Official Sony VAIO F Series i5/i7 owners thread *Part 3*

Note: link below added

UNIFICATION POST SONY VAIO F11 SERIES – ISSUES, FIXES, TWEAKS, REVIEWS


I just ordered an F11 from sonystyle. This is the replacement for the FW series. Mine should come with i7-820 Nvidia gt330 1gb 1920x1080 4GB ram and base hard drive.

ship date is Jan 14th.

 

I have started part 3 as we were nearing 5000 posts in part 2


Part one of the F series owners lounge can be found here:
Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

And part two here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...ony-vaio-f-series-owners-lounge-part-2-a.html




Alex

 

I read about the updated BIOS on a dutch forum about the F11. People who send their F back in for a replacement of the motherboard, got it back (after waiting for a month) and the bios was updated. They have to wait so long because the motherboard was in back-order.

 

Incidentally, forgive me if this is considered off topic, however here is a scan from a 1999 catalogue showing the ORIGINAL F-series laptop (VPCGF) - My wild guess is that that's why later F's are called the FW when it went widescreen, then F1x for the NEXT followup etc. Since our wonderful i7 instruments are a direct functional successor of the PCGF, still for "editing your videos" and so on, it will therefore always BE the F1xx for this model. Note the different screen sizes and overall thicknesses on the SAME model run.

 

The gods have ruled, it will be a mixed thread.

OK. Does anybody knows in which colors the F12 will be available in USA?

Will they be the same as elsewhere?

Will the 1080p matte display also be available where I live?

Will the backlit keyboard also be available where I live?

Will it have the famous BD sticker? If so, what color?

Does anybody knows when it will be available?

Does anybody knows the pricing?

Does anybody knows if NVIDIA® GeForce® N11P found in the .LU link above means the N11P-GE1 code name for the GT 330M or an other chip?

Should I sell my F11 NOW @ a better price so I could buy the F12?

I already hate my F11 and NEED the new F12, is there a remedy?

Will the drivers be different?

Will it have the same bloatware?

How about the BIOS?

What about the new CPU's?

Will the fan be different: quieter or noisier?

What will be the CPU speed on battery?

Will the Morse code be fixed or play a different tune?

If you order or pre-order one, could you post a blow by blow of the ordering & delivery process? We NEED to know where your package is @ the present.

 

So, is it the same mobo #? Otherwise it's a good way to brick your_F11. Nobody posted mobo # & BIOS #?

 

Ah now THAT is THE important question that We Must Know..! The other things.. blah. Too much Costa Rican rum Joe...

At least we're not talking the F0 (VPCGF) Oh, wait a minute.....

 

In fact: will there even be a sticker? A remember a post where he paid $6 for one from China, maybe even counterfeit.

My almost mint F11_BD sticker will be up for sale in a few months. The value can only go up!

 

Nobdy mentioned the number of the MoBo or BIOS. I will ask them.

 

Be sure to let me know...

 

Looking at here we realize that they area the same thing, i want a "Fermi" card!!

Code:

Manufacturer	NVIDIA
Series	GeForce GT 200M
Codename	N11P-GE1
Pipelines	48 - unified
Core Speed *	575 MHz
Shader Speed *	1265 MHz
Memory Speed *	1066 MHz
Memory Bus Width	128 Bit
Memory Type	GDDR2, GDDR3, DDR3
Max. Amount of Memory	1024 MB
Shared Memory	no
DirectX	DirectX 10.1, Shader 4.1
technology	40 nm
Features	DirectX Compute Support (Windows 7), CUDA, OpenCL, HybridPower, PhysX
Notebook Size	medium sized
Date of Announcement	10.01.2010
Information	
182 Gigaflops calculation power

 

Well, here's to hoping that the F12 is as good as my F11. So far, I have no flaws at all with mine and I am happy to have not waited for the refresh.

Bill

 

Initially, I was kicking myself for not reading through the thread before I bought my_F11, but the manufacture date is April 2010 and I've had no issues other than the keypress/fanspeed quirk... which is hard to classify (in my professional opinion, it is a flaw).

Anyway, my only complaint is the lack of an LED backlit screen. If the F12 won't have that, then I'll have no F12 envy.

That's all I have to say about that</Gump>

 

Sorry Joe. I was hoping you saw it before I took it down. Anyway, the trick is to make the Optical Drive button reference the Folder list... which would still allow you to play DVDs by browsing to the DVD drive in the tree. As a professional software engineer, I have to be cautious about what I post. As an open source advocate, I think nothing should be closed up with legal consequences for editing. Conflict, conflict.

Anyhow, maybe I should write a nice media player and release it for free, I've been trying to think of a fun side project!

 

I can't believe people payed that much for an F in 1999.

 

Laptops were always twice as much as desktops. There wasn't a standard for parts, so the layout for one manufacturer couldn't accept components such as DVDroms from another. Now everything is the same, like desktops, so mass manufacturing of just a few different items has brought costs down.

 

Melody, sorry to bring this up again, could you please tell me where you think the holes for the HDD are in the fenvi caddy, or point them out where they should have been on the pictures I sent? TIA

(Joe, thanks for the answer, I had already thought about drilling it, but the way it has been presented here seemed like it needed no drilling.)

 

Brings back old memories about the price of memory.
109.99 $ for a 16 MB Sony memory stick!
Oh my, thank God those days are over

 

There aren't any hole. You don't need them.

1. Pop up the plastic that says SATA HDD, don't brake the tabs on the both sides.

2. Insert you sata drive (SSD or HDD)
3. Fold piece of paper and place it in between drive and that plastic.
4. Replace plastic, make sure both tabs clicked.

DONE.

I used piece of folded paper, so the drive won;t have any room to play/wiggle however you can use a piece of foam tape or something similar to it.

 

I drive & also ride a motorcycle on bumpy dirt roads in Costa Rica & don't want to rely only on a folded piece of paper & a flimsy flap to hold the HDD in place. What is the problem with drilling 1 tiny hole, it takes about 3 seconds. Also that piece of paper is not too good for mold & fungus during rainy season in my neck of the wood.

As I explained in the how-to install a HDD in the F's ODD bay the only "difficulty" is to mark the spot where you need to drill. For that, you mount the screw in the hole of the HDD the furthest away from the SATA connector then smear the top of the screw with a marker, paint, corrector fluid or put a piece of carbon paper or whatever can mark the bottom of the caddy then insert the HDD fully in the SATA connector, press the HDD to mark the spot, remove HDD & drill.

You could drill 4 holes for 4 screws but one is enough to make sure the HDD will not slide out of the connector or get it's back jacked up if the laptop is dropped or bumped on the lid side.

You can see niebyl2002's paper shim between the flap & HDD here:



I prefer this in the bottom + the flap on the other side:

 

My point was that N11P is incomplete info on that .LU site: VPC-F12Z1E. It should be N11P-XXX. For example check the GT 335M here which has the code name n11p-gs1.

.

 

All nvidia GT mobile cards from 1x0 to 3x0 are N11. The "P" appears to designate 1 gig memory. This N11P-xxx could very WELL be a Fermi.

Anyway, we'll find out.

 

Meanwhile: speculations galore!

 

You guys are insane.... Part 3?

Anyhow, I really, really doubt fermi in this update. Maybe a gt 335 (or we can hope 360m, but I doubt it) with automatic gpu switching with the core i7-6xx processors with integrated graphics.

 

thanks God that F12 will be release in June 26. I was expecting it to come in July. Been waiting for this model so bad. I've been hesitating to get one cuz of reading numerous post bout the issues

I was considering getting the Lattitude E6510 for it's matte screen but it's high price breaking my budget.

 

Thanks, that answers my question. I agree with Joe that drilling a hole is better. Now I need to find a drill with the appropriate bit.

 

Zolek,

If you think the F11 has issues, try reading about the G73 in the Asus forum.

Honestly, if a person has no gripes, he is not likely to spend a bunch of time on forums telling everyone it's a great machine. You only hear from unhappy people, for the most part.

I have a very late model F11 and I consider it to be flawless. So far, I have had no problems, except for when I tried the Nvidia drivers instead of the Sony drivers...my own fault.

If you want to wait and see, go right ahead. Perhaps it will be worth the wait. If you are needing a laptop now, however, I would not hesitate. This is a fine machine...at least the 5 I have had the pleasure to spend some time with have been.

Bill

 

Man. That would be incredible. I'm gonna bring it up to my family friend. Tell her I'm have an audio port issue, and it'll just be worth returning it and getting the F12 instead of sending it to the technicians to fix.

Do you think F12 info will leak prior to the product being released?

Joe!! is it gonna be the 335m!? hah

 

Since the person who bought it for you works for Sony, why not ask her to do some investigating for you? She is more likely to get info about the features of the new F12 then any of us in this forum

It's cases like these that allow info to leak prior to the product being released...

 

It's a possibility, but I don't the position she currently has, though it's a very good one, would know about future products.

 

So she went through the trouble of getting you a_F11 & you want to make her work more by exchanging it for a F12?

 

Um, if by trouble you mean entering her credit card information and having it shipped to my house, then yeah, but it was a birthday gift that was supposed to be split between my parents and them, but because it was my 21st, they decided to pay for all of it.

I would ship it back and pay for the shipping no doubt...so the only work she'd have to do to get me the F12 is really nothing.

 

Oh, been away for a while and seems like there is a refresh on the way ! Either way, after getting my new screen, I am a happy camper and don't feel the need for an upgrade.

 

How do you know on June 26?

 

Quick question - the f series has 2 headphone jacks right?

 

Err no. One headphone and one microphone.

Oh yeah, and the headphone port also doubles as a digital out (optical).

 

I'm worried that the LCD from F12 is still not back-light

 

What do you mean?
Still not LED back-light, I suppose?

Personally, I don't see much difference between ccfl and led screens. So it wouldn't be a disadvantage.

 

Inidcations based upon the good-looking screens on late-run NA F11s is that the screen will be the same one-CCFL technology on the NA F12s, but not defective.

 

Well, any screen can be defective. Mine is not. That is not to say that other late model F11s all have screens like mine.

I did, however, have to wait for mine as they were out of the Full HD screens when I ordered.

Bill

 

What is CCFL?

 

Hi .
Does F117FX have a matte screen ?
Please give me some pics to show difference between matte and glossy .
Thanks .

 

Cold cathode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

So does a CCFL screen (with regards to lighting) have any major noticeable differences when compared to an LCD screen?

 

Watch out there , CCFL and LCD are both totally different things. I know it's hard not to mix it up, but here's some help.

LCD ( Liquid crystal display - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
= a display-technology (like CRT aka those big heavy non-thin screens from the old days)

CCFL
= backlight technology (needed to lit the screen up).

 

I'm sorry if this isn't the correct place to post questions, but I'm utterly confused.

I'm quite interested in buying an F series Sony laptop. I managed to configure one with these specifications,

* No Additional Video Editing Software
* Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
* 16.4" VAIO Display (1600x900) with NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M GPU (512MB VRAM)
* No Fresh Start
* Microsoft® Works
* No additional Photo Editing Software
* 4GB (4GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
* Blu-ray Disc™ player/burner (reg. price $180.00)
* Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
* Keyboard Backlight
* Standard Capacity Battery
* Black
* No Engraving
* Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
* 500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)

It would run me about $1,330.78 including tax. (It also says I should be getting a student discount, but it's not being applied for some reason).

Now, my questions are: when I first googled the laptop and got to the very first thread in this website regarding this series people were talking about ordering this laptop and getting these specifications,

* No Additional Video Editing Software
* Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
* 16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
* Fresh Start
* No additional Office Software
* No additional Photo Editing Software
* 6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
* Blu-ray Disc™ player/burner
* No additional AntiVirus Software
* Keyboard Backlight
* Standard Capacity Battery
* Black
* No Engraving
* Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
* 500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)

They were also talking about a premium display, which although my configuration falsely advertises it, I don't think that's what I'm getting, not to mention the lower resolution and very crappy video card. The video card is so crappy in fact that, my 5 year+ old HP had a GeForce Go 7600 which in this website
Notebookcheck: Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List
is ranked 130, and the M310 only 109... I don't think that's acceptable at all.

How can I obtain this configuration?

I need a new laptop, and I'm seriously considering the Sony F series but the display, video card, and the fact that it doesn't have USB 3.0 is seriously deterring me from it. I can live without the USB 3.0, but not the other things.

Any help is welcome, thanks in advance!

I live in the U.S. by the way.

Also, are there any discounts, or other coupons that might be better than the supposedly 7% student discount? Thanks.

 

Did you see the new F12_that is supposed to be available in 1 month in USA? Check this: VPC-F12Z1E & notice CPU # & GPU mystery (see Re: F12_Questions: Video Card? & Melody's reply below it).

I wrote to them in French asking about GPU exact model and if the backlit keyboard will be available in EU.

 

well we know the GPU is the N11P. But that could mean the GE1 (330m?) or the GS1 (335m?) Am I correct? I have a feeling it's going to be the 330m again. Also, what does "Video: Vue en 3D de la nouvelle gamme VAIO F" mean? Does this mean it's capable of 3D gaming...if that's the case then it's certainly not the 330m.

@InaPinch
I was reading your post. The laptop you want is (although I would wait until June 26 when they release the newer model of the F series):

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666075673

That's the one I just purchased. It has the high-res screen, better video card. It lacks Win7 Pro, and has Home Premium, but I can almost guarantee you won't need anything above Home Premium.

Enjoy!

 

No, it means look at this promo video that gives you an idea of what the F looks like in 3D. The flyover the keyboard is pretty well done in a 2001 Space Odyssey way. Saw that movie again on the F not long ago, pretty impressive considering there is no CGI of any kind in it.

 

hmm, lol. it shows the spacebar key as being backlit. but it's not in real life.