text: The ATI video card crapped out on me yesterday. I had been getting "driver stopped working" errors for a couple of months but thought it was the driver. Now the SE does not even see the ATI card, only the intel video card. I have never pushed it that hard and never overclocked it. Unfortunately, my warranty coverage ran out last month so I can't get it fixed. Uninstalling and reinstalling drivers had no effect. Has anyone had their ATI card fail in an SE? This is not the first Vaio I have had problems with. Sony quality has really gone downhill. Doubt I'll ever buy another.
  I have spent a lot of time creating the ultimate build for our laptops and have got all the ports and interfaces working with the exception of the AMD Graphics and the SD card reader.
  The other day I splashed a sugary drink (Kopparberg Pear Cider) on my SE 15" (black) keyboard and as a result a few keys were sticking and not springing up very promptly.
  So I disassembled the laptop (as I have done in the past) to clean the keyboard. when I came to removing the keyboard from the top palm rest panel I found there was no obvious screws or clips. I pressed firmly and it slowly clicked away, there must have been abot 25 click points, it took a while.
  After removing the keyboard I washed it in meths, then de-ionised water and then filtered water and dried thourghly. All seemed well untill this point. I tried to reattach the keyboard to the palm rest panel and it wouldn't click back. On close inspection it seems it was fused to it with tiny plastic posts that have all now been broken. How is the keyboard supposed to be reattached? I see replacement keyboards for sale online so there must be a way...
  I tried using super glue by putting a tiny bits on the back side of the palm rest between where the keys go.As you can imagine It made a total mess, the glue was pressed out onto the keys and on to the top sie of the palm rest, bleaching the plastic, destorying one key and sticking a few others down
  so I'v ordered a replacement white keyboard (white is cheaper and I thought it might look cool on the black palmrest). I'm waiting for it to arrive but don't know how I'll attach it. It has to be held firm as otherwise when pressed it will drop and block the cpu fan and make typing really awefull. The keyboard is very bendy on its own. Also, sony took the laptop away to be repaired under warrenty last month (warrenty now expired) and I found out last night they'd taken the top metal plate from the dvd drive so now the keyboard will press against the lens/cd if it drops. I'v contacted them and so one plan is to rest the keyboard on some matchsticks ontop of the cd drive when it's got its top cover back...
  Anyone know where I can buy a replacement black palm rest with keyboard attached? I can find keyboards but don't know how to attach them, if you know how please say. (15" VPC SE 1C5E)
  Well mine has been saying about "driver stopped working" several times a day for as long as I can remember. Although it was actually "Driver crashed and has now been restarted". I have since used Leshcat driver to get the latest ATI drivers to work and have the brightness control and stamina/speed switch still work etc. Maybe try that. It could solve your problem if it isn't a hardware fault. Sometimes windows permanently disables devices at a system level if it crashes too may times (especially with the webcam on the SE). It could however be a hardware fault, in which case, that really sucks. My 2yr warranty just expired this week as well. I have to admit the faults I'v found with this laptop have been never ending. Screen failure, touchpad glitches, graphics card crashing, webcam crashing. Thankfully they fixed all but the trackpad on my last warranty return earlier this month.
  Pretty sure it is hardware as I removed the hard drive I had upgraded and replaced it with the original drive which is just like it came from the factory. Still blue screens at boot with original ATI drivers. Tried other drivers...all BSOD. I suppose I'll retire it and never buy another Sony. It was really a piece of crap anyway from day one. Big waste of cash.
  I'm afraid I have to agree, it looks pretty but there are far too many design flaws. (Dodgy gpu, webcam cable too thin and brittle, touchpad sensitive to cold temperature, keyboard not replaceable, bendy screen resulting in damage panel).
  I spent 4 months looking for my dream laptop, number pad, 15", 1080p, light weight, backlit keyboard, matte display, high performance, under £1,000. People told me I was crazy to think I would find one. This came alone and I was over the moon. Turns out I was crazy.
  Fortunately, I had bought an HP DV6T Quad several months before which was much cheaper than the sony. It has always worked perfectly, 1080 screen with more accurate color than the orange-gate SE, more powerful and with an SSD, very fast. Quad core, fingerprint scanner that works perfectly, bluray reader/burner. Just lacks a lighted keyboard, but at least it is dependable. It's a little heavier, but better build quality. I can live with that, as long as the laptop actually works correctly.
  Finally had it tested. Defective video memory on ATI card. New motherboard required. No wonder I had so many "video card stopped working" errors and bluescreens since purchase. Failed totally one month after warranty ran out. If you are getting these errors, send it to Sony before your warranty runs out like mine did. Not worth fixing due to multiple other problems since purchase. Guess I got a lemon, of course my previous 2 Sony's were lemons as well. Sony quality...not.
  Does the VPCSE SSD use the same SSD used in the VPCZE? Mine failed and I need a new micro SSD apparently they are difficult to come by. Another idea is to use an adaptor micro to SATA but will it fit?