Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

But with X-Rite i1display 2, I can also create & apply other monitor profiles to external monitors.

Anyway, thanks for the DV slider tip (& desktop Hue if I ever get one ).

 

Hi All,

Thanks for such a great forum, really helped me out on a few issues with my F11S1E

A few questions though. I ran VAIO Care & it appeared to stuff up my firefox installation - stopped it from running flash and screwed up the presentation of websites - like news.bbc.co.uk - where every hyperlink was underlined - also didn't like facebook.com too much (didn't autosearch / auto expand boxes) and I had to create a fresh install.

So in summary, are we saying that VAIO Care is not bloatware, and is infact worth having? If I'm honest i'm confused what's good and what's not - there are so many posts on this now!!

Finally the only game I play on the machine is GTA4. I noticed if I install the graphics card update on VAIO Update it makes the game a little jerky so I have installed the original driver. Am I correct in this prognosis?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

A lot of us have been having trouble with Flash lately: freezes, crashes, locked screens... I suspect a Flash update has borked Firefox.

Vaio care on the other hand is priceless, it has rescued my back end on several occasions. No other application will repair errors and get things back to conditions specific to the F11 with only minimal user intervention.

I noticed no difference between 187 and 188 on gameplay, Midtown's 197 seems to have introduced playability issues to just one game.

 

Thanks joe I'll try this... I'll report the results later... And thanks for your help once again...

 

Installing Intel Wireless Card 6200

Total time taken: 2 hours
No of screws to be removed: Plenty

Note before installation make a copy of all the wireless settings. You will lose them after installing (I guess you will have to write them down)

1) At first get the right screw driver. I got mine from Lowes. And only one bit was sufficient.

2) Make sure the battery has been removed
3) Remove all the screws in the back. Please refer the image. I had a big white paper and as I removed the screws I spread them out in the same order as I removed them on to the paper. There are some screws that needs to be removed and are located inside the containers of DVD, HDD, battery.
4) Then remove the RAM cover.
5) Then remove the DVD drive. Easy its held by a screw. Just slide it out.
6) Then remove the HDD cover.
7) Then remove the HDD. Its held by a two screws. Move the HDD to the left.(HDD side towards you). Then lift it up.
8) Now start opening up from the side of HDD (Hard Disk). Slowly move towards the right. I think there are tiny clips (moulded). Dont worry there is nothing to be done. Just slowly try to remove the cover.
9) You can see the wireless card on the back. Its a tiny green card.
10) Remove the two screws that attach the wireless card
11) Flip to the other side and remove the antennas. Its a little tight. You can use your hand.
12) Get the new card, attach the antenna to that new card. Push it gently but firmly. Its a bit tiny and so its little bit difficult.
13) Now slide the card back into the slot and put the two screws back
14) Now put back the cover. The trick is to start from the other end. The end where the the VGA connectors are and the HDMI connectors are there.
15) Make sure the end on the VGA side is well aligned. Then start pressing the sides to the other side
16) Put back the screws (Three tiny) that hold the DVD. Then the main screws
17) Put back the HDD (Slide it to the right). Then put back the screws
18) Put back the screws that hold the battery. Put back the battery
19) Now start the computer
20) Had the wireless switch off
20) Install the Intel wireless SW. I did a custom install
21) Turned the wireless switch on
22) Do the regular wireless setup
23) If successful, put back all the screws

I will attach all the images soon.

 

Installing Intel Wireless Card 6200 Image list 1

 

Installing Intel Wireless Card 6200 Images part 2

 

Installing Intel Wireless Card 6200 Images part 3

 

Here is a Flash update that has been in beta awhile and still is in beta.

Flash Player 10.1.51.95 Beta 3 (Non-IE)
http://www.filehippo.com/download_flashplayer_firefox/


Flash Player 10.1.51.95 Beta 3 (IE)
http://www.filehippo.com/download_flashplayer_ie/

 

ha well i reinstalled the OS from the other partition as suggest and guess what, blue screen of death every few hours. No idea why

 

I've installed Midtown's 197.16 driver & inf file. Now both graphics card related Windows Experience Index scores wen't down from 6.5 (original drivers) to 6.4.
I know that the WEI doesn't provide exact results, but I'm just curious if someone else noticed the same effect?

 

I did a refresh of the Windows Experience Index and it went down to 6.4 as well.

Geekbench 2.1.4 64-bit testing also resulted in a +/-200 point drop to around 6200-6300 points from the average of 6400-6500 points from the old Nvidia drivers. (in 5 tries)

 

Odd mine went down to 6.4 as well. But I'm also definitely seeing improved framerates/less stutter in games.

Btw I mentioned that Sims 3 stutters quite a bit. If you force on vsync and triple buffering for sims 3 through the nvidia control panel (control panel > nvidia control panel > manage 3d settings > program settings), there is much less stuttering. This method will probably work with the Sony-supported drivers as well.

 

My score is showing 6.4 with the original drivers (Nvidia GT330m), 6.5 overclocked, and my HD went from 6.9 to 6.8 with a fresh update- I did no changes to the HD- can anyone say TRIM?

 

Mine was always at 6.4 and stayed at 6.4 but my memory went up from 7.2 to 7.3

Don't think you can trust WEI to give anything but a ballpark figure. It's good enough for ya average Joe though, to give him an idea of what his PC will run.

EDIT...

Me too, tried various games both old and new and got a marked improvement across the board.

 

lol I overclocked and ran the test again and it gave me a 6.5. Can't remember if I was overclocking when I ran the test the first time (probably not).

 

Nevermind. I redid the testing again and it's back to 6.5 for both Aero and Gaming.

 

I have the same issue with firefox! Have to clear the cache every time it messed up, doing this like once every 3-6 days. At least I know which programs that messed it up, I use chrome now. Hopefully either firefox or vaio care will like each other on the next update!

 

Your aero or gaming score?My aero were 4.7 and gaming is 6 with 310M.

 

What brand memory are you using? Stock Samsungs? I've got mine constant at 7.1 from the beginning.

 

I get 7.3 on my machine for memory

 

I got 7.4 on my stock memory.



It just that my aero kinda low..how come?Almost the same WEI as ION

 

Do you have any proof that Vaio_Care messed up your Firefox?

There is a built in safety rollback in Vaio_Care > One Click Care > System TuneUp > Undo Cleaning (with choice of various dates):



So it's pretty easy to check your theory.

My Firefox is also messed up but that's after the recent update to 3.6.2 & a Java update so...

BTW the latest Firefox @ the present is 3.6.3: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html

"... are we saying that VAIO Care is not bloatware, and is infact worth having?" - Yes! Try the Troubleshooting section & > Diagnostics > Hardware & Software tests.



I don't know how to translate this properly but in French we say: to trow away the baby with the dirty bath water.

 

WEI is cr@ppy IMO as I upgraded my HDD from 5400 to 7200 rpm, shaved 37 sec booting time & the WEI stayed exactly the same. Check:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5926203&posted=1#post5926203

Current WEI w/ stock OEM video driver & VPCF115FM/B i7-720QM, 6GB, US 1080p GT 330M & 7200 Seagate Momentus HDD:
- CPU 7
- memory 7.4
- Graphics 6.5
- Gaming 6.5
- HDD 5.9

The HDD thing above & now this about the graphics index speaks volumes about the real world value of WEI:

 

OK, thanks to all who replied. I did run the test 3 more times but it didn't went back to 6.5 on my system. I have the 330M, no overclocking. It is the european top model VPCF11Z1E with 8gb ram. Everything is stock, only the HD has been replaced with an Intel SSD.

The screenshot is in German, but it shouldn't be hard to guess... ;-)

 

Mine has always been at 5.9

i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz 7.0
(RAM) 6.00 GB 7.3
GT 330M 6.5
Gaming graphics 6.5
500 GB-7200RPM HD 5.9

 

Ahhhh Crap!!!! Sorry everyone!

I misread my WEI.

Processor was at 7.1
Ram was at 7.4

Doh!!!

Aero Graphics: 6.5
Gaming: 6.5
Primary Hard Disk Drive: 5.9

 

Do you see why it's WEI who is cr@p? You have a i7-820M vs my 720, 2 GB more memory, the new NVIDIA driver & a 7200 HDD vs my OEM 5400 & the only difference WEI is showing is + .1 for your CPU.

Wow, I'm really impressed by that index. :SLEEP:

Why not download the free standalone (no install) Cinebench for more benchmark fun? http://www.maxon.net/index.php?id=162&L=0



An interesting post about WEI's limitations & quirks.

 

I posted Cinebench tests earlier on in the Vaio F11 Part 1 Thread and that really did not tell me anything about real-time test results of a card either.

I redid Test 1 of a Mental Ray file for 3ds Max Design 2010 64-Bit. The result with the new 197.16 driver is 17min 39sec. (Old - 17min 22.6sec)

16.4 seconds slower. In the end, both results are pretty much the same at stock speeds using old and new drivers. I might try an overclocked test but I don't think it will shave off that much in rendering time. Maybe up to a minute proportionally. I'm not too crazy about rendering an image going past 10 hours and counting on an overclocked card that might lock up before the image is done. The performance benefit seems to be in gaming. The GT330M after all is not meant for workstation class output.

Still, the results are excellent in comparison to past rendering experience in Core2Duo notebooks with mid-range game cards. Seems to cut wait times by a half plus some but now we're really talking about the sheer power of the i7 Quad Core.

 

Hello,

I think I have found what is causing my hibernation problem: VpmLM.exe. Within task manager it apparently is using between ~200-~500MB of memory! Any ideas if I need it - I can't find it referred to in this forum?

 

That's the vaio personalization service stuff... I think you can uninstall that.

 

And how did you arrive @ that conclusion?

That program can be seen here: F11_Series: Installed Vaio_Software Comparison & Bloatware?: Vaio_Personalization Manager, related to Media Gallery. It never prevented my F from going to sleep or hibernate. You can easily test that theory by disabling it temporarily (w/o uninstalling it) from startup with Autoruns. I suggest you create a restore point before messin' up your F.

You can search your own F to find out where that exe (or any other) is located: Start > search: VpmLM.exe > right click > Open file location.

There is a free & powerful tool made by Windows Sysinternals called: Process Explorer v12.01 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx and it can also work in tandem with Autoruns to gather info about a process. Maybe too techy for some though.

Keep on fishin' or try powercfg -energy.

BTW, did you see that reply to your Firefox/Vaio_Care theory? http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6100044&postcount=2473

 

I arrived at that conclusion on a few grounds. First of all it was noted within cmd here:

C:\Windows\system32>powercfg /requests
DISPLAY:
None.

SYSTEM:
[PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Program Files\Sony\VAIO Personalization Manage
r\VpmLM.exe
[PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\explorer.exe
A file copy operation is in progress.

AWAYMODE:
None.

and secondly (and non related) it was hogging a lot of computer resources, as seen within the attachment.

I'll have to follow the link you presented to understand exactly what the software does. Thanks for that

In regard to your other question

- to be honest I think that me blaming VAIOCARE was a knee-jerk... I think I installed a java update the same day. To be honest I'm a little reluctant to run it again - does it not only do what ccleaner /search and destroy / defraging does?

Thanks in advance

 

sorry could you also explain how to remap the "VAIO" button etc... on the F series - I've searched the threads, but haven't been able to find anything yet. I've searched the VAIO Control Centre and I've un-installed the VAIO media components.... yet I only get an error message along the lines of

---------------------------
Media Gallery
---------------------------
Media Gallery cannot be launched because Sony Home Network Library is not installed.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

...when I click on the button

 

"A file copy operation is in progress" may be a temp task. Run again powercfg @ idle: once F plugged & once unplugged. Or disable Personalization Manager as suggested above.

"Vaio_Care ...does it not only do what ccleaner /search and destroy.." - but it's made by Sony_, Intel, etc. If it messes your F, Sony_will fix it but as I said you can go back anytime & one would think that they don't want to create for themselves some more support tickets.

OTOH Ccleaner did mess up an older machine of mine (DVD burning related).

 

Unification Post #2 > Tweaks

Search this Thread with: remap or remapping.

"Media Gallery cannot be launched because Sony_Home Network Library is not installed." - Unification Post #2 > Tweaks > clean install > Sony_guide.

Or install the missing program:

 

Thanks Joe, this search has come up trump.

As for the file copying issue - that's something that I knew about at the time. I've taken your advice... and am running VAIO Care right now. Lets hope no changes to firefox ;-)

Thanks again for your help, this forum is worth it's weight in gold to sony. I wonder how many of them check it out...

 

IIRC, the VAIO button can't be remapped(?). The S1 key can be remapped through the keyboard section of the Vaio Control Center, but I think the ASSIST and VAIO keys can't.

 

The resent upgrades of Firefox 3.6.3 and/or the Java upgrade has caused me to force shut down a few times. I'm very confident this is not F related. Unfortunately I cannot customize Chrome like I do Firefox Did you guys here at some recent conference Chrome was the only browser not able to be hacked.

 

You should give Opera a try if you haven't alread. It has low memory usage and quite a few features.

 

My Vaio_key is now speakers muting.

 

Yes I have used Opera as well. I have just gotten so use to certain addons and themes with Firefox. I can open IE within a Firefox tab with Coral IE Tab (when a work related website is only compatible with IE), Mouse Gestures ( I know there are other programs but the FF addon is a breeze), No Squint (really helpful with 1920 x 1080), Stylish customizes other websites for looks, Toolbar Buttons (adds additional toolbar icons)... you get the idea.

mangosango- have you overclocked your system with the 197.16 drivers upgrade? And if so, still 650/800/1625 ? I may have missed that.

 

New PMB update is available. BTW I Uninstalled Vaio Update, the bug just bothering me ( http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/documentLink.do?externalId=C1015656)...beside that it doesn't catch up this update, so might as well check it manually every so often.

Version : 5.1.00.13280

Last Modified : 03/26/2010

Size : 214.94 MB

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VPCF111FXB&upd_id=5584&os_id=45

 

All,
looks like CNET just reviewed the BB version of the laptop

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-vpcf115fm-b/4505-3121_7-33970188.html#cnetReview

 

I get the "Cannot acquire configuration settings" message almost every time, but I simply press the "Important Info" tag, which does connect, then toggle back to "Check for Updates" which then also connects, and accurately notifies of updates if any.

Like all other reviews this one found the F115 one of the fastest of all notebooks being sold, they liked the keyboard, and found no design issues. Amongst all the complaints in this forum it's good to be reminded of why we love this laptop despite its "beauty spots."

When's Notebookeview.com going to review our system? However it's not even among their list of the top 30 models in terms of sales.

 

As Melody & I suggested previously, you can click first on "Important Info" or "Successful Updates" & then "Check for Updates". That bug could be on_Sony's server side or in my newly installed firewall, at least for my F.

As suggested in the "Cannot acquire the configuration settings for VAIO Update.." kb support article you linked to (thanks), I just added both to the Firewall allow list & it seems to have fixed the problem:

Start > search: allow firewall > Allow a Program through Windows Firewall > Add an other program > you can navigate to or simply paste this & hit Enter: C:\Program Files\Sony\VAIO Update 5 > select VAIOUpdt.exe. While I was there, I also allowed VUAgent.exe by clicking Add an other program again. The folder path was already opened to the correct VAIO_Update 5 folder.

Maybe also: VCsystray.exe and VaioCareUpdate.exe in C:\Program Files\Sony\VAIO Care.

If you use a third party firewall, check here as it may override Windows'. If so, you must allow in that third party firewall:



> Norton Internet Security 2010 > Help > search: About firewall rules.

 

MelodyMaster, I get the same message saying "cannot acquire configuration settings" also and figured out my clicking to another tab then back it seems to connect. I allowed it to connect within my firewall so that is not the issue.

 

Which program did you allow exactly? Did you allow To & From (In/Out)?

Maybe people having that bug could mention what kind of firewall they are using?

 

VUAgent.exe, Comodo firewall, I will check the settings a bit more thoroughly in a minute just having a bite to eat now.

 

I've attached a few pics of more screen comparos, this time against my 20" Cinema display (I am on vacation right now)..

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zZDRx0MKYqE/S7ke71WEb0I/AAAAAAAAAHs/2kUdJYk7iJs/008.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zZDRx0MKYqE/S7kfbCpSPxI/AAAAAAAAAHw/FjxjyapITE8/003.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zZDRx0MKYqE/S7kfcaWc1uI/AAAAAAAAAH0/8WRLF99Rl4Y/005.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zZDRx0MKYqE/S7kffnHPU6I/AAAAAAAAAH4/hVkMFDVxotY/009.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zZDRx0MKYqE/S7kfxcaun9I/AAAAAAAAAIU/8JHMlHv2vTQ/s720/010.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zZDRx0MKYqE/S7kfyrzC2MI/AAAAAAAAAIY/rflpRJ7azoM/011.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zZDRx0MKYqE/S7kf1247OCI/AAAAAAAAAIc/igAvaDsRzWo/002.JPG

The saying goes "the camera lied!". The sony is actually a bit more washed out than the 20" is lol.