Brand New Sony Vaio crashing...

[mboxwell]

Just received my new Sony Vaio FE11S laptop the other day. Fantastic product - and a stunning screen.

Problem is I managed to screw up the settings whilst loading up Microsoft Office and various other software packages.

As a result, the unit now runs dog slow, hangs every half an hour - when I'm lucky, won't shut down and is now simply impossible to use.

I hadn't even got round to creating my own recovery DVDs, because I decided I'd do that as soon as I had installed my core set of software packages. D'oh!

The problem is, the laptop doesn't come with a set of recovery DVDs, so I can't reset my unit to factory settings. So now I have a very expensive lemon which I've packed up back in its box because I can't use it.

Anyone know where I can get a recovery DVD? Can anyone explain why Sony have decided not to bother supplying one with the unit when almost every other manufacturer does?

[rich912]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

All is not lost, tap F10 at boot and this will take you to the hard drive recovery utility. You can then restore to factory defaults.

[sweezelicious]

I have weird problems as well... My one week young vaio (also FE11S) is freezing.
When I try to put it to stand by or in hybernation mode, the screen appears (preparing to stand by/hybernate) and nothing happens anymore... it just freezes and may stay such for a couple of hours untill is turned off by pressing power button(mouse is kinda working, but it's no use really and keyboard is completely unresponsive)
And a couple of times screen just went black, mouse was dancing around and keyboard was, again, unresponsive... Can anyone suggest me what sould I do?

Otherwise two thumbs up for sony, new vaio is really really fantastic, specially the screen.

[sweezelicious]

never mind, I already found an answer in another forum thread:smileyhappy:

[mboxwell]

Thanks Rich. That's working for me.

Now I'll go through the other threads to see if I can find out why my VAIO was hanging, so if it happens again...

[russ8s]

Sony and the distributors are flouting the law in my opinion.

They send out machines with out the instuctions on what order to update them, thus leaving you with a system that does not function.

I will say you need to only install 1 update a time on a new machine and do a full restart each time..... with my new FE11S
I spent 30 hours and 3 full recoveries before I got it right.

Make sure you do sony updates, then windows updates, microsoft updates, then other stuff like norton.

Only do one at a time to be on the safe side.

problems include

All turn off functions not working.
System crashes during restarts
Media center crashing(not the update already known)
Norton updates corrupting files.
Internet connections not found/detected freezing
Error reporting not connecting.

Plus more no doubt.

[mvveelen]

Sony and the distributors are flouting the law in my opinion.

They send out machines with out the instuctions on what order to update them, thus leaving you with a system that does not function.

I will say you need to only install 1 update a time on a new machine and do a full restart each time..... with my new FE11S 
I spent 30 hours and 3 full recoveries before I got it right.

Make sure you do sony updates, then windows updates, microsoft updates, then other stuff like norton.

Only do one at a time to be on the safe side.

problems include

All turn off functions not working.
System crashes during restarts
Media center crashing(not the update already known)
Norton updates corrupting files.
Internet connections not found/detected freezing
Error reporting not connecting.

Plus more no doubt.

I disagree. I have a FE11M and made a clean install. The only problem was that I didn't have sound / modem at the start but with a little help here and there I got that working too.

Nothing hangs, nothing runs slow. This machine is superb.

Running XP Pro Media Center (dutch).

You have a bad experience, but that doesn't mean it is a bad machine, maybe you made a wrong start with the installation or something like that.
I described all steps for other users to get it installed right, maybe it'll come in handy for you too ??

If yes, I'll post it here.........

[russ8s]

I did nothing more than follow instructions that you get on screen. the FE11M ? a different model perhaps the resons you have no problems.