if you need it is 866.374.0134
Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help
Our second email:
From: XXX XXX
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 6:11 PM
To: ‘XXX, XXX’
Subject: RE: Regarding Sony Work Order #W5232Z59Dear Sir,
Thank you for your effort, although I’m afraid that $100 discount from $699 to $599 is nonetheless not acceptable. The laptop was NOT misused or mistreated. It was never dropped, closed with excessive force, or abused in any other way. I understand that you may not be able to help me further in this, although I do want to escalate the case and get a written explanation from Sony legal department explaining why Sony does not cover it’s own faults. You are saying that the warranty does not cover external damage, or the peripherals of the laptop, although this damage was not done by the user, it was done by Sony itself.
I greatly appreciate all of your help.
Sincerely,
XXX XXX
Our third email after no follow up:
From: XXX XXX
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 2:07 PM
To: XXX, XXX
Subject: FW: Regarding Sony Work Order #W5232Z59Hello,
Could you please tell me the status of this?
Thank you.
XXX XXX
Their response:
From: XXX, XXX [mailto:xxx.xxx@am.sony.com]
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:10 PM
To: XXX XXX
Subject: RE: Regarding Sony Work Order #W5232Z59Actually according to the W/O the unit has been shipped back since a decision was not reached.
Our reaction:
From: XXX XXX
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 2:35 PM
To: XXX, XXX
Subject: RE: Regarding Sony Work Order #W5232Z59Dear Sir,
I would like to talk to the person that authorized shipping the unit back without fixing it. Were they aware that the decision is in progress?
Thank you.
XXX XXX
And the last email by Sony’s support:
From: XXX, XXX [mailto:xxx.xxx@am.sony.com]
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:49 PM
To: XXX XXX
Subject: RE: Regarding Sony Work Order #W5232Z59Our policy is that we can only hold a unit for 9 days if a decision is not made within that time we have to ship the unit unrepaired.
OMG! Somebody shoot me! Is this what we call quality support? WTF is this?
About Nasim Mansurov
Time to shift to MAC? I have made my choice :)
Buy a Thinkpad!
Mac rules, I won’t be able to own a PC after using a Mac
We had two Vaio’s with similar problems with keyboards – without any misuse whatsoever, the keyboard started to “sink” down, and disabling the DVD-Drive. I called the Sony tech service, one time they came out and switched the keyboard. After a few months the keyboard started sinking again. I called Sony again, this time they instructed me to send it in. They did fix it, and so far it’s okay. Then my other vaio (bought in Japan) had the same problem…
I think the keyboard panel, made of light material, is probably weak. I do not misuse the keyboard, or spill anything or put it in hot places. We will never get Vaios ever again.
Regarding macs – I got fed up with windows and have been using mac laptops for a while now. OSX is fantastic, but the hardware is horrible. Apple is consistently about 4 years behind the development, which in my case translates to unusable performance and screen quality. I stuck with it as long as I only needed it for web/word processing, but now I have a dslr camera and there is no product Apple offers that can be used for viewing let a lone editing the photos. This goes for intel macs aswell, too slow, bad screens and they also come with a ridiculous heating problem. Think hard before switching, if you have any demanding applications whatsoever, find a pc that works. I personally need the processing power and the screen of a good pc. If you have any suggestions let me know, I’m currently looking at Vaios and Toshibas around 1300 EUR.
I am using SONY VAIO laptop for over two years already. I haven’t had any keyboard problems so far. Good luck solving the problem!
i buyed the one Sony vaio last week. Model no:VGN-FZ31M from Turkey. Here the price About 1900 USD. i don’t know how much is it on the another countriest? who know more cheap price for the model? Anyway i am glad the than PC. it is very fast and very bright screen.
I bought a vaio VGN FE15GP 2 years ago – and at about the 18month mark – the built in camera no longer worked, the memory was shot and ended up not able to have two aplications opened at once – just froze – so have to reboot each time. plus takes about 10-15min to turn on.
Next time = Mac
I bought a sony viao about a month ago, I am hoping not to have the problems you guys have had, but I must say I am totally happy with my purchase. I would recommend to anyone wanting sleek, classy, awesome performance.
i bought sony vaio VGN-NS140E buti can’t install windows xp… please help me in this stuation … thank for everyone
XP will not install without a floppy drive.
An external A: drive will not work as the usb ports do not work prior to OS install.
As I understant it you can not retro fit OS to XP very easly but most PC shops can.
I have same issue with my tower. It has an A: drive built in but my XP package did not come with a floppy disk and I do not know anyone that has a PC with a Floppy drive to make the start-up disk with.
I AGREE WITH YOUUU ! VAIO SUCKS MAN I RECENTLY BOUGHT ONE AND I REGRET IT !! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT IN THE 2ND DAY IT BROKE ? LOL IT DIDNT WANT TO TURN ON. ALL I DID WAS LISTENING MUSIC TO THE MAX VOLUME AT WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER AND THE MUSIC CONSTANTLY PAUSE AND EVERYTHING I WAS DOING DO THE SAME ! IT FREEZE FOR A MOMENT, EVERYTHING WAS SLOW SO AFTER IT DIDNT WANT TO TURN ON I SEND IT TO THE SONY TO FIX IT AND THEY SAID THE HARD DISK STOPPED WORKING AND THEY HAD TO CHANGE IT, TOOK 1 WEEK TILL I CAN HAVE THE VAIO BACK AND……… MAN IT HAVENT CHANGE AT ALL ! IT DO THE SAME FREEZING THING -_-
I dont know it all depends i guess, i have had problems with macs, lenovos, sonys and acer it just depends how you use it and what you do with it. All computers in the end are kinda trashy cause of the fact that technology keeps upgrading every 3 months, operating system companies like Micorosft don’t allow compatability with software companies that don’t pay for their electronic signatures, etc. etc. In the end my advice is learn how to use a computer and all software so that you don’t have to ever contact tech support in India or wherevere they have it, learn that the internet and tech blogs message boards are your best friends and thank god for google and as far as the keyboard thing goes i can see that hapening with sonys sleeker models like the SZ or the TZ but that’s evident if your carrying those things around like a mac cause the lcds are super thin. Dude your gettin a Dell, no dont ever get those…..
My $1600 VAIO lasted 7 weeks past the one year warranty and the video section of the motherboard went wacko. Sony wants $699.00 to fix it. All correspondence with Sony was fruitless. I didn’t purchase the service contract because I too believed Sony made a quality product. HAHAHAHA. My new laptop is an HP with a 3 year service contract. Yes, Sony sucks!
So far the Sony Vaio TX770p has been pretty good to me. I bought it used though. The screen brightness does not work (function + f5 and 6) maybe because I have windows 7 loaded on here and all the drivers for windows 7 are not ready to be released. So far, I love the weight, and attention I get when I do my homework at Coffee houses. Considering me, attention whore who craves it all the time…really bad adhd randomness disorder here. Anyways, any big cocks in the house, send me a photo pls.
article very good
I understand your pain. I bought a Sony Vaio several years ago and am still using it due to low funds. I have had so many issues with this thing. The DVD drive itself is not compatible with vista SP 1 or higher and there are NO updates to fix the issue. I wanted to switch back to XP but Sony does not provide drivers for it. I want to take this thing and bash it until it dies!!! I am thinking of actually doing that when I can afford another laptop……. seriously!
Hey I bought a sony vaio Z-series laptop in Aug in Singapore. Since then, I had sent in 3 times for service. They all blame it on microsoft/windows on 1st time on corrupted file. The last time they said I had a virus in my vaio, quite weridly my two acer laptops had no problems despite the same usage. One of my acer was like 4 year old, and more was a display set that I bought. It was totally ok. Sony sucks. Their battery which was claimed to last 6 hours was only true when all requirements are running on minimal, like super dark screen. Otherwise , is 2 hours. This is my first and last time buying their product.
We mistakenly bought 3 Vaios for our ‘big wigs’ in the company because they wanted light weight travel laptops. Biggest fucking mistake ever. I am about ready to take a hammer to one of them – move the screen and it shuts down, hook up an external monitor to it and touch the cord – shuts down.
It has been back 3 times for a total of 3 month for ‘repairs’ and it is worse than when we first bought it. The support sucks, the staff at the sony stores are dick heads. I will never buy a sony product again. NEVER.
Bad luck…..
I’ve got two Sony Vaio FS740/w’s – a primary that travels with me consulting, and a back up mirror in my home office. I bought them both in December 2005 and never had any problems with either; they’re still in daily use today.
VAIO VGN SZ340P – the worst machine sold, next to Dell.
The CD/DVD drive is not recognized. This machine is less than two years old. It sat in original packaging at our business for over a year without being used. Opened the box, booted, ran all updates, installed AV and firewall softwares, went to use DVD reader — no luck.
Checked device drivers – yellow question mark indicating driver issue, uninstalled driver,downloaded driver executable from Sony website for this model, rebooted, prompted to load driver, attempts to load driver fail because Sony says, “Not correct drive for driver.” Hmmm…. According to Sony website for this model says it is but install utility says it isn’t.
Note to self, “Never buy Sony products.”
Completely agree: Sony Vaio sucks. Bought an VGN-series laptop and 9 months later, it switches off after 10 minutes of use without any reasons. I paid to get the processor fan replaced and it still wouldn’t work. It’s as good as dead now. SONY REALLY SUCKS!!!
Thank you for posting your Vaio saga. If nothing else, I’m not alone. I’d like to think there is some recourse for this injustice but I know that Sony is too big and I am just their customer so they don’t care about me. I’m further surprised because Sony is a Japanese company where face is everything. Perhaps Sony has become to Americanized. If I were Japanese, I’d be ashamed of Sony.
My Vaio was running great, no probs, slightly slow, wanted to do a sys restore and reset the computer. I bought the Sony recovery disks, used them last week, and it wiped my system. Called in, they sent me another set of disks but they didn’t work either. Diagnostic tests show there is nothing wrong with the laptop but tech support insists that the hard drive is bad. No longer under warranty (18+ months old), they want me to ship the laptop to them, pay $99 for diagnostic and $279.99 for a new hard drive if needed.
My husband, computer geek himself, is going to try some different things and will most likely get the laptop to run again but I’m sure it won’t fully recover. I won’t buy a Sony pc again and I’ll be hesitant to buy anything with a Sony name in the future. Unfortunately, they don’t care what I think. I wish there was a forum that would help Sony develop some integrity.
Just bought my first and only Sony VAIO configured computer; returning for a full refund; hard drive in process of crashing after turning on first day.
Really was excited about this computer until I could see the problems and issues dealing with many of Sony’s tech support people.
No more Dells or Sony’s for me.
Any suggestions for a good computer
I never had a problem with either of our Mitsubishi or Toshiba computers.
Thanks, Christine, I have heard some good things about Toshiba, if I decide to not go the MacPro way. The Mac could become very expensive because I would want the Windows program also.
But thanks for your advice.
Can someone advise me please….?
I just purchased a new sony viao VPCW-21 FD model. The dealer told me that the installation CD was in-built in the laptop but he did not tell me that i had to make a restore CD from the laptop itself, before i just do anything on it. Before I could update the Kaspersky antivirus, i plugged in a USB to the laptop, whereby the laptop got affected with the trojan virus. I then updated the Kaspersky antivirus and ran a scan on the computer. The report showed the affected files and that it had deleted the virus, but the virus graph still indicated that there were virus on the laptop, which i had to still further quarantine. I am not a computer expert and needed help. This made me think that the virus could have affected and could still be in any part of the operating system. Therefore, even if i did make back-up of the original settings by restoring on CD, i was a afraid the virus would still have been carried along with it. So i took it back to the dealer. He told me that if it was affected with a virus, the antivirus will not be of any effect as it was not updated at first. So he reformated the laptop whereby i lost the original settings of this particular model and he only reinstalled Win 7.
I am still thinking of sending it to the local sony service center here, but with all of the reviews in this website, i think twice again? Can some one guide me, if i should send it to the service centr to reload the original settings as i received when shipped. Will this work or because now due to reloading the original settings will the laptop be suceptible to face any further problems?
1. Write down all your numbers to be kept for future need located on the bottom side of your laptop.
VGN
Service Tag
Product Code
Serial #
Window Vista numbers
2. Call Microsoft and tell them you have a valid Vista License but don’t have a copy of the software. Or locate a copy of Window’s Vista and when prompted, enter your license.
3. You may wish to wipe your current laptop clean and start over by booting up with Window’s Vista. That’s what I did and I bypassed any Sony recovery product. Now that my system is operational again, I made a backup image.
4. Me personally, I did not bother with the circus that is Sony.
Good luck.
Hi Christine, thank you for your advise. ive noted down the info. However, this laptop originally had Windows 7 Home Premium installed when purchased. Nowdays all laptops come with an in-built installation CD, except for DELL laptops. Now, ive have handed it over to the dealer, who inturn will send it to the service centre for reloading the software back to the original setttings. Hoping for good results with fingers crossed !
Thanks again.
Hello
I have now experienced a purchase of 4 Vaio computers for work. The paint wears off the the left and right mouse click as well as the deck where you rest our hands (in months of normal business use). I have spent hours trying to resurrect the issue based on nothing more than principle. Sony claims that this is not covered under warranty when it is a blatant defect. There are many threads about users with this issue. After jumping through hoops to get to North American customer service after literally 3 hours, the supervisor was pathetic. I had recommended a solution 15 minutes into the conversation by simply sending images for their review. After 3 hours and finally reaching “Cathy”, I mentioned the idea to her and she agreed. I asked why it took so long to convey this from the outset of the first 3 customer service agents i spoke to and she replied that is was basically protocol–in other words if a customer is crazy enough to stay on the phone as long as I did, they will escalate the call to North American support after a certain threshold of time is hit. IN OTHER WORDS, they hope the customer gives up and walks away so they can avoid helping you. A complete JOKE! Sony is creating detractors rather than promoters- they want users to be unhappy, walk around with terrible looking computers that simple send a message to other on lookers in meetings etc. These computers are not cheap nor are the extended warranties—-I ended up learning that the extended warranty I bought at the time of purchase from Sony.com is a third party warranty after the first year which added little extra icing on the cake. I will never buy a computer from Sony again and I will do my best to detract from any possible sale. Another multi national corporation striping the soul from the consumer. Never again.
I haven’t had much success with my Sony Vaio purchased in April 2010. I can’t even google answers to the strange things that were occuring on my laptop. The issues started at about 4 months after purchase. This laptop is gently used and has never had any spills or drops and since it’s for my business, others don’t use it.
Has anyone experienced any of the following: number keys spontaneously repeating (9′s mainly); all desktop icons opening only the recyle bin (task bar icons work tho); mouse pad will move curser, but no response to right click or double tap to open/close/resize programs & screen; number key pad inserts lots of 9′s when working on that; Windows Boot Manager always comes up on start up; slow or no recovery from sleep or hibernation modes; generally sluggish computer; blank screen instead of desk top on start up; curser jumps around when I type. I think there’s more, but you see what a piece this is. The one thing that will solve the above temporarily is to flick my fingers up the number keys above qwerty. This seems to bring it back to a somewhat normal running mode, but it may not last. If I pause for too long, I will hear a distinct “ping” and it reverts back to the above problems. Repeated 9′s could be a sticky key, but really, this is practically a new machine and a well cared for one at that.
I’ve had numerous dealings with Sony’s tech help and I’ve worked with them for literally hours to rectify these problems, with no success. Now I have the courier box (coffin) to send it to Sony’s depot for “fixing”. I’m worried. I don’t know if they will nuke everything and the thought of setting up my system again makes me ill. I’m going to need help – it will cost me time and money. A computer guy in my office didn’t think they would need to access my stored data in order to fix this as he felt it was a defect in the keyboard chip (or something like that). I hope this is the case.
This is my second Sony product going out for repair recently. I thought Sony had a good name, but although I’ve had no issues with dealing with them, I’m still not happy with the problem, that it even occured in the first place. It will be the last Sony product I buy. I loved my Toshiba Satellite Laptop with the Windows XP.
If Sony sends this back, less my data, then I reinsert all of my programs and info – then it happens again, I will take a sledgehammer to it. It will be well worth the $699.00 plus taxes!
This is my second time having the same set of problems with my pos Vaio. last time i had to do recovery and reset to factory settings… which is a pain in the ass, and I have to delete all the Nap[ster and shit that came on it
It gets slow, and I think hmm thats weird. come back to it later and I cant open anything from the task bar. says i am not authorized. cant do school work, says it doesnt support an rtf file! says there isnt enough memory to open word.
I turn it off, and it is slow but the above mentioned shit is working again.
This computer is two years old. I dont download weird shit. I do my school work online and I dont have time for this crap. Really wish i had the cash to buy something new!
Sony Vaios are horrendous pieces of technology. Mine, all of a sudden for no reason, just froze. After pressing control alt delete the screen went black and nothing happened. After waiting for several minutes, I elected to manually turn off the power and restart it. This does not work, so I go to (as suggested by the inbreds at sony) so ‘system restore’.
After taking about 30 minutes to load, I select the ‘restore from certain point’ option-basically a solution which resolves the problembut won’t destroy all of my installed programs, files etc. What a surprise, this does not work. When I click on this option it attempts to take me to the next page but only lasts for a brief frame before glitching out and reverting back to the previous page. WTF, not only does their laptop fuck up, but their software to fix problems is SO INCOMPETENT THAT EVEN IT DOES WORK.
Anyway, I finally succemb to the total reboot option offered by sony. This basically kills all my hard earned work and reverts it to the ‘factory stage’-i.e. the situation its in right when you buy it. This works for awhile, but at about the 68 percent mark, while installing some adobe shit it says ERROR WE FUCKED UP. The system force restarts.
Then, oh joy, it attempts another installation. This is followed by a prompt saying ‘we need to check one of your drives for fuck ups’. It does this, and I get a message saying its fixed some shit. Good, not so. After this, I boot it up at it attempts to do some installation shit (I have no idea what now????). Long story short, every time it starts up (I assume to complete the rest of the restore process) I get a prompt saying error now restarting system AGAIN to complete the installation. Restarts same deal, the system just goes on a loop of boot up, error, restart, error etc.
In other words, not only is Sony a total FUCK UP PIECE OF SHIT, but their support software doesn’t help with the problem, it just makes it worse.
I am doubtful nothing short of Jimmy fucking Neutron can fix this, but does anyone have any idea what to do/how to maybe fix the issue? If so you are a god, otherwise I will be taking the laptop in soon and demanding a replacement.
Goodbye Sony, hello Mac.
my sony vaio purchased 10-2-2010 quit charging the battery unless the cord was held in a certain position January 2011. A fully charged battery never lasted more than 30 minutes. The microphone never worked properly, and the screen colors were washed out , and hd dvd player may as well have been a 1950 black and white tv. I took it to best buy where i had “geek squad” protection. They said it was sony’s problem and shipped it off Jan. 19th. …….i’m still waiting to get it back on February 15th………Best buy says we’re waiting on sony to get parts. Anybody heard anything about sony not being able to pay vendors for parts?
ACTUALLY WORKS I NO,NOT-ALLOWED themes ps3 controllers are SHIT
Yeh I agree vaios are terrible I have to reset mine every month! Its been back to sony 6 times in 7 months cos everytime they tried to fix it they broke something whilst trying, but they never charged me once.
most of the workers of Sony repair service suck. they say I don’t know to my questions and apologize seemingly. they just keep extending the date to finish repair and they have been taking me over 2 month. the paticurous thing is that they blame me for the clack monitor even though I did not clack it. I told them to check the order sheet I wrote for the repair, they refuse it for some reason… that’s crazy. they dont even acknowledge their mistake. vaio computers are very nice but they suck so I will never order them for repair.