No Support from Sony for a 5 month old laptop.

[DavidGarratt]

I have been trawling the Sony UK website for any and all information regarding the assistance or lack of it Sony will be providing for users wanting to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. I emailed them saying that I realised I would not qualify for a free copy of Windows as I had purchased my Viao VGN-AW21XY/Q in May 2009, but I would like to purchase a copy instead, as according to their website they will be shipping the softwate along with a upgrade/drivers disk and appropriate documentation. Not unreasonable I thought. Even just the additional driver disk would be sufficient.

This was the remail reply I got.

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Thank you for contacting Sony VAIO Link.

In relation to your query about Windows 7 the free upgrade from Sony is only available on computers purchased between June 26, 2009 and January 31, 2010 and also only on specific models (the VGN-AW3 being the closest to yours) so with this information unfortunatley you do not quality for the Windows 7 upgrade on offer.

As regards the Pre-Register website this will only let people qualifying for the upgrade register as they will be the only customers we will support with the Windows 7 upgrade.

The question about the Sony forums search feature has been fed back to our web hosting department also. It should be reopened in the very near future.

If you encounter anymore issues please respond directly to this email or alternatively you can call the following corresponding numbers.

VAIO in warranty: 08702402408
VAIO out of warranty: 09050310006

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So basically despite me spelling out clearly that I was not after a free upgrade they
did not bother to read that. In addition it would appear that if your Viao was purchased
before 26th June (even though its a current model), they are not going to help you with the upgrade - even if you offer to pay.

I mean what on earth do they think there are up to ?

So, if there is anyone out there who has purchased the same VGN-AW21XY/Q as me, but after 26th June and gets the free driver upgrade disk (Not Windows 7) I would be interested in a copy.

Dave

[Blencogo]

Hi Dave and welcome.

I know it is frustrating but Microsoft will only allow the Sony Upgrade to be provided to PCs purchased within the stated time window. You will see the same answer from all PC OEM manufacturers.

That said, the situation is quite good as Microsoft will be selling an Upgrade version themselves and this should use all the existing drivers and utilities and also keep all your software and settings (You will lose all preinstalled software if you do a clean install of W7). Several people here have run the upgrade install and it appears to work perfectly.

With a very few exceptions, drivers and utilities that run on Vista will run also on Windows 7. The one or two drivers that have been optomised for Windows 7 (like the nVidia Graphics Driver) will be readily available for download.

I am not sure what support Sony will give for Windows 7 on existing models. The situation was exactly the same for the Vista upgrade where Sony provided any essential upgrade drivers for models up to two years old but did not offer technical support for anything but the originally installed operating system.