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

To whomever was asking for the way to turn off auto color-change

Open Vaio Control Center
Go to Display/Color mode setting
Select "select from following color mode" and "do not apply color mode"

The worst "feature" ever, IMO. I don't even know why they put it in the first place.

I am afraid that all laptops suffer from some degrees of battery drain. The problem is, like almost every other electronics nowadays, laptops never truly turn off, as long as they have access to some power sources. They keep using up powers. Of course, that is how Windows (or ethernet call) can wake up laptops at 3AM (totally useless feature for any consumer laptops, if you ask me). But that also means that power will be slowly drained away.

 

Hello guys,

It's that time of the century when I decide to buy a new notebook.

ATM I'm caught between the beautiful CW and the once-too-expensive-for-me Thinkpad T400.

So far the T400 has a clear advantage: Weight, switchable graphics, build quality (??), and keyboard (is a ThinkPad KB that much better?).

The only positive I see with the CW is looks. Even then, I'm not a big fan of glossy materials considering I'd be going for the Jet Black model.

Are there any CW advantages that I have missed?

 

Well when I switch my CW off, I want it to switch OFF. It's not really a hard concept to grasp.

Even with all devices set to not wake up, I still get big drain of ~10 over night.

I'm fairly sure that keeping the power button live doesn't take that many watts of power.

Yesterday, I had the first instance of the battery meter sticking at 13% for over 20 minutes. I even did a reboot and it still claimed 13%. Eventually it trickled to 12% and become normal again.

Lets hope MS/SONY sort these problems out.

 

The CW has the best gfx for a 14" without significantly compromising battery life

 

Turned off my cw yesterdaynight with 43% battery remaining, started it back up 10 hours later with 25% charge left... I timed how long it took for the 25% to change to 24% and it took 48 minutes (power saver mode, checking mail & browsing)... Since all my battery diagnostics tools give the same outputs, I guess the computer is fooling itself about the draining, maybe it's something a bios update can fix?

 

If you don't plan on doing any gaming on your laptop, and you are looking for a Business oriented laptop, which to me the T400 is, then I'd consider the HP 5310m...it is far more stylish looking that the Thinkpad, IMO and costs half the price and it only weighs 3.8 lbs. I don't own a 5310m but one of the moderators on this forum, Charles P. Jefferies, does and he has nothing but good things to say about it and he is VERY picking. Plus it has gotten several editors choice awards out there on the Web. But if you need more GPU power then the CW is where it's at, when configured with the GT230 GPU that is. Personally I'm willing to give up some battery life to have extra graphics punch, also the appearance of the laptop I own is very important to me...kinda like when I buy a cell phone, I want it to look stylish.

EDIT: Here are the Benchmarks for the GPUs in the T400 (ATI HD 3470) and CW (GT230m)...the 230 ranks quite a bit higher:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3470.9594.0.html

NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-230M.17646.0.html

 

Agreed, I only bought the CW because I wanted a lappy that can support current generation of games (DAO, MW2, etc) but also had a smaller screen size.

 

I've just purchased this laptop today after seeing it on display. It has exceeded my expectations on performance.
I got the 2.1ghz CPU and 230m gpu. Ive ran 3dmark06 on it and scored 5456 not shabby at all I say.
The hardrive seems slow so I'll pop in my ssd once these recovery discs have been made and I'll get to seeing how games perform.

I'll overclock the gpu and post back the 3dmark scores too when it's done.

 

is the cpu soldered onto the laptop?

 

Are you going to use nvidia system tools or rivatuner for overcolcking? I have had more luck with nvidia system tools on recent cards.

Can you also see how much more heat it adds once you overclock?
Thanks

 

No its not soldered, its the usual mobile socket so can be replaced. A user has already put a mobile quad in his and I have a P9500 to put in when mine arrives.

I also plan to put an SSD in the main bay, remove the DVD-rw and put the original HDD in that bay

 

We need to find a way of controlling the ALWAYS on fan cos it definitely feels able to run passively for normal day2day tasks.

Although this is the coolest laptop I've ever seen, even after hours of gaming, it's barely warm.

 

My english isn't good. How can i get this taskbar ? I was looking for all days.

 

Yes that is what im using to overclock, also using ATItools to check for artifacts,

The heat at default clocks under load is 69C on the CPU and 59C on the GPU using Hwmonitor's max recorded temperature after running 3DMark06 looped for an hour

 

Can you buy a HDD caddie type bracket or something for doing this? sounds interesting, I own an SSD but its only 128GB (need more space!)

 

I think you are looking for the VAIO Gate launcer..

 

update:

Timed the cw from 100% charge till 15% in battery saver mode with wifi & bt on while browsing the internet and typing in word, it lasted 2 hours 54 minutes... So it would have probably lasted for approx 3 hours and 24 minutes if I let it go till 0%

Maybe you can squeeze it till over the 4 hours barrier if you put brightness to absolute lowest and turn off wifi & bt but you wont get much further than that.

 

All,

I am still waiting to pull the trigger on a configured CW from Sony Style, but thought I would use their "Chat" feature to ask about any Black Friday discounts. Below is the chat, so anyone about to purchase...you may want to wait two days and see what they offer. Note he was not specific about the CW range, so I could read that to "discounts on any Sony product"!

CHAT:

Please allow a moment for an agent to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Lee R'

Lee R: Hello and thank you for visiting Sonystyle. How may I help you today?

Mark: Can you tell me if there will be further discounts on Black Friday?

Mark: This is on the CW range

Lee R: We will be having further discounts on Black Friday, we do not know the specifics at this time.

Mark: Ok - thanks. I will wait until then.

Lee R: The CW currently is offering savings on the customized orders

Lee R: ok

Lee R: Is there anything else that I can assist you with today?

Mark: No thanks

Lee R: If you have a moment, can you please take my 5 question survey? Please press the "CLOSE" button at the right corner to start. Your feedback is appreciated.

Lee R: Thank you for visiting Sonystyle. Have a great day!

 

awesome!does anyone have videos on how to replace a cpu?

 

Got the CW from Best Buy. LOVE IT! YAY!

Just wondering if y'all know about my wireless issue. Visiting my dad in Texas. When I connect to his wireless router made by Linksys, I literally cause it to reset/crash about twice a minute consistently, knocking everyone off. Oddly, I've found I can plug it in from the wired connection (through the router) and it works fine. Any ideas on where I should look for fixes?

 

What do you love about it??

 

Thanks for the temps, what clocks have you got to so far?

The caddy I have bought replaces the DVD-rw. As soon as I get it fitted I will send you a link (its on ebay). Not sure if it fits until it arrives as it is for a thinkpad, will keep you posted.

 

I havent found any yet, but I will document it when mine arrives (should be within 2 weeks as mine is being custom built)

 

I found this post that might gives some clues to the Router issue...

Linksys WRT54G Ver 7 Resets itself Randomly thus Drops Connections
http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?t=221979

 

Thanks for sharing, I'm also hoping to get a great deal!!

 

Hi there,

I've finally decided on getting the VPC CW1CGX/U model before this weekend:
(Specs: Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz), 4GB RAM, 3MB L2 Cache, G210M GPU (2031MB), 320GB 5400rpm HD, Win 7 Professional)
[non-customizable: I only have the option of choosing from the ready to ship models in my country.]

As this is going to be my first laptop, I wonder if there are things I need to check, programs to install or get any backups etc, when I take it out of the box and start running it for the first time to make sure that everything is OK and running smoothly?


Thank you,

 

So far im upto 570/815/1250 fully stable. no artifacts and top temperature 63C!!! (this is an amazing temperature for a overclocked laptop!)

Here is the score, hoping to break 7000.

Im just stability testing right now, might push it further but ill see,

 

So I've spent the last week or so reading through this entire thread and I am very interested in getting myself one of these laptops. My only concern is the screen. Many people seem to have an issue with it. I'm not worried about the viewing angles so much, mainly just the quality (contrast, colors, etc) Is it really that bad? This will be my first laptop purchase so I don't really have anything to compare it to (been using a samsung LCD with my desktop for the past four years or so). Everything else about this laptop seems great. Should the screen issue stop my from getting one of these?

 

Got my CW white P8700GT230, W7pro. I like it but it's too soon to give you a valid opinion but overall I'm satisfied. I have Intel WiFi 5100 agn working on 2.4 GHz, 5GHz or both! But I was surprised to find a lower speed when set in 5Ghz n mode than in 2.4GHz g mode! The build quality is good but the BD-R drive is noisy when it spindles fast (tested during restore dvd creation).
My first goal before letting wife and children to begin use it (help! they can't wait anymore so I can finish the dirty work) is to try a clean or semi clean install to remove all these bloatwares. But before this, I need to repartition the disk. Since there is only one c: (plus recovery plus system reserved partitions) I must shrink it in order to create a new one.

For now I'm struggling to shrink my C: partition (I already tested the restore process from the recovery partition).

It's easy to shrink C:, just go to disk management, right click on C and choose reduce volume on the menu. The problem is that I just managed to shrink it from 290 Go to 140 Go while the system only uses 25 Go ! That means I'll have plenty spaces still on C: but I don't like to put there any data.

When reading the system journal it says the first file preventing me from reducing more is a system file on c:\system volume information with a name that looks like a system file (this isn't the pagefile) and I have absolutely no idea what it is and how could I move it to elsewhere during resizing c: ; the filename is so long it takes pretty half of the screen with hexa numbers. The journal gives the last cluster of this file but what can I do with this?

Has anyone tried to shrink c: to the max i.e. until there is no left spaces ?

I'd be grateful if someone can help me find instructions on how to move some system files preventing to shrink the c: partition.

I'm also thinking on other ways doing it but I found no other way but completely reinstalling Seven (thus partitioning as I want). But this is no more a semi-clean install as I have to install Seven myself (on semi clean the Vaio does it for you) which is more tricky because of sony drivers and some other apps that I want to keep.

Any help is much appreciated.
nalooti
P.S. Maybe launching the semi-clean install i.e. aborting in the middle as suggested in some guides here will move that file elsewhere and free the cluster. Actually after every uninstall of bloatwares or after each recovery process that file may change its place on the disk (thus letting me at each iteration to reduce the volume a little bit more) but seriously I prefer another method because first it is so boring and long process and anyway neither wife or children will be enough patient and I could be the first victim of the new CW series

 

Thanks Mickbt26, nice to see someone finally overclock this beast! Cant wait for mine to arrive so I can start tweaking

 

I dont think the screen is that bad (I have seen way worse screens, yes you Acer!) but people normally expect top quality screens from sony and this one is merely average. I have been spoilt by the screen on my studio xps but I have still bought the sony vaio cw as I couldnt stand the heat issues that seem to have plagued every dell I have bought

 

I agree with ninja2000 about the screen, Its fine for me, Better than the last 2 laptop screens ive had from HP, Needs a little contrast/gamma tweak and a little digital vibrance from the default to make it look good. But its not overly bad.

 

Azadeh khanom hi

I highly suggest you before anything creating a set of 3 DVD +/- R (not RW) recovery disk as noted in the delivered small manual.
Then (or first) check your system info to make sure you have everything you paid for (CPU, RAM, etc.)
Check hardwares: WiFi, bluetooth, webcam, etc.
Check the performance if you like to have an idea of what it can take out of the box before any modification.
List all the applications and note how many you don't need; maybe then you'd think of clean it from those. If you do so, check again the perf to see what you gained by freeing your RAM and CPU from those apps.
Check your battery and ports.

Then, install your usual apps you had and see if they works on w7. Replace those which don't work and so on...

Easy to say, long to do
good luck

 

I just ran 3D mark without any overclocking or anything and here are the results.

 

Not too much to do, mostly it is just checking to make sure Windows boots up ok without error. Then checking the physical hardware, checking all ports, by plugging something into them, checking the keyboard making sure all the keys work, checking the DVD drive, basically just making sure everything is working as it was designed. Make sure to include checking the monitor/display making sure there are no white dots/dead pixels. A good way to check that is have the laptop in a dark room, set the desktop background color to solid black, with no programs opened and then make sure you don't see any bright white pinhole dots showing through the black.

Then make sure to create backup/recovery DVDs per this article.

How to create a set of Recovery Discs.
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/...C&externalId=C1008008&fes=true&mdl=VPCCW18FXB

Anyone else got anything to through in?

 

Hey Ppl,

Just an update, maybe most of you have already nticed, but sonystyle is giving some discounts on upgrades on the customizable options like an update to P8700 processor is $50 cheaper. This also works with the student discounts so in the end can be a gr8 deal.

 

On this Article I found the steps for doing the system restore that includes the option to repartition the drive. For changing partition sizes, see the 2nd bullet on Step 2:

How to use the Restore C: Drive option to perform a system recovery.
http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/documentLink.do?externalId=C1008143

 

I'm getting stable GPU at 600/1100/1320 max temp of 55c

3dmark2006 give a nice score of 7471

 

What are you using to overclock? If its nvidia system tools, mine wont let me take the memory slider any further than 816mhz, thats the limit.

 

I purchased a CW that was delivered a week ago, love it except for one problem. I'm trying to do a 'Backup' to the DVD drive, after 26% the backup just hangs. The drive does work, I created Restore disks, and can drop files on it from explorer. However, Backup does not work.

I've got the 'Optiarc DVD RW' drive, not the blu ray. I talked to Sony support, they said 'Sony does not support Backup' directly and it's a Microsoft issue. I can't believe Sony would wash their hands so quick, as Backup is a Win 7 feature and all.

Have any other owners out there with similar config's used Backup? Have you had similar results? Any other ideas out there for a Win7 backup/restore solution?

J

 

Yeah exactly, but i cant fint it in my lap, mine is cw14? Where can i download it?

 

Hi everybody,
I finally got my CW (P8700 4GB GT230m win7 pro clean install from scratch) and I ran a few bench with 3dmark06 (I use Sony's drivers)

with original clocks (450GPU/690RAM/990shaders)
3DMark Score 5793
SM 2.0 Score 2385
SM 3.0 Score 2270
CPU Score 2262


with stock levels clocks @ 55°C(500GPU/800RAM/1100shaders)
3DMark Score 6484
SM 2.0 Score 2725
SM 3.0 Score 2634
CPU Score 2195

The score increase is fuc*ing impressive

Please note I'm not an overclocker, I just wanted my graphic card to run at stock levels as defined by nvidia ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-230M.17646.0.html) I don't want to risk to damage my card.

PS : sorry I had a megavideo web page opened + kaspersky running for the 2nd test so thats why the CPU score is lower

 

I finally broke down and bought one. So far so good; I'm working on finding a way to permanently flash the VBIOS to set the 3D clock speed back to nVidia's specifications.

 

Does anyone know what RAM it uses? What class is it?

I ordered mine before the latest deal came out and they said they can't change it. I'm either cancelling for better ram but no BD burner or not cancelling and a BD burner.

 

I reinstalled Win7 with my own copy, installed all necessary drivers off of Sony's website, now I'm constantly getting a window popping up that tell me my battery "may not be properly connected". Has anyone else seen this?

 

Operating temperature of the CW18FX:



I ran HWMonitor about 10 minutes after the laptop booted up with nothing else running, then did some internet browsing, and about an hour of playing Borderlands. Laptop stayed on for a total of four hours; good GPU temperature, average CPU temperature.

 

ok thanks, I'll give it a try but I don't remember having seen the phrase "changing partition sizes"

I didn't tried to get in the BIOS yet. Is it F2 key at boot time? what are the useful parameters that can be changed ?

 

Hi,
I got one with exactly your specs few days ago. I didn't run any perf yet. Few questions:

1/ Does RMclock utility work on W7 and CW? Did you try it?
I want to undervolt with it.

2/ Could you please tell us the way you did your clean install ? from scratch (installing Seven yourself) ? Even if you don't have time to write us a full guide, could you please give us the method and the big steps without entering into details ? Also it's important to know the order you installed everything specially the sony drivers. Is every key working ?

thanks

 

Yes, I'm using system tool. I also had it limiting my mem timings so I had a look at the profiles that it generates. If you edit them by hand you can set the hard limited value and the value you want it to take. (Basically, look for 816 in there)

Anyway, the GT230M is a great piece of kit, barely heats up.

 

Yeah, I did same and installed Ult and found that battery monitor is flagging my battery during boot and constantly afterwards. Unfortunately, Sony have decided not to allow us to uninstall this tool so you can use msconfig to disable it yourself.