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
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!!!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!!!!!
you're a lucky guy.
Imagine to install the windows xp in another language….
You can find some recoveries dvds in P2P systems.
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."