Sony VAIO PCG-FXA36 Notebook (1-GHz Athlon, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive)Platform: Windows XP Home Edition
Brand: Sony
Binding: Personal Computers
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Do not buy this machine. Spend the money and buy a GR. [Posted on 2003-04-24]
The FXA series suffers many problems that almost require a website to build some solidarity amongst users it has been burdened with. You may wonder how I know the things below. Well having had two models of the FXA series you can find the problems pretty quickly. 1. For starters this machine has trouble regulating its internal temperature causing it to seize. This problem comes and goes. 2. The docking mechanism for those who don't have one has a flaw in it. Sony didn't do a blanket recall. They want you to call them to get it fixed. It involves putting a new capacitor to regulate the video signal. 3. Sony will try and not fix it until your warranty runs out. We excecised our retailer warranty and upgraded to get rid of our FXA49 which had been in Four times. 4. The laptop has software compatibility issues for the power user. Virus scanners will almost certainly halt the machine. Including the one provided by Sony.
Best laptop i've ever owned. [Posted on 2005-10-25]
most who attempt to write reviews do not have time on thier side. i have had a hard drive,two CD-roms,and a power card fail on this machine. after calling sony and getting either the parts or service done,i found that i always had the machine back within a week. for three years this computer has served me like a good horse,faithfully and unquestioningly,thru three schools,two states,and one international trip. however,i find sony's tech support site a runaround. call phone support,fedex it to sony,and they'll have it back PDQ.
5 year old wonder [Posted on 2006-10-12]
I've had this computer since Dec. 2001. You name it - I've done it to this computer. Dropped on an asphalt street several times, taken on several tours with me in the Navy and even helped me meet my current spouse online.
It's still running great and has never needed repairs - I did upgreade the harddrive and the ram to 512 - runs Adobe CS2 great and downloads torrents nonstop :)
iamcde [Posted on 2007-06-05]
What a piece of crap!!! Thank God I bought an extended warranty...too bad for the warranty company. There have been over $10,000 in repairs done to this unit, the original cost before warranty $2300. I don't travel much with it, it sits on a desk. They have replaced monitor 2x, the harddrive 2 or 3x, the cd/dvd drive 2x and it is still broken, the keyboard 1x, the motherboard 1x (that I know of), it blue screens weekly at least once sometimes 2 & 3 times and the battery has never worked. I contacted Sony and got no assistance from them. I don't recommend this unit to anyone...get an IBM!!
Awesome tech! [Posted on 2008-08-07]
I had this thing since early 2002. Bought it refurbished, with 90 warranty, and never had problems with anything! The only weak point is the built-in modem, which connects slower on my noisy phone line than another (and newer) laptop.
With a recent OS reinstall and a memory upgrade to 512Mb it is still very responsive, and works very well as my mp3 media center.
I only wish it had USB2 ports, otherwise moving data in and out in this day and age becomes a bit of an issue.
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