Sony Vaio VPCF117FX

[john_buckner]

Looking for an older, discontinued Sony Vaio.Model Number is VPCF117FX.Been looking online and haven't found anything except for some sketchy Chinese websites.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Am willing to compensate any lead that leads to a domestic purchase.

 

[Harvey]

Searching Google for "VPCF117FX" (in quotes) finds links to lots of possible help.

The first link goes to Sony's support page for your machine, which includes drivers, manuals and trouble shooting assistance.

Hope that helps.

 

[john_buckner]

Thanks Harvey. Tried that but no luck. Looking to get a new/used/refurbished one.

Sony stopped making them for some reason.

 

[Ketchup]

Thanks Harvey. Tried that but no luck. Looking to get a new/used/refurbished one.

Sony stopped making them for some reason.

Retail laptop models stay on the market for 3 months, some may make it 6. After that, the model number will change, whether or not many changes actually have been made.

This model is about 3 years old.

Any reason you want this model in particular?

 

[john_buckner]

I've got a father who doesn't like change. I tried to get him a newer model, but he didn't like it. First thing he checked was model number, didn't even care that everything else was the same.

If it was up to me, I'd be buying a new Mac...sadly, it's not.

 

[Harvey]

If you don't care as much about the exact make and model as in a machine with an i7 and Windows 7, Newegg has a number of machines from major manufacturers that may interest you.

New with Win 7 Pro or Home Premium, sorted by price from $649.99.

Refurbished with Win 7 Pro or Home Premium, sorted by price from $349.99.

Some include free upgrade keys to Win 8.

You can use the check boxes at the left of the page to refine your search further.

 

[john_buckner]

Thanks Harvey, but looking for the exact model number.

There's gotta be a used one out there for sale somewhere...

 

[Harvey]

I couldn't even find much about them on ebay. That suggests either it's so popular and durable that no one wants to part with theirs, or it wasn't a very popular model, and they sold very few of them.

You could contact Sony support for the location of authorized repair facilities, but I'm afraid going that route could cost more than buying a new machine.

I'd think the reasonable alternatives would be to search Newegg for similarly equipped new machines with Win 7. That would keep your dad on the same OS, but he'd have to learn a slightly different layout, but not THAT different because most laptops are pretty similar, and it would have a new machine warranty.

For my links, I narrowed the search to machines with an i7 You'll find an even greater selection if you can broaden your choice of CPU's to include an i5 and/or upscale AMD CPU.

 

[john_buckner]

Harvey, thanks so much for the help. I actually just got off the phone with Sony asking where I could buy a refurbished one, and they couldn't point me in any direction.

The best I can find is this:

http://proudsale.com/sony-vaio-vpcf117fxb-f-series-notebook-pc-p-15393.html#show

I just don't feel comfortable sending money to China, and possibly getting junk or nothing in return.

 

[Ketchup]

The closest I can find:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-VAIO-V...10797332?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item3a8f363414

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-VAIO-V...62238260?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item3f34690834

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SONY-VPCF13...86562628?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item27e1798744

But he really doesn't want a used laptop. I don't know what happened to his, but the screen wears, the hinges wears, the battery wears, and so on.

The machines I have seen show the least wear over the years were my Lenovo's, and one of them still needed a screen replacement and repair for a shorting issue.

I have had experience with folks like you are describing though. Sometimes, it just takes the waiting game to get them to come around a bit.

 

[Harvey]

Harvey, thanks so much for the help. I actually just got off the phone with Sony asking where I could buy a refurbished one, and they couldn't point me in any direction.

The best I can find is this:

http://proudsale.com/sony-vaio-vpcf117fxb-f-series-notebook-pc-p-15393.html#show

I just don't feel comfortable sending money to China, and possibly getting junk or nothing in return.

Careful! My Avast anti-virus brought up a "malicious site" warning for that url, and searching Google for "proudsale.com" + fraud or + scam will give you lots of reasons to search elsewhere. You could get hit with more problems than just your credit card even trying to access it.

This may be one of those times for you to be the teacher in your father/son relationship.

Good luck.

 

[john_buckner]

Wow...

Good call! I'll keep searching a little bit longer, but definitely not ordering anything from China.

Thanks Harvey.

 

[Harvey]

As I mentioned, the physical layout of most laptops is similar enough that the learning curve for learning the mechanics of it won't be that steep. OTOH, the learning curve and discomfort issues going from Win 7 to Win 8 will be much more of a challenge... and Win 8 still sucks (IMHO).

I came across Newegg's great selection Win 7 laptops of just a couple of weeks ago when a friend needed exactly that, a more powerful machine capable of running Photoshop and running Win 7 for compatibility with all of his apps. Until then, He was seaching for used ones on craigslist.

The new machine "I break it - You fix it" warranty could be a good selling point to your dad. Once you find some good candidate machines within your budget, look at user reviews, both on Newegg and elsewhere around the web. Newegg's reviews seem pretty honest because they don't delete negative comments.