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

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Return the computer and hope Sony replaces yours with a bad one.

 

That's amazingly good animation, very well done. Thanks. Actually Pookie likes Deutschlandenpoochen. I'm the fellow with half a dozen cats.

 

Nope, it's either the webcam or the continuous key press quirk according to some.

 

Gotta say, been loving my F12. Before I purchased it, I had decided to go with the G73, because it was supposed to be a ing game machine. Ran into nothing but problems with it, aka the Infamous GSOD problem that came with even touching that machines graphics drivers. Got one, returned it for another to see if it was a bad unit, problems continues.

Got my F12, no issues what so ever. Even though when I first got it, I ran into a few BSOD's due to Zone Alarm, which btw, anyone know why Win7 has issues with it? After clean uninstall, haven't run into any kind of problem with it. Beautiful machine.

 

It's been reported several times, ZoneAlarm causes BSOD's with Windows 7 64-bit. Search the web.

Thanks for the feedback.

How would you compare the screen of the G73_to the_F12? Is it a EU matte LCD on your_F12?

 

Hi,

Is there anyone using the F series with 1600X900 screen? What do you think about it? I am considering to buy a VPCF12JFX/B but I have some doubts about the screen... Except the resolution, is there any other difference (quality/finish etc.) between this screen and the Full HD one?

Btw, what are your impressions about F12? Have the problems of F11 been fixed in this update?

 

I am in total agreement that the F11 speakers are tinny and are not worth listening to anything important. I also agree that the webcam is poor. I wish there was a way to replace the webcam without having a stand-alone add-on unit like the ones that Logitech makes. It would be great to be able to purchase a decent plug-and-play internal webcam that could replace the one we have now.

As for the speakers, I bought a cheap pair of Koss headphones for $16 and used the Media Player Equalizer to EQ the headphones. Now, when I want to listen critically, I hear everything with perfect clarity. (Koss uR29 headphones. I was going to buy some decent Sennheisers, but I saw these for really cheap and they looked comfortable. They are quite comfortable for 2-3 hours of continuous use. They are heavy on the bass, but using the EQ really helps.)

 

I work with 6 of the F11s with the 1600x900 screens. They are acceptable as workstations. They have a very limited viewing angle and do show some light bleed at the edges. They are sharp, but the colors are slightly less vibrant than my 1920x1080 F11 screen. Colors are good, but not AS good.

For the additional money, MY 1920x1080 screen was a good buy, but with the addition of the GT 330M GPU and double the graphics memory, it is a very good upgrade for the money.

Get the better display and don't look back.

 

They're about the same. It's tinny but loud enough and it sounds great with headphones. I started out with the FW590, then switched it for an F11. A month and a half later I bought the FW490 as a backup. There's really no difference. If you want to hear quality, get a pair of headphones or external speakers. Otherwise, it still gets the job done.

 

I'm not sure if mine is matte LCD, but I haven't noticed any light bleeding on this screen. As far as comparing them, I definitely think the Asus has a nicer one. As it's been said before, the F12's screen is a bit dimmer and the colors appear a bit more washed out with stock settings. The G73 is definitely nicer, although its minimal. However, overall I wouldn't say that its worth going with the Asus. That thing comes with a ton of issues that aren't worth a slight improvement in screen quality

 

If you live in the EU then the Premium version is the matte if they helps you figure it out.

also - matte doesnt have reflections/shiny like the glossy screens.

 

Did you try putting a brick on the keyboard or stuffing the air exhaust grid with a rag?

Did you try running simultaneously 2 utilities to push the CPU @ 100% & the GPU @ 99% for 20 minutes or so? Using Everest v5.50 (free trial) > Tools > Stability test and select only CPU + run simultaneously FurMark Graphic Card Benchmark & Stability Test (free) to push the GPU to the max. I managed to get 84c for the CPU. Granted, it's not as satisfying as the 97c & 104c that owners of the new Macbook_Pro 17 or the Envy_17 or the_XPS are bragging about but at least it's higher than your measly 71c.



P.S. You could also try the double whammy test + pressing continuously a key like Shift, W or whatever. Tape or a weight may help if you get tired of pressing the key.

 

So can I confirm that light bleed at the bottom is the norm for the US 1080p premium glossy screens? Does anybody have a 1080p US screen without that issue? I just want to make sure its not just my display being bad.

 

Ah, in that case no, I have a regular US glossy. But to justme, I have a US glossy and no light bleed. I may be the exception to the rule though, not the rule.

I did want to just throw this out there, anyone run the FFXIV benchmark and get an oddly low score? For a 330 and an i7, I found it odd to get a score of like, 1000.

 

I really dont want to go through the ordeal of having to send this laptop back for a replacement if that is true, but I certainly dont want to settle for a lesser display when others are having no issues. You're absolutely positive your screen has no light bleed? Do the colors appear washed out, and do the viewing angles suck?

 

I have posted several pictures in this thread.

EDIT: Sorry to be short with you, but this was posted a week ago and you have been here for about a month. People ask and pictures are posted or answers are given, and the same questrion is asked 8 or 9 posts later...it gets old.

Here, however, is a post from just over a week ago showing my screen displaying a video of a totally black subject.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6441990-post1552.html

Second edit: Here is another one--- http://forum.notebookreview.com/6442326-post1560.html

 

Here is a picture of my display in a mostly dark room.



Its not the best picture and there's some glare, but of all the pictures i just took it comes the closest to how it looks in real life on a completely dark screen.

 

The above charts are temperatures at load, according to the reviews from notebookcheck below.

Notebookcheck: Review Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch i7 2010-04 Notebook

Notebookcheck: Review Sony Vaio VPC-F11Z1/E Notebook

Notebookcheck: Review HP Envy 15 Notebook

 

The F11 is definitely the coolest, and by quite a bit!

 

I'm positive mine has no light bleed. But again, I'm not sure if most people here are in the same boat or if I got lucky. Will says that his also has no light bleed, so, there you go

 

I doubt you got lucky. I would bet that there are some who got "unlucky". Perhaps there was a bad run, or perhaps an original design that was changed slightly. Perhaps my screen is totally different than others.. Who knows?

All I can say is that I am happy with the screen, even though it could be better. In other words, I wish that my "premium" screen was the matte fullAdobe RGB screen that the EU has, or the screen that Mangotango bought.

That said, I am still happy with it.

 

On a more Sony-related note, Will, is there anyway to replace the screen on the F11-12?

 

Nah, just wrap the computer in several layers of horsehair blanket, THEN you'll have REALLY high temperatures to brag about.

Actually safety features will kick in and the system will probably just shut down.

 

That's because Envy owners know they have a bad machine. F owners know they have a GOOD machine.

 

It's easy to replace, a couple of people in this thread have done it. The trick is knowing what to replace the screen WITH. We would all LOVE to use the European display, but since January not ONE owner with the Matte screen has had the wherewithall to check the part number of their display. Many owners of the North American display have done so.

 

Ah, I see. So I'm assuming that means there's no way to just match up the US part number with a matte equivalent? It specifically has to be the EU display?

Greedy s with the part numbers.

 

Thanks for the info Bill, I am looking at the Sandforce ones, and looks like OCZ has Vertex 2 and Agility2, Crucial Real SSD and also Corsair has one called Force. I'm looking at the 120GB ones as I honestly don't think I want to pay 600+ for the 256GB ones, and I'm only using 60GB right now.

Here is a good roundup I found:

PC Perspective - SandForce Roundup! Corsair Force F100 vs. OCZ Vertex 2 vs. OCZ Agility 2

Also Anandtech reviewed Crucial's SSD but had comparision with Vertex 2 which actually seems to be doing great in the tests as well
The SSD Diaries: Crucial's RealSSD C300 - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

Don't forget the OWC Mercury Extreme. I originally bought the OWC, but RMA'd it after they switched from a Sandforce 1500 to the 1200 without telling me or offering a discount. I returned it out of principle, but I have to admit that they were good people to deal with.

 

A note about the tone here and being "fanboys" of Sony...

I have posted this before, but perhaps I should say it again...

Back in the early '70's, my brother bought a Sony STR 25. It was a stereo receiver rated at 25 watts/ channel. I was 12 years younger and eventually I ended up using it when he sold it to my parents.

When I was a teenager, I decided to purchase my own stereo system, and I centered it around one of the original Sony AV receivers. I then bought a Sony walkman. Later, I bought a 2nd generation Sony CD player. We are talking early 80's. NOBODY, at least no teenagers in our school, owned a CD player. I worked a lot and could afford it...sort of.

Before I had even declared a major in college, all of the Sony equipment was shot...junk...crap. Since 1987, I have sworn off Sony electronics...PERIOD!

A few years back, Sony bought the photography division of Minolta. I am a huge Minolta person and I was crushed. When I could no longer keep myself from boarding the digital SLR train, I swallowed hard and pre-ordered the new Sony a700 dSLR. I had seriously thought of jumping to Nikon, but I did not want to give up my Minolta glass or the unequalled flash system. Canon was never an option!)

Fast forward...I had been looking for a good vintage FM tuner for a long time, and I was ready to pull the trigger on a highly modified Kenwood tuner from the late '70's. I had read several articles about this new, cheap, plastic Sony tuner that was OK sounding, but incredible in sensitivity. It was supposed to be several orders of magnitude more sensitive than an production FM tuner ever made. With much fear and trepidation, I plunked down $82 on the Sony tuner, then sent it to Michigan to be modified. Vintage tuner enthusiasts have since disowned me because of my feelings about this tiny tuner.

Fast forward to February 2010...I am looking to replacd several of our church's computers with laptops. My first choice was my favorite...Dell. Unfortunately, Dell seems to have slipped. Don't get me wrong, I like their Studio XPS desktops, and I like their Latitude laptops. However, for the money, the Latitude just didn't deliver the goods anymore. They were still mid-line Core 2 Dua CPUs when I was looking for a Core i7 CPU.

I looked at Toshiba, but the machines that met my wish list looked like toys, not something apPastor or teacher could take to a seminar. Also, they did not quite have everything I was looking for.

I then came close to the Asus G73 gaming notebook. Unfortunately, they had a ton of problems. I can't have problems. I need machines that just work.

I stumbled upon the F11. It took me several weeks and a few discussions with staff before I pulled the trigger on the first one. I was leery of Sony computers, and I still am. Until I get several years into these computers, I will not be convinced that these were good purchases. I will say that I am not just happy and surprised, but I am STUNNED by how good my F11 has been. I have been a lifelong desktop user, and I never thought that I would use a laptop. I am genuinely surprised at how much I like this.

As for HP...A church elder (and my cousin), called me about his HP a few months ago. He had a problem and described it. I told him it sounded like a dead motherboard and that I would not try to fix it. He was a bit upset...first because he paid over $2600 for it only 2 years ago, and second because he had had the mobo replaced by HP TWICE under warranty! At work we used HP desktops and laptops. Both had a lot of problems. At the church, all of the office computers were HP and all of the school computers are Apple. The HPs in the office were still running, but had quite a few "problems". These ranged from bad drives to failing memory and motherboards.

We have nearly 20 Dell computers of varying ages in our families (mine and my wife's) and I take care of them. We have 19 HP computers at the church office, and in February I began helping with them. They are well made in the modular sense so that repair and replacements are simple. This is a good thing!

Honestly...these are not bashings of HP, these are my own observations. I have seen such poor reliability that I will never own one or recommend one to someone else.

 

So can anybody make a comment on my display? Should I consider getting it replaced?

 

That hasn't been my experience, I have a Sony three-head cassette deck from the mid 70's that, after changing the belts, still works extremely well. (I also have a two-head Yamaha cassette of the same vintage that does sound a bit more transparent than the component-heavy Sony.) Also both my open-reel tape decks are Sony, and I have an original 14" Trinitron which still works marvellously. also I had an old STR-something, 25 or similar, that I recently passed on to a friend. All my hi fi and television stuff was Sony, and except for an early XBR, in which the picture tube went gassy after four years, all have held up.

Isn't the XDR-F1HD amazing?! I could never have conceived of an FM radio with such sensitivity and selectivity, with quite solid audio, let alone ALSO being digital, and at such a good price. I intend to do the output mod and tuning tracking myself. But it's already a Wonder.

The last TV I had was a Mexico-made Wega, bought 6 years ago. THAT was junk, I just gave it away recently. I need to get on the LCD bandwagon anyway. As for a VAIO, I've always owned IBM or Eurocomm laptops, but WANTED a Sony, but they were just unreachable in price. Then the F11 came along just as I was looking for a new, desktop actually. The price was right to get a laptop instead, and I have never looked back. I FINALLY got a VAIO, my dream brand for laptops, and I couldn't be happier about my purchase, crummy screen regardless.

 

Huh?! What the Heck are you talking about??!! Your display is WONDERFUL, near FLAWLESS! The tiniest bit of bleed on all black with the camera exposure too high. That is one of the more perfect displays I've seen. I'm extremely jealous. Wanna trade??

 

LOL, that certainly makes me feel better. I'm not trying to be paranoid, but this is my first laptop so I don't know what to expect from the display. I suppose a little bit of light bleed is the norm then? Other than that its a gorgeous display. I have been able to fix some of the issues with colors by simply playing with the auto-brightness in VAIO Control Center.

 

Melody,

I bought the 80's Sony crap because the 70's Sony was very good.. The 80's crap turned me off to Sony. I began to accept them again only because they have really kept the Minolta vision alive.

Yes, the XDR-F1HD IS amazing. I had mine modded by Mike Williams at RadioX Tuners in Michigan (Flint?). He did a superb job. He followed many of Brian Breezley's techniques. In fact, I begged Mike to add external cooling, and mine was the first...you can see it on his website.

The modded tuner sounds very good. I don't know if it is in the same class as certain top vintage tuners, but it sounds much better than today's receivers do. I listen to it for several hours every day.

Bill

EDIT:

FM guys tell me I am crazy because I do not have a hi gain directional FM antenna for the Sony. I have a couple of them, but the Sony is mated to a 1/2 wave whip sitting atop my 48' tower. I receive 80 stations in full stereo quieting and another 8 that are OK at times. I live in central Wisconsin, not a metro area. My stations are from as far away as 100 miles, and most all have adjacent channels that do not bleed at all. It is incredible how well the digital filters work. Sony should be doing more with this tuner, even if it is not all their design!

 

I just got my f series today. It was pre-installed on win 7 home premium 64 bit system. I did a clean install with win 7 ultimate 64 bit and when I try to install the Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter driver, the device manager does not recognize this adapter. I've tried sony online support and they didn't solve this issue. One of them told me that the driver is incompatible with the retailed version of win 7. Did anyone manage to get this driver working? If so, can someone help me solving this issue. I am really in a desperate, and I do appreciate all the help.

 

hey

mine used to slow right down too (pre-repair), but since I got it back it seems to no longer slow down, but idle on what ever rpm it was on. Then as soon as I release the key, it revs back up a little, like it's playing catch up.

I was also concerned about playing games where you constantly have a finger pressed on a key to move or fire etc. I ended up having the motherboard replaced for a different issue, I was also instructed to update the bios via vaio update, so maybe they have changed things a little

Andy

 

Thanks for the replies to my request for info about the F-series' built-in speakers.

I must admit the specs for the F11/12 look very good.

The thing is, I sometimes want to show a movie or a clip to other people, or simply play some music, and I don't want to have to cart more gear around.

Willscary, that's an interesting story, and somewhat mirrors my experience with Sony.

I'm no Sony fan but I bought the FW (about 2 years ago) because I needed a laptop in a hurry (my Toshiba had been stolen; I'm currently on about my fifth laptop or so). I have generally used Toshiba laptops but I happened to like the FW's 1600x900 screen and the P8400 chipset.

Well, two years later, I swore I would never buy a Sony laptop again. Why? The FW's build is lousy. Parts are loose and the touchpad now has a mind of its own, particularly the left button. I have had software issues and once had to reinstall from the recovery partition.

IMV, a laptop should last for about 3-4 years and yet I find myself now in the market for a new one. The specs on the F11/12 look really good but I hesitate because I want decent speakers, and I want a machine that is rugged and will last. It's a laptop; it should be designed for travel.

As for the discussion of fans, heat and screen, given the size of CPUs now, laptops get hot and you get used to the fan noise. The screen on my FW is one of its good points. Sony does good screens.

 

In next week I should receive my F12 from warranty service. Anybody got himself Zeroshock 4 case for f11/F12 ? How does it fit it ? Any other alternatives ?

 

Before:



After :




My first tests
I think the temps are fine

 

This is what i call a discussion, hate all that sarcasm. Thanks for your reply, i guess yours is the F11? I hope they can address a bios fix for the F12 too.

 

Hum... you must be doing something wrong as the only thing that's hot is that girl in your avatar.

I see that you ran Furmark for only 11 minutes. Try 20 minutes with both tests running. Are you using a cooling pad? If so, could you try flat on a table or desktop?

 

For showing some clips, I would say it's fine. For sitting around with friends and watching a movie, it is somewhat borderline. For a romantic comedy, it'll do the task, but don't play 'Iron Man' and expect to be pleased with the quality of the audio FX.

Music is also borderline - your ears get used to the 'tinnyness' after a while, but there is no real escaping the lack of bass or fullness of sound.

There are a lot of pretty lightweight speakers on the market that, at a few watts only per channel, will rival the best notebook speakers. I would really look into these if you are somewhat audio inclined. Something as simple as these : Logitech V10 Laptop Speakers: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo would sort you out.

Again, as stated, this is just a minor point on an otherwise cracking machine. Slight audio deficiencies don't matter to me, but that is based on my usage. I leave the Vaio plugged into my 500w home sound system, which is a much better solution

 

) I will run the tests for 20 mins. I'm not using a cooling pad, only a book )

 

yes mine's an F11. I had the whine and whistle issue but the whistle has all but been fixed. The whine is still there but I can live with that given the power of this laptop.

I also had a couple of BSODs before it went in for repair. Hadn't seen one of those since the early days of XP

 

30 minutes running both tests.

 

My Atheros AR9287 wireless conection was instable and I tried to reinstall the driver, but I couldnt. Like you, the device manager didn't recognize the adapter, even with the original Win 7. I did a restore point to solve.

With a retailed version of Windows you dont have a restore point.
Did you install the Vaio Care from Sony?
You can try his drive restore option.

 

Where did you get the driver?

The driver on my recovery disks DID NOT WORK EITHER. I have no idea why, but the failure notice said something about 32 bit, if I recall correctly.

I have done completely clean installs on over a half dozen F11s. Windows 7 Professional 64 bit was installed on all machines. To get the correct driver for the Atheros, I HAD TO GO TO THE SONY DRIVERS WEB PAGE for the model F119FX (other models only show the Intel card) and download the driver that is labeled "Original Marvell Atheros 9285 Wireless Network Adapter Driver".

Here is a link to the download:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VPCF119FX&upd_id=5263&os_id=45

I hope this helps.

 

Drama89, in reference to your sig, go for the VPCF12S1E/B

+ Best screen
+ Better keyboard
+ Faster
+ You get to join the thread

-Price
-Weight

 

Joe Bleau has been banned for a week, he will be back.

From this point forward, stay on-topic in this thread. If you want to talk about Joe Bleau, do it in private.

 

My F1290 came in today typing on it right now actually. Quick impressions:

minor:

- box was in bad condition bashed up and laptop sits in a plastic tray that was all cracked up. nothing to protect the corners from damage due to pressure but luckily nothing broke off

- some cosmetic things -> numerous clearly visible scratches on the chrome ring around the power button. some of the same on the bezel by where the power light is on at the lower right of the display. the indented oval that says "VPCF1" has some weird marks on it too.

- computer is pretty silent except there is this grinding noise that keeps increasing, decreasing, increasing, decreasing nonstop. it actually is quite annoying if you pay attention to it, but nothing that sounds like a "whine", at least to my ears.

- when I'm looking at the display, the upper left seems misaligned compared to the upper right. as in, the black area between the display image and the bezel is greater in size on the left compared to the right. It causes the displayed image to look lopsided. On computer monitors, I can move the displayed image higher, lower, more to the left, more to the right. If somebody can tell me if I can do the same here, that would be great. It's pretty distracting.

- as with some other laptops, I can't type without accidentally grazing the touchpad and causing my cursor to jump randomly somewhere else. I'm using a mouse but haven't been able to disable it yet. Yes I'm a noob I know. Any tips would be helpful.

- there is some squeak on the left hand palm rest area. not sure if this will get progressively worse with use or not.

- for those who care, no I did not get a Blu-ray sticker They were on the ones I saw in stores though I believe. I'm in Canada if that matters. Not sure if anybody else here got them.

- the power brick (AC Adapter) is a V45. If this is smaller than the V16 then that thing must be huge. This brick is significantly larger than the one my current HP uses, and it's quite a few years old being a Omnibook 6000. My recently dead HP Compaq NC600 has an even smaller one than the 6000. I guess it's b/c the Sony requires more juice to run.

- the keys are a joy to type in. responsive, firm yet with great bounce. not too loud but not mushy. a nice soft quiet clacking. the chicklet style keys are fantastic. haven't figured out how to disable the backlight yet though.


major:

now I'm going to be honest. There is alot of light bleeding on this display. I have the 1080p FHD semi glossy US screen. It's pretty bad even considering that I've seen pictures of it already in this thread and read about on here and elsewhere. It's daylight and it's still very noticeable, especially during playback of video. The bottom middle had this large bright mass and there are two smaller ones on the bottom right corner and bottom left corner as well. None of the other 5 laptops I owned, 3 monitors, or my 46" LCD exhibit this kind of bleeding. The only time I've personally witnessed something similar is on somebody else's Vizio from Walmart.

This affected a movie I played which had black bars. Yes, it still affects the viewing experience. The glow is just too large and right in the damn middle. It causes everything to light up. If I watch a movie with an aspect ratio which removes the bars, it would be the same. Especially for movies with dark scenes. If you want to utilize this laptop for the 1080p as a video playback/movie watching computer, then be warned. I will try more when it's dark and light isn't seeping in through the windows. In all likelihood it will look even worse. It really does look like a flashlight is shining onto the display.


that's it for now. will update more as I use it a bit more.