topic Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s in PCs & Accessories

sony vaio vgn fe41s

StevesRoom — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:31:33 GMT

i just bought the sony fe41s and was excpecting a great machine!

but i found a poor excuse for a laptop

the wireless will not work with the blue tooth on as stated when on.

the webcam faults now and again unable to run web cam.

the wireless will not log on to the router with the ssid hidden. no matter what

the dvd draw is tat lose and the power socket on the side is wobbly.

the screen suffers with burn and low grade resolutions.

the sound is very low.

the ivp6 is not supported by any thing at the moment.

the mp3 ripping is poor.
the battery life is only 1hour to hour 1.30 minutes

the power lead supplied is so small it hangs off the wall with the transformer on it!

the name changes in device settings for the bluetooth dont work it relies on the pc name.

some times the system will not rem changes and keeps asking for admin permission
#
also the mic tick boost keeps switching off.

the whole pc is slow at boot. its also slow playing games simple games like need for speed and joint operations etc/

the brightness resets every time you reboot so its in your face glare.

the list goes on.

like the very anoying my club vaio loading all the dam time.

the vaio software added is bloated ware/

conclusion DO NOT BUY SONY VAIO

its a bin job and that is were its going at this rate.

i just purchased another laptop the toshiba. and it runs rings round the same spec vaio fe41s vista.

any ideas on how to save it from the bin ? the fe41s.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

kee-lo_ — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 14:34:40 GMT

If the power chord is really loose and that DVD drive is as well then you should have it

a) taken back to the store and ask for a replacement or refund, you're legally entitled to it within 28 days.

b) Have VAIO-Link repair it.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

StevesRoom — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 21:43:38 GMT

i have just contacted my bying agent and give them the list of problems and the fact their is a known fault with the fe41s being the webcam and the wireles setup.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

kichimera — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:37:20 GMT

Which Toshiba did you buy?

I too am having similar major problems with the VGN-FE41S.

It is horribly slow.

The web cam works some times and not others.

No sound via the earphones except for the TEST function.

Updates not installing every time.

Unneccessary Sony software cripples the boot preocess.

Wireless and Bluetooth problems.

Have I bought a dog?

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

kee-lo_ — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:43:39 GMT

Guys,

Remember it's either/or with Bluetooth, you either have it on or you turn it off when using wireless networking.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

ciucci8 — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:51:12 GMT

Sony sull'assistenza è una merdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

ricambia pezzi difettosi con altri difettosi....

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

Vaio-vintage — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:42:48 GMT

I also bought an FE41S very recently. I am satisfied overall. The screen is brilliant and the machine as a whole looks and feels cool. Vista home premium looks stunning. Some of the supplied software are pretty useful ..such as sonicstage, mastering studio,roxio,adobe photoshop and premiere elements etc.Bluetooth and wireless works well for me.I had got a Sony bluetooth mouse and it pairs up finely with PC.I am satisfied with the sound too.It doesn't scream,but is adequate.

But the main problem i have is the very slow booting. Why is the system so slow despite sporting a core2duo T5500? i had configured the notebook with a 120GB 5400rpm drive .So it should be faster than the original 160GB 4200 drive.
Sometimes even the "Computer" folder takes ages to open.

Can somebody tell me a solution to fasten things up?

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

dazwan — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:46:51 GMT

to be honest i USED to love vaio, not anymore. i have exactly the same problems with my new vgn-fe41z and im getting fed up with it, the main problems are:
web cam messes up, crap drivers,
timer for screen switch off resets itself at will...
wirless-lan DECIDES for itself whether it works or not
and THE LAST AND THE WORST THIS EVER IS THAT I SET THE LAPTOP TO DO NOTHING WHEN I PUT THE LID DOWN, BUT WHAT DOES IT DO?
IT DISABLES THE SCREEN!!!!!! AND THE COMPUTER KEEPS OPERATING!!!!!!
im getting fed up of this vaio and im definatly not getting another one,
i previously owned the VGNS1XP and that didnt even have these problems, it was great with the illuminated adaptor and at least the adaptor and the DVD drive wast loose...

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

Thalamus. — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:37:47 GMT

Hi dazwan.

Have you installed the BIOS Update R0200J3

This BIOS Update fixes following issue

* Display stays dark after closing when lid close action is set to Do Nothing
* Sometimes system hangs when unplugging AC Adapter in standby.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

Richardfj — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:59:56 GMT

I was very interested to read this thread,I have a VGN-FS315E,which is almost completely useless!O.K. it is an entry level Sony notebook,but I thought I was bying into the 'Sony Experience'.What a disappointment.It is unstable,unreliable has rubbish battery life.Within 6 months the screen completely failed,a couple of months later the whole machine failed and was replaced with a brand new one,without so much as a covering note to appolgise for the not inconsiderable inconvenience caused,and supprise! it is just as bad as the original.
I find it hard to believe that a company like Sony can churn out this garbage and still maintain a market share,I guess its an image thing as the machine certainly looks cool.
I realy,realy wish I had bought a Mac.
Lets hear from the other unhappy Vaio users and maybe then Sony will take some notice.
By the way,why is this web site so slow?

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

vonman — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:34:16 GMT

I have an FE41Z a very similar machine, only difference I believe is a faster intel processor and a marginally bigger hard drive and i have had very few teething problems.

I will admit the power socket is a bit wobbly but maybe this is some form of protection for the wiring to the motherboard as i had a very rigid attachment on my last laptop and was told that was the reason why the DC jack came loose due to there being little give to it, it literally snapped off. The my club vaio can be turned off manually but the trigger also expires after the first ten days of use i believe.
Battery life i would expect to be less on the 41Z as it has bigger specs yet the battery so far has done 2.5 hours on the balanced power setting.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

tonybeard — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:08:36 GMT

At the end of the day after years of observation and this is all of the faulty vaios then that means 96% work perfectly. However there is nothing wrong with a 100% record considering how much the units cost and the fact the X Black screen is 70% of the cost and obviously some cost cutting has ushered in some cheap and nasty elements into the overall Vaio componant package. My keyboard characters wore off within weeks and that said volumes to me but overall the hardware and software in Vaio's are a premium upper middle of the range experience. Hope you guys get your laptops fixed to your satisfaction as I did with a brand new keyboard.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:07:11 GMT

hey there!!!

Im a student at university with a medical condition that i cant write for long periods of time so i got money to buy a laptop to make it a little better and easier for university.

I bought a Sony Vaio on the 30th january.. 2 days after i bought it a line appeared... 36 days after that the sound went on the laptop. on the 40th day of having my vaio i went to work came home and where the line was the screen had burst.

Called PC world who said Sony needs to sort it. Called Sony who said "yeah its a fault we can repair it within 5 days and everything will be fine" called back to PC world to tell them. Sony called me back to say about it being picked up and that was all fine.

I then got a call from Sony asking me to PAY £588.and so many pence as I had damaged my laptop and it was my fault even though it was them who said it was a fault. 5 weeks later Sony STILL had my laptop arguing over all this and were being soooo rude and everything. I would ask for managers to call me back and they would never. i finally got one who actually tried to do something and then she was told her mangers wouldnt listen to it any more. ALso the calls that happen between me and Sony.. some went missing along with notes.

so sony then wouldnt even look at my laptop and sent it back to me. by this point i had, had enough and went to PC world who said they would try and get me a replacement or get it fixed as all along i was misadvised by PC world.

So i finally got my laptop back, a day late and opened out the box to find out it had more damage to it than when it was sent off.

I called PC world and they offered me a full replacement. they even paid for a taxi to and from the shop. I went in store they took the vaio off me and went to get the replacement. Whilst i was waiting i was talking to a guy in the que who also new someone with a vaio with the SAME problem.

to top it off they then informed me the PInk C1 vaio is discontinued and i asked why the response was "sony changes their products every 10 weeks"... which i found hard to beleive.

Anyway i then walked out of the store with a new C2S in blue.. and im finding it sooo slow, screen savers not working, keys sticking, and im not happy at all.

I am not letting it lie with Sony though and taking it further.... even if it is regarding customer service.

I would not recomend sony to anyone and i even regret buying it in the first place. I have had to spend nearly £1000 alone on scribes never mind the cost of calls, software iv lost time on, the hassel, travel and to make it worse its had to come out of money i needed to go to New zealand on my university placement this year and it is going to be affected by the amount of money spent on this laptop.

So note to everyone DO NOT BUY SONY and have nothing to do with them while you can.

Thanks

Zee

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

Risedsun — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:30:52 GMT

There is nothing wrong with the FE41S,

I just bought the Vaio yesterday. After switching it on and seeing performance eating Vista I was a bit curios how much this will have an impact on the performance.

After about four to five hours, I've setted up all the updates and pre installed software. I made the recovery disk and played a bit with some of the vista functions.

Result in five hours 2 error Messages, which I consider as an record. I have to admit I caused the errors myself.

Overall picture of the Vaio, I think its an nice model, with lots of functions. Vista makes it look very pretty, But It does takes away the speed

I have another Vaio FE31M alomst the same specs than the 41S. On the older model I installed XP Prof, after installing all required drivers and updates. I have to say, It's an very fast machine now. All do the hard drive with 4200 rpm is not the fastest, but with two external HDD drives everything works fine and I won't complane about the speed

I can only recommend to uninstall all Vaio applications and set it up yourself with XP Pro or Home. I will do the same to the 41S Model in a couple of days. just wanne see some more of Vista :)))))

Anyone here having experience with Linux on Vaio's please tell!!!

#Nothing is ever easy#

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

tameril — Sat, 05 May 2007 12:05:59 GMT

Except one or two problem, that indeed might be manufacturer related, all the rest are imo windows related problems. The bluetooth/wireless might work together or not. This isn't sony's fault to be honest. Try using the 2nd Ghz setting eventually. To find your wireless network try using a free program to locate it. It is a well known fact, that you can't always relyt on the windows system tools. An exaple qwould be, that windows wouldn't connect to a cysco router with encryption turned on.
Brightness setting-> go to the display properties->screensaver->power and check your settings there.
DVD drive feels a bit loose here too (I am using a FE-21M), but it is not falling off or causing problems. Battery life is short here too, but I don't use the battery to play video games, so I got 2h of office writing, which is quite sufficient for me.

All in all I would suggest checking with sony service in your country, but the laptop doesn't seem to be of that poor quality. Except all the bloatware coming with the standart system install, but for this you got solutions on the forums here.

I used a HP before sony and to be honest my vaio is a Godly gift compared to HP.

Edit: Never had to deal with Sony's CS and fortunatly for me the shop where I got my laptop is offering onsite service for any product they sell (even home service against a small fee). As far as performance, I play Everquest 2 a LOT and the settings are medium with some settings at high. A not too bad performance for a 7600 go.
A collegue of mine got the CZ (the ultra small and portable one) model and it is working perfectly, but considering the number of complains about CZ series...he might have gotten lucky this time.

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

admin — Sun, 13 May 2007 13:07:40 GMT

I had VGN FE-21M for nearly a year and now I bought Fe-41Z [and still kept the FE-21M]. I am on 15th or 16th Vaio now and none of the later machines are exactly brilliant, perhaps because they were made down to price tather than up to quality.

The issue of short thick cable pisses me off as well. I have always preferred the longer and thinner 2 pin cables, that Sony supplied with their earlier Japanese made machines.

The settings of webcam, bluetooth and wi-fi are poor, if you stick with the standard Vaio out of the box installation. Download updated drivers [and there are as well aftermarket drivers and tips usually available on PC Answers disks].

Slow Start? The quickest way is to de-install all unrequired Sony bundled in programs, then go to registry [run > regedit] and wipe any traces of them in the software folder. then go to ... run > msconfig > services ... and disable what ever you don't need. Go to ... startup folder and rightclick delete everything [except bluetooth?]. That should speed the things up, but the propper way would be to reinstal a clean version of Vista without Sony settings and without Sony bundled packages. The only way is to go to Microsoft upgrades and upgrade Sony Vista Premium to Microsoft Vista Premium [free of charge] .. then re-install Sony updated drivers [where necessary]. Whatever you do, do not upgrade to Vista Ultimate ... a) it is not worth it, the Vista Business is the one to go to if you need to network your Vaio .. and b) you will loose the sound.

It took me 3 days and 10 Vista Ultimate re-installations to sort this problem. That sound card / driver combination is used in some Toshiba, HP and Dell machines .. and all seem to have the same problem with Vista Ultimate. Richard

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

admin — Sun, 13 May 2007 13:25:19 GMT

The Question of low sound levels? .. a) update your Bios [download from Vaio-link website], then go to Bios [press F2 on start up] and turn the sound setting from level 4 to level 8? This should improve things a bit. Richard

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

admin — Sun, 13 May 2007 13:48:45 GMT

VGN FE-41S ... it is a reasonably well build machine, far better build than any Toshiba or HP. There is only one make that is comparable or perhaps slightly better build than the Vaio and that is Asus. The speed of the Vaio on startup is affected by the amount of services being loaded at a start. Buy a book on Vista or XP tune up, or get monthly PC Answers magazine with tips ad tricks on how to stream line the Windows settings. Uninstall, or disable software or services that you don't use, clean the registry [hardware and software subfolders] of any traces of uninstalled items etc. Install XP Pro instead of Vista to speed the things up even further. Richard

Re: sony vaio vgn fe41s

admin — Sun, 13 May 2007 14:27:19 GMT

It is a good machine and good value for money [far better put together than Toshiba or HP], you just don't know how to set it up.

De-install all packages that you don't use, and clean the program directories and the registry of all traces. Then go to MSCONFIG and disable all the services that you don't need to run at the boot-in. Go to Bios and reset the sound level from level 4 to level 8 [don't forget to save it on the exit from Bios]. Buy a book on windows annoyances and buy an issue of PC Answers from time to time [for tricks and tips]. If you still can't get on, reformat the drive and install XP Pro operating system.

If you still can't get on with your Vaio, I will buy it off you ... and you can buy instead the Asus laptop. Asus are better made laptops ... but at a price. You pays your money ... you makes your choice. Richard