Official Sony VAIO TT Series Owners Thread

Downloaded a few but when I ran them the message "not intended for your model" came up

What is SPIC or SFEP?

 

SPIC = Sony Programmable I/o Controller
SFEP = Sony Firmware Extension Parser
One of them must have been installed, so you only have one unknown device.

 

Hi Rachel,
In post 1629, you mentionned a power draw measured with Ibatsat of 4 to 5 w. I do have a Sony TT 21WN U9400, 4GB DDR3, 256GB SSD. Blu ray Drive W7 64bit. All drivers installed well, power saver mode, grahics set to economy, silent mode in vaio control center, brightness at 2d level... I could never go under 10w with wifi browsing this forum !
Any ideas where I could look at ? What did you mean with clean install beacause of aero settings...
Thanks
Stephane

 

Thanks. I went through a couple of sites and tried drivers off them and they weren`t correct. I eventually found this site: Windows 7 Individual Drivers and Utilities : Sony Australia

and the drivers work for my model. So TT35GN drivers work for TT90S.

I`ve now got the S1 special button working along with the vol up and down, eject special button and mute. Actually the vol buttons and the mute worked before but now they show up on screen in a little diaply that shows volume level and the eject symbol etc.

The ambient light sensor works as well. So that should be it. I`m really happy actually. I usually expect to spend many hours configuring imported laptops and this hasn`t taken as long, or been as painful. Thanks heaps to everyone on this forum for the assistance too.

 

We should be able to get very similar results.
All that i do there that you never listed was using Firefox and No Script and ad block plus with the BD and WWAN of.
I also as i mentioned have the wireless adapter settings to meduim for transmit power and roaming.
I also turn the ambient sensor of as personally i think it might draw a bit of power.
I posted what i get at idle 4.x, i think it went up 5.x browsing with FF this website. I don't turn the AERO of. There was a setting with the batt stat software that controlled AERO. I think in power saver W7 software might tweak the AERO software a bit, i'm not sure.

I can't remember if i linked to it in that post but to get this at idle must suggest those figures. I don't want to download it again as when i did last time i got an 1hr or so knocked of my start up time and i did a clean install, may be i checked a setting i shouldn't have. I see that everyone else that uses it did not have this issue.
This was with my single 128gb and 4gb of ram but my upgrades haven't degraded my battery life.


That is a lot of battery life to drain lol but i have tested it to the extent that i could and my rate of draw was very low as after about 1h-2hrs i was still showing 10hrs+ on the clock. I have it capped at 50% now and have no battery wear and have the standard battery.

59.5/4.5.5w=13hrs 07 mins approx.



This is what i was getting when i did my RAID upgrade.

 

Do you think newer/different drivers could somehow improve battery life?

 

I doubt it; in one of my earlier posts when i was using the mechnical drive i was getting 12hrs 10 mins at startup with AERO of. Now i don't turn of AERO of and get more over 13hrs with AERO on with an SSD.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/5495472-post1091.html

The SSD has seemed to have helped my battery life.

 

I would like SSD for its speed and battery life advantages, but the price and the fact I am happy with the HD that came standard in my TT are what stops me. I am pretty amazed how you can get 13+ hours when I can only get 7.5 hours using similar battery saving measures. Man that be pretty sweet getting ~ 6 hours when using the super battery(50% max charge) care function.

 

What settings do you use?
I noted in that post i linked to above that i when i first got my TT i was getting 7+hrs max at startup.
It is putting my laptop into silent mode that increased my battery life and putting the Intel GMA drivers to max power saver settings.
Using the silent mode boosted my battery life a lot.
Of course if you're using IE without a flashblock and browse a lot and get about 8hrs that is good or if you get that idle then it seems to that you could get a lot more by changing your settings.

Once again these are my settings
silent mode
power saver mode
Intel GMA drivers in max power saving.
Ambient sensor of
WWAN of
BT of
Wifi on
about 30% display or may be just under.
BD of.
wifi card set for roaming and transmit power to medium.
In the power saver settings for W7 i also have my wifi set to max power saver settings.

If you use those above settings what battery life do you get at idle?

 

Rachel, I did test with the same settings but could not come under 9-10w with firefox, flashblock...

I did silent mode
I did power saver mode
I did Intel GMA drivers in max power saving.
I did Ambient sensor of
I did WWAN of
I did BT of
I did Wifi on
about 10% display (it is dark home)
I did BD of.
wifi card set for roaming and transmit power to medium.
I did In the power saver settings for W7 i also have my wifi set to max power saver settings.

Where do you find this one : wifi card set for roaming and transmit power to medium.

Also, letting all the settings as you have done but just switching to full power plan when on charge, and brightness to full, what is your consumption ? I get 16w.

May I should redo a clean install but I do not see why...

 

What are your idles times like at a 100% full battery and just letting the computer sit in idle?
Like i said after i closed that battstat and went to use it again my battery life appeared to drop so i did a clean install which took some time so i won't download it again.
Of course plugged in my power draw spiked.
My processor and they all should be the same has a lower VID lower than stated. I'm not sure why my battery life is so good. Anyway, i'm throughly happy with it lol.
The wifi card settings are in the networking centre.
Also, i'm not sure what processes you have running but i stopped some in misconfig and the services and have about 52 processes running at startup and have no anti-virus.

 

I have downloaded the ibattstat again last time i clicked the yes button to let it read my temps. May be this is what caused my issue as it was in my registry. Anyway, i'm charging my battery now and i'll edit in my findings.

Ok i tried it again and had better results. I think this 256GB SSD is slightly more power conservative than the 128GB i owned. I also removed a 4GB module to make the tests the same as before as much as possible.

...............
edited to add:

I let my laptop sit idle first until i get a time to come up. It way over 14hrs this time. I then run the batt stat app. The batt stat app is out of sync with my windows predicted tme. My Windows time predicts me more so this is probably where the mix up happened before. It looks like it was controlling my settings.

I let it sit on the forum review website with my screen on for about 5mins and it never went higher than 5w.

 

I have checked again and I had one server utility running (air mouse for iphone...) I killed it, checked the services (about 70) and I have Avast running in resident. In the vaio control center, I have switch charge battery from quick to standard.
I waited till the battery was 100% charged and I am now running for 2.5 hours in surfing the web, forums, 4 or 5 tabs... with Chrome and Flashblock : remains 77%. Right now, consumption in Ibattstat is 4,9w
It is more than enough for me. I am now happy. Thanks for your info Rachel

 

sdnv that's great, so it is all sorted out now. 4.9w is excellent for what you have running. I posted some images in my post and got it as low as 4.2w.

 

I don't see roaming and transmit power for wifi?

 

Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections
Then click on your wireless connection and right click on proprties
Then go to the advanced mode tab at the top.

 

Thank you. I noticed that the settings are universal and no option for battery vs plugged in. Less of a battery question and more wireless related though; but, I don't have a wireless router(or anything for that matter) that supports the N standard. Should I have 802.11n mode on enabled(which it currently is at), or should I disable it? What about the Intel wireless pro settings, does enabling it some how improve, or make connections faster/stronger? Because, I noticed I have an option under the router properties in windows that says enable Intel connection setting, and when enabled it gives me the config options of the Intel Wireless pro.

 

I wonder why i get this instead VGN-TZ
It only shows my 3G

 

Is this Windows Classic on W7 or XP? I can't remember about XP now but it should be the same. If it is not change the interface back to W7 standard theme and try.
You could be able to get to your network centre by right clicking your wireless icon in your task bar.

 

Yes it was Classic on W7.Changed to W7 as well as W7 Basic and still the same i.e 3G only.
-->> Opened Network Center and got this >>>

So which values for Roaming/Transmit power if that is it.
\
\
Tx

 

I kind have been thinking about going touch screen, and wanted to know if it is possible to add one without loosing the quality, and everything else I am use to.

 

@zimbros12 i put both settings on medium.

 

Tx.will change both to medium and see if there is any gain.

 

Hi guys, just got myself a vaio TT15GN and i was reading somewhere that you can actually replace the dial-up modem with a HDMI port? Can someone please provide me a step-by-step DIY guide for this? Thanks in advance!

 

Have a read of my post here. The FPC cable is the correct part that i gave. Having seen the exploding parts breakdown i can confirm that. It is not hard to do and actually you won't need to completely dismantle all of your laptop although you'll need to remove the top case. The FPC cable if yours is FPC 141 that that appears to be the same one you need for the HDMI port. If you don't have that you need to buy it and the HDMI part which you can get from sparepartswarehouse or through Sony direct in the US.

You might want to change the modem door to the hdmi one but they are exactly the same apart for one has the hdmi logo or whatever on it and the modem one doesn't.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6058029-post1395.html

edited to add:
It's actually being sold on ebay right now both parts.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-Vaio-VGN...s_LaptopCables_Connectors&hash=item3a5d8af63f

 

Thanks for the quick reply Rachel. Any idea where i can find the English dis-assembly guide for the TT, other than the japanese one in this forum?

EDIT: Just bought the HDMI part off eBay, let's see how that goes. One more question, where can i get a compatible HDMI driver for my TT15gn?

 

I have my TT for 3 yrs now, and battery has dropped from 4 green dots to 3 green dots which is still rated as good. I use 80% charge and unplugged when on line till it needs charging. I run linux debian squeeze which runs quite hot sometimes (70c). Recently, I came back to windows vista business which allows me to control power and temperature better.

So, what do you all run it at?

Is there any benefits or penalties running at 50% and plugged in all the time?

 

spartacus_ck just use the drivers from a EU model or a US model.
It's really quite straight forward.
That guide you can translate it through google as you probably know.
Really you don't need to read the instructions i never did, the pictures give you a very good idea of what to do.

Just remove the top case from the front two tabs by the sides.
Also, make sure that you remove the silver accents and remove the expresscard holder and screw.

A seller on ebay has translated the one that is linked and you could buy that of them if you wanted.


tz300, i'm surprised that the TT has been out 3 years. It was released towards the end of 2008 i think or i could be wrong. The oldest models should be about 2 years old now or coming up to it.

For optinum battery life tips leaving your battery capped at 50% is better than capping it at 80%. The best battery life tips is actually to take your battery out at 40% and store it if you're not using it and capping it at 50% comes quite close to that. I leave my at 50% if i'm not using it.
Also, charging it to 80% is good also. I just charge mine to 100% if i'm going to use it because well i want max battery life.

My SZ will be three years old this April and my battery still has 0% wear and i switched about a year or so to capping it at 50% so it worked well for me on my SZ so i'll do the same with my TT.

 

Yeah I have been pretty much capping mines a 50% since I purchased it last year. And when I do need more/longer battery I cap it at 80%(unless I know I am going to need the extra 20% of battery life).

 

My apologies. It is indeed 2 years since I had it. It came to Canada in Sept 08. Anyway, thanks for advice about 50%.

 

Some bedtime reading on the subject: How to prolong lithium-based batteries

 

Can someone tell me what they typically use the "S1" and "S2" buttons for? Can they be programmed to do anything you might want them to do?

 

My TT has only S1 (if there is an S2 I haven't found it yet!). I use it to toggle the Autobrightness (ambient light sensor) on/off.

There looks to be reasonable flexibility with assigning function in the VAIO Control Centre.

KJ

 

I'm running my TT with 8GB RAM now, but it sure doesn't feel like it. My WEI only went from 4.7 to 4.8 after i upgraded my RAM, any reason for this? Could it have something to do with my HDD seeing as I'm still using the 5400rpm HDD? Do i need to upgrade to an SSD to feel the speed difference?

 

I get 4.9 for memory so basically the same. You'll only feel the difference probably depending on what tasks you do. If you use very memory resource hungry software then you would probably notice it more. For speed go for an SSD. Once you're at 4GB you probably won't difference for general tasks.
I went for 8GB although i was ok with 6GB so that i wouldn't need to open my laptop again if i changed my mind down the line.
I have a SSD also and that really makes the biggest change.
I have 8GB 1066mhz ram but it runs at 800mhz.

Btw, with 8GB i have 209GB HD space left and with 4GB i have 219GB. The extra HD space is being used somewhere.

 

Yea, i had the same thought as you, that's why i decided to just go for an 8GB upgrade to save the hassle of re-opening my laptop again. Planning to upgrade to the Intel X18-M SSD cause it seems to be the best choice ATM, unless you have another brand to recommend?

 

The Vertex 2 drives are meant to be the best.
Scan.co.uk: 120GB SSD OCZ Technology Vertex 2 Solid State Drive - OCZSSD1-2VTX120G

What we read though about the 2.5 we have to base on the 1.8 variants. I wish review sites would actually review the 1.8 drives so we could see what the best is power consumption wise. 1.8 drives can have lower power consumption than the 2.5 variants sometimes.

 

At the front right, I have four buttons, "mute", "volume control", "S1", and "S2". I pressed "S1" and it wanted to run something - before I go ahead and do so, is there a way to find out what the button might already be programmed to do?

It makes sense to me that the button wants to run a program that sets up what happens when I press it in the future - but it didn't say that. For all I know right now, it might want to do something that I wouldn't have wanted to do.... Any advice here?



One other question - I've been thinking of getting a docking station. Do any of you have one, and have you found it to be useful? If so, any good advice on where to find one in the USA?

 

Hi. So I took my second stab at buying at Vaio TT and found a like-new one with a 1.6 ghz, bluray, 4gb ram. Its set to arrive this Friday so I am anxiously waiting. Need to upgrade the hdd to ssd and was wondering which of the following two options people would recommend?

1. Intel X18-m 80 gb generation 2
2. Samsung 128gb microsata generation 2

I heard that the Intel x18-m was a bit faster for launching applications. But the extra storage would not be bad. My budget is around $250 so I would be open to other suggestions. Thanks.

 

OK, looks like you have an S2 instead of the 'eject' button for an optical drive?

Re assigned functions for the special buttons, I don't recall if my S1 button had any function assigned 'out of the box' or not. What does the VAIO Control Centre tell you about assignment ('Special Buttons' icon)?

KJ

 

Thanks; yes, my TT does not have a CD/DVD drive; instead it has an extra hard drive. On the right side, where the CD/DVD might go, it has a third USB connection.

VAIO Control Center, "Special Buttons" shows two things listed under it:
Document Zoom
S-Button

Under S-Button I find where I can set the functions for S1 and S2.
Thank you for your help - question answered!



I have another question. I've got a Sony DCR-H30E PAL video camera with a Firewire connection. When I connect it to my desktop using the 4-pin (for camera) and 6-pin (to computer) everything works fine. When I use my 4-pin to 4-pin firewire cable and plug it into the TT, nothing happens. I thought it might have been a bad cable, but when I got a new one, that didn't work either.

On the TT, how do you "see" if the Firewire port is available, and/or if it is doing anything? Is there some "trick" you need to do to bring it to life? I've got Win-7 on the desktop, and Win-Vista-Business on the TT, but that shouldn't be the issue, as a friend's laptop with Win-XP did recognize the camera when I connected it.

I called Sony today, and the person at the other end of the phone first said I needed to download a driver, but then couldn't find a driver for me to download. I was told that I might have to re-install the operating system, which I highly doubt. There is probably some "trick" that I have to do in order to get this to work, but right now I have no ideas on how to even find the firewire port from Device Manager.

 

Mike: I don't have a 6 to 4 wire Firewire lead to try but I'm curious so will track one down and experiment. The interface appears (IEEE 1934) in the Device Manager sure enough (see attached image) - Windows 7.

 

If I understand any of this, the small connector (as found on a laptop or Sony digital camera) is a "4-pin". The "6-pin" connector is many times larger.

So, connecting a Sony digital camcorder to a Sony TT means 4-pin to 4-pin.

Connecting the camera to a desktop would be 4-pin to 6-pin.



Any of you have a Sony digital video camera with firewire connector that you can plug into a TT?

 

I don't, but I do have a long forgotten external HDD that has the larger Firewire socket, so I need a 6 pin to 4 pin cable to connect to the TT.

KJ

 

Hi - not sure if this is the right place, but here goes :-D

I just upgraded my TT from Vista to W7. All seems OK except I've lost the S1 functionality and the autodim. Googling directs me to the VAIO Control Center but when I go there, I only have two options - System Information and Network Connections. The other options - such as Display just don't appear.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled VCC from the Sony website but it's made no difference. Any thoughts?

 

Sonia - been awhile since I did my Win 7 install so the details are getting lost in the mists... There are various VAIO support drivers/apps/utilties that are required. For further info you could try these threads:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-vista-windows-7-install-procedure.html#links

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/344262-windows-7-vaio-tt.html

Hope they help.

KJ

 

I tried google, but it was no real help. Is there anyway I can download the Vaio Content Monitor Settings? Because, I am trying to config Vaio Media Plus, but I can't. Says Vaio Content Monitor Setting could not be started when I try set folder to monitor.

I may have found what I am looking for, but it is for the Vaio FW and W7 64bt, and I am running 32bit version of W7.

 

Or a link to the full install of Vaio Plus would be nice. Thank you.

 

go back to around page 160 of this thread which is where i started posting about my win 7 install. From memory it wasn`t the VCC as that worked with the same limited options as you`re seeing at the start for me. It was the shared library and SPEC or what ever they were called drivers that got them working for me (after some restarts)

 

I will add: to get the ambient light sensor working, one needs the Sony Win 7 version of the Intel Graphics Driver - the stock drivers from Microsoft Update or Intel's website will not enable the sensor.

KJ