Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread

zdtata, I used Nvidia System Tools. Straight from nVidia. No special modification needed.

and I like the seek times on your 640GB raid 0 config. I'm awaiting shipment of my 500GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4 drives!

Someone set set a pair of those Momentus 7200.4 in Raid 0 and got these results:



ridiculous.

 

wanted you all to know that I'm now getting almost 2 hours out of my battery life by undervolting the processor.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

I highly recommend it. better battery life @ no performance hit.

 

I tested a few times now and I get about 2 hours anf 15 min. with no modifications when on battery life with maximum performance settings. Maybe I got lucky with this one.

 

Hello ajreynol

I have the same processor T9550 i m tryin to optimize my battery life can you post the values of the voltages and the corresponding multipliers.

Thanks

 

uj1987,

I'm probably not the best example of possible performance gains, as I didn't try to really optimize them. I just started at 1.0375V @ 10x, let the program automatically set the others, stress tested it and was satisfied enough with the gains to not bother with it for now. right now, it's idling at 1.60GHz, 1.000V @ 6x multiplier. 40C.

Better results and lower voltages can probably be had. Let us know if you go a lot lower and get even better results.

zedata,

it could be a combination of factors. your voltages might be lower than mine. your HDDs might be more efficient. you may have been running less programs. you might not be OC'ing your GPU like I am. I also didn't run a full drain test, rather I just observed about 20 minutes of drain and inferred the rest. who knows.

regardless, 2 hours + on the standard issue battery rocks. I'd assume the extended battery can go for at least 4 under these settings if only web browsing or working on Word documents or some such.

And bro, fix your sig. you don't have 8 MB of ram.

 

I was wrong. I didn't realize that you were speaking of the standard battery. I have the extended life battery. I did a full drain test and got 2.5 hours with the extended life battery when I had the PC on max performance. The programs I had running for the full 2.5 hours are as follows:

-Adobe Bridge - 50 open .TIFF files around 50mb each
-Photoshop CS4 - (editing 2 images at a time)
-Jet Audio music player - (playing an hour long 160kbs mix)
-Crystal Player - ( watched an episode of the daily show 20min. )
-Firefox - 6 tabs open and running CoolIris for Flickr gallery viewing
-AVG antivirus
-AdAware (I ran a system scan while on battery life)

and I did this all while connected to a wireless signal downloading a 2GB 1080p video file of a NASA show and screen brightness at it's max. The goal for me was to use the laptop the exact same way I would when at home to see how much time I can get out of the battery under those conditions but I am sure it is possible to get 3.5 if I put this in power save mode. and had dimmed my screen (...and not have a huge file downloading while running that many programs). I honestly believe that with voltage tweaking it is possible to get close to 4hrs but I wont be doing that in fear of getting BSOD.

I will put it in battery saving mode and test again.

 

I'm wondering when the next pre-configured AW model will be released. Does anyone have a guess, and a guess as to whether it will be steeply discounted given the state of the Japanese (and world) economy?

Thanks for any input.

 

I'm also curious for your thoughts about refurbished models on the outlet pages. What are the risks/disappointments of buying one of these?

Thanks again.

 

My previous laptop was refurbished and it worked fine for years.

 

I assume Sony provided some sort of "full" warranty on the refurbished laptop? I merely wonder how many lemons get returned due to missing pixels or other problems, just to have Sony try to push them out again onto more tolerant purchasers.

Also, was yours visibly damaged in any way?

 

I never had a Sony refurb, it was an HP and it looked great. It just had a few case scratches but as I said, it worked for years. I then started using a desktop more and now I have the new Vaio AW-290 that I wouldn't trade for anything.

 

Yes that is all that I have. 8MB of RAM with such amazing performance. I would have never guessed

Thanks for pointing that out. I made the correction then went off on a daydream tangent to a time when my PC had 256MB of ram and I thought that a 900Mhz laptop was a fast machine
Anyway, check out my earlier post to see the programs I had running when I got the battery results.

 

cool, zedata. and glad to be of help. ^_^

I've cancelled my Momentus 7200.4 preorder from Dell because they're OEM Dell HDDs (rebranded) and aren't eligible for Seagate's 3 year warranty. Only the Dell 1 year warranty, which is rather unacceptable to me.

I'm now looking at picking up a couple of Scorpio Blue 500GB HDDs. Faster transfer speeds (about double what I'm getting now) and about 30% better access times. I think that'll hold me over until the solid state HDDs drop in price. and at about $110 cheaper than the Momentus drives.

 

Hello everyone -

I was hoping I can inquire about Laptop bag/and perhaps a travel case for the AW series - I purchased the AW-190, and Have been struggling trying to identify some sort of case for my upcoming international trip.. other than the laptop sleeve

thank you so much

S

 

This one fits perfectly with no excess bulk.

 

I use the Targus 17" Blacktop Roller Notebook Case, CPT700US, for long trips since it is a roller and has many compartments. I put quite a few BluRays in there along with all my cables, some magazines and a change of clothes. When walking around I use the Targus CKT500 but that is a very snug fit so I wouldn't suggest it.

 

zedata

Hi how is possible that u have 8GB ?
what chipset and main board u have in vaio aw ?
are the aw series should be same ?
can i install 8gb? (aw-11S/B)

 

all AW's can handle 8GM of memory. it's just not common because it's not cost-effective for most.

 

ajreynol, said what I was going to and I pretty much only did it in hopes of getting a boost when working with larger files in Photoshop. The same goes for the processor I chose. I have a desktop for really heavy work but this computer is powerful enough that I feel confident editing on location and wont have to worry about bogging the system down too much when running multiple image applications. It was pretty epensive but I hope to use this for a while and in my line of work I should consider this as good an investment as one of my cameras.

CPU Alias Penryn 2.93GHz

Motherboard Properties -

CPU Type Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T9800, 2933 MHz (11 x 267)
Motherboard Name Sony VGN-AW290J
Vista 64bit

 

ajreynol, are the performance gains with your overclocked GPU noticeable when playing back hi-def media or did you do it for gaming purposes?

 

is your vaio very noisy when u have t9800 ?

 

I did it for gaming purposes. I can't say I've noticed any performance gains with Blu-ray's, MKVs or any other hi-def format. Then again, it never had an issue playing anything before I did the uptick. The gains for gaming, however, are meaningful if you're so inclined.

are there any kinds of video files you're having trouble playing smoothly?

 

i have p8400 4gb and blu plays perfectly on win 7 beta

 

It's very quiet. Of course when you play a DVD or BluRay the operational noise increases though.

 

Geforce 9600M GT 512MB- Every file plays fine. I'm able to play multiple 1080p files between 2 monitors with no issue. Not that I normally do that but it was a test that I did while seeing if the color adjustment worked properly.

 

Ehosey and Z

thanks so much for the suggestions, they are definitely better than what sonystyle.com has to offer

 

My speakers have excessive rattle when playing songs with any amount of bass even when only at 50% volume. Does anyone else have this problem or is it a manufacturing defect?

 

I think that is a general laptop problem...

It is however worse/better depending on the laptop.

Try to post an (appropriate) Youtube link so that other owners can compare with the same audio file.

 

Once in a while with a really bass heavy song that is on high volume I hear it a bit but only on the left speaker.

 

I recall reading a while back that this rattle is due to the speaker grille pressed too close to the actual speakers and that squeezing the grille with your fingers as if to pinch the grille could provide some lift away from the speakers, thereby reducing or eliminating the rattles. So basically, maybe from manufacturing processes or from some pressing of the grille downward has caused this problem. I own the AW190 and don't have this issue.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEIeb85DkCs

At 100% there is a very loud constant rattle throughout the song and even at 70% it is still noticable

 

thanks ehosey, this sounds (excuse the pun) like it could be the cause. however I cannot seem to stop the rattle using that technique.

A bit more detail on the rattle, it seems to come from the right hand side of the speaker 'bar'

 

Hey Guys and how do you watching blurays ??
i have it set multiple display on extend and in one window i have bluray screen and on laptop am surfing on internet
how cool is that

 

Nice - other AW owners, do comment!!

From a different model - the Sony SZ - and older model, it's rattle free - even at 100% ... but - at max volume it gets a touch distorted towards the end of the video.

 

I call that you tube clip poor video/audio quality, creating that rattle and distortion. I played it and yeah, it sounded bad, even with external speakers. Garbage in, garbage out. I then played a high quality clip with the AW speakers and it sounded fine, with no rattles. I will say on behalf of those who think the AW speakers are not the best, they aren't. They could be louder for such a big notebook.

 

I'm seriously thinking about buying the AW Premium, but I'd like to upgrade the CPU myself. I'm a pretty experienced builder/modder.

I can't find much info about where the cpu is on the AW, and what you have to take apart to get to it.

Any info about this would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

all my music is ripped at 320kbps i know its not the best but it shouldnt cause this rattle?

 

Hi am the same technician
I am planing to buy T9800 and (2x4GB) 8GB 1066mhz RAM

but with stripping down laptop i dont have exp. yet ... I will investigate after purchase CPU and RAM
Ofcourse all screws unscrew but need to use that plastic strip tool like for mobile phones and find all clips carefuly ..
there are no many infos on internet i think no one ...
a little few people keeping secret for now som are on ebay they selling AW/FW refurbished series they will not provide info about disassemble..

 

Evoss-x:

Why bother with the 1066 ram (versus ddr2 800)? You can't overclock. Do you think the BIOS will recognize the different SPD settings properly?

 

Is that 320kbps MP3 ? To me it sounds the same as wave and CDs...

Anyway, no, at 320kbps the majority will not hear a difference in quality and it definitely won't cause a rattle.

 

i think yes
i just installed new everest and supporting win 7 and in chipset info section shows this :
Supported Memory Types DDR2-667 SDRAM, DDR2-800 SDRAM, DDR3-667 SDRAM, DDR3-800 SDRAM, DDR3-1066 SDRAM

and before old everest showed me only Supported Memory Types DDR2-667 SDRAM, DDR2-800 SDRAM,

 

Can you put ddr3 in the AW?

 

This would be strange as DDR2 and DDR3 should be physically different...

 

Dunno but am sure it will work ..
If you take a look on intel com there is chipset PM45 and all info about it
All AW-series has got Intel Cantiga PM45 chip

http://www.intel.com/Products/Notebook/Chipsets/PM45/PM45-overview.htm

 

No, it takes DDR2.

 

Field Value
North Bridge Properties
North Bridge Intel Cantiga PM45
Intel Platform Montevina
Supported FSB Speeds FSB533, FSB667, FSB800, FSB1066
Supported Memory Types DDR2-667 SDRAM, DDR2-800 SDRAM, DDR3-667 SDRAM, DDR3-800 SDRAM, DDR3-1066 SDRAM
Maximum Memory Amount 8 GB
Revision / Stepping 07 / B3
Package Type 1329 Pin FC-BGA
Package Size 3.4 cm x 3.4 cm
Core Voltage 1.05 V
In-Order Queue Depth 12

Memory Controller
Type Dual Channel (128-bit)
Active Mode Dual Channel (128-bit)

Memory Timings
CAS Latency (CL) 6T
RAS To CAS Delay (tRCD) 6T
RAS Precharge (tRP) 6T
RAS Active Time (tRAS) 18T
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) 51T
RAS To RAS Delay (tRRD) 3T
Read To Precharge Delay (tRTP) 5T
Four Activate Window Delay (tFAW) 15T
Write CAS Latency (tWCL) 5T
Refresh Period (tREF) 7.8 us

Error Correction
ECC Not Supported
ChipKill ECC Not Supported
RAID Not Supported
ECC Scrubbing Not Supported

Memory Slots
DRAM Slot #1 2 GB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
DRAM Slot #2 2 GB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)

PCI Express Controller
PCI-E 1.0 x16 port #2 In Use @ x1 (nVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT (Sony) Video Adapter)

Chipset Manufacturer
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets
Driver Download http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets
BIOS Upgrades http://www.esupport.com/biosagent/index.cfm?refererid=40
Driver Update http://driveragent.com?ref=59

 

I asked this question while on the phone with Sony a month ago. The answer I was given is , no. They are physically different and the fixture on the board will not take DDR3 is what I was told and that seems to make sense. I will do a bit of searching online and see it I can find info other than the post above to support otherwise.

 

Does the Premium (VGN-AW290 Premium CTO) have a Compact Flash reader versus the non-Premium model (VGN-AW290JFQ). I have a D-SLR and it would be great to be able to ditch the card reader, but I haven't actually seen an image of one with a Compact Flash reader, just the SD and Memory Stick.

Also, any idea where Sony ships from?

Thanks.

 

The CF card reader is on the left side while the other card readers are up front.

 

Strange that the pictures with the specs on the Sony store don't show a Compact Flash slot. Is this only on the Premium model?

Can someone with a non-Premium model confirm if it has a Compact Flash slot?