Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

I have the blu ray sticker from my US Vaio.

$8 + $24.00 shipping and it's yours...

 

As for that hue test, my friends with random medium notebooks got: 2, 0, 4 and 79 (the guy seems to have colorblindness), so it doesn't seem to be a good test for a calibrated screen

 

The Samsung HM500J is a Sata 300 Drive with 8 meg cache and Command queing. Generally not offered for OEM use in North America it is a very cheap drive with average performance but very quiet.

Now read this, please, by DEFAULT it is shipped with a jumper forcing SATA 1, this is to avoid install-time incompatabilities with some chipsets.

I say again, REMOVE the drive and check for a jumper disabling Sata 300!

 

I really did try to search this before I asked. I used 'squeaky keyboard' and 'noisy keyboard' not 'space bar'. With the F, the keyboard is different than a typical keyboard shown on the youtube link. I am pulling on it quite aggressively but it will still not release. I'm afraid of damage. Squeak Squeak

 

does anyone know how to open the screen? i only see 2 screws that are accessible.. i was wondering is it possible to replace the web camera with the FW internal web camera?

 

OK that sounds stupid of Sony, but i will check mine out tonight. I have the Hitachi 500Gb 7200rpm drive.

 

But don't do it unless you KNOW what you're doing and don't care about warranty.

http://www.screentekinc.com/lcd-removal-instructions.shtml

 

Nope, just typical of high pressure, fast, get-em-out assembly lines.

The Hitachis are NOT shipped with jumper installed, however. But still, it's easy to check.

 

thanks a lot for the reply.. i got the laptop from the US i live in the UK and kind disappointed with the Web cam and the US screen.. was hoping it wouldn't be to difficult to change this.. otherwise its a nice laptop i really dont get why sony are soo CHEAP!

 

I have 2 identical Hitachi drives - one shipped with my F11J and another store purchased. Both support 3.0Gb SATA II according to the model number decoding. There are NO headers on the drive PCB to jumper any options.

The Intel Matrix Storage Console reports SATA Generation 1 for both the Hitachi disc drive as well as the Blu-Ray on my F11. Note that it indicates the "Current Mode".

Running the Disc Benchmark in Everest Ultimate, the performance of the disc drive is just slightly better than my old Dell Latitude which does not support SATA II. The throughput is nowhere near the capabilities of SATA II. Both give windows experience ratings of 5.9 for the disc.

 

Hi All,

Just to let you know that:
16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM) [add $106.00]
is back in Canada

 

Comment likes this makes me wonder if I should have waited LOL (ordered mine a few days ago)

 

Yes, you can!!! I just checked, but shipping date is JUNE 8, 2010.

3 month wait time seems a bit extreme...

 

can you email me the sticker :rolleyes2:

 

If you can get the specs you need/want and the price point matches your budget. Go for it!

There will always be something "bigger and better" down the line. If you need a laptop now, get one now. If you're in no rush, then wait it out so you're guaranteed the latest and greatest.

 

Anyone know how to change the far right silver VAIO button to do something other than mute? I'm clear how to change the S1 button ( would prefer this one to mute) but not the silver VAIO button. Thank you.

 

http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=a7c2a959edc97bd3fba1557796aa659e&topic=82070.0

Check that thread out now...i'm testing as we speak.

 

How do I get a student discount on F series?

THX!

 

Sata 1 versus Sata 300 doesn't affect throughput, current drives can't saturate even Sata 1 (except SSD) It's more a matter of Hot Swap and Command Queuing which is only supported by Sata 300.

My early F11 with the Hitachi WAS running at Sata 300.

 

Well there you go, the Samsungs use jumpers to default to Sata 1, the Hitachis use software...

 

Several weeks ago I was told that the GT330 would not be available again until June - if ever. Yet more inside information that turned out to be correct... (did I mention that to you Poohkie?) ALTHOUGH, by then, the mobile 400-series will be shipping, maybe that's what they meant...?

(edit)

Here ya go... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5926326&postcount=4678

(Another Edit) I also understood that June would be the date for the first significant refresh for the F11. So the "330" may very well be a GT440 or some such.

As I say Poohkie, if all else fails, just chill... :rolleyes2:

 

Yeap, the hard drives cannot read/write at SATA 2 speed. SATA 2 is for SSD.

 

That's wrong, HD can certainly use the FEATURES of Sata 300, but there is almost no speed advantage.

 

i haven't followed the SATA 1 vs SATA 2 convo very closely, honestly. When looking though, my bd-rom was Gen 1, my Hitachi harddrive which is connected vis eSATA power was Gen 1, and my Intel SSD is Gen 2.

if there is no speed advantage between SATA 1 and SATA 2 for the hitachi drive...why are we talking about it?

I'm confused.

That utility didn't read my hitachi drive, maybe because it's not internal. Also, I don't feel like popping out my internal drive so odds of me saying the utility works is next to zero.

 

Because it SHOULD be Sata 300, it's not working as it should.

 

I said hard drives cannot read/write at SATA 2 speed. I did not say anything about the features.

 

Thanks for the info MelodyMaster. I am on the fence about getting a SSD drive or even the highly rated Hitachi Travelstar drive that has been mentioned and then I can investigate the Samsung jumper setting.

 

Are you in the US?

Look for the "Campus Deals" link near the bottom of the VAIO notebook page.

 

Thank you. Yes, I am in US. They gave me only $50 off of $1200 F.

 

For Canadians, there are some discount codes you can use on your order. (Does not work for CTO)

http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/m..._25_off_250_50_off_500_100_off_1000_free_expr

CJFMPLC15 - $15 off $150 or more
CJFMPLC25 - $25 off $250 or more
CJFMPLC50 - $50 off $500 or more
CJFMPLC100 - $100 off $1000 or more
CJFMPLC200 - $200 off $2500 or more
CJFMPFREXP - Free Express Shipping

 

Just unclip the top first pulling towards you. Just like in the videos. I just did it but my DSL is down, running on phone dial so can't upload pics for now.

3 F users fixed their spacebar squeak in this forum, you can do it too!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5921716&posted=1#post5921716

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5852864&highlight=spacebar#post5852864

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5851955&highlight=spacebar#post5851955

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5856291&highlight=spacebar#post5856291

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5921623&postcount=4571

Edit: DSL is back up. Can't believe I created & maintained two regional travel sites for years on a 56kb phone dial with max uploading speed of 28kb at best.

Here ya go:





---

What an awesome keyboard BTW. The Count was right, the light coming out from under the backlit island keys is useless and annoying. EU F owners, stop whining about the lack of backlit KB & enjoy your Premium matte screens!

 

Thank you, I'll will attempt to remove the spacebar key again . Also, I know you are playing hard with your F, but from the reviews I've read, your monitor calibrator is superior and I would love to try your calibration when you have the chance to post. Myself, I would love to buy one but the laptop, along with other accessories, is making it hard to justify at this time.

 

OK, You was right!!! I have been using matts colour profile for a few hours now and it is amazing. I'm Glad i gave it a little longer. Would recommend to all UK F11 Owners. Thank You

 

I'm new to this thread and there are hundreds of pages. What refresh are you talking about? I thought the Vaio F was just released in January? It is on my list of laptops that I am looking to buy and this is the first I have heard of a refresh. Are there plans to release some new info at CeBIT? What do they plan to refresh spec wise?

 

I have received my Vaio F CTO

I am very happy.
But I think I am wrong ordering the 5400 HD option,but its too late for that

In hd tune I have average read og 65mb/s I dont know if is ok
My boot time is 39 seg, I only uninstall antivirus and unmark some options in msconfig.
My windows value is 5,7 in hd option

I would like to know:
If anybody have a boot time in 7200 hd and ssd option
If anybody have the average read mb/s of 7200 and ssd sony style offer
If anybody have the windows value in both options

Only I would like to compare and need too know if it is a real big mistake.

 

I ordered the F yesterday and it is in production today. The price at Sony Style was $1,359.97 and I recieved a $136 credit (10%). I asked and was persistent, saying that others on this thread had received the discount. After 10 minutes of a lady telling me that she could onle do 5%, she said that she could indeed give me a 10% discount per her supervisor.

I hope this helps.

Bill

 

No it isn't a "big Mistake." There's too much hysteria in this thread.

Buy the hard drive you want for the boot drive, and use the 5400 for data storage.

 

Hehe yeah I understand, just wish that the "bigger and better" doesn't come so soon (like in several weeks) cuz then I would really kick myself for not waiting (just like the way I missed the free Blueray burner deal because I ordered two days before that! *sigh*)

 

"I am wrong ordering the 5400 HD option,but its too late for that" - nope, check this post: Seagate 7200 vs. Samsung 5400 Windows Experience Rating.

I just received a Power Over eSATA External 2.5" Drive Enclosure for the OEM 5400 drive I removed, will post photos & feedback after trying it.

"My boot time is 39 sec" - people post supposed boot time but never mention the measuring stick they used (includes BIOS time or only when OS starts? Programs loading on startup, processes?) !

All F have: Vaio Care > Run One Click Care > Performance > Startup Time:



In the linked post, the startup time is for exact identical Home Premium stock install on both drives so you can compare orange to orange. After optimizing just a little bit, I shaved and additional 10 sec. since that post and that's for 10 applications vs 8:



For sure if you can afford it, a SSD is a killer upgrade. I'll wait a little bit for price drop before getting one.

For F users testimonials, just Search this thread with: SSD boot time or: boot time!

 

Good for you! You're gonna love your new laptop.

 

my Hitachi 7200rpm is running in SATA 1 as well.

 

Joe,about my boot time ,I am sorry I was a little lazy

Its aproximate since vaio logo dissapears until desktop appears.
I have uninstalled Mcaffe and I have unmarked many programs in mscofig options startup that I think are not neccesary to be loaded every time.

 

ok guys. I installed VMware Workstation 6.5.1 + MAC OS X Leopard 10.5.5 VMware image on my Laptop. It works absolutely GREAT. It needs a little bit of tweaking to get the full 1920x1080 resolution. First you need to enable the root account. once this is done we need to make some changes.
http://pcwizcomputer.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=32

I logged in as root and made a backup of "com.Apple.boot.plist" and edited the file in VI. I replaced the resolution as "1920x1080x32". This method worked for me. I will post some screen shots soon. I have not tested audio, camera and other related programs. Internet is working fine.

I HOPE THIS HELPS PEEPS WHO HAVE WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM AND WERE WONDERING IF VIRTUALIZATION IS GONNA WORK OR NOT.

PLEASE USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. I DO NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PROBLEM CAUSED.

 

No its not contact them about their price assurance policy! Get your money back!

 

Price assurance does not work with Sony. The free Blu Ray upgrade was online just 2 days after my ordered got shipped. I called them to adjust the price difference and asked them for a credit. Sony CS said they don't do that. The only way is I pay for shipping and return the laptop and order a new one. Its too much of a hassle to save $70 ($90-20[shipping]). Moreover the F series was on back order then. The shipping date was " unknown".

 

Absolutely right. In the UK the 7200 RPM was an 80 GBP upgrade. For that price I can pick a 7200 external of my choice from any other site and install it (without going for whatever sony felt like putting in) and still have my 5400 leftover to put into any old £5 enclosure for storage.

I wouldn't stress too much about it.

 

You are not the only lazy guy around here including I. My new F is a great justification for procrastinating my long list of to do things.

So, what is your Vaio Care > Run One Click Care > Performance > Startup Time: first boot, average month & # of startup applications?

I suggest running the Vaio Care > Run System TuneUP which will defrag your registry & other stuff as well as clean up your HDD. Reboot a few times after that and then check boot time. Original post.

 

I'm sure a lot of us appreciate the updates on running Linux on this system.

Anyone done a Hackintosh yet?

 

I experienced almost the same conversation. They said that the price assurance did not count for CTO systems. Which is absurd since the free blu ray player/discounted burner is a perk FOR CTO systems. But in better news, my unit shipped today, almost a week ahead of the estimated shipping date! Grubby little paws cannot wait!

 

"my unit shipped today, almost a week ahead of the estimated shipping date!" Sneaky Sony_guys, instead of saying ships in 1 week & do after 2, they say ships in 2 & do in 1 so people like you can say how happy they are on forums.