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

The procedure was to press the "insert" key immediately after pressing power on, then holding the insert key until the VGA boot screen appears then pressing delete or F2. But the F seems to be the first Pentium-class computer I've encountered not to have this undocumented soft reset.

Things can happen during a BIOS flash besides user stupidity, so I would guess Sony is prepared to support a flash failure if the attempt was prompted by a manufacturer recommendation.

No, a battery reset, or soft reset if it existed, won't help.

 

Check this post: VAIO F_Series 1080p: Text & OS Size Scaling.

Are you saying the text in the web pages is too small or the Chrome UI is too small and nothing else is on your computer? Try Ctrl + and Ctrl -, or go to Chrome support or forums.

Could you tell us the model number printed on your AC adapter please? (first line, top right VGP_...)

 

PureVideo HD FAQ


Q. Do I need the PureVideo Decoder to play movies with PureVideo?
No. Any compatible third-party software movie player can use the PureVideo technology on the GPU. For Blu-ray and HD DVD playback, you need a PureVideo HD compliant movie player from vendors like CyberLink, Intervideo and Arcsoft.

 

stupid question but is it better to have 2 sticks of ram the same size than having two sticks of different sizes i.e. 2gb 2gb > 3gb 1gb (for example)

 

There's no bandwidth disadvantage with laptop DDR3 in using a 2 gig and a 4 gig stick to get 6 Gig.

 

I am just stabbing in the dark here as I never messed up a BIOS update so never had to research the subject but when producing a html report with the free standalone SIW 2010 utility (System Information for Windows) & searching it with: BIOS, I find some stuff like > BIOS > Characteristics > enables "bios shadowing" and also: "Microsoft System Management BIOS Driver" > "ROOT\mssmbios", etc.

Note also that the VAIO_F11 BIOS update runs while in Windows.

Hence the possibility that with booting from a CD in a Windows Recovery Environment, some things could be done, maybe?

 

The adapter they give is the VGP-AC19V45

 

Aha! Bragging time as my speculation was right on the money & the Sonystyle page is wrong as posted here: VAIO F_Series Smaller A/C Adapter.

So this means: F12_owners, check your AC adapter model # as maybe you have the bigger & heavier VGP-AC19V15 or the VGP-AC19V16 outside North America.

Luck of the draw depending on_Sony's available adapters?

Since they never promised that you would get the smaller one, I don't think that one may claim a replacement if not defective.

Thanks for the info Impulse14. Any other F12_owners that could report on their brick model number?

 

Thx Joe, I'll try it the next days and let you guys know if there is anything special to consider.

I got mine from here: SONY VPC-F11M1EH Series Keyboard US Backlit Black Frame on eBay (end time 31-Jul-10 10:18:33 BST)

Same price. But shipping took 2 weeks.

 

I received my Vaio today.

Ac adapter model is VGP-AC19V45

 

I have to say, to those who had bad screens you're just unlucky. My screen is awesome, i stared at a black screen long and hard for a light bleed and i have no excessive issue, just the normal bleed at the bottom of the screen nothing noticeable (assuming the middle of your taskbar should be lighter than the left and right ends?) Gunna go back and delete bloatware later, I'm loving this keyboard haha.

Can someone link how to make the backlit stay on or is that not possible yet? I know taping it is one solution. Also, im installing a game right now and for some odd reason the drive is now making this noise, like it's vibrating against something, depending on how the laptop is resting when i nudge the drive in or just hold it a little it quiets down it seems this normal?

 

taping it is the only solution unfortunately..however what i'd like to know is how much does leaving the back light on affect battery life.

 

Not to rehash the topic, and no offense but I thought the calibration profiles pointed out the flaws in the LCD even more lol. Sure, it's nice to see a picture that's closer to 'photographically correct', but when you see a bronze "computer" icon at the top left it kinda throws things off you know?

Oh well. I'm not worrying about it that much since the photoshop work I'm doing on my laptop isn't color critical and can be corrected when I'm using my desktop anyway. The big reason I purchased the Vaio F was to play with 3D rendering and doing good ole' C++/C# work (and of course, PHP/CSS/HTML work).

To those who *are* doing color critical work, my recommendation is to either badger sony about that Adobe RGB screen or buy another computer. Yes... my official recommendation to those who cares about color is to not buy the Vaio F because they can probably afford a w701 or macbook pro or something of the sort.

PS: I emailed Sony about the Adobe RGB screen and they blew me off. I plan on escalating it until I get an answer from somebody that knows something, but I doubt I'll be hearing from them since they're a very screwed up company (IMHO).

 

Have someone tried a powerpack to power the F12 laptop to gain extra running time? How many more hours would you gain on the following product?

http://www.tekkeon.com/downloads/dtasht_MP3750.pdf

 

Ha. So some of us in Canada are getting the correct V45 and others who are unlucky are getting the V15. Gotta love randomness. Already made in store configs fine, but no CTOs should be shipping with outdated power bricks.

 

Try tilting your screen back a touch farther and the light bleed at the bottom may just disappear!

 

could be a supplier/distributor issue. Sometimes it's these small things that slip through the cracks.

 

"...I thought the calibration profiles pointed out the flaws in the LCD even more lol..." - False as a colorimeter measures the true output of the display and the companion software adjust the monitor profile accordingly thus creating a custom profile taking in account your specific hardware/software system's characteristics.



"...To those who *are* doing color critical work, my recommendation is to either badger_sony about that Adobe RGB screen or buy another computer" - False. slrosenfeld, MelodyMaster, Willscary, I and several others reported doing color critical work, reported that the F's displays are color accurate after monitor calibration as well as sharp with properly saturated & contrasty colors.

Don't confuse light bleed & narrow viewing angle reported by some unlucky users with color accuracy, saturation and sharpness. A display could have zero light bleed & a wide viewing angle & be fuzzy with skewed colors.

When you are surfing the web, everything your are seeing is within the sRGB color space as this is what your browser is using and it does not matter on which monitor you are viewing it and what color space it can cover. The Adobe RGB color space is useful for high quality printers on high quality photographic media which most of you don't have anyway. Look at the matte paper color space below. That's all the color space it can reproduce, that's it. Period.

Maybe you could take a few minutes to read this article to which several of us F owners contributed to with our custom monitor color profiles: Vaio F_Series Monitor Calibration and Users Created Profiles Roundup. It includes info about color space & some educative links.

Looking at this photo that you posted previously, it seems obvious that you don't care about monitor calibration & color accuracy as one of your monitor is more yellow while the other has a blueish cast. They should be all the same after calibration, not depending on whatever hardware, OS & software combination is feeding them:



A good read: Monitor Calibration: Who needs it?

*****

 

haha yeah it does, im still playing with it though more often the top gets too dark i dont notice it at all when im doing things though only in pitch black screens.

 

I had disabled the microphone to make some tests and know i cannot find a way to enable the microphone again! grrr

Any ideas ?
Thanks!

 

Seems like vaio update 5 is still screwed up mine updated and now it tells me it's not working/responding and windows has to turn it off

 

First uninstall all existing versions of Vaio Update.
Then manually install the latest version (5.1.1.04090).
That solved the problem for me.

 

Using Chrome I cant go back and forward using the two finger "flick navigation" touchpad gesture. Ihave it checked in the touchpad properties. The flick navigation works in Firefox and IE however. Is anyone else having this problem or is it just me? the zoom function works though. Maybe I should reinstall the driver?

 

That's all you have to say about your new machine?

 

Thanks for the pointer Gandalf_The_Grey , that Vaio_Update version 5.1.1.06090 is brand new: 2010-07-09. As you pointed out:

I would add: reboot after uninstalling the older version whatever number it is before installing the new version. It cleans up stuff, does not break anything and the F reboots fast anyway.

 

Well, since you asked, Joe, overall, I'm very satisfied with the F115FM. I've had it since February. It's fast and CS5 runs great on it. The few games I've played like Mass Effect 2 look great and run smoothly with slightly reduced settings. Though I don't play games that often.

I had the buzzing mic issue but fixed that quickly. However, I also have the high pitched whistle sound that some have reported. It's not in our heads- we're not hearing things! But I liked the machine so much that I was able to live with it. After doing the bios update surprisingly the whistling became less pronounced and happened less often. So that made me beaucoup happy!

I had the squeaky space bar but fixed it too.

My screen seems ok. There is some light bleed from the bottom but it's not excessive in my opinion. After turning off the auto dimming and using a color profile posted here (thanks a lot for this!) I'm happy with the display. it could be a little brighter though. I updated the drivers from Nvidia's site (the Verde 256 drivers) and have had no problems.

It really is a great laptop for the price and features offered.

 

which color profile do you guys recommend for the us screen, there's 2 from these forums right?

 

Hi go to
Start -> Control Panel -> click on "Hardware and sound"
Click on Manage Audio Devices under sound. You should be able to find the microphone under Recording tab

 

That's funny, I also have a VPCF115FM since February & could write almost exactly the same feedback as you, including that the fan seems to whistle less often after the BIOS update when going through the rpm change gamut.

About Chrome & gestures, I dunno the answer but I just downloaded the F12's Alps touchpad driver & will try it in a few minutes as our OEM's is older: 12/18/2009 7.105.505.304 vs. this VPCF126FM's Alps: 06/08/2010 7.105.529.104. I find mine a touch too sensitive.

My procedure:

- Create restore point
- Uninstall old driver
- Reboot & install new one
- Report in a few days.

I also installed a week ago the F12's Intel SATA AHCI Controller Driver and the WebCam Companion 3 3.0.21.278 which has a few more features that my 8 year old daughter likes.

So far so good.

 

Much more than 2. Go back one page & read & follow link about monitor profiles.

 

Update on my screen issue, Sony have said 'all screens on that model are similar' and it is 'not a fault.' They have, after some arguing, decided to replace my VPCF12M0E with a vpcf12s1e/B - which is the extra RAM and screen upgrade.

I was told had I said I was looking to use the machine to edit photographs they would never have sold me it; their press pack apparently states it is not suitable for such use. Even at it's best, the contrast ratio is an absolutely measly 180:1

It is their 'VAIO screen' for 'home media use' and is not suitable for 'professional applications.'

I have the whole slightly surreal episode recorded and it makes for fascinating listening!

Their defence of their 'no refund' approach was pretty much 'we know its poor quality, but you should have checked that in the shop before purchasing. There are plenty of configured machines with appropriate screens.'

Just tragic. Deeply tragic.

Anyway, the whole thing is sorted now. Should get my replacement in around 7 days.

For final reference, here is the screen as seen dead centre in it's "sweet spot"

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7955/photo1bk.jpg

The shot is exposed based on the central point of the grayscale. The whites will always look blasted out in a shot like this as the backlit display gives a dynamic range you just can't capture on a CMOS sensor. That's the reason all those pirated-in-the-cinema movies always have a darkness / brightness problem.

I digress.

As you can see, much of the bottom third of the screen appears somewhere on the middle of the scale. Any, and I mean ANY slight up / down deviation and you get an image like the ones I posted previously, with that truly awful, nauseating brightness gradient. The problem is much more pronounced in reality, as slight head movements cause different areas of the screen to show different shades of blue or white , instead of black. This really is an "at it's best" shot.

In real world useage? Just try watching a movie on that thing. Not only is the bottom "black bar" gray, but any slight movement in your chair and you need to get up and re-adjust the screen pitch to prevent a complete washout.

The screen on the replacement unit does look GREAT though, I must say. It's just a complete mystery why Sony feel a display like this is acceptable on a £1100 ($1600) laptop bought in 2010.

My Dell 1920 x 1200 screen remains the best screen I have seen on a laptop, and that was bought in 2007.

 

Joe trust me, the profiles screw up this LCD even more. It's a cheap 8 bit TN panel man, what do you expect?!

You even posted about 6 or 7 color profiles of your own, and they all compromise color accuracy in one way or another across the spectrum. Some were too red, some were too blue..

 

How about: right-click speaker icon near clock > Recording devices? Or left click speaker icon > Mic > un-mute?

 

Good for you, the EU 1080p Premium matte has a much bigger proportion of "awesome" votes in the F's owner's display poll. Hopefully you will report about your new screen.

"... Just tragic. Deeply tragic" - Everything is relative. Go to Google News & search for Haiti or Gulf of Mexico (hurricane season is coming). That's my definition of "tragic".

*****

 

Your experience contradicts everyone elses, including mine.

 

Run calibration software such as Spider 3, or go into Nvidia settings and adjust contrast and brightness to between 42 to 46 while watching the greyscale. Either way you can get a proper range with no black or white clipping.

The screen is badly set up from the factory, it can be adjusted by the user to look decent and present proper greys and colorimetry.

 

I'm still saying I think the color profiles are wrong.

But that's just me, sorry *hides*

 

Everything is relative...

How can you determine that "the color profiles are wrong" Dr. Watson? With your guessometer?

Personally, I use a $70 physical color accurate X-Rite chart properly lit next to my monitor that I calibrated with a $200 colorimeter (it's not about the cost, it's about the tools):

 

I see a lacie CRT (which is probably a rebranded Diamondtron), not a Vaio F series sitting there. Also, you're forgetting to mention that you're calibrating for the chart, using your eyes. In that case, it's somewhat possible that you can get 24 colors to match pretty well.... at the proper viewing angle anyway. This screen has a lot of color shifting so I can't even see how you'd be able to reliably do that and not be within 20-30 shades of the color.


What I mean by that - for example, is the blues used on this forum are a different shade from the top of my window to the bottom due to the tight viewing angle.

Anyway, what I was saying is that it may be fully possible to calibrate against a certain # of colors, but you're compromising. This screen is a fairly low end TN screen (albeit, at 1920x1080!)

What I was saying was that when I used the color profiles shown here (and when I tried to calibrate myself), the colors were accurate for some things and very wrong for others. The spyder calibration profile, for example, made things much too warm.

Joe and Melody I'm not trying to say you don't know what you're doing or it's not possible, I'm just saying that those efforts may not yield the results you want, and generally because of the *extremely* tight vertical viewing angle of the Vaio F's US 1080p screen, I would never recommend it for those doing color critical work.

And I'll stand by that statement.

 

No, you are missing the point completely. It's the colorimeter + it's software that is creating the custom profile so the monitor outputs true colors. The point is to take the viewer's subjectivity out of the equation.

The chart next to the monitor is just for fun, to check, I use it to make a reference photo on a shoot. It's a measuring stick. I will try to make one with the F next to the chart, it will take a couple of days as I'm currently working on a big project.

"it's somewhat possible that you can get 24 colors to match pretty well" - All the pros are working with similar charts. They did not choose these 24 colors out of thin air. If you can match these 24 colors, your are in fact matching millions of colors. Check the user reviews on bhphotovideo.com about the X-Rite Original ColorChecker Card. This said, you don't need that chart, just a colorimeter if you want all the computers in your house to have similar color outputs. You can also use it on other computers, family & friends as Willscary did & reported here.

Now if you are using one of the profiles that we created for our specific systems (there are variations even between identical machines, they are not perfect twins), YMMV but if you would load one as well as an electronic version of the chart (included with my profiles) on the desktop and hold the exact same physical chart next to your monitor then you could evaluate the color accuracy of the monitor profile but naturally it would not be as good and impartial as using a colorimeter.

My monitor is calibrated as well as the monitor of the owner of a travel website living currently in Seattle. When I send him a photo of a Costa Rican hotel or eco-tour or wildlife, he opens it on his monitor and sees exactly the same colors as I do here, thousands of kilometers away. We are both talking about apples.

Besides, if your monitor colors are skewed, all the tweaking you are doing with Photoshop or whatever is a waste of time as your photo will never look the same on a calibrated monitor.

It's better to have a cheap calibrated monitor than a skewed expensive one. I'm talking about photography & video editing here, not about playing games.

A volcano photo I shot from a lookout situated 10 km from my house:

 

Again, the colorimeter is only testing the colors it tests. If he calibrates with 1 brand of meter and you calibrate with another, it's coming out differently AND

I bet you don't stare at your screen dead-center with your eyes 1cm from the surface like your colorimeter does AND

Because the colorimeter + calibration software only checks certain schemes/colors, it's only calibrating on a certain basis, not the entire RGB spectrum, and again even if it DID...

The Vaio F's screen has such a narrow viewing angle and inversion problems that you would lose all calibration the second you moved your head 1" to the right.

THAT is my complaint.

 

A good read: Monitor Calibration: Who needs it?

"The Vaio_F's screen..." - You mean your uncalibrated screen. Luck of the draw I guess or... check F11_downers display poll (162 votes) and the Poll: What is your opinion about your VAIO_F12 Display? (9 votes). The only_F12 subpar vote so far is by metril who is an Envy_17 owner waiting for his third replacement. See his post here about his unlucky adventure.

Whatever caveat a colorimeter has, it beats your guessometer by about a trillion km's IMO.

 

Thanks so much for such a clear guide. I've been interested in a "clean install", but very hesitant due to my lack of knowledge. Your guide will be very helpful once I've got a backup drive for all of my data.

Thanks!!!

 

To clarify my statement, I ran proper calibrations for the gray-scale, and all the points are equal distant, with white very white, and black as black as the screen gets. All I was stating, was that for the point of the photograph the CMOS won't be able to represent a 180:1 contrast ratio on a single exposure - that's HDR territory.

The real issue with this screen is the light bleed at the bottom, which is very very distracting.

A secondary issue is the lack of contrast. It's very poor overall.

Colours are also very weak.

Finally, if you move your head EVEN A TINY AMOUNT the whole screen gets a light gray "wash" and is just terrible to look at.

I am talking about the xxxF12M0E screen (non pro-grade, gloss) bought in the EU. Compared to all the others I could find a sample of, it is about the same. There is no calibration that prevents THIS amount of light leakage.

Once I get the new machine, I will post some more images. It seems EU buyers need to pay at least £1300 to get this screen, and I strongly believe any potential buyer should be aware of the huge limitations.

When a free laptop, given away with mobile broadband, has a better screen than a premium media laptop, there is an issue.

 

@Joe

It was you that somewhere in this group of threads posted a link to a website that makes a review of antivirus software ?

I need to choose a new one

Thanks

 

Our own forum can help you

http://forum.notebookreview.com/security-anti-virus-software/190538-best-free-security-software.html

One of the companies that perform antivirus testing:

AV-Comparatives - Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software - Welcome to AV-Comparatives.org

 

Thanks!!!

 

I've read after clean install @ E series you can't use touchpad/multitouch, fn buttons and quick web launcher any more.
Has he done something wrong during the install, is it because it's E series?

 

I was going on the assumption he was intelligent enough to have tried the obvious!!

 

They all work fine after a clean install. Whoever it is, they just haven't installed the drivers/software needed for them to work.