Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

No worries. I suspected that my frame of mind would play a part in interpreting your words. I guess the i7 processor is more demanding than the dual cores and require more ventilation.

 

Great idea, Joe. But what about the ventilation problem MelodyMaster alluded to?

 

I thought about running a demanding CPU benchmark utility to jack up the fan revs & hold a cigarette near the body including next to the grids under it to check for air being sucked in but then I'll never finish the DIY HDD in the ODD bay that fernandes is requesting.

Where's that box of Cuban COHIBA... Ah! There it is.

 

And the answer is: the smoke is getting sucked in the F's body by the vent under the HDD (underside, about where the Start/Alt keys are), the memory vent & the ODD bay which would explain why my F is not overheating when the lid is closed & not sleeping & why the HDD in my ODD bay is constantly about 5c cooler than the internal HDD.

Sorry Melody, no sucking by the speakers cover unless it's so large that the sucking power is spread & locally too weak. Anyway when the lid is closed, it's not perfectly sealed because of the rubber bumpers preventing the surface of the LCD to come in contact with the keyboard. Come to think of it, it makes more sense to suck most of the air where it can cool off heat generating things, just like my old Dell_4600 has the main air intake in front of the vertical positioned HDD's. Interestingly, for that desktop box, when the side cover is removed, the HDD's temp goes up.

Other vertical notebook stand designs:

DIY foam:

http://www.hdd-enclosure.com/vertical-notebook-stand.html

http://www.kaffeinatedx.com/2009/12/vertical-laptop-stand-to-free-up-desk.html

http://geekbubble.com/2010/03/nx-laptop-stand-best-vertical-stand-for-laptops/

http://www.doobybrain.com/2010/01/25/review-nx-stand-for-macbookmacbook-pro/

http://www.ergodirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=15809

http://the-gadgeteer.com/2005/12/26/legenda_design_laptop_stand_up/

http://www.applelinks.com/index.php/more/laptop_flip_stand_for_apple_laptops/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackfeathers/3672806049/

DIY & recycling (Flintstones style): http://www.flickr.com/photos/jliba/3531850861/

 

Then I just don't understand Joe why 2 F-11's would exhibit the same behavior when attached to an external monitor and why keeping the lid up affects the performance.

 

The F has been opened up, and the fan observed partly under the speaker mesh. It's totally reasonable that that air is being drawn in past other locations that require coolng, such as the hard drive, but the mesh is definitely one intake. Block the HD cover and then put the cigarette by the mesh.

Anyway the F11 DOES run hotter and with a ramped up fan speed with the lid closed, that's a fact..

 

That theory is easy to test with SIW for temperature monitoring & a CPU benchmark utility for loading the F but it will have to wait for tomorrow on my side.

My guess is: it makes barely a difference. I'll bet that the F in a vertical position and lid closed is cooler than flat on a desk with the lid opened.

"The F has been opened up, and the fan observed partly under the speaker mesh" - That's true as I noted on the photo below but it's only part of the fan's air intake & if there is a resistance because of the lid being closed, then more air will be sucked by the other body air intakes. Note that the mesh is just a decorative exterior finish as you can see the underside here and the speakers are sealed off by a light gray foam rim, preventing air from being sucked by the actual speakers grid. The entire speakers cover bezel is acting as one of the 4 sides of a ventilation air duct with the air being sucked through the various holes along the way on the F's casing under it. Both ends of the speakers cover are sealed as you can see on the power cable pconnector & power switch sides. That's why no smoke was sucked in during my cigarette test.



It's actually a pretty intelligent design. The way these Vaio_Z designers lovingly talk about the bosy and the "blend cylinder form" hinge design in these videos here and here, I'm sure they thought about the ventilation aspect too. Warning: you may long for a Z after seeing those.

 

For demanding games or doing something very CPU and/or GPU intensive, it could help keeping the cover open to keep it cooler. For just browsing or watching Blu-Rays out to a TV or external monitor I don't think there is any harm in closing the lid. I adjusted my power plan to keep the CPU running at maximum of ~930 mhz for Blu-Ray viewing to ensure the fan noise stays down during movie watching. One thing I know for sure is this Laptop under load can put out a ton of heat compared to any other laptop I have owned so it needs to be well ventilated. The screen on mine has the limited viewing angles, but looks acceptable within that range. I use my Zune HD on a daily basis and I really love the colors and blacks on that OLED screen. I would love to have an OLED laptop screen.

 

Joe, I am interested to see how your test turns out. Just guessing, but I think you are probably correct. Mounting the laptop vertically with the exhaust toward the top seems like it should give plenty of airflow.

 

Thanks so much for the help guys it worked (the update recognized the uj240a s and that it'd be updated from 1.00 -> 1.01)

now i just hope burning discs will be fine :/

 

Actually, I did call, I posted about it. Noone has called me back as yet and I bet noone will.

 

I got your eSATA drive enclosure and it works great. Works fine with VAIO on powered eSATA cable only. Works on my Dell.

I went into a Sony shop and tried my LaCie rugged drive on an F Series and it didn't work there either. So either my LaCie drive is defective or it isn't compatible with Sony. I spoke to LaCie and they said they'd test it with a Sony laptop to see. I'm won't hold my breath.

Apart from having a rubber case I don't think the LaCie drive is really worth it. It has the same disk inside. I might try and find some way of protecting these powered eSATA enclosures instead.

Thanks for your help

 

Joe,

I had seen this enclosure at Geeks and on eBay, but I could not find if the power over eSATA cable was included. Is your 30" power over eSATA cable one that was included in the box or did you purchase it seperately? For $22 including shipping, I am looking at at least 3 and possible 4 of these if the cables are included.

Thanks,

Bill

 

I purchased the same as Joe. There is a power over SATA cable in the box, I forget how long but I think someone did complain it was a little on the short side.

 

Clearly, since the list of types of 16.4" screens available in the after-market screen industry is limited and easily searchable, and we have seen what is available for that size on multiple vendor Websites, the true premium F screen is likely proprietary and not available except from Sony.

That said, now that we do know the exact Sony part number -- and how and where to actually get one of the original F premium RGB LED screens (cf.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6128648&postcount=2854), perhaps we should all chip in a dollar each (Canadian, US, or Mexican) to a pool, buy one, post the manufacturer and part number, and raffle it off to the pool members!

 

Apologies if this has been brought up before ( I left this forum for a while after the F arrived) Connecting a TV via the HDMI port at 1080p resolution, the TV does not display all of the laptop screen - ie some info is missing all around the edges, as if it's slightly magnifying (overscanning ? ) At other resolutions you can adjust this via the laptop's display menu, but at this 1080p resolution that option does not seem to be available. It's happening on two different Sony TVs, as well.
Any cure ?

 

I think that is worth a punt, I'll chip in $10.

 

I'm glad it works for you and that's it's the LaCie that's defective & not your F's eSATA/Power Over eSATA/USB port.

If you cover it with a silicone sleeve or rubber, be careful not to affect negatively the cooling properties of the aluminium casing. I was surprised that they did not included self adhesive rubber feet to prevent vibrations to/from the desk & help underside ventilation. I got 4 cheap rubber gaskets for faucets @ the hardware store & will glue them to the underside with silicone.

A what's in the box photo was included in the original Sony_VAIO_F Power Over eSATA Port & ext Enclosures Benchmarks post:



Did you see the new WD HDD 750GB WD7500BPVT 2.5" 9.5mm 5400 rpm is just out & the price is really affordable.

I can't say if the other re-sellers include the Power Over eSATA cable but the one I linked to does. Maybe tausif could say from whom he go it from? crzytimes got his from Amazon & it included the cable & since it was sold by Geeks...

BTW, in the post I did not complain that the cable was too short but the opposite: "my only complaint is I wish the 30" (76cm) cable would be 20" (45cm) instead for less bulk when transporting and that length is enough to connect to the Power Over eSATA Port & hide the enclosure behind the laptop."

I did find a 20" (45cm) Power Over eSATA cable on Fleabay but @ $10 shipped it's a bit pricey compared to the cost of the entire kit. If one wants shorter, he could ask the re-seller to replace the one in the box which I will do when ordering the next one.

*****

HDMI TV Output Size?

You could try this: VAIO_F_Series New Drivers: Nvidia & HDMI Size FIX!

Edited to add this great tip by theppl:

*****

Premium 1080p LCD Brand & Part #?

Could you try again saying they never returned the call or do it in writing?

With just the Sony part # it's pretty useless, we need the brand & model #. A search with the Sony_part # A1772658A found by detective work by Derrida as described in his post here yields no results on the web @ the present. I'll give a call to Sony_support US & report.

I'll chip in $250 if I'm the one who gets to try it on his US 1080p.

 

So I have had my laptop for about a week now and noticed that when on battery on powersaver mode it says max 2hr 46 min with nothing running. SIW was showing about 1 hr less for whatever reason. I did the calibration where i let it drain completely, then charged to 100% overnight. This morning amazingly the laptop sad 3hrs but SIW still said max close to 2 hrs with 99% charged... who do I believe??
Full capacity is 57240mWh and at 99% it had discharge rate in late 2700's to 3100's. Currently with nothing connected and only SIW and firefox running it is at 90% charge, discharge rate is 19668mW and says run time 2hrs 37 min..

energy report had usual 9 errors, some warnings and some informational stuff. Any other ideas to increase battery life or get accurate life? Also the weird thing is when i switch from power saver to balanced the remaining time shows 3hrs!! it actually goes up in Balanced mode versus down!

 

found this on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/SONY-I7820QM-...ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1271106934&sr=1-9

It say 100% Adobe RGB...does that mean now SONY offer matte screen to US customers?Its pricey though...

 

According to Sony, this has a 310M, 512 mb video card and 1600x900 LCD, with 256 gb SD drive...

http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/VPCF11HGX/B

 

I've noticed this on 2 different TVs as well (Toshiba and another). I found that the problem was not actually with the Laptop output, it is the default setting in these TVs. You are right, it is kind of like "overscan" in the old analog TV days. Unfortunately this setting is named something completely different on every TV I have looked at. Sorry, I'm not near my Toshiba to tell you what it was called on there. Best thing to do is just go through the video setup menus on the TV and find it that way.

It seems insane to me that, when using HDMI input, TV manufacturers would leave the setting turned on by default instead of showing it at the native resolution.

 

Did you have a battery gauge problem & did the battery calibration tip fixed it?

What is important is that your battery capacity when fully charged is perfect, your discharge rates are pretty good & that your powercfg -energy report is fine.

The estimated battery life is to be taken with a grain of salt as your actual use & tasks will change that. Does SIW or the F's battery gauge have the best estimation? I dunno, maybe you could test it & report?

"the weird thing is when i switch from power saver to balanced the remaining time shows 3hrs!! it actually goes up in Balanced mode versus down!" - Are they both @ Default? Check the Display brightness & other display settings in this tab, it can make a huge difference for the battery life:



You can also in the same Advanced > Battery > Reserve Battery Level > and reduce it to 3 or 5% instead of the default 7% if you really need those extra minutes to complete a task.

BTW, check the Battery Policy tab in SIW 2010 for a view of all your power management plans including the active one. A ton of info in one panel instead of all the clicks needed in Vaio_Care or Win 7 > Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options. What a great utility considering that it's free, small & portable. Isn't?

An other trick to extend battery life is to temporarily disable what you don't need in Device Manager like ODD, Bluetooth, wifi, etc.

You can also temporarily disable unneeded processes and Logon (startup) programs listed in the free, small & portable (meaning no install needed) Windows Sysinternals Autoruns.



Other device settings suggestions here: Sleep & Hibernation Wake Up Problems Fix!

 

Well, I had bought the F for our church 6 weeks ago and installed a Crucial SSD. I have been very impressed with it. Now I have purchased 2 more identical machines and because the Crucial SSD was out of stock, I switched to OWC Mercury Extreme SSDs.

I will now say that I am giddy with the prospect of having one of these machines as my own! I just purchased a fully loaded F...820QM processor, 8GB RAM, premium HD screen w/ 330M GPU, backlit keyboard, etc. To this I added the OWC Mercury Extreme 200GB SSD. This is a tremendous amount of money for me, but I am hoping that this fine computer will last me for 7-8 years.

Thanks to all of you who have been so instrumental on this thread. I had been flip-flopping between this and an ASUS G73 gaming laptop. I am not a gamer, but the ASUS has a great design and great components. Although I heard a few gripes about the Vaio F, I have seen very few really major problems here, and a lot of helpful hints and fixes to make this machine work better. The ASUS, on the other hand, has a lot of fans due to its gaming abilities, even though there are a LOT of problems leading to BSOD or RMAs.

Thanks again for all of the information. I sincerely hope that these 4 machimes work well for a long time!

Bill

 

Go to the Buy.com website here and see the truth - http://www.buy.com/prod/sony-vaio-v...i7-820qm-1-73ghz-4gb/q/loc/101/213753276.html

 

Err.. which truth? MrRocketman already posted a link to_Sony's VPCF11HGX/B product page.

 

Why did you not simply get he bundled Toshiba SSD? It's a better price when included with the system, and the performance is bested only by the Intel and Premium OCZ units.

 

And this is the specs page from esupport.sony.com:
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/VPCF11HGXB_mksp.pdf

No RGB LED there.

But this is an interesting sign of a refresh -- and earlier than June.

 

eh?? What makes you think this is a sign of a refresh?? they have just configured it with the available $620 SSD Drive and the higher processor and lower end screen

 

I don't see any sign of a refresh. It's just new in terms of being preconfigured with the SSD and better 4-core CPU, but with only 4 gigs of ram and the low-end screen and GPU, all with a misleading model number.

A refresh has NEW features,such as i9, and different I/O ports, a new screen (one wishes!) and maybe even case colour. This model looks like an adjusment to take advantage of surplus availability of some parts, such as the SSD and 1600X900 screens.

 

Yup. All of those things are what Sony has done in the past just before it released a refresh. And often the first refresh has been the least extensive, the least exciting, BTW. Probably because the first refresh is on the drawing board at the same time as the original release.

Here's hoping anyway. Fingers crossed....

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2948

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD/65

Overall, I feel that this is a better SSD. It has a great warranty and looks to be very reliable. I could find other reviews, but I like anandtech's honesty. I could have bought the OCZ Vertex LE, but it was much more expensive than the $700 I paid.

Again, you were one of the contributors to this thread that I was thanking. I really like your insight.

Bill

 

Is anybody else having wifi problems???

Not sure if this is a Windows or VAIO problem, but my wifi keeps crapping out. Especially when uploading something. Not sure what's wrong (I have the Intel 6200 wireless one), but it totally stops working and won't see any networks anymore. I have to disable/enable the hardware to get it working again.

It happens randomly, like a couple of times a day when uploading. When downloading it mostly works fine..

 

No, My battery was charged upto about 98% before i did a SHUTDOWN for the night and I just booted up and it says 87% available. How can it be shutdown and discharging 10%!

 

And I'm not talking about the morse code or fan whistle. I mean when playing music/videos/etc my right speaker will play the sound quite cleanly, but the left one crackles/noise/static regularly. Anyone else got the same?

I do not know if this is the ''distortion'' that's mentioned in the unification post, but the fix provided there didn't work.

 

I've got that but in the right speaker.

In my first unit it was very low, in the new one it's very loud.
Seems to be a driver issue, if you mute the speakers the sound is gone.

 

For info: my issue with the HDMI output to a 1080p Sony TV giving overscan (See my post on Page 292) was solved by setting the display area of the TV's HDMI I/P to "Full Pixel" rather than the "Normal" default setting. A full screen of info is now displayed correctly on the TV. There are no issues with the PC and no software update was needed.
Hope this may help anyone else getting this problem.

 

We know already that new options are coming at the end of June with the release to market of new Intel CPUs, this ramping down may very well be preparation for THAT refresh, one that is fairly significant.

 

Exactly the same here. Joe recommended removing the grill and tightening some screws a while back though I haven't got around to doing that yet. It sounds like vibration, if you hold down the left side of the speaker grill with your thumb the sound goes away.

The left one seems to progressively be getting worse.

 

Ok this happened to me again and I can say that my previous fix is not working.

Fan again is running at 100% and the same situation again like before. Both times this happened when I fell asleep watching a movie overnight and the laptop went into hibernation and the battery drained. Laptop would not power on with the battery inserted. Laptop powered on removing the battery.
Power plan was in balanced mode.

Did the steps I took back then as well as resetting the bios and restoring to factory state. No luck.

two screens flashed very quickly during startup on two separate startup occassions listed below. I could not read it fast enough though so it is incomplete. And it does not happen everytime during startup. Just the time I powered the computer on and the 100% fans kicked -in and also reverse steps to get to the state where the laptop is hibernating and battery drained.

1. Intel ME ignition firmware..........................

2. Intel *blank* is booting from the factory default image.

Will send it in for repair unless someone is familiar with what's happening and knows how to fix it....

As far as I can tell, it seems to me that when the laptop is hibernating and the battery is in critical mode, plugging it in with AC only will reset the bios?

Would it be an extremely BAD idea to download the Aptio firmware utilites form American Megatrends and flash the bios? Would that even help or just let Sony tech deal with this?

I just bought a Sony Style USA refurbished FW490 for $1200 as my backup.Needed one anyway and if Roweraays's screen switch is successful, I'll think about a switch/salvage for the ssd and screen. (or not)

Product:9700744/BSTOCK
Base Unit:Base Unit
Graphics Card:ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD4650 graphics card with 1GB vRAM-great for games and movies
Display:16.4" widescreen with XBRITE-FullHD™ LCD technology (1920x1080)
Color:Black
Wireless Local Area Network:WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
Processor:Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9900 (3.06GHz)
Memory:8GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 4GBx2)
Solid State Drive / Hard Drive:128GB Solid State Drive
Optical Disc Drive:Blu-ray Disc™ playback/burning
Optical 2:Blu-ray\64
Battery:Standard Capacity Battery
Operating System:Microsoft® Windows Vista® Ultimate 64-bit
Software Optimization:No Fresh Start
Software:Microsoft® Works
Software2:Works w\SBT
Photo Software:No additional Photo Editing Software
Video Software:No additional Video Editing Software
Finance Software:Quickbooks Simple Start 2009
AntiVirus Software:Norton Internet Security (30 Day Trial)
Battery Color:Standard Battery
Channel:CTO
Limited Warranty Term:90 Day Limited Warranty
Per Unit Price:$1,215.96
Quantity:1
Total Price:$1,215.96
Description:REFURBISHED Notebook - Customized FW Series PC
Ship Method:Standard
Estimated Ship Date: 04/14/2010

 

At the very least i'll get to do a comparison of the FW490 and F11 screens.
This is my first ever refurb unit. I am glad they have a 30 day refund policy in effect in this situation. I just don't know what i'll get but I do have the option of getting a 1 year warranty for around $62.

EDIT: Sigh..the Z will now have to wait.

 

Just a quick one and off the technical side of the subject. Has anybody bought a Airport Friendly or TSA Approved Laptop case or backpack and if so which one? Looking for one that will hold it and maybe a change of clothes. Thanks!!

Bill.....

 

Actually, the Z is the series most likely to have the new flexible OLED laptop screens that Sony is testing. So waiting a couple of years for a Z isn't necessarily a bad idea. Imagine: flexible, like FLEXIBLE!!!

Really -- I saw the prototype video from that tech expo in January.

 

New MBPs came out with a 330m today.. mmm you know what that means.

 

That Fs will get the 4XX series and the fellow in this forum who bought a macbook last week is mad.

 

Seriously who would be silly enough to go buy a Macbook Pro in April when everyone knows Apple does a refresh usually close to June? (although I think it was a April fools joke)

 

Means the F just became more Hackintosh friendly. No video drivers to look for!

 

Hmmm. Given Sony's penchant for NOT wanting their notebooks to have the same problems that other manufacturers have (e.g., Sony did NOT rush to have its i7 out there in the front line-up as the processors were released by Intel), my guess is that the refresh will indeed be the GPU and, if we're lucky, screens -- while Sony tests the new processors for the second refresh. This has been the pattern in the past.

Only "spec"-ulating. No hate mail please ;-).

 

The June refresh will for sure have i9. The SCREEN is speculation, my guess is they'll just make sure there are no more displays from the bad Sharp run.

 

So then it'd be better to wait until June for Sony to release their next line of F model upgraded laptops?