Hi Guys

I've just sent off a letter to Sony Head Office giving them 7 days to respond, so let's see what happens...

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Dear Sir/Madam

Laptop Model: VGN-SZ61MN (PCG-6S4M)

Serial Number:

Place of Purchase: Sony Style UK Website

Date of Purchase:

Order Number:

Price Paid: £1414.01

Date Failed: Summer 2010

I write to you with reference to the above laptop, purchased from the Sony Style website. Unfortunately my laptop has failed due to what I believe to be a defective Nvidia graphics chip.

I have been in touch with both your telephone helpline and email support however neither channel was able to help me satisfactorily. They claim that since the laptop is out of warranty they cannot help.

I have spoken to a number of people who are well versed with regard to the problem my laptop is experiencing and have been informed that this problem is affecting thousands of laptops.

This problem is very well documented and is recognised by HP, Dell, Apple and Nvidia.  A simple Google of “Nvidia Defect” will provide you with all the evidence you need as to the scale of the problem.

You have to appreciate I paid a lot of money for this laptop and would have expected it to have lasted far longer than it actually did.

If I do not receive a satisfactory resolution to this matter then I will have no alternative but to take action through the Small Claims Courts.

I am therefore giving you this last opportunity to remedy this situation. I am formally giving you 7 days from the date of this letter to either:

• Replace my laptop with an equivalent model free of charge
• Refund the purchase price of the laptop

If you do not respond in the positive within this time then I will have no alternative but to obtain an engineer’s report, the costs of which will be claimed from yourselves.

I will then use that report, along with the myriad of articles of information that are available to pursue this matter through the legal system.

Please note that in this matter time is of the essence

Yours faithfully

Simon

hello.sorry to bother you, could you please tell me how did you contact sony? I am not getting any clue how to resolve the issue!

thanks

Hi Simon,

Just wondering if you've had a reply to your letter from 3rd november yet?

I still haven't had a reply to the original letter i sent on 11.10.10 so have gone back through the timely way of email support. Tried several times to contact me but the phone line is to bad with crackling and interference to hear what they are saying.

Now awaiting for my email response to see what can be done. Just wondering if you've had any luck?

Mark.

Pretty much the same, no reply to my letter sent on 11th october, and the email and phone support is painful. Email just keep asking the same questions and when they phone me you can't hear a thing due to interference and crackling on the line.

Now awaiting for another reply to see what they can do, think the engineers report is going to be the easiest option.

Wow simon, seems you're getting further than me at least.

Still no reply to my letter... and as for the email support, it's a joke! just asking me the same questions over and over, and i'm pretty sure it's purposely now. The furthest i've got is them saying they'll pick it up and for me to tell them a pick up date, only for me to read at the bottom of the email hidden away 'the repair will be chargeable as it is out of warranty'. I've clearly stated on every email that i refuse to pay for any repair because it is not due to me.

As for the laptops we have not having the faulty chip is a load of crap, a lot of the laptops on the list of the extended warranty also have the GeForce 8400M GT graphics card.

Like many people are saying, Sony are a good company for other products, but never again for VAIO.

Might have to email this Darrell Huntley then if nothing improves quickly. Good luck with your case

Mark.

By the way, do you know if the AR51e is on the extended warranty list? I haven't been able to find the list.

Sony released a statement confirming that some Vaio models can have distorted video, random characters or blank screen issues due to failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip.

The models concerned are as follows..

VGN-FZ11x, VGN-FZ18x, VGN-FZ21x, VGN-FZ31x, VGN-FZ38x
VGN-AR11x, VGN-AR21x, VGN-AR31x
VGN-C1Zx, VGN-C2Zx
VGC-LM1xx, VGC-LM2xx
VGC-LT1xx, VGC-LT2xx

Click on the following link to read the Sony announcement: Distorted video, random characters or blank screen issues due to failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip

This sounds unbelievable! very rare. How did you go about this then?

As far as im concerned, Sony are unwilling to even consider a free repair, or even accept that it is the Nvidia problem, so how exactly did you do it!? and who did you speak to at customer support?

Thanks, Mark.

Hiya Mark - I was unable to make any phone contact as I couldn't call an 0905 number from abroad, so it was email contact all the way... a little tedious when you're impatient like me!

All I did was tell them the problem, then they emailed me a troubleshooting list I had to follow and reply back with the results - then they asked me where I wanted the courier to pick it up from!

The only member of staff that I dealt with was Ola Gaafar (Sony  VAIO-Link Support Team)

Good luck x x x x