Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

I'm not sure I understand, how could you format it if you could not see it in your computer? Via Disk Manager?

I just installed a 1TB WD enclosure (3.5" like the LaCie, A/C adapter) & the F would not recognize it via USB but it did immediately via eSATA. I copied back to the drive it's original WD software & install files witch was erased when formatting from Fat to NTFS, it now works also via USB.

Just tried the F w/ 1 drive in Firewire, 1 eSATA & 2 more via USB, all @ the same time. Works fine.

 

Geez that exhaust fan is noisy in a quiet room.

 

The guy formatted it instore for me by going into disc manager I think.

On a side note, I read of one dvd ripping program that can utilise multicore processing . I can't remember the name but I think it began with "O", really bugging me !

 

I tried a shop and hadn't even heard of the F11 ! "Must be a new model.." On the ball there then. They distanced themselves from Sony saying they are only a franchise, to be honest I didn't anything much better. Will call the vaio-link number as soon as they open... Monday :-(

 

Slap on the forehead... sorry I did not mention that as I was actually using it to assign specific drive letters to each enclosures to make life easier for Adobe Lightroom's library.

 

Does anyone know what this is please ?

 

Aaronjb is correct. The F uses an independent thermal management system that does not rely on the graphics driver/BIOS for fan control. If you're using a modified inf to run the 196.75 driver, you are unaffected by this issue.

It's worth noting that the 195.36.03 and 195.36.08 Linux drivers were pulled for the fan bug, but once again the F is immune. Link.

 

hey guys is it possible to stick this cpu in vaio f ?
Intel Mobile Core™ i7-920XM Extreme (8M , Turbo 3.2GHz)


aand is it possible to do this with vaio f and have RAID ?


aand
is it possible to stick 2x 8GB DDR-3 RAM in vaio f?



thank yuu

 

Thanks alot for the help, I could not find that myself. Seems ok now.

You are right about my other post but this is actually my second F. After some problems with the first one the phone tech support had me return it.

 

I wouldn't go this far until someone else tries it. The i7-920XM has a 10W higher TDP than the i7-720/820QM and the F's cooling system may not be able to handle it. It is also possible that the F's BIOS does not support the 920XM.

It is possible to place a second drive in the optical drive bay as Joe has demonstrated in some of his earlier posts. It is also possible to connect a second drive to the eSATA port. In either of these cases, you will need to use software RAID via your OS as the F does not have the Intel RAID BIOS support enabled.

If you were to go down either of these roads, you should keep in mind that RAID would require both drives to be installed permanently. You may be better off doing what some other people in this thread do - put a very high speed SSD in the main HDD port and have an optional larger storage drive in one of the secondary ports (eSATA or optical bay).

Yes it is. The memory controller is part of the i7 CPU itself, and all mobile i7's support 8GB per slot. See here for an example.

 

@clocktrousers

On the intel i7-820QM page the max memory is listed as 8GB. Is this a per slot spec?

It kind of reads as the 820Qm supporting up to 8GB using both slots. Your clarification would help alot!

 

@clocktrousers
about cpu u might be right about cooling .
about hdd drives and raid you not right ...
dont worry i know how things are with drives if u can chceck my signature u ll see..
one question : what do you mean use RAID through my OS ?
can you explain be more specific ? i really would use it on my laptop .. OS way ? how you saying that i would really see that ..
and about memory i didnt asked 8GB of ram but i have asked 16GB of ram
there is one lenovo laptop which secretly supports 16gb of ram and even intel was hiding this information ...

 

I agree. According to the
Intel® Core™ i7-900 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition Series, Intel® Core™ i7-800 and i7-700 Mobile Processor Series Datasheet — Volume 1 the maximum supported memory for all three Core i7 processors is 8GB. See the folling table:

 

oh ok, wats the difference between the 8gb version and 6gb version. It might only cost me £85 extra if i get 8gb version. cant belive some people want more than 8gb ram. It is LOADS

 

I don't think you need 8GBs Omaroo or at least would see any performance increase.

Unless you run a lot of virtual machines, it is rare that you will use more than 4GBs of memory while running your F11. 8GBs is only better in the sense that having a 500GB harddrive is better than having a 320GB.

 

what do u mean by virtual machines, i think 6gb would still be great, i think 8 gb will be more for games and other things

 

Confirmation

You don't need 8GBs of memory, you won't even use 6GBs most likely. It would be a waste of money and won't increase your performance/experience with the computer to have 8GBs.

Only if you ran a lot (and I mean a lot) of intensive programs would having that much memory available be beneficial. But during gameplay, while having a multimedia app running in the BG, with a web browser open, and productivity software you still wouldn't even use 8GBs of memory.

Only virtual machines are that intensive and quite obviously, you don't use VMs.

 

To Omaroo: a Virtual Machine means running an operating system within another operating system, therefore you have the memory footprint of two full systems running at once.

6 Gigs is fine; 4 Gig rams are far less cost-efficient than 2 gig rams, therefore one has to balance need against cost. 6 gigs system memory would be a cheap 2 gig stick and a triply-expensive 4 gig.

 

Anyone having issues or found a fix for the Blu-ray Region? Mine won't let me select Region A, B, or C and will only let me watch region free movies.

I"m about to break down and purchase AnyDVD HD....

 

Hi every body

Can I install drivers to a windows 7 32-bit after a clean install or it should be only 64-bit

 

It seems that SonyStyle US is currently putting in 1 x 4GB stick when you order total of 4GB RAM. They used to put in 2 x 2GB sticks just few weeks ago. This is huge cost advantage for us (consumers). This means...you will not have to waste 2 x 2GB sticks when you want to upgrade to 8GB.
This also means...you can try the 4GB first...then buy another 2GB (~$50) or 4GB (~$150) to end up with total of 6GB or 8GB if you need it. In my opinion..4GB probably would be enough...

One other thing to consider is power/battery life. More memory chips means more power usage.
If you not using...not to mention the $150 extra cost...
Why would you want to have more chips burning your power/battery? The battery life is bad as it is...

 

Hello friends.
I have a problem in mai Vaio F Series (VPCF11J1E).
I hear a buzzing, is NOT microphone buzzing...but another buzzing.
It come when i plug into the USB port any device (mouse, or hd, or pendrive ecc...).
The buzzing is irregular and very low, and comes close to the right side of the touchpad.
Can anyone tell me if it's normal? Should I be worried?

 

melody which do u suggest i should get, the sony 6gb one or 8gb one. Kihokang, in the uk the only other f11 model apart from 8gb i can purcahse is the 6gb version. I would have though the battery life would be the same on all versions of the f11

 

To save money, the 6 gig. Memory uses a lot of power so you will get slightly better battery life on less physical memory, even compared with larger physical memory with that address space not being used.

 

Melody,

I am not sure about your theory regarding less power draw. Maybe slightly.

If you look at the chart from the Intel i7 Datasheet I posted on the previous page and knowing that Sony is using Raw Card Version F configuration SODIMMs (not their rating!) you will see that the identical number of DRAM chips will be used in either configuration. So it really depends on the Icc current draw of each DRAM chip. That will vary by chip manufacturer also.

<deleted incorrect reference>

Trade offs!

What do you think?

 

jack mate, i been on the uk site and the 8gb verison is and i7 PROCESSOR. Melody which version have u got

 

omaroo, I stand corrected. I was reading from right to left thinking the high end was on the right.

Sorry.

 

My model is the VPCF119GS, a CTO with 4 gigs memory and 720, but with SSD and Premiere, since both were at an extremely good price.. I'll save updates to memory and maybe CPU and even display for when I have more money to spend.

Really, all your questions have been answered (again,) go with what you can afford. The more I use this system the more I'm enjoying it - the one thing that MOST adds to that enjoyment is the speed of the SSD, so I'd highly recommend trying to get one of those.

 

Did you check the updates on Sony_Support (best using Vaio_Update 5 or make sure it's applicable to your model)? They say here:

"This utility updates the Realtek High Definition Audio driver to version 6.0.1.5992 to resolve the following issues:

* A high frequency noise may occur when connecting and disconnecting a USB flash drive
* A noise may occur for two seconds after finishing playing video or music files".

Can't hurt.

 

i picked up the VGP-AC19V30 from Amazon for $50 (US) regular is $90(US)

 

melody how much u pay for your version and where did u get it. the SSD in the uk is really expensive and its not really big capaicty. But is the RPM HD still fast. Melody how much battery life would u usually get from the 6gb version and 8gb version. Your luky u got 4gb ram, in the uk i dont think i can get less than 6gb

 

Great! One does not want to exchange the machine a second time if it can be helped.

 

I think this post can be misinterpreted very easily. If you run an application like an image processing batchjob with say 200 RAW images of 40MB each, the system will efficiently use up all of that 8GB in the blink of an eye. A lot of us do some tasks that are RAM and CPU intensive, which is precisely why we purchased a quad-core equipped product like the F-series and not a netbook or something like the W or Y series.

If the question is whether you can do the same job with 4GB of RAM, then the anwer is yes. Just that the system will use more "virtual memory" and do a lot more page-in/page-outs than with more available physical memory. Instead of allowing the 8 virtual cores of the Quad-core to go all-out with the batch processing, the OS will be spending wasteful effort in paging-in/paging-out (since it only has 4GB of physical memory to play with), while the Quad-core sits twiddling its thumbs.

Bottomline, whether you need 8GB or not is entirely dependent on what you use the machine for. If all you do is web surfing and other such things, then even 2GB will suffice.

 

Great, now you invited Omaroo to ask you what would use up 8GBs of memory.

 

.

 

Why don't you take a look? I can see 4, 6 & 8GB options on the UK site.

 

So it is 85 Pounds to add just 2 gigs... Is 8 gigs needed?

Exactly..

Here Omaroo is happy with 6 gigs and not paying the extra £85.

Further support for 6 gigs.

Again, support, price versus utility..

Yah, never mind battery life..

I doubt Omaroo is a professional RAW image editor.

That's right. I can get my computer to use 16 gigs if I wanted, that's not the point.

6 Gigs, settled.

 

@MelodyMaster above

Hahahaha....taken a bit of your time but that was quite funny!!

 

Modern Warfare 2 gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYqjA22_ISs

MW2 is really, really surprisingly playable with all settings at highest 4xAA @ 720p, getting upwards of 100fps in some places, and dipping to about 27fps in effects-heavy scenes (snow levels with a lot of explosions, etc). It's also playable at 1080p with no AA, highest settings, getting around 24-40fps. I guess infinity ward did a great job optimizing the game, because it looks great and runs very very well even on a laptop.

 

@ mangosango: which program do you use to record your video games & what is the impact on your gameplay's FPS vs. running the same game w/o your screen capture utility in the background?

 

I'm using FRAPS to record. With FRAPS capturing, I usually get anywhere between 10-20 fps reduction in performance. The recording is also capped at 30fps. The recording sometimes randomly gets slow (in the single-digit fps range). I think this happens when the game is loading content from the hard disk while FRAPS is simultaneously recording video to the hard disk at the same time, as the framerate is usually fine during combat sequences (when the game has already loaded all its content), and slow during the parts between action (when the game is loading content). The stuttering caused by this probably wouldn't happen on an F with an SSD, or if FRAPS was recording to a separate hard drive than the one the game is installed on. It also doesn't occur when FRAPS is not recording.

 

Easy step-by-step guide & using your F to create a transfer utility for your old XP machine: Migrate XP to Windows 7 with Easy Transfer and a USB Drive.

The Easy Transfer's Report may be a good road map with a list of programs you have on the XP machine and you can select what you want to install on the F.

With video: Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7.

A Look at Improvements to Windows Easy Transfer for Windows 7

From Using Windows Easy Transfer in Windows 7:

 

@omaroo

Before you go off to buy that 6GB unit, (Sorry MelodyMaster ) I recommend for you to research on the advantages and disadvantages of owning the quad core F11 i7-720QM - 820QM series. It could be a deal breaker. I myself was not fully prepared with the consequences of owning a quad core notebook.

Sony has done a great job maintaining a slim profile for this series and keeping this notebook cool. However, It does suffer from poor battery life and the constant rushing noise of air venting out when hardware is performing at capacity. Other brand quad core notebooks can add high heat temperatures and possibly a larger body to the list. There is also the issue of CPU throttling down while on battery and in the case of the F11 most likely a design parameter to conserve battery life.

The i7 versions are meant for powerhouse applications usage like video and photo processing, cad, 3d rendering, and intensive mathematical computation and modeling.

If what you really need in a laptop is just to watch movies, write up documents, stream movies from the internet, and play some games, then the performance capability of the F11 will be missed on you. I would recommend to get the i3 or i5 F11 versions for quieter daily use, better price, and battery life. How about the E series which has the Ati 5650 video card which will also give you a better gaming experience than the Nvidia GT330m.

With that being said, Sony has given us a real treat for pricing the F11 so well with a lot of features.

If at the end of the day, you still want an i7 F11 and can live with having to be plugged-in most of the time, deal with the sound of air venting in a quiet room, and throttling, then yes go for the 6GB and welcome to the club?

 

I almost disagree: To a guy that's been using Macs for 10 years+ almost exclusively, I find the F series to be a surprisingly civilized machine to have a quadcore i7 and pretty decent GPU cranking in there.

The fan noise is there, and it's dead obvious in mine. In a quiet room I can hear a quiet moaning noise with the fan (@#%!). I'd go for the air rushing though, that's fine with me.

I'm actually installing OS X on mine right now. I'll let you guys know how that goes Here's to hoping!

 

So while not practical, the only way to show us what you really experience when playing on the F would be an external camcorder capturing the display, right?

Or does FRAPS slow down the actual playing but when seeing the footage, it looks similar to your gameplay experience?

 

I wonder how my F11 would do, with an SSD as the system drive on which the games are installed, and recording Fraps to the 5400 RPM data drive.

 

Right, the only way to show real-world performance is to either record with a camcorder (reduced quality) or to hook up the computer to an external capture card/video recorder on another computer (impractical, given that I have neither a capture card nor another computer with me ).

This is why I list the gameplay FPS without FRAPS, and try to describe what parts of the recording give an accurate feel of what the game is like to play and what parts aren't.

 

@Ootlink

I scored a 6700 on geekbench 64bit on my stock hardware. Since you asked earlier on, what does this benchmark really mean as a comparison to a mac?

 

Installed these drivers just now (be sure to copy the .inf to the setup folder first, overwriting the default .inf that ships with the NVidia drivers):

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/26254-nvidia-graphics-driver-19686-released/

Also, new PhysX drivers as well:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/26254-nvidia-graphics-driver-19686-released/

 

+1, if one buys a muscle car then one should not expect a quiet & fuel efficient Smart car.

But keep in mind that you have a 820QM vs. 720QM & 8GB of memory (jealous). Compare Intel Products: 17-720QM vs. i7-820QM.

Yep but not only to conserve power, check: post by FredFrenzy, HP Gaming Staff replying to this question on the official HP ENVY forums: "... the processor gets locked at low frequency mode (x7) and all we get is 930MHz (on battery). This is unnaceptable. Has this been discussed?"

HP staff reply: "This is correct and as designed - turbo mode is disabled. We do this on many of our notebooks. Not only turbo, but the maximum speed are disabled while on battery. The maximum speed is not possible on battery power, the battery is 52watts only (and the system needs ~110 watts for full performance)".

It's not an "issue".

I love muscle cars!

+1.
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