Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

Question for everyone regarding recovery disks. I just received my new F over the weekend and so far have installed Firefox and Itunes. Is there a step-by-step anywhere about how to go about creating recovery disks for the new F? I'm relatively unsavy when it comes to things like this so was hoping to find a 'how-to' somewhere. Much appreciated.

PS - I got the Fresh Start option, if that makes a difference.

 

I have an F Series with an 820QM processor, and one problem I noticed right away is that it slows down to 1.2GHZ and won't speed up regardless of load or temperature once you remove AC power.

On battery power these F series are VERY slow. Any benchmark will show this, and running CPU-Z you can see why, the clock multiplier on an 820QM stays at 9.0x and on a 720QM 7.0x. Meaning while on battery power the 820 CPU is locked to 1.2ghz and won't go higher, and the 720 cpu is locked to 930mhz and won't go higher.

Apparently a LOT of manufacturers core-i7 machines do this, there is a thread in the HP section about the Envy 15 doing this as well with more details.

hopefully they will fix this with a new BIOS or something, I have the min and max processor states set at 100% for both battery and AC power in the power settings but this makes no difference.

There is a bug causing these core i7 CPU's to enter their LFM state (lowest possible frequency), when on battery power, and they never leave that state regardless of temperature or whatever.

Kind of a pain but I don't really use the computer much on battery mode, if I did I would be really mad, it's very slow.

 

Wow! I'm experiencing the same thing. My F is very slow. I thought it might be something software related and in my case it might be. I've yet to follow Derridas directions all of the way through. I was on the phone with Sony support, they went into System Configurations and up the proccessors to 4. I don't know if that made a difference..haven't had a chance to test. The laptop always runs fast after I reboot and then slows down with time.

 

Oh to be clear my laptop is sloooowwww whether on battery power or not.

 

You check through your power settings? I'm on high performance but I have customized it a bit.

 

Mine is not slow and does not slow down with use, as long as it's using AC power. Mine is instantly slow and remains slow when on battery power.

 

Under hardware, there is a Vaio category, click it, and oin there you'll find a subsection that'll lead you through the process....if I remeber correctly as i don't have a Vaio in front of me.

 

Woa... so are we now saying that not only is there an incessant noise coming from these things, they're also in fact really slow? Christ...

 

I really wonder is this thing throttles like the Dell SXPS 1645 does when gaming? That's one of the reasons I returned it.

 

BTW As I mentioned earlier, I recommend the Sony Tech Support in the Philippines: direct dial is 1-239-768-7604. When you call the toll free U.S. number after normal business hours you are directed to this number. Earlier I confirmed with a supervisor in the Philippines that this number will always go directly to the Philippines to their division for U.S. model support. You might call them to see whether their techs use the same strategy for attacking the problem.

Good luck!

 

It's probably been mentioned before but there's misinformation out there saying this laptop has 2 usb ports. It actually has 3. The eSATA port can also be used for usb.

 

I'm concerned, I'm about to order one of the new F Series, and this performance thing is worrying me, is it really that bad?

 

I'm not too familiar with the Dell throttling issue. I have played through L4D2 and CoD:WaW at native resolution with low/med settings at or around 60fps. I didn't notice any degradation during gameplay. How would one know if the machine was throttling?

 

OH MY GOSH! You are SOOOO right! I didn't realize that! Duh! I should of been looking closer! BAM! I repeat - I love my F!

 

Hehe, it's easy to overlook. I love mine too!!!!!

 

I haven't noticed any performance problems yet. The machine isn't without its flaws but overall it's great. I'd say the main issue right now is the 'whine' noise; however, folks have a work around for it. Another complaint of mine is the cpu fan seems to work pretty hard but I have monitored temps and all seems well.

 

This will answer your question: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=446193

I plan on running ThrottleStop on this machine when I get it to find out if it does in fact Power Throttle.

 

Interesting. Well that's good to know and I will definitely keep that in mind next time I game. I haven't gamed for too long but from what I've done performance seems acceptable to me. I didn't notice any slowdown.

 

So I'm running on battery right now and the laptop is quiet as a mouse. I'm now taking a closer look at my settings for power management and wonder if this is the reason my fans are always blowing when plugged in:

Minimum processor state
On battery: 5%
Plugged inn: 100%

Can anyone tell me what there % is when plugged in? Any recommendations here? I think this might be why my fan is working so hard. Thoughts?

 

The fact that these machines evidently throttle on Battery Power regardless of what application your running really stinks. Rest assured this was engineered into this machine & others and Sony will unlikely remedy it with a Bios update. They'll probably "eventually" issue a formal statement of Battery life, heat management, etc.

 

Any real life benchmarks someone can provide? AC power vs battery/high performance vs stamina?

 

I just got back from Best Buy. I went to take a look at the new F. The screen didn't look as bright as I thought it would. They had a FW590 sitting next to the F and the screen on the FW was brighter and it was the eco screen. There was Gateways that had brighter screens. The Gateways did have LED screens though.

I thought the Vaio F was a very nice looking and powerful. I wonder if Sony will put in LED screen in the next refresh. If so, I may wait. The FW590 was on clearance for $849. They also had an open box 17" MacBook Pro for $1799. Oh the decisions...

 

This model, out of the box has an 'auto' setting for brightness. I found this out when I got home and after disabling this feature, the screen gets pretty darn bright.

 

This machine doesn't seem to throttle at all, even when used for long periods of time playing games, IF it is plugged into AC power.

When running off a battery the machine is permanently stuck in LFM mode, the LOWEST running frequency (1.2ghz for 820QM, 930Mhz for 720QM) and will NOT go up in speed no matter what you do.

It's not something you can change in windows software or via the power settings. It's a problem common to most if not all of the Core i7 laptops, as can be seen in the HP Envy 15 thread on the same issue.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=445178

 

Uzun is correct I just tested this out. I ran Cinebench 64 bit multi-cpu rendering tests and monitored with CPU-Z and the cpu stays at about 930mhz even on high performance settings. On battery with multi-cpu rendering I score 5100 in this test and plugged in I get 9750. All cores did max out at 100% while benchmarking on battery.

 

Regarding the F11's apparent CPU throttling while running on battery--anyone know if Uncle Webb's Throttle Stop can "unthrottle" this type of throttling the way it can for the Dell XPS 1645 which throttles only when it's plugged in? If so, seems like it would be a good fix. I imagine this same question has come up about HP's Envy 15 which seems to throttle like the F11--only when on battery--I haven't followed the Envy 15 forum closely enough to know the answer.

 

just for the heck of it I ran 3dmark 06 on High Performance 1st plugged in and 2nd on battery both set to highest.

 

So what does all this mean about "throttling" and so forth... are we not getting the full so-called "turbo boost" up to 2.8 out of this unit?

 

Again, this will explain what "Throttling" is:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=446193 If your not gaming, rendering video, or High CPU demand applications... then you probably won't even notice. However, if paying for an I7 you should be getting ALL of the performance when all four cores are in Turbo Boost mode. If it throttles, you'll get about half of the processing speed that it's capable of.

ThrottleStop works great for testing without changing anything on your computer. Just leave the top 3 boxes unchecked. When you download it and run it for the first time, that's how it will be setup so you don't have to worry about hurting anything.

Throttlestop program. by UncleWeb http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=525...rottleStop.zip

 

I agree with that, its quite annoying actually to see that the fan is always on...This is in stark contrast to the FW which are so quiet all the time

 

Since this will be my fourth I7 machine, I'll be able to compare the fan noise of the F...

 

Just to clarify, the CPU permanently throttles when on battery power, but does not do so when the computer is plugged in?

 

Yes, this and other Core i7 PC's throttle performance down to the LOWEST POSSIBLE FREQUENCY, basically a sleep state, when on battery power and nothing you do changes that. They are fixed at 1.2GHZ for the 820QM and 930mhz for the 730Qm when on battery power, regardless of power settings or temperature/load.

When on AC power they behave normally, and in my experience the Sony F series with 8GB of RAM and an 820QM processor maintains full turbo performance even after a couple of hours of gaming, at least in my environment here (it's not that warm here in San Diego in the winter).

So when plugged in everything works fine and as expected and I can detect no overheating or throttling even when running games for long periods of time.

When on battery power performance is very low and stays very low regardless of load or temperature.

 

Uncleweb who wrote the THROTTLESTOP program commented on the low performance on battery issue that plagues this machine and the HP Envy 15 in the Envy 15 thread. His throttlestop program cannot correct this issue, it's an issue that must be corrected in the BIOS he believes.

 

This is very disturbing indeed. If this F series laptop will stay at the 1.2GHZ when on battery power... how would I be able to run certain software that require more processing power? Such as Quickbooks, Excel, IE, and my professional tax software all running at the same time?! That's crazy! It wouldn't work! I'm gonna need to test this out tomorrow by running all that and see what happens..

If that's the case... I will sadly have to return this unit... unless there's a solution...?

 

No solution, I doubt there ever will be since it was engineered into the machine.

 

LuvrGirl (and others who perhaps haven't been following Throttlegate scandal and don't want to wade through the other forums)--Throttling is when the CPU is being forcefully and artificially restricted from running at it's fastest speed, even if the task it's performing requires it. This is apparently being done intentionally by the manufactures for various reasons--in the case of the Dell XPS 1645, it was happening only when the laptop was plugged in to AC power in order to allow the machine to run within the restraints of the inappropriately small power supply it was being shipped with. In the case of the Envy 15 and now unfortunately, as confirmed by uzun and MaxieHQ (thanks, by the way for figuring this out so early in the game) our new Vaio F's, we have the opposite problem. They work fine, at full speed, when plugged into the wall, but the minute you unplug and switch to battery power, the CPU becomes locked (throttled) down to a speed about 40% less than full speed, and won't budge from there no matter what the demands are. The minute you plug back into the wall, it goes back to full speed. Presumably this is being done to increase battery life (but at a cost which I'm sure most users would not find acceptable). The Vaio F is so new that we haven't collected much user feedback as to the real world implications, but the Envy 15 users (who seem have the exact same problem as the Vaio F on an almost identically configured notebook) have been dealing with it for a while. I can summarize a few things I've gleaned from their forum. First, the comment wbglider made that "If your not gaming, rendering video, or High CPU demand applications... then you probably won't even notice" may be correct with regard to the Dell XPS 1645, but not for the Envy 15--it's users notice the difference between battery and AC performance even when just browsing the web (see this discussion here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=445178&page=4). Second, the response to their concerns from HP has not been encouraging. HP has made statements to the effect of "That's how the laptop is designed" and don't seem to be making moves to correct the problem. Third, a guy named UncleWeb, is the creator of an excellent program called Throttle Stop which, in conjunction with the correctly sized power supply (which owners must buy themselves because Dell is refusing to provide it) has been able to successfully circumvent the throttling problem on the Dell XPS 1645. He has recently become aware of the different throttling problem that the HP Envy 15 and now Vaio F series is experiencing and is not optimistic that his software can fix our problem. The version of Throttle Stop that worked on the XPS 1645 has already been tested on the Envy 15 and it doesn't work. He's currently working on a modified version and is testing it with an Envy 15 owner. But he just told me today in a post on the Dell forum that he thought it unlikely to work because the throttling seems to be taking place in the bios and is immune to work-arounds in windows. I agree with wbglider that a few Vaio F owners should test Throttle Stop to see if it has any effect on our battery power throttling, just to make sure. Sorry if I'm getting a bit long winded here, but I think this is an important problem. As the first owners of a new model (mine should be here by the end of the week) we are the ones who discover the problems, and the faster we unite and confront Sony with the issue, the more likely we will be to get results. I think the most important thing to do initially is to force an acknowledgment from Sony that the issue exists. Either, it was an intentional feature designed to increase battery life, or it's a bug. If the former, we need Sony to make this clear early in the game so that we can decide for ourselves whether or not we can live with it before our return window expires. If the latter, the sooner we bring it to Sony's attention, the sooner they can provide a fix, presumably with a bios update. Personally, although I won't be away from an outlet very often I would like to be able to have full functionality from my laptop while running on battery. The worst case scenario, and unfortunately the most likely, is that we don't get a clear response from Sony any time soon, and are forced to make a decision about whether or not to return the laptop without having any resolution. So, I would ask all new Vaio F users to confirm whether or not their laptop throttles while running on battery power (perhaps a more savy user than I could post a simple step by step regarding which benchmark to use, where to get it and how to go through the process), post the results here on this forum, and complain loudly to Sony with threats to return our machines if the problem is not addressed to our satisfaction. I know this may sound a bit harsh or extreme, but I've been following the Dell XPS 1645 and HP Envy 15 stories for over a month and there are a lot of frustrated owners and very little constructive response from the manufacturers. Hopefully Sony will be better.

 

Uh...plug it in somewhere? You honestly seem to be expecting the kind of higher battery performance the more portable notebooks have...in what is essentially a desktop replacement.

Gotta make up your mind, man, as to what you want to actually accomplish. Besides, the battery life on the F11 is only like what...up to 3 hours?

 

Running quickbooks. excel ie and professional tax software at the same time will not really tax the CPU. Things like Video rendering, and game playing will. I doubt you will notice with accounting apps/word processing/spreadsheets/web browsing, even if you do them all at once.

 

Sigh....just ordered mine yesterday, being shipped on the 26th, but with these issues I probably will be stopping the order.

 

I hope Sony or any expert/user will find out the solution for this serious throttle, I love this F series so much, so I really don't want to be disappointed.

 

SeanYamade. I hear what you're saying. But, I think it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. Ironically, the Dell XPS 1645 which throttles like crazy when plugged into AC power, runs great on battery power with no throttling at all. Thus there's no technical limitation inherent in the CPU (the XPS 1645 is also core i7) preventing full performance on battery. If the restriction is being imposed to prolong battery life, OK, but then give me the choice to switch between full performance or max battery life. The way it is now we're not being given the choice and to some that may not be acceptable. Also, if such a restriction is being imposed in the name of battery life, it should be disclosed to the consumer in the specs.

 

+1.

"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters" -

 

the Vaio F is now listed on the sonystyle hong kong site,
http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/vpcf117hg_e.jsp

no mention of a backlit keyboard

 

It most probably doesn't feature a backlit keyboard.

Since backlit keyboard is mentioned in the S...

 

btw the main use of F serie is not the portability ! So when ur unplug its just to use light apps !Moreover when u buy a laptop uve to choose between portability & performance ... corei7 is for performance so ... let it plug !

 

little piece of info for us european, our notes are now beginning to be shipped to customers from Japan, so with the little differences from the US ones.

Hope they are better

 

My 1998 Acer Travelmate lets me decide in the BIOS if I want to throttle the CPU or not when running on battery and the Vaio F 2010 can't?

 

I don't see the throttle issue on battery as a problem. This is a desktop replacement. As it stands, you'll probably get ~2 hours off battery just surfing the web. I don't know why you would do anything resource intensive on battery.

As long as there is no throttling plugged in (which appears to be the case), this doesn't bother me one bit.

 

Well that gives me some hope if the last series was quiet. This is my first Sony so I wasn't sure if this was common in the series prior.

Maybe there's a power setting or future bios update that would address this? Then again, these are i7 so maybe it is what it is.