Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO VGN-FS850/W 15.4" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 750, 512 MB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD+R Dbl Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive)

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

 

 

Before purchasing this computer on amazon, I drove an hour to the nearest Best Buy to see how their laptops compared in terms of build quality. Having just thrown out my old Dell Inspiron, a poorly-designed piece of junk with software and customer service to match, I resolved to make sure that my next purchase would last. At Best Buy, I discovered that the Sony XBR screen and screen hinges--one of which broke both on my old Dell and on a friend's Dell--were absolutely superior in quality to those of every other manufacturer. And, the overall design of the Sony was simply better thought-out and more attractive. While I sometimes regret having paid the high price for this Sony, I didn't feel, after checking out the other computers at Best Buy, that I really had any option. In addition to the relatively high price of this computer, another drawback is the lack of accompanying back-up discs or instructions on how to use the dozens of bundled programs. I would like to begin to understand these programs better, and to delete any that I might not ever use, but I just don't have the expertise to do so. In the final analysis, if you are a committed PC user, and you are in search of a laptop with near-Mac quality, I would argue that this computer is your best option.

Make sure you have Windows XP Pro (SP2) installation disk and do a CLEAN install of everything. The sony website has all the updated drivers.

Prior to doing this, I was about to return this notebook. I was having immense difficutly with my USB ports. Customer support was a TOTAL joke, they had no clue. In my anger and frustation, I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled everything. Now this notebook is a dream, one of the best I've had (fingers crossed).

The other reviewer indicated that he has re-installed his image drive 6 plus times. This will NOT fix your problem since an image of the original configuration is where the problem is. Simply wiping your hard drive and reinstalling the problem doesn't fix the problem. You need to do a clean install with drivers from the website....

Only other issue with this notebook is the integrated graphics...not too great, but I don't game on this notebook. Anyhow, do yourself a favor and get the FE series Dual Core with Nvidia Go 7600. Its an additional $300 but well worth it. If you do get the FE version, do your due diligence as I am recommending the aforementioned fix only for the FS 850P/W.

I would have given this 5 stars had it not been for the sony bloatware that I had to wipe of the harddrive....4.5 Stars.

Excellent laptop. Sony support has been tops. Very solid computer. Worked perfectly in heavy use for over a year. Got 2 more. Highly recommended. Much better hardware reliability and better support in my experience with Compaq, Toshiba, Dell, etc.

I own two other Sony laptops the V505 and the GRX550 both of which I was inclined to upgrade Hard drives after reliability problems with this Sony VAIO VGN-FS850/W that I purchased new from CompUSA only a few months ago. Had I known I would have this many problems with the FS850 I never would have gone through this ordeal. I have had to reformat/reinstall software from scratch at least 6 times in the last two months. Hibernation corrupted, programs would not install as reliability as on the other two laptops. The Hard drive grinds forever on reboot, despite higher speed ratings than the other two laptops. I have had multiple blue screen crashes this month. Thank God we are using Acronis True image as backup, otherwise we would be days in reinstalling software. We've attempted several diagnosis checks on memory, motherboard, hard drive to no avail. Software compatible on the other two Vaio laptops is not always compatible with this Vaio. And we have the latest revisions.
Sorry for the layman's approach to this but a laptop with a 100 GB hard drive, 1.86 GHz, 504 RAM should be able to handle audio, video, business and Internet software.
Remember, the same software works on the older two laptops. We are using all the latest digitally signed drivers. This laptop is unreliable. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere.

I found this machine to be adequate, beautifully designed and moderately priced one thing though it should have been sold with a telephone line for the internet. and a complimentary rewritable DVD.