# Sony say I've to pay for recovery disc for Vaio bought in April



## TreeTiger (23 Jun 2011)

I bought a Sony Vaio laptop in Power City in April.  It stopped working yesterday, giving a message that Windows did not shut down properly and I could either launch Startup Repair or try to start Windows normally.  Neither option worked, I got either a blank screen or a screen saying "Windows".

Power City said I needed to call Sony direct (they gave me 2 wrong numbers but I eventually found the Sony Vaio helpline [01 4073040 in case it's any use to anyone] and called them.

Sony say there is corruption in the operating system and a reinstallation of Windows is required.  There is a recovery tool in the system which may or may not work (so far no luck) and the only other option is to purchase recovery disc at a cost of €56.46 including VAT & shipping.

No Windows (or any) discs came with the laptop and Sony say I should have made a recovery disc myself.  I see now there is a leaflet amongst the paperwork which says to create your recovery media immediately after setup.

Can this be right that I am expected to pay?  When Googling the issue it seems that a vast number of people have had this problem.
Should I just go back to Power City and say to them to get it sorted as I bought it from them?
Luckily my files are all backed up but I don't know what would happen with games I downloaded.

Sorry for long post, any suggestions welcome.


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## RIAD_BSC (23 Jun 2011)

Your contract is with Power City, not Sony. Tell PC you want a new laptop or you're contacting the National Consumer Agency to complain they won't accept the return of faulty merchandise.


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## onlineprint (23 Jun 2011)

I might have a windows 7 recovery disc that I made, if I find it I will send it to you, this should help restore your laptop, its from a advent laptop but will still do a restore for you as I have used on my old hp laptop as well, you will just need to re-activate windows. 

if you want send me a PM with your name and address and I will post out today or tomorrow


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## roker (23 Jun 2011)

You may already have it on a "D" drive, but you should have made it also on to CD when you first used the laptop


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## TreeTiger (23 Jun 2011)

onlineprint said:


> I might have a windows 7 recovery disc that I made, if I find it I will send it to you, this should help restore your laptop, its from a advent laptop but will still do a restore for you as I have used on my old hp laptop as well, you will just need to re-activate windows.
> 
> if you want send me a PM with your name and address and I will post out today or tomorrow



Thanks so much for your kind offer.  I popped in to a PC World I was passing and a guy there told me that the recovery disc required is specific to the Sony Vaio model, and that nothing else will work properly.  Apparently it's because the Vaio has extra bells & whistles and any other disc will reduce the functionality of my laptop.  But I really appreciate you offering to send me your recovery disc.



roker said:


> You may already have it on a "D" drive, but you should have made it also on to CD when you first used the laptop



This is my problem, apparently I should have made this disc, but I didn't.


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## onlineprint (23 Jun 2011)

TreeTiger said:


> Thanks so much for your kind offer.  I popped in to a PC World I was passing and a guy there told me that the recovery disc required is specific to the Sony Vaio model, and that nothing else will work properly.  Apparently it's because the Vaio has extra bells & whistles and any other disc will reduce the functionality of my laptop.  But I really appreciate you offering to send me your recovery disc.



Sorry to say the PC World guy is WRONG, Windows 7 is a factory product and when you re-install a operating system you also will need to download all the drivers from the Sony Support Site. Please note I have an advanced background in computers, I might even know better than the guys in PC World!


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## dahamsta (23 Jun 2011)

A Windows disc will recover Windows; the Sony disc will recover the Sony-specific stuff. If you recover Windows, you can restore the Sony stuff from the web, directly if Windows can get connected, or indirectly via a USB key or other connection if you can't.

However, as has been pointed out, most computers ship with a recovery partition these days, the recovery disc is invariably in *addition *to this. This would be presented at the initial stage of starting up, check your instructions if it's not obvious.


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## TreeTiger (23 Jun 2011)

onlineprint said:


> Sorry to say the PC World guy is WRONG, Windows 7 is a factory product and when you re-install a operating system you also will need to download all the drivers from the Sony Support Site. Please note I have an advanced background in computers, I might even know better than the guys in PC World!





dahamsta said:


> A Windows disc will recover Windows; the Sony disc will recover the Sony-specific stuff. If you recover Windows, you can restore the Sony stuff from the web, directly if Windows can get connected, or indirectly via a USB key or other connection if you can't.
> 
> However, as has been pointed out, most computers ship with a recovery partition these days, the recovery disc is invariably in *addition *to this. This would be presented at the initial stage of starting up, check your instructions if it's not obvious.



Thank you very much for your replies.  So if I understand you correctly, I can try putting someone else's Windows 7 recovery disc into the Vaio and chances are it'll get me going enough to recover the rest of the stuff?  I will see if I can get hold of one from a friend tomorrow.


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## dahamsta (23 Jun 2011)

Should do. It's just a standard Windows 7 disk though, and it's likely the version (Home, Professional, etc) should match. I'm not 100% on the latter though, haven't recovered Windows from a disk since XP.


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## onlineprint (24 Jun 2011)

The disc needs to be the correct version, ie 32 or 64 bit, apart from that you should be able to use any windows 7 disc, most likely 64 bit for a modern laptop. Hope this helps


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## galleyslave (24 Jun 2011)

onlineprint said:


> Sorry to say the PC World guy is WRONG, Windows 7 is a factory product and when you re-install a operating system you also will need to download all the drivers from the Sony Support Site. Please note I have an advanced background in computers, I might even know better than the guys in PC World!



your 'advanced background in computers' is not as advanced as you think!


Both you and the pc world guy are misleading. The PC world guy is right insofar as a recovery CD is generally product specific. You are correct insofar as a vanilla windows CD will work on any PC. However, a vanilla windows CD may lack critical drivers, such as network drivers preventing the OP from getting internet access and thus, downloading the additional required drivers. 

The answer is -find a mate who can download the required drivers onto cd or usb. Then, if a vanilla windows CD is available, install and use the cd/usb stick to add the remaining drivers. Or bite the bullet and buy the hideously expensive recovery cd, or lastly, find somebody with the same model laptop who has a recovery cd and get a copy

Also, I very much doubt Power City will do much unless the hardware is damaged. operating system issues would be outside the scope of the warranty


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## dahamsta (25 Jun 2011)

Is there an echo in here?


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## onlineprint (26 Jun 2011)

galleyslave said:


> your 'advanced background in computers' is not as advanced as you think!
> 
> 
> Both you and the pc world guy are misleading. The PC world guy is right insofar as a recovery CD is generally product specific. You are correct insofar as a vanilla windows CD will work on any PC. However, a vanilla windows CD may lack critical drivers, such as network drivers preventing the OP from getting internet access and thus, downloading the additional required drivers.
> ...



Interesting comment for sure but I have actually re-installed windows 7 on a sony laptop at the start of this year from a 64 bit disc, excuse my 'cheekiness' on the PC World comment but from my own personal dealings with some PCWorld staff left me un-impressed.


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## NOAH (26 Jun 2011)

buy the recovery disc,  get laptop sorted, make a second recovery, sell the one from sony on ebay.  I believe you will still lose downloaded games as it resets laptop to original condition.

Did you try taking out battery and start with ac power? And keep the power on button pressed.


noah


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## galleyslave (26 Jun 2011)

onlineprint said:


> Interesting comment for sure but I have actually re-installed windows 7 on a sony laptop at the start of this year from a 64 bit disc


I'm betting it wasn't a recovery CD but a retail Windows...


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## roker (26 Jun 2011)

I am only a computer user but as previously suggested, there should be a backup on your “D” drive which is a partition of the hard disk, If you forgot to make a backup to CDs when the laptop was new, this is available as long as you can boot into it.
At least that is how my HP laptop is setup.


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## AlbacoreA (27 Jun 2011)

I know noone wants to spend money un-necessarily but €56.46 seems cheap to me considering you'd have to pay someone else to fix it otherwise. You'd then have the disc if you need it in the future. 

Using another disc is ok and installing drivers isn't a problem. But its a fair bit of work, chasing down all the right versions, then installing them. If I could get a disc that saves me all that hassle, and it wasn't too expensive I'd seriously consider it. Lifes too short. 

While windows XP wasn't very fussy about which disc you use. Windows 7, you'll have to get the same version to re-install, then use your activation key to activate it. Do you have this key?


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## foxylady (28 Jun 2011)

You only have this a short while so its still under warranty and where you bought it is where it should be fixed at no charge to you


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## AlbacoreA (28 Jun 2011)

I would be surprised if the warranty covered software issues. I've been wrong before though.


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