Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony VAIO PCG-GRT170 Laptop (2.80-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Drive)

I just purchased this PC and I love it! I have set it up on a home network using a linksys broadband router with my DSL internet connection and it works like a dream. It comes loaded with an integrated wireless Lan card and the set-up was easy. The PC itself is really fast and the display is beautiful (the 16" screen is really awesome).The DVD movies I watched looked great. It comes with some really good software too. My only complaint is the battery does not last long enough (about 1.5 hours). Another issue is the PC is quite heavy. Since I am using this as a desktop replacement system and will not travel with it that much, this is not a big concern for me. Also it does not come with a floppy drive, but you can purchase one from Sony or ebay for one of the USB ports. Overall, I am very pleased and absolutely love it! It may seem expensive, but you get a CD/DVD-RW combo drive, good software, and lots of storage. It even has a slot for your memory cards to view photos etc.

Well, after having read some of the online reviews I'm surprised, that the reviewers failed to point out (or notice?) a significant performance issue with this model.
To begin with, I bought mine at Amazon in mid-July, and - having previously read the raw specs of this laptop over and over again comparing them to numerous other competitors' models - I eagerly anticipated the moment to finally un-box mine, fire it up, and dive right into my multimedia projects.
My first impression after having crancked it up was disappointment, as the laptop seemed to respond slower, than my older HP Omnibook 6100 with a 1.2Ghz CPU.
Having tweeked everything I could, and checked, then double checked, that the CPU was indeed running at 2.8Ghz I turned my attention to the hard drive. It turns out, that - at least at the time I bought mine - SONY chose to include the slowest 60GB HD then available on the market: a Hitachi/IBM drive with 2MB cache and 4200 RPM. Unfortunately, the specs of the drive, other than its capacity, are not disclosed in the technical details available online. Considering everything else, that's been thrown into this machine in the name of performance, being frugal on the hard drive is a crying shame.
At the cost of ($),- I bought and installed the flagship of the Hitachi/IBM notebook drive family, the 60GB 7200 (yes, that's seventy-two-hundred) RPM drive with 8MB cache. The machine is finally purring as it should have from day one, and crunches through multimedia applications from video editing to games, like an Apple Powerbook.
If your GRT170 came with a slower HD, you owe it to yourself to upgrade to get the most out of this otherwise excellent notebook PC.

This is a great toy for power graphic user!
Run multiple high graphic applications (CADs mainly) and along with live webcam in the background, the system handles them all with ease.
The mouse buttons are a little annoying for they are a litle noisy, especially if you work late in the room at nite.
Other than that this is not only a best desktop replacement but a very nice system with fully loaded, higher end technology.
However, don't count on this as a travelmate because it's a 9 lbs. toy, and you will have to get an extra large case to lugging it around. Any standard large case won't do for its irregular size.

Anyway, it's a Best Buy...for now!!! until there is another better Best in couple months down the ever changing tech road.

I've never had more problems with a laptop than this one. According to the specs, it's great-- a fast CPU, lots of RAM, a great video card and a huge hard disk, plus a DVD burner! And look at that screen! It MUST be good! .. too bad it isn't.

The CPU is fast-- but it's a Pentium 4 DESKTOP processor. Not only does it suck up the battery life, it produces obscene amounts of heat, making the fan stay on all the time. So, you can hear the machine across the room at all times.

The video card is incompatible with the latest drivers in most cases, and has huge incompatibilities with the latest games. Many won't even begin to run.

The DVD Drive can only burn at the most abysmally slow speeds. Writing a full DVD will take over 2 hours.

Battery life is horrendous. You can expect 45 minutes if all you are doing is word processing. If you raise the CPU usage above 20%, you can expect 30 minutes. If you use it to the absolute maximum, expect 20. This is on the lowest screen brightness, folks. You can't finish watching a DVD (Forget about burning one) on this machine. And Sony wants $300 for another one.

The chipset is SiS, the cheapest out there; so don't expect reliability. This machine crashes more than anything I've used in my entire life. Nothing ever works as it should.

My machine had to be repaired twice now, and I need to bring it in tomorrow for MORE repairs. Here's a short list of what is wrong ..

- CPU fan nearly stopped. CPU overheated and crashed all the time.
- 802.11x card stopped working entirely.
- Speakers kept emitting bursts of deafening static.
- Constant squealing noise from the hard drive.
- 10 gb of the disk was unusable.
- The left mouse button jammed.
- One USB port was upside-down and didn't work at all.
- 30 minutes of battery life.
- Wired ethernet rarely worked for longer than a few hours. Had to reboot constantly to keep it connected.
- Most program crashed, especially games, even with the latest drivers, DirectX, and service packs.
- 8 keys fell off under normal use.
- Screen backlight began burning out; screen brightness would change at random and flash on and off.
- Battery cover fell off and could not be reattached.
- Most CDs could not be read. Drive takes over 30 seconds to spin up a disc for reading.
- DVD playback is jumpy. Tons of read errors.

Avoid this laptop. Get something that you can trust-- from a company you can trust.

I purchased this laptop July 2003. The primary use was for using voice recognition software to dictate science manuscripts. Because of a repetitive strain injury to my arms, I use voice dictation software to avoid typing. I was attracted to this model because it promised excellent recording capabilities which logically should mean that it would be good for voice recognition. (Some laptop manufacturers make models that have a lot of electronic noise, making voice recognition poor.)

The laptop met my expectations and had a very low electronic noise. The result was that I was able to dictate scientific manuscripts without many mistakes.

However I give the unit a one star rating because of the extremely poor or nonexistent technical support provided by the Company. Shortly after I purchased the unit I had some technical questions and went online to an address provided on my notebook. I then found that to send a note to Sony asking for help, I had to have a question for which Sony had already posted an answer. I know that sounds crazy, but that is the way the system that worked. I had to create a dummy problem by selecting from a pick list an issue that did not occur on my computer. I was then able to get to a screen from which I could post information about the actual problem. Technical support did solve the problem.

Today I left my computer on with Microsoft Windows running. When I returned after a few minutes, I had a blue screen of death. The computer was no longer in Windows and could no longer boot back to Windows. I had managed to obtain a telephone number for technical support when I had my earlier question.

to my astonishment technical support told me that I was not entitled any longer to technical support even though I have had the unit less than a year. I made 2 different calls. The different technicians both said the same. Technical support is provided only during the first year after a model line is introduced for sale. So it is actually possible I guess for someone to purchase a brand-new computer for which there is absolutely no technical support because the line was introduced a year or so ago.

Fortunately I had purchased an extended warranty from Circuit City and took the unit into a local store for shipment off to he a air center.

if you are thinking about purchasing any Sony computer beware of the technical support policy. This policy contrasts with the Unlimited support from computer makers such as Dell where telephone technical support is available as long as you have the computer. the one star rating for the unit is also based on the fact that it died after less than a year of use.