Help. I got a lemon

About eight months ago I purchased a Sony vgn-sz750/c. At first I really fell in love with this notebook. However, after only two hours of use it started showing some serious flaws. Looking to me like the motherboard is failing (i really think it was dropped in shipping). To keep it short here is a synopsis of some problems:
- about every hour it experiences random hardware disconnects, the windows sound , "ba-dah"; like when a USB device is pulled out: same as this post on these forums: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=243025

- Intel WiFi is very flaky. Disconnects all the time, will not work in AD-Hoc mode. Will see networks and then will not see them. These are all anomalies as I'm experienced with 802.11 networking.

- the entire system often just freezes for minutes, and buffers all I/O. The O/S has been reinstalled about 20 times since I've owned it, and all drivers are current.

- At random times the trackpad will just totally loose sense of touch. Moving my finger across the entire trackpad will move the cursor about one - three pixels. This behavior is experienced with both Windows and Linux.

- Windows Vista kernel panics an average of about once every three hours. Vista also kernel panics every time my cell phone is plugged in via USB. The phone works great on every other system I own.

I've probably spent a total of 24hrs speaking with Sony lower and upper tier support. It has been sent into Sony twice, each time the tech deeming it as' "passed inspection".

As of now my situation is this: I've had to go out and purchase another high-end notebook because of the Sony's unreliability. I'm now stuck with this Sony, which I cannot even sell on ebay and maintain status as an honest businessman.

What I would like to know is how can I log this stuff? Windows doesn't provide kernel level logging like Unix. All of these are basically anomalies that are not noticed until the system is used for three or more hours.

I'm somewhat tech savvy, but have little experience with hardware aside from knowing when it is not working correctly with the software.

PS: I ran memtest86 at its most stringent settings and memory came out okay. Just for kicks I'm still gonna put a few new sticks in though.

 

Event viewer will keep traces of all bad things....


Might sound stupid but have you tried different BIOS versions?

 

I've been checking event viewer. Unfortunatly, AFAIK it is not as detailed as Unix.

Great suggestion about the BIOS Wishmaker. I'm going to sony.com right now.

 

Make sure you don't flash within windows. Don't know how Sony works but on my U6 windows won't flash earlier versions than the current. Try from BIOS or DOS. That will work with different versions.

 

thanks for the help Wishmaker. Updating the drivers helped with the USB disconnects. However, there was a serious HW issue and Sony decided to step up and warranty the notebook.

 

BIOS update on Sony works via Vaio Update and runs from Windows - I did it on my SZ71VN/X and it worked fine.

Make sure your laptop is plugged in an has a full battery - just in case.

 

If there is a way not to flash in windows, go for it. Flashing in Windows is not Safe .

 

The way it works for my TT is that I started vaio update in windows, downloaded the bios file, and started it to run. Then, it will restart, and update bios.

 

My Asus works the same way so I assumed the process is similar. I flash Bios from Bios. Less things can go wrong.