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

For those that are interested, F13Z1E the premium EU model with leather palm rests. Says October .

 

Yes I do, and yes there is enough power for 500gb 2.5" 7200RPM drive. It even works with with a 2.5"640 gb 5400rpm Samsung HDD.

I think it is the case that no power Esata, no power at all. I have a 2nd enclosure which is not PoEsata . It powers the Esata by simultaneously connecting a USB to the laptop from which a jack connects to an input on the enclosure, to power the HDD.

 

This is esata to USB3 real life test.

Google T?umacz

Look at samsung story station esata v. USB3

 

USB 2.0 specifications max power output in laptops is 5v 500mA as well as the Expresscard/34. Check in Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus > Generic USB Hub > Properties. The F has 2 USB hubs.



I & others are using 7200 rpm HDD in those POeSATA enclosures w/o any problems. Now if you plug other power demanding devices on the same bus in the other ports, it may cause problems. Your HDD's power needs to start is probably above 500mA but the F can take it. Desktop have 12v POeSATA because they have bigger PSU.

I once overloaded my USB/Expresscard ports & was happy to see that the F has a USB Power Surge protection w/ breaker/software to protect itself. Here is the screen capture that I made when it happened:



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VAIO Button w/o Sony_Media Gallery

Actually it does something for me. If one uninstalls or does not install the Sony_Media Gallery software when doing a clean install, the VAIO_button becomes a convenient sound muting button. When I press it the OSD volume bar appears with the word Muting.



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From what I've read it's rubber imitating leather. The same stuff that Sony_puts on their Pro video camera according to what I've read somewhere. It was also available on Premium_F11 &_F12 in several markets. The ones with the matte 1080p.



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The F13 can't be very far off. The F12 I was about to pull the trigger on last night is now gone. Sony Style only has one model that can be configured. The online Sony chat person was pretty pushy about getting an order in while supplies last, but wouldn't yield any F13 info.

I guess I'll just wait for the new model release. The remaining F12 model isn't being offered at a discount anyway.

-Chad

 

Oh, that's fantastic! Don't know why I never pressed the button after clean installing. Now I can free up my F2 from KeyTweak if I want to. Woohoo!!!

 

I got my F11, the lower end preconfigured model, at a Sony store about 6 weeks before the F12 launched. Got a super deal on it. I was lucky. Will want to upgrade to full HD eventually though.

 

So the USB 2, Expresscard, and eSATAp all have 5 volts of power? None of these need an additional USB or AC to power? I'm asking this because some supposedly knowledgeable people have told me the Expresscard has no power. In regards to Joe's post, on one of the generic USB hubs, one of the ports is the expresscard?

 

Getting the fresh start I have the feature as well and it's really important to me. I have to mute fast sometimes (at work) and the Vaio button is perfect for this purpose.

 

Mine is special then as with an Expresscard/34 with a eSATA/USB combo port I can connect to it my Power Over eSATA enclosure containing a 7200 rpm Seagate 7200.4.

If you get one with the eSATA/USB combo port, make sure it has a Silicon Image chip like the Startech ECESATUSB1 product manual here. The price is OK, found some starting @ $25 on the web. My card has a JMicron chip & is finicky.

I wrote to this seller/manufacturer and they confirmed that they also use the Silicon Image chip in their Expresscards. Some of their combo w/ POe cable and/or eSATA enclosure (not POe!) are interesting: esata usb expresscard.

From the ExpressCard Standard Summary page (NOTE: only the Expresscard/34 fits in the F!):



The card draws power from both PCI & USB. One can also get Expresscard/34 with USB 2.0 or 3.0 or regular eSATA ports w/o power output, etc. Max power output is 600mA 5v DC per card. That means that if it has only one port, the max output is 600mA. If it has 2 ports, the max output stands so make sure the 2 devices will not consume more that 600mA together like an external HDD enclosure + a mouse for example.

For example here, ExpressCard 34 to SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Host Adapter 2 Ports:

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Sony.co.uk is also going through a funky patch which I can only describe as something that looks like a stock clearout. F and Z models are now pretty difficult to customize as many options are no longer available. I was toying around with the Z12 CTO form and weirdly enough it was impossible to customize one yesterday because all of the CPU options were listed as not available.

I assume they are preparing to roll out F13 and Z13 in force pretty soon.

 

Well a dutch site says they'll have stock of the F13 on the 7th of October so that's the last time I'll post about F13 availiblity .

Source

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You're correct JoeB it's the leather feel stuff, was just typing quickly .

 

Hey hows it going? What were the results you got today?

 

When F1390 will be available in Canada? Who know?

 

12am - 7:30am. 94% down to 79%

 

You went from 94% to 79% damn that is not good at all

 

Hey all I did a fresh install and everything is running great and I figured out how to setup the VAIO button wth media gallery. Only issue is when media gallery tries to configure its self it gets stuck on the network settings option of the firewall. I left it over night and still stuck. I even turned off the firewall and same thing. I am at a different location now and same thing. Has anyone come across this?

 

I think it will be soon .... since they are no more selling customized F1290 for black, only gray color ones are being sold
Also they are offering $200 discount coupon for F12 (deadline September 30)
So they might be introducing F13 in early October

Should I wait for F13 or buy F12 at discounted price ($1025 with tax)?
Any idea about what will be price for F13 in Canada ?
I am happy with F12 configuration... only issue is battery life (3.5 hrs with large battery) I read somewhere F13 will be having much larger battery life than F12. Any updates regarding this ??

 

I'm not so bothered by it. I'm almost always plugged in and have never really been concerned.

Isn't Media Gallery a collection of programs to be installed? Check the support page for your model and look up the Media Gallery. Are you sure you want to use this bloatware?

 

I'm guessing you a) haven't calibrated your battery, (BTW neither have I) , b) and are in no hurry to .

 

You are a) correct, and b) correct.

I've actually got no clue how to calibrate my battery. I haven't been following those posts.

 

Calibrate literally means so that the circuitry knows the correct 100% charge point and the correct 0% point. When your meter says 65% it'll be closer to actually having 65% in the battery when calibrated, where as otherwise it could be off by x%. Therefore calibrating simply means letting the circuitry know those points. .

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About the F13 if you want to try waiting to find out if it fixes anything go ahead, pricing will be similar but probably slightly higher. EU prices look pretty much the same as the F12 was at first around €1600 for the top spec F13Z. Release is quoted as 7th October but world wide who knows but it'll be around then, first couple weeks of october. Most other things are speculation but it's simple IMO, if you want the latest wait on the F13, if you want a good deal get a discounted F12 or F11 as they're both great. Im getting screwed around and I think my F12 was lost or stolen so will see what I do, maybe cancel and wait for the F13 or maybe just reorder an F12 depends on the deal.

 

Exactly like the man said.

 

Hi,

İ have a problem. Which programme i have to install to activate ambient light sensor on my VPC-f12Z?

Thanks a lot

 

Internet Explorer 9 Beta

Download languages for Internet Explorer 9 Beta

 

Thank you I set it at 80%. What is this function actually suppose to do? Also after I set it at 80 do I let my computer charge on my desktop?

Also a completely different question. The F12 is an I7 processor with blazing speed/specs. Why does it still have trouble viewing youtube videos at 1080p or sometimes even 720P?

 

My i7 F11 never had a problem with 1080p youtube videos - it is in fact why I BOUGHT it in the first place XD

I fondly remember bringing Best Buy's internet connection to its knees because I had a couple of 1080p youtubes open on the F11 and was trying some other stunts while another core 2 machine couldn't keep up XD

 

Search this Thread with: battery care. You will find many posts. Or search your own computer: Start > Help & Support > search: battery care.



"...The F12 is an I7 processor with blazing speed/specs. Why does it still have trouble viewing youtube videos at 1080p or sometimes even 720P?" - Because there is much more than only the CPU involved: it's a system w/ hardware, software & drivers. Search web with: windows 7 youtube problem. It's cross brands & models but they all have in common: Windows 7 & Youtube and that's not talking about the Flash Player version, web browser itself & the internet connection speed/quality.

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Hello all, looking for a bit of help here. My vaio laptop keyboard is not working correctly. I took apart the laptop yesterday and removed the keyboard to clean it. Now if I press certain keys, such as "a" instead of an a being displayed, "4a" is displayed. This happens with other keys as well. Pressing s will display 2s, pressing the c key will display rc. I checked if the ribbon cable was not inserted correctly but, the problem persists. The problem goes away if I use a usb keyboard, as I typed this message on the vaio.

Any help is appreciated.

 

To Joe,

Happy Independence Day!

Fishon

 

Anseio:
Thanks for the driver update nudge...that DID fix my TV/Blu-ray compatibility issue.

The first time I tried it after updating, I VERY BRIEFLY saw a message flash on the top left of the TV screen, something about the monitor being unable to display protected content, or something to that effect. I re-tried it, and it then worked, and has been working ever since. Don't know why it didn't indicate that from the get-go, or why it did that ONE TIME, after the update. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know what worked. My gut feeling is that back in the day when this TV was made (2008), perhaps copyright protection on the Blu-ray material may have been more of a sensitive issue, and those things have been resolved by now, or something like that. Just speculatin'...

 

Here is a very exciting site that is putting together laptop service manuals and disassembly for either the public and company technicians. Sorry no F series, however, there are some very excellent Sony Vaio manuals here. The Sony ones seem to be internal documents.

Tim's Laptop Service Manuals

Future proof Tim’s laptop service manuals

and this link from Tim's website:

http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_sony.html

 

What little I know about it is that it keeps the battery from going through full cycles or something like that. It's said that the 50% setting almost completely prevents degradation. All you do is set it, turn it on, and leave it.

 

A follow up on this post as I received the Fleabay USB modem for when the ASDL is out to be able to use land lines dial-up as well as receive & send faxes.

It's rare that I order the wrong part on Fleabay but after trying for about 1 hour to install that thing & get the proper driver, I tried it on an old laptop running XP & it worked instantly like a charm.



Using XP's Device Manager to query the modem (was not working in Win 7 as the modem would not start), I saw that it has an old SmartLink chip: SmartUSB56 (they went out of business a few years ago).
I read again the product description & effectively it does NOT mention that Win 7 was supported. My bad.

All are using the same generic external plastic enclosure (small & light) but with chipset variations. A better search to get the proper product is: usb modem "windows 7". I don't mind the $10 loss, it's the 2-3 weeks wait for the replacement that bugs me.

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Keyboard Messed Up

Well if you did not crack open the keyboard which it's not designed to, maybe you could try:

- If you cleaned with some liquids & some dripped inside the kb, make absolutely sure that it's completely dry inside otherwise it's a good way to kill your F. If it may be wet inside, turn off F immediately, remove keyboard & use the F with your external kb until it's dry. BTW this applies to other electronic devices: a good way to kill a wet cellular, camera, etc is to try to turn it on before making absolutely sure that it's dry inside. In some case, it needs to be cracked open & cleaned with distillate water to remove the salts that may cause a short circuit.

- If you cracked open the keyboard as it's not designed to, do it again & try to fix it. Did you?

- Maybe one of the keys is stuck? Did you pop some out?

- Make triple sure that the ribbon is properly in place w/ the black lock in place and properly folded. As mentioned in the guide, I removed the lock completely to make sure that the ribbon was inserted properly. Check the dip switches on the photo below. Did you flipped one by accident?



- Check in Device Manager and in Start > search: keyboard layout to make sure it's set to US English.

- Get a replacement keyboard, check this guide for links & tips: Vaio_F Series - How To Replace the Keyboard & Clean the Fan. $35 including shipping is not that bad.

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@ Fishon: Tx, I had fun w/ the kids parading in the streets. I wish somebody could post a link to an F service manual!

 

I already made sure to recheck the connection, especially that cable lock. As for cleaning, I merely wiped with a dry cloth. I also just checked that the keyboard was set to english as well. Same for the dip switches. It's rather frustrating not knowing the exact issue at hand, I guess I'll have to buy a replacement keyboard. Hopefully the issue isn't the motherboard connector.....

Thanks for the assistance Joe.

 

You are welcome.

Maybe a dust bunny in the motherboard's female keyboard connector?

I remember a teacher telling us that the word bug (applied to computers) came from an actual bug (moth) preventing an old computer's physical switch from closing properly. The moth got inside the room size computer being attracted by the infrared emissions of the tube lamps.

What if you change the keyboard language to French or Spanish? What happens when using the On-screen keyboard? Did you try in Safe Mode?

Try: ASSIST > Vaio_Care > Troubleshooting > Input & Output > Keyboard Problems. It runs an interesting test that I will add to the F_Series how-to replace the keyboard guide. Edit: done.



You could also try running: SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

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One of the only things I don't like about the F12 is the lack of dedicated volume keys. I'm constantly changing the volume and as a temporary fix I have remapped the numeric keypad's "Enter" and "+" key to work as volume keys. Not a great solution.

What I would like to do is take two of the 3 dedicated Vaio keys, probably the Assist and the S1 key and map those as volume keys. I never use those keys and won't miss them if they're reassigned.

Unfortunately, despite quite a bit of searching on Google and in these forums, I haven't found a way to do this. Maybe it's not possible, or maybe I simply haven't found the right search terms.

Has anybody out there tackled this one already?

 

Did you use KeyTweak to remap your keys? I used it and remapped F2-4, since they don't serve any other function for me. Just learned that the VAIO key, w/o media center, acts as Mute, but do not think that ASSIST and S1 are remappable.

 

Click on the speaker icon next to the clock & use mouse wheel to adjust the volume. Or click said icon & use Up/Down arrows.

Re-map 2 mouse buttons: 1 for up & 1 for down in Control Panel > Mouse. That's what I did.

Or try remapping with KeyTweak.




Funny enough: you can use S1 to remap S1! That's where Sony_should have added ASSIST & VAIO_special keys also.

 

Ok, I FINALLY have everything how I want it. Internal SSD, internal HDD, external ODD, hacked WinXP via virtual machine to run Nikon Scan for my film negatives and slides. I came from an old PC and an old laptop.

ATM, I'm listening to music, ripping a CD, browsing the web, and scanning in film. My VAIO thinks it's child's play. I'm very happy.

 

i recently bought a sony f12 laptop. i am mildly satisfied with it so far but can i say it was worth the price? i don't know. anyway, for some reason my screen often gets very dark for an extended period of time. so dark that the difference between lowest brightness and highest brightness is almost nonexistent. if i'm in a dimly lit room, i might as well read a book because it's pretty much the same thing. does anyone know how i can fix this problem?

 

I suspect you have autobrightness enabled, I think if you press S1 , point to display you can deactivate it and see if that helps.

 

Hi,

I charged my f11 to 100% overnight, obviously with battery care disabled. I started it this morning, still with power cable attached but nothing else, and it read out 100%.

I then powered off, disconnected the power cable, still nothing at all attached to it, no wifi or bluetooth on.

10 minutes later, now with no power lead or anything else attached, I power on. Charge has dropped to 86% in only 10 minutes

Why is this and would calibrating the battery make any difference to this ? Is it normally simply not able to sustain a 100% charge with the power cable unplugged ?

 

wow that actually worked. thanks.

also, if i plan on keeping the laptop at my desk and plugged in most of the time, is it better just to take the battery out and save it for when i actually need it?

 

Everything is relative including 86%. Calibration tells the computer what is 100% and what is 0% for a given battery. They are like snowflakes.

With the F plugged into a UPS, no problem w/o battery. Directly into the wall, good luck and don't forget to pray to the power grid gods.

I did not see any data comparing Battery Care set @ 50% charge vs. a battery out on a shelf yet but once it's been used, it's deteriorating as time goes by, even unused.

 

Agreed each battery has it's own characteristics . Just to show something,


As you can see lithium ion batteries are very ready to give up their top 20% in charge. Hence why storing them with 100% charge isn't good for them, so yes that discharge is surprising but it could be for any number of reasons. The batteries health, faulty battery, reliability of the meter reading, ambient temperature coupled with a slightly longer boot.

Battery discharge chart source.

 

... so would calibrating help do you think ?

 

Maybe.



VAIO_F Battery Calibrator Plan Creation.

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If we're already speculating about the refresh, then let me be the first to say: Yes, Omaroo, you should wait.