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

Hey everyone got my f series a few days ago and was shocked how slow it was even with fresh start. needless to say i reformatted it and now i have lost the drivers for the keyboard. the back light goes on when i type anything and the function keys don't work. any help would be appreciated i searched around for a solution but couldn't find one.

 

I hope you made recovery disks before you did the reformat. Restore your system to its factory installation, then take some time figuring out exactly what you should do before you actually do it.

We've got some great posts here regarding Clean Installs from your OEM Recovery Disks that can be very informative and helpful. Get your system back to where it started then let's go from there. Good luck!

If you did not make recovery discs, well, then things won't be so easy. I think I read somewhere that someone had uploaded their F12 disks (discs? sp?) somewhere. You may be interested in those.

 

"...was shocked how slow it was even with fresh start" - That's hard to believe, especially from somebody's post #1.

Nobody ever said that in all of the 3 F owners threads. BTW, is your Shift key broken?

Follow link in this quote & good luck.

*****

I actually do, many dirt roads around here. In fact there is a minimum of 16km of dirt road + 15km asphalt to go to the nearest 2 lane "highway".

 

hi there,

First, the whining fan drives me mad!
so, i got the 3rd F1X NB. The first one in january F11Z1E. Whining all the time. The second configurated by sonystyle.de. Now i got the 3rd F12C5E with all the patches and newest bios. All NB got the same problem. This whining high pitched noise! The latest bios makes all more badly then the last one on my F11. This is really horrofied because the laptop is good. This whining fan is a single point of failure, i think.

I also think its a hardware problem. With any software or bios update u can only fix a bit the control of the whining how much whining u want. I'm really pissed off. I waited so long and now the problem stays the same.

 

Get a refund & buy an other brand.

An other post #1?

 

Is the whining high frequency? If so I wonder if this problem is more prevalent that we think. I have F12C5E/F12X5E and don't hear any whining, but my ears are quite old and I don't hear the high frequencies I used to when I was younger - happens to us all. So would be interesting to know how old you are, and likewise others who've had the whining problem.

 

no no joe, that was really my first post
So, i read this thread in all parts over the time. The problem is the fan turns all the time and make this high pitched noise also in idle! What can i do to make the fan come down ? Im despaired with that

 

yes, the high frequency. Im am 36 and i hear it very clear.

 

You said it's your third copy and "I'm really pissed off" so why not trow the towel & switch brand?

 

You'll find discussion on it earlier - you can create a power profile capping the cpu performance. I do this with a 50% cap and use the profile when browsing, emailing, etc. This helps a bit. I also have a cooler turning up - I'll comment on whether that helps.

 

I search for it but i can't find it where it is exactly. I did this on the F11 and it really helps a bit. You got a link for me ?

@Joe: i like this NB. It have all that i want. BR-R FullHD but only this whining high pitched noise. It's aggravating.

 

Power Management in Vaio Control Centre - create a new profile and cap the processors using the advanced option.

 

hmm i was at the sony vaio center and tried out the f12s that I have. It was MUCH more silent then mine. I opened google internet browser and surfed and the fan kept a very low rpm. on my f12s it almost goes up to full speed when i do this, as i said before.

so there seems to be something wrong with mine. i am going to a sony technichan and he is gonna hear it out.

the one i tested was a 720qm and mine is 740qm, i guess there should not be any big difference in heating between those two.

i also took some time to listen on some other i7 laptops on another store and they was really quite all together. too bad their screens sucks.

 

It is so much fun, that the time slows down.

 

You know, I just might make a difference though. I'm on the F11 720QM and don't have a single problem with fan noise. To my knowledge, all of the complaints have come from the 740QM people. I suppose if I had spent the extra $, I'd have the same problem. LOL

 

Lemme get that straight: you went to a Sony_Center & did not bring your F to compare w/ what they have in store?

It's not the browser, it's what you are browsing & what plugins you have and which ones & how old they are and the browser version & if the page has Flash or videos or Java or whatnot.

What is the value of comparing apples to your mental image of oranges.

I noticed that faizalk786, Valen667 and you emilio12345 all are new users and all are writing i instead of I like omaroo for example here: "guys i finally".

"...the one i tested was a 720qm and mine is 740qm" - So it was not even the same system & probably not the same configurations & what about updates & drivers?

 

thx Dernfara but same problem. Fan turns all the time and and whine fitful. Any other ideas or links ?

 

EXACTLY the same system besides the 720qm instead of mine 740qm. same os, i suppose it was the newest updates. I had updated my machine all the way through vaio update, windows update (bios etc.).

I made the example of when I open the google browser, my own computer starts to spin like crazy just by doing that, i dont even need to surf around. do you get it? the f12s on sony center could take very much beating (ctrl+n many windows, surf in to heavy pages etc) before i heard some significant sound from it.

Same browser as well, of course. I dont compare two different systems with different software, that would qualify me as a retard, which im not. Around the same room temperature as well.

So if the 720qm isnt much more cold running than 740qm (which seems unlogical to me because it´s not that much difference in speeds etc).

So I compared an apple with an apple. Do you think im retareded? As I said, the only difference was the processor which should be almost insignifikant to the temperature when there is so little difference.

 

I am in the same boat as you. I love everything about the F except the whining/ringing sound it gets off and on from the fan. I tried lowering the performance setting and still no change. It does go away (I think) when im playing games and the fan is on max speed. Perhaps there is a way to take full control of the fan settings and set it to a constant speed so that it doesn't change rpm and make the sound? It's actually kind of embarrassing when people see this brand new good looking laptop and it makes that annoying sound. I really hope a fix comes along.

 

As per a number of other posts in this thread, another way to lower fan speed is to improve the laptop's cooling. The cheapest option is to prop up the back of the note with something 1 or 2 inches high(sorry guys, I know we Americans suck at measurements).

A more expensive but possibly more rewarding option is to buy a laptop cooler. I can't remember what Willscary is using, but he likes it and says that it slows the laptop's fan down quite a bit.

 

I need to express my sadness.. had to get my F11 lid cover replaced last week due to scratching it up horribly..
using my old VAIO SZ with core 2 duo and geforce go 7400

sucks so bad I freeze everytime I open firefox
I miss i7s

 

Why did you not bring your F with you (if you have one) to compare it to units in the store if you say that it's not working properly?

Then start Task Manager on both notebooks & compare Services, Processes, memory & CPU usage & then talk about apples.

 

It is not the fan speed i'm worried about, it's a ringing sound, that others have said occurs when the fan changes speeds. I don't understand why this notebook has to change fan speeds every 10-20 seconds even when at idle state. I want to take my laptop out in public and not have people looking at me wondering why my laptop makes funny ringing sounds, so a laptop cooler is not an option (at least in public). Does anyone know if there is a program that can set the fan speed to a certain rpm and not change? Maybe that will solve the problem...

 

Emil,

I saw that you posted much slower HD Tune and CrystalDiskMark results over in the Corsair forums (link) compared to the updated result you posted here. Can you tell me what you did differently?

I ask because I still can't figure out why my SSD is under-performing in my F and the results you posted in the Corsair forums look very similar to mine. Thanks,

Dave

 

The fans are programmed to run at a certain speed at a certain temp. My guess is that Sony simple did not make a very good buffer between temps. Your idle temp is probably between two speeds. Thus the CPU reaches the higher temp and the fan reaches the higher speed, but the fan then cools the CPU enough to reach the lower speed, which isn't fast enough to keep the CPU there, and the cycle starts again.

I would NOT recommend trying to manually control the fans. Your idea of quiet probably doesn't match you CPU's idea of safe or able to run well without burning up. Even if you wanted to, it appears as though Sony has hidden the fans from my favorite utilities (such as SpeedFan).

 

Nope, user cannot control the fan speed of the F.

Get the Everest v5.50 trial to see your fan speed. While you are at it, use the OSD to see the CPU speed. If it's going up & down @ idle then it means that you have some background tasks kicking in and out hence the changes in heat production hence the fan rpm changing accordingly to evacuate the heat. You can also use this included in Win 7: Start > search: Task Manager > Performance > to check CPU & disk activity, etc.

Are your BIOS up to date?

 

Here are results with light surfing:



Here are results with all cores and GPU at 100% stress test:





This last test was run a few minutes ago. It ran for 10 minutes with all 4 cores and the GPU stressed to 100%. The Cooler Master dual fan cooler is in use.

 

Dave, he updated his post after I reccommended that he change his block size. Read a few posts after his updated results and you shall see why his results went up.

EDIT: Here is the post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-owners-thread-part-3-a-354.html#post6587516

 

That's funny!

 

of course that is the best thing to do if you really want to objectivly compare (to have it next to each other) but because of the fact that I felt I had a really good idea on what level the noise was on my computer I felt I could go there and just listen. it was a really big difference. it was louder then my xps m1530 but not much. my f12s at home are not comparable to my old dell xps m1530, its like somehting between a fop 32 and 38 fan, (if i press the computer a little bit by surfing this forum for example.) you know what I mean if you have been in this computer thingy for some years.

Of course it is the same ground installation (beacuse its the same computer besides of the slightly different cpu) but I can´t promise that the sellers had installed some software that would reduce the computers power. I did go in to ctrl+alt+del but didnt see that much of a difference or programs that wasnt running on mine there is so many services etc that I cant be 100%.
And I don´t think they would reduce the performance just so the computer would be more silent there, but you never know.

At worst I compared a green apple with a brown dot to a green apple without a brown dot.

Oh well. It dosent really matter, this is a good thing for me because I now hopefully can get a new f12s which I can work with but I am a little afraid that it is the 740qm vs 720qm that is doing the big difference, I guess I have to find out the difference in watt between them.

 

Why not go back to the Sony_store with your F, if defective they will help you.

 

They are both 45 watt TDP.

 

I just spent 10 minutes performing the same stress test with the F11 on battery. On battery, all 4 cores of my 820 QM run at 1.2GHz, considerably slower than when plugged in. However, this is FOUR cores running, which is still quite fast in every day life because there are many services running at all times and 4 cores helps take care of these services.

Here are the results of the stress, including Furmark stressing the GPU:



Lower temps and slower fan speeds. Still, at this level of use (unlikely in real world usage) I get only 45 minutes of battery time. Of course, the battery is powering the cooler also!

 

This is a nice little program I've been running at start up for years and would like to share if anyone is interested. It's a systray application which uses the smart battery support in Windows 7 to monitor power usage, battery charge, CPU speed, CPU usage, and power events such as standby/hibernate/resume, battery events, etc.. Detailed battery display for up to two batteries, with names, voltages, temperature, design capacities, and wear percentage.

BattStat - Battery Status monitor and power management freeware for Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000 x86/x64

 

I purchased the F11 back in January with the 720 and I had the whine/whistle sound.

I now have an F12 which I received in June which has the 740. It still has the whine/whistle sound.

 

eSupport Chat Transcript

Miguael_ > Hi Joe. Welcome to Sony Online Support. I'm Miguael. Please allow me a moment to review your concern.
Joe Bleau > OK, URL of this image was truncated: http://www.monteverde.org/images/Sony_Vaio_F11/Palm_Rest_Paint_Wear_Macro-2.jpg
Miguael_ > Thanks for waiting, Joe. I'm sorry that the paint is comming off from the palm rest area. I'll be glad to assist you with this.
Joe Bleau > It's a minor problem, the rest of the Vaio F is fantastic but it may affect resale value. Did you see the photos?
Miguael_ > Yes, Joe. I can see the Image that you've provided.
Miguael_ > Joe, based on the information you have provided, it appears that the issue is related to the Hardware and the unit requires service.
Miguael_ > I suggest that you contact our Sony Service Center and get the unit serviced as all the Hardware related issues are handled by them.
Miguael_ > I will forward a page where you can contact our Sony Service Center and setup a work order for the repair. Please let me know if the page does not open.
Miguael_ > http://eservice.sony.com
Miguael_ > Please enter the Model #, date of purchase and zip code of your area on the page that I've sent to initiate the repair.
Miguael_ > Then, contact our Service Assistance Team at the Telephone # provided on the page to initiate the Warranty Service.
Miguael_ > I’m sure that our dedicated Service Assistance Team will be more than glad to assist you with this.
Miguael_ > Please let me know if you've any question.
Joe Bleau > My problem is that I am actually in Costa Rica. I use my F daily & can't send it for servicing. Could Sony send me a replacement palm rest vial mail?
Miguael_ > Joe, I'm sorry to inform you that, it's not possible to send the Palm rest via E-mail

That would have made one big attachment if they would.

*****

So by returning the_F11 you wasted 5 months of possible F enjoyment.

 

Wow...just...wow! Did you clarify to Miguael that you wanted it MAILED and not E-MAILED? Geez...perhaps if you told them you wanted them to send you one using a courier they would have said yes!

Yes...I had to sadly use my old desktop for 5 months that was and still is slowly crawling to it's death. On the plus side, I didn't just get any old F12, I got some nice upgrades for the troubles I went through and the wait time and at no extra cost. Sometimes it's worth the wait.

 

Hasn't this topic been discussed ad nauseam in this thread? Have we not concluded the fan/whine/whistle is the same on all of the F series laptops, regardless of model and features- and the trade off is a cool machine? Does this fan/whine/whistle not drive some people crazy, to the point of rejecting the F outright, while the vast majority of owners never give it a second thought? Seriously, am I missing something or is this still an 'issue'?

 

So, i deceided to send the NB back and get my money. After 2 F11s and 1 F12. So sad that sony makes here a single point of failure - for my opinion. I got this noise whine/whistle whatever ... in my head when the NB is off! This is harmful for my nerves. No one by sony interesests whats really going on. So so sad the NB has big features / speed and design. thx 4 the help ppl.

greetzs,
V.

 

Maybe it's a question of Psychoacoustics and Absolute threshold of hearing.

Some don't hear it, some can mentally block it, some go crazy & become obsessed about it. :wub:

 

There are new people coming in all the time and with the number of posts here a few days away is enough to miss a whole topic. This is the nature of a public forum.

 

Yes!! That's what I wanted to hear from you Than this is finally the end of
this episode I hope I can find a budget now to buy me a ssd for my F12 as well.
How is the performance in real life? Is it really so much faster than with an ordinary hdd?

Thanks again for all the work you put in here! And of course to all others
sharing their thoughts and tests!!

 

Well, I sprung for the F12 yesterday - estimated ship date 8/20/10 - a week from today... Bought it (well, ordered it) in person at the Sony Style store. There were some in-store specials that were a bit different from the current on-line specials. Due to this, the in-store price for my configuration was a bit higher than the on-line price for it, but they honored the on-line price and I also got the in-store special on the applicable part of the configuration that wasn't available as an on-line special, so it appears that I got the best of both worlds...

US-VPCF1290X-LBOM
No Engraving
Adobe Bundle ($448 value.)
Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
Black
Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
640GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm) (Reg. price $105.00)
Standard capacity battery
Intel® Core™ i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)
NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
No Fresh Start
LED Backlit Keyboard
6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333 (Reg. price $150.00)
Blu-ray Disc player/burner
2 Year Express Ship Service Plan with ADH for Notebooks

 

Hi, i'm thinking of getting this laptop and want to put the backlit keyboard in, what do i need to search for (to buy the backlit keyboard) and is it difficult, will i need any special screwdrivers. thanks.

 

Yes but I still need to send it in to sony reparation even though they also see the problem and that will take 5 days.

 

But you said that you don't want to ruin the possibility of getting a refund by sending it to repair.

My guess is that your F is normal & simply does not suits your criteria. Hence the repeated suggestion to compare it physically next to an other one in the store.

Perceived noise level in a store vs in your home is apples & oranges, hence why it's better to have them next to each other if you can. Can you?

 

You can find the keyboard on eBay. SONY VPC-F11M1EH

See this as a sort of screw guide:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-owners-thread-part-3-a-217.html#post6496608

And see this: Google Translate

 

Search ebay with: "vaio_backlit keyboard" to get better prices & more results. Mine was $35 shipped.

Search this Thread (top right of this page) with: backlit keyboard to find photos and tips including key remapping.

 

Hello to everyone. This is my first post in here. I am thinking of buying the Sony Vaio VPC-F12Z1E/BI (i7, 740QM, 8GB, 500GB etc) here in Greece. The main reason that I will be using the sony is image editing (photoshop mainly). Do any of you have experience on that?
I am sorry if this has already been discussed but I couldn't find something in the forum. (If it is can you please provide a link?)

Thanks in advance