I purchased a FE41S on Monday, it was Delivered Tuesday and ever since has been plauged with serious issues.
Neither Sony Support or PC World Business Support have been of any help. I am posting the diary of the problems I've had with this laptop from start to finish.
Enjoy the read!!!!
************Week Of Sony Hell************
13/02/200708:00
Parcel is delivered from courier containing the FE41S Vaio Laptop, brand new from PC World Business £940 (inc shipping)
13/02/200717:35
Taken out of box and powered on for the first time
13/02/200717:45
Preparing Vista for the first time screen goes to blue screen reporting error 0x000000116 nvlddmkm.sys
13/02/200717:46
Computer auto restarts and continues installing Vista
13/02/200717:57
Vista installation complete
13/02/200718:01
Tried to register laptop on vaio-link, could not as the website reported an error saying the serial number could not be found.
13/02/200718:30
Started to create recovery dvds, 2/2 burned successfully, 1/2 failed reporting "the dvd is full"
13/02/200718:35
Tried to create recovery dvd 1/2 again, failed reporting "unknown error, please restart the machine"
13/02/200718:36
Restarted machine, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs indefinately.
13/02/200718:38
Hard rebooted the machine by holding down the power button. Machine runs the startup repair and then Vista loads successfully.
13/02/200718:50
Re-tried to create recovery dvd 1/2 again and this time was successful.
13/02/200719:00
Vista seems to be running ok.
13/02/200720:00
Vista is put into sleep mode
14/02/200715:30
Vista woken from sleep mode and the resolution had reset itself to 1024x768 (from 1280x800)
14/02/200715:31
Reset resolution back to 1280x800
14/02/200717:30
Called Sony Support registration line as the vaio-link.com site still rejected the serial number.
14/02/200717:40
Got through to a support technician on the phone who told me that the serial number hadn't been available in the database and needed adding, as it was a new laptop.
14/02/200717:50
Support technician told me that the laptop had been registed and needed to wait 5 minutes while he sorted something out, the technician put me on hold and never picked up again, hung up after 15 minutes.
14/02/200718:10
Still cannot register with vaio link or club vaio due to the serial number not being recognised, decided to wait 24 hours to try again.
14/02/200721:00
Vista is put into sleep mode
15/02/200715:30
Vista woken from sleep mode and the resolution had reset itself to 1024x768 (from 1280x800)
15/02/200715:31
Reset resolution back to 1280x800
15/02/200715:40
Wireless connection not working so restarted the computer.
15/02/200715:42
Restarted machine, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs indefinately.
15/02/200715:45
Tried to hard reboot the machine by holding down the power button but a Blue screen appeared with error 0x000000116 nvlddmkm.sys. System auto restarted
15/02/200715:46
Upon restart Chose "Start Windows Normally"
15/02/200715:47
Restarted machine, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs indefinately.
15/02/200715:52
Hard rebooted the machine by holding down the power button. Chose "Start Windows Normally"
15/02/200716:00
Windows Vista loads up successfully
15/02/200717:30
Called up Sony Technical support, was told I needed to talk to PC World Business about the issue, but try resetting the computer to factory defaults.
15/02/200717:40
Called up PC World Business after sales support, was told I needed to reset the computer to factory defaults. I was also told that as the computer is less than 14 days old, that PC World Business would deal with it on my behalf by contacting Sony.
16/02/200718:05
Started Hardware Diagnostics Quick Test
16/02/200718:35
Hardware Diagnostics test reported no faults
16/02/200718:40
Started Factory Defaults reset
16/02/200718:52
Windows Vista is preparing for the first time screen appears
16/02/200719:20
Vista has successfully installed, no errors, no blue screens, working fine.
16/02/200719:30
Started to install applications and load on music and pictures.
16/02/200723:57
Put Vista into sleep mode without being plugged in (wanted to see how long the battery would last on sleep mode)
17/02/200707:30
Woke Vista from sleep mode, did not go back to Vista desktop, just blue screened instantly with 0x000000116 nvlddmkm.sys error and system restarts.
17/02/200707:31
Restarted machine, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs indefinately.
17/02/200707:33
Hard rebooted the machine by holding down the power button. Chose "Start Windows Normally"
17/02/200707:34
Restarted machine, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs indefinately.
17/02/200707:35
Hard rebooted the machine by holding down the power button. Chose "Start Windows Normally"
17/02/200707:36
Restarted machine, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs indefinately.
17/02/200707:37
Hard rebooted the machine by holding down the power button. Chose "Starup Repair"
17/02/200707:49
Start up repair finished
17/02/200707:50
Vista boots successfully
17/02/200707:52
From doing some research on the web, it seems that nvlddmkm.sys is an issue with nvidia drivers.
17/02/200707:53
Looked on the nvidia website for updated GeForce Go 7600 drivers, are none available for Vista, not even beta drivers.
17/02/200708:02
Tried calling Sony Support, but no answer on a weekend.
17/02/200708:05
Tried www.vaio-link.com but just get Service Unavailable error message
17/02/200708:12
Tried calling PC World Business, no answer on a weekend.
17/02/200709:12
Tried calling PC World Business finance department, spoke to someone who said I need to talk to sony and get a DOA reference number from them if the laptop is to be returned. I told the phone operator, that I was told that PC World Business should deal with it as the item is less than 14 days old, as I was told a couple of days ago by PC World Business support. The phone operator said that is not the case and doesn't know who would tell me that.
17/02/200709:15
Tried www.vaio-link.com again but still get Service Unavailable error message
17/02/200709:20
www.vaio-link.com is up again, tried registering the product on e-support but cannot because it says "Your Serial number could not be registered. An automated request has been sent to our e-Support Team to contact you in the shortest delay possible to assist you with the registration."
17/02/200709:45
Called Sony Centre shop in Merry Hill, Dudley to see if they had a number for Sony weekend support. Spoke to a guy called Chris who was very helpful in trying to find updated drivers, however no updated drivers could be found.
17/02/200711:00
Put Vista to sleep (while plugged in)
17/02/200712:55
Vista wakes up successfully
17/02/200713:20
Backed up all user files from the laptop as wanted to do one more factory reset, to see if it will solve the issues.
17/02/200713:55
Put Vista to sleep on battery mode (not plugged in)
17/02/200714:12
Tried to wake Vista up, but just hung on black screen, waited for a while then the computer auto restarted iself
17/02/200714:14
Upon auto restart, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs for a few minutes.
17/02/200714:17
Blue screen appears with the usual error 0x0000000116 nvlddmkm.sys
17/02/200714:20
Computer restarts and boots into Vista successfully
17/02/200714:21
Restarted Vista
17/02/200714:30
Started Factory Defaults reset
17/02/200714:42
Windows Vista is preparing for the first time screen appears
17/02/200715:30
Vista has successfully installed, no errors, no blue screens. All pre installed applications have been installed, requires final reboot.
17/02/200715:31
Clicked "Restart Now" button on Vaio restore dialog box and the computer restarted
17/02/200715:32
Upon restart, after passing the boot screen of "Microsoft Corporation" with the green progress bar on the black screen, the screen changes to a blank black screen and the system hangs for a few minutes.
17/02/200715:34
Blue screen appears with the usual error 0x0000000116 nvlddmkm.sys
17/02/200715:35
Computer restarts and boots into Vista successfully
17/02/200715:36
www.vaio-link.com is up again, tried registering the product on e-support but cannot because it says "Your Serial number could not be registered. An automated request has been sent to our e-Support Team to contact you in the shortest delay possible to assist you with the registration."
17/02/200715:37
www.vaio-link.com is up again, tried registering the product on e-support but cannot because it says "Your Serial number could not be registered. An automated request has been sent to our e-Support Team to contact you in the shortest delay possible to assist you with the registration."
17/02/200715:40
Have had enough of messing about with the laptop and restarting back to factory defaults. Disgusted with the customer service. I will now have to wait till monday morning to talk to a Sony representatinve about it.
