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

I might sit at the front door too

I hope it comes in the morning, then i'll have time to have a fiddle with it, go back to 6th form at 1pm, come home at 3.30pm, and then glue my self to the laptop and its gloriness for the weekend

Its in brussels at we speak

 

rofl, i wish i could sit outside but id probably die and turn into a popsicle

 

lmao wish it was summer; could be sitting at my front door with a deck chair, table and parasol, and drink waiting for it to arrive

 

I just got another email at 8:30 that my laptop is shipped =D

 

grats mmblue! my laptop just got into minnesota and won't see it til tomorrow, what a tease.

 

thanks Sir. the tracking # is for fedex right? because it didn't say what company. but i know it's not ups.

 

Yeah you are FedEx.

 

Thanks for the clarification. But my only concern is, they haven't charged me $$ yet....

 

Just wait and they will.
They seem to charge after it's shipped. So I'd wait til the next business day. JR billed me instantly when it shipped.

 

Alright, I'll be patient. Hopefully it will come by Monday or Tuesday.

 

Great thread, it has pretty much convinced me to get a CW

I do have a question though...I am pretty much a movie watcher/internet browser. Would getting the NVIDIA® GeForce® G210M GPU (256MB VRAM) be an alright option? Should I hold out for the G230M?

Thanks!

 

G210m is more than enough unless you do some hardcore gaming or some hardcore video editing but watching and playing. No Problem from what people are saying.

 

Awesome, thanks for the quick response sir

 

But if you want to watch Blu-ray movies, you'll have to wait until that option is available again. If you just watch online movies or downloaded xvid/divx/mkv movies, you'll be fine.

 

Most people forget that they've got a PS3 that supports Bluray

I'm getting the CW aswell:
- Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2,13 GHz
- 4GB Ram (1066 MHz, DDR3)
- 320 GB, 5400 RPM, SATA
- Nvidia GeForce GT 230M, 512MB VRAM

Not sure what color I'll get it in though. I'd like to have the red one, but unsure how it looks in real life... Don't want it to look too feminine hehe

 

Really??? You can't watch a blu-ray with the G210? Tell me this isn't so!! Why would they build a computer with a blu-ray if the video card couldn't support it?

 

Well, I just spent about 2.5 hours on the phone with Microsoft Technical support this afternoon/evening.

While checking things out, I noticed that my upgrade to Win 7 Ultimate wasn't "Activated" yet, but rather was "scheduled" to do so automatically in two days. So I tried the option to activate it immediately. It failed, claiming that my key code was for "upgrades only", naturally, and that there hadn't been a valid Windows installation previously on the machine... Huh??? If that were so, then how did the upgrade installation even work? It checks! So I tried the phone activation route, and when that failed as well, it put me in touch with a live tech.

They couldn't figure it out either, after trying several things, including remotely accessing my VAIO. He finally did something behind the scenes that let the Upgrade installation run again, but this time loading everything off of the DVD, rather than using the Upgrade Anytime feature that seems to be a Win 7 to Win 7 upgrade normal requirement now. This time my key code worked fine.

I do have a suspicion as to what happened. If Windows normally postpones the auto-activation for a few days, the Win 7 Home Premium OS that came with the CW may not have been activated at the time I first tried to install the upgrade. When it tried to call home to activate Ultimate, Microsoft's system didn't have a record of the old installation, so it wouldn't allow the "upgrade" key code.

So, my advice is that you should check your activation status shortly after you get your initialization stuff completed, and especially if you are going to do an OS upgrade.

 

Read dude, He's saying because of the optical drive but you can still watch HD from your hard-drive, the screen itself is 720 and the video card can play watever the heck you want. Either g210 or 230.

 

Happily, setting up Virtualization and XP Mode went smoothly.

If you "need" it and have the P8700 or higher CPU, and Win 7 Pro or higher, first enable Virtualization in the bios. (Press F2 during boot-up while "VAIO" is displayed on the screen. You'll find it under the Advanced tab.) Then go to the Microsoft website to get the two additional files and installation instructions HERE. You'll find more information and videos HERE.

 

Just saw my signature series is supposed to ship today. Support site say Ready for shipment. I ordered on 5 Dec!

 

I just wanted to say Thank you, to all that posted here... I wasn't planing on buying a laptop untill i found this thread. >_> and just bought a CW not 30seconds ago from newegg. Not sure i should thank you all or not.
eather way havnt been this exited for a laptop in a while. as has been said by many others, there are allot of 230m CW's out there still, if you dont mind not getting them from Sony itself.
Color: Black
cpu: T6600
gpu: 230m
ram: 4 gig ddr3
HHD: 320 gig
$749.00

 

wow i think im going to cancel my order from sony and just get it from newegg.. if it doesn't say sold out, that means its still in stock WITHOUT any complications that sony has correct? also do i have to call to cancel my order?

 

Ive never had a problem with newegg before....but I supose there is always a first time. If its sold out they usally don't let you check out.
here's the link if you are intrested.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117966

good luck ^_^

 

I'm a bit confused on the Blu-ray thing.

Does it support Blu-ray no matter what model you've got, aslong as it has a GT 230M in it and not a GT 210M? Or are there some models of the CW-series with the GT 230M, that do not support Blu-ray?

In the description it clearly says that I can:

A bit misleading, since that is only related to Blu-ray movies. Not the actual blu-ray drive.

Under specs it says: "Optical drive: DVD±RW (writes/reads)"

It's the Intel Core2Duo P7450 version.

 

If you're ordering from Sony Style, you will see that when you go to configure the laptop you will have an option to select if you want the blu-ray player or not.

It does not matter if the laptop is a GT210 or a GT230. The blu-ray player is not dependent on the graphics card. This means that you can select to have a Vaio CW with GT210 that does have blu-ray, or you can select to have the GT210 but no blu-ray. Similarly, you can select the GT230 with blu-ray or without.

If you're not planning to buy the CW from the Sony Style site, just check out the descriptions on the page of the website you are looking at. For example, the newegg link that was just posted, I do not think that system has blu-ray.

 

I'm from Denmark, so I won't be able to do that.

However, one site does list this:

I assume that means that it reads Bluray, right? BD is bluray disc?

 

Yes, BD means blu-ray disk here. And this means that that particular Vaio that you selected will be able to read and play blu-ray movies. It won't be able to write/burn blu-ray disks though. That would be a more expensive option. I don't know if that affects you or not.

 

Hi VAIObians. Like many others, I ordered a CW through Sonystyle (Nov. 30th 2009):

Product: US-VPCCW190X-LBOM
Product Description: VPCCW190X Configure-to-Order
Component: No additional Photo Editing Software
Component: No Fresh Start
Component: Microsoft® Works
Component: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066 (Reg. price $20.00)
Component: No additional Finance Software
Component: Large Capacity Battery (VGP-BPL13)
Component: Norton Internet Security™ 2009 (30 Day Trial)
Component: 4040
Component: Blu-ray Disc™ playback/burning
Component: No Engraving
Component: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz) (Reg. price $150.00)
Component: No additional Video Editing Software
Component: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT230M GPU (512MB VRAM)
Component: Jet Black
Component: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit
Component: 500GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm) (Reg. price $60.00)
Quantity cancelled: 1

Disappointed... Today I went to Microcenter and picked up the 7450 with NVIDIA 230M because the GPU changes things for me alot more than the P8700. Make recovery DVDs now. The screen on the VAIO CW is not fantastic (not quite optimal viewing angles plus the black level is not impressive). The rest of the PC appears to be very satisfactory (keyboard couldn't be better.

This is all stuff described in previous posts. I write mostly to share the 100$ coupon that I received because they canceled my order. Helping Sony earn a little less is the least I can do in return. The coupon is valid for notebooks until the 24th. of December (details below actually). Good luck.

Code:

Thank you for shopping with Sony Style!

Due to the heavy shopping weekend, we’ve run out of the graphics card you selected for your custom CW VAIO notebook order. Since we cannot fill this order, we will have to cancel it.

We’d like to give you a $100 VAIO eCoupon for this inconvenience, redeemable at SonyStyle.com from now through December 24, 2009. Your coupon can be used towards any VAIO notebook computer offered on our website, excluding the W series.   

If you’re still interested in customizing a VAIO CW notebook with a different graphics card, we are currently offering up to $350 in savings on hardware and software upgrades through December 19, 2009. This offer is only good while supplies last, so we recommend placing a new order as soon possible.

Use the following code while checking out from SonyStyle.com to receive your discount.

eCoupon Code:VAIOTG09W3M-X330689

 

Think it works in Europe?

 

12/10/2009 3:15 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY


So close, yet so far. lol
Also I think JR.com just got some more stock. http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VPCCW18FXB/

 

Now that people here are receiving their CW's, what are the opinions on the screen ?

 

Is there any way to see how fast the fans are speeding ? any VAIO or Windows utility ?

I installed SpeedFan 4 . It show temperatures and smart info for HDD but not the fans. I don't even know how many fans are speeding.

Also, can you control the fans speed in your BIOS ?

 

Status yesterday: Dec 9, 2009 7:04 PM - Local weather delay, delivery not attempted
Screw FedEx! I was home from work hoping to get that! Then again, I stayed home because of the weather lol.

Today: Dec 10, 2009 8:44 AM - On FedEx vehicle for delivery

And of course tonight I have to go take a test at school right after work. Maybe tomorrow I can play with it before she gets home from work to take pictures and whatnot.

 

Wooo logan we get ours today, and yeah luckily Minnesota didn't have such too crazy snow and my laptop was still in a plane when it was.

Yeah I'm gonna be on my CW all week, already done with school, now just ready to game and relax

 

congrats sir and logan ^^
and if i order from newegg, how long would it usually take for a 3 day ups shipping?

also, whats the diff from an intel 5100 wifi link and a Atheros 802.11b/g/n Wireless Network Connection? Because Newegg offers the CW with Atheros
Also is the Laptop from Newegg also cpu upgradeable?

 

hello,

I've been following this thread for a while and am posting for the first time because I have a question. Today's woot is for an ATI TV Wonder 600 PCI-E TV Tuner and I wanted to make sure it would fit in the CW's slot. I've never used a pci card before and wanted to make sure this was compatible with the cw's express card/34 slot.

I also tried to install this driver that someone posted earlier:

www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.62_whql.html

and it froze my computer, I have the g210m. Anybody else installed this?

 

Probably 3 days lol. Probably Monday if you ordered today. Tuesday at the latest.

 

I saw that woot.com this morning too. It is for a desktop computer, not a laptop. Laptops have ExpressCard slots ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard). Desktops have PCIe and PCI slots. Very different.

 

Viewing angles is definitely an issue. Specially the vertical angles. There is a very narrow band available in vertical direction before the screen goes bad. Horizontal anles is better but not the best.

 

When did you get the cancellation email? Just now?

 

Sir Dudley, I think you mentioned before that you called JR or something and bargained for a lower price? How did that happen, and how much did you save? I can't seem to find the posts.

 

I usally get my stuff from newegg, within 3 days of ordering it. sometimes the next day if i order early enough. But then again im only about 20 miles from one of there locations =P. I'm not sure the difrance between the two wifi, but i do know that Atheros is using N standard, wich is good enogh for my needs. As for the cpu...it should be upgradable, not sure. I'll find out when i get mine ^_-

 

I told JR.com that I saw the laptop at some other place for 800 and she puts me on hold for like 5 mins and comes back and says how about I give it to you for 799.99 from 899.99 and before that was 860.00. and I said yes since I already ordered the day before and she just updated my price.... Also I think you can probably bargain and get even lower. I'd bet 750.

Also to anyone that orders a CW from anywhere besides SonyStyle.com, They will ship it today even if you get it before the time. and you can also get estimated time on shipping from your place from fedex.com or ups.com

 

Hmmm..that wikipedia page says: "The host device supports both PCI Express and USB 2.0 connectivity through the ExpressCard slot"

I'm confused

 

Thanks, I will definitely consider canceling my Sony Style order and going for this. I just have to think about it... maybe I will just wait out the 5-7 days and hope it will ship from Sony Style.

 

Thank you. This sounds like a concern. I did see one in BB and was hoping this was not the typical screen quality. I might have to cancel the order I placed with Sony Style on 11/29/09 around 5:00pm.

Icy White
P8700
4gb ram
GT230M
Win 7 Home Premium
320GB hard drive
Large capacity battery
Blu-ray disk playback

I did call a couple days ago and it has not been cancelled. It's supposed to ship 12/22/09.

 

The cards on woot.com are for desktops. If you notice on Wikipedia it shows pictures of an ExpressCard 34 and 54.

If you want a TV tuner for a CW, you would probably have to go with a USB 2.0 version, or the ExpressCard 34.

 

Good Morning from NY. I just checked the status on Fedex and it left the facility at 11 PM last night in San Diego hopefully it ran half their way after 12 hours of driving......I wonder if it can deliver tomorrow or Saturday.....

Edit: for those who ordered from Sonystyle. Is the box heavy? It says on fedex it's 11lbs? O_O Where's the other 8 lbs coming from if the laptop is ~5lbs......I don't think the adapter take up 5lbs.....

 

The atheros card does not support Dual band N. It works on the 2.4 GHz band. The Intel Wifi 5100 supports bith the 2.4Ghz and the 5GHZ band. So if you have a dual band router, the atheros card will work only on the lower band. Thats the only disadvantage. The higher band has a better throughput, low interferences and longer range i presume, but not sure.

 

, my package is only 8 pounds.