Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

These kinds of things really give me an airport feeling for when your plane doesn't arrive and there is no information whatsoever. Something is going on. If it would be a simple problem of them being out of stock they could just add a text saying 'out of stock' or 'delivery time > 6 weeks'. As usual, incomplete information leads to speculations.

 

So You've already got the mail of it being shipped from Japan?

Ok, that's good to know.

Hope You're getting it reeeaaal sooooon!

 

Maybe more people than we think have had to return them... or they've been concerned about the sony insider report?

 

The subject of the mail was (translated) 'sent from factory' .
The mail itself said 'Your VAIO order is on its way to our logistics center'.

Since the factory is in Japan and the logistics center in the Netherlands (actually 25km from where I live), we can conclude that its most likely on its way out of Japan. And the next status update will be when it leaves the logistics center.

I was hoping for the order to arrive before the weekend, but I guess that will be out of the question now. Have to be patient then...

 

Indeed! A speculation .... :wink:

 

Glad I bit the bullet and ordered my custom laptop late last night. Just received notice that it should despatch to me by 2nd Feb- funny as they first said 5-6 wks.

EDIT- hope there is no major problem with it being pulled on European sites.

 

Since we still don't have our F with i5 delivered and I was not planning to read all the Z series tread, any of You is following it? Do they already got the babies? If so how do they perform with i5 and Nvidia 330?

 

I haven't yet. It's almost to their facility through their RMA process I've recieved an email from an agent apologizing for the defective until and in one of the email I was informed it could take 1 to 2 billing cycles or as short as 7-14 days to receive the credit. But I'm not worried in the least because I used Amex and they are the best at protecting thier customers.

 

Just rang Sonystyle UK cos i wanted to know when they would be back up on the website for ordering and the chap went to check with supervisor. He came back and said that they were temporarily unavailable due to some "technical difficulties with the product" but all existing pre-orders were still being fulfilled.

Ho-hum!
He is going to ring me back on Monday with more information...

matt

 

I have not yet seen anyone address the issue of whether the Sony extended battery (as opposed to the standard) addresses the problem of throttling, as errorsmith suggested multiple pages back.

I can't remember whether Sony offers a 12-cell battery for the series, but I know that the extended life battery has more than 6-cells....

I suggest that errorsmith's contribution may hold a key to a "work-around" -- ordering with the more powerful battery.

Members who have the more powerful batteries, please chime in concerning performance on battery.

 

Hi all, I spotted these machines on an Irish online shop last night, but no stock available. So I just gave them a call to see when they might have some and got some bad news, they say this model has been discontinued by Sony, reason being serious problems with the i7 processor.

The guy also said a few Asus have had similar problems. There's also been a lot of problems with i7 machines and Win7 due to driver issues, so he reckons hold off on an i7 laptop til the next lot of updated machines start arriving over the next month or so.

Of course I'd be running Linux myself so I couldn't care about, but this particular laptop can't be had here anyway. This fellow seemed to know his stuff so if you have one on order I'd be giving a few calls to try and find out if any of this is true, but it seems spot on given that somebody else has just posted about a Sony guy talking about 'technical difficulties'.

 

I ordered the extended life battery with my Sony F. I will try to let you guys know if I see anything when I get it.

 

The F series is no longer available on the US Sony site. I knew the problems with mine ran deep. I'm glad I chose to send it back rather than try and live with it. I'm happy for those that have working machines. Mine was messed up.

 

Just talked to sonystyle and they confirmed again that the existing orders are being fulfilled. Yet it is still a mystery why it's no longer possible to order the F.

I'd imagine there are still loads of driver issues with such new hardware, but that is something that I would already expect with a new model; updates would fix that later. Perhaps they just want to fix the most urgent software problems before shipping any new models to reduce the costs of returns.

 

I had the same issue with my first F11. It was about half way down, an inch from the right. I tried to fix the "stuck" pixel but it didnt work. I returned it to Best Buy for a replacement within the week. My new has no issues, except the whining noise that is not a problem since i applied the work around.

 

Hi . I just Spoke with SSUK and the guy said there are technical difficulties , but only with the website and not the product, thats why they can't currently be custom ordered but they are taking and fufilling orders for prebuilt ones and those previously ordered. He also said the custom order should be back online "shortly".

As an aside, he said these i7 machines cannot be released in the UK before February because Intel have stipulated this.

 

Hi guys,

I'm following this thread since its beginning, thank you all for sharing valuable information

This is certainly not good news. I almost ordered one for myself when they appeared on sony.co.uk, but since they are unable to deliver to Channel Islands I had to hold off. Well, now it's a different story, I seriously consider buying a ssd drive to give my old and trusty vgn-fe31z a second life and wait another half a year until sony sort their problems out. Going back to work in cs4 on my lovely 1280x800 screen:/

Thanks again

 

Umm I just looked and it's still on their site.

 

@nizmoz - Interesting. Yesterday the price was $989 for basic config. This morning $1024. Then it showed a notify me button. My mistake...the preconifgs are on notify me status. CTO's are still available.

 

I just checked the Sonystyle US site.

Prebuilt models - -says 'Notify me'
CTO's - you can configure but when you hit add to cart it kicks you out onto the home page.

Definitely no orders

 

The 999 had 320GB 5400rpm hard disk and the 1024 has 320GB 7200rpm hard disk

 

Yep you are right. If you go through it all, it kicks you back out. Glad I put my order in on Wednesday, but I hope for no problems.

 

@nizmoz

hope so too...
If they do come out with an updated one (better?) hope it's within everyone's return/exchange period. or at the very least some kind of extension.

 

I recieved a call back from SonyUK [0845 6000124] this afternoon and the chap said that they should be back in stock on 29th January.

Thanks everyone for all the info so far.

 

Is there something really wrong with these laptops and that's the reason why Sony stopped them? Like hardware/software issues? Or is it because of supplies?

I bought mine from Best Buy last week and apart from the whining noise I have no issues. But it worries me that they discontinued them. Should I keep mine or try to return it to Best Buy?

 

There are no options available anymore on the sonystyle.nl website either. I hope it comes back soon.

Grtz Jan

 

I'm going to talk to my contacts today and get a straight answer for everyone. Stay tuned.

 

Hi Rens, Thanks mate. I am still doubting about i5 or i7 though, but i will checkout the website you mentioned, since the sonystyle.nl removed all options about the f-series from their site.

Grtz Jan

 

we stay tuned !

 

I just talked to CS about my order, and it has been delayed. They said due to parts not in the warehouse that are on order. Expected date is the 26th to be installed and Feb. 2 to be shipped.

 

I've already called the shop two days ago just to be shure they had them in stock, it seems they made a mistake with the status.
He told me the that their supplier delivers on every thursday of the week so the new VAIO's should arrive next thursday (No guarantees).
I've also noticed the price went up from 1200 to 1235.

ps. the price of the F11Z1E/BI version has changed also from 1400 to 1535

 

The cto on sonystyle.com is up and I just noticed something interesting. They now list the 1920x1080 FullHD screen as "Premium", similar now to other regions.

 

I'm not going to be in a position to buy the F for about a month so I hope Sony Style UK have it back on configure-to-order by then. I also hope they have the option of the i7 820 and not just the 720 as it was before the cto options disappeared.

 

It's off the US site.. I sent them an email asking if they are resolving the technical issues. I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

Thanks!

Grtz Jan

 

Uhhhh, the (eu) config homepage says the F has "Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology".... and is "available soon"... :\

 

The 820 option is on the US site now.

 

yup...talked to a (USA) Sony Specialist earlier on who told me that all F sales have been halted until further notice because of a possible technical issue that has been identified. what it is i don't know but from this thread, we can take a pick and guess.

 

If that is true, what about us few that are in limbo with laptops that we ordered a few days ago? Which one will we get?!

 

not sure... he also told me that there were no plans for the AW's continuation at this time.

 

Just-in-time production: "Rather than producing goods and supplying customers from stock, JIT processes focus on producing exactly the amount you require at exactly the time your customers require it.

JIT manufacturing also opens businesses to a number of risks, notably those associated with your supply chain. With no stocks to fall back on, a minor disruption in supplies to your business from just one supplier could force production to cease at very short notice".

Today on the Sonystyle US site, if you select the 900p screen for the CTO, it ships at least one week before the 1080p so my guess is that is one of the bottlenecks: feb 1 vs. feb 9.

Sony also has to supply their retailers and the F is just coming out on Newegg, B&H, etc. Do you think that those guys were happy to see Bestbuy, their competitor, being the only ones in USA with the hot F besides Sonystyle?

I think that Sony was one of the first out of the gate with an i7 laptop starting @ $1K & the demand is stronger than expected. There is a ton of similar models by Acer, Toshiba, etc coming out soon & that should calm things down.

On the DTR side, the Asus G73JH-A1 i7 8GB memory coming out next month should give the high-end F a run for it's money because while being heavier it is cheaper and: it offers a bigger screen (17.3" 1080p), includes a secondary 500GB 7200 drive, free backpack & mouse and last but not least the much more powerful ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5870 w 1 GB DDR5, DirectX 11 compatibility with over 1 teraflops processing power compared to the F's 330M with 182 GFLOPS.

So calm down, instead of production being stopped because of major defects, my guess is quite the opposite: they are victim of their own marketing success.

 

Hi All,

Been following this thread since day 1 when I decided to order the F1190, I received it on the 20th and now really starting to worry about whether I should keep it or not. I do not want to purchase AV and install Office and use up the license if I do not keep this laptop. Hopefully there will be some announcement from Sony really soon.

 

i just ordered one too 3 days ago nizmoz, mine is suppose to ship on Feb 2nd...the only question is, like you said, what am I gonna get?

my guess though would be any orders that are still outstanding (have not shipped) would be halted in order to fix the problem. it would make more sense to fix the problem instead of satisfying orders at this stage, because even if you sent out defective laptops, it would cost you more money to have them returned and have to send out replacements

 

Mine is going to be delivered on Tuesday. I was curious as to why they stopped sales of the F series on the US site so I called Sonystyle. The rep told me that his understanding is that there was an issue with the website. The people responsible for editing the site made some "changes" that were not approved or some such thing like that and they had to stop sales until it was fixed. He said he had no indication of sales being halted because of a technical issue with the laptops themselves.

 

You are worrying about what exactly? Check-it out, if it's fine then it's fine. You have a one year warranty, why worry? Sony is a trusted brand & IF they need to recall a product, they will, just like Toyota, Honda, etc.

To transfer the Office license: uninstall from old computer, install on new one, call to activate: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903275/en-us

 

Oh i don't know anymore...I was paraphrasing the specialist. maybe it was the site itself, he made it sound like it was the laptop.

 

i think so too that that is the most likely cause. Expected delivery times were also on the rise the last week. It was 2-3 weeks at launch date and went through 4-5 weeks to 5-6 weeks.

As for the ASUS, that one would certainly not be my choice. It looks awful to me and is way too big. I couldn't imagine using that on my lap in front of the TV. It also doesn't have a blu-ray writer. If, however, you are looking for a nice compact PC which is always sitting in the same location (probably with a nice set of speakers attached to it) and intend to use it mostly for gaming then the ASUS would certainly be a good choice.

 

Hi all, I am about to buy VPCF115FM from Best Buy. Is there a whinning noise issue in that model? I read in one of the posts that there is a possible solution to this issue. What exactly is the solution if I end up getting this noise issue?

TIA.

 

Me neither and the F is maybe not the best choice for that @ 6.9 lbs. The idea is DTR, crunching power to edit photos, videos, etc. It's not much bigger btw and both are 1080p:

17.3 Display size: 15.08" × 8.48" (38.3cm × 21.54cm) 127 dpi
16.4 Display size: 14.29" × 8.04" (36.31cm × 20.42cm) 134 dpi

But I'm still trying to decide between them, balancing the mix of plus & minus...

 

Allright, per instructions I shipped it back to Sony Corporate right here in town. The rep said "Uh-oh, it's one of the ones with the bad screen." I'll keep you posted.

Oh, he also said they didn't have replacements, so it was Repair or Refund.