VAIO Type S - Page 68

The S270 chipset runs at PC2700 (DDR333) - installing PC3200 won't make any difference unless you overclock the memory through wpcredit.

Kingmax 172-pin 512MB PC2700 microdimm

The S series uses a 9.5mm height drive. The only 60gb 7200RPM drive available in this spec is the Hitachi 7K60. Seagate makes a 100gb 7200PM notebook drive, but it has yet to be released.

Hitachi 7K60 60GB 7200RPM

Seagate Momentus 7200.1 100GB 7200RPM (pdf)

As for a slot type DVD writer, I haven't seen any in the 9.5mm height. There are some available in 12.7mm, but that obviously won't fit. I'm getting my "barebones" S270 on Monday and plan to upgrade the CPU/HD/RAM. Good luck with yours!

got my s260 last week and i'm loving it. one problem that kind of bothers me though is my enter key. sometimes if i hit it at the right time in the right place about the left corner of the key it makes a crunch sound. a loud not like the normal "tak" but a crunch like there's some rubbing. anyone else have this problem? i don't want to have to clear the stuff i put in it and have to return it only to find out the next one has it. and could it just wear out overtime so it won't click anymore?

I can't really imagine what this "crunch" sound could be. Can you live with it?

of course.. i'm just extremely anal. i'll probably stop noticing it in a week or so

Guys please help here, SONY SCREWED ME BAD my screen is messed up and some other stuf

hello guys i tought you "the best" could really help me at this one, ****in sony couldnt so lets see here:

i have 3 huge issues here of why returning my system or getting service by sony:

1-my screen is totally unaceppteable/messed up bad:

basicly the screen's bottom is like 1/4 of the downer part brighter than the whole rest of the screen, its like a line of ilummination is coming from there giving the bottom a total different look of colors, for example when i get a black window full screen you can easy see that the bottom is actually purple not black or even dark purple, its a light colored purple my god!...plus there is also these corners at the bottom too that have these liltle holes of light, the right one has a bigger hole of light and the left one a smaller and they're easy to see... you all know that there comes the screen then this black fabric and then the actual plastic or metal of the laptop, so these holes are located in the black fabric part separeted from the screen whole display.

2-i was thinking about returning this laptop to sony to get it refunded and place a new order for a same model (S270) the thing is that i totally need and want the dvd burner drive avalaible for this model, the laptop i got has the dvd -+rw drive that was before on sale/avalaible, NOW sony does not offer this option and my god i need badly, what i was thinking of is either request to get an execption for me or tell them to at least give me the drive im returing in with this laptop for my new one, get it??? please give me any suggestions they are all welcomed. however sony told me to call them and see.

3-the bundled software that this laptop come with is by far not damn acceptabled, is so annoying and space waster and etc i hate it, what i want is to use my windows xp pro alone copy to install it on this system or the new one i will get if i return this one AND also install all the drivers i need from a stand alone copy too, get it??? so i will avoid allthese softwares headakes and etc.

SO GUYS WHAT IM ACUTALLY NEEDING HERE IS WHAT YOU THINK:
please tell me what i should do, know, what would you suggest or recommend, share an experience anything please!!!!

thanks all.

ps:let me know if any of you are having same or similiar problems/issues.

ouch the screen thing is major. I think that happened to some1 here before. Hopefully, my laptop won't be like that. When you spoke to Sony, did they say they would replace the screen for free? In other words have some1 come pick it up and send it back to you? If you can confirm from other people here that it is just a creen issue, then replacing it might be a good idea. Which warranty did you get? I'd like to know if the standard 1 year warranty is any good.

As far as reording. I have done that mayve 5 or 6 times now because of one screw up or another. And let me tell you Sony does not give a damn about your problems, they say it is up to you to reorder it if you want. They will not go out of their way to please you. If they loose you as a customer, they don't care. Basically if you return it, you will most likely not be able to get the DVD-+RW again, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

About the windows XP, if you have an actual CD copy of windows XP, than its easy to reformat your whole hard drive and then reinstall windows. MAke sure you burn a CD with all the Sny VAIO S series drivers first. This was no issue for me, I spent maybe 5 minutes on the standard copy of windows from Sony checking to see everything was in order. Then I replaced the HD and started with a fresh copy of windows.

Good luck. I have been through alot with SonyStyle.com customer service, so I know what you must be going through. My advice is, don't buy from them if you can avoid it.

Also, atleast they don't try to screw you out of returning the item. But, be advised that they can take weeks to refund your money. When I first ordered the S170, Fedex couldn't find my address and the notebook got returned to Sony. I called a mager immediately and asked for a refund. She promised she would put in for a fast refund as soon as they received the item back. Two weeks+ later, still no refund, so I sent dispute letter to my credit card. A few days later, probly before the dispute had gotten to my CC company they gave me the refund of the total price minus the shipping. They wanted to charge me shipping, cus Fedex messed up. I called again, two weeks+ later I got the refund for the shipping charges. It takes them minutes to charge your credit card, but be prepared to wait month+ to get your money refunded.

sdnotebook do you think i can just take out the optical drive (dvdcd burner) and keep it with me so then just send the laptop without it and tell them to resell me another s270 with maybe less ram and hard drive so i can also save some bucks... i hope you understand what im saying here.... thanks alot.

ps:i expect to be charged for keeping the drive but i will tell them to send one laptop without anydrive.... damn i think that will avoid the warrany terms and shit....****!!! what do i do now?? i cant keep a 2250 dollars laptop in this state...

I think that is a terrible idea. Two things can go wrong and probly will.

1) They will over charge for that drive if you don't return it, or not refund you at all. They could say, oh you trying to return something and its missing the $500 DVD+-RW. So they refund you everything except the $500. Meanwhile, you could of reordered one and upgraded to DVD+-RW for $150.

2) When you reorder they will not let you get a new laptop without a drive. I'm pretty sure you must atleast have the CDRW. The price of that is already configured in the base system, so there is no way around it.

Its not worth the trouble with these people. Trust me, you will have a lot of headaches if you try that.

Why aren't you going to try the warranty service? It's probly faster than reordering. Again, remember they won't refund you for like a month. Are you willing to put down another $2k on your credit card for a month?

I think the most sensible solution, is to return it all, get your money back in about a month. Remember they might not refund you the shipping charges if you return it. Then buy an S260 from PCNation or something.

sdnotebook: what do you mean by "reordering" ? do they really can help me with that, i dont understand i thought sony wont give a shit about customers, so what i right now questions is what you re saying, you mean by that that i can tell sony that im returning this ****ed up laptop but i still want one/same model less customs and of course the dvd burner internal drive OR what you mean by that is just to return the product get refunded and then place a new spanking order??? dont you understand dude that i want and need the dvd burner that is now not possible to get in sonystyle,com.

the s260 does not come with dvd burner internally neither the s270's option to have it custumized is avalaible, the only dvd burner for a s series lappy is this one i have in this crappy system.

sdnotebook advise me what to do (please if not much of asking, give me a step by step suggestion), remember the lappy gotta have the dvd buner and be at least s260 or s270..........does the s260 come with same tek and fixes as the new s270 i wonder.

thanks so much.

also how can i upgrade to dvd -+rw for $150 when the option its not avalaible anymore in soystyle.com go check it out.

thanks

call Sony and ask if they will be offering the DVD-+RW in the near future.

What about this one:
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...KU=VGNS260KIT1

It just does not seem like a good idea to keep the DVD-+RW.

If anything, would an external firewire dvd+- RW do?
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...urn_DVDBurners

If I wanted an external firewire DVD +/- RW, this would be a better deal:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10080

Why in heck did SONY stop offering internal DVD burners????

Andrew
Austin, TX

There is absolutely nothing that you can do about this, other than install the "restore CD's" that SONY gives you, and then uninstall every piece of code that you don't want from the "Add-Remove programs" icon in Control Panel. This is because SONY does not provide Windows XP Pro by itself, it is integrated with their other "free" software products that they give you, and they are not going to give you just an XP Pro CD in any case.
SONY is not at all unique in this technique, most companies do not supply original XP Pro CD's. IBM does not even give you a restore CD by default.

Andrew
Austin, TX

I don't think Sony will stop offering the DVD+-RW, I think its more likely that its out of stock.

That sucks about the WIN XP Pro thing. Why do they charge $100 extra for it?
Although, if you have a win XP Pro license you should be able to theoretically get another CD. IF anything, borrow a CD form some1 else and use your CD KEY. You should also be able to make a copy of another XP CD and keep it. As long as you use your license key for your laptop only.

1GB MicroDIMM compatibility

On another note...
For anyone interested, the 1GB "Swissbit" microdimm (SDM12864A1B41MT-60) appears to be compatible with the S series laptop. This would provide a future upgrade path to 2GB. I emailed Swissbit directly and here is their response:

------------------
The desired notebook is equipped with an Intel chipset 855. That means it can support modules up to a capacity of 1 GB. Depending on the actual numbers of internal memory sockets one can place one or even two 1GB modules. We have verified it with the Sony VGN-S1XP. It was running with 2 GB after applying both sockets with modules. There should be no problem.

Kind regards

Your Swissbit Supportteam
------------------

EDIT: I installed two of these chips and they work just fine... 2GB

1GB PC2700 172-pin MicroDIMM
http://www.laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/...ory_Code=MEMUX

http://www.swissbit-shop.com/index.p...=shop&catId=17

http://www.memoryx.net/xdu1024.html

Hey people I am new here and waiting for my brand new S150(I know it is old, but i got it for a very good price) to arrive next week.

I am planning to upgrade the O/S to win XP Pro upon the arrival, is there anything that I need to aware before I do my format and repetition the hard drive??? Any tips or suggestions???

Thanks

Wow it took me all day to finish reading all the posts in this thread!Im glad to see that all the keyboard issues with the S series was solved ( )and now that the S2 is out retailers are starting to drop prices on the "old" preconfigured s170 models. It looks like its time to finally put in the order for my new deck . Thanks for the data guys.

hi guys, is anyone able to rip out the original harddrive and reinstall the OS and driver sucessfully on the S270? Of course the recovery partition should be removed also.

I will get my S270 tomorrow and I'm planning to remove the XP home and install my own XP Pro, but I'm afraid I can get all the drivers back for S270. Can somebody give me some suggestion please? Thanks

Yeah, I did this successfully. You can download a lot of the drivers from the Sony support site, BUT some of the critical drivers and applications are only on the recovery discs. So step 1 is to burn them. Once you've installed XP Pro, here's the catch -- DON'T insert the recovery startup disc, because the only option it gives you is to do a full restore (which would wipe out your XP Pro!). Instead, boot your computer off the hard drive and insert recovery disc 1. That'll give you the option to selectively install the drivers and applications that you need.

Between the Sony website and the recovery discs, you can get all the necessary drivers etc.

Incidently, I HIGHLY recommend the Hitachi 7K60 drive, my 1.7ghz S170 became dramatically more responsive once I replaced the original 4200 rpm drive with that.