Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

As has been noted several times in this thread, only the early runs had the Atheros card, all the later ones are using the Intel 6200.

 

Unless, of course, the replacement is a better ATI card. Who knows what rewiring Sony is doing since it changed the production line?

I smell a refresh in the air. That's the first tell-tale sign: they stop having certain cards, etc. available on the CTO site.

 

FYI -Just got off the phone with Sony. Needed to disable 'enable battery care function' in Vaio Control Center. Who knew? Working now.

 

Norton antivirus seems to be well regarded now. I have McAffee on my desktop PC and could put a licence on my F series, due to arrive today. But I can cancel the McAfee within 60 days... they took the liberty of renewing my subscription by default.

Is it worth going with Norton or is there not much difference really with McAfee ?

 

And to confirm, the i3, i5 & i7 from the CTO on the UK Sonystyle.co.uk website all allow building still with the GT-330 although they state 4-5 week lead times.

matt

 

I am going with the pre-installed Norton due to the latest reviews, especially because of the small cpu footprint. This review was especially strong:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2349865,00.asp

For my wife and my folks I have them use McAfee because it is free with the Comcast ISP connection. The small cpu footprint is not as important for them. I have been using Zone on my current PC but they have slipped in my opinion lately. But the key is to have something. The internet is just too dangerous these days.

 

McAfee at work has slowed our machines (XP build) considerably, especially the startup (we're talking to over 20 mins!) so I would recommend Norton or even AVG Free if you don't want to pay. I've had a good experience with Norton on my Windows 7 release candidate machine at home so this is what I will be buying when my 10 free days run out.

matt

 

You guys are really making me re-think about this GT330 card

Hmm what do you mean for $5-10 more? The drives cost as I posted before was $400 difference between the US and Canada site for 256GB. And I quickly checked that a 128GB SSD from a-power.com would cost about $450.

I'd wait for a refresh if there is one coming soon, but I can't wait too long as one of my old laptop is about to go anytime.

 

Yippeee ! arrived...

 

Mine has the Atheros card and I placed my order on Feb 2 and received it yesterday. Strangely, I received the start of production and shipping confirmation email on the same day so maybe my system was already partly or completely built beforehand?

What's the difference between the Atheros and Intel 6200?

I also checked Device Manager and saw that I have a Hitachi HTS725032A9A360. I ordered a 320GB 7200rpm drive. Haven't heard anything about Hitachi drives, only WD, Seagate, and Samsung. How

 

On the suggestion of a campus tech, I've started using the free Microsoft Security Essentials. As he said, it's so fast he couldn't believe it was really installed on the computer!

Any others out there using it with stories to tell? It does make sense that the developer of the OS would have an edge on making a better anti-virus, etc. package that works but then again, this is Microsoft. Experiences, anyone?

 

Let's be careful about feeding that crazy rumor machine again.

He is talking about the Sonystyle CANADA. On this site, "product no longer sold" for the GT 330M means nothing as a week ago that is what they were saying about the F. A few days later, it became available again & MelodyMaster ordered one.

So it was not a tell-tale sign of the F being retired from the market as some speculated.

I believe more in the explication below:

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".

"making me re-think about this GT330 card" - that was a suggestion to rethink your GT 310M choice for 1080p over waiting for the GT 330M or better to become once again available on the Canadian site.

Refresh or not, ATI or 330m, the point is don't get the 310M for the 1080p. Choose the less demanding 900p display or wait for a faster card for the 1080p.

No average Joe can predict the next "refresh", the manufacturers don't want to be stuck w/ the current production. Many people make a living of speculating like these thousands of posts predicting a Macbook Pro refresh to be announced w/ the tablet. Did not happened but made some good read.

 

slrosenfeld,

I am going to set the vaio back to the default profile and then try yours again and this time pay more attention to the screen so I can see what happens. In Color Management>Advanced in the Device Profile options I see Sony VAIO display profile_2283804_D65 and System default (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) Is the former the profile the VAIO came with? It's confusing because the latter says default.

Another thing I noticed when I was installing your profile was that in step 8 where you state to "uncheck the box that says "Use my settings for this device", mine was already unchecked. When I go back to the factory profile do I leave it unchecked or check it?

 

Oops sorry about the wording. I meant re-think my current order of 1080p /w 310M. Maybe I'll just call to find out what's going on with the 330M.

 

@Matt, RSCO

I am thinking of going with Norton now. If I activate it on my F11 can I use a licence on my desktop PC too ? If I can, should I put Norton on my Desktop PC before taking McAfee off or after ?

 

I agree that truly accurately predicting a refresh is nearly impossible.

For example, look at these interesting "just in time" facts from forum members: one member just ordered an F and got an Atheros card -- huh? And the Canadian site last week said the F was no longer available -- double huh?

That said, it is nevertheless true that the predecessor model of the F, the FW, went through four refreshes of the original model for a total of five configuration series, one refresh every three or so months, and a better graphics card on the very first refresh.

 

I just called VAIO and the CSR said the 330M is no longer available and won't be coming back. In fact he said it's no longer available around the world. (I'm not sure how much I should believe because in my past experience, CSRs often give different information different times you call.)

Anyway I cancelled my order for now while I think about my options -> stick with 1080p or go with the 900 screen. Has anyone here gotten the 1080p with 310M? What kind of performance issues would I see? eg. would 1080 video playback be a problem? dragging windows around? As I mentioned in an earlier post, I really don't do much video or gaming on my laptop. (I'll leave those for my PS3)

 

Would it make a difference that it is just not displaying a "Shipping Date Unknown message" when you select the 330M display option on sonystyle.ca, but that the option is actually no longer even there?

I agree that everthing is simple speculation until something is reported by Sony, so I've emailed them (can't sit on hold while I'm working) asking why the 330M is no longer an option to pick from.

 

Im about to buy the 160GB Intel X25-M G2 Solid State Hard Drive (260MB/s read, 90MB/s write, TRIM) For my Sony F, But wondering why the write speed is too slow?

Should I go with 120GB OCZ Vertex Series Solid State Drive (246MB/s read, 204MB/s write, TRIM) with saving me $50?

 

Dimensions:
Product Height 1.6"
Product Width 15.3"
Product Depth 10.4"

Does this laptop fit into standard laptop bags? Most bags say they fit Laptops up to 15". Or do I have to get a bigger bag. I dont have my F11 yet so I can't find out on my own.

 

A few minutes ago, I called my local Sony Style store to ask if they had in stock an F series Vaio laptop with a Blu-ray burner. He said that they didn't have any at this time. I asked when they might get some in. He replied that "there is a problem" with these laptops and "Sony is trying to fix them" and that they will get a shipment in as soon as Sony has fixed the problem.

So I asked, "Is this the problem with the noise? The fan noise?"

He said, "Yes, I think so."

I asked, "Would you like to notify me when they come in, or should I just keep calling?"

He answered, "Probably the best thing is to keep checking the website. As soon as they appear on the website, we will have them here."

So I thanked him and said goodbye.

So, it sounded as if he wasn't perfectly sure about the situation. Maybe he was just making an educated guess, based on the what he is hearing from customers and what he is reading online.

I'd really like to buy one of these F11 laptops, with all the trimmings, but the noise issue is stopping me. One of the uses I have in mind for the laptop is to record myself playing some classical guitar, so the machine needs to be very *quiet.*

 

Don't hold your breath while waiting for a reply. This is what I got when asking about the display gamut coverage of the USA 1080p:

And they did not know anything on the phone either.

 

Well a powerful Core i7 DTR w/ cooling needs next to you is not the best option in that case.

Unless you have a very long mic cable.

Check Sheepb's db measurements compared to the Dell 1747 also w/ i7. He used this app on his iPhone from a 15cm distance: Decibel.

Again: OK, lucky owners of both F & iPhone, we are looking forward to your noise emission data.

 

The F is wider (15.3") than most 15" laptops. I am expecting mine sometime today and plan next week to go down to the Micro Center in Denver. They have a large selection of sleves and the local BB had nothing that fit well.

 

I don't know. I think the Norton preinstalled on the F is a single machine license, but I'm not sure. They may offer a multi-machine license though. You should probably do your research before signing up.

 

Yes, since Norton 2009 the resource footprint is much smaller than before.

Before un-installing the Norton trial, one may check the Norton's CPU and memory usage panels & memory usage in Windows Task Manager. Screen grabs from this page:





Clearly they made quite an effort in view of all the bashing they got about being a resource hog, that's why they now include these usage monitoring tools to show-off their better efficiency & respond to critics.

They count on guys like me posting screen grabs to help restore their reputation. I should get a free 5 years subscription.

 

what is wrong with the 310M graphics?

If your not a gamer and u want the high resolution they are perfect ... probably drains less power than the 330gt .

 

Nothing wrong, just half the memory & less processing power, check links in: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5863140&postcount=3331

Good for 900p, struggles w/ 1080p. Small car, small engine, big car...

 

Do you think Vaio FW would be a better choice than F for less heating and fan noise ?

 

The guy who got his F laptop w/ a different wifi card, did he order in the US site or the UK one?
I don't think anyone in the US has the F w/ the Intel 6000 series, just the Atheros.

My laptop is stucked in San Diego, CA since Feb 8th, stupid snow day is gonna delay the shipping. But I don't have school today...

 

Yes, "Sony VAIO display profile_2283804_D65" is the screen profile that the Vaio F came with and the one that you'd want to restore in the default setting, if you want that available to other users. If it's listing "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" as the default, it may be that you didn't get my profile installed correctly--on my computer, when I go to the advanced tab in Color Mangagement, my profile is listed as the default device profile.

It depends what you're trying to do. If you're trying to leave the default Sony profile available to other users, but have my custom profile active when you're the user, then what you want to do is restore the Sony profile as the default under advanced/change system defaults, but on the first screen in color management, install my profile, and check the box "Use my settings for this device". If you always want the same profile to be used regardless of the user, the safest thing to do is to install that profile as the system default, and on the first screen where you have the option "Use my settings" If you do it this way, if won't make a difference whether the "use my settings" box is checked or not, the same profile will always be in place for you or other users, unless another user changes the settings for themselves.

 

It's so much more easier & rewarding to simply plug a colorimeter and lay back while your monitor gets perfectly calibrated.

Otherwise, if using your guessometer to adjust colors, you will never know if what you see on your display corresponds to the colors I intended to show in my image below.

As slrosenfeld & I pointed out previously, using somebody else profile will never guarantee true colors because of the hardware variations even if the parts # of the GPU & display are the same and that's not talking about the lighting in your working environment which a colorimeter will adjust to.

Monitor Calibration: Who needs it?

 

I've used quite a few anitvirus software and I am currently running Security Essentials as well. Microsoft for security- I know it sounds like a oxymoron, however, all indications are this is a decent piece of software. Note: it turns off Defender- I assume it duplicates its actions. NOD32 for $50 a year is my pick for paid. AVG without linkscanner as well. Any kind of website scanner i.e. the teatimer in Search and Destroy or linkscanner in AVG really uses memory, and I would not recommend unless you really get into down and dirty web surfing. Avast will expire and Avira has a pop up.

 

In WinDVD (both basic and pro) if you right click on the screen while the program's open, you get a drop down menu, and "setup" is one of the choices. If you then go to Audio/Video, you get some choices related to audio out, with the ability to bypass the WinDVD software, and send the output directly to the receiver. If the DVD or BluRay sound is 5.1 Dolby Digital, that's what your audio out should send to the receiver. I think this should work with the HDMI cable. If not, there's also the option of auxiliary audio out, using the headphone/optical audio, and you should be able to get the original audio signal to your receiver that way. If that works, then you could get an HDMI to DMI adapter to separate the video from the audio to your receiver. Hope this works. I'm not an audio/video expert by any means--I've just been poking around through all these menus, so I remember seeing stuff.

 

That may be a good combo but for the non-geek, simply using the Norton Internet Security 2010 pre-installed will cover all bases.

Microsoft is big enough, I want guys like Symantec to continue pushing the envelope.

 

Struggling with what type of tasks though? If it's so bad that I can't watch a smooth running 1080p video, then i'd perhaps go back to the 900p.

 

Thanks. I definitely installed your profile as per your instructions as next to Device profile it shows Spyder_laptop. The two that I mentioned, Sony VAIO display profile_22... and sRGB... where just other profiles that were available. As far as installing the default profile, do I follow your steps in reverse or do I start over, substituting the Sony VAIO display profile for the Sypder and then restoring the check/uncheck boxes back to what they were at default.?

I should have left the factory default profile for a while and checked various sites before installing your profile. I will most likely purchase Spyder Express sometime soon and calibrate myself, thus ensuring the best results, but $70 is a little hard to swallow, psychologically, after investing so much on the F. Time will ease that feeling... I hope.

 

Please reply to this question asked previously: "Right now I'm using a LG notebook with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT /w 512MB (note: similar to 310M) and it is good enough for what I do" - but how many pixels does that screen has? What is the native resolution?

1080p: 1920x1080 pixels = 2.073.600 pixels

So if you scale-up the number of pixels on your new display but keep a card with very similar processing power, what do you think will happen? It's the GPU that tells to those pixels what to do.

Recaps on a Ferrari: get better tires or don't buy the Ferrari. :smile:

 

But you can also calibrate your friends & family monitors with it, the smile on their face is rewarding & mitigates the $70-90.

After all, a lot of your notebook or computer experience is through the monitor, better & more accurate colors is quite enjoyable. Besides, you can also use-it on your next computer & they re-sell for a quite good price on eBay. The ownership cost vs. value is quite good, all things considered IMHO.

 

There is one little thing we should get straight concerning the 310 versus 330, they both have the same performance in 2D, and all Bluray watching etc. is done in 2D, just basic enhanced VESA. I have a very low end ATI 3450 or some such in my Shuttle system, it's even just passively cooled, yet it barely has to put in any effort to play BluRay on the LG 1920 X 1200 monitor while also feeding desktop to the second 1920 X 1200 BenQ. The reason for a faster card is for any (in the case of Nvidia) Cuda rendering or applications using PhysX, or any games one MAY want to play, they all use the 3D aspects such as Shaders. When one talks about using the GPU for calculating one is referring to the 3D circuitry. The 310 is fine for all 2D applications, moving windows about, and playing any sort of video.

3D IS used for hardware codec rendering, so that affects performance on HD, and Aero, but the 310 is still more than enough.

If I HAVE to be stuck with an Nvidia, it had better be as good as possible, but I'd still prefer ANY ATI card.

My order, which went into Build straightaway, is now delayed. I may cancel and wait to see what shakes out.

 

I've been using it for a while on 2 laptops and 2 desktops. I used to run AVG Free and I installed MSE and it found items that AVG continued to pass over. It is very light weight. However, the full scan take longer than AVG and the sometimes scanning archived files take a bit long. Overall I am happy with it and will continue to use on all my machines.

 

1680x1050 = 1.764 million pix. So basically 17.6% increase in pixel count for the 1080p.

I understand that asking the same gpu to process more pixel will degrade performance. However, I'm still wondering, in qualitative / practical terms, what it means for my daily tasks, movie watching, etc.

 

You are correct, Microsoft Security Essentials is designed to disable Windows Defender in order to manage the PC’s real-time protection, including anti-virus, rootkits, Trojans and spyware.

 

So comparing w/ what you have @ the present, with the 1080p + 310M you may be 17.6% less satisfied with the performance & happier with the high definition.

The point is why bottleneck the powerful i7 w/ 4-6 gb of memory with a slow card? Might as well get a slower computer or a better card.

 

Just an update on my laptop, I received my "repaired" F1190S yesterday. I am still experiencing the fan whistle. Just want to make a note that nobody should panick or anything as I believe that the sound I hear is NOT the same as others are reporting (the buzz/morse code sound).

I have been in contact with several diff people today and have been advised to send in the laptop to be repaired (again). I am trying to find out if it's possible for me to return it. As I feel that perhaps mine was just an unlucky lemon. (It also came back with a squeaky space bar - I am positive it did not have the squeak before). As it was a CTO there is only a 15 day return window.

To all others who have a quiet laptop, hope you enjoy it fully as it is a gorgeous piece of machinery. Unfortunately the 330M is not available for puchase on SS.ca so I will not be re-ordering at this time

Will keep u posted when I hear word on what I am advised to do next.

 

I think you have nothing to loose (except your time) to-resend for repair, making-it clear about the fan & squeak with a friendly letter taped to the laptop.

Check, but I think your 15 days return window would be extended because of the servicing. Surely beats canceling & going back at the end of the queue if you decide to order again.

I'll bet they will be extra careful repairing it if it's sent for a second time!

 

A new project has opened up to try and get Linux supporting all of the F series features. Head on over and contribute to:

http://code.google.com/p/vaio-f11-linux/

 

No premium black version in US yet?

 

Hi Derrida,

Just to keep you updated on this, I spoke with the tech today though due to some schedule conflicts I have, he's not coming out until 2/20 so I will update you then with the details of the fix. He's also replacing the fan while he's here to kill two birds with one stone.

 

Just bought an Intel X25-M 160GB SSD, my F should arrive tomorrow (supposed to be today, but the snowstorm prevented it).

What external enclosures do you guys recommend for the (Hitachi) 500GB 7200RPM HDD?