Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

Hi,
I will receive my F11, on monday, & i'm working on ubuntu so i will have to install it as soon as possible ...
Can you explain quickly, all steps to make WIFI functionnal ?
Thx in advance!
regards

 

As an alternative to the F series, has anyone heard anything on the S series coming to the US and Canada soon?

 

is $80 soundblaster sound card worth it?

Also any advise on NVIDA Cotrol Panel setting? (Gamma, Digital Vibrance, etc)

Thanks in advance

 

Try a warm reset. Remove power, remove the battery, leave it for a few minutes. Put in the battery and connect supply. Try powering on. If not..

Again remove all power sources, leave for a while. Now reconnect battery and supply. Push power button and IMMEDIATELY press and hold the bottom-right "insert" key. Hold it until hopefully you see POST come up. Then press "delete" briefly and let it continue to boot. If the BIOS screen shows then just "ok" setting and let it reboot and continue.

If it still doesn't power on, disconnect power and battery, remove the hard drive, and try again. If it boots, let it do so until it mentions missing OS, power down again, remove power, reinstall hard drive, reconnect power, and let boot. IF it boots without the hard drive, but not with, then the drive has failed. Thus an RMA.

Sometimes some software or the hibernate function can upset resource allocation so that when the system tries to reboot it can't do so, so it just locks into standby. The warm reset should have solved that. If not then RMA.

 

Thanks for the pictures. This is the first glossy screen I've every had. All my other monitors are matte which I guess I always assumed was standard. The glossy screen took us some getting used to but my wife seems to really like it. Why do they make a glossy screen anyway? What are the advantages over matte besides being able to check your hair?

 

Okay, here's my stituation. I need advice. My AW390 Premuim was stolen. I really liked it. Matte screen, Adobe RGB, Lightroom, etc. I bought an F series. I liked it okay but after experiencing the screen of the AW, I wasn't in love. Turns out my F was a complete lemon. Sent it back to Sony. Got the refund, no problem. So then I start thinking about the Z. However, I don't want to be an early adopter again. Now I'm back to another F maybe now, maybe later. I could use another laptop but I'm wondering if we might see the matte screen showing up here in the states as a CTO opportunity. Does Sony usually do somethng like that on "refreshes"? Based on your extensive Sony experience when would a refresh appear? Are there any models coming down the pike that might better fill my AW void? If not, then I guess I'll try another F. Thanks.

 

Did they also had the FW51 with Full-HD screen? If so, how did they compare? Does the new F with the glossy screen has better contrast or brightness then the FW51?

 

Thanks for the reply.

I've tried the warm reset to no avail and have also removed the HDD. Nothing boots with or without it in there...

Is it the screen, or is something fried?

 

This happened to me with a Dell Latitude a few years ago.

My guess is the screen.

Besides, we already have evidence that there are screen and power issues out there. Send it back -- and get another one from a different batch. Better yet, if you can wait about two more months or so, the refresh should appear.

Good luck!

 

A few posts back (a page or two or three), I posted the links to the AW4 from the Japanese Sony site. My guess is that the A Series will be in the States soon, as well. Then you can have the photo edition and get your matte screen, Adobe RGB and software, etc. The FW and the AW were Sony's best-selling computers so there's no reason to think that the A won't show up again....

Patience... :GEEK:

 

If it's just the screen, then the system should continue to boot even with no display. It sounds like a power issue, so yes, return it.

 

I saw that the ubuntu 9.10 live cd had the same problem with the wifi driver as opensuse 11. 2. To solve it you need to get the latest iwlagn driver. However, that driver also depends on changes in other drivers so its most easy (and safe) to upgrade the kernel and modules.

I don't know how ubuntu works, but at the very least you should connect to the internet using a wired connection after installation and get the latest updates. It might already work then (I am assuming you know how to setup wireless in ubuntu because i don't because I work exclusively with opensuse). Also, you will need a firmware file version 4for the iwlagn driver (see http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=downloads). Have a look at the /var/log/messages file to check for any messages about iwlwifi. Those message will tell you which file in /lib/firmware it is looking for but cannot find.

If that doesn't work you need to get the latest stable kernel from kernel.org and follow the instructions. In my case, there were some additional instructions from suse in their kernel-sources package that I could use to simplify the last steps in the process (modifying the bootloader).

 

So whats the best way to buy this laptop?
Cause for some reason it feels like the prices went up on the site?
I thought I remember it being around 1300 or so with the specs I wanted a few weeks ago, and now its 1500...

 

Maybe start by letting us know which country you're in?

 

You can just download the latest atheos drivers and install them, that's what I did and it worked fine right away. What I can't get to work is the sound, I have upgraded my alsa drivers and pulse but I only get sound from my headphone jack, if anyone has had this problem and has a solution it would make my day, thanks

 

I think the sound card is worth it but the speakers are a must. I know there is better,however this $100 set of Bose will make a HUGE difference compared to laptop speakers.

http://www.amazon.com/Bose-Companion-multimedia-speaker-system/dp/B000HZDF8W

 

I did some gaming today and the results were quite good. Assassins Creed and Unreal Tournament 3 are playing smoothly at 1920x1080 with all effects on. With a modern game like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, I have to switch down the resolution a bit to 1280x800 or 1024x768 for instance and then it plays smoothly (with everything else set to maximum). All in all a very good result because 1280x800 is an acceptable resolution (800x600 is not). I didn't try with 1920x1080 and then switching all effects off because that would make the game a bit less interesting.

 

Could it be that there are different chipsets used for WLAN. On my system I definitely have an Intel chipset for wifi, or is the atheros based on intel?

On my system I am using the snd-hda-intel module without any options. If you are using the same module, you can try removing the options. I have audio on both headphones and on the speakers. I assume you also checked the volume settings because there are separate volume settings for speakers and headphones (I am using kmix).

 

thanks!

i don't want any external speaker for now, i want to utilize the efficiency of my built speaker in Vaio F.

I will look hard at sound card, hopefully this is compatible with the F Series.

 

@glashub

There is a Sony forum thread speculating the AW replacement to come this February or shortly after but met against others who have been told that there are no plans for the AW's continuation. A Sony specialist told me this too.. But from following this thread, their words can only be taken lightly..

Maybe they are being truthful but vague. Maybe it won't be the A series but a new successor to the AW. Sony Insider talks of a new M series laptop coming soon ---VPC-M111AX/B and VPC-M111AX/W. (posted by sonyinsider.com 01/25/2010)

There are no specs or images yet but the article shows an old 'M' series all-in-one desktop and I guess leaves it up in the air if Sony wil take its direction from there. Whether it's a 17-18" or not who knows?

 

I'm in US.

About to go to Best Buy and see if I really do like the computers feel, ect.

 

That is wierd, this is my wifi card info:
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: Atheros Communications Inc.
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 2c:81:58:ef:ba:a4
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=2.6.31-17-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.249 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
resources: irq:16 memory:e7a00000-e7a0ffff

And the driver I use is compat-wireless-2.6.33-rc5

Also, I am using the same snd-hda-intel module with the latest alsa and pulse versions but still no audio from the speakers...

I guess the different versions of the F series are very different indeed...

 

well, if You recheck the first image beside the reflected neons You'll notice that there are much more shades of blue and the matt compared to that seem almost a plain colour.

they obviously need to be boot calibrated to do their best but as you can see already 'out of the box' it's more easy to have a glossy that shines with colors and that stand better out in the shop, that's the main reason why they're so popular right now.

and why 'old school' people like me that are not used to that prefer matte ones, I guess that getting used to is the main thing and since Your 'boss' already like it

If you have access to wired network that's the easyest way You'll get the new kernels and everything straightaway. I don't know what You use in suse but I suggest yasmina to try WICD instead of network manager that is much much much better

This is really interesting since depending on the model it can be way better! Can You check it ;-)

 

Could you post an update when entering the parking?

 

Of course, if you hear the unit power on and the fan turns on but the screen is blank, you can't possibly know if the unit is booting up, can you?

So, let's just say there are power issues involving the screen -- and back it goes to Sony. Don't get it repaired, though; return it and order a new one since you're within the thirty day window -- which starts, however, from the date the order shipped, so don't delay.

Good luck.

 

You can watch the hard drive light to see if it's flashing in a way typical for loading the OS, and listen for the Microsoft Windows signature sound. Also a monitor can be connected to the VGA or HDMI port.

 

so looks like the machines people are buying now dont have any of the high pitch noises, fan noise etc...

has any one heard/read anything from Sony mentioning anything about a PERMANENT fix?

i asked earlier but got no response. can the 'small' issues faced in earlier batches of this laptop, be fixed remotely bia updates/patches, or will the laptop need to be 'fixed'.

Ive already applied the mic fix, and dont really have any other issues. Im more curious than anything. Im not complaining.

just gotta get some games to try out on this thing.... cant remember the last time i bought a pc game

o. one more q... when using the laptop via AC adaptor (no battery installed) is it safe to install the battery while the machine is on still? or is it best to turn the machine off first? i remember some one telling me about this but cant seem to remember what the best thing to do was

 

Everything seems to depend on the market in question. The A Series is available in Japan but that doesn't mean it will export to any particular country.

However, note that the German site appears to be selling the same AW as the Japanese site: http://www.sony.de/product/vn-aw-series and with the option of the RGB LED matte screen as well. (Note that rubberized armrest pad.) Here's the flagship model at the UK site: http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-aw-series/vgn-aw41xh-q Sure, the AW4 refresh came out a couple of months ago, but its refreshes were never as frequent as those of the FW series (which made it to 5 which is still available).

So, it is not at all unlikely that the AW will be making the rounds back to the States; it's more a question of when and where.

BTW Note that Sony touts the AW as its best option for HD and photo professionals, and it's a Core2Duo machine. Maybe Sony is telling us something....

 

I could have actually posted when at the parking since I got the iphone but wasn't watching the forum lol.

I love everything about the laptop, just have to wait until i have sufficient funds...

Is it really worth it to upgrade from the 720 to the 8xx?
I only play WoW really..maybe i'd go back to warhammer to just try it since I'll have a better laptop now.

 

Is the height of the F models different from the FWs?

 

@derrida, @to no end....thank you! I just got back from the BB where I looked at the F again. I like it much better now. I don't know what changed but I'll peobably order a CTO. I think the real reason for buying now is that the obly way I know how to stop the research obsession is to go buy it.

 

This is a question that comes up on my photography forums comparing whether glossy or matte photographic paper is best for displaying fine art prints. I think the answer applies to screens as well. I don't pretend to understand the science behind it, but it has to do with Dmax, which is the darkest black that can be seen on a surface. The greater the Dmax, the greater the tonal range the paper can display. It seems that glossy surfaces are capable of a larger Dmax than matte surfaces. This is why many fine art photographers and museums prefer printing and displaying photographs on glossy paper. The trade off obviously is that with a glossy surface you have to deal with glare which obviously can detract from the viewing experience. Because they are less subject to glare, matte papers can give the perception of greater tonal range even though their Dmax (and thus true tonal range) is actually significantly less than the glossy paper. In order to achieve the richest, most vibrant prints therefore, many discriminating photographers use glossy paper, but are then careful to light the print in such a way as to avoid glare while providing even illumination. I may be off the mark here, but I suspect the same holds true for screens. One bit of evidence to support this would be the screen on the Dell XPS 1645 which has been widely lauded as one of the best screens ever seen on a laptop, and many photographers love it. Many also complain about the glare. If I make a bit of effort to control glare on my Vaio F display, I'm quite impressed with it's performance as well. You can find more in depth discussion about dmax on matte vs glossy papers as well as a wealth of other topics on photography here www.luminous-landscape.com

 

My apologies in advance if I missed a post in this forum, but I am trying to install XP on the F and I am running into the BSOD which I suspect is because there is no native support in XPSP3 for the SATA drivers on the F. Has anybody tried to install XP on the F yet?

Thx,

Phil

 

What do you think they are telling us? I find it strange that their premier(arguably) laptop is using a core 2 in the UK.

 

Yeah, but since the matte screen is already available in other markets, I would not be surprised if it appeared in the US over the next couple of months. If I were you, I would wait.

The Adobe RGB matte version (assuming it comes here soon) might be better suited for graphics, video and photo editing applications - and Sony seems to be touting the F-series as a "multi-media powerhouse", now that the AW series is no longer the holder of that mantle in the US.

 

It tells me that a replacement for the AW is coming in those markets too. Core 2 Duo is history. Even Intel no longer makes the older Core 2 Duo chips, as far as I know.

In the US, the "SR-series", replaced elsewhere by the "S-series", is still available in Sonystyle with Core 2 Duos. The "old/current" Z-series is also available with Core 2 Duos in Sonystyle. They will be replaced soon, too.

The inexorable march of technology has already left the old Core 2 Duos behind.

 

I agree with this. I too take large dSLR prints (upto 24"x36") and find that when the prints are made on Canvas, the color gamut is much narrower than prints on paper. Glossy canvas prints permit a larger gamut than matte canvas. Matte papers allow more gamut than glossy canvas and glossy papers allow more gamut than matte papers.

However, I still like matte canvas for the unique look it provides.

PS: Having said that, there are huge differences of course in the various matte and glossy screens available. I am not fully convinced that the F-series glossy screen available in the US, is particularly suited to graphical applications, unlike say the "premium" matte full-HD 100% Adobe-RGB screen that they sell in the EU (which is a new one for the F-series and was not available in any FW models), which is specifically touted by Sony to be for graphical applications. I hope Sony brings that matte screen to the US too, and provide that additional choice to the US buyers.

 

It's Intel AHCI, not sure of the precise HD controller. Press F6 during initial install and load the RAID/AHCI driver from a USB floppy drive.

Though why on Earth use XP? Win7 is actually GOOD, unlike Vista, and Win7 Pro has virtual XP (for programs that MUST have XP) and the F-series does indeed support VT. Finding all the right F11 drivers for XP will be a big headache.

If you don't want Win7 for some reason, then go for Ubuntu.

XP downgrade is a factory option on the CW i3/5/7 CTOs.

 

Yes, I did report a "stuck" pixel early on in this thread and returned it to Best Buy since I couldn't get it un-stuck myself. The unit I returned also had the morse code squeal. My replacement is perfect, with the exception of morse code squeal. And yes, I have applied the work around until a permanent fix appears.

 

Hey everyone! I'm a new first-time laptop owner and have often parsed the threads here on notebookreview as I was deciding what type of machine to get.

I ended up purchasing a:

SONY VPCF116FX/H NoteBook Intel Core i7 720QM(1.60GHz) 16.4" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 7200rpm BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

from Newegg.com. Bundled with this purchase was a version of Windows 7 Home Premium. I thought I would be able to do a clean-install of the OS, as traditionally I like to keep everything as stripped down as possible because I run some resource-intensive applications. Unfortunately, the OS bundled with the computer in this case only allows for a system-restore which includes all the 'bloatware.' It also looks like there is a hidden partition on the main hard drive! So now it looks like I'm left only able to *buy* or upgrade Windows 7 retail after already buying it once to get a clean install.

Does anyone have any advice on a good way to proceed with getting a clean, fresh system up and running, with or without buying from Microsoft? Any other 'clean machine' Sony users out there? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hope you are all well and computing smoothly!
-kramern

 

Do you still have mis-givings about your SSD drive or are you now satisfied with its performance ? What about the timings to write large files (I am thinking of a situation where someone might have to upload RAW files from say an 8GB or 16GB CF card) ?

Also, do you have the windows experience score available for your laptop ? I just hope I have not missed it, if you have already posted it.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hello

I canceled my custom config through sonystyle's online store and bought a preconfig (US model VPC-F11JFX/B) at a sonystyle store.


I just finished creating my recovery discs, but I have one question. I really really h ate all the preloaded software that comes on these machines. Can I just reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 7 and use my key?

Or do you guys suggest not doing that?

Also, anything else that I should be aware of or backup before I do that? Also, I literally took this out of hte box about 2 hours ago...so nothing is onthere that is ridic important to me now.

The sony style guy told me NOT to do this and just use the add/remove program. I've upgraded/done fresh installs in the past...just never on a new computer.

 

No. To avoid the bloatware, select Windows Professional, and "Fresh Start" during purchase. You can only do so via custom config from Sonystyle online.

 

So does the model #VPCF11JFX/B come with Bluray writer? Because I bought that model at a Sony store in Denver, and the drive model is the Matsua (Panasonic) BD-MLT UJ240AS, which according to a post on page #110 is a Bluray writer. On the other hand, Sony's website says that this notebook can only play Bluray disks, not write them.

And by the way, mine has the noisy issue, but the temporary fix works. Are they ever going to find a permanent fix to that? I'm really happy with this notebook, it's really good.

 

Sony's website says it read/writes. The guy at sonystyle was like...ahhh wanted a blu-ray writer? I was like no, I wanted the 1080p screen.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...&productId=8198552921666075673#specifications

Optical Drive

* BD-R DL Read / Write : 4x max
* BD-R Read / Write : 6x max
* BD-RE DL Read / Write : 2x max
* BD-RE Read / Write : 2x max
* BD-ROM Read : 6x max
* Blu-ray Disc™ Support : Read Only20 (BD-ROM)
* CD Support : Read / Write (CD/-R/-RW)
* DVD Support : Read / Write (DVD±R/±RW/±R DL/-RAM)

 

If I call sony style to place an order do I complete the entire transaction over the phone - personal info, credit card # - or do I need access to sony style site? I assumed it was the former, but a post a few pages back confused me.

 

@melodyMaster so wat if you wanna just switch to windows 7 ultimate when you get the home premium preinstalled??

 

Hello everyone. My F series laptop arrived last Friday (living in USA, ordered at Newegg); it's a prebuilt VPC-F116FX (4GB mem, 500 HD 7200 rpm, Nvidia 330M; 1920x1080; grey color), thusfar I am completely satisfied with the machine!

I've set up a dual-boot system (Win7, Ubuntu 9.10 64bit) and will report here my experience, as it seems that some people have different experiences w/ dual-boot Ubuntu and Win7. Hope this will be of some help...

Step 1. Under Windows7, I made the rescue disks (2x DVD-R). This took appr. 40 min. to burn. As Win7 did not allow shrinking below 250 GB, I used the rescue disks to "reinstall C-drive", one option of the rescue disks. This option lets you create 1 or 2 partitions - and places Win7 on the C-partition. I created a 70Gb partition for Win7. Install took ~2 hours.

Step 2. With a live-CD of Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit, I divided the remaining HDD into an Ubuntu / partition (50Gb), a /home partition (100Gb), and a data-partition (the rest).

Step 3. Live-CD proved me: no wireless, no sound, low screen resolution. All that was solved eventually, thanks to previous posters (RyanRD, ErikEngerd from top of my head, and others).

Step 4. First solve Wireless. I have no wired connection, all must be done via wireless... Apparently, the wireless chipset is Atheros AR9287, very new, and the linux ath9k kernel module needs a kernel =>2.6.32 ( http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k). The kernel on my liveCD is 2.6.31-14, hence no wireless.

Following ( http://www.ramoonus.nl/2009/12/03/linux-kernel-2-6-32-installation-guide-for-ubuntu-linux/) I downloaded a 2.6.32-kernel onto USB stick, installed into Ubuntu using Gdebi package installer (see link for correct order of the 3 files). After reboot: new kernel gives a wireless connection.

I do not like non-repositories kernels. Hence, I used apt-get to update all packages, which included a 2.6.31-18 kernel. I installed the "linux-backport-modules-2.6.31-18-generic, ..-karmic, and ..-alsa as well. Rebooting with this 2.6.31-18 kernel also has wireless working! So, I deleted the 2.6.32-kernel using apt-get.

A side-effect of the backports (alsa-backport?) is that there is sound functional in Ubuntu 9.10. No need to install snd-intel.. package, or reinstall alsa or such. However, the microphone appears non-functional (not tested extensively though).

3. Screen resolution. In Windows7, I downloaded and ran the Phoenix program as written down in post #1375 by RyanDG. I extracted the EDID-profile (exported the data as "sonyEDID.raw" on USB disk) and saved the file in Ubuntu as /etc/X11/sonyEDID.raw.

Contrary to some others, I used the repository nvidia-drivers (version 185), not the newer version 190 from Nvidia's site. As root, I ran nvidia-xconfig which created a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. I edited the file (sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf) and added the two lines suggested by RyanRG. pointing to my EDID-profile. Reboot of system, and screen res. was 1920x1080. Perfect.

Took me a day-and-a-half to get Ubuntu working, but it appears to be functional to my needs now.

Other observations:
- I have backlight keyboard under Ubuntu9.10, it starts automatically when typing. Not sure if it responds to keypress or light/dark.
- The camera is working under Ubuntu, I've tested with the Cheese program briefly.


Minor things: my <space>-key squeaks a little when typing - not always and not really annoying. CPU fan sound is hearable, but not irritating. I've no clue how many dB(A) though, sorry. Heat comes from the left side where the fan is, which I can notice as I am left-handed. It's warm, not hot. Bottom of the laptop is not hot after 3 hrs of installing. Screen quality is good, for me it is a leap forward compared to what I had...

Good laptop for my uses, is my first impression.

 

Yes, but treat the salepserson like a person, rather than a corporate grunt, and you might get a better price. The entire transaction is completed over the phone, and you can't track the progress of the order via Sonystyle. You DO get emails at major stages.

 

So the preferred option is to get Windows 7 Professional and select Fresh Start to avoid bloatware? Any other reliable solution?

I'm still a bit confused about whether a "clean install" is possible, and if so what are the steps. Also, how to make recovery discs (without bloatware). And how the two tie together. I wish there were a dedicated thread to this, like the large FW Windows 7 clean install thread.