Should I repair my Sony Vaio laptop or just replace it?

Question

About 3 years ago, I baught a refurbished 2004 Sony Vaio laptop. It had been an utter dream, until about a month ago. Around then, my computer crashed. I tried starting it up again, but got a blue screen of death (which appears too fast to read). Now I can only start my laptop in safe mode. I can't even access the internet. Once, it gave me an error message about my video driver. My laptop now gets EXTREMELY hot when I use it, and I'm really hamstrung here. I don't have a restore disc, and I am unable to do a system restore because it tells me there are no restore points. Luckily, I have saved all my important data to a portable drive.
So should I get it repaired, or simply spend 700 bucks and buy a new one?

Your advice and suggestions are much appreciated!
- Dave

Answer 1

New one

Answer 2

Well, Dave, it sounds like your problem could be solved simply with a reinstall of an OS(operating system). It is possible you may need a new CPU fan, but that won't run you for more than about $20. Even if you don't have a restore disk, do you have an OS on a disk? Then you could just reinstall the os, since you have your important data. However you should consider what you need your laptop for. If you need power, then it is probably time to trade in. The $700 laptops of today are for the most part better than the $3000 of 2004. Also, don't pay someone to fix it that would be way to costly. If you don't plan on doing it yourself I would buy a new one.

Answer 3

Well, Dave, it sounds like your problem could be solved simply with a reinstall of an OS(operating system). It is possible you may need a new CPU fan, but that won't run you for more than about $20. Even if you don't have a restore disk, do you have an OS on a disk? Then you could just reinstall the os, since you have your important data. However you should consider what you need your laptop for. If you need power, then it is probably time to trade in. The $700 laptops of today are for the most part better than the $3000 of 2004. Also, don't pay someone to fix it that would be way to costly. If you don't plan on doing it yourself I would buy a new one.

Answer 4

if its a dual core processor attached laptop or a



core 2 duo or higher speed processor attached



there is no point of buying a new laptop ...



unless u r not a extreme gamer ... ur laptop



would be more than enough ...



i wonder after u got that error messege did u



try to reinstall ur os and reinstall all the drivers



u can simply find the drivers for ur laptop over the net ...



if u can do that do it by ur self ... and see if its working ...



otherwise these days they will take a lot of money just



to format and install ur new os ... so if u can do it by



ur self why waste money ... but if u already have



installed ur os newly then if ur still getting the error



its probably becuz of a ram problem mainly the



blue screen is for memory related problems so i suggest



u sent it for repair ...



anyway if ur not using a pc that lives up to the hype



of todays softwares like a laptop with a



core 2 duo or quad core with vista and at least



256 mb or higher graphic card and at least



2 gb ram u should really get a new one cuz



the world of technology is moving ahead faster than



we think ... and we gotta move with it ...



---------------



so for the part which u have said its getting hot



i have no idea since u havent described



which part is it ... is it the area with the hd or the vga



or the display or the battery backup or the area with the



processor and the cooling fan ... at this point



i cant tell u much than advicing u to buy a new laptop



since the repairs will take too much of ur money to



someones pocket cuz no once so friendly and



honest these days ...

Answer 5

ok people don't have a right to tell you what to do, and there is the other issue of budgets as new kit is very expensive. what you have to look at is what is the impact going to be if the machine continues to fail and how much benefits is there in consistentle spending money on very expensive repairs, sure there are loads that say dump the unit in the bin and go out an blow a load of doo on some hyped up machine but think about what you can do and what the implications of that may be. a loose jack sounds like a common board or panel fault where the solder lugs have worked themselves free and have started to break away from the PCB. there is loads of confusion about laptop batteries, you only need them if your going to be working in places where there is no consistent power supply otherwise the laptop does not need the battery and please don't do what most people do is to have the battery consistently on charge, if you do the battery will over time lose its ability to hold any electricity. all batteries deteriate over continual usage, and some are damaged by the mistake of thinking that the battery has to be in the laptop even if the mains supply is connected. if an battery cannot hold its charge it will then fail every time its used. charges often fail due to coils and windings that are used to modify the VAC to VDC. as for purchasing i cannot estimate what you could buy because of the budget that you may have to work with. if you decide it is not worth to continually repair then you would have to be in a position to buy a new machine.

Answer 6

I would contact sony and order a new restore CD from them for 30 bux. It sounds like all your laptop needs is a good system restore. As for the hotness? It's probably because the fan is old and getting clogged with dust. Not a whole lot you can do there though.

Answer 7

relax my friend ,it is only 20$ to fix



simple and easy ...



there is tow things your laptop might have and i refer the first



1-your RAMs are died and they need to be replaced



2-your hard disk had bad sectors you can fix this by formating



but you need a boot disk first



so you dont need to buy another one turst me

Answer 8

hey it's just a software problam.



u just need to re-install os.

y r u spending whan u can repair u r lappy by u r self only?

Answer 9

Get a new one.

Answer 10

just pull out your windows cd and do a fresh install of that it'll be back and running just like it was in it's glory days.



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