White screen of death

[steveraceuk]

I have a fifteen month old Sony Vaio SVE1511A1EW which we bought for our daughter as a christmas present. This was a major spend for us and she loves it. She was using it for homework on Sunday as usual. Turned it on last night to be met with a solid white screen. There is no bios or Windows logo, The power light and  wireless light turn on and there seems to be hard drive activity. I've tried turning it on without the battery in and plugged to the mains but same issue occurs. I've since found lots of internet posts speaking of motherboard issues or display cables but the laptop showed no warning signs, such as the display flicking off when the lid is moved. I've plugged in an external monitor to see whether I get any out put but there is nothing showing on the screen.

I made a big mistake by trusting the Sony brand and only going with the basic warranty. I've had several other laptops which worked for years with no issue like this. Now I feel like a fool and i'm struggling to figure out what to do. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

[Catmambo]

Hi

Sorry to hear you are having problems, it may well need a repair. Best to call the support team whose details are here as the repair may or may no be chargeable depending on the warranty status

http://services.sony.co.uk/support/en/contacts/tvhc

Thanks

[steveraceuk]

Hi

Thank you for the information and response. I have sent an email via the support address last night. I'm led to believe I require a case number before calling the support line which I should receive via email. Can anyone advise if this is correct or can I just call the support number?

[Catmambo]

They used to give you a case number when you phone up as far as I can remember. I'd just give them a buzz ( make sure you have the product serial number to hand though (long sticker usually on the base starting 28xxxxxx.xxxxxxx).

Thanks

[steveraceuk]

I've tried calling the Sony support line per the link provided. I followed the automated trail through and was told that my machine has passed it's warranty period and told to call a premium support line. I'm not prepared to do this at this point as I have finally received an email back from Sony support advising me that my only option is to send the item back for a chargeable repair, the amount of which cannot be disclosed until the item is repaired. This is hardly satisfactory given that no attempt has been made to ascertain the fault and i'm certainly not going to allow Sony to charge me what they like to repair this fault, given that they don't know what it actually is. Can someone advise me of the best way to contact Sony customer complaints please?

[Catmambo]

Hi - appreciate your points. Having worked in this area, the challenge with VAIO is that its almost impossible to diagnose the issue remotely and thus determine a repair cost. It could be one of several issues which would all be speculation and so the only way to accurately assertain this is to have it collected and examined, so VAIO supporrt can then provide an accurate figure.

Thanks

[steveraceuk]

Hello. Again I appreciate you taking the time to reply. My concern here is that there is no way for me to build an expectation of how much this is going to cost. My own research has indicated that a replacement motherboard for a Sony Vaio is going to cost in the area of £150, assuming this is the fault. Add to this shipping, presumably, and service charge and for a £399 laptop this rapidly becomes a non-starter. Given that the motherboard is probably the single most important component in a laptop, and has apparently failed after a mere 15 months, you can understand why I am reluctant to spend this much money on repairing a fault, which in my opinion, should not exist in the first place. I would be interested in hearing from others who have been forced to use Sony's repait service in this way before. Am I being unfair in my assumptions?