Goodbye Sony, Welcome Dell

After two years and 11months of companionship, I decided to part with my Vaio.

The decision was taken after painful parting of 52,000 Rupees from my wallet, all attributed for the welfare of my old companion. Yes, I have spent that whooping sum for keeping my vaio alive.

In short, the Mainboard was changed twice[25K first time, 17K second time]. When problems started happening for my third mainboard, Sony insisted me on ordering a new mainboard [That would cost 15k]. I approched another store to get some patchup for board[that cost me 5K]. Well, the stuff seemed to run peacefully for some 11months. I decided to chip in another 5k to change my battery.

With my laptop with all its flaws fixed, i was intending to take it along for another 6-8 months. That was when the death blow striked it. The display started showing colorful pictures whenever i started my laptop. I had seen enough of this stuff and I knew it was the death of my mainboard. Well, the replaced old stock has done it's task. And, it was time for the board to retire.. lol.

I approached the old store where i got the patch done. They agreed to give me 8500 Rs for My Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz + Geforce Go 7400 + 80GB + 2GB RAM. I knew that, I couldn't bargain anything more for that 'scrap of metal on its way to dismantling', which those guys noted as. So be it.

I bought a new laptop today. Dell Inspiron 1464, powered by i3 M350 clocking 2.27GHz. I have upgraded the default 2Gb RAM to 4Gb. This one features an ATI Radeon HD4330 512MB video memory and 320GB HDD. I would say, just a decent config for 41K, running W7 Home Basic.

So, I am here, posting my first post from my new laptop. May the dark forces of nature keep away from my new laptop for it to post more and more.

The Laptop Story

Finally, i got my laptop back.

After all those calls and trips to the service centre.. i am a happy man...
The story goes like this...

06/06/2008
The warranty for my laptop expired on 6th June. So LUCKY( :-( ...) i was that
my laptop started showing problems with screen on 18th June.
I raised the complaint to Sony, my laptop was taken for repair...
The initial "finding" was that the screen is faulty and needs to be replaced.
The cost was estimated to be ~15k. I raised a request to Sony Japan and
got the concession since the warranty expired on June.
Then came the thunderbolt.

28/06/2008
The "Problem" suddenly turned out to be of motherboard. It was shocking to
hear that my mainboard was infected with Ant-Corrosion. alas! There was nothing i could do..

11/07/2008
I had to replace the motherboard. I added another 1GB RAM since Vista was slow as a tortoise in my available 1GB. A whooping 23K was registered on my credit card bill for that month.(Actual price for the mainboard of Sony Vaio VGN-C25G is ~29K). I got the part for the landing price. The story wasn't over.

13/07/2008
Laptop started showing blue screen error. I was alarmed to find that i couldnt even play a movie in my laptop after putting 23k from my pocket(Oops.. credit card to be correct).

15/07/2008 - 8/08/2008 - 3 visits to the Sony service centre...
All these times, there were reasons which weren't fathomable. With my friends over here, we found that mainboard replaced by Sony was faulty!. There say that it is 1 of 100 that such a chance will occur.. It occurred.. the odd man was me.

On 8/08/2008, i left the laptop at the service centre for detailed investigation and solution to my problem. (The situation so severe since 11/08/2008 was the last date of my support warranty, after which, i will be left wailing with my faulty motherboard). Sony took the case into concern.

23/08/2008
After 2 weeks of negotiation and bi-lateral talks(;)), Sony agrees to replace the mainboard for free.

25/08/2008, 2.30pm IST
I get a call from local Sony service centre that my laptop is ready for dispatch.
I collected that laptop the same day, leaving early from office(so that i could bypass the nasty chennai twilight traffic and reach the centre before thier closing time, which is 7.30pm).

The period 18/06/2008 - 25/08/2008 is history. The time which was considered 'doomed' for my laptop
and me. My laptop has recovered.. I am still recovering... :)

Tips to my friends from my experience:
1. If you own a Sony laptop, beware that the warranty expires after a year.
2. You have an option of extending the warranty for a year by paying 5k before the warranty expiry.(Don't go for extension on the day of expiry. you will not be considered!)
3. In case the warranty is expired, go for an AMC for your laptop. It may help.
4. Don't ever let ants roam nearby your laptop. They are dangerous enough to cause big holes
in your wallet!.

PS: The experience i have written down here is totally under my discretion. I have not intended to blame on any parties mentioned here. Only purpose of this post is to share my experience. The content of this post if used for other media will be totally under my disagreement.