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

its weird because they were never when playing games, it was always when doing something light. by the sounds of the bsod driver buffer overflow, i expected it to be something related to heavy tasks, not browsing this bloody website.

if you can only change the brightness to 3 settings then thats maybe one of the problems of using nvidias own, and thats maybe why sony/nvidia prevent the use of them (or at least try to )

 

Yeah, to open VAIO smat network, go to start->All Programs and run "VAIO control Center".

Then go to the "network" or "connectivity" or something. There you may have to click on "advanced" button for the smart network utility to appear.

When smart network is on, you'll have a small icon on tray with 2 arrows (left&right). I customized it to show all the time on my tray.

BTW, instead of reading the 54Mbps indication on your networking characteristics, do a file transfer and measure/see what's the throughput.

 

Just from browsing the web I seem to only get an average battery life of 2 hours and 10 minutes, with a discharge rate in the high 19s/low 20,000.
Do you guys think somethings wrong with my battery??

 

I'm kind of surprised you can chose your speed on your router.

Mine is the dual-band linksys. I can chose the band, the width, the standard (b/g only, n only or b/g/n) for each band, etc. But I have no button for explicitly setting the speed in term of mbps.

I changed the default width of 20 MHZ to 40 MHz and got 150 Mbps from 54 Mbps earlier as the network characteristics indicated on the CW.

I wasn't able to do any better.

Note that I enabled 2.4 and 5 GHz bands simultaneously on my CW for some reason (that I don't remember . I wonder if it plays anything in this.

My real throughput when transferring files is about 13 MBytes/s (about 100Mbps). What is yours ?

What is your router's brand ?

 

Thanks guys. I'd try the driver from the Sony US support site first. If it is stable then well and good,If not I will give it a try with the modified INF, as mentioned by ninja. Thanks again.

Its same with me as well mate. Maximum I could draw out of the battery was 2 hours and 30 minutes. My power plan is set to Balanced.

 

Hi... I did it... install Ubuntu 9.10 on
SONY VAIO VPC-CW1X - Configurable
RED
Intel® P8700
500GB(5400 rpm)
4 GB DDR3
Blu-ray Playback drive
Windows7 Pro-64bit
NVIDIA® GT230M 512MB
14" 1366 x 768
Intel Wifi link 5100 + Bluetooth

and for sure the web button is still working, as regards the recovery section, i think it is still there... I used the windows tool to leave free space and the I made the new recovery dvds... Hope it works if i have problems...
Alberto

 

Does anyone know what kind of RAM the CW series uses? Is it Crucial, Corsair etc...

 

Vaioforme,

I followed instructions posted by nalooti. It worked really well with no problems at all. He was generous enough to post a step by step in one of his posts. I think disabling most of the sony services solved the fan problem. Currently, I only have 1-2 sony services running.

I successfully undervolted the CPU and it is finally running stable. I get 9C less now under load for the CPU, which is pretty drastic since I wasn't expecting a huge drop like that in a laptop with good cooling ! I did a battery test as well and I got about 30 minutes more with the same settings prior to undervolting.

 

Hi Alberto,
I want to install ubuntu as well on dual-boot, did you encounter any problem? Did you install it in a different partition or inside windows? Why did you make new recovery DVDs?
I've heard about tattooed pc that could not install a different OS than the OEM one, if you managed to install ubuntu that means this laptop is not tattooed? That would be an excellent news

F'ail'o

 

Hi ...

I have a vaio VPC CW 16fg ..
p8700 2.53GHz
4GB RAM
GT230m


Suddenly my function keys have ceased to function. The volume function keys(fn+f3/f4) work but the indicator does not come up on screen, and so is the case with the mute key(fn+f2). Also, the brightness function keys(fn+f5/f6) do not work at all. I diabled some start up processes( like the camera software and adobe, the vaio event service and the sony vsn service). I haven't disabled any msn process. Is it because of disabling one of these?

Also, i have seen that there is a new driver available on the NVIDIA site(195.62) for the g230m and one on the sony site(8.16.11.8783). While the one on the NVIDIA site mentions a bunch of fixes, the one on the sony site says that there is some fix for audio. Can i use the one from the NVIDIA site?

Thanks a lot.

 

Could you tell us exactly which sony services are running on your laptop, so we can tweak ours accordingly
I'm going to undervolt as well, that's a huge gain, it was running already quite cool! What voltage did you get at?

F'ail'o

 

If you undervolt, you should stress test at least overnight with Orthos to make sure your CPU isn't making calculation errors. And if it is... well you should probably reset the voltage and do a full restore from the recovery partition, assuming it hasn't been corrupted already.
http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm

Edit: Wait that's 32 bit. You can use Prime95 http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=545913

 

Thanks for the info,

You think the fan stopped by disabling most of sony services. Having done this after a semi-clean install means that you still had some sony services running in the background.

I like to keep vaio smart network (the only way to set the wifi bands) but I believe this is the only vaio service running on mine. Did you stop that also ?

Actually what did you stop/uninstall as sony/vaio services AFTER your semi-clean install ? that could help us to understand what is consuming so much power and generating 9C heat.

9C is just huge!!!

 

Mine uses Elpida. I would have prefered samsung or crucial but ye cant win everyway it does the job i suppose

 

I'm trying to figure out what's better. 6GB of single channel ram, or 4GB of dual channel...

 

Hey Ppl,

Hows the battery charging on the CW. I ran my laptop on battery to 17% and then plugged it in for charging. i took almost 2 hours to reach 56%. During charging, i was doing simple activities like surfing the web and watching some videos. My Wifi was On, Bluetooth off. Also, my portable harddisk as also connected and i know it draws power from Laptop as well.
Is the battery charging normal? I'll try out the same tonight w/o my portable harddisk just to see if it improves.

Your comments would be welcome

 

Hi nalooti, thanks for the reply.

Vaio smart network... I don't think I have that? I went to this like you said:

"Then go to the "network" or "connectivity" or something. There you may have to click on "advanced" button for the smart network utility to appear.

When smart network is on, you'll have a small icon on tray with 2 arrows (left&right)."

But saw no Vaio smart network and I can't find it under programs/search.

I did find another location where I can change between the 2.4/5.2 Ghz bands. On the bottom right, where I check out what wireless connection I'm running, if I right click on that connection and go to properties, I can then select the band. However, if I select the 5.2 band and save, I lose the connection and I am not able to connect anywhere!

In my router settings, I could not find any location to change between 2.4/5.2 either. And there was no option between 20/40Mhz. The two options are:

20/40Mhz and
20Mhz

So I couldn't choose between one or the other specifically.

However, I noticed (for my laptop and for another laptop), that when I plug the ethernet cable in the computer (as I proceeded to do to check my router settings), I was connected at only 100mbps!

Does this mean that there is something wrong with my connection or router that I am only able to connect at 100mbps when wired?

 

The only sony service that is running on my laptop right now is the Vaio Event Service. I disabled anything else provided by sony, including the SmartWi connection utility, power managment, etc.

I also did stress the CPU overnight with Orthos and there were no BSODs. My voltage is set to 0.9875V for the 11x with my T6600. Another person from the Dell forums brought it down to the minimum, which is 0.925V.

The 9C drop was only seen during heavy load (12C less for gaming, 9C less using Orthos). Only 1-2C drop was observed when just browsing, music, messenger. Not that significant but I'll take it.

 

Is that actually the only Sony service you have running (vaio smart network, the one I can't find)?

For me, it looks like I have between 15-20 Sony services running.

To see what is running specifically, in search type in: msconfig

then click on the Services tab.

I have a bunch of media stuff running from Sony.

 

yeah raz, i've also noticed it does seem it takes awhile to charge when the screen is on bright or maybe just even on. Seems okay when I turn off the display and just let it. but TBH. i like the battery life on this sony, not bad and its the standard one too.

Also anyone with Sony Vaio Update 5 having some problems connecting to the server? I don't think Vaio Update 5 even updated anything for me since I already did everything before. Also can't seem to install the updated version of the driver for the DVD-Writer.... Keeps saying cant detect or something.

 

Did you notice the fan stopping after disabling the services or after doing the CPU stress test thing? I'm going to guess it was the latter.

the post that nalooti posted a while ago:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=176633

Talks about people doing this stress test and seeing results. It is interesting, since I never heard of it before this.

 

I don't think Orthos or undervolting had anything to do with fixing the fan issue because the voltage for when the CPU is idle is still set to 0.925V. You cannot lower that value. I only lowered the intermediates and max voltage.

 

Thanks, I am going to try to perhaps try to disable some of the Sony services running then later and see if that stops the fan. If you somehow managed to find a way to stop the fan then there must be a way we can replicate it!

 

thanks for that i'll make my recovery disks later (i still havent made a copy since getting my CW) and then install ubuntu hope it goes ok

 

Hi Guys, i also did a dual boot for Ubuntu 9.10 and it works. There is one problem though. If I enable the NVIDIA driver to have better visual effects, the screen goes balck during reboot. Did you face that issue?

 

Give me 2-3 hours and i'll confirm this the recovery disks TAKE forever...

I swear the recovery disk creator better not fail again.... GRRR

 

what the hell, why wont it let me finish making recovery disks... it's failed again.

when i look at the cd in light you can see where its recorded to, and its no where near the end of the cd

what can i do? any suggestions? should i try normal DVDs and not DL's?

 

That's odd. I used DL's and it worked fine for me. You should try normal DVDs and see if they work.

 

ok i shall i have sony DVD's so surely they'll be good enough

 

A pair of Hynix HMT125S6BFR8C-G7 here which overclock to 333Mhz

 

overclocked to 333mhz?

 

I had the same issue doing that. It would creat an image but just show an error during writing. I checked my drive by burning other data on single as well as double layer and it worked fine. I think its just random.

 

It seems to be working now.... single-layer disks. ive burned 2 out of 3 so far at least its making them now. with dual-layer it wouldnt even finish the first

12mins left.... WOOO

It would be alot more easier and conveient if sony just included recovery disks... dell can do it so why cant sony?

 

Yay,,,, I just discovered that my Blu-ray is also a burner. I had my CW for the past 4 days and did not realize that SONY upgraded mine as well from a player to burner.

I just searched my optical drive on the web and it is a blur-ray reader/writer.

My device manager lists it as MATA BD-MLT UJ230AS

So, guys any of you who have received the computer after that short BLU-RAY out of stock delay delay, just check your drives...

 

lucky... i envy you *evils*

but seriously, congrats

 

I only have 1 Sony service installed and running (event service) but my fan still spins constantly

Its also on in the BIOS and when running anything out of the OS so im thinking something needs installing rather than uninstalling

What BIOS version are you using?

 

ok so i did enable nvidias propertiary driver, and restarted the computer. when it boots up, the ubuntu logo appears, but then all of a sudden the display goes off and it freezes

anyone know whats happening? or even how to get ubuntu to load again without reinstalling it?

 

Ok mine shipped But what method do they ship with? The tracking number does not look like anything from UPS or Fedex....I choose standard free shipping...

 

So, i searched the web and here is the solution. Go to this page ( http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=140482&page=2) and check post #22. The user egghead3 has listed the step-by-step solution to this problem and a workaround. I have not treid it myself but i belisve it should work as it worked with most users of that forum.

Let us know what you have at the end. As of now, i have not updated mine and i am still using the native driver with no visual effects for the desktop.

 

I would recommend that anybody trying to get Ubuntu working on the CW should join the Ubuntu forum. This is a great source for Ubuntu realted issues, like our NBR forum.

 

how do i get the running tempretures on my CW?

 

Agh, the workaround is slightly confusing (I'm only a novice user of ubuntu) , so it'll take some time to get my head around it. i should be able to do the workaround hopefully

But anyway, THANKS A BUNCH

i'll post if i get it to work

*UPDATE*
i can't even get the softmccs to work in bloody windows 7, so i'm sturggling to obtain EDID data, the program only loads the little title box thing and then crashes. Is anyone willing to find out the EDID for the display SNY05FA for me? i'd be grateful

Anyway i've gave up for now... it's time for bed i'll have a go in the morning

 

use hwmonitor, it gives you cpu, hdd, gpu and some internal sensor readings, + battery info

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

 

Thank you...that got me going...

btw... my recovery CD took only an hour to burn...i used a dual layer DVD...!

 

Got my CW and unboxed it. Now I'm letting it charge before turning it on.

 

anyone has a recommendation for a laptop cases?

 

Burning recovery discs now. I like how there's an option to verify the discs!! You definitely must do that when burning, otherwise you never know if a few bytes are messed up.

BTW this keyboard is really nice

 

Is there a way to backup the recovery partition to a hard drive? Getting the recovery app to make ISO files would be good too.

Edit: Weird, suddenly the recovery partition shows up as drive H in explorer. So I guess you can just copy to an external HD. It's about 10gb

 

If you're looking for a simple "sleeve" type case, Best Buy carries the Targus "Slipskin Peel" for 14.1" laptops (TSS077US) that fits the CW perfectly. (I'm just not happy with the $30 price tag. )

I spent a few days looking, but there just aren't that many sleeves out there that fit this size notebook properly, at least in the stores. I found a very few more available on-line, but I needed one NOW. I'm seriously considering making my own. (And yes, sewing is one of my skills. )

BTW. While it doesn't eliminate the fingerprints/smudges, using eye-glass cleaner on a microfiber cloth to clean the outside cover and palm rest area makes a BIG difference! I suspect that Sony applied a greasy coating of some sort as part of manufacturing that just makes the fingerprint problem worse, and after an initial cleaning is easier to keep it looking good.

 

got my cw this morning. stoaaaked. indigo is pretty much purple. no problems with it yet. haven't had much time to play with it tho. i have really weak technological know how so i don't know how much i could contribute. ordered dec7, and received it 21st.