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Now they want me to send it in and of course pay for it. Also, this thing is heavy and battery life is pretty bad (always under 2 hours from day one). Wasted an entire afternoon and of course it didn't help. So I did it. Sony support told me to wipe the entire machine and start from scratch. The DVD drive sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. They would not listen to me when I told them it won't help. Still exactly the same problem.
DVD movies are gorgeous, as are the HD videos on the Internet at Youtube, Hulu and other places. :-)On all the OSs I've used, the touch pad was a problem for me. It worked OK, but as I typed my hands would relax and some part of my thumb would touch the pad, making the mouse cursor jump to some other part of the screen. The Kubuntu repository has over 28,000 free applications, accessible through the package manager. In February, 2009, I decided to replace BOTH VISTA and Mandriva with Kubuntu 9,04 running the KDE 4.2.4 desktop after running Kubuntu in the LiveCD mode and noticing that it worked around the video chip defect and gave me stunning accelerated video.
The sticker on the laptop claiming it has a "Full HD 1080p" lies. What idiot thought that improved security. FireFox, OpenOffice, GIMP, Stellarium, QCad, KMyMoney2, VLC, GoogleEarth, Thunderbird, and TONS of games for the grandkids. Since I scrubbed the HD and made Kubuntu 9.04 the ONLY OS on the box it has been an excellent performer.
It would blink a bit and then the desktop would redisplay. It interfaces with my Sony VDR recorder, which allows me to view and record to DVDs the movies I make with my Sony Video camera. I am NEVER bothered by viruses, Trojans or adware, and bloatware is a thing of the past. Editing audio or movie files with one of several tools to choose from makes that chore a snap.
It rivals the Mac, and is certainly more affordable when running Kubuntu, which is free. Mandriva was bothered by the hardware defect that bothered VISTA. After almost 10 months of use I have to say that this laptop is the best computer I have ever owned, starting with the Apple ][+ I purchased in the summer of 1978. As you can tell, the design of the laptop is beautiful. The GM45 chip, a mid-range graphic chip, gives its best. Running Kubuntu it makes a beautiful SecondLife platform, including voice chat. I have installed QtSoftware's Qt-Creator, a GUI IDE that matches or exceeds MS Visual Studio when using the Qt4 cross platform Widget set for the API.
It came with VISTA Home Premium and loads of adware and that annoying UAC dialog. The Dolby sound is awesome. After a month of putting up with VISTA I installed the Linux OS called Mandriva 2008 PWP in dual boot mode, and began spending all my time in Mandriva. Primarily Skype. I also use Bzr as my VCS.
It's nice being able to write an application once and compile it for both Linux and Windows without changing the source code. The GRAMPS genealogy software makes storing and managing the 20 years of data my wife has collected easy.And, I still keep my hand in programming. Anyway, VISTA would occasionally throw up this message: "Lost connection to the display panel".
Kubuntu is the desktop that VISTA had hoped to be. I disabled it and just use my USB mouse. Speaking of cameras, the Webcam on this laptop works with everything I throw at it.
The Qt4 API and Qt-Creator are under the GPL and thus are free for noncommercial use. I purchased the Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E/H laptop for my 66th birthday in August of 2008. Running Kubuntu, this laptop reaches its full potential: speed, stability and security.
It's not that good, but the difference is less than most users can detect.
Please think twice before you invest in this product. I was burned and I have little confidence in Sony or its representatives. After two hours of stressful "discussion" with the store manager, the technician, and, finally, the store owner, 85% of my money was refunded. I returned the computer and requested my money back, explaining that I had lost confidence in the product. The sound worked intermittently; the computer stayed in shut down mode for 12 hours; and it stalled during a boot. I bought a Sony Viao FW computer from the Palm Beach Gardens, Fl, SonyStyle store in January. All this happened within the first 40 days of ownership. The 15% was kept as a restocking fee for the faulty machine.
Not what I want out of a computer company. He was setting me up to do a system restore to "where I was before the problem started"--but the problem didn't "start;" it has been here all along. A bit of Googling suggests this issue may endemic with this and similar products. Through my own in attention, I misplaced the phone number, so I logged in again: I did have some prior service ID's, but the new Scott didn't seem the least interested. He said sure; he was walking me through driver install (not too helpfully, I must say) when the connection broke and I haven't had contact with them again.FWIW, replacing the driver did not help. I'm just as sure as I can be that Sony has some in-house knowledge of this general issue, and some proactive means for solving it. So surely Sony has heard of it before, but the online help is perfunctory and routine. On an email contact, I was told I'd better phone in.
I asked him if system restore would wipe out stuff I had added; he said well yes, I should back up. But they don't seem interested in providing it to me.I suspect my best alternatives are (a) suck it up; or (b) pay some big money to Geek Squad. This is a handsome, sturdy product, serviceable in many ways but with an unstable Wifi connection. The first online techie (are they all named "Scott.") ran me through some drills, then directed me to a troubleshooting memo which didn't seem designed for this product (refs to stuff that wasn't there). I said look, can you just send me a driver.
anyways it's beautiful 16.4 inch screen can only be describe by the word awesome and yo can play, read and BURN blu ray on the computer, which is something not very common on computers this price. which is not a bad deal, but i feel im not using the full potential of the computer. oh one thing i don't like is the color gray, but it's ok im a graphic designer so i made a cool vynil sticker on it. This machine is great. even though it came with in vista 32 bit. I enjoy everything on this computer it's a good price, a good deal and it please me, everybody told me to get a mac but i get a better computer for a better price so you should think about it.
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