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

Well run SC2 on both laptops side-by-side with the exact same game settings. What's their respective FPS and what's the CPU, GPU & motherboard temperatures?

The more performance > the more work > the more energy consumed > the more heat > the greater the heat evacuation need > the faster the fan > the cooler is the F under load. The F is one of the coolest i7 on the market @ the present. Check this post: VAIO_F Series: A cool Cucumber. I'd rather have a working fan than an overheating laptop. Check this to see what a cooler can do for you: VAIO_F Series DIY Laptop Cooler Testing

My 1100cc motorcycle consumes more @ 190kph than my 350cc @ 90kph. Is that normal?

Everything is relative.

 

The i7 processor can get pretty hot and the VAIO F is very efficient at keeping those temps down, but at the cost of the single fan really speeding up.

At the very least, prop up the back of your VAIO an inch or two and see how the airflow underneath helps things out. Many of us here recommend the CoolerMaster Notepal U2, because the fans can be placed directly under the intake vents.

If you want to be more hardcore, perhaps consider doing a clean install using recovery disks (link in Joe Bleau's profile). It will drastically cut back the amount of backend processes that you don't know about, need, or even want.

p.s. - if you're not sure about clean install vs factory install, then you're most likely running the factory install. When you boot up, how many processes do you have running and how much ram is being used? If you've got 4GB of RAM, you can save just over 20% of it by doing a clean install. If you've got more RAM, well the savings is less, but still definitely there.

 

i dont have them here
So why is laptop less efficient if it requires MUCH more cooling..

 

There are things that must be considered when you're comparing across different laptop models: CPU, GPU, number of cooling fans, and how much is working in the background.

The VAIO F only has one fan, and it's very good at what it does. What's in your other laptops?

 

Lost in translation...

Funny, I have that kind of conversation sometimes with my girlfriend.

My Kawa ZX11 1100cc @ idle produces more heat that my DR350 trail bike @ idle. In fact the ZX's fan starts every now & then @ idle. So, is my ZX w/ 150hp less efficient than my DR350 w/ 30hp? Is something wrong with the ZX?

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the other laptops are people i know i dont know their specs

but if gaming is one of the f series strong points i dont understand why the fan would become very loud playing anygame. even if i open up project 64 it becomes loud enough to hear with the TV on

 

i have just done some more research and i have found this
Sony issues overheating update for Australians | News.com.au
this overheating problem would cause the fan to extremely loud right? i downloaded their BIOS solution but my fan problem remains the same

 

The F is good with gaming, but it was not designed to be a gaming machine. Emulators are a different thing from gaming. They put the CPU/GPU under more of a load. It makes perfect sense that your fan is kicking in so high during that.

If the workload of the fan is going to be an issue, I stronly recommend you get a backup hard drive and then attempt a clean install. If you do not know what a clean install is... it's installing ONLY the operating system and hardward drivers. All other programs have to be manually chosen and installed by you. It prevents a lot of things from using your resources. Your VAIO should also run quieter.

Hey, do you have Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem? Does it work? It's the only game I want for gamecube emulator.

EDIT:
Before we go any further in trying to help you out, we must know a few things:
What are the specs of your system? Model#, CPU, GPU, HDD GB/RPM, RAM. display
Reboot your machine and open up Task Manager (CTRL ALT DEL or CTRL SHIFT ESC) and tell us how many processes are running and how much RAM% is being used.

 

Ok sure.
Model#, CPU, GPU, HDD GB/RPM, RAM. display in order : VPCF116FGI, i7 720QM, not sure what gpu is , or hdd, or gb/rpm, 4 gb, 1920 x 1080.
104 processes running 35% ram (if ram is phyiscal memory ?)

 

Great, now put those in your signature.

Click:
User CP > Edit Signature.

Your HDD info is what size and how fast. Mine is 500GB @ 7200RPM. The GPU is your graphics card. Since you have the 1920x1080 display, you've got the NVIDIA GeForce 330m.

Again, this is a high powered machine. More power than your friends' laptops. When their smaller processors are under load, they're doing less work than your i7 is doing. The i7 gets hot. Your options are either the FAN spinning OR the machine getting super hot. Have you propped the back up yet? It makes quite a difference, but won't be enough to make you really happy.

 

how do i find out these details and how do i find out what version my NVIDIA 330m is?

 

Here's the product page for your model, I think:
VPCF116FG_:_F Series_:_VAIO Notebook_:_ Sony_ Asia_ Pacific

 

yeah thats it
ta

 

Gee, I wonder why your fan is working so much...

Go back 3-4 pages & follow the numerous links.

 

Official Sony USA announcement of F13 : VAIO Refreshes Line for Winter Season SONY make.believe

 

Thanks guys, That's good to know. I'll bite and give them a try. I was a little hesitant on getting one based on the issues people had in the seagate forums. However I didn't notice anyone in the seagate forums were using it in an F

Whoo hoo. I saw this deal this morning and going to order two.

Estimated ship date is 10/13

 

Hi,

It's taken me quite a bit of time to finally read through all the various articles and register on this site. I have a few questions that I'm hoping someone can help answer:

My model is VPC-F121FD/B, purchased here in Canada from Best Buy. It has a bilingual keyboard in which I had to select English on the OS when I first got it setup. However, the keyboard drives me nuts with the extra keys. Is it possible for me to buy English keyboard and use in my laptop? I'm looking at this one on ebay: new SONY VAIO VPC-F12 Keyboard US Black Frame Backlit on eBay.ca (item 390237975233 end time 24-Sep-10 21:19:05 EDT)

Note, my laptop doesn't have the backlit keyboard, but would that matter or work? I assume this would be just plug-n-play? Does anyone have directions on removing the keyboard and such?

I'm also positive that the 500GB 5400RPM drive is a big bottleneck in this model but considering the deal I got on this laptop I can't complain too much. However, the 160GB SSD drives are too rich for my blood at this time. I know everyone has been talking about the Momentus Hybrid drive. It's a good value I think but does anyone have any information on the battery drain?

Thanks in advance!

 

Yes, that keyboard will fit your F & the back-light will work. See Vaio_F Series - How To Replace the Keyboard & Clean the Fan

Check this article for a power consumption comparison between several other drives: Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives with 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB Storage Capacities and this one that compares the power needs of the 7200.4 to the XT: Seagate Momentus XT Review.

BTW: welcome to the F thread!

*****

 

The main difference between your current keyboard and the new backlit one is the new one has a "backlit cable" (the connector will be there on your Vaio_F12).
Using Joe's guide replacing a keyboard is not difficult to do
I've done it on my European Vaio that had also a non-backlit keyboard and everything is working as it should be.

 

That's great news. Thanks for the helpful links and advice guys -- very much appreciated. I've learned plenty from reading this thread!

Cheers!

 

I've ordered with that seller and my order was cancelled because the item was out of stock. I'm curious if the KB's are in stock again.

 

F13 is now available at BestBuy Sony - VAIO Laptop / Intel® Core™ i7 Processor / 16.4" Display / 6GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive - Black - VPCF136FM/B

 

A running process ThirdPartyAppMgr.exe using approx 28.7 MB and I cannot kill this process. When I do it just reappears. I think this is a Sony process when I called for service one time and service dept can take over the computer. Can't delete the application either- says it's running. Anyone have anything to say about this? Does everyone have this on their Sony? Please advise.

 

THAT is the process that made me start clean installing!

It's actually part of the SmartWi Connection Utility. That little icon that allows you to turn your network on/off. I have not reinstalled that service and that process has never come back.

edit: that program is completely unnecessary, as I've gone 3 months without it and no problems. Just bloatware.

 

Haven't been on here for a while... checked Joe's sig and found he's completed that clean install guide of his... anyone tried it yet? Works fine?
I really want to do this, because the fan noise is bugging me and when I do task manager I have at default, 90+ things, many of which bloatware I don't doubt, running.

And from the Unification post I see that the whistle thing has never been fixed by driver updates from sony or whatever?

 

Many of us have used his process. It's very successful.

 

arth1 on a Z forum instructs how to remove by: First of all, remove SmartWi from the HKLM ( local machine)/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Currentversion/Run section in the registry so it won't start up with the computer.
Then reboot, log in, and open the Bluetooth control panel. Set it to display the BT icon, and you can now easily enable/disable BT without the SmartWi crap.

I have had nothing but problems with SmartWi, and think it creates far more problems than what it solves. When you are connected with both wi-fi and ethernet to the same network, for example, SmartWi will endlessly bring up and down your WiFi connection. Vista's built-in networking handles it gracefully.

I went into this part of the registry and could not find.

 

Are you saying that you are not able to carry out the fix you just mentioned? Can you uninstall it from "add/remove programs"? Can it be done from safe mode?

 

Just uninstalled SmartWi Connection Utility. Not sure why Sony uses this in the first place. What does/did this do what the network utility cannot? Anyway it's off my computer and my resources are better for it. Thanks Anseio.

 

I think it was supposed to make something that was already quite simple "more easy to use". I dunno. Again, that process is the main reason I ever did a clean install.

So glad you're system is happier now.

 

i have autoruns and the other one i just dont know which processes to delete

 

Ok, don't go too fast cuz Joe Bleau is giving you a hard time. I understand that you don't know much about what's going on in your laptop, other than the fan is noisy.

You have about 40-50 different processes/programs running in the background that you don't need and that are taking up resources. This will cause your fan to do more work later.

We can't tell you exactly what to disable, but you can definitely disable anything that autostarts that doesn't need to:
PMB (Picture Motion Browser)
All of the Sony Metadata (they're used w/ PMB)
There are so many others and it's trial and error.

Your best bet is to clean install, but you need a backup hard drive so that you can save your existing data.

 

Java, Acrobat, Skype, Google Update, Google Earth, Yahoo taskbar, Instant Messaging Services ,etc. are some of the items that do not need to run at startup. Remember, by disabling this stuff it's just not preloaded onto your system and the first time you clink onto one of these it may take a second longer, but this will save you on your boot times and system resources.

 

Next time try this: run Process Explorer > View > Show Process Tree > look for the process you want & you will see what's related to it & how much resources the entire tree is using. You can also use the Binoculars (search) if you know the name of what you are looking for. Right click the process & see cool Performance graph & info. Below is before I further optimized my F.

Can't find the link right now but this was important for me (not verbatim): any OS optimization is a battery life optimization to which I add: it's also a fan rpm work reduction.



One needs to determine it's own balance point between lean & fast vs. convenient programs/services. It's relative to your needs.

For example my F w/ two on-board 7200rpm HDD's boots in 58 sec. for 56 services but then if I add to Logon (startup) Everest v5.50 which is a safety feature for me with CPU, GPU, mobo & HDD's temperature monitoring & trigger alerts plus Bluetooth Tray Application and my Bluetooth mouse then the booting time climbs to 70-77 sec. according to WinBootInfo 64-bit (30 days free trial, tons of info). Since I don't boot 50 times a day, I don't care about the extra 17 sec.

SmartWi is maybe useless for you but for somebody who is not computer savvy or moving around & running plugged/unplugged often then it's just a convenient shortcut to select the network or turn on/off quickly the wifi and/or the Bluetooth. Those are 2 battery life eaters. OTOH one can simply flip the Wireless switch to disable both at once but one may want to run one or the other.



This said, I disabled it from Startup since I wrote the Vaio_F Series OEM Recovery Discs clean install guide and will add a comment about disabling SmartWi in it. ThirdPartyAppMgr.exe is not running when you do that. One can do this instead of uninstalling so one can enable it anytime by selecting it via Autoruns's checkbox. It's bloatware until one needs it.

After the clean install, I disabled as well using Autoruns from the Everything & Logon tabs: Vaio_Care, Vaio_Update, Realtek HD Audio Manager, Realtek Audio Background Process, ISBMgr.exe, iastoricon.exe, etc, etc but I don't have the patience to write about all of those & why I disabled them @ the present. Most programs want to be in startup, call the mother ship & add an icon on the taskbar. It's a constant fight to keep your system fast & clean.

@ EmsteR: I dunno what you installed on your F. Just right click in Autoruns or Process Explorer and > Search Online any programs/process. If you dunno what it does, leave it alone. If you don't really need it, disable it. You can always undo the tweaks.

Make sure to create a restore point before attempting anything. A weekly full system image backup on an external drive is also a good idea as a general safety measure in case your drive dies or your F gets stolen for example.

*****

 

The bit about being able to shut off bluetooth is why I stick with SmartWii.. it comes in very handy

 

Hi folks,

I've always bought Vaio PCs and laptops, but it's been a while since my last purchase (2004). It's definitely time for an upgrade. I'm about to pull the trigger on the F13 (w/ i7-840qm, 320gb 7.2k rpm, 8gb ram, full hd). I did quite a bit of reading on this forum, but I was wondering if it would be easy for me to drive 3 monitors (2 external LCDs + laptop screen) with the NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M GPU. I plan to use this laptop for trading. Would I be able to plug a monitor into the HDMI port and one into the VGA simultaneously and have them all on at the same time? or would I have to utilize the expresscard slot and add a dvi adapter or miniDisplay port, etc. Thanks in advance.

 

Holy moly. I just stopwatched mine and it takes 19.47 seconds to reach the logon screen from hitting the power on button. Then system tray stuff and everything loads pretty much instantly. Windows start button responds instantly when you see desktop image.

Get an ssd Joe!

 

NOTE: With 1600 x 900 resolution! Get a sharper full-HD 1080p instead IMO.

Shop_F13 on SonyStyle US for CTO options & free Adobe Bundle.

*****_
SSD + HDD vs. HDD

How about using the same measuring stick like WinBootInfo for example?

I can give you my email if you would like to contribute to my 256GB SSD fund via Paypal.

I need a lot of on-board storage @ a reasonable price & SSD's do not fit those criteria @ the present. Besides, if one has a small SSD but then his games or his photos are on an external drive and wants to edit them then it will work at HDD speed. The main SSD gain will be at boot & for opening the program but then the 2 drives together will consume more power. Check this NBR article, the Seagate XT HDD/SSD Hybrid is quite an interesting alternative: SSD vs Hard Drives: Performance Tests and Conclusion. The performance is close to SSD's but with 2 big pluses:

- No need for an external or secondary HD drive for storage to complete a small SSD which in the end slows down the overall real life system performance and adds to the real cost of a small SSD.

- Calculating the cost per GB of capacity with the prices listed in the review:

-Crucial C300: $149 / 64GB = $2.33/GB
-OCZ Agility 2: $169 / 60GB = $2.82/GB
-Seagate XT Hybrid: $130 / 500GB = $0.26/GB

The other point is that we don't know yet the long term possible speed degradation & maximum number or write/re-writes for SSD's at this point.

This said some say that they will outlive the notebooks since people replace them frequently.

Con: The XT speeds up booting for the most frequently used applications by the user while the SSD's are faster across the board.

Some images from the review:





Looking at my C > Properties > Used Space minus the Users folder size = 80GB. So that's what I need for the OS & programs alone. Considering headroom that means an SSD of at least 120GB with most of the Users files (or Profiles) on an other drive IMO. Or a bigger SSD.

*****

 

That's a good question. What you are looking for is similar to ATI's Eyefinity feature.

Nvidia does not talk about multiple displays in it's GT 425M product page so one may presume that it cannot split the desktop in 3 parts, just like the GT 330M otherwise I guess they would brag about it. Here it says "Dual-View capable".

OTOH it has the Optimus technology feature which should help battery life automatically according to Nvidia.

*****

 

Only if you have integrated graphics though, and the Clarksfield quad cores don't have it.

 

is there a way to test my fan rpm?

 

My F was so hot 100 C while playing anygame or Furmark ,is there any problem with the gpu i try to change driver but nothing fix. Pls help

 

Maybe I'm seeing things wrong but those temps are incredibly good.

edit: Oh missed the max gpu core temp. :O Other than that they are great so it looks like an aberation. Have you tried running the test again and watched how quickly and under what conditions it rises to that temperature?

 

Nobody ever reported such high GPU temperature for the Vaio_F. Are you sure you are not overclocking the GPU? Is your F on a tablecloth or rug, blocking the air intake in the bottom? Are you using an external monitor? If so, did you use Fn + F7 as recommended? "Switches the display output between your computer screen and an external display."

Are you using SpeedFan, Nvidia Tools or anything that may affect the GPU or fan? Which Nvidia driver version are you using? Our resident Vaio_F Series gaming expert Mangosango recommended this in an other thread which I did for installing the latest Nvidia driver:

Because Nvidia Tools may remember some previous overclocking you may have done, uninstall it before doing the above. You can always re-install it after the video driver installation.

Try Everest v5.50, check the GPU temperature there to rule out a mistake by HWMonitor & report your fan speed but that's probably not your problem as your motherboard & CPU temperatures are normal/cool for a stress test. Rare but it could be a defective temperature reporting diode on the GPU.

The ultimate troubleshooting steps suggestions to rule out OS/Win updates/third party cr@p/non supported drivers/user messed up settings, etc:

- Create a full system image backup to an external drive, which is good practice anyway to preserve your customized OS, added software & personal data, with Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore > Windows Backup.

- Even better: also backup all your personal data by simply copying to an other drive.

- Restore F to OEM factory state with Vaio_Care > Recovery & Restore or your user created OEM recovery discs or press ASSIST with the F turned off. And do not add any third party software nor external devices before testing thoroughly the machine as some may cause problems.

If the problem is still present then it's probably hardware. You can now ship your unit for servicing with the peace of mind of having a full backup at home.

*****

I agree with this post:

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This is my results with Furmark + stressing the CPU @ 100%:



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i just test again ,it take around 5 min to reach 100 C

Thank for reply
i use on table and didn't overclock the gpu while testing .This problem start from the day i install the nvidia old Beta driver <i can't remember what ver.> after that i test with the lost planet2 benchmark .FPS is improve like never before around 40 and a few min later FPS is gone to 10 .That shock Me! .
After that i have install new win but there always 100 C <i don't have a recovery disc if you remember my post> .A few week i send my F for vaio service in thailand they want a recovery disc and told me that they have check Hardware and it was fine . What i need to do now ?.

 

Follow uninstall/install instructions above.

1. Uninstall Nvidia Tools if you have it.
   
2. Download the stable Nvidia driver 258.96 instead of a beta.
   
3. Control Panel > Programs > uninstall ALL Nvidia drivers.
   
4. Reboot in Safe Mode by rebooting and pressing F8 when the Vaio_logo appears > choose Safe Mode.
   
5. Install driver 258.96 & reboot to normal mode.

*****

 

Thank Joe, I have try that and not work

Thisi is my latest test .
-Mother board and GPU so hot!

 

You ran the test while I was editing the post above. Here it is again with some added notes:

Don't start the CPU stress test yet as you want to check the GPU's temperature first. Un-select Core 1, 2, 3, etc for a cleaner graph like I did. Use the Preferences and the slider to change temperature min/max scale on Everest Stress Test like 100c max & 30c min for example.

1. Uninstall Nvidia Tools if you have it. Uninstall any other programs you may have used to overclock the GPU. Reboot.
   
2. Download the stable Nvidia driver 258.96 instead of a beta.
   
3. Control Panel > Programs > uninstall ALL Nvidia drivers.
   
4. Reboot in Safe Mode by rebooting and pressing F8 when the Vaio_logo appears > choose Safe Mode.
   
5. Install driver 258.96 & reboot to normal mode.
   
6. Good luck!

What is the ambient temperature where you are testing the F?

*****

 

Sorry for late Joe..Thank for advice I have done all you mention above .but it still happen!

 

If your fan is spinning as fast as Joe Bleau's but hotter by 20-30C, then it's either foriegn materials blocking the air vent or the thermal paste was not applied correctly by Sony, I would contact them directly

By the way, I overclocked my GPU to 705 Core / 1551 Shader / 905 Memory, it doesn't get any hotter than stock clocks, as Sony (and most other laptop manufactures) don't allow the overvolting of the GPU
Higher volts = more heat
Higher clocks = doesn't necessarily mean more heat
You need higher volts to reach higher clock speeds stably without crashing.

If you are a gamer, and want free 5-20 fps boost, I suggest overclocking with MSI Afterburner.
I'm not responsible for your irresponsibility if something happens