FAULT IN MY BRAND NEW VPCS11C5E AND SENT BACK FROM REPAIR WITH SAME PROBLEM!! ANYONE ELSE?

[Emachoc]

My laptop is barely 2 months old and when I received it, it was faulty. I was sooooo upset especially as i bought this myself with my first ever part time job, i saved up for 6 months!!
When i listen to music or any sounds made by it, the laptop freezes and it makes this 'drilling' sound.

I sent it for repair and after 10 days i received it. With it came a repair service notice which said (remember it is brand new!) something like the OS was corrupted and they replaced lots of parts.

But the SECOND day after i got it back, the SAME PROBLEM WAS STILL HAPPENING!!!!

I Called up Sony and they told me I would have to send it FOR REPAIR AGAIN!!!! ONE DAY LATER!! the man i spoke to didn't even understand english and implied that it's my fault!!!.

I have exams, and i'm stressed as it is and SONY HAS SCREWED ME. i've sent it for repair again, but if it comes back faulty again WHAT SHOULD I DO? ANYONE ELSE HAVE THE SAME PROBLEMS?

[stone69]

Hello Emachoc and welcome to Club VAIO

I'm sorry to hear your VAIO is still faulty after a repair. It's hard to tell from here what could cause the problem, but I would have expected that they have tested the system before sending it back to you.
Anyway I will forward your case to the support so they can have a close look at your case.
Do you have a case number for the first and second repair?
Please make sure your contact details are correct in case they want to contact you to discuss things.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that this time they get it right..

[Emachoc]

thanks for replying back,
my laptop came back from repair like a week a go but it still has the smae problem.
i've given up on those stupide sony technicians.
i was actually searching it online, and found it to be a common problem, the sound distortion when the processor is a little busy like opening up firefox and listening to music, or downloading something.

http://www.pcmech.com/article/how-to-fix-sound-distortion-when-pc-is-active/

this article is really good. My problem is that it tells you:

Go to your device manager in the Control Panel, find your primary IDE channel, right-click and select Properties. Go to the Advanced tab and find the device you are configuring.
Make sure “DMA if available” is selected. If you have anything connected to your secondary IDE channel, do the same for that one. You will need to reboot Windows for the change to take effect.


I don't have an adavanced tab, and and DMA option so i can't even give this a try.
I really don't want to give it for repair as i know they will not fix it.
Nightmare.

[stone69]

...hmmm strange indeed

The article seems pretty old though (Sep.2007), so I guess it refers to an XP or VISTA system. I can find the mentioned "advanced tab" alright on my XP machine. You are running WIN7 I guess. Don't know WIN7 so I can't tell if this tab is still supposed to be there as described.

Did you rule out other things that could your VAIO stop from working? Such as a slow internet connection, other programms running in the background like virus-scanner, software updates etc? Does it only stop temporarly or freezes completely and needs to be re-booted? Did you monitor the CPU-load?

[stone69]

I found also an other article with a user having the same problem with the same machine (same specifications?). At the end it seems to have been a combination of several components:
Graficcard NVIDIA 310M
Sound: High Definition Audio, Realtek
SSD Intel

However the article is in German....

[Emachoc]

Hi, thank for trying to help!

Just wanted to answer your questions so you can get an idea:
I have notieced that the sound distorition normally happens when there are multiple programmes playing or being used on my laptop.
Although there have been time when the sound distorts when I am doing nothing but have music playing.
I doubt it is anything to do with my internet connection because occurs when I am playing music or sound or video stored on my laptop.
It occurs temporarly, about a second or two at most.

The article i found is probably onmy for xp and i have window 7 so can see why it has changed.

Talking about your article, it is a shame it's in German :smileysad:, although I also had the idea that some of the components must not be compatible, but the Sony Technicians should have picked up on that, I am, by no means, an expert in this subject.

I have a NVDIA Geforce 310m Graffic card, High Def Audio Realteck and intel core i5. What did the person in the German article do?

What is everyone's opinion?

[stone69]

Well I'm still not sure if it's not just another program (background update or virus check etc.) that causes the delays.
However I have translated you below what the user in the other forum did to his unit. I hope all the terms are correct, as I don't have an English OS available.
At the end it comes down to disabling the audio output on the HDMI port (driven by the graphic card)and use an actual driver on the Realtek sound card.

They system the user is running:
System Model: Sony VAIO VPCS11C5E
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 CPU M 540 @ 2.53GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Chipset: Intel® 5 Series/3400 Series-Chipsatzfamilie
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bi
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce 310M
Sound Chip: Realtek High Definition Audio 6.00.0001.5992
HDD Model: INTEL SSDSA2M160G2GC
Total Space: 146.2 GB
Firmware Version: 2CV102HD

His solution:
1. Control system -> Device Manager -> System Devices
There are two "High Definition Audio-Controllers". De-activate the Nvidia one. You
cannot see which one is which, just have to try.

2. Reboot

3. Install an actual driver from the Realtek site (not the one provided by SONY on your
VAIO's update page

4. Reboot

Good luck!