SONY VAIO A217M - 8 Months old and DRD-RW is now Dead

[Mikeuk2004]

Bought this in december and now the DVD RW Dual Layer drive is dead, wont read any CDs/DVDS and burns DVD's and CD's with errors.

Does not suprise me as the Playstaions DVD players are very poor too. My PS2 stopped reading DVDs Films/Games after 13 months.

Now im screwed with a Laptop with no DVD drive. Cant reinstall or install anything.

You would expect a reliable drive after paying £1400 on a laptop.

Gonna buy a HP next time. And a XBOX 360 as Sony DVD drives are very unreliable.

[nsp_duplicate_02]

Even I have purchased A217M in January 2005 and have started facing some problems with my DVD drive. While I have not tried writing DVDs, but it has started giving problems in reading some CDs.
This is certainly not expected from SONY that too after spending a mammoth £1500 to buy a laptop.
Is there any way out that anybody can sugest?:smileysad:

[kee-lo_]

Send it in to VAIO-Link before your warranty runs out

[rich912]

What is the bet that the drive in question is the good old DW-D56A?

[wheresmybeaver]

I've an A217M, with D56A drive, and yup I've started noticing one or two small problems recently.

It is now fussy about playing DVDs with very minor scratches. The weird thing is though that it usually waits for the final 15 mins or so of a movie before playback starts getting choppy.

Failed burned DVDs are also on the increase, marginally...

And when I play back some movies (~700mb) from a CD-R, the drive makes quite a worrying whirring near the end, and playback gets iffy. If I copy the movie from CD to HD, all is fine, however.

Godammit it had better not fail on me anytime soon, no way can I afford to send it away for the weeks I'm sure it would take to repair, and I can't take the risk that the HD would be erased at the service centre. I regularly backup important stuff, I'm not an idiot, but I have a complicated Cubase and FLStudio setup that would take me literally weeks to get set back up again on a blank system...

Besides, I'm about 11 months into my ownership, warranty is nearly gone...

Having said that, it's still working 99% fine, but I'm losing confidence...

[Mikeuk2004]

Yes it isindeed the DW-D56A. IT isnt reading a single CD DVD or any re-writable.

And certanly wont Write one.

[Mikeuk2004]

What is the bet that the drive in question is the good old DW-D56A?

Yep its that one alright, Now its completly dead.

I bought a Sony FS215E two months ago for the wife and hope that dont die. But its got one thing going for it as it has a pioneer DVD writer in it.

[Mikeuk2004]

What is the bet that the drive in question is the good old DW-D56A?

Yep its that one alright, Now its completly dead.

I bought a Sony FS215E two months ago for the wife and hope that dont die. But its got one thing going for it as it has a pioneer DVD writer in it.

[Mikeuk2004]

What is the bet that the drive in question is the good old DW-D56A?

Yep its that one alright, Now its completly dead.

I bought a Sony FS215E two months ago for the wife and hope that dont die. But its got one thing going for it as it has a pioneer DVD writer in it.

[jammold]

Besides, I'm about 11 months into my ownership, warranty is nearly gone...

If you contact Sony quickly ASAP, they will extend your warranty until the problem is sorted out. They extended mine by three months this way.