Sony Vaio BX543B - Houston, we have a problem!

Hello all. I was hoping to type up a glowing review for my Sony Vaio BX543B but my excitement has been placed on hold, for now. The notebook was shipped to me yesterday, 11/30/05 but I'm already encountering problems.

The following is what happened when the issue began. Hooked the ac adaptor to the notebook, the Vaio started up just fine. Username/passwords/fingerprint was set up. Decided to uninstall the trial Norton Anti-Virus and AOL. Time to restart... the restart process gets stuck w/ "Windows is shutting down" message. Had to hardboot.

2nd attempt to restart the notebook went ok. 3rd attempt, I get the infamous blue screen of death w/ the message: "Stop: C000021a {Fatal System Error} The Windows Logon Process Systems process terminated unexpectedly with a status O f (0x00000000 0x00000000). The system has been shut down." Oh fudge, I'm no tech... hardboot again.

4th and 5th attempt to restart went fine w/o a hitch. 6th try, I get "Windows is shutting down" message and it gets stuck again. Hardboot.

I was informed by a coworker of mine that it's possible that the applications/OS was loaded incorrectly. He suggested I reload the recovery disk and wipe everything out clean and start from scratch. What do you guys propose I do? Y'alls help will be greatly appreciated.

***Someone had asked in another thread where the BX series were made from. Mine says China. If it's any consolation, the battery is made in Japan ***

 

Hi Chong. I would try to recover first before calling support. Maybe your friend is right about how they loaded up the applications. After all, you woulnd't loose anything doing it so give it a try.

BTW: I just knew about the BX series now after reading your post and I have a question for you, does your model comes with the Motion EYE (the camera) ? I am very impressed. If you could take some pictures of it to see it would be very appreciated!

 

hope you can get it working, I wanna read a BX review before I buy a W3V.

 

That's just great, I typed up an initial review but it didn't get posted. DOH!

 

My knowledge of PCs/laptops is limited to what I consider as slightly above average. In other words, take what I say for what it’s worth, it’s just my 2 cents.

Aesthetically, the Sony Vaio BX543B is pleasing to the eye. I would have preferred the Onyx black but the silver is definitely not a let down, not dull at all. The layout of the keys is functional and nice. Not too small and not too big. You’ll be able to navigate from key to key with ease. I read somewhere on this forum someone mentioning how the keyboard was flimsy on the 17” version of the BX. I beg to differ, on par w/ other manufacturers.

Besides booting up, the 1st test I did was the monitor pliability test. Compared to other notebooks such as Dell Latitude D600, the monitor is quite sturdy. With the same pressure given on the back of the Vaio BX534B and the Latitude D600, the Vaio wins out. So far so good.

During my test run, the ac adaptor was connected to the notebook for power. The duration, roughly an hour and ten minutes. From a scale of 1 – 10, 1 being cold; 5 warm; 10 hot, after letting it run for 1:10, I would have to say b/w 6.5 – 7.5. Not too hot where it’s unbearable to place the notebook on your lap for a plane ride from Dallas to D.C. The fan noise was almost faint. Unless I was looking at the screen, I would not have realized it was on.

I haven’t really had the opportunity to venture too much other then removing Norton Anti-Virus / AOL and password setups. I do want to comment on the ease of setting up the Biometric Fingerprint Sensor. For those who are not familiar w/ this feature, you are able to store up to 10 fingerprint images per user. In this way, rather than entering your password or simply b/c you forgot, you can swipe one of the scanned finger and access your notebook.

If you guys would like additional pics of the Vaio BX543B besides the generics that Sony has to offer, let me know. I’ll try to get some shots at the angles of your choosing.

Well, this is all I have to say so far but as soon as I’m done working, I’ll be on the Vaio like a fly on a cow dung. Ok, bad image but the only analogy I can think of. Hope this helps.

 

Almost forgot, the Vaio I chose did not come w/ the Motion Eye camera. If the camera is similar to the one that is installed on the FJ170, it's rather good considering the .3 megapixel. **I've seen the pictures taken w/ the FJ170.** I would have to say the quality is similar to an above average camera phone.

 

I'd love to see some additional pics and look forward to hearing more of your thoughts once you had it for awhile.

Also, just out curiosity where did you purchase from?

 

What I would really like to know is about the quality of the pointing stick! I generally dont stray from Thinkpads because I much prefer these to touchpads, and have bad memories of the crappy ones on Dells. In pictures the buttons look a bit flat. Any comments? Thanks!

 

I ordered custom built BX540.
Processor - Pentium M 780
RAM: 512MB (free upgrade from 256MB, Sony charge you $290 for 1GB RAM. I will purchase seperately and upgrade it to 1GB)
Disk: 40GB (Will purchase seperately and upgrade to 100GB)
I will receive it on Monday! Woohoo! Anyway.... I'll post a mini review as soon as I put my hands on it.

Chong, it is my habit to reformat or load recovery disc to the laptop for the first use. Manufacturers usually load bunch of craps on it, especially Norton softwares. Just load the OS and drivers, play with it a little, then load your gear in there for your own use.

 

It looks like reloading the OS took care of the problem. So far, I'm pleased w/ the BX435B.

The notebook was ordered from pcsuperdeals.com on 11/29/05. Received it on 11/30/05, no friggin' lie. They have a distribution warehouse about an hour away from where I live. No tax since they're a California based company. Got the link from this site.

I've never used the pointing stick before but I'm liking this function more than the pad. It's seems more controlable. Only drawback for me is that the base of my palm touches the pads' right button.

 

Chong, how's the keyboard? I'm kinda worry about the keyboard quality. I played with 17" version of BX series in Office Depot, and the keyboard is kinda cheap, loud, and flimsy. But I haven't the keyboard on 14" version yet. I had S480 before and its keyboard was excellent, comparable to Lenovo's.