Official Sony Vaio CW Core 2 Duo Series Owner's Thread

ITs the bestbuy asus g60vx gaming laptop with GTX 260 video card.

 

You guys are having trouble picking between the CW and other brands, meanwhile I am having trouble deciding between the CW and the NW. I want a bigger screen size, but the NW doesn't look as good as the CW... I am just worried about the screen being too small. I am so used to my 15.4 inch.

 

Thanks all for the valuable opinion, without you I could not have made a decision.....after watching this trailer

http://www.modernwarfare2.com/games.php#/videos?id=8

I just can not bear the thought of buying a CW with GT 230 and looking at other people with GTX 260M video card......so I got the bestbuy Asus G60VX

 

I was wondering if someone knows where i can get the red vaio wallpaper they have pictured with the CW red colour. its really nice but i cant find the red wallpaper anywhere.the CW i saw instores had locked most things like accessing my comp, control panel and right clicking for display options and stuff so i cant check. If its something they cant answer they sign on to the admin user and all features are there for regular usage so you can check out yourself. thanks in advance

 

Got my CW yesterday, but didn't get a chance to play around^^ because of midterm. now i have time.
Add another satisfied user^^ (at least so far)

i'm a canadian so i got it from futureshop
T6600, Gforce 210m, 4gb ram, 320gb

btw, to the people who are debating between hp dm3, and viao cw, i was one of you guys and here is my take. (remember it's my PERSONAL VIEW)

I went to bestbuy and play dm3z (amd L335) and i really like the design and the look, but the thing stops me to buy is the heat, vibration and touchpad. heat to me is not acceptable, although a lot of dm3 people said it's not, but i just can feel the heat in a short amount of time with light usage. vibration from the dm3 itself, hard drive maybe. touchpad is just not good for my sweating figner. lol

so i end up with cw, and i really like it so far, during the normal useage, it didn't heat up and you hardly notice the heat. i'm buring my recovery disc while typing, and this is the first time i feel the heat.

so yeah, so far so good

 

anyone can help me ?

FAN in a original w7 sony is always on ? i need to know to understand if i've not installed something ...thanks

 

Sites down for me too. Realy annoying because planned to order this weekend and the CPU offer ends on the 9th.

Seems ok when you select other vaio laptops though.

 

New here...Great forum!

Just ordered a red 2.13GHz 4GB RAM 320GB HDD, together with a red bag and red BT mouse, from SonyStyle, to offer as a Xmas present for my wife.

Boy, am I going to get lucky...

I want to immediately upgrade the RAM to a 4GB+2GB configuration in order to take advantage of the 64-bit architecture plus W7 64bit-ready OS installed in the laptop.

Can someone point me to 3rd party 4GB Simms appropriate for this laptop?

TIA

LK

 

Here are a couple of articles I found from the Sonystyle Knowledge Base. Please let us know if any of these help:

How to adjust the fan speed settings using the VAIO Power Management utility.
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/..._1_1&dialogID=143712092&stateId=0 0 143710595

How to adjust the PowerPanel™ profile to decrease fan noise on the computer.
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/..._1_1&dialogID=143712208&stateId=0 0 143710849

 

Congrats!! Nice that you could find an excuse to by yourself, I mean your wife a new computer!!

I'd recommend trying http://www.crucial.com/ (Micron Technology, Inc.), they are one of the largest suppliers/makers of RAM. I know at one point all Dell computers used their RAM. I've purchased from them many times over the years. Usually you can just pick the PC manufacturer (Sony) on their home page and then drill down to your specific model, but since this CW is so new, it isn't listed. But they have a "Scan My System" tool on the Homepage that verifies the existing RAM on your system and offer RAM purchase choices.
Hope that helps

 

Also here is a link to the User Guide which provides instructions for replacing the RAM:

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/VPCCW10_series.pdf

 

Awesome...glad you were able to decide...how do you like it so far? It sure has a nice looking case, like the blue color. Is there for a forum for it on here? I noticed it has a whopping 1 1/2 hours of battery life...I guess where it goes so does the power cord

 

Several pages back in this thread, I posted pics of the 2 x 2 simms in my system. that might help you determine what you need.

 

I've been travelling and out of touch with this forum for most of the week, but I've seen some posts directed towards me, so I will try to catch up today. If I miss you please let me know.

I'm off to do some testing on the large battery duration...

 

Does the CW come with Sony vegas? My friend wants to know and I am not getting mine for about 2 weeks.

 

Extreme battery test (large capacity battery):

I just played GTA 4 solely on battery power. From 100% to when it went into hibernate at 2%, it lasted 1:42. This was with the default balanced power settings. For those that are not familiar, GTA 4 pegs CPU and GPU usage so this would be considered an extreme test. The fan ran constantly during this test, but the unit did not feel hot at all.

Overall, I think that is reasonable performance, considering the demands this test put on the battery.

I'll try testing in other normal modes next.

 

Here is a list of CW programs installed, per this older post:

 

Thanks for doing that!

 

I had a look at one of these in sony centre today and really liked it, but the salesman didn't seem to think it can do surround sound

Can anyone confirm once and for all if you can get surround sound out from the HDMI port? Also does it automatically switch to HDMI sound when you plug it in or require messing with settings every time?

I want to use it as a htpc so no surround is a deal breaker for me.

If all's good I just need to decide between the standard P7450 230m model for £650 or an upgraded P8700 for £740 (if the customize option on the sony uk site ever gets fixed).

 

i_am_jon - If the customise option gets fixed before the 9th you would get a free upgrade from the P7450 to the P8700! This was a real deal-swinger for me and i am gutted at the problem with the customise option!! The french website is fine!
Bets on the CW re-appearing for customization mysteriously after the 9th of Nov...?

 

seriously ?! i cant believe i payed that extra £120

 

is his deal for the free upgrade to the P8700 available in america?

Has anyone got any updates on any deals or discounts on the CW?

 

doubt it considering prices in a america are like 40% cheaper than in the uk lol -.-

 

Anyone managed to connect CW to external TV/screen?

I like my wife's CW so much (except maybe screen resolution..) that I want to buy 2nd one for myself. I'm not sure if I should take blueray version, people reported problems when connecting to external TV and no one reported that it actually works.

Please post if it works for you, especially if it works with non SONY TV (which was suspected problem)
Thanks

 

I've connected my CW to my Samsung TV once and it worked like a charm (even audio). I did not even have to change the resolution. It automatically set it for 1080p. So it works for me at least

 

Got my sexy beast finally. Quick question about recovery discs...I wanna drop another hard drive in my notebook and it already has 2 different partitions...can I use the recovery discs to install only on ONE of those partitions (the primary one)? I'm paranoid cause I feel like the recovery discs would wipe out both partitions.

 

OK , i don't own a CW but have been watching this thread for some time now. I went to check out CW at the BestBuy store today here at Columbus, the Wifi card is Atheros! Since I have a 5GHZ N router which I love, Atheros is a deal breaker.

So any of you owners out there who bought CW from SonyStyle.com can you check if your WiFi card is Intel or Atheros ?

I hope its Intel, because that's what the customization screen shows at SonyStyle.com.

BTW, the white one is simply....sexy !

 

The Red CTO CW has arrived to me, too (took less than 6 days from the order, I am impressed). Here is my configuration
Fiery Red
C2D P8700
4Gb RAM
500Gig 5400RPM HDD
GT230
Win7 Pro/Fresh Start
Blu-Ray ROM
For the total of 1000$, after educational discount and before the tax.

Now, here's my impression
Build Quality - very good, especially for the price. No complaint here, and it looks great, too!
Screen - At first I was unimpressed. Then, I noticed it looks much better when I tilt LCD backward - apparently, this LCD is made to be seen from slightly below. I've never used a laptop with LCD like this before.
Sound - It is very quiet. Speaker is not so good, but that is to be expected.
Network - It comes with Intel 5100AGN, so far it is working well
Bloatware - Since I got fresh start, I got very little bloatwares. I only uninstalled google toolbar. BTW, the default browser is Chrome.
Keyboard - Its pretty good. However, I do wish if I could have full size arrow keys and dedicated volume keys.

BTW, for some reasons, there is no Vaio red wallpaper included. I am disappointed about this.

 

Here is a post of someone else doing surround sound...

 

I think this might answer your question Sony's KB:

How to perform a system recovery using Recovery Discs.

http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/...ES_1_1&dialogID=59102117&stateId=1 0 59100622

 

This is all the info I could find...maybe after the 14th they will offer the free CPU upgrade...

 

That is sweet, how did you manage to get educational discount? Do you have to prove them that you are a student somewhere?

 

How do you like it so far, is it fast, how is it configured and what sexy color is it!!!??

 

I didn't have to prove anything. You can select your institution from the list of schools. Oddly enough, they didn't have my university on the list (and I am in the large state university, whose campus store sells Sony laptops), so I had to select "others". But they didn't give me any problems. (OK, maybe they checked that my address is a graduate residence, but I doubt it )

 

ha ha awesome ! thanks gonna try that out and see how much i save

 

For the education discount use http://www.sonystyle.com/campus
It comes to about a 5% savings...here is the screen you see at checkout, notice that it asks for school info on the bottom left:

 

Thanks! I am getting a $50 discount over a $999 config, using my school name. Any rumors if there are going to be any further discounts for thanks giving? Specially discounts at SonyStyle.com ?

 

well I wanted to get the same EXACT specs as Woodgypsy and i was planning to order the laptop early since all these discounts are available, i just want to make sure, if you use the student discount can you use any other type of discount? since im in UK and are planning to get this from the US ill just use a friends school name, all you need is the school name right? i was hoping to add on 2 yr ADH warranty and use the $200 ecoupoun since this warranty costs only $249 and keep my whole total uncle 1100.

Im happy this comes with Int'l warranty but i dont know if the 2yr ADH warranty is eligible for international or the international warranty is separate.If anyone has any experience with Sony ADH warranty please let me know how they follow through with their warranty. Some companies have certain limits, a computer can be fix for (--) amount of times for this issues, spillage x2 , full unrepairable damage 1 times and etc.

 

This may give a little hint of what's coming this year for Black Friday (27th), by looking at Black Friday 2008:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4715

 

well Im looking for the same Red Vaio wallpaper that they have shown on SS sites with the CW if someone can find that please post it up, ill search for it and be on the look out. i found these few, you can search on deviantart.com for wallpapers, VAIO and red wallpapers, unfortunately my laptop is dead so im using other peoples computers otherwise i would make VAIO wallpapers for our fellow members here.
http://xbmwx.deviantart.com/art/Vaio-RED-Wallpaper-78813907
http://xbmwx.deviantart.com/art/Vaio-RED-2-Wallpaper-78814104

 

@ scottybgood - thanks man !! wow the sony cs and fw deals were awesome last year. Wish they repeat the same this year I am gonna wait now !

 

My initial impressions so far:

Specs: P8700, 4GB RAM, 230M, 500GB 7200RPM, Intel 5100, Blu-ray. Ordered the white CTO model from Sony Style for a final price of $994.

The notebook has a very appealing slick look. It runs VERY quiet and cool surprisingly. The keyboard takes a little getting used to but is very nice to type on. Now a quick word on the downsides...I'm not a fan of the screen at all. Going from my nice NP2096 screen to this was a huge disappointment. It's not AWFUL but the colors aren't as vivid and crisp as I'm used to. I may need to do some tweaking. Also, the build quality is rather average. Feels kinda cheap, at least compared to my NP2096 which was built like a tank.

Also, having some major issue with the recovery of my hard drive. I popped in a 500GB hard drive from my NP2096 and proceeded to use the recovery discs. When I click on restore C:, an error message pops up and says the program can't find a recovery letter and I have to reformat my entire drive (which would lose my other partition with a LOT of files). So now I'm just backing up my 2nd partition and then I'll go ahead and do the complete system recovery. Not too big of a deal, but more work on my part.

 

Maybe VAIO CW is a very good series of laptop, I've heard people praise it so much, I love it too, but will Sony release Core i7 VAIO in the future?

 

Everyone is talking about possible Black Friday price drops and discounts.

I am wondering how this plays into Sony's 30 days price guarantee. Sony Style website says that if the price drops within 30 days of your purchase, or if you find it cheaper at a Sony authorized reseller they will match that price.

Therefore, if Sony offers 250 off (or something similar) on the CW's for Black Friday, couldn't someone who purchased in the last month request that they apply the same discount to their previously bought laptop. (If they bought it less than 30 days prior) ?

 

Probably not, because of it's power consumption (and related heat) it's not a CPU for small factor mobile laptops. It's aimed for DTRs. Core i5 is coming in January I think, should be more power efficient solution and MAYBE it will be used in some future versions of CW (or similar). Or maybe not

 

I think it is a definitely possiblity of CW with an i7 Processor...the Dell Studio 15 has been out with it for a month or two and it weighs only 5.5 lbs with a 15" screen, so it isn't much bigger than the CW:

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/note...fid=laptop-studio-1555&s=dhs&cs=19&redirect=1

 

Too bad, but according to the details of the Price Assurance program, it looks like the Thanksgiving weekend is excluded. BUT the fact that they say it will exclude that weekend presupposes that they plan to offer discounts that weekend !!! Also I noticed that it also doesn't apply to CTO computers, which is how I plan to purchase mine.

Price Assurance Policy.

If you have already purchased a product from Sony Style and find a lower price for that exact same product at any Sony Style venue or Sony authorized reseller within 30 days, contact the Sony Style location where you purchased the product and we will refund you the difference.

If you are ready to purchase a Sony product and find that exact same product in-stock and advertised at a lower price at any Sony Style venue or Sony authorized reseller let us know and we'll offer you a similar price.

Just provide us the proof of price while that price is in effect to get an adjustment.

Exclusions:
Sony Style Purchase Assurance does not apply to prices offered by internet-only resellers. The policy does not apply Thursday through Monday of Thanksgiving weekend, gift with purchase offers (including gift cards), limited-availability items, open-box items, clearance items, outlet items, web-only offers, mail-in offers, financing, services, bundle offers or pricing errors. Pricing policy does not apply to configure-to-order computers, game titles, music, movies, and non-Sony branded product.

 

Wow...I put in a nano receiver for my wireless mouse into one of the USB ports and it got stuck. No amount of pulling helped at all...I had to resort to using tools and completely messed up my receiver. I STILL can't get it out. This is just ridiculous.