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

Could you post some pics of the SC and comment on the materials used for the lid and the deck

 

I came across this when googling the issue of Shielding (if the problem is indeed shielding)
Cynical Optimism Blog Archive Solution: Secondary LCD monitor flickers when laptop connected to AC power

can someone perhaps try using a double shielded VGA cable?

Secondly, does this problem occur for everyone? or just a select few individual?

EDIT: @euchrid_eucrow, just read your other post on the forums about this issue, i guess it may not be due to shielding for you, but for anyone else...

 

Nope, only a few have that issue, most of us don't.

 

Ahh, thanks for clearing that up.
Not as worried now


I'm planning to get this in the near-ish future, and I will almost definitely be using an external monitor for work at home. Having an issue like that would be a deal-breaker.

 

I'll go ahead and give it another shot w/o it being plugged in just to double check.

Nah, only a select few. (I feel so honored to be in the club ) More like a small group of users trying to figure out a solution to a problem; becoming a vocal minority as a result.

I'll give it a try while on battery and see. I'm not all that well versed when it comes to shielding but part of me wonders if its not the vga female connector itself that's making contact with the laptop's body in an awkward way.

Edit: so i gave it another shot on battery. I still get the lines when on battery but they're much less pronounced. Its hard to describe but its like the frequency ratchets up when i plug it in and the lines move much faster, making them much more visible.

i just ordered a double shielded cable and a "triple" shielded cable from monoprice. Will post once i get them and try them out.

 

Alright, here's a question...how do I turn Bluetooth on? Is there a switch hidden somewhere?

EDIT: This is for my bluetooth mouse, btw

 

did you sync it?

 

...I...can't believe I'm that dumb.

 

does it have any lag? it's supposed to have a little making it hard to do stuff like intensive web surfing etc.
still it's quite a nice feature, i'm considering getting a netgear receiver for my old lcd when prices come down if they ever do..

well since that is the only hybrid in the main market and seagate does sell OEM i think it should be the momentus. but when you mean those 15 seconds is with everything loaded and the PC idle, or just when you get mouse use on the desktop but there are lots of background apps still loading up?
also is that with fresh start or with the full crapware?

don't get me wrong, but it can't be faster than an actual SSD so maybe it's just a different way to count. which i'm guess it is.
tks

 

I timed the 2nd boot of the Vaio SC at Best Buy, but I just did a restart, not a shut down and boot and I was just looking at my watch. I was off by a bit.

But I just made a video and timed it from the power button press (11 sec) to a usable desktop, and it is about 25 seconds. That includes the VAIO splash screen and POST. The Starting Windows screen shows up at 17 seconds. The desktop has a movable mouse at 36 seconds.

Windows 7 delays the startup of a lot of software and services until after boot so you get a usable desktop sooner. So I'm not sure if timing when all the stuff is loaded makes a lot of sense.

Here is the video:
YouTube - Sony Vaio SC Boot time

Edit: Forgot to mention that we haven't installed much on the computer yet. And Norton has been removed from the computer. Battery Bar, which I installed, was already loaded when the desktop appeared.

The hard drive is a Seagate ST95005620AS.

 

Here is an album with some photos I took of the Vaio SC:
https://picasaweb.google.com/wingell/VaioSC?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPmq_r5lYPy0AE#

It does feel as if the palm rest is plastic. The lid feels cold, like it is metal. It is pretty hard to judge, though.

 

Thanks for the pics and the video. So what are your first impressions on the performance and fan noise?

I think you did mention that the screen is not great but usable right?

 

hmm.. like i said, it just couldn't be faster than an SSD, and it isn't. it's close however! amazingly close! the momentus is one awesome drive as this demonstrates quite clearly...

the video is quite nice btw, i loved that the mic pics up just about EVERY sound there xD a little better and we would hear your thoughts!

thank you for you info!



PS: Norton would slow down the boot a bit, a noticeable amount most certainly..

 

if you want a faster boot use Nod32

 

yeah i've read the charts, i think i'm going with kaspersky since i grew very fond of it in the past years. very trust worthy, now not so light and fast as it used to be in past comparisons but still amazing..

 

I've got question about touch-pad.
Is touch-pad (or keyboard) show signs of wear out? It's really important for me.

Thanks in advance

 

The performance of this laptop is absolutely amazing. My wife and I are blown away at how quick it is at everything. Resuming from sleep is incredibly fast, too.

As far as I'm concerned, the SC is silent. I can only hear it run if I get up close. It is very impressive for such a small form factor. My 45nm 2.4GHz 15" Core 2 Duo laptop sounds like a jet taking off at times.

It shuts down the Blu-Ray/DVD drive automatically when it isn't in use to save power, which is a neat feature.

The screen looks fine if you see it straight on, but from any other angle, the blacks get washed out and brighten.

Although the SC comes with a year of Kapersky from Best Buy, I installed Microsoft Security Essentials.

Edit: I installed all of the Windows updates, and you could hear the fan. But it isn't nearly as bad as some other laptops when they ramp up. There are different fan profiles to try out, I just have it on balanced.

 

Thanks GeorgeK, I'm afraid I can't comment on the results as I'm sure I know even less about benchmarking than you. I was just hoping the resident experts would weigh in with their wisdom and experience to let us us know if gpu's were underclocked, system was bottlenecking etc... so what's the verdict guys?!

Otherwise I've just got to find myself some 3dmark2011 benchmarks for the e420s and the 4830tg, which are the two other contenders for my cash. I've found a 3dmark06 benchmark for the 48030tg, don't know if you feel like given that a whirl as well?!

 

that really fast i required 32-33 seconds to boot from pressing the start button until the desktop screen appear...

anyway i got install mcafee antivirus and some software require start up....

 

I think that I may have been wrong about the palm rest/keyboard tray being plastic on the SC. It feels cold, like it is made out of metal. It is really hard to tell, though. The bottom of it is definitely plastic. The surround around the screen is definitely plastic, too.

 

Which bestbuy did you find the SC in? I searched for bestbuy inventory online but it doesnt seem to be available in any of the stores near the SF bay area.

 

I also purchased the Best Buy's SC. It feels more magnesium, both lid and case. Rather than Kapersky, as was advertised, mine came with Trend Micro Titanium Anti-Virus. Best Buy bundled it with some Geek Squad Clean Install that would've cost an additional $100, but just gave it to me for $50, since this was the only one they had for sale. I originally wanted an SC that had not be opened. I'm getting use to the screen res. In the store it's rather washed out, possibly due to all the bright lighting. At home, its a lot better due to the soft lighting.
As mentioned in a prior post, it does feel a little heavier than my SZ. I noticed after fully charge at 100%, there is no drain the next day. Also the keys don"t smudge as they do on the VPC-Z. Didn't know of the 7200rpm.

Do you know if you can re-program that Push2TV button for WEB like they do on the SB?

 

+ rep to benny 90 for that post a few pages back with the how to's; about time someone actually made some proper guides

Also for people asking for benchmarks, I don't have a number, but FWIW, I can play SC2 on high settings at native res and get a constant 80fps in 3v3. That's pretty impressive to me. I will try to get a picture of the screen up soon.

 

The Best Buy web site says store pickup isn't available. But my local Best Buy had 4 of them. Give your local stores a call.

 

Like Crotia sad, the battery degrades more with higher charge level (especially if combined with higher temperature, like it is in "normal" use, or heavier load - playing games).

The Battery Care function charges the battery to a set percentage, and keeps it that way, rather then keeping it at 100% charge, so it can greatly increase battery live (especially the 50% charge option).

Like sad, main battery killers are temperature and full charge level, and the Battery Care "eliminates" (or at least reduces) one problem.

 

buying later tonite. any advice on which hard drive to get? like are sony's choice of 5400's different in quality than the 7200. i people before said they werent happy with their 320gb's performance. any thoughts?


ps dont have the money yet for ssd, maybe after i save up

 

Hello guys,
I made some bench with 3dmark 06

Hd3000:

28xx (something i think 42)

Res 1366x768
AA none
Filtering Optimal

Amd 6630:

7314

res 1366x768
AA none
filtering optimal




Configuration
2410
4gb ram
6630
320gb 5200rpm

by the way is there a way to manually update driver or we have to w8 for sony to release them?

 

There is a slight lag, but less than a second, at least on 720p. Because I use it as an extended display (2nd monitor), I get everything ready on my laptop screen, and drag it on the second one when I am ready.

 

I personally had to call each store to check the stock on Saturday. A lot of stores have been sold out already. Also, people at the store didn't know anything about the bundle that was on bestbuy.com. I had to bring it up to them, and have them print it out and match it.

 

This is not true. Take a look at the VAIO Control Center.

 

The Best Buy bundle is in this week's Best Buy ad.

Flash View of Weekly Ad Circular - Best Buy

Page 4.

 

Thanks malachi... still don't really know what these numbers mean!

The acer 4830tg at the same settings got 8630 so I'm guessing the 3830tg has got the sb beat as well. Really don't know if you could tell a difference in real life... I guess a difference of 5 fps a second in a game could be the difference between playable or not.

 

The acer has a 540m, which i believe to be a slightly better card when it comes to benchmarks. Its much harder to predict accurately the real world performance.

I was also quite interested in the new Acer TimelineX series, however looking at some tests on various website (some chinese ones), there were possible issues with high temperature under load, and possibly throttling too.

having said that, you never quite know until you test it for yourself.

 

Thanks man! It's always nice to get some recognition for spending the time to type those out

Hopefully the HOW-TO's will help people to be able to upgrade their laptops easy as pie.


Also for those that don't know, we updated the first page with some helpful tips and how-to's. I also added a link to my signature, happy upgrading!

 

I'm pretty excited, I should be getting in my Crucial M4 SSD in about an hour. I'll immediately be loading it up and will see what kind of performance it has. I'm expecting it to be pretty amazing!

 

So after two days of getting acquainted with my SB, here's my review:

+ really thin and light, but still feels durable
+ looks great, I love the white colour on mine
+ only played Portal 2 as of now, but it ran smoothly at high/full settings
+ screen is good--obviously could be better, but not as bad as some here would suggest

- right palm rest is hot to the touch
- comes bundled with a lot of bloatware
- fans run alarmingly high when playing a game (I had to put on my headphones)
- no dedicated home/end keys; this is a pretty big deal for someone like me who uses these a lot when typing

The fan noise (I installed the BIOS update) is a huge issue, but all in all it's a fantastic laptop. Also, can anyone post how to change the options so the charger only leaves the battery at 80%?

 

According to this review, the sony SB seems to have CPU throttlig issues too; 700MHz downclock, in the worst case.

 

Just got mine yesterday. The fan was like a washing machine but after the
bios update it was inaudible IMO. all in all a great laptop. but the screen
wiggling and jiggling is driving me nuts. a simple gust of wind makes the
screen go like theres a magnitude 9 earthquake. any solutions for this?
tightening a few screws maybe?

 

hello everyone.
just finished reading all the 167pages and it took me 2days only
here in my country too, in order to get ATI HD 6630 we need to go for the highest end model and its close to 2300$.
i went to nearest sony store to find only that even display SB model got sold that day before i went to store.so couldnt see in person.
i like the best buy unit but there isnt anything like it in my country.

most of my questions have been answered in this thread discussion.thanks to ever active benny90.

i wanted to know if i get to buy best buy model in US and import it to my country(india) ll it have warranty issues??(i ll ask my friend to get it for me from US)
in india there is no CTO and have to buy preconfigured models itself and these come with 1yr limited international warranty.is it the same for the US CTO models and best buy models?

BTW i also wanted to ask benny90 that he like to get the latest and greatest as he says then why not just get the vaio z save all the trouble of upgrading every component from ssd to wifi card??it finally ll cost same as all that upgradation isnt it??(offcourse you ll get last yr's processor but still) but if you had bought SB for other things like design then its different

 

what stunned me was that BBY laptop comes with blu-ray and a hybrid drive! and all that for below 1K!!! if not the crappy dedicated card i would of returned my CTO in a heartbeat.

 

1. Go To Vaio control center
2. Under "Power Management" Select "battery"
3. Check "Enable Battery Care" then click "Advanced settings"
4. Select 80% or %50
5. ???????????
6. Profit

 

It down clocks when the speeds aren't necessary... to save battery life. That's the Intel Core i5/i7 doing it's job, not the SB. This is NORMAL.

 

I'm a huge fan of the SB's design. I really didn't care for the Z too much, and when I saw the SB I knew that was what I was waiting for.

In all honesty I'm done. Just wanted to get the RAM, HDD, and the Wifi card upgraded, which is most peoples upgrade route, so they don't pay the crazy expensive OEM prices. 100% happy now.

BTW, it all came out in the end WAY less than a stock z!

 

Got the Crucial M4 installed, an interesting point, it scores a 7.9 out of 8.0 on the WEI.

Looks like Microsoft will have to add some numbers here in the future.

 

if you buy anywhere in Asia you will have the same warranty as in India but if you buy it in another continent like the US then you will have no warranty.

also upgrading the RAM and HDD is a normal thing for people who are not stupid enough to throw money away to OEMs. so the only extraordinary upgrade benny had was the wi-fi and at the cost of $25 i wouldn't call it a reason valid to rather buy an overpriced last year laptop. how is the Z latest or greatest? it's old and has average or below CPU/GPU compared to the SB...

ahah they should have done it already. there are lots of ssd's that are way faster than that one, the pro grade are twice as fast than the m4..

btw if any problem with the SSD comes up let us know, i ended up buying the Vertex3 240Gb because of some price drops and i'm seriously cautious about it.

 

Yea, I was actually looking at the Vertex 3 before going with the M4. I just couldn't do it with the Vertex 2 mishap. I'm sure they learned their lesson on that one though so the Vertex 3 should hopefully be top notch. Since were both basically beta testing these, though not as much as the last round, I'm sure something will pop up between the two, just hopefully something really minor.

Speaking of the pro ssd's, some pci express ones can run 1400MB/s and up, crazy, would run circles around our SATA III's, atleast in terms of IO's.

 

Best Buys is offering a 2-yr limited manufacturer warranty on the SC. By using an American Express, Am Ex doubles the warranty making it 4years (don't quote me). I need to call Am EX and check on it - may be too good to be true. I know with my VPC-Z, it only had 1 yr. warranty. I used an AmEx to double that to 2 years.

 

Why is this bad? Are you speaking of the gap underneath the casing where the drive locks into the case. I do see it.

 

Hello!
First post here, first of all, thanks everybody (and in particular Benny90) for all the information shared!
I ordered my SB on sony.lu on monday: (sorry in french...)
Intel® CoreTM i5-2520M 2,50GHz
Windows® 7 Edition Familiale
Français (AZERTY)
Noir
320 Go Serial ATA (5400 t/min)
8 Go 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Lecteur DVD
LCD 33,7 cm, 1366x768 + webcam
AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6630M 1Go
Pas de WAN sans fil
Pas de fonctions de sécurité
Batterie standard

I ordered too a Crucial C300 128gb to replace the HDD 320gb embedded.

Just for information, i sent an email to newmodeUS concerning SB's caddy, their answer yesterday:
Hello Renaud,

We are currently manufacturing the caddy for the new Sony SB. We will have the caddy available in around 60 days.

Thank you Renaud!

Best Regards,
Nandy

 

Are you sure? That's quite a mistake for a notebook review to make if that's the case. They specifically call it throttling...

Well whatever, I'm fed up with waiting and will probably order one today. Before I do I was thinking I'm going to need more hard drive space (X plane can take up over 70 Gb alone, so was wondering what hard drives (Benny90 you seem to be the resident expert?! ) people would recommend (I'm in the uk). How about this momentus drive? The ssd is going to have to wait for now, I'm way over budget as it is.

PS thanks for all the links and how tos, I've been quietly repping all your posts until it told me I couldn't anymore.