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

I might wait till its safe. The site Fishon got this from, is this for international users or just american users.

 

It does not specify. What version are you using now? What GPU do you have? 260.99 should be just fine regardless.

 

Im using the one before beta, not sure which one it is though, my GPU is the 330M.

 

Well the betta 266 drivers are working perfectly fine on the Geforce GT425M. I've already noticed an improvement in a few games!

 

Well, I don't know for sure if from now on the latest drivers will work for us with the GT 425 but it seems promising to me that we were able to update without modding. So, I'm hoping this means that Sony is now providing support for our GPU for future releases. But there's no guarantee of that.

Edit: We're still not listed as supported in the note at the bottom of the Supported Products tab here, but maybe they are just not updating that until the final release.... http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-266.35-beta-driver.html

 

From Extreme Windows Blog
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/extremewindows/?PageIndex=3

 

As far as I'm concerned, just about all software is of beta quality, whether marked beta or release.

 

Interestingly, the GeForce page says my GPU does not support 3D Vision....

 

Thanks Willscary for your quick reply.

With your information I found this memory: CORSAIR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9

The price is 92 dlls at Newegg.ca (plus shipping, taxes, etc). Newegg.ca - CORSAIR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9

Is this model correct? and is the price good?

Thanks
Alan

 

Just fine, or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._-na&AID=10446076&PID=3640576&SID=skim525X832

 

thanks babe youre the best <3

 

I downloaded and installed 266.35 and was just about to post on how awful I thought it was. For almost an hour, I was struggling with my GPU constantly throttling down and horrible FPS rates. Reverted back to 260.89 and the problem was still there. None of my profiles would keep a systained 1.03v for my 310M. I was getting so mad. Was about to just go back to a system image where everything was ok, cuz system restore wasn't helping. I began searching on what causes the 310M to throttle down and the results were that it will do that when it thinks it's going to get too hot. But mine doesn't get above 52c. !!!!!!!!!!!!

Then...

I got a low battery warning. Yep, had been unplugged at the surge protector the whole time.

266.35 drivers work just fine. Not sure of any noticeable performance increase during gameplay, cuz I'm too lazy to benchmark.

 

Are there color profiles for the newer F13 models. I tried looking at the tweaks for the F11 and it seemed like only one profile had a working link. I have the US 1080P screen. Right now the screen seems extremely washed out

 

Here you go: Vaio F Series Monitor Calibration and Users Created Profiles Roundup

 

Considering there was a recall a few months ago on my VPCF116FG/I relating to the heat of the laptop, and that im still in warranty is it likely that Sony will do anything if i call them and complain about temperatures + fan that becomes noticably loud with ONE internet explorer open?

Also if im just running one internet explorer and i put my hand near the air coming out, it starts to burn after about 15 seconds, i dont think thats normal

 

Got the vpcf11s1e. Fan is quite audible when just browsing, becomes very loud and switches speed regularly when opening a simple mediaplayer, playing videos or mp3, doesn't matter. Does the same on tube sites...

I've seen complaints about the fan, but it does go very hard when doing some simple things... Is this normal??? The power options are on balanced.

The wind blowing is indeed hot though, so I guess it's not speeding up for the sake of it, but it's incredibly distracting.

Anyone with the same experience?

 

At the risk of being rude, fan noise is a horse that's been beaten to death many times over. The poor thing.

The summary of 5 threads of waves of complaints and discussions is...

i7 processor = HOT
Single fan VAIO = very efficient at keeping hot from being HOT, at the cost of said single fan spinning up and making noise.

For either of you, has a clean install of your system been done? Is the rear of the laptop elevated from its resting surface? Air must be allowed to circulate underneath for better cooling to take place.

EmsteR - There was a BIOS update in June that was supposed to take care of your heat issues. If it has not, then you really should contact Sony before your warranty is over. Are you running any programs or gadgets that show your CPU temps? Your cores should idle in the upper 40's c and not go above 66c during stress testing (benchmarking). If you're idling at higher temps, then either too much is happening in the background that you're not aware of, or there's an issue.

 

Eh? My cores go from 66 up to 73 sometimes when putting it to the test. At the time (when I bought this thing in april) I made a note of this on several forums, including this one, and the general consensus was that this is normal for the i7???
No clean install done yet though, with about 100 things running when I open taskmanager.

Are you 100% sure about the temps you mentioned?

 

oh oh oh, I'm having deja vu. I remember a conversation just like this about a month ago, but the temps were much higher than yours. Have you considered cleaning the fan out? Dust bunnies could have taken up residence and are blocking smooth airflow, making the fan work very hard for nothing at all. Your temps are too high, I'd look into that first.

edit - after rereading your post, dust may not be a factor. check anyway.

yes, I"m sure on the temps. Joe_Bleau and several of us did a ton of furmark stress tests back in the summer and 66 was the norm under stress. I'm on a cooler right now and it's winter and I'm idling at 47-48. Were I to put it on my lap w/o the cooler (lap blocking air), the temps would "jump" up to 50ish. 66 is HOT. The VAIO F has better cooling than that.

edit deux: looking back at some of my GPU overclock benchmarks and doing CPU/GPU stress tests, my i7-640 never went over 65c. Longest test was 19minutes of 100% usage on both CPU and GPU.

 

I just restarted my computer, the thing starts blowing very hard at startup and temperature is around 70-73 according to SIW... now while I'm practically idling, it runs at around 64! No wonder I'm wondering why the fan is blowing so hard.

Will opening the vent to clean it out void the warranty?

 

I can't say that it won't. What Sony doesn't know won't hurt them. Be gentle and don't break anyting.

check this out
Vaio_F Series - How To Replace the Keyboard & Clean the Fan

 

Hmm, thanks for the tips, but I'll try calling sony repair center on monday and tell them about this problem. Hopefully they'll give me a new one, since even if they repair it, it can't have been good for the longetivity of the cpu+gpu to have been constantly running between 60 to 73 degrees celcius for half a year+!

 

not a vaio, but nice to watch for fan dust talk
YouTube - How to Clean a Laptop Fan

 

I've heard that it's safe to much higher temps than 73c.

 

I stress tested on a flat surface for 12min and couldn't get above 66c. Was even using the web and watching youtube while my cpu was at 100%. Stopped the test 60 seconds ago and alreayd cooling to low 50's.

 

Hmm, so what are you saying? That my cpu/gpu are running hotter than is normal, but if I am not worried about the fan noise, the vaio's fine at these temps>?

 

What I'm saying is that you're machine is running hotter than normal and that's not ok.

What I'm also saying is that the hardware is desinged to be capapble of handling sustained temps of higher than 73c, so you shouldn't have to worry about it wearing down.

Now, if the fan is dirty/clogged, that's not Sony's problem. If it's clean in there... have you done the BIOS update? What BIOS version are you running?

This is the BIOS update in question that's supposed to help with thermal management.
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computi...0225488.exe&m=VPCF11S1E_B&ip=EP0000225488.htm

 

I'm not sure about the version anymore, but it's the most recent one that's been put on the sony support site to counter this heat problem. Didn't help much it seems.

 

Check this out: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...s-owners-lounge-part-2-a-204.html#post6073927

Me posting about my 'problem' that it was running at 45 degrees celcius at idle and 68 degrees celcius during stress (joe bleau at the time said this is low with some people talking about theirs going into the mid 70s during gaming... this is why I was surprised by your warning a few posts back... obviously, things have changed)...

So obviously, this is a problem that I did not have initially. I can think of only 3 things:

1. I'm not sure, but it is possible that I kind of have this fan running very hard all the time problem after draining my battery once and my comp reaching hibernation state. When I started it up it I read a quick message which I didn't fully catch: something about factory settings.. so these symptoms match with this known problem.
However, I said "kind of have problem", because when I got into the computer my date did not get reset to january 2009 and there IS a difference in fan speed still.

2. Somewhere, somehow, I installed something that is causing this problem. Unlikely though, since all the drivers on this thing are from the sony site, and I didn't install any exciting software.

3. Dust in the fan.

Damn, playing a stupid mediaplayer file, with the cpu usage at 5%, makes the temp go up to the 68-70s. Yep, definitely a problem here.

 

what happened to joe bleau anyway

 

Yeah that BIOS "fix" did literally nothing

 

Your problems are very similar to mine, i used to run Oblivion and not be too bothered by the fan, now when i play it gets to 6000 rpm (this is where it does this thing where it really revs up like its dying or something for a few seconds , then goes down, and then revs right back up a few seconds later). Same for sc2 and hon. I have had this lappy for 10 months now

 

my vent history:
After seriously overclocking GPU I played Crysis (happens only with this Game) My fan was really screaming like it was dying. Then suddenly it could shut down at all (but I know that temp couldn't fall). And then slowly started to speeding up again. Happend Every 40 - 60 min.

Either after new Bios or because I don't play first Crysis anymore nowadays I never meet this problem again

 

There WAS a group of us who performed a bunch of Furmark stress tests back in May. Some who lived in warmer climates ran warmer than those in cooler climates. For example, Joe Bleau, who lives in a tropical place, could stress test to nearly 80C. He also idled at over 50C and his fan was never lower than 2300 RPM, usually sitting over 3000 RPM.

My F11 idled at 42-44C and at these temps, my fan would drop to 1920 or 1980 RPM. Of course, the temps in the room where I was sitting was quite cool compared to others (21C). With the Furmark stress tests and my personal computer settings (all 4 cores at 100%, all 8 threads running, turbo boost of all 4 cores at max so each core was OCed to 2.0MHz, C1E power state and EIST both turned off AND my GT 330M overclocked to 700-948-1540 and running at 100%) my computer would reach temps of 75-76C. There were others in warmer places who would get to 81-82C.

The debate was "how hot is too hot?" Then Joe found HP Envy machines that were being reported at well over 90C and Macbooks that were over 100C! Most of us agreed that although the fan may get a bit noisy at the max temps of our F11s, Sony had done a great job in keeping temps low.

If you feel yours is too hot, look for these posts, then look for similar posts in the HP Envy forum and the Macbook forums. The i7 processor gets hot, but Sony has somehow kept it cooler than other manufacturers...at least in the F series.

I have not seen your laptop...perhaps there is a problem. However, if normal temps rise to, say 65C during normal activities (not stress tests or heavy gaming), I would say you are fine, especially if the temps drop like a brick as soon as you close out all of the running programs.

If you get very heated when using a browser, I would suspect that your browser is not playing well with an add-on, or that some software is corrupted. Certain flash intensive sites or java sites can be hard on a GPU and processor if the website's scripting is incorrect.

Perhaps updating java, flash, your PDF reader and any media players would help.

I hope this helps.

 

The problem is, it doesn't drop much when I idle... I left my comp idle for about 3 hours now and the lowest it dropped is 58... using an app like mediaplayer causes the temp to go to 74-75, while my taskmanager shows me only 5% or so is used of my cpu.

 

Interesting. Right now my resource monitor shows 54 processes running and applications running are 2; internet explorer (as I am typing this) and resource monitor.

The CPU usage is fluxuating between 0% and 1%.

I have now started WMP and I am listening to a large WAV music file (I would rather listen to WAV than MP3s if at all possible).

The CPU usage is now fluxuating between 0% and 2%. I swithced songs and the usage momentarily hit 3%, but then immediately went back to 0%-1%, with 2% being shown every 6-8 seconds.

If you are running at 5% consistantly, I would look for processes that are using CPU. If you can't find any that are above 1%, then look at services (below the open processes box). Something is amiss, and I would guess it is software related.

Is there any chance you have two AV suites that are conflicting? Could you have a virus or a trojan?

I have now stopped listening to music, although WMP is still open. Processes CPU usage is at 0% to 1% and services CPU usage is still at 0%. I would guess that this should be normal for everyone who is trouble-free.

 

Well I played a game and my fan was really loud, and hot air coming out of it. I assume its normal. But when im just surfing or watching videos, my laptop doesnt feel that hot as well as the found being quiet for most of the time.

 

No it does not keep running at 5% consistently. When I just browse, or do nothing, it fluctuates, but it's mostly between 0-2%.
You're raising an interesting point though about possible malware, so I've just downloaded and installed some free software like spybot/malwarebytes/super antispyware free... we shall see.

 

Don't mean to beat a dead horse but about the fan noise issue:

I read on some random message board that the following action has an influence on the fan speed:

Press and hold a random keyboad key (for 30+ seconds).

I suggest you do this when the notebook is idle. Notice how the fan is indeed becoming quieter and quieter.

As you can tell, I can confirm this. Pressing and holding down on a button on the keyboad will "mute" the fan. Fan speed increases once the button is released.

Please provide feedback if this works for you. Maybe we are onto something...

 

tried it out - does not apply to me Vaio F11

 

I just re-tried this on my F13. It does work for me if I use the native keyboard. With my external keyboard, however, it does not work (USB dongle+WIFI). Using the left CTRL key btw.

The effect is most noticeable if I let the laptop go idle for a minute or so prior to pressing the STRG key.

 

Can anyone suggest a way to get some better battery life out of this thing? The poor battery life is really starting to become a real issue for me! I knew this before buying but couldnt resist all that power :\

Im using power saver mode, and a low backlight but still cant get more than 2 hours on the battery...

 

That may be nice and all to stop the fan, but when your computer has a heat problem, it may be more of a priority to... well, not blow up your computer for instance.

 

I dont know if anyone here has noticed this, but when the laptop is loading up there is a black line under where windows 7 is loading, now that line also appears in media/video player, when for instance I am viewing something. Am I the only one who see this or does anyone know what I am talking about.

 

Time for a new topic!

OK, up for discussion (and I hope you will all discuss!) is the best way (or your preferred way) to prepare for a possible computer failure.

The very first thing that I did when I opened my F11 (after turning it on and changing the settings to my preferences) was to use VaioCare to create the recovery disks.

I then mounted my SSD and installed a clean copy of Windows 7 Pro 64 bit from a Microsoft disk. At that point, I used the Vaio Recovery Disks to reinstall all drivers and desired software. This was my "clean install". I then only had a single partition (I got rid of the recovery partition to save SSD space).

I had 3 external 2.5" "Power over eSATA" drive enclosures and 3 2.5" HDDs so I used one of them, creating a 3 partition drive which included a Recovery Partition, a System Image Partition and a Data Partition. This, if I recall correctly, was done using VaioCare.

I then used a second of these external drive enclosures as a single partition drive. With this drive, I used the Windows 7 Backup program to create a W7 generated System Image and a complete Windows Backup that runs daily at 4AM. To be used in conjunction with this drive, I created a W7 generated bootable Repair Disk.

The 3rd drive is simply a data drive and has been used very little at this point, but I thought that I should mention that the 3rd drive has nothing to do with this discussion!

OK, here's the question...do any of you have feelings on which way to recover your F-series in the case of a failure? My guess is that most of you would wish to use the Vaio option. I personally am torn.

If I use the Vaio option, I will need to work to return my computer to brand new. If I use the Windows option, I should end up doing less work and the computer should be exactly the same as it was just before the failure.

I have never had to use the Windows option, so I am not sure if it will work as easily and as thouroughly as I hope. I am not sure if all 3rd party software, updates, etc. will be exactly as they were, or if I might lose some of them. If the recovery is exact (as I hope), then there is no need to keep the Vaio option, because with the Vaio option, I basically restore to the point where I first installed W7 Pro, then I add the desired software and the backed up data files.

Do you understand my thoughts?

I know how the Vaio recovery works, as I used it when installing the SSD, and I also used it on the single church computer where the SSD failed due to older firmware problems. It recovered fully, but took some time and work on my part.

I have never used the recovery program in W7, so I am not sure how complete it is. I hope that if I needed to install a new drive, I could simply install the bootable recovery disk with the externa windows drive attached and it would clone the last working image, settings and data to the new drive. Is this correct?

Again, I have both of these options available, but if the Windows option is capable of creating an exact working copy of my current SSD, including all updates, 3rd party software, settings, etc., I could then dispose of the original Vaio option and gain another drive for use on my wife's computer.

Which do you prefer? Why? Have you used both? Have you used either? If you have not used one or the other, are you familiar with how they work and can you elaborate (especially on the W7 option!)?

All comments would be appreciated.

By the way, I have tried Norton Ghost and another imaging program in the past on other computers, and I did not have very good success. At least I know that the Vaio option can get me back to where I was in May 2009!

 

Willscary,

I have thoughts, and a few personal experiences and would love to chime in. Right now, I've got a dirty kitchen to clean and have to prepare for a client to arrive in an hour. Will participate later today.

 

Anseio what made you say this:

Is it because it´s weird that my computer would ramp up to the 60/70s by opening a simple app which should not even heat the cpu up that match, even with a dusty fan.

Trying to decide now whether I should try cleaning the fan myself and risk voiding the warranty or let Sony pick it up.

 

Had the same dillema, and choose Acronis. Its simply the best solution for all. Second is Windows complete system image. Last is Vaio recovery.

 

If you're careful, you should be able to do it yourself. Call Sony and see what they say. It might just involve them sending a tech to do the job. If that's the case, make sure your supervise the tech and make sure they're gentle. Been some horror stories.

Ok, my client is either way late or forgot. grrrr...

I've got dual drives: SSD & HDD. I look at VAIO Recovery Center as a way to fix HDD sectors and reinstall my OS, but would not be my go to in the event of a true SSD/HDD failure.

My setup involves making a Windows system image of my SSD to my HDD. I've recovered from that image quite a few times due to issue this or issue that. It's very handy to have that image on my 2nd drive as I can recover any time I need to w/o CD's or anything. System images are complete. They're not the same as data backups where you recover the data into an already installed OS. If you were to get a new SSD and all you had was a data backup, you'd have to install the OS and programs, then restore the data from the backup. A system image allows you to get a new SSD and then write that image straight to it. It will be exactly as the original drive was. I also have Windows 7 Repair discs in the event of a real bad problem.

My fallback plan, in the even that SSD/HDD go bad at the same time, or stolen, or what not is a system image of my SSD & HDD together onto my external HDD. That's a much larger backup and I don't do it as often as I should. So, were I to lose both my drives, I could replace them and then recover both at the same time from this complete image.

I don't bother with the Windows data backup as it seems a bit too redundant for me and I'd rather have the OS, drivers and everything included. Also, the system images can be mounted as virtual drives and explored for the data they contain. I had recently deleted a game ISO and changed my mind a few weeks later. Since I don't to the big backup too often, I was able to mount the drive and pull the file from there.

A friend of mine just got a Toshiba Satellite and knows very little about the workings of computers. I'm going to offer to help him speed it up a bit and might even offer a faster HDD, if Hitachi releases the 7K750 soon enough. I'll be able to make an image of his system and restore it to any compatible HDD, boot up with the new HDD and everything will be as it was. Fantastic!

Talking of backing up like this reminds me that I need to do one again.

 

Kayron,

I clean mine without opening it. I have a very powerful ShopVac. I turn off and unplug my computer every few weeks. I use this machine (which my kids call the super sucker!) and I first suck the dust out from behind the keyboard. I then run it across the speaker grill. I turn the F11 over and hold the nozzle on each of the bottom intake grills for 10-15 seconds each.

I then suck clean the fans on my U2 laptop cooler until I am sure they are clean. At this point, I turn the computer back on and place it on the cooler, turning on the cooler fans. I put the vaccum nozzle on the F11's hot air grill and leave it to suck for quite a while.the combination of the clean cooler fans blowing, the Vaio's fan pushing and the vaccum sucking seems to do the job.

My house is over a century old and with the kids and the dog, it gets dusty enough to dust at least twice a week. Yet, my F11 is quite acceptably clean inside.

I hope this helps.