Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

I voted awesome, the first F series I had, had an awesome LCD.

This one was decent (average), but the dead pixels made it defective, so I'm hoping for an awesome one when they replace the LCD next week

 

Can somebody explain the steps I have to take to get the battery-read back on track. I tried already a little bit but I still get wrong read-outs. Just 3 hours ago I closed down my F at 100% and now the battery is loaded at 90 % .
I ask for a step by step plan to get the read-out back correct.
Thanks in advance.

 

Woot a technician came by and fixed my keyboard! Works 100% fine now. For those of you who are curious, the keyboard is a completely self-contained unit and is sealed off from the rest of the computer. To remove the keyboard, all you need to do is remove a few screws on the bottom, pop-out speaker cover and simply remove the keyboard module. Easy, easy fix.

The service was fast and the repair technician was nice. I'm overall really pleased with the service - Sony didn't make a fuss or anything. They just sent me a new keyboard

 

Hello all, I need some assistance: i was in the process of updating my gt330m drivers, when i read that the sony support site requires that the old nvidia drivers be uninstalleed. is this process necessRY TO INSTALL THE NEW ONE ( WONT THE NEW ONE OVERWRITE THE OLD ONE) and if the old drivers are uninstalled will the computer display work such that im able to intstall the new one??

 

@mangosango

that's great!!...glad to have you back in this thread..

 

Right! that would be tough!!...

I will be redoing another set of discs after I install all the apps I use. lesson learned

 

Yes, if you uninstall the drivers you will still be able to use the system, just in reduced visual mode and a lower res.

It's often recomended you uninstall old drivers just in case the update alone leaves behinds fragments of the old drivers that can cause stability issues. Especially with graphics and chipset drivers.

 

It doesn't seem to be necessary to uninstall the old drivers, but BE WARNED!!

(1) screen brightness control may no longer work, and the screen may flicker.

(2) System may not properly boot, - no mouse clicks.

(3) The GPU runs hot, with the fan constantly at a fairly high speed.

If anyone has EVER installed non-VAIO Nvidia drivers without ANY issues, please post the EXACT driver version used, the .inf file, and the method of install. Because I've tried everything myself without luck.

I need working post-191 drivers to run Cuda for H264 indexing and recoding.

 

Already done & linked in the Unification Post #2 under: "Battery draining/miscalibrated, even when powered off. Detailed Discussion and fix...".

Please report back if you fixed your problem or not, it can help the next user with a similar problem.

 

Maybe one could add: "uninstall old driver..." > Restart > install new video driver.

You can always create a restore point (> Start > search & type: restore point) or use utilities like Total Uninstall to easily go back to your current system state or monitor what the update install does to your F before doing anything.

"It doesn't seem to be necessary to uninstall the old drivers, but BE WARNED!!..." - This is the opposite of what Sony_support states on the new Nvidia F-certified update: VAIO_F_Series New Drivers: Nvidia & HDMI Size FIX!

 

I bought it two weeks ago from Best Buy for $ 1,349.99. I went through all the forum inputs before doing my own input.

- i7-720QM CPU
- 6GB 1333mhz Ram
- USA HD display 1920 x 1028
- Nvidia GT330m GPU
- 500GB 5400rpm Drive
- Blu Ray Playerer
- Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I looked at HP Envy and Sony Z series, and they were close to $ 1,000.00 more. I really did like the Z Series.

I wanted a lot of screen real estate so I can work with multiple documents. I was a little concerned about buying a 16" high resolution screen, I'm 62 years old with reading

glasses. I was very pleasantly surprised to see how clear the text is. Blu Ray movies and high resolution photos are truely impressive.

Mine has the green dot, and no morse code noise.

I know there are some hard feelings about the screen, but am very happy with mine. Just don't look at it from a low angle, that's how flat screens are. I looked at about 15 other

screens, including Apple, and all look horrible from that low angle.

The glossy screens are common because they are popular. They do have some glare, but also improve brightness and contrast. Buy the one you prefer.

I have no complaint about the speakers, after all, they are laptop speakers. Headphones sound much better.

Yes, my battery loses about 15% whan turned off overnight, so do my other three laptops.

I have the boot time down to 90 seconds, but don't want to remove anything else. I customised the Sony install rather than do a fresh install. A lot of the Sony software is pretty

good stuff. I saved an image, and will go for a SSD when prices come down a little more.

There are some complaints about fan noise. I discovered the fan runs constantly on High Performance, and not on Power Saver. I benchmarked both modes, and had no difference in

scores. I use Power Saver, and it is much quieter.

A lot of people reported there CPU was limited to 930 MHz on battery. For some reason, my syatem will turbo up to 1.73 GHz on my standard battery. Don't know if this is a Sony

configuration change or not. But, I sure appreciate it.

I have bought three other laptops, and two at work. None of them even come close to this one. I REALLY love it.





"It be's that way some times"

__________________
i7-720QM CPU - 6GB 1333mhz Ram - USA HD display - Nvidia GT330m GPU - 500GB 5400rpm Drive - Blu Ray Playerer - Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

I'm not sure I understand as in these pages Nvidia says that Cuda is supported but there is no other details: GeForce GT 330M product page and NVIDIA_CUDA-enabled GPUs.



Maybe you could post a question in the Nvidia_forum, visit the Nvidia_CUDA Zone & report here?

For which software do you need that for? Can you update or upgrade it?

 

Just out of curiosity - supposing that CUDA drivers were released for the 330m, does a specific application need to be used for the gpgpu/cuda on the 330m to work or does it kick in automatically when it's needed?

 

Thank you for taking the time to post your F11_owner's feedback.

Like you, I have the BB's VPCF115FMB & love it. I also "...customized the Sony_install rather than do a fresh install" & also think that the sharp display is easy on my old eyes. I did up scale up the OS UI to 125% with this method.

From Control Panel > Display, try also > ClearType Text Tuner (worked great for me) or Custom DPI Setting to fine tune between 125 & 150% (I don't use that).





Besides the old Ctrl + function I also use the NoSquint add-on in Firefox, scale up the UI in programs that can do it like Lightroom for example, and sometimes use Win 7 Magnifier for programs that are impossible to scale like Skype, for example. I pinned it to my Taskbar for quick access.



"...my battery loses about 15% when turned off overnight" - Mine was apparently loosing 18% but it was just a battery gauge reporting mistake. Check Unification Post #2 under: "Battery draining/miscalibrated, even when powered off. Detailed Discussion and fix...".

"For some reason, my system will turbo up to 1.73 GHz on my standard battery" - I am skeptical because the battery's max output is 52.7 Watts/h while the F @ full bore while plugged needs 116 Watts. See VAIO_F CPU Throttling "Issue"?

May I ask which utility did you use to measure that?

 

I got my VGP-BPL21 extended Battery from Sony today. Just doing a quick check I unplugged the ac and checked battery times and on the standard the estimated time was 1hr37min on High powered and 1hr 56 minutes power saver. With the extended battery I had it read 2hrs 43min on High power and 3hrs on Power saver. This is with no tweaks to the settings or turning off or disabling any devices than can also increase battery performance. Just FYI for anyone remotely interested in this battery like I was.

 

Joe,

This was per CPU-Z and a "Gadget" from Intel, the Intel Turboboost Technology Monitor, made for the i5 and i7 CPUs.

I only have the standard battery, and your figures make one think of a lesser speed. But, that's what they reported.


John

 

Easy question from a noob- looking to purchase the F from
Best Buy (VPCF115FM/B) high reso screen, 6GB, 330M/1gb.
Without reading through all the posts, is there anything I need to be concerned about (fan/clicking etc. ?). Is there a better price option (CTO/Amazon?).
Will they try to sell me some other warranty? TIA !

Mitch

 

Your battery times are HELLA low. My laptop on balanced (and ~50% brightness, wifi+bt on) gets 2.5 hours battery easily.

 

You misunderstood me Joe. I have tried BOTH warm and cold installs of each and every driver, in series, as offered at laptopvideos2go, and ALL of them had one or more of the symptoms I describe. There at least needs to be an .inf specific to the F11.

The GT330M CARD supports CUDA, but not the DRIVER as offered by Sony, which is an old old 187. It needs to be 191 or greater for CUDA and I wish Sony would get off its cushion-end and update it already. Cuda runs very well on the F11, but with these non-VAIO drivers eveything else is in the dumpster.

The application that requires CUDA is DGdecodeNV. http://neuron2.net/dgavcdecnv/DGDecodeNVManual.html There is no SMP version. It is the ONLY utility that will index H264 captures with AC3 audio and maintain sync when frameserved via AVIsynth. DirectShowSource("Filename.M2TS") while it will serve audio and video, does not index the file and usually does not maintain audio-video sync. So the only program that seems to do what I need is supported by the F11's hardware, but won't RUN without cooking the GPU, until Sony updates the F11 video driver...

The application has to be written for CUDA to use it, it's all or nothing, but also there are some secondary servers, such as CUVID, which improves GPU processing even more when used as the processing layer by a program, with the server itself then using CUDA. Without a working post-191 driver neither the indexing nor frameserving OF that index will run. So even with the index file and AVIsynth doing what it should, the system still will not render to AVI or Mpeg or whatever. Again that'a ALL because of the outdated VAIO driver and Sony's unwillingness to allow drivers direct from Nvidia. And this non-functional software is stuff I PAID for.

 

The VG-BPL21A is the regular battery that is shipped with the F11X and FW390/590. The EXTENDED battery is the VGP-BPL13. That's the one that sticks out.

 

Thats including tax?I got mine for a mere 1000 (include tax) but less specs.

- i7-720QM CPU
- 4GB 1333mhz Ram
- USA HD display 1600 x 900
- Nvidia GT310m GPU
- 500GB 5400rpm Drive
- Blu Ray Playerer
- Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

I figured the 310M would be enough for me since i'm not doing game,I didn't see too many people here that have 310M, I guess most people here is gamers. I was wondering if there any FPS differences..btw welcome to the forum.

 

Well to be honest these are just battery estimates that appear when I highlight the battery icon. On Balanced with the screen at 50% I get 2hrs 50 minutes. In the next week or two when I get time I will do an actual real world tests on the actual battery times which will truly give us the real battery times.

 

To whom are you replying to? :confused2:

There is no significant keywords in your post title: "Re: Official Sony_VAIO_F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*" and no quotes!

To make this thread more usable, help users finding a post of interest while skimming through & keep the Search this Thread tool efficient, I suggest as seen in my sig: >>> When posting: Go Advanced > use relevant keywords in your message subject line.

 

JNichols got the slightly better price. The extra memory and GT330 in JNichols machine adds about $300, never mind the better (?) screen.

 

I am sorry I shouldn't say extended but it is the large capacity battery it's 9 cell instead of the standard 6 cell that comes with the F as I understand it and states is lasts 1.5 times longer than the standard battery. Thanks for the correction. I am unsure not as to what is the difference between the two (large capacity and extended)?
https://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wc...52921666055187&tab=featuresTab#specifications

 

Hi! Just received my new F11 and playing with it. However, when trying a Skype call, the webcam could not be detected. Same thing trying to open it with ArcSoft. Can someone help me with this? I have tried to find the answer in the thread but didn't.

 

John, I'm quite interested by your CPU on battery statement because I just benchmarked again the CPU using PassMark BurnIn Test V5.3 Pro 64-bit & CPU-Z and here are the screen captures I just made in my F lab on top of a mountain in Costa Rica:



I will try again with the Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor as you did.

BTW, just a posting tip: when quoting a post, you may edit out the images links to make your post more compact if it does not add to your post content like in your post above, for example.

 

Sorry, I got it wrong. The VG-BPS21a is the regular battery, 5000MaH 10.8 volts; the VG-BPL13 is 7200MaH 11.1 volts; and VG-BPL21 is the 7500MaH 10.8 volts.. I never noticed there were three models. I have the BPS21A and BPL13.

Just as a sidenote, there is a new technology that promises four times the capacity in the same size - usable with the same chargers, (TEN times the power with new chargers) but the actual amount of instantaneous power and the resulting fire hazard is keeping it from being marketed yet.

 

hotto, contribute at least two lines of feedback about your F machine & we will try to help you.

 

There was another fellow recently in this thread with a webcam that was actually defective.

Before getting into Skype or Messenger or Gtalk etc. make sure the camera WORKS with its driver. Ascertain that "Sony Visual Communication Camera" is functional in Device Manager. Then open Arcsoft WebCam companion's capture module.

 

I'm kinda surprised Sony doesn't make Lithium Polymer batteries or at least makes a slightly larger battery, there's definitely plenty of room for it.
Erm and by larger, I mean larger than the extended one you guys were just speaking of.

 

If you want to post comments and experiences with your F11 - feel free. It is not required.

Do you see the camera listed in Device Manager>Imaging Devices?

 

No problem. I would risk a fire to have that battery capacity,lol. Heck, I am jealous of my parents 12 cell battery on their Toshiba laptop I purchased for them last Christmas.

 

So far, the machine is working perfectly. Fan is kinda loud however, but I guess that's fine. I did the Spyder calibration which was great, still need to do the battery drain though. I have not found any dead pixels yet, and I found it easier to direct chat with the Sony support rather than calling them. Still moving files from my old laptop, which might take a while. But as I said, SO FAR SO GOOD!

Now, do you know how to fix the webcam? It's no big deal, but it would be nice to have it detectable so I don't have to plug in my mic and camera every time.

Edit: no, I cannot see Imaging devices under Device Manager, not even in the hidden rows. I reinstalled Arc Soft which the Sony Support told me to do, but still nothing

 

Are there any devices listed as being in error or unknown?

 

No there isn't

 

Bad webcam #2..

 

Well, it actually worked for like three seconds before it froze and my apps have not been able to detect it since

 

I'd almost offer you guys my webcam, I never use those XD

 

The webcam is mounted on its own 1/2 inch wide circuit board and connected to the USB bus on the motherboard by a cable that runs through the left hinge. There are only two connectors on the interconnect cable. Pretty straight forward.

Since you bought the F11P from TigerDirect, they offer a "30 DAY IRON CLAD GUARANTEE". Talk to them first - otherwise you will have to deal with the infamous Sony Tech Support.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks hotto, you know that a contribution is not required to post a question, right? That's what these are for. It's just nice to do so for all the F would be buyers reading this thread.

Did you see this Sony_support doc? There is no video when trying to use the built-in Motion Eye camera: "Turning on the computer activates the Motion Eye camera...". And according to your statement it does not. Check this:

So if everything else is working fine on your F, maybe the best is to get the webcam replaced instead of exchanging it for who knows what new set of problems.

 

Thank you for all your help! Now, I have one more annoying thing I cannot get rid of. I talked to the Sony support about the irritating sounding beep that appears every time I press the S1 button or trying to adjust the brightness or volume with the Fn+F3-F6. There seems like the only way to shut it off is by muting the system sounds in the volume controller, but this only lasts temporarily. Does anyone have a solution to this?

 

John, I tried the Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor gadget and well... that's what it is: a gadget. The free CPU-Z utility gives much more usable info. That Intel gadget shows the GHz for the fastest of the four core during a given task so if you are running a program using only one core, the CPU speed looks high.

Again, some screen captures I just did with the Vaio_F11 plugged vs. on battery with the PassMark BurnIn Test V5.3 Pro running the four cores @ full speed:



As I posted before: the battery's max output is 52.7 Watts/h while the F @ full bore while plugged needs 116 Watts & that's why CPU throttling is normal & expected while running the F on battery. It's still quite quick on battery IMHO.

 

Is there any driver we need to install?I never install any driver from SONY after a clean install,I haven't test it yet..so the motion eye is controlled by Arcsoft or the driver?

 

Yes! That's funny as this afternoon I disabled those beeps when pressing these Vaio_Special keys or with the Fn+...



I followed ajreynol's tip for the_FW and it worked like a charm on the Vaio_F11:

 

With the F, and previously AW, there is no driver available from Sony. Vista and Win7 detect the webcam and install the driver.

If a driver was missing the webcam would still show up as an unknown device. The fact that it doesn't suggests it's not working.

 

Thank you so much! I would not have known what to do in case I would been unable to remove those beep sounds! Extremely annoying, but now so quiet

 

To prevent any further questions about stuff not working on your F after your "clean install" w/o any Sony_drivers, check:

You guessed it, the Unification Post #2!

Sony_Support Clean Install Instructions for Windows 7 (don't miss Step 3): http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5888748#post5888748

Sony_> Sticky List of Popular & Useful Threads including Windows 7 Install guides http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=245279

ilfuca's F Win 7 clean install guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5905694&postcount=4228

Good luck!

 

I pretty much read all those before I did the clean install, the reason i ask because I didnt see any post regarding the driver for webcam, plus the motion eye technology which seems to be controlled by Arcsoft software if you want use the technology, or else it will be just a regular webcam.

 

ASSIST > Vaio_Care > insert recovery discs > install Arcsoft Webcam Companion 3.



Again: Sony_Support Clean Install Instructions for Windows 7 (don't miss Step 3).

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