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

How long did Sony take to build and ship your custom F's once you placed the order?

 

2 weeks....

 

i was working in windows live moviemaker and i accidentally clicked on the webcam button. now its constantly on. every mouse click i press i can hear. i hear my self talking. and when i remove my headphones it makes a loud feedback noise. the only way to solve the problem is to mute the microphone but whenever i turn the laptop back on again, goes back to the same problem. does anyone know how to fix this?

 

Is there a webcam icon in your taskbar icons? If so, does it have preferences upon right clicking? Worst case, you can disable it from running using either msconfig or autoruns.

 

I didn't write down what the pre-installed version was but I'm sure it's the same as you have since there is only one Sony driver for it. The unsupported driver I installed is 260.99.
I'm pretty sure you have a typo there and meant 259, not 159.

 

Well I'm used to an old Dell Inspiron, which was blowing constantly, but not as variable and heavy as the vaio. I do often play music or something, but this did surprise me. I'll probably get used to it, but still...

 

I can understand fan noise when the laptop is doing heavy lifting - but not when it's doing practically nothing. And it's not just the amount of niose its the type of very penetrating, variable droning noise that is very off-putting. I think I just got my first and last Sony laptop!

 

The constant up and down rpm while sitting idle is weird, they need to fix it via a bios update so it is more constant...thats my only complaint of my F13

 

So I take it you new F owners do not like the fan noise. I'm not a fanboy- fair enough. Interesting that my initial gripe was the narrow vertical viewing angle of the screen and no one mentions this at all lately. I'll surmise Sony will continue to improve on the fan, the screen, the speakers, and the graphics card. But StuartH, if you think the HP Envy, Dell Studio 17, Toshiba Qosmio, Alienware et al. do not have issues, lack features the F has, or may have higher price points, I believe you are mistaken. Awfully strong statement this will be your first and last Sony for this reason. If it bothers you that much take it back and get something else. Sony gives you 30 days. No need for buyers remorse.

 

I am not complaining looking for something to pick at... I dont think any laptop I ever owned couldn't keep a constant speed unlike the vaio's sine wave fan speed.

Then again if I wanted something to complain about I would complain about speaker quality then again I dont care...that is why it is wired to the home stereo

 

http://www.falcon-nw.com/laptops/drx

 

I love my vaio but I think it could of been built better overall generally speaking. The only real thing personally i am happy with is the raw speed and power of the machine. I also like the back lite kb, blu ray player and the color.

Im not happy with the display it appears very flat, im not happy with the lack of customization of the bios, I think the speakers suck compared to some other lappys, the unit feels cheaply made compared to my dell 1720. Now I wish I would of dropped the money on the dell xps at the time.

Now another thing that is important to me is support. Sony has not impressed me 1 bit with the exception of replacing my top lid due to poor quality paint coat on the plastic which has been corrected. IM not happy knowing that my laptop could of cause injury or deformity to the machine without a bios update.( how was this bios update a fix? Did they slow the clock speeds? Did they increase the fan cooling speed.Wondering if anyone knows)I know some people just accept the fact that they feel like they have live with their purchase. I do not I will let sony know if they are not living up to their standards.

I have 3 ps3s, 3 psps, 2 hd audio sound decks for the car 1 for me and for my wife. I have a Sony surround sound system, 3 sony cameras mine is a h20 model. I buy almost al my electronics from sony because they are top quality products but im not feeling that way with this laptop.

If someone thinks im just being a whiiner I could care less. Now Im off to go play some killzone 3 beta mp.

 

Right now I'm listening to some music on my hi-fi with a large pair of headphones and I can still hear the fan whining up and down - an utter disgrace! I had tried listening to the laptops in shops but I think the ambient noise masked the problem. I didn't realise there was a 'no quibble' 30 day return (in Europe?) - but I'm now just past 30 days anyway.

 

12LBS!!!!! OMG

 

An update: The camera seems a lot better now; perhaps the brightness value only updated for me when I restarted my computer? Or perhaps the camera needed to be used a little while before it settled (sounds a bit weird to me though). Anyway, it's much better than it was, now. It still doesn't have the option to go as bright as I would like (i.e. the gain value doesn't ramp up high compared to some other webcams I've used), but it is certainly a lot better than when I made my original post. Cheers all.

Also, I love this laptop. The keyboard feels like a dream, it's quiet, doesn't get too hot...will find out soon if I can play Left4Dead2 on it or not

 

The fan speeds may not be your cup of tea. Sorry to hear that they are so problematic, but it's true, the fan does get loud under load.

I use a pair of closed (sealed, whatever) headphones when I'm working/gaming and I honestly can't hear the fan ramping up and down. Then again I can barely hear anything else with them on =P

 

It can: YouTube - Left 4 Dead 2 on Sony_Vaio_F11

 

I really could careless about the sound the fan makes, just worried about the longevity with the constant changing up and down hrmmmm

 

no, i dont see it. this is really annoying now.

 

My two cents about the F13-fan noise: at first I was put of by the fan whistle and, to a lesser extent, the fan speed changes, but now I've combined the F13 with a Zalman NC-2000 and the type of noise is much more exceptable. The fan changes speed much less often and the lower pitched fan noise of the Zalman softens the higher pitched fan noise of the F13. The fan whistle is still there, but I feel I hear it less often, although perhaps I just don't notice it as much anymore.

What I like about the Zalman is the option to change the fan speed, so I keep it on low speed for browsing and on high speed for games etc.

Basically, as soon as the outside noise is anything more than whisper quiet, I don't notice any fan noise. I can still hear the leaves rustling in the wind outside.

In general, I love the laptop, I have it hooked up to a pair of Roland 2.1 speakers via the optical out, which sounds great. On the road, I can either hook up my headphones directly or use my Sony MW600 bluetooth interface to plug in my headphones for a cordless connection. I also have a pair of ultraportable X-mini speakers to improve the quality of speaker sound on the road.

At home I just use it as a desktop: external keyboard, mouse and a Samsung F2380M. I have recently played quite a bit of Batman: Arkham Asylum on it. Looked and played great on 720p. I haven't tried any higher settings.

 

Is there anything I can do increase the color saturation of my F13?



On the laptop, the gamma is turned down all the way via the Windows Calibrate Display option, and the brightness in Fallout is down all the way. In the picture above the brightness and "washed out"-ness are obviously exaggerated due to the crappy digital camera, but you can clearly see how much less "colorful" it is than my Asus 19" monitor connected to my desktop. I tried a few of the custom color profiles (the JoeBleau 'native' one and the 'Spyder' one), but those honestly made the colors even less vivid than the default color profile. It was like turning down a master color saturation bar, which is already pretty low as it is it seems.

Am I completely missing something here or does the display just simply lack "color vividness"?

 

Would you mind shrinking down your image so we don't have to scroll all over the page, please?

I don't think that turning Gamma down all the way is a good idea. You're going to lose greys/contrast and such (I don't really know).

Try some of the color profiles that were made for the F11 and F12 from here:
Vaio_F Series Monitor Calibration and Users Created Profiles Roundup

Perhaps one of these will help you.

 

hmm maybe some of us are a little fussy regarding the fan noise. I will certainly admit to it. One of the reasons i bought this laptop was because I heard it runs so cool even with all the power behind it... but obviously, I didn't realise just how hard the fan has to work to achieve that.

For me, noise is a big problem. I spend hours at my laptop editing/autocadding, and I like to work in silence preferably, no music, no background tv/movies. Nothing. But I can't do that anymore because I'm bothered by the noise. I have to put some music on the cover the noise, which distracts/disrupts my work flow and thus I'm less productive. This is my third laptop in the last two months (had 2 acer aspire 8943gs which were incredibly quiet but very hot with numerous other problems, a series of exchanges/repairs lead me to this f12) so I'm realistically not going to change this again because of the noise when i love almost everything else about it. So... yeah... in future, a noisy laptop is definitely a dealbreaker for me, Sony-power or not... but for now, I'll just join in with my fan, whining and making noise until there's some kind of fix.

 

I'm seriously considering trading my f13 in for another laptop. I bought this one for the premium screen, which is gorgeous. But the noise is just so annoying, even more so because I often work in a (relatively) quiet room. I might consider having a less quality screen in favor of having the deal with this noise all the time.

 

Anseio, I see you are using a cooler for your vaio. I dont know whether you think the fan noise is loud/annoying, but can you say what difference it makes? Would appreciate it.

 

1.8 to 2.2 for sure.

The Gamma adjustment page

Proper Gamma (Brightness) for Cross Platform WWW Images

http://www.imaging-resource.com/TIPS/LAWLER/SEPSETUP.PDF

Monitor Calibration and Profiling

Monitor calibration and gamma

ColorWiki - Monitor Calibration FAQ

 

Do you just get fan noise or do you also get the annoying high-pitched whistling noise that is shown here ? If it is the whistling noise, Sony will let you return it for a full refund, as this is a defect in the product. After many phone calls with Sony-Support they finally let me return mine, even though I had it longer then the 30-day return period (Had it about 3 months). I'm currently looking for other similar spec'd laptops but have not found one that fully suits me. Closest I can find is the new Dell-XPS 15which has VERY nice configuration options and features.. but it's 15.6''... I really want another 16.x'' as I think this is the best size for a business/work laptop. 17.3's are too big for lugging around and 15'' screens are too small. There is a Toshiba-A660 which is 16'' but has horrible 1366x768 resolution. I just want a notebook with decent CPU / GPU , large sturdy keyboard w/ backlit option, and a decent screen resolution (doesnt have to be 1080 but at least better then 1366x768) Anyone know of a laptop besides the F that meets these requirements?

 

I absolutely need a numeric keypad. If this is also a requirement of yours I think this will limit you to only 17" laptops. When I was shopping, the Dell Studio 17 was a strong consideration but the keyboard is very giving. I have a Dell XPS 16 in the family and it's nice. The Envy seems to give you a good run for your money. Note: I will never buy an HP again since they obfuscated their responsibility in replacing a known defect in my previous laptop. http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/04/28/hp.nvidia.failures.ongoing/ FYI

 

I don't have fan noise, unless under very heavy load. The cooler does make a difference in the amount of heat that is vented out though.

 

If you didnt do a Fresh Start then you can move the mouse to the top of the screen(at least on mine) and a bar with several icons will show up at the top and the Webcam button is there. You can change settings from inside the program.

 

Do you mean you didnt have fan noise anyway, or because of the cooler?

 

I do not have fan noise. Ever. It only "spins up" during very heavy load. I did not have fan noise before obtaining my lappy cooler. I don't think that any of us w/ the 1600x900 display have fan noise issues.

 

I don't have hardly any fan noise (F13) unless it's under heavy load. I am not sure if this is a hit or miss problem, people sitting in a room all by themselves with no other "white" noise, or what? I had a Dell Inspiron 9300 (yeah it's that old) and this laptop is no way louder. That comparison is like apples to oranges, but my point is that the fan noise is a complete mystery to me.

 

Ok, thanks. So is there any way I can just clean the entire system including the bloatware without a CD? Or do I need to just buy a blank DVD and put 7 on it and run it..

 

+1 I've had my F12 for 3 months now and I have no fan noise issues either. I do use it as a desktop replacement with an NZXT cooler and have the 1600 x 900 display like anseio. I see you have the premium display and yet you have no noise issues either.

 

What you're asking about is a Clean Install. Yes, it can be done. Check out this page:
Vaio_F Series Windows 7 64-bit Clean Install Guide Using OEM Recovery Discs
It's one of the more comprehensive guides.

 

That's exactly what I did. A clean restore using the built-in factory restore partition. You can even adjust the partition size and add a D: drive during re-install process without losing the factory restore partition. Just follow the guide found in this forum and stop the restore process as soon as additional software install starts. At that point, you have a clean activated Windows 7 with no Sony driver or software. Reinstall driver and the critical Sony software from Sony Support web site.

 

Since noise can be very subjective. In my case, the fan begins to spin up almost immediately after start up, and it does not stop. It is constantly changing, sometimes only very little (but still weird), other times very rapidly and high range. It doesn't really seem to relate to temperature either. The fan immediately starts spinning up when I open a program (itunes or google earth for example). Not after, but even before it is even entirely loaded. I cannot imagine the cpu heating up that much in just a second or so.

Do none of you experience this same problem? Because then it would seem my laptop is defect.

 

If mine is, I certainly don't notice it. I hear it on occasion. The only time I ever heard it run for a length of time was when I was doing some massive file copying and it ran for a considerable amount of time. Outside of that, nada.

 

Guys, recommendations for a cooler that doesnt get its power via USB and has a silent low level sound? I want one with independent A/C adapter to place on a desk of mine.

 

NZXT :: Unique. Unprecendented. Inspired - Cryo LX Product Detail

and gives you four extra USB ports.

 

Just installed the latest Intel RST drivers without issues.

intel drivers pour Raid/Sata/Ata/Ahci

I was a bit hesitant, but since I did not hear of any problems, thought this was the time.

 

Sorry for the really late reply guys (and/or gals?). And WOW thanks for all the support ^^

Um ok so I installed the gadgets (very cool btw) and tried to find one for hard drive read/write speeds but couldn't find one. I ran the program and it doesn't seem to favor one core, instead it's kinda spread among a couple of them (with one having a heavy load, the others are relatively low). I do have Spartan 08 (which btw anseio, is only ~170MB on my harddrive so i don't know why it says 60GB; I was running an Equilibrium Geometry calculation with B3LYP (6-31G*) on an Fe(ox)3 compound with -3 charge and 5 unpaired electrons (if you want to try to recreate the same exact calculation x) http://www.lookchem.com/300w/2010/0618/14221-47-7.jpg ignore the NH4+ at the bottom)). I'm not sure whether this version of Spartan is the parallel version because we were led to a specific page on the website for our university (we get the program for $25 instead yay ^^) and I looked around, we didn't have much of a choice and they didn't say which version this one is. And thank you mangosango for the explanation of parallel processing. I guess it would be difficult with molecular calculations to do this... DeWinte I think I will try the VM idea (not to mention looking at folding@home forums).

Thank you all for all your help! I can't believe all the time you guys (oops and/or gals) put into your responses =) Thanks a bunch!

 

Maybe this is common knowledge to most but there is no BIOS setting to support Intel VT.

View Document

So my understanding is you get 20% or so less performance. Only from what I have read.

 

Please don't tell me that the F13 laptop doesn't have Intel VT support, I ordered it so I can use all the power on this laptop, including the i7's IntelVT capabilities!

Please, can those of you that already have the F13 check if IntelVT is present or, at least activated??? What does a laptop with 8GB RAM and an i7 processor worth for me, if it doesn«t have this feature activated!?!?

 

IRST 10.0.0.1046 is really great. Makes my SSD snappier.

 

To check, download and run this utility.

Support for the Intel Processor Identification Utility

 

Mine has the bios option, then again it's about the only thing you can turn on in the bios

 

Which one from that list would work for the F11? I have an 80GB Intel X18-M inside


Kind regards

 

You should definitely install IRST 10.0.0.1046