SZ Quality Reduction (MUST READ!!)

I am an ex-user of the sz48 and sz58, the Australian equivalents of the sz4 and sz6 series in the U.S, imported from Singapore and labelled made in Japan on the box purchased from an Genuine Sony Central Store. So far my experiences have been all negative.

From the first sz (sz48) I received, there was a problem with the LED backlights which caused yellow streaks across the plane of the screen; the fan was exceptionally loud for what I expected and turned on every half an hour; the hard disk light was always on for no apparent reason, indicating my hard disk was being used (especially prevalent half an hour after the machine has been loaded); the fan also made a relatively high pitched sound when in the second setting; not to mention that the screen at the bottom ends were not perfectly even as the screen was on a slight incline, maybe half a millimeter difference(which is probably me being picky). Light leakage didn’t matter to me but obviously existed from what i could see. The fingerprint was also not always responsive.

So I bring it in for service and at the time, there is no response from Sony about whether the lines were normal or within their tolerable range, the fingerprint reader was said to be fine, they also said the fan was in working order (which I had no comparison to make with so was forced to accept) but they replaced it anyway. The screen was also replaced but the streaks just moved to different positions. I was still unsure about the fan sound which I later accepted to be normal to stop my growing dissatisfaction.

Half a month later, the hard disk completely died and stayed on the VAIO screen without loading further. I brought it in and they offered me an exchange to the sz58 (equivalent of sz68 in the us) which I was more than happy to accept.

The SZ68 came up with a blue screen of death the first time it was turned on before even loading installation files for windows. I immediately called Sony repairs and they recommended that if it has had a problem this early, I had complete right to exchange it. I chose to take the blue screen as just a bug and so I decided to call Sony central to warn them of this and continued to use my notebook (reluctant to accept my worries that this was another lemon). The notebook had a slight yellow patch around the left hand of the screen seen mostly with a white screen (much better than before) and it is on an incline again. I finally read on the forums that other users are having a problem with yellow lines caused by the Led. For an expensive notebook it did bother me why Sony couldn’t get a perfect screen. Indecisive whether to take it back, I waste hours trying to set everything up. Yet after hours of partitioning, defragmentation, installing software, and clean installation of windows, I find out that the CD-rom did not support burning with the type of discs I was using. The data would burn successfully on both Nero and windows inbuilt software but it would not read on any other computer post burn. Note: these discs worked on my sz48. Fed up with this problem and also disappointed with the screen, I found the initiative to bring it in for another exchange. The fan was SIGNIFICANTLY less noisy than the sz48 and it was then that I realized that the fan in the sz48 was either defective too or that the sz48 is generally more hot than the sz58 causing the perpetual scream of the fan since the sz58 barely made a noise even when processing many applications. It is arguable that this was the best VAIO I had received out of the four I had returned.

I was offered to exchange the faulty one with had an angled screen as well. I specifically asked to see the notebook before it left the store and after opening the box, it was obvious to me that the LCD basically started a centimeter from the bottom of the screen rather than the normal half a centimeter or so and was on an angle that was quite noticeable. The owner Sony central advised me to get a refund or accept this notebook as he did not want to open any more for me. I went for the refund.

Now, still obsessed with the style and looks of the SZ and after watching more VAIO previews on you tube with James Bond and Takeshi Kaneshiro using this sexy notebook as well as visiting notebook reviews, I was still convinced that nothing was on par with the SZ for its looks and power for its size. So once I again, I use the money I was refunded to go to a different Sony central store to purchase this notebook.

The third notebook I purchased had an almost perfect screen, completely white and free of stains. I should note that the first time I turned off the computer after testing the screen inside Sony Central, the computer did not shut down after fifteen minutes and so I pushed down the power to force it to turn off. I thought this may be a vista bug. Turns out after I take it home and perform a semi-clean install that it would not connect to the wireless network despite four other computers being able to do so. It would sometimes connect on for fifteen minutes if I had reset the router but then automatically disconnect after that. This was a problem that did not happen when using my previous two VAIOs (sz48 and sz58). It worked when I first took it out of the box but then after a semi-clean install it did not. So I recovered it again and it never ended up working. The shutdowns took forever once again and I didn’t realize how much of a problem it was until I took it back to the store. They tried to convince me the wireless connectivity was a problem with my home network (which obviously wasn’t true) and that the problem with my shutdown was because of an error in the event log called sidebyside. Being just fed up with spending time finding solutions to problems that shouldn’t be there, I convinced them by a very narrow margin to give me an exchange as it was only two days after I had received the computer.

The fourth computer I receive once again has a small yellow stain on the left hand side. I was so frustrated at this stage to find a working VAIO, so I put this worry aside. Determined to get the computer working I had to spend another one or two days just trying to get all the bloatware off and defragmenting, installing dozens of programs, restarting time and time again, semi-clean installing windows and fitting it all in with my uni life and gym and relationship commitments. Since I've had to spend literally more than week in total with these four computers, I was at a stage where I didn’t even bother installing custom programs until I was sure it worked. I was so critical of myself doing something wrong that I decided to use only windows programs to partition and did not waste time installing custom programs in case it was a lemon.

Ok a few revelations at this stage. Sidebyside error, which took me at least an hour to work out and fix was caused by a visual basic c++ file that is missing when you use the semi-clean install method that is written about in these forums. Simply installing the file does not do anything to shut down speeds but prevents the error from occurring. There are more error logs in the event viewer that one can check. How much is attributed to the fact it is semi-clean installed is unknown to me. All I know is that my desktop computer had very little like 3 errors while the SZ had more than a hundred

Using vista to partition is also difficult as it does not allow you to shrink more than a certain amount. So I had to use a 3rd party software certified by Microsoft to actually defragment it so that some system files would be moved back a bit so that more could be shrunk (don’t want to explain it here cause I cant be bothered). Anyway deleting paging files as well helped and eventually I did manage to get shrink the volume more than I expected and for once I felt happy that this computer was in good ‘working’ condition. Obviously there were other small errors, such as why VAIO update did not work properly despite having just done a clean install, the yellow stain, the uneven angle in the screen that almost always exist except for the 2nd and 3rd VAIO (where it was more minor), and that there were errors that occurred (it was difficult to find the source but more likely that I was too lazy after spending hours trying to fix it already)

Did I also mention you have to play around with the registry to completely delete unnecessary command streams or data on your computer registered to your bloatware and of course run and msconfig and organizing your start menu. This takes so much time. Not much of this mattered anymore at this stage and I wasn’t prepared to take this one back. So what happens? The hard disk protection turns on every minute for no reason. Using the recovery option to restore back to factory conditions still didn’t do the trick, so I returned it to get checked. Surely enough, the hard disk had problems and bad sectors which triggered the protection over and over again. I got a refund and an impression never to use VAIO products again especially the SZ.

Beautiful beyond words and easily the most attractive notebook in the market = yes

Powerful = yes

Mobile = yes

Well built and reliable = no

Seeing as I'm the only one that picked up the sidebyside error as well as the fact there are many important issues being missed in the forums, I tend to believe most users now are either blind, ignorant or choose not to care. No one even mentioned the new SZ is much thicker, heavier and different color scheme than the previous when this is so obvious around the screen and body. Everyone just says 'oh it has got a few more kg probably because of frame improvements blah blah blah; its pretty; its powerful; nothing in its line. In actual fact the machine is looking much more bulky than the past and is losing its attractivness that made it popular. It seems that Sony is just losing its build quality and a once loyal vaio fan who is sick of the 'vaio experience'.

Just to note: I do expect replies saying how unlucky I am and that their VAIO's are working just fine but I dont buy that. Most people (WHICH MAY NOT INCLUDE YOU) are too stupid to notice problems with their computer. This is a fact. My girlfriend users a VAIO and she has failed to realise that a extremely loud fan and static on the palm rest is not normal on her s series notebook. Theres probably a bunch of people who are either businessmen (as a grand example) who are too busy to notice the faults or to consider them as a minor issue that isnt a problem even though they obviously exist. This is a post to ward people from falling into the same trap as I did and trust Sony build quality.\

EDIT: just remembered that the hard disk light almost always seems to be on with the VAIO as well, im sure many people would have noticed.

 

you must of got a lemon

 

LOL, just another example of someone in this forum who is blind and ignorant. Did u read how many notebooks of the same type I received and yet each is a lemon?

 

That's a bit too much for me to read, I have a 650 - works perfect, I also sold a 650 - also works perfect. As roor said, you got a lemon.

 

the majority of the users here havent had problems with their sz, some have had the yellow banding caused by the led and sent them back and received new ones that were perfect. and the majority of users here have cleaned out all the bloatware/ did clean installs and don't have any problems. obviously you're doing something wrong, its not the sz's fault, its user error. that or you kept getting lemons, which could be it. its bound to happen

 

Mate, you're supremely unlucky. No one denies that there are lemon SZs floating around. Furthermore, I think there is a consensus that it is an unacceptable rate of lemons that are making it through Sony QC.

If you'd been reading through the forums, you'd see that all the issues you've mentioned have be identified and discussed in a number of threads. Furthermore, the going opinion seems to be that if you buy the machine through a company like P1 (Portable One), they will check for all the issues you've encountered before shipping it to you, and they will remove the partition and all the bloatware solving all of your funny software issues.

Now before you say "that's great, but I don't live in the US", well neither do I, I had mine shipped to Sydney at the same cost as buying it here. The first one that P1 got for me had yellow banding, and they shipped it back for a replacement and let me know. When I got mine, it was perfect, absolutely perfect, with no bloatware and no partition, no software bugs, no hardware bugs, whisper quiet, best screen I've ever looked at etc etc.

Lastly, yes the QC is unacceptable, but it doesn't change the fact that if you are dilligent in aquiring your machine you will have simply the highest performance portable that money can buy.

Cheers, and better luck next time mate.

 

Sponsi, is your name short for sponser? Since you seem to want to sponser Vaio notebooks without wanting to know the details. If this post was too much to read, maybe you shouldn't have bothered to respond. Before you get all defensive and start saying I'm giving an aggressive response, please first understand your own fundamental mistakes when responding here.

Mistake 1. You said I got a lemon...... if you were reading my post you would realised I got more than a lemon, i got four lemons with an 's' to signify it's a plural. You're either illiterate or didn't bother to read even half of my post.

Mistake 2. You sold a sz650 without being given an complaints, does this signify that there was nothing wrong with the computer? If my last computer did not have a clear hard disk problem, I would not have returned it either despite it still having problems.

BTW: I search for sz650 in google only to find one of the first websites was talking about the constant hard drive activity that I've also found prevalent in all the SZ models I have received. Someone recommended to switch off readyboost or superfetch in services.msc. Should this really be necessary? (if it even works that is). Why should the user have to spend time to find out how to fix something that really shouldnt be broken> The amount of extra time finding out how to make the machine perform the way it should is such a waste of time.

Oh yeah and sponsi, if you are going to reply with two liners then you might as well not post. I'm not gonna bother asking u whether u did a clean install or checked your error log. It seems you're not capable of posting a coherent response, relating cause and effect or reading for that matter, let alone checking technical errors.

 

Roor, I like your use of common sense in your reply. You seem to correlate getting faulty vaios with user fault which is quite likely. I assure you though, as someone who is quite computer literate, this is not the case here.

But you do make a great number of assumptions which are incorrect. Sidebyside error and other error logs in event viewer are most probably there if users decide to check. Had it not been for my shutdown time lag I wouldn't have checked either. But this does not mean its not there.

The constantly active hard disk problem, I also took for normal until I realised that getting rid of sidebyside fixed it to a certain extent and then further reading that disabling certain services 'might' do the trick. Once again, I doubt how many people would of identified this problem as a problem. Which it most certaintly is, to what extent is a different question.

I also think you greatly underestimate the extremity in terms of the yellow banding issue. A hundred people read a post, maybe ten or fifteen people may bother responding. Maybe out of the eighty five who dont respond 65 have problems and thirty dont recognise these problems, twenty may not care and others may have gotten a refund after just reading the issues from those who post. Out of fifteen people who may respond, perhaps only ten have problems. Some may be turned away from the hassle of registering and others may not have time, yet others may decide that there is no point to respond since its not going to solve anything. So what we have on notebook reviews is quite a large handful of people complaining but they are only a small representation of the true condition of the issue.

 

DRVEC, probably the best response I've received so far.

Buying from P1 seems like a very good idea considering the hassle you save. I do believe that you get taxed quite a lot when importing, can you enlighten me with the amount you were taxed? The only problems I see with buying it in America is that you get is a possible second hand product since you are no longer the first to open the computer and you also bear the risk of damage in transit or having to pay for it to be returned if it is faulty. However hearing the good reviews about P1, this is unlikely. I am curious if you have checked your event log? I would be interested to know how many errors you have there.

I guess in this post, what I am trying to emphasise is that Sony quality control is definetely lacking. Given my experiences, I would definetely not recommend a VAIO product. If you buy from P1 and it's perfect, then I would only recommend Vaio's from P1. Ohterwise, I would advise people to stay away from Sony notebooks. There are only good reviews here about VAIO's and I think this is very misleading. Whatever negative posts that exist are overshadowed by idiots who just keep praising how good their sz is. Let this post be the other side of the story.

 

Lol at you "I'm starting to believe that the average Australian is much smarter than the average American." Just because some disagrees with you makes them less knowledgeable? I think you're the dumb dumb in this situation, I'm not American

 

Nope Sponsi isn't short for anything. How about your nickname, did they not allow ******* to be used? I don't recall calling you defensive, exactly where did I say this? Oh may a grammatical error, unless I caused the world to end somehow by not using the plural form of the word I'm gonna have to say get over it. And yes, I fully read your original post.

Since VaioUser over here wants me to get technical, hey why not I'll get technical. First I will start by correcting your grammar, OMG you did not use an apostrophe in "shouldn't, you misspelled sponsor, you did not capitalize I. The horror! Need I go on?

All I was saying was my personal experience with Sony has been great. Therefore if you're gonna whine that I'm not agreeing with you, you go ahead and do that and make sure to continue correcting my grammar.

Anyway, I do apologize if my post was not detailed enough for you, and also that Sony will lose a customer. I hope you find yourself the perfect computer.

Hope this response was long enough for you

 

Hey guys, let's drop the personal attacks. NBR is one of those rare forums that tends to stay on-topic and constructive.

 

szvaior user:

a) "...same price as buying it here" includes import tax, which is actually just 10% GST

b) It's not going to be a second hand product because P1 are a certified Sony reseller, this also means they can change out hardware and software without voiding warranties

c) You don't bear the burden of transport damage risk because there is shipping insurance

d) I haven't enquired about whether the warranty is only honored in the US, I will ask IvanG. However, you won't have a faulty device because P1 check it all out; of course, that doesn't mean it won't develop a problem later on. I tend to subscribe to the bathtub curve belief in product defects

e) I wouldn't recommend anyone go out and buy a laptop without doing a bit of research; however, that doesn't justify Sony's poor QC.

In defence of the SZ enthusiasts: we are willing to accept these issues because we believe that Sony have been one of the undeniable envelope pushers for laptops since the 505. They have been among the first in introducing most of the milestone technologies, such as slim construction, built in webcam, SSD and Hybrid drives, LED backlit screens, carbon fiber construction, hybrid graphics, and so on. With new technologies come new issues, and with the good comes the bad. Apple, for example, choose to be a second tier adopter, waiting for technologies to mature, but they are not without their fair share of problems either.

Furthermore, if you asked me to swap my dualcore 2.4 GHz Santa Rosa machine with 200GB 7200rpm HDD, 4GB RAM, wireless N, LED screen, hybrid graphics and 1.8 kg carbon construction for a 2.3 kg MacBook with a plastic CCFL screen, no card slots, no graphics card, old-gen platform and slower processor, 2GB RAM and smaller slower HDD, with no wireless N, docking station etc etc then I would say "no thanks, I'll go with the poor QC of Sony!".

 

To the OP: The bottom line is you have had several bad experiences with SZ's. I'd have to say you were probably just very unlucky. Yes, the SZ series has issues...just like every other laptop out there. If the ratio of problematic SZ's is as high as you think....no it can't be that high or there would be class actions going against Sony. It's funny how you think that there are more people with problematic SZ's than people who post here, because the people who post here represent an insignificant percentage of SZ owners in the whole world. I would guess that the large majority of SZ owners have perfectly working laptops. I have a 1.5year old SZ150 which is still running strong with no problems besides the niggles here and there. I understand you have had several bad experiences with the SZ and because of that you should just move on just like I would never purchase another Hitachi desktop drive again after my past experience with them.

 

No, I take that back, Americans probably aren’t more stupid but I am biased by what I see. I’ll keep my opinions to myself about this in the future, since it has nothing to do with notebook reviews. However, what I will say is that I didn’t mention it because you disagreed with me. It was more because you didn’t read the question and wrote a stupid response

 

I have a SZ650n/c... and the issues are;

1 - LED Backlit problem; vertical yellow-greenish band especially visible on white background-low brightness level...

2 - Light leakage; all over the bottom of screen..

3 - Constant hard drive activity; when i bought sz650 it's drives me mad.. When upgrade the hdd to 7200 one, it fixed.. Possibly it's related to Hybrid HDD...

4 - Fingerprint, Wireless, Fan noise and other component is OK..

 

Thanks Drvec, your post has been very informative. The only thing I might add is that if the notebook warranty is only valid in the US, it could present a problem if you need to send it back in the future. There may be wait delays and the possible cost of shipping.

I also agree that Sony has always been a pioneer in the introduction of new technology. The SZ is also almost unparelled as a machine that brings portability, power and style into a complete package. If not for the quality problems, I would not hesitate to buy another one.

The macbook is obviously not a suitable replacement. The only notebook close is the Dell XPS M1330. For six hundred dollars less the price of a retail SZ, one is able to upgrade to a higher CPU speed (not that its necessary), 4gb ram (free promotion), a choice of a 64gb solid state hard drive or 200gb 7200rpm hard drive (for a thousand dollars less than the solid state drive) as well as HDMI and inbuilt audigy sound card and more features which are either better or the same as the SZ.

 

well if u want no probs buy sz 691n/x which i have done just due to quality relted issues. i have mine working perfectly here in india which was got here just a month ago by some relatives. it's worth the extra money for me coz i want a reliable notebook. i also want you to know tat b4 deciding on 691, i have calle sony representatives on no. given on sonystyle.com several times and they all acknowledged about probs in sz series and although no one would be saying it clearly but they always hinted me that 691 is checked most extensively before shipping and pre-configured models are better than most user-configured models. anybody want to say anything on this. by now i own two sz's, one with my dad sz483 and other's this one and both are gr8 machines.

Beautiful beyond words and easily the most attractive notebook in the market = nothing else to compare

Powerful = absolutely

Mobile = 1.7Kg with so much power, and u r askin' this

Well built and reliable = dropped 2 times in case, still working perfectly

 

Neoguri, thank you for identifying the issue that I am bring up. Yes you disagree but I think thats perfectly acceptable since forums should encourage healthy debates.

I think the purpose of this post is to inform potential buyers of VAIO products to the trouble they should be prepared for. As well as the lack of quality control of Sony. Out of all the VAIO's I've used, recurring problems have ocurred. I've read other people talking about the plates covering the hinge to be loose or other small problems and these have all been prevalent the VAIO's I receive. I have no doubt if I open another brand new SZ there will either be an imperfect screen or a hardware error sometime in it's life. I am also extremely convinced that as I am typing this, someone is opening up another SZ with the same yellow banding People should be informed of the poor quality control of Sony because it's so obvious they are getting away with it.

As with the potential court proceedings that you say may happen. I find this to be unlikely as there is no law that is actually broken. Defects are also warranted to be fixed so there should be no actual legal problems involved.

 

Sponsi, I am not trying to pick out your grammatical errors. I mention it because it seems that you didnt read the question when you mentioned that 'i got a lemon'. Someone brings up four instances where a faulty computer has been given at different locations and you reply with a one liner ' you got a lemon.' This makes any normal person think you didnt read the question.

Please drop the sarcasm. I'm not asking you to write a page of rubbish. If you write something, make sure it's helpful, relevant or both.

 

i wonder if its how the store handles them.. or if the exchanges were refurbs..

I order direct from sony.. my company has bought about 80 of them so far (from sz18 to sz483) and we havent had one at all with yellow banding.

Being company pc's they were all reimaged to xpp images so i cant really comment about the vista issues but not one of our notebooks have blue screen or shutdown issues.

 

So I read your whole post and many of the subsequent replies.

I'm confused about why someone would come to a site that is obviously frequented by enthusiasts of the product, recount his/her experiences (which can only be described as extremely unlucky), insult most owners/enthusiasts in the process (your disclaimer is cute, but only put there for show since you obviously have great disdain for anyone who doesn't agree with you), whine and complain when people don't agree, and then make several weak attempts at redeeming yourself by praising those who've demonstrated restraint in their comments to you (something you failed to do in your original post).

Your situation is extreme and does not reflect the majority of Sony Vaio SZ owners, or as one reply mentioned, there would be a huge uproar. If you don't believe that, then just look at the exploding notebook battery issue which hurt Sony's reputation. Owners did not take that lying down.

Your post is better suited to CNet or some other consumer oriented site where you can vent all you want with impunity. I come to this site to get advice on solving problems and hints on how to improve the performance and usability of the product. Your post provided nothing of that.

You obviously think you’re smarter than anyone here, or at least those who disagree with you, and made your post so that you could sit back and be smug about how “everybody but me is stupid”.

Some of your problems have nothing to do with the Vaio and are related to the Vista operating system, for which Sony can't be held responsible. I also suspect that you may have screwed up when you did you semi-clean install which could have contributed to the systems problems.

You're a gluten for punishment if you went back so many times and had problems with what I think was 4 different computers.

Finally, you may wish to change your user name since you don't own a SZ anymore.

 

Dagobert, I agree that it would initially seem odd and seemingly futile for a disgruntled user come to a enthusiast filled forum only to recount bad experiences

However, upon closer examination you will find that I'm not trying to persuade users with perfect machines in their hands that "THEIR" particular machine is bad.

In fact I wrote this post because of my dissatisfaction of the machine. I also wrote here because I frequently visited this page before and after I purchased the machine. I think if someone had bothered to write such a post before I decided to purchase this machine, it would of at least given me an expectation of things to come. In all honesty, I dont think reading a similar thread would stop me from buying the sz as I would have probably still tried my luck. But I hope that this post will help others who are less prone to marketing and style and give a more complete picture on this machine aside from all the praise and hype

I'm flattered that I've attracted some replies from literate, educated people such as yourself who can obviously analyse an argument and construct a reply that is well written, thought out and not full of curses or irrelvent points. In many other forums I've been to, many people either get out of topic or too personal. I am truly praising these people because I believe that it is extremely difficult to filter out the civilized/uncivilized, mature/immature people who obviously all have access to the page.

That being said, the bias in your reply is also very prominent. You assume that I whine and complain when people dont agree with me. Yet there is no evidence of such an attitude. Perhaps I give you that impression, however I assure you that I spent and do spend a lot of time making sure that I give a sound reply to people who deserve them. To be honest, in my opinion, the first two people who responded did not deserve anything more than a flat, negative reply for the simple fact they did not read the post. In fact they replied with a line that only praised the machine (isn't that strange?) :O One of them even said he didnt read the post because it was too long? :O Essentially both of these people gave almost identical responses that show they didnt read the questions or were tools. So how would you have responded in that situation? Ignored them? I chose to exercise my freedom of speech and spited them for a good reason.

Other than your misconception of my reason in posting here, you do have some good points which i have considered before. That Vista operating system is a major factor to why there were system errors. That I may have screwed up with my semi-clean install.

However having checked by doing a factory install after the computer's failed with the semi-clean install, it was confirmed that the problem didn't lie with that. Plus it's pretty easy to close 'launch' when windows first loads

You also mention that if there were problems with VISTA compatability with the VAIO SZ. Then both Sony and Microsoft are to blame. Microsoft for certifying this computer is vista ready and Sony for not cross checking. I am aware that VISTA compatability has more to do with system requirements and the native dx10 video card but software has to be accounted for?

We have a major disagreement on the reason for these forums. Somehow you think that the sole purpose of this forum is all about praise and solving problems. I believe what praise and problem solving is a big part, but it's also a place to discuss comments, negative as well. I think this will help people in making a decision whether to purchase a VAIO and I certainly would have liked to read this post before I purchased mine.

I am a well aware of how bad it looked and felt returning four computers. Oh yeah and I probably wont change my nick since I cant be bothered to fill in the registration forms again .

 

BTG, I have wondered whether it is the particular sony division in Australia that were responsible. The exact thought of whether they were refurbs was bouncing in my mind as I returned my third and fourth notebooks.

It's good to hear the SZ's you received did not have yellow banding. Perhaps corporations have it better It's certainly advantageous you dont have to go through the hassle of removing and installign software again. BTW: the bluescreen was obviously an anomaly.

The yellow banding is extremely prominent issue. I'm using a public computer at the moment to write this. As I was looking for this post in the forums section, I can see five new posts either asking or declaring problems in the SZ. Most of these latest posts regard either the yellow lines, HDD, or bloatware problems. The problem is that a lot of these people dont bother reading posts that have already been made about these issues so in effect you get a twenty threads with the same issues .

 

sell it and buy something else if you're unhappy. stop complaining about your bad luck like a little girl. go buy a dell m1330

 

szvaiouser,

You must admit you've insulted quite a few people here. This is an information exchange forum, not someplace to start a flame war. If peoples' replies don't solve the poster's problem, they get ignored. Although people do ask each other for opinions, the postings are almost always civil and polite. From what I've seen, you're the one who started the insults, and proceeds to doubt their maturity and civility. I have no doubt you feel strongly about your travails, but have you read the story about the pot and the kettle?

Maybe you can post this on consumerist, and hope it gets picked by digg, because it seem to me that's the type of discussion you're looking for.

 

Like roor, drvec and sponsi have said above, there have been many users - myself included - that have purchased their SZ without a "major" problem. Of course every computer bought has the chance of having the occasional glitch or issue, as mine did with the banding, but a lot of that is technology being developed without the proper quality controls set in place prior to mass production. Shame on Sony for doing this (as well as Dell and many others nowadays) but kudos to P1 for taking the initiative to bring back customer service. They tested all of ours, found my screen issue before being sent out, and replaced it within shipping time to ensure that I had no problems.

No one doubts that you received a lemon, albeit four lemons, but it seems to me that there is a problem with the shipments to Australia and/or southeast Asia, as we all don't seem to have nearly as many issues combined as you have - not to mention the amount of wealth of experience on this forum, we can pretty much solve each other's problems. Maybe you're a little too anal about your laptop purchases...or is it that we Americans are too ignorant and oblivious to know that our laptops are broke? As we say in America, "majority rules", and the majority of us have not nearly the issues as you do. Sorry for all of your troubles; now, would you like some help with them?

 

As far as all the hyperactivity with the harddrive, it makes sense that it's the hybrid harddrives acting up and running all of the time. I have only heard of users complaining of the issue with the H-HDD, not the regular 5400rpm - but I may be wrong on that one. I have a 7200rpm so I can't comment on experience.

As far as light leakage goes...it all comes down to the individual screens, and the individual user's taste in what's appropriate and what's not. Same goes for the banding issue. At certain brightness settings I can still detect a slight yellow hue in the center of the screen, and at low settings barely even see the darker bars (fyi my eyes are hyper sensitive and are better than 20/20, so I notice things that a lot of others won't...but it's not that noticeable). Unfortunately, the dark bars are the spaces in between the LEDs, and the yellow hue is a byproduct of the pure light from the LEDs, so like I said in the above post technology is always advancing but it takes growing pains to perfect it. That's what we pay for having the latest and greatest.

 

Y0tsuya, as far as insults go, I called roor blind/ignorant because they are the only words that could describe how a person could reply to a thousand word review with one word that is out of context. Out of place? Maybe. Deserved? Arguably yes.

Other than that, i don't see how dissproving someone elses point can be linked to insulting, unless you would derive that I am degrading their image of intellegence which is closely linked to being indirectly insulted.

Posting such an issue in Digg would warrant more discussion. Then again, such a topic is more relevant in this forum as people make their decisions based on such information that I am giving. I believe that I am helping a lot of people from writing this.

EDIT: Furthermore, I should make you aware that this review wasnt open to debate. People just decided that they felt like defending Sony's reputation because they owned a working one.

 

NTXRockr,

I have thought about whether it could be shipments to Australia. Then again, I doubt that Japan would have poor quality control simply to Australia. You are not the first to have mentioned the merits of P1 being very good with detection of problems before sending them to you. Have you thought of how many faulty SZ's P1 sends back weekly?

I'm sure that American and Australia are on par with the amount of faulty SZ's. Though I've heard that some SZ's in America are not imported from Japan but made locally. I'm not sure as I havent done the research.

 

Roor, it seems like you are the one who is making snide remarks that are uncalled for. As I have mentioned, I am posting here a review of the four SZs that I have received. The fact they happen to be negative does not indicate I am "whining like a little girl". I understand you are still trying to sell SZs and I hope this isnt hurting your business. The fact i am using this forum as an information medium to express my ideas is not at all deviating from the purpose it was made for.

 

The bottom line is that if every Sony were of such horrible quality, Sony wouldn't be one of the most popular and trusted manufacturers out there. My last Sony VAIO is still running after six years. My new Sony notebook (after I performed a semi-clean install) runs perfectly. Sony is generally known as a good, quality brand.

 

it's just a case of real bad luck.....

the sz in my area are selling like hotcakes. most of the students in my school who bought a sony has an sz..... which makes me sad because i was THE FIRST to own one there.... but now everybody has the premium model.... which cost a bit less that what i paid for and has better specs

 

Sony has produced so many good quality products in almost every area of electronics. I'm suprised they couldn't get the quality control correct in the SZs.

I'm sure if you found a good SZ, it may last you years. I'm using a vaio S48cp to write this now. It's my girlfriend's computer and has lasted her for the last two years I thnk? Apart from having a excessively noisy, perhaps defective fan and static palm rest, it seems like it has at least another year of life in it.

I think the issue is how much attention to detail you give to your notebook. A constantly flickering hard disk light, a louder fan than usual, stains on the LCD and loose metal plates covering the round hinges, registry errors when certain programs arent unistalled properly using the semi-clean install, bloatware and light leakage can be either very annoying or not noticed at all.

I know that my girlfriend wouldn't even care if there was a constant flickering of the hard disk light, she wouldn't care if there were stains on the LCD, and even bloatware and definetely not light leakage. Does this make the quality control of Sony ok? Certainly not.

I for one dont care about light leakage, since its such a menial issue that only presents itself when you have a dark screen, which is almost never the case unless you watch a DVD or have a dark screensaver. Yet some people feel strongly about this. I've read polls about how serious the light leakage of their sz is, most answer that there is small amount of light leakage.

What does matter to me is the yellow lines that a lot of people are having problems with. I have a gut feeling that if I bought a further four notebooks from the sony central store, at least one would have an imperfect screen.

 

Actually, I can tell you that in the "real world", the majority of users don't care or notice about these little problems and will continue to use the computers as long as it serves its intended purposes. NBR forumers are a little more anal about their purchases than the average consumer, and that includes both you, me and many people here. Usually, the logical thing to do when you're dissastisfied with a product you've repurchased so many times is to go for an alternative to avoid all the hassle.

 

Chris, you're right.

I can tell you that if I worked for a company that gave me an SZ to work with. I wouldn't care less if it had yellow lines or a noisy fan, let alone light leakage. The fact is, that if it's a company computer, I would treat it just like a company desk or a company office.

Yet I think those who are in notebook reviews generally care more because it is a personal computer that we pay a lot for. Sometimes it's not even the price factor. People who buy SZs usually can afford any computer they want. I think it's just dissapointing when even after paying a premium price you dont get a premium product.

 

szvaiouser,

I think the results of this thread speak volumes to your situation.

Let's look at the facts. You opened this thread on Oct 30. It's been over 5 days and it remains one of the more viewed posts as it is still in the top 20 threads. It's been viewed over 1200 and there have been 35 posts, about half are from you replying to comments.

What is apparent from this is that although most are sympathetic to your plight, no one has posted a similar story, yet you insist that this is a common occurrence which affects most Viao SZ owners who take the time to scrutinize their machine.

When you've been provided with opposing views such as a company buying them for their employees, it is dismissed out of hand as irrelevant. I can tell you that anytime I've been given a malfunctioning computer at work, I've been very quick to advise the IT department that it should be fixed. A yellow band across the screen would be more than annoying to someone using the computer for several hours a day, most days of the week. The same is true for loud fans and extreme overheating. They might not notice the hard drive light, but if it drained the battery too quickly, they would complain for sure.

In the end, count yourself lucky that you've found a sympathetic group of people who simply don't share your experience or opinion and have the same standards and quality expectations as you, until proven otherwise.

 

Dagobert, the review itself was simply my experience with the SZ computer range with an obvious bias. It was expected that most replies here will be defensive posts re-enforcing how a particular person has had brilliant experience with their one vaio they've owned for x years. As you pointed out, why would a dissatisfied person continue to browse through a forum of enthusaists? I am an exception and for the reasons listed, I wrote this review to place some light on the true quality to expect from Sony.

You're right that no-one posted a similar story. I'm sure that no-one else is as stupid to purchase a vaio and exchange it four times. However lets summarise the facts. In this very thread, two people have mentioned they had or were to receive a yellow light band problem on the SZ. One of these people has had P1 to replace one for a perfect model before he received it. One of the two people also had light leakage and constant hard disk problems. This is within a bias sampling location where the majority of people who will write here are going to be positive about the quality control. This post was always going to be about how my experiences were, a review and a warning for other wanting to buy VAIO. Therefore the target was always going to be those who hadn't bought an SZ yet. Wonder why the complaints dont go here? Yet even when this is the case, two people have had this issue, in a sample space which is biased and comprising of around ten people? If we take P1's excellent quality control out of the question, thats around 20% of the people here (in a enthusiast magnet thread) agreeing that they have had problems with a SZ they received. Including those who believe Sony has bad quality control, thats almost 30%. Add me thats 30/40 respectively.

Really, look at the posts in the Sony discussion forum and see how many are related to problems with the yellow banding. something like fourty posts in one named 'SZ6 LED PROBLEM' about several other threads which list essentially the same thing. What about the number of people who mention other problems relating to what I've listed here. Light leakage, active hard disk, noisy fan? There are multiple threads regarding this and even polls of some of these issues. How can you ignore this and say Sony has good quality control. Even those in this thread that now have perfectly working SZs have acknowledged the poor QC of Sony.

 

szvaiouser,
You are not going to convince / convert many people here to your point of view. Those of us who have had the types of problems you experienced with your sonys have already had them repaired or sent back. After reading this thread, it has become obvious that it is time for you to cut your loses and move on. If you wrote your original post to " place some light on the true quality to expect from Sony", you have accomplish this many times over. This thread has now become somewhat of a flame exchange and needs to end.

 

yea, everyone who had the yellowbanding problem got it fixed and are now satisfied, so what you had bad luck. oh well, its gonna happen to someone no matter what brand, what product they buy. someone will always have a negative view of ANY product. whoop de do you had some bad luck. get over it.

look what happened with the xbox360, people who bought launch ones got the red ring of death. many did, wayyyy too many, but you know what, microsoft fixed it for free, and paid for shipping both ways. but some people still dont like the 360 because of that. same thing with you

whoop de do. get over it and stop posting crap

 

the majority of people are happy with their sz's.

and that says something, you're wrong

and all it shows is that you had bad luck. thats it

it seems you're the only one here who is/was unhappy with their laptop

 

Roor LOL.

Nice to hear your opinion. No-one asked for it but thanks anyway. This is a review. If you don't like it, dont post so many times. you dont have to justify anything.

 

boo hoo, boo hoo

you had some bad luck, cry about it =)

 

you're just biased now because you had some bad luck.

you're not gonna convince anyone that sony makes bad laptops

 

1.) The fact that majority (more than 50%) of people are happy with their SZ does not mean quality control is good. I think any company producing 25% lemon computers (as a reasonable estimate for Sony) is not doing well by any means in terms of quality control.

2. What am i wrong about? That I have had bad experiences with SZ that lead to my conclusions? How is what you are telling me going to prove I'm wrong that I had four lemons?

3. I am not the only one who is unhappy with my laptop. Look around the forums. At least fifty people or MORE have had problems relating to those I've seen.

 

yes, but they sent them back and got new ones that were free of those problems. and now they are happy

and its more than 50%

and this forum represents a very small amount of people who own sz's.
take that into consideration

why dont you try calling sony and talking to them, maybe you'll get an sz that has no problems