Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

I created an amazon.com Listmania list with accessories for the Sony Vaio S13 (2012).
Hope it helps.
If you have suggestions, reply to this post, and I'll add it to the list.

Amazon.com: Sony Vaio S13 (late 2012) Accessories, Connectors

 

Hey guys!

I have a question that might be more general than pertaining to the SV but I'll see if you guys might have an answer.

I installed an SSD and did a fresh install of Windows 7 with all the drivers. Everything is running fantasticaly (SSD is amazing) except for one small problem. Every maybe 20ish min (rough rough time) it will pop me from whatever I am to the most senior screen/layer. ie if I am in chrome scrolling down a page it will pop me to the windows desktop screen and I cannot scroll any longer. This isn't too big of a problem except that it happens during multiplayer games so I am thrown from the game to the desktop screen as if I had hit the window key.

Any particular idea on what I should do? or what driver might be causing this? Any way I can get rid of this problem without doing a fresh install of windows 7?

Otherwise the comp is performing as well as hoped. Pretty quiet and powerful enough for decent gaming.

Thanks for your help.

 

@ Sabu113

Some ideas:
1. driver issue - try a new/different version (mouse, gpu, touchpad, etc.)
2. settings problem - you might execute some command/gesture that triggers this
3. program uncompatibility - try to narrow down which programs make this - do you experience it in a different machine; record precisely what did you do before
4. something is running in the background that triggers this - try to boot to safe mode (when nothing is started), and launch your programs only, and see if it happens

 

Hi all!

That's my first post in that forum. I couldn't find any clues regarding my problem. I'm sorry if something like that was described earlier on that forum. I have SVS13A1U9ES laptop with 128GB SSD drive. I have done Recovery Flash Drive and also 5 DVD discs just in case. Then I restored Windows and all applications using Recovery Media (that way I could remove my Recovery Space on SSD drive (about 18GB), which I did removed it). After that I have 117GB SSD drive available as C drive. And now:

1) in My Computer I see Local drive (C) which has 117GB. I checked all my folders (including hidden folders) on C drive and they have something like 25GB. Windows shows me availibility of 60GB of free space on that drive. So I have no idea where is my 32GB space (117GB-25GB(files)-60GB(free)). Is there something like copy of data somewhere? It looks like RAID1 for me. How can I turn it off or maybe it's not recommended to change that? What you think?

I checked BIOS options for RAID and there is RAID0(Stripe) using two Samsung 59.6GB disks.

2) is there somewhere a list of VAIO apps that are recommended and useful to keep them installed on laptop, which of them could be removed/are useless?

Thank you for any kind of help.

Cheers!

 

Windows Restore, Hibernation, indexing, cashing from browser and OS (use Ramdisk) + some crap windows features you can remove

...And you have pretty much freed ~ 10Gb.

 

I am just wondering, for Warranty repair, why does Sony want you to send in your Hard Drive? Don't they have spare drives they can attach and find the problems that way?
Does all manufacturers do this like Apple Macbooks or just Sony?

 

This is pretty much standard. Its even standard on almost all custom built desktop computers (store built or even home built as long as its a full system and not just 1 part you bought.) that you have to send the computer with the hard drive attached if you want a warranty repair.
Its to be sure its not a driver problem or that its the hard drive thats at fault. And the fact that it saves a lot of time. Drivers and other things are not the same on all computers. So having to install all of them and maybe even windows is just a waste of time.
Even if you say that "this is the issue please fix it". They still don´t trust your assessment and expect everything to be as you say. So they want a complete product.

 

Hello,
this is my first post in the forum, and I am sorry if this has been brought up before. I tried finding something in this thread, but it`s huge..

I have a Sony VPCS12X9E, a Norwegian version. I have replaced the HDD with a brand new SSD. I also did a clean install using a version of Windows 7 provided from my school. Everything runs smooth except for the graphicdriver wich exits from the install with an error message



I have tried installing both the udpated driver and the stock from sonys website, same result. The problem is that the driver Windows automaticly downloads and installs leaves the screen dim, so I almost can`t se anything at the screen, and nothing happens when I try to adjust the screen brightness in Windows.

I tried to talk to sony support and they mentioned that it probably was becuase I didnt use recovery disk the get the sony version of windows, can this be true, and if so, are there any workarounds? How can I do a clean install of the sony windows, I would really not like to recover my old HDD.

 

Hello.

I have a question what can it be done with the Enter key on numpad at Sony Vaio S1512. I have noticed that someone has already posted here a picture with Enter key slightly unnarrow at numpad and also my S15 has it so and I have watched a new James Bond Skyfall where they use only Vaios and there was S15 with the same Enter key failure. Is this a failure or not?

Hope you know what I am talking about?

 

Hi check out the FIRST POST in this forum. It has instructions for Windows 7 re-install. Go through that guide first.
The Windows 8 upgrade guide has info about in which order you have to install drivers so it works. If you tried all those and it still fails, then I'd come back and ask again.
Otherwise, I recommend to install an English version of Windows, then adding the Norwegian language pack.

 

I think he is running the old S (2010), not the Ivy Bridge models.

 

I apologize for apparently having ignored the first post, excellent guide there. But as you say I think I have the old S, because I have the integrated Intel HD graphics. Wil the guid in the first post not apply to me then? I think I have to try anyway..

 

How do you guys keep the temperatures down on the cpu and gpu. I was playing crysis 2 and hitting 85+ degrees, I know that is a safe amount but that is without the gpu overclocked. Also I was only getting avg 40 frames on crysis 2 at 1366x720 and all my settings were on low. Is that the kind of fps you guys are getting?

Probably should say I am using a s13p with 640le 1gb 4gb ram and i7 3520M 2.9ghz.

 

You'll probably get a bit cooler by limiting the Max Processor speed (under advanced power options) to 99%, to prevent the i7 from using Turbo Boost, and this shouldn't have much, if any, impact on framerate. And just make sure the fan isn't being blocked - which irritably can happen if you tilt the laptop's screen back.

40 FPS sounds about right I think. In my experience, it seems if you have V-Sync on in Crysis 2, then it never really goes above 40, even if you are looking straight up at the sky (no objects to render) on lowest settings.
I have a similar setup to you, usually play at 1280x720 on "Very High" (Medium), and on "High" (Low) preset I can sometimes get good enough FPS (around mid 20s to 30) on native 1600x900.

 

Hi Guys, quick question for everyone with one of these. Just got mine and loving it so far, only one concern is that the power port has quite a lot of flex. Is this the case for everyone else? It seems like it almost might be by design as the power cable is definitely firmly in the laptop's port, but at the same time never seen one with quite so much flex. Is it right?

Also, still no Bios overclock for the Windows 8 version?

 

How can i limit the max processor speed?

 

It has a massive effect on fps in TERA - as much as halved

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

 

Its that for all. It is most likely so you wont get a broken port if you accidentally step on the cable. Many supliers do it the same way. Its the same with the screen. It is not fully rigid to not put to much strain on it if it falls on the ground or on the hinges.
And no there is no bios mod for win8 yet. But its being worked on a lot atm. And it looks like it could be one soon. So keep your fingers crossed

 

Anyone out there running ubuntu 12.10 on the SVS13A25PXB (win8 version with fake RAID 0)?
I'd like to dual boot win8 for games and ubuntu for everything else. Closest guide I've found for accomplishing this is here: EFI dualboot Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 8 in Raid0 on Sony Vaio S | Sygard.no

...was hoping with 12.10 there might be a simpler way.

 

New owner, mine will be here tomorrow. Got the S13p with 12g ram and the 256 SSD. Looking forward to messing around with it. Without going through the past 602 pages, is there a bios flash for win 8 yet?

Thanks

 

Hi
I have just received my Vaio S15, my new Samsung Ssd and my Windows 8 Pro RETAIL DVD. I want to do a clean custom installation of my new Windows 8 on my Ssd, and I have a few questions:
1. I heard something about Windows 8 Oem license key stored in the uefi/BIOS. My Vaio comes with Windows non-Pro license. Will this OEM license prevent me from installing new RETAIL license when installing Windows 8 Pro? Will my new RETAIL license replace the old OEM one in the BIOS? I read the installation guide but the author didn't mention about RETAIL license.
2. Has anyone managed to do it the regular way in uefi mode? (I.e. assemble the Ssd, put the W8 DVD In, uefi recognize the DVD set-up, then install Windows 8 on a new Ssd, then uefi recognizes Windows 8 installed on the Ssd and boot to Windows 8 properly). If there is a problem, where is this in the processes? Is this a must to install Windows 8 from USB flash drive to get uefi work? Does uefi only recognize USB and not DVD.

Thanks, please correct me if any of my understanding is wrong.

 

Hey guys.

Just got my new 15.5" S Series and have one question.

How do you have disable the automatic screen brightness adjustment? I looked under advanced power settings and there wasn't a section for turning it on and off like some explanations say. I also ran the services and turned off the sensor management service or whatever and it still didn't stop my screen from adjusting.

 

Did you disable the setting in the Intel graphics driver control panel?
Also the Vaio Control Center should have the only other option for it.

 

Thanks I was able to turn it off via the Vaio Control Center. I had never pressed that button before haha.

 

I have a 2012 S1511 (the Windows 7 model) and running it on Windows 8. I am planning to update the bios to R0142C5.
Do you know if there are any issues? Or do you know what have been changed since the previous version?

 

Not yet.
I gave up on dual booting Linux with the Intel fake raid + efi. Instead I have one drive for w8 and one for Ubuntu 12.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

Has anyone else had BSOD (blue screen of death) constantly with a new VAIO SVS151290X (custom build)? I tried MS driver verifier for a few weeks and it found nothing. I finally had the chance to run MEMTEST-86 and it found that both my fixed on-board 4GB RAM and my 4GB RAM stick had errors when doing test 10 (bit fade test, 2 patterns).

My unit was built January 19, 2013 in Yantai, China. I called Sony Support and it was like talking to a 6 year old about what was wrong and needed to be done. He refused to even look at the photos I uploaded that I took of my screen showing the RAM errors. He wanted to blame Windows 8 and my battery. After two hours, he finally agreed to authorize to send it in for repair.

 

Has just removing the 4GB module (not the baked in one) resolved the error? Even in memtest? It sounds silly, but I've had it happen before, at least on my desktop builds.

 

Hi,
I got a good deal to buy new Sony Vaio S15 with 640 Gb HDD, 4Gb RAM and only integrated intel graphics. I would like to build more powerful machine after some time, and I know that RAM upgrade and SSD install is not a problem. My concern is that it will not be possible to add discrete graphics.
Does anyone know if I could add Nvidia Geforce 640M or it is somehow soldered to the motherboard?

 

Its soldered. Like on 99% of all laptops.
You cant generally change or ad a GPU on a laptop. There are VERY few you can do this on.
And they always have some super special solution.
It is possible on some custom built Shell laptops.

 

I did retest having removed the one 4GB module and have the machine only having onboard RAM before calling Sony. The onboard RAM is showing 32,767 errors running MEMTEST-86. The errors are all also with test 10 (bit fade test).

 

I just now got around to connecting my will-use-most-of-the-time external monitor to the VGA port on the SVS13A290X and it's got a wandering flicker. Is there a fix for this? It seems like noise from the laptop (the monitor looks find on multiple other laptops but using DVI).

Any help appreciated.

 

There is no fix for this. The laptop has significant electrical noise issues - culminating in the VGA issue you see, as well as the SATA 6GB/s issue (I believe this is not a BIOS/firmware issue but instead noise messing with the handshake, it's not exactly a shielded cable) and assorted (but minor) USB and HDMI issues.

Just use an hdmi to dvi cable

 

Answering my own question:

I went and got my HDMI-to-DVI adapter (this monitor Dell 2405) doesn't have HDMI and plugged the monitor into the HDMI port and 1920x1200 looks great with no flicker. Too bad Sony put crap VGA on this board

Also, I have no "Orangegate" - if anything red is a deeper red on the native monitor than my Dell. No orange tint, though I hate the poor vertical viewing angle.

 

Hi, new user of a SVS15112C5E, i wondered if a trick/hack exists to unlock sata3 for my M4 6Gb/s?

 

1. It won't prevent installing it. Simply, the installer will ask for the Windows 8 Pro licence during installation (as the one in the UEFI is non Pro).
To my knowledge, it won't replace the key in the UEFI bios. That key belongs to the machine, and needs some special app to change it in the bios.

2. There's no difference between installing from USB pendrive and DVD. Of course, the pendrive will be a lot faster. But you can copy the contents from the DVD to a Pendrive (as discribed in the tutorial), and install from the pendrive.

Notes:
Still, you might want to pay attention to:
1. Set up your SSD into GPT mode, and start the installation with unpartitioned SSD, and partition and format from within the installer. This way Windows 8 will take care of proper partition creation (boot, recovery etc.), order, alignment, trim and so on the good way. You can save about 0.5-1GB space by not having the hidden partitions, but it creates more mess then it's worth.

2. Depending on the make of your SSD, leave 20% space unpartitioned for over-provision. See the article on annandtech on this. http://www.anandtech.com/show/6489/playing-with-op

3. Make sure your BIOS is in UEFI mode, not legacy, before you start the whole process.

 

Question/favor: ran the restore program from restore media last night just to see what options there were (i.e. wasn't going to actually hit "start") and it said it couldn't restore because a partition was missing. As noted above I repartitioned to 50/50 W8/Ubuntu (one on each 128 GB SSD, no fake RAID). Hoping someone will send/post the default partition scheme in case I ever want to restore...or perhaps if I remove all partition info then the restore app can function?

Also, thinking of ditching the 2x128 GB SSDs for one large SSD and wondering if that RAID0, 2x128 stock unit has any resale value?

Thanks.

 

Ok got the laptop today. How can I be sure the dedicated card is switching on in gameplay? I though I should be able to play WoW at ultra settings in 1600x900 and I am hitting like 3 to 15 fps. Here's to hoping I was using the 4000 for it.

 

Go into the NVIDIA control panel (either by right clicking on desktop or through Control Panel). Go to "Manage 3D Settings," and add whatever is the main World of Warcraft .exe application file to the list of programs you can customize.

The preferred graphics processor will say "Use global setting (Autoselect: Integrated)" if it was indeed stuck using the Intel 4000. Manually swap it to the NVIDIA. (note: you must have the Vaio in Speed mode to alter the NVIDIA's settings)

 

That's not really true; I got the impression that most of the laptops with mid or high end GPUs use some kind of MXM slots and thus some of them are upgradeable (depending on the type of the slot used, cooler compatibility, etc.). But, this takes space so thinner and smaller laptops have their discrete GPUs (if they have them) soldered to be able to fit them in thin cases (e.g. S13).

 

Hmm did that I have a s13p seems to be running most games pretty crappy so far. Fps in most games will drop after a few mins pretty low. Not impressed so far ever torchlight 2 seems to chug.

 

The FPS dropping after a few minutes is an issue with the default "Standard" setting for Speed mode in the Vaio Control Center. It causes the CPU/GPU to throttle if it starts getting warm. Change it from Standard to Performance and it should no longer throttle.

 

This is first post in this forum

Today i bought Vaio S15135CBH (Thailand) . I have a question .

I would like to change SSD how to backup windows 8 from old hasddisk and how to restore that on new SSD

Sorry for any incorrect , my English is not good.

Thank you.

 

That´s not really true.
You are missinformed. Now days the laptops useing MXM standard are few. And the ones that do are the ones just like i said its on the Cusom built laptops but for some reason you choose not to include that line when you quoted me......................
The ones that use MXM are laptops like for example Clevo laptops and the likes of that. In other words custom built laptops.
Brand laptops almost never use MXM just like i said.

 

I just placed an order for one of the "pre-upgrade" ones after reading about the issues with flashing the BIOS in order to overclock the 640M LE on the new Vaios shipping with Windows 8.

It's a clearance S13P which I ordered off the Sony Outlet for £999.00 and specced as follows:

• Processor: Intel®Core(TM)i5-3210M, 2.5GHz
• Operating system: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional
• Language and keyboard: English (QWERTY)
• Keyboard Style: Backlight keyboard
• Hard drive: 750 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
• Memory: 6 GB 1333 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
• Display: 33.7 cm LCD, 1600x900+webcam
• Webcam: Camera/HD
• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce GT 640M LE
• Optical Drive: DVD disc drive
• Wireless LAN: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11abgn)
• Bluetooth®: Bluetooth® 4.0
• Connectivity: No Wireless WAN
• Security features: Security features
• USB Port(s): 1 x USB2.0 + 2 x USB3.0
• Finishes: Gun Metallic
• Battery: Long-Life Battery
• HDMI(TM) output: HDMI(TM) output
• Adobe® Creation: No Adobe Creation
• Adobe® Lightroom®: No Adobe® Lightroom 3
• Sony Creative software: No Imagination Studio Suite
• McAfee Security Software: No protection
• McAfee Online Backup: McAfee Online Backup trial
• AC Adapter: 1 AC Adapter

Can't wait! My current laptop is over 6 years old and based on a 1.6 GHz Pentium M and 1 GB of RAM. Seems about time I got round to upgrading it.

Ash

 

Have you heard anything about recent refresh? I was told by a worker of Sony Store that one is planned in the middle of March? They say it's nothing major, but knowing Sony do you think they could have replaced thr 13" S display? I guess it 'd be too much to ask.

 

Most likely, it to accomodate the refreshed i5 and i7 chips intel released this Jan. Just minor speed bumps. Maybe a few production line fixes, some new suppliers for parts, and maybe a few new options (the last one made a Silver S13 laptop with the nVidia GPU and 1600x900 panel possible - a configuration not possible at the S13 launch in the USA).

Right now, Sony is doing the normal clearance move of giving free i5-i7 upgrades on most CTO S13 (I dunno about S15), most likely in order to clear out old stock.

 

Where exactly are these settings? I see nothing in Vaio CC under Display (except to choose a resolution which is disabled) and I found no auto-brightness related item in Intel CC.
It is driving me nuts in VMWare..

 

Good to hear, thanks

 

Yeah, that line actually made me make the comment - custom built laptops by Shell? And 99% of the laptops are not upgradeable? Are HP and Dell custom built? Anyway, it's OT. Just wanted to disagree with the impression that you gave.