Customer Reviews

Sony VAIO SZ Series Docking Station

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

 

 

I've experienced these shortcomings with this docking station.

1. My system forgets the monitor configuration nearly every time I boot - I don't even have to undock it. I work with the external monitor only, and use it in 1600 x 1200 mode. After a restart, it comes up properly, but about 5 seconds into the boot (probably loading the NVIDIA control panel stuff) it switches to dual display and makes the external monitor 1280 x 800 to match the internal. I have to manually go into the NVIDIA control panel and set everything up. On occasion, it'll remember and come up correctly - but not often. Sony has no answer.

2. No power adapter. You'll need to buy one if you don't want to dig out and hook up the laptop's AC adapter each time you dock (who does?)

3. Bad DVI support. My external monitor "looked" good through the DVI port, but when the laptop tried to put the monitor to sleep, the monitor just flashes "Mode not supported"... forEVER! It never goes to sleep. I've used the monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 213T) on several other computers without a problem.

4. Using the above monitor via Analog port allowed the sleep function to work, but the text is a little fuzzy; seems a bit out of focus. Tried numerous adjustments and at its best is mediocre. Again, above monitor on my Dell laptop via Analog looks better.

5. No power off? You can undock, but you can't use the power button to shutdown or turn on the computer without opening the clamshell. Come on, Sony! What were you thinking?

6. 3 USB ports in this day and age just isn't enough. For the amount of money I paid for a docking station that didn't even come with power adapter, I shouldn't have to ALSO buy a USB hub.

But... if you have this nifty little laptop... what ELSE are you going to buy? :(

1) Multi monitor software is poor. Manual configuration of external monitor is required on every re-connect. Dual monitor (using the laptop screen and an external monitor) does not seem to be supported.
2) Analog video quality is poor. Dock seems to degrade the signals.
3) No power supply included.
4) No provision for audio.
5) Only three USB ports

The docking station we received had a defective Ethernet port - it kept dropping out. We called Sony for support, and it took many phone calls to isolate the problem to a defective unit. Then it took nearly a dozen phone calls, hours on the phone, and more than four weeks for Sony to repair the unit and send it back to us. We kept being transferred between support people - nobody seemed to know how they supported docking stations. After we shipped it back for repair, nobody seemed to be able to find it or tell us the status. We were relieved when it arrived at our front door, with the problem fixed.

We have liked Sony products in the past and the docking station was purchased for our brand-new top-of-the-line SZ VAIO notebook. After this experience with Sony support, we will think many times before we buy another Sony product.

For the price I would have expected to receive an additional power supply with the new docking station. Its a real pain having to reconnect the power supply that was supplied with the laptop and I will probably end up buying another power supply. IBM docking stations include a new power supply. The Sony docking station does not add all of the functionality I was hoping for. Most printers now use USB, but no parallel port included. No connections for sound systems either. I will probably run out of USB ports and have to buy a hub. I'm not sure that the laptop is being charged in the dock with the power turned off?

For this price I would expect more from a docking station. My biggest complaint is no audio jack. All my music is on my computer, and I can't stand the fact that I can't dock my notebook and automatically be connected to my stereo. Second, I don't like the fact that the notebook doesn't lock in. My HP at work is great because it locks in, so you know you have a solid connection, and releases with the push of a button. Lastly, for this price I would expect it to come with an AC adapter.

I am not a gamer, and mostly I use this docking station for my SONY notebook for writing documents at home. That being said... External mouse and keyboard connections through USB are terrible. In addition to jumpy mouse responses, I sometimes lost the external keyboard connection. I am not saying not to buy it. If you are like me, you can get DVI connectivity and extra USB ports at $170. Go buy and experiment. BTW, did I mention that the DVI connection to my Dell 24'' widescreen slowed down the machine and sometimes even frozed it, using this docking station? Well... it did.

This docking station has 3 USB ports (Not enough in my opinion) and does not come with a power cable. You must use the one that came with your computer which can be a pain if you take your laptop with you. After docked my SZ series computer wigs out almost everytime. You have to adjust the resolution to your external monitor and is quite annoying. Sometimes when docked it never shows up on the monitor at all. I then have to reboot. Not worth the price. If I had it to do allover again I would just hook the laptop directly to my monitor.

Its a very nice Docking station but it has a HUGE drawback for me, it doesnt have a POWER ON/OFF button! So you need everytime when you Dock your laptop to open it ... Other than this, its a well built piece.

I really wanted to buy this dock,but after reading few
reviews here it is a no go for me. You can't switch on or off the comp on docking station. I called SONY
and they told me there is no other way to power on the mashine- only by opening the lid and pressing the power button.No audio out.C'mon sony, was it so hard? It defeats the very purpose of expansion dock- you still have to connect external speakers to laptop because VGA and DVI don't carry audio signals.The sz series is a well build machine with two video chipsets (INTEL and NVIDIA),but docking station is a joke.

When I purchased this docking station, I was hoping it would have a serial port, so I could connect my Palm to it and sycronize with my computer, and a parallel port, so I could connect my pin printer to it, but it had none of them, so it was a real dissapointment. Not much use to me.