Official Sony VAIO TT Series Owners Thread

I'll probably stay with some form of Win DVD as i like their software.

howaboutnow, the clips are there. Just depress near the hinges on either side and the top casing should come of at the back.

 

rachel -
blu ray upgrade is one i've always wanted to do on my 230nb. but i can't seem to come across those drives...

guyyy -
thanks again for sending me the dvd installer. i've yet to install it (new baby at home... no literally, the crying type). i'm glad the 8gb worked on the win7 64bit. i want to do that upgrade as well, but money...

i upgraded the hdd with the lenovo 43N3417, which i think is a rebranded toshiba. the hard drive user experience jumped to 7.4 or so. it's really nice. the only problem i have with this drive is that it doesn't have trim support. if anyone knows of a firmware for toshibas that supports trim, i would be eternally grateful.

 

Here are some drives, remember if you don't have a Panasonic drive you'll need to buy a new bezel for the BD from Sony parts.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Panasonic...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item1c0c8b84e5

This one is used and bare. Mine was new and bare. It makes no difference really whether they are bare or not as you need to change the bezel anyway. I paid £180 for a new drive.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PANASONIC-Blu...C_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item27b0341d08

It is really quite hard to flash 1.8 drives to support TRIM aftermarket. A few people have tried and haven't had any luck from what i'm aware of. There are now though newer 1.8 drives like Samsungs on ebay that claim to have TRIM support.

Edited to add:

@ guyyy, that memory you have looks like Micron memory.

I'm also upgrading to a 6200-N card although the 5100 is fine i thought i would go for the better card still. For now i think i don't want to spend anymore money on upgrading lol.

 

Yeah I know what you mean, my girlfriends got a bun in the oven, so I'll be there soon as well.

Nice Upgrade, I wouldn't worry about TRIM, the drive should last well anyway.
Yeah I got G Skill to send me an RMA #, so that is the next task and when the GOOD memory comes back, I'll stick that in my M11X. No problem about the disk, I hope you get it working. Have you tried having the baby in one hand and installing with the other?
hahahahah JUST KIDDING!
Take care good luck with the baby the install and hopefully getting your 8GB RAM.

 

AHHHHH, so that is what that Fancy script "M" means. I knew it was so familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. I really hope they were not lying about the memory for my HTC shift. The guy seemed pretty genuine, I guess, I'll find out soon!!!]

Nice Job on the Wireless card Rachel.
Your little system is humming along!
I like to see all of us encouraging each other on the upgrades and tweaking of this wonderful machine!

 

Those who have RAID, what options do you see in the BIOS? Can you do JBOD mode?

Edited to add:
I was wondering about my display on and off for a while. I posted about it here. I bought it like new from someone who got it from Hong Kong for someone and then their sister didn't like it and wanted a Mac.

I could see some sort of protective cover on my display and i thought that it may be the duraview coating. I was very very hesistant to start attempting to pull it of. Anyway I finally contacted the seller and asked them and they told me that they put a protective cover on the display lol. I won't remove it though as it means my display will remain like new.
May be my display is actually no different from all the other earlier TT models.

It is also most likely that i will try RAID.

 

thanks rachel for the links! i'm definitely looking into the used drive, though the new blu-ray player n570 is only $250, so i'm having a hard time justifying this purchase.

a quick question... you mentioned that i would have to get a bezel. my tt has a dvd burner built in... do you know of the top of your head if the bezels are compatible, i.e. no spare parts necessary... just swap out the drives?

guyyy -
congrats on your "bun in the oven." with these little humans, the disposable income for upgrading toys definitely shrinks. all the "spare time" now is spent on cat naps as well. no time. no money.

*this is me standing on a soapbox*
at the risk of getting off-topic, , apple, what is this ipad? i've been an apple fan ever since the days of mac IIe. we've got two macs at home, avid iphone user, but this ipad is hurting my head. everyone, i mean EVERYONE, is raving about this thing that's the best thing since sliced bread. is this really supposed to kill the netbook? really? the entry price is $500. $900 if you want gps. you can make a hackintosh at $300 and change. i don't understand, especially in this economic climate. get a front facing camera for skyping and multitasking, and now you have something semi-useful.
*** sorry all... i had to let it out, since the hype is at a fever-pitch right now.

 

If you look in the device manager you can find out for sure which drive you have.
These TT came with different drives. Sony used what looks to be Panasonic dvd drives in later models and NEC drives in earlier models. May be some later models use NEC drives also i don't know for certain.
If you have a Panasonic Mata....drive UJ862AS then it is a straight swap.
If you have one with a NEC AD-7910S drive then you'll need to buy a bezel from Sony parts as it won't fit the Panasonic Mata bluray drive.

 

Thanks buddy! Well, I do have to evaluate all future purchases, I think any further TT work is canned for now.

My M11X is pretty much maxed out, so nothing there. All I have is my HTC Shift, and that may be around $700 to upgrade in total. I have my girlfriends blessing on that one so it is all good.

The Ipad is a useless device to me. Some may have a use for it though. I like my HTC shift. I have an IPOD touch that is nice, but that is all I own from apple.

To stay on topic here, I had no idea Bezel's were so different. I have really come to love the TT it is my daily little workhorse and gets the job done!!

 

Someone who did the upgrade that had the NEC AD-XXXX drive could not use that bezel on the Bluray drive.

 

Understand that for the TT series SONY came up with >>

SU9300(1.2) > SU9400(1.4) > SU9600(1.6)

* As far as processing speed > would one notice any considerable difference among these 3 // and what about battery life >>

* For the ones that come with Vista32 is there anyway it could be upgrade to Vista64 ??

 

i have the tt230nb that has the su9300. i haven't compared my machine to an identical machine with a faster processor.

that said, i upgraded the standard hd with a fast ssd. that made the single most difference in speed. i also upgraded to win7 64bit, with the hope one day to upgrade my ram to 8gb.

i've been getting just under 6 hours on a single charge on power saver mode. i hope this info helps...

if i'm not very much mistaken, there is no way to upgrade from 32 to 64 bit OS without doing a clean install. vista to vista, vista to win7.

btw, does anyone know of a tt that had a su9300 that shipped with a blu-ray drive? i'm wondering if the processor is fast enough to decode blu-ray movies... i don't want to make the upgrade and find out my processor cannot keep up. that would make me sad...

thanks!

 

Yes, definitely powerful enough to run blu-ray discs. The previous TT came with pre-installed blu-ray players.

 

that's a goood news...i had a problem with the previouis TT-luckily not mine but but brpther

 

Mind me asking you what SSD did you go for >>

+++++

I think that the BLU-RAY was a CTO op-tion except for the huigh end models
although I am not 100./. sure

 

I would have to think that between the SU9300 and SU9600 there will be some small noticeable difference, but between the others I doubt it.

 

Hi Rachel, I also got my TT36GD several months ago. I want to add HDMI port as well. Could you tell me how to do it? And how much for that parts? Thank you!

 

Well I had to return a TT 290YBB I bought for a steal(the guy didn't like it) because of lots of marks in the screen most likely caused by exerting pressure on it

Now I going for a TT230.Although it doesn't come with a SSD(a slow 120GB HDD) plus SONY'S bloatware >> will upgrade later on for an INTEL x-25 G2 160 GB and do a Clean Install

 

Hey guys,

Is the TT still available to order? Seems like it has dropped off the Sony JP site now too - thought Japan was the only place with TTs, doesn't seem like it now.

 

USA is out >> also few options to buy online

 

Well, i didn't do it i got someone else to but i've opened the TT now and it doesn't look that hard to do. You need to remove the dial up modem and replace it with these parts.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6058029&postcount=1395

May be someone who has swapped the hdmi bracket/door will let you know that part.


Zimbros12, it is a shame that it never worked out.

I wonder if Sony will replace the TT now, i thought that they could possibly do what they did with the G series and just keep on updating the processor and chipset. I'm not sure if i can see them investing in this product now and coming out with a whole new design but you never know. If they do they could possibly come out with something much more budget friendly like the Vaio Y series. A more budget ultraportable doesn't really appeal to me although they are good bang for buck.

They have shortened the Sony Z height even more so making the difference smaller. I do love the 11.1 form factor though.
I've even used a 11.6 for a short while but i still prefer the 11.1 form factor.

 

I linked to the other thread in my previous post a few days back where two forum members that own a TT with a SU9300 upgraded to a BD drive. I'm also not aware of a model with a 1.2 processor that was sold as default but there might have been.

 

You need the X18-m for the TT. I did the upgrade (as did a few others here) and -- along with going to Windows 7 (64) and upgrading to 4gb ram -- it made an unbelievable difference in the speed/responsiveness of the machine.

 

Yes a 1.8 microsata or if they are stripped drives they would likely be called a uSata drive.

 

Got it.Tx LMS

 

Rachel I found a friend for the girl >

 

Looks like Sony NZ still advertise a VGNTT46GGB.

 

I've run WinDVD BD and PowerDVD 8 and 9 on my TT. Pretty well neck and neck featurewise and pic quality. The only thing I didn't like about WinDVD is it won't integrate with SonicStage Mastering Studio Audio Filter Effects, which I quite like and have continued to use since my first VAIO six years ago. Just trialling PowerDVD 10 atm and finding it excellent - it will run with and without hardware acceleration, cpu usage on either is about 16-25% while playing blu-ray. Will probably shell out the bucks for the standard version.

KJ

 

Same here - 11.1" works very well for me. The TT is my main day-to-day (portable) office and personal entertainment centre. Hoping to see a new T series with new chassis and backlit keyboard announced soon !

KJ

 

Thanks for the info. I saw PowerDVD 10 and some of the audio features advertised like the DTS-HD and Dolby True HD, which InterVideo WinDVD does not have, seem like a good thing. But in order to play Blu-ray from what the feature chart says on the Cyberlink website the Ultra version is required. I had searched and read reviews on this software and a lot of people were having problems with freezing issues and some Blu-ray disc compatibility issues. It's good to know this software is working well for you in the trial format but I didn't think the Blu-ray playback worked when using the trial mode.

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd/compare-retail_en_US.html

 

Thanks for that. Blu-ray works well with the trial version. No issues with freezing so far. However you are right re Blu-ray support only in the Ultra Version (which the trial version must be demonstrating). A good few extra dollars to spend over the standard version, but in balance will be worth it. I definitely prefer version 10 to 8 & 9.

KJ

 

I did the wireless 6200 upgrade today. It doesn't seem to want to work with smart network so i have to try and look for a smart network driver that will work. It still works though just not with smart network yet. It does appear though to give me a stronger signal using the same settings. It uses the same 2 antenna but may be it just a better card. I don't think the fact that it came out of a Dell and has a Dell part number would give me this problem with smart network. I used the S1 and VPCZ1 drivers as well but it didn't do any good. The latest TT drivers seem to use the same drivers anyway.
Oh well i hardly ever use smart network for my wifi so it is not a great loss.
I got the card from this seller.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150427323975&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
.............................
As i opened it again i thought i would show those who wanted to know where they need to press to open the casing from the front. Just push on that spot i circled with your thumb on both sides. Those who have never opened this before don't forget that you need to remove the express card slot screw as well.

Also, i provided a close up of the hdmi board and as i said before it really doesn't look hard to upgrade. It doesn't look like you'll need to take the motherboard out but i could be wrong on that.

 

hi rachel,
sorry to bring the thread back to the bd upgrade. you did a uj232a upgrade, yes? i've been reading the other thread, and someone mentioned a uj242a as a possible fit. have you come across anyone whose done this upgrade to a uj242a? i checked and i've got the panasonic dvd drive, so the logical thing to do is the uj232a, but i was just curious...
thanks.

 

I started a post about this here.
It seems that you might a problem with the bezel and pin out with the
UJ242A.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=468911
Yes i did to the UJ232A upgrade.


Edited to add:
In regards to the RAID i have bought both of those parts, the connector and the bracket. I have no intention on upgrading if i do for at least 5 months anyway. With a discontinued line it is sometimes good to get some spare parts while you can. I bought the bracket of ebay but i got the connector from Sony spareparts and will get a friend in the US to ship onto me.
Those who want to do this upgrade this is the parts that you need
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6124313&postcount=5

I also wrote some more about my experiences with the 6200 card here.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6118317&postcount=50

 

I need to remove the 6200 wifi card today. It is such a good card and i haven't experienced any drop outs. My laptop has started freezing though on some pages. I disabled the card and used wwan and everything was ok so i know it is the wifi card.
This card just doesn't want to play nice with my Sony software and W7. I tried the Dell drivers and it still happened. I don't know else to do other than to remove the card.
It is a real shame but i don't want to do damage to my laptop by having to power it down by keep on pressing on the power button. I've never had this particular freezing problem before.


Edited to add:
I swapped back now and the freezing problem has stopped on the website it was freezing before. Drivers auto installed and smart network as you would expect picked it up instantly. I'm not sure why it had an issue, i'll think i will stick with the 5100 card. It is a decent enough card and i prefer getting drop outs then have my computer freeze on me.

........................................................

I was using Windows default 5100 drivers and getting drop outs. I switched to using the updated W7 drivers for my model TT36GD and everything has been perfect since i used it.

 

Hi there,


Would it make sense to buy a Sony TT now? buying older technology? I just can't find a better 11" inch laptop with a better screen in this size class. I will be using this as my primary laptop, would the SU9600 be enough these days? I do multitask heavily. Are there any indication from Sony of releasing something similar soon? Most importantly, where can I buy a TT from?


Thank you

 

That's what we are all wondering about, whether Sony would release a new TT. If you are looking for an alternative, it would have to be the Sony Z series.

 

I would say there was no indication of a new model.

Conics.net have on their website that a TT new model is coming soon.
They haven't had any official confirmation from Sony and they are basing this on past refreshes. They don't know anymore than we know it seems.
I haven't seen anything more concrete relating to a replacement.
A forum member confirmed this in this thread, they emailed them to ask them to clarify what they meant.

One might well be coming as Sony just discontinued this in Japan and i5/i7UM processors/laptops will start to debut soon.

I own a TT with a 1.6 processor, what do you mean by heavy multitasking? If you mean surfing with multiple tabs open and doing office work with having a video/music going yes it can handle this. If you mean something please do clarify this.

Also, Sony NZ seem to be the only place i know that still sell a top end model. I have no idea where you live but may be try amazon, Sony outlet or the clearance club in the US. You might want to try notebook.de as well but then you would get a laptop with a German keyboard which may or may not be any good for you.

 

hi all,
i just found large capacity battery (the kind that sticks out) for the tt, refurbished for usd125. it's at sonystyle. it's way cheaper than anything i found on ebay. yes, it's refurb, but i don't know how much longer we'll be able to buy these things.
g13

 

Hello Guyyyy --

Is this the same RAM you got working with 8G in your TT?? I just wanted to make sure before i ordered it..

http://www.memorystore.com/product.asp?genid=2079

 

Good morning my VAIO TT friends. It looks like it's buying season on eBay as i've just acquired a NEW Gen2 Intel X18-M 160 for $325 !!! There are more on the site for between $325 and $350.

In case you didn't know it, those are awesome prices. And, it's a Gen2 so it supports the W7 Trim function.

Just a tip 'o the day for my VAIO friends.

And, no, i'm not one of the resellers of these drives.

 

congrats on your ssd purchase. i for one am waiting for the prices on the blu-ray burner to come down... right now it's usd300 on ebay. maybe i'll pull the trigger at around usd200?

i got a lenovo ssd (rebadged toshiba) and have been extremely happy! and i put my toshiba 1.8" drive on ebay.

 

The Sony TT is no longer available on the Sony UK website. I haven't checked the rest of the EU CTO websites.

I went ahead and bought another Samsung 128GB LOL. Can you tell that i like Samsung drives lol. I thought i might as well seeing as i'm getting the connector sent onto a friend in the US. I thought that i might as well get the SSD now for a decent price and get them to send everything to me together. It could be a good few months until i get the parts.

As i have one Samsung 128GB 220/200 1.8 drive i will have two in RAID 0 @256GB. If i don't like it i can always sell the parts on and i doubt i'll make a loss.

gologo1313 if you buy on ebay try and look out for a drive where you can get Square trade warranty at least.

 

Hi Rachel

Will be interested to hear how the RAID 0 goes, in particular the impact on boot-up times.

Slightly off topic, my first SSD failed this week, a 12 month old OCZ Vertex II 120GB 2.5" in a Shuttle Desktop PC. No longer recognized by the BIOS. It has a three year warranty but I hope it's not an endemic failure of these earlier gen units.

Interesting the TT's are now disappearing from Sony shop sites. If it becomes clear Sony is not going to continue the T series in high-end spec (Blu-Ray etc), I may look at buying a second TT as a backup/insurance. I do appreciate having a blu-ray optical drive in such a small form factor.

Just about to buy a couple of red Fujitsu Lifebook P3110's for my daughters on a run-out special, and while great value for money, nicely made and adequately powerful over an Atom based netbook, they are definitely not in the same class as a TT.

Kendall

 

Good deal! Mine cost close to $600 USD!

 

I got mine from mem-store on ebay.
I am not sure if they run that Web Site, but i know that the above is their username on Ebay.

Check em out, I highly reccomend them.

 

Hi everyone - been reading much of this thread, to see what was up. I got to the end of it last night.


A wee bit of information that you can skip over if it's too boring...

Several years ago I bought a used Sony PCG-TR3AP laptop, which seemed half the size of a normal laptop, but did everything I needed. It grew over the years, until it reached its limits - I had to get something with a bit more power, disk space, and speed, but I didn't want anything much bigger. I finally gave up, and settled for a Toshiba Satellite, which while quite nice, is big and heavy. I've tried to figure out a way to update the old Sony, but as far as I can tell, it can't be done. About a year ago I got more and more serious about finding a better laptop that fits my needs, but I couldn't find *anything* that I really liked.

Then, half a year ago, I found the absolute perfect Vaio for my needs. I couldn't find it on the internet, as it was a special model for Thailand, but apparently it was a TT series. I thought about buying it, but import duty into the USA would add too much. While I was still debating, it was sold, and they weren't getting any more of them. I remember thinking it was all no big deal, I could always get one other places in Asia, or from Sony when I got back home. The problem is, once I started looking around for a TT series, all I could find out was I was too late - they're discontinued, and nobody could help me get one. A few months later I left Asia to return to the US, and had more or less resigned myself to getting a Sony Z (too expensive, powerful, but too big) or the SR (also too big, and also too heavy). I had an overnight stop in HongKong, and happened to go to the airport electronics shop just to look around. Bingo - they also had this "perfect" laptop for me, a brand new TT. I was amazed - I told them that I was under the impression the TT was discontinued, but the sales person told me they had just gotten in a shipment, and it was "the latest model". I probably should have bought it on the spot, but I wanted to be sure before doing something like that - would it still have a warranty that's good in the US, and what if I had problems, and how about import duty... So, I was soon back home, looking around for a TT, finding nothing, and seeing if anything else would be satisfactory.

I often check the computer section at www.bhphotovideo.com just to see what's on special, and a week ago I found several new TT models listed - but all were sold out. Still, there was a link to Sony Style, and while these computers were no longer available from B&H, Sony Style had perhaps ten TT models for sale as "refurbs". I almost bought one that night, but decided I needed to wait until morning to make sure I was thinking clearly.


The next day, after an hour on the phone with a very nice lady at Sony Style, I purchased a VGN-TT190N laptop. It has a 64-gig solid state drive, and a 320 gig hard drive, with 3 gigs of RAM, and Windows Vista Business. Price was $1500, and it was bright red (not that I really cared about the color very much). It showed up a few days later, and while I'm still puzzled about several things, it is everything I had hoped for! It's the same size as my ancient Vaio, but with all the power I need. There's no CD/DVD, but where that should have been, there's a third USB connection. Apparently it's some kind of "custom", but I'm still trying to figure it out, and see how it differs from "stock".