Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

why can't we have Synaptics Touchpads in our VAIO Fs?
Instead, we're stuck with Alps.

Synaptics driver enables "true" multitouch gestures on older trackpads

with 2-finger scrolling and 3-finger flick

 

I have to say that someone related to the industry warned me that Sony QA went down. But the Square Trade report you mentioned made me confident and it was one of the biggest reasons I picked sony. Obviously statistics and reports only explain the past not the future and much less individual experiences.

I don't regret it. What really bothers me is the fact that I wasted a lot of time setting up the machine and from all this time I got to learn nothing.

 

I can't quote your entire posting history.

If you are talking about the "(17 Watts to up to 116)" figure I mentioned, it was not a quote from you, and I know it's for the entire system power needs as posted here. Since we are quoting ourselves: :...45W/55W TDP of Clarksfield CPU..." here.

The fan is not working exclusively for evacuating the heat produced by the CPU as you know.

On topic: chill out.

 

I was never too worried abour RAID, you were . I needed something a little smaller than the AW but still with a 1080p display. Here's hoping I made the right decision as my AW was 100% fault free. And all I read here everyday is issues with the F.

 

Agreed.

Obviously if 4.2% of premium laptops failed by the end of the first year, it means that 95.8% of laptop owners did not have any problems.

 

Just curious: Is your Shift key broken?

F thread newbies are required by my mother to read the Unification Post #2 before they can ask questions.

 

and opting for the 256gb SSD raises the price by $699? oh oh! Still a nice rig.

 

Yes, SmartWiHelper.exe is for both Bluetooth & Wi-Fi but as you can see in the Autoruns screen capture here, I disabled it from the startup programs & my full size Microsoft Laser Mouse 8000 Bluetooth mouse works fine w/o it.

Check: Start > type: smart > SmartWi Connection Utility Help.

 

Hello!!!

I m Nik from Greece and this is my first post.

This forum is the BEST!!!!BRAVO!!!!!!!!



I bοught my baby 1/march/2010,whith a green small stamp on the box.

1.700 EYROS!!!In Greece everything is to mutch expensive!!!!!,

and you can t customize your lappy!!!!!

I have the eu edition VPCF11Z1E/BI

1920*1080 pro grade screen

cpu-i7-720qm(only choice for this model)

nvidia-gt330m

hdd-500gb 5400.

It s super,but fan whistly like a bird!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!My nerves.....

Thats all and sorry for my bad english.........

 

Kinda blowing your case eh? YOUR F11 had problems, EVERYBODY'S Studio 15 had problems. Duuuhhhm erm...

 

Συγχαρητήρια!

 

My Sony XBR was made in Mexico, bought 2002, absolute crap. But my older XBRs were great, well-made.. You CAN get good quality from Sony, but it costs.. Having said that, for the price the F11 is well-made.

 

thanks to much!!!!!!!!

Joe Bleau you write greek!!!!!!!

You surprised me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!xaxa

 

The G73 was built for one purpose only, it is otherwise quite crippled. The Asus G51-JX-series, however, is, in my opinion, the only laptop from another manufacturer comparable to the F11. But once you start adding options it is MUCH more expensive.

 

I had the chance to spend 4 months in beautiful Kriti & cried from nostalgia 2 minutes after the boat left the dock for Athena. Really nice people & scenery, especially in the mountains.

BTW, I can speak Greek a little bit (rusted now) but can't write it, looks like Chinese to me.

About your "fan whistly like a bird" , mine did it at first for a couple of days on/off @ idle but now it's gone completely. I guess it was a break-in period, just like it often does for squeaky keyboard keys. OTOH, it seems to be a permanent & annoying problem for some owners who reported here.

Have you seen the Unification Post #2? There is a lot of useful stuff in there.

P.S. go easy on the multiple !!!!!!

 

Does anyone know how likely it is that the F will be available in the U.S. with the i7-620M?

 

The Sony_USA product manager maybe?

 

Joe you must be very important meber to this forum!!!!!and thanks for your

answer!!!I hope to stop this bird singing .....






Yes Greece is very beautiful country,

but i belive your is beautiful to.....

 

I think the F11 touchpads have 3-finger flick but not the 2-finger scrolling or zooming.

Edit: I think that 2-finger zoom is available in the default Sony photo app, but is not available as a general function for other apps to use.

Who's behind the "Nik" persona, anyway?

 

I don't think that it's a hardware "issue".

Are you using Google Chrome? Does it do it with Internet Explorer 64-bit & also with Firefox?

Check these search, it happened on many different brands of computers, all have in common Windows 7: "windows 7" youtube lockup and also "windows 7" 64-bit youtube lockup.

Use your Event Viewer to find error messages and write down the error #: Start > type: event > and click on Event Viewer. What information appears in event logs (Event Viewer)?

Or: > Start button > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Event Viewer.

Try also: ASSIST > Vaio_Care > Troubleshooting. It may also find other problems you did not know about.

Please report back when your problem is fixed & how you did it!

 

"I think that 2-finger zoom is available in the default Sony_photo app, but is not available as a general function for other apps to use" - Nope, the Pinch Zoom works fine also in Windows Photo Viewer, Photoshop CS4, Nikon ViewNX, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Microsoft Paint, etc.

"Who's behind the "Nik" persona, anyway?" - do you want the mods to check his IP address to see if he is really from Thessaloniki?

And who's behind aaronjb anyway?

 

So I remember Iphones having a problem when they just got out and you could check the manufacture week in the serial no. to determine which one's safe to buy... I've checked the boxes in a store today and I can't figure out the manufacture week? And what about this green=fixed /yellow=lemon sticker thing?

 

hey guys, i finally got my f series however i apparenty disabled one of the sound devices (speaker/hp), i was hoping someone can help me. i went to control panel, and i clicked hardware and soud and went to sound. then i cliked manage audio devices and on the playback tab, i dsabled a device. the one remaining is named digital output. now theres no sound ! im worried and baffled caan u olease help me add it back?

 

Well I bit the bullet today and decided to order the extra large capacity Battery from Sony. I used my 20% off coupon for registering my F and got it for under $220. I wish we had some reviews on it so we can get a real world idea of battery life but even if it's an hour or two it's worth it. I was surprised to see I was able to buy it cheaper from Sony than a third party.

 

The cheap Chinese batteries for Sony are actually of different manufacture. Sony has their own supplier set up pretty tightly, probably to ensure quality control against overheating etc. Thus getting a non-Sony OEM battery doesn't save any money. On the other hand the 9-cell battery I got for my Asus (10 hour) is identical in every way to the Asus-supplied version, yet costs one-third of the price ($50)

Based on my experience it will give you almost 4 1/2 hours from 100% charge and with light use. 3 hours from 80% charge.

 

Check me...everything is ok.




Now i have a crazy question....

can change this noizy fan my self?

Is it eazy.......

 

Awesome! Thanks!

 

Sony is crazy, they aren't quite like Samsung but they make a ton of the stuff in their computers. The batteries are probably made by them, because I recall a couple of years ago Sony being involved in a massive fiasco regarding exploding batteries they made for Apple and Dell, lol.

http://news.cnet.com/Dell-Exploding-batteries-are-Sonys-fault/2100-1005_3-6115710.html

So anyway, I'm still with Vaio #2. I went to the local best buy out of laziness and when the clerk called out the geek squad guy, the accusations started flying before he even looked at the machine.

So be careful if you go that route

Anyway

 

Don't worry Nik, καλώς όρισες to the F Owner's Lounge!

How about posting a photo of your F with a scenery in the back from where you live, just for fun.

How noisy is your fan exactly? Did you check the mic whining fixes in the Unification post & the fan links?

"can (I) change this noizy fan my self?" - well it depends on your skills, if you can get the spare part & it may void your warranty.

Where did you buy your Vaio_F11?

jacksjw had a Sony_technician come to his home to fix the fan on his F and posted some very interesting F11_photos here (fan) and here (motherboard & other stuff).

He did not describe the full procedure (how to do it) & did not reply to my question yet here: "So the tech replaced only the fan & not the entire cooling unit?"

I searched on the internet for quite a while with the fan model number and some parts of it (Panasonic UDQFRRH01DF0 DC5V 0.36A 9Z11V) as seen on this fan photo but it seems that this model is too new & not offered yet by re-sellers. Maybe Sony_Parts has it or the complete cooling unit in stock? Anyway, I would wait a while before ordering one, maybe they will release a more quiet revised version eventually.

You know it's a powerful quad core i7-720QM & it needs some fan work to keep it cool, right?

This video is not for the Vaio_F11 model but can give you an idea of how much work is needed to replace a cooling/fan unit on a_Vaio: FIX_SONY_VAIO_VGN-CS110E NOISY FAN SHUTDOWN AND RESET.

 

No idea but I believe the F-series was fundamentally designed around a Quad-Core i7 processor. Why ? Because it is the only product in Sony's lineup, that has been given faster DDR3-1333 RAM.

Among the i5 and i7 processors, only the Quad-core i7 processors (like i7-720QM, i7-820QM and the extreme version, the i7-920XM) can really utilize the additional speed that the DDR3-1333 brings to the table.

Putting DDR3-1333 RAM in machines equipped with the i7-620M or the i5/i3 processors like i5-520M or i5-540M etc is just a waste of money, since these processors can only utilize RAM upto DDR3-1066.

Thus, even the expensive Z-series (where there is no Quad-Core option) does not get DDR3-1333 RAM, since it just will not make a difference.

 

But DDR3-1066 Ram can be installed; if the i5 or i7 620 were offered I'm sure there would be matching suitable memory.

 

Sure, but I was just making the point that the dual-core version of the i7 (the i7-620M with 4MB L3 Cache) and the i5/i3 etc don't need (and cannot utilize by design) the faster DDR3-1333 that comes on the F-series.

Thus the faster DDR3-1333 will certainly work with those dual-core CPUs but they would only be able to utilize upto what a DDR3-1066 is capable of. So the additional expense for the faster 1333 memory is just money down the drain.

I bet for the purposes of standardization, Sony has probably equipped the F-series with DDR3-1333 across the board, even if the machines are equipped with dual core chips (i5 etc)......the additional speed of the faster RAM is just never utilized, until the Quad-Core is in place.

 

I also have my Sony Vaio F serie now for almost a week and only 1 word to say about this monster. Incredible. From the day it arrived it has been running without any troubles and fast as lightning

There are 2 issues I would like to investigate. First is that the screen automatically dims from time to time even though it is hooked up to the power grid. Is there a setting for this?

The other is, the built-in camera has no TWAIN connection. Is this at all possible? Just would like to use it in other programs via TWAIN interface.

Thanks.

 

I believe you are the first to have this issue posted in this forum. I've never heard of this. Obviously, you are plugged in correctly. Strange.

 

Does anyone else besides myself think it is strange that the silver Vaio button is used to mute the machine? I use for work and mute is important to me when someone walks in the office or the phone rings. But it's the only silver button, says Vaio on it ( you would not think intuitively this is for mute) and function cannot be changed. I find this strange.

 

Sony's deafult setting in their Vaio Control Center is to automatically adjust the screen brightness - even if plugged into AC.

To override:

• Start>Vaio Control Center
• Click on Display>Automatic Brightness Settings
• Uncheck Adjust brightness automatically

That should stop it.

Highly recommend that you read the Unification post #2 http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5992644&postcount=554.

It got lots of useful info that has been summarized from part 1 & 2 of this thread.

 

It's designed to be used with the VAIO media software, but if this is uninstalled (e.g. fresh start) then they clearly decided that the next best option was to have it as a mute. Which is a good idea IMO but i would have preferred a dedicated mute button over it in the first place. Although it does look quite cool.

 

Get Mac-Like Scrolling and Gestures on a Windows Laptop

I hardly ever use my touchpad and am not really interested in this topic, however this is something that may appeal to some:

http://lifehacker.com/5493849/get-mac+like-scrolling-and-gestures-on-a-windows-laptop

 

After processing the return of the F11 to sony style I tried to make a review. And like someone else mentioned in this thread before, the site is closed for reviews.
"Review Submission Currently Unavailable"

So why Sony wouldn't allow people who returned their merchandise to give a review if we are just a very small number of affected users?

 

Hi guys,
I ordered my CTO system a couple days ago and the shipping estimate is 3/30/2010. How accurate are these? Do they do a good job of shipping within their estimated time frames?
Thanks

 

Based on my experience it should be a few days sooner, and from what I've heard, never later. Also, kind of funny, they just left it at my front door.

 

Thanks Fishon! Cant wait to get mine and am glad that at least ur wait is over!

 

Hi All, I'm sure this question has been asked before, but after reading over 300 pages, and trying to use the search I have been unable to find the answer.

I am thinking of ordering a new F series from Sony directly and when I was customizing it, the price difference in getting 4GB of memory and 6GB of memory is $140. However it appears I can get 1 2GB of memory for $60 myself.
Has anyone else done this? I can't find a drawing by Sony showing where the slots are located. I have changed memory on numerous Dell's, but never a Sony.

Can someone also advise on which memory exactly would be needed and if it is an easy process as I am assuming?

Thanks for all the help

 

Only 2 slots for memory so you must use 4gb chips and they are so far very expensive.
I have :

HTML:

[ DIMM1: Samsung M471B5273BH1-CH9 ]
 
		Eigenschappen Geheugenmodule:
			Modulenaam  	Samsung M471B5273BH1-CH9
			Serienummer  	84FD7CDBh (3682401668)
			Fabricagedatum  	Week 2 / 2010
			Modulegrootte  	4 GB (2 ranks, 8 banks)
			Moduletype  	SO-DIMM
			Geheugentype  	DDR3 SDRAM
			Geheugensnelheid  	DDR3-1333 (667 Mhz)
			Modulebreedte  	64 bit
			Foutdetectiemethode  	Geen
			DRAM fabrikant  	Samsung
 
		Geheugeninstellingen:
			@ 609 Mhz  	8-8-8-22 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 30-98-4-10-5-5 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)
			@ 533 Mhz  	7-7-7-20 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 27-86-4-8-4-4 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP)
			@ 457 Mhz  	6-6-6-17 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 23-74-3-7-4-4 (RC-RFC-RRD-WR-WTR-RTP) 

 

Hey, can you post the pic of the Sony vaio F with the large battery ? I too returned my first one and will buy another one soon. So if you could post the pic it'll help decide. Also what do you think. Does the battery stick out of the bottom too much ?

Thanks in advance.

 

Unfortunately it's for Synaptics ONLY.

 

The memory is easily accessed from the bottom of the notebook. Here are the specs for the 2GB SODIMM that was shipping in February.

 

Aethelred, Thanks for checking for me. The 4GB is apparently shipped with just 1x4GB stick. So if there are 2 easily accessible slots, I should be able to just add a 2GB stick and get it up to 6GB total!

 

Thanks for the info! So there are 2 slots in the bottom? So if I order the 4GB it will be 1 slot used and 1 free?

Thanks again

 

Here are some pics from slrosenfeld
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5808888#post5808888