Official Sony VAIO F Series i5/i7 owners thread *Part 5*

It is time for a new F series thread.

This popular budget priced performance laptop has been discussed at a very high volume since January 2010. Due to this high volume, four previous threads have been closed out prior to this one. They can be found here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/448894-official-sony-vaio-f-series-owners-lounge.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/464372-official-sony-vaio-f-series-owners-lounge-part-2-a.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/487213-official-sony-vaio-f-series-i5-i7-owners-thread-part-3-a.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...io-f-series-i5-i7-owners-thread-part-4-a.html

As the Sony Vaio F series has been so popular, several quick guides have been assembled by some very good-hearted members here. You can find a general F11 unification post here:

F11 Unification Post: Issues, Fixes, Tweaks, Reviews

 

Heres a question(s) on this laptop. I am giving serious thought to buying one. But what I need to know before I order it is the following
Will the F13 graphics card output a 720p signal via a HDMI cable to my 50 inch plasma ? if so will it be a full screen image ? and what about internet content and HD clips from say Youtube ?
And most important to me is will I be able to playback 720p HD clips ( taken with wifes Canon HD camera) from the F13 to my 50 inch plasma.Can I use the F13 to play a 90 minute blu ray onto my plasma ? silly questions to some. But my current laptop is 7 years old and WONT play 720p the graphics card is clearly not capable.And im not up to speed on whats current or not. Thanks in advance for your replys..

 

I haven't tested this for sure but...

You can press fn+f7 to switch various projector modes. I've used the VGA output to a smaller 4:3 monitor and it automatically resized the aspect ratio of the F series screen to 4:3.

I played Mass Effect 2 briefly on a Samsung 971p briefly doing this but the Sony F series screen was brighter and just nicer to look at (which surprised me because on paper and for such an old panel, 971p is no slouch).

Also, in nVidia control panel there are a few options to determine scaling - whether the image maintains aspect ratio and pixel height/width or whether it stretches the image to fill the entire screen.

I think by fiddling with a combination of the two you should be able to get what you want.

 

You be fine running 720p and 1080p to your plasma so don't worry . It's easy for the F series, just make sure it's plugged in! Playing 720p and 1080p videos is very easy for the F and hooking up to a TV with normal aspect ratios is easy too. If you have problems with YouTube after you buy the F13 then it's not the hardware and may be something else so don't worry the F will run all of that and a lot more.

 

Hi there,
I am in the process of buying a new Vaio F13.
My concern is that on the US website it states that it comes with USB 3.0 ports, yet an the Canadian website it claims that t he ports are still USB 2.0.
I spoke to someone at the Sony call centre and was told that USB 3.0 would only be offered on the new F14 coming out around Christmas.
Does anyone know for sure what is going on.
It would seem to me that the American and Canadian models would be the same, espcially the motherboard!
Is anyone using the express card port with a USB 3.0 adaptor and doues it work well?
Does anyone know what he motherboard is on that laptop?
Also is the large capacity battery worth it and how much longer does it last.
I am looking at getting the i7 840, 500G 7200, 1080P monitor, 8 g RAM, Blu Ray Burner & back lit keyboard.
Thanks a lot!
G

 

Does the F13 include backlit keyboard ??? I noticed you cannot select it as an option like you could on the F12 model..

 

I does in Canada.
Sonystyle.ca
Some minor differences between Canada and the US, as well as much cheaper in Canada.

 

i checked the F13 CTO right now on sonystyle.ca, there's no mention of a backlit keyboard, and no options to choose it either. I am looking at the specs on the right side bar just before you hit "Add to Cart". it used to have a backlit keyboard entry for F12 CTO if it was selected.

 

You are right about the keyboard, it is not selectable, but the website claims it as a standard feature in Canada. Look under overview and it is there.
Any news on USB 3.0 out there?

 

yep, just talked to gthompson34, who got the standard backlight feature in Canada confirmed from a sony rep. maybe the usb3 is also like that with the f13?

 

I hope so, it seems like they are not consistent with their knowledge.
You would think that the US and American models would be the same, especially a major feature like that.
I do not think they would buy 2 different motherboards in bulk the way they do.

 

are the speakers loud enough in Sony Vaio F13? enough to watch a movie or fill up a little room with sound?

thx

 

No the speakers are really terrible. They are about the same quality as the speaker in my mobile phone and they go about as loud.

The other day I was playing my guitar along to Tool - Lateralus so I can get my singing voice back into shape and I couldn't hear the low D. The speakers just can't produce enough bass/low mid to sound it. For reference, the low D has a fundamental resonant frequency of about 77hz. I couldn't even hear any of the harmonic overtones either so I kept screwing up my timing. In the end, I had to put the headphones in just to play in time.

Recommendation: the F13 has an optical out. Run it into your hifi or if you have a firewire/usb soundcard, output with your powerful desktop speakers/monitors. The built in speakers on the F series are a total afterthought.

 

USB 3.0 would be a great .. Any word yet if 3.0 is available on the Canadian F13 ??

 

I think the overview and specs, etc., are leftovers from the F12. The specs are for the F12, as they list the GPU as GT310M or GT330M, not the 1GB GT425M which is in the F13.

 

1. Does the keyboard feel smooth to type in F-13. Any Flexing issues?

2. Does the touchpad fit with a multitouch or with a standard touchpad

3. Did someone run Crysis at high settings w/ NVIDIA GT425M ddr3?

thnx

 

Has anyone used this configuration, i7 840QM, 8 G Ram, Win 7 Pro, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M, 500 G @ 7200, for HD video editing?
Might even try and configure for AVID.

 

New F series owner's lounge -- the old one was getting a bit large and was starting to slow down the forum server.

 

Reserved for Melody Master future use

 

guys in regards to the F12, for the people who done a fresh install was it because of the boltware of sony software

 

I bought my F12 on 9/13/2010
It was shipped on 9/16, delivered to me on 9/23.
I saw the F13's were just recently released.... with lots of goodies, namely the 425M graphics card. Is there a way for me to return my F12 for an F13? I felt a little screwed over when I found out about this recent update to the line.

 

but the main things with the F13 is the USB 3.0 and 425m GPU, i personally dont think its worth spending more to get that, for a few updates

 

As long as it's a small amount for shipping, I'm fine with that. I guess I'm not that lucky. For me though, I want to maximize the gaming life of this laptop before I have to replace it some years from now.

 

ok, i dont mind play mosting of new games in low-med settings. I got my pc as gaming machine, the F12 will still be gd for games for me for long time anyway.

 

I'm a frequent typist so I can answer your first question but not so much the others. Theres a small amount of flex on the F12 around the center of the keyboard at the g and h keys but you only feel it when you type quite heavy handed. I'm not normally a heavy handed typist so its fine by me. The keys are a little bit smaller than standard so it took me a while to get used to. I'm better at typing on it now than I was at the beginning but I still prefer a real full sized standard layout. It has pretty good feedback and the keys click in so I tend not to miss letters but because of the smaller keys, I still sometimes tend to hit the wrong letters.

Home/End/Pg up/Pg down/etc are *weirdly* placed and I always hit num lock instead of delete. Also the cursor keys are quite small and they are lower than ctrl so if you do alot of text selection with ctrl + shift + cursors its actually really uncomfortable. The function keys are all smaller than the number row keys and more importantly they aren't grouped in 4s like on a standard keyboard layout so I constantly hit the wrong function keys. I constantly hit delete instead of F12.

Overall its a nice keyboard. The chicklet style looks nice but I prefer standard keys because you don't need to hit them on the flat surface to make a keystroke. You can catch the edges too. Chiclet style doesn't have edges so I tend to splay my hands a bit more when I type. I find this hard to describe. If you get the camera grip palm rest, its very comfortable to rest your palms on when you type.

 

Omaroo - I chose to clean install because of the Sony Bloatware. I think those of us who do it choose to because we like our machines to run very lean and we like to be in control of all of the goings on.

Aulos - please don't feel screwed over. This is the nature of the technology. The F11 was released in January and was discontinued in June. The F12 was released in July and is already discontinued. If you choose to look at it this way, you'll always feel screwed over cuz new models are constantly coming out.

It's best for you to contact the seller of your Laptop (Sony.com?) and inquire about and/or utility the customer return policy. You'll most likely be out the shipping costs.

 

Each new thread starts around the same time as the introduction of a new run. This one with the F13.

The F13 has been discussed for a while.. The F12 is a "model fix" for the F11, the F13 is a new machine. Theoretically you're safer with an F12.

 

Yah I'm still here .. and dying to get back into the discussion. ..Maybe once the house is sold and I can physically and emotionally relax.....

 

Good to see you! Actually, the first post was a copy of the first post of the prior thread, and it was put there by the forum supermod...Mr. Jeffries.

I simply changed a few words to update it, then added the next two posts for reservations.

Take care and good luck with the house!

 

MrChowderClam - How were you able to get the framerates you got in Mass Effect 2 in this video?

I have no aa, no af and at 1920x1080 resolution I'm running around Commercial Spaceport with between 15 to 30 fps and this is with a pretty huge overclock.

 

^ Have you updated your nvidia drivers? - Also, I would say that those are pretty normal frames for 1920x1080. Your FPS should actually be a bit higher in battle (as weird as that sounds). The slowest places are the lab and CIC on the normandy (esp when talking to kelly, for instance).

Also, I'm getting an error message about "No Operating System Found" immediately after I boot my machine and it passes the bios. Any ideas as to what I can do? It's been doing it for the last couple of boots now....

EDIT: It's now doing this weird thing where it reboots immediately after it leaves the "VAIO" splash screen

EDIT2: Ok, I was sure it was a hard drive problem (maybe MBR got corrupted or something), but the system hangs even when booting to an ubuntu liveCD. It passes the Ubuntu splash screen but before it can load the desktop, it just hangs (doesn't freeze, just sits there doing nothing - no fan noise, not HDD activity, no CD activity, nothing). They keyboard and mouse are responsive though. Very strange - it might have something else wrong besides the hard drive, as the liveCD shouldn't need to load any files from/to the hard drive...

EDIT3: Ok, I'm pretty sure its a hard drive problem now. I booted to ubuntu, and it says that there are no storage devices attached to the computer whatsoever. No partitions. No devices. Nothing. I'm going to go get a screwdriver and see if reseating the hard drive will help any. Maybe resetting the bios will help as well? Probably not. Anyway, the MBR probably got corrupted or something if the computer bluescreened while it was updating the system files or something like that (I was away from the computer for a while, so I'm not sure what went down). Please let me know if you have any suggestions for rescuing my data!!!

EDIT4: So I think my MFT is corrupt. I put my computer to sleep last night and when I woke up it had the "No Operating Sys Found" error. My guess is that it had a blue screen or otherwise died while going from sleep to hibernate and that during the process, the file/partition table was messed up. If anyone knows of any software that can help with restoring corrupt MFTs I would greatly appreciate it (esp if they work with Linux, as I am running off of a Ubuntu liveCD).

 

I'm picking up my F13z1e tomorrow!!

 

Hi,

Thats good that your picking it up. Just wanted to find out if you are in the UK and if you are where are you picking it up from as I am after the F13 Series aswell and currently on the UK website you can only pre order the top model for £1699 or configure one that takes 4 weeks to come?

Thanks

 

Change to 'Bios' will make for PCs that boot in seconds. Bios' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011

BBC News - Change to 'Bios' will make for PCs that boot in seconds

 

Have you tried Ultimate Boot CD? It's got a ton on freeware diagnostic and repair tools. I don't know if any of them can do what you need, cuz I don't know that much about your problem. Is this something that can be fixed by restoring to a system image? Or do you not have one?

Good luck, man.

p.s. - do you have any external enclosures. You can boot the drive as normal if connected via eSATA/eSATAp. The VAIO treats that connection as internal. It can actually confuse it if you have an OS on it and on the internal. If you have a USB enclosure, you can change BIOS to enable external devices and set the boot order to external and see what happens.

 

Thanks for that - I saw your post earlier in the part 4 thread. I'm trying a program called testdisk atm, but I will definitely keep the ultimate boot cd in mind.

It can probably be fixed by restoring to a system image, but I have some recent data that I would rather not lose

EDIT: Yes, I have an external, although the computers I have tried it on fail to read or mount it. Windows XP spits out a "/$mft is corrupt, run -chkdsk" error and the drive simply fails to mount in linux. Basically, I have a feeling that my files are intact (don't think the hardware is broken), but the tables that organize all of the data and tell the OS where to look for files is bad.

 

TestDisk is one of the programs on UBCD. Good luck with it!

Side note: my ram usage is spiking whenever I start using IE8 (after downgrading from IE9). Goes from 25% to 36% now with only 2 tabs open. Upon closing, I go down to around 30%. Doesn't make sense to me at all. FF4 is worse. Started at 33%, launched FF4 and spikes to 37% on the first tab alone. Upon closing FF4, it only goes as far down as 34% Hmmm.....

 

Bootdisk.com Bootdisk.Com

Data Recovery by DriveSavers Hard Drive Data Recovery DriveSavers Data Recovery Services ? Hard Drive, Disk, & RAID Data Recovery

Disk Investigator Disk Investigator Info and Download page

DLL files downloads Download your missing dll-files - DLL-files.com

Emergency Boot CD Emergency Boot CD

File Recovery PC Inspector FILE RECOVERY

File Scavenger Shareware downloads System Utilities - Data Recovery Tools at SnapFiles.com

JAM Software JAM Software - Windows Freeware

SpinRite Home of Gibson Research Corporation

SystemRescue Download - SystemRescueCd

TU/e WIN: Info Technische Universiteit Eindhoven: Info SequoiaView

 

The German Amazon site states that the Premium matte screen is,
- 41,6cm (16.4") Full HD Anti-Glare Vaio Premium Display LCD Dual Lamp (1920x1080)
What I'm wondering is if there are many 16.4" matte dual lamp displays made by Sony and it's display partners such as Sharp. If there aren't many in current production finding the model number for the screen should be possible .

Link to the Amazon page here.

___________

Sorry to here about your problem Mango but hopefully with something on UDB or the plethora of links from Fishon can help you, best of luck.

___________

Stevievg, I'm also wondering where you're picking up your F13Z1E! As as41 says the UK is a bit weird with it, I like how the Sony UK site has no release date just says pre-order. Hope you enjoy the laptop, if you plan on clean installing tell us if the process has changed from the F11 and F12 please.
___________

Good luck with the house Melody!

Edit: Also err about eh UEFI stuff, nice link btw Fishon thanks, very interesting as I was wondering why BIOS survived so long lol. But I was wondering if with the new motherboard that the F13 should have if you'd think they'd have UEFI instead of BIOS? 2011 is only a few months away and this is a new refresh with a new motherboard so it may make sense although I guess unlikely. Reason I ask is because from the BBC article, "Some PC and laptop makers are already using UEFI as are many firms that make embedded computers."

 

I'm in the Netherlands, I'm afraid. The cost is 1570 euros, whereas the "normal" retail price in the Netherlands is 1699 euros. I'm getting it from Notebookshop, who have a pickup point near Rotterdam. They're an affiliate of Informatique. I could have gotten it even cheaper, but I like the fact that there's still a real store somehow involved, not just an internet shop. With a machine this expensive, I want to make sure I get it from a place with a good reputation in case of problems.

I am planning to do the clean install, so I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

 

Ah yes, some of the Dutch websites seem to have the F13 listed and in stock. Lucky Dutchies! I get what you mean about reputation due to the expense, Laptopshop.nl would be safe too but they charge the actual RRP of €1699 lol. Good luck hope it's not defective at all, tell us all about it .

 

The UBCD got me booting again only from an external hard drive. THANK YOU!!!!!

I actually stuck the hard drive into a mac and it read the files just fine. Weird - it wouldn't work in ubuntu....

Now to find a windows 7 disk to stop my computer from bluescreening 30 seconds into the splash screen (does this on safe mode as well). I will give you some nice, toasty rep as soon as I spread some around

EDIT: OK. I just realized something incredibly dumb that I should've noticed a long time ago - the hard drive is not showing up in bios at all. It thinks there is no hard drive in the hard drive bay (the Win7 repair utitlity thinks the same). I am going to try resetting the bios now.

EDIT2: Reset the bios via removing the CMOS battery. Still not seeing the drive (the time and date have been reset however, so I'm pretty sure that the bios has been reset). ARGH!!! All my data is there!! - I just want to boot

EDIT3: Check the sony website. Looks like there is a new bios update.

Lets hope this works...

EDIT4: Ugh just realized that I can't flash it because IT WONT BOOT :'( - Anyone know how to flash the bios without booting to OS?

 

Ok, so I'm here at the MAC store, cuz I'm taking in my friend's MBP for troublehsooting/repair, and I stopped at the SonyStyle store on the way just to see the 1920x1080 display that I could not afford.

OMG, it is sooooo much better than the 1600x900. I'd get it JUST for the extra screen real estate.

The sales rep and I were able to confirm that it does have the 2 USB 3.0 ports on the right side. He actually didn't know this until I pointed it out.

Such a sexy computer it is. I want to upgrade already.

 

I'm glad UBCD helped out a little. Hmmmm.... so since the MB won't see the HDD, then you can't even restore an image or reinstall the OS, right? Crap. That means you can't install the OS on a different HDD and get the BIOS update. That's an old update though. It's from 6/30/10.

Good luck!!!

I'm sitting here at the MAC store, surrounded by fanboys, waiting for my friend's MBP to be looked at. I love the retina display and touch technology, but really don't care for much else.

p.s. - do you have an eSATA or USB enclosure to check if BIOS will recognize it out there? Like I alluded to before... I can boot my system via eSATA w/ my SSD in the enclosure.

 

Wait.. it is from 6/10?? I could've sworn it said updated 9/21/10 somewhere... Maybe I'm just paranoid. Hah. Anyhow, there is a WipeCMOS program on the UBCD that I will try next. I'm not going to sleep until I fix this (and then some because I actually have work I need to do on my comp).

EDIT: Actually never mind. It has problems with cpu settings on newer motherboards . I'm so confused at this point. Some things tell me its a hard drive issue, other things tell me its a bios issue. Bah. I'm going to get a 6-pack of doubleshots and down them until the world is clear again.

 

*gets out the reality distortion field and sics it on anseio*

Watch it man I'm on a Mac right now! bwahhaha. (OS X has been my favorite OS for 9 years now :>)

So are the F13s available with the MATTE screen in the US now?!

Random thoughts on MBPs: They're really nice, but the LCDs aren't as good as I was hoping they'd be. I was using a 17" matte MBP and noticed the color coverage was terrible even against my old 15" PowerBook. Ow!

As Apple's been going nuts with IPS displays lately (all of their desktop displays are IPS, and the iPhone uses an IPS screen), I wonder when they'll start selling laptops with IPS screens. That would be worth it

 

anseio, thats why i want to do a fresh install mate. Mate will it void my warranty if i do a fresh install, as i got 4 years warranty.

 

Hey omaroo (you should buy the F13). Plus in google searches, it'll stop giving the wikipedia article on the F-keys .

I dont think a fresh install voids warranty. IIRC sony has some privacy statement saying that they wont sniff around on your hard drive.

 

mangosango you can flash the BIOS without the OS if you want to, just needs another computer to set up the USB stick or the CD. There are guides on how to flash the BIOS without an OS I'd just find one that would be relevant to the Vaio's flashing method. Probably just a bootable USB stick with DOS on it would be fine with the BIOS flash as that's an .exe for Vaio's I think so just run it from there. Thing is would that really help? I'm not sure if I understood but did you say that the HDD could be recognised by your mac in an enclosure, if so then I guess something is up with the F to not recognise it. If I misunderstood then I'm not sure if going through the effort of the BIOS flash would be worth it incase it went wrong :/. Good luck.

Edit: It may need to be in a .bin format the BIOS flash I mean... if so then I'm not sure. Never had to do it.

 

Come on Big Green you can do it! You are a Dartmouth undergrad right? Joe Bleau should be coming back tomorrow if you need a ringer.