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Sony VAIO PCG-FRV31 Laptop (2.40-GHz Celeron, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) | List Price: $1,199.99
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Platform: Windows XP Home Edition
Brand: Sony
Binding: Personal Computers
Never again!!!! [Posted on 2005-03-29]
This is more a review for JR music then the product bewcasue its kind of hard to review a product I never recived. I am in the military and during my last deployment to iraq I orderd this product from them and never recived it. I followed up when I returned to the states and was told to wait becasue they had not recived it back and that is was probably still in route. I was told time and again to continue to wait untill one day close to my next deployment, whcich is where I am now, back in iraq, they said it was too late and I waited to long and there was nothing they could do. 1200 dollars is alot of money for me to be wasteing on something I never recived. Beware of JR music.
Terrible computer, Terrible service [Posted on 2005-06-19]
go here to see the full story
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/5449/?o=920
there is a class action suit in the making.
For what it is, its not too bad [Posted on 2006-05-02]
I bought this refurbished for $800 usd. It has yet to die on me. The quality is good. It does get hot after some use, so I usually use a Targus cool pad. Does the trick. I have had to wipe the HD memory (due to a virus, stupid me) and got an all-driver install disc off of ebay. It did the trick. It is not a game machine but it can do justice to the older games. I can play City of Heroes on this laptop, but the graphics suck. It's great for surfing the net, doing word processing, watching dvd's, and playing not too complicated games. The battery life is fairly horrible. I haven't been able to get more then 1.25 hours out of it, usually less if you are using the WiFi (I bought a separate card). For what the computer is, its adequate. I wouldn't pay more than $800 for it. But its okay.
Good computer for basic users. [Posted on 2006-06-23]
I had purchased this laptop about 4-5 years ago back in late 2002. Overall, I was quite happy at the time. By today's standards, this computer is horriable. The battery powers the computer for no more than an 1 hour tops. With a Wi-Fi card it is more like 30 minutes tops. The hard drive is tiny with only 32GB of usable space. The overall computer slowed down after about 2 years of use and today, it is "very sluggish." I would not buy from Sony again. However, the new Sony laptops ,which don't have fans like this VAIO does, get around 2 hours of battery life. It is still short compared to HP, Dell, Compaq, IBM, and Apple. My next computer will be a Apple Macbook Core Duo. My final words are don't buy this computer! If you are looking for a great laptop computer, buy one with the new Intel Core Duo chip.
UPDATE: SEPTEMBER, 14th 2006
My VAIO is still chugging away but it has some more problems now. The hard drive is making weriod "Clunk, Clunk, Clunk" noises. It makes the noise even when I am not using the computer and happens about every 5-10 minutes. I believe the hard drive is going out. The CD/DVD-ROM drive no longer holds in place. When you move the computer, the tray will slide out and it no longer closes (locks) in place. The battery is useless at 15 minutes with wireless on, 25 minutes with my wireless card off. It is slow as ever and gets very hot. I hope I can afford a new computer by the end of the year because I don't think this laptop will make it to 2007. After all, it was bulit in late 2002 and got it in early 2003. Did you know that laptops on average last only 3 years? Desktops on average last 5 years. BOTTOM LINE: Do not buy Sony computers. Only buy their cameras, camcorders, and TV's. My next computer will be an HP or Apple. One more thing, don't listen to the guy who says that HP, Dell, IBM, Compaq, and Apple break down more than Sony. The story is the other way around. I will update when more things break, go out, or if the computer entirely craps out. THIS SUCKS!
par for the course [Posted on 2006-11-26]
i bought it in Dec 2004 at Best Buy on clearance and have been using very heavily for office/general purpose ever since. the HD did fail just after the 1-year warranty expired (seems to be a frequent problem according to other reviews--even the clicking sounds preceeding the fail) and i installed a new one as well as fresh install of the XP. most drivers were on sony support website. the only thing i couldn't reinstall was the hotkey utility that dims the screen, toggles the LCD/video out, volume, mute.
battery life is horrible (also described by others). it had a generous amount of RAM for a notebook of its time so that's probably the one saving grace that doesn't make it more a dog than it is.
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