Official Sony VAIO AW Series 18.4" Owners thread

From earlier in the thread I know that in order to upgrade from a 1 HDD setup to 2 HDDs, you need the following parts

Now, I know that people have done this upgrade before and it is simply not possible that you really have to pay $152 for 4 lousy screws... I don't know what Sony means by "F SPECIAL APPEARANCE M3X3 Screw" but if it's identical to this one, then it should be certainly possible to find all the parts cheaper. Does anyone know more about this upgrade?

EDIT: I also know this has been asked before but has anyone tried stuffing a Q9100 with the latest BIOS version? Its 10W higher power consumption doesn't really worry me as it is supposed to even run slightly cooler than the T9900.

 

do you want FPC cable ? ill sell it to you ..
and i want to upgrade to X9100

 

Hello Guys I just upgraded CPU to Core 2 Extreme X9100 aah great GPU fastest on AW-Series !! I can overclock from 3058 to 3190

 

overclocked

 

Good morning. Has anyone here with the AW125 (Best Buy model) successfully upgraded the RAM to 8GB? I keep seeing conflicting specs regarding the max capacity. Thanks in advance.

 

Orionz, I have a VGN-AW290 and the second bay has no connector. I cannot PM you because of some privilege issues. I'm interested in the part. Can you help me out? Thanks.

 

@melonwithice

@eehpeehthreeh

am sorry guys but .. you have something wrong with eyes? or u just cant see my posts? or signature???

 

@Musuta

My apologies, I'm not too familiar with the differences in model numbers and didn't know if that would make any difference as to what the max RAM capacity was. On Sony's support page, the specs for my model list the max as 4GB, but I've seen claims of 8 on other pages without much detail. I tried using the search option, but it wasn't pulling much up with the keyword combinations I used.

 

where can I buy this AW series with 18.4" fully HD laptop. I am in Houston now
Thanks in advance

 

There is only one selling on ebay USA
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Vaio-AW-18...tops_Nov05&hash=item27b75153b1#ht_1478wt_1139

 

How much do you think an AW290, 1tb, 2.66 is worth?

 

Used I would say your lucky to get $1000.00 for it.

 

Yes, that's about what I figured too. Thinking about selling my AW and 13" MBP and getting a high res 15 "MBP and calling it a day. Wish me luck.

 

FYI - tried a QX9300, machine won't even post. Aptio (BIOS) toolchain hasn't been leaked yet, so modding is a no go.

 

that's why i bought X9100 for 150 pounds

 

I was looking through Service manual and I have spotted one thing what i never seen in vaio AW series laptop
Can anybody tell me what is that thing screwed on to the mainboard? there says BCAS Board what is that for???

 

I wonder if Sony will ever bring this model back, at least the form-factor, I mean they did it eventually with the Vaio P series that originally came out in early 09 which was the successor to the C1 Picturebook series from 98 to 02. Same with the current 11.1" X series replacing the X505 from 03-04.

 

That's a form of smart card reader that comes with the VGN-AW70B - it is used as a subscriber card for Japanese TV (B-CAS). The removable cover on the bottom of the case that has 'magicgate' written on it (which refers to the memory stick slot above it) is used for inserting/removing these cards. The part number for the board is A1563304A.

Example photo:


The flex cable plugs into the USB bus. I've been thinking about modding a GemPC USB smart card reader to sit in this area of my AW, but that will have to wait.

 

hah i just found website that slot is in my tv ooh deeaar and i was wondering 4 years what is it ..

http://www.b-cas.co.jp/www/failure/index.html

 

Actually i found hat there is adapter for it and its actually in UK
Using a CAM with your Digital TV

 

Has anyone here had any problems with their headphone jack after going from Vista to Windows 7? I can't seem to get mine working, when anything is plugged in, the sound still comes out from the speakers. I've tried reinstalling the drivers on the Sony support page and even got some newer ones from Realtek's website. Nothing worked on either occasion. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi everyone, my first post here some amazing info from everyone here. Im in a bit of a bind I did a clean install of windows 7 on my AW 290j. Seems like everythings working though i had my raid set up fail in 2 days. Anyways ive been doing a ton of searching and im not to familiar with Color Management. Im trying to get a color profile for the Adobe RBG LED screen, i may be overlooking something that is already there. I am starting school soon and i am running out of time messing around with this stuff. If anyone could help me out id appreciate it.

 

I have the same laptop and never tried to get a color profile. I always thought the display looked stunning as is with my pro camera. What are the reasons you would need this?

I have had two RAID setups fail in the last year. I decided to go with the Intel SSD 160gb and one 1TB HDD. The SSD performs better then a RAID.

 

Not I!! This sounds like a hardware issue. I assumed there was a switch in the jack that cut off power to the speakers when you plug that 1/8" jack into it. Not sure if that's the case though.

 

I have 2 500 gb 7200 rpm SS hybrids, they are fast but not sure why I would have a raid failure in 2 days, original drives never failed in over 2 years. As for the color profile it just seems off from My old drives when I did a windows 7 upgrade, on the new drive I did a clean win 7 install then loaded my drivers. I think the sony monitor color profiles did not load with the clean install as it does not seem right. I even popped in my old hd's and tried to see if I could find a way to gank the files but I do not know anything about how these files are handeled. And sorry im writting from my iphone as my AW does a few last updates before I creat a system image.

 

You are at the mercy of the weakest drive in a raid. My first lasted a year and a half and the second 30 days. I hate reformatting and setting up all those drivers and programs. I had no issues with the monitor color on either account.

 

Greetings,

First may I say thanks to all who have posted in this thread over the years - it has been a life-saver on several occasions during my Vaio ownership days.

My current monumental error: during an attempt to flash the BIOS on my AW11S/B, the firmware update failed and I have been left with a black screen from startup (no Vaio logo, a bit of HDD/optical drive noise but otherwise nothing). The problem has been described elsewhere - notably here by Denus back on page 325, and it appears that booting from a CD with an AMI.ROM backup file might just save me the £200+ of getting a new motherboard. Fool that I am, I have no BIOS back-up file, and the machine is out of warranty.

Could one of the users on this forum possibly please provide me with a copy of this file from their machine's BIOS? Rapidshare, e-mail (depending on file size), or any other carrier method would be aces: I am near the end of my tether, and any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am even willing to try backing up from a different AW-Series BIOS ROM file if necessary, as I figure the damage can't get any worse from here.

With thanks and regards...

 

How do you back up the bios.....I have R1054Y2 American Megatrends. Is it possible to back this up?

 

Hello,
I own a VGN-AW110J laptop. I wish to upgrade its HDD, which is SATA. Does somebody know if I can use a SATA-300, SATA-II, or SATA-III in it (even if board only supports "plain" SATA)? I'm having trouble finding a nice HDD (7200rpm, 500GB+) that is "plain" SATA, and the technician at Lambdatec wasn't sure about using SATA-III or SATA-II in my laptop.
Thanks for any tips!
Nivaca

 

Hello,

There are some pretty decent instructions here: don't know how accurate they are, but the AMI Flash utility seems to be the thing for backing up the Vaio BIOS. The American Megatrends whitepaper on restoring the BIOS can be found here.

Like I say, if you could wing me a copy of the ami.rom file when you're done I'd be eternally in your debt...

 

Most of the instructions are for updating the bios.....I am confused on how to just simply backup the bios file. I need clear step by step instruction. I can only use a flash drive no floppy.

 

I just bought a HDD1 FPC thinking that it would fit into the HDD2 bay but as I have found out it is not the same as the HDD2 FPC.

Can anyone tell me where I can get a HDD2 FPC in the uk.

Thanks

 

Hello guys

I have Vaio VGNAW360J for 1.5 years
After I installed Win7 Ultimate 64b and all the drivers, the Motion Eye cam still denies to work properly... It is interesting that when I close and open the laptop's lid, Windows shows a notification that it was unable to install the driver for Unknown device.. Webcam doesn't work. Even after I've downloaded and installed all the drivers and software from SonySupport site.
Interestingly, there was no webcam driver for Win7, only software.

Also, I am interested if it is possible to upgrade Cpu, Gpu.
I keep an eye on the new F series laptop, though... what would you prefer? does it make sense?

My config: AW360
Intel Core 2 Duo processor P8700 2.53GHz
3MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB Speed
6GB DDR2 (PC2-6400) RAM (4GBx1 + 2GBx1, Max - 8GB)
500GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512 MB

Vaio F possible configuration:
Intel® Core™ Quad i7-840QM processor (1.86GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.20GHz
500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Blu-ray Disc™ Read and Write Drive
16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M GPU (1GB VRAM)


Thank you so much,
Dimitry

 

Hi Dimitry,
If you're using Arcsoft webcompagnon, i think you better go to ArcSoft website and get the latest webcompagnon3.That's what i did, and it works fine.
regards

 

that would be so awesome if they will support C Quad Extreme QX9300 ..
and RAID 0 support for 4 drives it would be fantastic machine forever

 

Hi

Can SomeOne Find The Specifications Of My Sony Vaio AW11Z ?

 

Hi guys , i am a sony vaio AW11M/h owner , i recently upgraded my BIOS and with doing that my battery started to malfunction like the charging is not right and the laptop just dies without hibernating or anyything and sometimes i can't even switch it on unless the AC is in it even thought the battery is has charge , has anyone come across this before and if you have is there a solution to it??

 

I realise this is digging up an old thread, but was there ever a docking station release for the AW series? I can't find any sort of info on one so i'm assuming not.... but thought it was worth asking!

 

Hello to everyone, long time no see!! Moved house and just recently got my line up for internet. Big thank you to mujja for win7 software, drivers and guides. Helped a lot,especially getting vaio apps in the right order for correct use.
Currently Windows 7 has worked up to this day with no flaw and the system runs much faster than with vista.
Hardware related issues I´ve had the palm rest affair and little peel off with chrome outter finish but got these issues resolved from sony as well as stripping away the whole keyboard and fitting a new one due to not seating correctly.
Read a few posts back issues with battery life, mine discharges itself around 5% (example battery on 80% charge-drops down to 75%-74%) and attention, with the unit totally powered down, i.e go to bed turn off laptop and next day charge descends. It´s not a headache for me, laptop is nearly always connected to mains.
Will soon be upgrading RAM and HDD or ssd´s, dont know which yet.
Sorry to hear ajreynol is no longer in the family but I hope he keeps posting here because he´s a great help!
I`ve seen his overclocking setting a few posts back, the one´s I asked for, but I´m not brave enough to try them out. Not yet anyway, but thanks for the post.
Anyone tried?

 

HI
Who want a really good laptop i sell my
eBay Österreich: Sony Vaio VGN-AW11Z/B T9400.FullHD TOP OVP!!! (Artikel 110639981657 endet 31.01.11 18:04:10 MEZ)

 

Oh heck!! My battery died today. Left it unplugged to drain the power at nearly 100% and after half a minute the machine just switched off instantly losing all work and after powering up plugged to mains I got the message windows couldn´t start this could be due to some hardware change. Repeated again with only battery on mains off and same thing. I know it´s the battery. Running permanently on mains. Anyone else having the same experience. Has anybody´s battery died? Get a new one or save me money on battery? Besides my AW has always run on AC mainly!

 

what is the newest graphic driver for windows 7 64bit?

when I connect to TV there is something wrong with scaling 1080p... it's not perfect fit the TV screen! do you have such problem?

looks like this:
http://files.myopera.com/belek/files/vaio_hdmi.jpg
vaio cuts edges. of course it is the same on all TVs, and when I connect samsung laptop everything is OK...

 

One thing, is the driver stable? Does it work fine on the laptop?
And now another one, how is you tv configured with the image settings?
I ask you this because on my LG TV I was using 16:9 which I thought would give me the full HD output but I had to change this setting to "just scan" (this is in LG, I don´t know which tv you have) in the image settings. Now everything fits in my screen and all is well and HD. Check it out and see if it works!!

 

I was trying everything and only 4:3 worked fine. So I started looking just 4 16:9 settings. then I have found 16:9 Overscan activated. When I turn it off, full HD works perfectly!

Thank You very much because I lost my faith

 

Your welcome, I´m glad you got it working Belek.

 

Which win7x64 video driver for the Nvidia 9600M GT do you think is the best for 3D games experience these days?

 

Hey I have been experiencing a problem with my sony vaio vgn aw290jah. When I press the I increase or decrease the volume using the buttons on my keyboard the onscreen volume meter does not pop up. Is anyone else experiencing this problem or know how to fix it?

This is really starting to frustrate me I need help

Thanks

 

Did you reformat or upgrade your operating system?

 

Folks

New guy here - don't shout too loud. Just spent some time working my way through some of the oodles of posts on this thread to try and make sure I'm not going over old ground, but I have a feeling it's inevitable that I've missed something . . .

. . . anyways, time for my first questions. Is there any point in modding/upgrading a pretty much bog standard AW11M/H, and what are the best bang for buck bits to work on? Simple, huh . . .

Top of my hit list right now is to add in the bits for a second hard drive - needs more storage space and the work is pretty straightforward. What I guess I'm wondering is whether there is much/any difference between the motherboard for this entry level machine and those on the higher spec'd versions - and what, if any of the ancillaries (CPU/GPU/etc) are interchangeable. In an ideal world, I'd step it up to full HD screen, but I have a feeling that's impractical/hugely cost ineffective. But no, I have no trouble pulling the machine apart.

Thanks for your patience . . .