Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread

Have u used isight with any apple computer.. Quality is second 2 none..

 

that's cool. try any brand other than Apple. Let me know what you think then.

 

Questionable about the paint chipping? I put a photo up on the board, and it´s chipped off even more since that photo. I´m sending it in this week for RMA.

 

The soul of the computer is unbeatable that I can assure. It´s the exoskeleton giving the pains!

 

Hopefully you can get it squared away by Sony quickly and they don't wipe your data in the process.

 

So did you contact Sony regarding the chipping paint? If so, what did they say? Did they authorize an RMA? Mine is chipping more every day.

 

same here. unsightly chipping ftl.

 

I got in contact with my store who previously talked to Sony and they will probably exchange the piece or give a new one. That´s the latest news I have. The laptop has to go to Madrid first where Sony headquarters are. I know nothing more at the moment, but I´ll keep you all informed with the story.

 

Send photos of your chippings!

 

Everybody is raving on the screen but mines dont seem that hot.. Maybe because its not calibrated but mines looks average and doesnt look 1080'ish.. I was talking about the web cam because i looked grainy on aim and msn.

 

Oh and my battery only charges up to 80% then thats it.. So today Im going to drain my battery until it turns off and then recharge it. Hopefully that should fix it.

 

You have "vaio battery care" on thats why it only charges to 80%. You can turn it off in power management somewhere I don't remember.

 

Correct. Push the "S1" key near the speaker. or open up the Vaio Control Center the standard way (through the start menu).

From there, click on Power Management --> Battery Charge Functions --> Advanced.

read the information on the following page and make your decisions accordingly.

I keep mine at 50% almost all the time.

 

Whats the purpose of that.. Im just curious.

 

Most web cams look crappy, it doesnt have anything to do with screen quailty.

 

The required Lightroom serial number is in a Lightroom installation guide that you can find in the start menu. Just make a copy of the number and then you can install the latest version directly downloaded from Adobe.

Gordon

 

Too late Ive already uinstall Lightroom. I need to find a way to grab the serial and app from the recovery disk.

 

battery ultimately lives longer.

 

Man I have to get these colors straight.. I only have problems with greens and reds.. Its like my screen turns them into lime and fuschia or something.

 

jerome why dont you help us help you and post some good pictures. Have you tried the color control in the nvidia control panel? Perhaps reset them just to be sure

 

Thanks so much. I followed your instructions and the process went very smoothly.

 

Ok there go a screen shot of a random website

 

excellent.

 

sometimes, it's the website designers purposefully doing it like this out of compensation for most monitors not having good color reproduction.

go here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

look at the primary colors in the peacock logo's feathers. If those colors look properly colored, your display is fine. it's the websites you're going to that you have the problem with.

I also recommend this:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

to fine-tune some of your display settings.

 

I've changed my nvidia desktop color display settings to the following:

Color, Brightness, Gamma

R, 45, 47
G, 45, 45
B, 45, 43

Of course this is unscientific, but in my room with my lighting, it makes the grayscale pattern look very neutral from left to right when using the patterns found on this webpage: http://www.vanity.dk/tft/monitorTest_scale.html

If you move the cursor to the top of the page, a menu pops down with lots of patterns and choices.

 

i only have brightness, digital vib, and contrast, image sharpenining is grey out and last is gamma...

I assume that I have to enter these numbers in the slider but why are there 2 sets of numbers

 

Im not sure if this is a good judge of quality but Ive installed those Dreamscene in Vista and Im using the second on with the windows logo with the light flare coming from behind it and my certain areas of that video looks grainy as hell.. Now Im not sure if its because of the drivers that I had to reinstall when I wiped my hard drive clean.. One thing I can say is that I have a generic monitor driver when I chk my display.. It says " Generic PNP Monitor on NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT"

 

Yes, use the sliders to arrive at those numbers for each color: Brightness and Gamma.

You may find it useful to display a black and white background on the desktop while making these adjustments. Take a color photo and change it to grayscale and make it the background image.

Some of the windows wallpaper that say black and white are not grayscale and actually have some green in them. You can use something like the free irfanview (google it) to load, convert to grayscale and save it with a new name and use that.

The site that ajreynol posted is also very good for reviewing the display.

 

So these numbers are only for brightness and gamma right..

R, 45, 47
G, 45, 45
B, 45, 43

I went to that site as well it was pretty useful, it reduce the brightness of my reds but it still look a lil flaming . But not as bad as before

 

Yes. Experiment and adjust to suit your lighting conditions and preferences.

 

I tried giving you guys some rep but it said that I had to spread some around.. But thanks for the help fellas.. Now if I can only get those installations files off the CD I'll be great

 

Jerome, try this site to use as a reference to tune your colors. Its also a GREAT place for free wall papers to really show off the RGB screen.

http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/any/

 

anyone have this system?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117886

If so how is it? hows the screen? anyone run 3ds max or Zbrush or After Effects on it?


Should i get this
DELL XPS 16
Intel® Core™2 Duo T9550(2.66GHz/1066MHz FSB/6M L2Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium x64 Edition
4GB 1067MHz DDR3 SDRAM
ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3670-512MB
Edge-to-edge Glossy 16 inch Full HD RGB-LED LCD display (1080p)
500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive



or this Sony? same computer as previous link

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117886


Does the Studio xps 16 really get really HOT where your palms sit or just when you play intense games?

 

how is the lightbleed on this system? I am looking at this one on Newegg. How is the screen is it nice?



SONY VAIO AW Series VGN-AW290JAH

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117886

 

For TN panels the screens are really good.

 

what do you mean for tn panels, is that screen so so, are tn panels not that great usually?

and is this a good system? I am just worried about the light Bleed and if the screens pretty nice

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117886

 

By laptop standards the screen's really good. TN is (by far) the worst of the three current types of LCD screen technology. Frankly I don't think it should be used in ANY TV, monitor, or even laptop screen, but as far as I know, ALL laptop screens use TN panels.

 

Does anybody know how to install a 2nd hard drive? I ordered the parts and disassembled the bottom of the laptop. I cannot find the header on the motherboard to connect the SATA cable.

 

would everyone recommend the


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117886


also how bad is the glare on the screen? and are the colors nice bright and vibrant?



Anyone have this exact laptop? need opinion quickly. If I order it I need to order it today or tomorrow

 

Man your a day late and a dollar short. You could had jumped on the costco deal with me and 7 others.. We all got in on this deal.. I think it was like 1499 or 1599.. Im not sure.. I was looking at the laptop you picked out from Newegg. The only think I didnt like was the face it didnt have a Blue Ray drive. Theres another laptop out there as well thats pretty good for aruond the same price. Model number is 235J and 230. Just do a google search for Sony Vaio VGNAW 235J

https://usm.channelonline.com/netsoft/storesite/Products/Specifications/?id=M004695641

 

Never mind. Sony shipped me the wrong SATA cable. There is a wider header next to the first one where the correct cable should fit into.

 

The screen on the AW series (like the one at newegg) that is not the matte screen is actually quite good and the glare is very minimal if not the best glossy screen I've seen. I would not hesitate to own one unless you have totally uncontrollable lighting in your primary working location.

The colors are also very good and unless I had them side by side, I don't recall seeing any deficiency in the non-premium glossy version at the local Fry's.

 

so the lightbleed on this laptop isnt bad

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117886


and hows Sonys Warranty?

 

No, I did not personally notice light-bleed on the model at Frys.

Warranty is usually a year standard retail although ordering fron Sony online provides other time periods for warranty extension.

My 2004 Sony a290 notebook has been going strong for 4.5 years almost everyday with no issues and the original hard disk. I hope my AW fares as well.

 

Like all notebooks the straight LCD displays will most likely have lightbleed, the LED LCD displays will not.

 

I'm looking at an AW with:
2.66 ghz
4gb ram
nvidia 9600 gt
640 gb hdd at 7200 rpm
no blu-ray
rgb-led screen
for $1894

I'm also interested in the hp hdx 18t with:
2.66 ghz
4 gb ram
1 gb nvidia gt 130m
640 gb hdd at 7200 rpm
blu-ray
all for only $1719

I much prefer the sony's style and the build quality is probably better, but the hp is so much less with even better features. I'll mostly be using this laptop as a desktop replacement and for games like the sims 3, so nothing super intensive.

Which would you choose?

 

Intel 5100AGN Issue ( (fixed)

I had significant problems lately with my Wireless-N, dropping the connection a lot, requiring a switch-reset to restore it. It's the Intel 5100AGN. I upgraded to the latest 64-bit Vista drivers from the Intel site (version 12.4.0.21), and since then I haven't seen a recurrence of the problem, which was happening several times an hour lately.

 

the LED LCDs have light bleed. maybe less apparent, but in a dark room, it's very noticeable.

 

Did anything else occur with resolving your chipping paint? Will Sony replace a part (on mine it looks like the entire lid would have to be replaced). I was going to let it go on mine, but I keep looking at the expanding chipping and it is beginning to really bother me. I think it is a design defect. I may call them this weekend. Just curious as to what happened to yours. Thanks

 

How long have you had your laptop and did you purchase any additional warranty on it. Im curious because if mines starts to chip I want to send it back to either Costco or Sony. But I dont want to wait until the last minute and find out that Im out of warranty. Also is it me but I feel like the laptop lid is a lil loose. Like that flap part where the camera is at.. Im talking about the black section that sits right above the lcd screen..


I think its a dumb idea to have that camera that high up on the lid. Because Ive notice when I open my laptop I put thumb prints on the camera..