Finally, the replacement battery (VGP-BPS2C) for my Vaio VGN-C1S/H arrived (8 month after I reported the defect).
Sony advertises the laptop with full 2 year guarantee; however, the guarantee does not cover consumable material which, in Sony's option, includes rechargeable batteries (as one learns from the guarantee statement inside the package; the Austria Sony website nevertheless has different terms and acknowledges guarantee for the rechargeable battery). Only within the first six month after purchase, the manufacturer is assumed to have supplied a product with manufacturing defects, the onus of proof reverses afterwards. Sony declined to replace the battery under warranty.
Thanks to Verein für Konsumenteninformation (VKI) for intervening successfully!

posted at: 00:52 | path: /rant/Sony | permanent link

Some laptop do not enable VMX (VT, Vanderpool, hardware virtualization support) in their BIOS. An example is my Sony Vaio VGN-C1S.
Here is a forum posting with a detailed story with the progress on reverse-engineering VMX support for Phoenix/Sony BIOS.

posted at: 23:29 | path: /rant/Sony | permanent link

Got back my Sony Vaio VGN-C1S - unrepaired; Sony declines to replace defect rechargeable battaries within warranty. They arbitrarily limit warranty to 6 month for battaries.
The company denies to comment on their interpretation of warranty terms. This sucks!

posted at: 14:17 | path: /rant/Sony | permanent link