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

I have a Lacie firewire 800 express card that I never got to work in my old VAIO. I just figured it was a compatability issue with that computer. I just tried it in the F13 and I can't get it to work on it either. Any suggestions? Is anyone using a different brand in the F series?

 

You cannot make recovery discs of the clean installation itself. That's why you must make a system image as a backup. The recovery discs are created from the recovery partition, which contains all of the data for a full OEM install.

Welcome!

 

Got my replacement bluray drive this evening. It's an Optiarc, whereas my original was a Panasonic(Matsua). Turns out I think that I killed my OEM one when I plugged in the wrong power source to the enclosure, as the enclosure bridge also seems to be malfunctioning. So... i've got the ODD back inside my VAIO until a new enclosure arrives next week. Will be swapping back and forth until then, cuz I miss my music and it's only been 30 minutes.

 

Does anybody have the original downloads to get the fn keys to work again? I'm having trouble finding the individual downloads such as Vaio control center, and settings utility.

 

You can download those from your esupport page. Depending what model you have they may be separate downloads or may be bundled under Sony Notebook Utilities. You want to make sure to install Vaio event service too, which is also in that bundle.

 

Well in the order that you have to install them, it requires everything to be seperate. I can't find seperate downloads for each item

 

You should be able to in Vaio Care unless yours is different from mine.

 

I can be done from VAIO Care. No, the order doesn't matter, but you'll have to restart after the last of all of them is installed to make sure they do work.

From VAIO Care, you need to install:
VAIO Event Service
VAIO Control Center
Settings Utility Series

These 3 will get your Fn and dedicated VAIO keys working properly.

 

At this time there is only a few ssd drives without TRIM and all of them are shi.tty ones. Intel G2 still rocks the party because of the price and iops, then theres a sandforce based ssd but it costs more. If you happen to buy.receive ssd without trim, then you could use designated tool to recover cells, like SSDToolbox for Intel ssd's. But at the moment, most of the ssd's supports trim and are good overall like Intel, Crucial, Ocz, Corsair, G.Skill. Just dont buy any crap ssd from Samsung, Kingston, Toshiba, A-Data etc.

 

And maybe wait a little, because in the beginning of 2011 there will be a new revision from Intel the G3 series... http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...des/528974-first-intel-g3-ssd-benchmarks.html

 

Yep, and there should be twice as much of capacity for the same price. 160GB will cost same as today 80GB. But that is only theoretical and market will verify actual prices based on consumer demands.

 

Just install shared library and then turn on in save mode, delete all in C:/Temp and install notebook Utilities. DON'T FORGET that there should not be unrecognised devices in Device manager. You should install Firmware Ext... and if Unknown devise is still there - search drivers manually on drive C:/

I heard that new updates for Intel SSD speeds up SSD but it slows down quick of responce. What do you think about it? I read it in good newspaper

 

Hi All

Can you help me out with two things please.

1) I noticed that the colors of the vaio F with the 330M is not as bright and pure as some other computers. I am using a dell external monitor and the red looks like pure red not a dull red. Is that something that can be fixed or we are screwed because its a US monitor.

2) Do you know where I can already buy a completely assembled hard drive optical bay for the F series?

 

G3 will feature new controller along with 25nm chips so Im not worrying about performance. We need to wait for real and multiple G3 benchmarks to see if access time increased in new revision. Also, new Sandforce 2000 controller looks better on paper but we need to keep in mind that Sandforce great performance is based on a trick: Sandforce controller compress data on the fly and perform significantly worse on data already compressed. Copying 10000 text files with diffrent file size will be a piece of cake for sandforce, but compres each file with zip or rar, and writing/reading those files on Sandforce controller can slow things a little.

What should worry us really is that the new 25nm cells are dying 2 times faster. If this problem is even partialy adressed, it may be solved be higher price tag.

First it matter if your F screen is calibrated. Then it comes to the Dell internal color/brightness/contrast settings. A mix of that and You could end with flawless colors or a real fu.ck up. Also turn off automatic brightness in Vaio Control Center.

 

If you mean bay with HDD inside - I doubt there is one.
But if you mean without - just buy 12,7 mm (fermi or another) universal bay.

Besides HELP! If price on Ebay is in AU (Australian dollars) does it mean additional payment in paypal for currency exchange?

 

hello everyone, I have the Vaio, VPCF119FX that i bought in march, great pc for gaming, however i am experiencing some problems playing some of my games. MY call of duty moder warfare 2, FIFA 11, and medal of honor are all having problems in that the screen is getting bright in different parts, like alot of brightness even making it impossible to see. Hovever i did not experience any problems in my Crysis Warhead game.

This morning i ran Vaio update and it installed many new updates as well as the nvidia driver. Before this, i was using the driver the pc came with in march i have been expereincing the problesm only after the driver istallation. I have since went to control panel device manager and rolled back the driver, but the problem is still there! My NVIDIA control panel is not working anymore.

Please help me. I really am bewildered, and need help ASAP

 

Why wouldn't You try to install original Nvidias drivers on Nvidia.com?
I definitely know that 256.7 drivers are good but 260,99 has function clean install which deletes old drivers without your help.

 

thankyou so much for the reply. so i downloaded the original driver from the sony e support site. so im going to install it now. Is there any specific processs that im suppoed to follow to install the driver,?? i never done this before, the vaio update did it for itself this morning and im a newbie at this!

btw will this installation fix the problem of the nvidia control panel as well

???

 

some people use programs like drive sweeper or other to uninstall drivers.
If you don't want - uninstall Nvidia palel using "change or delete program" in windows (write this in start panel) then delete drivers through device manager. reboot in save mode. install drivers.

But as I told before it is much easier to download drivers from nvidia, besides they give little better performance

 

so i downloaded the driver that shipped with the pc and i installed, rebooted, my control panel works , but im still getting the problem of weird brightness, like a fog covering the screen. what do i do next

 

Perhaps you should disable vertical sync in games if it is enabled
try to change resolution in that games
try change drivers: Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

 

How do i calibrate the screen? I personally think it is. Could it just be that the screen on the viao is not as vibriant as the external dell monitor?

 

http://tinyurl.com/2eaw7ze

Screen on my Dell XPS is more vibrant than the Sony F.

 

What exact model of vaio f you have ? If you have silver vaio laptop (entry M model of F series in Europe, like F12M) then you have a really crap lcd panel. Also, Dell monitor has different lcd panel, and colors will be diffrent from Vaio even without calibration. You see, my F11S straight out of the box burned my eyes with with its white color, and overall display was a bit blue. After calibration (mat800 profile), it all got a little darker, and colors are just sweet and very intense. My Orange Windows calendar gadget is more orange than whole Netherlands and orange revolution on Ukraine. Juice of colors flow through my screen now. Its amazing display.

List models of Vaio and Dell which you compared. We dont know if you compared full HD lcd panel on Dell with crappy glossy panel on Vaio or what. Need exact model numbers.


Tip: F13 1080p premium display in Europe is worse than 1080p premium on F11 and F13. Sony switched panels and new ones are a little bit worse.

 

Sony F11 1080 glass compared to Dell XPS M1530, 1440x900 Wide-screen WSXGA LCD Display. This is just an obvious observation that the Dell is much more vibrant and the Sony has more 'true' color. I have a Dell desktop as well and the matte monitor is my favorite. No further specs since I am not at home.

 

So i finally used the hack and got the nvidia drivers to install. I got the Sony VPCF136FXB with the i7 740QM and GeForce GT 425M.

Was curious about a few things. Will this hack work for only getting the nvidia 260.99 drivers to install or also for any future updated drivers?

Did you ever find a way to fix the problem with the screen dimming/shutting off when brightness is not set to max? I like the "display off" feature and it sucks that these drivers messed it up. I wish someone here can make a fix for this somehow...

Do you think its worth keeping or should i just revert back to the original Sony drivers again? Did you notice any improvement for gaming compared to the original drivers?

Thanks for any help i can get.

 

Are you referring to the modifcation I did to 260.99 so it could install on the VAIO F with the G425M card? This mod will only work with that driver installation package.

 

No, it's that's way because Sony didn't provide the necessary information to NVIDIA to properly support the various function controls on our laptop with this processor. That's why it's not supported and causes these problems. Maybe in a future release they will, like they did with the 310 and 330 GPUs. While I'm sure someone who has specific knowledge of how Sony modifies drivers could fix this, I'm not one of those people and no one has come on here with that information.

Just last week I actually uninstalled and reverted back to my original driver because I wasn't seeing any improvement and was annoyed by the bugs. I didn't run any benchmarks though. One other person who did this did run a benchmark (I'm not sure if it was Furmark or I'm just assuming that) and did not see any difference.

 

As for Dell, this panel isnt the best of all with good luminosity, quity bad viewing angles, medium contrast. And for Vaio F, its safe to assume that all gloss panels, 900p or 1080p are just crap, with 900p being the king of crap in this. There is such big difference between F premium display and all the others avaiable on F series, that they shouldnt be even offered. Man, I bought my F because of its superb display. Payed 1250 Euros for my laptop, almost 330 Euros only for the screen in comparison to base M model and my month salary is about 400 Euros. But there wasnt any other option: either get premium lcd, or dont bother with F series at all. And yet I could name myself a lucky one guy, seeing that Sony messes up with lcd panels on F13 - premium display being changed for worse right now. Someone at Sony got a cancer I think.

 

Thanks Jacol! I was actually looking at a Kingston SSD because I have always been happy with their RAM and USB memory keys. Good thing I know better now.

 

Alright thanks for the quick response. I reverted back to the original drivers tonight as i didnt either see much of a difference when playing battlefield 2. The game runs great on medium, wish i could somehow get it running on high but dont think thats possible.

Also, i heard the GT 425M is capable of outputting 3d images to 3d monitors/3dtv's. Do you know if Sony's drivers supports this feature? It would be a real shame to lose it just because Sony is too stupid to update/support nvidia's newer drivers...

 

Well, I've found it impossible to find Release Notes for our drivers, but in case someone else knows someplace to look that I don't, the version is 259.03 (8.17.12.5903). I'm quite certain that asking Sony would result in an inaccurate answer so I'm not even going to try. All I know is that 259.03 would be part of what is called the "Release 256" drivers. The only 3D references I've found in Release 256 driver Release Notes are support for Blu-ray 3D with NVIDIA 3D Vision technology and NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround. I have no idea specifically what is supported in our version, however, and I don't have access to a 3D monitor/TV.

 

Hi all,

Im planning to buy a new Sony Vaio F13 from the SonyStyle U.S store. However, I do have 2 questions.

1. Can someone tells and confirms me if the new F13 does have a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?

2. Is there still a high-pitched noise coming from the new F13. has Sony already fixed this bug?

P.S according to Sony website: 16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)

Thank you in advance

 

F13M is glossy, F13S and F13Z is matte display - in Europe and Asia. High pitched noise is disabled in Microphone sound controll pane if you check certain options there. USA has different lcd panels.

 

Have the family gather round the Sony F and enjoy.

Faux Fire | Share the warmth.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Hopefully not too much family tech support for any of us.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Are you guys sure it's 259.03? (and not 258.96 or 260.89?). 258.96 was part of the Release 256 drivers (I think you guys should have 258.96 installed).

Here are the release notes for 259.03 (it was a driver for nvidia tesla cards - basically CUDA supercomputing cards...).

Here are the release notes for 258.96.

According the the notes for 258.96:

I think that currently the 425m, 330m and 310m support the nvidia 3d vision system. Basically, you need a 3d-capable display and the nvidia 3d vision kit (from what I can gather, just a pair of shutter glasses that can be hooked up to your computer and some other peripherals).

Your current driver should support 3D.

BTW BF2 should be running at high. try turning down the resolution to 1280x720 (the display scales so well you will barely notice the difference after playing for a while). You should be able to turn all the eye candy to high (and probably throw in some AA as well. BF2 is old...).

 

It's definitely 259.03 and it's not the tesla driver. That's why there's no telling what's supported it in. From what I can tell, this driver was made only for Sony and only for the F13 and is not running on any other computer, so Sony could have chosen what to include or not include in it. Without knowing for sure, I'm assuming the Blu-ray 3D and 3D Vision Surround support are included since they are in previous 256 drivers, but there is no telling really where this special driver was pulled from, and I've learned it's not safe to assume that Sony will not disable otherwise existing functionality. Eventually, someone will probably get a chance to hook up to a 3D panel and tell us for sure or maybe Sony will release a new supported driver for the GT 425 that will explicitly include this information.

 

1. Glossy
2. It still exists. Not everyone notices it on their particular laptop. Most do. I personally can hear it but it's not bad enough to really bother me. It does bother some others on here.

 

There's a TV station where I live that just plays this Fireplace all day tomorrow. I always wonder what their ratings are like for the day.

 

Hi everyone ! I just discovered this great forum looking for some info regarding keyboard replacement. I already searched without results, and the issue is not listed in the unified F11 post, so please bear with my newb question about my VPCF110FL.

I want to replace the original keyboard which is not backlit, for a backlit keyboard from ebay. So I´m not sure if it´ll work or if it needs additional drivers for backlight to turn on.

I removed the keyboard to check the Sony P/N which is: 148781751.

The CN39 connector is available on the motherboard which is where you connect the extra cable on the keyboard for backlight.

So, anyone has tried this upgrade on their´s F11 series ? Any help will be greatly appreciated !

 

Here: Vaio_F Series - How To Replace the Keyboard

 

Many thanks for the help, actually I had come across that post previously, but the author is replacing his original backlit keyboard for another backlit keyboard.

My situation is different, since originally my laptop doesn´t include the backlit option which is why I want to replace it.

(BTW... what´s with this guy and the bugs all over his laptop ?!?!?)

Many many thanks for taking the time to reply !!!

 

Several people with non-backlit European F's have used this to replace the keyboard with a US backlit one with no issues. You can search the previous F threads if you want examples but they all used Joe's guide.

(I can't stand bugs, especially spiders - I hate looking at that page).

 

The backlit keyboard just has an extra cable that fits into a pre-existing connector on the VAIO, so it will work.

 

So what should happen with VAIO Control Center under keyboard settings ? Will backlight settings be automatically enabled, or additional drivers will be required ?

 

That's a good question. It has not been brought up before, so I'm going to assume that the machine knows when the backlight is plugged in and therefore enables the feature.

It's worth a shot.

 

Hehe, that´s the tricky part of the issue... Since I´ve only speculated about this so far, and maybe someone had tried this before...

Anyways, it´s just 30 USD to buy a backlit keyboard off ebay, so it´s worth a try... Can´t really damage the motherboard just by connecting both cables... right ?

Still, if someone has first hand info about this mod, please let us know ! Thanks !

EDIT: Just thought of a way to confirm if Backlight activates automatically on Vaio Control Center. Basically if someone owning an F11 with backlit KB is willing to disconnect the backlight cable and see what happens on Vaio Control Center, we could confirm if it is enabled/disabled just by connecting/disconnecting...

 

I believe that Hayte has done this change a few months ago. There some key reassignment issues. Look in the 3rd or 4th thread of this vaio owner's f.

 

I'm having some problems here. I received my SSD today so I am trying to install it. I made a system image to my Drobo via USB 2.0. I'm going throught the restore via system image and it will not let me do it. It is pulling up the image (labeled C: drive for some reason) but the restore fails. Here is the error:

The system image restore failed. No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found.

I've googled the issue but can't find any answers that seem to help. I reinstalled the old drive and shrunk the C: partition as suggested by one article, but that did not work. I've tried it the the usb cable plugged in while booting and without.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Chad