Official Sony Vaio F Series Owners Thread *Part 6*

Alright, I'm so very proud of myself today. I've wasted pretty much the entire day completely reorganizing and doing major modifications to my Rainmeter setup. I'm dying to show it off.



note* - this isn't my normal wallpaper. I just wanted something even toned as a background. Also, what looks like a winamp skin in the top right corner is actually a minor modification to Winamp itself. It kept shifting every time I clicked it in the wrong spot, so I found and disabled its background once I got in in the position I like. Now, it looks like it's part of rainmeter, but has full winamp function. Yay!!!
And, the text on the left, above "to-do list" lauches the programs.

EDIT - changed wallpaper

 

Seriously nice. What an excellent function, Winamp, to have blended seamlessly into your design. Did you use Add the Transparent Rainify Skin to Winamp - How-To Geek ETC as stated before? Jumping into Winamp options I cannot see an obvious way to keep it in one position. How did you do it?

 

I did, and do, use the Rainify for Winamp skin, but that's only part of the trick. I want the little player to be flush with the edge of the screen. The window naturally snaps to about 5-10 pixels away from the edge. If you press Shift while dragging, you can move it all the way to, and beyond, the edge. The problem is... if you accidentally click in the wrong part of the window, it snaps back.

When I was playing with my rainmeter, I had decided to put the player window in the middle, or the bottom, but wasn't liking it. (seriously, this config of mine takes clutter and flow into much consideration). Anyway, I remembered that when I downloaded the Rainify skin, I had looked into the folder and saw the different images. I was trying to change the function of the "browse" label, but to no luck. Ok, back to my story... I started playing by renaming the particular background image. It worked, the player window was stuck in position, but it was in the default position as a result of renaming the file. Great... I could get the background out AND keep it from moving, but was stuck with it in the center of the screen. I then went into the player.normal xml and removed the line for the background. Worked like a charm. I also told it to make the browse/library/player icons to always look like they were being hovered over, since the hover text is brighter.

My answer to your question probably being lost in my verboseness...

The only way you can lock the position is to get rid of the thing that's movable... ie: the background. So, you position it where you want, then close the program. Nav to the player.normal xml and remove the line for player background. Relaunch. You'll still be able to use full functionality of the player window, but will not have the background. What is not an icon or text for the player is a direct click-through to the desktop. You can then use one of the sidebar skins from the Enigma rainmeter them to give a background again.

 

I'm glad you like it and I am even happier that i could help!

Honestly, Google scares the hell out of me...they track everything and they are forcing us to conform to their wishes. take Youtube. I no longer use the site because Google wants me to sign into their juggernaut just to go to Youtube. I no longer use Google search or anything else having to do with Google. I no longer accept their cookies.

Just my paranoid (or perhaps not so far off) opinion!

 

woow nice design,could u explain how can I do mine like this?

 

Anyone can upload count_schemula's Spyder2express profile for screen calibration? His download link is not working anymore. Or other good profile for my F11. Thanks!

I'm also proud of my desktop )

 

Here you go.

 

Thanks a lot

 

How did you make it where you get the Start Orb and tray icons without the taskbar?

Are you interested in removing the shortcut arrows from your desktop icons? Well, all shortcut icons actually. Download Ultimate Windows Tweaker: Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a TweakUI for Windows 7 & Vista | The Windows Club

 

About arrows. This Reduce/Remove Shortcut's Arrows is MUCH better. No install needed and very easy. Also you can reduce it's size.

 

Thank you!

That's a loaded question you have. I'm using skins from 4 different themes. Each of the themes has it's own metadata. Pretty much, the only skin that hasn't been altered is the little power meter right above the restart icon on the bottom left. Every other skin has been edited to change fonts, shades, location of text and stuff. The weather skin (part of the Windows Phone 7 theme) was actually brilliantly written and is a resizable skin. Because of that, the writers put a lot of math into the height and location of all of the text and icons. I had to adjust the numbers and get it right by trial an error. The weather skin at the bottom right was originally about 20 pixels wider.

I think the best place for you to start is to pick a skin that you want to play around with, navigate to its folder and make a copy of the .ini file and name the new copy to something else. Restart Rainmeter, then launch RainBrowser. Load the new version, select to edit it, and start making little changes (one at a time). After a change, press CTRL+S to save and then refresh the skin to see what happened.

 

anseio,

I like the look, so I downloaded the rainmaker app. My question is about added resource usage. How much has it gone up for you?

I did no customizing and only have 4 of the basic apps running, yet I see an additional memory and CPU usage.

The additional resource usage is not a lot, but again...I am all about a lean and fast computer. Do you know how much this utility has added to your resource usage?

thanks!

 

At this very moment, my usage is 17,824k. That's about the size of one sidebar gadget, but it does soooo much more!!! Oh, my CPU hovers at 1-2%.

Rainmeter is customizable nearly to infinity. I'm sure you'll find a theme/skin to make you very happy. I'm also happy to share my limited knowledge in editing.

EDIT - you probably got the illustro theme. There are a bazillion more out there. I'm using Enigma, Taboo Vision, Dark Glass, and WP7.

Enigma is for my launcher (on the left), my To-Do List, Date, Appointments, Gmail and little power indicator.

Taboo Vision is for my clock and system panels.

WP7 is for my weather skin.

Dark Glass is for my Restart/PowerOff/Sleep.

Everything but the power % meter has been changed for fonts spacing and stuff. And the clock has a little surprise in it. I had initially tried to write a skin that would alert me as to when I wasn't plugged in, but I could never get it to update/refresh properly. So, I put it into the clock, which does it every second. So, if the charger comes unplugged from the powerpack accidentally, "UNPLUGGED!" appears in the upper portion of the clock.

 

I am willing to part with my OEM 4GB Ram for 30 bucks and my Internal Blu-Ray Writer for 120 to anyone in the U.S. that is interested.

 

Oh, how I would love disposable $ right now for the writer.

 

On second thought... I just finished catsitting for my neighbors for the past 2 weeks. I didn't plan on getting paid, as it was a pleasure to do it for them. They gave me $ anyway. I'm sure I can easily turn around my reader on ebay or something.

So, I think I want it. Which model burner is it?

 

Pioneer BDR-TD03VA
6x BD-R Blu-Ray Burner Pioneer BDR-TD03VA For Latops SATA 12.7mm height - good quality Optical Disc Drive

Only owned for 40 days used only for making recovery disk and playing a few movies. Looking for HDD caddy and another ssd or external HDD if you have anything to trade.

 

Wish I had more hardward to negotiate with. I've got my OEM HDD in a eSATAp enclosure that I could be convinced to part with. Seagate 7200.4 500GB/7200RPM. The enclosure works well, but is fickle about how the cable sets in it.

 

If you decide you want to buy just let me know, ill give you my email and we can figure it out from there.

 

Browsing Visual Styles 7 on deviantART

With this.

 

New update for touchpad available.
Description: This utility updates the TouchPad settings to resolve an issue where the cursor may move erratically while typing on the keyboard.
Link for mine F12 VPCF126FM Sony eSupport - VPCF126FM - Drivers & Software

 

Thanks. It appears to be over my head though, as I can't figure out the tutorial that I found with the program and don't want the full theme you have, just editing to the taskbar to see if I'd like it that way.

 

Why am I having a lot of VAIO Messenger errors all of a sudden?

 

Just uninstall it. No one knows what it does.

 

Found i7-640m on eBay and thinking if it will work on our VAIO F...

 

Funny thing happened today on the sony vaio F1390X CTO page!
You can buy 8 giga of memory with $20 less then the 4 giga.

 

4-18-2011

NVIDIA DRIVERS 270.61 WHQL

No issues so far but installation did rearrange my desktop icons.

 

The new version has been removed from the european support site. I reinstalled the 6.3 version again because always several minutes after a restart I got the notification that Vaio care stopped working. Maybe that's the problem?

Thanks for notifying the new nvidia driver

 

I saw your post this morning, but you missed a bit!

I have been shopping for another F13, and last night at 2AM (I couldn't sleep) the Sony Style USA site had the 8GB memory upgrade as a $20 deduct as you saw. It also has 3 years of Norton Internet Security, Windows 7 Pro and Microsoft Office 2010 Professional as free software (along with the previously free Adobe bundle) and a free BluRay player.

This is another great deal!

 

I have a VPCF136FD/B with the USB 3.0 and now I have run CrystalDiskMark but I feel a little let down with the results. See attached image. Am I expecting to much from my new USB 3.0 drive?

 

I believe it is OK as for a HDD.

 

Those numbers look just right. On the USB 3.0 test, the bottleneck is with the platter and not the connection. So, you're good there.

 

I want to do an external raid setup using an enclosure with a built in raid controller the two HDDs are sata 3 and 2TB a piece. Does anyone know which enclosure will have faster read/write speed, a usb 3.0 enclosure or esata?

 

I have 3 OEM (the drives that came in the F-series) Toshiba 5400RPM 320 GB HDDs in "Power Over eSATA enclosures. I tested an SSD in these enclosures and even though the drive is capable of much higher numbers, the enclosure limited the read and write speeds to 128.00 MB/second in both directions.

Here are what the 3 OEM HDDs produced:



I am amazed at how close they are. The first is from my F11 from last April. The others are from F12s last fall.

Reads are slow. This may be, in part, due to the 5400 RPM speed. It may also be that these particular drives use a lot of voltage when writing and the eSATA "power" may supply less than these drives need for maximum writes.

Just my thoughts.

 

Hey guys, i need some help here, i have the VPCF1190X, and lately ive had 2 problems besides the amazing performance of the laptop.

1) the webcam has stopped working, the green light comes on but no image shows up and theres no problem that windows detects. this is not a lighting problem. Ive reset the drivers from vaio care ive also downloaded the new drivers but nothing is fixing this problem
the laptop has suffered no physical damage.

2) as of two days now my balanced power option has disappeared and im left with high performance and power saver. I never deleted it. I never changed any settings i just switch between them based on what im doing. Now it has disaapeared and beside that when i choose between the two that i have i select power saver and i close of the window and when i check back the choice has returned back to high performance.

I would really appreciate feedback as you all have been very informative to me

 

1) (the webcam has stopped working, the green light comes on but no image shows up and theres no problem that windows detects. this is not a lighting problem. ) - Just go to webcam settings and uncheck low light compensation,click apply then check again low light compensation-apply and your web cam will work.

 

dude thank you so much this is amazing . thanks..
lol anyone with ideas on the power plan now??

 

Is the CPU on the vaio F series upgradeable or is it soldered in? If it is upgradeable is there a guide of how to do it or similar?

At the momment I have the i5-460M, what could it be upgraded to if it is possible? Any of the older i7 range (eg i7-740QM)? Any of the newer 2nd gen i5 or i7 range?

Thanks

 

None of the laptops have soldered processor in the world.
Can't upgrade on 2-nd gen I processors. If you want use i7 it is little risky. There are different thermal units (or at least different part numbers). i7 gives more heat. What are your temps in idle and under heavy work?

Powerplans. Strange things may happen to them. I got new different named powerplans. First time I set them to default through regedit and cmd. 2-nd time I just reinstalled Windows to clean one and that's all.

 

Well not technically soldered as such, but permantely fixed in most,if not all, Apple laptops. Getting temps maxing at 56'C with i5-460M after ripping blu-ray for an hour, and thats on silent cooling mode.

Do you mean they have different heatsink units for the laptops? Thank you for your advice.

Thinking it might be easier to sell this F13 now and buy a i7 model with premium screen.

 

Is it a good idea to upgrade my VPCF136FD/B (stock 1600 x 900 screen) with an 1920 x 1080 screen myself? I assume there will have to be a controller card as well. Has anyone done this upgrade ? I enjoy projects like this but I have yet to find anyone that has made the conversion and I do not want to find out it is not possible only after buying all the hardware and taking apart my factory screen.

 

Blackball has tried and has never posted about a successful ending. He'd been trying to upgrade his LCD from a single-lamp 1600x900 to a dual lamp FHD. I think he got the right inverter but never got the correct cable. Look into his posts- mostly in part 5 of the thread.

 

Hi,

My problem has been finding the dual-lamp, FULL HD cable (our laptops have a slightly different one). To get it new is very difficult, because Sony normally sells you the parts that are compatible with the laptop you have - for this, they request your S/N! Of course, our laptops are *not* compatible with the "full hd" cable.

I found a French parts seller that were willing to help me get the cable anyway- haven't heard from them yet...

In the meantime, I found a used cable on ebay (extremely rare), and it's on its way (I may end up with 2 cables in the end!).

My advice to you: Be patient for a few days til I get my cable, and see if my new dual-lamp FHD screen actually *works* with the new cable. If it does work, I'll help you find everything you need for the upgrade (and may even be able to sell you the extra full-hd cable that I may end up with). You'll have to decide if it's worth the money and effort, given my experience

 

So are you doing the same thing then? Upgrading from the 1600 x 900 (720p) to the 1920 x 1080 (1080 HD) sharp panel? If so what is the best price you have found on that sweet sharp panel? EG LQ164M1LD4C replacement Laptop LCD Screen $199.99 Brand-new screens (never used). Good luck I will be watching closely. What about the panels inverter or controller or what ever it is called?

 

Hi! When I press the Display Off button the screen contents are still visible (very dimmed though, but still there). Is this a common thing or is it just mine F13? Thanx.

 

It just switches off the lamps, so yes - that's normal.

 

Never noticed you can still see a bit of the screen when using 'Display Off' and never noticed the low light compensation setting in the webcam software. Admittedly, I do not use either function very often. However, I've had my laptop for 15 months and I learned two new things today within F thread. Thanks guys.

 

Yes, I'm going for the full HD LCD, as well as going from one lamp to two (the european "premium" screens have two lamps, whereas the US ones have one).

I have found various dual-lamp full HD screens for around $200 (sometimes less). If you go for the two lamps, you need an inverter with two lamp sockets. I searched for the one Sony uses in its laptops- That's much easier to find and can cost less than $40-50.

 

The guy who sold me the "full HD" LVDS cable had taken apart a european F-series with the "premium" display, and was kind enough to tell me which screen was in it.

To confirm what someone in this thread had stated a while back, the part number is LQ164M1LA4A B.

To this day, I have not found one of these being sold on the internet- just the usual companies advertising compatible "replacement" screens which do *not* necessarily carry the same part number... I wonder if there is any difference.

The guy also mentioned that he eventually bought one from laptopscreenonline, but they shipped the wrong screen twice (perhaps compatible "replacements"?).

 

So why , aside from the more is always better concept, do we want to use the 2 light system over the one ? Is the screen quality improved on these? Does the inverter affect the resolution of the new 1920 x 1080 HD panel as well?