laptop problem help

Could you post your laptop's configuration? What exactly do you mean by performance? Do the programs take time to load?

Last Friday morning, my Sony Vaio PCG-GRX550 wouldn't power up. I had a green power light, but the disc light would flash for a moment and then go away. The battery charging light would blink, but that was all.

I called Sony support--the number on the green warranty pack card, worked with two different techs for about 30 minutes. They decided I needed to fedex the unit to San Diego (I'm in Memphis) and it would be at least $300. One very interesting question from them..."Have you recently done a memory upgrade." No, the Vaio came with 512mg in 2-256mg chips. I had done nothing to the unit in the 11 months I've owned it. (It's a refurb.)

I called my husband at work to tell him my sad tale. He called me back in an hour with an interesting story. He works in a radio station and was talking to his chief engineer friend who also has a Vaio, as does his wife and the assistant engineer. His wife's Vaio had failed the previous week! Same problem description. The assistant engineer's Vaio had failed similarly in the recent past. For some reason, somebody had checked his memory slots. The #2 slot was BAD!. He had removed the second memory chip and left it out. The Vaio worked perfectly. The chief engineer did the same thing with his wife's Vaio and got the same results! Two out of four is a pattern, friends.

I went to Comp USA and asked the tech to remove the second memory chip and put in a 512 in the first slot. He did and the unit worked! I paid for the chip and went home delighted. When I got home, it didn't work. I took it back, the tech decided the chip was bad and put in another. It worked. I took it home and it failed again. I went back today and another tech said the 512 chip was not the one needed for a Sony Vaio, that it was a proprietary chip we would have to buy from Sony. He put in one of my 256 chips (in the #1 slot) and it worked. I came home and it's still working!!!

I can't find a 512 chip on the net for a Sony Vaio and I may not worry about it. The 256 works fine for my needs and I'm going to leave things alone for a while. It sure sounds like Sony has a problem with their memory slots on Vaios...the query from the Sony tech seems suspicious in light of later knowledge. Can you spell CLASS ACTION SUIT? SOOOO, if you're having a problem, power down, unplug, and then unscrew the center plate under the Vaio and remove the chip closest to the back of the laptop-that's the #2 slot.

I'd be interested to hear if this works for anyone else. As it stands tonight, I'm 256mg lighter, but my Vaio is working and it didn't cost me a cent!

I hope the people at Sony got an earful from you!! 😁