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

Don't believe anyone has one in their hands yet. Feb 29th is the day? You may wish to follow the Sony Vaio 3D thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...5653-sony-vaio-f-3d-series-owners-lounge.html

I also believe that no one has reported a screech sound. ZPerf has well documented the types of sounds people have reported. Look at his signature.

American culture: Screech from TV show 'Saved by the Bell'

 

hi everyone, F13 should be with me tommorow, hope its faultless

How and where do I download the F13 i7 bois ?

 

Find your esupport webite and download from there.

Sony eSupport - Electronics - Select Your Model

I never update this way but use your ASSIST > Vaio Care > System Care> Run One Click Care and under updates- should pop up there.

 

It won't be either of those places for the F13 unless the user is from China.

You probably will have the latest BIOS already but if not you can choose if you want to download the chinese file posted in this thread on Sunday. My phone internet connection is very slow right now so I'm not going to post the link but it's easy enough to find.

@Fishon I so wanted to rep you for the Screech pic but not allowed right now

Edit: got my 3G back for a minute. post #3702 here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-owners-thread-part-5-a-371.html#post7249565

 

Fishon, many thanks for your reply.

one more question, can you please explain what c3/c6 is and how to setup?

 

Noise is not an issue with my computer so frankly I'm not paying too much attention to the c3/c6 topic. However around page 300 in this thread and http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/525069-sony-vaio-e-serie-high-pitch-noise-whine.html

I have not and would not disable. Not interested in tweaks that decrease performance.

 

Alright guys, well my Sony VAIO jusr arrived today .. Have turned it on for about 30 minutes and so far I'm very impressed !

I have one question though .. I want to put Windows Ultimate 64-bit on it which I have .. Is it better to do a complete format of the system (after creating recovery discs, etc ..), or can I just remove the one or two things I'm seeing installed and then just do an upgrade ..

I have done complete formats on previous laptops and customized the laptop based on which manufacturer tool I wanted and which one I dont need, so doing this is not a problem .. However, I just keeping the existing setup and modifying it saves me a lot of hassle, etc ..

Which is better ?

 

Most of us recommend that you perform a Clean Install using the Recovery Discs as described in:
http://vaiofseries.com/Vaio_F_Clean_Install_Guide.htm

Once done, you can enter your license key (or whatever it's called) into Windows Anytime Upgrade to unlock the features of Windows Ultimate.

Upon completion of this, make a system image backup so you never have to do it again.

 

^^ I was looking through the forums earlier on and it seems people were having troubles mapping those custom keyboard keys to their functions .. Would that be a problem ?

Also, any other issues going down this road regarding getting drivers, etc .. ?

 

Also, I'm reading through the guide you just mentioned and it seems you have to install Windows 7 through the recovery option ..

Is it possible for me to install Windows 7 manually and completely on my own, and then run the VAIO specific recovery to only install the VAIO specific stuff into my Windows (e.g. drivers, useful VAIO software, etc) .. ?

The thing is I normally keep two OS installations on my laptops .. C: is normally my main OS (Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit in this case), and D: contains a backup OS (normally Windows XP is what I keep) ...

So if I have to go through the process of doing a fresh install, I would like to first install these two OS'es on my own first, and then use the VAIO recovery options to just install the drivers and VAIO specific software etc ...

Is this possible ?

EDIT: Nevermind ... I applied my own logic and tried changing the ImageState variable's value from IMAGE_STATE_UNDEPLOYABLE to IMAGE_STATE_COMPLETE, and restarted my system, and it worked .. ! I'm running the VAIO Care reinstallation process now .. hopefully this registry change won't cause any problems down the road ..

 

Here you go:

Willscary's Clean Install from Licensed Windows Disk

 

Also suppose if the recovery partition gets messed up somehow (e.g. gets deleted by accident, partition table gets messed up, etc ..), and it be recreated using the recovery discs that you create using the VAIO recovery utility ?

 

Yes. If you read my guide, I delete the recovery partition when I install Windows. I also create a second set of recovery disks AFTER I have completed the clean install and I label them as the Clean Install recovery Disks.

 

Thanks for that response .. I guess this is what I'll be doing then .. A few questions though ?

1) Did you try this on an F13 model ?
2) After doing this, did you have any 'Unknown Device' things in Device Manager (I hate those!) ?
3) Did all the key mappings work (for the VAIO specific keyboard keys) ?

Are you referring to this guide here ? : Vaio F Series Clean Install Guide - F11 F12 F13 by Joe Bleau

How would I reinstall the recovery partition if it gets damaged ?

 

Also, is it possible to get VAIO F13 drivers for Windows XP from somewhere ? Sony's website only lists drivers for Windows 7 ..

 

You'll need to search out individual drivers from each manufacturer. Some may also be available from Sony eSupport site if you are able to select XP as the OS. When I set up XP last year, for the fun of it, I had to search out the drivers individually and even modify the GPU driver, which took 8 hours to figure out what I was doing.

Is there a pressing need to have XP that can't be met via use of the Virtual Machine you'll have access to w/ your Windows Ultimate?

 

I normally like to install 2 OS's on my machines .. one is supposed to be the primary OS, and the other one is a backup one, in case my primary OS every f**ks up and I cant access stuff or whatever .. In such case I've noticed a secondary small OS is very very helpful .. Windows XP is supposed to be this secondary OS, taking only maybe 4-5 GB of the total HDD ..

EDIT: I would only need drivers for the very very basic stuff .. this is really only the network card (for ethernet/wifi) and for sound .. for display I can just get the nVidia drivers ..

 

Yes, you should be able to hunt down those drivers. Won't be too much work.

 

Alright, I have a really weird problem on my hands that even searching on google doesn't give any results ..

So here's what I did with my new VAIO .. I created the recovery discs, then I slipstreamed some SATA drivers into my Windows XP setup and installed Windows XP .. I had split the C: drive in two drives, and used the latter one for Windows XP ... I then installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit in the first of the two partitions ... everything went smoothly .. once in windows 7, I inserted Recovery Disc 1 of 4 and tried to reinstall the drivers and applications .. here's where the problem came .. VAIO care kept giving me this error whenever I tried to start the application reinstallation procedure:

This feature is not supported when using Audit mode. Exit Audit mode and re-start VAIO Care.

I googled and found out that Windows 7 has an Audit Mode, and the way to disable it is to delete an entry in the registry .. I went in the registry and the said entry wasn't there .. :S

But still VAIO care still thinks Windows 7 is in Audit mode for some reason :S ..

Any ideas on this ?

EDIT: I actually figured out on my own was the problem was .. I had to channge ImageState variable's value from IMAGE_STATE_UNDEPLOYABLE to IMAGE_STATE_COMPLETE .. Worked like a charm !

 

Nevermind with the above issue ... I figured it out ..

However, I have something else to report ... I'm doing the application reinstallation thing, and the process has been stuck on the SmartWi installation for like an hour .. !? Also, the installer isn't 'stuck', because the progress bar is changing color and stuff .. but I dont see any major system activity taking place (no HDD noise, no HDD blinking light) .. it seems the computer is idle ... What do I do ? Do I keep waiting ?

EDIT: 90 minutes now, and still stuck at the SmartWi installation part .. The application still seems to be responding (that is, its not stuck), however the system appears to still be idle (no HDD light blinking, computer is dead silent) ... Should I close down VAIO Care from Task Manager and restart it ? I'm just worried it might mess up the whole reinstallation thing ..

 

First, I need to wonder why you installed XP when Ultimate comes with XP mode built-in.

SmartWi is not a neccessary utility and many of us don't install it.

 

He wants the 2nd OP as a small backup in the event that Win7 go's down and won't boot. In which case, XP mode won't work.

 

I thought that I need to download some stuff for XP Mode! Is it really built in??

 

You need to download an add-in. I don't use it on my own machine, but all of the church computers that I take care of have the feature installed.

At some point, I will be able to eliminate this, but for now, we have two programs that are not able to be run in W7 Pro 64 bit AND will not run in compatibility mode. Both of these programs run fine in the virtual XP mode.

Here is the download from Microsoft:

Virtual XP for Windows 7

Download this and windows virtual PC and you are set. It does require Pro or Ultimate, and the above poster said he was installing Ultimate, so I suggested it.

 

You need to download two or three files. If you follow microsofts way, you will need Pro or Ultimate. There are also other ways to install. I have Home premium and I can run it perfectly. Here's the link which I followed to instaal it: Workaround to Install Windows XP Mode in Windows 7 Home Premium and Home Basic My Digital Life
It isn't illegal.

 

Good luck blackball!

In the end, I don’t think if that’s important. What is important is to find a faultless display which works in your system and you like it (‘matte’ enough, bright enough, …). After that if color gamut is important, you can measure it with a spectrocolorimeter and compare it to the Adobe RGB gamut if you want to, but keep in mind that on 6 bits/color channel, TN panels, wide gamut it is not necessarily a good thing! On the other hand, a color calibration is always necessary for good results with any display.

As I mentioned in my European VAIO Display Premium screen post, there are companies which can apply the anti-reflective coating / anti-glare coating / anti-reflective film / anti-glare film after manufacturing. I gave as example ScreenTek company, but there are many others. While applying film is the easier (you can also buy it yourself and mount it), applying AR/AG coating is not for home users. This way the display manufacturer can manufacture the display with glossy finish and other’s can apply the AR/AG coating/film later. This is why you can find the same display model in both, glossy and matte finish. But this matte finish is not the same as the matte displays used in the professional notebook lines (or matte in the old LCD sense). For those displays the top polarizer surface was specially treated (etched, hard-coated, …) to scatter the light and reduce reflection, or even the different solutions mixed (example: AG etched + AR coated + Scratch resistant film + Anti-electrostatic treatment of the topmost film, …). Also keep in mind, that there multiple way to achieve each and every AR or AG protection, so even two displays with AR coating can differ if the AR coating solution applied is different (example: AR film obtained by multi-layered surfaces with different refractive indices versus AR film which uses the interference effect of a thin layers, …).

For further information you can start with these links:
What is an Anti-Glare Computer Screen?
Anti-Glare vs. Anti-Reflective
Wikipedia: Anti-reflective coating
Anti-Reflective / Anti-Glare Coatings (AR/AG Coatings)
Anti-Reflective / Anti-Glare Film (AR/AG Film)

Feel free to add reputation (+rep) for those people !

 

Guys ... I installed XP as a backup OS ...

Alright, its been like 5 hours or something now since the application reinstall process has remained at the SmartWi installation part ... Obviously there's something wrong and I need to somehow restart the application reinstall process ... How should I go about this without causing any problems .. ?

 

Alright, how do I restore my VAIO to its factory condition using the built-in recvoery partition and not the recovery discs I created ?

 

F10 or Assist button when booting

 

Assist button for Vaio Care >Recovery and restore> Recovery > Recover computer > goes into BIOS mode > Restore complete system

 

Congrats again, ahmadka! Which model did you buy ? Also what is the BD burner you got in your system ?

I know that it was asked already, but I still wonder why XP ? Why not another Windows 7 ? For example the Home version for which you already have a license!

Also, if you are worried about HDD failure or that the partition table gets messed up, a secondary OS on the same HDD will not help. So why not install another OS (Windows 7 Home ) on an external eSATAp HDD ? ( Did we mention good eSATAp enclosures already on this thread? ).

Another possibility is to create a recovery, bootable USB or CD. For example with Windows PE 3.0 ( MS Create a Custom Windows PE Image). You can slipstream drivers, … . There are version with UI too. Or use the older, XP based versions: BartPE, Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, …

 

Well the reason for choosing Windows XP is because its very very light in my opinion .. Windows 7, although quite light as well, isn't as light as Windows XP ...

And I haven't got a chance to try out the Burner yet .. There are still so many things I want to test out, but I want to completely setup my laptop before I plunge into it completely

I got the F13 model btw ..

 

got the f13 and the ssd today! everything is working great but I have a few questions. My OEM HDD is in its enclosure but is only showing up as 581GB out of 640GB is this normal? And how to you copy your Crystal Diskmark results?

 

You should be somewhere just under 600GB. My guess is that you still have the semi-hidden "recovery" partition on the drive. that will take up anywhere from 13-19GB, depending on the programs you have on it.

You can check this in control panel, but you will not be able to change it there. You will need to go to DISK PART in order to CLEAN and reformat the drive.

Bill

 

That's normal. It's because the HDD manufacturers use different numbers (1kb=1000) to calculate than Windows does (1kb=1024). So that means you have total disk size of 596GB. The other 15GB is likely the recovery partition. My 500GB drive shows as 452GB.

 

Congrats. I think you currently have my favorite configuration of anyone on this forum. Very nice system. Major jealousy.

Run > diskmgmt.msc ( I'm sure you know) and jpride's answer.

You asking how to post your results here?

 

C3 and C6 are CPU power states:
C3 CPU State (Sleep / Deep Sleep)
C6 CPU State (Deep Power Down)

For further reading:
Wikipedia - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (check out the ACPI specification too, linked on that page)
Intel Turbo Boost Technology – White Paper ( Chapter 3.0 C-State Definitions )

You can enable or disable the C3/C6 CPU state support from BIOS (if your BIOS version is R0190Y9).
When booting and the VAIO logo shows up, press F2. On the Advanced page you can enable/disable this option. See image below:

 

The 640GB is the difference between marketing and real world usage. Drives are marketed where the storage capacity is in factors of 1000 bytes/KB/MB/GB, so a 640GB drive is really 640,000,000,000 bytes. But... computers measure storage in factors of 1024 bytes. So, divide the 640 Billion bytes by 1024 thrice and you get 596GB. Subract from that the recovery partition of 9+GB and the very small Windows Recovery Partition and you get the 581 that's showing up on your drive. If you were to clean off the partitions via diskpart.exe (I can give you steps if necessary), you'd get the benefit of the full 596GB.

In the same tone, your 120GB SSD is really 111GB minus some pre-partitioned space allocated for wear-levelling.

 

Thanks for all the help guys just ran threw the SSD optimization guide ready to benchmark again. Will post results soon

 

Hi all!

I am now the proud owner of a Sony Vaio F21Z1E/BI laptop. Well, not really an owner just now as I'm STILL waiting for it to become available in the UK. I've ordered and paid for it through Misco, who have since rang me twice with pushed back expected delivery dates.

At last check, I'm going to get it around 31st of this month. When looking at other suppliers, they are all now stating 1/4/2011 expected availability. So I'm expecting another call from Misco to reflect that. It's really frustrating, as I ordered over 2 weeks ago.

So, my question is does anyone either know anywhere who has these in stock NOW, or a better idea of when we can expect these laptops to be available? I even tried my local Sony shop but they hadn't heard of the machine nor when it would be in.

Cheers all,

Jay

 

Congrats on your new laptop. There is an owners lounge thread for your laptop here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...5653-sony-vaio-f-3d-series-owners-lounge.html
I would expect you to get yours without too much more delay since they are supposedly available in Hong Kong/China now, but of course, I don't know. Hope you like it. Also, the US ship date hasn't changed - estimated 3/29 - so that may be a good sign for you.

 

Can you please give the steps to take in diskpart

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 257.414 MB/s
Sequential Write : 210.283 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 211.076 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 196.924 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 13.817 MB/s [ 3373.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 22.865 MB/s [ 5582.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 87.336 MB/s [ 21322.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 65.445 MB/s [ 15977.7 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 50.4% (55.6/110.2 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/03/18 16:24:43
OS : Windows 7 Home Premium Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

Heres my Benchmarking results on the intel 510

 

I meant the Model Name, like displayed in the VAIO Control Center -> System Information -> under Product Information -> Model Name. You can find here the BIOS version too.

Also you can find the BD burner type/model in the Device Manager under the DVD/CD-ROM drives. Thanks!

 

All US CTO models (which is what ahmadka got) are the same model name - VPCF1390X.

 

Congrats LSUtigers!


The HDD size difference was already explained, but I want to add some links, because there is an ongoing effort and standardization to offer an alternate notation, and with this a disambiguation of the KB, MB, GB, TB, … units. This units conflicted with the use of kilo, mega, … prefixes used with other measurements units. And this difference and generated confusion started to be exploited by companies, including HDD manufacturers. The new proposed units are: KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, … . See the Wikipedia Data rate units and Wikipedia Mebibyte page for details. The adoption is slow, but lately well known online shops and review sites started to use them (like: Tom’sHardware, AnandTech, Wikipedia, …), so maybe this will speed up the adoption.


If you want to repartition you external HDD, I recommend to use the built in Windows Disk Management utility. If you are not familiar with it, you can find some tutorials here:
How to Manage Your Disks using the Disk Management Utility and
Disk Management in Windows 7

 

Okay now I've got another problem on my head !

I'm just installing stuff onto my new VAIO, and this message keeps popping up asking me to re-insert the laptop battery !?!?:

I've tried doing what its asking, and even restarted my system, and still this message keeps showing up. There's no Cancel button given to back out of this, but if I press ALT+F4 it goes away but then comes back 2 seconds later ..

What to do ??

EDIT: Also, I did NOT get this message when I was using the Factory installed OS and everything .. Its only showing up now in my manually installed Windows 7, in which I've installed applications from the VAIO recovery disc set.

 

have you installed Battery Checker and/or Power Management from VAIO Care yet?

 

Yeah I installed Battery Checker and I've now disabled it .. No more of that message ..

However, I still wonder maybe there's a battery problem ? Possible ?

 

Ok, if you want to wipe all partitions from the HDD, set it up in external enclosure and connect to lappy. You'll obviously be booting from the SSD.

1. Press Windows button and type "cmd", right click over the search result and "Run as administrator".
2. Type "diskpart.exe"
wait for it to start
3. type "list disk" - this will list the physical drives connected at the moment. The OS disk (SSD) should be Disk 0. You'll have to identify the disk# of your HDD by its size. It should be 465GB.
4. type "select disk (number of HDD)"

THIS IS THE PART THAT CANNOT BE UNDONE. IT WILL DELETE ALL OF THE PARTITIONS.

5. type "clean" and the partitions will be wiped and you'll gain access to the space taken up by what was the recovery partition.