Vaio VPCF13Z1E power inlet broken

[creativecommand]

Hi,

Through normal operation, the AC to DC power inlet has cracked. Support are stating that this is physical damage due to misuse?? Even under warranty, this will result in a charge for fixing the connection. If I ask for them to reconsider the judgement I pay £60 on top. If this broke through normal plugging in/out power lead, how long will the repair last? Any advice?

[Blencogo]

In all cases of physical damage Sony will have to make a call on a case by case basis.

Generally, this sort of damage is not covered by the warranty and only you can make that decision to take things further and argue that there is a weakness in the part and it has broken under normal use.

Sorry we can't be of much use.

[Woyto-----]

Hi creativecommand,

May I ask you, how did you solve the problem with DC input? I have a similar problem, now. In my case nothing is broken but something is missing - some plastic part inside. The service says I broke it and have to cover not-so-low repair costs (namely ca. GBP 60).

I do not recollect myself any such event I could cause. On my suggestion that maybe it was caused by highly overheating graphic chip with which supposedly VPCF13Z1E has an issue with, they say that this is my imagination. However, the overheating takes place just by the dc input. The computer gets so hot that you cannot touch it and the dc power jack, and the table on which the computer is standing. So maybe this is the reason DC power inlet gets breaking.

Did you experienced any problems with overheating of your Vaio?

[rob.sheppard]

Hi, well I think there is a design problem with this model, given your experiences, mine and the other poster's.

The machine seems to get very very hot, I think this causes the inner insulator around the inner supply prong to come off, as your image shows it is missing and mine was too (unbeknownst to me!).

I had terrible problems with mine almost from the word go, where the power supply would not stay on powering the laptop. Unfortunately I had already begun using it for my business (away from home) and could not afford the time to send it back to Sony, so I got it repaired by an local independent repairer in 2 days, even though it was still under warranty.

He noticed that the inner insulation was missing around the inner power prong, and replaced the whole power plug unit.

All was OK for a while, but recently I noticed that the area aorund the plug was getting extremely hot - too hot to touch (in fact once after I had unplugged it and gave it to a friend to carry while onsite working, she burnt her hand on the plug) and the laptop would occasionally shutdown, I guessed because of getting too hot. When I looked at the external power supply plug I could see that a lot of the plastic had melted away! I found it inside the plug on the laptop. I tried to remove it and now the power supply does not work at all, and battery has died - so no way to either charge the battery or power up the machine - nightware!