# Eat Shit and Die Sony **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 6, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367 "2011-04-06T05:19:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/21 "2011-04-06T12:51:38Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Toshiba service kicks ass. That’s been my experience, at least, and that’s why I’ll only buy their laptops. > > Of course, they also offer 2 or 3 years warranty. I just replaced my Toshiba as it had become very unreliable. Of course, it was 7 years old and keys had finally started falling off. I replaced it with a new Toshiba laptop. To the OP. You didn’t happen to buy your Sony with a credit card did you? Some credit cards double the original warranties. Might be worth looking into. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/22 "2011-04-06T13:15:49Z")
isn’t 1 year pretty much the “standard” warranty period for consumer PCs now anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/23 "2011-04-06T13:34:07Z")
My wife has a similar problem every 8 months or so. Just go to Ebay and buy a new one for $40 or so and get on with your life. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![gogoud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gogoud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gogoud)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/24 "2011-04-06T13:34:47Z")
I had a Sony fail like this after 3 months but they fixed it under warranty. And I’ve had and seen many other laptops with the same problem. So we came up with the LapTug which is a really cheap preventative solution - it uses the network or modem port to provide an anchor point for the power lead so you don’t get the pulls on the laptop dc power socket which do the damage. Just £2 (c.$3) and it really works! Available [here](http://www.laptug.co.uk/laptug.html?src=sdope&date=2011-04-06) or on eBay. Sorry for the advert but I really think it can help in this situation. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/25 "2011-04-06T13:42:56Z")
So it destroys your ethernet port instead of your power socket? I don’t really see how that’s much better. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/26 "2011-04-06T13:44:31Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > My wife has a similar problem every 8 months or so. Just go to Ebay and buy a new one for $40 or so and get on with your life. > > -Joe The problem is an internal jack. Not an external power cord. ---
**Author:** ![Nadir](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nadir/32/7302_2.png) [@Nadir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nadir)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/27 "2011-04-06T13:54:19Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > My power jack apparently broken loose within the laptop’s case. Don’t do that anymore. > [@Omniscient](#): > > I say “no shit Sherlock” and ask what my solution is. Don’t do those two things any more either - especially the asking question to which you already intuitively know the answer part. Not smart. > [@Omniscient](#): > > Perhaps, just maybe, I’ll get an actual thinking, non-script reading human on the phone … See post title. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/28 "2011-04-06T14:16:32Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Minor meaning $200? > > And Sony should eat the cost because laptops should reasonably be expected to last more than 14 months, warranty period or not. Couple of things. The product comes with a specific term warranty which you should know before you make the adult choice to spend your money. The real reasonable expectation is that they should cover the warranty and no more. That’s the agreement the customer makes when they spend their money. 2ndly, the warranty, any warranty covers manufacturer defects, and normal use. There are lots of customers out there , some that are very cautious with their property and some that are not. People lie, or exaggerate about their use in order to get out of paying for a repair they might have prevented. Companies often can’t tell how the item was used unless misuse is very obvious. If they extended the warranty term based on the customer’s say so, they be taking a ride fairly often. The fair and reasonable thing is to stick with the terms of the warranty. The exceptional service part would be that once they become aware of a specific problem, with a certain model, they might extend the warranty for that issue only, but it’s their call, and business decision. Off the shelf computers are mass produced and out of every 1000 cranked out there will be X amount of problems. Good brands have fewer problems, not none. If you happen to be the unlucky person who has a problem it’s probably not because the company or the model is a piece of crap. It’s the roll of the dice. Buck up. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/29 "2011-04-06T14:18:50Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > isn’t 1 year pretty much the “standard” warranty period for consumer PCs now anyway? Pretty much for most consumer electronics. I don’t know how many arguements I had with customers who wanted their item fixed free of charge outside the warranty period for the obvious reason “But, but, but it should not break within X number of months and I shouldn’t have to pay for it.” “Mmmm, I don’t think you understand what ‘warranty period’ means.” ---
**Author:** ![gogoud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gogoud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gogoud)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/30 "2011-04-06T14:20:52Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > So it destroys your ethernet port instead of your power socket? I don’t really see how that’s much better. well I’ve not had or heard of a case where the ethernet port gets damaged. second, yes it is much better (if it has to happen): because most of us hardly ever use the ethernet port cos we have wifi, but we all need a power socket. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/31 "2011-04-06T14:25:44Z")
In Japan there’s an urban legend that Sony products are equipped with [a warranty timer](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7054587/The-myth-of-the-Sony-kill-switch.html) that induces failure just after the warranty expires. To the OP: you got burned, c’est la vie. It’s not reasonable to expect Sony to fix it for free after 14 months when they only offer a 12-month warranty, but also most consumers would expect a laptop to last longer than 14 months. Pay to get it repaired, but don’t let Sony do it; they don’t deserve more of your money. Have a local shop take care of it. Next time, don’t buy Sony. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/32 "2011-04-06T14:34:23Z")
> [@gogoud](#): > > well I’ve not had or heard of a case where the ethernet port gets damaged. second, yes it is much better (if it has to happen): because most of us hardly ever use the ethernet port cos we have wifi, but we all need a power socket. 1. Fixing the Ethernet port is harder and more expensive, and probably requires replacing the entire motherboard for lack of replacement parts. 2. Your product, when used as intended, will cause wear and damage to the laptop. 3. You trip on the cord with one of these, and the laptop is going for a ride. At least with a regular power plug, it will pull out some of the time. 4. Why the _fuck_ would you choose the Ethernet port over the lock slot, which is part of the case and is actually designed to take some stress? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/33 "2011-04-06T14:39:13Z")
This happened to my Dell, and it bricked it. The adapter port was on the motherboard, and there was no way to solder it back in place. I would have had to replace the motherboard. Fortunately, at that point I was living at home again and got a cheap desktop. I only in the past week finally got a USB enclosure for the hard drive and am looking at 4-5 year old files. Since then, many have moved to separate cards. If so, the fix is so easy it’s ridiculous. Anyone who charges you even $75 is overcharging you, in my opinion. You might as well do it yourself. Get replacement part, remove, replace. But, even if it isn’t you can get a separate battery charger and second battery, likely for cheaper than the $200 repair. you get an extra battery, and no risk of overcharging. The only real problem is that you’ll have to hibernate to switch 'em out, but that’ll cost you less than a minute. Of course, I’m assuming the problem isn’t the adapter itself, which is what happened on my dell first. I went through 3 adapters before it crapped out. ---
**Author:** ![gogoud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@gogoud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gogoud)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/34 "2011-04-06T14:45:41Z")
OK it’s your choice, but most of us never use the ethernet port on a laptop. And hardly anyone uses the modem port (which the LapTug can use instead, if your notebook has one). As for kicking the laptop to the floor, well yes that’s never going to be good, but I’ve never done that and yet we lost 3 laptops to the dreaded power dc jack socket failure in our family - before we used LapTugs. We’ve sold lots of these and everyone is very happy with them. Yes the lock slot would be a good anchor point too, but it so happens our product uses RJ45 and/or RJ11 socket. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/35 "2011-04-06T15:10:07Z")
In the UK there is a “reasonable lifetime” consumer protection law, which over-rides a manufacturer’s warrenty period. So if you can convince a court that your laptop had an inherent fault which should not have come about through normal wear-and-tear the supplier (not the manufacturer) has to offer a refund, repair or replacement. There is an allowance for the amount of use you’ve had from the product, so it might be a partial refund. If the item goes wrong within 6 months the supplier has to prove the fault was not present at point of sale; if it’s between 6 months and 6 years the customer has to prove that the fault was already present (and not due to normal useage). ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/36 "2011-04-06T15:10:35Z")
I can’t wrap my brain around the concept that A) the warranty is expired so B) all repairs must necessarily happen through the original manufacturer. Nobody takes their car to the dealership for an oil change. So why ship the laptop back to Sony for a repair when there are a dozen laptop repair shops in just about every city with a population over 50,000? I don’t get it. I’d try to find the part on the interwebs and fix it myself. It can’t be that difficult. But if it is, Best Buy has their PC police (or whatever they call 'em) and just about every electronics store offers PC and laptop repairs, not to mention the myriad small businesses that cropped up to address issues just. like. this. So without exploring the other options and making cost/shipping comparisons, I see no rational reason for the rant. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/37 "2011-04-06T15:27:05Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > The problem is an internal jack. Not an external power cord. You can buy a replacement internal jack off of ebay just as well. $40 is fairly normal for the jack and whatever tools you don’t have at hand. On some laptops this is an easy fix – take out a half dozen screws, pop off the keyboard and part of the case, remove old jack, replace with new, reassemble. That takes maybe 15 minutes if you’re reasonably handy. Maybe an hour if you’ve never done it before and you have to look up guides on the internet. Unfortunately for the OP, Sony does not make easy-to-service laptops. I’ve done this fix on two Vaio laptops; each time I had to take every goddamn part off before reaching the power jack. And also some laptops have parts the really can’t come off, like plastic frames with fiddly clips that will break if you remove them. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/38 "2011-04-06T15:58:27Z")
Besides all the points on the realities of warranties and the proper place to take the laptop for repair, somehow I think it is a little bit unseemly to hit Sony when one takes into account what is happening in Japan. > **[Tons of mud, debris hamper Sony's tsunami recovery](https://www.computerworld.com/article/2743084/tons-of-mud--debris-hamper-sony-s-tsunami-recovery.html)** > > A crane lifts a huge clump of mud and drops it into a truck. Moments later another truck rolls by carrying the remains of a mangled car. This is the scene at Sony's Sendai Technology Center on the afternoon of April 1, three weeks to the day since a... ---
**Author:** ![Hero\_From\_Sector\_7G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@Hero\_From\_Sector\_7G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hero_From_Sector_7G)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/39 "2011-04-06T16:22:19Z")
I’d like to chime in with some laptop/netbook experience. Generally, **they don’t last more than two years**. The first thing to go is always the battery. The [Culprit](http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries)? Poor charging habits and REALLY HIGH TEMPERATURES. If you didn’t buy some sort of under laptop cooling device plan on permanently tethering your laptop after a year. The second thing to go is the plug-in, because well, you’re using the shit out of it now. If you use your portable device as intended, you are likely carrying it everywhere, jostling it, and occasionally dropping it. Computers are still somewhat fragile beasts, and you are bound to break something. Usually the keyboard wire mesh will dismount from the clip (an easy fix if you’re handy) or the pad will stop working. If you’re really unfortunate the mounts holding your screen up will break. If you can’t afford to replace a laptop every two years you can’t afford a laptop in the first place. They are not long term computer solutions. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367/40 "2011-04-06T16:24:05Z")
This is really interesting: so the warranty by the manufacturer in the US is only 1 year, and after that, if you didn’t buy extra warranty, you’re fucked up? Wow. Obviously Sony et al. manufacture two different products for the US and European market then - because in the EU, there’s a two-year guarantee mandated by law that the seller guarantees his products to work without fail. \* The warranty by the manufacturer is seperate from that, and involves contacting the manufacturer, whereas for the sellers guarantee, you just go down to the store and show the receipt for the item\*\* to get the item replaced, repaired or the money back\*\*\* It’s still a hassle to buy too cheap stuff that breaks quickly, because most sellers don’t have the expertise to repair the items themselves, so they look at it, say “yep, it’s broken, yep, it’s covered, no, we can’t do it, so we want to ship it in, which takes 2-4 weeks, wait for the manufacturer to get around to repairing it, which takes 4-8 weeks, wait to ship it back 2-4 weeks - you need that item quicker? Sorry, no alternative.” (And then they forget it, and every week you have to go back and nag them. And then the “repaired” item comes finally back, you test it … and it still has the same problem. So the whole thing starts again. Fun time.) - If the product breaks in the first 6 months, it’s assumed obviously to be a fault at manufacturing, and repaired or replaced without any trouble. If it breaks after that, the customer has to prove that a manufacturing fault caused it and not normal wear and tear. \*\* This is why it’S recommend, though additional work, to copy all those thermo-paper receipts, to make them durable enough, as thermo-paper is very touchy and easily degrades over time. \*\*\* The law specifies that the customer has to accept repair tries at first, and only if several attempts at repair fail, can the customer ask for a replacement or the money back; different sellers handle this with different degrees of leniency, also depending on how much the item is worth. Outside the computer business, some companies are famous for offering long warranties - IKEA kitchen appliances, sofas, Therm-a-Rest inflatable mattresses, Landmark sweaters… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eat-shit-and-die-sony/577367.md?page=3)