SONY is good enough for me!

Ever since my first tv, which I bought 20 yrs back, when ever I bought an electronic gadget Sony was the first choice. My house is stuffed with various Sony products. Bravia TV, PS3, DVD player, Camcorder they all are Sony.

Then came Sony Vaio, as one of the top shelf products amongst other laptop brands. Naturally I went for it. It was ok. I was happy. But recently it started giving me all sorts of graphical problems. Blank screens, blue screens,multi color strips.....then it suddenly died on me.

I browsed through the internet and very soon found out this is a very well known problem amongst some of vaio ranges. A bad problem a very bad one.This was because of a faulty nvidia graphic card.I was scared because I was no longer within warranty.
A proper repair would cost me an unbearable amount. Then I saw Sony has finally admitted this problem and offered to repair the
laptops with the problem within 4 years of purchase.

I spoked to Sony customer service with all the doubts in my head. Friendly people they were and they said they will repair it. Still I was doubtful. Then they arranged for DHL to collect it and recalled the laptop. Still I was in doubt.

They kept me in touch with text and few days after told me I need a whole motherboard replacement. Thats it! I thought. They will send me a big bill now.

Then the miracle happened. My Vaio came back today. All repaired and with a new mother board. Even had a surface clean looking like new.

I looked for the bill, then found a A4 paper.

But it was not a bill but a letter apologising for my inconvenience.How cool is that?.

I was all prepared to ruin there name as much as I could if things go wrong. Instead here I am writing in my blog praising them. They have proven me wrong. Well done Sony !

If anybody have a problem with there Vaio graphics do not hesitate to contact them. They live up to their standard. Good people they are !

This is the official Sony announcement
A statement from Sony, dated August 4th 2009, reads as follows:

"In July 2008, Nvidia publicly acknowledged a failure associated with some of their graphics processors (GPU) due to a manufacturing defect in the graphics chip packaging. At that time Sony and Nvidia jointly investigated whether Vaio models equipped with this GPU were impacted by the issue. This investigation revealed that the issue had not occurred in such Vaio models.

"However, after closely monitoring the situation, Sony has now determined that a very small percentage of computers with the Nvidia graphics chips may be affected.

"These PCs may exhibit distorted video, random characters or a blank screen due to failure of the Nvidia graphics chips.

"As part of our commitment to quality, for any customer who requires repair of their Vaio due to the Nvidia graphics processor issue, Sony will cover the cost of repair (parts and labour) at no charge during the first four years following the date of purchase of the models in question (see list below).

"In case your model is shown in the list below, we invite you to contact Vaio support to arrange service for your Viao."

Here's the list of Sony Vaio models affected:

VGN-FZ11x, VGN-FZ18x, VGN-FZ21x, VGN-FZ31x, VGN-FZ38x,

VGN-AR11x, VGN-AR21x, VGN-AR31x,

VGN-C1Zx, VGN-C2Zx,

VGC-LM1xx, VGC-LM2xx,

VGC-LT1xx, VGC-LT2xx.