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

Rachael the mod first posted this USB 3.0 Express Card

LaCie - LaCie USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34

which would provide two extra USB ports. Would be a nice little addition understanding eSATA is still faster.

eSATA is Still Faster Than USB 3.0 | Maximum PC

'USB 3.0 holds a pretty healthy advantage over eSATA when you start looking at long cable runs.'

 

I agree with Dernfara here, I'd suggest having a look at your Realtek settings when connected over HDMI for where you're feeding the sound. If you have no luck there then post back.

 

Any takers , please ?

 

Perhaps it'd be possible to have someone with the same model as you share their recovery discs? Then, all you'd need is VAIO Care and you can install whatever would have come with a full install.

 

So I was bored and decided to take a look at the Japaneese Sony_Style with some guess work and google translate in Chrome guiding me. I found this configuration page Sony F12 Creative Edition and well a few nice options.

There is an option for an integrated digital TV tuner with recording. Lists Transferjet as an option, has the 100% Adobe RGB premium screen and backlit keyboard. Mobile data card up to 7.2Mbps, 512GB SSD. Some very nice options overall, swap out for a different keyboard and use a different power adapter with a clean install and that'd be a pretty nice piece of kit. Japan getting a nice deal there if you have the money, because don't think they aren't paying for it just use currency converter and see if your pocket feels ok you can reach approximately £2500 or $3900 fully specced without the added software, that's Alienware territory but some very nice features. Happy looking at Japan.

Edit: The accessory options are nice also, X-rites ColorMunki Photo and some nice cases, accessory kits and so on. I'm starting to wonder if Sony_realises that if people are will to buy the Z in Europe and North America maybe there are a few willing to pay the over head and be able to get some of these options. Yes it's difficult to allow certain options on a budget for a market where only a few would want it, but what if those users would pay the extra for said options... Car manufacturers do it.

Edit 2: Little bit more, here is the stuff about the colour coverage of the premium EU and Asian screen also note the built in ICC profiles Sony_F series further features page and also this for JoeB and his RGB colour space 100% Adobe RGB. Also see that x.vcolor can be output from the laptop, a wiki on the colorspace x.v.Color

Edit 3: Ok last edit the rest is for those interested to look up but here is a couple specification pages and in the second link we see two 1080p screens listed one with the Adobe 100% RGB matte and the other without. Sony_F Japan retail or reseller models Sony_F Japan specs custom to order. Hope this gives a nice overview.

So I finish this awful post here, you can see I was very and interested.

 

Couldn't test it on my friends place , but I will go to a Sony Centrum (but I did not buy it from them :X) Thanks in advance.

What have I bought

Can someone benchmark the Memory slots? Found out that I need more memory and do not want a page file on my SSD. 8GB is not enough xD

My Benchmark with a Sandisk SDXC 64GB Card 15MB/S

 

For those in the U.S. a nice deal for a NotePal U2 at Microcenter

Notepal U2 $12.99

 

ok, now that I'm actually doing it, I'm having some problems. made the regsitry file and put things in the right place and it's not working.

which process/site did you use?

 

Question about the my new F12... I ordered it in black, but I'm not sure that's what Sony sent me... Those of you who know you have the "black" model, is the plastic that surrounds your keys, your palmrest area & your bezel around the screen really a true black (i.e. as black as the keys) or is it more of a charcoal gray that is lighter than the black keys? Mine doesn't seem to look as light the gray as on the website - but it clearly is not a "black" like the the keys, or even, for that matter, "black" like the top of the case - when looking at the computer's side when closed, it clearly is a "two tone" sandwich, with the sides of the outer plastic (top & bottom) "black" and the sides of the inner plastic (keyboard surround & screen bezel) a ligher shade. Is this consistent with the "black" model or did Sony send me a gray model by mistake?

 

I just read that SD memory, and the like, is way too slow for being the paging file. I've got a game that I want to play that demands a paging file. So, I just set it up on my external, which will be internal soon enough once the parts arrive.

 

What a deal!!! I just paid $25 for mine from Fry's. I think I'll order from that site, then return the other one to Fry's.

Update - after s&h, it won't be worth my time to return what I already have. An amazing deal, nonetheless.

Thanks for the great find!

 

You've got the black, have a look at these pictures and see the difference in colours. Japanese F12 photos. Hope that put your mind at ease.

Edit: More pictures here UK F_series pictures. This is a single photo of the black and not premium black model Black F_series should look like yours.

 

tausif considering you did the clean install from your recovery partition it wont of wiped itself during the process. I would suggest reinstalling Vaio care to see if that fixes the problem with creating recovery disks. If reinstalling Vaio care does not resolve your issue, but the optical drive works and the recovery drive is fine then I'd have to let current F owners help with troubleshooting those that have done clean installs on these models.

 

I used the site you linked to earlier

How to Customize/Change Windows 7 Logon Background Wallpaper Screen

Saved mine as *.reg, test it if you want.

OEMBackground.reg

I know it is slow, but I need more memory. xD

Maybe sometning like this, I can not buy the HDD BAY here in SWEDEN.

Welcome to Transcend Website - ExpressCard/34 Solid State Disk

 

Well you can always use companies such as_Amazon that will ship throughout the EU, you can find HDD enclosures, and even the expresscard SSD you linked. Check for delivery info here Amazon UK delivery info. So try them, Amazon Germany or some other companies that can supply these solutions to you . I know you can get the power over esata enclosure and cable through them.

I've decided against upgrading to a Momentus XT and will instead be purchasing a NAS in either 500GB or 1TB to backup to and store HD movies, probably will be bought through the above mentioned company.

 

Got it! I completely looked over the "info" subfolder in the path. It works now. Thanks!

The express card SSD can be a good idea, if you won't be needing that slot for other things. It'll surely take care of any speed concerns.

How come you cannot buy the HDD bay? Do you mean external enclosure or caddy for mounting into the optical bay?

 

Yes, a Nas is nice. I have the Netgear Readynas with 2x1,5TB and a Tvix 6600N with 2TB. xD It is awsome, for now ...

I have my purposes to not buy from a store not in Sweden and it is an embarrassed reason. Maybe in the future.

I mean a caddy for mounting into the optical bay, i have already an e-sata enclosure but I can not use it all the time.

EDIT: The SDXC card was the only card I had at home, and it is used in my PowerShot SX210 IS.

 

PwnCakes193 had the same problem, I suggested this but he did not report how he fixed it. I would not uninstall/reinstall Vaio_Care for that glitch as a first troubleshooting step.

"My concern is my recovery partition may have got wiped" - Check w/ Disk Management as shown in the article (RTFM!).

 

Just to note, you can avoid the shipping charges if you have a Micro Center nearby and order the cooler as an in-store pickup.

Here are their locations:

Micro Center - Store Locations

 

I ordered the Fenvi caddy that Joe Bleau had mentioned in his guide. There are tons of them on ebay:
New Laptop 12.7mm SATA TO SATA 2ND HDD HARD DRIVE caddy - eBay

So, I benchmarked my Kingston 8GB MicroSD (in SD adaptor) and got around 15MB/s. Since you were asking.

 

Depends on the card itself & what aspect your are benching exactly. Kingston vs Sandisk SD 16 GB Class 6 using Everest v5.50:



It's much slower than system memory or the HDD so that's why there is no gain using ReadyBoost on the F. Actually using that slot for system related things only slows down the F.

anseio, could you bench your 7200.4 HDD in your enclosure via eSATA using HD Tune? Tx.

 

Ok, I've got that one ready to go. I'm willing to also do the Everest CPU stress test and FurMark Stress test with my VAIO on a flat surface, on the Notepal U2 w/ fans off and again with fans on. Will also connect a thermometer to measure the temp of the exhaust. I'm guessing that it's going to be 20 minutes per test, or so, so won't do it unless you really want to know.

So.... let me know.

 

Thanks for that. The reason I asked is that I need 2 more POeSATA enclosures & can buy the same as I have or the Startech. My benchmark is slower but I ran it only once & the 7200.4 HDD has a hidden partition & a full OEM F OS on it. Need to format & re-run the test. Will post that tomorrow.

I don't need the stress test w/ vs. w/o the cooler but it may be helpful to others thinking of getting one or comparing to Willscary's similar tests. The U2 would cost $40 shipped to Costa Rica, to much for something I can DIY do for about $5 w/ some quiet desktop fans I have lying around plus the psychological satisfaction of the DIY project & self esteem benefits.

Thanks again for the HD Tune benchmark.

 

I just put in an order for a CTO VAIO F. I finally took the plunge since the back to school savings end in just 1.75 hours. I ended up purchasing:

* Large capacity battery
* Intel® Core™ i7-840QM processor (1.86GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.20GHz (Reg. price $300.00)
* 16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)
* NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
* No Fresh Start
* LED Backlit Keyboard
* 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333 (Reg. price $300.00)
* Blu-ray Disc player
* No Engraving
* Adobe Bundle ($448 value.)
* Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
* Black
* Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* 320GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)

I will replace the HDD with a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB that is on its way to me now.

My poor bank account lol.

I hope I enjoy it as much as this thread has made me believe. I've been telling myself I will only play Valve games on it and more demanding games on my desktop.

 

how much and where did you get your CTO VAIO F for?
thats the exact stats that i want on my f series

 

I got it from the Sony Style USA site and since I live in Illinois, the total with tax included was $1771.45

Ouch, haha. But according to the site, the back to school sale is over in 5 minutes, lol.

 

Can anyone tell me all the programs provided with the Adobe bundle? Just curious. Does it come with Lightroom? That's the one program I would love to have with my Master Suite collection.

 

Since this is Saturday night I will leave you guys with this bit of humor.

YouTube - Hey dad, catch! (Extended Edition)

 

Thanks Joe that screen capture is what I crucially need to know.

Dewinte, there is more to this that I haven't told. Before doing my current clean install from the recovery partition, I had done one using the recovery discs. I guess if I possibly could have wiped the recovery media in the partition then accidentally and not realised it. But I think that is unlikely as I was subsequently was able to C.I. using the recovery partition.

This problem has been really bugging me ! Joe, if the disc manager shows a healthy partition then the next step is reinstall Vaio Care ?

I hope my assist key will still work after but I think it's more important to have the recovery media partition back even though I have recovery discs , 2 sets !

 

Ive received a PM from you regarding deleting my and others posts.

Why I need profile loader software ? Cause Win7 after reboot doesnt load my chosen profile even if configured like in tutorial. Ive reported that some time earlier.

Your post was useless because I asked for a software and you just send me the link to read about color profiles. It was something like:


Jacol: Hey man Ive just got a flat tire, it blew off on a highway. Do you have any spare tire or could you recommend a nearby tire shop ?

Joe: Hey man, heres a manual describing how to change a flat tire it should work, no need to thank me

Jacol: what the f... *_*

 

I think the reason you got that response Jacol is because you should be able to install an ICC profile through Win 7 and the OS automatically use it upon boot, therefore no 3rd party software should be needed just to load them with basic options. If he or others feels nice given your attitude they'll reply and help you.

Edit: Read here about Windows colour management as you can see you can use either the windows loader or the third party loader, so after losing the third party loaded you can use the windows one. Or of course continue trying to get the third party one.

____________

tausif the reason I suggested reinstalling vaiocare was because you stated you did a clean install using the recovery partition. You cannot install from a wiped partition, all that could have happened is since then it was wiped or corrupted but I don't see how or why that would have occurred. Check disk management anyway, I'd be surprised if you saw anything but healthy. Then my second question and maybe I don't understand, if you want recovery disks and they are the same type of recovery disk, aren't you just wanting to write another copy of what you have already? Or would these be different?

Good luck with your hunt, even if you realise you don't need another set of disks it's still a strange issue worth investigation. I'll leave it to others to help with the troubleshooting when you post your disk management results. Good luck.

 

My test was with a class 4 64GB card that performed 20MB/S+. A slower CF card did not slowdown my stationary.

My system memory is not enough because i ran out of memory when render in AE or 3D.

 

DeWinte,

Thank you for your reply. I don't really intend to burn another set of discs as I think they should be identical, but as you rightly point out , it is a strange issue . Which bugs me, and I would like to rectify.

I previously had installed vaio care a few times to try to get my assist key to work , I hope that it keeps working but I feel it's more important to have the recovery partition healthy and able to burn more discs in the unlikely eventuality I should need it to.

I also agree with you that the partition will probably prove to be healthy, as there is nothing wrong with my optical drive either which makes me suspect vaio care installation is possibly faulty.

If the partition is healthy, I will probably back up first then reinstall vaio care. Even if that then allows me to burn discs, I may recover the previous system image if my assist key stops working. Or perhaps I should let it go and just use programs to start vaio care when I need to. Thank you for posting, if you feel you might have further you wish to contribute once I report back or have not resolved it, fwiw it would be most appreciated.

 

I want to make sure that you understand that the only thing impacted by VAIO Care not recognizing your ODD is your ability to create recovery discs. Since you have a recovery partition, you'll be able to initiate recoveries, as well as install value programs. You won't need the discs for any of these processes. You'll only need them in the even that you're starting over on a new HDD, or VAIO Care burst into flames and you couldn't restore from that.

It is a curious problem though. I think that removing, rebooting, and reinstalling is a good idea. It shouldn't have an impact on the functionality of your keys though. That is controlled by VAIO Event Service. It is was assigns VAIO Care to the ASSIST button.

Good luck!

 

Hi. I'm thinking about buying a Vaio F12, though I have some questions regarding the screen in the different versions (I'm from The Netherlands, so the EU models apply to me). I have been told that, depending on which version you buy (i5 core or i7 core), the screens are of different quality. I would like a good quality screen, but the i7 versions are a bit overkill for what i'm gonna use it for, and in effect much more expensive (i dont need i7 nor 6gb of ram).

So my question would be, can anybody tell me what the differences exactly are between the two versions? I'm used to a Dell Inspiron 6400 screen (1680x1050) of about 4,5 years old. Which I quite like.

Thank you for you time

 

Ok Anseio interesting points , thanks .

 

Below is an exact copy of the correspondence I forwarded to you.
If you can tell me what part of this phrase you don't understand, I'll try to explain it differently: " If users that made posts #2 to #9 would agree..."

I thought that for the community, a FAQ post could be more useful in the long term. I tried to work with MelodyMaster, Willscary, Tinderbox, etc & the mod to find different solutions but that's the way she did it.

*****

This was sent to the head moderator more than 2 weeks before F owner's thread 4 was started.

 

I wanted to mention an unrelated issue.

I installed NVIDIA 258.96 driver update. After that, when I started WinDVD, whenever I tried to maximise the winDVD window, the whole screen would freeze to black.

I didn't try updating winDVD but reinstalled the nvidia driver from the recovery partition . After that , winDVD worked fine.

 

According to this sony.ca page, it does not come with Lightroom. Just Photoshop, Premiere, and Acrobat.

Thanks for the video too! Made my day.

 

From looking at the Sonystyle.co.uk's CTO website, it looks like the "Premium HD" screen (the matte display) is only available on the i7. If you go with the i5, you can simply switch between 1600x900 and 1080p.

That being said, the non-premium screens aren't by any means bad. The premium would win in a side-by side comparison any day, but the regular screens are perfectly fine.

 

Bought an eSATA enclosure to put my old 5400 rpm stock drive I replaced.
According to Intel Matrix Storage Manager, it is SATA 2

eSATA transfer speeds:


Fast eh, considering it's only 5400RPM

On USB 2.0 cable, I was limited to about 30 MBPS

 

Thanks for the alert. I have not used WinDVD since I updated. I will check to see.

 

I havent had the opportunity to see the difference myself. I'm especially concerned with the vertical viewing angle, but would I be correct in thinking that this wouldnt really matter between to premium and non premium?

 

it seems like the premium screen to my new f12 isnt as good as my other f12 i had before (which had fan issues that my new dosent have). if i look close on text i can see that the colours is slightly weird. the red seems to make shadows to the left etc so everything gets marginal fuzzy. Its very marginal but its clearly worse then my first screen. I don´t think that the guarantee will cover this and maybe the technichan even will think that im just a bit nut because he will problably not see anything is my guess.

Is it possible to do anything about this? The screen is still very good but text is not as clear and sharp as my first one. (for example grey text gets a bit unsharp because the colors seems to not lay 100% on top of each other, if you understand what i mean.)

Is there different panels or something?

The screen was a big reason on why I bought this computer and a good screen really helps me with my work, I don´t even use the computer for gaming where this issue dosen´t matter.

 

Most likely a hardware problem.. hmm.

Is your display resolution set at 1920x1080 (native resolution).
Try changing the display to 100% instead of 125% in Display under Control Panel

 

To AmunNL: I would advise you to go to the Mediamarkt. I don't know exactly where you live, but the Amsterdam Arena one has a Sony Island where you can see both versions of the F12.

I was just there today and if you ask me the viewing angle on the Matte screen is much better.

 

its 1920*1080 and 100%. Its not THAT fuzzy, if I hadn´t seen my first screen I wouldn´t even notice this. I guess i have kind of sensitive eyes and I was so happy with my first screen because I was so easy to read text on that one but the second one is not as sharp. Pictures etc is still amazing but text isn´t as sick good as my first one.

I think the issue is in the range of normal variance when it comes to screen quality on this premium ones but it´s still a little bit frustrating when the first one was more sharp.

 

People in this thread often blame hardware first while it's user messed up settings/Windows 7 OS/third-party cr@p/Vaio_software default settings that are causing problems 98% of the time IMO. I guess it's normal because this thread has F hardware as a common denominator. It would be different in a Windows 7 thread, then people would always blame Windows first.

From Control Panel > Display > ClearType Text Tuner (worked great for me):





My F 1080p display is extremely sharp.

*****

 

yes that makes it better of course but it dosent kill the problem it only makes the symptoms less noticable. But as I said I compared it to my first F12 and the software, drivers etc is identical as far as I can see and as far as I know these kind of problems is very unlikely to have anything to do with software.

The thing I was thinking about was if it maybe was the same thing (dont know the name of it) that beeps for some people that could be of bad quality and mess up the display quality? Maybe that is something you could change by your self? Im sure my problem isnt that big that the guarantee will cover it.
,
My first screen was also EXTREMLY sharp (sharpest I have ever seen actually). The second one was more like "meh".

And Joe Bleau. I can see that you have been a lot of help considering this laptop but also you have a slightly ignorant attitude and assumes a lot of things that is just presumptions without any ground to it. It almost seems like you are employed on sony and always is the first one to blame the user and often when there is absolutely no reason to it.

sorry for my bad english.

 

The viewing angle is actually pretty good for most uses and is completely normal for a laptop. Expect movies and games to have a far narrower viewing angle than word processors or web browsers. Right now I have a movie open on the left side of my screen and the forums up on the right. If I tilt the about 30 degrees off of "normal" (keyboard and screen at a right angle), the movie becomes inverted while the forums look completely normal.

The primary difference between the premium and non-premium is that the premium screen has a matte coating while the non-premium is glossy. This is typically more of a user preference issue though. A matte screen minimizes glare at the cost of making the screen slightly hazy. A glossy screen often will give you richer color at the cost of having very high amounts of glare.

You don't necessarily need to find a _sony outlet to see the difference. Go to your favorite local laptop dealer, find a laptop with a matte screen and one with a glossy screen, and spend some time with both.