Official Sony VAIO F Series i5/i7 owners thread *part 4*

If you think that's bad, you should see the price on a decent firewire 800 enclosure XD

I have a saying:
Take a piece of metal that costs 50 cents to make,
* Call it a car part, it's now worth $50
* Call it a computer part, it's now worth $100

eSATA enclosures are all about style since it's just a box with a pass through plug on it and a cable. Sometimes they have shock protection, sometimes they don't.

A quality USB enclosure will make a difference with transfer rates, although with a powerful enough machine you might not see much of a difference. The more expensive USB enclosures might also be more reliable when it comes to sleeping a drive as it should (and/or quieter fan operation!)

Then again, you could say that you're paying money for a pretty brand.. oh wait that's just like the $1400 VPCF115FM when you could've purchased an $1100 Dell XPS 16 with roughly the same specs.

(They did exist at one point in time).

Or you could've went and purchased a $2200 MacBook Pro with somewhat similar specs as well, only a much much larger battery. Hrmm..

Yea I know how you guys feel about that

BTW? Anyone want a good web designer for about $1200? I would love to sell my Sony and upgrade to a MBP

Last thought: You guys are still ranting about the hard disk performance? This is my only problem with you Joe, you manage to make every issue in this thread a 30 page long debate about how the F series is perfect and anyone that proves otherwise is wrong (or their complaint is invalid) XD

You need to get a life man.

 

Actually I am shopping for a MicroSD card reader to USB for a friend & found 2 units bundle for $0.99 including shipping worldwide here.

Power eSATA cable direct to SATA 2.5" drive + a Power eSATA card for your PC for $10 shipped here.

 

Here you go, Joe. Now this is special, JUST FOR YOU!

You're going to get HD Tune results for my Hitachi in Optical Bay AND my Seagate 7200.4 in the eSATAp enclosure. Better yet? The tests were run in WinXP Pro 32bit with the Seagate containing the OS, the HDD bay empty, and the Hitachi in the Optical Bay, but WinXP cannot access the disk due to
different file systems. Is this enough variances to get your panties in a bunch?

Please accept that lundstom.emil and I have disfuntional HDD's. Whether it's Safe Mode or not... we ONLY HAVE THIS PROBLEM WITH THE SEAGATE 7200.4 ST9500420AS. I cannot duplicate this "curve" with my Hitachi in any bay. I've already established that my eSATAp enclosure is indistinguishable from the HDD actually being in the F11. The read rates are identical.

A quality eSATA enclosure matters too. Willscary bought several generics earlier this year and none of them can get the transfer speeds that mine has.

I agree. I'd like to see dropped the assumptions that lundstrom.emil and I are like "hysterical" women who take their children to the hospital saying they're sick, but the doctors don't believe them even though the kid is actually sick.

 

I don't blame you for missing the point, it was quite a bunch of posts.

It started when I posted a bench w/ a 7200.4 Seagate. Emil & Anseio also had a 7200.4 so they tried it on their F's & got slower rates then Daniel bench same as I & we then tried to find out why there was a difference. My recent post on the subject: VAIO_F Series: Benchmarks Secondary HDD in ODD Bay vs Main Drive vs eSATA/USB Port where the eSATA/USB port w/ the eSATA enclosure acts like Emil's & anseio's: slower in normal OS & faster in Safe Mode.

It's a legitimate question & we did not find the explanation yet.

We have similar machines w/ similar drives but different settings. Where else can a group of F users compare score cards? My HDD's are after market, theirs OEM F. The best would be to test the different drives on the same machine w/ the OS cloned like they do in professional reviews. Do you guys want to ship me your drives for testing?

Are your Mac remarks more on topic?

@ anseio: check the link above for more explanations, if my enclosure (it's the exact same as Willscary's) and/or the drive and/or the F hardware were the problem then the Average Read, Maximum & Burst rates would not be so high in Safe Mode. IMO something loading or running in normal OS is not in agreement with my enclosure + the 7200.4 combination. The same enclosure runs fine with my slower 5400 rpm drives: WD Scorpio Blue 400GB & the Samsung F OEM 500GB. The same 7200.4 HDD runs fine as the main drive or as a secondary drive in the ODD bay. IN fact they are faster than your Hitachi 7200 rpm. Running in Safe Mode makes a difference only for the enclosure in my case & the only thing that OS mode does is changing what drivers/software gets loaded: it does not make any changes to the hardware themselves.



I asked for a simple test: how does the 7200.4 acts in the ODD bay in normal OS mode w/ the anti virus disabled, HD Tune, 64 kb block size?

Edit: Just a thought, do you guys have Virtualization enabled in the BIOS??? I do not.

*****

 

Joe, I did all you suggested and much more weeks ago. I don't need troubleshooting steps, I just need to know if anyone else with the same hardware is seeing this problem.

 

I've spent many hours troubleshooting this and have updated all drivers and associated programs.

I do have some other strange screen update problems (blinking and slow updates of moving objects in drawing programs) but none as annoying as this. It seems to happen on all Flash videos and as I stated in my original post, it occurred the first time I turned on the machine - the first time I used it. I'd expect a software problem to be experienced by someone else that has the same configuration, and since this machine was sold by Costco there are lots of those folks out there, but it seems that no one else has seen this issue. This is a quad core machine with 4 gigs. Plenty fast for Flash.

 

Sorry, I can't bring myself to unmount my Hitachi from the caddy and swap it all around for the sake of this test.

It'd be great to try my Seagate in another machine, but I've already proved that cloning the system is not necessary in that I have consistent results when testing from Win7 Full Install, Win7 Clean Install, and now WinXP Pro.

This really isn't even an issue for my anymore since I know the problem to not be my hardware, since I have 2 HDD's and one SSD to test. I've only continued contributing because I have thought that your requests for HD Tune were not demanding, but not this particular one.

There's something odd about the Seagate firmware. I would be willing to upgrade mine if I could find a newer version to install.

I do have virtualization enabled, as I use XP Mode on occasion.

 

Thanks for the reply..

So, if I didnt mind running both cables or just USB, then I would have a lot more options? Are there specific make and models of enclosures that I should shy away from? Also, some enclosures only support up to a certain size of hard drive, but the F127 is supplied with a 640GB.

I know both read only and read/ writer are offered, but I wasnt sure which comes with the F127.

Here is the site Im thinking about ordering it from: Sony VAIO VPCF127FX/B 16.4 Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz from mwave.com

Is that Seagate 7200.4 the same hard drive that comes with the F12s or is it a different model?

 

Thanks for your previous benchmarks contributions & I understand if you don't want to swap the HDD in the ODD bay. OTOH that would have been my first step in your shoes: to check the 7200.4 in it vs as the main drive because of the choking thing.

"...It'd be great to try my Seagate in another machine..." - Emil did that & got better rates.

------------------------

Virtual Mode in BIOS - VT

"...I do have virtualization enabled, as I use XP Mode on occasion" - I tried enabling VT in the BIOS & it affected my F's performance as shown w/ some Passmark utilities. There is no free lunch.

From my old post: VAIO_F Series Virtual Machine: Virtual PC vs. VirtualBox: Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC: download page:

If you don't use Virtual PC often then there is no point in having it permanently enabled in the BIOS IMO and besides there are the free VMware Player & VirtualBox as mentioned in the post linked above.

*****

I dunno about weeks ago but by coincidence, this morning on first boot there was an auto update notification for Flash Player 10.1.

Mangosango & I asked you the same question: which internet browser are you using & did you try an other one?

Mangosango knows a thing or 2 about video & settings BTW, click on the links included in his signature.

*****

Enclosure & HDD Size?

It's not the drive's storage capacity that is the limitation, it is it's physical thickness. The F's main drive bay is designed for a standard 9.5mm thick 2.5" HDD + it's caddy so the OEM 640GB is 9.5mm. Mangosango just posted a few pages ago a benchmark with his Startech S2510PESAT + the extra cable he had to buy + a 640GB HDD. Just go back a few pages & read.

 

I priced this one out at Sony VPCF1290X CTO and it came in at $21.00 more than at mwave. This includes the Adobe bundle and I believe everything else is the same. You can always get Sony to reduce price by 10% ( see my post from long ago on how to negotiate price) and if you qualify for Sony financing, they will give you 12 months interest free and another $50.00 off. I would purchase CTO at Sony.

 

+ you can select the large capacity battery instead of the regular one for $100 only for better underside ventilation, angled keyboard & 50% more battery life. Check the large capacity battery photos by slrosenfeld here.

 

Well I don't think anyone here has that issue (or atleast they haven't said anything). Hope we've been of some help.

 

The Windows 7 Guide: From Newbies To Pros [FREE EBOOK]

 

I've tried IE, Firefox and Chrome, all have the same problem. Multiple video driver versions make no difference. I didn't get the Flash notification. I'll give that a try, thanks.

 

Have you tried this?

Go to Control Panel > System > Hardware(tab) > Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers > Primary IDE Channel (right click and choose properties)
Click on the "Driver" tab then "Uninstall". Windows will now tell you to restart so let it - ok when the restart has finished it will reinstall the driver for the IDE controllers.

I had network connection issues and had to do this with my network drivers.

 

Well, the reason Im just going with a non personalized model, is because my friend can get me no tax at that particular retailer. The F127 is pretty much exactly what I wanted anyways, besides the hard drive.

I read through some of those posts about the hard drives and such, but my lack of computer hardware knowledge is keeping me from understanding much of it.. Some people prefer a 7200 speed drive and others say the difference isnt that much after you get to a certain hard drive size? My main concern is the speed at which I will be able to render video..

Oh, also.. Something I forgot to mention, most of the use for this machine will be to edit videos and to play Starcraft 2.. The little research Ive done makes me think I should be able to do both of these tasks just fine?

 

I hesitated too about the F13 before ordering my F12 but I finally pulled the trigger. I reckoned that the F12 fixed any critical problems in the F11 and anyway, the specs/price of the F12 that I ordered are good for me.

Well, I sent it to a SonyStyle store which received it about 3 days ago and I just now have the time to go through Joe Bleau's de-Bloating process. (Yesterday, I played with it for a few minutes in its pre-bloat setting. I played several homegrown AVC-HD files and they were perfect. No stutter.)

One of my fears was the build because I have a Sony FW140D that has a nice screen but a cr*ppy build. This F12 is built solid. I won't be afraid to throw this thing on a security belt or if my briefcase drops.

A nice touch so far that I didn't know about: the F12 has an optical audio (mini Toslink) out. With a 3$ adapter, you can connect this sucker to a 5.1 audio system!

I'm anxious to install Sony Vegas and try some real editing. (I opted for the 1920 screen, BD burner and the 8 GB ram.)

-----

PS. Joe Bleau, thanks a million for your F11/F12 Clean Install page. If you ever have the time, it should be separated into F11 and F12 sections. With an F12, it seems that you don't need a wired USB mouse. But I quibble.

 

Am I missing something? Don't all laptops have the same optical audio out- a Toslink mini?

 

Thanks for the feedback, glad it worked for you.

"...you can connect this sucker to a 5.1 audio system!" - This is intriguing! Are you saying that 5.1 works via optical? I thought by looking at Control Panel > Sound > Speakers > Configure that the F was 2.0, stereo only. But OMG: Control Panel > Sound > Digital Output > Advanced & 5.1 is available in the drop down menu!

+1 for your rep. (Come on cheapo/lazy, click on the weird icon if you find a post helpful or interesting).

So a set of 5.1 speakers with optical input like one of those would work with the F w/o a sound system? (I'm a audio noob)

 

I just got my F12 today! I also received my Everki Beacon backpack and my Logitech Z205 speaker. Now with my Momentus XT 500GB and my Cooler Master Notepal U3 I'm finally ready to start Joe Bleau's clean install this weekend! And it's labor day weekend!

 

Lucky you!

Try all the value added software, maybe you will find some useful.

Could we see some photos of the U3 w/ the F on it?

 

I guess I can see this happening, where the quality of the esata pass through on a generic enclosure is SO BAD that it attenuates the signal or something of the sort XD

If sometime in the future I grab a desk stand for my laptop (it might happen if I give my mom my desktop), it'll prolly be something goofy like a rain mstand . >>

 

I just found this page, while I was looking for store that ship to Europe.

Cooler Master NotePal U3 Laptop Cooler

 

Quick question. When I take my F12 to work, should I remove the battery and keep the notebook plugged into the wall?

Is this a good way to save the life of the battery?

 

What a great find! It's nice to see a VAIO on the U3. It's as if the Notepals U2 & U3 were designed for the VAIO F in mind. My U2 fits my VAIO snug and secure.

 

It's a good way to kill the F if not plugged into a UPS.

 

So the question is to have either the F or the U3 sticking out. Anseio's U2 photo vs the U3 review linked above:



- Then the U2 is about $10-15 cheaper: Cooler Master U2 for $17 shipped in USA vs $25+ Notepal U3

- It's lighter & smaller for transportation according to specs here & here: 1.30 lbs / 590g vs. 2.3 lbs / 1.04 kg for example.

- The third fan of the U3 may be overkill for the F because of it's excellent thermal management design: more power consumption & potentially more noise vs the 2 fan U2 that Willscary benched as quite efficient on his F. It's also one more fan to remove/install if transported with the laptop inside the cooler as seen in the review.

- The U3 offers more headroom if you ever buy a bigger laptop. OTOH a smaller laptop may look stupid on the U3.

****

 

Even if you have the battery on the laptop a powersurgr will still kill a notebook.

I'm just thinking because if you F is always plug to the wall and your battery is always charged to 100% isn't that going to kill the battery eventually?

 

I think the U3 is amazing for this machine. It fits perfect and if the third fan is over kill cant you just remove it?

Also where should the fans be placed on the F notebook with this pad U3 and U2?

 

Your comment may be true, or it may not. I no longer have the second SSD available to test my enclosure, but I was thinking about the 2.5W of power that the USB 2.0 bus provides.

If the PoeSATA is powered by this USB 2.0 bus, then perhaps I was power starved when I tested. My Cooler Master U2 is always plugged in with the two fans running and drawing power from the bus. I have a Logitech wireless USB mouse that is always plugged in and working. Finally, I had a stadard 2.5" 320GB hard drive in a second of these generic PoeSATA enclosures, but at the time when I tested, I am quite sure that it was plugged into the end of the Notepal U2 plug (I was transferring data). Granted, that enclosure was only operating at USB 2.0 (with a normal USB cable), but if I recall correctly, it WAS drawing power.

If that was the case, it is possible that my power supply to the eSATA port was limited by all of these items being present.

It may be a while before I get another SSD in, but when I do, I will unplug everything but the mouse and see if my results change with the transfer rate over PoeSATA on my machine.

 

I haven't tried a IDE driver update to resolve a Flash video problem. I'm not sure how it relates. Would you elaborate?

 

What do you think about the Sony vaio f126fm/b?
Pros, cons, any problems?
thank you

 

Qriocity - Home

"We are excited to offer our customers high-quality, cloud-based entertainment experiences across many of Sony's network-enabled devices,"

 

This may be more of a Windows 7 issue (or a trackpad driver issue) than an F12 issue, but, on my new F12, when I’m moving the cursor around with my finger by using the trackpad (seemingly regardless of what program I’m in) the cursor will often freeze in place for a second or two while one or two small concentric black rings suddenly appear around the cursor and then the rings “close in” on the frozen-in-place cursor… Once these black concentric circle rings finish “closing in” on the cursor and disappear, the cursor then moves freely again. This condition only lasts a second or two each time, but it is quite annoying/distracting – and it happens frequently – often multiple times in relatively rapid succession while I'm trying to move the cursor across the screen.

I’ve tried playing with as many of the control panel trackpad/mouse settings as I can find – adjusting things like click, double click, pinch & drag, pointers, scrolling, sensitivity, etc. but none of the setting changes I’ve experimented with seem to have any effect on this problem.

This is not a problem I’ve ever had with any of my prior laptops or other computers, nor have I ever seen those small concentric black rings appear around the cursor on any other computer – though, this is my first & only experience so far w/Windows 7, so maybe it is some aspect of a new Windows 7 “feature”…???

(Note, my new F12 is in relatively stock, “fresh from the factory” condition. I have not changed any drivers nor have I removed, uninstalled, reinstalled or altered anything, apart from playing with the trackpad/mouse settings in an attempt to see what might be causing this particular problem.)

Anyone else have this happen or know what might be going on...?

Thanks.

 

Man, these 'circles' around the pointer is an Windows cursor locate option. You must turn it off in mouse properties:

Mouse -> Pointer Options Tab then Uncheck option "Show location of pointer...."

 

Thank you, Jacol! Getting rid of those *~@! circles is going to be the very first thing I do when I get home this evening!

 

A surge shouldn't kill a laptop. Not if the power plug has a fuse (i.e. you haven't taken it out or flipped the ground pin). If it does we are talking freak occurence but most of the time the worst that could happen is a bad surge might fry the input transformers in the PSU which you can always replace. There are a few exceptions where a surge can damage components behind the PSU but for the most part you don't really need to worry about it or electrical problems generally provided you adhere to safety guidelines and you don't live in an area or use your laptop on a circuit that has sketchy electrics.

So if you are using your laptop on the same circuit as lots of motorized/switching devices like refrigerators you probably want to move to a different wall socket. I used to run a PC music production rig on a circuit shared by tonnes of switching electrical devices and not out of my own choice since the house was shared. You can really tell when something like this is happening because every time the fridge kicks in, the lights dim and my speakers made a loud popping sound. This would happen every 3 to 15 minutes. I was there for a year and I killed one surge protected strip and thats it.

 

Ok I think you all got lost. The question was if I am going to use the notebook alot for my job, which will be plugged into the wall using the powercord provided with the machine. Will it be smart to remove the battery and just leave it out and use the notebook with the power adapter.

I heard leaving the battery in a notebook that is constantly on the powercord leaving the battery at 100% always will kill the life of the battery

 

Awesome! Hmm I might want to get one myself. Put some led fans underneath there and my Sony will look like a real rocket ship!

EDIT: nvm on the led's - looks like the fans are proprietary

 

I have f123fxb,I think the only difference is the HDD.
mine is 500gb & f126 is 640gb.
everything is ok but I don`t like the weight it`s too heavy.
the 1600*900 screen is ok.
if u read text & documents in notebook a lot 1600*900 screen is better than 1920*1080.

 

+ 1 for that post.

I live in Costa Rica where they probably invented "sketchy electrics". I moved my office to a brand new building & my UPS was plugged in a line conditioner which I then plugged into the wall & they both were instantly toasted with a bang. The wall outlet was connected to 220v instead of 110v like it should.

I got rid of a line conditioner because it was clicking every time the current was fluctuating which happened hundreds of times a day & it was driving me crazy.

@ home my laptop is always connected to a UPS that also conditions the line & protects from surges & damaging browning (sags). So it does the heavy lifting instead of the F's power brick. Besides, it gives longer battery life during power failures. My computer wall outlet is connected directly to the electric entry fuse box, no other devices are sharing that circuit.

On the road, I carry a small power surge protector for the laptop & phone line like one of those.

Good reading:

- Surge Protectors & the long term effects on equipment of normal power line fluctuations.

- Surge Protector Top Ten Questions

To reply to the F w/o battery question: I do that sometimes @ home but connected to a UPS. To extend the battery's lifetime (or life expectancy) if not using a UPS w/ F w/o battery: >Start > search: Battery Care > set to 80 or 50% max charge.





Sadly, I need max battery life because of frequent power failures so no Battery Care for me.

Note: If you store the battery with a 100% charge, it will degrade faster. Notebook manufacturers consensus: store battery w/ a 40-50% charge. That's a tip for a spare battery that you do not use often. Just charge 100% when hitting the road & knowing that you will need the full battery life. Even if you don't use a rechargeable battery, once charged & used it then starts to degrade anyway even if you store it w/o ever using it. My F's battery is 7 months old & degraded only 1% so far.

*****

 

I know speculations can get a bit out of hand and heavy but I thought I'd throw this in as an inevitable future refresh to this model.
NVIDIA 400M: DX11 Top to Bottom Solutions Now Available - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
It will likely happen, probably the 435 if its a generational name adoption.
Lots of new mobile models coming however.. maybe even a wee upgrade within the next generation?

 

Why did you purchase a laptop with this specified weight? Specs show weight and Sony offers so many lightweight laptop choices. Also, I completely disagree with your screen statement. 1600x900 is inferior to 1920x1080 and is so with this laptop as well. Maybe the viewing angle is a little worse on the 1080...but I've seen both and not by much.

 

I agree with Fishon:

Besides the 1080p is extremely sharp & the OS is very easy to scale & tune the text sharpening: VAIO_F Series 900p or 1080p OS Scaling & 310M vs GT 330M



With the efficient Windows 7 scaling (much better than XP's) & the sharpness of the F's 1080p, there is no reasons to get the 900p except for saving some $ IMO.

Oh, & the F is NOT heavy compared to other laptops with similar screen size & hardware configurations. Do your research. Everything is relative.

 

There is a battery-saving power mode available in the F12 that keeps the battery charged at only 80%, specifically to address this issue - this 80% max charge setting is recommended for users who typically keep the computer plugged in and only occasionally use the battery. (You can easily change the setting back to a 100% and let the battery charge up fully whenever you are planning to actually use the computer on battery power...)

My F12 is at home & I'm at work, about to go into a meeting. But, I'm sure one of the others around here can point you in the right direction if you have trouble figuring out how to find this 80% max charge setting...

(Never mind - I see Joe already beat me to it... ;-) )

 

There is a setting on the F12 that keeps the battery charged at less than 100% specifically to extend the life of the battery. You can either keep it at 80% or 50% charge. The 50% charge is recommended if you mostly use the use the computer on AC power.

To access this configuration, press the S1 button to bring up the Vaio Control Center, select Power Management and then Battery. Check the "Enable Battery Care Function" and then press the "Advanced settings" button to set the % charge.

 

Hi, I was wondering if I create System Recovery Disks with VAIO Care, and delete the recovery partition will I still be able to use the recover disks to revert the laptop to factory state?

 

Yes but it's only about 20GB so unless you have a small capacity SSD why not keep it for convenience?

 

So why not use the battery-saver function?... I set it to 80%, but at 50% there is supposedly no aging of the battery at all. So you have a "built-in" UPS, though when uplugged or if the power goes out the laptop will only last an hour or so.

(Edit) VAIO Control Center -> Power Management -> Battery -> "Enable Battery Care function" <-> Advanced Settings.

 

I talked to Seagate about the firmware on my drive. The firmware was made by Sony and Seagate do not support this disk. They do not give out any firmware and do not recommend to flash it with a firmware from them. Only Sony can give us a new Firmware. :/

Sorry that I have not been here this couple of days, had to much to do. :/