vaio grt170 sent to shop for SIXTH time!

Well, it's official, I have a lemon POS of a laptop. :(
Since day 1 it's had problems, and has continued downhill.
And CompUSA won't own up to it and save me some grief, instead they're drawing this out interminably. :(

This laptop was bought (see older articles about installing Linux and such for it's specs) almost 2 years ago (this August).
Luckily it has the extended warranty for 3 years ( CompUSA calls it TAP).

When I first received the system, Sony was too cheap to include backup media, I had to make my own 2 DVDs and boot CD, but the image on the system was corrupt so the DVDs I created weren't able to fully restore all the apps.

Then, within a few months, not only was it running hot (as was fairly expected for such a high-end laptop (portable workstation which is what I needed)), it was overheating, shutting down and locking up.

I first had to deal with Sony, so they sent me the boxes and RMA information, but told me it would likely be 6 to 8 WEEKS before I'd get it back.

So I placed a large Vornado fan next to until I could get a gap large enough to be without it.

Well, 2 days after the Sony warranty lapsed, it completely overheated and shutdown.

So I took it to CompUSA.

They soldered the heat sinks, cleaned things, etc.
had it back about 2 weeks later.

But they ruined my battery and gave me the run-around on that.

Anyhow, now I've brought it back for the sixth time.
So far the following have been replaced:
Motherboard (twice, the first replacement failed on the bench after I sent it to them completely dead).
Headphone jack
LCD
Keyboard
Battery

It's now there for the DVD/CD player and WiFi to be replaced.

Also the speakers are totally shot on the first month or so and they still won't replace them.

I've reported the Wifi and DVD issues the last three times but they just cleaned and "tested" and sent back (after fixing the other "more serious" issues).
Meanwhile I kept dealing with the wireless quitting and not being able to play about 60-80% of movie DVDs (not a high priority on the DVDs, that's why it's gone on this long, but the Wifi has been a total PITA!).

They refuse to give me a replacement laptop (after the tech manager plead with corporate), even though it's obviously a lemon.
Each time they send it back more pieces are broken on the casing and such.
Time before last they broke the #1 key on the keyboard.
Last time they broke the plastic cover that hides the swivels for the LCD mounting.
The new keyboard has a flaky "C" key.

They will not replace the system unless the SAME ITEM fails at least three times!!!

There's still a lot of little parts that can go wrong, and meanwhile the system is getting beaten up badly with all this shipping and disassembly and reassembly.

I wonder how many times I have to go through this before a Small Claims Court filing makes sense?

So, I "bought" a Toshiba P35-S611 while the pcg-grt170 is in the shop, on my CC.

They sent the Vaio back to the shop in Texas yet again.

I'll go through (for the umpteenth time) reinstalling everything and unarchiving my gigabytes of files and emails and such.

And we'll see what happens. Generally it lasts about 11-2 months before something else dies. Just long enough to get dependent on it again, and then get screwed.

I've been going in about every 2-3 months now.
I've spent more time fixing, backing up, and restoring than I've been able to use it (it seems).

Once I finish getting the Vaio back online, I'll make them give me back the money on the Toshiba since it was a floor model apparently I have 21 days to do so. Ironically a Business Analyst there suggested this work around since they don't do rentals or "loaners" anymore.

Then, if the Vaio STILL craps out, I'll take my business to anywhere but CompUSA. The same business analyst actually suggested Best Buy. Lol!

The extra $400.00 for the 3 year extended warranty was supposed to take care of these hassles, and they won't honor it in spirit, only "to the letter" (same component must fail 3 times, not same system).

This is costing them more money, and hurting their margins much more, to do this back and forth (and a huge waste of time for me), than it would for them to just replace the system at this point.

LCD and and 2 motherboards and Keyboard and Headphone jack and DVDR/CDRW and WiFi are all adding up to another system and all their labor, but instead, I have a piece of crud I can't rely on from day to day. A real shame, becuase when it works, It's a great portable workhorse.

And I'm going to be a PITA and keep bringing it back to them for every little thing.
If the speakers are still shot, I'll bring it back.
If the keyboard is still acting up I'll bring it back.
At this point it's pointless to put anything important on it anymore, instead I need to just use my older systems and see about getting another laptop somewhere else, and meanwhile make them pay through the nose for their idiocy.

This Toshiba seems nice enough, and is about half a grand less than the Vaio (and it's current equivs).

But there's no way I will refer anyone else to CompUSA (and there have been MANY) ever again, and in fact, I will now go out of my way to dissuade anyone from going because CUSTOMER SERVICE is a HUGE issue for most people these days, especially non-technical people with lots of money to spend, who follow my advice on where to go.
The bloody short-sighted fools (CompUSA, not the referals ;-) ).

Anyhow, this Toshiba is nice enough.
While I write this I'm installing the DVD version of Suse Linux 9.3 Pro on it.
So far everything's gone very smoothly and easily. A totally non-techie monkey could have installed it so far.

I'll post an update separate from this article on how Linux behaves on this system.

Here's some specs on the Toshiba Satellite P35-S611:
Intel Pentium 4 548 Processor with Hyper-threading 3.33 Ghz
17" WXGA wide format "TruBrite" display (smokes my Vaio's screen in image clarity and brightness)
512MB base, plus I had them add another 512MB for 1 GB of RAM total.
100 GB hard drive
DVD SuperMulti drive
802.11bg wifi

Sadly, it comes with XP Home (rather than Pro of course), and everything it's bundled with is TRIAL ware. Cheapskates! Oh thank you Open Office and Linux and open source in general!

I have to say, the speakers and sound on this system are gorgeous. The best I've ever heard on a laptop, with great base!

This system is HUGE btw but that's fine for me since I wanted a portable workstation.

Battery life is 2.5 times longer than the Vaio. Where the vaio at best only lasts about an hour of use. This Toshiba Satellite lasted just shy of 2.5 hours while constantly running virus scanning, software installation, playing music DVD, etc!

It also seems to run MUCH cooler than the Vaio ever did. Barely seems to heat up, whereas the Vaio would burn my leg if I put it on my lap.
The P35 seems to run significantly faster too, though the real test will be under Linux not XP. Doing some compiling and such should give a clearer picture.

Anyhow, enough of that rant.
I'm getting ready for a road trip with the family this week to Idaho and Utah.
I'll be doing a lot of computer work for clients and family while down there while my wife says goodbye to her sister before her sister leaves for Germany (to move there).

Ciao for now,
-Hawke