Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

Thanks.

Can I configure F series to order from the sony US website now. What are the chances that I'll escape the problem ? And also please look at my previous question also, if you could answer that.

 

Those specs with both video cards coming with premium displays the 310 and 330m on the canadian site both come with the 1920*1080 screens, both are premium displays, difference are the cards.

If your not a gamer would it made a difference?

 

True, I agree. Your suggestion is certainly straining my discipline to hold on a bit longer, until the Z breaks cover.

 

I would try to make the system as future-proof as possible. And the GPU can be used for rendering, and such programs as Folding@Home.

 

I just can't understand the anal fixation about the whining thing in this forum.

So what: a notebook is "broken" if it needs to have the mic muted and the "listen to this device" selected to eliminate a whining noise (easy fix described and illustrated here) but would be "permanently fixed" if you could have the mic always on for no reasons even when you are not needing the mic???

I have a 1998 Acer laptop that my 8 years old is using at the present and the mic has been muted since 12 years when not needed because of unwanted audio feedback.

I do the same on a Dell desktop because the speakers were chirping once in a while due to the mic picking-up sounds. It's 7 years old, has been in use in an office at least 6 days a week non-stop and it's not broken.

I see no point about having a mic always on and sending useless signals to the sound mixer.

If it's a deal-breaker for you to have 2 boxes selected on the "microphone properties" panel then maybe you should wait to see if Sony will fix-it or get an other brand.

Acer & Dell never did in the two example mentioned above... and I am glad I got the bleeding edge Acer Travelmate 602TER as it was the lightest & most compact in it's class at the time with a 13" screen, weighing 5 lbs w/ 3 hours of battery life.

 

As mentioned above a bit more emotionally by Joe Bleau, the "problem" seems to be blown out of all proportion. You do a couple of minor steps on the menu, and the "problem" vanishes. As it stands, none of the later units seem to have this "issue" and I guess Sony has just been applying some kind of a minor firmware patch before shipping them out (I am guessing here).

As it stands, I don't think there is anything - anything - in the F-series that should be a cause for concern, for someone who intends to keep his/her laptop for a long while. I personally buy a laptop and keep it around for several years. Hope this helps you with your decision.

 

Indeed, it has been blown out of proportions. But it is understandable that people are reluctant to buy something new that has a known problem (and it IS a problem, even if it has a temporary fix).

The best way to address this is to have the information in the first page/as a sticky, so that people don't keep continuously asking about it.

 

1+. Thank's for that. With physx enabled Crysis became playable (20 fps, full HD resolution, all settings on High). Who knows when I would have figured that out on my own.

 

Nobody reads sticky's.

In fact it's a permanent fix in the sense that it fixes the problem for ever but you can un-mute the mic anytime when needed. If Sony ever post a patch, good, if not who cares?

All the pluses of this laptop and excellent price point overwhelms 1,000 to 1 this minor need to apply a simple workaround.

Besides several North Americans and all EU users reported here that theirs did not whine nor needed to apply the simple fix.

 

So, is there any other "bloatware" removed w/ the "Fresh Start" option?

 

Can any US photographers report on the performance of the F's full HD display in terms of the colorspace? It sure would be nice if Sony told us how much of the RGB gamut it covers. I can only assume it doesn't have the coverage of the European matte display. But if I go ahead and buy this initial version of the F, will I be disappointed in the color accuracy of what I see on even a calibrated screen? I realize that an external monitor is the best tool, but I'd like to be able to do as much as I can completely on the laptop, since I'm often not using it in an office.

 

Check slrosenfeld's posts, he is a photographer, his posts are informative & links to several calibrated screen photos he took of his F in this post.

Everybody who calibrated their F display with a colorimeter reported excellent results so far, superior to the default Sony monitor profile.

@ slrosenfeld: you mentioned that you have the Spyder3elite, does-it give you data about the % of sRGB and Adobe RGB coverage of your f display?

BTW there is a bunch of free GretagMacbeth ColorChecker images here.

 

In Europe (the Netherlands) the i5 is configurable with the 330M. i am still not shure if the matte or glossy screen goes with that! Does anyone know this?

Grtz Jan

 

Are there any coupons for this F series laptop (buying at the sonystyle online store) ?

 

Not yet but I think probably not matte, but I am getting one for my wife so should know middle of the month when it will be out. It is a prebuild F11 with i5 and 330M and is the (VPC)F11M1E/H from Play.

I am also getting the VPCF11X5E with i7 below for myself so should be able to make comparisons.

 

not really leather, should be gummy or something.

as melody told there are but...

sadly I have to repost a first Italian users having it but we are having only really small numbers till now actually is one having it out of only four people with the laptop.

still they're all really happy and not so annoyed for it since there is the 'not so temporary' fix that does it just fine

as told up there there seem to be some, for the really first bunch of delievered, today another 5 or so are expected to arrive and we'll see.

btw also i5 are coming, really curious about those


ops I almost forgot, they're also getting the intel 6200 wireless card!! and that's a goood new (dual channel 2.4 and 5 ghz)

 

I was referring to EU users in THIS forum. Some people confuse the fan noise with the mic whining thing so if you are reporting parts of comments by users on other forums translated by you, that becomes less & less reliable...

 

nope, I'm talking about informed users that follow also this tread and have access to all the information here as You may have noticed I often post news and photos taken from this italian relyable forum* and do the same there so that both them and (possibly) us are updated with the last informations available.


*widely known in Italy since 2000 for beeing the most ralyable portal and forum on the matter, just to understand, it's not me you and a friend but I'm talking of a community of 359286 registered users checked now

 

There is some discussion in this thread... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=453755&page=95 regarding overclocking the GT 330M...

Sounds like good news!
How do you overclock the GPU though?

matt

 

@m_vikram_1987

what gives you the idea it's out of stock? If it was the Feb. 8th estimated ship date, well that's standard.
I can't confirm this due to other people's geographical location but the ship dates for the FW I bought in December and the F in early January actually arrived on my doorstep on their estimated ship date. They actually get shipped earlier in my experiences with SonyStyle. From San Diego to NYC.

That said, I bought a new F a few days ago and the phone rep told me that my new unit is arriving at the 8th but most likely delivered on the 9th since Fedex 'home delivery' does not deliver on Mondays.

My first F had no whine or excessive fan noise. If there truly were, it never bothered me. I ran autocad on it and the fans kicked in once in a while. I didn't run any games on it though apart from chess.

edit: Fyi just to get an idea of my fans kicking in once in a while, the cad file I was working on had 2 vector topographical maps with contours and symbols that were determined over a two mile radius plus 5 xrefed low-res photos in addition to my building drawings. The file size went around 25mb. It's running smooth!! and the 8gb ram helps a lot.

 

any back pack bag suggestion for F series?

I saw this one not sure if this is good

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...1&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&productId=1002915

 

Nice! Keep us updated plz

Grtz Jan

 

@xpsboy

i like the Booqs in general but for messenger bag, I bougt the Alchemy Goods messenger bag. The thread on my past Sony bags tend to unravel under a years time. I dont' know about their leather bags though..

 

No loss of Sony Software that I have come across yet.

 

I like these...

http://www.targus.com/uk/cases_notebook_backpacks.asp

and...

http://swissgearbackpack.org/Swiss-Gear-Laptop-Backpack.html

matt

 

Guide: How to overclock NVidia GT2xx and GT3xx

 

Cheers for that - but what are the dangers/limitations of overclocking our GPU?

 

Read the guide, follow the FurMark link.

BTW the GT 330m is ranked #51 in this Laptop Video Graphics Cards - Benchmark List, not too exciting for gamers.

 

I was after something more like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking#Disadvantages

 

I have experienced NO problems of any kind. To include NO noise, NO excessive fan and NO screen isues (I used the spyder config and even still use the auto brightness). The only "issue" I have is the throttling on battery, which everyone will have.

Bottom line: I love this laptop, and I got the preconfigued BestBuy version.

 

Hence the FurMark for testing & monitoring temp.

 

Same here!

 

I also have a Bestbuy preconfig model. I also LOVE this laptop so far.

I had the whining noise and its gone away by applying the fix mentioned in this thread.

I played Fallout 3 for hours... fan gets loud but the laptop remains cool (just a little warm at left palm rest).

Played Crysis Maximum edition, same results. Just use a headphone to ignore the high fan noise

 

Hi guys, i'm from the UK. I assume the Bestbuy one you US peeps are referring to is: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+...lack/9705382.p?id=1218154378383&skuId=9705382

Spec-wise it looks just like what we get over here in UK. How are you finding the 5400RPM hard drive?

I don't know if i should get a pre-configured machine with 5400RPM HD or a custom built machine with 7200RPM.

How much difference does the slower hard drive make to the rest of the system. Just seems a bit weird that Sony decided to use a slower HD when all other parts are super-fast.

Any comments?

 

Anyone overclocking their gpu's here? If so, what are you at and how are your results?

I'm at 650/800/1550 and my max temp has been 70.

 

I'm gonna mess with overclocking tonight. I've never done it, so I'll read up on it and follow that guide a few pages back someone posted.

What's considered danger zone on terms of heat?

 

Hi. Just simple question, if i buy the vaio and want to change the HDD with a 3.5" WD 1TB HDD will it cause any problems? And is the 820QM woth getting for 300$ more?
THx

 

what i wanna find out is if the fan problem has been fixed. other person's have stated that the fan is constantly on if when just browsing or pretty much doing normal task.

 

Take what I say with a grain of salt because I'm new too.

I used Nvidia system tools - seems to be the easiest/safest way. It even lets you create profiles so you can overclock in certain games and go back to normal after (I currently am oc'd all the time).

As far as temps go - it seems to depend on card/system, but I would say anything under 80 is good.

 

Fan is not on when I am just browsing or watching youtube videos.

But for Games its a different story
The air which comes out is really hot.... helps me in this freeezing weather (near NYC).

 

I don't recall them making them that big yet for laptops. Last I checked it was 600 something gb.

 

that sounds like its gonna be a prob cause i have a dell inspiron 510m and the only time the fan turns on is if i'm doing like converting video or so. i live all the way in jamaica and to ship the laptop to jamaica is alot more than to ship it back wen it starts giving problems so i wanna be sure.

 

just had my email telling me my F11 is being built. should arrive at the end of the week, fingers crossed.

i hope the euro one's are good. as i have taken a chance after reading everyones views.
going with gut feeling.

 

Sounds good

Thanks, i'll make sure i read up on it well before I attack.

I'm not gonna be playing anything TOO intensive, Fallout 3,Oblivion, Mass Effect 1 and 2, maybe Fable 1 and 2.

 

Hi all,

New on this forum/thread and I'm considering buying one of these F's. I was looking at sonystyle US vs Canada. It looks as though they are pretty much the same other than a few minor configuration options. Any significant differences that I missed?

I generally don't like to get first models anything (computers, phones, cars) because typically, a lot of production / issues found in the field will be fixed from the 2nd gen models on. Any idea when that's going to be for F? June 2010? (I used to be a test engineer for VAIO, but that was 10 years ago...)

 

Well you will need a chisel and a hammer if you want to fit a 3.5" desktop drive in the 2.5" drive bay of the laptop.

 

I got that e-mail on Saturday but haven't received the dispatched to logistics center e-mail yet

The rep on the phone said it generally takes 3 days from Japan to reach the logistics center in the Netherlands once it's been dispatched, and then a further 2 to get to my door in London (with express shipping). Doubtful it will be here by weeks end, but hopefully early next.

 

So how is the Fallout 3 on this machine? Is it playable on full HD with good details?

 

Fan is on for me always, but not noisy when just browsing, but watching a HD movie the fan kicks in and is quiet loud for my sensitive ears, a little too much for my taste, I must admit, still considering returning it

 

Has anyone noticed that the LED on the F's power brick flickers in intensity? I just bought a Canadian retail vesion F111FDB. It uses the Vaio AW power brick, and I have determined that the LED flicker coincides with hard disk activity. It brightens with increased current draw.