I bought the above laptop for my wife just under 2 years ago.  The fan
gave up during the warranty period.  We were living in Greece by then
and they actually couriered the thing to France to fix it.  The fan
never sounded that great afterwards and it is again in the process of
failing.  We are still in Greece and I don't fancy paying the
exorbitant Sony charges (€150 before you even start thinking about the
repair) just to change a fan over.  The trouble is I have not been
able to find anyone here who will do a repair on a Vaio laptop.  Can
someone come up with either (a) someone in Athens who will do the
repair at a moderately sensible price; or (b) where I can get a
replacement fan and (more importantly) how to open the thing up and
swap the old one for a new one.  presumably once it is open there is
not much to doing it.

Hello, 

First off, unless you're fairly skilled with computer repair and have
worked on laptops before, I wouldn't recommend trying to fix this
yourself.  It probably wouldn't be a difficult part to change, but
opening the machine without damaging the case can be extremely tricky.

I searched for laptop repair centers in Athens, and the one that seems
most likely to help you is the one recommended by the International
Herald Tribune in their October 5, 2001 Travel section article
"Athens: Once and Future Olympics" at:

http://www.iht.com/articles/34665.html 

They suggest that you contact Multirama which has several outlets in
Athens.  You can contact their Customer Support Plus Service at
269-3090 or 269-3086 (local numbers).

Hope this was helpful.

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Request for Answer Clarification by jawsss-ga on 13 Nov 2002 06:50 PST

I thought you would be interested in something that your internet
search would not have told you but I ought to have guessed!  Multirama
usually don't answer their telephones and when they finally did and
tried to put me through to their technician, the technician did not
answer.  Will keep on trying ....

---

Clarification of Answer by hibiscus-ga on 13 Nov 2002 17:06 PST

Sorry that they haven't proved very helpful to you.  What I would
suggest is your best bet if you don't get hold of them would be to
contact the Concierge at one of the big hotels in the heart of the
city.  These people generally have all the answers.

A good bet would be the Athens Hilton at 46 Vas. Sofias Avenue in the
downtown area.  They can be reached by phone at 010-7281000.

Another possiblity would be the Athenaeum Intercontinental Hotel at 
89/93 Syngrou Avenue.  This may be too far from the centre of the city
for you, I don't know.

If you need something more central you could try the N.J.V. Plaza
Hotel at Constitution Square or perhaps the Royal Olympic Hotel at
28-34 Diakou Street.

Sorry, I don't have phone numbers for most of these.  Hopefully this
will get you on track.

Thanks very much - I'm on track to a solution!