Modern Equivalent

[blindingphil]

Hi all!

I accidentally dropped my VAIO yesterday, and it unfortunately landed on its side, on the wireless network card which was poking out of my PCMCIA slot. That resultantly broke the connector from the motherboard, and now I have no PCMCIA, and therefore no wireless!

Luckily, I'm insured. I have a replacement policy, which means that I get an equivalent spec machine to the one I previously owned - but obviously with an old machine, this wouldn't be possible!

So I was wondering, does anyone know what the nearest spec would be for the PCG-K115B?

Current spec is:

40GB HD (2x20GB partitions on one physical drive)
2.8GB Celeron processor
512MB RAM (Upgradeable to 1GB)
15" Screen (Viewable area, corner to corner)
USB 2.0 (three ports)
Headphone Jack
Mic Jack
Optical Jack
PCMCIA Slot
Memory Stick slot
CD RW / DVD reader
Firewire (4-pin)
External monitor socket
Printer connector
Windows XP Home
Adobe Elements Suite
MS Works
Ethernet Adaptor
Phone line socket for modem

As I said, I know nothing like this one will exist nowadays, so I'm curious as to what I may get as a replacement! Taking a look at the current models on sony.co.uk I think I'd probably get given something from the FE series, or the N series.

Taking a look at the N Series, it looks pretty close, but only has two USB ports! That would be a pain for me... The FE41E looks like today's equivalent model to the K115B to me... But any thoughts, please?

Many thanks!

Phil

[Thalamus.]

Hi Phil,

welcome to Club vaio..

It would depend on what the insurance company is willing to pay I guess..

The N would be the least expensive option for the insurance company..

[blindingphil]

Hi Thalamus, thanks!

I've been a member of Club Vaio for many years, but never needed to post on the forums before. I asked them today what would happen - whether I'd get a cheque (minus my excess), an equivalent model to the way this was specced when I bought it, or something with as close a spec as possible... They said it would be the third option - so if the insurance company got their way I'd have a CD writer, 2.8GB Celeron, and 40GB HD with no wireless built-in!

Luckily, those things don't exist any more so I'll be pushing for the small things which I know I can't do without - such as the three USB ports and the screen size.

To be honest though, if they gave me a cheque then I'd have probably gone out and made myself a high-end desktop PC and used the rest to fix my car up!

[kee-lo_]

Hi Phil

I think they'll probably find something of similar spec, but now a lot of the stuff in the laptop you accidently dropped will be out of date, so you'll get an upgrade hopefully.

[blindingphil]

Hello there Kee-Lo!

I can only hope for some kind of an upgrade - I considered 'accidentally' dropping it a wee while back, then decided it wasn't worth it with the increased premiums, claim history, and the fact I'd have to pay an excess anyway. But now, several months later, it's actually happened, so I hope they're nice to me for being a good boy! Karma and all that, you know?

[kee-lo_]

You were right not to drop it purposly, it wouldn't have been good.