Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO PCG-GRV680 Laptop (2.60-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The key to this machine is understanding what it is. It is a compact footprint desktop with a built in UPS. If you think of it that way you will be very happy with it. If you're out to buy a kick butt gaming laptop so that you can frag your way from Los Angeles to New York, don't get this machine.

This machine has a lot going for it, very nice 3D performance, very nice ergonomics, clear bright screen, zippy P4 performance, and you can burn your own DVDs on it. All very nice. Ports are somewhat limited (3 USB + ethernet + firewire + parallel and VGA) but you get back your serial port of you buy the port replicator. For a limited time Sony is giving away WiFi cards if you send them a copy of your reciept and serial #.

Sony now offers this notebook with WinXP pro (the GRV680P) and you should get that as its the same price ... and XP Pro gives you some nice server like features. The not so nice part is that clearly this machine will be orphaned quickly. I say this because soon the only laptops worth buying will have WiFi built in, systems without it will become like laptops without Ethernet two years ago.

The software was somewhat thrown together as well. The built in CD-burning application (drag & drop CD) works, but if you try to use the "built in" XP software for dealing with writable CD's it doesn't work. Other issues arise when you try to use it as a portable machine.

First, the machine draws 100 watts. That means you can't really power it from an airplane power socket without blowing the circuit breaker. Second, the second battery (needed if you want to have long run time) requires that you remove the DVD drive. That means no games while you are "mobile." However, if you get a piece of code that "emulates" a CDROM drive using a disk image on the hard drive you can get by, and the generous hard drive makes that practical. It also weighs a ton with two batteries in it so if you're going to do this get the Sony VAIO back pack to carry the thing. Holding it over your shoulder will give you back pains.

There is a slot for a memory stick. That's great if you're into memory sticks but of little use to those who have cameras with CF slots or USB disk drives.

All that being said, if you are someone who has a small home office, or a desk that you use for both writing and email. Or you are a student who wants to be able to use their computer in the library or the dorm without all the cabling hassle. This is the machine for you. It is completely capable of running all of todays applications (from games, to spreadsheets, to databases) and it offers excellent data storage capacity and connectivity. Like many (most?) portables today it does not come with a floppy but it will read/write CDR's and CD-RWs, as well as DVDs (send a video this year a christmas rather than a letter!) and the fact that everything was designed to work together means no annoying driver/motherboard/OS compatability issues to deal with.

I, like to many other people, bought this Sony laptop...The DVD-RW never really worked that great but after 1-year it died completely...My girlfriend also bought a Sony Vaio a few months after I did and the DVD-RW died on hers too...Its amazing how things like this happen right after the warranty expires...Almost seems like the Sony engineers design them that way...My laptop overheats like some of the other reviews have stated...I find that if I continually blow the processor fan off with compressed air to keep the dust down it helps a little...Sony Technical support is a Joke...My suggestion...Don't buy Sony...Go with Toshiba...You will be much happier...As for me...I will never purchase another Sony product again...

I bought vaio pcg-grv680 in nov 2003. Within few months, I noticed that cooling fan was always on, i contacted sony customer service they told me that i had a set up problem.
Since last 6 months, laptop was getting overheated and crashed so many times. Lately, i cannot recharge battery, it seems to me that due to heating, connection melt down. I tried to contact
SONY customer service, it is worst. I wasted $2000. I will
not recommand anyone to buy VAIO laptop.

I own this laptop and after 13 months, it now is a $2,400 paperweight! One month after my warrenty expired, this model kept over-heating and crashing. I called Sony and received the worst customer service ever. They wanted me to pay $800 for a new motherboard! I refused. Since then, I've researched this model and other Sony models on the net and found that lots of people have the same issue and Sony expects them to pay $800 for new motherboards. Someone needs to get a group lawsuit against them. I'll never buy another Sony laptop again.

Awesome machine. It has a huge, clear, bright display, good resolution, a comfortable keyboard, decent sound output, a powerful processor, plenty of RAM and HD space, one of the best ethernet cards around. Definitely recommend it.

I have yet to try to install Linux on it. Seems like there's not much information about it's compatibility, and some devices are unlikely to work, like the modem and power management, but driver support for Sony is coming along nicely.

Weight and battery life are issues to consider: if you're looking for a laptop you can use comfortably on a long flight, forget it unless you buy a power port adapter - on mine, batteries last for around an hour and a half with normal use.

This thing is fast, its Gigantic, its Hot, its a desktop processor with a laptop fan, Its loudish, and its not super portable.
Why is this good? Because it acts like a desktop too. If you have it plugged in and want all of the performance, youll have it. If you want to bring it somewhere, and plug it in, youll have it. If you want to roam in the park, unfettered by worldly concerns, specifically wifi and plugs, you dont got it.
The software package is interesting, but weird, all sony all the time, but you can change that, from all that software left on your desktop.
If you have any question about the desktop replacement computer, see this machine, it defines the genre.

Heavier and less portable than most notebooks. More for desks than for laps (unless you need an impractical and expensive alternative to an electric blanket). If you look at the specs for the unit, it is obviously pretty powerful--even compared to notebooks coming out now. I've successfully upgraded the memory to 1 GB with a non-sony brand. Also, many specifications say it comes with the 64 MB Radeon 9000. However, I've never seen any of these with anything other than a non-upgradeable 32 MB Radeon 9000, which works for many games (e.g. it runs Rome Total War pretty well), but is definitely slipping below par.

I've had this computer for almost three years now. Three years, three major problems:
1) Within a year after purchase, it would boot to the "sony" screen then freeze to a black screen, the processor not starting.
Solution: Luckily this happened before my year-long warranty was up and was able to have it fixed. (See the hundreds of similiar reports of this problem described on forums all over the internet.)
2) The notebook would overheat and then shut itself down.
Solution: I pressed Sony support for at least a possible explanation. I was encouraged to send the unit in for one of their infamous servicings. After reading a few forums and finding out this was a common problem, it was suggested that the fan was clogged. When I opened it up (long after the warrantly expired, of course) there was a dust cake growing between the vent and fan. I removed it with some tweezers, dusted with compressed air, and it stopped over-heating (saving myself $279).
3) For the past year or so whenever I shut down completely and then load up windows, the screen flashes green and purple lines all over the screen (and no, i am not hallucinating, running any screensavers or audio-visualizer programs). This does not happen when it is started from stand-by mode.
Solution: none yet, I keep it in stand-by mode as much as possible, and have continued turning the unit off and on until the lines stop appearing.
I now have my well worn unit at a local repair shop to fix a loose DC plug. They informed me that the screen lines may be due to an overheated videocard.

It would be nice (for a lot of people) if Sony acknowledged that there are widespread problems with this series and took some action. Instead I'm sure plenty of people will be happy to spend less money on an equivalent (and less frustrating) notebook(and support) by shopping elsewhere.

For one, when I bought this, and why I bought this, is that Sony offered "Lifetime" customer support on the product. I call six months after I bought it, and they transfer me to some place in India, and ask me to pay for the call. After a lengthy bitch session, I was finally transferred back to America where they handled my questions free of charge. Bad experience to say the least. Then, what seemed to be no more than 24 hours after my warranty expired, my memory slots go bad. I have to place a buisiness card wedged under the door to get the unit to boot, and it will still only run on one slot, so I'm limited to 512 memory.

In short, VERY BAD EXPERIENCE with this product, and VERY BAD customer support and ZERO support for a defaulty product that they should recall. Don't buy Sony. If anyone starts a lawsuit, I'm in all the way. A friend of mine owns a very large internet company here in California, and we were playing golf, and he was going to buy over 100 Sony brand Lap Tops, that is, until I told him what happened. They now are a very happy Dell customer. Funny how everything works out eh.

This computer has big problems after a year of ownership. Sony will fix it for $700 DOLLARS!!! I have a very old IBM and a very OLD HP that are in better shape. I have other Sony products that are fine, but this is a lemon. I'm sure some of the folks who gave this a high rating have changed their opinion.

The biggest disappointment was lack of Sony Service and lack of responsibility for all the latent defects.

I bought this laptop thinking it would be great to write out of the house. I had always loved my VAIO PC, and since I plan on having a family soon, I was sold on the DVD and photo capabilities. The 680 has a DVD drive and a slot that accepts Memory Stick (Sony Cybershot Digital Camera) photo cards for the easiest photo uploads ever. I found I could save other files too on my Memory Stick, including Microsoft Excel files, and transfer them to my PC as the 680 comes *without* a floppy drive. The hard drive on my 680 did crash shortly after buying it, but close to the warranty expiring. It crashed under warranty but I waited to get help from Sony; you guessed it. Warranty expired, no repairs unless I was willing to fork out hundreds of dollars. The Geek Squad stated they could not fix it, even though it was that Best Buy that sold it to me. Luckily my brother owns a computer repair shop. I sent him the hard drive to see if the novel I was writing on it could be saved; it couldn't. He was however able to find a replacement hard drive on eBay. Since then, no problems. I would get the extended warranty or change compatible digital camera and laptop systems before I got another Sony or VAIO.