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

Excellently stated, Fishon! +1 rep for you! Whether or not a fan is "too noisy" or not is a very subjective and personal judgment. And fan noise has been a continually recurring issue throughout this extremely long thread. I have to assume that anyone reading through this thread has read the numerous "My fan is too loud, is this normal?" posts and tried to listen to one before buying it. I know that I did and I tried playing with several of them in different stores before deciding that it wasn't an issue for me.

I use my F12 for several hours daily in a very quiet environment and never even notice the fan noise so it's difficult for me to imagine what it's like when people say it's too loud. I'm not saying that it isn't so to them but that's just not so for me personally. And I agree wholeheartedly with your statement that I would definitely buy the same laptop again today. I've looked at all the other alternatives and each of them either lack something that I need or want or they cost way more than I would be willing to spend.

 

You probably agree with me that the combination of an F with a laptop cooler makes the sound more stable.

 

Most definitely so.....I use my F12 as a desktop replacement, so it is always sitting on my NZXT cooler on my desk! And I do believe that a cooler does help keep the fan rpm's down.

 

I recently picked up a VPCF115FM/B from best buy open box for a great price...so far the laptop has performed well. i had to contact sony to have the hard drive replaced (dead...probably the reason for the clearance) and to have the wireless switch repaired.

while waiting for the new h/d (and a planned permanent upgraded) i installed a kingston ssdnow 128gb ssd (model number snv125-s2/128gb) and the machine is basically unusable. it takes around 15-20 mins to boot. once it does boot it looks up after keying in password.

i have a very small mechanical drive that works fine...this machine just doesn't like this ssd. i've tried the following:

i cloned the mechanical drive with 2 versions of acronis and clonezilla...same result
i've tried a clean install of win7 home pre 64b..same result..only it slows down/locks up during initial setup (user name, password, key, machine name)
i've verified i have the most recent bios from the sony website
i've searched and found no firmware updates for my drive
i've contact sony support (no help there as they do not recommend replacing the factory installed hard drive)
i've reached out to kingston (awaiting reply)
the drive is being recognized in the bios

i'm at a loss...anyone had a similar experience?

i'd purchase another ssd, but i'm afraid to be stuck with a drive i don't need that won't work.

i really dont see the logic in sony producing a great machine and hampering it w/a slow hard drive.

any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Are you able to install the Kingston into another machine to determine if per chance you have two failed drives? No one has had any issues about the F being problematic towards SSD. There is nothing different about a platter disc verses a SSD in regards to the system. I'm sure others will help out more here.

 

yep, the drive works fine in other machines.

yeah, i wouldn't think there'd be a problem either. all sony would say is that they dont recommend users swap out their own hard drives and that the laptop would only work with a SATA drive...i explained this is a SATA drive.

this is an older SSD...so i'm curious if that is the cause...but i don't want to invest in another SSD if i'm just going to see the same results.

 

Concerning my post, is there someone who knows if it could be possible to "downgrade" or turn off Intel turbo mode within the BIOS? If yes, how can I get a BIOS with decent options? It looks like a light version, and I want to "unlock" it!

Thanks in advance, I'm trying to love this laptop, I need silence

 

Our BIOS options are really non existent with the F. Changing voltage is impossible. I've recommended RealTemp to disable Turbo mode to you, however you stated it has no effect.

 

OK thanks you Fishon, I've got a question for you which I'm unable to find an answer for: what is a decent/normal temparature in celsisus for i7 core cpu? I'm between 45C-55C, so if it is "normal", I will just cooldown with a cooling pad, and stop trying to get an answer to how to get my CPU cooler

Thanks a lot!

 

That is a very normal range with the F. I'm at 4% CPU right now and my cores are ranging from 45-50c.

 

Interesting! thank you, me too I'm around 4% of CPU usage...its not a very large survey sample but for now it looks that my cpus run at a decent temperature...anyone have temperature to give me?

 

I'd say those temps are very good. I don't have my F series yet but I did have a Q9550 (Quad core) Intel processor and it ran around those same temps at idle... and it was a DESKTOP with 120mm fan right above the CPU. I'd be happy with those temps for a laptop.

 

Research within NBR about Throttlestop.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...unlock-core-2-extreme-multiplier-windows.html

There is a lot of information here. Seems like some have had success without doing a BIOS change but I do not think it's possible with the F. I've included a pic where the turbo setting options are greyed out and the Unlock Max FID/VID is not available. I'm at work and do not have the time to look into sufficiently but maybe others can chime in.



Also, my temps are in the same range as well.

 

It wil be a thing that I will surely look for once at home, but "software solution" is a less interesting (like undervolting with RealTemp) because I'm a Ubuntu User as well a Windows user... Thanks for the reading Fishon!

 

guys the side of my laptop has paint missing, what can i do.

 

Repaint it.

 

how, would sony need do it, dont understand how the paint has come off.

 

Yeah, your temps are great. I have an F13 and am always at least in the 50s. At least you can be confident knowing your fan is doing it's job cooling properly. Sorry, don't have any advice for you other than what others have said, just adding my comment so you got one from someone with an F13.

Edit: I know you don't usually run Windows but I'm curious if the Silent Mode in Viao Control Center quiets your laptop sufficiently. That's supposed to limit your CPU (but is non-configurable).

 

im really angry, dont know why bad things always happen. Oh man.

 

Thanks for sharing you experience, thats appreciated! It comforts me that temp looks ok, but the fan noise is a bit annoying due to the fact that I use my VAIO to record guitar and voice via Audacity, you understand that I want the background sound to be near "void"...

For the silent mode, I tried it last weekend but without any changes to the CPU temp and fan noise.

 

Oh I forget to ask: so you say that you temp is near 50C, is your fan doing considerable noise?

 

Well, it's definitely noticeable but I'm used to a much noisier fan. For the last 5 years I used a Dell Inspiron 6000, which produces such an insane amount of noise I constantly wanted to throw it out my 3rd story window and watch it explode on the concrete below. :-o So, in comparison, this makes my Vaio perfectly acceptable.

 

Thanks fishon, is this the same colour as the laptop itself, also its only a small mark that is missing the paint, so any point the bottle. Thing is im paranoid want everything perfect.

Fishon also when you move your screen and laptop about does it creek or something, is it normal that it does.

 

You're being convinced me to keep that great laptop with me at home instead of taking the chance of shipping this to Sony without knowing if they will do something for this...

I'm surprised because I'm used to a "temperated" laptop, but without all the power of the i7 and the GPU, so the "heat" seems to be normal with my brand new laptop. However, I will try to undervolt-it and stop throttling, but carefully... I just want the fan to be a bit less noisy (so reduce the heat logically) and I will be very happy!

Thanks for sharing! We seems to have the same spec, except that me it is the 1390 s version.

 

Yeah, there are always trade-offs. You have to be careful about deciding what's serious enough to have Sony work on it or replace because you might get a worse problem in return. Hope you can get it to an acceptable level for your needs. Good luck!

 

Haha you are right, especially when my last buying trial result in choosing my lovely new Vaio, after not one but two laptop (Studio 1558) shipped as defect from Dell this automn! The term "trade-offs" is appropriated there

Well I'll keep forum updated about my trial for undervolting and other cooling solution. Thanks sir

 

jef.zapata - if you follow the tweaks in http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-series-4-5-965-chipsets-stamatisx-tweak.html, you might have the side effect of Turbo Boost being disabled.

I'm not a fan of disabling TB. I play blu ray rips from my hard drives and found that playback was really choppy when TB wasn't present. It smooths out the performace of the CPU.

Best bet, get a HD video file and test its playback.

Also, the above mentioned tweak is in the registry, so it won't apply to Ubuntu.

 

If this is a new system which you just purchased, why not return it or contact sony support and see if they can assist you? Given the key/screen creaking issue and now the paint issue, if this was happening to a new system I just purchased, I would be all over returning it for one without issue.

 

But people on the forum have said the sqeeky keys will go over time, by squeeky i mean when opening or moving the laptop around. In regards to the paint its a very tiny mark. I wouldnt mind sending it off but there doesnt seem to be any major issues, and not sure what sony will do in this instance.

 

Holy cats, just how noisy is this laptop!? I'm very close to purchasing one, but I'm starting to get cold feet because of all the noise issues with the fan I've been reading about.

 

omaroo, the only way you will find out 'what sony will do' is to call them and ask. In this case, people can post their opinions all day long - what matters in the end is the conversation you have with support. Give them a call if you are concerned. See what they have to say.

 

I have a question about the whine/wheezing noise "fix" that involves the going into the recording properties and selecting 'listen to this device".

It appears to me that when that box is selected, windows 7 (I don't have any other versions of windows running) will not automatically go into a sleep or a hybrid state after a given time as the power management settings state.

Is there a work around and or fix for this problem that will force my computer to go into sleep or hybernate after a certain amount of time?

I have talked to sony and read about these types of cpu/mic/speaker whine/feedback/resonance/noise problems for this computer and others and it seems that there is little that can be done. I have applied all the updates to realtek drivers, patches, and bios updates and fixes and set those bios settings to default. Sony wants me to to bring it into a service center where I've seen no evidence online that that will fix anything (perhaps short of installing a new motherboard, which I doubt they'd do, and I doubt would resolve the problem).

So, does anyone have ideas about a fix or program to work around this that would allow me to fix the noise/sound issue by selecting "listen to this device" and still set sleep/hybernate times for windows 7?

Hoping to hear other people can reproduce the issue, work around it, or have already solved it.

 

Seriously, in my opinion, the fan noise (which is not enough loud to get me crazy even if I'm searching to reduce it due to guitar and voice recording needs quasi-background silence) will never make me buy another laptop: the quality of construction (if you're searching for Apple-like but with more power for less bucks), add to this the display (clear full hd), irreprochable sound quality, and the WAPM (what a powerfull machine ), make me most comprehensible with the fan.

Note that after discussion with other members of this forum, I can see that my CPU isn't overheating at all (I'm developping all day long since the purchase and CPU never get more that 55C for which member considerate a normal tempareture for such specs)...

I say don't worry, but I'm a new Sony Vaio consumer and I can't advance more technical detail to convince you that the F Series will be your best purchase... What specs are you searching for?

 

I am not sure is someone here already mentioned that you can create a power plan, at least in windows that is, that allows you to limit the cpu speed to that of the same speed as you would get on battery. This should keep the fan from getting as loud, but unfortunately you have to deal with the slower cpu speed. I created a Blu-ray power plan on mine and limited the cpu speed when plugged in so as to keep the fan noise down a bit. Go into power options and then create a power plan and name it what you want and change the minimum processor state to 5% and the maximum processor state to 50% in the advanced settings. You can actually set the maximum processor state to 5% also it really doesn't matter, but it won't run that slow it will still run at the same maximum speed that your system runs at while on battery only. I play my blu-ray movies just fine at this limited processor speed and still have plenty of power left to browse and do other general tasks. And it it easy to switch between power plans it only takes a second, just click on your battery icon in the system tray to switch between them.

 

omaroo, don't sweat the small stuff. A little missing paint is not going to hurt anything. I just bought a new 2011 vehicle and of course I don't want the paint scratched so initially I try to park away from other vehicles, but inevitably someone parks next to it and opens their car door into it and leaves a mark. You just have to accept it happens and move on. Same thing when I went out and bought a new $2,500 mountain bike. I don't want it all scratched up right away, but it is a mountain bike so I go out and ride some rough stuff and give it some good scratches, but at the same time I enjoy the heck out of it.

As far as the creaking it is completely normal and mine creaks exactly the same as yours.

 

Hi!

Has anybody experience with upgrading the memoery in the Vaio F to 2x8 GB RAM modules? Is it possible. I know the official RAM max is 8 GB.

Best regards

Zeus

 

yeah it should go into "jet engine mode" but i dont even hear it since i have music or sound playing in the background. well i also use a laptop cooler so it helps a bit.

** sorry to be rude and all but it just seems like there are wayy too many people complaining about the fan noise. you guys should consider that you bought an intel i7 core laptop. the f11-13 are incredibly well heat sinked and the only way to keep temps low is to also increase fan speed. compare our laptops to other i7s and you will see the reason why the f11-13 temperatures are so much lower when in full load. to those people playing games and saying the fan noise goes into lets say "jet engine mode"...do you guys play games on mute?!?!**

***oh yeah if you guys are playing on a flat surface thats a big no bueno, even just elevating it a inch or more HELPS TREMENDOUSLY. ive been propping my laptop on my school textbook for a while until i got my laptop cooler.***

****and if you really are having crazy fan speed/noise go download a program to measure its actualy RPM and see if its normal or not. i use everest ultimate edition to see temps and fan speed.****

 

I believe some have gone with this:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

 

or

You need to listen for yourself. What more can be said and not heard?

 

Does anyone know what the 2d clock speed for the 330m should be? I just noticed that my gpu always runs at 3d clock speed no matter what (probably a result of the hard drive reformat I had to do a few months back).

Anyway I was just going to create a new profile that underclocks my card to 2d clock speeds and then just clock back to stock/overclocked settings when I open a game.

 

Core 405
Shaders 810
Memory 324

 

Thanks! (rep as soon as its available )

 

And lots of good info here:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

Mango - rep given to Pain on your behalf.

 

Wow, how nice is that! We need more gracious people like you on this thread!

 

I'm going to replace the 500gb HDD with a 120gb SSD in my VPCF12S1E.

How does one go about enabling AHCI in the BIOS? I believe it's set to IDE by default. Any pointers

Regards

 

Hi all i got this problem with vaio care and it really bugging me and it end up by forcing the program to end process any help
Here is the error:


See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.
at System.DateTimeParse.Parse(String s, DateTimeFormatInfo dtfi, DateTimeStyles styles)
at System.Convert.ToDateTime(String value)
at Auslogics.DiskDefragTaskScanner.Start()
at AuslogicsOpt.ScanNext()
at AuslogicsOpt.Scan()
at AuslogicsOpt.RunScan(Int32 mask)
at RunAuslogics.Form1.Form1_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4952 (win7RTMGDR.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
RunAuslogics
Assembly Version: 5.0.0.9210
Win32 Version: 5.0.0.09210
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Sony/VAIO%20Care/Auslogics/RunAuslogics.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.4927 (NetFXspW7.050727-4900)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
KeyUtilities
Assembly Version: 5.0.0.9210
Win32 Version: 5.0.0.09210
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Sony/VAIO%20Care/Auslogics/KeyUtilities.DLL
----------------------------------------
auslogics
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Sony/VAIO%20Care/Auslogics/auslogics.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.


hey by the way my model is VPCF119GX

 

Spoke to sony said it was anything major, the squeeky keys will go overtime. In regards to the mark it very tiny, and you cant see the paint off unless you go really close. So what shall i do because no replacement, but its in brilliant quality, i like to keep my laptop, pc and ps3 in brilliant condition but i know something could happen.

Anyone please make me feel better in regards to a clicking noise when you open your laptop or move around or type for a while a clicking sound happens, anyone experience that, is that normal?

 

Maybe apply a little graphite lube at the hinges.

GunSlick Graphite Lube .2 oz Tube 83012 on eBay!

 

HUH! Anyone would think its Christmas!

Oh and I've rep'd anseio on mango's behalf.