Sony Computers Suck
I’ve been helping out some of my older friends with their computer troubles and I’ve noticed a disturbing trend — Sony.
The first problem was with a Sony Vaio desktop model where the keyboard died. I eventually narrowed it down to a hardware fault on the motherboard. The computer was literally a couple weeks out of warranty when the problem struck. Surprisingly, Sony agreed to fix it under warranty — hurray for Sony. Unfortunately, I don’t know how many hours I spent on the phone with them on hold or attempting to escalate the call again and again. Oh yes, the repair broke something else and the computer had to be sent in a second time.
My current nightmare is a Vaio laptop PCG-F350 that seemed to shut itself off a minute or so after booting into Windows 98. Thank God for the web, though, as a search found this page from Andreas Zwerger describing the problem in detail. It turns out Sony built a ton of laptops with capacitors that fail quite a while after the warranty ends. The power management system gets confused and forces the computer to hibernate prematurely.
A fellow SFU engineering grad, Brendon Wilson, had the same problem and has posted instructions on how to replace the capacitors, but that’s a little heavy duty for me these days. I’ve gone with the fix of installing a non-Sony version of Windows 98 and disabling the power management hardware. Many mysterious crashes and difficult-to-find drivers later, I am close to having a useful computer again.
The moral of the story? Don’t by Sony computers.