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

For what it's worth i've been playing WoW and SC2 Beta on my comp and the fans been doing great laptop stays cool everywhere.

Do you have the fan set to high performance thermal cooling?

 

Good for you, that is what i wished for. My thermal control is already at high performance.

 

Yes, the fan speed changes and the rpm reported in Everest may be skewed by the continuous key press but it is of no consequences because the F never overheats contrary to other i7 laptops. Get it?

I suggested to you in a previous post some free utilities to log & report CPU & GPU temperatures: VAIO F_Series Temperatures when Gaming?

Here is an example from the Envy_17 owner's thread: overheating and CPU throttling which no F owner ever reported here:

 

It is overheating... 80+ deg and going higher. I am not going to show you how high it goes just for your curiosity kicks.

While it is not heating to the point of failure, it is not supposed to behave that way. The heat emitted from the keyboard can be very annoying and i can't game at ease. Get it?

 

Show me some temperature data & some screen captures.

You don't read posts so I wonder why the heck I bother replying to you. Above, a Envy_17 reports 97c for his GPU so what is your "80+" compared to that? If you say that yours is "overheating" then his is melting? Everything is relative.

Besides, what are you talking about? CPU or GPU?

 

Why don't you call it in for service. This is obviously a problem as you say but I don't think your problem is standard for all units.

I game on this laptop (Grid, Crysis, Spinter Cell Conviction etc) and I have left this laptop alone for 3ds max renderings that have gone over 20+ hours. While I have reached temps in the low 90's after very prolonged CPU and GPU use at max capacity, I have never experienced my keyboard or computer feeling hot overall. My fan also do not exhibit slowdowns during gaming. In fact, I pretty much use headphones because the sound of air venting out is distracting when gaming.

EDIT: I have to say though that the day I benchmarked my laptop and got those high temps we were experiencing 37-38 degree celcius weather in NYC.

 

I read your posts and i have those tools ages ago, but was thinking how to show it to you so you can see the differences with keys pressed. And i hope you can stop comparing with the Envy_17 users, they are experiencing heating issues from other causes. What i am unhappy with is the poor fan speed control or fan slowing down bug.

The laptop shouldn't allow it to heat to 80C and then gives burst of high rpm to cool it below 80C and repeats. It should instead spin at a constant speed depending on the temp. It is the slowing down of fan causing it to happen.

It will not be a problem for daily tasks, however this issue discourage me to game.

I have attached a simple screen shot. Both CPU and GPU load were ramped up and with a key pressed. It won't even go near 80C if the fan don't slow down.

Keyboard area right above the fan gets warm very fast when i do that just within few minutes time.

 

I joined this forum weeks ago and my F12 arrived about a week ago. Just reporting in that mine still has the problem inherited from the F11s.

Yes i have already notified my local Sony support and hopefully a bios fix can resolve it. But it seems like you guys don't need a fix.

 

post deleted

 

Oddest thing just happened...playing game...and about 30 minutes later the fan was really loud...and then completely went silent, then it slowly built up again and stayed loud again...so strange that it like .. went off for a few seconds.

 

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From what I've been observing, Microsoft has intentionally capped non-SSD hard drive scores at 5.9, so even if you were to run 4x drives in RAID0, you'd still get 5.9.

The WEI tests the drives and produces the scores based on various results. CCleaner, defrag, etc won't really have any impact if at all on the WEI score. I think the WEI recongizes most onboard controllers and probably can probe the controller to see if a SSD is attached.

I wish people would bear in mind that WEI is rated in some very "sales and marketing" related ways. It is a tool - not for a relevant benchmark that will serve an end user - but rather to upsell machines.

As mentioned above, 5.9 is the max you can get for any conventional drive, no matter how well it performs. If we want 6+ then we must use an SSD. Will it be better? Possibly, but the point is, it will be SOLD as being better.

 

Oh yea, I noticed (with the "old firmware"), that in games like portal the fan will run at full blast for a while.. and then randomly spin down to a low rpm, only to go full blast again shortly thereafter.

 

Hello friends,

I hope I can ask this question here?

I made a clean install by using ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/5905694-post4228.html) the guide of ilfuca...I did everything as written. But I wonder something, I installed chipset drivers but there is also something called IPS drivers which is something related to Turbo Boost technology of this VPCFF12S1E European model vaio... I tried to install this driver somehow but it says my computer is not suitable for this driver...
Now I won't be using Turbo Boost unless I can install this driver?

 

That guide was for the F11. It has been established that the guide is not suitable for the F12, which is different. You're on your own until someone familiar with the F11 experiments with an F12 regarding drivers, and writes a new guide.

 

As far as I experienced from my own PC, currently that's (IPS) almost the only difference which I couldn't apply in the same method...

 

I was just wondering: do you guys use your vaios for other purposes other than running heat, fun and other tests continuously playing with numbers and trying to prove what? If there is a (serious) problem please report it, if not, enjoy your computer. No machine is perfect.

 

Do you have any "unknown device" in Device Manager?

 

IPS is the Intel Display Driver, if you have an i7 without integrated Intel GPU that's probably why it won't install.

Turbo Boost doesn't need a driver, it runs at CPU level.

 

No I don't have any unkown devices at device manager....But what I was suspecting was, when I right click on my computer, and go to properties , what I see below the system section is: Q740 @1.73 Ghz 1.73 Ghz ....
Shouldn't that supposed to be Q740 @1.73 Ghz 2.80 Ghz or something, or I should simply see a "Turbo Boost Technology" logo or label somewhere in my computer? I have a feeling that there was some sort of sign in windows that I had this Turbo Boost technology active..

 

No.

Why isn't anyone helping me with my two previous posts?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6469961-post1893.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-thread-part-3-a-post6470657.html#post6470657

 

I'm using mine for on-line gaming with me mates, watchin TV shows, listening to music etc.

It was just ment to be a stop gap while I waited for the Nvidia 400 cards to come out, but its such a good machine, that I've decided to keep using it as my primary PC for maybe a year or so. That way, I can take advantage of i9's and whatever else comes out.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +10 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I WORK in computer maintenance, and guess what I use my F11 for? Capturing HD movies off the PVR and maybe authoring DVDs, Chatting with friends, surfing the Net, working in Excel, reading Ebooks, scanning and editing photographs, listening to Internet radio and TV, troubleshooting client computers, preparing invoices, keeping work records, Playing Mass Effect and Railworks, other things for which a computer is essential. I don't give a single Flying Fig about a bit of fan noise, how fast it is, whether the screen has "issues," whether the backspace key squeaks (it used to but has stoppped) whether the power supply is bulky, whether it falls short of some obsessive-compulsive's anal-retentive vision of the "perfect" computer, or whether Sony has been taken over by aliens and the F-series quirks are the first sign of an N-th dimension's incursion into our worldspace...

I bought the F11 to USE the damn thing. And what do you suppose? I actually DO use the damn thing!! It FAR exceeds any other computer I've had in its performance, and has astonished with me with how much its day-to-day utility has surpassed my original reasons for purchasing it.

Buy the damn F11 or F12, turn it on, make the backups, then just start USING this precision piece of calculating apparatus, and your enjoyment of this VAIO will be the new focus of your life.

 

Or complaining XD

Just a friendly reminder to turn off 'hibernate after xx minutes' in your power options if your computer randomly waking up irks you. I absently mindedly changed power profiles to one where it was enabled (and my printer driver didn't let it hibernate)... oh boy. lol.



I will agree that people blow stuff out of proportion, but many of the complaints are legitimate IMHO.

 

which games are you playing? I've asked to get some ideas about online gaming performance (like playing BC2 with 32 other players)

 

Joe,

With respect to your knowledge and experience with this laptop, back off. You might find an error a quirk, but an error is an error, and if a user is unhappy with that error, that is his call.

I, and I imagine many others, bought a Vaio laptop *because* issues like the overheating on the cheaper i7 laptops tarnishes them. For you to say "oh, yeah .. well it's not AS BAD" is callous to the point of offence when you consider the reasons someone buys a Vaio, and not an Asus.

Since temperature of silicon = lifespan of silicon *any* increase in temperature will affect the lifespan of the product. An increase of 6 or 7 centigrade can decrease component life by around 35% - furthermore, the system should idle at about 50C - if it is prevented from doing so by fan speed, and reaches a significantly higher idle temp, then the lifespan could, indeed, by adversely affected.

That is why there was a RECALL.

Personally, I don't find this a deal-breaker. But any user, who buys the laptop and finds this fault, should be entitled to some mediation if he doesn't find it acceptable.

 

I'm getting tired of this, very very very tired and fed up. There was NO recall. I have one of the F11s listed as needing the BIOS update. At no time, under any circumstance, including gaming on a hot day, did the computer ever run hot. 67, 70, that was it. Those are the temperatures you will get on a desktop i7. That is design average. It is about 5 degrees warmer than a high-end Core2Duo will run on air cooling, such as a Q9450. My water-cooled Q9450 runs over 65 degrees when running flat out. The i7 has a higher TDP than any CPU made since the Pentium 4. So for a laptop to have desktop-like temperatures of less than 70 suggests extraordinarily good design.

The BIOS update addresses an issue with the fan ramping up and down, and possibly staying on at more than 60% after running out of battery during sleep or hibernation. I had those issues, after the update I now don't. The F11 models have never, ever suffered from overheating, any of them. This one user, Kenquek, with an F12, a TWELVE mind you, not even the subject of an update or so called "recall," has a computer that exceeds 80 degrees, Unless he is sitting the computer on cloth, that is because HIS computer, his particular unit, is defective. He should return it. 80 degree temps is NOT a general issue with the F-series, which is the coolest-running i7 laptop on the market, bar none.

 

Melody your right mate and i agree with everything, there might be improvements with the F12 but the heat and fan issues will always be there with these i7 laptops, but like people have said NO laptop is perfect.

Can anyone tell me what the retail price i of the 8gb model in the UK, as sony uk havent got a price for it.

 

F Series : VAIO and Computing : Models : Sony

Doesn't that strange squiggle followed by numbers represent pricing?

 

lol mate i swear to you, i was on it yesterday and there was no prices. Melody is it true that the 8gb version on the f12 looks better than the 6gb one

 

I don't know about BC2 but MW2 run nice @ 1280x720 and all turned on.

 

Deleted by self..

 

Just wrong. The 80c temps he is referring to is the temperatures reached when you HOLD DOWN A KEY. Not the general operating temperature.

Even Joe's lovely graphs he keeps dragging out show similar results.

 

I am also quite sick of this forum too. Mine is a twelve, but so what? You already mentioned that the fan ramping up and down in the F11s is an issue and has been fixed. So why can't i report the same for the F12s? Only positive reviews accepted in this forum?

 

Bravo! Well said.

 

This post bears repeating as well. I've had mine for approx 7 months with no buyers remorse. If I had to do it all over again, no question, I would make the same purchase. And I would recommend SSD- totally worth it for how I use my laptop.

 

Hey Guys,
All of you that have installed an SSD, can you please tell me which one you have and how you like the performance?

Thanks!

 

Mine came with my F11, the Toshiba, and programs open lighting fast. My computer takes 31secs to boot with 10 start apps.

 

OMG! My F is broken since 5 months and I did not even know it!

If I fall asleep on my keyboard by accident and my nose continuously press a key then my F will run @ 80c!!!

Could it explode in my face? What should I do? Is there a bumper or a rack that I could install on the palmrest to catch my face or a device that could squirt water in my eyes to wake me up if my face gets to close to the keyboard?

*****

Check this with a Cinebench benchmark + monitoring temperature I ran: VAIO_F Series Fan Whistling a Cool Tune vs New Macbook Pro 17" - up to 30c hotter than the F! That up to 104c for the_Macbook Pro 17".

 

You wouldn't want your cute little kitty to burn it's little paw-paws on the keyboard!!!

 

does anyone know if you can connect 2 monitors (one via HDMI and the other via the vga port) and have them both running in conjunction with the laptop display? i.e. have 3 screens?

 

1- It's the CPU or GPU that gets to 80c, not the keyboard or palmrest contrary to some other brands of powerful laptops.

2- The eye squirter would chase her away so she could not sleep on the keyboard in case I forget to close the lid when going away.

 

My highest temps are 65 for GPU and 71 for CPU. I want higher temps too what should I do?

 

Joe, holding a key for an extended period of time IS common usage! To play the vast majority of games requires holding at least one key for pretty much the whole time. Gaming, incidentally, is where you will find the CPU & CPU getting stressed.

Finally, the 740 runs a little hotter than the 720 - so it's a little more pronounced.

I've come to absolutely love the machine since having it, but will retain that this is a fault. What else would you call it? You can claim, over and over, that YOU don't find it significant, without ever addressing the issue.

That it's still the coolest one out there WITH this fault is a testament to it's excellent design; but to deny that there is an issue here is erroneous.

Fact : there is a quirk of the motherboard design that, when used for games, will lead to a higher than usual temperature and will, by virtue of sheer physics, lead to a shorter lifespan.

That it outdoes an Asus or MBP is of no consequence.

A Bugatti Veyron that slows down by 9mph when the user holds the steering wheel is still showing a fault, even if it's still the fastest car out there.

I don't worry about it, you don't worry about it. That doesn't prevent someone else from having a legitimate complaint that their laptop's thermal balance is adversely affected by pressing a key. For you to sit there and shout down anyone who disagrees like a complete t**t is fanboyism gone mad.

 

I have the Crucial M225 256GB SSD in mine. Average startup time according to VaioCare is 26 seconds. I will never be able to tolerate HDDs again! SSDs are blazing fast.

That being said, I have installed several of these M225s. I just mailed one back today. Performance went down and it was locking up while booting. Once booted it was fine however. I had old firmware in this SSD. Upgrading it would have meant installing it into a desktop that allows change from SATA to IDE in BIOS. Then update firmware, then return SSD to F11. (HINT: I wish that the F11 BIOS had this option to change from SATA to IDE, but other than this quirky need by Crucial, I doubt that there would be any other reason to have this option, so...)

Instead of doing it myself, Crucial immediately offered an exchange for a new one with the updated firmware.

The other SSDs have had no problems so far, and are backed by a 5 year warranty from Crucial.

If money is not an issue, I would recommend a Sandforce controlled SSD. My SSD is Indillinx "Barefoot" controlled, and works very well, but the Sandforce are supposed to be superb. I paid much less for mine, and have even seen them as low as $519 for a 256GB M225. Also, I saw a 128GB Western Digital SSD for $219 on a one day sale and I just got an email for a 96GB SSD for $169.

These are all good prices. The controller is the key to SSDs. Although different brands, SSDs with the same controller will perform nearly the same.

Bill

 

This will sound like a very unimportant detail but, does anyone know how to disable the sound of (Fn+ volume keys) , this a very iritating and especially ear disturbing digital noise while I use headphones...I mean the sound when you like to increase the volume by pressing these keys, you know..

 

My F11 sits on a CoolerMaster cooler (per my prior posts) and it is plugged in and running 24/7. I do all of my updating at night, so the computer is never turned off otheer than for transport or when updates require a restart.

I have not seen (heard) any fan problems from my machine and more importantly, my machine has NEVER been warm to the touch on the palmrest, keyboard or pointing device. The only heat I ever feel is the air coming out of the discharge on the left side.

I use the machine a lot, and have run stress tests with all 4 cores and the GPU running at 100%. It did not get uncomfortably warm during the tests. During normal operation, the machine is barely over room temperature.

My machine is listed on the bottoms of my posts. It tests at the very top of an online benchmarking site. It is very fast!

I also maintain 6 other F11s at our church. They are all 720QM machines with 310M graphics and the lesser display. All have 8GB 1333 DDR3 memory. They don't get hot or have any other problems either. If anything, I am not terribly fond with their displays, but that is it.

Yes, some machines may be defective, just as some vehicles, power tools and appliances can be. Coming to this site and stating your problems, dislikes or gripes is fine. Showing up and complaining over and over, however, is not. If there is a problem...RETURN IT!

I nearly bought a G73 before I began buying the F11s. I really liked the display. It was big and heavy, but it was everything I was looking for. I waited for a few weeks and then the complaints started rolling in. Go buy one of those...they have been rated VERY highly by the magazines. By an HP Envy. They are also the toast of the town, even though they have many more serious problems than the F11 does. Heck, buy a Macbook Pro. They are built like a tank, but cost 50% more, run a different OS and get hot enough to use as a coffee warmer on a cold day.

Rant over.

 

First post here.

I am giving very serious thought to buying a Sony Vaio F12. I have a specific question about the built-in speakers. I have looked sporadically through these three threads and I have seen little or no mention about the quality.

BTW, I have been using a Sony Vaio FW series for the past two years and while the 1600x900 screen is good, I am not particularly enamoured with other aspects, notably the built-in speakers.

What are the built-in speakers of the F-series like? Can anyone compare them to the FW speakers?

 

Here's a little something to keep your kitty occupied, a good time waster for you too. It will always follow the cursor.

Spider - Virtual Pet - OneMotion.com


If you click the top left link, you'll find some amusing videos of cats being entertained by this.

 

They're the weakest element of the laptop IMO - probably no better than the FW series, which I only heard a couple of times so I can't compare.

They're perfectly OK for travelling around and using for watching film / TV / youtube - but if you want a good audio experience couple it with some good headphones (for travelling) or a pair of moderate desktop speakers when at home.

The quality of them is FAR FAR from 'deal breaking' when you consider the quality of the rest of the machine. The soundcard itself if very good, and a pair of simple Sony MDR-V300's (an ideal balance of portability, cost and performance BTW) are driven to nice levels of bass and clarity.