Vaio VPCY21S1E Motherboard Fault/warranty

[rob.phil.ford]

Hey I’m hoping someone here will be able to help me out with regards to my laptop.
I purchased an ex-display Vaio VPCY21S1E sold as seen in October 2013. It looked brand new all the guides cable everything were included in the box. It wasn’t until I got home I realized the laptop wouldn’t power up (that probably would explain the brilliant price)
at first I thought about taking it back to the shop for a refund however I decided to keep hold of it until I could get the necessary funds to get it fixed In the hope that the price of the repair would still warrant holding on to it. That time is now.
I went up to Pc world to see what they thought about it. They tested the charger battery and tried to power it up. Their conclusion was that it is a power fault somewhere on the motherboard.
I really would like this laptop repaired. Unfortunately I cannot find the receipt for the laptop (I’m still tearing the place apart though looking for it)

my questions are.
Even though I bought this laptop ex display I’m unsure what my warranty would be. I know you get a 1years manufactures warranty, but I don’t know when the laptop was first powered on, so that warranty may be up even if it was only 8 months since I purchased it.

If my warranty has expired how I can go about getting it repaired and how much am I looking at spending on it?
The spec of the laptop seems really good but I don’t want to spend multiple amounts of what I paid for the laptop to get the motherboard (if it is that) to be repaired/replaced.

Sorry for the long winded explanation
thank you for your time and help

[Catmambo · Accepted solution]

Hi

Ouch, this could be a tricky one. It was first sold around 4 years so tough to know whats happened to it in that intervening period. Your contract of sale is with the store, but almost impossible to prove if you can't find the receipt and I'm not a specialist, but  it may well be that its different as it was 'sold as seen'. 

Frankly as its an old machine, parts are also going to be expensive, so gut instinct would be a inspection/repair cost of several hundred pounds. For maybe the same price, you could pickup a much newer, faster refurb from the Sony Outlet store, which would have warranty - https://outlet.sony.co.uk/shop/VAIO-Notebooks/

Hope this helps

[rob.phil.ford]

hi Catmambo and thankyou for the reply.
i had a look at the link you gave me and laptop range from £500 - stupid money
i paid £70 for the laptop (you can see what i mean now by me thinking i had a really good buy) that why i was looking into how much a montherboard would cost if it wasnt under warrenty.
do you know where i could find more info on this, as said before the spec of its really good if all else fails i will just have to salvage the parts and try and make a faster laptop =[

[Nobody-in-particular]

Hi, it may also be worth taking your vaio to local repair sepecialist because it may be something other than the mother board that is the cause of the problem.

If you are sure it is the mother board then the best people to ask would be vaio support, you can find their contact details by clicking support at the top of the page, doubt it will be cheap though and I would imagine they will want to repair your vaio rather than send you the replacement mother board.

[Catmambo]

VAIO Support won't supply most non-cosmetic components I'm afraid due to potential liability issues if they are incorrectly fitted or mis-diagnosed. So the only route for repair would be to send it to VAIO.

Thanks

[Nobody-in-particular]

Yes that is what I thought hence the reason I included the following in my post.

Nobody-in-particular wrote:

doubt it will be cheap though and I would imagine they will want to repair your vaio rather than send you the replacement mother board.

[rob.phil.ford]

hi, thankyou both for your advice.
i have emailed vaio support and told them about my problem hoping they can get back to me with a rough idea of the price.
then i will go down the road of taking it to pc world and leaving it in their capable hands of finding the problem out and then fixing it. either way i think its not going to be cheap. if thats the case i might end up buying another branded laptop 😞

[Nobody-in-particular]

My pleasure and I hope the repair is not to costly.