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

Please participate in the Sony Vaio CW colour survey:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=442835

Thanks!

 

best buy version is g210m T6600, blu-ray with 500gb HD.

I got an update of the 12/17 ship date...I was this close {} to cancling my order...=P

 

i bought a pink sony vaio cw on the 11, shipping date isn't until the 29

 

Falcon, how is your HD at 7200rpm? I thought the ones that came with the CW it were only 5400rpm...

 

Its only got the GT210 in it. I want the GT 230M. It looks like that is the part that is in short supply.

 

Anyone did a clean re-install? How many GB will add to the original drive if the partition is deleted?

 

I am going to put the 7200 rpm drive in myself

 

Hey guys I've been eyeing over this form for quite a while as I've been looking to purchase a new laptop and now more specifically the Vaio CW. Does anyone have any idea at all when they're getting more of the Gt230m's in as my little cousin likes to play computer games on my laptop. I kind of want to be secure for like the next 2 years and 512MB dedicated should be plenty for that time being.

I'm trying to buy the 2.53Ghz/500GB HD (Unfortunately no 7200rpm Oh well), Gt230m, 4GB ram and hoping to get it in JET BLACK. Anyone know if they will be offering the GT230m once again for other colors other than that royal indigo they have going... I'm not entirely picky so If i have to I will settle for the Indigo.. I've been shopping around for laptops and honestly this laptop is pretty much the best bang for the buck.. good gfx card, nice style, new series, sony is up there in reliability-- no wonder this laptop is all sold out....

Ps. Don't EVER buy any HP products EVER. I won't even get into any detail.. Just take my word for it (Even though no one on here knows me) heh.. Thanks for the responces..

 

Update: Seems sonystyle charged my card but still in their website it is showing paid as 0 wheras my boa says transaction done (still pending though.. as they usually take a day or two)

I guess this means either my laptop went into build or something.. the last time i asked they said it will ship around 22nd.. dont know what to take from these.. a few days early is always good..

 

heres some photos i've taken. They aint the best of quality of pictures; i'll take some when it's daytime. Hope they're useful to someone











sick of cleaning the palm rest. it's like fingerprint central

 

I'm having problems fitting the USB in the USB port, it's so tight. The ethernet port works fine though

 

On my CW the usb ports on the left side are tight, but the one on the right is kind of loose feeling. at least i know usb things will never fall out... it's just a pain having to pull to remove them. I'm glad the ethernet port is tight though, cos when they are loose sometimes all they do is drop the connection

 

If you didn't mention it, I didn't even know the other one is on the right.

I'm doing a clean install right now to get 10gb more space. I don't know why, but after I delete the partition and then run the Restore Complete System (it says it has other softwares or something that'll be saved in the Recovery), there's still 2GB reserved for the Recovery. Anyone know if I can get rid of that?

I'm not really comfortable with the smaller Up/Down/Left/Right buttons. ~_~ Or is it just my fingers are stubby.

 

Very nice pictures As for the finger prints that's why I'm getting the Matte version of it

 

lmao you never even noticed? well at least you have now... better late than never

I want to do a clean install, but i dont have the discs to do it, nor have i even made recovery disks yet

and yes they are slightly small. when i play games i always end up missing them for some reason... they must be in different position form my last laptop

the constant fingerprint smudging is annoying, but for some reason i think the CW with matte palm rests looks really cheap looking. personal preference i suppose... why couldnt sony have done a "best of both worlds"... surely there is a glossy effect plastic that doesnt leave smudges?

 

they have blu-ray burners available now..just no gt230m's...

 

I got the shipping confirmation email this afternoon at 2:23 pm. The estimated delivery date is 12/17. I ordered it on 11/27 at 9:30 pm. Can't wait.

 

Ah, that'd make sense, lol... I started to think that later on.

Nice pics. I'm afraid of the fingerprints, which is why I looked away from the Asus and others. But yeah, I agree with you, I could see the matte look looking a little dull...

For anyone, are you able to take the stickers off with ease or are they really stuck on good and would leave icky stuff on if I take them off.

 

When I briefly had my sony cw I took the stickers off pretty easy. Not to hard..

 

what color? if it was black i am going to go bananas because i ordered the same specs as you on the 27th around 5pm..

 

Well here is my story...I ordered a CW w/230m, win pro, fresh start, blu ray playback, 4g DDR3, 320G HDD, on 11-27-09 at about 10:00 a.m. central time.

I called initially to ask about the lack of a shipping date (first time to order from sony). I was given a number for a case or something...few days later I get an e-mail stating that the order was delayed until 12-15-09 waiting on a part. I called today just to check on the status of things and a few hours later I get an e-mail stating that the order is delayed again until 12-29-09 (product to ship sometime after that)..These reps that answer the phone can't even see the comments made by the previous reps in the order page notes...

My problem with all of this is that I have followed this thread from the start and have seen people with the same config ordered after 11-27-09 and some ordered on that same day later in the day, receiving their orders, all with different colors..

Sony, leaves much to be desired in terms of communicating with the customer. So a week before Christmas I get informed that the main gift I ordered this year is delayed until after the New Year.

Thank you Sony Style and Merry Christmas...

 

Now the Sony website won't let you pick the 230M during config.......

 

This has been the case for almost a week now...!

 

You can in Canada!

 

New to the forum here....i am on the fence as to the CPU. I am debating between the Intel T9600(2.8), or the P8700(2.53). Is the $200 worth the jump? Will I really see that much difference?

Thanks in advance for any and all opinions.

 

Is this true?

 

Are there any dangers in doing this? Like, would it void the warranty?

 

OKAY so I waited 20 minutes on customer support to finally get someone to talk to me. I cancelled my order due to the big delay there was which made me angry. (Ordered 11/27 8 AM PST, EST Ship date 12/15 but delayed to who knows.) Bought the One on Newegg today with the 25$ gift card (purchase of 250$ or more) and now I will receive my laptop in 3 days! Finally! .
Specs:
Jet Black
T6600
GT 230M
Win7 Home Prem
Dvd rw(no more bluray, w.e)
4gb ram (yay 1gb more)
Atheros Wifi
I paid 20$ less from sony but I gained 1gb more ram and lost bluray..
oh well I still think its worth it

Edit: and Newegg just increased the price today by 50$! wooh im lucky!

 

Hi chucky_1234

many thanks for your guidelines; I'll check it tonight.

Actually I've got exactly the same config as yours except that I have White.

Good luck for the fan speeds

 

If you ask for a "complete" system restore, it'll restore to the factory state i.e. with all the original partitions i.e. recovery partition, system (c and another small system (or something) partition.
I believe this small partition is due to W7 installation process and anyway it doesn't worry me so I let it be as is.
For my part I did a semi-clean install: reboot, F10, choose restore C: (not complete), then I choose the size of that C: partition (as far as I remember it didn't let me have less than 60 GB for C: so I choose the min 60 GB).
Then I did the semi-clean install way i.e. interrupting in the middle of recovery as soon as I got the Windows logo after which I installed the softs I wanted from VAIORecv.
After the process complete, I did create the rest of the disk as a D: partition

 

Seems like Sony took down the CW Royale Indigo picture off there website and it's now "up to 256Mb" instead of 512mb. They better bring that g230m back in action all I want is THE VAIO! Any updates on when they are restocking?

 

I suggest you create the recovery DVDs (3) ASAP before everything.

Then, why not doing a semi-clean install. You'll not need to have the W7 disk, nor the activation key.
Actually, the semi-clean install installs W7 for you ! And semi-clean doesn't mean it's dirty! It's just that rather than installing W7 yourself, you let Sony VAIO recovery program (VAIORecv) do it for you. And since this program install W7 and in addition all those bloatware, you interrupt it in the middle after seeing the W7 logo so it won't install the bloatware. Interrupting means once you see the W7 logo, you click ctrl/alt/del and kill the process named "VAIORecv" after which you let the system continue and reboot. Then you log in and install WHAT YOU WANT by running VAIORecv.exe in the programFiles\vaio.
Previously, you should backup programFiles\vaio and after you log in, you restore it to its original place i.e. programFiles then you run VAIORecv.exe from that folder.

that's all!

 

It was Icy White.

 

Absolutely not, the only chipset available for i7 clarkfield is P55,whilst Cw uses P45 I suppose :-?

 

Ok, to answer to Sir Dudley....i checked my Vaio Ethernet port. The port is a bit stiff but i had no problem removing the cable afterwards.

 

Just got my CW yesterday, creating the recovery disks as I type. Unfortunately it's a French OS so I'm going to do a clean install with an English W7 Pro I got from school for free. What do I need to know before I dive in? Am I going to find everything I need on the Sony VAIO downloads pages? Can I reacquire all the software preinstalled on my machine? Which programs are really worth it anyway?

 

raziel2001: Thanks once again!, puts my mind at ease once again but really, I guess stiff is much better than loose. Thanks Sony. but yeah my usbs all seem great .... so far. lol

Batman Asylum and Borderlands, run like a beast.

 

Use some tape to pull the sticky stuff off. It's like pulling dog hair off cloths. just keep doing it, and it'll eventually come off. The stronger the tape, the faster it'll come off.

 

http://www.provantage.com/intel-bx80607i7720qm~7ITEP34L.htm

i guess this doesn't fit...

 

The PM45 chipset in the CW uses socket P interface, which has 478 pins. The mobile Core i7s need the PM55 chipset since it does not need an external memory controller, which in turn uses 989 pins.

 

Thanx, NetJunky

 

come on Sony, give an update about my laptop...!

 

Bit the bullet and got myself a Royal Indigo one yesterday from Currys. Unboxed it today and I am burning dvd recovery disks as I type. So far, it has been a pleasure to type on this wonderful keyboard. Haven't updated any drivers yet, will do as soon as I have the recovery process complete. Just want to thank everyone here who have provided their inputs. Without some of the experiences posted on here, I wouldn't have got this laptop.

 

Just received my CW from Fed Ex. I ordered the Blu-ray read only drive (free Black Friday upgrade.) When I opened the documentation box, found this note:

"Dear Sony Style Customer,

Happy holidays.....We wanted to let you know that we have upgraded the disc drive on your VAIO PC at no cost to you. You had originally ordered the Blu-ray Disc read-only drive....The full Blu-ray Disc read/write drive not only lets you....We hope you enjoy the added capability of your new PC..."

What a pleasant surprise!

I ordered late Black Friday. Indigo, CW P8700, 230M graphics, 4GB, Fresh Start, 500 GB hard drive.

 

I have a question for those that have seen this. Sony has updated my status.
Yesterdays status:
Order Status:
Updated Shipping Date

Estimated Ship Date:
11/30/2009

It has been that way since I ordered on the 28th of Nov.
This is what it reads now:

Order Status:
Processing

Estimated Ship Date:
12/22/2009

Does this usually mean it is about to be built and I should wait "patiently" for the "being built" email?

Jasper2009, Maybe that is all they could get and I will feel the same fate. What a nice upgrade. Merry Xmas to you.

 

Congrats Dude...thats really neat..free upgrade to Blu-ray Read/Write...Cool

 

Anyone know of a store selling this with the 230m, since Sonystyle is out?

 

i ordered a white on 11/28 with a 230m and i just recieved an e-mail stating mine has gone into production. Ship out is estimated at 12/17.

I believe newegg still has the 230m video card versions available.

 

debating on a new processor...

P9700 - less heat and still nice and fast
T9800 - more heat, but fastest (not as fast as T9900 but that's too much)
or Q9300 - more multitasking, but not sure what I would need it for

any opinions on the processors?

 

I would recommend p9700!! (unless you really need the 4 cores of the quad.)

Less heat output and very little difference in "noticable" speed to the T9800