The myth of the Sony 'kill switch' - telegraph.co.uk

Probably the dumbest thing I've read on web.....but open to talk.....

 

Looks like i will be fine as i watch around 8 hours a day, so it will only last me 3 months or so.

 

Yeah, pretty dumb. Considering that the average TV viewing time is around 4 hours a day for men, 5 for women and 3 for children, and there's not a perfect overlap, each TV set is on for around 6 hours a day on average.
This would mean that Sony would have programmed their TV sets to die in the middle of the warranty period, which seems like an exceedingly stupid thing to do.

 

What the hell?

 

It's interesting Sony admit that their TV's(Few Models) have kill timer which refuse to on after 1200hrs usage. They even released the patch.

 

I dont know you, but if a make of tv, ect dies on me just after the warranty expires, I would no go out a buy the same make again.

 

same here. If this is true it's going to be a huge PR disaster for Sony.

 

i'm japanese and my family's owned many sony electronics in the past, and we all do believe in the "sony timer." i swear it exists. so does my family, so do my co-workers. tv, vcr, stereo, headphones, laptop, it's all happened. of course we are sane enough not to believe in a remote kill switch. but anyways i used to be a sony fanboy, but for the past 8 years or so i refused to get anything made by them because of this. however i think i'm gonna have to give into the vaio cw...

 

I was just thinking , I dont have any Sony stuff, and then i realized i have a PS3 and a Walkman Mp3 player

 

This sounds absolutely absurd. It's interesting to note that the myth is predominant in Japan, Sony's home country. What's everyone's experiences with Sony products, especially laptops?

We have quite a few Sony products in our home (most were bought in the last year or so, so I can't really tell much since they're practically new) but we never had any major problems with them.

The first Sony product I bought was a Mini Stereo about 5 years ago and it's still working fine, even after it's been carried, sat on, and kicked. I also have a set of cheap headphones (30 bucks) bought a few weeks after the stereo so still around 5 years old. Other than the fact that the plastic band snapped on one side (easily fixed with some superglue), they still work fine.

Other products such as my laptop, TV, digital camera, second pair of more expensive (and hopefully better) headphones, and alarm clock are relatively new so I can't say (Yes, I'm becoming a Sony fanboy).

 

Same here my PS3...duh..

 

i have one laptop VAIO when i was in college, bought in early 2007 (warranty end ages ago), and it still dont have any prob. so..does it count? D:
and now i have another VAIO. oh no!

 

I have a TZ (warranty expired) and a Z. Does this crazy theory count on VAIO's?

 

Who make VAIO's?

 

Sony makes them.

 

My Sony S2XP is still going strong and is now over 4 years old.

 

I have a 4.5 years old Vaio (S5 series). I use it and have used it a LOT, but until now I had no problems at all.

 

I've never had a problem with a computer dying - Sony or otherwise. Components will go bad over the years, but it's usually the ones with moving parts like HDD/CD-RWs/fans, and they're easily replaced.

Whenever I read articles like this about computer reliability, I wonder: What has to happen for computers to be "killed"? Or are these people having minor component malfunctions and don't know that there's a low-cost DIY fix? Good grief.

BTW, I have a Sony Bravia TV and PS3 that are going strong well past their warranty. If that weren't the case, I certainly would not have bought Sony replacements and I would not be considering a VAIO.

 

the article is directed to japanese demographic. 1 japanese member confirmed about the urban legend so i frankly believe it. big corporations are dodgy.

my ps3 that i bought since day 1 was flawless. i dont use it frequently maybewhen i pay for a bluray movie which is rare. nevertheless, the new slim ps3 came out.. and my ps3 is exhibiting issues to be concerned about. eg. fan is louder, the cd is making lots of noise... things that never occurred in the past... maybe it's just wear and tear...

 

My New Xbox 360 is five times as loud as my PS3 slim

 

I looked at your signature line after reading this and shook my head. Huh???

Gary

 

lol McDonalds engineers every one of their products to die. Every time I eat a hamburger, it just disappears and I have to buy another one...

 

I had a Sony S series laptop bought in 2006. I sold it earlier this year and it was working 100% fine.

Some serious hot garbage being spewed.

 

The article is clearly mischievous and intended to subtly sow doubts in the minds of Sony buyers and even more importantly, potential buyers.

The oldest Sony product that I have currently, is the Sony CRT XBR HDTV that I bought in 2003. It just refuses to die and I personally don't have the heart to get rid of it, since the sheer contrasts it offers on its screen, is simply not matched by my Plasma TV, with really deep blacks and overall accurate colors.

Wonder when the "evil Sony empire" is going to activate the mythical "kill switch" in this product that simply is engineered to go on and on and on for years.

 

It seems the benefit Sony would gain from this (shortening the replacement life cycle of their products by 25% or so) would be no where near the risk they would be exposing themselves to if discovered (possible bankruptcy if customers found their products were deliberately sabotaged).

If Sony's a rational actor (and I believe they are... ATRAC etc to the contrary) then there is no way this could be true.

 

A kill switch? I don't think so lol.

 

Sony notebook battery`s had a kill switch literately a year or two ago. , the burn your house down kind.

 

Are you being serious? lol

 

http://cbs2.com/national/Sony.Battery.Recall.2.273509.html

BUT THAT WAS A FEW YEARS AGO, THEY ARE OK NOW.

 

It would seem that Sony did not do that deliberately, they messed up with the batteries and lost billions of Yen in profits, I haven't really heard of any Sony related issues with their products lately, last time I heard about all this was back in 2007.

Oh, well I see you noted that it was a few years ago, so we are in agreement about the issue then.

 

despite everyone's good experiences i personally still am wary about sony. one thing i will say though, the old old SR series notebook from back around 2000 is still working. but the battery on that died after about 1 year and only 30 cycles or so. and then the hard drive died after about 4 years. my experiences happened 2001 and earlier, and sony may be ok now. but since then i've really never bought any sony electronics due to my trauma. actually that's not true, i bought a sony cell phone in like 2003, joystick became screwed up after about a year. yup, my experiences back up the sony timer. :S

 

You really have to wonder why Sony, in its home country, is plagued with such a rumour... I mean, faulty products regardless of whether they fail in or after warranty is bound to bring bad reputation in the end, period. Curious whether other brands in Japan or otherwise have similar rumours.

Though.... I always thought Samsung mobiles (at least, just Samsung mobiles) had a similar timer but after a year and a half-ish. But that was 3 years ago - haven't tried another Samsung phone after one went beserk on me in an exam (it was DEFINATELY turned off in silent mode, no alarms / schedules set). Luckily, I threw the phone on the floor and and stood on it, a US$500 at the time, and the examiners were shell-shocked... And let me off (after a brief explanation)....

 

No Sony product that my family has bought in the last 7 years has broke down completely, and half of those are 'seconds'. We have 1 TV, 1 stereo, 1 DVD recorder, 1 USB stick, 4-5 sets of headphones, 2 CD players, 4 MP3 players, 1 digital camera, 1 alarm clock, 1 computer screen and probably some other stuff to that I have forgotten.

The only problem that we have had is with my FZ when the 8400GT failed, which was more Nvidias fault then Sonys.

Sony though failed to take the warning from me that it was going to die when I reported to them that I was getting temperatures that were far too high. They said the problem was dust, and essentially blamed me for not cleaning the notebook enough. A pretty stupid thing for them to say because in order for me clean the fans I would have to open the notebook up and void the warranty. 6 weeks later the GPU failed while I was writing an assignment, they did however admit fault was on their part and extended my warranty to two years.

So no I do not believe in the Sony kill switch. However, I do believe like every other electronics manufacturers Sony can produce a faulty product. I would go so far to say that claims that Sony's products are overly faulty is completely over the top, they just get unfairly targetted.

 

In short, Japanese culture opens for it. Individual Japanese people may be rational, but as a whole, Japan is one of the most superstitious countries in the world, and prone to irrational beliefs.

In a poll, more than 80% of Japanese believed in the gambler's fallacy (if you lose three times in a row, the chances of losing a fourth time is lower). This could perhaps explain the fascination with pachinko and similar games that sell on sooner or later becoming "due" for a change of luck.

In the 60s, one year the number of births dropped by a staggering 13% or so in Japan. The reason was superstitious belief.

Then there's the irrational fear of certain numbers. I'm willing to bet good money that the successor to Playstation 3 will not be called Playstation 4, and the reason is superstition.

And let's not even start with how more than half the population in Japan believes there is some link between blood type and personality.

In short, unfounded beliefs like this have an easier time being accepted in Japan, even though there are plenty of rational Japanese who will debunk it and put forward more plausible explanations.

But as with any superstition, there's a grain of truth. If you change your TV every three years, why would the manufacturer want to pay extra to ensure you get parts that last for ten?
So yeah, things break. Because we've become consumers who value features over quality. But they're not designed to break at a certain time, they're just not designed to last a much longer time, because we are not willing to pay the price.

 

I'm not a Sony fanboy (I love my Nintendos and Xboxes) but my brothers PSP has served faithfully, past its warranty. It show no signs of premeditated disabling. My laptop (although the warranty hasn't expired) shows no signs of planning not to boot... However, my brother and I bought identical sets of headphones (Sony MDR-EX36) and mine failed within 1 month, however his set is still running fine. =[

 

I have a sony tv that is older than 20 years old, it has about a 20in screen, weighs about close to 300 pounds which means if you dont have enough people to help you move it, you have to keep flipping it on its side to move it (which we have done multiple times), also its outer shell is made out of wood which i think is the reason it is so heavy and it still runes perfectly fine. we even still use it when we play Nintendo 64 (the best system EVER invented) because the newer55in sony LCD tv pixelates the characters to much and it looks real ugly. also im typeing this post on a 5 year old sony S series which still runes fine except it runs loud and a little slow, but im fine with that for now becuase im waiting on the new Z series. so in my opinion sony is one of the best companies i have ever seen and will continue to buy sony products for many many years to come.

 

I'm a Korean native and we have that myth... Being an A means I'm a shy nut-case...

Though it's rather, let's say unfair on Sony then (and other companies if there are any). Someone I guess made a small rumour and it just escalated into those household, dinner-table conversations.

And to add to the timer theory. I've got a genuine Sony Microvault (the generation before the Click came out), a 8GB little wonder that is still running strong. Had it for 3 years now and apart from superficial scratches, all good. And all this despite the fact that that particular model doesn't have a good life-expectancy review.

 

Speaking of Samsung. Their laser printers have a "feature" that shuts down their printers after printing so many pages. They do this, because they feel the transfer belt will "explode" and make a mess if you use it for too many pages. Luckily looking out on the web I found a reset function and was able to reset it. To tell you how much they are full of it, I reset it and have printed over 2500 pages with no issues. When I start up the printer it tells me to change the transfer belt, but it will still print after using the reset function. It has been working like this for over 2 years and we have done some major printing on it since at one point we owned our own business and were printing fliers and coupons on it. I was very upset when it would not let me print after 2 years of using it. Especially since I had a ton of toner for it, so I was very happy to get the information from a message board on how to reset it and what Samsung says about this "feature". But users who do not know better would go out and discover the cost of a transfer belt is almost as expensive as the printer itself and just go out and get a new printer.

So I don't think Sony is the only company to do this kind of stuff. I have never seen something as blantant as the Samsung one from Sony.

 

Several companies do such tricks, for the very simple reason that the margins on the aftermarket/repair/spares side of the house is several times more than the margins on the OEM side.

There is a certain lifespan engineered into the componentry and their aftermarket sales projections are based on their customers requiring to replace those components in their equipment, after its lifespan is up. More expensive and higher-end models have longer life-spans engineered into them - but then you pay for that up-front.

In case of things like laptops, it does not matter if the components are designed to last for ever, under current usage conditions, since it is secondary factors like newer software not being able to run on current/older hardware, that makes the whole thing obsolete after a while - forcing an involuntary upgrade. I am happy if a brand-new laptop I purchase, will last for 5 years (my current Lenovo is getting really close to giving up the ghost).

 

I understand items being engineered to only last x amount of years. Because most people change their TVs, Laptops, etc in x amount of years. So why spend more money on researching and material to make something last longer than the average user uses it.

What I don't get is building in a timer, so that something will stop working whether the parts have broken down or not. To me that is stupid and because of it I will never buy another Samsung printer. The transfer belt was not broken, the printer had just decided it might break because I have printed x number of sheets. And then for Samsung to market this as a "feature" to me was even worse.