Well, once I had downloaded and installed VAIO Care the only option after selecting recovery was to recover a system restore point.  Nothing about applications or drivers.

Tried a system restore point and it failed saying it can't access (guess what?) The VAIO Update file!!  So the system is screwed if I really need to recover and I won't bring myself to trust the ASSIST Button.

I give up and next time I'll buy a Dell.  I've never known such appalling support.

PeterB (MCSE & Retired Ex Microsoft Software Engineer)

Hi Robert.Lee.Jones,

I can fully understand your reluctance to carry out a full system recovery, especially taking into account the time required subsequently to restore all personal data and third party software, and more importantly that this problem is not of your making.

Unfortunately given Support’s statement - “Again, the above is basic before being able to get more into detail.” - It will require one of you to take the plunge before Support will investigate further.

Make of that what you will....

Rich

It is not accurate of Sony to say  that "mjk43wr has failed to respond to both phone calls and emails from Vaio Link". I had a garbled and almost unintelligible answerphone message about two weeks ago which I am guessing came from Sony. The message gave a reference number but no details of how I could return the call. That's not much use. I also had an email on the same day saying Walid of Sony had phoned me but again with no details of how to return the contact and from a "noreply" email address.

I had a satisfaction survey from Sony on Friday of last week 25 November and this actually had as its signature the name and email address of the General Manager of Sony Europe. So I emailed him immediately to say that I was dissatisfied. I have today had an email from someone else at Sony referring to my complaint and promising to call me within 24 hours. Again this is from a "noreply" email address. Hopefully, I shall hear shortly. If not, I'll keep emailing this General Manager until I do get some help.

As to the steps above, I had already tried disabling anti-virus and reinstalling Vaio update as it explains. No joy. Still the same error message. I would not contemplate a full system recovery - a suggestion which is the refuge of a lazy support desk.

If I do hear from Sony with anything worth relaying to other forum members, I shall of course post a further reply to this string.

I note that the instruction above also says "The update should work for all models, but  of course there is a possibility one lacks (there is a serial number  verification). in this example, we speak of a CTO model which comes with  a non-standard 8-digit code so it could happen a particular one is  missing out."

I do not understand what this is meant to mean. If it could be explained to me, I'll happily try whatever action is suggested along these lines.

Thank you to Rich for his persistence and interest and to all fellow members posting on this thread.

Hi mjk43wr,

I understand that Vaio-Link will be in contact with you.

Support claim that there was a link contained in the email sent after the voice message that would “guide you to support numbers”. Can you confirm this?

If it is not the case can you please send me a copy of the email via PM.

Thanks,

Rich

Radwan called again and ran me through what I had done before: turning off virus scan and firewall and then trying to install the latest Viao Update file from the Sony website. He was hopeful because a new Vaio Update for this laptop had been designed only last week. That did not work either.

I do not have time until the weekend but I have agreed to unistall McAfee and then try to run the Vaio Update from the exe file which I have saved to my desktop and then reinstall McAfee. I shall update the forum after trying that.

Meanwhile, are any of the other forum members who have been experiencing this problem using McAfee as their antivirus and firewall software ?

Thanks

Hi mjk43wr,

THanks for keeping us updated

I did have McAfee installed on my laptop  when i bought it but have since uninstalled it. Now use WIndows  anti-vitrus and firewall and have turned them off when trying to  complete the update - to no avail.

Hi mjk43wr,

Is your dialogue with Support ongoing or have they closed the case again?

I notice that your most recent post has been escalated to Support by one of the moderators which will not amuse Support if it is ongoing as this will cause confusion!

The escalation process does bring a problem to the attention of senior management within the relevant department. Should you wish to pursue it to a higher level then use whatever contact details you have or can find...

Rich

Hi!

I have the very same problem here.

But i may have futher information or at least experience on the problem:

A few weeks ago, I think it was in September, when Vaio update was still up-to-date I ran it and it reported to me that there are a few updates available...

I had not been able to install the updates.

I tried downloading them Saturday afternoon, CET.

I tried downloading them Saturday evening, CET.

I tried downloading them Sunday morning, CET.

I tried downloading them Monday early evening, CET.

You see where I'm going?

At Some point, I tried downloading it at Thursday morning, around 3 am ... CET.

I even watched the process.

And all three updates ran fine in about half an hour...

I thought:

European servers overloaded during "rush hour" ... and forgot about it.

Now a few days ago i tried starting Vaio Update again... and what is this?

Vaio Update starting the update process ... and stopping after a short time.

Yesterday early evening, CET.

Today, early evening, CET.

And now this:

I followed one of the provided links to the direct downloads and tried using the ftp servers.

On each file i tried to download:

Server Error after a few seconds to minutes.

So Sony, now you tell me this is my MacAfeeee Scanner, which was installed by you guys in the first place [and by the way does not exist on my system anymore for a long time now]???

Look for a better explanation!

Maybe i should reinstall my system?

Or dance around my notebook three times naked?

Or I will just have to say:

"I want my vaio to go home - I want my vaio to go home - I want my vaio to go home" and buy a MacBook?

Phhhh Sony Support.

Thank you for the help you are [NOT] providing.

I will not bother you anymore for you obviously cannot help.

Goodbye.