Official Sony VAIO TT Series Owners Thread

With your 2 SAMSUNGS I wonder how battery life would be like >

 

I had to do a clean install and have yet to put the computer back properly but i will get round to looking at the power consumption/benchmarks probably tomorrow. I've got a number of things to install which is always a pain.

 

Would you mind posting back what numbers u getting >

 

Have any of you used Skype on a TT, with th video camera in use?

The reason I'm asking, as when I try this, I get an error message saying something about the Bluetooth server not running, but I don't understand why Skype or the camera are related to Bluetooth...

I did test out the camera, and it works perfectly with the utility on the TT to control it. I then tried this with Windows Messenger, and again everything worked fine.

Any suggestions on how to get the camera to work with Skype?

 

Skype works on my TT without problem. The camera appears in Skype as 'Sony Visual Communication Camera' (tools-options-video settings).

KJ

 

Battery life was not affected.

I'm not interested in RAID anymore though. The RAID failed yesterday and one of the new drives i bought is dead.
I don't know if it is was the drive or RAID but either way the drive does not work but the connector does so...
It was a complete waste of time.
Lucky i did a backup of my original drive and i put that back on my original SSD.
This RAID is just far too unreliable for me.
As the laptop was expecting RAID drives it took a while to sort out.

I'm even going to send that ram back as i'm unsure the voltages of that ram.

My keyboard also developed a problem. Not all the keys work. I looked at it and the connector is burnt. The keyboard connector is what goes into the sound board. I'm not 100% certain how it happened may be it was either the ram or RAID that did that or some other unrelated fluke caused by something else. I kept on powering of and on without logging of in test mode and may be that did it. I'm not a smoker and i never physically did that. I'm just glad it was not serious and the whole laptop didn't catch on fire.

Now i'll have to get a new keyboard.

Edited to add:
Now i've got that of my mind lol i might try again lol. One drive had TRIM/GC and my other G2 drive didn't, may be the combo didn't work so well together i don't know. May be i will do non-RAID mode. I need to think about it some more.

This was the before and after though.

 

wow, sorry for your loss Rachel :-(

 

I bet you were a happy camper with your 128GB SSD >>

 

Thanks

It is really strange. I can still use my laptop but have to cut and paste a few keys. Lol i'll get inventive at using the rest of the keys that are ok to come out alternate words.

The more i think about it the more i think it was the power button but i don't know for sure. I mean i looked at that connector after i did the RAID and it was perfect. Even up to last night it was ok. The paper that is on the keyboard ribbon is slightly burnt.

I think i will put thoughts about RAID on the back burner. I'm very busy right now doing postgraduate work. May be around 5 month from now i'll look at it again.

The SSD i bought is without doubt dead.

I'm going to send it away this week to have a new KB fitted.

My 128GB SSD is fine you're right zimbros12.

Edited to add:

I started a dedicated thread on this now

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-failed-keyboard-destroyed-what-happened.html

 

Although not a TT the camera on my TZ shows as SONY VISUAL COM. VGP-VCC7.It does not have
anything to do with BLUETOOTH.Do you get any error code when try to access SKYPE.

Try to unistall / reinstall SKYPE.

 

Thanks!!! I just went to TOOLS > OPTIONS > VIDEOSETTINGS and my setting was for "Bluetooth Video". I changed that to USB Video Device and everything was fine!

 

The sensor at the top right of the keyboard that measures ambient light and adjusts the screen brightness is a good way to save on battery life, but when the laptop is plugged into AC power, there's no need for that. Is there a way to tell the sensor to remain at a constant level while running on AC power (preferably something I can select) without constantly changing the screen brightness?

 

mine never got up and running after the ssd upgrade and a clean install of win7 64bit. most of the time, i'm plugged into the ac power, so i didn't need the autodimmer. it's actually not that much work to manually dim the screen in a dark room or when i need more power. that is one thing i'm not looking to correct...

 

I have usually have the sensor enabled - it's not perfect but it does a reasonable job at giving comfortable brightness over a wide range of ambient light conditions. When watching a Blu-ray or DVD movie, I like to have manual control - so I've programed S1 to toggle the auto-sensing.

KJ

 

Well my laptop has been picked up now. It is being sent to France where Sony International warranty division is. Up to now there service has been exceptional. I got a callback to arrange collection pretty much instantly. I also made contact with them through chat to report the incidence.

I sent it away with the SSD installed, BD drive, HDMI and wwan module lol. It is a little worry if all these parts might be returned to me if they say they find fault with any of them.
My laptop did not come with these upgrades.

I'm expecting to pay but if i don't i'm not grumbling lol.

I'm still very unsure about going for the RAID again.

It probably will be the only time i send this laptop to Sony. Once in over two yrs i've never had a repair job on my SZ.

I'm trying to get the ram i wanted now.

@ mikemyers you can turn of the auto brightness in the vaio control centre and use Vista's power management to manage your brightness levels.

 

So this seems to confirm what i was saying about Crucial/Micron ram.

I bought a 4GB Crucial module (it is soon to be 8GB and i'll sell of the 4GB that my notebook came with to recoup most of my costs)

On the front of the ram is this part
CT51264BC1067
PROVANTAGE: Crucial Technology Memory CT51264BC1067 4GB 204-Pin SODIMM, DDR3



If you turn it over you will see that it also has a Micron part number and you can get this ram on ebay for a pretty decent price.




By any chance does anyone own a Sony TT CTO with a 5300 Intel card model and if so do you know where the 3rd antenna is located? Sony don't always put the 3rd antenna in the bezel. I also do wonder about the power consumption though between these two Intel cards 5100 V 5300.

 

i just bought a bd drive on ebay! all said and done, it was under $200. it's a lenovo badged uj232a. lenovo part numbers are 42T2559 or 42t2604. once this gets here, i'll open the tt up for the drive swap and the ram module upgrade to give her the full 8gb. and that'll be it. i've flirted with the idea of 3g upgrade, but i've got an iphone with mywi and that does the job great. for free (or not anymore than i'm paying att for data for iphone).

 

Rachel, is the above RAM the same as Crucial was trying to tell me might not work in a TT:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Crucial again. At this time I can send you a link for 4GB modules. However we do not guarantee compatibility nor will we be responsible for any shipping costs, damage to the system or the memory failing in the system. Because the manufacturer themselves state that the system max is 4GB and you are going beyond that.

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspe...E=CT51264AC800

If you have further questions, please visit the Crucial Community at Memory upgrades, flash media, and usb storage at Crucial.com. For sales questions, try our online chat service at Memory upgrades from Crucial.com - Contact. Our hours are Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Mountain Time). At Crucial, we are committed to providing high-quality products and reliable service and support.

TINA BURNEY
Sales and Support Representative
-----------------------------------------------------------------

On your photos, it shows "CT51264BC1067.8SDA".
On the link they refer to, it seems to be: "CT51264AC800".

If so, as soon as I upgrade to Win7, I will be ordering from them.
If not, is the RAM you now have listed on the Crucial website?

 

golgo1313 you got a good deal there on that BD drive.


mikemyers, this is the ram on the Crucial website. The end numbers are not important.
CT51264BC1067 - 4GB, 204-pin SODIMM , DDR3 PC3-8500 from Crucial.comUS

You can get it cheaper if you search the web.

I'm still waiting for my TT to come back from service. They sent me an email that they have it last week Wednesday but they haven't contacted me again. That is a good sign lol. It seems to be five days turnaround when they have the item in stock.

Edited to add:
You will see that the Crucial ram i bought is effectively exactly the same ram that guyyyy bought for his TT.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6054874-post1394.html

I just got a call from Sony as well. What i gathered from the call is that they have fixed my keyboard and did something with my power button. Also, they said that they're waiting on some BIOS software that is only available to them or something. I said they can get it from the Sony website lol but they said that is not what they need.

 

RACHEL Did they let you know what caused the meltdown (sort of speak).

 

Apart from the discussion on activating or switching off the the light sensor of the TT it is obvious that the device has been placed in the wrong spot. Somewhere on the bezel of the screen itself would have been more logical. In the actual position it measures the light that falls upon the keyboard. And that amount or intensity can be very different from that falling upon the screen.

 

No and to know that it is getting fixed is enough for me at this stage.
I have to say that i'm impressed with the ISPR service and it will encourage me to buy more computers from overseas again. I just hope that it comes back with all my upgrades lol.
I'm sure there will be a report in the box and if i want to dig deeper and i can always mail them after i have it back.

 

Well at least after all u went through you are getting a good service >>
What upgrades are u talking about (RAID) ??

 

You are 100% right! My room light is mostly behind my left shoulder as I type, and the screen brightness flickers depending on where my fingers are as I'm typing (or not). Eventually I'll just turn it off, as was suggested a few responses back, but I haven't had a chance yet. I've got some other more important errors to try to track down first.

One is "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered." Sony told me to update the driver, but I haven't yet figured out which driver to download to fix this.

Another is "SBAMTray Application has stopped working".

I still can't get the computer to create the system disks, but I think Sony decided it's better for both of us for them to ship me a set of disks, than to re-image my hard drives. They say the disks are on the way, but I haven't found the tracking numbers yet - maybe tomorrow.

 

Are u getting a freebee >>

 

Hi Raquel,
That's good to learn from your experience. I got my TT from Conics and if something bad happens I have to send it back to Japan. When the warranty ends I will have to send it to European repair service. That is good to know that they repair Asian models.

 

About the 8Gb RAM.
Those who have made this upgrade, did you notice that time to hibernate increased ?
BTW did you buy 4Gb and add it to the original RAM or did you have to buy 2 x 4Gb to have the same ram ?

 

I guess so, but I don't see it as a "freebee". After spending hours on the phone with SonyStyle, and almost wrecking my TT with the "F10 problem" we agreed that the only way around things was to send my TT back to Sony to have them re-image the disks, which they would do under warranty.

I recently told them that it would cost them far less to just send me the disks, instead of shipping the computer all over and having them do a full re-imaging of everything.

I also suggested that with all the extra time this was going to take, maybe a better option would be to return the laptop permanently (which I'd never do - I like it too much).


Sony agreed with me, and I just got my new 3-disk set today for Windows Vista Business on the TT this morning.

(I don't see this as a "freebie"; the only thing it "saved" me is the cost of three DVDs, which is nothing. The TT was supposed to be able to create the disks, and something there isn't set properly - which I no longer need to worry about I guess.)

 

mikemyers, the problem you're having with the graphic card drivers i've also experienced this problem and i mentioned it earlier in this thread. I didn't though have it in Vista but i had it when i upgraded to W7. I'm surprised that you're dealing with this if your OS was installed by the Sony recovery discs.

It still happens to me in W7. I've have updated to the newest drivers. I'm going to do a clean install at some point.

zimbros12 i mentioned what i left in a couple of pages back.

 

Rachel, I only got the disks for "insurance" in case something goes wrong. The computer is still running on the operating system that came with it from Sony.

I'll try to upgrade the drivers this weekend as Sony suggested, but if you've already done that, and are still having problems, maybe this isn't going to fix anything for me. I think you're telling me you had no problems with Vista, and are now having problems with Win7, which makes me wonder if either of us has the best driver....

 

I also get the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error from time to time. It appears to only happen with Sony's customized driver (modified to enable the light sensor) - The latest generic Intel driver hasn't failed in the same way but of course the light sensor doesn't work. If there is a newer VAIO display driver, I've yet to find it.

KJ

 

Hello Zigomatic

of course the amount needed for hibernation increases in relation to the free memory you install. So the time for hibernation will increase too. The space reserved for hibernation equals the amount of free memory in your computer.

 

It is too soon to say if this has fixed my TT, but I haven't had the problem in several days now. I was told by a SonyStyle service tech to do the following:

a) go to Sony eSupport - VGN-TT190N - Software Updates & Drivers

b) scroll down and click the + sign before "Video"

c) install the "Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family Driver Update

 

hi all,
i just did the bd drive upgrade. i'm having problems burning on this drive using nero 10. is there a uj232a driver that i should specifically install? i let windows autodetect and install. maybe that is not enough?

i am able to read dvds, but not burn on dvd-r. i don't own a bluray movie, so i don't know about any of the bd features.

anyone have the same problem?
g13

***update
i feel stupid. one should always restart after installs... it works now.

 

Mike thanks for that, but that driver is for Vista 32bit. I checked for a W7 64bit driver but it is identical to what I have currently reinstalled (8.15.10.1872). The latest Intel generic driver is 8.15.10.2104. Hopefully Sony will get around to releasing new drivers soon.

KJ

 

I have a newer driver if you want. It's 8.15.10.1892.
Edit: The light sensor doesn't work

 

You know my laptop is still in service and i haven't heard from them since last Wednesday or Tuesday when i was told the software they need will be with them in one or two more days.

They have had my laptop since the 6th. I'm still trying to be patient. I really want it back by the end of next week.
It seemed like they already had the keyboard so i have no idea what they are doing.
I've called them but they never pick up the phone. It is in France right now as that is where the EU international repair laptops are sent to.

 

that sucks, rachel.

maybe there is a strike in france, again?

 

Thanks golgo1313 and zimbros12, hopefully i'll hear something by the end of next week. It will be pushing a month by then.
I couldn't find anything about a strike at the current that is going on in France.

 

......and?

 

Man, I wish Sony brought back the TT or refreshed it!!! It's such a great size and so powerful. I should've got one when I had the chance

 

hi all,
i'm just testing out the blu ray upgrade i just performed. i got a blu ray movie, but cannot seem to play it on windvd 10. any suggestions for programs that do work?

 

lol mikemyers, i still haven't got it back.

I started to complain and started calling the UK number and using my SZ details to get through to them.
I got put through to the service centre like 3 times and waited at least half an hour on the phone and they never picked up.
The UK branch sent them an email on my behalf and finally i got a call back a few days ago.

First they told me that they are waiting on some software which didn't make sense as i sent my recovery discs. I told them not to bother and just send it back and i would put the OS on it if that is what is holding it up for several weeks.

Then i got a call the next day informing me that they gave me the incorrect information and that the OS is fine but they are in fact waiting for the keyboard. They said that the service centre didn't have any in stock so i'm not sure where they are going to get mine from and how long i will need to wait.

I told them just put a UK keyboard on it if you can and send it back to me. They might not wish to do this though as these laptops came in one piece for the keyboard and top cover. I could be waiting a good few more weeks as i have no idea how they will track a top case for my laptop.

I was given though a website where i can track my laptop.
http://alsace.sony-europe.com

At least i know what is going on now.

golgo13, i think that the Win 10 is meant to be able to play BD movies? If so i'm not sure why you're having problems there.

 

hi rachel,
i'm sorry that you don't have your baby back...
i don't know why windvd10 doesn't work. i downloaded a trial version of powerdvd, and voila! it worked. i googled and it seems like a common issue, vaio, win7, and windvd10 doesn't seem to mix for whatever reason. i know blu ray on a 11 in screen is overkill, but boy does it look nice! i can't wait to hook it up to a bigger tv.
g13

 

It would probably cost you too much for shipping, but you can go to the SonyStyle website in the USA, then search for "TT refurb" and you will find several for sale, often at very good pricing.

 

Still three or four new TT's available on TradeMe:

TradeMe.co.nz - VAIO TT for sale, New Zealand

 

ebay is always an option.

 

Thanks guys for your feedback. Yes TradeMe in NZ is an option. I wonder how come some traders still have the TT in-stock as new? Has it just been sitting there for close to a year or is something going on - as in, refurbished? Hmmm...

I ask this because the TT line has been discontinued for quite awhile, especially the first gen.

 

Hard to say. The TT has never been a big seller in NZ according to my supplier - perhaps during a TT model refresh older stock was offered to resellers at good prices to help clear the decks (often happens). That one US model offered on trademe has been listed for quite a few months and could well be a 'refurb'. The others I would be very surprised if not factory new. You could always contact the retailer and see if a deal can be struck.