Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

Success! This now proves the noise is microphone related. Only problem now is that when you want to use the webcam, you must unmute it.

No problems, as they say over here "many hands make light work!"

 

Hopefully, should be an easy fix for Sony.

 

That should still be valid. Still have to investigate what options to use to do that with Xen, but it should be possible. It is just that windows 7 also uses Intel VT for XP mode. I also plan to run windows 7 from linux just like you. I expect though that the XP mode of windows 7 will not work when running windows 7 itself as a virtual machine from linux.

 

You are welcome. I just hope Sony can fix it. Oh and thanks for giving me rep Risco

 

No problems, it could be a driver issue as well. Does it use realtek for audio, as it might be worth updating ( make a system restore just in case! )

 

The first usable fix!
Would this also work after the system comes back up from hibernation? (I know I am pushing it now a bit).

Also, has this fix been communicated to Sony already! Just so they have the correct info to fix it asap.

 

Yup, this temporary fix needs to be stickied!

 

I just sent an email to Sony support so we will see if they can help.

 

The cooling system seems to be on most times, because I can feel the hot air coming out of the vent most times.

Palm does not get warm at all, no issues there.


(I have the US CTO F11)

 

Although I do not claim myself to be the authority in this, I believe I can answer a few questions because I had the FW for three weeks before returning it for F series.

1. Keyboard layout: I think F series keyboard is a lot better, and the backlit keyboard is just super cool and useful. The looks of F is the best I have seen in recent times.

2. Speed: Although I have not explored 3D games in F series yet, I will anyday bet my money on F series. The reasons being a. Quad core b. DDR3 1333. c. Newer models will definitely have faster chipsets d. 8MB cache. IF u are into photography and games, F might marginally beat FW. But if you are happy with FW, I am not sure if u would want to .

3.Battery life is as bad as FW

4. Heat: Although ur palm and thighs never get hot, the fan seems to be on most of the times and that is accompanied by a persisting sound. The left side heat vent is always super hot ( and i dont mind the hot air in this New England winter ) ;-)

 

so what kind of lcd panel is in this laptop? its not and led display is it?

edit: also im here to confirm the mute the mic while listen to this device is enabled on the microphone does in fact fix the audio whine.

 

I really do not believe that there is way to confirm this. But LED backlit screen is a definitely a big feature that Sony would love to market, if it has it.

Given that specification of most other models like the Z, CW etc.. explicitly states "Backlit LED" and F series does not, you can be fairly certain that F series does not have it.

 

I appreciate the effort of all those who have posted videos of their new F series, but would someone please share images/video of the grey vaio!

 

...to add to that, if there are any British/European models (ie. with premium black etc) then some photos would be good too. Otherwise I'll have to do it myself in a week's time

 

Where have you ordered yours from? The UK Sony site? When you got it I would be interested to see whether it comes with the Backlit Keyboard as standard.

 

I just purchased this laptop, and I am wondering if theres some way to turn on the backlit keyboard...? When my sony is powering up, I see the backlights, but when it is on, I do not...Any advice?


Also, I am experiencing pings as high as 1200, pretty consistently. I can assure you it it not my internet, but is mostly a problem with windowss 7. Gahhhhhh

 

Is it worth the extra $$$ for the SSD ?

 

If you can afford it, and you are happy with 256GB capacity, I would definitely go for it. I got a HDD, with the intention of replacing it with an aftermarket SSD a few months to a year later.

 

I think you need to push a button as demo'd here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI2P8roNN1E

 

Me too! It's one of the things I do like about Dells.

 

I just got home with the model from BB and if this is not LED (which it sounds like it isn't), Sony has me fooled. The screen is very bright, so this shouldn't be a factor in anyone's purchase.

 

I think someone earlier on established European and British laptops do not come with backlit keyboard

 

i dont think its bright at all. on my desk i have my laptop, my desktop which has 2 monitors of different formfactor, backlight and size. all 3 next to each other, the sony, even with the brightness cranked all the way up. isnt that bright at all when you compare them right next to each other.

like i said ill make another video so you guys can see the difference

 

I honestly cannot find the button to turn on the backlight hahaha....In the video I can't see what he does to turn it on. Anyone help?


[SOLVED] Apparently, this laptop has a light sensor. When the lights are off and you press a key, the backlight is automatically activated. I'm not sure if you can activate it when there are lights on. Anyone know about this?

 

So I just got brought this home and immediately put a fresh install of Win7. During the process of installing drivers, the screen brightness was maxed out and was VERY bright. I finally found the hotkey driver for the on screen display and now the max is not very bright at all.

Hmmmm...

 

Open the Vaio control panel and select display and uncheck adjust brightness automatically. It makes all the difference in the world.

dappola, the backlighted keyboard should be on by default and is triggered by hitting any key when dark enough. If your model has the light sensor right next to where the number lock light is then you might want to try to cover that sensor up and try out the keyboard. Also there are some adjustments for the Vaio control center under keyboard and mouse select backlit keyboard.
EDIT: Oops I see you already figured it out.

 

Be sure to disable the automatic brightness control in the VAIO Control center. It sets the maximum brightness you can set based on the ambient light. Trust me its a huge difference.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqTqOF0uUUE

 

Question: Has anyone with a F series attempted to sync their iphone? If so, any issues? I have been reading numerous articles about iphone syncing incompatibility with the Intel P55 Express Chipset and Windows 7. Any insight into this would be much appreciated.

 

I think they come with backlight as standard ! I asked during sony chat & two different guys told me that it's a serie characteristic ! Im from france & i will receive my laptop next week i guess ... so i will be back & told you if ive the backlight keyboard

cheers

 

Thanks! That did it!

 

Can you expand on the fix a bit? I'm not sure I understand.

 

Nevermind. Thanks, trying now.

 

another vid of someone unboxing. don't think it's been posted already:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQPNZmvyEK4

 

Someone posted pics and a guide a few pages back: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5748529&postcount=546

 

Please can someone speak on materials?
It is very different from FW or similar model?
As is his touch?
Aluminum or plastic is cheap as I read?
Is it the cover the same material that the base of the keyboard?

Thank you a lot

 

We've only established that Sony doesn't advertize the European models as having a backlit keyboard available.

Sony doesn't advertize the display light sensor on the American models but it's there.

We're going to have to wait until a forum member actually has an F in hand to know for sure....

 

The interesting thing is that SonyStyle in the US does make a point of saying that the backlit keyboard is LED. Now does it really make sense that the same sensor would be linked to an LED keyboard backlight and a CCFL display?

But Sony says nothing about the screen either way, neither in the U.S. nor on the European sites.

 

Here's a couple pics I finally uploaded; I got the black color

 

^

Nice pics, thanks for sharing!

 

I have not compared both by placing them beside each other, but based on my observation of the FW in BestBuy a couple of weeks back, the build of the F-series is roughly in the FW's ballpark with a slight edge in build quality to the F-series.

There is absolutely no feeling of cheapness anywhere in the F-series.

 

Your pictures are identical to the one I have. One more minor thing I noticed that is common between your model and mine, and is different from the BB models posted, is that the "1080P" sticker is missing from the list of stickers pasted at the bottom right side of the keyboard area (alongside the "NVIDIA", "Windows 7" "Intel Core i7" and the "Energy Star" stickers).

Not a big thing but something that I noticed right away ! Of course I went inside and double checked and verified that the screen is indeed a 1920x1080 and that the GPU is a 330M with 1GB VRAM.

 

Okay, from my experiences with the FullHD and the HiColor in the FW series, there is something you might try: boot up in the dark. The FullHD CCFL screen had a certain uneven backlighting which would only be perceptible in the dark bootup when the screen is black for a while as the OS goes through its paces.

There should be no such uneven-ness with an LED backlight, or if there were, it would likely not be corners and horizonal rims, and center, the spots complained about in earlier FW FullHD screens.

Again, everything points to a CCFL in the States -- except the fact that the keyboard backlight is advertized there as an LED (and one would suppose that the light sensor would be feeding into an LED display as well). But Sony says nothing, either way, on either continent.

 

My money's still ont he screen being CCFL. Although it would be nice to have an LED-backlit screen, I think sony would have advertised it as having one (especially if the W and Z series have them and they advertise the screen on those models). In regards to the light sensor - it probably just detects light levels and feeds raw numbers to the display and keyboard drivers - just because the keyboard is led backlit doesnt mean the screen is.

 

A little off topic, but I hope there will be someone who can help with this. Has anyone installed Ubuntu or any other Linux Distro on the F11. If so, I'd appreciate if they could share their experiences (esp. stuff that does not work). Thanks very much!

 

I think that desktop LCD panels are different from laptop LCD panels. I read this somewhere on these forums. Anyway, the Vaio F has a dark gray background where as the two monitors have a lighter color background. My desktop monitor is more brighter than any other laptop screens that I have used.

 

That did it! It's nice and quiet now. Sony should be happy, you just saved them $1500 on a return. Hopefully, Sony will come up with a patch soon. I am also looking forward to Win 7 SP 1. Seriously though, very much appreciated.

 

Actually I'm kinda sorry I ordered grey because I very much like the look of this US Black model. At the beginning of the video by the way you can see "Black" stamped on the box.

 

Oh yes! I noticed that too and checked it right away

 

I have a request as well. My Logitech software for the Wave Pro keyboard/mouse combo seems to be the reason YouTube and all other video doesn't buffer right, and stutters. This doesn't happen with my other Sony (Vista) laptops. When I uninstall the Logitech software the video works well. So it seems to be the software. Does anybody know of any work arounds? Thanks.