Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread

of course i have ami bios .. all aw series have american megatrends ..
To the case ... hmm trying think why wont't activate raid config utility .. mmm

 

damak Try this : check o main page in bios if there is something new ..

Press F2 when the VAIO logo enter the BIOS.

When you have 2 drives in the system, in the BIOS (2nd tab over called 'ADVANCED') there is a show/hide option for the RAID. Change it to 'show' and save changes.

When the system boots with dual drives, you'll see a brief display showing the intel raid controller where you can press ctrl-I to configure your RAID options.

If the system does not detect dual drives (see the MAIN page in the BIOS), then you won't get the option to press ctrl-I when the intel bios shows up.

 

I'ts not by BIOS version 'cos sony usa even sony eu websites offering for all aw series to download their latest BIOS so check properly bios options
or try put the main hardrive (where is win ) to second bay ... just swap hdds ..

 

Just spoke with some guy in vaio club forum
He said u have to format and all hdds /ssds with no partitions
then should activate raid

 

Hi everyone,

I've spent zillions of hours learning about notebooks lately, I've narrowed my search to two brands and model groups. Sony Vaio 18,4'' is one of them.

But there are lots of them. My question regards display type:

- the cheaper Sony Vaio (with lower specs) has a 18,4'' X-black LCD with multiple lamp

- more expensive model has 18,4'' X-black LCD with RGB 3 chip LED technology

Did anyone of you used them for photo editing? Which one would be better? If the RGB Led is better, is the difference worth the price?

Hope you can help me, I grow weary of deciding and would like to finally purchase

 

If you can afford it go for the best display, I think the RBB LED has had a price drop anyway.

 

RGB LED delivers for photo editing.

 

I mentioned earlier about having the fingerprint reader and the connected USB peripherals go dead and having to pull the battery to fix. Well, this has happened two more times in the last week. Arggggg. A simple reboot does not correct the problem. To make it easier next time I'm running without the battery installed and living on the edge (power-wise).

 

Call sony. have them send out a repair guy.

 

Does this generally happen after some intensive use which will heat up the machine?
If so, then I guess it is something defective inside. Might be some conductors/capacitors getting overheated and not able to release charge until totally unplugged (by removing the battery).
Vaio power settings will be the other thing I'd look at.

-J

 

No, I don't think so. I've yet to determine the activity or circumstances that brings it on. There are quite a few other people mentioning the same thing, so mine is not unique in this regard.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3LHKD0LVXPJ1H/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_2

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=341828

The registry fix did not permanently resolve the issue as one can tell, removing the battery to cure a hardware problem is not typically a registry fixable issue. I would agree with the assessment that this is probably a design or component issue.

 

Do any of you guys know which replacement power supply units work with the Sony AW, from companies such as Belkin, Kensington, iGo etc.? I've ruled out the official Sony one as it costs about £90 in the UK.

 

not sure, but you might have good luck finding an OEM Sony charger on eBay.

 

Happened to me twice and I believe it was caused by static. Once after I had used the laptop on the rug and another time on the bed. Both times I unplugged the AC and removed battery for 10 secs.

 

Just in case anyone is considering upgrading their hard drives to the new Western Digital 750GB or 1TB versions, please note that you'll need to buy the version that is sold without an external case. I bought a couple of 750s from Amazon thinking that I could take out the drives for the notebook and use the WD casing for external backups. Well, WD has decided to use a circuit board that connects directly to the mini USB, therefore, there is no SATA interface to connect them to the notebook. I'm going to keep the one that I opened, just cause I don't think Amazon will take it back, but the other one is going back for sure.

Also, I'm not sure if the bare HDD has the WD SmartWare that loads as a separate CD drive and is unremovable even after format. It takes up about 500MB and is stupid.

As a plus, the casing is much smaller then the previous versions and it is quite nice. The drive itself is also quiet.

Lastly, why WD decided to use mini USB is beyond me. It's flimsy and they force you to use the supplied cable.

Don't buy this: http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Esse...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1255581673&sr=8-2

Buy this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136414

 

I have the same model and BIOS as yourself and also have no options in BIOS to enable RAID or during Boot.

From what I've read users who don't have raid have the ICH9M-E controller. However according to Intel this controller does support RAID 0 and 1. Intel Link. Users with RAID options have the ICH8R controller.

Seems like Sony put different chipsets in the RAID and non-RAID models and have disabled RAID features in BIOS for the ICH9M-E.

Which means if we were to upgrade one of our HDDs to SSDs we wouldn't be able to RAID them either as found in the AW21Z (2xSSD in RAID 0 and 1xHDD).

A question for users of models with 2xSSD and 1xHDD. Are the SSDs and the HDD connected to the same controller? If yes, is there a 4th SATA port should you wish to change your HDD for another pair of SSDs. If there is, could you create a RAID with all 4 SSDs?

 

Thanks for the warning, that's the way I upgrade my drives as I can use the case for the old drive.

Also, you mean micro usb. Mini usb is what they already had. A deciding factor for my purchases over recent years is a mini usb connector and I have spare cables at work, in my laptop bag and at home. I hope everyone doesn't start going down the micro usb route.

 

For anyone still looking for a bag for their AW.

I ordered the Ogio Politan yesterday after getting bored with my Targus XL.

The Targus XL has thin straps making it uncomfortable to carry with just the AW and AC adapter. There aren't any mesh pockets on the sides and the zipped side pockets aren't even able to hold 3 short usb cables comfortably. The main compartment doesn't have room for much once the AC adapter is in there and narrows at the bottom where the waterproof cover is squeezed in (not removeable). Also inside mesh pocket is difficult to get too. The AW fits in the laptop sleeve but it too big for this bag.

I've been searching for a week and there aren't many bags that will fit the AW. An option was the Booq Phython XL (discontinued). The cheapest I could find it in the UK/EU was £130. It had the extra pockets I want to organise my stuff better but the main compartment didn't look much wider than the Targus. My previous bag was a Swissgear and there was enough room/depth in the front to carry a lunch box flat. I won't need that much space all the time but it's nice to know it's there if needed.

Yesterday I noticed the Ogio Politan can easliy take a AW, laptop sleeve size is 18" x 12" x 2". The AW is 17.2" x 11.4" x 1.5". This bag has more than enough pockets and from the pictures the main compartment looks bigger than anything I've seen so far. And the best part, it's available for just over £30 in the UK. A whole £100 less than the Booq Python XL which I was seconds away from buying only because I was so frustrated with the Targus. The Politan also looks like it won't fallover when put down.

I'll bag should arrive on Friday and I'll get some pics up Fri eve.

 

Yeah, sorry, I meant micro USB.

What a hassle for me. The thing is though by removing the SATA to mini USB connector, WD was able to shrink the length of the drive quite a bit.

 

HI I think you can run raid it must work ... why one guy purchased aw with one simple hdd and he bought second sata cable and connected and his raid started working ?

one guy wrote on club vaio :
If the answer to both the above is yes, you will need to make at least two sets of Recovery Discs because you must format both drives if you want RAID 0 and reinstall everything in RAID format onto blank hard drives with RAID enabled. It is quite a big job and quite complicated because of the need to wipe both discs.


http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-022304.htm

 

I have 2 320GB HDDs and several times I've rebooted with unformatted partitions on both HDDs. No raid options have shown during boot or in the BIOS.

I'll try an earlier suggestion to boot with no partitions on both HDDs this weekend.

I still think the controller chipset is different. If someone does have raid enabled on a ICH9M controller please let us know.

 

Yeah guy called badboy he bought aw series aw 290
look here : http://www.jaykeller.com/vaio/

 

the badboy posted after asking of one guy about RAID :
badboy2k5
Notebook Enthusiast


Re: Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by mussadek
i have one question after ur upgrade to 2 SSD drive can u enable RAID0 in bios or u need to call sony for bios update, thanks


answer:
Once it sees a second drive the Sony BIOS automatically detects it and gives the option to enter the RAID manager during POST. But I don't plan to use RAID on this machine.
__________________

 

We'll need him to confirm what sata controller he has as his laptop is the higher spec led model. He ordered his with one disk and the raid option appeared when he added two SSDs.

Didn't your aw11s come with 2 HDDs like my aw11z, only diff being the BD-RE?

 

no mine arrived with one 400gb fujitsu
and he had same ... he bought ssds and they were totally empty and he put them in an powered up latop ..
I think the drives must be empty unallocated ?
try look in bios on main page some changes
when i red contents and index in intel matrix storage manager
it says , it needs boot optio rom program
if there is no possibility to run it that will be tyy grr ...
I ordered that second cable .. !

 

I'll be too busy at work to try tonight. If tomorrow night is quiet I'll wipe the partitions before a clean install of Win7.

Let's hope you're able to cancel the cable order if it doesn't work.

 

noo definetly not gooood oh dear !!
am in uk and cable is in the usa !!!

 

There must be some amateur way to enable RAID then ...
they managed to modify and program to enable VT on ami bios
there must be way to enable this ?

 

What do you think what is this ?
look where are arrows

 

try read this post as well :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385439

 

Interesting read. I did think disabling AHCI might be the way but there are no options in the BIOS. I'll see about reflashing my current BIOS using the same tools when I reflashed the VT enabled BIOS.

 

have you got that old bios R1051Y2 ???

 

R1051Y2 is the BIOS I'm currently using. I thought it was the latest.

Also, the JMicron Controller is for the CF card.

 

hi
yeah i realised that jmicron is cf ..
i have latest R1052Y2 you saying R1051Y2 so it cannot be done with BIOS ..
I think we are done here
shaaajt ...
it must be implemented and it's not obviously
damn ..
or maybe need to be changed something in device manager? ide ata atapi controllers and Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller ? try click on properties on that intelcontroller ..

 

I just realised something
What do you think do we need install these two things first ??
I filched it from aw190

some useful links ..:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-249414_14_0.html
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardw...hout-reinstalling-windows-p35-ich9-ich9r.html

 

Sony provide two Intel Sata drivers for the AW

- Intel SATA Driver Non-RAID
- Intel SATA Driver RAID

However, looking inside the .inf file they are both exactly the same and support "Intel(R) ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E SATA RAID Controller". So it's the same driver.

For us Device Manager lists the IDE Controller as "ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller". It's the AHCI we need to disable in BIOS.

 

Try installing the Intel matrix storage manager from Intel's web site for your chipset.

 

Coolguy

I did have that installed and it gave no options to configure anything, only a view of what was connected.

I've had a read on Intel's site tonight and AHCI/SATA needs to be disabled in BIOS and IDE mode enabled.

In the last 30 mins I've wiped partitions on both HDDs and the Advanced tab in BIOS is still blank.

I've also tried removed one HDD, then both and then inserted one HDD and both. Rebooting after each change and still nothing under the Advanced tab.

I've just reflashed the latest BIOS (R1052Y2) with both HDDs in and still no extra options.

The last thing to try is a BIO reflash with no HDDs.

Watch this space.

 

Didn't work.

It seems either the BIOS disables RAID for the ICH9M controller or it's disabled by model name as it's the same BIOS for all AW models.

I haven't seen evidence yet of anyone using RAID on a ICH9M controller so it has to be that. Intel's specs show the controller is able to support RAID.

For people who are running HDDs or SSDs in RAID are you please confirm what model your controller is and if possible a screenshot of what options are available under the Advanced tab.

 

this is manager of one guy what he wrote 6 or 7 months ago ..
picture he uses even old bios ..
try uninstall ahci controller driver then reboot ?

 

I have the AW21XY/Q with ICH9M with 2 SSD's in RAID 0.

I think your right, the reason I didn't go for a lesser model was fear that there would be no RAID based on comments from random forums I scanned over.

But hey confirmed RAID on ICH9M here

 

tomcom2k

What is the full label of you IDE controller in Device Manager?
What's the BIOS version?
How is your RAID configured? 2 SSDs in the same drive bay or 1 in each?

I'm not sure if being in the same bay makes a difference though as the pics posted on the other guys install show his SSDs in individual bays, like my HDDs.

I'm not too fussed about RAID myself and probably won't use it with my HDDs. If I do decide to upgrade to SSDs in the future then it would be nice to know the option is there. Also how and where it's been disabled.

 

I downloaded the new Win7 x64 drivers from the FTP site linked in the other thread and used them for my clean install yesterday. During the couple of hours I had left at work to install apps everthing worked OK.

I'll add them to my drivers thread later tonight once.

 

Has anyone tested the read/write performance of a CF card. I'm thinking of buying a Sandisk Extreme III (30MB/s) or IV (45MB/s) and need to know if the reader can handle those speeds.

Had a bad experience with a previous laptop where the internal CF reader was slow.

 

So RAID running already ??

 

No RAID, back to the way it was.

Going to wait and see what happens when you get your bits on order. Is it just a cable or connector too?

 

Oh dear of course normal whole cable
don't they dare send me some part of cable !!!
just like yours ..

 

so I installed the Control Center Win 7 drivers from the Sony FTP site and I'm finding that when I automatically allow the control center to automatically control the color settings for blu-ray movies, the DVD/BD setting is simply too dark. it crushes all the blacks.

could it be that the color control Win 7 driver on the FTP site is not for RGB LEDs?

note: BD movies looks perfect when I manually switch it to the x.v Color profile...but it doesn't switch to that profile by default. it goes to DVD/BD which, again, is too dark.

...and if anyone knows a way to configure the certain apps (like the BD app) to default to a preferred color profile, please let us know.

 

I meant a SATA connector board. If yours only came with one HDD then it may have also come with just one SATA connector.

Jay Kellar marked a SATA connector board as a new part plus the cable which is why I asked.

From the pic below the right end of the cable looks like it just has pins which are held in place by the motherboard. It's not clear how the cable is held in place on the left or if it's hardwired to the SATA board.



I'm trying to help you, no need for the sarcasm. Something you seem to enjoy in this and other threads.

 

I didn't install any utilites from the FTP site. From previous experience with the SZ I've kept original utilities including Control Centre which I know work. If your colour settings worked with the original utilites then I'd keep them.

BTW. The Fn brightness keys work with the new nvidia driver on the FTP site. The first thing to break when installing a new graphics driver.