Are sonys' the most unreliable laptops?

[parantha]

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

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

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

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

[kee-lo_]

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

[GBS]

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

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

[inectarios]

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

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

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

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

[parantha]

Firstly - thanks for a ll the responses.

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

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

[TygerTyger]

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

[kee-lo_]

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

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

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

[Eugenepang]

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

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

[seb21__]

well the hdd had some bad cluster

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

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

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

[Eugenepang]

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