Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread

I finished reading this whole thread by now

Im planning to buy a Sony AW, was originally looking for a 15-16" notebook, but made up my mind, I move it maybe once a month out of my flat, the extra 600g compared to a FW is bearable. and I get the bigger screen, better audio, one usb port on the other side, a full keyboard with numpad and last but not least a GF 9600M GT instead of a ATI 3650. Initially I ordered an Asus L50Vn which offered the most bang for my bucks, T9400/9650GT/WSXGA+ for 1200 € and I was disappointed. Plastic, fake plastic leather, whining, loose touchpad with crackle-like sounds when I clicked via tipping. Sent it back instantly.
So I went to a local store to get an impression of how the HP HDx16, which I was considering then, was built. I stood there, really not impressed, and saw the Sony Vaio AW and FW next to it. Wow, the quality. Looked at the price tags, WOW! I didnt know Vaios became affordable (for students like me ) over the years


Anyways, enough of my story of wanting to have this Notebook, I still have a few Questions:

- The Version I want to order comes with one 400 GB 4200 rpm HDD. As far as I read in this thread, there's plugs/connectors for a 2nd HDD? Can I extend those myself? How slow or fast in numbers could a 4200 rpm HDD roughly be?
- The German Sony Style site says it comes with "Legal Windows Vista Home Premium". The German Sony Style telephone support couldnt tell me wether it was 64 bit or 32 bit. In fact, they couldnt tell me anything. Total incompetence, typical call-center phrases, nothing else. Can I assume this will be 64 bit Windows Vista? Or is that regio-dependent?
- The Screen is classified as "X-Black with dual lamp" - I believe this means X-Brite, correct?
- Does a recovery Disc come with the computer? Will I be able to use that Disc if I replace a part of the Hardware, particularly the HDD? I can well imagine the HDD will be the bottle neck speed-wise.

Thanks for your replies guys!

btw, this is the config Im gonna get:
AW11S/B, P8400 2,26 GHz, 400GB 4200 RPM HDD, 2x2GB DDR2 RAM, 1920x1080 X-Black/dual lamp, GF 9600M GT 512MB GDDR3 VRAM, Blu-Ray Burner. 1499 € minus 100 € rebate they offer. The next better model has a better CPU, the T9400, and 2x320 GB HDDs, costs 500 € more. not worth it for me.

 

Has anyone run Folding @ Home on this baby yet? Any computer I buy, I run Folding on it all the time it's on and plugged in-and I'm wondering how this sucker can handle it.

Also, and cooling issues when using Nvidia's desktop reference drivers and running games?

Both excellent questions. At least in the United States they do NOT come with recover discs, but you can burn your own recover discs from them. Someone in this thread has said they're bootable so you can reinstall-I'd assume that means you can reinstall on your own hard drive, but I'm not 100% sure

 

Can anyone here confirm if the UK VGN-AW11XU/Q comes with 32 or 64 bit visa Ultimate, if it's only 32bit is it a straight forward upgrade or do I have search for all the drivers etc.

 

In the bios, under Advanced, there's only one thing in there and it says Raid Configuration. The selectable options are Show and Hide. If you select Show, you will see the option to go into the Raid config during boot.

 

My guess is that if it comes with 4gb of ram then it will be 64 bit. It would make sense to me since 32bit Windows can't use 4gb of ram.

 

Well, it can address 4GB total. And < or = 4GB 32 and 64-bit Windows are basically equal.

And lots of systems have been shipping for years with 4GB and 32-bit Windows, but at least in the U.S. the AW seems to just be shipping with 64-bit Windows...except it does have drivers up for (apparently?) 32-bit Business.

 

Europe had Vaios with 4GB and 32 Bit windows too.

Reason: The 1GB that cannot be used for Windows was available to the hardware.

 

The thing is that duiring the time that I tested the notebook in the store there was no available option under advanced config. I just simply displaied a blanck page with no options.

 

I think that some aw come with the option for raid dissabled through bios. Can all owners ho have an aw confirm that they have or they don't have the option to activate raid from bios.

 

Any AW shipped with two HDs will be Raid 0 (meaning raid is on) by default, the Intel Matrix Storage Manager under Start->Programs will confirm this.

 

Hi,
I have the ZB version here in the UK. It comes with two 320GB drives that I thought would be running some version of RAID or I would be able to configure it that way.
In my defence this is the first Sony I've bought (I have IBM T41 and have used Dell) so I didn't realise Sony disable most of the BIOS options. Since I don't like being dictated to on how I should use my machine this would have influenced my purchase decision.

I can confirm that my version of the AW11 has no option (that I can see) to enable hardware RAID in any way.

HoosierInFL what model of the AW11 are you using?

Installing software RAID may be an option if you really can't live without it but I've never used it so I can't say how well it performs.

In case it helps anyone, I have the Belkin 17" case NE-17 and it fits the AW11 series very well albeit a snug fit.

Cheers
Dave

 

I've checked this on my ZB (2 x 320GB) and there's no mention of RAID at all.

Do Sony release BIOS updates at all?

Cheers
Dave

 

yes they do

 

The version that I plan on buying tommorow is the AW11ZB so I think that the RAID option is disabled via BIOS. Maibe we can use the BIOS found on the other models to enable RAID.

 

The impression I get from Sony is if it doesn't come with something specifically specified then there's no way to add it.
Thankfully I have been able to install XP which is a bit of luck as my clients use XP (I use this as a business machine) but Sony haven't released XP versions of their proprietry hardware.

Vaio is fine if you don't want to mess with configuration and in this respect I classify it as any other Sony consumer product like a TV or a DVD player.
As a laptop these are the most restricted machines I've ever used.

I'd investigate software RAID before buying or just consider buying something else.

Dave

 

Thanks for the heads up about that. A bit creepy, although I don't care about RAID and I'm not sure what else I would need to access.

 

Try Medion - I think their BIOS is as restricted as Sony's - support...ähm... online in a messy way. Never tried phone support, but great when it comes to warranty issues, they are no problem at all.

 

Thanks for that, Mine turn up this morning and I confirm it's only 32 bit, one other question I'm trying to burn the recovery disk's but they keep failing, It's now reject 2 DL disks anyone else here had any problems with the burner.

 

I had a problem with Dual Layer DVDs on my SZ... and when I used a dual layer in Nero it tool forever.

My suggestion:
Use single lar DVDs.

 

Guys at 4GB or less it's pretty much a wash between 32 and 64-bit Windows. I want 32-bit because Gametap isn't completely compatible with 64-bit yet

 

Sorry to repeat myself, but I still want to know:

-How well does this handle running Nvidia's reference drivers (force installed), instead of Sony's presumably outdated drivers? Does it still stay cool and run the fan correctly? (A Macbook Pro I tried from last year handled them perfectly-it even still knew it was a mobile part.)

-How well do these stand up to being pushed HARD? I WILL be running the CPU in any computer I buy at 100% whenever it's plugged in, running Folding, and if not that, a game. I get the impression some notebooks shrug it off, and have really good cooling systems, and some seem like they can barely take it.

I'm going to be doing that for YEARS, every day, and I need it to stand up like a desktop does (and some notebooks do).

I have some general Sony warranty questions too, but I asked in a separate thread.

 

My model with Raid enabled is the 190 Premium. It came with 2 320gb drives.

As for using Nvidia's reference drivers - I'm not sure how to force install them or I would try. Point me to a tutorial and I will give it a shot.

 

Hmm...I actually wrote up instructions, but they're on Dell's old, now defunct forums.

Okay, I kind of found them-it's the first message (not sure if this link takes you to the first message, or some other one, but it's the message at the top).

http://old.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=game_overclock&message.id=5014&query.id=30307#M5014

 

Do you mean you cannot find the program or you do not see a Raid volume under it?

I assume you can still install another other OS on a Vaio with dual-boot?

 

I mean there is no BIOS option to enable RAID, the Intel Matrix Storage Manager has no reference to RAID at all and Windows Explorer lists the 2 320GB drives with their own separate drive letters.
These drives aren't in RAID.

Aside from the BIOS, yes it works like any other laptop but installing the OS isn't the issue.
Sony provide the non-buisness machines as 'built for Vista' such as the AW and FW series and initially refused to release XP drivers.
Sony, in response to customer pressure has started to release XP drivers for some machines that are 'built for Vista' but they are not complete and they don't exist specifically for the AW series.
I have managed to find drivers from this and other sites to get XP working to a reasonable level for my development work but that's no thanks to Sony.

Cheers
Dave

 

I installed Nvidia's reference drivers and selected the regular 9600GT card. Once it installed I loaded up World of Warcraft and I noticed absolutely no difference whatsoever in graphics performance. The driver in Device Manager does show it as a 9600GT.

 

Did you try it with any 3D benchmarks tests?

Maybe the raid is setup only for 500GB drives or the pre-configured Adobe RGB displays.

 

Well that's great to know it works at least! That way if/when a game needs updated drivers that Sony isn't providing, we'll still be able to just install their normal drivers

 

No, and I have no inclinations to do so. I don't care what a benchmark tells me. What I care about is what my own eyes show me.

 

Ever heard the terms objective and subjective?

What you see is subjective - benchmarks are more objective.

So:
Yes, what you see comes into consideration too. But you can only see so much detail. And this is where a benchmark comes in handy.
It may be a small difference, not enough to clearly see the difference, but enough to significantly alter performance.

 

BTW, I got a response from Sony Style Germany - they ship the AWs with 32 bit Windows Vista (Home Premium for all models except the top one with LEDs, which comes with Ultimate). So 32 bit Drivers have to be available.

And they dont come with a Recovery Disc (***, premium NB and they dont have a few cents for a disc medium?)

 

These discounts are gone now, so can only assume they are preparing for bigger discounts/price cuts for thanksgiving

 

Beware, I too did a force install of NVIDIA 9600 drivers on my AW125. Everything worked fine but when I tried to play a BD using Intervideo BD for VAIO (comes preinstalled) it gave me a bluescreen with memory dump.

Update: BTW the only difference I found with the new drivers was that it gives you some more options in the NVIDIA control panel to tweak your display which is nice.

-Jeet

 

There's a hidden partition that you can endlessly re-install the OS from without a need for a disk, I think that is why they don't throw an OS CD in there.

(Especially if you blow away the partition, then you need to call Sony for it and that is money for them.)

 

Crud...that's weird. I can see it not working for some goofy DRM reason...except I know people have used reference drivers without issue on other notebooks with Blu Ray.

Crud crud crud, that kind of rules out this notebook for me

 

Ever heard of me not caring?

If I can't see the different with my own eyes, I don't give a **** what some numbers tell me. If I can't up my graphics setings in games, that's all I need to know.

 

^ maybe others care, and since you have the option a benchmark score would have been nice, because it's a trans-platform comparable value?

anyways, I have a totally different question about speed: all of the AW's available to me come with 4200 RPM hard disc drives - how slow/fast is a 4200 RPM drive? anyone got some impressions, or maybe HDTach scores? Or knows which brand the drives are of? Specifically I'm interested in the 400 GB drive, it comes in the EU version VGN-AW11S/B.

 

Don't lose heart. I guess you can use some other software to play your Blu Ray discs. What I have noticed is that the preinstalled software changes vista color scheme to Basic when you want to play the BD (even on autoplay it wants to change the color scheme before starting the playback) this is where the custom VAIO driver kicks in. The original driver wouldn't do this and hence the memory dump (this is just a hunch as everything was fine on my laptop after installing the 'real' NVIDIA drivers except the BD playback)
I haven't tried it but I think with the real NVIDIA driver you will have to remember to change the color scheme manually before inserting the BD. Or, use some other BD playing software.

-Jeet

 

Weird...so that program or something just isn't compatible with Aero? If you've still got that driver installed, would you mind trying to switch it first to basic or whatever it's called and seeing if the program runs?

Wish this whole situation were more mature! I remember DVD being a pain at first though too.

 

Alas... work keeps me away from my AW.
I rolled back the driver to VAIO version as kids wanted to watch Kung FU Panda.
Will reinstall the non-Vaio version on the weekend and report back on how it works with manually changing the vista color scheme.

-Jeet

 

I've been using my AW for the past couple days, I've started to notice a couple of annoying little things,

The screen flickers every minute or so as if the battery/mains power has been cut

Reds appear to be over blown and bleed, when black bold characters are displayed there's a red bleed shadow around the chararters.

I have tried changeing the colour settings in the Nvida control panel, but I can't seem to get the right colour balance. Is there any other colour settings I can use???

Has anyone else had colour/flicker issues with there X-black LCD with RGB 3chip LED technology screen

 

I have the cheaper CCFL lit LCD panel on my AW but would hazard a guess that the 3 LEDs are not 'aligned' properly - maybe the red one is not caliberated properly - on your laptop.
This is similar to how you would get a color tint on video footage from a 3ccd camcorder if one of the chips is out of whack.

-Jeet

 

Is there anyway to recalibrate

 

Don't know. I think its a hardware issue. If I were you I'd ask for replacement.

-Jeet

 

p.layer, I can't speak for your screen flickering problem, but I can DEFINITELY speak for your over-blown reds problem with the RGB LED screen (which I have on my AW190 Premium)...

For this type of professional screen, the only real way to go is to get a professional calibator (software + calibator like the SpyderPro utility, which is what I use).

Before I calibrated my monitor, the reds looked way overblown - also the yellows. After running the calibration software, everything looks great again. What the software will do is create a color profile (.icm file) for your screen, and you'll load that into Windows Vista (under Control Panel -> Color Management). The software needs to be loaded into the background, too, to push that color profile into your video card.

Also one major thing of note: Firefox 3 is the only color-managed web browser I know of out there (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Therefore, you'll need to download the "Color Management" add-on for Firefox and point the color profile to that .icm file you created with your calibration software. That way, all the graphics & pictures on webpages you view will be color-managed and will look like how you calibrated the monitor.

Voila! The blown-out colors will be gone and everything will look like how they should look.

The LED RGB screen on the AW Vaio is amazing...but because it's so powerful, you just need to calibrate it first.

 

anyone going to write a review or are they any good ones out there?
Cheers
Samuel

 

Hey guys, I've had my AW-190 Premium for a couple of days and I'm pleased but not overjoyed. The screen is not nirvana. At times I think I like the look of the screen on my FZ series better. What I didn't expect though is how much fun I'm having with the Adobe software. I'm not a professional photographer either. The software is easy to use and the GUI is appealing.

I'll post a more detailed review down the line but right now I have a question/concern: I burned the recovery discs and after the fact I noticed that the hard drives section only shows, Vista C. I looked at all three Sony laptops in the house and none of them have a D drive and all have had recovery discs burned. Are the recovery discs and the absence of a D drive related?

 

No.
Sony Just gives you a C drive - and a hidden recovery partition.
Vistaallows you to "cut off" a bit of your C: drive to form a D: drive.

 

Oh, I see. Thanks for the response. To be fair, this is a really nice laptop. I just don't want people going in thinking the LED is the end all, be all. It has it's quirks as noted by others. I do need to get it calibrated. By the way, if you call in gto Sony rather than ordering online, you should be able to get the online sale and an additional $200 off from the rep.

 

The LED RGB screen definitely has its quirks, but I still have to say it is by far the best screen you can get on a laptop anywhere IMO.