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

Reduce optical drive = reduce weight.
it will be a hole but you can use scotch to close it or leave it open. Fresh cooling air with dust will go in it.

 

If you had a Asus G73, Toshiba Qosmio, or Alienware 17" behemoth I would understand your weight issue. I admit I'm coming from a 17" perspective where I find the size and weight perfect for my needs. It sounds as though you need a duo core 15" laptop for sure.

 

Thanks for the replies. The truth is im more concerned about battery life than weight. The only other laptop ive been considering is a sony eb series which weighs only half a pound less. I did consider the larger battery but i dislike that it has a bottom part that pops out and adds more weight... The EB is nice and if only they offered it with a 1600x900 res. id be fine with it, but they don't. So now im not sure what to do. I didn't think changing the i7 to an i5 would reduce the weight, but just wanted to make sure. @Jacol, if you have no way to help me and just have suggestions that make a mockery of me id appreciate it if you close your big mouth and not "try" to answer my questions.

So there is no clear answer on how much more battery id get with an i5 configuration? I was hoping an extra hour out of the standard battery but its not clear if the 2.5 hrs is mostly because of the i7, or the bigger sized screen/resolution and backlit keyboard...

 

Red, I understand where you are coming from. The laptop is amazing, but the battery life is not good at all. Mind you it does not bother me as much as other users but I do get angyr at time though. With me I can get 1 hour 45 mins or 55 mins just surfing, working, watching a few vids. For heavy usage i can get about 1 hour 10 or even 1 hour 15. I will definately purchase the extra battery which offers more time. In regards to the secondary battery you have to bare in mind with it being big it will release more air from the laptop as it it of the ground so to speak. Anyway hope you get your issue sorted out.

 

Hello everyone , i got F12M1E vaio and i don't know how to change screen brightness from automatic to manuel i wanna change it Thank you -_-

 

Hi!

Press your S1 button to open up VAIO Control Center
Select Display
Automatic Brightness Settins
Uncheck "Adjust brightness automatically"

 

Thanks, i did find this.

VPCF130FDB | VAIO F Series Notebook PC | Sony Canada

It does say the battery life with std is 3 hrs and 4.5 with the larger pack.

Much better than the 2.5/3.5 you get with an i7 F series.

This might be a good solution for me whose looking for a more "mobile" version of an F.

I can also customize it and am wondering if selecting the 1080p screen vs the 900p has any impact on battery life??

 

1080 definitely requires more power. If the screen were static, and did not need to be refreshed, the power usage would be roughly the same. However, the CPU is constantly getting the screen data out of the memory and sending it to the display, thus it's moving more information to generate the display and this uses more power. It also needs to do more processing to generate the image which has as many pixels.

 

Thank you so much did it

 

It really seems to be feature, so we will need hypnosis to trick our brain, so we will not see it...

See this post here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/532556-sony-f13-cons.html#post6884440

 

Wow, I really empathize with you guys now. If it's really the case that all F's with your monitor has this issue I think Sony should be bashed for this. Not the worst thing in the world, but I would be upset as well. If this is considered an acceptable defect, fault, or whatever, shame on Sony.

 

Fishon, thanks. This is really making me feel worse and I am losing my patience. That grey line just annoys the heck out of me. Fishon do you experience the same issue.

 

I don't have the thin gray line on my F11 screen, but that seems like it could be annoying when watching full screen video. I do however have one pixel that is stuck red in color. I tried a program to try and get it unstuck, but no luck. I have to look really hard to find it so it doesn't bother me and I usually have enough dust on the screen that it is indistinguishable anyway.

 

I've been around and read most all of the five threads and I do not recall this issue in the past. You are in the UK and have which display? And what did Sony say when you called them? Are they telling you this is the normal with this monitor? Get a case number and get an answer from a second tier service person.

Going to LV this weekend so the F has now become my official football handicapping machine. See ya!

 

I think omaroo had this problem too. Remember the line at the bottom of his screen that he wouldn't provide a screenshot of?

 

Anseio, I like omaroo and tehrox have the problem, It is exactly as the previous user described in the screenshot. I would assume this problem is with the European screens then.

Fishon could you please tell me how I could contact the second technical line, as the person I had spoken to, said they could not put me through.

 

How's the fan noise on the F13? I've been wanting to buy this laptop, but I keep hearing that the fan noise is very loud and volatile.

 

Hello,

I have searched through each segment of this thread and didn't find an answer. Forgive me if it is there and I have overlooked it!

What is the purpose of folks switching out their Atheros wireless adapter (mine came w/ an AR9287) with an Intel 6200? (Instructions linked in the unified post at the beginning of this thread.)

I was really hoping to be able to display my laptop's screen on my TV wirelessly like some of the folks w/ Intel i series laptops can do w/ that nifty Push2TV adapter. I noticed that this adapter necessitates an Intel 6200 series wireless card (there's some other acceptable cards too but Atheros is not on the list). If one were to swap out their Atheros card w/ the Intel 6200 series card, can one now use the Push2TV?

Thanks!

 

A user, perhaps it was jpride, made mention of this a few months ago in this thread. He changed to an Intel card because the Atheros didn't support a particular, commonly used bandwidth. He provided more details, but I really can't recall.

 

To take advantage of the Intel 6200 dual band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) for the faster speed. Probably why they are compatable with P2TV. The Atheros is 2.4 only.

Not if you have an F series. You need an Intel HD GFX chip.

 

Really, problem is with European and I think HD screens.

Just found interesting video from Youtube F11 Vaio machine, check video particularly from 0:40-> there it is, and read the user comment :

YouTube / F Premium Black European Version - VPCF11Z1E/BI

"Do you notice a bright grey bar during video playback at the beggining of the screen(overhead sony logo)?There is also this "shadow bar"on my vaio f.Is this something normal?Or i have problem with the ccfl display backlight?If anyone know,please help!Sorry for my bad english."

Users are really annoyed of this. Sony MUST know of this.

 

Terhox, it looks like its just me and you in the same boat so to speak. To be honest I am really fed up with the laptop, simply because of that stupid line which is sony's fault, and the constant noises of the laptop whenever I move it or even when I am constantly typing or moving my mouse. I give up, I am so depressed at the moment thinking about all the money I had spent on my dream machine. I cant say anything else, simply because I have not got the energy anymore.

 

Thanks again for your reply, your help is really appreciated.

So just a few more things i need to clear up before i just decide what to do, because im really going crazy here trying to find a laptop that i can just be happy with once and for all.

I could go with an i5 and a Geforce 310M GPU and probably get around the same battery life as an EB series of 3.5 hrs/5 hrs on the standard/large batteries. The problem is, if i do get this get stripped down version of the F, i lose the english keyboard and will be stuck with an ugly billingual keyboard which i do NOT like at all. I think theres a chance that even the backlight for the keyboard is taken out on this model as i dont remember being able to get it on when i saw this at my local sony style yesterday.

Another model was the i7 with a 310m GPU. Seeing that this version uses a 512mb vid card as opposed to the 1 gb GT425M how much more battery life do you think i can get out of this version? If its only going to give me another 15-20 min i dont think its worth losing the 1GB card just for that...

The last one i saw on display was the one i had bought already, the i7 with the 1gb GT425m which of course has the lousy 2.5 hr battery life.

The last thing im curious about is.

1) How much battery life do i lose with a 1080p screen from the 2.5/3.5 hr battery life on the i5/i7 versions of this laptop? I can customize this if i want because the store does not carry any models with such a high res screen and am just curious to know how much battery life i must sacrifice to get this bump in picture quality which im sure makes for a very big improvement.


2) If i were to eventually upgrade to an SSD from the stock 5400 RPM 640GB HD would this improve my battery life, and how much more will i squeeze from it?


As for size, i checked out the EB and that stupid thing still weighs 6lbs. which is only half a pound less than the F and the drop in resolution to 1366x768 to me looks like crap and is not worth downgrading to coming from 1600x900. The 900p res just looks SO much better that for this reason alone i think i now have no choice but to rule out the EB series from Sony, and i dont want any other brand as i love the Sony designs/keyboards/picture quality compared to everything else ive seen.

Thanks again for your help!

 

Dang it. Thanks for the reply, not what I was hoping to hear though. Makes sense, i was just hoping it was more the i3,5,7 and network chipset combo then the GFX chip. (Of course we've got a nifty nVidia GFX chipset.)

OK- thanks for the info though, really do appreciate it.

 

Here's a pic of my VAIO being put to work. Made the switch from iTunes to Winamp and found a good skin to make partially transparent. The visualization panel sets behind the library and is a nice bit to see the library, the visualization, and my desktop in the backgroun. Check out the GPU usage and temps to keep it up.

 

I bought the VPCF12Z1E UK model in August. I had the same problem with the display, a 7-8 mm, gray bar on the bottom, which near to the two corners went up to 11-12 mm, and right in the corner became a little bit darker. It is better visible on reddish background. I observed this the first time during video playback. Because I had also another problem with the Blu-Ray burner, I contacted Sony and I sent the notebook for repair for the two problems. When it came back only the Blu-Ray drive was changed, but changed to an used and defective unit. In the return papers they mentioned that they cleaned the display for me and provided a cleaning cloth as a gift. I re-contacted Sony and expressed my disappointment in how the servicing was handled. In the end they told me that they didn’t know that there was a problem with the display, and they proposed to change the Blu-Ray drive again. I tried to obtain a promise that they will change my display, and also to change the Blu-Ray drive to a new one, but without success. Sony told me that it is up to the repair shop how the repair and replacement is handled. I considered that this is not acceptable for a brand new notebook and because my return period was almost over, I decided to return the notebook.

I searched for this display problem on the web, but found nothing. I considered that I was just unlucky with the first purchase, and because of other reasons, not to mention the Christmas sales, I went ahead and bought the VPCF13X5E (CTO). The notebook arrived a few days ago and to my surprise it shows the same gray bar on the bottom of the display (a little less gray thought). What is better on this display is that there are no stuck nor dead pixels, and it is much more uniformly lit compared to the display from the F12 I had. So now I’m testing the rest of the system, and I will see if in the end this will be a deal breaker or I will be able to get used to it.

@terhox: I can’t tell if this problem is backlighting related or just faulty panel related or it is just bad anti-glare coating.

 

hey guys... best way to remove spray paint from a laptop? ( i know i'm a complete idiot, retard, *insert more*, I was stenciling some work for uni and like an idiot had my laptop close by listening to music and now my beautiful vaio is spattered with silver spray paint and I want to cry. Okay maybe not cry. Okay a little cry.

 

If it is not on display then use pure alcohol. If it won't work - it may be dangerous, but I would try acetone

 

a bit of nail varnish remover did the trick, removed the battery and got it all off the display and case. I couldn't get the key board because I didn't want to risk it getting into the system, but I suppose I can live with that, until I find a better solution.

edit: good thing these laptops are so durable :/

 

F Series new pricing, $130 off instantly sale.

 

zperf, for me the screen on the F12 is great, I have not noticed any dead pixels on the screen that I am aware of. That gray line is only at the bottom of the screen for me when it is displayed on the taskbar or when watching a movie. To be honest I dont know what to do, as I cant return it anyway. It may seem like I will have to stick with the grey line. All I got to say is I am very unhappy with sony for the first time in my live, and there is nothing that can be done.

 

You have a stronger voice with Sony if you can gather several example of the same situation. That's where NBR comes in handy. You've communicated with several with the same problem as you. Now, you all need to be willing to push Sony at the same time.

 

The grey bar/line on the bottom what I had on the F12 or I have on F13 (less grey) is exactly like on the picture posted by terhox (on F12) or on the youtube video he linked (on F11). It is there all the time, but it is more visible on certain colors and less visible on others.

I had only one dead pixel on the F12, but I didn’t observe it till I started to check the display in more details using dedicated software (DPT,…) after seeing the problem with the grey bar/line on the bottom.

I mentioned the stuck & dead pixels and backlight uniformity because I read in several places, including here on the forum, that the F13’s display is worse than the F12’s display (including in the Sony F13 cons? link mentioned by terhox, where Shiddo mentions that he had more than 10 faulty pixels on the F13, and he also mentions on the bottom of his post that even after LCD change he still had faulty pixels). Beside the better backlight uniformity on F13 I don’t see any other difference between the F12’s and the F13’s display, and for a consumer, budget notebook LCD, if there would be no grey bar/line on the bottom, I would be very satisfied with it.

I share your thoughts concerning Sony. The F12 and how the servicing was handled for it was my first disappointment with Sony too! What I can say is that I still consider that generally Sony makes good products, and the customer service (till the actual repairing) is better than others I encountered, so you should try to contact them and see what they have to say and hopefully have a fix for it. Please, keep us updated!

 

anseio, where did you find that winamp skin please?

 

Thank you!

It would be nice to know if anybody here had used Sony Service and got that gray line -problem repaired. I think I will send my machine in too, but it takes 5 days at least to be without computer. And really I believe 20% only that one repair is enough... but maybe I too get that free screen cleaning cloth to dry tears of joy.

Just have to say one thing more. When I sent that same pic of my vaio's dark bar to Sony Vaio support, they wanted me to post full screen pic, because that pic shows only bottom screen and could be just showing web page where image still loading, at that somehow causes dark bar

 

The key here is to do a shift-PrtScn to capture the full screen and paste it into Paint as well as a camera image of the screen at the same time.

If the grey bar is on the Paint image as well then it is software related (and not a Sony problem likely) otherwise it is panel/hardware caused.

 

I got it here:
Add the Transparent Rainify Skin to Winamp - How-To Geek ETC

The visualization behind the library is Plane9 and you can get that from inside Winamp when you browse for plugins. Transparency set at 60% for that image, but I'm at 50% right now. The actual plugin doesn't have a window for visualizations, so it brings up some default, which looks just fine.

What a great way to be able to play with music AND appreciate one's desktop background at the same time!

 

Well from what I have read the display on the F12 is not that goodm as with the F12 which is really good. Like I said before Sony keep saying to me its asoftware problem or that it does not really matter. I am getting really frustrated in contacting me, as I know they are not going to help me. To be honest I think it is impossible to remove that grey line.

 

Is the grey line there in Paint after you do a paste of the shift-PrtScn?

 

LOL Of course I bet it is not)))

 

Hey guys i was looking here at this link that "anseio" gave me at the portable laptop chargers.

Welcome to Innergie-Power your life

Can anybody recommend me which one to get for the Sony Vaio F? I want one thats the smallest, but at the same time will for sure work with the F and give me at least one full battery charge when on the go.

Also, was looking into customizing with the i7 840qm. Will the 840qm reduce battery life compared to the i7 740qm?

Thanks for any help!

 

Here you have three reviews and lcd screen info - F11Z, F12Z and F13Z where you could see that the Vaio Premium Displayz are diffrent/worse in F13.


Review Sony Vaio VPC-F11Z1/E Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Review Sony Vaio VPC-F12Z Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Review Sony Vaio VPC-F13Z1E/B Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

dan smith, follow regli’s recommendation. Send to Sony both, screenshot and camera photo, to show them that it is not software related. When I told them for the F12, they did not blame the software. It’s true that I kind of ‘flooded’ them with details of tests I did, which of course involved multiple software including the case of just the OS (moved the taskbar to top, changed the background to solid color and played with the colors to make it more visible).

 

Just recently bought f13z1e/b and can confirm it has the strip at the bottom of the screen. It's a bit annoying that they name it "premium" (wondering what's the quality of non-premium ones) while obviously it contains a built-in flaw though for the time being I don't want to return it - have spent already a lot of time setting it up, so this time will be wasted in this case.

In short - shame on Sony!

 

I think this problem is very wide spread. If service will replace whole screen, problem may be solved but also can be as worse as before - if the replacement screens are also defective. I think I want to ask about this before ordering service.

 

Thank you Jacol for the links! I did know about and read some times ago the first two, but somehow I missed the F13 review.

My comparison of F13’s display with F12’s is purely by eyeballing (no spectrocolorimeter or other measurement devices used), so please take it as such. Also I compare the displays I had/have, and I know that it’s only my word for it, but the display on my F13 is much more uniformly lit that the one on the F12 I had. I know that in the reviews linked, exactly the opposite is stated, and they did use measurements devices, but they also measured only one notebook (sample) from the entire F12 line and one from the entire F13 line, and LCDs characteristics do change from one manufactured LCD series to the next one (sometimes even in the same series).

Does anybody know what is the model and who is the manufacturer of the F12/F13 European Premium displays ?

 

I could just say that there were many people just in Poland who actualy compared premium panels from F13 and we could confirm that F13 has whole new lcd screen, worse than the F11 and F12.

 

Juso, sorry to hear that you have the same problem! Did you contact Sony about it ?

 

Hello everyone, is there any way to reset the color calibration settings?

 

If my current F13’s display is worse than the average F11/F12’s display, then I guess this means that I had bad luck with the F12Z1E (even from the display point of view), and I should be even more happier that I returned it .