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

The most common cause of a BSOD in Win7 is hardware failure, nearly always system memory. Win7's Kernel is so well protected it's virtually impossible for an application error to collapse the GUI. Likewise a system freeze is even more likely to be bad memory, with a resource allocation error being a distant second possibility. Resource allocation problems CAN be caused by a device driver problem. MEMORY is what needs to be checked here. Run VAIO Care and/or Memtest 86+. However Redmolla might not be up to the intricacies of testing his memory. Gee fellows, this was all discussed just a few pages back!

 

Wow, that's really impressive. Your machine is one cool cucumber.

I wonder if the combination of a clean OS + the extra power of your 820QM CPU + the efficiency of your SSD is making minced meat of those tests & helping keeping your system so cool.

Congrats!

Compare your temps to:

105°C!

 

Ok I'm sorry for switching topics here but I'm in need for some help and these threads, including the posters have been amazing. I've been using Joe Bleu's(thanks so much for it) clean install with OEM discs and I've ran into some confusion.

I'm running an F12 model, a vpcf1290x to be exact and right after inserting disc 1 I cant find "Restore Complete System". I see "start recovery wizard" "tools" and "exit".

At fist I figured it was because he is on an F11 model and I'm on an F12, then I remembered I burned my OEDs on plain dvds, not dual layers, so I have four dvds instead of two, could this be the reason why?

Oh and btw, this thread along with all the rest are epic beyond belief, this community stands taller than any other forum.

 

Well, thanks for the compliment.

Do you have a CTO & ordered extra software? If not, you should have only 2 DVD recovery discs. Good quality single layer is fine, some say better, than double layer DVD for the recovery discs.

If you are doing a clean install using the OEM recovery discs, insert disc #1, reboot, when VAIO_logo appears press F2 > BIOS > boot from optical drive first > reboot and do you have the option to restore complete system once in the ""start recovery wizard"?

If you can, take a photo of all the different screens that will appear during the process as they go too fast to write down. I am curious of the differences vs. the_F11 recovery process and if the line between the OS & the fluff is the same.

 

You should, Joe. Unless they changed the way the F11 disks do it, there's an option to nuke the hard drive and make the computer exactly as it was when you bought it (with the OS/software restore partition and all), but it takes about 2 hours to do.

Edit: OH I see what's going on now. Hrmm.. weird.

 

I'll get on it. As far as the discs go, I paid for no additional software, as far as I know the only software I was forced to accept at sonystyles.com was norton and adobe elements.

 

No, it does not take 2 hours. Follow link in my sig below. Looking at the time stamp of my photo #1 starting the process to the Windows regional settings it took 1h21min.

Besides, if one is clean installing on the OEM HDD, one can only restore C w/o touching the OEM recovery partition for an even faster process.

 

Then something is fishy, I'm not sure about the_F12 but you should have only 2 Recovery Discs DVD's. To be on the safe side, burn a new set & make sure to select verify before touching your HDD. esupport: How to create a set of Recovery Discs:

Maybe a F12 owner could confirm the number of recovery discs?

Edit: maybe you inserted the System Repair disc by mistake?

 

I cant load all the pics to the site, I'm guessing cuz I'm a newbie? I had to post the on photobucket.

I start off at bios

Then as soon as I save like you said in your guide, it forces me to reboot. After that, I get this. I choose "start vaio care rescue"(possible wrong choice?)


Eventually takes me to this menu.

If I start wizard I get this.

If I skip

 

All is OK, select Yes, Im Sure but check my comment above about your 4 ? recovery discs.

Sorry, I have to go, will not be able to reply untill 12 hours from now.

 

I'm almost certain these are recovery discs. I made a video on the route I took to make them, I'll post it in the morning. If "repair" disc is what I think it is, then mine is only one disc. I don't want to hit the yes button unless I'm positive that's the route =/.

 

Is it me or the annoying whistle fan noise almost disappeared after the BIOS update? Maybe because the fan works more now, in higher speeds (which personally I don't find as irritating)?

F11, EU version, i720q, 500 GB 5400

 

all players,like kmplayer, have issues in fullscreen playback with sony 32" full hd
any idea?

 

Players like VLC and KM don't use hardware acceleration but you can tinker with KM to use DXVA.

See this guide or many others via google.

 

i know that but still...

 

Joe,

I read this post and there is one thing I should be clear about...I did run both of those stress tests together, but with the Everest test, I did not run the disk stress. I did not know how that test worked and I did not want to harm my SSD by performing any unneccessary writes to it. I will also say that I highly doubt that the addition of the disk test on my SSD would have had any significant effect on the temps I saw. Scientifically, I know I should not make this statement because I did not test it, but logically, we know that SSDs run cooler than HDDs and I also know from past experience that my external "power over eSATA" enclosure gets quite warm with an HDD installed but seemed cool to the touch with an SSD installed and running.

Bill

 

Joe,

Upon further review, I performed the double test again. The first time, I started the GPU test, then minimized it. The Everest program showed it running and showed the heat rising, so I figured the GPU was still being stressed.

This morning, after a decent night's sleep, I thought that perhaps the GPU test needed to be on the screen in order to truly test tax the GPU. I re-ran the tests. My fan is now much higher and my total heat went up. This was done completely on the flat oak table. I was quite nervous about the temps, as my machine never gets warm under use, so I was stressing also!





With the cooler in place, I would expect these temps to be 3-5C cooler and the fan to be 200-400 RPM less. I do not think I want to test my "baby" like this again!

Bill

 

interesting, how do you go about the bios update ? link please.

 

But still what?
You know why it happens, you know how to fix it. What else do you wish to know?

 

You will find it on your Sony Support site along with a link to see if you need it or not.

 

Here's the route I took on my F12 to make 'recovery' discs. Can anyone confirm that is the correct way to create these discs?

YouTube - vaio recovery discs.MOV

 

Hello,

I have Vaio F with the non-HD monitor and the weaker of the two video cards (512 mb RAM, I guess). Would that still be sufficient for using an external monitor such as this LED HD 24" one:

24? High Performance LCD Monitor with LED Backlight BX2450 - Business - Monitors | SAMSUNG

Thank you
Emma

 

So, I just pulled the trigger on purchasing a new F12. I'm pretty excited, save for the estimated wait time for shipping. (Maybe I shoulda ordered the Gray?)

Anyway, I have a question for those fellow Canadians that ordered their F12 from the CTO site. Does the backlit keyboard come with the french labels already attached? I know that the retail model at Bestbuy had the French keys pre-printed, but my hope is that isn't the case if ordered online. Much appreciated!

 

yes it would

 

The 310M will have a maximum digital resolution of 2560x1600 on an external monitor. The Samsung monitor listed above has a max resolution of 1920x1080. You should get a pretty good image, especially if you connect via HDMI.

 

on the laptop screen everything is just fine,on the tv is the issue only with full screen


with mpc-hc,vlc,kmplayer

 

couldn't pm you so I have to ask here: when is your estimated shipping? what's your configuration?

 

No, if you bought a CTO off ss.ca it will be English only. It will not be a bilingual keyboard. One of the reasons why I wanted to go the CTO route. CTO's are all built in the US so they don't have bilingual keyboards.

The preconfigured models all have bilingual, unless you go to a SonyStyle store and purchase a "higher end" model.

The bilingual keyboard is ugly IMO, who wants lime green and pink on their keyboard? Yuck! Also, the "Enter" key is that weird "L" shape on the bilingual and also some keys are a different shape/size.

When is your shipping day???

 

Mine was flagged as needing it so I updated. The idling fan is now louder than it was before perhaps somewhat predictably

Is it possible to roll back a BIOS ?

 

You are right, no point of stressing SSD. I did not run the HDD stress either, that is not the point of this CPU + GPU @ the max temperature test, it is to spot "...possible stability or cooling issues" if any and to gather data about the F fan which we never had until now.

Actually Everest says that their standalone HDD Benchmark Utility will erase data during some write tests. I prefer using HD Tune to check HDD read performances & health and surely there are better specialized utilities to test SSD's.

Don't worry, your machine is designed to handle heavy work loads sitting flat on a desk and in warmer climates than you a/c house.

Your temperatures are way below the max operating temperatures and also way below the temps reported for the_XPS, Envy_&_MacBook Pro, just to name a few.

FYI: i7-720QM Processor max temp: 100c (212F) in specs here (same as 820QM) and 105c for the GT 330 (could not find max temp in the specs for the GT 330M here but did not search for a data sheet).

Now that you have a test w/ & w/o your laptop cooler, the next one could be with the back of the laptop propped up 2cm like I do, w/o the cooler. That would be a way of testing the value of the cooler. But hey, I understand if you would not feel like doing it.

Stress tests are a good thing to see if your system is OK, by system I mean the software/drivers/settings/hardware combination.

Anyway, thanks for reporting & re-doing the test. While a tad hotter, it's still quite cool compared to other brands with similar hardware configurations & OS.

*****

 

No, you can't roll back a BIOS flashing.

Nobody reported a noisier fan after the update except you so far. Are you sure it's not your imagination or the machine was in used so already hot, especially after the updating task?

It's a pity you did not read in this thread about Everest v5.50 reporting the F's actual real time fan speed. You could have ran it before & after the BIOS update & have real data to support your statement. Go back about 7pages & read our reports.

According to all my tests, the BIOS update changed nothing to the operating temperatures. That was not the point of that update.

My take on it: VAIO_F Series Recall Bios Update Tests - F11_VPCF.

*****

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by egemenbor
so because the laptops screen displays 1920x1080 i cant get 1920x1200 on my external (even though its capable of displaying that resolution)

edit: i think the wording might have been incorrect in my original post..basically can i get 1920x1200 on my external display via the hdmi port on the laptop?

I'm having trouble connecting my vaio-z12 to my Eizo (1920x1200) via HDMI-DVI. There is no signal despite the computer recognizing the screen. It works fine VGA-VGA. Any Ideas?

 

There's another set of times somewhere. When I said 7pm, I was going by those times. As of now, based on the your calling experiences, I would have to say they are more accurate than the info you pasted above it seems.

Did you try today yet?

 

Joe,

I know what the thermal design is for the processor and GPU, but I really don't care if I am 25C below the number. The fact is, heat is the nemisis of electronics. It has been said that each 10C that an electronics device can be cooled will result in a doubling of expected lifetime of the device. I would rather not stress this machine TOO much!

Also, I would guess that my first test would have been close to the second test in temperature had I not put the cooler back under it. I watched it cool down after adding the cooler. My guess is that the cooler makes a 3-5C difference in internal temps, which is quite significant. It also lowers the fan speed quite a bit, making everything quieter. The cooler fans are very close to silent, so the reduction of F11 fan speed by 200-400 RPM is quite significant in overall noise.

Again, thanks for the program. It has been useful in showing me that the F11 design is not only safe, but is most likely superior to most, if not all current laptop designs. The Asus G73 was my top choise until I actually tried the F11. I gave up a better video card and a larger, and perhaps better screen. I thought I gave up superior cooling, but now, I am fairly certain that the F11 actually cools BETTER, despite having less venting than the G73. Its internal flow must be really well designed.

Bill

 

Yes, that's correct. A shorter path is: Vaio_F12 > ASSIST > VAIO_Care > Recovery > Create Recovery Media.

I'm surprised to see confirmed by your video that the_F12 needs 4 DVD's for a complete set of Recovery Discs, it's only 2 for the_F11 unless one bought extra software with a CTO. Maybe it's because the Office 2010 Starter + the Adobe Suite bundle?



From Sony_F12 esupport: How to create a set of Recovery Discs:

 

My ship date is currently at July 27th

Configuration:

* Adobe Creative Bundle
* Intel® Core™ Quad i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz)
* 16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) Full HD
* NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
* Keyboard Backlight
* Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
* 320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
* Blu-ray Disc™ Read and Write Drive
* Large Capacity Battery
* Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
* No Fresh Start™
* Black
* No Engraving
* Microsoft Windows® 7 Ultimate
* 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333

I also ordered a 80GB Intel x25-m SSD from NCIX.com before the HST kicked in, so I'll be tossing that in there as well.

Glad to hear that the pre-printed French keys will not be on my laptop. That makes me much happier now. I agree that the pink and lime labels are ugly.

 

You are a girl, I'm a boy... what's wrong with pink & lime?

 

Joe,

Call me confused. I just re-ran the test without the cooler, but using your engineer's scale instead. The environment is exactly the same as it was...my house is the same internal temp. The location is identical. The table is the same. The only difference is that this time I used the rule instead of the cooler or a flat surface.

Now the shocking surprise...this test was the WARMEST!!

I never would have thought this. The incline HAS to be cooler than the flat surface, right?

Here they are:





I don't understand it. The only guess I have is that the intakes are low on the machine so perhaps the incline somehow interferes compared to flat.

My cooler lifts the entire machine about 2CM at the bottom and perhaps 8CM at the top, plus I have the fans located directly under the intake vents, so I understand how that helps. I do not understand how I gained temps using the rule when compared to flat. Strange. Perhaps I could try this 10 more times with the opposite result each time!

Bill

 

Bill,

I agree with everything you wrote.

"It has been said that each 10C that an electronics device can be cooled will result in a doubling of expected lifetime of the device" - Yes, that why so many of the new MacBook_Pro 17 & Envy_owners are worried about their laptops life expectancy as you can read in their threads.

Propping the back of the laptop also reduces the F's fan work but probably not as much as your laptop cooler. That's why I was curious about a test about it.

If I would live near a big box store, I would get a cooler like yours just to try it & use at home. What brand & model is it? Coolmaster if I remember right? On the road, I stick by my lightweight & compact triangular ruler.

 

Oh no, now I have to run 2 tests again. With vs. w/o the back propped 2 cm. Too busy to do it today.

I checked the air intakes with the smoke of a lit cigarette & they are all over the place except from the keyboard & speakers cover & are not affected in any way by the slight inclination.

Professor, my guess is that there is an other variable in your amateur laptop scientist test.

Edit: what settings did you use exactly for FurMark? I would like to reproduce your test.

 

Joe,

Here you go:

Cooler Master U2 Laptop Cooler at Amazon

You can remove the fans and place the laptop INSIDE the bottom of the cooler. I have the Vaio neoprene sleeve to protect the machine, then put the cooler over it.

I have bought 8 of these coolers. Wouldn't you know it...my WIFE gets the one that has a defective (noisy) fan. Yup, the ONLY person who would really complain, and boy, do I hear it!

I emailed CoolerMaster Friday and I hope that they send me a replacement fan.

 

*A disgruntled Customer*

Ordered a vaio PC from sonystyle.ca about 2 weeks ago. To my great surprise, it arrived today. Checking the dxdiag i found out that the 330m 1gb video card that I ordered was in fact only a 512 330m. So i call sonystyle (after about 40 minutes of terrible looping around trying to find the right person to talk to, i end up talking to some lady that informs me they have to "check" my order first ( a verification process) before she can return my customized computer (to see that im not lying) which she informed me can take a couple of days.

I'm thinking to myself, why doesn't this ***** just check herself? is sony that terrible that they do not give their customer service farts enough tools to help a customer out? instead im forced to "wait" a few days befoer they can figure it out?

this is terrible terrible service. Not only did they mess up my order, but the process of fixing this mistake is cumbersome to say the least.

 

Nothing is wrong with pink and lime, I just don't care to have those colours on my laptop.

Just because I'm a girl does not mean I have to like pink

 

Here you go: After 8-10 minutes, I have not seen a real change in my readings, so this one I cut short at 12 minutes. With cooler:



It looks to me like this cooler reduces temps by 4-5C. The coolers I used to purchase were kind of the same design, but the fans were in fixed locations and the coolers were not as high. This seems to work better than the old ones we used. All coolers will not perform the same. Joe knows this, but others here may not. I have tried some horrendous "coolers" and others that worked quite well. This has been the best I have used, and it costs less than all but one I have tried!

 

That is no fun. I am not sure if you live in Toronto or willing to pay long distance but here are the contact #'s I use.

Tel: 1-888-289-7669 or 416-499-1414 opt.4

Calling toll-free is a pain in the butt. You get to talk to a real person much quicker if you use the local number. Another tip for any 800 number you call, mash the zero button and you'll normally get sent to a real person right away tee hee. It's all about persistence. You just need to be patient and keep your composure, if they did in fact mess up your order, they will fix it. They will be much more willing to help you if you try to be nice to them. At least now you have some ammo to use if you want to ask for a discount or free accessory for your troubles.

When was your estimated shipping day supposed to be?

In Sony's defense, I am sure they are all very very busy with so many orders for the F12 because they ran out of F11's early, plus this so called "recall" thing I'm sure they are just being bombarded with other disgruntled customers. In the mean time, just play around with the Vaio they sent you and enjoy it while you have it.

 

The only difference between my order made on June 30th and yours made now, is that I opted for the 500 GB 7200 rpm HDD. My shipping date is Aug 10! Did you happen to order a gray one?

 

It says in the order he posted...black.

I think they must have gotten a fresh shipment of parts because right now if you order black or grey they both have the estimated shipping date of JULY 27th.

Cross your fingers...maybe you will get yours earlier than the quoted August 10th!

 

I don't see any video memory size info in dxdiag.

Did you try > right-click desktop > Nvidia Control Panel & at the very bottom left: System Information?

Are you saying you got a GT 330M with only 512MB or is it a GT 3 10M with 512 MB?

 

oops missed that!

Yeah I just tried to re-configure mine and it came out as July 27, a whole two weeks earlier. Hope this means mine comes out sooner despite the rep saying it doesn't happen.

What would suck is if they forget to change the date for mine and I still end up getting it shipped Aug 10

 

"You can remove the fans and place the laptop INSIDE the bottom of the cooler. I have the Vaio_neoprene sleeve to protect the machine, then put the cooler over it." - That sounds cool, some photos about how you do it would be great.

OTOH in this review they say it weighs 1.3 lbs - 590 gr and include some temperatures w/o vs, w/ the cooler.

I live in Costa Rica, Amazon_does not ship here but thanks for the link anyway.