Official Sony S11/S12/S13 (2010) Owners Thread

hmmmm my power option dun have the option of power saver recently .
im using sony's nvidia drivers

 

Is Worst Buy the only place where you can get this S series?

Where else can I buy one?

Why is Sony releasing it this way?

 

You can try to get it with the bing thing for 10% off for store pickup. Search "sony lcd" and look on your right.

Let me know if you got success.

 

Best Buy has exclusivity until the fall in US/Canada.

 

I see. I might wait until Aug when most state has tax free day on computer. Hope bing is still around. That would be a slick deal. So keep that in mind.

 

My mouse freeze on wakeup problem seems to have gone away with the latest BIOS update. Indeed, the release notes shows the update fixed the issue. One less annoying issue now.

 

hello guys i am looking to purchase this laptop and was wondering if it was a good buy. i would mostly like to play hd content and some video encoding does this laptop suit my needs also could you tell any problems this laptops. plz and thanks

 

Hi and welcome

do you want us to repeat the last 131 pages?
Here is some more specific information (already pasted numerous of times... one just has to read): http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/475297-my-two-months-vaio-s-review-3.html

If it is for multimedia, I most likely would buy a multimedia notebook which would have better screen, video, audio, BR-Player and so on. Sony S is NOT a multimedia notebook - the subject has been discussed numerous times...

 

What is the S good for? A business laptop?

I like the S cause its not glossy and a fingerprint magnet.

 

All of this has been discussed numerous times already - you can read different opinions, points of view and experiences if you would just browse back. I am always willing to help, but not eager to repeat again and again.

If you find something that has not yet been a subject here - feel free to ask

 

anyone got the new nvidia driver to work?

NVIDIA - Download Drivers

 

Hi i'm new in this forum, was searching the problem with my laptop:

the sound distortion i.e. clipping/buzzing/drilling sound of audio, and the video freezing.

I actually gave my laptop for repair twice to sony, I have given up on them as it is an utter waste of my time!!

Are you still experiencing this problem?

It is driving me absolutely crazy!

 

Did you consider delete everything and do retail install?

 

Yes, I was going to write about that once I am absolutely sure, but I think and hope the problem is fixed! I still don't know what caused it but I had 2 warnings on my HDD SMART (not failures, but warnings) - I think one of them was for a bad sector. I wanted to swap the HDD for a faster one anyway so what I did was to buy a new 7200 RPM HDD (was thinking about SSD but until they can offer some more storage space and better price, I am sticking with the normal HDDs).

So I combined swapping the HDD with restoration of the system back to the original set up. Since then (3 days) I watched a few movies and listened to music - no problems at all! I also stopped playing with the drivers - will not install any non-sony drivers this time so using Stock-driver configuration.

I have no idea if the reason could be the old HDD or most likely some driver issue (I did play quite a lot with the drivers before, trying to install other versions and stuff).

Fact is - looking at the DPC-graph - I still do get periods with lots of red strikes, but sometimes it all looks perfect. I have no clue what those periods depend on - currently it is wild red! Anyway - this does not seem to be causing any audio/video problems - I think it is all caused by some background process and/or drivers - indexing, updating, etc, etc - no idea but as long as it has no effect on the usability - I don't really care. I feel absolutely no lack of power or latency.
Besides that, when I play multimedia the graph goes down and remains most of the time in the green field.

No idea really..... I just wanna use my PC and am really glad the Audio/Video problem is gone, hopefully for ever...

 

I'm so glad for you!! Hopefully you won't have any more problems.
I didn't actually completely understand everything you were talking about, my knowledge of computing isn't so great... (stuff about DPC, but i did read on earlier posts by everyone that you can download it...)

Anyway, about the HDD I currently have a 500 GB SERIES ATA 7200 RPM for my laptop, i am presuming mine is the similar to what your have now, and these problems still occur...

If yours is different to mine, what is it
and where can you buy them
and how did you change it?

Thanks

p.s when you had the audio clipping, did it tend to (although not always) occur when you had multiple programmes running, or an update taking place (or something similar)? Because that's what happens on my laptop.

 

If you have a Vaio S and you haven't changed the HDD yourself, it is impossible to have a 7200RPM HDD as you say, as Sony S is only offered with a 5400RPM! Anyway, this could not be a reason - I just assumed some failures in my original HDD might have caused the problems. This is rather unlikely though.

I think I have had some driver compatibility issues as I tried quite a lot of "new" drivers. I think reinstalling windows is what solved the problem so I suggest you do it too if you haven't done so already.

To answer your question - no, I could not find any relation between number of running processes/programs and the stuttering. Just to be clear - my noises were no "clicking" but stuttering (both audio and video).

Hope you are able to solve it very soon! Let us know.

 

I wouldn't, completely reinstalling your OS for this is a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut really.

I would uninstall all your codecs / codec packs first (google on how to do this if you dont know) have a reboot, and then reinstall your codec pack or media player of choice - there are loads out there, a lot of people use VLC, some use klite mega codec pack, I use the klite one and my media playback is fine, im sure vlc is good too.

give that a go and let us know how you get on.

 

Is the new NVIDIA driver with cuda etc. working on our sony vaio? The original driver from the website fails to install and the one from laptopvideo2go isn't working right.

Dominik

 

Well... reinstalling windows together with all programs (if no image is present) is a ~3h job.... and it took me days to try out different stuff, none of which worked. So if you don't find a quick solution - just reinstall - hopefully the problem will be gone.

 

Pray tell me how you know how many hours it takes - you know exactly what his environment consists of do you?

I would still try uninstalling/reinstalling codecs first rather than rebuild the entire machine.

 

No - I just know that reinstalling ANY environment takes a few hours (max 4-5, but usually not more then 2-3) and this if no system image is present, but playing with stuff that from my experience do or did not work, can take days and it may even become worse.

IMO - don't loose time - just reinstall. It's his decision.

 

When will these puppies be released in the USA outside of the stinkin Best Buy Blue Label?!!? I want one with a GPU por favor.

 

^^ most likely in the fall

 

This question and this answer can be found at least 10 times in this thread!!! Wonder if there would be a week until the next time! Why is it so hard to use the f*****g search function or browse!

 

They should have turn post #1 and post #2 into a WIKI where anyone can edit or add to post doing the FAQ. Its hard going thru 133 pages. I guess this is the limiation of the forum software.

 

takes under a hour to reinstall the os and primary drivers. and instead of saying its somewhere in the thread I guess you dont want to help out and scroll through 1300+ messages either now do you

 

I read a review below of the S and it says the webcam is not as good as on the Z or the Y. Is this true?

===========

The webcam’s 1.3-megapixel photos and VGA video both showed bland, muted colors and not very sharp image quality. The sound was loud and accurate, though, and the audio and video were in sync with one another

 

Yes dude... and the LEDs on the front aren't as bright either. That's why they have the Z - for a few extra hundreds you get a better Cam (serious advantage) AND better quality LEDs. Both very essential to a business laptop! I also think the green on the power button is more saturated too!

P.s. Page 50, Page 51 !!! The "Search This Thread" option on the top really DOES work... give it a try some day....

 

i have a bit of a problem with my s11. It doesn't do powermanagement as well as in the beginning. It turns on randomly after closing the lid, which is very annoying as i cannot store the laptop without it turning on.

I'm already looked at the mouse waking the laptop, but this isn't the reason this is happening.

also the brightness settings are not working at all. The buttons do activate and i do see the brightness bar going up and down, however the screen does not change brightness. The light sensor doesn't work either. Can anyone tell me what is going on?

 

1. Turn off Automatic Windows Update! Mine did it every night at 03:00 until I turned automatic windows updates off.

2. Use original Sony video drivers only. reinstall the NVIDIA driver with the latest available from Sony. Reinstall windows if this doesn't help.

 

not to be rude but, are you kidding me? the brightness can only be adjusted when i use the sony vaio drivers? i've never had any trouble with any other laptop and the generic drivers.

 

Not exactly. The brightness should be adjustable manually with any driver. But the auto-dimming function is only working with the Sony drivers!

I had lots of problems playing with the NVIDIA drivers and from my experience I can only advise you to stick with what Sony officially releases. I saw no good from using anything else, but I am no gamer either - no idea if newer drivers bring anything there.

 

hmm strange. I reinstalled the sony drivers and all functionality returned (including manual adjustments).

As for the laptop waking randomly. It started when i got my new logitech mouse with unified receiver. I tried setting the device on "do not wake with this device" in the device manager, but it didn't work.

 

So do you feel any lack of GPU power now that you are using the "older" but original Sony drivers? Just stick with them Don't play around too much

 

I had some problems with a game and upgrading the drivers are the first step to the solution.

Actually i want to make a low power version of this laptop. It is sucking too much power. So i want to underclock this processor to match a um version of the core i5 and i want to underclock the nvidia vidcard to match the performance of a intel hd4500 (it's more energy efficient than the build in hd4500)

I have no clue how the sony drivers will react... but for now there is no software to make underclocking possible... so no sense in installing other drivers.

 

Wouldn't buying an extra battery pack be easier and more efficient

 

for me the newest nvidia driver works perfectly - except the missing auto-dimming functionality.

Nik

 

the notebook is already heavy as it is. A extra battery pack isn't really an option. Perhaps the high capacity battery is an option. But it makes the laptop not really manageable with the hump on the back.

Tweaking the fsb would be an easier and free solution.

The manual dimming doesn't work with the new nvidia drivers.

 

1,9 kg is heavy?

It seems to me you bought the wrong machine - you could have just bought an UM/N netbook for half the money and you wouldn't have to tweak anything and have all you are now trying to achieve.

I used to undervolt my previous centrino laptop but only because it than ran cooler and more silent. But this is not an issue here.

Good luck with your tunings.

 

no not the wrong machine. Just doesn't run as long as i would like it to. I did think of the ul30jc but it wasn't for sale yet when i bought this laptop. and the lenovo x200 is just too underpowered with it's su7300 and intel graphics.

 

Just out of curiosity - What does one need more then 4-5 hours battery live for?? Camping?

 

Nvidia claim new beta driver addresses DPC latency issues:

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t157614-300.html

Anyone have any success with this?


------------------
VAIO Notebook VPCS117GG

 

Yes, I read about it. I am curious if it will finally do something for the DPC latency...

Waiting for Sony to release it officially though.

 

well if i had 5 hours of battery life then i wouldn't have any problems at all. But i'm only having 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life. That's very short.

And no i don't life on a camping. But the internet is very crappy here so my online escape is to use the internet at a wifi hotspot (luckily wifi hotspots are the norm for internet over here). however, a hotspot doesn't do you much good without some decent battery life.

btw, do i have a monday morning model. I havn't used it outside the house (just on the table and on my lap) but the hinges do not line up with the laptop and the paint is already wearing down on the corners (underside near power button and ac connector)... and the laptop isn't even be touching the table at the corner (because the rubber should be lifting the laptop sufficiently). I didn't expect wear to be occuring so fast (i only have this laptop for 3 weeks) on a business model.

 

I get between 4 and 5 hours of battery life using WLAN!! (lower brightness though). And this with a 7200 RPM HDD!! Don't know what you do with yours...

I always keep it charged up to 50% which gives me approximately 2 hours which are more then enough for 99% of the cases I have no electricity around. That's why I wonder what people need extra battery power for. Unless you fly overseas often...

Just checked the paint - absolutely ok - I have it for over 2 months now and travel and move it around quite a lot.

The hinges - the right one is always slightly to the left - is by all of them. Nothing bad about it.

 

i've never been able to get 4 or 5 hours with wlan. 3 hours tops (3.5 perhaps). I probably have a monday morning example. The right hinge is lower than the left hinge (though the screen doesn't seem to be skewed. The paint is wearing on the 2 corners and there are some scratches which are caused by the screen sliding over the laptop body (near the hinge). It sounds more serious than it is. but in my opinion. the screen should not be sliding over the laptop body and create scratches.

i have a vpcs116fh. Asian model. I don't know if that matters. It doesn't have a fingerprint reader.. i didn't need one anyway.

 

Really strange! Where is it made? China or Taiwan or elsewhere? Mine is made in China or at least that's what the sticker says.

The only issues from this kind I had were the loose CD-cover and the loose battery, but I managed to solve both.

Someone reported paint coming off from the left tracking pad button but I don't use the left at all and the right occasionally and still have no problems with them.

I also use a neoprene sleeve for transportation - it protects the paint very well from scratching.

P.s. Checked the specifications of the vpcs116fh - it seems to feature a 1.3 MP Camera, whereas the European models have a 0.3 MP one )) I think we have some webcam models here in the forum who were reeeaaally concerned about the webcam resolution and quality - maybe this would be a valuable information to them

Really weird specification differences though... interesting. A camera with higher resolution, but no finger sensor and no firewire. And a smaller HDD, which isn't that important as it is cheap and easily replaceable.

 

it has firewire. It is next to the usb on the left side and there is a version with a 500 gb harddisk on it. i think its the s117fh but i'm not sure. I didn't bother because i have a external 500gb hd and wanted to get a ssd hd for it. But now i'm thinking of getting a expresscard ssd and leaving this one in the bay.

the camera is really good. I was amazed to see the quality of this camera. this model is also a lot cheaper. It's suppose to be 1000 euro's (i got it for slightly over 1100 euro's, because the euro has gone down majorly) instead of the 1400 euro's you need to shell out in Europe.

 

The 257.15 driver fixed the DPC latency issue in my FZ.

 

I guess the spec I found was wrong - it stated there is no firewire. Anyway I have never used one and will probably never use.

But your price-idea is wrong - the corresponding VPCS11V9E costs about 1100 euros in europe

I also intended to buy SSD but after I saw how much space Win 7 requires - I will stick with the conventional HDDs until SSDs become bigger and cheaper.
The 7200 RPM does indeed deliver noticeable speed improvement! The sacrifices are vibrations and slightly noisier behavior. But I enjoy the 80+ MB/sec