Official Sony VAIO TT Series Owners Thread

Dunno, have you? lol

Basically for a $3000+ AUD notebook I have not been overly impressed with its construction compared to traditionally cheaper branded notebooks like Asus and Dell....I expected more, but according to others on here I might just be a little too fussy perhaps?..Then again maybe not...

I was also commenting about the build quality of the TT and the feeling of 'delicacy' about it when wanting to carry it around - I just don't trust the lid to hold up against damage and crushing like my old Asus A8JS did, or even the 1000H I had prior to the TT....in fact I am considering whether or not it is worth just getting the 1000HE right now for carting around (I HATE having to worry about my carry on luggage when flying because of a fear that my TT might be getting trashed) and just getting a more powerful 'base' laptop for everything else (just won't be carted around as much)...

Decisions decisions...

Netbook? ha...people confuse my TT for a netbook all the time until I tell them the price...

 

It's not the 'delicacy' which the TZ also shared to be honest, but just the fit & finish, more specifically the fit - as well as of course the more netbooky design of the TZ.

 

Have any of you looked at the R600? I'm emotionally very attached to getting a TT, but the R600 is considerably cheaper (close to C$1,000 difference for a 1.4 GHz, 2 GB, 128 GB SSD*), and unlike the equivalent TT config, I can actually get it here in Canada.

This is definitely a head-vs-heart issue. Anyone have any thoughts one way or the other?

* Toshiba is doing a nice promotion through my uni computer store

 

Valuewise it's something of a no-brainer. But I had the R500 last year and I found it way chintzier than the Sony's, from the less substantial (than the T Z) build to the silver painted magnesium.

The thing is of course that the machine is warrantied for three years (at least in my neck of the woods) from the start and it is more portable. I dunno. With the issues I'm having with the TT I might give the Tosh another look though and buy one to beat around for a while - especially as some reviews say it's a noticeable improvement on the 500 in terms of apparent build solidity.

It's just that - and call me a snob, I don't care - 'TOSHIBA' in block letters on the lid is not one of the most stylish statements you can make, and the machine despite the fact that it is sleek in terms of dimensions is just dull-looking in a way that even the relatively bulbous TT isn't.

 

Vogelbung, what issues are you having with your TT?

 

It should be clarified I have multiple TT's - In fact the only machine in my sig which I have only one of at the moment is the XPS 16.

One common issue is separation of some parts of the screen assembly. There are/have been also fit issues with the side 'bars', and one issue with the power button assembly. As I said above, while I'm accustomed to the sort of 'critical-seeming' nature of some of Sony's wares - specifically the screen assemblies of many of the flagship models - I've noticed that they do take punishment better than other ostensively and apparently better protected assemblies as e.g. on the XPS M1330 (which is probably the worst piece of ****, Apples excepted, that I've used in recent years).

That's not the problem. Bits clearly threatening (or actually) to come apart or fall off - apart from the ludicrous aerial on the SZ - has not really been a regular Sony fixture for me and I see this as a worrying precedent, certainly at least on the TT.

 

How many do you actually have? I can't believe you keep buying them if you find they do not have good fit.

Between my daughter and me, we have bought 4 vaio's, and none of them have any structural issues, and these vaios travel with us.

Having said that, we buy ours from SonyStyle store locally. May be they have better machines than internet dealers.

 

I have four - one at each place I spend a lot of time in. My usage pattern is that I take a laptop as a mobile companion working out from a base - so I have four TT's, four SZ's, four UX's and four Precision Covets as a 'must have basic complement' and then mixtures of the rest of the notebooks at different places. Since I carry some of these to and fro, they get rotated in different locations.

The Apples are mainly kept at home, and the multiples of *those* I have are not multi-site machines but spares to get the same uptime as the other manufacturers - given the abysmal reliability and the slow-turnaround consumer-grade support.

I was looking at what should replace the TZ's I had (in the same arrangement) and I shopped around last year by buying some sample laptops, didn't really see what I wanted in the R500, X300 - and the Crapbook Air was a joke. So I decided to update the TZ's with TT's. I had some reservations, but I didn't think there would be any real issues. And as I said, there are no real functional issues - it's more a matter of styling, fit and finish - something that matters to me (although not to the exclusion of function) as someone who only buys high-end notebooks as a matter of course.

 

Ha ha Vogelbung, I realized we weren't quite playing in the same pond when I clicked through on your sig to look up the Swaine Adeney Brigg Paternoster.

It's very helpful for the rest of us that you have personally tried so many different models of laptop, though. Thanks for passing on your experience.

 

lol Baldrake we can pretend to play in Vogelbung's pond, but its just not the same..haha

As I said earlier I was having issues with the screen bezel and edges seeming like they wish to come apart on one side, well its amazing what a pinhead amount of Loctite 401 can do for that..(fancy forgetting that I actually have a trade and might be able to use it's knowledge and skillset...der...)

That and a new found love for trying to sort out the Fn keys issue on Ubuntu (all Vaio's tend to suffer from some form or another of ACPI drama's with *nix) - Anyone else have any other insights into getting the Fn keys working as there is a lot of OLD and out of date info out there!

Yes my little TT battered its eyelids at me and I couldn't resist.., sure it might look like a netbook but we all know different..(that and I have decided to spend my stimulus package money on something other than another notebook/netbook...hehe)

Yeah yeah, I am in love with my TT again...let us not be alone ever again...*hugs her TT*

As for my crush-ability fears I am going to make a little 'slim line' 7076 T6 case for it at work, and line it with some neoprene, and have it anodised in the plating shop, the drawings I have made up means the case will survive Uni text books without the bulk of the Pelican case - lucky I know how to use a pan-folder and a rivet gun ...

I shall have pictures when its finished, and will post them here - allow a week or two!

 

Glad to hear you are in love with your TT again

 

If the Paternoster serves that purpose, it's just as well the Valextra website is too holier-than-thou to mention figures then I thought the Pat might be an interesting review and I posted it in the Accessories section, but given the (lack of) reaction to that I can only conclude it's of doubtful worth doing more in the same vein.

Yes, I buy a lot of gear. So it does give me a more varied perspective as opposed to someone who buys one laptop every three years.

And while I fully appreciate geekygirl's Loctite remedy which would fix the screen problem, I also have to conclude that I haven't seen this on a prior Sony (and I've had almost every flagship 'ultraportable' VAIO since they were released in the 90's) for a long time and that it would also prejudice future repairs, because as you all probably know the only reason Sony sells gear with the sheer crapitude of support services is that their stuff goes wrong much less often. They see something on the screen, it's going to be 'malicious damage' - and frankly I don't see why I have to resort to glue to maintain structural integrity of something which costs more than the vast majority of notebooks out there.

Maybe I'm just hyper-critical, but I've not really had to be this critical of previous Sony's build based on reasonable expectations.

 

I actually read your review. It looks like a marvellous bag, although a touch out of my price range.

Perhaps you should link your reviews in your sig like some people do. This board has many sub-forums - easy to miss things.

 

I read the review as well Vogelbung - nicely done with excellent images, but I am with Baldrake here as its out of my league (not to mention the AUD to Sterling exchange rate is horrendous!!) - my Knomo is good enough for me

I agree with your other comments about my ghetto repair job - I too failed to understand why I should have to given the price paid and as I mentioned in my earlier posts I am absolutely disgusted with the build quality, especially the screen (I dont care about Sony demo's about how strong and flexible the screen is either - thats not my machine they are using).
Looking at it with an aircraft engineers eye, if we built choppers like that where the customer has just paid 8.5 million each and they had to repair the aircraft structure as soon as it was delivered, because thats just 'the manufacturing process' and then told the customer they are being too picky there would be a huge uproar....

But this was considered to be to picky and an unfair comparison by some

Its an awesome little beast let down by shoddy workmanship and poor QA IMO.

I am learning to love it despite its flaws...hehe

 

I have question to all using external screen connected via HDMI or VGA. MrTMan answer me some time ago he is using external screen set to 1920x1200 resolution. Is it for sure? Isn't it 1920x1080 like full HD?
I am intersted about it because I am going to buy external screen (Benq FP241W) and it working with 1920x1200 resolution. It will be drop in quality if I will need us it in 1920x1080 resolution.
So, can anybody confirm maximal external resolution 1920x1200 (not 1920x1080)?

 

Ladies and Gentlemen - i hope you are all aware of the huge problem with the TT notebooks and all the new Vaio's. The touchpad sensitivity issue is a deal killer, and it is a faulty engineering problem with the touchpad itself. If any of you have felt that its "just you" .... you're wrong. Its the touchpad not responding 30% of the time. Everyone is running into it. Those of you who feel this is not an issue are simply very patient and blaming yourself for how you swipe the touchpad. Its not you. This is a major issue that needs to be addressed by Sony, but which according to the Sony store rep, will not be addressed. He was very apologetic and says numerous people have come into the store complaining of faulty touchpads on the TT. Im going to be returning mine as I cannot deal with it anymore.

 

I have no issue with it, it's been working really well for the 5 months I own my TT. I'm on WinXP, is it hardware or driver issue?

 

It's for sure, I'm using a Dell 2407WFP.

Note that you could preserve the quality at 1920x1080, on a 1920x1200 screen, by setting the driver to not scale the image -- so you'd have a thin black bar at the top and bottom. But you won't need to do this, because like I said, the TT will support 1920x1200. ;-)

 

Regarding the touchpad, mine also acts funny from time to time (not sure how often, but I'd say less than 30% of the time -- maybe 10% of the time). If I put it to sleep and wake it up again, the problem goes away... so I've assumed that it's a software/driver issue.

neverwana, do you still have the problem even if you put it to sleep & wake it up?

 

I use the Dell multigesture driver. No problem at all except I cannot get it to do horizontal scrolling. Otherwise, no issues at all.

 

I do have a problem but only when the machine comes out of sleep - it's non responsive for at least 10 seconds. Annoying, has been encountered on other Sony notebooks, not a total deal-killer... but not exactly helping to erase the slightly lemony scent of the TT

 

TZ300, where did you get that? (I'm guessing the Dell website, but what model # etc would I look up to find it?)

 

Regarding the touch-pad, the only problem I have noticed was that it was very sensitive to touch - but tweaking the settings to prevent touch pad while typing fixed that annoyance.

 

I would love to hear that this problem isnt on every TT - to those of you who say your touchpads work fine - are you using the same TT as me? I have the TT-290 in alpine white. As a matter of fact, i just realized the software driver is also called Alpine ... weird ... is it tied to the color of the machine? Anyways .... are we all discussing the 290 or others? I would love to be able to return this thing and get a new one that works.

 

Mine is TT190 series. Try to install this driver see if it helps http://philch.free.fr/files/ALPS_7.102.303.107.rar

 

I have a TT190, too. I am using the Sony drivers.

 

I have a VGN-TT15GN - I found the touchpad to be slightly over sensitive if anything, but I use a VX Nano 80 percent of the time so probably haven't noticed it as much

Touch pad works just fine on Ubuntu Jaunty though

 

Mine is Canadian TT180C. It has ALPS hardware and driver. I used the original driver without problem. But, I am now using the Dell Multigesture driver (you can search for link to this driver using multigesture search word). I used mouse pas and MS Notebook presenter mouse 50% of the time.

 

Hi,

Just received my new TT290 from sonystyle.com which was supposed to replace my first generation TX610. Just for context, I've owned the TX since they first became available and have been very pleased with it. However it has a lot of miles on it and is overdue for retirement. Now in regards to the new TT, I've been hunting around on the 'net quite a bit and haven't really seen any other complaints about this (and am surprised at that), but I have really taken issue with the screen on the new laptop.

What bothers me about the screen on the TT is that I see this visible background noise in it when displaying just about any type of image that is not either white or black. It's kind of like pixel-width angled grid-lines and looks kind of like the image is being displayed on corduroy. It is fairly subtle, but not that subtle, particularly since my TX does not suffer from this problem at all. It is even more noticeable when I move my head closer to the screen, when there is a CD/DVD spinning, or when using it on any surface prone to vibration (I ride a train to work). It is also pretty obvious when looking from one part of the screen to another, or watching a progress bar move across the screen.

When the effect isn't prominent, the screen looks great. Vibrant colors and very sharp. However I find it to be almost constantly noticeable, certainly far more often than not and that it often makes the screen look fuzzy and pixelated. It's kind of like the screen itself is doing some form of interlacing on it's own (it's visible in Windows, Linux, and the BIOS). It constantly causes my eyes to focus on the screen itself instead of what's being displayed on it. It almost seems as if the screen's refresh rate has been hard coded to update the picture in waves, and not all at once. Not sure if this might be the case, but if done deliberately it might be a way to conserve power.

I have been using the TT off and on for a few days and have been hoping that the effect would cease to bother me, but I am afraid that this will simply never happen. Nor am I comfortable having spent more money on a TT than I did on a TX over three years ago and finding it's screen to be of visibly poorer quality.

I had been hoping that this was somehow specific to my particular TT, but I visited a retailer who had one on display and the problem was quite evident on that model as well (was a TT230 I believe, definitely a TT2xx). Furthermore I noticed this screen issue on two of the Z series notebooks that were on hand, so it looks like a problem with the current generation of screens.

Has anyone else noticed this? I know it can't just be me since my wife (who has less than perfect vision) sees it as well, and again I've seen it on another TT unit as well.

I called Sony tech support, but they didn't really understand what I was trying to tell them. Of course they offered to have me send it in so it could be checked out, but since this is not any kind of damage or defect unique to my unit I am pretty confident they would just send it back saying that it was fine. Either way I am not going to chance letting my 30-day return window close.

Anyway, just kind of bummed out on the new screens, otherwise it looks to be a pretty promising notebook just like the TX has been.

Thanks,
Nate

 

Can't really say as I have 'seen' anything like that with the screen on mine

In both Vista and Ubuntu my screen looks very sharp and crisp and no blemishes apart from the odd fingerprint. The only issues I have had with the screen were with the lid/bezel itself (ie construction) not the actual panel itself sorry.

Currently I am looking at it beside a Dell 19" 1908FPT monitor, a Samsung 19" Syncmaster 940n and a HP nc6910 notebook which are all here on my desk at work, and I don't see anything bad (lights on or off in my office)

Maybe a recent batch of LCD's has this issue?

I bought my TT in December of last year.

 

I ended returning my Z because of that. There are other people who can't see it, but for me it's very visible and distracting.

It's a well-known problem with the current generation of Sony notebooks with LED screens. All the Z, SR and TTs have it. And from what I've heard, even other makers have this problem (I've seen someone complaining about them in a Dell in this forum).
Don't know the causes, but it looks like the refreshing of the screen is done diagonally. Without moving anything in the screen or moving the eyes you can't see it, but as you start moving your eyes or displaying moving things on screen (program windows, movies) the diagonal lines appear, and they are really annoying.

 

Thanks for the response. I'm going to take the TT in to a local Sony Style Store (FYI - they do that annoying BS appointment thing just like Apple Stores) on Friday and if nothing else, can at least point out the problem to them and let them know why I can't keep it.

 

Not in Toronto. One can walk into SonyStyle or Apple store anytime and play with their computers, unless it is all being occupied.

 

Currently looking for TT owners who have tried or are running Ubuntu on their notebooks to offer up their experiences - especially if you got your Fn keys to work and the S1 and eject buttons to work under ANY linux! (Or even the microphone..ahem)

If anyone has any information about their experiences with the TT and Linux (any flavour) although this is mainly for the Ubuntu community - it would be greatly appreciated if you could post in here or PM me

There are a few people trying to get these things working under Linux, and as this isnt a wide spread device, nor are many people using Linux on it there is little or no information out there - plenty for Z's though!!!

We are already aware of Emperor Linux apparently running a custom kernel that makes all these things work but I have not had a response to a few inquiries about this and if they had done any key mapping. If its just a matter of key mapping it might be possible to write a script (probably not me as I only know C++ lol) to have this done after a fresh install for now - like the old Intel resolutions of old

Thanks!!

 

I have been using my TT since they come out. Last week my wireless just stopped working. The Sprint Card still works for internet but it will not show any wifi when I turn the sprint card off? Anyone have any thoughts?

 

More details required. What have you done so far to try and make it work? I often have to do repair when I move into a new network area.

 

Sprint Power is Off
Wireless LAN ON
Wireless Button On

When I try to connect to a wireless network: "Windoes cannot find any networks" but, I know there are 3 wireless networks running right now

When I try diagnosis the problem. All I get is turn on wireless button.

Under Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Map
- The adapter is not connected

Device status "This device is working properly"

Not sure what else is needed?

 

I tried Intel PROSet/Wireless Tools Diagnose
Hardware Test Passed Wireless Hardware is enabled
Driver Test > Passed > Driver is loaded. NET w5v32 Version :12.0.0.73
Radio Test > Passed > Radio is ON
Scan Test > Failed > There are no networks available to connect

 

I'd try reintalling the driver... I guess you could also check the device options, from the device manager->network adapters->Intel 5100-> advanced tab. You could try setting "transmit power" to high, make sure the proper network types (a/b/g/n) are enabled...

 

Also, delete this device under hardware manager. Reboot and let windows reinstall everything. It happened to me once.

 

I uninstalled driver and reinstalled. Works correctly now. Thank you

 

I must admit that the white TT models look very good. I hope that they come to the UK (with the 1.6 processor option on configure to order). I think that i might well opt for something other than black for my next notebook. Come August i could be treating myself. I'm not sure though what is on the cards with Capella in regards to sub notebooks.

Sony also have two models with the 1.6 processor that you can buy now from Sony style direct.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665788061


http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665788062

 

Hello all

I have just received a TT11LN as a replacement (insurance claim) for my TX2HP, which I dropped. Before I agreed to this model I had a lengthy discussion with the tech dept at the tech company my laptop was sent to - apart from anything else I wanted my TX repaired, not a replacement. At the beginning I also told them that any replacement must run under XP Pro, not Vista, for compatibility at work. So they came up with this & insisted that it would be fine, plus much higher spec etc.

I am pretty peeved now to find that I don't have any access so some of the 'improvements' and no applications for the DVD player, DVD burning and so forth. Whilst Sony has disclaimers on the site, it is sold by all the outlets I've checked as an innovative laptop, Blu-ray etc etc - and of course the XP Pro downgrade is another selling point. No mention on any of these sites of reduced functionality. I wish I had accepted a voucher & gone for something else.

Does anyone know how I can get some of the applications? Would those from the TX work? Not that I have those either at present as they would have been, I assume, on its C drive...

 

I'm currently the owner of a Sony S Series laptop that is quickly nearing the end of it's life. I've narrowed my choice to either this TT or the Z, but I need some advice from the experts. I realize that I'm asking for subjective opinions, but any help would be appreciated.

When in comes to the specs, I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the extra for the SSD. On the one hand, the cost is astronomical, but I could justify that because I'm getting a surprizingly big refund from my taxes. The key reasons I'm considering the SSD is that I usually keep my machines for a pretty long time (current one is over 4 years old), so I want technology that won't be obsolete in five minutes. I travel a great deal and I thought that the combination of a device that has no moving parts (and might be more sturdy for travel) and that seems to be the "wave of the future" would be worth the cost.

I was told by someone at SonyStyle that, if I bought it with a HDD, I could not subsequently change to a SSD, so I figured that I could get the 256 GB SSD now and grow with it. If I run out of storage a few years from now, I could do what I did with the last one - replace the drive with a larger one of the same type.

Is this reasonable thinking or am I missing something? All opinions gratefully accepted!

 

For sure go with the SSD since you keep your machines for at least 4 years. SSDs will only get cheaper in time and of course it suits your travelling requirements. I would imagine larger 500GB+ SSDs should be available and reasonably priced by next year.

Boy, I cannot afford an SSD model

 

The technology of SSD's won't be obsolete, but the price to storage ratio / performance will likely strike you as a bad joke if you compared what you can get from SSD's 4 years down the line compared to now.

e.g. I have a small bunch of UX's with 32Gb SSD's, none of which are more than 2 years old, and the premium I paid for them makes me feel like a schmuck now, comparatively speaking But this is unavoidable, and especially so with SSD's as the march of progress is far more savage in the price impact than HDDs at least for now.

But the fact is, that the SSD's provide a useful improvement NOW in terms of everyday performance. And that is it - you have to buy for now, and overbuy a tad if you want it to last a while.

My experiences with both the Z and TT have been less than absolutely positive in terms of a historical comparison of Sony build quality. It may be perception for the most part but I'm just not enamoured of the case engineering or the design of either of these machines.

I think - and this is what I'm doing now, replacing my TT's - that the Z might be a better machine to go for despite the higher weight. In spite of my reservations the Z is truly a cutting-edge machine in terms of performance, size and weight, but the TT is slightly less bleeding edge - while being surprisingly bleeding edge in terms of potentially rough / cheap-looking build quality.

 

Oh boy, are you really serious? The TT is way better than the TX, especially regarding graphics performance. I had them all...TX, TZ and now the TT. I would never trade my TT for anything else.
Regarding Vista: my TT/LN runs with Vista just fine, even with a realtime Antivirus scanner active, iTunes 8.1 plays full screen videos without any lag/stuttering.

I know that people tend to connect to their "old" stuff but trust me, there is nothing you really want to love about the TX.

Applications for the DVD player? There are so many out there, including free stuff, not sure what you want?!

 

I went from an S-series to a TT. Vogelbung's point is well taken, there's no question that the Z has better performance. But if you're not doing intense graphics / video work -- i.e. mostly surfing the web, MS Office, viewing AVIs and the like -- the TT's performance is just fine, and the weight savings is well worth it. It's not just 0.4-0.5 lbs -- you have to factor in the battery life difference as well. (ie less likelihood of needing to carry the weight of a spare battery with you with the TT since the battery life is 30%+ longer).

Now, if you're looking to hold onto your computer for 4 years, it's also true that the useful life of the Z will be longer because of the better graphics, CPU etc. But then again, upgrade cycles keep getting longer & longer anyway... one of the goals of Windows 7, for example, is to make it less of a resource hog than Vista....

Re the SSD, for sure you'd see a big performance difference, the hard drive is the only part of the TT that feels a bit sluggish. But SSD prices are likely to keep falling sharply, so I opted to get a regular hard drive for now and upgrade to an SSD in a year or so. This isn't a sony-authorized upgrade, it's something you'd have to do yourself. I'd say if you're not comfortable with cracking your laptop open and upgrading in the future, get the SSD now. If you think you'd be comfortable with this, you could likely save yourself a fair bit of cash, and/or get a better-performing drive, by holding off and getting the SSD in the future.

 

I'm started to get a little frustrated to the Vaio P and might eBay it off to switch to a TT. The Vaio P's video performance is killing me and it's so bad that you can actually feel the screen trying to refresh itself. I have a feeling that Sony might not do anything about the video drivers at all or for quite some time.

I need a small notebook that performs well for internet, videos, and some photoshop and video editing here and there on the go. How good does the TT handle that?

 

I appreciate that it may run Vista just fine - if I should want to run it - but the point is that I have to link it up to my server at work which requires quite a bit of patching to get it to like Vista - it won't surprise you to hear that all our client machines run on XP Pro & we won't be changing that until Windows 7 is established - likely to be some time yet, by the look of it! Our server is SBS 2003.

As a sys admin I am on several fora which have MS professional members at high levels - even our Vista advocate said ditch it! And I have. Concensus is that adding the patches to the server may mess up other areas. So really it's not about whether or not I'd like Vista & I won't get into that discussion just now. Up until now I could veto anyone buying a laptop with it installed but it appears here in the UK Sony, at any rate, have stopped shipping new laptops with XP Pro.

I jiust find it annoying to be, effectively, paying £1200 for something with a load of its functionality missing. And 'm not about to pay to get it. When you say DVD software out there - where do you mean? Is it free?

It doesn't even dim the screen and the battery charge seems to drop pretty quickly, don't know if this is normal.