Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

I'm assuming you bought your Sony online at the CTO store? If you didn't, go back to the retail store you bought it from, although as Melody said, it is probably better to have Sony replace the motherboard, for you and for others.

I could help you more if you told us exactly what the Sony repair center told you to do? I highly doubt that they just said "take it back" and then kicked you out the door (lol Fresh Prince anyone?.... ok nvm).

Actually, I would've thought that they repair center people would've just taken it to repair it...

And finally, why oh why, if it wasn't working from day 1, did you wait 22 days to do anything about it???

 

Hi Mangosango. I had a look on your game tests / Benchmark. Very nice collection.

My questions now:
- did you overclock your GPU? If yes, to what values?
- do you use other nVidia driver than the sony standard (like the 197.16) ?

Thanks,
V.

 

I bought my laptop at SonyStyle. Why do I poteral 22 days? - "I was not in town, then I thought that this software problem and tried to fix it ourselves but could not ...
Now I do not know what to do? When I call to Sony, they only do that redirect to another number .. I was angry!

How do I get NEW Laptop??

 

I hope you've signed up at SonyStyle? (You can buy CTO without being a Member) That puts you in Sony's system and provides the reps with your profile. Email Sonystyle with your customer ID and ask for a callback, they will call IMMEDIATELY. Then establish a relationship with a PARTICULAR individual for your Sony products.

Play by Sony's rules, and they'll be your best friend. Sony IS a good company to deal with for warranty work, but they're not going to make someone else wait for their new computer just because you say "Gimme.." . Have you been following THIS thread? A new motherboard now may very well mean you get all the latest fixes, the full mini-refresh - no whining or whistling. But get another new system and it may very well be an older run one WITH problems.

One out of five expensive new products in all categories have an issue at purchase requiring a return for service. You never heard of a car needing a fix two weeks after the owner buys it? Do they give you a NEW car? Out of six $500+ appliances I've bought in the last two years three required immediate service: a dishwasher, clothes dryer, and speaker system. Oh and my FIRST F11 was defective. I wish they COULD have fixed it because I had to wait two months for a replacement.

I've given you good advice.. You won't get results by ranting at the Universe, that won't elicit sympathy from anyone, either the readers of this forum or Sony.

 

So call that other number, have them start a case file, let them go through whatever gyrations they go though. When they establish your laptop cannot be fixed over the phone, they will send you a box to return it to their service dept.. When you give them your serieal number off the computer, they know it is still under warranty. What kind of hassles could they possibly give you? It's under warranty!

 

Doh!bad time to get it now...it will have a refresh with core i7 processor pretty soon ><

 

Nope, no overclocking in the videos, although the card runs steady (tested by me and some others) at 650/800/1625 (core/mem/shader). The driver is the standard one that came with my Vaio - I never updated them - even to the new "official" sony ones.

 

After over 12 hours of usage, the new drivers by NVIDIA are working great on my F1, 197.16, with my custom inf file.

Fn + F5/F6 works for brightness.

The inf file was modified with configurations from Sony's 187.83. If someone is smart enough to extract files from the drivers update from Sony (188.67), because it's an EXE file, not ZIP file, I could use those settings.

So people who want to test the new drivers with my inf file, just pm me and I'll reply back with the instructions. Want others to test it out besides me to be sure that it's good enough. I did a clean install (no previous drivers), so if you're upgrading them, just be sure to uninstall the old ones and clean the old files.

And don't bother to install with the inf file from laptopvideo2go, because it's too generic and it will mess up the laptop. The F1's GT 330M + it's 1080p monitor are a bit customized and you'll experience: uneven brightness, flicker at low brightness.

 

I've heard of an impending MacBook update coming after the iPad release.

 

Midtown - you are my hero Sending PM now. I'll check to see if it works + if there is any performance gain.

 

Would it work for 310M too?

 

Well! I did a little battery test today with my extended battery. I used power saver mode and just ran my computer with no tweaks of any sort to the battery modes and I got about 3 and 1/2 hours of usage before the battery died. I may try tweaking it and trying again when I get some time.
Edit: With the same settings with the standard battery I got just over 2hrs and 5 minutes.

 

I only modified the install configurations for GT 330M.
the 310M uses different ones.

 

Good link. I personally am looking forward to playing Arcania-A Gothic Tale on my F11

 

I'm surprised crysis 2 wasn't on that list. I'm really looking forward to playing that

 

Click on the 2011 link (top of page), you'll find Crysis 2 there.

 

Thanks MidtownHD!

That's exactly how it should be done. Installing non-Sony-certified-for-the F11 video drivers is not a trivial thing & should be tested on your own F before recommending us some third party downloads.

As you described, the best procedure is: "...if you're upgrading them, just be sure to uninstall the old ones and clean the old files" so that means when trying a video driver that does not work properly on the Vaio_F11, you waste a ton of time:
- download driver X from site Z
- uninstall your original Sony_video driver (I suggest creating a restore point before doing that)
- reboot
- install driver X
- reboot
- test driver X. Problems? Try to fix it, tweak, search the web for solutions. None found?
- uninstall driver X
- reboot
- reinstall your Sony_video driver from the recovery disc or download the most recent version certified for your specific F model from Sony_support
- reboot
- report here that it did not work

Yo, vvik75, Peter-X and aaronjb, have you seen this post by MidtownHD?

*************

 

Yeah I'm i limbo right now...just moved from the States to Japan (I'm in the Marines) and am moving to South Korea for 2 years in a couple weeks. Japan is just an initial hiatus.

I'm more than willing to test nvidia drivers...i just dont' know how to edit an inf file...although I can probably google it

 

I'm using midtown's .inf and 197.16 drivers.

Pic to see the proof (that the fn keys work too!):

 

Create a thread for the results of the testing:

VAIO F - NVIDIA Drivers Update (197.16) for GT 330M (10DE-0A29)

 

I posted this here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=472664

but this forum probably gets more traffic.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

First of all, BIG THANKS to midtown for testing and sharing his .inf and methods.

All fn keys (audio, video) work. No problems with sleep, no brightness flickering, and gpu-z showing CUDA, PhysX, Open CL, and Directcompute checked (active). In other words, these drivers just work for me (except for the vibrance, as MelodyMaster pointed out - will modify as I find other things).

NOW for preliminary performance gains in gaming.

I haven't been able to really compare framerates yet, but for newer games (ME2, BFBC2, etc) these drivers give about a 10-15 BOOST IN FPS AT STOCK CLOCKS. Basically, the performance at stock clocks on the 197.16 drivers is the same as overclocking your 330m with the Sony drivers. I havent been able to overclock with these new drivers yet, but if the amount of fps gained is the same, then we're talking a 20-30FPS boost from a completely stock gt330m that comes with Sony's drivers (in newer games atleast) (Yes 20-30FPS).

ME2 is now FULLY PLAYABLE without overclock at 720p with 4xAA, 16xAF, all settings maxed out. BFBC2 is now PLAYABLE at 720p (some dips below 20 when there are a lot of particles on screen) with Effects High, Shadows Medium, Textures Medium, Level Of Detail High, no HBAO, 16xAF and 4xAA!!

I imagine overclocking will make BFBC2 fully playable at these settings.

Now, not all games are affected. Crysis is still slow @ high settings without overclock. I still have to do more testing to find other games, but so far, it's looking good.

You can also override antialiasing for ME2 in the nvidia control panel now, so you don't have to use the roundabout nHancer method any more.

Overall, the performance gains look promising. Looking forward to how much fps I can get out of this thing .

 

How about Digital Vibrance? I find that instead of being default 0, and adding "contrast" to the colour, or vibrancy, as it's slid to the right, the digital vibrance control in Desktop Color settings is now acting as a color saturation control. 50% is about right, but sliding to the left makes the desktop black and white. That is NOT correct. Everything else seems ok so far..

 

For all of you who want to buy this machine but want their back covered. You'll need it.


http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11531137

Costco offers 90 Days Money Back (Just drop it off at any of their warehouses)
2 Years of manufacturer warranty.

Keep watching costco from time to time they also offer the 6Gb model.

 

Ah yes - the digital vibrance meter does the same thing on mine (don't use it anyway, so I guess it's not that big of a deal for me). The performance gain is well worth it imo. Have you tried to see if CUDA works yet?

 

LCD comparo for you guys, US 1080p screen vs 23" Apple Cinema

Not a "fair" comparo since it's TN (vaio) vs IPS (apple)

 

Yes DGindexNV now works, and DGmultidecode, which took 45 minutes to decode each minute, is now decoding 30 minutes per minute, a 1350-times improvement. And other applications depending upon frameserving the resulting Hidef index no longer hang..

How come it takes a user to hack Sony's drivers before one can use ones system for the purpose for which one paid $2000.?????

Thanks tremendously MidtownHD

 

@Melodymaster: Sweet!

Good comparison for people looking for more info about the screen.

 

Which factory installed Sony_and trial softwares can be safely removed from your Vaio_F11?

Check this collaborative post w/ 5 screen captures: F11_Series: Installed Vaio_Software Comparison & Bloatware?



Feedback & comments appreciated. Don't be shy & click that weird looking button on the left if you find that post useful.

***************

99 F owners votes so far in the Poll: Sony_F_Series Owners Display (LCD) Opinions.

Thanks guys for testing MidtownHD's NVIDIA laptop video driver update suggestion & reporting here. I'll wait for a little bit more reports from MidtownHD & you before joining the fun.

 

Forgot to include this, but it's not as if anyone uses their laptop sitting like that lol

 

No problem.

So you're saying that in your case, the default "digital vibrance" value was at 0?

because mine was/is at 50, default value...

Now if someone can extract the files from Sony's driver update, 188.67

So far, 3 people have successfully installed 197.16 drivers with the modded inf file...

 

Have you tried Uniextract to extract the exe file? Also if you had installed the driver update before, Windows will have a cache (unless you had deleted previous driver) of the inf in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvxxx.inf.

 

Uniextract can't extract the "Update files, EXE" from Sony. The original EXE files are extractable, but not the updates.

Did anyone install Sony's drivers update, 188.67? If so, can you send me the new inf file?

 

Because that 197.16 Nvidia laptop driver is just out and one cannot wait for Sony_to test that update, customized & certify it for the F_Series?

The question is how long will it take Sony_to make it available on the support pages since they opted out of the Nvidia Verde program?

This reply by ManuelG (NVIDIA Technical Support):

Or mod the .inf.

 

Once everything is work for you guys with 330M and you have the time, could you mod the inf to include 310M?

 

1. The speakers are being muted by clicking mute in Windows 7.

2. When I plug in headphones, the crackling sound is not heard in the headphones.

3. The crackling sound is like a light hissing and popping sound coming from the speakers. It doesn't seem to be related to HD access, as I'm getting it when the system is idle. I am getting the crackling/hissing sound when plugged in or on battery. Not sure about the RF loop thing..

 

How about some views from a normal working position, Kama Sutra?

 

I don't own a F series. Why don't you install the driver update and grab the inf?

 

I just did a clean install 24 hours ago...

I wouldn't be able to test it though...

"Test, customize, certify"??? Only Sony & Fujitsu weren't in the Verde Program, they just didn't pay NVIDIA for drivers support.

 

Interesting approach. One may want to trade the extra 2 months return period & 1 year warranty for the customization possibilities of the CTO on SonyStyle_USA.

For an extra $30 compared to the price you posted, one may choose the much cleaner Fresh Start option & Win 7 Professional w/ virtual XP instead, not talking about options like 1080p screen, 500 GB 7200 rpm or the new 640 GB HDD or SSD:

 

If you are using the latest Nvidia 197.16 driver, and satisfied, why do you need the Sony's older inf file? You can set up a dual boot of the same OS for testing drivers. I am doing this with my FZ.

 

I don't think they save any money by doing it themselves & publishing their own customized version to which surely Nvidia is collaborating.

Are you saying that Sony_and_Fujitsu are dumb or cheapos?

NVIDIA VERDE NOTEBOOK RELEASE 197:

May be of some interest to some: Official NVIDIA Verde 197.16 notebook display driver feedback thread (ManuelG quoted previously started that NVIDIA thread BTW)

This said, keep on testin', I'm not sure I want to wait for_Sony.

 

It doesn't have to be 197 Joe, just 191 will do, that also has CUDA 3. And even THAT is an old driver.

 

No, default is 0%. Digital Vibrance should not be a colour saturation control at all, it just compensates for perceived weaknesses in the display panel.

Another problem I've found: old games and graphic programs that don't support widescreen but only 4:3 aspect, used to properly display with black bars either side so that the aspect remained correct, now they stretch to the sides of the screen and there is NO way of scaling to full screen but not stretched. That's actually quite a problem and generally always dealt with by the display driver. In this case I think the 188 driver was telling the SCREEN to scale to windowbox, but that instruction is missing for the hacked 197 driver.

Well you asked to hear about any issues.. That's two I've found so far.

 

Could you check the issues reported in the Official NVIDIA thread linked above like second monitor, etc?

Maybe Sony_is slow certifying the new drivers to avoid stuff like this since the card is welded to the motherboard: Nvidia Pulls Graphics Card-frying 196.75 Driver.

Did you run Furmark or Cinebench for example? Are you using a temp monitoring utility w/ overheating alarm?

 

Hi all i was thinking to order the new F series as upgrade from my old FZ with the following specs:

VPCF1190X
Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
Black
500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
4GB (4GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
CD/DVD burner
16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
Fresh Start
Standard Capacity Battery
Keyboard Backlight

My worry was the reviews; someone was suggesting waiting until they get all the issues worked out, some problem with screen, high pitch noise
Am really confused.
Thanks

 

Have you tried this option?

 

You dont know how to install it .. ..

 

You haven't been paying attention, the Nvidia driver does not account for unique characteristics of the F11, such as brightness control and thermal monitoring, so parts of the .inf required for the Vaio have to be combined with the file list for the Nvidia 197 drivers. 197 will NOT install on the F11 with its own NV.Disp.inf.

Midtown is satisfied BECAUSE he was able to get what was needed from the 187's .inf.

 

Don't forget if you order by tomorrow you get the free Blu Ray upgrade and if you call Sony style directly versus ordering off the web they will sometimes give you a 10% discount when asked. I ordered mine a couple of weeks ago and it should reach me next week! I think most of the newer ones have not had the high pitch noise. As far as the screen, looks like a mixed bag. Good luck

 

Sorry for brevity - on the fly ATM.

Sony left me a voicemail last night basically refusing to cancel my scheduled pickup for repair of the fan whistle - I'd become convinced that it wasn't a replacement of the fan that was needed and I was concerned about scratches the machine may pick up.

Has anyone in the UK or even elsewhere tried to have their whistling fan repaired? If I could have some advice on how to proceed then I'd be very appreciative!