Official Sony SB/SA/SC/SD Series Owners' Thread

one thing you should worry about more is that lenovo swaps the fn and ctrl keys around -- which is hugely annoying for me, and that's why i've written off their laptops forever. there's a way to reverse the keys in the 420s bios, but still annoying nonetheless.

 

my order page still says "processing" and it is supposed to be shipped today.

yesterday, the sony canada rep i spoke to over the phone said, "it should be in production now, let me check with our order fulfillment department in china. and i'll send you an email with an update today."

unfortunately, no email was ever sent.

 

fyi, new CTO ship date is april 25.

 

Quick question for you, when i connect the SB to an external monitor via the HDMI, its fine/no problems (image is a little sharp but that can be tweaked) but when i connect via the VGA i get these almost imperceptible but definitely there horizontal grey lines. If you have an external monitor that connects via VGA could you see if yours does something similar?

 

I have T510 at work and it's a marvelous machine. Fn and Ctrl keys can be swapped in BIOS and I am happy with that. On some models if the keys are of the same size, like x120e keys can be exchanged even physically. I prefer SB to 420s because of the 6630m radeon option, though.

 

Mine is supposed to be ready to be shipped tomorrow, but judging from your comments, maybe I shouldn't be expecting it, which is unfortunate, as I really need a laptop right now.

 

I don't really mind the keyboard setup, although it can be annoying. I just need a sturdy laptop for 2-3 years.

 

has anyone here figure out what keys to press to go into BIOS and what to press to restore the laptop to factory default?

edit:
f2 to boot into bios

but how about what key to press to go to recovery mode without entering windows. (similar to some laptops like acers, and hps)

 

You should check your user manual.. Google says f10 or f12, probably differs per Sony laptop.

 

Laptop arrived at parent's today! Overal just under 2 weeks from order to receipt, will pick it up after seeing Avenue Q tomorrow and give some feedback.
Will be downloading games overnight to get a feel for the 6630M on Saturday and see if it needs than fan bios update or not. If this performs then will probably upgrade ram to 8GB and later on upgrade HDD -> SSD sometime.

 

This review actually isn't quite as negative on the display:

 

do give us some fps figures!

 

^^^

I really want to know this too. I'm having a real hard time trying to decide if I can justify 300 dollars for the 6630M since in the states it requires the i7 for the upgrade of the GPU. Looking at score for the 6470 I am less than impressed considering my current 8600M GT is comparable and better in some cases.

 

Unfortunately I don't have a monitor that connects via VGA, just HDMI. I will be getting in a new TV hopefully at the beginning of next week but you'll probably have an answer by then, if not I'll post up what I see.

 

Keep meaning to ask this, but how easy is this unit to pick up from the sides on a flat table?
I can't hardly grab my MBP with one hand because of how its designed without a tapered edge. I know the newer MBP is better, but mine (non-unibody) almost touches the table on the edge making it difficult to grab under it when picking it up.

 

Mine took a month. I ordered March 8th and around April 10th it changed from processing to being built. My 3rd estimated ship date was 2 days ago, but is still listed as being built. I have yet to receive an automated status email from Sony.

 

what was your config?
im assuming it has to do with hardware shortages

 

If that white version had black keys (or the 'inside' colouring of the silver one from that review), I would've picked that one .

 

US CTO
* CD/DVD Player / Burner
* Large Capacity Sheet Battery
* 500GB Hard Drive (7200rpm)
* Fresh Start
* No additional AntiVirus Software
* Adobe Bundle (Free - $448 value)
* 13.3" VAIO Display with LED backlight (1366 x 768)
* Intel® Core™ i7-2620M processor (2.70GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.40GHz
* 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
* Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter (Click More Info for details.)
* Black
* Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
* AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB VRAM) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology

I just called Sony to see what the status was, basically was blown off. Told to keep waiting it was being built in China and may have shipped but she wasn't sure, but to wait 24 - 48 hours.

They must be waiting on the solid gold power adapter.

 

everyone that was waiting a long time, i see they get the i7 and the 6630. and when i see the ppl who got their machine being built/delivered got an i5 recently.

mine was an i5 and in less than 24 hours i see that it is being built from an automated email. i know the sony style stores have the SB's in stock, you might be able to have better luck with them if you want it quicker

 

That is exactly I am thinking about ordering mine right now except I was going to add my own RAM and put in a SSD.

 

its worth it. The 8600 gt is such a bad card right now, the improvements will be noticeable, of course if you game, otherwise the 6470 is just fine.

Hell, when I got my 4670m I was baffled how the difference was from my poor poor 945g (intel integrated)

 

Thanks, i'll make a general post in the owner's forum and see if anyone can give it a shot too.

I might end up returning it; unfortunately i need output via VGA for the foreseeable future. i can kind of minimize the issue by cranking up the refresh rate over 75 on my work monitor and over 80 on my home monitor but it still is kind of annoying, and it's pretty noticeable with my home monitor (24" samsung.) Either its a series wide issue or just my particular machine but in any case it needs to be fixed, returned to sony. Ugh.

I was also looking at the M11x R3 or M14x but i prefer sonys since you can pull them out during client meetings without ithe computer being so ostentatious.

 

My 8600M GT is pretty fair at gaming for me really given it is 3 years old. My MBP can easily take on WoW at med/high settings (runs at lap melting temps doing it) and I play a lot of League of Legends which is totally non-taxing even for an intel 3000 lol. Makes me lean on saving the money and getting a 6470 model, but..... I like to be future proof and I'm a fan of eye candy in games.

 

I'm getting an i5 and the 6470 so...

 

The white pre-configured model doesn't even give an estimated ship date any more, just says backorder and that they will email you when it ships.

They are definitely having an issue with producing enough of these...

Also, when you add in the 6630 the ship date slips about a week, so that might be one of the components that are backordered and taking a while to get in.

 

i guess i'm lucky? i5 2520 btw

 

Did that guy who ordered the caddy from newmodeus respond on how it worked? I was thinking of installing a 60gb SSD and wanted to know how it worked for him.

 

someone ordered a caddy for the SB? thought we were in limbo waiting? or did he try one for another Sony?

 

just get a regular caddy, and slap the face plate of drive in there, its going to look as nothing has changed.

 

Can the ODD tray be taken apart as simple as that?

Also, someone in this thread said that the smart thing to do with the SB is stick the HDD where the ODD is and put the SSD where the HDD used to be? I think it had something to do with taking advantage of SATA2 or something along those lines.

 

My order is official. Just talked to a sony chat rep and got 5% off the full purchase of my CTO and bit on it.

i5-2520 (AES and VT-d support was the main reason)
4GB RAM (adding another 4GB myself)
6470M
320GB HDD (will be put in a caddy eventually or external as I am buying an Intel 320 - 160GB SSD today as well)
Fresh start
Windows 7 Pro
Slice battery also selected.
Was 1169 - 58 dollars in promo discount.

Total with tax was 1198 for me.
My estimated shipping date was 4/25/11 with expedited shipping set to arrive on 4/27/11 (included for free with CTO's apparently).

 

Even after bios update, my fan is super loud! Can someone link me to the "BIOS UPDATE". Also link to Sony VAIO's auto update software please for the SB. Thanks

 

Check reply #657

 

basically the same config w/o the slice

 

yes it is. and to second question yes, so that you enjoy the sata III speed instead of the sata II

If I remember correctly the ODD is only hold by 1 screw, simply release it, and get the face plate out (please be gentle, those things are plastic, they break if you are not careful) and voila slap it in the caddy and insert back, screw again, and you are done.

 

I'm curious why you guys didn't choose to just get a cheapest preconfigured one if you really wanted it that much faster. Literally the only difference would have been 30 bucks and a 500gb hard drive as opposed to your 320gb (urbanstereo)

 

I even ordered a slower (but hopefully less power consumptive) configuration But it was 100~150 euro cheaper (including 7% discount) than the pre-configured one. Moreover, I opted for the blue/purple colour, which they only sell on CTOs.

Are you sure it's got a sata3 connection? Can't find it on the Sony website.

 

just wanted the faster CPU in case. and wanted windows 7 pro 64

 

Just go to the Vaio Care updater, it will do it for you.

 

$30 is still $30. Considering a lot of the people that went with the 320GB HDD plan to switch it out, which I did. Also the estimated ship date is a lot sooner than the pre-configured models. I went CTO to get the i5 2520.

 

+1, I'd like to know this as well

 

I don´t really see any update possibility in the "Vaio Care" programme. Is it that what you mean with Vaio Care updater?

And can you tell me the BIOS Version you have? I dl the only BIOS updater, but it told me my BIOS was up to date. The SB can get pretty loud..

 

yea rather would have used that 30 towards an internal drive of my choice

 

click on the up arrow in the bottom right of the taskbar. Then double click on the 'VAIO Updater' icon.

 

yes nutral saw it was sata III after a mugshot of the cpu ID

It wouldnt make sense to sony to not use the Sata III ports (0 e 1) since they come standard on this type of chipset.

 

It should give you a few updates, be sure to do the update to the VAIO software, then there should be an option to upgrade the BIOS.

 

I downloaded the driver from Sony esupport, but my graphics is glitchy. When I move objects around, it makes rough pixelated edges

 

I did get the cheapest preconfig.

 

My Canadian CTO ship date just changed from April 14th to April 25th....