Noisy Vaio laptop - to get repaired, or not...

I've got a Vaio VGN laptop near the end of its guarantee period (nearly 3 years old). The fan was running loud, pretty much constantly. I used a can of air to try to clear out the fan: this improved matters, so the fan is no longer constant, but when the system's working hard I can hear it over my music. The CD drive also seems to be running louder than it used to - the laptop vibrates quite loudly when it's spinning a CD.

Trying to decide if it's worthwhile returning: do people think that this is something Sony can/will fix? Battery life is also now pretty horrible (which is annoying, given that the battery was out of the laptop most of the time, but which I guess Sony won't fix).

 

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...151&categoryId=8198552921644487782&langId=-1#

Trade it in for money man... RIP. But move on.. You probably can pocket 350-450 dollars depending on which "VGN" you got there... pretty good for an old paperweight And you'd probably spend just as much getting it repaired.

 

It's still under guarantee (which is why I'm looking at getting it sorted now).

I don't need another laptop. I have a machine at work to use for work, and this is fine for surfing, media etc. at home... The trade-in deals Sony have offered look like good deals, but it would still be a load of money for a (very pretty) toy I don't need

 

get it repaierd first if it is under guarentee.. and see if you then need it or not....

 

I would go witht the repair.
You won't get a new battery unless you buy it though (unless their desperate to get rid of them) (Medion gave "us" an XP keyboard for free)
I had my Medion laptop in for repairs twice, and another one went just 1 day before the warranty ran out (3years).
Now its still working at my grandfathers place, and runs nicely.

So get it repaired if you can. Don't pay for repairs if you think you won't use the laptop or that your going to get rid of it anyway (unless you sell it), but if you've got the warranty, use it.

Now I'm on a Sony SZ71 and I've still got the old Medion with an external keyboard though, coffee and keyboard don't "mix"

 

VAIO repair service is good, I would go for the repair.

 

If you don't mind you could clean it yourself. There's probable a lot of dust inside.

Another solutiuon to your problem can be undervolting your CPU. After I used undervolting my fans never come on again.

 

I find SONY laptops often need repair after 2-3 years (from 3 Vaios in the past). With the repairs, they all have been good as new and have provided years of service. The onsite repairs have been failures, but the results from sending them back for repair has been excellent.

 

Ah - that's good to know (I had trouble with some repairs a couple of years ago...but that may have been a blip). Reluctant to send my baby away but hopefully Sony will get it running right again.

Cleaning it myself is a good suggestion. If it were out of guarantee, I might try that - but, with it in guarantee, I'm more likely to damage it than a courier/Sony tech is...

 

jon_m, like the others have said, I'll suggest that you send your laptop in for repair since you're still under warranty. Good luck.

 

An update: laptop was hust collected by DHL for Sony. They very efficiently stuck it in padded box and collected it (an improvement over a repair a couple of years ago - when boxing it was like a complex origami project ). Hopefully the repair goes as smoothly...

One more thing - SPEED, did Sony sell you the 4 year warranty? They told me they considered laptops 'old' after 3 years, and wouldn't sell a warranty beyond that