My Sony Vaio is broken. Please fix it.
[Updated: Good news: Sony is sending someone to my office to replace the touch pad. Hopefully that will do the trick.] I’m going off topic here, so bear with me.
Last year I bought a Sony Vaio SZ750N for about $2,000. The specs are awesome: 13″ screen, under 4 pounds, screen just a few millimeters thick, and integrated Sprint EVDO. It’s perfect for writing on the go and connecting to a fast wireless network.
Unfortunately the computer is a lemon. It has a few problems, but the main one is the touchpad. After a couple months of using the computer, the touchpad started to go in reverse. I’d move the cursor to the right and it would go left. I’d move it up and it would go down.
A lot of people have this problem, especially with the Sony Vaio SZ series. Check out the 248 comments about this problem over at CNET.
Early fixes people tried, including sending their laptops back to Sony and having them wiped clean, were only temporary fixes. (One poor guy sent his computer back three times, was without it for 10 days as they worked on it, and the computer still isn’t fixed!) Since no one could get it fixed, I settled on a low-tech fix: learning to use the touchpad backwards. Seriously, that was how desperate I became.
That worked for awhile, until I encountered other touchpad problems people wrote about on the CNET forum. Such as my cursor on the screen wigging out. It goes out of control for about 15 seconds, jumping all over the screen and opening and closing programs. Or it just freezes up and stops working all together. Sometimes the keyboard stops working, too.
It will be hard to bring you live coverage of DOMAINfest with this problem. Or I might be giving a presentation on my laptop and suddenly the controls will freeze up — ouch.
As it turns out, the problem is likely with the hardware. The way the Sony Vaio is engineered, the touchpad gets interference. If you use an external mouse it works fine. It can be fixed, if you are willing to pry apart your computer into many pieces and add insulating tape around your touchpad. I’m serious, click the link in the last sentence to see it.
Apparently Sony finally started to pay attention to this issue. A group called “Sony Listens” pays attention to forums and posted an e-mail address on the CNET forum — [email protected] — for people to contact them. I e-mailed Sony Listens December 31 and haven’t heard back. Maybe they’re on vacation. But Hank, if you’re reading this, please get back to me soon at editor (at) domainnamewire.com. I’m heading out to L.A. in two weeks to cover a conference, and I won’t be pleased if I can’t use my $2,000 laptop.
Daniel Sanchez says
That’s why I stick to Macs! Worth every penny
notlikeyou says
Give this a whirl seems to be rather effective, names emails & addresses toward the bottom of the article.
http://consumerist.com/364718/sony-doesnt-repair-your-laptop-for-3-months-accuses-you-of-warranty-fraud
Andrew Allemann says
@notlikeyou – thanks, that’s my next step if this doesn’t get resolved.
Travis Kaspar says
Good luck. I was having a similar issue with my old iPod – the screen was responding as if I was manipulating the scroll wheel, jumping around from track to track or suddenly lowering the volume.
I finally tracked it down to interference from my iPhone (iInterference?) and if I kept them more than 2-3 feet apart things were fine. Given that your Sprint card is built in, I think you’re going to have a tough time doing the same.
jblack says
Once again, fantastic job outlining a common complaint objectively. I look forward hearing your interview with the CEO of Sony!
James says
My Step Dad got a Sony laptop. Not sure of the model. The screen went and PC World (in UK) said it would need to go back direct to Sony, to cut a long story short after pretending to be a lawyer PC World took it in for two weeks and fixed it. Would never go near one again.
James
Andrew Allemann says
Just got this email from a fellow domainer:
“Really love your post, as I have the exact same laptop and the exact same problem. I’ve had it over a year now and moved onto the Acceptance stage. I think I’m more used to using a reverse mouse at this point. Do let me know if you have any luck with getting it fixed”
Patrick McDermott says
“One poor guy sent his computer back three times…”
Andrew,
Any one who has to send a defective computer back 3 times deserves either a new, working computer or a refund.
Just as for cars it seems we need a Lemon Law for computers.
I just typed “computer lemon law” into Google and came across these very interesting sites:
http://www.computerlemonlaw.com/
The lawyers spearheading the movement for a computer lemon law,Kimmel & Silverman ,own the above site and have another one at:
http://www.lemonlaw.com/smartcomputing.html
I love their catch line:
“When Life Gives You Lemons. Sue”
Patrick McDermott says
Andrew,
Apparently the lawyers at ComputerLemonLaw.com will provide FREE legal assistance in dealing with the computer manufacturers.
They call it “Free Lemon Aid”
http://www.computerlemonlaw.com/rid.html
I don’t know if they cases from every State but it’s worth a try.
Andrew Allemann says
Thanks Patrick.
BTW, someone already owns SonyVaioSucks.com as a gripe site.
Patrick McDermott says
Andrew,
I had made a comment prior to # 8 but it never showed up.
When i tried it again it said something like
“Duplicate Comment”.
Any idea what happened?
Andrew Allemann says
Patrick – got caught in the spam filter. It’s showing now.
Adam says
I’ll trade you for my Dell XPS M1330. I’ve had a tech come to my house and replace the motherboard 3 times. . . 3!!! , 1 Dvd replacement and 1 new LCD. . . Now tell me why they’d do all that and not just give me a new machine. Now the audio is kaput (except with headphones) and I just don’t have the patience. You may see me in LA sporting a new Mac.
Ash says
Have the exact same model and the exact same problems Andrew.
I know of a couple more domainers that have the same laptop as well, the funny thing is that the more expensive version of this model is the only one with issues. Hope that Sony really listens at some point.
belshass says
hey Andrew.
Sorry to hear about your problems with sony.
Hope they can get it fixed before DOMAINfest.
on another note, maybe you should consider getting
‘the best NOTEBOOK in the world’.com
next time 😉
BestS,
Ritz
Andrew Allemann says
@ Adam – at least they came to your house to “fix” it. Sony wants you to send it to San Diego for 10 days.
@ Ash – I’ll let you know if I get resolution.
Andrew Allemann says
@ notlikeyou – I just tried the consumerist approach. I’ll see what happens.
jp says
@Andrew
Forget Sony (Unless the principle of the thing is really that important to you).
Bring it to DomainFest, I’ll take it to my shop and fix it for free before you leave town.
Andrew Allemann says
@ JP – thanks, that’s very generous. As an update, Sony sent someone to my office and replaced the touchpad. It seems to be working now.