Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

The Z3 has no flaws and, without the power media dock, it got cheaper.

 

Could someone link the clean install guide everyone seems to be referring to? Or is this just Petrov's original post?

 

When you load d3 have you tried right clicking on the icon in the start menu and choosing the option to force it to run using the 640 gpu?

Petrov.

 

I need to download and install vaio update for vaio care, where i can download vaio update?

 

I don't know a ton about SSD's, and I know most have been going for the 256, but here a deal on the 128 crucial m4.

Buy.com - Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" SATA III Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Thx, seems to be true. I must have mixed some of those drivers up. installed them in the order given and it is now working flawelessly again. Simply redownloaded the last 6 drivers/software and installed them in order with the reboots helped me.

 

The problem is that you use the launcher first. Diablo3.exe is being run from within the launcher.

 

Here's what I did...

Clean install Windows 7
Install all Windows updates
Install all Sony drivers linked in first post

If you do that, everything should work fine, did for me. (note I say all - things like the VAIO Smart Network need the location application, for example, or they don't work properly)

 

Omg...I think Sony shared library was what I missed out... apparently that makes the hotkeys and speed/stamina mode works.

Damn it now I want to give win8 another go....

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Mine is covered in scratches already, only visible when they catch the light though. I don't treat my electronics particularly gently though so I guess it's to be expected

 

Ordered the s13p black i5-3320 along with an extra 4 gigs of ram and a 256 gb m4. Took 2 weeks to ship.
Followed the instructions for a clean install word for word and everything is working perfectly! Although I had to put the bios into legacy mode.. couldnt get it to work any other way. Thanks for all the instructions!

 

I got my custom VAIO sa a week ago and I noticed that there is noticeable fan noise in this machine. I thought they had improved that in this series but this has not been the case. I am really disappointed with this. I have the core i7 version. Let me know if any one else has such issues.

 

I had issues with Win8 when I first tried it, but then I realized I had the 32-bit version. Installed the 64-bit, and everything went more smoothly. I did just notice that I can't get to Intel Display Audio, even after installing the Intel display driver. Not sure if maybe I just don't know where to find it, or if it didn't install properly. Vaio Smart Network also doesn't show up anywhere, even after installing and restarting. Other than that, everything works great (function keys, stamina/speed switch, etc)

 

Go into the nvidia control panel under "manage 3d settings"

Select the program settings tab and the .exe for whatever programs you want to always use the 640. Make sure option 2 is set to prefer the gt 640

Let me if that doesn't work, or if it doesn't make sense. I'm not typing this on my laptop so i can't take screenshots.

 

Also, try Release Preview. It's the newest version available. You should be able to use the same activation key

 

Thanks! Not sure how I missed that on the site when I downloaded all the drivers!

 

Does anyone have a way to edit the display to make the s15 screen a bit better and red less orange?

 

Goodluck, I haven't actually tried D3 but I'm confident the 640m le can handle it, as long as it's actually being utilized.

 

I found it easiest to just switch the preferred GPU to Nvidia on the global settings tab. By default it's set to automatic and from my experience it doesn't seem to want to use the Nvidia at all - now any game I start will use the proper GPU.

 

I finally got my S13P (ordered at 07/06). I am waiting for my Samsung SSD to arrive, so there`s no point in setting everythin up...

I am quite surprised how fragile this machine feels. Maybe its because of the flex in the display or the Keyboard... or because my old NB was really tough (10y old Dell Latitude). Everytime I touch the surface (Black), I leave some marks (rather humidity than grease, but it disappears after 1-2 s.).

I want to plug it to my old desktop display (1080p) via HDMI, but there seems to be a problem. If I connect it, the colours aren't really as nice as with my old Desktop (where I used a VGA connector) - that seems weird to me, any Idea what I can do about that? Another thing: is there a possibility to set the resolution on the VAIO on 1600*900 and on 1920*1080 on the external display while using both of them? When I connect them, the software tries to use the same resolution for both, so Im ending up. using 1600*900 on the external display as well, since the VAIO does not support any higher res.
If I choose to use just the external display, I can set it up at 1080p. But still, I need to scale it down (using the Intel settings) to around 65% vertical an horizontal, otherwise the displayed picture goes beyond the borders of the display. Should it be like that?

Any help would be appreciated

btw: This touchpad is so huge! It's like 5 times the size of my old one... I keep touching it while typing. Hope, I'll get used to it...

 

i have only 2 problem: the fan are very loud, and the speaker are very bad, some advice?

 

Use more passive fan profile. Im using balanced and its fine.
Use headphones or external speakers. S inside speakers are extremely weak.

 

But the games need priority to ventilation

 

I had no throttling on "balanced". GPU barely hits 70s.

 

How long did it take for others to receive confirmation that their system was being built? I placed the order on 17/07 and just wondered how long I can expect to wait before I get further updates.

 

I ordered 7/14, VAIO being built 7/16, Payment Processed 7/19. Waiting for shipped now.

S15 Custom Performance.

 

I ordered on 7/12, payment accepted and start build 7/13, shipped 7/18. Item shipped from Yantai, China.

This is for the S13A CTO model.

Sent from my GT-I9100

 

Price update on the SVS15113FXS in the Education Store -- Sony dropped the price to $900 (including the sheet battery):

https://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/s...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666441691

-Matt

 

If the external monitor is set up to clone the laptop screen, you are limited to the resolution of the smallest panel. Set the output to extend the desktop and then you select select each monitor and pick the resolution you wish. It should default to native resolution for both, in theory.

 

Just found a way to temporaily bypass Sony SATAIII lock.
Tested with my Plextor M3Pro, results attached, so far so good, no BSOD.

Sequential Read : 478.438 MB/s
Sequential Write : 396.587 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 366.635 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 276.490 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 23.168 MB/s [ 5656.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 39.243 MB/s [ 9580.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 305.829 MB/s [ 74665.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 199.165 MB/s [ 48624.3 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 85.0% (42.5/50.0 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/07/19 22:40:21
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

Restart and press F2 to enter Bios
=> Disable optical drive
=> Boot to windows
=> Sleep (Close lid)
=> Wake up (Open lid)
=> SATAIII

Pro: As long as you only sleep your computer, you always have SATAIII. You can always check by running Intel Rapid Storage Technology to make sure your drive is running at 6 gb/s

Con: Optical drive cannot be used.

Or else we have to wait for Sony or any Bios hacker to help.

 

THe same method is discussed in another thread for days.

 

I ordered mine on the 17th, payment and build started on the 18th. Estimated shipping date is 24th-29th July and then an extra 2-3 days for shipping, so should have it by August 1st at the latest.

Now i just need to find a way to explain it to the mrs.

 

LoL I am outdated. Happy to know that at least SataIII is sort of available. And also the Gt640LE has good overclocking abilities.

So I haven't regretted buying the Svs15116

 

Set to extend in the windows screen resolution settings and fiddle with the colour settings in the intel gpu control panel. Especially make sure the power saving feature in the intel control panel is turned off - will mess up the colours while on battery

 

Shipped 7/19, already accepted by FEDEX for delivery on 7/24.

 

I ordered on 17th as well, VAIO being built as of today. ETA of July 26th

 

Anyone know if theres a way to edit the colors of the screen to make red more redish?

Also, how much flex is there on the keyboard?

 

It's also possible to extract them from a set of recovery disks if you do not have the recovery partition anymore.

 

Not sure how to boot from DVD, but you can boot and install from usb in UEFI mode. I did a clean windows7 install on my SVS15 using USB in UEFI mode. The USB disk needs to be formated in fat32 (format fs=fat32), extract the Win7 iso contents into it and then follow the instructions to modify a bit as per linky from 1st post ( Installing Windows 7 in native EFI mode from USB - bit-tech.net Forums. Then enable external device boot and set it as priority in bios and vaio will boot from the usb drive.

Cannot confirm, but you could try pressing F8 during boot to see if there is option to run repair?

 

I did some stress testing in 3 different cooling modes. So here are results:

Priority to silence.
On CPU stress test CPU throttles down to x16 (1600mhz).
If GPU stress test is added. CPU throttles more down to x12. Also GPU throttles down to 238mhz. (bare in mind that i have 950/1000mhz mod)
Temperatures stay around 80C.

Balanced.
CPU stress test throttles CPU down to x21. When GPU stress test is added, the CPU throttles more down to x16 and further on to x12.
GPU however stays on full 950/1000 all times.
So once again. GPU does not throttle down while using "balanced" cooling mode.

And a winner is:
Priority to ventilation.
On CPU stress test. CPU stays in full x28.
When GPU stress test is added, once again CPU throttles down to x16 ---> x12. GPU again always stays in 950/1000 and shows no signs of instability.



In games:

Balanced: CPU stays around x21 - x22
Priority to ventilation: CPU stays on full x28 all times.


As a conclusion. For best gaming perfomance, its better to stay on "priority to ventilation", since mostly it gives few extra fps regardless of GPU not throttling. In most games, "Balanced" should be good enougt as well.

-----


As i always game with my headset on, i dont even notice the fan running. Yes it gets loud, but the noise it makes is not annoying. Its constant sssshhhh sound without any high frequency nodes in it.
My 2011 S13 gets very disturbing when its running on full rpm. It makes whining noise which is way more annoying than just ssshhh. If you know what i mean.
Sony is done good job on 2012 S series cooling. However, i noticed that S15 could have had a bigger fan. Theres unused space between motherboard and fan mechanism.

 

Received my Vaio S13P today. I'm still playing with it but my first impression is very positive!

For the people who are trying to figure out what Gunmetal is i put some pictures online:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h85gdvm0tll6o98/DSC03278.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/scpow25li27i3kr/DSC03279.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1dur4tuy5r5b21n/DSC03280.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lvccmoti5kzl2ml/DSC03285.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cf1yg2larwdnfy4/DSC03288.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eruuzvyef5w1hg1/DSC03294.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkx6veogp2durq6/DSC03300.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/74yb0cvg1gpnv4e/DSC03291.JPG

I hope these pictures will help you to decide!

 

I've heard it's noisy. What can you say about that?

 

Thanks for those pics, they really helped

 

The fan noise is a direct result of what you're doing on the computer, if you're just browsing the web, working on a few documents and listening to music, stamina will work fine, and keep your fans quiet. If you want to play some games, you're gonna hear the fans.

 

For anyone with a black S 13, how is it compared to the gunmetal version? Is it just solid black? Would anyone mind uploading a picture or two?

 

I am returning my S13, trying to watch a series on it the other night put the last nail in the coffin for me. I got increasingly annoyed at the crappy sound that almost made my ears bleed. I won't have a laptop that I can't even watch series on without headphones. Too bad, apart from that and a little pixeljumping in the upper right corner it was a nice laptop. A bit bad build quality with the trackpad and keyboard though.

I think I'll get a MacBook Pro Retina or a Macbook Air again, who knows.

 

Please read full post. Then youll know.

 

I read full post actually. I just wanted to know something more. I can't really make my mind on this laptop, really undecided with xps 14

 

Have you tried uninstalling the audio driver and using the bass boost feature of the built-in windows one?

Sounds leaps and bounds better than any of the dolby/xloud stuff, or equalisers

 

Sony VAIO S Series Fan Noise [Stamina vs Speed] demo - YouTube