[brandonbmx1]

Hey,

Does anyone know anything about sony vaio notebooks? I am looking at the sony vaio k37 (click here for specs)

Does anyone know of any problems with this laptop or sony vaios in general? Does anyone think its a good decision? I am an engineering major so i need one that can handle CADD and other software. I also do a lot of photoshop, flash, and html projects. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks.

[CadGuy]

Hi brandonbmx1

I worked with a guy a while back who bought one of those about 3 years ago. A short time after he bought it he had problems with both the HD and CD. He claims that when he priced out the replacement parts they were 2-3 times the price of regular replacements due to proprietary components. I don't know if this is true or not so you may want to check this out before you purchase.

I'm using a Compaq presario 2100 for Acad and CNC apps and have had no problems with performance and I really drive it hard sometimes.

Just my opinions...

[TechGuy]

Unfortunately, just about any laptop uses proprietary parts... they are very expensive for any laptop.

I've personally owned two IBMs, two Toshibas, and a Sony laptop. I've worked on too many Dells to even consider one, but if I were to go out and buy a new one today I would probably buy a Sony or an IBM.

My personal vote.

[hermes]

I have a VAIO and it has certain strange peculiarities.

1. You cannot click on the D drive in Explorer or it crashes explorer
2. It takes an eternity to boot
3. If you try to adjust or open the volume control before it has completely booted it opens the volume control 32 times
4. Screen is loose and has been almost since day 1
5. Support is appalling. My colleague bought his at the same time and had an issue with it. He rang Sony support and was told they couldn't help as it was an obsolete model, three weeks after selling him it.

[pjblevin]

I've worked on a couple of Sony's (never owned one), but I can say they are absolutely the easiest to deal with when it comes to reinstallation of Windows. You just put disc 1 into the tray and let it run. No fancy booting up or going into the bios and all that. Just put it in the tray. When it's finished, you're instructed to insert disc 2. And so forth. After all the discs have run, you've got a machine with a fresh installation of Windows. It's a dream.

[replay]

my friend bought a top of the line sony about a year ago...he had probs with it right out of the box(it had a fast cpu and got hot) he returned it for another...it wasn't long before the same problems arose..... he got so frustrated with it he literally threw it in the trash can

[Fyzbo]

1. You cannot click on the D drive in Explorer or it crashes explorer
2. It takes an eternity to boot
3. If you try to adjust or open the volume control before it has completely booted it opens the volume control 32 times
4. Screen is loose and has been almost since day 1
5. Support is appalling. My colleague bought his at the same time and had an issue with it. He rang Sony support and was told they couldn't help as it was an obsolete model, three weeks after selling him it.

I would just like to point out that 1-3 are all software problems. I don't know about anyone else, but for me, when buying a new computer software doesn't matter. Software will be changed and upgrade, it's the hardware that's important.

My labtop is a SONY Vaio and I love it. It's one of their slim models so its' extremely light. It's going on 4 years without a single flaw in the hardware. Even the battery still holds a full charge. I have upgraded to a new version of windows and I was able to find all of the drivers I needed on the sony website. More than you can say for HP or Compq.

Sony does cost more than other brands, but I believe it is worth it.

[borgdoc379]

I have a K37 and am having problems w/ trying to get the Sony Fn drivers to work w/ XP Pro, anyone else have this problem or know of a fix aside from reinstalling XP Home?

BTW, aside from the short battery life (90 min), loud CPU cooling fan, and I've had towers lighter than this laptop I have to say I like it. The wide viewing angle of the screen makes it handy for small group presentations.

[linskyjack]

Love my Vaio---

[llsee]

My VAIO laptop is 4 years old and still going strong. Not a single problem in all this time.

[Suprem]

I would recommend toshiba, I have one and it is very reliable, Dell's I would shot myself before I get another dell(They put more time into their desktops then their labtops) and sony I have not had one or owned one, But I hear good thing's and then bad thing's.

[pjblevin]

I just got my 17" Toshiba laptop from Ubid, and it's GORGEOUS. $1469. Had it only a few days, but love it.

pjblevin

[borgdoc379]

Sony laptops are good, the support can be so-so, I tried calling Sony technical support and couldn't understand the person, outsourced to ___? Their chat help was better, though their first reaction was to tell me that XP Home was the only authorized software package for the Vaio K37 and kept sending me links to the Sony troubleshooting site. The probelm was resolved by finally emailing Sony and explaining the problem. Apparently someone there could read and understand English and sent me a link to an online support page which explained how to upgrade the drivers for XP Home to Pro http://ESupport.sony.com//support/po...clean.html#pre

[dbs1uk]

From my experiance with Sony laptops I would say that they are very good laptops overall with good compatablity - work great with loads of linux distros. However, if you get a bad model you might as well throw it away because the support is non-existant. You might think that sony laptops are mostly good and there aren't that many duds, but absolutely loads of all the sony laptops have exactly the same problem - refusing to power on. The only fix for this is to leave all power disconnected for several days, or replace the motherboard (very costly). The second common problem is in the build quality - screens are often badly fixed to the hinges. This may be due to the screws that are being used, or just a lack of screws to hold it. Anyway these screws often come loose and then the screen is just being held by the plastic surround which will eventually crack.

I'm sorry if this sounds like a very negative post, I do think that sony's are good laptops overall, just pray you don't get any problems

[mattbro75]

Never buy a Sony laptop. Decent enough machine, but the support is a full-on disaster. Also, Sony is WAAY over priced for the technologyt they sell. As one person said, if anything goes wrong with it just throw it away. The support will not help you in any way.

Dell is pretty much in the same categroy here, but slightly better.

Get a Alienware machine. Fast, slick, and service that blows me away everytime I deal with them. Dead pixil? AUTOMATIC replacement.

My current laptop is my 7th one ever, and my 1st Alienware. It truly is a different world.

What's weird is, they are also about less than Sony, IBM, or Dell.

When I bought my most recent laptop I priced out Dell, HP, Sony, IBM, and Gateway all for the same or close as poss specs.

Alienware which had the best support ratings at every opinion site came out around $500 less than Sony, Gateway, and IBM which were the most expensive. Alien was about $100 less than Dell, and HP was less than Alien again by about $100.

Problem with HP was their components weren't quite up to speed. For instance Alien included 1 gig of SDRAM 1 dimm, while HP had 1 gig of RDRAM 2 dimm.

Now, my primary PC and my laptop are Aliens. Go their site and read up on them a bit.

Alienware