Sony VAIO PCG-GRV680 Laptop (2.60-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive) | List Price: $2,399.00
Discount Price: $2,399.99
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Platform: Windows XP Home Edition
Brand: Sony
Binding: Personal Computers
Huge P.O.S. [Posted on 2005-12-10]
I have always been a big fan of sony, but not anymore. First of all this laptop weighs a ton. Carrying it in the airport is a pain the thing pratically breaks my wrist. Also after less then a year the hard drive breaks, not to mention it gets very hot very quickly. I paid almost 3000.00 when this was new and its a pile of junk now. Sony says they will look at it but I need to pay shipping to send it to them and a 50.00 fee just for them to analize the problem, thats not including repairs.
Also I have had my second sony cybershot break on me. I figured the first one was almost 3 years old no big deal that it broke, but this one is less then a year old. I have a warranty but now I am without my camera for the holidays (4-6 weeks for repairs)
I do NOT reccomend this or any sony product!
Powerful notebook, has some problems, poor service and support from Sony [Posted on 2006-02-01]
Heavier and less portable than most notebooks. More for desks than for laps (unless you need an impractical and expensive alternative to an electric blanket). If you look at the specs for the unit, it is obviously pretty powerful--even compared to notebooks coming out now. I've successfully upgraded the memory to 1 GB with a non-sony brand. Also, many specifications say it comes with the 64 MB Radeon 9000. However, I've never seen any of these with anything other than a non-upgradeable 32 MB Radeon 9000, which works for many games (e.g. it runs Rome Total War pretty well), but is definitely slipping below par.
I've had this computer for almost three years now. Three years, three major problems:
1) Within a year after purchase, it would boot to the "sony" screen then freeze to a black screen, the processor not starting.
Solution: Luckily this happened before my year-long warranty was up and was able to have it fixed. (See the hundreds of similiar reports of this problem described on forums all over the internet.)
2) The notebook would overheat and then shut itself down.
Solution: I pressed Sony support for at least a possible explanation. I was encouraged to send the unit in for one of their infamous servicings. After reading a few forums and finding out this was a common problem, it was suggested that the fan was clogged. When I opened it up (long after the warrantly expired, of course) there was a dust cake growing between the vent and fan. I removed it with some tweezers, dusted with compressed air, and it stopped over-heating (saving myself $279).
3) For the past year or so whenever I shut down completely and then load up windows, the screen flashes green and purple lines all over the screen (and no, i am not hallucinating, running any screensavers or audio-visualizer programs). This does not happen when it is started from stand-by mode.
Solution: none yet, I keep it in stand-by mode as much as possible, and have continued turning the unit off and on until the lines stop appearing.
I now have my well worn unit at a local repair shop to fix a loose DC plug. They informed me that the screen lines may be due to an overheated videocard.
It would be nice (for a lot of people) if Sony acknowledged that there are widespread problems with this series and took some action. Instead I'm sure plenty of people will be happy to spend less money on an equivalent (and less frustrating) notebook(and support) by shopping elsewhere.
Poor quality and design across the board [Posted on 2006-04-29]
I bought this laptop three years ago in a major hurry (as in, get in there, grab a fast laptop with a huge screen & a ton of memory, and go...all within about 15 minutes tops). In my haste I also bought an extended warranty, as this big, heavy beast was over $3000 with maxed out peripherals (1 Gb ram)).
Details:
The screen is never clean, and the computer always looks dirty, due to the cheap plastics and surfacing used by Sony on this model. In fact, I now have a large, round decal on the keyboard hand rest as the finish wore off the plastic after about 5 months of use. My Toshiba, HP, and IBM laptops, by contrast, look new despite some being twice as old.
Within the same week that the standard 1 year warranty expired, the laptop simply blinked out. One second it was there, the next it was completely dead. There is a Sony shop in Honolulu, and they had the beastie back in my hands within 3 weeks (replaced motherboard). If not for the extended warranty, this thing would have been over in Kaneohe bay collecting sea sponges.
Lastly, be aware that this laptop sucks air in from its underside and blows it out the back of the unit. The cooling system is a metal radiator across this internal airflow, and that radiator is easily clogged up. The resulting heat buildup will trigger the CPU to shutdown while under load, and will also begin to damage the video electronics and other goodies on the motherboard. Fortunately, its easy to take this laptop apart, remove the CPU and associated cooling assemblies, and clear the radiator out
by flushing with solvent.
An alternative way (that I have not tried, but should work fine) to clear the radiator without any disassembly is to put a vacuum cleaner suction hose on the air intake under the laptop, kick the vac on, and at the same time blast compressed air into the laptop's exhaust port with the laptop off. Don't force air the other way because you may end up compacting the dirt further into the radiator core.
With the radiator clear, your laptop will most likely settle down and become a productive system once again.
NOTE: the air intake is the round fan hole on the bottom, not the grill-like stuff on the side, next to the earbud mini jack. The exhaust port is on the immediate backside, and is characterized by 24 exhaust rectangles arranged in a conspicuous 4 X 6 arrangement.
The radiator is immediately behind that grid.
You can easily check the status of the radiator by shining a bright flashlight into the air intake (the round fan air intake on the bottom of the laptop). If clear, you will see the light across the rather expansive radiator grill, top to bottom and side to side. If blocked, well, you won't see light through the radiator core (or the light will be miniscule; a clean radiator is rather obvious).
Also, its a good idea to maintain the cooling systems of all electronic devices, not just this Sony.
Good, when fixed. [Posted on 2006-05-31]
I had this laptop for a little more than 3 years now and at first it was great, worked great was awesome, and then 2 years ago it overheats and shuts down, I called Sony, the warranty was out, it would cost 400 bucks to ship it get the fan fixed and ship it back. Luckily, I went overseas to Jordan and took it with me. They replaced the fan and now it works like a charm.
SONY Laptops are Terrible And OVer Priced [Posted on 2006-07-21]
I buy a new laptop every year, I use and rely on them heavily, after 3 sony laptops I will never buy another. The first one from 2002 stillw works, they other two died. The GRV 680 has major design flaws, It over heats, the memory sockets break requiring resolder and the power plug breaks loose from the motherboard. Its 2500 bucks down the toilet. I tooke a HUGE chance and bought an ACER 1812. I have been very happy, its was more powerful and reliable for half the price working on its 2nd year. Ps, Sony has no word for "service"
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