I had a Sony Laptop 10 years ago with this same problem. It’s caused by the fact that the socket for the power cord is fixed to the motherboard and has no connection to the Laptop frame. But the free floating socket has plenty of wiggle room withing the frame.
So any torque applied to the jack goes straight to the circuit board. Then the circuit board gets fatigued over time and cracks, taking out who knows what circuits with it.
Repairing is not as simple as just soldering the socket back onto the board. It may require reassembling the circuit board and/or replacing IC circuit components.
It’s a bad design flaw. One that Sony should have rectified years ago. I won’t buy Sony Laptops for that reason and have purchased Toshibas and Acer laptops that have been given just as much rough treatment and not experienced anything like the Sony issue because the Toshiba sockets are either attached to the frame or have less wiggle room inside of it.
You can turn Omniscient’s pitting into an argument about warranties if you want to but it still doesn’t hide the fact that Sony should have fixed this known design flaw years ago.
A laptop is intended as a portable device. The most expensive part is the battery which is also crucial to performing the device’s intended purpose. Why build components that will last longer than the principle element?
Most of the outrage comes from people who buy laptops but use them mostly to check their mail in bed. If you want a home PC, buy a home PC. If you want a laptop that will last forever, pony up and spend 3 or 4 thousand on military grade laptops.
The design flaw that could be easily fixed by making the frame around the socket fit a little snugger and take stress off the mother board. There have been any number of design changes in the laptop. This one would be an incrementally small adjustment to make if you are already making a new model
Maybe for the same reason all of the other components in the device outlast the battery? The battery is a consumer replaceable component. I don’t see how your argument applies.
Not enough obviously. Some customers like me have defected but we’re talking about Sony here, the same people who couldn’t be bothered with the obvious when the Betamax issue confronted them. And we’re talking about the electronics consumer market which has a large segment who will loyally buy a name brand regardless of quality.
This is very true. However, in two years (life expectancy of a battery) the price of a new battery will be the same, but the price of components will drop. Manufacturers like Sony and Dell can purchase batteries in bulk and pass the savings on to the customer. Therefor, you will likely be making the decision between spending ~ $200 on a new battery, or ~ $600 on a new faster laptop that also has a new battery. Edit: Two years in computer time is often enough time to double the capabilities of newer models.
It is quite possible to buy a laptop that lasts for several years. However, these are not the $800 dollar entry level Sony/Dell/Acer/Asus laptops.
I would also like to reiterate that it is possible to extend the battery life through good charging habits and use of your laptop. Heat is the number one killer of batteries, followed by poor charging habits.
Two easy steps to extend the prolonged life of the battery:
Observe where your fans intake and outtake are and NEVER obstruct them. There should always be a space below the laptop for air to pass through unobstructed.
You are not supposed to leave the laptop constantly charging by A/C while in use. Charge the battery to 100%, use it normally, than plug it back in when you are done.
The people I know who complain about their “Craptops” largely do not follow the above 2 steps.
In warranty repairs for Sony? Useless as well. We got a Vaio laptop on special at Best Buy, actually a good deal for the specs. Four weeks later, the HD announced it was going to die (actually a nice feature) an did so; backed up docs and email on a CD. Set it back through Best Buy to Sony after they confirmed failure. Two Sony repair facilities “didn’t want to work on it”; actual words from their correspondence. Best Buy (yeah, I know they don’t get much love here on the boards) replaced the laptop and refered the problem to their legal department. Yes, Sony sucks in warranty as well. Same with proprietary hardware still lurking inside various equipment and their policy of not furnishing RC codes.
Wow, so the sellers have to eat the costs of repair/replacement of defective products that are out of manufacturer warranty but less than 2 years old? That’s got to be a huge operating expense. Most likely passed on to the consumer through the cost of the product.
You say you’re not here to fight, yet it is you who first reacted with hostility.
You can hardly deem a person who places a “laptop” on her lap to be a “dumbass.” Or are you arguing that consumers should remove their clothing prior to placing it on their lap?
Even if the first generation of laptops wasn’t designed to sit upon one’s clothed lap, upon realizing that so many people DID use it in this manner, one wonders why the engineers didn’t alter future designs in order to meet the ACTUAL usage patterns of their consumers.
Or is engineering with the average end user in mind just too crazy a concept for techno-geeks to grasp?
The sellers can choose/ demand that the manufacturer makes products that lost long enough. I don’t think that higher costs are passed on, because when old law (with 1 year of guarantee) was replaced by the new EU law, prices didn’t rise dramatically.
*No one * buys a laptop with the assumption it will only last 12 months. Just because a manufacturer sets a designated warranty period and refuses to cover what would be a manufacturer’s defect under any other sub-12 month circumstance doesn’t mean he has to take it lying down.
I’ve argued with plenty of companies with products shortly outside the warranty period and managed to get them fixed (talk to my 4 iPhones, all of which suffered from manufacturer’s defects). I merely propose he should attempt the same (as he seems to be doing). When I say Sony “should” fix it, I’m not saying they’re legally obligated to–something that seems to have flown over many of your heads. I’m saying that they should fix it because it’s their fault they made a shitty product that ceased operation after a ridiculous period for a thousand-dollar+ piece of equipment. If it were up to you guys, every Xbox owner of the first 3 years would be up shit’s creek with no recourse.
Full disclosure: I used to work customer support for a large videogame company and am rather familiar with warranty-related issues. As the company I worked for wanted to make their customers happy, they often repaired non-user inflicted physical damage issues outside the official warranty period–one that is largely arbitrary and is there more for the company’s benefit than the consumer’s.
So that 55" 3D Sony that I just bought is only expected to last a year because that’s how long the warranty runs? Hell, I should just go to Rent-A-Center and lease one cause I’ll have paid $150/month for the privilege of watching t.v should it go kaput after 12 months.