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

That doesn't make sense since they sell the EC, and the EB for a little less than Sony(about $10 bucks) for the same base model, but including blu-ray, and 500gb for the price. Odd isn't it.

 

New to this forum, there is some great information here. I am curious about pc-to-hdtv connections regardsing my Sony Vaio VPCF126FM/B with Blurray, 17 core. I purchased this laptop to run bluray disc wirelessly to my lcd tv but when I puchased the Netgear Push2tv product, model #PTV1000, I couldnt use it because this Sony laptop doesn't support Intel Wireless Display software (WiDi). Does anyone know of anyother way to run bluray to my tv wirelessly without distruption, choppiness, etc? Any info would be apperciated.

Thanks

 

Hi,

Does anybody know is it possible to replace regular VAIO F HDD with this hybrid HDD: Momentus XT | 7200 RPM | Seagate
I am wondering is it typical operation: remove battery, remove old HDD, put this HDD, put battery and all is working?

 

Yes, it is possible. I'm using that HDD right now in my F12. Here is Joe Bleau's guide on replacing the HDD.

How to Replace the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) of a VAIO VPCF Series Laptop

If you're not sure about setup again after installing the new HDD, Joe Bleau also has this Win7 clean install guide.

Vaio F Series Windows 7 64-bit Clean Install Using OEM Recovery Discs

 

+1 I am considering the same upgrade but I was also wondering if replacing the hard drive voids the Sony warranty?

 

Sony will not warranty the new hard drive as it is not OEM. Sony will not be responsible for any software loss when changing from their factory drive to a new, blank hard drive.

Other than that, your warranty should be fine for the rest of the computer. However, I keep my original hard drives, and leave them exactly as they were when I removed them. By doing this, if I ever do have a problem, I can simply re-install the original hard drive and be in exactly the same state as I was prior to the upgrade. Then, if warranty work is needed, I am returning a factory original machine.

This is well worth it. If you decide that you want to use a second, external hard drive for storage, simply purchase another. Hard drives are inexpensive...so much so that I consider keeping the original intact to be very cheap insurance.

 

Maybe someone can to me where a Vaio F with the i5 cpu can be purchased at? Thank you.

 

Alright so I just purchased the Sony F series model VPC126FM. Could you guys help me/give me advice on what I should do before really using it. What should I adjust such as resolution to give me optimal picture. Anything to do with fan adjustments etc. What did you guys do before you really started using the machine thank you.

 

First of all you should create the recovery discs.:yes:
Use your new laptop, see what software you like or do not like.
Then consider a clean install.
The easy way: Vaio F Series Windows 7 64-bit Clean Install Using OEM Recovery Discs
The hard way: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/460685-win-7-fresh-install-guide-vaio-f-series.html
You have the 1600 x 900 resolution so you don't have to adjust any settings, maybe install the latest nvidia drivers:
NVIDIA DRIVERS 258.96 WHQL
Calibrate you display: Vaio F Series Monitor Calibration and Users Created Profiles Roundup

If you mess everything up you can return to the factory state with the recovery discs... so they are very important to create.

 

I created a recovery disc and it only took 1 disc, well 1 dvd+r disc. Should I do it again if I did something wrong? I didnt get an error message. Also, what are good monitoring apps that are free for temperature etc?

 

I don't know, according to Sony: "The number of discs needed to create the set varies by model". For me it took 2 dvd discs.
Maybe somebody else could comment as it took only one disc for them...
You did create the recovery discs with the VAIO Care program?
View Document

By the way not really into monitoring, but I use BatteryCare it also shows the temps for CPU and HDD.
http://batterycare.net/en/index.html

 

How to install NVDIA dispaly driver for Windows XP Pro (32 bit) with SP3 ? I only need that driver (I try to install win xp 32 bit driver from NVDIA site but no sucess ). I have US-VPCF1190X , : Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor, 16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)... I have dual boot - Win 7 - 64 bit Home Premium, and Win XP Pro 32bit...

 

Thanks, but I did not do it that way. I just tried with Vaio care and I got this error message "No optical drive found - an optical drive is required to create Recovery Media........."

I have my disc in the dvd drive so I'm not sure why its giving me that message.

Update* I had to disable my virtual drive and then it worked

 

You can try starting the process without a disc in the drive...
Also there is a new version of VAIO Care (6.1.2.07220) maybe that solves your problem?
VAIO : Sony Europa

Is your drive still F: ?
Do you have software installed like AnyDVD or emulation tools like Deamon Tools or Virtual CloneDrive?
Anything that adds a driver to your disc drive can give you problems with creating recovery discs.

Okay... so it was an emulation tool... glad you got it sorted out

 

Yes it was a virtual drive i had installed, so I disabled it and then the recovery media creation process started. Thanks.

 

Maybe you can have a look at the drivers and the modded inf files at NVIDIA & Laptop News | Latest NVIDIA drivers and related news | laptopvideo2go.com

 

I don't have access to my computer right now, but i had that problem with an xp driver for the 310m. Sony didn't jump on board with the drivers at the beginning. I was able to successfully hack. Later today, i'll work on one for you and let you know. There's no formal driver for sony vaio and xp.

What i'll need from you before i start is the hardware, or device id, for your gpu. In to device manager in xp, select the unknown video controller, or whatever it's called, right click, properties, details or id or something. It's a long string, but i'll need it to identify the driver that will work for you

 

Why on earth dual boot to XP?

Virtual PC, VirtualBox & VMWare Player are much better solutions IMO if you really need to run XP.

Check this post for very interesting alternatives: VAIO_F Series Virtual Machine: Virtual PC vs. VirtualBox.

From Microsoft's own Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC download page:

Besides, you can also use these virtual machines to run Linux, Ubuntu or even a system image of an old machine of yours.

*****

 

+1 rep for your helpful post, Willscary! While your first statement is mostly common sense I didn't know how they would treat the rest of the computer as far as the warranty goes. Keeping the OEM hard drive intact and unmodified in case the notebook ever needs to be sent in is great advice and I think I will do that if I proceed with the HDD upgrade, which is highly likely!

 

Ok, I got my CTO F12 up and running and installed all my software on my momentus xt 500gb, but Windows fails to run the Windows Experience Index rating utility and I can't imagine what's wrong. I checked my video and memory drivers, BIOS, and the firmware for the momentus xt and they are all in order. Any ideas on what's wrong? Thanks.

 

I have another,well maybe a couple more questions. I originally created a recovery disc with the windows 7 recovery disc tool. What is the difference between the two(Vaio Care).

Also, I have a western digital passport external drive that is not being recognized by this notebook. And even my older Dell with windows 7 recognized it. I tried looking for drivers but no luck. Anyone know why my F notebook isn't recognizing my external drive? I'm trying to do backups on a regular basis.

Oh and last question. What is normal temperatures for this notebook? What would be considered extreme and not recommended?

 

Ok, now that I'm at my computer and not typing from my cell phone, I can write in better detail. NVIDIA started releasing generic drivers this year, called VERDE, that would allow for the driver updates that most laptop manufacturers were not doing. Sony didn't get on board with the VAIO, as you can see when you try to download the XP drivers from NVIDIA. You can search for modded drivers, but I didn't have any luck with that either. The only thing that worked for me was to modify one of the .inf files to match exactly the hardware id for my GPU. It worked fantastically.

I'd be happy to figure out, and make the necessary changes, to to correct driver and send it to you so you can try it out. What I'll need in order to make that happen is the hardware id from Device Manager:

Device Manager > select the display controller (or GPU, or whatever it is) > right click > properties > details > Hardware Ids

It should look like this:
PCI\VEN_1000E&DEV0A75&SUBSYS_9067104D&REV_A2

But with differences after DEV and after SUBSYS.

Again, let me know and I'll be happy to help you out.

 

In device manager (Win XP Pro 32 bit) I have this (missing):
Video controller (VGA compatible)
Device instance ID:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A29&SUBSYS_9067104D&REV_A2\4&30DE1B40&0&0018

I also try driver from laptopvideo2go but no sucess.
Thanks for try helping!

 

Riva Tuner

Some of you have been attempting to control fan speed on the F. This software claims to be able to do this. Have not tried and have no interest in doing so. But again, I think there are some of you that may wish to.

RivaTuner v2.24c download from Guru3D.com

http://www.guru3d.com/article/rivatuner-20-fan-speed--overclock-guide/

 

Ok, I think I did this right.

CAUTION: If the driver successfully installs, but does not work correctly, you'll get a black screen once WinXP has loaded the driver upon startup. The system will be working, you just won't be able to see it. Shut down, reboot into safe mode, then uninstall the driver to undo. I've made only one change to a possible 8 drivers, so hopefully this will be the one.

1 - If you haven't already, download NVIDIA Drivers 258.96 Windows XP 32bit

2 - Begin the installation process. The files will be unpacked and you'll be asked which driver to install, but the only option is for Audio. Close out of the driver installation window.

3 - Navigate to: C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\258.96\WinXP\International\Display

4 - Look for nvsm.inf (Type = Setup Information). Delete and replace that file with the unzipped file I'm providing here.

5 - Navigate to the correct hardware in Device Manager. Right click "properties". Select "Driver". Select "Update Driver", then choose the options to search for the driver yourself. Browse as close to the folder as you can. I don't remember how deep you get to navigate. Anyway, XP should now be able to see a driver and update it.

6 - Restart. If it works, then XP will fully launch and will automatically show your 1920x1080 resolution (or close to it). If you get the black screen, reference my caution mentioned earlier. If this happens, let me know and I'll mod a different driver and we can try it again.

Overall, when I installed XP on a separate HDD (I'm not ready for dual boot yet), it took me 8 hours of searching and troubleshooting to figure out how to get a driver to work. Once it did, it's worked without an issue ever since.

 

I chatted with Sony_US support & escalated to Level 2 support. Here is part of the transcript:

VPCF115FM Problem : Does replacing the hard drive disk myself voids the warranty?

Roz_> Joe, as per the information available online, the Sony doesn't recommend to replace the Hard Drive by customer end.

Roz_> Replacing the Hard Drive from the Customer may damage the Internal parts. Hence, replacing the Hard Drive by the customer end will void the warrnty of the Computer.

Roz_> Are you able to take it from here, with the provided information?

Roz_> I did not receive any response, are you still online?

Joe > Yes, give me a minute to quote a Sony doc.

Roz_> Sure, please go ahead.

Joe > Your answer does make sense IMO as per the User Guide page 102: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/VPCF110_series.pdf a user can replace a memory stick & replacing a hard drive is a similar procedure & quite a common task if one wants a hard drive with a larger capacity or swap his HDD with an SSD for example. ONe can restore the factory state OS simply by using the user created recovery discs.

Joe > Please double check your answer because this reply will be posted on a VPCF owner's thread with thousands of views.

Roz_> I have checked the information.

Roz_> Joe, as per the information avialable Sony doesn't recommend to replace the Hard Drive by customer end.

Roz_> That will void the warranty of the Computer.

Roz_> VAIO Notebooks that ship with an internal Hard Drive are not designed to be removable by the end user.

Roz_> And, the service centers do not offer a Hard Drive upgrade program. Although third-party vendors or servicers may state the availability of internal Hard Drive models that are compatible with our systems, Sony does not support, or provide any assistance for these drives or their installation.

Joe > I understand that Sony does not recommend to replace the drive nor will it support a third party drive. My question is: if a user upgrades the hard drive & an other component not related to the hard drive has a problem not caused by the user replacing the drive, will Sony still honor the warranty? Exactly like when user upgrades the memory as per the User Guide.

Joe > In fact in the hard drive bay, there is only 1 SATA connector while much more sensitive motherboard components are accessible when replacing the RAM hence the user could do much more damage with this Sony approved user made procedure.

Roz_> VAIO Notebooks that ship with an internal Hard Drive are not designed to be removable by the end user.

Roz_> The service centers do not offer a Hard Drive upgrade program. Although third-party vendors or servicers may state the availability of internal Hard Drive models that are compatible with our systems, Sony does not support, or provide any assistance for these drives or their installation.

Joe > Yes, some VAIO models have hard drives inside that are not easily accessible but we are talking here about the VPCF Series with a door with 2 screws in the bottom.

Joe > I am not asking for "support, or provide any assistance for these drives or their installation", I am asking if upgrading the HDD in a Sony F Series will void the warranty.

Roz_> I can understand your concern.

Roz_> I have checked the information from all the resources.

Joe > If a problem arises not HDD related, could I simply put back in the OEM drive & send the unit for repair?

Roz_> As per the information avialable online, the Sony doesn't recommend to replace the Hard Drive by customer end.

Joe > Any technician could see if the problem was caused by the user replacing the drive or not.

Roz_> Could you please let me know the issue with the Computer?

Joe > There is no issue with my VAIO. Please refer to my original question at the beginning of this chat.

Joe > There is quite a difference between "Sony doesn't recommend to replace the Hard Drive by customer end" and: Sony will void the warranty if the user upgrades his hard drive!

Roz_> Joe, I have checked the information from all resources. If the Hard Drive is replaced by the Customer, the Technician will come to know that at the Service Center, by few things like sticker at the bottom of the case etc.

Roz_> To better assist you, I'd like to transfer this chat to our next level of support.

Joe > Yes please transfer this chat to your next level of support. Thank you for your time, have a nice day!

Roz_> Please wait, while the problem is escalated to another analyst

analyst Rebecca_ has entered room

analyst Roz_ has left room

Rebecca_> Hi Joe. I'm Rebecca. Please allow me a moment to review your concern.

Rebecca_> Thank you for waiting, Joe. I'll be glad to assist you with the information to replace the Hard Drive.

Rebecca_> Please be online while I check the previous chat transcript.

Joe > OK.

Rebecca_> Please stay with me. It'll be a bit longer. I'm still checking.

Joe > Please take your time & give me an official answer as your reply will be posted on http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...io-f-series-i5-i7-owners-thread-part-4-a.html a very active message board with thousands of posts & views.

Rebecca_> Yes, Joe. The Hard Drive can be upgraded.

Rebecca_> However, it is required to contact our Sony Backsage Services team to upgrade the Hard Drive as Sony does not recommend the End User to replace the internal components of the Computer.

Rebecca_> As this will void the warranty of the Computer.

Rebecca_> Please contact our Sony Backstage Services team at the Telephone # 866-807-7616 to upgrade the Hard Drive.

Rebecca_> As the instructions to upgrade the Hard Drive is not available online, it is required to contact them regarding this.

Joe > As I typed above: why does user may upgrade the memory as per the User Guide and NOT the hard drive?

Rebecca_> Joe, the instructions to upgrade the Hard Drive is not available online as well as in User Guide.

******************************

1- Backstage is not a free service, I did not call them.

2- No F owners ever reported a problem in the 3 previous threads with warranty repairs after upgrading themselves the hard drive.

3- Willscary suggestion's to keep the OEM HDD stored somewhere probably works as well as using it in an external enclosure as I do & simply put it back in the F & use the recovery discs to restore it to factory state before shipping the unit. If the F will not boot then one can secure wipe (writing zeros on the entire drive's surface also known as "zeroing") the HDD using an other computer & then put it back in the F. This is a common practice before sending a unit for servicing for protecting your personal data & privacy.

In any case, if the user did not break anything while replacing the drive, I doubt that Sony_would not honor the warranty.

How to Replace Hard Disk Drive VAIO_F Series

*****

 

It WORKS !! Great !! Now I can use Win XP like Win 7... THANKS!

 

That does not work as the F does not have a separate fan for the GPU. One single fan cools the entire notebook, permitting the end user to mess up with the fan speed & thermal management would be a recipe for problems according to_Sony.

SpeedFan also does not work & to my knowledge no F owner ever reported a utility to modify the fan speed in all the 4 F's owners threads. I tried Rivatuner & SpeedFan on my F months ago:



The best ways to modify the F fan speed (slow it down):

1- Clean up your operating system & eliminate background processes.

2- Prop up the F using whatever object or a notebook cooler.

3- Turn it off to stop the fan completely.

4- The only utility that I found so far that reports the F's fan speed w/o the option to modify it is Everest v5.50. If somebody knows of an other utility that can do the same, please post it!

*****

 

Sound familiar? Calling a BIOS flash a recall.

Toshiba recalls 41,000 computers over risk of burns - CNN.com

Also, my bad on the Riva Tuner possible fan control. Had no interest in it myself and just posted quickly attempting to maybe help others. Thanks for the info Joe. You have been nailing everything lately.

 

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

I'm glad you got it working!!!

 

What is the exact error you get? Could you post a screen capture? Meanwhile, try this search: Windows Experience Index not working

BTW WEI is not a good benchmark tool & did not see any difference between a 5400 & a 7200 rpm drive on mt F while it boots much faster (- 34 sec.) & is much snappier.

From the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD thread:

 

I know WEI isn't a good benchmark, it just bugs me not to have it functioning properly. The error I got was "The Windows Experience Index for your system could not be computed. Cannot complete assessment. The assessment or other operation did not complete successfully. This is due to an error being reported from the operating system, driver, or other component." I've also spent half of today researching the issue but not a single solution that I have found has worked for me.

 

What anti virus are you using? Try disabling it & run WEI.

Check this on Microsoft support: site:social.technet.microsoft.com Windows Experience Index not working

"This is due to an error being reported from the operating system, driver, or other component" - That narrows the possibilities.

*****

 

Haha don't blame me for the error message being vague.

I just got my F12 and have not yet installed any anti virus tool so I can't disable what I don't have.

 

Success! It worked by restoring my power plan settings. I guess I made a change there that Windows didn't agree with...

 

Good!

Now try for fun running winsat formal in CMD (run as administrator) to see what is under the hood of WEI.

> Close all programs > Start > search: CMD > right click & Run as Administrator then type: winsat formal & hit Enter. It will take a few minutes to run.

See this post for more info. I just ran it a few minutes ago, 64 kb block size result is similar to HD Tune posted previously about my 7200.4 Seagate:



*****

 

Thanks a lot for posting your detailed conversation with Sony support......it's more helpful information to consider while trying to decide if I will proceed with the swap. I hate vague answers from support and while their answers are clear as mud, it does appear that one could change the hard drive and still get their notebook serviced by putting the OEM HDD back into the unit before sending it in. Or maybe I should just wait until the warranty expires before swapping out the hard drive.....they'll probably cost half as much by then!

 

Part of the problem, also, is low level employees who really only understand the product in question as it pertains to the reading materials and talking points available to them. If end users were not permitted to change the HDD, why design it to be so easily changed? Many companies make things proprietary enough so that they MUST be contacted to service things. I can't access the power switch in my vacuum due to a proprietary screw.

The ease of access design of the VAIO F's HDD port just screams for end users to void their warranties thinking that, since they can access it easily, that they are allowed to change it.

 

Not to mention how many millions of users are happy to have a PS3 which has an easily upgradable HDD.

I know what Joe was told. I also know that all 6 Vaio F11s that I have come in contact with have had a new hard drive installed. If one of these laptops ever fails before the warranty expires, I will simply reinstall the OEM HDD and return the unit.

 

So you have 6 perfectly good HDD's gathering dust instead of being put to good use in external enclosures?

 

Great find Joe!

I ran this on my machine. My processor results were all nearly an exact 10% higher than yours, which is right on considering that I have the 820QM and you have the 720QM. My video scores are nearly identical, and I believe we both have the 330M. My memory score is just over 3,000 points higher, but I attribute that to having 8GB of DDR3 1333. I believe you have less.

The shocker is the hard drive comparison. I know my SSD is quicker than an HDD, and I have tried to explain that small random reads are more important than overall large sequential read speeds, but this shows it better than any of the benchmarking tools I have seen!

Here:



Note the 16k random read speed is 75 times faster and the I/O time is 4 times faster.

Simply looking at max thouroughput, one would think that SSDs are 3-4 times faster than consumer 2.5" laptop hard drives. I continually say that this is not the case. Most of my files and programs load VERY quickly. I understand that perhaps my startup is 2-4 times faster than it was with my original factory HDD, and perhaps large programs such as Photoshop only load perhaps 30-50% faster, but for everyday, small size files and common programs such as Office, SSDs really fly.

Thanks again for the find...+1 for the rep if I am allowed. This was a really cool utility!

 

All I can say to answer your question is:

yes



Edit: Actually, I bought 500GB 7200RPM drives for the external PoeSATA enclosures for each of our church machines, and I only have a 320 GB drive for mine. I do not use, need, want or desire much storage.

I do plan on a large and fast NAS that I want to store several thousand music CDs on. All files will be uncompressed, direct copies and will take up quite a bit of space. I then simply need to figure out a way to use my kids' PS3 as a jukebox.

 

But did you think about my point about zeroing the HDD before sending the unit for servicing? I remember you saying that security was important for your organization so if user removes the drive to secure wipe & re-install the drive, how on earth could Sony_refuse to service the unit under warranty? I remember reading in one support doc that they do not guaranty the integrity of your personal data & recommend to back it up before sending the unit.

It makes sense as one of their major steps to rule out the user messing up the system is to restore the OS to factory state. So if the F would not boot & user want to backup data then only way is to physically remove the drive to put it in an enclosure or in an other computer. Hence voiding the warranty by backing up before sending for repair under warranty?

BTW, glad you liked winsat. Try: winsat -? to see all the different command lines. One can run only the hard drive assessment for example instead of running the full thing. To copy the data: right click the top bar > Edit > Select all, then right click again the bar > Edit > Copy & paste in Notepad or whatever.

 

I have thought about just zeroing the drive. Ultimately, I looked at two things. First, if I keep the original drive intact, I can simply check to see if replacing it cures the problem. If it does, then I know where to start looking for problems (it will either be software or hard drive). Second, if I use the OEM drive in an external enclosure as a data drive, then I need to transfer all files prior to restoring. For the $50 cost of a new drive, it is not worth my time to have to deal with the backup the data and restore the drive to the factory state.

For general users it would be fine, but with the work I do at the church, it would be a hassle.

In fact, all of the church F11s are workstations and are backed up to the servers. The external drives are for each user's personal use. In this way, they can use their new church laptops as personal laptops, thus saving them from having to purchase their own. I would REALLY hate to lose their personal finances, their family photos, etc. The external drives are their own to deal with. They back them up on their own.

 

Good points, makes sense in your case. But if all computers are identical, you could keep only 1 HDD in factory state for troubleshooting, I think. Anyway, I get your points.

Funny that you talk about your church & your tag line is currently "Notebook Evangelist".

 

Anyone know if there's a way to turn off the power light on the F12?

 

No, there isn't. You can cover it up with a piece of tape.

 

Sure there is the way....but it's brutal and not recommended...you can remove LEDs from power button.

 

That's correct, I was saying that there isn't a normal way to shut them down. On the picture you can see the placing of the led.


picture is from Joe Bleau