Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

Sorry, I must have missed the upgrade post. Which Full HD LCD model did you upgrade to exactly? Thanks.

 

Is it possible to make a backup of the original Recovery partition (after unhiding it) an move it to a same size partition of the new hdd or ssd, if I want to replace my old hdd?

 

You can probably clone it with Acronis or a similar tool.

 

I have a few issues I'd appreciate some advice for- I have an SVS15 that I bought while living in Taiwan- not sure of the equivalent US model but it came with 64 bit W8 Pro and has an i7 processor. I started to get a rapid blinking battery charge light. I tried to diagnose it - then learned that the VAIO software was mostly gone because I upgraded to W 10 without doing the VAIO update. Bought a 3rd party battery (Sony doesn't make them anymore) and the problem persists. It seems to run on battery alone but the tray icon says "unknown battery life" and indicates battery is not being charged. I did install the VAIO update that you were supposed to install before upgrading to W10 after the fact, but it doesn't seem to be working right - it can't connect to Sony and tells me battery health is excellent. So the questions: what do I have to do to reinstall the VAIO software now that W10 is up and running; and what is going on with the battery indicator: is this normal behavior for a non-OEM battery (it did the same with the old OEM battery) how do I check to see if it is charging and how do I restore some means to tell what the battery life might be?

 

I have a poor wireless network speed on my S15 (win7 64). On my phone I get 50+ Mbps (same speed as on the wired desktop). The laptop catches only half of it (20-22 Mbps). Reinstalled wifi driver, all settings are fine. Distance to the 300 Mbps wireless home router (band: 2,4 GHz): 3 meters (10 feet) with no obstacles. Any ideas?

 

Recently purchased a Samsung 830 SSD with 256Gb capacity.
I had an IT at work Ghost the OS and files onto the new drive.
Also installed a 8Gb RAM stick to replace the 4Gb stick I had previously for a total of 12GB Ram.

All I can say is "WOW" does this SVS1311 boot and respond fast....

 

Is suspect you may need to reload some of the drivers from the Sony Website to resolve your issues.

 

The SVS15 comes with a 1080p screen.

 

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you know that I've successfully upgrade my 1tb HDD in the caddy to the 2tb one. It looks like they managed to squeeze bigger density drive in the same 2.5in drive. I remember that when I bought my Vaio back in early 2013 only 1tb would fit

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Is there a way to restore Vaio Recovery (F11 key)/Assist button boot/recovery partition functionality after migrating to an SSD? (Cloned a 500 GB HDD to a same size SSD with Macrium Reflect, with all the hidden partitions. System is working fine (even Sata3 with ODD disabled and waking from sleep) but recovery won't start.

 

Here's another horror story: it might be possible that a full system restore from previously made rescue media won't work on an SSD mounted in a system originally shipped with an HDD. People are telling across other forums that they din't manage to ge it work because of errors the restoring process stops with. So what's happening? Does Sony block somehow changing of storage media? Why on Earth a full factory restore made for an HDD-system won't work on an SSD??

 

Nevermind, I managed to get it work.

 

Anyone else still using their Sony? I have had this Sony for longer than any other laptop but there is really no reason to replace it.

 

Yeah I still have mine. Been using it since Jan 2013 and going on strong with no issues at all. I mostly use it for programming and small games. The battery sheet helps it keep a long charge too:3

 

Yes, it's working 100% since December 2012 and I'm using it 10 hours a day. Battery has deteriorated one level down but it's still good. With 12 GB of memory and a 500 GB ssd it's running like a charm (with an i7 processor). The power adapter died a year ago. Last year I did a full system restore from the recovery partition. That's it, never had any other problem with it. I love this machine.

 

Same here Been using it since January 2013 and never had any problems with it! Absolutely the best laptop I ever had and really no need to replace it anytime soon. I did put in 500gb SSD, and replaced DVD with 2tb HDD so plenty of storage space for all my needs. Also since I git the i7 version with 12gb RAM I never felt the need for more power really especially that I play games only occasionally. The only problem I have is that I can't find a replacement battery for my model here in UK. It's not like it's completely dead but I get only around 1.5h on Windows 10. Despite everything, it's seriously an amazing laptop and I'll probably keep using it until it dies

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Same here (SVS1511). Battery has deteriorated a lot, I have changed it. Other than that, no problems. I am using win7, and it is extremely stable (I rarely reboot it, just put it to sleep or hibernate).
It is still a very good laptop, and it is quite amazing that, still after all those years, you can not easily find a not too expensive alternative. It has been surpassed only in battery life.

 

It's still my primary laptop (I have a PC I built tho). However, I noticed my framerate drops more often now. Most likely just dust collected inside. I've tried using compressed air to clean the fan area but it doesn't really fix the issue.. I'm pretty sure I just have to open it all the way (removing the whole bottom side to get to the CPU/fan area). I'm wondering if I should update to Windows 10 since the upgrade offer expires this year apparently July 2016.......

 

Did you update drivers since this happened? (some people notice FPS drops with newer drivers on older cards, and this is one of them)

 

Recently sold the i5 SVS1313 2.6mhz 8Gb 320Gb and replaced it with a i7 SVS1313 3.0 Mhz 12Gb and swapped out the 750 Gb 7200 rpm with a Samsung 830 256Gb SSD.
I am enjoying the increase in performance.

 

When I recently replaced the 750 Gb HDD with a 256 Gb SSD; I used the Sony Recovery to create Recovery Media on a 16 Gb USB Jump drive to load into the SSD and this worked great.

 

Just had the keyboard spontaneously fail in mine. Touchpad and keyboard both suddenly became unresponsive. After reboot only touchpad would work, keyboard unresponsive and windows playing the device inserted/removed sound continually. No joy in other operating systems or the BIOS setup either.

After a full strip down and cleaning, some keys work while others either don't or output random letters.

Anyone seen this behaviour before? There were no spills or anything that could possibly have caused this

Going to have to try and track down a UK keyboard

 

Yeah so if anyone else gets in the above predicament, replacing the keyboard fixed it. Wasn't a motherboard issue thank god

 

Good to hear that it was a relatively easy fix.... depending upon how difficult it was to locate a UK keyboard.

 

I did actually.. would I be able to stay with old drivers even when I upgrade to Windows 10 tho?

 

Has anyone been successful at replacing the battery? Mine is down to about an hour and a half and its beginning to be a bit of a nuisance. Other than that it's a solid notebook on win 10. Also, I bought a DVD caddy to replace the DVD drive with an HDD but after I did that it drew power like crazy. Almost like it never put the HDD to rest and keep spinning it up. Anyone had this issue?

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Quick question:

Bought SE version used, laptop is fine and runs great.(with SSD)
Battery only last 1-2 hours depending on what i'm doing.

What third party batteries have worked for you?
I am thinking of getting the sheet battery and a new(third party) battery.

 

I'm not sure frankly I do not know if you can stop driver upgrade on Windows 10. And Windows 10 already has very new nVidia drivers, so it will be a big hassle installing older ones over them.

 

Still using my SVS1511. Even today, it's hard to find a laptop which can replace this one and offer a meaningful increase in performance over an i7-3612QM. The 15" 1080p screen isn't a very common thing anymore either.

It's too bad the new 2016 VAIO S only comes in 13" size, I would seriously have considered an upgrade to a 15" version.

Does anyone know how to make the Fn-Brightness -/+ keys and the VAIO button work in Win10? I just did a fresh clean install of Win10 and those aren't working. Everything else seems okay.

I followed this guide to install:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sony-newest-drivers-windows-10-guide.780536/

 

I did a win10 upgrade 3 days ago over a win7 system and everything works like a charm, Fn functions, Stamina/Speed button, Vaio and Assist buttons, everything. No problem with touchpad and keyboard malfunctions after waking from sleep, I think they were early problems and were corrected meanwhile with the updates. Miss the three fingers gestures though, but I can live with that. This is a hell of a laptop (S15), still using it every day since December 2012, with a 500 GB SSD still has no competitor.

 

I installed Win10 fresh, not over 7. I guess maybe I missed a driver or something? I would really like the Fn brightness buttons to work, it's really the only thing that's not working for me I care about.

 

Do you have any brightness control at all (is it just the keyboard keys that don't work)?

Try forcing your monitor in device manager to generic pnp monitor if it has changed to a different driver. Notably teamviewer will break it

 

I did the Windows 10 upgrade also the Fn buttons seem to work. My only issue is that when I boot up sometimes the touchpad doesn't work. Kinda annoying..

 

Does anyone know how I can install Windows 7 (the OEM version) on S15, if I don't have a recovery partition any more?
My S15 has Windows 8 Pro with W7 downgrade rights.

 

SO I duno if anyone else if encountering this problem... I'm on Windows 10 now. I am changing settings in the nvidia control panel under "Manage 3d Settings"... I set a specific program to use NVIDIA processor.. but when I run the program it is still using Integrated graphics. I tried directly right clicking the program and doing "Run with graphics processor..." and choosing nvidia but it still doesn't work.. Any ideas on why this is happening?

Note: I am an Admin account with full privileges. I've tried "Taking ownership" of the nvidia folders. I've edited permissions to full access on all nvidia folders even under ProgramData.

 

Don't do any settings in the Nvidia control panel, just switch to Speed mode and the system should do the rest. If not, then try to reinstall Hotkey Utilities. I'm not a hardcore gamer but I just installed Passmark Performance Test and it runs the 3d test without problem, using the Nvidia chip automatically.

 

It is in Speed mode but the problem is not that it isn't using the Nvidia chip. It is using it on some programs especially games. But there are some programs that is automatically using Integrated when I want it to be using the Nvidia chip. Usually we are able to right-click the program and choose "Run with graphics processor..." then choose Nvidia. However, when I do this, it doesn't even use the Nvidia chip according to GPU-Z. It still uses the Intel chip..

And note: Reinstalling Hotkey Utilities did not fix the issue.

 

Anyone able to get GigaBit speeds? I get 700/700 connected directly to the gateway, and I'm not sure if it's a limitation of the laptop

 

Skip the gateway and try plugging the network cable directly into the laptop.

 

Is it possible to replace the Intel Advanced-N wireless module with an AC-capable module? Is there any restriction in the BIOS etc.?

 

I second this, i'm wondering if i can switch out my Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advance-N 6235 Driver to a Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260.
I upgraded network companies and increased WIFI speeds and switched the standard router that was at
12Mb/Down and 2Mb/Up, and now at
65Mb/Down and 5Mb/Up with a 5GHZ Network using a Nighthawk AC1750.

My current Wireless Chip doesn't take advantage of the boost and caps at 300Mbps and would like the AC that caps at 867 Mbps.

My questions is that if the BIOS does anything that restricts the AC Module.

 

The keyboard seems to be weakest part on this laptop.
Original one started to fail after 1 year of usage, more specific space bar and 'f', 'w' button only worked on certain angle and eventually stopped responding.

Bought brand new (only keyboard) and tried to replace.
Apparently it is fixed into the case by plastic weld. If you remove it you broke those fixings and need to use glue of some sort.

Glue obviously got into places it shouldn't get and some buttons were slightly sticky plus the right side was lower compared to left which i blame myself on as it was very messy job.

This lasted another year and it started to fail (space bar sometimes not register again).

However since the color have peeled off from the palm rest area and the clear coat was coming off from all places i bought new whole top part with new keyboard .

Since Sony offered me 300€ for brand new top part i got one from ebay instead for 40€.
It's US version with awful enter shape and lost some buttons but for the price i'll take it.

Great laptop, still haven't found anything worthy to replace it with.

 

I replaced mine with an Intel AC wifi card and it works fine
I don't believe I had to change anything in BIOS but I'll check later when I get home

 

Did you by any chance upgrade it to Intel Wireless-AC 7260?

 

Thank you for the response, i will buy the Intel 7260 AC card soon than!
When I changed it on my Dell XPS 13 9350 there was no BIOS config, but with research I saw some computers might need it. Hopefully it's just plug and play!


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Evening all,

I've just uninstalled Vaio Control Centre after becoming sick of having to open task manager and close it every 30 minutes as it uses 30% of my CPU and makes the fans flare up. Any idea why this is and am I missing anything?

Also bought this S13 second hand and straight away installed W10- my speed/stamina switch does absolutely nothing

N9ES model, so 3210m i5 and no GPU.

Many Thanks!.

 

Vaio Control center helps control the stamina/speed switch if you uninstall it, it will render that Switch useless lol

For the fan/CPU issue
Make sure not a lot of program are started on boot up by checking

Win + R
Type these three stuff separately
1) Msconfig -> I turn off Logo Boot

2) Services.Msc -> I turn off automated programs that starts up that can't be seen in taskmgr

3) Taskmgr -> disable any useless programs that you don't need t to be running upon boot

I also did a clean install and that made it much smoother as well:3

 

Thanks for your reply.

I run a fairly lean start up- killing the VCC task would make the problem go away, but it would restart itself eventually.
I didn't see any use for VCC so binned it.

 

Yes actually. It's the exact one I got!
According to my Wireless Network Connection Status, I'm at the speed of 585.0 Mbps

 

Hey i also replaced my Wi-Fi card with AC 7260.
On next boot it was already detected as correct one and ready to use.

Speed difference is amazing and no more these annoying random Wi-Fi dropouts.

Recommend it to everyone.