How Awful is Sony Tech Support? Bios Upgrade SZ 450

I have the Sony SZ450 and am very upset. I paid Microsoft/Sony an extra $145 for the BitLocker upgrade (which was actually on the hard drive just waiting for my payment to activate) and, of course, BitLocker did not work properly. So I called tech support multiple times (I believe in February) which was useless. I then read on this board that it was a bios problem which would be solved soon. I then waited until May for the bios upgrade to appear. I tried to install it and it did not work. Wasted a lot of time with tech support and then they said it was a software problem with the upgrade. I waited some more (and no one got back to me).

I finally went online in June and found an updated bios fix download which I tried to install. It went a couple of steps further than the prior faulty upgrade but would not install (it said my computer needs Vista!). I called tech support (higher level support) and they could not make it work, but said would send it to engineering. Well after not hearing back from Sony, I called again and was told that it may have fallen through the cracks (although the person was helpful). At least this person does get back to me by email and he says I will have to reinstall Windows Business (which I never wanted to begin with).

Now, I never paid around $3000 for a computer (with accessories/options) to have to go through a tortuous upgrade path (which will include going through the Vista Upgrade again and reinstalling lots of software, which then has to be tweaked—which took me over a day and a half last time) over five months and lots of wasted time with tech support.

I sent back an email to Sony saying that all I want is a bios fix. Put it on a DVD or something, but I do not have time to reinstall from scratch.

 

From what I'm understanding, you have XP right now? BitLocker will never work for XP.

Maybe I'm wrong and you have Vista, but if you have Vista you shouldn't need to re-install to get a feature working :confused2: I'm sorry you've had to deal with this, but maybe someone here can help you out!

 

No. It came with Vista Business preinstalled and I did the built-in upgrade to Vista Ultimate for approximately $145.

 

Can you give me a link to that download?

Have you tried reading this thread? http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=118601

 

The thread was interesting, but did not deal with this problem, thanks.

I downloaded http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNSZ450N&upd_id=2717&os_id=29. Sony tech claims (but this may not even be the case) that the update is looking for Windows Business, which is not currently running, as I upgraded to Ultimate. Apparently this is the Ultimate disaster. Can't Sony give me another way to flash my bios? What's wrong over there?

 

Try the bios update that's in the thread I provided earlier. It's different from the one you tried to install and it won't give you a Vista nag message.

 

Thank you very much. That worked perfectly.
Sony Tech support in the US (and I had this escalated) is totally useless and has complete disregard and contempt for the consumer. They would rather have me reinstall all of my software (a process which took a full weekend) than give me a bios fix that works with Ultimate.

For someone who spent almost $4,000 on the computer, accessories and warranty that is a complete insult and shows a complete lack of concern for the customer.

 

Read the full content of this Article: http://www.dev.notebookreview.com/news/amd-richland-desktop-apus-a10-6800k-others-are-affordable-flagships/