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

Hi there, just a week since I bought my VAIO and today "space" keyboard key started to squeak when pushing and its pretty annoying, anyone have had the same problem with any key or know how to solve it? Thanks!

 

Hi all! I am more familiar with the ASUS side of the forum, since that's what I own. However I'm in a bit of a pickle right now, I accidentally dropped my dad's VPCS111FM/S (Best Buy) and the on/off switch housing has cracked and broken, so I need to try to fix it.
I've looked in the sub-forum, but I was unable to find a disassembly guide for the laptop, can someone point me in the right direction? Greatly appreciated!!

 

Hi Gracey,

Ok, From what you say, I will leave those switches WELL alone

In the meantime, I will just buy a backlit keyboard and give it a go. I will let you know how i get on.

p.s. Your profile pic is mind boggling



J

 

This has been discussed many times before in this thread - it is a typical "problem". Just search the thread for more details. Quick/short version - once lubricated you will never hear it again (I only did it once and never had the problem again). And while you are at it - you might want to lubricate the Enter and Backspace keys too. They have under-wires as well and might/most likely will get squeaky too.

You won't find any as such doesn't exist (hasn't leaked out). A few photos are available in this thread - browse back.

Yes - leave them as they are. If you think they will unlock some secret features - they don't, already tried that

And thanks

 

I'm just wondering, is it possible to add ssd drive into my vaio S116FG series?
and which one is recommended for ssd drive?

 

Why wouldn't it be Of course it is.
But which one - you will have to address this question to the numerous SSD threads around.

 

Thanks Gracy, unmounted key and put it back, the squeak seems over but if its gonna happen again in the future I will definatily lubricate them.

 

Thanks for your quick reply,but i'm wondering which dimension size can I use?
Is it 1.8" or 2.5" ssd drive?

 

Vaio S, like 99% of all laptops, uses a standard 2,5" SATA drive.

 

Nice..thanks for the info

 

What do you mean you can't move folders? If you want to move something, drag it with your mouse while holding the right button, let go where you want to move it, and it will ask whether you want to copy here or move here. You can also do it from the edit menu or use a registry hack to add it to the right click context menu, but this way is the fastest I find.

Anyone had success overclocking the Nvidia 310M in the S?

 

You can do that from the NVIDIA Control Panel ---> Performance.

 

Thanks for this guide. Im new to the forum, but i have an S11, and a close friend has a VCG-Z1 series with - guess what - Smartwi. Both are March 2010 vintage with Win 64 bit pro.

I enabed the gps service on the Z series machine, added WebtoGo oneclickinternet and then added Smart Network 3.3 from my S series and.... guess what? It presented with the gps switch visible and active on smart network! And Webtogo oneclickinternet works fine.

So... I thought id repeat it on the S series and - NO, I can get the GPS to work, but the very same version of Smart Network on the S will not present the GPs switch -still have to use SmartWi.

Both machine use the qualcomm gobi 2000 driver 2.0.7.0 but whats interesting is that the US Z series one unpacks as two sets of folders for installation, which then creates Qualcomm folders in the root of the C drive whereas the EU S series driver unpacks as one folder inside the Program Files and ProgramData heirarchy.

It seems that we're one step closer. Smart Network does support GPS switching, but why doesnt it support it in the European S series, but supports it in the USA Z series?

Can somebody take this further?

 

Guys.... GPS on Vaio S has been enabled LOOOONG time ago with no need of uninstalling Vaio Smart. You could have just searched/asked...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/303456-gps-vaio-vgn-z-14.html

 

Gracy. Perhaps I didnt make myself plain. The issue here is not whether its been made to work or not. I already have. The reason why I focused on that particuar text in Sheldon's post was because he too had a problem getting Smart Network as the soft switch for GPS. I already have SmartWi working. My challenge is getting Smart Network working.

I was pointing out that Smart Network for the S series somehow displays the switch on the Z series, but hides it on the S series. I was also looking for assistance, as I notice that others had already decided that the VNC services seemed to include the logic for what the client displays.

I have searched long for the solution to this problem. Some assistance would be helpful.

 

Ok, I did not get that your problem is smart network particularly and not the GPS generally.
Not able to help you then. Sorry.
Doesn't make much difference to me whether it will be implemented in Smart Network or not so never looked into it.

 

I would start with two things here, I havent got a Z series to try any of this on, but if you can profile smart network through Dependency Walker, and also through Procmon, then you might be able to see more of "what it's doing", and what it's looking for (registry, file handles, api calls e.t.c) when the app loads. I would do the same on the S series and compare the results. Also well worth checking the qualcomm install options for both machines in the installers, I know that in the .bat file that gets executed on the S series the switches for install are slightly different.

 

Today turned on my VAIO and it gives some error, I noticed that kb backlit is on again on the daytime and I wanted to turn it off using that VAIO Control Center utility, but unfortunately it wont run:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Runtime Error!

Program:C:/Program Files/SONY/VAIO Control Center/VAIO Control Center.exe

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information.

Tried uninstall and install it again but doesnt help, all the same...

How it is possible to fix this problem or will I need format PC and do clean install of XP again? Is this what you mean that S series using XP "drops drivers"? Thanks!

 

Does anyone know which cable I need to connect my Sony S12X9E (HDMI) to a non-HDMI Tv? It only has S-video or the tulips (colours) plugs?

I don't want any converter, because otherwise I could also buy a Media station to connect to my TV.

 

Outta luck I'm afraid. HDMI is digital; s-video & composite/component (assuming one of those is what you mean) are analogue.

Not even sure if you can get a converter for any reasonable sum of money tbh, & you will likely run into all sorts of fun & games with HDCP.

If your computer has a VGA port, you can convert that to composite for ~£40 iirc.

 

Well the C++ runtime runs in user mode, not kernel mode, so it's not a driver issue.

But....The VAIO Control Center and it's dependent libraries are probably written with Windows 7 in mind, and may well take advantage of Windows 7 API's that don't exist in XP (there are several), and it may try to call one of these API's which doesn't exist, and then crash.

As time goes on you will probably run into more of these types of issues, I can't help but recommend you move forward to Win7.....Can you not live without auto arrange?

 

XP is vital for me I might try to clean install windows again and if the same problem will happen again I might unscrew laptop and turn off kb backlit at all if it's possible. All the rest looks like working just fine.

 

So vital that you would disconnect the nice keyboard backlight !??
You know you can just use VM XP (which is offered ready to use and free of charge from microsoft!), don't you...

 

I know it about VM XP but I dont want to see 7 in my eyes at all... Many times I said and I dont want to keep repeating myself, XP is a must for me and I never never ever use 7 in my life because it is the worst OS made ever And yes I will better disconnect keyboard backlight but not use 7 So.. as I understand this Runtime Error cant be fixed..

 

Well... in such case... without going direction XP vs 7 (again) - I would say you need to be prepared to face such issues more and more often... Life goes on... and XP is in the past and no longer developed/supported. I personally can't tell you anything about this issue specifically - I would still try reinstalling windows bevor disconnecting hardware, but it is clear that many new drivers and features that your hardware supports are and will only be available for Windows 7 only. So this is the price you will have to pay for not willing to ever use 7.

On the other hand Sony does send XP downgrading CD with vaio S which should mean that the main features of the hardware should be supported. If you followed the downgrading instructions and used their CD and still have issues - I see no reason why not to complain to Sony and ask for support.

 

Yes, I will try to reinstall the windows one more time and see if the same problem will happen anytime soon. About staying with XP I will tell you that computer for me is only for internet surfing and music sorting/listening so I just cant face any big problems using XP If I would need it for more pro or special use of course I might not be able to keep XP.. So now thats clear, XP is more then enough for me as for todays use. About downgrading CD, there wasnt shipped any CD with my VAIO I only downloaded some XP downgrade v4 installer from sony support page. As I remember you said that with yours there was XP downgrade CD shipped? May I ask if you could rip me that CD and upload/share somewhere? There might be some better drivers and utilitys.. Would be very thankful!

 

Yes, it did come with downgrade CD.

Well as long as there isn't any license on it I don't mind... but I'm not sure it doesn't.

I'll check what it contains at least - never opened it.

 

Thanks! I doubt there will be some license on the downgrade CD..

 

Apologies if I'm annoying anyone, but I'm getting desperate, because even if I were to buy a spare power button (on/off switch) I wouldn't be able to install it!!
The reason is I can't fully disassemble the laptop! I've taken out all the screws on the bottom, taken out the keyboard, removed it's cables, taken out the optical drive but I still can't remove the top side of the assembly. The left hand side has the space where the optical drive is, so that's side is more flexible, yet the front end, and the right hand side won't come off!!
Is it because of all the usb ports, hdmi etc??

I've looked back about 50 pages in this thread, google searched this site, this thread, and all sorts of other websites, youtube!!
The issue is none of the other types of vaios (z etc) are identical to this one...

Help would be greatly appreciated!

 

From memory I think my cd only had the sata driver slipstreamed and i had to download the rest, but i think you'll find that sony haven't updated any of these drivers since their initial release in early 2010 - at least I've never seen any updates. You'll probably have to chase them down from the individual device manufacturers.

I re-installed xp about 6 times before I gave up and ended up sourcing newer software. On balance I actually prefer win 7 now. Do you have the card-readers and hdmi working? I had trouble with these.

 

Card readers looks like working but hdmi I am not sure as I never use it. Well, anyway I believe original sony downgrade CD may still work better then manually installed stuff.

 

Yeah don't get me wrong I'm not trying to argue with you I'm just interested as to the reason why you wanted to stay with XP, it's your computer - your choice. the last thing I would say though - just so you're aware, is that, compared to Win7, the XP Kernel (and user space come to that) is so insecure and open to rootkits, bots and trojans it's not even funny, and thats a fact.

The runtime error probably can be fixed, but first you would have to find out whats causing the problem. You could try looking in the event viewer to see if it contains any errors.

If someone mentioned a downgrade disk then I guess you could try using that (or request one yourself from Sony) to install "XP compatible" programs onto it.

good luck.

 

Just by means of an update....

I plugged a backlit keyboard into my Sony VPCS13L9E today (which had NO backlight but a spare socket)

And hey presto it works.

The "backlit keyboard" section of the VAIO control centre application comes to life automatically as well.

There you go.....£30 on eBay and I have a bot more bling....albeit with a squeaky space bar now....grrrr..


Jj

 

get some grease (o-ring/thick stuff) the prise the corner of your space bar up with the edge of a credit card - it will unclip.

it will have two metal bars under the space bar, carefully pull these out of the key cap, and then put a tiny bit of grease in the holder of the metal bar, reassemble and you're done.

Do the enter, tab, and backspace keys as well and live happily ever after.

 

Cheers boss!

J

 

Did you have a Article Link? I'm interested to.

Can anybody please upload the $oem$ folder from recovery DVD? It's under source.
I want make a clean install from my MSDN HomePremium iso and want the OEM Stuff.

 

Certainly, here you go my friend......

Im not affiliated with this chap in any way incidentally, it was just the only backlit keyboard I could find...

here

Regards
Andy

 

thx, did anybody know if ther was / is white backlit keyboard in the S series?

 

As far as I know there isn't one. Only non-backlit.

 

Ahhhh, why I choose the white one

 

A question I could never answer A matter of taste I guess I find the black one much more classy.

 

Chucked a vertex 2E 120 into my machine over the weekend and rebuilt it, I haven't benched anything really, just counted the bootup time, which is around 25 secs to desktop, immediately after installing windows before I put anything else on it was 12 seconds which was amusing.

What I do see though is massive performance improvement in general usage of "normal everyday user" apps like office and photoshop, e.t.c, but also in "power user apps" for example in building, running & debugging Visual Studio 2010 projects, Oxygen XML editor, SQL Server, MSBuild e.t.c. So if anyone else here does that sort of thing and you're sitting on the fence about an SSD, I wouldn't hesitate - it's made my day to day stuff loads faster.

Combine that with having replaced the CD drive with a 500gb hdd then I think i'll keep this thing for a long while yet. Good times with the S series...

 

Hi Gracy, I've found an old post ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/6076648-post939.html) from you, talking about the "Thermal Control Strategy", but I cannot see any thermal related option in my vaio control center. May I see I screenshot? I ask it because I've found some thermal related stuff in my DSDT..
BTW, all the extra functionalities from sony are going to be supported soon under linux, if you're interested in testing the patch, please join the discussion at Issue 6 - vaio-f11-linux - Keyboard Backlight Settings - Sony Vaio F Series on Linux - Google Project Hosting.

 

Here you are:

 

Thank you, I didn't notice those settings!

 

so no review yet?

 

??? ??? ???

 

If you mean the new new one, it's got its own thread.

 

Noticed one thing - the sound is a way much lower then it was usual on other notebooks, I mean not those laptop speakers but general, when u put headphones and turn up to the max on Volume Properties it's real low.. is it because of poor soundcard? My girlfriend's VAIO BZ have the same low sound too..

 

Don't have such a problem. Read this post.