Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

Not sure about the compatibility of the Sierra modem but I am sure that on the S15 the WWAN slot is UNDER the mobo. That requires complete disassembly of the lappy to get at the beast. I BELIEVE the S13 is the same. If your SIM card slot is on the bottom of the case just above the battery bay like on the S15 then the above is what you're looking at. The tear down to remove the motherboard is NOT for the noobies or those unfamiliar with working with small delicate parts.

 

wd 40 is not the right thing to use... first wd40 is not the best lubricant... it is used a lot for it but it shouldnt be. second it will do a number on any plastic part, as it is petroleum based. you want if anything like a white teflon powder.. you can get it around it will reduce friction and not drip everywhere. however i would just let it sit for a week keep using it, eventually it will settle and will stop squeaking.

 

i can confirm that running vaio care for some reason keeps the fan in check. it might start something that regulates it or something. if you want something fun open vaio care then click the tool box in the upper right enable advanced diagnostics. then run the cooling diagnostics...

 

Been using my S13A for over 2 months now. Taking it to college this Saturday when I move in, and will be using it for 2-3 years. Also using the 1000/1000 VBIOS mod courtesy of Amal77, with amazing performance and no impact on stamina mode battery life of course.

Was wondering if anyone had any requests for videos, besides what I have in my sig already. I could definitely film it tomorrow and upload it to YouTube.

Sent from my SGH-I747

 

Have you had any luck? My space bar has started to squeak and it is getting fairly annoying. I may have to take the unit apart again to see what is happening. It sounds like it is rubbing up against the plastic.

 

Hello,

I finally ordered SVS13A after some long consideration for my next 13" laptops. Ordered and being manufactured so while I'm waiting, gonna ask you guys some question:

1. Does SATA connector in HDD slot still SATA2 or is it fixed?

2. I'm interested in VBIOS mod for GT640M. AFAIK there's no impact on stamina mode and battery, but I read a little bit few pages back that the graphics card cannot be switched after VBIOS mod, is it fixed?

3. I know it's still TN 1600x900 display, so it won't beat 1080p IPS, but a few people over the Internet said about some grainy display on S13. Is it hardware issue like orange gate, or is it just some bad batch?

Thanks for answering

 

Very interesting. I have turned off vaio care from booting up with the computer. Can you explain more in detail how you came to your conclusion?

 

Also interested in knowing about these. I set my purcahse for my ssd and it doesnt come with a kit just the ssd. So im concern if i need additional wires to install the ssd

 

If you follow the guides about HDD replacement mentioned in the first post, you will see that it is just a normal connector. It doesn't look like you need anything special.

 

Hey guys! Finally got my S15 and it's great. I have not even noticed this orangegate issue. Only thing is, when I change from speed to stamina or vice verca, my screen goes black for a second. Is this normal?

 

Thanks! Can any S13 owner confirm this (that you have to disassemble the notebook completely)?
The Sierra should work, by the way; it's being used in the S13A1Z9E.

 

No, that isn't normal. Does that happen when on the desktop?

 

Durd has already answered me, it happens when monitor changes from 40 to 60Hz and it hass all the sense: stamina mode uses 40Hz and any other one uses 60Hz, that is the reason.

 

Hi all!
I have had the S13 (not the premium) for a few days now. It is an i5 model with a 7200 rpm HDD. I am quite annoyed with the noise this notebook generates, since I am coming from a MBP 13 which was near silent. I tend to study in silent areas where the noise is not only noticeable but also disturbing. Reading through this thread, some people is annoyed by what they reckon to be fan noise while others say that this laptop is silent.

I was wondering if anyone could share their experience on how changing the HDD to SSD affected the noise generated by this otherwise nice notebook?
And is it possible to turn the fan off completely and still keep this laptop cool enough to operate safely? Or maybe just reduce the the fan to the point that it is in-audiable?
Is it in any way posible to make this notebook as quiet as a MBP, while writing or doing some light browsing?

Thanks in advance

 

im fairly certain the fan is almost inaudible when doing light tasks... i think the noise that we hear is purely the hard drive. (this does not include when we kick it into full gear. it has the potential of being louder than an alien... or hp)

 

I have a S13P with the same 7200rpm 640gb hard drive. The hard drive is absolutely silent for me. What you're hearing is the fan. Here are a couple things you can try to reduce the fan speed.
1. Set the laptop to "stamina" mode. This throttles the processor, disables the discrete gpu, and thus produces less heat. Naturally, the fan will quiet down.
2. Go to the vaio control panel and set the fan management in "power saving" mode to "priority to silence"

 

Just wondering, how can we use up the Vaio battery first, and then use the sheet battery?

Is there a setting for this? I know that by default, it uses the sheet battery first and then the Vaio battery....but I don't want that.

 

Why would you want that? The only way I can think of to do this is to use your laptop without the sheet battery, then when it runs low, attach the sheet battery.

 

Can anyone answer my questions, please?

 

Agreed. i5-3210M is a potent one, see here Intel Ivy Bridge Guide for Gamers - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

When I turn on Vaio Care (bring it to foreground and click updates or something), my screen turns black for a second, and then comes back.

Is this normal?

 

The only native SATA 3 support occurs with machines ordered from Sony with SSD's installed. Their little hook to get you to buy factory SSD. There is a workaround documented here having to do with disabling the ODD in BIOS and using sleep mode in a certain way. Sorry don't remember details.

The BIOS hack for speeding up the video card has NO effect on battery usage that I can find reliably documented here. STAMINA mode disables the NVIDIA GPU altogether and puts you on INTEL graphics...these functions NOT affected by the hack. The NVIDIA GPU clocks down unless being used for gaming. There are some posters that have had difficulty with this but it usually seems to be traced to another setting or problem NOT the hack BIOS as far as I can tell. I use and love it!!

Since I'm an S15 guy...I'll have to pass on your third question.

 

I saw in another thread that someone's graininess was caused by the refresh rate not being set to 60 Hz. I don't see any graininess on mine.

 

I have just noticed that it actually happens when I switch from balanced to power saver on the power options. Swtiching to stamina enables power saver and switching to speed enables balanced. Any ideas?

 

Hi! Nope, no luck yet. And I dare not try prying the key off as I don't know if it'll break or i will be able to put it back. I am considering opening the laptop and removing the top lid so that I can access the keyboard from the back like another user stated, as I need to "tighten" up my trackpad aswell, but I don't know... Sony said they won't do anything about it as they don't see a very squeaky spacebar and a loose trackpad as enough faults for a repair or replacement appearently.

 

Come on, i have just answered that in the previus page, 432,
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/669429-official-2012-sony-s-series-owners-thread-432.html#post8852316
have you even looked for it?

It happens when screen switch from 40 to 60hz or vice versa. Stamina mode uses 40 hz and the other plans use 60hz, so it blinks when you change it. maybe there is a way to define stamina to 60hz and avoid it, but i dont know it

 

This is a problem I've been having too and it's honestly quite annoying.

 

Any meaningful advantage to low voltage RAM? I'm looking at swapping a 2gb for a 8gb memory module, and there's a good deal right now at Newegg ($29 after rebate -- item #N82E16820233250). From what I can find, the main advantage is about 3-5% decrease in power draw under full load (I suspect that translates to about 10ish minutes of battery life). I'm in no rush, and totally happy to wait until Black Friday, but would jump on this deal if there's no practical differences between 1.35 and 1.5v RAM.

 

Thanks mate!!

 

Put it in stamina mode, go to Intel Graphic Properties, there should be a tab there where you can define the refresh rate (40Hz, 59Hz, 60Hz). Choose whatever you want and it should save the settings for that mode.

In Windows 8 I think it was 59Hz by default for me, I set it to 60Hz and it kept the setting.

 

Guys I'm having a heck of a time and Sony is frosting my nickers...

I made a recovery USB drive using vaio care. I can boot into windows recovery and I get a this version of system recover options is not compatible. I boot into Sony VAIO care recovery and I can't find an option to install windows 7 what gives...

EDIT: figured it out. first problem was the new hd needs to be formatted to be recognized

then i needed to skip the backup process which hides the instillation process... i hate sony but i love their laptop.

 

I finally decided to go for the 15 IPS version with either i5 or i7. Two days ago the Norwegian SONY webpage said that the model was unavailible. Today its totally gone.
Anyone know why? Could it be that they are prepping a W8 version? Anyone know when this will be availible?

 

Can any Canadians suggest a place that sells a caddy for the ODD bay that won't cost me an arm and a leg in shipping? Thanks very much for any ideas.

 

Hey guys, just got my 13 inch S. 256GB, 8GB ram etc etc. Very happy with it so far, except one niggling problem. When I two finger scroll on the touchpad, I have to completely lift my two fingers off the thing to stop the scrolling motion. This means that after scrolling, if I quickly change to one finger to continue browsing (a motion which has become instinctive after coming from a Macbook Pro), it continues to scroll around despite only finger being on the touchpad. Is this a driver fault or have I been spoiled by the MBP's touchpad? Is there are a way around this? The installed driver is stock, which is 16.0.0.5.05Mar 12.

Thanks

 

Can anyone here please explain me how do i create the recovery discs for my sony s15 ? How many DVDs i need and how to go about creating the recovery discs ?

 

From Review Sony Vaio SV-S1511X9E/B Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

"A Windows 7 DVD is not included. Recovery of the system is possible with the help of the recovery partition. Additionally, a recovery DVD can be created with the help of the Sony tools. Those wanting a full-fledged Windows 7 DVD on the other hand can find out how to acquire one in one of our news articles."

Here : Gratis und legal: Eine Windows 7- bzw. Vista-DVD kostenlos herunterladen - Notebookcheck.com News

 

Ok figured out it was done using Vaio Care. Btw as some people mentioned here before, the S15 asked me for 6 DVDs but did not ask any of them again in random order. Six DVDs one after the other and it was done.

 

Agh! My laptop took a tiny fall but ended up denting the left upper corner of the body. Anyone think it is possible to take apart the laptop and bend it back into the place?

Pretty comfortable with taking apart the laptop but I have no experience with bending metals back into place.

 

how to boot into recovery mode?????????????????????????????????/ tried all f keys and assist/delete/esc keys and tried alt + f10.....

 

spam f11 dont press and hold... you need to get it like right when it boots. keep spamming it until the vaio logo disappears then you should have two options

 

ik.... f11 makes a black screen come up and it says "operating system not found"

 

Do you still have the original HDD with the recovery partition on?

I changed to an SSD (left the original HDD intact) and it says the same thing, it's looking for something to boot of from (probably the recovery partition) and isn't finding it.

 

i bought my laptop with an ssd inside... replaced the optical drive but that has nothing to do with it and sony had 30gb of memory on my ssd when i got the laptop so im assuming its on here...

 

if it says os not found you didnt hit it at the right time. start pressing it rapidly. then press power.. continue pressing rapidly...

 

i dont think u get what im saying...

 

I am having this issue as well. I have a SVS13a and a SVS13. The 13a is significantly nosier than the 13 to the point it is annoying.

 

After I got my S15 my brother got an XPS15. in most ways they are equal, especialy with the bios mod. my S15beats the XPS in terms of weight but XPS mine is nearly silent compared to his with the speakers. the only other aspect where they differed majorly was that the dell designers had cleverly mad a hole between the screen and the exhaust vent so that if the bottom of the laptop is covered, exhaust air comes out the top. I was quite jealous of this as the S15 has a grey bit of plastic in the way and my laptop always gets pretty hot if i set it down anywhere that isnt a hard surface and it wasnt propped up at the back.

COOLING SOLUTION ON A SOFT SURFACE eg. bed or sofa
Well earlier today I was taking my laptop to bits and removed the offending piece of plastic! I blocked up the hole above the exhaust vents to stop air bypassing the normal route through the laptop and am now using my laptop on my bed. From the temperatures you would not be able to tell this at all! under low use, graphics and CPU temperatures are sitting on 50C or below rather than heating to mid 60s. I dont think I would even have any problems starting up a game and pusing the graphics a bit. The only downside is the astetics but ill look into that later, for now: problem solved!

 

Just got my S15 and I'm looking to do a clean install, preferebly of Windows Ultimate. I read the guides and everything on how to best go about it. But seeing as the warranty is only activated once you up the install that they set up for you, I'm worried that a new windows installation could void my warranty.

Additionally I want to make a second Ubuntu partition and am wondering how to best go about that, see as Sony as done some weird things with the bios. I just don't want to a.) brick my laptop and b.) void the warrenty.

 

setting up ubuntu for dual boot is no big deal.
you can simply shrink your windows partition under disk management and install ubuntu into the free space.

after installing ubuntu, windows was booting as before (no grub menu). apparently, grub doesn't handle efi quite right.
however, the following link provided a quick fix for that:
installation - Can't Dual Boot Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7 on Sony Vaio S 15 (2012) - Ask Ubuntu

 

Mind sharing a picture of what you took off? Thanks!