Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

That's a great tip ilfuca, thanks!

I will add this important tip to this Sony Support Clean Install Instructions for Windows 7 post.
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Because you get much better equipment on the XPS. Those are the two systems I actually have. Currently the F, and just ordered the XPS. Exact to those order specs.

 

Ummm...My MACBook Pro I had, which had the glossy screen, was good at all angles vs the Sony F screen glossy. If Matte is worse like you say, then ouch. Either way, my 5 year old Dell 2405FPW home monitor can be viewed at all angles without any issues, but this new Sony F is terrible!

 

I don't care about the XPS, I expect feedback, questions & tips from F owners in the Official_Sony_VAIO_F Series Owners lounge.

Why not post your F vs. XPS comments in the What Notebook Should I Buy forum?

Or post back F vs. XPS comments after using the XPS a few days?

You said once that you are returning your F for a XPS and explained your reasons, that's fine. Now please, let's move on.

 

Still no final answer.

It's waiting at Sony. The rep knows it's strongly not what I want and is trying to sort it out, and I wouldn't be paying for anything it doesn't have.. Otherwise I'd just go and pick it up. Ironically doing the strict corporate online ship to and defective return route, as most CTO buyers here have, wouldn't have allowed the GT330 to drop from my order. But I was going the "assured" and somewhat cheaper route.

Just for the record, although I have researched the XPS 16 and Asus G51JX-A1, it is incredibly obvious that the F11 is the best deal - ESPECIALLY if you add in an SSD drive, Bluray burner, Windows Pro, and software such as Adobe. Nothing else on the market comes even close. The Dell may have RGB screens (if you can find them) but the Sony has much lower cost options and upgrades and bundle deals.

 

How about quit being a F fanboi and be open minded. I have owned the F for long enough to figure out what the issues are with it. And you won't admit it has a sucky screen. I letting the owners know before they make the same mistake I did.

 

That would totally prevent a custom profile created with a colorimeter from kicking-in. Not good IMHO.

Dry Creek Photo: Monitor Calibration and Profiling: if you can not trust the colors displayed on your monitor, all other color management is a waste of time".

 

Miċel wīsdōm hath thee.

On the other hand you say to wrap it up NOW. But you're right, I'm not on the hook and my options are still open. I was actually told - and posted early in this thread, that the F11 was "getting an early refresh."

 

Ok, wait for the XPS, use it a little bit & your hands-on comparison will be greatly appreciated, I'm sure!

You can comment at will about the F's screen & other stuff here, no problem, but theoretical XPS advantages is for a What Notebook Should I Buy? forum, IMHO.

What if a bunch of owners of different brands of laptop jump in this thread and start telling us how their machines are better than the F?

Hands-on comparisons like the Count's, are fine with me.

 

Yeah, but now your starting to sound like a Dell fanboy and I promise you there ain't no future down that path. Wait till you have a problem. My SR crashed during a BIOS download. Two business days later (today) a tech came out and replaced the motherboard. Good as new. Stories about Dell quality and customer service have scared me away. Besides Joe is right this is an F series discussion thread and we all have certain expectations as to what we'll find here.

 

Hello again,

Is LightScribe software, hardware, or both? Their website is very
confusing to me. I haven't received my F11 yet, but I wondered if
LightScribe was feasible. Any comments?

Mark

 

OK, I'm a bit confused on how to go about doing this. I downloaded the Sony Extractor, popped in Recovery Disc 1, clicked archive to open, searched for *.mov, sorted by file size, clicked on it and chose extract to directory (on my external). It says extraction a success, but no files anywhere??

I'm doing something wrong, just can't figure out what it is.

Joe, thanks for the pm...i missed the post

Trying agian, but this type I just opened the blu-ray and am copying all the mod files to my external...then running the extractor.

 

Both & you also need the proper blank media:

http://www.lightscribe.com/gettingstarted/index.aspx?id=87

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightScribe

 

I got it in the mail today

Popped in my original harddrive, tried using 3 or 4 of the key finder programs Joe linked me too, but all of them just found my Windows key and my Microsoft Office key.

Reformatted the hdd and am back in business. Works like a charm and is powered only by the esata/usb cable. It is a very thick cable though...I'll edit in some pictures tonight

 

No Lightscribe on the VAIO. You have to get a Dell for that (Duck!!)

One can get an aftermarket optical drive.

 

Yah, I don't think we shop by negatives, but rather by what we WANT. If one were to go after the fewest apparent negatives then I guess Asus would win..unless one considers that their supposedly wonderful warranty is difficult to put in PRACTICE when you want to make a claim.

Every brand has negatives.. I really want to get that XPS16, but I know I'd regret it if, a day after the return window expires, I get a phone call from the Sony rep saying "hey I found the F11 with GT330 and SSD that you wanted .. and it's a refurb so $500 off....." See? It's not the money, but I really want a VAIO rather than anything else.

 

Have you seen ilfuca's post about getting back WinDVD & other stuff with Sonyextractor? Beats the key finder utilities in your case: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=448894&page=410

BTW some key finder will find other stuff besides Microsoft. Which one did you use?

 

I did try that post....I'm doing something wrong I posted a couple above the one u just quoted

I tried Magic Jelly Bean, WinKeyFinder, and KeyFinder thing...and all 3 jsut popped up the 2 items.

 

Threads in Forum : Dell XPS and Studio XPS.

 

I'm not sure I buy this argument. For one thing, three screens are available in Europe: a 1600x900, a regular FullHD, and a Premium FullHD with Adobe RGB.

Americans LOVE choices and personalization possibilities -- and matte screens have their followers. Sure, maybe you wouldn't find a matte screen necessary for your BB entertainment lines, but for CTO, sure.

No, this must have something to do with the competition and with the supply chain. And possibly with the wiring on the two continents: remember that the backlit keyboard is not on the European models. Something about the premium screen and the light sensor perhaps?

Anyway, that's my take on it, having myself had a matte screened laptop for four years. I see the trade-offs of each screen and they do relate in many ways to differing contrast needs, etc. for different purposes. BTW refresh rates are important to persons with visual problems -- something most manufacturers seem to never consider as a factor in their offerings.

 

Got it. Still not totally used to Windows 7 running everything as an Administrator


I don't know if it's the same for everyone or not, but winDVD is MODJ-158737 and roxio is MODJ-158700.

Woot! Testin with Hangover now...

 

You forgot to say thanks to ilfuca who saved you some $$$.

Oups, saw that you just did, posting timing I guess.

 

I have another update. I had to go to Massachusetts today and my wife was off plus the kids were away for the day so she came with me for the ride. There is a SonyStyle store about an hour from us along the way (among several other retailers she mentioned a desire to stop at) so I called them beforehand and spoke to a tech. I gave the tech the brief summary of the issue and asked her if I could have it repaired there rather than ship it to San Diego, hoping that it would be something that may take an hour or two and we could pick it up on the way home. She said "oh you have one with the noise...is it pre-configured or custom?" I told her it was pre-configured. She asked me for the exact model number and told me they had some in stock. She said rather than repair this one, since I was still inside the 30-day return period and had a pre-configured model, she could just swap the hard drive for me and send the old one back to Sony. So that's what we did. She also called Sony and re-registered the new serial number for us as well. A great example of customer service in my book.

She wanted to make sure we were happy before leaving so we fired up the new one and made sure everything was working fine. No mic noise. I also checked for dead/stuck pixels and didn't find any. She said the mic noise was caused by a shielding or solder issue (she wasn't positive as to the exact cause) but she said all of the units that were built after the fix was applied have a round green sticker applied to the label on the side of the box, as our new one does.

Another thing to note which I found interesting when I saw this...With the old unit, when I was sitting off to the side of the screen (about a 45 degree angle or greater) the display looked sort of like a photographic negative (sorry, best way I can think of to explain it.) With the new one, the display looks the same off to the side as they do when sitting directly in front. No weird skew in the color, contrast, whatever. To my knowledge, it's the same type of monitor (US FullHD).

Finally, I think someone mentioned awhile back about the first run getting Atheros wireless cards then they were switched to Intel. Our new unit has an Atheros card. For reference, my old serial number was in the 700's. This one is in the 8000's with a "manufactured" date of Feb 2010. I don't remember the manufacture date of the old one.

 

No, don't "wrap it up NOW." Try to get assurances from someone up the management food chain that someone will be assigned to help you with the refresh order (once it appears, of course) and that there will be a reward for your patience in the face of the multiple failed equipment and failed promises so far -- the major inconveniences to you.

In other words, start NOW to negotiate your discount on the model you DO end up ordering. See?

The usual sales rep has 1) no authority to exceed usual parameters, and 2) no incentive to do so because it comes out of commission in the end.

A customer service rep designated by management (that's how they usually handle their "fan" email -- it gets shifted to a customer service rep who is told to "make you happy" or at least "happier") can then talk with you about what the future can bring.

Suggestion: ask for options where the savings to you are actually higher than they are in cost to Sony.

So, find a nice Sony Canada VP for customer service to email while you're waiting ;-).

 

U don't know how happy I am right now.

Power Over eSATA Enclosure Feedback


The enclosure can be purchased here:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-2521B

Pictures of enclosure as promised.



The cable is approximately 2 feet long.



The rest of the box. A small screwdriver, multi USB connector (mini-usb into enclosure/USB plugs into 2 slots for power and data transfer) and a nice little bag to store the enclosure in. Also came with screws but they are installed already and a drivers cd for Windows XP.

I, personally am using the hybrid esata/usb port that was discussed in this thread here:


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5884369&postcount=3768

 

Great story & thanks for the round green sticker tip!





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To be quite certain, I don't see the screen related hoo-hah that you seem to be so intent on pointing out. Yes, it is a glossy Full-HD screen, with all the baggage that comes with its glossy nature, but other than that, the F-series screen is a good screen. I truly wish they had introduced the EU "premium" Full-HD Adobe RGB screen in the North American market too, but unfortunately they did not. Tough luck. The laptop is a great product otherwise and even more importantly, it is a Vaio (and not a Dell or an HP or a Lenovo or any of those other iffy products), which is an important point in its favor.

Bottomline, your carping arguments against the F-series, inside the F-series owners' lounge, is getting a bit tiring. You have been asked several times by several forum participants, to stop the tirade and suggest you do so.

 

Sony F is far from a good screen when you compare it to other laptops. I have a cheap Lenovo S400 for my work machine, and that thing has a LED screen which is BETTER than the Sony by a long shot and viewable from all angles. Pretty sad. Stopping won't happen as I owned and still own the F and it has a major problem with the screen. So I am talking about it. If you don't like it, you know where the door is.

 

Seriously folks, stop arguing about politics, and about what to argue about. If you want to make a comparison, that's fine. But don't make the same comparison 20 times, don't argue about how another brand is better and don't fight about right absurd things.

The most important thing we are all here for is information. So if you want to share information that is unflattering to the Sony Vaio F Series, by all means feel free to. That's only fair, that's what many people, myself included, are here for. To see the good and the bad. But please, keep it all in the spirit of information sharing.
We come here to offer our opinions, experiences and knowledge about a single, yet broad subject. So I ask you all, my peers: Will you follow that ideal?

 

This maybe a boring video but look at this Sager NP8690 with it's LED screen. That is the angles I am talking about you can't even come close too on the Sony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkWx899qY2I

 

Exactly. Deal.

 

I tried all that in Best Buy. The screen still looked washed out. I now type on a HP Envy 15 with an amazing screen. It rivals that of my old unibody MacBook Pro 15. The Envy does get just a little warm, but not as warm as my old MacBook Pro. I hope Sony refreshes the Vaio F with a better screen with LED. I guess we will see in a few months.

 

Did you figure out your Decibel app on the Android?

From this Review Son*y Vai*o VPC-F11Z1:



(* added because of the automatic Coupon link parsing cr@p done by notebookreview breaking the links )

 

Mine has a round YELLOW sticker and has all the fixes (whining noise, screen profile). Maybe it's different because it's a CTO.

 

Mine has no stickers at all, so i guess my one has all the problems.

 

Since Sony has made those fixes, and is shipping out the F Series with the fixes, does that mean that they will take care of the laptops of the owners who bought them before the fixes were made? I guess I'm wondering if anyone has been able to get their buzzing noise fixed. I'll probably just call Sony about it, since I also have the warranty, so I probably don't have to worry about paying for a fix.

 

Personally, I don't care about the sticker as long as it's not this one:



But for somebody buying in a store, that's a good thing to check.

I guess you did not waitwaitwait long enough after the product launch. That's why it's called the bleeding edge.

Note that the the easy DIY mic whining fixes still work meanwhile: STP12's easy fix and Fix #2.

 

Incidentally, the green/yellow stickers could be an indication of the "early Refresh" I mentioned. So far everything else I'd been told has come to pass.

 

Mine has a yellow sticker as well. It's a CTO ordered on Jan 28 and shipped on Feb 5. Strangely, I received both the start of construction and shipping confirmation on Feb 5, despite the email stating that it takes 5-7 days to build.

 

Simply means it's already built. It's best to make the most pessimistic estimate of time.

So does yours have any problems?

 

Mine had a yellow sticker, by the way, it was also a CTO but I still had the mic issue and I think the screen may be okay but not sure. Other than that, it's a great lappy.

 

I am still trying to decide whether I should order the F series, and I was trying to read all 415 pages of this forum, figured it would help me decide. But by the time I got to Page 85, I'm too tired to go on =) Too much to read!! Basically I've read about the "whining" noise, the temporary fix by changing the mic setting, and the throttle problem when running on battery. Is there anything else important I've missed from the next 330 pages I skipped? For example, I read from sonyinsider.com that Sony actually stopped selling the F series briefly at the end of Jan so they could investigate the cause of the whining noise. Does that mean they have fixed it? So if I order now it should not have that problem? Thanks.

 

Anyone know what the current lead time is in the UK? Mines been on order since 10/2 and has been "In Production" since 14/2.

 

I think you will find they are available in the UK shops now..

 

Shall I type the full guide i mentioned earlier? Or shall we make a new topic out of it?

I wasn't considering the best one or dell vs sony or anything else, only I disagreed in Your statement that the dell was cheaper that really didn't seemed to me

In any case I hope You're gonna be happy with Your as I'm with mine

Right click on sonyextractor and run it as administrator


(my fault I haven't told You )

I have a doubt, can You boot from it? I mean from the external drive?

gald You done it, Im sorry that I couldn't tell You before but I do sleep* sometimes

*I'm in Italy so I write/read during different daytimes

thanks for the rep

 

Since I've proven time and again that I'm an idiot, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I've only JUST discovered the "rep" system..

My thanks and appreciation to all those who have given me points..

And my apologes to those to whom I should have been giving points.

(somebody designed these smilies, gotta use them I guess.. :wub: :rolleyes2: :tongue: :SLEEP:

.. Steve ..

 

I don't have my F11 yet (hopefully ships next week), but i am looking forward to your guide.

 

You actually CAN boot from it. I was booting from it externally trying to use a keyfinder to locate my key. That didn't work.


Thanks again for that Sony Extractor program. Worked like a charm.

 

Interestingly, My Father was best friends with the corporate vice-president in charge of marketing and distribution, Mel Chan, and I used to go right into the back stock area at Gordon Baker, pick up something, and wait for an invoice before mailing in a cheque. I also got a lot of freebies in discontinued parts, and got VCRs etc.for half retail price. And I would drop by the service areas (since I'm an electronic technician myself.) Unfortunately my Father is long deceased, and Mr. Chan is no longer at Sony, (much to many employees' delight) and I know no-one there, nor have access to internal phone numbers.

I work as IT manager for two small companies, and make computer buying decsions for a third..and I've been a Sony fan for most of my life (most electronics I buy is Sony) I'm REALLY not the type of customer that Sony Sales wants to make angry or frustrated.... (Site filters removed what I really just wrote.)

 

I rather enjoy the screen now and the angles are far more forgiving than the last F11 I Had. Eventhough the pics i'm posting are not examples for comparison, it'll give some idea that the screen is not all bad. Actually the viewing angles are GREAT when viewing things under a white or light background though not so great (over-contrasting) when looking at darker colors but that's viewing the screen at angles which are quite extreme..but hey you're supposed to look at the screen dead-on right? not over-and-under up-and-around etc.

The straight shot showing the circus freak with feathers shows the over-contrasting issue but that's having the iphone propped below the palmrest.

US Full HD and still haven't installed my Spyder calibration software (lazy)


EDIT: I'll check if there is a green sticker on the box. I have a February build date and DEFINITELY no noise issue...(though I didn't have one in my previous unit too)