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

Sounds good. I didn't even know about the $200 dollar off deal so now I'm even more tempted to get it. I'll wait for a few more opinions though. This model doesn't make that annoying high pitch sound does it?

The only problem I have with it is that it doesn't give you the option to upgrade it to 1080p.

 

I have no clue. I'm worried that it might be a little too big (16.4") to carry to and from school.

 

To people that have changed the HDD, did you copy the recovery partition to the new drive or does the recovery discs contain everything necessary to do a factory reset and recreate the recovery partition?

 

I had a spare external enclosure and just did a drive clone to the new drive. Booted instantly.

But if you have the recovery disks...that should work as well.

 

Hi guys,

I am having this high pitch noise coming from my VPCF1190X. I know it has been discussed before somewhere in previous two parts but I just do not have time to go through all the threads.

I've started to use my laptop very extensively and this noise is really getting on my nerves now. Could you point me to the info how to fix it.

Great thanks!

 

Thanks for the answer. I want a SSD and they are expensive, will only have afford with the 128 and 120 versions from Kingston and Corsair. I want as much space as possible.

 

I used Acronis True Image Home to do the drive clone. It automatically makes the new drive bootable...plus it's a very good tool for making backups.

Question: What is the max temp you'd say my 330m GT should reach? Right now it's about 68C...can I go higher?

 

As a gpu it should be able to get much warmer, but why would you want that? Specified max temp is 100-105 celcius I think.

 

There is a pretty nice sale going on at sonystyle in the U.S. Check it out.

 

asdfasdfasdf

 

Could you give me monitor profile for Sony Vaio F12Z1R?

 

Anyone with an F12 had problems connecting to 5ghz N wireless networks ?
If i select 2.4ghz everything goes fine ... grrr



Thanks in advance

 

Does the 1080p 16" F series have a LED backlit display? I saw a Sony at Costco (diferent model) that did. But when I chatted a sonystyle rep he told me its "just a regular display". I'm not sure he knew what I was talking about since he took about 3 mins to reply.

& does anyone know what panel it uses? the sonystyle live chat rep told me it was "their own" when i asked if it was a samsung, LG, etc.. Does sony make their own LCD panels?

 

For the life of me I can't find the ecoupons option.

 

Rubbish! I'm on the same settings you mention (without over clocking) and have had no problems what so ever.

 

Nuggstein, could you please post a Cinebench R11.5 CPU Benchmark for your Core i7-840QM? I am interested to see how much of a difference do you get from the 720QM which I have.

Also, nice 330M overclock! I set my clock the same as yours now. Plays amazingly better. I used EVGA Precision btw.

 

I'm trying to shrink my C: drive to less than 128GB, but have some immovable files in the way. I've used PerfectDisk 11 to do offline defragging and that helped a bit. Got me all the way down to 131GB after several shrinks and defrags. The majority of the immovable files were relocated, except for about 23 groups.

Any ideas on how to identify them or find a program that can move them a bit further in? I'd lide to get down to under 128GB cuz I want to get an affordable 128GB SSD one of these days.

 

You will need to move some data out. Have you disabled Hibernation to save you another 4GB? Even so your 128GB SSD will be almost full.

 

Also note that SSD performance drops when the drive is full. This doesn't meant that the drive will be super slow, but just that it won't be operating at its fullest - just something to keep in mind.

 

That partition isn't anywhere near full. It's currently at about 40GB used. I did disable hibernate, but the fragmented "excluded" blocks are still sitting at the very end of the volume, after all of the free space. Initially, all of the "exluded" files were at the end of the volume. A few boot time defrags moved them in pretty far, except for these 23 blocks.

On a side note, I screwed up my new volume, so have to move all my data back to C: and start over. So, that makes my initial question unnecessary
until I want to clone things way down the road from here. Will also need to decide if I want the 2nd drive mounted in the ODD (as seen on Joe Bleau's how to's) or put together an eSATA enclosure. I watch movies ALL of the time.

 

my experience has been that most sony style reps and even in store employees are not very informed on the products.

i could tell you a sony style store horror story but we'll save that for later ... hehe

as for your question, im pretty sure sony does not make its own panels. i want to say they are made by samsung.

 

Yesterday I removed original 500GB drive and switched it for my Intel G2 80Gb. Installed Win7 from usb stick in no time and started to installing missing drivers. Also, Win7 couldn't activate itself over internet - I called microsoft, typed numbers and received activation code which solved the problem.


I ask: is anyone installed Vaio Update after clean install ? Those version on the internet doesnt seem to work. Anyone could share installation files with Vaio Update working on their F11/12s ? I need a solution for that. Also installed most recent Nvidia driver from their website - no problems. Now its time to install missing software and Im ready to go.

 

Do you not have your recovery disks?

You might want to check out Joe Bleau's version of a Semi-Clean Install if you do have the discs. It seems to be a better option than using a clean version of Windows and having difficulty getting some of the VAIO programs back.

Also, the semi-clean install from recovery discs means you don't have to hassle with activating windows again.

 

Yes I have but I dont want to restore the system with Office, Mcafee and Norton etc on my new drive.

 

Those can be uninstalled.

Try downloading VAIO Update 5 Software from the Sony Support site.

Here's the link for for use w/ the VPC-F112FX. Not sure if it's the same that you need or not:
Sony eSupport - VPCF112FX - Software Updates & Drivers

p.s. - add your model number into your signature here, then it's easier for people to search when they want to help out.

 

Yeah I downloaded it but it doesnt work. I think I will leave it as is, its not that important. Right now Im preparing to buy and install HDD caddy instead of blu ray reader. 80GB Is just not enough.

 

Good luck. I'd go for the semi clean install. It's easy to remove Office and Norton. Read through that page I directed you to.

 

Naaah, I want to install clean OS and then add vaio software.

Is my signature visible now ?

 

From what i've learned here, it does not work that way. Sig is visible now. Thanks and goodnight!

 

Does the new 16" 1080p F Series use a LED backlight setup?

I cant find anything techincal on their site.

 

I've done a clean install on my F12 and it has been fairly straight forward. I prefer this to a semi-clean approach so I can be in complete control on how everything is installed. However, I haven't been able to download Vaio update so plan to follow the instructions on Ilfuca's post here -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/5905694-post4228.html (see step 9). Hope this helps you also.

 

Yes, Ive read that too. Im planing on using Sony Extractor in my free time.

 

No, not LED. they use 1 CCFL made by Sharp as seen in the pictures in this thread for the F11. I don't think anyone's opened up theri F12 yet to see if model numbers have changed ...have they? The F11/F12 screens had the same characteristics when I saw them in person though.

 

You dont't need to do that. Just install VAIO Care from the backup dvds.
With that you can select all the programs & drivers you wan't to use.

Servus,
kcirtaP

 

One nice thing about the F, is since it's 16:9, the machine is rather narrow and will not take up that much more space than a 15" 16:10 laptop.

 

Fantastic - didn't realise that after reading the guidance about manually extracting. Thanks.

 

guys, what do you recommend using to clean the screen? I have the glossy F12 screen...should it just be a damp cloth (like the ones used to clean glasses), or will computer screen wipes (with alcohol) do?

 

I'm not sure if those cleaning solutions are good. I'd rather lightly dampen a microfiber cloth with water.

 

I just pulled the trigger on a CTO F12 with all the goodies... 8 GB RAM, Blu-Ray burner, 1080p screen, 256 GB SSD, extended battery. Did decide to leave the CPU as the i7-740QM since it seemed more than sufficient. Sony chat rep upgraded me to express shipping for free.

The Sony F series user manual recommends using "a soft, dry cloth" and says to avoid rubbing the screen too hard. In my experience, even a dry microfiber cloth can clean fingerprints and smudges off of a screen with ease. For more difficult gunk, a little plain water is all I would ever use.

 

Hi guys,

I am looking to purchase a laptop for video editting (in high def).
I wonder if any of you use the Vaio VPCF1190X or the VPCF1290X with Adobe Premiere. If so, how does it work?
Does it really use the full power of CUDA allowing you to view the progression of the timeline with ease?

Thank you!

 

anyone? also does the F11 model have that annoying high pitch sound problem?

 

Hi,

do not download the original file 05/06/2010, but the new one 07/09/2010.

I had the same problem yesterday while installing a new copy of Win 7 Pro and downloading all the drivers.

 

My clean install is almost complete.

I cannot find the drivers for the memory stick reader (Vaio Gate?) and cannot find the drivers for the SD reader (Win7 installed generic drivers)

also, coul someone post a link to download win7 Vaio theme (wallpaper)? I forgot to copy those files from the original hard drive.

(sorry for my english )

 

See kcirtaP's post on the previous page re: using Vaio care to recover drivers and applications from your recovery disks. It has worked for me - much easier that extracting .mod files.

 

I'm afraid I'm just a junker, using whatever I can find cheap. Cables must be good, but not pricy..

This may be off-topic, but this is how one computer geek listens to music. The TD124 MkII (All-original thus dilapidated) is for 78s, the SL-110A for LPs. The GF DA uses coax from the DVD player for CDs, and Optical for the F11. EQ is used for 78s only, but the preamp itself uses the Columbia curve. I prefer analog, but digital can be ok, and recordings at 88.2/24 bit sound pretty darn good on this system. The F11 REALLY shines for audio work, as long as a good computer-powered USB device is used for recording and playback. (I've only JUST moved into this apartment, so things are as yet messy and unpolished.)

 

Extremely well, I bought my F11 with bundled Premiere CS4 for $325.. Premiere doesn't seem to be offered with the F12.

 

The panel is made by Sharp. Sony DOES make their own panels, in fact the newest TVs offered by Samsung, LG, and Sony among others with edge-lit LED are using Sony-manufactured panels. Sony also invented RGB LCD panels, with three different colour LEDS for a wider-gamut image. Actually Sharp and Sony share panel technology and manufacturing. (So since the panel in the F-series is a Sharp, it could be said to be "one of Sony's own displays.")

EDIT, sorry, SAMSUNG and Sony share panel manufacturing, not sure where I got Sharp from, though it may an older partnership. Sony is the world's second-largest manufacturer of display panels. Sony, Samsung meeting seen focusing on LCD panels | Reuters[

 

^^ interesting! didn't know that!

 

Note my revision, sorry..

 

Follow the link in my sig below & look at the screen captures I took the time to grab & to post to prove my point about the custom clean install made with the usr created OEM recovery discs. There is nothing "semi" about it, it's super lean, small & it's the fastest as tested with Passmark Performance Test 7.0 (thanks for the pointer Willscary) & posted in their online database. I challenge you to post a smaller or faster OS made with generic Windows installation discs. Try to bump me off the top 3 spots in that db.

The only difference between the generic & the customized OEM OS is that once booted, it's not missing the registry patches, Intel chip driver and

Device Manager is not full of errors & missing stuff nor does it install the wrong generic drivers like the generic Win 7 DVD's does. The OEM OS is the same as the generic + the patches & specific drivers for the F. That's it, that's all folks.

If you follow my guide & abort the recovery process after the OS is installed, you are in full control & it DOES NOT INSTALL ANY Vaio_software or bloatware AT ALL. Again, look at the screen captures:



FYI, at the present there is only 1 release to market Windows 7 installation software that contains ALL the different versions' features: Starter, Home, Pro & Ultimate. The keys that are used for the product simply UNLOCKS the different layers of features that differenciate the versions. ALL compute at the same speed, NONE is more efficient or faster than the other. The differences is basically a marketing gimmick & fluff

I did not install Vaio_Update 5 during my clean install but downloaded the latest version from esupport last week & it installed fine w/o any problem.