Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

aznman007,

I rated my screen very good in the survey, and in my initial input.

I spent a few days catching up on the screen issue this week, and tried to duplicate your photos.

I realized I was looking at a normal desktop, in normal light. I tried looking at a wide screen movie with black bars in very low light, and now I can see the "bleedthrough" on the bottom". It seems to be a little less than yours.

I'm not going to worry about it, after all, it took me almost a month to be able to see it. If I ever have occasion to change the screen, I'll use the updated parts referenced in this thread, along with a dual inverter.

Untill then, I'll probably go back to not noticing it. And remember the Sony is still $800 to $1,000 less than it's competition.

 

I don't care about matte versus glossy, though I prefer the latter, and I don't care if there are four or a dozen varieties of 16.4" screen; my only point is that getting the screen from Sony is a ripoff - and unnececessary, unless you HAVE to have that one FW screen that can only be sourced from Sony thus costing$1300.

 

PC and Mac were never be a competition since they are different platform. As far as the real PC competition for the same spec, SONY is actually either more expensive or slightly expensive.

 

Derrida, I will provide a full report once my screen gets fitted onto the laptop. Currently, it is sitting face-down on a micro-fiber cloth and the whole ensemble is covered up, since the laptop is currently in a disassembled state.

However, note that you are making too much ado about these things. As mentioned above, Sony has NEVER sold an F or FW-series laptop with a screen worth $1300 and you can take that to the bank. If that is the price they have listed in their spare parts list, then it is upto you whether you want to pay that inflated price or not.

Typically, manufacturers do projections on what kinds of repairs would be needed (in-warranty and out-of-warranty) when it comes to the products they sell and will stock a finite number of those "expected to require repair" components (or spare-parts). Their supplier (for instance SHARP) is not going to make those parts for perpetuity, especially after they have re-tooled for newer versions of those parts and thus the manufacturer (for instance, Sony) will buy a significant stock of those (or require that the supplier maintain a certain stock level for a certain time-frame), before they stop being produced.

So during those spares requirement projections, if they under or over "project" the demand, it is possible that they might have less (or more) inventory than the true aftermarket demand. So if there has been FAR more than projected amount of repairs against that particular screen model, then Sony's internal stocks of that particular screen may very well be depleted and may be brushing against their core safety stock.

So by raising the price of that screen-part# to an exorbitant number like $1300, they may be encouraging folks needing repairs to go with an alternate (and equally good or maybe even better) model, where stocks may be plentiful and thus can be sold for say $350. It does not mean that the "alternate" and fully-compatible model is inferior....it just means that they don't have a severe shortage of that particular screen model.

Bottomline, if they have listed an FW screen's price at $1300 - then it is either a mistake or an anomaly or they are right down to the wire as far as stock availability of that particular part is concerned and are jacking up the price to encourage people to go with the (equally good or maybe even better) alternate. You simply read that $1300 number to mean that you are getting a Titanium encased, diamond encrusted and coated with pixie dust screen.....and it is simply not true.

I am not going to make any further back-and-forth comments on this topic any more, since it is not getting us anywhere.

 

Economics 101 very well explained by Roweraay! (and yes, I majored in economics, but that was ancient history way back in the 80's)

 

Uh...we knew all that before; nice lecture style from the forum podium, though.

Anyway, as far as Ockham's razor is concerned, we left it several pages back....

Amen ;-).

 

As I replied to you previously: it goes very fast to sleep manually as seen in this video I made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ih7_qyJ1os&feature=channel

The mic fix prevents the F from going automatically to sleep.

Video about the mic fix to eliminate the Morse code/whining: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjINGudIi-s

*****

F: a cheaper Macbook_Pro?

If you have $1,000 to spare and are fine with a 2 core CPU, go with the new Macbook_Pros for a much better battery life & slightly better implementation of the backlit keyboard gadget.

If you want a quad core CPU that can take advantage of software using all 4 cores & 8 threads like for video conversion, etc and multi task with ease then the F is hard to beat for the price.

Backlit Keyboard_Macbook video

Backlit Keyboard_VAIO_VPCF video (available for the North American market and a few local ones only)

If you don't need a muscle car to commute to work, why get one?

If you want a quiet notebook with a long battery life for light tasks like word processing & surfing then the_VPCF is not the correct choice for your needs which you did not define so far.

If I could have ordered the_VPCF via the CTO route on SonyStyle, I would have gladly chosen the large capacity battery option for $80 instead of the regular one for 50% more battery life (up to 4.5 hours) & better natural underside ventilation. The weight & bulk difference is marginal compared to the advantages IMHO.

slrosenfeld's comments & photos showing how the VGP-BPL21 looks on his F convinced me. Sadly the $250 price tag on Sonystyle for it is a bit steep for me @ the present. I saw some OEM for about $200 offered by third party sellers.



*****

Why add to all the display speculation noise? Why not just wait for your missing inverter, install the display & then report about it?

*****

OEM parts Expensive?

OEM parts are always more expensive (think cars for example) but then they have a huge inventory of thousands of parts available for years in one shopping location & a guarantee of quality & usually a warranty. Big savings can be made with aftermarkets parts or third-party re-sellers but then there could be fitting and/or quality problems. It's just a little more work to get the right part & in some cases it may void the warranty like for power supply for example.

 

EDIT: VAIO F11 SCREEN DISCUSSION THREAD HERE: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6166851#post6166851 Let's discuss the larger speculations and research about the F11/FW screens there, with appropriate links posted to this thread linking to the more relevant posts about the screen in the new thread, Kapeesh?

-- EDITED OUT --

The above will probably get moderated. Whatever. In all seriousness though, for those of you who want to go at each other over the screen, there should be another thread. This thread has been derailed so much from helping people with general issues and giving people an idea of what the laptop is like to own because every other post is about the screen on an otherwise (let's face it) pretty nice laptop.

New people who read the last few pages of this page will probably think, "OMG THIS SONY SUX BECAUSE I HEARD FROM THIS FORUM THAT THE SCREEN IS TOTALLY TEH SUX AND ITS JUST REALLY BAD. NOBODY SHUD BUY THIS COMPUTER" even though many of the people debating the screen think otherwise. If you genuinely think you have a bad screen, post a picture here, and let us help you determine whether it is a good or bad screen, but please, can we atleast tone down the amount of posts about the screen? It's just getting a bit fatiguing for people to look at this forum for help when it's fragmented by arguments over 3rd party screens and whatnot.

 

I agree with you.

Maybe you could mention the Sony_F_Series Owners Display Poll in your new display thread? 125 votes so far & not all "subpar".

 

Hello everyone. I just got this F11 and so far it looks good. While I'm waiting for a 40G SSD and a 2nd HDD adapter to arrive, I feel a little bit confused about a clean install of window 7. Since it is a pretty small ssd, and I'm intend to install several other softwares on it. Should I do a clean install, which apperantly had some issue before, or a semi-clean install?

 

if you follow the instructions in the unification post, you should be fine with a clean install. In your case, i'd actually recommend it as you'll probably want every last bit of memory you can save. 40 gb is quite small. will you been installing the second HDD via the bay? or leaving it as an external?
if it's via bay, i suppose you'd have enough space and semi-clean install would be easier.

 

I can tell you 40G of space wont be enough, my last backup was about 70G and I think around 30G with clean install and some necessary SONY app. I did clean install and don't have any issue, spent some time to install all the driver and application though.

 

Yes, I am going to swap out the optical drive for the original hdd. I just want to make sure a clean install does not have any issue now. By the way, I need a suggestion of a good external case for the optical drive.

How big is the windows 7 (I'm still using xp)? why it takes 70G? I thought 40G was good enough for the OS and a couple other program.

 

Why cheap out with a small 40GB SSD?

What are the savings in terms of % compared to the total cost of the F if getting a 128GB instead?

Don't forget power consumption. If your main drive is so small that your secondary drive must run all the time, it will cut significantly in the battery life. I just checked using the free SIW & by disabling the HDD in the ODD bay using Device Manager the gain is at least 20 minutes with a power consumption of 30448mW vs. 36564 mW when enabled.

 

i believe windows 7 is only about 7-8 gb. atleast whats what I remember from the last time i did a clean install.
just had a look around. if you bought a 40 gb advertised SSD, you will only have 37 GB available. from that, i'd say you should reserve another 10 gbs for the OS and other system essentials. leaving you with more or less 27 GB of useful storage space. personally, i think thats almost no space.

good call about the power consumption. hadn't thought of that.

 

My C:\Windows folder alone for an updated Win 7 Ultimate OS takes 18.8GB of disc space & that's not counting on all the other essentials utilities & drivers.

What is the size of a clean install (Home or Professional) with all the essentials VAIO_drivers & software and anti virus & other stuff for BD, webcam, etc?

 

With win7, Office 2007, a couple of video files, and Premiere my install was already up to 60 gigs. THEN I added a couple pf games, Audio editing, video utilities. Now my 256 Gig SSD drive has about 60 gigs left, in other words basic stuff has got it up to 200 gigs. and I need that second hard drive for video data.

For comparison my Asus netbook has a 40 gig SSD, and after XP, Email, and again Office, 25 gigs are used.

40 Gigs is not nearly enough for a multimedia powerhouse like the F11.

 

Well yea, 40 GB SSD would probably just serve as a big flash drive to me.

I really don't consider video files, Premiere, editing software, and games to be basic stuff but I know what you mean. Adds up quick. with a 40 gb, you'd probably manage with MS Office and a browser and then you'd have to install most everything else onto the secondary HDD.

Which then brings about the point that the F11 IS a multimedia laptop. A 40 gb SSD almost cripples it to a netbook. the secondary drive will help but crush the battery.

But given the state of things, if you've already bought the SSD, can't do much about it. Then i would suggest you install things like games or video editing software onto the SSD. No point in having lightning fast I/O speeds for MS Word.

 

I actually don't remember anymore. Does that 18.8 GB count any language packs?
Just checked my Windows folder and it comes up to just under 15 GBs but thats with all the crap I've been throwing at it these past couple months. And this in on Windows 7 Professional. Do you still have the recovery partition on yours? If so, how much space does that require?

 

Yes, it includes OS representation in German, French & Spanish packs. BTW no cr@p added by the user goes in that folder normally except for Temp folders which is easy enough to clean up once in a while.

According to: Start > search: disk management, my recovery partition is only 1.46GB, a good investment of space IMO especially when on the road.



But I used the Sony_VAIO_F C: Drive Partitions & Recovery Trick described in that post.

Note that only 1 person rated that post and commented on it. I guess that commenting ad vitam æternam about the display is much more important.

*****

If one chose to do a clean install and format the OEM drive, those might be a good read:

Creating a Media-less Recovery / Installation Partition
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...dia-less-recovery-installation-partition.html

How to Create a Recovery Partition with Image of Windows 7 DVD?
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...l/thread/b3ac0f64-079a-4c89-9b16-a74b20e89419

 

Quick question:
The F has those music player buttons on top of the keyboard, which work very well with Windows Media Player.
On iTunes however, you need to have its window active for them to work.
Anyone noticed the same?
Going to do some research if there is some kind of solution for this.

 

I don't use itunes but check this thread: Windows 7 Control iTunes with Hotkey Play/Pause Buttons When Minimized? and this: http://www.mattberube.com/software/iTunesKeys/

 

I have some old drivers for various things that I've tried playing with in the past but that won't account for any noticeable amount of space. and then theres about 500 mb of logs and such which I should probably clean.

i'm surprised the Windows Recovery Environment partition is that small though. but oh well, if that's all that's required, all the better.

BTW, what differences are then between the Vaio Care recovery disks and the Windows 7 system image backup. Looks like the Vaio Care options also enables the ability restore the backup partition. I don't think the system image can do that. Know of any other fun things they may be able to do?

And i just found a system image i had saved to my external HDD from my fresh start of Windows 7 Professional. 7.58 GBs.

 

About the 40GB SSD and clean install...

I setup all of our computers the same way initially...clean install of Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, Office 2007 Professional Plus, Java 32 bit, Java 64 bit, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, all drivers, all Sony utilities, all windows updates for both W7 and Office 2007, a 400MB workstation database program and Microsoft Internet Security (temporary until server based Symantic Endpoint is installed and synced).

The 128 GB SSDs show 119GB useable and very close to an even 36GB used at this point. I then delete the paging file and reduce Windows Restore from 12% to 1% (I would stay at 2 or 3% for a drive as small as 40GB). The elimination of the paging file and additional restore space gives me back about 8GB of space so my total used space is just about exactly 28GB.

It is best not to let hard drives get more than 65-70% full so that they can freely move data as needed. With SSDs, I have read that it would be best to never fill them over 50-60% full. Perhaps that was before TRIM and now 70% is OK? Still, Simply putting these few main programs on a 40GB drive (that has perhaps 37GB of useable space) will put it very close to 100% full if you don't delete the paging file and reduce the restore space.

I just paid $325 each for some excellent Crucial 128GB M225 SSDs. These SSDs are the ones with 119GB useable space. Loaded after the clean install and paging/ restore mods, they have 91GB of free space. If I want to stick with filling the drive no more than 2/3 full, this leaves me with approximately 51-52GB of available space for files, folders and other programs.

This works well for us as these laptops are being used as server based workstations. My personal machine, however, will have a 256GB SSD plus an external 500GB drive to hold my thousands of photos and any other files that are not accessed on a daily basis.

I would strongly consider at least a 64GB SSD for a boot and main program drive and a larger external drive to store lesser needed files and such.

One final note. I am typing this on an 8 year old Dell desktop that is finally being replaced by this F11. The Dell currently has a 320GB hard drive in it that only has a little over 87GB of used space. I was borderline on getting myself a 128GB SSD because I know that in 8 years I have only accumulated 87GB of saved programs and files. The problem is that programs are continuing to get larger and I would like to add the new Photoshop to my arsenal. This will require added space and I am already over 70% full. This is why I went to 256GB. I figure I can keep all of my current HDD on the new SSD except for the 25-30GB of photos that I will put on the external drive. I can utilize 1/2 of the external drive as a full image backup and still have more than enough space for everything else. (of course, I don't play games and I do not keep any of my 3,000+ CDs on my computer as "music storage").

Perhaps this will help figure your space requirements for an HDD or SSD.

Bill

 

Awesome, this works perfectly!
Merci! :]

 

Indeed, works great. Thanks for the link.
Can't give you anymore rep apparently, I've to give some to somebody else before I can give more to you.

 

Finally, it took me hours to make this & I'm too lazy to edit the HTML to post in this thread so here it goes:



How to install a secondary hard drive in the optical drive bay of a VAIO_VPCF Series

I will update that page with infos about the bezel, ODD in external enclosure & more stuff in 24 hours!

 

This is a fan issue that has plagued some Vaio F11 users where the notebook fan will run constantly at full speed with no variation on RPM during an idle state and when using both intensive and non-intensive applications.


OCCURANCE

The one known set of conditions that had prompted this occurance is when the notebook left unattended will automatically initiate the hibernation process when the battery achieves a critically low power level. This is a default action in the power management settings for Windows 7. When the unit is then plugged into AC power, the unit will not power. The LED lights will turn on with the green Power LED blinking slowly, the AC power LED, and the battery LED On. Please note that this is not an intended result with this power management state and has not affect many users. One assumption is that the computer contains corrupted data (BIOS??) that makes it believe that it is operating with a critically low battery even after plugging in the AC jack?? How this corruption occurs is unknown but perhaps a good place to begin would be what specific application was active during the time the battery enters the critcal state. In both cases related to my notebook unit, a video was running.

The notebook can successfully be powered on by plugging it into AC power after removing the battery and pressing and holding the power button for a few seconds. This action discharges the unit of any residual charge. However, the corrupted data? remains. The notebook will boot itself and an Intel screen will flash with the following statement:-

INTEL ME IGNITION SOFTWARE IS BOOTING FROM THE FACTORY DEFAULT IMAGE.

The boot process will continue on to Windows 7 which by this time the Fan will turn on at full speed and will constantly remain this way until the unit is powered off or put into the sleep and hibernate modes.
The Internal clock will revert to January 1, 2009.

Subsequent normal shutdown, hard reset, restart, hibernate, and sleep will not revert the fan to a normal state.
Changes to the power management options from 'Balanced' to 'performance' and to 'Power-Saving' (in no order) will not revert the fan to a normal state.
Reinstallation of all Sony drivers found in the eSupport site wll not revert the fan to a normal state.
Recovery and restoration of the unit to an earlier date or to the default factory setting will not revert the fan to a normal state.
Resetting the BIOS in the application window to it default will not revert the fan to a normal state.

Hardware tests - Memory, CPU, and Hardrive - No errors

Please note that while the fan is running constantly, all other aspects of the computer and it's usage remain normal. Applications do not crash.


SOLUTIONS TO DATE

2 of 3 owners reported success
To no End - x2 Successful
ursuthebestdriver - x1 Successful
andremaul - x0 Successful

Before you attempt my solution, please try MelodyMaster's steps to reset the BIOS settings to default. If the fan issue lies in BIOS, then this will be a very direct and instant FIX!!! Unfortunately, I did not get to try this out and I only got to read it after applying my own fix which by the way is far more time-wasting and indirect.

To attempt the solution that I employed, all settings should be in it's default settings.
(Please note that this set of conditions were applied during my successful attempt. It is possible to maintain other settings since I did not try all variations.
First and foremost, it is imperative that the notebook achieve the same state it was after the unit first went into hibernation.

When the notebook unit goes into hibernation when battery is critically low the screen will turn off and the green power LED will blink until the notebook shuts down.
Leave the unit alone for a couple of hours.

Now press the power button again. None of this should be done with the AC plugged in by the way.
This time, the power LED will slowly blink green but will only do so every 4 seconds. As ursuthebestdriver mentioned in his post, this slow blinking action will continue for a while but the green will shift to orange.

**IMPORTANT**
Once it slowly blinks orange (also every 4 seconds or so), press and hold the power button for a good long minute. The battery does not need to be taken out.
After pressing and holding the power button mentioned above, plug it into the AC and power on.

In this instance, Windows Resumed and not Restarted or displayed the "Windows did not shutdown properly message."
Internal clock will revert to January 1, 2009.

Fan is now quiet!!!!!


THINGS TO DO

Joe Bleau suggested that before any attempt is done, creating a SYSTEM IMAGE of your notebook preferrably to an external drive is important . This is a very good idea just in general since other problems may arise in the future where the likelihood of restoring your computer is high. In both my cases, I actually did do a full windows restore. Also check out his post #2959 Pg.296 of the F11 Owners thread Part.2 for other useful trouble shooting tips. Please read up the many posts by the people in this thread for useful information before attempting any fix.

Lastly, I cannot guarantee that these steps will solve the fan issue. It may create more problems for the notebook. If you suspect they will, please proceed with caution and if there is any doubt, it is my strong recommendation to instead send the notebook unit to SONY for an official repair.

Many thanks to all the posters in the F11 owners thread who helped in getting my notebook back to normal!!

 

^ +1 To No End. I would add so much rep for that, but according to nbr, I've been too generous .

Who's running the unification post btw? This should be added.

 

Thank you very, very much for this post.

 

Okay, my new dual-CCFL Full-HD screen is on the F-series now. I got my dual-CCFL inverter part# today and within 10 minutes the screen was on the laptop and ready to go.....initial impressions....

When placed side-by-side, the new screen has a noticeably deeper blacker color than the F-series Full-HD screen. I had noticed this a few days back but today I took both screens and placed them side-by-side in a sunlit room and it was very obvious. The F-series screen looked grayish beside the new screen. Taken in isolation, the F-series screen does look black but beside the black-ness of the new screen, the "black" of the F-series comes across as gray.

It has been a while since the F-screen was turned off and hence I don't recall exactly how it looked but the new screen is very evenly lit and the vertical viewing angles are better than what I recall of the F-series Full-HD screen.....even though not as good as the angles on my HP/Compaq 8710W 1920x1200 screen (which is a laptop specifically built for graphical/engineering applications).

Clearly the color on the new screen needs to be re-calibrated, since the color profile is still set to my old F-series screen's profile (slrosenfeld's profile). Overall, I believe the new screen is definitely better than the full-HD screen that came on the F.....there is no doubt about that.

I might take my F-laptop to the local bestbuy and compare it with the F-series that is on display there, and do a side-by-side comparison to see how much of an improvement has come about with the new screen.

Overall, I am a happy camper since I can finally get to use my laptop after the long period of hibernation.

Will provide more feedback after using it for a while.

 

Thank you all for so much helpful information. I was originally going for a 160G intel SSD, but the budget got cut significantly (none come out my pocket though). So better to have one than none, I guess. I might just install win 7 and one other program. Hopefully the 40G can last another year when the price comes down. Thanks Joe for such a great wrap up of installing 2nd hdd. I'm waiting for my caddy from newmodeus, and a replacement of the notebook. That's right. The one I got has a crack on corner of the cover.

 

Okay, I ran a quick video that was pretty horrible on the old screen, since the darker portions just blended in together and it was tough to make out what was going on. No such problems with the new screen !

 

Guys, I finally managed to fix my bricked F, and also the full-speed fan problem! I tried to do what "To No End" suggests on his post, but I ended up bricking my F, it wouldn't turn on anymore and I don't know why. So I'll explain what I did, it worked for me, will probably work for everybody, I don't think you need to brick your F to get the same result.

It's very easy:

1 - Disconnect AC power and remove battery;

2* - Open the middle compartment under the F (the one that gives access to the RAM modules);

3* - You'll be able to see a small plug connected to a battery (which happens to be the CMOS battery). Unplug it, and leave it alone for a minute;

3 - Now press and hold the power button for a minute;

4 - Plug the CMOS battery again and close the middle compartment;

5* - Connect AC power and power on the computer.

And you're done! The fan will run quiet again. After that you can shut down the computer and put the battery back in place.

*2,3,5 - You may need to remove the HD before doing step 3 (I did it but I don't know if it's necessary), and maybe you can insert the battery again before powering the computer.

WARNING: IF YOU ARE USING METALLIC TWIZERS, DON'T TOUCH ANY PART OF THE CIRCUITS! In fact, it is better if you don't use any metallic tools.

Here's the link to my original problem:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6158353&posted=1#post6158353

And that's it, I hope this helps, and I'm not responsible if you mess your computer doing this.

Special thanks to "To No End" and to "Joe Bleau", as they suggested unplugging the CMOS battery.

 

Glad it worked! Especially because you are in Brazil, so far away from the Sony_US support for your US F.

When I posted the disconnect CMOS battery tip & other trouble shooting suggestions here, I realized looking @ the mobo photo how close the connector was to the memory sticks & thought it may be possible to unplug it via the memory door but was too lazy to try it. Thanks for the tip & congrats!

So it seems the fan stuck @ 100% is not a hardware problem after all...





"... You may need to remove the HD before doing step 3" - I guess you mean you removed & re-seated the HDD. That step was suggested in case you local repair shop messed up since they could not fix your fan stuck @ 100% problem. It does not hurt anything to do that anyway.

Maybe a warning could be added: if you are using metallic tweezers, don't touch any part of the circuits! In fact, don't use any metallic tool.

*****

Maybe a recall of the recipe for getting the F's fan stuck @ 100% which was according to previous posts:

1- Run F on battery with Critical battery low state action set to Hibernation (default).

2- When the F's green power button LED is flashing showing near battery exhaustion & entering the process of hibernating: interrupt normal process completion by connecting to AC or pressing power button or remove battery.

Et voilà! Fan stuck @ 100%!

To prevent this: allow hibernation to be completed by waiting for the green power button LED to turn off. Plug, wait about 15 seconds then turn on normally (not necessary but that's me liking the safe side).

Note: If the laptop goes into hibernation because the battery reached a critical low state then one may expect that it will not turn back on while still on battery power. That's normal.

 

Gd job,how does the dual inverter fit to the F casing?Picture please , SONY should choose the dual CCFL instead if they want to go with CCFL route. Tried to play some blu ray/hulu and see if you have some light bleed from the bottom of the screen.

 

Im in the UK and will almost definitely be getting the top end version of this laptop quite soon after first pondering over the E series and the XPS 16, this looks like the best choice, especially after the real long review I watched on youtube.

gunna get the I7, full HD, 640GB, 8GB.

I do keep reading about an update to the F series maybe happening at the end of june but I feel that it is probably better to buy one of this generation as im sure all manafacturing issues have been ironed out, am i right to think that it would be better to get this laptop now rather than wait? i cant really see what they could add to it aside fro better graphics.

Is is possible to change the graphics in this laptop?

 

Added the warning.

Yes, looks like it's a corrupted CMOS problem. Something corrupts the CMOS memory when entering the hybernation process, and the only way to fix it is to completely erase the CMOS memory, which can be done by unplugging it's battery OR by following To No End tutorial (although it didn't work for me), since BIOS setup won't let you reset ALL settings.

 

Good for you roweraay. You deserve a break. Can you post again where you got the screen, the product number, etc? (I'd have a computer guy put it in). I might just consider that a justifiable upgrade since I intend on keeping the laptop for a while I feel like I wasted my money putting a blu-ray into this laptop because the screen just doesn't seem to handle dark/black scenes very well. Otherwise a pretty good investment.

 

If you can wait, that is better..as the F could only get better on its 2nd incarnation around June-July. I would assume the same as well, but I heard people still having Morse code issue for those who just got their F..so I dont know. They could redesigned the fan to be on the backside instead, etc...and possibly a better screen with better graphics/processor.

 

I'm in the UK and all issues with the fan and the screen seem to be isolated to the US, is that right?

And I can only just afford the F now so i am doubting my cash situation in 2 months times, for a probably marginally better system and a more than marginal price increase.

 

I received about 5 minutes after uploading the How-To Secondary HDD in ODD Bay a new 7200 rpm Seagate Momentus 500GB intended for said HDD caddy for the F's optical bay.

I guess I will have to put back in the WD Passport enclosure the slower 5400 rpm 400GB Scorpio Blue.



C'est la vie!

 

This solution of disconnecting the CMOS battery did the trick for me! What a relief to have the fan quiet again! You guys made my day!

 

Great!

Do you remember exactly how it got stuck in the first place?

Some feedback about your machine would be also appreciated by would be F owners lurking in the shadows.

 

No, its effecting UK version of F as well. The screen however is a different story, in UK you can choose between matte or glossy screen, choose matte if you can as its not having any issue like bleeding,etc. Even though its more expensive, you will thank yourself later.

I dont think the 2nd version F will be more expensive then now. I'm sure they are going to cost around the same, as that is how much customer willing to pay these day, better graphics/processor doesn't always mean a price increase. A pentium 4 laptop many years ago might cost around $2000-$3000 US.

 

well, my only option on sony style is:

41.6 cm LCD, 1920x1080, webcam
41.6 cm (16.4") VAIO Display Premium HD1080 (1920 x 1080 pixels) (16:9) + built-in "Motion Eye" digital camera (0.3 Mega Pixels)

So I assume that is the matte

 

Roweraay,

What was the total cost of all parts for the screen? Does the new screen use more power, or can't you tell? Is the computer hotter? How about the power supply?

I am just wondering if the dual lamps could push the computer over its power limits, especially with your top of the line componenets.

Otherwise, this sounds GREAT!

Bill

 

I remember closing the lid when the battery level was very low. A few hours later it would not power on but just blink green instead. I removed the battery and then it was possible to power on (on AC). I saw a screen containing this message for about two seconds: 'INTEL ME IGNITION FIRMWARE IS BOOTING FROM THE FACTORY DEFAULT IMAGE'. From then on, the fan was stuck at 100% every time from 30 seconds after power on.

 

We found a solution & maybe it would be equally important to find the cause so we could avoid it & request a patch from_Sony.

Is your battery critical action hibernate? What is your lid closing action? Sleep?

My guess is again interfering with the hibernation process by also giving the order to the F to sleep.

It seems there is no higher priority for the current action & blocking everything else, hibernation in this case.

That's just speculations but I prefer this subject than the "upcoming" refresh.

 

I bought mine F11 over 3 months ago, while I love everything about this laptop for some reason (we all know why) I can't get used to the screen. I remember how nice was the FW matte screen so I decided to do something about. First I started looking for EU matte full hd screen and i couldn't find it. Then I saw a privacy screen and anti glare monitor film. So I order one and today finally installed it.

Guys the difference is huge!!!





1. I cut the film to the screen size (ofcourse i rush it and cut it a bit unevenly, I will be ordering new film again and this time I'll take my time).
2. Unscrew two top screws of the front scren bezel

3. Apply the film onto the screen right under the bezel.



Screen looks original, you can't tell that the film was applied. Color looks great, brightness didn't suffer at all, no glare and somehow the viewing angle increased.

And all that just for $19.99