chebby said:
You may as well buy a new laptop at those prices! And get the manufacturer's best cover option. (My Dells have always had 3-year/onsite/next business-day support - extendable by a further 2 years when nearing expiry - and have paid for themselves handsomely over the years.)
Normally I'd agree, but the Sony has two key features worth preserving - a screen that is better than a Macbook Pro (which was the primary reason because I use Adobe Lightroom for photo editing) and the optical output. I agree £500 would get a perfectly adequate machine for streaming music.
cheeseboy said:
Are you still getting the blue screens? Sorry to repeat what I said, but they will tell you what is wrong with the computer.
By the sounds of things, an update has screwed something. If you want to test if it's the hardware or software, download ubuntu and burn it on to a cd or a memory stick, then boot from that. It won't touch your current system, but it will allow you to use your computer. If it's freezing when it's running that, then it may be hardware. If it doesn't freeze, chances are it's software.
also, whoever quoted you those prices for repair is having a laugh. A new 500gb 2.5" hard drive shouldn't be much more than 50 quid
http://www.cclonline.com/product/45017/WD5000BPVT/Hard-Drives/Western-Digital-Scorpio-Blue-500GB-5400rpm-SATA-Hard-Drive/HDD0510/
It was laptop hut who quoted that - they are Sony's recommended out of warranty repairers, so I expect a top book quote. In the first instance I'd want an accurate diagnosis, then I can find a cheaper place to effect the repair.
I haven't had a BS event since Saturday evening - only a couple of screen freezes. What am I looking for, since the Blue Screen last for about 5s before rebooting!
I've already run Windows diagnostics - no errors found. I'm currently running the Viao hardware system check utility, so far the CPU and RAM is OK, as is the linear and radom seek test on the hard drive. I guess if it crashes during this test, it's a big clue to a hardware fault.
Bear in mind this has a dual high speed hard disk, so again I'd expect it to cost a little more.
@Chebby - I had a option to extend the warranty on my son's Alienware laptop, but at £200 for 12 months its steep, and IMO a waste of money since they failed to fix a major problem properly under the original warranty. I have not enjoyed the Dell ownership experience at all, and frankly the utter BS from the rep today trying to tell me that th PC was much more delicate and needed more maintenance than a bog standard Inspiron had me reaching for a solicitor. Unsurprisingly he would not confirm those comments in an email to me. A few years ago, their quality was OK, currently it's poor. I have a Dell from my employer and have had some issues with it, mostly bits falling off. We have just switched a global IT contract to another manufacturer because of the high failure rates of their machines.
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