Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

@Tcklim

Sorry but I can't recreate it. I've turned it up and it's not crackling. It could have been a glitch (whatever that means?) or is it possible to have software that can turn the volume up higher than other software?

 

SONY USA's Price Assurance Policy. Doesn't work for CTO's

https://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wc...=true&storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1

SONY USA's Price Assurance Policy.

If you have already purchased a product from Sony Style and find a lower price for that exact same product at any Sony Style venue or Sony authorized reseller within 30 days, contact the Sony Style location where you purchased the product and we will refund you the difference.

If you are ready to purchase a Sony product and find that exact same product in-stock and advertised at a lower price at any Sony Style venue or Sony authorized reseller let us know and we'll offer you a similar price.

Just provide us the proof of price while that price is in effect to get an adjustment.

Exclusions:

Sony Style Purchase Assurance does not apply to prices offered by internet-only resellers. The policy does not apply Thursday through Monday of Thanksgiving weekend, gift with purchase offers (including gift cards), limited-availability items, open-box items, clearance items, outlet items, web-only offers, mail-in offers, financing, services, bundle offers or pricing errors. Pricing policy does not apply to configure-to-order computers, game titles, music, movies, and non-Sony branded product.


EDIT: Ah! could it be that it isn't the EXACT same product?

 

That's BS there. They put it on sale and screwed you. That's why I wait for sales from people that do them once every month like Sony.

 

No hackintosh here, but I've been running Fedora 12 (rawhide) for a few weeks with no issues. Even run an XP image under VMWare Workstation for work duties.

The only negative part is that I can't get the NVidia driver to recognize the VGA-out port for a second display, despite many xorg.conf edits. Haven't tried the HDMI out yet.

 

Anyone know what the silver VAIO button is for besides volume mute? Can this function be changed like the S1 button? Please advise.

 

Just tell them you will return it and reorder.

 

I am curious as to the funcionality of all the buttons. if there no way to program something to turn up/down the volume? And what does "S1" stand for?

I would.

 

They will happily state to go right ahead. I notice that the Sony reps are not overly concerned about wanting to have the customer retain the product than return it.

Either way, now that you returned your Sony Vaio and purchased a Dell, why are you still hanging around this F-series thread ?

 

MY F11 Vaio care startup displays:

Windows Startup Time

First Boot Time : 1 Minute 30 seconds
Average Month Boot Time : 1 Minute 53 seconds

Total Startup applications : 8 Applications

I have kaspersky Internet Security suite 2010 and Malwarebytes Anti Malware installed.

 

That's really funny as S1 opens the Vaio Control Center where you can change the function of said S1 button. My guess is Sony_1:



I did not find a way yet to re-assign the Vaio_Media_Gallery Button (top extreme right side) but a keyboard mapper like this one or a registry hack should work. Will post back when I get a chance to tweak it.

I guess Son_y wants to promote their Media Gallery & that's why it's not simply included in the control panel above.

 

Just did a clean install on my SSD. I'm using the Hitachi 7K500 on the eSATA combo port without issues (thanks to Joe for the tip on the enclosure).

The HDD and my BD-ROM drive are running on SATA Gen1 (according to intel storage matrix manager), anyone knows how to change that?

For anyone doing a clean install, after a long search on the recovery discs, I found:
Roxio - MODJ-158700.mod (147.092KB)
Corel WinDVD - MODJ-158737.mod (118.110KB)

Both were on the second disk (which made me go through all of the mods in the first one ). I hope that saves some of you some time.

I found ilfuca's guide to a clean install unnecessarily confusing, and it seems that there are some differences between the EU model and the US model. I followed dperezo's guide for the VPCCW27FX/B instead. Just adapt it with the corresponding drivers available in your model's support page.

If you follow dperezo's guide, go to ilfuca's and start at step 9. The sony extractor tip was priceless.

 

So I could just program F7 and F8 to Vol. Up and Vol. Down with that program huh?
shweet.

 

Yes but why not use what is already there: Fn +F3 or F4, or just click on the Speakers icon to bring up the volume window & just use the up & down arrows?

The KeyTweak is quite useful to me because I also type in French & Spanish & can assign special characters but it can't re-map the special keys of the F.

 

yeah that probably makes more sense, and I plan to get:

 

I have not bought this laptop series yet but I'd like to ask someone who is using it with backlit keyboard. I'm wondering how the backlit keyboard works. Is there any switch on the keyboard or a built-in software that manage the backlight?

 

The keyboard backlight is automatically monitored by a sensor more or less above the F9 key. You can turn it off in the VAIO Control Center and adjust how long it it would take the backlight to turn off when the keyboard is not in use. (or have it continuously on provided that the room you're in is dark.)
You can't however turn it on at will unless you block the sensor with your finger or tape it over for continuous operation.

 

I had one of the prior generations of this mouse, and it gave my hand cramps to use it. I had the MX revolution, same shape, and I bought it for $100, I sold it for $30 on craigslist after leaving it in a drawer for 3 months - it hurt to use. I have "man hands" - 9" span, and my hand width from the outer sides of my pointer knuckle to my pinky knuckle size is almost exactly the size of the Vaio F spacebar. Also, it had really really annoying mouse stuttering problems - the surmised problem was that the mouse signal was too weak.

Check all the reviews before you sink in a ton of cash on that thing.

 

Just unboxed my new F11 direct from Sony and....if a small red dot in the upper right corner of the screen is a dead pixel, it has a DEAD PIXEL!!!

 

@fernandes

As long as we are talking installs etc, i'll share my boot times, here is what I'm getting with my SSD on the Vaio F. From the moment I hit the power button, until I opened and had a working internet window in google chrome with a web-page loaded from www.notebookreview.com took me 25 seconds. This boot time uses G2 Intel SSD 160 gb drive, and using the sony factory installed win7 home premium with minor tweaking/removal of crapware. (Not a clean install).

Fast enough for me.

 

I have nightmares of this. You now have to navigate a perpetual clown car of frustrating service and support people. My advice is only this: Be. Aggressive. Do Not Cave. Return it if they wont help you and reorder. Trust me. Dead pixels are annoying in the long run. And short run. Anything runny.

 

Well that's a downer, sorry for you.

Considering that there is 2,073,600 pixels on the 1080p and there is almost 5,000 posts in this thread and you are the first person to my knowledge to report a dead pixel, what are the odds?

If it's red, it's a stuck pixel.

You could exchange it or try:

http://techlogg.blogspot.com/2008/02/unstick-those-stuck-pixels.html "The graphic will try to massage the dead pixel back alive again by getting it to change rapidly"

http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Stuck-Pixel-on-an-LCD-Monitor

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ed=0CA0QBSgA&q=how+to+unstick+a+pixel&spell=1

Good luck!

 

Okay.. Sony Style Canada has the 1GB GT330m option available on CTO Vaio F's, however it says this product is unavailable when I go to purchase it. Anyone know what is up with this? I ordered a pre-config one yesterday for $1500 with the same specs as I can now get for $1275 IF this is in fact order-able. If anybody knows whether or not I can still order one of these, it would help immensely. Thanks in advance

 

Thanks! Ya it's red...

 

Better red than dead and not the opposite.

 

You REALLY should search for GT330 in this thread. This has been such an ongoing hassle for Canadian buyers that it has some of smashing furniture or burying ourselves in drink, such as myself who has been trying to get a GT330-equipped F11 for 7 weeks.

Nvidia has been getting a 1.7% yield on GPUs for the GT330.

 

So, that would be a suggestion to stick with my pre-config unit with the gt330m then? I've read tons of this thread, and somebody posted just this morning that it was back up on the Canadian site. I figured I'd go see for myself, and (go figure) it says that the product is unavailable for purchase at this time.

I posted this earlier, but on sonystyle.ca if you enter the code CJFMPLC100 when purchasing your F laptop, you get $100 off the purchase price

 

Oh you HAD read, sorry. It was briefly listed as being available NOW for preorder in June! However by June Fermi parts should be arriving in F11s - the refresh. Hang onto your GT330 F11 for dear life, I couldn't even find one. You can always upgrade the optical drive, memory, and hard drive.

 

What makes this oddly names "Fermi" better than the current model? What's the chances of USB 3.0? What's the chances of a screen with better vertical viewing angles? Can anyone answer these questions?

 

This one that I ordered came from the "Pre-order Today" tab on sonystyle.ca and says expected shipping date is March 1st. It's $1600 ($1500 with that nifty discount code) and features:
-Intel Core i7-720QM
-4GB RAM
-500GB 7200RPM HDD
-Blu-ray read only drive
-1600x900 screen with GT330M 1GB GPU
-standard capacity battery.

 

BTW I have two old & comfortable Logitech MX500 laser mice that I'm using & Logitech does not support it for Win 7, I guess they want to sell new mice, who would have guess?

Win 7 Mouse Properties will not let me re-assign the buttons. So I downloaded the free X-Mouse Button Control small utility (2.5mb) and guess what? My two side buttons (silver on the photo) now control the speakers volume.

That utility is not necessary for recent mice with tweaking utilities compatible with Win 7 but I like the small footprint of X-Mouse compared to Logitech's Setpoint @ 70mb.

The only servicing these mice needed in 6 years of heavy office use was to replace the Underside Slippery Pads which cost pennies.

 

You are so RIGHT! I even quoted you the the six or seven people at Sony I have spoken with so far to let them know what people are saying, and that it is true! I have also had to write down at least seven reference #s, memo #s, event #s, etc.

Ya, that's what I wanted to do on my first day with the new laptop!

 

Yes there are, even "ladies"use computers, imagine that!

Oh I know about the prebuilt preorders with GT330 and 1600 X 900 screen. it's the CTOs with 1920 X 1080 and GT330 that can't be had.


Look at South America. they get F1190s with nothing BUT GT330s, and if it's not a 330 then there are some prebuilts with GT240 and others.. They show an April ship date though.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?storeId=21203&LBomId=8198552921666067154&langId=100&catalogId=100651

 

Oh I see what you mean. The laptop I was going to pick before the F11 had a 1600x900 screen anyway, so i figured it wouldn't be any worse. Full HD would be nice, but so would having a laptop before June. I wish you luck finding the Vaio F that you are after, and hopefully you aren't waiting another 3 months or more.
Personally, I can't wait for mine to get here. I just hope that everything works great on it, and it doesn't have to be sent back!

Ah, but it would appear that they get 800mhz ddr2 RAM. Unless I am mistaken..

 

Instead of going berserk, did you try the fixes I suggested?

What is Sony's defective pixels policy? I know Asus makes a big fuss about their zero dead pixel limited warranty.

 

w/ Hitachi 7200RPM

 

That's really good stats MidtownHD! Which OS, is it w/ Fresh Start?

 

Thanks Joe for the links. I received my Vaio F yesterday and it has a red pixel...
It is not too bad unless I view darker colors on my screen.
I will try some of the mentioned methods but I'm not sure with rubbing the screen. I don't want to create more carnage

The glossy screen is not too bad either, I got a bit scared after reading some of the reviews here. Possibly a matte screen is nicer but I'm happy...

 

Ok, I've calmed down. Tried the "pixel msssage," no dice. Now trying the other programs in the links. Thank you so much for the help. If I could give you another rep I would.

You and I in the same boat, Frankie. My red dot is in the upper right side.

 

Imagine dead center!

 

It is on the left side about 2inch from the top and 3 inch from the side.
I might learn to enjoy that beauty spot

Anyway, I plan to get at the end of the year one of the nice Samsung LED monitors

 

So you're going to live with the dead/stuck pixel?

So far none of the fixes have worked for me.

 

So, what did the Sony_reps told you, what is their defective pixels policy?

 

Send it back to Sony...Someone from the research team will decide what will happen next. I can reorder a new one, but no gaurantee they will be able to replace a CTO, due to parts availability, etc... I LOVE this lappy otherwise. Tempted to "deal" with the stuck pixel...

 

Hi how exactly do you get into the NVIDEA control panel ? Am I correct in thinking that this is how you can adjust the colour and contrast of the display panel ?

 

Just right click on the desktop and it should show up on the menu.

 

I ran VAIO Care and got:

First Boot Time = 3 minutes and 15 seconds
Average Month Boot Time = 1 minute 11 seconds

w/ Hitachi 7200rpm, Windows 7 Home Premium, No "Fresh Start"

No dead pixels here, but I did notice a blue pixel (on a black background) in the upper right corner when I pressed the back of the laptop to close it. I was like, Oh no! I pressed the back again and it went away and hasn't returned.

 

Considering the awful issues some users have had, such as a bad screen with no good angle, noises, squeaks, flexing lids, power supply failure, and erm people like myself and Poohkie who can't even GET the bloody computer we ordered two months ago ...(!!!) I would just accept the stuck pixel as your Path To True Paradise and smile for now and Evermore. If my computer arrives with a stuck pixel and squeaking spacebar, and nothing else, I''l buy a crate of cigars and announce my flawless new baby to the world.

 

@MelodyMaster

Well that's the spirit!!
Wait...didn't you say they were sending yours soon?

Edit: almost 5000 posts since the beginning of January. Wow... that's quite a lot!!

 

Don't know if anyone else saw, but CNET is going to be reviewing the Sony VPCF115FM/B in the coming weeks. Thought you would be interested.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10454406-1.html

 

I wonder why do we have 1920 x 1080 screens with the GT330, freely available, right across the border in the US.

You can place an order right now, within the US Sonystyle and get that elusive-in-Canada combo.