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

I debated for buying a Sony CW for several weeks - but finally broke down and bought one today. Mine is the red version with the T6600/Nvidia 210 and no Blu-ray. I got it for $769, on sale, from a PX here
in Germany - so the price was right!!

I'll have to say, up-front, that I am impressed with the build quality - it is really a beautiful system. I want to cover a few points that aren't usually addressed - after a few comments about how nice it is!!

PRO:

* Beautiful looking system with superb build quality - I cannot find any negatives about the build. I'm especially impressed that the bottom plastic is scuff and scratch free!! (Hello HP!)

* The LCD isn't stunning - but it is very nice and bright - and the colors are great. I have quite a bit of experience with laptop LCD's and I'd rate this one in the top 10%!

* The CW is very friendly for swapping hard-drives and changing RAM. The RAM and HDD cover doors are well-built and the HDD is installed in a way that makes it easy to swap-out.

* No flex in the keyboard and it is not a finger-print magnet (Hello HP and Toshiba!)

* The DVD/RW appears to be better-built than most recent ones from both Sony and other manufacturers.

* USB ports on BOTH sides of the system (Hello FW-series!)

* The power input port and ethernet connection are on the back. And, this is a small but important good point: the power connection has a right-angle on it to help avoid damaging the
port if and when you accidently pull or hit the connector.

* The SD card reader is spring loaded - just like Dell and Toshiba (Hello HP!)

* The Sony website is friendly to navigate and the driver downloads were easy (I installed a second copy of Win 7-64 to make mine a dual-booter). That said - at least the chipset driver is the wrong
version on the site for Windows 7 64-bit.

* Sony did not "cheat" and use a Seagate or Toshiba HDD - my factory drive is a WD Scorpio Blue.

CON:

* The lid and LCD seem to be just a little too fragile for lots of tosses into and out of a backpack. That said - I hope I'm wrong on this one!!

* I knew this in advance but there is no option for a backlit keyboard.

* I decided to buy it even though it appears that Sony has not resolved the battery drain issue - it is just too nice of a system to not own because of the battery drain problem. I'll just remove the
battery if I'm going to not use it for a few days or longer.

* As far as batteries go - you can forget about buying a reasonably priced spare battery. Sony replacement batteries are ludicrously expensive.

* The speakers appear to be fairly small and the sound is weaker than most. Good reason to finally buy those Bose Noise Reduction headphones.

* The power input connection seems to have more play in it than most - I hope it holds up!!

I have bad-mouthed HP a little bit here - this isn't intended as an HP-bashing post. I own three HP systems and like them - but HP has been some irritating shortfalls in their hardware!

Edited to add: Hopefully Sony will issue a BIOS update, or something, to fix the battery drain issue. Mine was shutdown from 1030PM until 5AM this morning, and the battery lost 11%
during that time ...

 

I was checking at Best Buy and found that the Targus Slipskin Peel sleeve for 14.1" laptops fit their display CW very nicely. I'm not sure how it would do with the extended battery though (Might be a little snug...), and of course being just a sleeve there's no room for accessories. But that's what my backpack is for.

 

Thanks Robotech, I'll check that one out...

 

Ok so I got an email off sony this morning (1am), telling me that my laptop has gone into production...

"The production of your customised VAIO order has started.

We expect your VAIO order to be shipped to you between 04.12.2009 and 09.12.2009. Please note that this is an estimated shipping time. We will send you an update if this estimate changes."

What on earth have they been doing for the last 2 week... surely not waiting on parts?

How long does production take anyway? And does it mean that I will receive my laptop between the 4th and the 9th... or is that when it ships from sonys factory?

I'm dying to get my CW, but it's taking its time

 

1 - you don't need 8gb of ram. 6gb is more than sufficient for any purpose; 4gb is sufficient if you will be using the laptop just for standard websurfing, ms office, & gaming.

2 - I'd recommend the P8700 over the t9600. The P8700 is much more power efficient and only slightly less powerful (you won't likely need the additional .3ghz power anyway)

You should be able to configure a system with those 2 adjustments for under $900 this weekend. $1200+ is a bit much for a 14" laptop no matter how nice if you ask me.

 

I think they're plain old backed up on orders, they're selling these CW's faster than they can produce them.

They completed production of my CTO VAIO the day after they started production, and I received it ON the date they specified as the shippping date.

 

Mine was in production for 2 days then it gets moved to logistics which took a another day before it was shipped. It was shipped by UPS friday and according to the UPS website I should receive it tomorrow.
All in all it is a lot quicker than waiting for a Dell! I ordered a 1745 the day before the CW and it still hasnt reached production and I have an EDD of 22/12/09

 

For its size, performance, and price,, no wonder its selling so well. It's a very appealing system

I think it's the concept of the Nvidia GT 230m, in a 14inch (apparently according with the same depth of most 13.3inch laptops ) is what pushed me to buy the CW. it's the best of both worlds

ill just have to hope the production of my CW takes only 2 days like yours,

 

Dell are very slow when it comes to building and shipping. When i had my dell m1330 (Dell have yet released anything since that i would consider ) It had lots of problems, and in they end they sent me a replacement. I had to wait nearly a month and a half to recieve it, god knows what happened but it was in production for nearly a month!... anyway it was a total waste of time because i had exactly the same problems...

Ive noticed something does kinda bother me: it has no media control buttons. I didnt think much about that much when i ordered it, but i do actually use media controls quite alot. Does the CW have keyboard shortcuts or a mini remote? It's kind of strange that on sony uk, it has a big heading saying "powerful multimedia", and leaves out something like this. Even its predecessor, the CS had media keys

Anyway i hope the CW is something that will be reliable... It would be good to keep a laptop for at least 3 years

 

Hey,
blue ray Disk playing/BURNING IS AVAILABLE!!
Is it worth 76 bucks?

 

Hi,

I'm trying a semi-clean install on my CW. I killed the process VAIORecv.exe during the recovery process and after W7 installation, I installed manually (with VAIORecv.exe) all programs I wanted leaving others unwanted.

However I have the following problem:

1/ the VAIO button , affected to the Media Gallery doesn't work telling me that it needs:
" Sony Network Home Library" that is missing.

Can anyone guide me how to download this program ? I searched sony support site with no success. It isn't even on the list of software that I can install via VAIORecv.exe

2/ More importantly, there is a program missing that prevent me to use the included webcam.
I think the name of the program is:
"Arcsoft Magici visual effect2" and "Arcsoft webcam companion3".

Again this program isn't in the list proposed by VAIORecv.exe program.

Where can I download this progam ?


Please note that after the semi-clean process i.e. after W7 installation finished, I just installed softwares via VAIORecv and didn't install any driver. The drivers are already installed because I have every other things working correctly.
Also, when searching the hardware configuration, I don't see any webcam hardware. Otherwise I would try to update its driver. But there is no trace of the webcam in the entire system!!!

thanks for help
nalooti

 

Have you tried to install 'Original - WebCam Companion® 3 Software'?

 

I don't understand why you need to install the webcam, I didn't install anything after my clean install and my webcam is working correctly.
I have "Sony Visual Communication Webcam" in Imaging devices with id USB\VID_05CA&PID_18B5&REV_0302&MI_00 in the device manager

 

You need both options, if you already bought ur laptop with win7 Home premium then i guess you can upgrade it to pro or ultimate to get the VT feature working

 

Oh, i asked this question here a couple of weeks back and got a different answer!

 

Yes, you must have Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate to run VT.

 

Does anyone know where the CW is built? How long from the email that says its has been shipped did it take to get it in your hands in the USA.

 

Thank you so much for confirming. I had bought it with Win7 Pro but then was doubtful if Win 7 Home premium will work.

Also David..thanks for backing up.

Enjoy

 

If it's a CTO, then it's built and shipped from San Diego, CA.

 

I've seen from the union jack that you're from UK, I'm from Italy and I think EU orders are carried from the same Sony center in Belgium.
I've ordered my CW on Nov, 15 and received email Nov, 16 saying that payment was approved and shipping estimation between Dec, 1 and Dec, 8
Now I received another mail on Nov, 28 (3 am!) telling me that my vaio was built (mmm I believe the meaning was that but the exact phrase was:" your custom Vaio order was sent to our logistic center"), forwarded to the logistic center and probably sent on Dec, 1

I hope 4 this week!

 

Mine had the exact same delivery date as you, 1st to 8th, but it's changed, 4th to 9th

I dunno why but for the last few week i've been thinking that my laptop was being made in japan or something... i didn't think sony would have more than one production centre seen as it's not exactly big like Dell... I've been proven wrong
My payment took 3 days to clear... and yours cleared in 1 day? God everything seems to be going a bit slow for me... I hope i get mine this week tooo, can only hope like If not then i really do hope the monday after... I do want something that i can open on my birthday

It's a good thing the uk is near belgium, surely delivery wont take as long

 

really? what answer did you get? as far as i know, what i have told you is 100% correct and David backing me up says so too

 

not sure whether someone already answered this or not. But I'm just gone through this thread halfway
http://mrbsdomain.com/images/wallpaper/vaio_2008_c_ceries_sangria_red_1280x800.jpg

 

The link doesn't work

 

oh okay, uploading....done

 

brilliant! thank you so much!, now i just need a CW to match with my wallpaper

EDIT: umm i found this website that has i think 95% of every VAIO wallpaper to ever comout including each model press shots wallpaper too CW is way at the bottom...enjoy

 

well, the first link is from that web, but seems like doesn't work for direct-linking.

 

oh okay thanks alot

 

Man I'm glad I canceled my order a week ago. Now you can get lots of upgrades for free or half off. The same laptop I priced out and ordered last week came to $980. Now I placed the same order with the exact same components and its $870 out the door. Now I just have to wait :-( Mine gives a ship date of 12-15-09 Forgot to see if the wireless card in the vaio is N compatible. Anyone know if it is?

 

Hi guys ..
I'm gettin my Viao CW16FG( thts wht its called in India) today evening..
P8700
4GB
GT230M ..
I know its been mentioned in the thread before but could anyone please put a consolidated list of all tht I have to do for a clean install without losin the functionality of the various buttons.
Thanks.

 

Do you mean XP mode of Windows 7? If so, then yes, you have to get Pro or above. I don't think the edition of windows & matters for VT in general, though.

 

yes CW's wireless card in N compatible, if your buying straight from sony style then you will be getting the Intel 5100 AGN wifi card

As far as i know, Nalooti a member of this forum and this thread, has done a clean install but has had trouble with the some of the buttons and couple of other small things. maybe Nalooti or someone else can help you out here

 

well, i would say yes but it depends on what you want to use the laptop for. Usually most people are fine with blu ray reading, but i think 76 dollars is really good price to get the upgrade to blu ray reader, better safe than sorry

 

Yeah, it certrainly is. I comparison shopped for weeks before settling on the CW. The only other notebook out there that comes close on all counts is the Lenovo Y450 & Y550, but even they fall short of offering Blu-Ray & integrated Blue-tooth. And the Y550 costs more.

All things considered, I'm confident Sony's VAIO CW is the "Best Bang for your Buck" award winner for the holiday season. It packs quite a punch in processing power, graphics power, and portability all in a compact formfactor for less than $1,000.

As somebody who has NEVER before this bought a laptop, I am duly impressed.

 

Just to clarify some confusion, Windows 7 XP mode is available for Windows 7 skus, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise. To run XP mode, the cpu must support Virtualization Technology. As of 2009 not all recent Intel processors support VT. The Intel T4300,T6600 and P7450, do not support VT, whereas the P8700 and the T9600 do support VT.

 

when you say strait from sonystyle, does that mean from sonystyle.com or sonystyle store, or both.?
thanks (to rehangohar77)

 

both, they are the same thing.

 

I had the same email as you can still waiting to be dispatch!!!Hope we can get it soon!!!

 

I took a look on their site but the soft is not free. So at most I can install it for a trial period!
It is a shame I can't have what I paid for!!!
The Vaio recovery program says some softs can't be proposed for a new install because of copyright issues. Hopefully this is the only third party soft missing!

What is strange is that I'm even unable to see the webcam hardware in the system hardware peripherals!!! The webcam hard is here; I expected to see an exclamation point (!) on it indicating that there is no driver with it.

Please, can a CW owner take a look at hardware peripherals and tell me where is the webcam in the system, maybe It's associated with something other ???

Here is an update of my semi-clean install.
All buttons are working. The only problem is the VAIO button which is associated to the Media plus (or something); and this program needs Sony's "Home Network Library" that I can't find. Too bad for Sony I'll just uninstall that Media plus soft and will affect the VAIO button to the Windows Media Center instead.

Another problem is that I can't install VAIO update correctly. A message says to uninstall first then re-install; the problem is I can't uninstall it because can't find it in the list of recognized Windows programs installed. Again it's not a big deal because I can always check myself for any new update in Sony's site.

All in all, I'm rather satisfied not having all those junk programs that was originally installed and specially that f***ing McAfee that used to take control of MY computer to delete some files it thought as viruses. I'm surprised nobody hasn't yet sued this company for such an intrusive software.
I didn't count (forgot) the number of processes running originally (someone can give the number ?) but I can say that now I have much less.

For the webcam problem, I know i can make it work if I buy another Arcsoft license, but I'm not gonna pay twice for the same soft, so I'll try to find another webcam program.

nalooti

 

I can confirm that my P8700 has VT support but it must be activated in the BIOS because originally it is disabled. (Although I didn't tested yet running XP with VT).

For all the people having a processor without native VT support, you can still install vmware program which let you run any OS (XP, Linux, etc.).

Question:
Does anybody upgraded its BIOS from sony support site? It appears there is an update (didn't checked the versions yet). I wonder if this one lets more control because the original BIOS I have is really poor regarding the number of controls. I can just enable VT and change the order of booting devices; that's all!!!

nalooti

 

hi everyone.. i also ordered sony vaio cw customized laptop from sony style USA.. specs are - p8700, windows 7 professional, jet black, 500GB hard disk, 4 gb ddr 3 ram, nvidia gt230m 512 mb, blue ray disk playback, standard battery, 2 yr express ship with ADH for notebooks.. cost 1210$.. i am very happy but the only concern is the shipping date which is 12/15/09.. and my dad is leaving from US on 20th december to india and i am in india right now.. i need the laptop on 19th december.. can anyone help me on that.. thank you.

 

There was 93 processes running on mine after restoring the system to the original Hardrive.

When installing a clean windows 7 ultimate to my ssd there is 35 running!

 

i just want to ask if the cw outputs both audio and video through the hdmi? really planning to buy this laptop

 

OK Chaps,
I'm from the UK and ordered one today, hope it arrives in time for Xmas as its a pressie for the wife!

Went to John Lewis and Comet had had a play with them unfortunately couldn't get to control panel to fix the screen settings but was impressed by the machine. With the TWITTER09 code (thanks mate!) Got the following Spec for £728.00 which is £25 quid more than the JL and Comet price but has 230, Bluray, 500G and P8700 processor! Only plus point on JL was 2 year warranty but wanted a laptop for her that would last through W7 and Office 2010 "years"

Had an absolute nightmare getting them to approve my credit card, not sure why, its now waiting for their own payment authorisation part after calling them and ordering over the phone - UK users how long did it take to get order confirmation and estimated delivery date?

Here is the spec I ordered:
Quantity : 1
Product ID : VPCCW1X5E
Description : Laptop VPC-CW1X - Configurable
Price : 728,10
Optical Drive : Blu-ray Disc(TM) Combo-drive
Hard drive : 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Memory cards reader : SD and MS card slot
Wireless LAN : Wireless LAN + Bluetooth®
Processor : Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo 2.53 Ghz
Display : 14" LCD, 1366 x 768 + webcam
Graphics : NVIDIA® GeForce® GT230M 512MB
Finishes : Blue
Memory : 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Battery : Battery life up to 3.5 hours
Keyboard : English QWERTY keyboard
Ports : 3 USB 2.0
AC Adapter : AC Adapter
HDMI(TM) output : HDMI(TM) output
Operating system : Windows® 7 Home Premium


BTW read alot of people going on about Athero wireless. I have one of them in my MSI Wind netbook and they are superb.

 

Did you have a retail version of W7 with a key provided ?

I ask this because I also wanted to clean install but this required an activation key. So I asked Sony to give me their OEM activation key but they refused.

After the W7 install did you use the VAIORecv.exe to install drivers and/or some of the interesting software provided with the original CW ? or did you install them manually (how? because their ain't any install package with those softs) ?

 

Nalooti,
If you google there are a couple of programmes that will let you extract the OEM key. In theory though it should be on a sticker on the laptop somewhere.

Neil.

 

Sony should have stuck your license key to the bottom of your laptop on a sticker. Usually it's fairly obvious although on some recent Dells - and therefore possibly on other manufacturers - they put the sticker under the battery, so try taking that out and looking there.

 

YeeeHaaaa!

Mine has just arrived! First impressions are very good. Keyboard feels nice and no missed letters during typing although there is a little flex over the whole keyboard.

Screen has fantistic colour representation when you adjust the screens angle correctly. It has tight viewing angles and could do with a little more in teh way of brightness.

The black looks great, really glad I waited for the custom build to get it rather than picking up a coloured version.

Now just burning the recovery DVDs then I will start benchmarking and will take a look at adding a new cpu and HDD if it isnt too time consuming.

 

nalooti - I re-installed W7-64 on my CW - using the 64-bit DVD out of a W7 Family Pack. It failed activation when I put in the activation code from the bottom of the system. But, it prompted me to call M$ and the whole process took only five minutes or so - and it was activated/validated. That said - I am going to image just the W7 partition onto another HDD tonight - and try that HDD. With Vista, a partition to partition image would fail to boot, but it could be repaired with a Vista DVD. Hopefully W7 works the same way...

 

Well I have just put a 500gb 7200 in mine and am currently completing a fresh install.

My ODD HDD caddy fits too so I can use my original 320gb drive as a slave.

It looks quite straightforward to get to the cpu, the whole bottom panel needs to be removed. I am at work at the moment but desperate to put my P9500 in.....