I've a Sony Vaio which came with Vista Business and a 120 GB hard drive.
I've since upgraded the operating system to Solaris Express and the
hard drive to 300 GB.

I bought an extended warranty on this and now a fault has developed on
the hinge. Clearly this is nothing to do with a change of the operating
system, and also I think its fair to say the change of the hard disk
either.

Should I swap back the hard drive before sending this in for repair? I
can see this might be sensible, but I'd be interested if others have
experience of not doing this, after upgrading a laptop's hard drive.

I still have the old 120 GB disk, which also has Solaris on it. Should
that be changed back to Vista? I can see Sony being unable to check the
machine fully now its loaded with Solaris, but I don't see how that is
too relavant to fixing a hinge either.

Dave wrote:
> I've a Sony Vaio which came with Vista Business and a 120 GB hard drive.
> I've since upgraded the operating system to Solaris Express and the
> hard drive to 300 GB.
>
> I bought an extended warranty on this and now a fault has developed on
> the hinge. Clearly this is nothing to do with a change of the operating
> system, and also I think its fair to say the change of the hard disk
> either.
>
> Should I swap back the hard drive before sending this in for repair? I
> can see this might be sensible, but I'd be interested if others have
> experience of not doing this, after upgrading a laptop's hard drive.
>
> I still have the old 120 GB disk, which also has Solaris on it. Should
> that be changed back to Vista? I can see Sony being unable to check the
> machine fully now its loaded with Solaris, but I don't see how that is
> too relavant to fixing a hinge either.
>
>
>
Personally I NEVER send my hard drive to the manufacturer, unless the HD
is the problem in question.

When people want to change the OS, I usually suggest that they just get
a new disk drive and leave the original one unchanged (with the original
OS). This is ONE of the reasons (not the only one).

I would change the drive back. Not for the reason you may think,
however: If you send the laptop off, you might get it back with the
drive wiped & Vista restored, you might get it back with a different
[120GB] disk drive, you might not even get the same laptop back at all
(they might exchange/replace it rather than service it). Certainly you
want your 300GB drive, and likely you want the data and OS intact. Both
suggest you should put back the original drive.

As to restoring the original OS on the original drive (if you even have
a way to do that): I agree with you that a hinge problem is totally
unrelated to the OS and drive, and that this fact is obvious. However,
there is still a CHANCE that they will disclaim warranty coverage
because of your change of drive and OS (they shouldn't, and it wouldn't
stand up in court if you went that route, but they still might).
Sometimes I would say that the fact that it's Sony makes it worse (they
have been, in my opinion, far below average in terms of customer
support), but you note that this is an extended warranty. Extended
warranties are very often (usually, in fact) NOT with the mfgr., but
rather with a 3rd party (often the retailer). And note, if it is with
the retailer (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.), they are more likely to
replace the computer than to fix it (and quite possibly to replace it
with a different (later) model .... again, reason to put back the
original drive).


Dave wrote:
> I've a Sony Vaio which came with Vista Business and a 120 GB hard drive.
> I've since upgraded the operating system to Solaris Express and the
> hard drive to 300 GB.
>
> I bought an extended warranty on this and now a fault has developed on
> the hinge. Clearly this is nothing to do with a change of the operating
> system, and also I think its fair to say the change of the hard disk
> either.
>
> Should I swap back the hard drive before sending this in for repair? I
> can see this might be sensible, but I'd be interested if others have
> experience of not doing this, after upgrading a laptop's hard drive.
>
> I still have the old 120 GB disk, which also has Solaris on it. Should
> that be changed back to Vista? I can see Sony being unable to check the
> machine fully now its loaded with Solaris, but I don't see how that is
> too relavant to fixing a hinge either.
>
>
>
>
>
>
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Barry Watzman wrote:
> When people want to change the OS, I usually suggest that they just get
> a new disk drive and leave the original one unchanged (with the original
> OS). This is ONE of the reasons (not the only one).

>
> I would change the drive back. Not for the reason you may think,
> however: If you send the laptop off, you might get it back with the
> drive wiped & Vista restored, you might get it back with a different
> [120GB] disk drive, you might not even get the same laptop back at all
> (they might exchange/replace it rather than service it). Certainly you
> want your 300GB drive, and likely you want the data and OS intact. Both
> suggest you should put back the original drive.


Yes, I would be rather irritated if it came back with a 120 GB disk, and
I would not want to install Solaris again, although in any case I'd
remove confidential things.

> As to restoring the original OS on the original drive (if you even have
> a way to do that):

I made the two Vista Recovery Disks, so I can install Vista. However,
for reasons I can't understand, it takes ages to do so. I guess part of
the problem is all the junk Sony stick on the machine. The fact one has
to swap DVDs half-way through the process means one can't set it running
and come back to find it done.

I think I might send the laptop back with the original 120 GB disk and
leave Solaris on it. Let Sony change it if they wish. I don't care if
they overwrite the OS with Vista, as I doubt I'll use the drive again.

> I agree with you that a hinge problem is totally
> unrelated to the OS and drive, and that this fact is obvious. However,
> there is still a CHANCE that they will disclaim warranty coverage
> because of your change of drive and OS (they shouldn't, and it wouldn't
> stand up in court if you went that route, but they still might).

I think I'd quite like them to try that one on!

> Sometimes I would say that the fact that it's Sony makes it worse (they
> have been, in my opinion, far below average in terms of customer
> support), but you note that this is an extended warranty. Extended
> warranties are very often (usually, in fact) NOT with the mfgr., but
> rather with a 3rd party (often the retailer). And note, if it is with
> the retailer (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.), they are more likely to
> replace the computer than to fix it (and quite possibly to replace it
> with a different (later) model .... again, reason to put back the
> original drive).

In this case, the warranty is with Sony, rather than the retailer. I
bought the warranty from the Sony web site a few days before the
original one was due to run out.

I am by the way in the UK.

Thank you for your advice.

We never send the hard drive back unless it is a hard drive problem.If they
need one to check it out they will use one of their service drives. The sure
way to find out is to call Sony service as they know one heck of a lot more
than the posters here. Don't know why people with warranty problems come
here to rant rather than asking the servicer...


"Dave" <foo@coo.com> wrote in message news:48679673@212.67.96.135...
> Barry Watzman wrote:
>> When people want to change the OS, I usually suggest that they just get a
>> new disk drive and leave the original one unchanged (with the original
>> OS). This is ONE of the reasons (not the only one).
>
>>
>> I would change the drive back. Not for the reason you may think,
>> however: If you send the laptop off, you might get it back with the
>> drive wiped & Vista restored, you might get it back with a different
>> [120GB] disk drive, you might not even get the same laptop back at all
>> (they might exchange/replace it rather than service it). Certainly you
>> want your 300GB drive, and likely you want the data and OS intact. Both
>> suggest you should put back the original drive.
>
>
> Yes, I would be rather irritated if it came back with a 120 GB disk, and I
> would not want to install Solaris again, although in any case I'd remove
> confidential things.
>
>> As to restoring the original OS on the original drive (if you even have a
>> way to do that):
>
> I made the two Vista Recovery Disks, so I can install Vista. However, for
> reasons I can't understand, it takes ages to do so. I guess part of the
> problem is all the junk Sony stick on the machine. The fact one has to
> swap DVDs half-way through the process means one can't set it running and
> come back to find it done.
>
> I think I might send the laptop back with the original 120 GB disk and
> leave Solaris on it. Let Sony change it if they wish. I don't care if they
> overwrite the OS with Vista, as I doubt I'll use the drive again.
>
>> I agree with you that a hinge problem is totally unrelated to the OS and
>> drive, and that this fact is obvious. However, there is still a CHANCE
>> that they will disclaim warranty coverage because of your change of drive
>> and OS (they shouldn't, and it wouldn't stand up in court if you went
>> that route, but they still might).
>
> I think I'd quite like them to try that one on!
>
>> Sometimes I would say that the fact that it's Sony makes it worse (they
>> have been, in my opinion, far below average in terms of customer
>> support), but you note that this is an extended warranty. Extended
>> warranties are very often (usually, in fact) NOT with the mfgr., but
>> rather with a 3rd party (often the retailer). And note, if it is with
>> the retailer (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.), they are more likely to
>> replace the computer than to fix it (and quite possibly to replace it
>> with a different (later) model .... again, reason to put back the
>> original drive).
>
> In this case, the warranty is with Sony, rather than the retailer. I
> bought the warranty from the Sony web site a few days before the original
> one was due to run out.
>
> I am by the way in the UK.
>
> Thank you for your advice.

Woody wrote:
> We never send the hard drive back unless it is a hard drive problem.If they
> need one to check it out they will use one of their service drives. The sure
> way to find out is to call Sony service as they know one heck of a lot more
> than the posters here. Don't know why people with warranty problems come
> here to rant rather than asking the servicer...

Well, its a bit late if you phone them up and they say "your warranty is
now void as you replaced the hard drive"