This lemon of a computer has cost me about three months now of lost productivity.

It started about a week ago – the same damn error message I started getting back in May.  "RAID Volume 0 Error.  Back up your data immediately."

After spending weeks in June on the phone, after two trips to the house by a technician, after sending the machine back to the factory to get the hard drive replaced. The memory replaced. The optical drive replaced.

This damn Sony VGN-AR370 STILL WON’T WORK!!!!

I can’t believe what a lemon this machine is.

I tried to do video editing in Russia this last time, and found that for some reason, the Sony did not like Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.  I had to troll through internet forums for three days before I found a notation in an obscure bulletin board to the effect that Sony Vaio computers have some strange codec in them that you have to navigate through a maze of arcane memos to find a simple radio button and uncheck it before it will work with Adobe software.  Thanks a pantload Sony.  Way to make your hardware compatible.

I just got off the phone after two hours of dealing with the Sony "customer service."  Once again, I went through all the obligatory moves.  It’s gotten to be like a Kabuki theater/computer performance art exhibition.  The customer service rep pretends that he’s actually giving me relevant information, and I pretend like it’s going to do any good.  So what the hell, if the moves that we’re making are predetermined because of Sony’s customer service scripts, well, at this point I’ve pretty much given up struggling against The System.  I just go along with the flow as the guy on the other end of the line has me uninstall every program I’ve put on the computer in the last two months.

Did that work?  Nope.

Then we really descend into the depths of Hell.  We try creating a new administrator account.

Did that work? Nope.

We try a system restore to a point before the Vaio starting telling me my hard drive was crashing.

Did that work?  Nope.

We tried installing a new driver for the Intel Matrix Storage Console.

Did that work?  Nope.

We tried getting into the Intel Matrix Storage Console to make changes.  The computer insisted that I wasn’t an administrator and refused.

Did that work?  Nope.

I tried getting into the RAID controller and hard drive configuation setup during the boot-up process to try to adjust the settings on the disk(s).

Did that work?  Nope.

We rebooted for the 20th time, and I then got into the Setup screen and reverted to the factory BIOS.

Did that work?  Nope.

Now I’m sitting here, having invested the entire morning into trying to make this machine work, only to now face a "System Restore."  This is wiping every single thing off my hard drive. Just reformatting the whole mess, and re-installing everything from the ground up.

When this doesn’t work, I have to call in to Sony.  AGAIN.

Navigate through the voicemail decision tree.  AGAIN.

Wait as a tech calls up the history of this shitty lemon machine.  AGAIN.

And then finally I have to tell him the saga of this useless Vaio, this heart attack in a box, this paperweight, doorstop, time-waster that has never worked right from the moment it arrived … and convince him that all the moves and strategies on the laminated sheets that they pass out have not produced any results, and that it’s time to send this turkey back to the factory.

I asked if there was any way that I could get a refund at this point.  So far, no good. The best I can hope for, it seems, is sending this heavy piece of crap back to the factory, having them crack the case and install a new RAID controller and maybe a new motherboard.  After which, I will be in hell every time I try to use this machine for anything even remotely approaching a mission-critical application.  I have no confidence whatsoever in this Sony hardware.  I can’t believe that they’ve foisted such a buggy platform onto the public.