My Vaio laptop, a PCG-GRX416SP which cost £2400, just died on me and then no matter what I did I could not get it to boot up. I have now sent it to Sony and they say that the processor needs replacing. The laptop is 16 months old and therefore out of warranty. Sony are charging £750+ for the replacement processor plus labour and transport. You can buy that processor on the internet for £178.
I am currently waiting for an explanation of the cost from Sony and have been for the past 7 weeks.
Take a look at this US forum: http://hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449/
www.It seems that many many people are having problems with their Sony laptops but some are able to fix them by swapping the memory around.
I have made a complaint on BBC Watchdog and there is a class action suit in progress in the US.
Try Dell, I've heard great reports about their laptops.

I too have just returned by Vaio back to Sony but this time to Ireland. I had it 4 weeks before it stopped working and it appears that the motherboard needs replacing. However, after three weeks Sony do not know when a replacemnt motherboard will be available for fitting! They have given me four promises of delivery but have had to change it ("...sorry Mr Cleary but this is what I am being told...").
I bought Sony because of their reputation for design, build quality and reliability. I am appalled at their performance with my machine.
They will not even lend me a replacement because it did not fail within 2 weeks. 2 weeks? Is that all that they can comfortably commit too?
This has made me rethink my policy of buying Sony for its reliabilty and quality. I accept that things can go wrong but the first rule that I instill with my team is that the complaint must be dealt with promptly and resolved a quickly as possible.
Clearly Sony do not subscribe to this principle.
DO NOT BUY A VAIO

mmmm,
very suprising.
I purchase pc's for a large dept at the university and
pought several VAIO's when they first came out and have yet to have any problem with any of them.
The worst for reliablity are Dans

I agree 100% -- don't buy a Sony Vaio. A few years ago we bought two (PCG FX108K) and both have been nothing but trouble. Several hard-drive failures, second memory slots don't work on either machine, and now the graphics card seems to have died on mine. Apparently all due to overheating and poor overall design on Sony's behalf -- the CPU literally fries everything around it.
And did I mention their pathetic customer support?

I love my Vaio it was an exdipslay model in type similar to yours bought 5 years ago form Pc World. I took out a five year warranty and i am hoping now with extra memory it will se me through another five years. I have had no hardware probs my only criticism is that it is a bit slow! esp compared to my new Apple laptop! which was half the price It does not like Shanghai 2 tells me I have fatal error when I reinstall this but it will operate 2004 Flight simulator.

I loved my Sony. when it arrived brand new in its box. All shiny and super fast. I'm talking about my Sony VAIO PCG GRV670 laptop. It was great! A 16" screen and loads of physical memory.
That was in May 2003.
I needed my Sony for work and I live between the US and Europe, so I also wanted to be sure that I was purchasing a product for which I could get backup anywhere in the world.
"Of course sir," said the Sony salesperson, "Sony is a Global company and, in the unlikely event of your computer developing a problem, you can reach a Sony centre in many different countries."
I travelled backwards and forwards and although my Sony was heavy and the charger was almost as big as the computer, I was a happy Sony customer.
Until December of that year.
One day, it refused to boot up - or, a better way of putting it, was that the screen remained blank, whilst the fan ran and the unit made assorted noises. In panic, I switched it off. And then on again. Reliant on the information in my computer, I needed it every day to work effectively. Beads of perspiration formed on my brow but suddenly, up popped the familiar SONY logo and windows booted up and my screen worked.
Three weeks later, back in the US, it happened again and this time it wouldn't boot up. A quick call to the SONY service centre connected me with a technician. She told me to unscrew the back panel revealing the memory sticks. I was to remove these after disconnecting the power and then reinsert them.
Presto! My Vaio was once again alive and stayed alive...for another two weeks. My computer had died and no amount of removal and reinsertion of the memory sticks helped in the slightest. I was stuck on the other side of the Atlantic and I had no support. Well, that's not quite right. After paying a $35 fee to get registered with the European SONY Organisation, a technician then informed me that they couldn't repair my laptop in Europe because the motherboards were different.
"But I thought SONY was a global company and you would be able to repair my laptop anywhere and you can just order the bits from the States and..." I spluttered.
"Well yeeess, we COULD HAVE done that, had you paid the $290 worldwide coverage fee." the technician replied.
Well no one at SONY, back then when they were all smiles and behaving ingratiously, told me I would have to pay a $290 fee to get worldwide coverage.
There was nothing to do but to wait till I returned to the US four weeks later.
Once back in America, I contacted Sony again and they sent me a box via FEDEX. My computer, my dead computer, was packed lovingly in the box and sent to SONY in san Diego. Four days later, free of charge because it was still under warranty, my SONY was back in my hands, raring to go all except two points:
1. I had specifically asked SONY NOT to delete the hard drive under any circumstances, because, due to the nature of the problem, I was unable to back everything up. They deleted it.
2. It had a virus, installed with loving care, but probably not intentionally, by the SONY repair people.
I reformatted my drive, loaded all my programmes and set about trying to save what I could.
All's well that ends well I thought. That was Februar, getting on for March.
No chance.
In May, my computer started acting slow. I downloaded SPYBOT, ADAWARE and all the others. I cleaned and cleaned my hard drive. I scanned for viruses. And then, it started shutting down on me. This was shortly after I had installed Windows SP2. So naturally I thought that had something to do with it.
By chance, in September, I noticed that I only had 256MB of RAM instead of 512MB!
Soon, scannning for viruses and complicated actions caused the computer to shut down completely.
I called SONY and was able to talk to a technician, who, after charging me $35 because my computer was out of warranty, gave me the SONY instant repair solution: unscrew the back, disconnect the power, remove the two memory sticks, wait a bit, reinsert them.
I did as I was told ('cos I'm like that) and HEY PRESTO! 512MB again. I was thrilled because next day, a Sunday, I was flying back to Europe.
"What do I do if it happens again?" I asked the wonderful tecnician, who went by the name of Jason.
"It won't happen again," said Jason.
Well Jason, thanks for your help, but no thanks, because the next day, 60 minutes before my flight, sitting in the United Airlines Red Carpet Club lounge, sipping a powerful bloody mary, I switched my computer on only to find that I was back down to 256MB.
I was unable to work on the flight because my computer shut down every time I opened more than one document. In Germany, I was able to work only sporadically. I returned a couple of weeks ago and, having contacted SONY from Europe, there was the friendly box, delivered presumably by a friendly FEDEX person. I packed my computer in the box and sent it off to SONY.
The result? SONY tells me my mother board is fried again. Why, they don't know, but the will repair it FOR A FEE OF $723.36.
Yes, I explained, I know it is out of warranty, but surely you cannot be serious. I've had this unit for one and a half years. it has been down for 25% of that time or longer. The problem you repaired in February has reoccured. AND YOU WANT ME TO PAY?
No way! I would far rather spend the $750 on a gun and shoot my computer with it. But what I WILL definitely do, is devote some time and energy to warn others who are considering buying a SONY laptop: don't bother.
This is not a company that takes care of its customers. this is not a company that apologises for building what is patently a piece of technical crap and selling it to you for $1,436.
Oh sure - there are Sony Vaios out there that have probably been running for years without a glitch. But this particular one, was a piece of electronic junk. And expensive to boot. So, when buying SONY, caveat emptor, and buy DELL or IBM or HP or any of the other brands instead, because from all the experience I have gathered, they WILL try to solve your problems.
As of yesterday I own a DELL desktop and I will be buying an IBM or DELL laptop. My company employees will now get DELLS or COMPAQ laptops. An order has already gone out for the German branch for 7 DELL desktops and 4 laptops. the UK branch will follow as soon as the SONYs that they are using become obsolete or break down.

My Vaio GRX650 is dying, I spent hours playing with menory swap games.
Sony is crap, Vaio is crap!!!
Dont's buy sony!!!
Be sure to sign up class action if you are a victim:
http://www.petitiononline.com/sonymem1/petition.html
This list could go 1000 pages
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449/?o=660
Hate Sony

If you have a sony vaio problem, go to blog
http://vaioclassaction.blogspot.com/
and place comments. Please pass this on.

My friend bought a Sony Vaio VGN A117S last September through a large electronics store. Within 3 months the boot problem had occurred. It would not boot for hours at a time then suddenly it would. Next it would suddenly shutdown with no warning. The blue screen of death would sometimes appear and at other times it would show signs of life from a switch on but nothing would appear on screen.
It was taken back to the store where the inhouse technos had a look and low and behold it worked. It was taken back home and again it refused to work. Back to the store this time for 6 weeks where they informed my friend that it had been sent to Sony and it had been checked and found to be fine. Guess what? SONY SUCK...it doesn't work. A law action is now been considered against Sony and the store who now refuse to refund the payment made for a very expensive peice of junk.
I myself have a Toshiba and it has never ever once even remotely flickered a notion of a fault.