VAIO FJ270 Problems - what to do?

Ok, since July 8th, when I purchased my computer, I have encountered these problems, ordered in increasing severity/importance:

- The screen occasionally flickers when running on battery

- There is a faint, high pitched, and extremely annoying noise emanating from the laptop, around the screen/battery area. This occurs when running on battery and also when charging.

- The bottom of the laptop gets excessively hot after a short period (15-30 minutes) of light usage (idling/internet use)

- The DVD burner doesnt burn DVDs. Or, more correctly, it doesn't recognize blank or unfinalized DVDs, of either R or RW format. I couldn't actually burn my recovery discs because of this. I have tested it out, and it recognizes DVD movies and system discs (Vista RC1 installation DVD), and can burn CD's as well, but for something advertised as a DVD burner, thats kinda pathetic.

- This is the big one: one of the two slots for memory is broken, and when there is a memory module in it, the laptop becomes extremely unstable (prone to restarts, sometimes doesn't start at all). It does work perfectly when there isnt memory occupying that slot, but then I am running it on 512MB of memory, which really doesnt suit my needs as well as I would like.

What do you guys suggest I should do? I am going to call the Sony tech support people shortly, but is there anything I should do before that?

 

Well the flicker problem is most likely a messed up LCD inverter which is fairly common, not in a new laptop though, get that fixed asap. The high pitched noise is also common and happens in any Core 2 Duo or Core Duo notebook...so that cannot be fixed. Your notebook sounds pretty messed up tell them all your problems and see if they will send you a new one. All the problems can be fixed easy enough except for the memory slot one which would require a new mobo.. good luck

 

Yea, thanks. I originally bought a Sony to avoid all of these problems. Before this I had a Toshiba that suffered a hard drive crash after 9 months....blah...My first laptop was a P3 Sony VAIO FX whose only problem was the fact that its outdated (my mom still uses it for internet).

 

It was a Toshiba 30GB 4200RPM hard drive....its Toshiba's problem. That, and I hated every aspect of the keyboard.

I'm going to call Sony support tomorrow morning, and see what they can do about my laptop.

 

My first Sony was the FJ270/b, and my biggest (maybe only?) issue with it was the noise that you talked about in your second point. It drove me absolutely crazy.

The FJs don't even have Core Duos, or Core 2 Duos, if I remember right. The noise seemed to be more particular to the model itself. I ended up sending the FJ in for repair a couple of times to try and correct the issue --- on the second occasion, when Sony found that it wasn't a problem particular to my laptop (rather a build problem), they offered me an exchange. I used the money I had spent on the FJ to purchase a SZ.

Oh ------ I also remember that I DID end up exchanging my original FJ for another one (at Circuit City, where I purchased it originally), and both machines produced that terrible sound. I can't believe how annoying it was!!

Best of luck!

 

I have a FJ270, and I too had experienced the high pitch noise while running on battery. I couldn't stand it so I started disabling devices in the Device Manager. It all came down to the webcam. Once I disabled the webcam, the noise would stop, but once I enabled it again, the noise would come back within 10 seconds. I haven't had any problem with the noise while running on battery after disabling the cam, however, I still hear the noise after I turn off my notebook, which sucks.

I haven't had a chance to see if the "webcam trick" works on other FJ's, but that's what I did, and it solved my problem...I don't really use the webcam, so disabling it to get rid of that noise was a good trade-off for me...

 

I had forgotten about this ---- my FJ also continued to make noises when powered off, which was awful. Sony techs said there was nothing that could be done about that particular problem. The only way I got it to stop was removing the battery.

 

Meh, I actually use the webcam....so I dont really want to disable it. But there are still all the other issues...The RAM is really the killer, I'm sick of running on 512MB, so slooooooooooooooooooooow

 

Reviving my own thread:

I got it sent in to Sony, and it came back with the motherboard replaced (so now the RAM works) and had the CPU fan cleaned and same with the lens on the DVD-RW drive.

Here are the new problems (in 9 days of usage, 3 of which it was sitting in my room while I was on vacation):

- They stole my 512MB Memory Stick Pro Duo!!! Ok, not stole, but it was in the memory card reader when I sent it in, but not when I got it back.

- The front status indicator lights for system power and wireless don't work (Hard Drive activity and Battery/charging do work though).

- The wireless connection has gotten very unreliable and spotty (using the same connections as before - both home and UW/department networks)

- It still makes the annoying buzzing noise, and its really loud too. It occurs while running on battery, charging, stand by, hibernate, and off (shut down). If plugged in when in the off/sleep modes, its doubly louder, such that it keeps me awake at night. (Yea, that gets annoying after a while; I don't get enough sleep as is....)

- The LCD is still flickering occasionally, usually when on AC power/charging and lowest brightness. Which brings me to my next problem....

- The LCD brightness/backlight is constantly changing from lowest to highest brightness when the position of the laptop screen is moved. This gets particularly annoying on the bus, where the bumps in the road cause almost constant flashing light on my screen. Its doubly worse because of the FJ's wide range from lowest to highest brightness. I can't use my laptop on the bus anymore, it gives me a major headache. At certain angles (like the one I use most often) the brightness will change back and forth automatically, like a strobe light. And the brightness controls don't function to change the brightness, you do that by changing the angle of the screen. This happens under all states of use (batter/AC power, full/min brightness [which doesn't change a thing anyways], full CPU power/slowest setting, etc). It has rendered the laptop partially unusable.

- The laptop still runs extremely hot after a short while of usage. I never hear the fan running, thus letting the computer become very hot on the underside (uncomfortable to tough, much less to put on your lap). Whether this is a design flaw or an actual defect of the computer, I do not know.

- The DVD-RW drive burns blank DVD's only sometimes. Also, blank DVD media is recognized as blank CDs, and it will not let you burn anything from Windows Explorer; you *must* go to the media burning software (Nero or Roxio)

- The built-in webcam disappears (from Windows, not physically) every time the lid is closed; although it is not a problem in the sense that I will never use the camera when the lid is closed (because its impossible to do so), it is a problem with the connection in the camera, or onto the computer. Also, when the speakers are on and the lid is closed, the "disconnecting a device" and "reconnecting a device" sounds are played. I only just figured out why that sound was coming when I closed the lid.

- And they've physically damaged my laptop: there are scratches on the left palm rest, chipped paint on the hard drive cover, and the memory cover has been warped (it makes an annoying rattling noise when moved, like on the bus - another reason why it is unusable in a vehicle. Removing it and putting it back on doesn't fix the problem, leading me to believe that it has been warped)

All this after they've supposedly "fixed" my computer....Can I ask for my money back, or ask for a replacement laptop? If I have this many problems within 9 months of use, whats going to happen after my warranty expires? I wish there were lemon laws for laptops...........Ick >.<

What disturbs me almost as much though, is that I sent it in to get it repaired for some of these same reasons: The buzzing noise has in fact gotten much worse, the LCD still flickers, the DVDRW does burn DVDs now, but it still cannot do so in Windows Explorer, and to this they have added many many more problems, some of which are serious vices and others of which are annoying inconveniences. Here is the real reason never to buy a Sony computer again.

 

Ok, I called tech support yesterday, and after being told all of the problems, the only ones he said he could fix were the LCD flickering and the buzzing noise. When asked about the backlight flickering, he told me that I would have to figure that out myself, by "putting a piece of duct tape over it". "Are you asking me to put a piece of duct tape over the screen, or actually open the screen up and put a piece of duct tape over the backlight inside the screen?" "Oh, were you talking about the screen's backlight?" "What the hell else do you think I've spent the last 10 minutes telling you about? The light behind you or something?" Silence....*beep*ing retard....

I must ask, what about the rest of the problems then? Is it my fault that the front indicator lights don't work, because I bought a crappily built computer and then handed it to incompetent repair technicians that forgot to reconnect all the wires to the motherboard after they replaced it? Stupid Sony.....

 

I swear, this sounds like a neat bed-time pint-with-mates story, had it only not been true, I'd be like, oh, neat imagination there mate.

Heh. Big Heh.

Just proves the whole point of the usual story once more, if you want something done, do it yourself. Just proves also sony's got monkeys in for techies. I mean come on, just google for 'sony MODEL disassembly' there's plenty of those guides out there- how incompetent can one be to be working at tech support and actually being unable to do whatever some third party hackers can fiddle through in no-time? bah. next time pass it to a mate who's got the proper papers - prolly a lot quicker and better that way plus you might beg him/her to let you watch the magic works - get it sorted yourself once the warranty's off you know.

cheers and good luck with the tossers at sony!

 

Oh, I could probably do it myself, but its still under warranty, and motherboard/screen replacements are expensive.

This was the higher level tech support, too....

 

Ok, so I have received the FJ back from Sony repair center. I sent it in on the 29th of April, so excluding the 3 weekend days that delayed shipping (one on the way there, two on the way back) and 2 days for actual shipping, it has been 10 days that Sony has had the laptop.

In the 10 minutes that I have been using it, it appears that the screen and backlight have been fixed and so have the status LEDs on the front. The webcam still performs its disappearing act though, I will have to ask about that. Maybe I will reinstall the camera drivers and see.
I think the DVD drive was my problem, the disc I was using wasn't formatted properly. No cosmetic damage this time, although there are a bunch of fingerprints all over it. WiFi seems to be working fine at my house, I'll check at school tomorrow.
Heat and noise are two things that I cannot comment on yet, having only just received it.

Update: 1 Hour [usage: Internet at full brightness and half the time spent on battery]
It still makes the noise when on battery; I don't know if the noise is there when it is off or in standby. I plugged it back in, and the noise is now gone.
The laptop is still pretty cool after an hour of light usage. It is getting progressively warmer on the bottom though.
Next update: 1 Day

I will use it for about a week and see what happens in that time.

 

What a pain!

 

Yes, an extreme pain. Hopefully this time its actually fixed, otherwise I will demand a new laptop that actually works. Its getting really annoying and is really disrupting my work.

 

Update: it still makes the noise when on battery. This is getting annoying dammit. I want my computer FIXED!

I don't know if the noise is there when it is off or in standby. The laptop is still pretty cool after being used (for surfing and NBR) for almost an hour now, so hopefully it doesn't get as hot.

 

I reached the same point you're at with my FJ ----- the noise, in particular, was the thing the bothered me most (I also had sent my FJ in for service to correct this many, many times). I ended up telling Sony that I couldn't use the notebook as I had hoped, as the noise was severly distracting in small business meetings, etc. They eventually offered to let me exchange it, even though I was past the normal return/exchange period (not to mention I had bought it at Circuit City).