Activation after Best Buy Repair (Its a bit involved)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Oh Happy Happy
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Oh Happy Happy

Thank you for reading this. My niece has a Sony Vaio laptop which she took
in for warranty work and (long story short) they replaced the hard drive.
She had bought another one for school since the repair took so long.
That said, she never really looked at it until she gave it to me for my
kid. I turned it on and they made had installed XP home on the new drive. I
went to hook up to the internet and couldn't connect, sony drivers or OEM
drivers haven't worked either. My guess is that Best Buy didn't or could't
connect either and the more I play with it the more my gut says something
is up. I wonder how I can A) look up the serial # B) Can I find out thru MS
if the serial # is legit by contacting MS since right now I can't connect
and would have to check manually(?)(and thats OK too) Yes there are several
issues I have with said repair which I will take up with Best Buy when I
get all the paperwork regarding warranty etc. together but I really dont
feel good about this XP install for some reason. I may try to get a network
card adapter to get on line but I feel something is up and I do want to
have the proper software back on the machine. Something just doesn't feel
right here. And I'm not real happy with Best Buy right now but I'll save
that for another day when I get my "ducks in a row." Thanx again to all who
took the time to read this and/or replied. Trying to stay legit and legal.
As for Best Buy, I hope they got a good explanation for this "repair".
Thanx again for your time....
 
Oh Happy Happy said:
Thank you for reading this. My niece has a Sony Vaio laptop which she took
in for warranty work and (long story short) they replaced the hard drive.
She had bought another one for school since the repair took so long.
That said, she never really looked at it until she gave it to me for my
kid. I turned it on and they made had installed XP home on the new drive. I
went to hook up to the internet and couldn't connect, sony drivers or OEM
drivers haven't worked either.
Click to expand...

Does your niece have any Restore/Recovery disk(s) that came with the machine?
Some Sony Vaio machine require that the end user create a Restore/Recovery disk, if
this is the case for this machine did your niece create any?
Have you checked Sonys support site for updated drivers/software for the Vaio you
have?
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/select-system.pl?DIRECTOR=DRIVER&ref=http://www.sony.com/index.php

Are you able to setup a new internet account using the information from your ISP?
What shows in Device Manager for either a Modem or NIC, whichever you use, as the
device installed and its status?

My guess is that Best Buy didn't or could't
connect either and the more I play with it the more my gut says something
is up. I wonder how I can A) look up the serial # B) Can I find out thru MS
if the serial # is legit by contacting MS since right now I can't connect
and would have to check manually(?)(and thats OK too) Yes there are several
issues I have with said repair which I will take up with Best Buy when I
get all the paperwork regarding warranty etc. together but I really dont
feel good about this XP install for some reason. I may try to get a network
card adapter to get on line but I feel something is up and I do want to
have the proper software back on the machine. Something just doesn't feel
right here. And I'm not real happy with Best Buy right now but I'll save
that for another day when I get my "ducks in a row." Thanx again to all who
took the time to read this and/or replied. Trying to stay legit and legal.
As for Best Buy, I hope they got a good explanation for this "repair".
Thanx again for your time....
Click to expand...

Why wait to confront Best Buy, get everything together that you need and get after
them. Anything you do to the machine in the meantime may relieve them of any
obligation, especially if at any time it becomes known to them that you have altered
anything.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
If it was warranty work then I would have your niece take it back and get it fixed by Best Buy who did the work on the guarantee
 
I've seen this before from them, they've reinstalled the OS, but didn't
install any of the drivers. Since you cannot connect to the internet,
because your NIC drivers are missing. you can and should make them fix it,
or you can research the model number and find the drivers on Sony's website.
(if you don't have a recovery disk) Best Buy, geek squad...is a sham by the
way, I have yet to meet anyone, who was one hundred percent happy with their
work. good luck.
 
Thanx to all who replied, let me try and answer some questions. Drivers,
yes, we I have tried to re-install from Sony (exe file) and from realtech
as a group of individual files (inf?) no go. And that nice yellow "!" wont
go away. So no its not an ISP or router problem. My niece lives in another
state, is the delay in getting paper work. She doesn't think she has the
restore disk but somewhere on the Sony site I saw I could purchase one,
hence the delay. I also wonder if trying another "BB" would help as it is
their extended warranty, and the other store took a long time to get it
back. So imho I think BB should have it back to its original state. That
said....can BB (or any repair center) keep re-installing the same OS.
Something doesn't sound right about that. If its not right BB may have
another issue on its hands. I do have built my own machines for several
years and suspect a nic card problem and will deal with BB when I get my
ducks in a row which leads me back to (Drum roll please, I'm trying to keep
my sense of humor here) can I find the serial # and would MS have a way to
check it manually, maybe a 1-800 #? Ooops forgot one, the Slashdot article
was funny/scarey...good one, I could never be in such dire staights as to
take my machine to BB or anywhere else. And hopefully I'll have my A+
certification soon when I get the 300+ dollars for the test. Thanx again to
all
 
Oh Happy Happy said:
can I find the serial # and would MS have a way to
check it manually
Click to expand...

I assume by serial # you are referring to the Microsoft XP installation
key. The key is required, by Microsoft, to be on a sticker that is
located someplace on the outside of the laptop. Usually it is on the
bottom. If the sticker is missing, you have a more serious issue with
Best Buy. Ask Sony where the sticker is normally placed on that
model of laptop.
 
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