Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 18:08:18 +0100 From: Brian Somers <brian@FreeBSD.org.uk> To: Dirk-Willem van Gulik <dirkx@webweaving.org> Cc: Terje Elde <delta@xti.org>, freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Which laptop? Any comment on the vaios? Message-ID: <199908121708.SAA04631@keep.lan.Awfulhak.org> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 12 Aug 1999 10:50:45 %2B0200." <Pine.BSF.4.05.9908121044550.13706-100000@kim.ispra.webweaving.org>
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> > > On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, Terje Elde wrote: > > > Anyone have anythign to recommend? > > > Also, sony vaio users on the list who can comment on their experiences? > > I'm thinking about getting a 505 or something like that. > > I've been pleased as (a) pie with my 505; and it has survived a fairly > harsh live for over 18 months now without so much as a scratch. Though the > stickers at the back come peeling off. See http://www.webweaving.org/vaio/ > for (outdated) some notes on porting. 3.2/PAO was actually trivial to > install. > > Basically everything works; apm, sound, screen, mice, suspend, hibernate, > whatever. Except one niggle; controlling the sound from your modem. There > is none. But in windows you can control it. USB starts to work from > 3.2/current onwards. The keyboard does not have that much depth; and I > would have prefered one of those thinkpad style 'nob' mice. But they > again, it is so thing and easy to carry. > > On other very important point; the VAIO's colour's coordinate very nicely > with the small metal/glassy FreeBSD deamons you can get from walnut creek. > They would not coordinate nearly as well with, say, compaq creamy or > toshiba grey. Bear this in mind. <RANT> I'd agree with all that, except that I'd never buy a Sony laptop again. The PCG747 I bought last November broke down ~2 weeks after I got it.... the TFT backlight died. Sony refused to replace the unit and took it for repair, promising to return it 4 days later. I got it back nearly one month later after contacting my credit card company and sending a threatening registered letter. About a month later, I spilt some wine on it. The machine stopped working for a while (as you'd expect), but revived after 5 days and worked flawlessly for a few months. Then it started to crash frequently. It crashed every few days, and sometimes wouldn't boot up (the power switch did nothing). After a lot of mucking about, I found a small hatch on the bottom of the unit, underneath which is the BIOS chip. It turned out that the chip was loose, so I reseated it and things worked ok for a while. Of course it happened again, and again after that and got more frequent. Eventually it was getting to the point that it happened several times a day, so I contacted Sony. They asked me to return the unit again. I did so, and was contacted by Sony to say that the unit would cost #1300 to fix due to the liquid damage which wasn't under warranty. I asserted that the liquid had done nothing more than stain the unit and they assured me that my motherboard and disk drive needed to be replaced and that there was nothing wrong with the BIOS chip. They offered me a choice of either replacing the unit for #1100 or having it returned for #90. They wouldn't do both. The unit contained an extra 64Mb RAM, 4Gb of data and a spare battery.... I saw no point in getting the new unit as it was a bit expensive for an out-of-date laptop, and resented the fact that they refused to return my data. I ended up going with the #90 offer. I received the laptop back, and it hasn't worked since - nothing - dead, absolutely worthless. I've been using the disk drive in a CTX notebook since with no problems (the disk drive that Sony said had to be replaced along with the motherboard). So, I would advise anyone willing to listen that Sony laptops are great all the way up until something goes wrong. At that point, VAIO support get involved and Sony become a company without manners or flexibility. I would have expected a small amount of curtesy and ultimately, I would have expected them to allow me to accept both of their final offers rather than only allowing one - proving that they intended to recoup the difference on the ``offer'' by reusing the hardware that they insisted was unusable ! And now I find myself out-of-pocket by #90 and with an unusable laptop, but at least I was permitted to ``buy'' back my disk drive. </RANT> > Dw. If anybody out there has a 747, I can practically give away a battery & PSU :-| -- Brian <brian@Awfulhak.org> <brian@FreeBSD.org> <http://www.Awfulhak.org>; <brian@OpenBSD.org> Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour ! <brian@FreeBSD.org.uk> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message
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