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

Thanks!! (will rep when I can).

PS @ anseio - I ordered the U2 . Ended up changing my mind b/c from your pictures, the overhang didn't seem THAT bad and the smaller footprint will make it easier to take on the plane with me. It's scheduled to get here on Tuesday

 

(is this 10 characters now?)

 

Thank you bro, but that sucks. I cant believe that a computer monster like this laptop have this kind of screen when other VAIO laptops (modest ones) come with a LED display. I just had an F11 (was stolen a month ago) and I was very pleased with it in every aspect but the quality of the screen. When can we spect the F series to update the display so it can become the king of high-end laptops? Other brands like Dell, HP and Asus come with LED displays but they are not as beutiful machines as the Sony F Series, so I think I'll wait longer to buy another one.

What do you think people?

 

Does anyone know how to disable C4 cpu state on the F series? I've read that this will stop the "CPU Whine" noise. On some other VAIO models you can do it from the BIOS setup, but on my F12 there is literally no settings you can change besides boot sequences...

I also tried a program called RMClock (Rightmark CPU Clock Utility) that is supposed to be able to do it. I installed it but it doesn't give me any Advanced CPU Settings like it does for others.. why i don't know..

Also, I tried a registry/power setting fix explained here http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...ed-whining-noise-vpccw27fx-2.html#post6508105 ..it works on other VAIOs, but it didn't work for me (All it did was make the fan work alot harder, but i still heard the whistle/whine)

Has anyone disabled the C4 state on their vaio or got the whine fixed any other way?

 

To my knowledge, you cannot disable the C4 state except for in a program that can do it for you. Try this one out. Real Temp - CPU temperature monitoring

I think Willscary uses it for the same purpose you want.

p.s. - It doesn't permanently disable. You'll have to do it each time you power up.

 

There are good CCFL backlit screens (Sony FW's X-Brite),there are bad LED backlit screens (Acer Aspire 5943) and the opposite can also be true. If you live in the EU you can get the matte finish, wide gamut 1080p screen (the one reviewed by notebookcheck) which is very nice but you can't judge uniformity of brightness based on backlight method since you can get crap diffusion in both types of display.

 

Everyone My F11 Was Gone!!....after The Day I Post About The High Temp .....now It"s Hang Everywhere Even In The Bios.......!!!!!

 

Not sure what you are trying to communicate.

 

He says that ever since he installed a non-approved Nvidia driver his GPU has been running hot. I think Fevergame has had a hardware problem from day one - he should have taken it back to Sony immediately, rather than messing with it and possibly voiding the warranty.

 

You used to be one of my favorite posters, when you shared your audio and video goodies. Got anything good? A how to, tweak, or some sort of gem?

 

can anyone tell me where to download the following as i cant find them on sony support site and vaio care.

1. Magic-i Visual Effects
2. Vaio Hardware Diagnostics
3.Vaio Peripherals Metadata
4.Vaio Help and support

Im trying to get all the usefull drivers and programs for joes guide. Also can anyone tell me if there have had any problems with the EU screen, as all i have heard is positive things.

 

I just received my f12 today and i was thinking about doing a clean i stall but im not too experienced with the technical stuff and i see people trying to do the clean install and get lost. I have heard some software called decrapifyer and ccleaner and one or two other programs. Has anyone heard of this? Are they effective? I want to get rid of the bloatware as you all know its annoying to have. Any help will be appreciated thanks.

 

Jpaz here is a link to joe bleaus guide to making recovery disks and doing a fresh install.

Code:

http://www..org/images/Sony_Vaio_F11/Vaio_F_Series_Clean_Install_Guide.htm

It is a bit hard, but if you read through it will be easy, i have done a clean install and got rid of all the bloatware and i am just installing the useful things as stated on that drive.

 

Seems that "m o n t e v e r d e" gets taken out from all posts

Better add it between www and org in the link :/ and take out all the spaces

 

Use this link for posting on the forum Vaio_F Series Windows 7 64-bit Clean Install Guide Using OEM Recovery Discs.

 

SonyStyle Canada selling new F1390 only with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 not supported.

 

If you're looking at the Weights & Measurements portion of this page, then I wouldn't trust it. It's very possible that they simply used a specs image from the F12/F11 without updating the ports. The USB 3.0 ports are the only difference, so possibly easy to overlook.

Check out one of the preconfigured models' specifications page and you'll see that those do have 2x USB 3.0 ports.

I've confirmed firsthand that the US F13 does have USB 3.0.

 

Weird! I sent email to sonycanada with questions about USB and Premium Display (matte or glossy). I received respond and they wrote me that F1390 has USB 2.0 and Premium display is MATTE.

 

Part of me doesn't trust the reply you got. When I went to the Sony store here in Seattle, the guy tried to tell me that it did not have USB 3.0, when it clearly did have the blue ports associated with USB 3.0. He then verified online that he was incorrect.

It makes little sense to me that someone will correctly tell you that the uncofigured Canadian model has USB 2.0, whereas the preconfigured models do.

Perhaps you could reply to that person with the links to the SonyStyle.ca specs page and have them look furhter into their product info rather than assuming and then passing that assumption/misinformation on to you.

 

Don't get me wrong, if I was expecting USB 3.0 I would be disappointed, but having your eSATA port should do fine. eSATA is Still Faster Than USB 3.0 | Maximum PC Luckily you get the Matte screen where in the US it is not available. And I agree with anseio, I wouldn't be so sure yet.

 

Better I will call tomorrow !!!

 

I actually just did a "clean install" (didn't even have the recovery disks, just a copy of windows 7). Basically, all I did was install Windows 7, install the latest video drivers from nvidia, and then install the vaio control center and vaio event service drivers from the sony esupport website so that all of my hotkeys work. That's all I did, as I'm not really interested in any of the media center stuff or the included webcam software (magic eye or something).

Here is a list of useful 3rd party software that you may want to install after you finish your clean install:

Avast! or AVG antivirus.
CCCleaner (cleaning program that looks through temporary folders to free up space on your hard drive. It can also clean your registry files).
Smart defrag - MUCH faster than the built-in win7 defragment tool. Defragmenting your disk makes keeps your disk healthy and improves performance.

To be honest, I don't notice THAT much of a difference after my clean install. Startup is faster, but I usually hibernate or keep my computer in sleep mode, so that's not too relevant for me.

 

OK..for everyone who has the CPU whistle/whine... I can tell you first hand that it has nothing to do with the C3/C4 cpu state that others have stated. I successfully disabled everything above C2 state on my dual-booted Ubuntu 10.04 Linux install by adding GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="processor.max_cstate=2" to /etc/default/grub and rebooting

I confirmed after rebooting:
vtec@vtec-vaio:~$ cat /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/power
active state: C0
max_cstate: C2

I still get the whistling noise.
So back to square 1... i'm still going with that it's the fan itself (poor lubrication?). I'm probably going to take mine apart this week (been trying to avoid this) and see what I can do with it.

p.s. anyone interested in dual-booting linux , there is a project going that has code to get everything working on linux for F series notebooks and it is located here vaio-f11-linux - Project Hosting on Google Code
The only thing I had to do to get it Ubuntu working right away was download and install the nvidia linux driver from nvidia's website.. there are some other things I have to do to get the mic, brightness level function etc working which is on that vaio-f11 project site.. other then that it's pretty cool so far.

 

quick (dumb) question:

one of my recovery discs got corrupted (okay damaged) and I want to do a clean install while I have the time- can I/if I make a new set now, will it make any difference later on? because obviously the laptops settings have been changed from factory settings since then with software and programmes

thanks

 

Two different issues. The fan resonance is a completely different sound than the CPU whine. From your previous posts, I thought you had your noise narrowed down to a particular RPM range on the fan. Does it sound like this:

YouTube - Sony Vaio F12 - VPCF12Z1E

The whine in that video is pretty much normal for an F11/F12/F13: a medium-pitch whine that comes and goes at certain fan RPMs at about the same volume level as the normal fan noise. Unless yours is a lot louder than that, I don't think there is anything to fix.

 

Making a new set of recovery discs won't affect anything. They're made from the recovery partition on your drive. So, if one got "corrupted" (naughty dog), then just make another set. No biggie. Do make sure that you always have a set that won't get accidentally damaged. They're you're last resort in any worst case scenario.

 

Laundry -- Dishes - Whazzat? When they introduce a VAIO that will feed my six cats and maintain their litter, THEN I'll buy..!

 

I've just returned my F13 because of the whistle and the fact that it apparently can't be fixed.

What I was wondering: is it really the case that it's present on almost every F-series computer? Are there any people out there who don't have it?

 

I don't have it on mine... BUT... I've got the lower end model. 1600x900, NVIDIA 330M GPU and i7-720QM.

 

I get that sound exactly. i7-740QM, 1080p screen, GT 330M.

The morse code thing is entirely different and its a holdover from c2d lower cpu sleep states. I used to get that bad too until I muted the mic. You can still hear it but its nowhere near as high pitched or as loud.

 

The difficult thing is, it's not that noticable until you start noticing it and then it's very hard to unnotice it.

It's clearly related to fan-RPM-changes. How are people's experiences in combination with a laptop cooler? Does this significantly diminish the amount of whistles you get?

I really hope there's some sort of compromise because I loved the F13 and there basically isn't another laptop around with comparable specs.

 

I just got a notepal u3 in the post today so I'll try it out after work and report back here. Talk about good timing eh?

I got it from Linke Computers based out of Hong Kong since they don't sell any of the notepals in Ireland apparently. They don't have many online reviews but these guys are the real deal. It was cheaper to buy a U3 from them and get it shipped half way across the world than it was to buy a U2 from Amazon.co.uk. It arrived in under a week and their customer service was excellent. I wanted to amend my order but was too late to add anything because it had already shipped so they gave me free shipping on my next order. How cool is that? Anyway I thought I'd throw in a recommendation for the folks looking to buy notebook coolers outside the US.

 

Really good timing!

 

Man, things move fast around here...

What's up with the new F13? Any changes besides the GFX?

And where did Joe Bleau go?

 

I'm looking forward to the results. Thanks!

About the U3, from what I found it's going to be more than a month till they're released in Europe. Thanks for the link.

 

Hi Nygaard the only other changes I know about besides the graphics card is it has USB 3.0 which is nice and possibly a slightly larger hard drive.

 

I called to sony canada support. F1390 has USB 3.0 and Premium Display is glossy. (matte version in Europe)

 

Update

Google Testing Chrome OS Release Candidates. Official Release 1 Month Away?

 

Mine is VPCF115FM/B with i7-720QM, 330M, 1080p and my fan sounds just like the one in the video. I think your Notepal cooler might be keeping the fan speed below the problem range.

The whine never really bothered me, because I was more distracted by the constant fan speed changes. It took me a couple months to get used to that. I've seen a lot of F models on display in Best Buy and SonyStyle stores and they all seemed to make similar fan noises when you start playing with them. Overall, I don't think the fan is very loud compared to other high-power laptops. But the fan speed control needs improvement.

 

also, according to postedd specs, Bluer ray burner has been upgraded from 4x to 6x.

any confirmation on this yet?

 

My F13's should be shipping tomorrow. The status changed on friday to "Completed" but still haven't gotten a shipping notification. I hope it does ship tomorrow. I've read a lot of horror stories with sonystyle's customer service.

I already have 16gb's of memory and two 500gb momentus XT's ready to install into both of them.

 

Within the five parts of this thread I think it's safe to say almost no one has had problems with delivery dates from Sony. Mine came in about a week before it's stated delivery time.

Thought the max was 2, 4gbx1 one can put into their laptop. What are you going to be doing with your machine where you need so much? Look forward to you sharing your experiences.

 

I'm a bit frustrated myself. My order was marked complete and I was charged for my F on Thursday but it still hasn't been shipped. I called customer service today and they said they couldn't tell me anything, that I just have to wait for a shipping email.

 

Anyone have any input into this product: Diskeeper 2010 Home edition - with HyperFast.

Purchase Diskeeper Home with HyperFast Online | Diskeeper

 

i am in the same boat, but here is reply i got today:

hank you for shopping with Sony Style!

Your order usually takes 7 to 10 business days to assemble, depending on the availability of the components.

I checked your order for a Sony VPCF1390X Configure-to-Order VAIO under order number. I found out that we still haven't provided you a tracking number but the status says that it is completed.

Our Configure-to-Order VAIOs are made and assembled overseas. When the order information page says "Completed", this means that the item has been shipped to our warehouse. By the time our warehouse receives the item, we will ship it to you as soon as possible and that's the time when we can provide you a tracking number.

The estimated shipping date of your order is on October 12. Please note that this may change should unforeseen circumstances occur.

You may continue to view your order at Sony Style USA | Sony VAIO® Computers | Sony Consumer Electronics. Just log on and click on "My Account" then "Order Information" to view the details of your order and status information.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thank you for choosing Sony Style!

Kenny

Sony Style Customer Care

 

Biggest Microsoft security update today, ever. 17 for me. Update your Windows.

http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2010/10/microsoft_issues_mega-patch_ba.php

http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9984

 

Sounds like mine wont be shipping tomorrow then, especially if people had shipping ETA's for today. that's a bummer. Sure was looking forward to it this weekend. I Ordered mine on the 26th of september. been waiting a couple weeks already.

Fishon,
It can take 2x4gb of memory. I wasn't going to spend the $300 they wanted for 8gb. I'm going to be running VM's and doing photoshop mainly. Toss in some video encoding here and there. Me and my girlfriend both ordered one.

 

Haha, got my U2 in the mail today as well. I was actually really bothered by the top sticking out, but if I move the laptop down a bit it looks like it's just floating in midair. Now that I can live with .

The fans are SUPER silent (I wish the fans on my desktop were this quiet). I really genuinely thought it was broken before I put my hands under the fans and felt the cool air blowing. I have my fans placed a little bit above the left side of the palmrest and underneath the processor/gpu. I haven't measured temperatures yet, but I'm downloading the new Medal of Honor game so it'll be a nice test. FPS games usually have me running to ~80C after an hour or so.

*EDIT* ~ 3 hours of MOH and I'm at 72C (with GPU overclock). Pretty good if you ask me

*EDIT2* - It plays at almost a constant 44 fps with all settings high, no AA (dips down into 24fps when there are long view distances or lots of dust spewing everywhere in the in-game cutscenes. All of the firefights were pretty much at 44 fps). I got similar results with all medium settings and no OC (although I only played the first level without overclock).

 

Hey, so I'm planning on buying my F13 this week. Is it really worth paying an extra $325 to get the i7 840QM?

 

Stevievg: I have an F12 with the i7-740QM 310M and 1600 x 900 display and I do not have any of the reported noises. I do not game and I use an NZXT cooler.