Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

what is the batterylife of this notebook with the i7 and the gt330m and an extra capacity battery? i couldnt find this info anywhere. thank you in advance.

ps: sorry for my bad typing. my laptop doesnt turn on so i typed this on my psp....

 

Nice tip! Thank you.

 

Default format- What does anyone recommend as the sample rate and bit depth? 24bit? Let us know if anyone has a perspective.

 

Make sure that you turn off the Auto brightness adjustment feature. I found that turning it off made a huge difference in the performance of the screen.

In any lighting condition other than in bright sunlight, the auto brightness adjustment feature will not permit the screen to be bright at all, even if you try to manually turn up the brightness.

 

From the Nvidia OEM page: " Technical Support, RMA requests, replacements and warranty issues for the NVIDIA based product that came with your computer are handled by the computer manufacturer. Please use the list below to find your manufacturer's contact information."

And on this Nvidia driver page: However, please note that your notebook original equipment manufacturer (OEM) provides certified drivers for your specific notebook on their website. NVIDIA recommends that you check with your notebook OEM about recommended software updates for your notebook. OEMs may not provide technical support for issues that arise from the use of this driver". They are "they".

Try this search on Sony_support: nvidia driver non-sony site. Point is it may work or it may not as reported by MidtownHD:

How do you explain that the Nvidia Verde Notebook Driver Program will not scan the F for updates?

You did not reply to my question: What do you expect to gain compared to the Vaio_F11 certified NVIDIA GeForce 310M / 330M Video Driver on Sony_Support that's only two weeks old?

"I've been loading graphics drivers direct from the GPU manufacturer since video cards moved to the PCI bus..." - and I before that. I maintained all by myself in my office 8 computers on the mountain where I live & going through GPU & other drivers updates, network settings, building custom boxes, changing mobo's, all type of cards, OS's, PSU, CPU & box fans, changing LCD, HDD, CMOS battery, memory on laptops, etc, etc.

We are not talking about drivers for a desktop removable video card here, it's an OEM Nvidia card welded to the F motherboard.

If you do find a working updated driver & suggest tested tweaks for better video performance on the F, I'm all ears!

My point is for the technically challenged, it's better & simpler to stick to Sony_support update schedule as they test & customize the stuff for their OEM laptops like the F.

----------

Again: before making big tweaks on any Win 7 computer, I strongly suggest: > Start > Search > type: create a restore point > and create one before updating the video driver or anything else that's significant so you can return easily to your actual OS working state if there are any problems. It's a good practice before ANY major tweaks & big software installation.

If you have problems with the tweaks you made: on re-boot > F8 > Repair Your Computer > Last Know Good Configuration which is much better than having to restore to the factory state.

 

Yes, this is true in the IT world. Anyone who knows how to build machines and really want the best performance out of their machine most of the time will NOT use the manufacture drivers and will go to the video cards site like nvidia or ATI and use them as they are up to date and usually perform much better.

About 2.5 hours on mine when I had it. Sometimes 3.

 

It might say that, but still the fact remains the drivers off nvidia or ati site are better than the ones from Sony or Dell or HP site. They are also up to date and usually perform better. This is common sense in the IT world.

 

Check slrosenfeld's post with photos showing how it looks on his F: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5808888#post5808888

The 7500mAh capacity is 1.5x the 5000mAh standard battery so 4.5hrs vs. about 3h I get on my F.

If going the CTO way, it's a good deal as Son_y charges $250 if bought alone: Large Capacity Battery VGP-BPL21. Yikes!

Edit: just found this on the VPCF11MFX/B specs tab: "Estimated Battery Life : Up to 3 hours with Standard Capacity Battery Up to 4.5 hours with Large Capacity Battery" and for the 900p w/ GT 310M 512mb VPCF112FX/B: "Up to 4 hours Standard Capacity Battery Up to 6 hours Large Capacity Battery".

 

Yep, but maybe not for the casual user & not always true for a customized OEM notebook like the F.

 

My Realtek Speaker/HP Properties window only has the General, Levels, and Advanced tabs (attachment below). Would I need to download the R2.43 driver to get the Enhancements and Dolby tabs?

 

Joe, the graphic drivers provided by SONY for the GeForce 330M ARE NOT "two weeks old." The name change for the drivers' "file name" was done two weeks ago, from " Original - NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M Video Driver" to " Original - NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M / 330M Video Driver .

The actual drivers are dated 11/02/2009, check Device Manager>Display Adapters>NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M.

As I said in my previous post, I'm using the newer ATI driver for the FW's 4650 card, the ones provided by SONY are dated 09/16/2009 and the newest provided by ATI are dated 02/17/2010.

They customize the drivers by removing features from the generic ones from NVIDIA. If you've tried installing the ones from NVIIDA, you'll get more features both in the drivers and the NVIDIA Control Panel.

 

Well I finally did it. Ordered a vcpf90x-lbom. Hope for the best. I've had a HP for the last few years. Went with the i7-820 and 256 SSD. After alot of hassle I got 15% discount from the rep. Build date is supposed to be 3/16/2010. I'll wait and see. Hope the noise issue has been addressed. Blue ray player burner,8 GB DDR3,would have liked a different video card but guess the 330 will have to do. Really liked the Toshiba 505-880 but was not cofigurable so went with Sony. Hope I'm not disappointed.

 

Does anyone know if the eSata port is a powered one ?

 

yes. y es.

 

Hello everyone..

This is my first post but I've read almost every single post since I've decided to buy one couple weeks ago. Thanks to all the people who shared their experiences, they were very helpful. I guess it's my turn now.

Originally, I wanted the VPCF11Z1E/BI model, but at the end I've bought a VPCF11S1E/B from Saturn (a large electronics shop chain in Germany). When I had the money to buy, F11Z1e was discontinued at Saturn, and replaced with the F11S1E model which is mostly the same except;

-chassis color is dark grey (not rich black as in premium black models),
-plastic grey "fake-carbon-fiber" hand rest instead of rubberized dark-black one in EU premium black version (which felt very elegant/comfortable when I first checked a week ago at the same shop),
-6GB ram instead of 8GB.

Note: Both models doesn't have backlit keyboard.

I didn't have the time to order from sonystyle.de and wait, but the price was the same for the F11Z1E/BI on both shops (of course, with the same configuration) which was ~1500€. I bought mine for 1300€. You can check the specs from my signature.

First impressions:

Screen is superb. I installed matt800's profile for matte screen (thanks for that!!) and turned off auto-brightness feature. Of course it's not a professional grade screen but for the money it's golden! No dead pixels. Slight low brightness at the upper-left corner (no big issue). Good vertical viewing angles, you can comfortably move your head within 15-20 degrees (vertical) with almost no hue change. Horizontal angles are very good as you know. I've made some eye-only tests (lagom.nl etc. and some personal tests with photoshop for color accuracy vs. angles); I was happy with the exception of violet color-range (which was slightly blue-ish on the upper part of the screen) but as I know the limitation now it's not a big problem. I know I can't get a better laptop screen unless I pay over 2000€. Btw, maybe it's about the calibration, I don't have a device at the moment, if I find any sometime I would happily share the profile.

Speakers are of course weak. This is my first laptop and I guess there are laptops better in this department, but I guess it would be foolish to expect very good sound reproduction from speakers a cm in diameter. Btw, I'm a professional musician, I trust my ears. If the sound reproduction "really" matters for potential buyers, I can say this; I found the sound is a bit distorted whatever the volume is, this is not about the size of the speakers, it's about clarity. But again, it's a laptop speaker, you shouldn't count on them.. You want good sound, buy a good headphone or connect to a hifi system (preferably with coaxial digital output).

Outer side of the lid (in the middle) has a lot of flex but it's not a big issue if you're not masochistic about putting your palm on the middle of the closed lid and press! You don't feel it when you hold the laptop normally. You may need to be a little bit careful though, if you are planning to use a soft case. A minor problem if you ask me.

Also there is flex on the keyboard, between enter key and numpad (as tcklim showed in his video). Again not a big issue. Keys feels good, works just fine. No squeaks!

Touchpad is large, looks good, it feels a little bit sticky sometimes but nothing serious. I already have a razor copperhead (I'm left-handed), so I won't be using it much.

Wifi and Gigabit ethernet works like a charm.

About noise problems:

Unfortunately, I have the microphone buzzing and fan whistling problems. Buzzing is the high pitched "morse-code" noise coming from the right of the keyboard, and is fixed by "listen to digital output" method. It's not a big issue if you ask me. Microphone works just fine in this mode. I didn't test digital output yet but I can't find any reason for it to not work.

Fan whistling is another thing. I especially chose the term "whistling", it's not whining, it's not buzzing, it's not even high pitched. (ok maybe it's like a high pitched human whistling sound if it works for you It's clearly present in tausif's recording and don't forget that audio frequences can be perceived very differently from one person to another) It's the single real problem for me. It may sound funny but this type of noises (continuous constant-pitched sounds) can cause headaches, literally! This is why it really is irritating, natural reaction of human body.

Anyway, It's definitely coming from the fan and btw it may look like quiet in the recording, but it's different in real world (because of the reason explained above). If you've heard it only in the recording, you don't know how it is. I admit, it becomes irritating only in a quiet environment and only mid-range rpm's BUT since the fan speed in this laptop is very dynamic, you will hear it once in a couple minute.

I couldn't find any (sofware) solution yet.. Maybe the best way is to ask for a fan replacement but I'm not eager to send a new laptop only for this, if only they can change it at a nearby repair shop maybe?! I don't work much in very quiet environments, but if this is the case for you, I would recommend for a replacement. It may go away with time since it's a mechanical noise, most probably caused by fan blades, it may wear down. Meanwhile I will try to forget the noise and wait for couple months, if it doesn't go away I will take action.

All in all, despite the mostly tiny problems, this laptop is a superb buy if you ask me. I'm very happy. I tried to expain problems with as much detail as I can since I guess it's expected.. So, sorry for the long post.

 

It's a Power Over eSATA port. Check this VAIO_F Power Over eSATA External 2.5" Drive post.

Here is my F with such an enclosure. Transfer rates are superfast compared to my WD Passport USB 2.0. Will post more details & benchmarks in a day or 2. Note that it can't power a 3.5" drive which needs it's own power supply.

 

@ Aaron,

Have you tried the NVIDIA drivers w/ custom INF file?

 

Also, if anyone is interested: I was able to encode a 34GB Blu-Ray disc to my media server drive rougly 35% faster on my F11 than on my 3.6Ghz Q6600-based PC using the same encoding settings. Though the Q6600 desktop has 4GB of RAM compared to the 6GB on the F11, the encoding speed is a testament to the difference a new architecture and chipset can make in real-world speed. To top it off, the Q6600 is water-cooled, and the i7 stayed nice and cool throughout (propped on a notebook for better airflow), while the Q6600 pushed 65C at times.[/QUOTE]


Sounds pretty nice.

 

Do get the R2.43 driver for the extra goodies, aaronjb's suggestion was good in this case.

 

I had the Extended Battery on mine, and it would only get 3 hours of web browsing, emails, etc. It was not going to see anywhere near 4 hours. This is real life experience and not what the manufacture site says. That's with the 820m processor, 330m GPU.

 

So this is an enclosure for an internal 2.5 inch HDD ? Will any 2.5 inch internal HDD do ? are there different 2.5" HDD for laptops and desktops and if so , will either be compatible ?

 

I've tried just about every combination of drivers and .INFs on laptopvideo2go, but with no success. I think I'll wait it out until an official NVidia release.

I know that some on the nvidia forums have had mixed results with some recent ASUS drivers on other laptops, but I couldn't get them to install reliably on the x64 edition of Windows 7.

 

These are real life experience from owners on this thread:

"Well it is 1.5 times the capacity of the 6-cell battery. For me with the 720QM I can get about 4 hours on the extended battery" http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5840168&highlight=battery+life+hours#post5840168

"After being on battery for 2 hours and 10 minutes (Internet browsing wire-lessly), the system shows there is 21% of power remaining" http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5741347&highlight=battery+life+hours#post5741347

I got 3:07 hours on my standard battery with a reserved power of 7% because I disable stuff that I don't use on battery like blue tooth, ODD if I'm not using it, etc.

Lifting the back of the laptop with any object also keeps it much cooler & the fan works a lot less, dimming the display, etc.

There is many ways to optimize the F for battery life & there is natural variations in time reported by users depending on their tasks & settings.

To get similar life as the manufacturer's specs, you need to optimize your power management almost to the max with is not difficult to do.

I use the free, very small, very fast & portable Microsoft Autoruns for Windows v9.57 to quickly disable startup items & Sceduled Tasks I don't need when running on battery.

Note: do not disable ISBMgr.exe, it's for your F battery management!

 

I made these two sites all by myself with zero academical formal training & sold them, that's why I don't have to work for the rest of my life & can contribute maybe too often to this thread. Here (my volcano pic) and here, both are ranked #1 since 10 years non-stop for all their money making keywords on Google & other SE.

 

Read the post I linked to & follow this informative thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=349325&page=3

My Power eSATA enclosure ($35 incl. shipping worldwide) is for a 2.5" SATA drive, like the one I replaced in my F.

There is probably some Power Over eSATA enclosures compatible w/ 2.5" IDE drives, did not checked as I don't need one.

The idea here is a fast second HDD to be used as a scratch disk for Photoshop, Premiere, Sony Vegas, etc and upgrade at the same time the OEM 5400 HDD in the BB F 1080p model.

 

OK, I'm waiting for somebody to post a link to a video driver that works without glitches on the F & that is better than the one found at the present on Sony_Support.

 

So you don't have to plug an eSATA external HD into the wall as long as it's 2.5?

 

Yep as my photo illustrates:



Best of all, this aluminum enclosure keeps the HDD at a cool 34c while it idles @ 37c in the laptop.

The eSATA cable part transports data while the USB part is for power so the USB power limitations applies: 500 mA.

 

meloover, The same sound is driving me insane as well. It sounds almost like a truck is backing up "BEEP BEEP BEEP" outside, it's very faint/random.

Let me know if you find a solution. I've been using the laptop heavily (Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, etc...) for 3-4 days now and this "whistling" thing is all that is bothering me. I can live with the occasional backspace "squeak" :|.

 

Too bad the one I want is bigger....

 

Are you telling me that if I get 3:07 hours with a regular battery on my F, I will get only 3 hours with a larger one with 1.5 times more capacity?

 

UNIFICATION POST SONY VAIO F11 SERIES – ISSUES, FIXES, TWEAKS, REVIEWS.
(Extensive Editing will Follow, sorry for delay, law classes and work and little kids delay my posting life).


Reviews of the Sony Vaio F11 series:
My First Review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=448894&page=323&highlight=decibel+fan
I kept my Best Buy purchased Sony Vaio F11, and I am loving it more and more. This unification post was written on my Vaio F11, and as a result, it is at least 4 cores better than a post written on a computer using an i5 cpu!

EURO REVIEW (European model F11 seems to have premium matte screen option, unlit keyboard): http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-VPC-F11Z1-E-Notebook.25724.0.html
Video Euro Review: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=93703134C0A77F81&search_query=vaio+f11+screen +++ on this review. If you are considering buying, watch these, and you will RUN and not walk to buy your Vaio F.

Best Buy Purchasers in North America (Click on Customer Reviews tab in the page after searching for this SKU 9705382 at Best Buy's website).

Newegg Reviews on this page: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127050

Amazon Reviews on this page (310M gpu): http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VPC-F114...ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1267593169&sr=1-5


Please recommend some reviews I can add to this post.


Known Issues and Fixes:
Fanboy disclaimer: Many Sony Vaio F11 series do not have these issues, these are issues reported by users in this thread - users who appear to be predominantly happy with their purchases and are working to resolve these problems if they exist on their laptop. The most cited complaint is the screen quality in the North American version of the Sony Vaio F11.

Screen viewing angle (the glossy/semi-glossy US Screen).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5914377#post5914377 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLees4K9z6E
My fix to viewing angle (not much of a fix, but I love the laptop, so … whatever.)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5921446&highlight=Dynex#post5921446

Screen dimness and appearance. Also see calibration below under tweaks.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5779246&highlight=screen+management#post5779246 and Steps 1-3 on this post http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5784440&highlight=screen+management#post5784440

Microphone “tweating” or "noises" or "morse code". Usually very quiet. Fixed by Sony in current builds by changing the laptop construction. User fixes in links below.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5818065&postcount=2461
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5748529#post5748529

Squeeky Space Bar.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5934889&highlight=spacebar#post5934889

Loud cooling system (Fan Noise). If this is your first i7 laptop, they seem to be a little bit louder, and take some getting used to – there is a lot of computing power.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5901628&highlight=decibel+fan#post5901628

Fan Noises at certain speeds (a few users have reported this - has anyone who has this issue tried a laptop cooling base to mitigate the issue?)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5964733#post5964733

Bluetooth Reinstall (Software issue).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5959118&highlight=bluetooth#post5959118

Speaker Distortion (speakers turned up, bass crackle on CPU speakers). Cheap fix = get headphones.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5929956&highlight=speaker+distortion#post5929956

CPU Throttledown on Battery Power (BIOS appears to be the culprit, and appears to require a Sony Firmware fix).
Long explanation: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5754499&highlight=cpu+throttle#post5754499
Relatively Short Explanation and Exact Throttle: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5835822&highlight=cpu+throttle#post5835822

Tweaks:
Clean Install. Joe Bleau’s unification:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5924807&highlight=clean+install#post5924807

Getting FN keys to work after clean install:
http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-support/3860-sony-vaio-fn-keys.html

Semi-Clean Install. Thanks Ninjanoodles. This seems to be a very good route to take for some users.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=146033

Screen Color Calibration.
Srosenfeld’s calibration: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5784440&postcount=1572 (Used this myself. Very helpful. Obviously the best calibration would be to buy a calibrator and make custom adjustments to YOUR laptop.)
Euro Screen Calibration : http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5862633#post5862633

Overclocking the GPU.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5749575#post5749575
Settings others have used (including myself):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=454640&page=3


Second HDD using optical drive bay. (Do your research please)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5911349&highlight=optical+bay+hdd#post5911349 http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5884419#post5884419 http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5106978

Audio Tweaks. Read this page:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=448894&page=548&highlight=equalizer

Others have done some of this in a variety of posts, I wanted to provide a comprehensive stopping point for others. I have stolen liberally from many other contributors in this and other threads. I hope this helps newcomers and other Sony Vaio F11 owners. Please provide feedback, and I will edit this post accordingly. I do NOT take credit for the hard work and research of others. If you notice I have stolen your work and want more credit, please send me a PM, and I’ll add your name to the bottom of the post as a contributor.

 

I didn't turn off bluetooth or WIFI like some of the users did. I left it in standard mode and the laptop would only get around 3 hours of battery life period. If you read, they had to turn off features to get 3 hours off the standard battery. The Standard battery only gets 2 hours with nothing turned off. 3 hours on the extended.

 

My BB F also had the whining/whistling/Morse code mic syndrome & I shot a video today using a Sennheiser mic to record before & after the easy fix that removes that sound.

You have to be patient, editing & uploading to Youtube should take 1-2 hours. I will post a link when done.

Meanwhile, try this: STP12's easy fix and Fix #2.

3 F users fixed their spacebar squeak in this forum, you can do it too!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5921716&posted=1#post5921716

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5852864&highlight=spacebar#post5852864

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5851955&highlight=spacebar#post5851955

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5856291&highlight=spacebar#post5856291

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5921623&postcount=4571

 

The issue is not the air movement sound equivalent to a form of pink noise but with the fan blade created variable pitch tones that seem to resonate outside the laptop at speeds above the minimum idle speed. Besides myself, there are several others on this thread that have reported the problem. I don't mind the usual air rushing noise (I have been living with fans in computers and electronics since 1967) but the variable pitch and its resonating harmonics are most anoying.

Also missing from your unicfication is the distortion in the speaker system. It is my understanding from a Sony tech that Sony Engineering has a firmware upgrade for the Realtek chip to fix this issue.

I have also found out from insiders that Sony is aware of the Throttle Down issue of the I7 and are working on this. Probably due to their battery subroutines that have added to the Aptio BIOS. Just another software bug.

Thanks for pulling this together. I hope you maintain it and periodically publish it on this thread.

 

You're confusing the mic issue with the fan issue that nixt3r is describing. It is the same as the audio recording of the fan problem uploaded earlier.

 

I'm not asking you to name names, but how sure are you on these sources and what do they plan to do about it?

 

I received this info from a trusted source who discussed the issue with a US Sony management person. No dates on a fix but I do know that American Megatrends announced a new release of the Aptio base code in early February which incorporates supports for the latest I3, I5 and I7 processors. Whether Sony releases this is questionable. There also appears to be an issue in the BIOS with respect to ACPI_PSD definitions. Run "powercfg /energy" from the command line at administrator level and examine the report that is created.

It appears that they do not publish the BIOS on the esupport website. I have been checking other models on the sight and cannot find any BIOS upgrades for their VAIOs. I must admit I have not made a thorough search of the entire download section for EVERY model so I could be incorrect.

We do know from a previous post regarding the 100% fan issue that Sony techs are the only ones who can correct the issue by reloading the BIOS (according to Sony TS).

 

jacksjw: you are correct. It's as if Joe is unaware of the fan issue that we are experiencing.

Joe: It's not the whining/whistling/morse code syndrome. Please listen to that audio file which was posted to hear what it is we are complaining about.

It is a variable high-pitch noise that comes out from around the fan in the laptop.

There seems to be no fix for this yet.

 

ATTN: Joe Bleau, this is the fourth discrete mention of power supply failure on an F11, so it IS an issue affecting a lot of F11s.

 

And here's another mention Joe of flex on the lid, both these are issues Joe that you said didn't exist.

 

Are you talking about the CPU running @ 930mHZ max while on battery?

Check this post by FredFrenzy, HP Gaming Staff replying to this question on the official HP 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).

"You're confusing the mic issue with the fan issue" - I don't think so, but many people do in this thread. When I have time, I will record the fan rev's change while turning on/off a CPU benchmark utility. That's how I checked my fan when I received the machine.

I expect a fan going through the gamut of RPM's to have some resonance @ some point in thew spectrum, contrary to my stupid Acer laptop fan that simply goes from off to full speed for x seconds, shuts down for y seconds, to start over again in a short while.

I rather have my Sony_F fan idling constantly but that a matter of personal preference.

Notebookcheck agrees with you as I quoted in this post: Fan Noise Obsession, Whining & Tweaking CPU and try the suggested tweaking including better natural convection cooling.

I don't deny that some may have a defective fan or that simply the F is not made for them & they could be happier with a i5 or i3 CPU for less fan work & more battery life. Personally, I need the power & price point of the F @ the present.
---

My Youtube video is up with recording of the whining: Vaio_F_Series Whining, High Pitch, Morse Code Fix VPCF115FM Watch in HD 720!

---

 

Please listen to the file on page 528, post # 5273

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=448894&page=528

This is the exact sound that I have, please listen to post # 5273. Is this sound NOT normal??? This is my first laptop and at first I thought maybe because the Intel® Core™ i7 Processor is newer technology that perhaps this sound is "normal".

I just received my laptop back for the SECOND time earlier today. I sent it in because of this sound. The first time the fix that was done was for the palm rest sound a "thermal pad" was installed. This was not the sound I was complaining about, I think they tried to fix the high pitch/buzz/morse code sound (by the way, I also STILL have that sound as well, but luckily the fixes posted on this forum have solved that problem). So I sent it in for a second "repair" as recommended by Sony Tech Support to hopefully get the RIGHT thing fixed.

I get the laptop back today from the second "repair" and I still hear this "whistle". It is DRIVING MY CRAZY. I really love this laptop, but need to know desperately if this sound is "normal". If there is no fix for this, I will return it for full refund.

I thank you greatly in advance for anybody who can provide any info on this.

 

I'm tired of defending the F and won't do it anymore.

Everything is relative & 4 or 5 or 8 defective power bricks or a person who tries to close a wide-screen 16.4" by the corner, is not significant in a thread with 5,000 posts.

If you want to return it, do it. If it's broken, use the warranty. If you don't want to buy it, get an other brand with a different set of "issues".

I'm interested in making the F more enjoyable for actual F owners with Autoruns tips, sound tips, monitor profiling tips, accessory & external devices tips, OS & speedup tips, etc, etc.

Maybe it's time to start a new thread about mutual DIY tech support & making the F more enjoyable & leave this one to shopping, shipping blow by blow, issues & whining.

A new thread for people who intend to keep their F & like to try DIY before sending the unit for service or get a tech in their living room. For some of us, thousands of kilometers away from Sony_Support, it's our preferred approach.

/rant

 

Go to a store, bring your laptop & compare it side-by-side with an other brand of notebook with a Core i7 CPU. Run the same demanding task on both.

Compare it also to less powerful models like the much more expensive MacBook Pro.

Go to the very top right on this page & search all notebook forums with: fan noise. Recognize any brands?

 

Joe, you obviously do not have a grip on this issue. I will repeat my self for your benefit. The rushing noise (pink noise) which will increase in volume as the CPU is utilized and thus the fan is increased to get rid of the few extra degrees of heat IS NOT THE BLOOMIN' PROBLEM. It is the variable pitched tone that the fan blades are producing as they cut through the air. It is a defect in the fan design. My Dell Latitude also has a variable speed fan but does not generate distinct frequencies through its RPM range - just pink noise at higher decibels and that is acceptable.

Joe, if the problem doesn't pertain to you - just stay out of the subject. Your credibility and usefullness of your posts are being reduced by your "I am the master of this thread attitude". I for one will now join others on this thread and just ignore your entries.

 

What kind of CPU & GPU on your Del_L? The more watts or TDP, the more CFM the fan must shovel to evacuate the heat.

Asus is using an interesting design for their ASUS_G73JH-A1 Core i7 model, they chose a bigger form factor and sacrificed some battery life w/ 2 big fans w/ low rpm @ idle vs. the F with one fan @ higher rev. There is always some trade-offs.

 

Seems like things are heatin' up...
Anyhow, moar game benchmarks! Mass effect 2 (yes, I already tested this) BUT I recently figured out how to turn on antialiasing for the game. The result is a MUCH better graphical experience (Much less jaggies in the hair, etc). Some areas of the image are still jagged (mainly images or background objects not covered by the AA engine). Those can be fixed with more expensive supersampling, I believe (I may be wrong here), but even 4xAA makes a huge difference. There is a slight performance hit. I'm getting about 28-40 fps without FRAPS at 720p compared to the 40+FPS I was getting without any AA on.

I only have some dialogue right now (I finished the game, and there are no more missions ), but I'll get some combat up soon.

Cheers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-cusTeK1VA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LosMtG0qC4s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OGYU9DWYxQ

 

Thanx a lot mangosango, you're work is appreciated.

 

Thanks for the video links & settings tips mangosango.

You play a lot of games, what's you take on the F fan noise?