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Wasted an entire afternoon and of course it didn't help. Sony support told me to wipe the entire machine and start from scratch. The DVD drive sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Still exactly the same problem. They would not listen to me when I told them it won't help. So I did it. 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).
Since I scrubbed the HD and made Kubuntu 9.04 the ONLY OS on the box it has been an excellent performer. The Qt4 API and Qt-Creator are under the GPL and thus are free for noncommercial use. It would blink a bit and then the desktop would redisplay. The Dolby sound is awesome. Mandriva was bothered by the hardware defect that bothered VISTA. I am NEVER bothered by viruses, Trojans or adware, and bloatware is a thing of the past. The Kubuntu repository has over 28,000 free applications, accessible through the package manager.
What idiot thought that improved security. I purchased the Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E/H laptop for my 66th birthday in August of 2008. It rivals the Mac, and is certainly more affordable when running Kubuntu, which is free. I also use Bzr as my VCS. As you can tell, the design of the laptop is beautiful. DVD movies are gorgeous, as are the HD videos on the Internet at Youtube, Hulu and other places. 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 GM45 chip, a mid-range graphic chip, gives its best.
Kubuntu is the desktop that VISTA had hoped to be. Anyway, VISTA would occasionally throw up this message: "Lost connection to the display panel". Primarily Skype. It's not that good, but the difference is less than most users can detect. The sticker on the laptop claiming it has a "Full HD 1080p" lies.
Running Kubuntu, this laptop reaches its full potential: speed, stability and security. :-)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. It came with VISTA Home Premium and loads of adware and that annoying UAC dialog. Speaking of cameras, the Webcam on this laptop works with everything I throw at it.
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. Running Kubuntu it makes a beautiful SecondLife platform, including voice chat. Editing audio or movie files with one of several tools to choose from makes that chore a snap. It's nice being able to write an application once and compile it for both Linux and Windows without changing the source code.
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. 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. FireFox, OpenOffice, GIMP, Stellarium, QCad, KMyMoney2, VLC, GoogleEarth, Thunderbird, and TONS of games for the grandkids. I disabled it and just use my USB mouse.
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. 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.
After two hours of stressful "discussion" with the store manager, the technician, and, finally, the store owner, 85% of my money was refunded. 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. The 15% was kept as a restocking fee for the faulty machine. All this happened within the first 40 days of ownership. I returned the computer and requested my money back, explaining that I had lost confidence in the product. Please think twice before you invest in this product. I was burned and I have little confidence in Sony or its representatives.
I asked him if system restore would wipe out stuff I had added; he said well yes, I should back up. This is a handsome, sturdy product, serviceable in many ways but with an unstable Wifi connection. So surely Sony has heard of it before, but the online help is perfunctory and routine. 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. 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. 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).
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. A bit of Googling suggests this issue may endemic with this and similar products. I said look, can you just send me a driver. On an email contact, I was told I'd better phone in. 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. 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.
Not what I want out of a computer company.
This machine is great. 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. even though it came with in vista 32 bit. which is not a bad deal, but i feel im not using the full potential of the computer. 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. 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.
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