Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-CS320J/R 14.1-Inch Laptop - Red

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I have a white Vaio CS320J. I have had it for 3 months and have had issues with the loud fan noise as well as a rumbling soung in the fan. The computer has overheated and shut off. Took the computer back to the store I bought it and they tried to charge me to have it diagnosed under warranty. I bought an extended warranty on this laptop to prevent issuse like this. I have had problems with Sony products in the past and decided to give them another try. Big mistake. Sony product are poorly manufactured and fall apart within months. I would never buy another Sony product. Do not buy this laptop unless you are okay with wasting hundreds of dollars. I would buy anything else over Sony. ANYTHING.

I usually would not bother to spend time on writing a review, if I was not annoyed so badly.

I purchased a VGN-CS320J for my wife in June of 2009. After about 6 months a fan started making loud noise. The fan remains silent for 10 seconds and starts making noise for 10 seconds or so after that. This silence-noise-silence-noise pattern keeps going till I turn my laptop off. After some googling, I realized it's a quite common problem to the CS product line.

I am trying hard to calm it down and will update if I find a solution.

Don't buy VGN CS-320 (maybe other VGN CS models as well)!

Bought the laptop 8-2009. From the onset the loud fan was distracting. Constant dropped connections via the Wi-fi was frustrating. Battery life is less than two hours. The hard-drive failed yesterday-- fortunately covered under-warranty. 2 cheap Acer laptops and an HP laptop in our home-- without any issues. Just bought an HP-- who needs this?

The screen, webcam, and keyboard are excellent. Most other features are fine and what you would expect. The only annoying issue is the fan management. This issue is easily "googled" where the fan runs almost continuously and at constantly varying speeds. Clearly a fan management software or firmware upgrade is needed but not available from what I can tell. Otherwise, this is an excellent laptop. The "build quality" is very good. If Sony had a fix for the fan I would have given five stars.

i pay this product 850 $ of my 5 yr saving hoping it be top quality and last long which sony is famous for but i was dead wrong not even 2 days after the purchase this laptop make noise worst then my baby brother it hurt so bad i got to wear muff to block out the sound even then it annoying as ever....never ever buy it if someone told me earlier i wouldn't but i guess it never happen since i brought it at best buy those guy never lie yeah right!!!! it hurt your ear and it damages it at the end i got done with it by throwing it to the waste pile which is the garbage can waste of 850$ :( this is like their robbing my whole life saving those corporate scammers

I have had this laptop for 1.5 years, it is not my first VAIO. I have had no problems whatsoever with my other Vaios, this model is a constant hassle. It makes incredibly loud fan noises, shuts down, or doesn't respond to keyboard commands while it is making the very loud noise. I brought this in to a specialist, they took it apart and could not find any reason for this fan noise. Naturally, while with the specialist, it did not make the noise.

I thought that I would love this lap top, it was quite expensive at the time, but I thought that it would be worth it. After all- my other SONY VAIO laptops were great. Now, I find myself using the older VAIO, it is quiet and does not have the keyboard command issues.

I am sure that other models of the VAIO are great, but do not buy this model.

UPDATE-December 31st, 2010 - I read on the comments that SONY had finally admitted that the fans were defective and was willing to replace them. I called SONY, described the problem and they sent a Tech, person to my house to replace the fan. This all occurred within 1 week. The laptop works great now, no fan noise, no overheating, it is perfect. I certainly wish that SONY would have alerted all of us to this problem to begin with, it would have saved a lot of time. money and aggravation.

Bought my Pink SONY Vaio Laptop in 2009. (Model Number VGN-CS320J). I bought SONY because I wanted to have something reliable that I could bring with my when traveling which was also capable of handling many applications at the same time. (I gave my old Dell Platitude to my son.)

I am disappointed on all counts. Battery has never lasted more than 1 hr. The Laptop heats up so much that it is too uncomfortable to hold on one's lap - even over a 4" thick pad made to reduce heat transfer. The fan has been noisy from the beginning. Over time it has become even louder. It almost sounds like someone blowing their nose. (Don't even think about having a conversation with someone on Skype!) I expect the fan will fail shortly. The duo core does make it a little faster, but nothing spectacular. The keyboard is great, but hardly a reason to buy this piece of SONY cr-p.

I have had the same problem with the fan as everybody else has that has written a negative review. All you have to do is call Sony and explain the problem, even if your laptop is out of warranty (mine was) they will still send someone to your house and replace the fan for you free of charge. Once the fan is replaced this laptop is a great product. It is quiet and runs smooth. Would have got a 5 star review if the fan didn't need to be replaced but since it has been replaced I could not be happier with it.
My advice to anyone who is going to buy this laptop: Ask whoever it is you are buying it from if they have had the fan replaced and if not just be aware that there have been problems with them, but they can be fixed quickly, easily, and the best part is that you don't have to pay for it. Great laptop.

Worst computer ever runs loud since out of the box. Had a friend download something worked for a few months then got louder and louder now its constant and the warranty just ended...

I have a red Sony Vaio VGN-CS320J; Nice color, nice screen. After 2 months it started a loud noise from the fan, now is overheating and shutting down. Awful. Sometimes it holds for an hour, sometimes for 10 minutes. I am terribly disappointed with this Sony product and do not recommend to anyone.