Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread

Because of the serious stalking issues from the that won't quit I've been advised to stop the following services.msc from run:

Human Interface Device Access
Terminal Services
Web Client
SNMP Trap
Secondary Logon
Remote Registry
Netlogon
Fax
Bluetooth
Distributed Link Tracking Client

Question: can this disable the volume control on the Sony AW290 remote control or should I be worried about another possible virus?

There's a thread on this saga here:

https://forums.comodo.com/anti_viru..._to_break_in_and_making_threats-t48121.0.html

 

Experimentation tells me the answer to my question is yes those settings disable the remote-so for convenience sake I should watch BluRay discs without an internet connection-much better than being infected again.

 

hi all

i wanna share with u all something.

5 days ago I decided that i had Enough from windows vista and i Brought

from my friend disc of windows 7 . now i install the disc and load all the

partition and see 3 partition : 1 of the recovery (11.5 giga) 2 c: system (os 287 giga) 3: d: all my personal data (300 giga). ok now i format c: drive to install the windows 7 and Not on purpose i format

the recovery partitions to , ok i finish the install windows 7 in drive c: and everything was ok and the recovery partitions add as a partitions of 11.5 giga (drive e)

ok after 2 days i decided that i want to restore my computer back to vista (didnt like the windows 7) with the recovery discs i made (3 discs)

i put the first disc of the recovery and the recovery center Appeared i decided to restore c: drive but when i press it i get error 403 ?

all I have left to do is the another restore the "restore complete system" but i will lost all my data in drive d:

so i broght from friends External hard drive and i backup all my data

i enter again the recovery disc press "restore complete system" and it works

in stage 1 There was a possibility to Select how many partitions do u want but only from the c: drive (287 giga) where is another 300 giga that i format ?

ok i chose to ignore and select 2 partitions C: 100 giga and 187 partitions D

90 min after, the restore was fine and i open the computer to look if everything its ok there andlook for the other 320 giga who Disappeared

Suddenly I'm in shock i see 3 partitions 1 c: 100 giga 2: d:187 giga and 3 e:300 giga and all my data is there !!!!

i even check from the windows 7 if i have the recovery partitions and yes that was restore also (Hidden partition)

can someone explain this ?

 

Thanks for update Rusty82.

What we learned from you. Recovery disk has 2 options.
1. Restore c: drive. - Must to have recovery partition otherwise error 403.
2. Restore complete system. - Restore only recovery partition and c: drive. Will not touch other partition and give you option to partition inside c: drive.

Your case is you don't have recovery partition so option 1 will give you error 403.
option 2 - you had c: + d: = 287 + (300 + 11.5) then select partition c: to split to 2 partition 100 + 187
After restore, recovery partition + c: + e: = 11.5 +(100 + 187) + 300. Assign drive name 187GB partition to d: shift old d: to e:
Surprise to learn Sony is smart enough to keep data (300GB) as is but at least from the result every thing makes sense to me.

I have two questions.
1. Why you didn't like windows 7? You are the first person prefer Vista over Win7.
2. What do you mean "i even check from the windows 7 if i have the recovery partitions and yes that was restore also (Hidden partition)".
Do you mean Vista? I thought you want put OS back to Vista.

Thanks.
HT2

 

i will come back Tomorrow With answers in all kinds of situations

we will know everything about The "Recovery Center"

 

It's a little overwhelming at the moment-I may go back to Sony Backstage (canceled the appointment last week)-I have surgery Thursday so that's on my mind. (Bursitis.) The computer seems to be working as long as I continue to follow disabling the msc.services listed earlier. If I don't I get kicked off the internet and I'm not sure what else. The hacking continues because I've heard beeps and voices through the speaker briefly.

(Sorry-that was meant as a reply to the Comodo thread I linked earlier.)

 

My AW120D (P8400 @ 2.26GHz CPU, 320GB HDD (5400 RPM), and 4GB RAM) came with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit. My score with Vista was:

5.2 Windows Experience Index
Processor: 5.2
Memory (RAM): 5.9
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming graphics: 5.5
Primary hard disk: 5.5

Just over a week ago I did a clean (custom) install of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. My score is now:

5.5 Windows Experience Index
Processor: 5.9
Memory (RAM): 5.9
Graphics: 6.4
Gaming graphics: 6.4
Primary hard disk: 5.5

As for using Windows 7, I like it much better than Windows Vista. Windows Vista no longer allowed you to drag a file from Windows Explorer into a command prompt, but this has been reinstated with Windows 7. Vista kept putting a lot of windows (e.g. Network and Sharing Center) near the top left of the screen and I always had to keep dragging them to the centre of my display. Windows 7 now centres these windows.

Windows 7 seems to be a bit faster to me and the annoyances of Vista are gone. I am liking the new Windows 7 task bar more and more each day.

 

ok i have the answers

when we buy computer from sony we get 2 partition C + D + recovery partition (Hidden)

when we do compete restore (discs or from the os) the recovery ask us if we want to spilit the drive C:

if u press NO the complete restore format 2 Manufacturer partition
if u press YES and spilit the C drive to 2 Partition The Other Drive (D)
is cange To E and not format because we add another Partition to the computer and the complete restore know only to format C+D

in my computer now i have C+D+E if i do another complete Restore he will take c+d ( who once was 1 partitions C: and format those and ask me again if i want to spilit . if i press No he will format all my partitions C+D= C Manufacturer and E will Returns to D ! and format again (i lose all my data)

if i press Yes everything that Happened me it will Happened again

HT2 This Is For You Man Now We Know All About The Recovery Center

now we can do complite restore from the discs or os and not lose all our data

im so happy to know all this stuff !

for those who delete the vista and install win7 and want to come back to vista Through the recovery discs without lose all your data u can do it !

I just want to know one more thing if we only format C and leave the recovery Partitions can we do Restore C: drive from the recovery discs..

I'll find out about that too

because some person from sony tell me that we cant do restore c: drive from the disc only from the os

but if we have the hidden recovery partition why we cant?

bye all ! HT2 please Respond me

 

Thank you Rusty82.

Now it is very clear to me how recovery station work now.

"now we can do complite restore from the discs or os and not lose all our data"
I think this is very good news. I have a small drive 320GB and come with only 1 partition (c: + recovery partition) so I will not benefit with this but my next drive will be bigger then 640GB so I will make 2 partitions and will benefit of not lose my data.

"I just want to know one more thing if we only format C and leave the recovery Partitions can we do Restore C: drive from the recovery discs.."
I bet restore c: drive will work. Let us know when you find out.

Thank you very much.
HT2

 

Hi Night Owl,

Thank you for your Win 7 experience.
I also upgrade to Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
There were couple issues so I was thinking to go back to Vista. But now I resolved it I decided to stick with Win 7 for now.

Let's compare our notes.
I have P8600, 320GB 7200rpm and 4GB.
After upgraded to Win7
5.3 Windows Experience Index
Processor: 6.0
Memory (RAM): 6.0
Graphics: 5.9
Gaming graphics: 5.3
Primary hard disk: 5.9

Compare to your score my Graphics score is low. I have to look for better driver.

HT2

 

Hi HT2,

Yeah, your graphics score is low. I assume you have the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 512 MB like me. I'm using driver version 8.15.11.8640 supplied by Sony Canada: http://esupport.sony.com/CA/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNAW120D&upd_id=5080&os_id=45

 

Hi Night Owl,

You are right. I had Vista driver 7.15.... I downloaded Win7 driver 8.15...
After installed new driver, my graphics score are moving up to same as your score 6.4 6.4.

Everyday learn something.

Thanks,
HT2

 

Hi HT2,

Good to hear that you got the Windows 7 8.15.. NVIDIA driver and your graphics scores now match mine.

I guess all I can do is buy a new 7200 RPM hard drive to bump my 'Primary hard disk' score from 5.5 to 5.9 to match your score (with your 7200 RPM drive). But it would probably only make a bit of a difference if I was editing video or using another hard-drive intensive application. I don't do that sort of thing often so a new 7200 RPM drive probably wouldn't make much of a difference for me.

 

Excellent information. I just updated my AW190 with the newer NVIDIA driver. Thank you. My gaming graphics just went from 5.3 to 6.3.

 

Hi ehosey2,

You're welcome. I'm glad I was of help.

 

FYI - you all can install the 195.81 drivers from laptopvideo2go.

they allow overclocking as well. 3D vantage scores are a solid 23% stronger than they were with those Sony drivers and no OC.

 

Hello ,
can you recommend me some drivers for Windows 7 ?I am interested especially in the video drivers.

I installed windows 7 on my AW 18.4" vaio and it looks very bad

 

these:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24003-forceware-185-85/

are still the bar for all drivers to be measured against.

 

guys, I'm having a problem controlling the brightness on my laptop after receiving it back from repair for a display-related issue.

as far as the system is concerned, the brightness goes up and down. the function key control of brightness goes up and down, but no actually change to the display. if I adjust the brightness via the power options, it indicates that the brightness is high or low, but again...no actual change to the display.

I've reinstalled all video-related drivers and the vaio event service, though neither should have been necessary considering the Sony repair people didn't actually touch the OS beyond perhaps installing the video driver. I've also tried a couple of other video drivers just to see...and nothing. heck, I even tried with no video driver of any kind installed. no luck.

if anyone has an idea what the hell is going on, please let me know.

 

just thought I'd follow up here.

my laptop has now seen 3 repair visits and has now been shipped off to San Diego for further repairs and returned to me.

the same day I received what appeared to be a perfectly functioning machine........I found another issue.

whatever they did when repairing/replacing my pretty RGB LED display...they didn't fix properly. what's wrong now, AJ? the laptop's brightness function no longer works.

those who have the RGB LED model in particular know how searing the max brightness can be at night and as soon as it started getting dark, I reached for my function keys to drop the brightness...the buttons worked and indicated that the brightness is about to lower...no actual brightness reduction. so I raised it all the way to max. again, no change.

welp...I reinstalled my video drivers...installed different drivers...uninstalled and reinstalled several hardware drivers....no change.

in my final attempt to figure out if it was actually a software problem (I just knew it had to be...right?), I installed Windows 7 on a secondary partition. installed and set it up perfectly. same result.

so...after my 5th repair call in 9 months....I'm calling it quits.

on Monday, I'll be speaking with Sony Customer Relations and I'll be seeking a refund. If they can't give me that, then the only acceptable option will be an exchange is for this exact model (not one of these stripped down AW335J's or something similar) with this exact screen.

since it was purchased from a Sony store for 2x as much as I had to pay for it (my company paid) and not from some random retailer, I doubly expect Sony to satisfy me. If they don't satisfy me, this entire forum will be the first to know.

It'd be very hard for me to give up on this laptop model, as the screen is to die for...but considering more expensive AW's don't even appear on Sony's website anymore, much less at any Sony Style stores I've called, my Sony future isn't looking bright at all.

I hope the rest of you RGB LED owners have a brighter future than I did. be sure to get that extended warranty.

oh, and I'll be sure to send an e-mail to that sonylistens link you posted a page or 2 ago. ([email protected])

 

Official MS way to change the brightness is go to Control Panel-> Power Options-> adjust slide at bottom of the page.
If you want save the setting then go to Change plan setting, adjust slide and click save setting.

If this method is working then you have Sony utility installation issue.
If still not working then suspect hardware issue.

If you want eliminate software issue, you need restore system and make sure still above brightness control is not working then 99.99% hardware issue.

Good luck.

 

yea, I had tried that. second thing I tried, really. no effect.

and like I said, I went as far as to reinstall the OS on a separate partition and install all appropriate drivers.

no change.

this was never a problem. get it back from a repair of the screen and it's broken.

considering this issue only began after the machine was sent to repair, my first inclination was hardware anyway.

my final idea (just had it) is to try to reinstall the bios. the notes they left from what they did indicate they may have done something to the bios, so I'll give that a shot. do I expect that to have any effect at all? No. was the Bios giving me any issues before I sent the laptop in for repair? No. but what do I have to lose at this point? I spoke with Sony today and they told me I had to send in the laptop to their repair center, but that they'd give me options from there.

this will be the last thing I do to see if this issue can't be resolved.

 

welp, I tried to upgrade the bios again, but the installer said it's the most up-to-date version.

 

Hi guys,
I`m planing to give myself a late x-mas present in the form of raid 0 with 2 Western digital Scorpio Blue 500GB HDDs. I will be replacing my standard toshiba 320gb with the 2 new in raid 0 configuration. Do I need to know anything particular in advance about the procedure of installing the new HDDs in an AW290 or about Win 7 raid drivers? Thanks in advance. Merry Christmas!

 

I am between VGN-AW41XH and VGN-AW31XY. Which one should I buy?

I don't mind the version of Windows. If I buy the 31XY model I will be able to upgrade it, because I have bought an upgrade version of Windows 7 Ultimate.

Also, I don't mind the battery life, because I'll operate it in my house, so it's not a problem.

Apart from their processors and the operating system, are there any other differences? I want to buy the most powerful notebook between them and I see that model 31XY has more powerful processor than 41XH. Also, their prices are identical.

So, which one of them would you choose for the maximum performance?

Thank you in advance for your responses!!

 

Hello,

Recently I purchased the VGN-AW280TY:

VGN-AW280TY
CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T9550 2.66 GHz
Memory 4096MB
HDD 1TB (500GB2 x2)
Screen 18.4" Full HD X-black LCD with RGB 3chip LED technology Full HD (1920x1080)
Optical Blu-ray Disc(TM) drive (reader/writer)
Graphics NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 9600M GT (512MB VRAM)
OS Windows Vista(R) Ultimate

I am having an issue on where the LCD remains on after I power off the laptop I mean...it stays with the back-light on with very bright kind of white...even if I close it the back-light remains on...it actually looks kind of nice so i initially thought that it was expected and after some seconds it should go off...however…it doesn't....

I noticed this because it is draining down the battery...I normally use the AC power with the laptop and after using it at night the battery is at 100%, I power it off and disconnect the AC from it...the next morning the battery is at around 10-15% of its capacity.

I am not that tech-wise as most of you are about Vaio and laptops so I am completely clueless about what is happening and how to solve it...

I would appreciate any insight from you prior calling Vaio Tech Support...'cause as you all know...it pretty much sux!

I can tell because I'm from Costa Rica and the Vaio Tech-Support Call Center is located in my country and I know most of the representatives working there their technical knowledge is not bad but not the best for certain customers, products and/or issues....

 

I'd try updating the BIOS just in case that fixes it, but otherwise I've never heard of a notebook doing that. You'll probably have to get it serviced or return it.

 

Thnx for the reponse. I did upgrade the BIOS to the latest version available on Esupport. I also tried taking out the battery with no luck.

I'm so pissed!! I bought it just two days ago and I don't want them to repair it I want another brand new good working notebook.

Let me know if you any idea of this or suggestion. I will try to take some pics for you to check.

 

If you didn't buy the AW with the 2 HDD configuration you are going to experience issues and you will have to buy some parts from Sony at a steep price.

If you have 2 bays available, then go to post 2343 for help with the RAID 0 start up. Thanks to ajreynol for this post. I would get the Hitachi 7k500's over the WD 500gb blues if you only want 500gb drives.

One thing, set up the RAID 0 before booting the OS, otherwise when you set the RAID configuration you will end up deleting the OS and you will have wasted your time.

 

First, let me say this forum rocks, thanks to all who contribute; it helped me a great deal in deciding to buy my AW just over a year ago.

Has anyone had issues with (and perhaps been able to fix it) playing blu-ray movies using the OEM InterVideo WinDVD BD for Vaio software. During playback, the movie just freezes and my hard drive light goes solid. Eventually I get a “WinDVD MFC Application” error. Even when I shutdown the program the computer is in hang mode and I cannot kill WinDVD.exe in the task manager. Usually, I have to do a manual shutdown, unless I wait for a very long time before it shutdown itself.

It has been this way since I purchased the laptop, only been having time to troubleshooting here and there. Sony support has not been helpful at all (don’t get me started with them), and the maker of the software Corel has not been of much help either. There seems to be issues with this problem as a web search brings up many different cases, but no definite way to alleviate the problem. I have all the updated drivers and even the most updated WinDVD software (which they say is supposed to help fix this issue) from the Sony support website.

The purpose of buying the laptop was to watch blu-ray movies on the go, it is painful that I cannot do such without it freezing on me. Any comments on this matter will be greatly appreciated. --Thanks

 

Don't know if this would help or not, but I've had pretty good luck with PowerDVD Ultra 9 for Blu Ray playback using an external USB drive (internal sata in an external enclosure).

Most stuff seems to be fine, with the exception of I've had some things where the program hangs trying to playback video overlays on Star Trek Season 2. It's just the bonus content, and weirdly it'll get through maybe 15 minutes, and then always hang at one spot-jumping past it it'll continue on fine, but I've had multiple discs do that.

So it's not perfect, but for the main show/film PowerDVD seems to work okay, and when it crashes it doesn't take down the whole system, I can just relaunch it.

Just remembered though that you guys are stuck with outdated drivers (officially at least)...could be a driver issue too. Wish Sony would knock it off and start letting Nvidia support their systems!

 

I'll second Power DVD9 Ultra. No problems, plus much better interface and options. Look for a skin to cover up the girls face, though. She's not bad looking, but I get sick of seeing her and that smile.

 

That is sort of odd...I forget about it though, and...yeah :lol:

I'm slightly annoyed by that...movie...database...whatever it is it tries to get me to register for though. I just ignore it.

 

I bought a new AW31ZJ/B today. It plays DVDs without any difficulty, but when I try to play a Bluray, nothing happens -the disc chugs around for a few seconds and then stops. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Edit: I did a system restore and it resolved the problem.

 

I don't have Blu-ray drive so I cannot test but check your WinDVD version.

There is a WinDVD update v8.0.20.89 in Sony support site.
Link for Win7 64bit is here. Look around their web site for other version.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNAW290J&upd_id=5223&os_id=45

Good luck.

------------------------------
This utility updates the InterVideo WinDVD BD software to version 8.0.20.89 and provides the following benefits:

Improves compatibility with discs that include BD-J (Blu-ray Disc™ Java) interactive features
Resolves an issue where the user is unable to playback certain Blu-ray Disc titles
Resolves an issue where the bookmark feature is grayed out during the playback of a DVD movie
Resolves an issue where playing certain movie titles using the WinDVD BD application may cause the system to freeze (stop responding)
Resolves an issue where Internet Explorer® may freeze (stop responding) when attempting to update the AACS key
Resolves an issue where an R10 error is received when attempting to update the AACS key
Resolves an issue where video distortion occurs during playback of a Blu-ray Disc movie

 

Thanks for the tip HT2, I was excited to see that update last week. It seemed like it would address some of the issues I was having. Tried it in every capacity and still my movies freezes and I get the same error. Talked to Sony support last night and the rep told me that my MFC library is corrupt and to download and reinstall the Visual Basic 6.0 SP6 run-time files. I did that, put on the movie and it still froze on me. I think they have more work to do on that update. I will get back with them tonight and see what path they take me down next!

 

I have an AW11S/B.
Is it possible to remove P8400 processor and replace it with Q9000?

 

Most likely NO for Q9000.

I think Euro version of AW is shipped with up to T9900.
AW has PM45. So compatible with Q9100 and QX9300. See link below.
But my guess is BIOS only support up to T9900.
If you have a chance to try, let us know the result.

http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?f...le+Intelﾂｮ+PM45+Express+Chipset

 

Thanks for the info. My version was with only 1 HDD and the second bay is completely empty, there are no electronics. Do you know what exactly parts do I have to buy from Sony?

 

I purchased a non-premium grey (titanium?) VGN AW 290 from the sony store as a refurb. The screen is nice, but I haven't been able to effectively calibrate it with spyder 3. The color adjusts fine but the gamma and brightness are not even close to where they should be for me to be able to use this for retouching. They are extremely bright, and the Nvidia panel is very basic. Even though the screen ID reads SNYO7FA, I suspect that this is a white LED only screen. Do they RGB LED screens come with some other color calibration tools that allow you to adjust the R/G/B LEDs independently?

VGN AW290 2.53GHz 320GB Windows Vista 64 Home Premium

 

You'll have to scour the forum for the links to the parts you'll need. I think there are some users that have done it though. Good luck!

 

Upgrade 1 HDD to 2 HDD.

 

Four screws cost over 38 bucks???

 

Too expensive even Sony's standard.
My guess is those are "B8" screws to hold the drive.
Most of times screws are came with the drive when you buy it.
Or you can take it from old notebook.

I hope that is the typo. May be $3.80???
You can buy 20pc for $5.00 from this link.
http://www.trianglelaptops.com/p-399-m3x3-laptop-screws-hard-drive-caddy-screws-20-pack.aspx

 

https://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/ doesn`t seem to ship to Europe. Any other ideas?

 

Fans turn on, no LCD activity, no beeps. Tried reseating the RAM, unplugging. Any other suggestions? Hopefully (or not) someone else has had this problem.

 

Has Sny given up on the cutting edge AW? The one that available at SnyStyle is a very weak contender. Just another sign of the times I guess

 

I think I'd finally like to get some use out of the several BluRay rewritable discs I bought for my AW290. Is anyone aware of a program that makes burning BluRay discs as easy as the Click To Disc Editor on the AW 290? Because without an additional program burning BluRay discs is a real pain in the compared to DVD.

 

Sound like a CPU or motherboard problem.
Remove all memory cards and external cables.
If you have 2 sticks of RAM try 1 stck at a time.

If still bad and your AW is still under warranty then stop here, put all back and call Sony.

If out of warranty try to borrow compatible mobile CPU to replace it and try.
If still not working my guess is motherboard.

Good luck!

 

Hi!
i've noted that the touch sensing keys (AV MODE S1, etc.), in the upper keyboard of my AW290 stopped responding. I've tried some checkpoints on the Windows System Recovery, then reinstalling various utilities from the Vaio recovery utility, and upgrading others from the Sony's support, specially the Media Launcher, that is the one i suspect is the responsible for the function of this keys, but no success yet.
Does anybody has this problem solved?