Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

And i'm still having the battery draining issue, the calibration didn't work for me... Please Help!!!!

 

did you try using "powercfg -energy"? if not, get to it before joe gets here =O.



and can someone give me a performance report on the SSD that comes with the CTO option (U.S.)? possibly the make and model number so I can look it up. I was told it supports TRIM but has anyone noticed any slow-down over time?

 

+1

Thanks for your help

 

It's a Toshiba and Trim is supported but not enabled. Search "Toshiba SSD" in this thread for all you need to know.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6003583&highlight=toshiba+ssd#post6003583

 

"I have tested"... on what? It seems that you don't have a Vaio_F11 according to the image in your signature, right?

Is there a guinea pig out there who wants to try that thing on his F & report here?

*********

Google Image?

Just a little detail missing: with which browser? Try one of the other ones to see if the problem is the same. I prefer Firefox.

********

Battery Drainage

VAIO F Sleep & Hibernation Wake Up Problems Fix!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6081991&posted=1#post6081991

********

Boot Time

Was that 49 sec for Win 7 naked w/o any Sony_necessary drivers nor anti virus?

I saved 31 sec boot time by swapping HDD's, click "Replaced OEM 5400 HDD w/ Seagate 500GB Momentus 7200 & cut 31 sec booting time" in my sig below.

********

Anybody tried the $14 Norton product key trick? I just checked again my Norton Internet Security 2010: 728 days subscription remaining.

 

So I managed to install the new NVIDIA drivers for laptops, 197.16 on my VAIO F after modifying the inf file myself for a few hours. I'm no expert, but I guess it worked out fine.

After testing the new drivers for 45min:
- No flicker at low brightness
- No uneven brightness after pressing the "Display Off" button
- Fan not constantly running
- "Normal" temperature compared to Sony's "certified" graphic drivers
- No problems after sleep/restart

I don't have PC games, so can't say anything about improvements. I'll keep using the laptop for a while to see if they're stable enough w/ my inf file.

 

I believe that with Sony Drivers and AVG.

 

The shortcuts for setting the brightness are working too (Fn + F5 / F6) ?
Can you share the complete zip of your drivers please ?

Thanks

 

So how do you edit the inf file?

 

Sounds more promising than non-F-tested Peter-X's desktop driver suggestion.

Could you share your customized inf file as there seems to be a few volunteers here.

Besides stability & functionality (brightness, etc.) on the Vaio_F11 the main question is: is there any performance gain or new features?

@ crzytimes: Hola stranger!

 

1st unit I received: Fan whining issue + mic whine bypassed with the mic fix.

2nd unit: Fan whining issue + really loud mic whine, when mic fix is applied the right speaker starts emitting some kind of noise which can be fixed by muting the speakers.

I'm contemplating sending the 2nd one back and getting yet another one.

What do you guys think? What about the yellow/green sticker, is it really true that the yellow one is some later revision of the Vaio with fixes for these problems?

 

So, my f is on its way towards the new home (mine). I have a question regarding the chipset that Sony uses in this laptop: is it like the one on the envy 15? As in DOES IT HAVE 4 MEMORY SLOTS? or just 2? it would really make a future memory upgrade more facile.

 

@viox
there are only 2 slots for memory modules for the F11.

@Rudd89
My second unit with an early February build date came with the green sticker. It had no morse code noise though neither did my first one. This one however does have the fan whine but it happens infrequently especially after reinstalling to Sony's stock Nvidia drivers.

I thought that the yellow preceeded the green from reading posts in this thread. Also, it seems that it does not make any difference with whatever color sticker you have.

 

Well done. How did you exactly do that? I tried to download the 197.16 and install, but it says that SONY does not recommend it and therefore cannot be installed (and stays with the onld 181.xx version). I am curious on the results, as 197.16 promises great improvements in gaming ...

 

Hi Viox, If you look a couple of pages back, Joe posted melodymax's guide for reinserting the memory which shows the image. Also if you search someone had posted an image for me in the thread as I want to upgrade my memory. (I have ordered one with a 4GB stick which should be on its way in another week or so) There are only 2 slots available. If you have a 4GB ordered you will have 1 available slot.

Thanks

AHA found it, see image on the page linked below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=464372&page=154

 

about Nvidia driver update I found this in the meanwhile:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5864899

Good luck to all!

 

why are the usename colors changing?

 

" Good luck to all!" is appropriate as there is no F11_owner testimonial in that thread so far.

YES! My hack is working.

 

Reasons why it’s worth to be a pc gamer

A list of PC only games for 2010. Large list. New games for a new F laptop.

http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/games-of-2010/

 

Or, you could diff the sony .INF with the NVIDIA driver, apply changes, to the NV .INF, and install.

Oh, wait. This isn't a technical forum. Sorry, I'll sort of the details, post fifteen quotes and repost several image links, pile my post with emoticons and sarcasm, and ask several irrelevant questions. That should really get to the heart of the matter.

 

LOL now they match the background so no names appear!

 

You were asked by several users to post a link to the driver you are talking about as well as clear instructions.

Still waiting...

Since you like quotes & images, check this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6039899&postcount=1421

 

What happened to our thread names? I only see the mods name and no one else.

 

I hope that was cathartic for you...but know there are people here who would really appreciate the help. Don't let one poster get you down- it's not their own personal thread. And remember putting a thought into writing can often lead to something that just comes off the wrong way. Sometimes intent and meaning get lost in translation or written language. Everyone is here to help.

 

Finally received my F11 yesterday.

Win 7 Pro setup was pretty brisk, a lot quicker than I expected it to be. As you can notice from my config listing, I opted for the 1600x900 screen as I wanted the better power performance of the 310 graphics and lower native pixel depth. Full 1080p isn't really important for me in the portable realm. So far I'm not very impressed with the screen; compared to the 1080p units at BB, it's no better, no worse. Viewing angle is subpar to the 16" Dell Studio I'm comparing this to. Beyond the screen dissapointment, I've not experienced any of the early "bugs" like the morse code noise or excessively loud fan operation. The Win 7 / Vaio bloat installation was pretty manageable and I like the variety (choices) of stuff they provide - like the media management options. I like the way they've integrated Works with Office too, it makes sense to me. One last note, even with power save features enabled and 50% diming of the brightness, remaining battery time bounces all over the place. With the screen less than optimal, battery life is going to be the clincher for me : if I can't get 2.5 to 3.0 hours of general word processing/spreadsheet/document reading time out of this puppy, then it's going back.

Customization Details

No Additional Video Editing Software
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
16.4" VAIO Display (1600x900) with NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M GPU (512MB VRAM)
No Fresh Start
Microsoft® Works
No additional Photo Editing Software
4GB (4GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Blu-ray Disc™ player (reg. price $90.00)
Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
No Keyboard Backlight
Standard Capacity Battery
Black
No Engraving
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
320GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)

- Build quality seems way above average
- No glossy finish to the chassis is a big plus in my book
- How they call this an anti-glare screen is beyond me
- Ambient reflection levels are WAY too high; it's pratically a mirror
- If I keep it, I'm migrating to SSD for speed and power conservation
- The Vaio Care console is pretty handy
- Did the recovery disk creation after a little trimming and activations
- Used 2 single layered DVDs and the entire process took about 45 minutes
- 45 minutes with verification enabled, which I recommend doing
- Not interested in current boot times and pgm load times as I'll go SSD anyhow
- but even with the entry level HD, this thing seems pretty snappy.

 

Does anyone disable the Aero feature on Windows 7 when they are gaming? I've heard that on laptops which share memory from their Ram on Video Cards, disabling Aero does in fact help. And by how much? Will the F's gaming performance improve by doing this?

 

Just an update regards my problem trying to get my LaCie Rugged drive to connect to my new F11 via the eSATA port.

Refresh: The drive works fine connected via usb but doesn't via the eSATA port. When connected it just causes the windows tools (eg. Disk Management) to hang.

So I went out and bought this Seagate 7200 Momentus drive which Joe Bleau used and put it in an "Icy Box" external drive enclosure. Good news the drive works on eSATA but only when using the usb power cable.

@Joe Bleau I assume yours was working without usb power ie. just eSATA? I guess all external drive enclosures are not equal or perhaps there is some issue with my eSATA connector?

I'm getting onto LaCie now to see what's up with the Rugged drive. It does say on their web site it's Windows 7 ready.

 

Guys, I need help with a driver. I did clean install with installing all drivers (but not SONY utilities yet) in the order recommended by SONY. One of the drivers comes up with an error. Can you, please, make some suggestion to me how to fix it? Please see my attachment.

btw, how to insert image inside the post?

 

" Good news the drive works on eSATA but only when using the usb power cable" - that's normal as a eSATA cable carries only data so it can't power the drive hence the need to get power to the drive via a USB cable or an A/C adapter.

That was the point of the post comparing a regular eSATA enclosure vs. a Power Over eSATA enclosure with only a single cable: Sony_VAIO F Power Over eSATA Port & ext Enclosures Benchmarks





If the HDD in your F is 5400 rpm, you might want to use your new 7200 in the F and use the OEM 5400 in the enclosure. It's easy to do. Check these posts:

VAIO_F_Series HDD Upgrading

Sony_VAIO_F C: Drive Partitions & Recovery Trick.

BTW, glad that it's not your F's port that is defective.

 

oooh guyys I thought u know this alreadyy grmmm
i already paste links
I ll do it again .

here is driver + inf

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/26407-v19725-windows-7vista-64bit-nvidia-desktop/

here is physx

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/26361-physx-9100222/

nvidia tools .. u can overclock your graphic gard ..

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24256-nvidia-system-tools-v6-05/

OpenCL software ... if supported

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/25132-opencl-10-conformant-release-tools-utilities/

here u can check al about your graphic card cool soft ..

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100326/gpu-caps-viewer-1-8-6-with-geforce-gtx-480-and-gtx-470-support/

 

April fool's day.

 

Again: did you tested this on a Vaio_F_Series or is it just a theory?

 

I tested it on mine .. vaio

 

But yours is a VGN-AW, not a_VPCF11. Many F owners reported problems on the F for driver hacks that worked on other models: overheating, no brightness control, etc.

 

just give it a try and yu will se if it works these are new latestr so should be ok
it says on mine 9600m gt and GT 220M
if there is overheating here is nvidia control panel
u can adjust speed

 

Finally! So the answer to this question is no: did you tested this on a Vaio_F_Series?

You could have simply wrote in your first post on the video driver subject: I tried this on my VGN-AW 9600m gt and GT 220M, it works fine and it may also work on the F GT 330M. (or not ).

 

I got a new MacBook Pro today, seeya guys!

 

How much was the Apple_tax compared to the F? What's the trade-off in term of CPU, GPU & memory?

 

Just one question: if I install the 197.16 it and something is not right, can I simply roll back to the previous version supported by SONY (188.67) ?

 

Try it and stop blabling so much
u can always roll it back to previous drivers

 

@OoTLink: I'll probably be getting an Apple as well. When I think of the time and money that this Sony has cost me, the Apple tax is more than worth it. That's "probably" because I might not be able to get a refund from Sony.

 

Yes, Uninstall via control panel - programs, then install the 188 drivers downloaded from Sony.

 

I think it was his April's fool post.

 

yes definetly ..

 

Hi All,

Just come back from sony service center. My Vaio F was diagnosed: defective motherboard

I don't want money. I want to send it back and get the new functional and workable laptop.

1. My 30 days from the date of purchase will expire in 8 days.
2. I want to return mine and get a new back. As far as possible, and how to do it.
3. Where to send it? In San Diego (if so at what address), or at this address "Consumer Direct Return Center, 10227 Crossroads Loop (Suite D), Laredo, TX 78045"
4. How much time and money necessary for this. I'm in Boston.

Thanks in advance.

David.

 

Wait wait wait, you went to a service center with a defective motherboard and they just sent you home with the defective one? I'm guessing that had you left it there and asked for repairs, the would've taken you computer, shipped it to san diego where they would've either fixed it or replaced it with a new one, and then shipped it to you.

You should call the 1-888 number on the bottom of your F11 and request a repair to be initiated.

 

They said send it back ...

 

Do you have ANY idea how scarce F11s are right now!? How backed up CTO orders are? WHY should they give you a new computer?! What are they supposed to do with YOUR used computer? You've already bought and used it. Whom should they pull a reserved new computer away from? Do you think you're the only person with a defective computer, and that YOUR wishes take precedence over everyone else on the planet?

They will put in a new motherboard, send YOUR computer back to you and you will be happy - and relieved they WERE able to fix your system, unlike so many of us...

Sorry for the rant, but you are one of the lucky ones, with a clear-cut problem. Bask in the relief you should be feeling.

They will extend the return warranty to 30 days from when YOU get it back. and extend the factory warranty a month or two.

And I'm talking as a guy who had to wait SEVEN weeks to get the F11 he ordered, - yet you want instant gratification.

 

Yes, but it has not worked from the first day. I paid $ 1800 for faulty laptop? it's insanity are full of ... This is Sony and not Chinese junk ...

 

So how do you expect to get a new or repaired computer if you are hanging on to your defective unit? Mangosango is right, let Sony have your computer, and they will give you a new unit or repair yours. You will still be waiting a LOT less time for your computer than many of us.