Do NOT buy....

Sony.
Sony laptops.
Sony Vaio.
Sony anything computer.
Sony Christmas Tree lights.
Sony anything.

VGN-CR220E - Six months old. Disk died. New disk.
Now what? I look at the Sony website and there are the drivers for Vista and looks like they support XP also! I'm in luck! Not.

Installed a legal licensed XP-SP2. Most everthing worked..except the network card: Realtek® 8169 PCI, 8168 and 8101E PCIe Ethernet Network Card.

Guess what? Sony claims they do not have an XP driver for it. Nor does Micro$oft. Nor does RealTek. So, took the thing into the Best B.. where I purchased it and learned:
1. I do not own the Vista operating system that was installed on the computer when I bought it.
2. I can purchase an upgrade from "Home Premium" to Vista "Ultimate" for $219.00 for a ONE TIME install. From there on if I want to 're-install' I will have to use "restore disks" that I must burn.

I plunk down the money, of course.

Guess what? It won't install. Reporting this to Microsoft and to Sony results in a new law of the universe.
Law: The ONLY os that Sony will support is the original os that came with the machine. No upgrade. No downgrade. No migration path. And I don't own the OS.

In other words, the OS is locked to this particular Sony computer and can be installed only one time. Suddenly this became the most expensive computer I've ever owned.

The Sony web site says I can upgrade.
The Sony web site says I can install XP.

So, tonight I purchased ASUS. They are not in bed with Bill. They will allow an upgrade and they support XP.

We're being herded into a box canyon. Vista means that from the hill of money that you're going to give them that you can see the end of the canyon from which there is no escape.

 

You should get a Mac

 

Or a Sager

 

This has no relevance to the WNBSIB section. This belongs in the Sony section.

 

Sounds like you just don't know what you are doing.

 

there's a reason every new sony laptop prompts you to burn recovery disks every time you turn it on...

if you bothered making those, you can just stick them in and install the os that was on the laptop originally.

could you not find someone with the same laptp and borrow their recovery cds?

 

You have nobody to blame but yourself. You should have burned Recovery disks as stated above, or you could have just upgraded network card, or sent into Sony for repair claiming wireless not working if under warranty without telling them you uninstalled their original OS and put in XP etc.. lol

 

and also, surely these oem versions of vista have licenses defined by microsoft, not sony, and so it's not sony's fault at all, and the same problem would exist with every other manufacturer out there.

 

Is this supposed to be anything but a bashign thread?

I'm sorry for the trouble you had but I have to agree with the previous posts, you should've burnt recovery discs yourself.

 

Why are people so obsessed with downgrading to xp? Vista has improved to the point that I like it much better than xp. The gui is a lot more user friendly, and does not require a geek to understand what it needs to make it work. Sure it is slower, but it is the same when xp came out and it was slower then WIN95. With 1GB more ram and a faster processor, these problems are overcome, assuming that you deleted all the Sony junk.

 

LoL, Apple customer care is the WORST. I dont even know why people even go for for Apple. When your mac breaks... good luck.

 

Ditto.
I'm also sorry for your troubles and feel you pain but you really did go down the wrong path.
Hope it works out.

 

Sony will ship you the recovery disks for most of its computers if you go to their website. The last one I bought was only $20. Now I burn my own recovery discs. All you had to do was reinstall the operating system that came with the computer.

 

...fanboy.

 

I disagree with the "you should have burned the discs" posts. If you can not switch the OS on the PC it is a pretty useless PC. With that said I'm sure there is a work around. You just need to find it.

 

I thought you pay for the OS when you purchase the PC? I haven't heard any other company do this and face it, we Sony fan-people will not admit it's BS.

That said, reading up on NB led me to burn 2 copies of the recovery disks as soon as a got my shiny new toy.

 

Sony xmas tree lights are fantastic imo

 

Have you tried calling Sony support a few different times, speak to different reps, maybe ask to speak with a supervisor? Maybe they can work something out. Are Vista serial numbers glued to the back of the laptop (for Dells, at least, they put the serial number back there)?

I don't think you can lock an operating system to a specific computer. It's just the normal Vista/XP and then Sony throws in all of their drivers and add-ons, isn't it?

 

OEM versions are locked (at least legally) to a given computers - for that they are significantly cheaper than a regular version.

But yes the key is stuck to the back.

 

Can't the OP just use the original serial then, with the appropriate Vista disc? =/

 

Say you buy a laptop.
You can use that key on this laptop as often as you want.
And if you say swap out the HDD for a larger one you can still use the key as its the same system.

Check the EULA for the exact phrasing.

But basically - and OEM version stays with the computer it was bought with.
i.e. you cannot transfer the license.

Can you use another Vista disc - i.e. retail version of Vista Home Premium with the key from the bottom of the laptop - technically yes.

 

My 2 cents:

1) Always burn recovery discs or order them from the manufacturer. Period.

2) When you switched to XP, while you may have not had initial success finding the LAN driver, if you take a few minutes to search your specific part number for the hardware or post in a tech forum like those here on NBR, a lot of the time, someone has already found it or can at least point you in the right direction.

3) As for buying the upgrade, it should work as long as you have a full, working copy of XP running. If it doesn't, that is a microsoft issue. That being said, if you had the recovery discs you can save yourself the time and, in this case, a lot of money. I'm sorry to hear you got misinformation from the Best Buy rep., but, again, that's why there are forums you can post in and ask. Many people are more than happy to try and throw advice your way.

4) As for major notebook manufacturers, O.S. support is at their discretion and you will find that all big names like Dell, HP, Acer, etc. do the same thing. If you think about it, they made the product and provided an O.S. So, they are really only obligated to provide support for that product. In fact, most of the time that's stipulated in the License Agreement you accept when you boot the computer and the O.S. for the first time anyway. Hence why you accept one for the OEM copy of the O.S. and one from the manufacturer. While we are talking about the Licensing Agreement that you accept to use the computer, it also states that you are accepting using the installed OEM O.S. While this does not specifically nor technically lock you into that O.S., it does mean that, as I said, they can make the choice to support only that intended O.S.

5) There are several places I have seen on Sony's support section of their website that state that it is possible to downgrade to XP, but that you do you at your own risk. Furthermore, they even write down in several small paragraphs on several pages that there may be incompatibilities and problems you may run into.

6) Since when has any major manufacturer really provided really good support anyway? I mean, most manufacturers provide some basic outsourced help that has people who print and read from scripts.

So, I don't mean to be mean or harsh, it's just these things are pretty simple knowledge now and days. I'm sorry that you had such issues, and if you want, I'm sure we can help you to try and find the correct drivers if you want and ask for the help.

BBGus

 

I bought an SR190 recently and I can say it was one of the worst decisions of my life. It is clunky with the longer battery, it came with a dead pixel, and the speakers busted within two weeks. It also had the same battery problems widely reported here. Better to get a different brand in my opinion. Their customer service sucks.

 

Aren't all laptops "chunky" with an extended battery?

dead pixels - you can get them with any manufacturer.

Battery drain - this exists for many laptops, but as you obviously knew about it - why do you complain? Or did you first notice the problem and then find it in the forum? In this case I'll apologize for this response.

And customer service - there have been very different experineces regarding customer service with Sony - also many positive experiences, aonst them mine.

 

People will always be hating on sony

 

Just curious, what is Sony's policy on dead pixels. It has to be more than one pixel to have it changed?

 

I think so - but very few manufacturers will replace a laptop with one dead pixel.
And it has been discussed before - if its done for 1 pixel then its generally done by the shop, not the manufacturer.

Some manufacturer say max of 2 or 3 center and I think 5 or 6 "outer regions" - but this may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and it doesn't mean you couldn't get a replacement for say 2 dead pixels along the side.

But please consider how much can go wrong producing a display...
So even 2/3 pixels is in terms of percentages very little.
(But still annoying)

 

hmmm... let's see here. Almost every laptop nowadays doesn't come with recovery disks and Sony does not manufacture the hard drive. So to blame everything on Sony is very ignorant of you.

 

Did you actually go to the Realtek site?

I see an xp driver for almost every card they make.