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

Yes, many HP users are happy. Looking @ the graph above, 84% of them did not have any failure after 2 years. Still, the failure rate is 50% higher than the_Sony's. I doubt that the buyers of "cheap consumer laptops" are the main customers of SquareTrade's extended warranties. Anyway your argument is not very good because Acer_and_Dell are also selling "cheap consumer laptops" but fare much better in the report.

Go to the OFFICIAL: HP_Envy 17 Owners Lounge & use the Search this Thread link top right of the page & type: heat issue or issue.

For example, BennyPac in this post with many benchmarks: Envy_17 Heat Tests, Idle/Load, Flat Surface/Laptop Cooler reports temperatures under load at least 20c higher for the same benchmarks I posted for the F previously.

Everything is relative.

 

I hope for you they put a much better screen on the Envy 17 compared with the Envy 15.
One of the reasons I decided not to wait for the Envy 17 an order an Vaio F11 instead were the reviews of the Envy 15 which rated the display very poor and measured also a very very high loudness.

 

Went to Best Buy today and they have the HD screened VPCF115FM/B IN STOCK sitting on the shelf like a "puppy in the window" at the pet store. $1399.
Has most everything I want without having to order, and I can take it back if there are any problem. Would have liked the Blu-Ray recorder, Adobe Suite, and faster drive, but I can live without that. I'll probably pick it up today.

 

less 15% restocking fee.

 

Just out of curiosity is the nvidia 300M in the F series underclocked and undervolted?

 

Very good point. My old HP is still ticking even though I no longer use it. My computer tech man hates HP. He pushed Dell laptops hard ordered thru him. (I suspect he gets a little commission). I found the service chart interesting, and would agree that someone buying a cheep computer would not purchase a warranty.

 

I'm not a salesman for Best Buy, but I beleive the restock fee only applies if you change your mind, not if your computer fails in someway within something like 15 to 30 days. I'll check on that.
They also will price match within 30 days.
Will Sony USA lit you send your unit back if you get cold feet??

Update taken from Bestbuy site:
Return and Exchange Period
You can return or exchange purchases within the timeframes below.

•14 days for computers, monitors, projectors, camcorders, digital cameras, and radar detectors
•30 days for all other products
•45 days for all products for Reward Zone Premier Silver members*

Restocking Fee
A restocking fee is applicable in some product categories, unless you are a Reward Zone Program Premier Silver member, """""the item is defective""""", or the fee is prohibited by law. The restocking fee charges are.....

If my screen tunes out foggy, or my speakers make noise all the time, or my space bar squeaks, or my fan sounds like a small turbine, than to me that is a "defect".

It fills good to be right sometimes.

 

The Sony site lists a new download for the F11 that is dated 6-24-10. It is an update to VaioCare...a patch to fix an issue in VaioCare.

Bill

 

I am still looking for brand new F series with 100% Gamut.

Shall I purchase it overseas outside USA ?

Is it worth the premium price for just better screen as well as matte coatings ?

 

Well...my new F12 has been ordered and better than the F11 that I returned...and around the same price as getting 720qm and full hd because of a promotion they are having!

Core i7 840qm, 1920x1080 Full HD screen, Bluray burner, 6GB of RAM, a 7200 RPM hard drive which I am replacing with a Momentus XT hybrid HDD/SSD, backlit keyboard, larger battery...I'm excited! Woohoo!!

 

Yes Sony USA will take back the unit within 30 days with no restocking fee and no questions asked.

There have been a lot of people having a REALLY tough time returning laptops at BestBuy for small defects without getting hit with the restocking fee because the 'defect' if cosmetic could be turned back to you as your own doing from the time you walked out of the shop with it or if it's a minor hardware defect, they could say that all F11/12's were designed that way.
Check their dead pixel policy. NewEgg has something like 6 dead pixels before a replacement is warranted.

Better to inspect the unit that gets brought up to you for approval rather than get disappointed when you open it up at home no?

 

I'd go through Sony. Unless you really like the config. best buy offers.

 

I know there are trade offs with both. I'm surprised Sony will just let me change my mind after playing with a new system for three week.
I assume there would be a substantial turnaround time, (I use my laptop every single day for work and play), and some freight charges.
I've had no problems with my local Bestbuy with returns. Also I'm getting old and grumpy, and I can assure you I can raise quite a loud stink if needed. Much harder to successfully do over the phone.
As for Bestbuy, I mainly go there because their about the ONLY COMPUTER STORE LEFT with any real choices in my area.
If we all continue to buy from the Internet after shopping the brick and mortar stores will soon have nowhere to run in and pick up our stuff.
As I said before, I do mail order, and I may still.....but I really like to fondle my toys a little, and then just carry it straight to the car.

 

I have a question about BIOS. Why it's so simple ? I can change the time , password and boot order and that's it :|

There is some way to access the "advanced" BIOS or that is all ? -_-

 

If you going to spend 1400 on F11, why dont you get the 1349 F12 with 900p screen, or if you wanted 1080, go online to micro center, they have it for $1400. Just doesn't make any sense to me.

F11 = Known Issue (Spacebar squak, screen, morse code, etc).
F12 = F11 with fixed issue.

 

I have the VPCF115FM & would not buy an other one for $1400.

Get this instead: VAIO_VPCF127FX/B $1,409.99 after rebate savings ( ends 07/04/2010!) here which makes the CPU & HDD upgrade a good deal for only $10 more than my VPCF115FM @ BB.

Why?

- also comes with 1 GB GDDR3 GT 330M video card & HD 1080p LCD
- faster CPU
- bigger HDD
- more recent motherboard revision
- more recent BIOS
- more recent drivers & software
- better resale value because more recent models
- hopefully they have fixed the quirks of the_F11
- will smell fresher

 

Just a quick update on the installation of a backlight keyboard in the European model: it works great and the laptop now stands out from the crowd when you boot it up and the keyboard lights up. Some more pictures.
Also in the Vaio Care software you can acces all the settings about the backlight

 

where did you get the keyboard if i may ask

 

Seems like most on here have black. I like the black keys on grey panel. Hate to say it, but I like black around the screen though. Helps my eyes focus. One thing the Mac's have going for them.

 

viper so the europe models dont have backlit keyboards, if so where do u get the backlit keyboard from, and for how much

 

This is from a dutch site (tweakers.net) SOmeone got it from here.

NEW SONY VPC-F11M1EH Backlit Silver Frame US Keyboard - eBay (item 250635296058 end time Jul-17-10 10:44:39 PDT)

just click on New, the rest of the link won't work.

 

The grey keyboard with black keys was the one part of the colour scheme I liked on my first, grey, F11. (shown in my current avatar.) It would look good on a US F11 that is otherwise two-tone black. I guess it would work for F12 too?

 

HOLLY BRAIN FART BATMAN. I didn't even notice it was an F11 guys. Told you I'm not used to being right!!
I saw 1080p screen and totally overlooked the mod number. Fill kind of dumb.....guess the old mind saw what it wants to see. Guess I'm back to Sony USA. Thanks a ton for the heads-up. I aggree.....I'm not interested in going back wards.

 

You can get it even cheaper & gun metal frame buy using less keywords in your search as some sellers use_F Series or VPCF or_F11, etc. Try this: sony_backlit keyboard or include title & description for this one: VPC-F11M1EH. This one is $9.50 cheaper than yours for example and the international shipping is also $10.

 

Joe why do you always put underscores when typing the F series? lol.

 

It means it`s a link and you can click on it, it`s automatic and appears on every link.

 

Because look at your post, some keywords are automatically parsed to go to the coupon page or elsewhere while F_Series does not. I want to choose which links are to be included in my post or not.

That's why JefDeLathouwer's keyboard link was messed up which I fixed when quoting him by adding a _ as in: NEW_SONY instead of NEW SONY which broke his link. It's a notebookreview quirk.

Edit: see, the last "SONY" was not linked by me but by some robot server watching us & reading our posts.

 

Hi Nuggstein,
In case it helps you: Took a look when I heard the special keyword. For my test custom configuring came out cheaper, if you are referring to the sonystyle site. The medium configuration despite the "special" is cheaper if you add the same things to the configurable base model on top. I may have possibly missed something but you can check and look for an adjustment, or re-order and cancel earlier order if it makes sense to you. Also at your price if you do it on the phone I believe extended plan discount should make the basic (not AH) 2 year or 3 year extended plan free (or better).

Either way enjoy it!

 

Also was going to say with custom you have the freedom to go with the cheapest drive if you will upgrade yourself anyway.

 

That's true. For example upgrading to the 500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm) [add $105.00] is not a good deal as you can get the recommended Hitachi 7K500 500 GB for $85 or the Seagate XT Hybrid HDD SSD for $130 & simply use the 320GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm) in an external HDD enclosure for backup & data. A fast eSATA enclosure goes for $10-15 or Powered eSATA for about $30 on Fleabay.

In fact you get a free 320 GB drive if you upgrade yourself. See how-to in my sig below.

 

Well this will render my HDD caddy for the ODD bay + external enclosure for the optical drive obsolete: Hitachi-LG goes official with HyDrive: SSD-equipped optical drives. Up to 64 GB + BD ROM & DVD burner!

Video showing faster booting time with the HyDrive on Youtube.

Thanks to nikeseven for the pointer in an other thread.

 

This is the config. I have been planning to go with. It comes to about $1270 with tax. Figure I can get some discount somewhere from them, and this is with the sale going on right now.
However, I have been considering a SSD, there are smaller ones (40-100GB) on eBay, I figure I can use it for windows and essential programs. Then use a 1TB external drive (Iomega?) and not upgrade the HDD on the sonystyle site.


*
Intel® Core™ i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
*
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
*
Gray
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320GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
*
4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
*
Blu-ray Disc player
*
16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080) (Reg. price $100.00)
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NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
*
No Fresh Start
*
Adobe Creative Bundle
*
Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
*
Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)

*
No Engraving
*
Standard capacity battery
*
LED Backlit Keyboard

 

I have an SSD. I highly recommend a 120GB or larger drive. OS, security suite and ALL of your programs will most likely take 45-55GB. It is best not to have an SSD more than 2/3 full, so an 80GB would be the minimum I would consider. If you look at 120GB SSD, you would be in better shape.

With HDDs, you always wanted 20% free space or more or defragging and other disk maintenance would be difficult to impossible. In reality, 1/3 free space was considered about as full as you really wanted before fragmentation would become a real performance issue. (The more full a disk is, the harder it is to defragment correctly. Once it gets to 10-15%, it may become impossible.)

The same problems hod true for SSDs, but for different reasons. SSDs write in blocks, but they don't normally erase blocks once the data is deleted. They need to be deleted before new data can be written, so SSDs can become sluggish once data has been written to all blocks once.

Now days, TRIM reduces this problem, but TRIM does not work at all times...not that it doesn't WORK, more that it is not always AT work. From what I understand (and I could be wrong!), TRIM works when the SSD is normally idle. If you write a large amount of data to an SSD that is close to full, it will slow to a crawl until the TRIM function can do its job. This does not mean that you can't use all of the space, but just as with a HDD, it is best NOT to fill an SSD more than about 2/3 full.

Just my opinion.

Bill

By the way, I have seen Kingston 128GB SSDs for $230 on sale, and they can be found for around $250 every day. I have bought Crucial M225 128GB SSDs for under $290 and a 256GB M225 for as low as $539. These are older Indillinx Barefoot controllers and are not as fast as the new Sandforce controlled SSDs, but they are still BLAZING fast when compared to spinning HDDs. You can see all of the youtube videos you want, but until you actually use a quick computer with a mid-grade or faster SSD (with TRIM), you can not fathom how fast they really are.

My SSD is not the fastest out there, but it is insane how fast it is with the 256GB Crucial M225 installed. My boot times are normally about 25 seconds and my shut down time is about 8 seconds. When I click on the Internet Explorer icon, it is less than 3 seconds until my home page is COMPLETELY loaded. I now take care of 8 computers with SSDs. Working on HDD equipped computers is now painfully slow...sort of the difference between working on a new stock F11 with an HDD and an old desktop from 2000 or 2001 with a 20GB hard drive and 512MB of memory. There is THAT much difference.

 

Thanks for the reply, you've helped me make a decision.
I am going to purchase the 7200 RPM drive with the Vaio now. I predict SSD's becoming more widespread over the course of a year. As well, I predict the price dropping as a result. I think that $200 now seems foolhardy for a man with my budget.
As an added benefit, if I get one a year from now or later, I may be thinking the F is outdated-feeling, and an SSD will certainly make it feel like I am using a new computer.
The way I am looking at it, while convinced SSD's are a very desirable option, the more responsible decision for me is to wait, regardless of how much I may want one.

As an example, think of when flash drives first gained popularity. How much was an 8 GB drive? How much is one now? Different technology, somewhat, but technology nonetheless.

 

So can any Sony F series owners make some comments on the battery life? I realize it won't be great for a laptop like this but I'm getting a wide range of numbers, anything from 50 minutes to 3 hours. What are you guys getting on the standard capacity batter when using word with most settings including display optimized for battery life? I want this thing to get at least over 2 hours on a full charge, anything over 3 would be unrealistic but I would expect between 2-3 hours with the specs on this thing. I realize Sony says up to 3 hours but I just want someone with real world results to chime in. I want this thing to last a class and not die on me.

Is the large capacity battery worth the extra 100 dollars? I know it will be heavier and stick out, and I'm not sure how I will like not having the standard capacity battery to fall back on in situations where I don't need all the extra juice. Wouldn't it be better to save my 100 bucks, get the standard capacity battery, and invest in one of these

Xtend universal external laptop notebook battery batteries power pack charger


I've thought long and hard about buying a laptop such as this for college. This is classified as a desktop replacement laptop, but to be honest, that's exactly what I need. I won't be bringing my desktop with me to college so I need something that can serve most of its purposes. I believe more hours will be spent sitting in my dorm room wishing I had more power and a better display then there will be spent in class wishing I had better battery life. Maybe I'll regret it once I get to college but if I do there's always other solutions. Such as a smart phone or netbook, when I can afford it.

zebra3,
I plan on getting the basic 320gb 5400 rpm drive. It's just my opinion a 7200rpm will generate too much heat and noise for a laptop. Besides, it's not worth the upgrade costs Sony is trying to charge. SSDs will come down significantly in a year and like you said, it would be like having a new laptop all over again.

 

I have the entended battery and i'm glad to have it. It gives me about 4 hours on balanced mode with screen brightness at about 80%. To me, for this laptop, its a good investment. The laptop is heavy enough where IZ don't notice the extra weight. On a Z it would be noticable.

 

anyone have the picture of F12 with a good 1080p screen?The one I tested on best buy is 900P.

 

new_vaio_F: I went to fry's to check the f12 screen. First let me say I won't do professional graphics work on this.
They had a 1080p on display which looked gorgeous to me and I am keeping my order. I did the video test which turns the screen pitch black for some stages and I could see some bleed. Not enough for me to give up a great deal. Off axis was good enough for me, theirs is not worse than the average consumer laptop.
Camera was also pointing to a sensible location.

 

Hello,

Can I be bad and repost my questions (and add another one), since they were missed during discussion on other, more interesting topics?

Can one advise

1. how to use the Windows fax software that comes with Vaio when there is no modem connection...I think one cannot connect to the network cable and DSL (or am I wrong), but rather needs to plug the laptop to a phone line via a modem?
   
2. Also, for external keyboard and mouse...can one use either wireless or bluetooth for those? Found a good Microsoft wireless stuff, but not sure it wd work.
   
3. Lastly, I got my Vaio F from a friend (with only one cable for 110 Volts). I need a 220V cable for travel to Europe - do you think it is safe to reuse one from another laptop (only the part from the plug to the supply unit in the middle of the cable)?

Thank you very much.

Emma

 

The battery lasts ~ 2 hours with web surfing and medium brightness (~2/3 brightness level) and ~2.5 hours with wifi off. I'm currently in college and I was worried about the battery life, but its really nbd. Most lecture halls have outlets for each desk, and most of my seminar classes also have outlets that are very accessible. The power adapter is also pretty long and can reach outlets if they are far away. It's really not a big issue.

You could also just get a second standard battery so that when your first one is running low, you can pop in the second one. Just another option that you might find to work.

The extra oomph is really nice, especially if you're going to be doing a lot of rendering work or heavy computational stuff. I go to college in new hampshire where winter nights get down to -30F, so it was really nice to not have to trek down to the computer lab to do any work in Maya (tbh the renders went more quickly on my F11 than the 27" imacs we have in our lab anyway ). And since netbooks are getting dirt cheap (something like $200 on sale at newegg) if you so choose you can always get a netbook down the road.

I have the basic 320GB drive and it's not really that bad. As the hard drive capacity gets up in the 320GB or 500GB range the RPM doesn't make much difference because the drive density is so high.

I've heard that Sony has a pretty good price on the SSD, but I feel that in a year or so they will be much cheaper and offer much better performance and longevity as well.

Although SSD's are blazing fast, consume less power, are generally less prone to irreversible data lass than traditional hard disks and have had most of their performance issues mitigated by technologies like TRIM, many cheaper SSD's don't have very good write speeds when writing many small files. An SSD's performance also degrades as it becomes more and more full. Just some food for thought.

 

I'm not buying it, and the Momentus XT came with a free enclosure and I was in need of another external.

Otherwise I would've selected the 320GB option.

 

I'm not sure about the 310m, but I'm pretty sure the 330m isn't (the one on the Z series is though, I believe). You can always overclock if you so wish though

 

1. Direct to a fax machine would require a phoneline connection from a modem. Someone may have some advice on an online outgoing fax service of some sort here, I just use free incoming efax. They send some spam, I dont care.
2.yes
3. If it fits and is rated for ~120W it will work. But I recommend a cheap plug adapter instead. Get a few from China/Hong kong for dirt cheap shipped to you.

 

Currently i'm searching for my F1190x: speaker cover replacement part.
Its grille's colour has worn due to cleaned with soft cloth and chemical liquid (forgot the name).
Has anyone know its part number? And any sources?
Done searching at servicesplus.us.sony.biz, has no result.
Guys, need your advise and help...

 

Small observation for Canadian orders of the F1290. The estimated due date on a CTO order is 07/05/10 until you upgrade the video card to a 330 and then it goes out to 07/27/10. Looks like the 330 cards are in short supply.

 

Yah well, for most of the F11's life GT330's weren't availalable in Canada at all. This is a vast improvement in availability, but I do think anyone ordering a Canadian CTO who wants the 330 should do so NOW!

 

I agree that there are some that slow down significantly once all sectors have been written once with data, SSDs that allow TRIM (all new models I have seen since released this year) are very fast, as are the Sandforce based SSDs.

The slower small file read and write speeds of many (actually MOST) SSDs is still relative. They may be slow when compared to the SSD large file sequential R/W, but they are still an order of magnatude faster than any spinning HDDs. For instance, my SSD has 4KB random R/W speeds of around 5.5MB/sec. This is much slower than my 240MB/sec. max read speeds and my 205MB/sec. max write speeds. My drive has the Indillinx Barefoot controller. The Sandforce controllers are much faster at small file R/W. HOWEVER, you need to look at it this way...a spinning HDD has a normal latency of 8-12 milliseconds just to find a place to begin writing the 4KB file, then would write it at perhaps .75-1MB/second speed. Total time to write the 4KB file would be somewhere around 12-16 milliseconds. In that time, given the average latency of my SSD of .2 milliseconds, my SSD could write the same 4KB file in a different location 12-16 times!!!

On paper and in graphs, SSD performance is shown as slow when reading or writing small files. However, when compared to HDDs, they REALLY fly with small files. This is where the misunderstanding seems to be, in my opinion. When writing a large, sequential file to a single location, SSDs can be up to three times as fast as the fastest laptop HDDs. But, when looking at normal, small file R/W, which is what we all generally do in our daily usage of our computers, the SSD will perform at least 10X faster!

This does not mean that your computer is 10X faster...after all, the hard drive is simply one part in the chain of events that occurs when you begin a command. But I will tell you that you can not believe how fast it is until you own an SSD.

My wife and my kids' computers are not equipped with SSDs and half of our church computers are older and do not have SSDs. There are times when I think there may be problems with them because they are so sluggish and unresponsive, but they are performing VERY well for their configuration.

I guess it is about the same feeling you get when you are used to 20Mbps/sec. download internet speeds and you go to somewhere where there is dial-up or slow satellite service with long latency.

Just my opinion.

Bill

 

Sorry, my response wasn't intended to provoke - I just felt that there was a lack of the (non-apparent) disadvantages of SSD's in this thread. Actually, this wasn't made clear enough by me, but most of my comments there were actually aimed towards cheap(er) low-capacity SSD's with sketchy controllers that may not perform as well as the higher-quality variants.

While it may seem like all SSD's are fast and great, this is not the case (all the animals may be equal, but the pigs are more equal than others, you get what I mean ). For those of you who may be eyeing a cheap-ish SSD in the hopes that you can just run your OS on it, you should just check a few things before you make that purchase. The third post down on this thread has a pretty good run-down on SSD's and some good brands: SSD drives and write speed, help required | ardour.

Anyhow, SSD's are developing very quickly, so I wouldn't be surprised to see these issues cleared up as technologies and storage algorithms are further developed.

But we digress

On a side note, anyone remember Gigabyte i-ram? That stuff was insane...

 

:\

This apply to anyone? I noticed my machine's fan translates more vibration and noise to the case when it's sitting level, than it does when the left side of the machine is lower than the right, greater than say.. 8 or 10 degrees or so.

I'm beginning to suspect my fan's out of balance!

And yes I do remember i-ram! lol

Also, our machines are very, very fast, I'd imagine that the hard drive is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the OEM config and a good X25m or equivalent will make it much faster.

 

Hi guys,

I've bought a vaio F11S1E 1 week and a half ago. Yesterday i notice a sound coming from the speakers. I was thinkins that it was the same sound that you have reported here, the mic sound. I've done the procedure but the sound keeps continously. Today i notice that touching in the "display off" button the sound goes away, and if i turn the display on, the sound comes again. So is this a display problem?

Anyone had this problem?

Thanks in advance