Official Sony Vaio F22 2D Owners Lounge

The battery may simply not be able to release power fast enough to power a quad-core i7 AND a 540M both at full power. The alternative to limiting the power of the CPU and GPU on battery is experiencing spontaneous shut-downs, like the M14x used to have problems with before Alienware changed the setup to something comparable to what the Vaio F2 does.

Your Acer is able to run full power on battery...does it have a quad-core i7 and a 540M or better? Running an i3 or i5 with no dedicated GPU off the battery requires a lot less power draw than running the F2's hardware off battery.

 

The older, F22, potential Deal alert!

Was at a BB store today, talked to one of their Geek Sq member, and he told me that the "discontinued" F22 (w/ the slightly slower CPU at 2.0GHz) is priced at about $960 in their system (he actually checked for me). The BB website still said 1,250 for F22. So, if anyone is interested, you are potential looking at a discount of $290!! Not bad for a F22 and might want to check it out with your local BB.

 

Thanks for the info, I bought mine a couple of weeks ago for $1019. I may see if they will refund the difference.

 

I need help with this trackpad. The texture doesn't allow for smooth scrolling, but that's not my problem. For some reason, two fingers to the right of the pad doesn't allow me to scroll up and down on web pages. Where can I find the sony trackpad gestures supported?

 

Scrolling is implemented with a two-finger swipe in the center of the trackpad (or anywhere on the trackpad), not just off the right edge of the trackpad like some other trackpads use.

I find the two-finger swipe to be intermittent at best...it just doesn't work well and sometimes doesn't get it at all, particularly coming from an Apple with its excellent multitouch functionality. I just use a USB mouse with a scroll wheel, to be honest.

 

Good luck to you. I hope you got it.

 

Thank you for the tip. I think I might just use a mouse as well. I have another question. I noticed that my monitor has some sort of color overlay. I would like to know how to disable it. For instance, I browsed wallpapers on my main pc and transferred them over to my vaio and the colors were a shade green. However, when I tried logging off the vaio I noticed the overlay disappeared for a brief moment and I was able to see the wallpaper a lot sharper and with better color before it took me to the login page.

So the long winded question is, how do I get it to use the default color and not the "calibrated" or overlay color.

 

Go to the Vaio Control Center, select Display and choose the option to disable Color Mode (or something like that, I don't recall what it's exactly called). That should do the trick.

 

That certainly did the trick. Thank you for the quick reply. I really do appreciate the assistance.

 

Totally personal preference, but I really like Color Mode enabled (in standard mode). While the extremes are more extreme with it disabled--whites are whiter, blacks are blacker, bright reds and bright blues are brighter, etc--I find that most other colors look a bit "washed out." You get a washed-out looking photo except for the bright blue or bright red, which REALLY pops. With color mode enabled, the extremes aren't as extreme, but the overall effect is a bit "richer" to me, for lack of a better word.

Anyway, something to play around with now that ydaf answered your question directly and showed you how to disable it.

 

Hello, I have been reading a long time now in all the threads but cannot find more information about the HDD possibilities for the F22/F23

Is it possible to have 1 SSD + 1 HDD at the same time?
Can you change the HDD with an SSD yourself without loosing warranty?

Thanks in advance!!

 

It's very easy to change the HD in this laptop. I changed the standard HDD to a SSD in a couple of minutes. You just remove the a small panel on the bottom and then it's pretty straightforward. You can change it without voiding the warranty.

If you want to have one SSD + HDD then you probably have to remove the optical drive (as there is only 1 slot for the hard drive). You'll also need some kind of caddy to hold the HDD in place. I'm not exactly sure how that works or if it's possible with this particular laptop and if it's covered by the warranty but I doubt that the warranty would be valid if you were to replace the optical drive with a HDD. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, perfect answer to my question!

 

Hi guys ,
I intend to buy a Sony Vaio F23 from Best Buy .
According to your comments it is not very clear if this model has a 5400 rpm Hard drive as listed or a 7200 rpm one .
According to SonyStyle site they don't have listed at all any 5400 rpm hard drives .

So , I would like to know for the ones who bought this specific model from BB , if it has a 5400 rpm drive or a 7200 rpm .
This info is very important to me since I intend to do heavy video editiong on this laptop .

Thanks in advance !

 

Well, going off the specs of the model at Best Buy, it should indeed have a 5400. Best Buy tends to get its own unique configs whenever they carry Vaios; they don't necessarily match the ready-to-ships that Sony has.

 

7200 would be better on a gaming/multimedia machine with an i7. Very nice machine.

I guess Best Buy is saving $10 or so. Oh, well.

 

I am not sure if this this issue is related directly to Best Buy . My first Vaio was a VPN-AR520E ( in fact , it still is ...despite the green lines and white dots that I got on startup ) , a very nice machine that is equipped by Sony with a Dual Core Due T7100 processor , NVidia 8400 GT dedicated video card and many other goodies but also came ... with a 4200 rpm Hard Drive ( was replaced by me with a 7200 rpm after a few years of usage ) when all other brands sold their laptops, at the time it was purchased , at least with a 5400 rpm hard drive .
I really don't know what is the point to sell from one hand a beautiful top technology machine with the latest I7 processor , with a very new dedicated NVidia video card , with a top of the tops 1080p display , bluray reader and even burner , 3D in some types , but ... a 5400rpm Hard Drive ? Really , what is the point of it ?
Just because a few bucks cheaper drives Sony allows their official resellers to shadow this machine with a 5400 rpm hard drive ?

 

and one more question : Is it possible to use Intel's HD3000 built in video card chip together with the NVidia's graphic chip on Sony Vaio F series ?
If not , what is going to happen when if the NVidia chip withh become defective ? This is what happened with my Vaio VGN-AR520 - it looks like they have a general failure with the 8400 GT chip and for now my 4 years laptop still works thanks to the built-in internal additional video chip which is enabled in this machine .
I think that I seen a few laptops of different brands that allows today the usage of the HD3000 chip TOGETHER with an other dedicated video chip . Does Sony allows the same on the F series ?

 

Hi guys . I would like to ask the ones who own this model sold by J&R if it has a "Premium" Display .
And a general question :how much space the restore of the original OS provided by SONY is reserved on the Hard Drive .

A question for the ones who chose to buy the BluRay player included models : What are the main usages for the BluRay player : movies , data , etc ?
I am not so sure if I need or not a BluRay player . I'm a movies fan but I prefer to watch movies generally on a 50 inch HD TV and not on a 16.4 inch display .

 

@IlanD, as far as I'm aware, the F2 series will only have 7200 rpm drives, and several online retailers list that speed on the drives. Best Buy online says that all the configurations they sell have a 7200 rpm drive installed, so I wouldn't worry about it in the store being different. The recovery partition on my F21 takes up just shy of 18G, so on the size drives today, it's small, but large if you want to put it onto an SSD.

As far as being able to switch between the dedicated Nvidia card and the HD3000 on the i7, so far nobody has found a way to change it that I'm aware of. The F22 and F23 are based off of the F21, which is the 3D model, and the HD3k does not have the capabilities to render 3D smoothly. Still doesn't explain why they didn't set it up with Optimus, but they know how things work better then we do as far as those things go.

The screen has been said to be the best looking screen by several reviews that I've seen, but I haven't compared the non-3D to my 3D. All I know is that I much prefer watching anything on it, as the colors are the most vivid of anything else in my house. Even taking my laptop over to a friends w/ a Bravia 3D TV left me wanting to watch movies on my screen instead. Your opinions may vary, as I doubt my eyes are identical to yours. (Note: Blu-Ray comes standard with the 3D version, so can't offer thoughts on that. I did upgrade to Blu-Ray burner for futureproofing, and have used it a few times already.)

 

Derz ,
Thanks a lot for your detailed reply .
I wasn't able to find specified in any place that all Best Buy's Sony Vaio F23 series are coming with a 7200 rpm drive .
I found this model there and on its specification they are mentioning that the 750G Hard drive has a 5400 only speed .

I'll try to call their support there and ask them directly what is the real speed of this model hard drive .

 

... have called BB regarding this specific model and they told me that it is right like it is mentioned - a 5400 rpm Hard Drive and not a 7200 rpm .
If you anyone knows where I can find a on-store Vaio F23 , Premium display , 750G HD + 7200 rpm , BluRay reader and 8G RAM in the New York area , please inform me .
Tnx

 

It was no problem. I brought my receipt in and told them I heard the price was down to $960. They looked it up in the system and refunded me $60 plus tax.

Thanks!!!

 

Hi guys ,
One more question - I intend to buy a keyboard skin , something like this one from BB . I need it since I would like to add letters for a second language and I prefer to do it on a protective skin instead directly on the F2's keyboard .
I would like to ask if adding a such protective skin , the keyboard backlight will still work and will light the buttons of the keyboard as seen through this skin ?

 

This looks like the black version of a skin I bought at a Sony store. These ones tout "backlight friendliness" as one of their features, so you should be all right with this one. As reference, here's a shot of my F21 with the white version of the skin.

 

eehpeehthreeh,
Thanks for the info and for the pic . I found a skin that has this "Backlit Keyboard Compatible" feature and I think that it will look like yours but I think that I'll pick the black one .
Why did you chose the white one ?

 

I basically didn't want to have black-on-black and I figured the white would make a nice contrast. Originally I came into the store wanting a green one (which I also purchased later) and this is when I discovered they had the "made for backlight" ones.

 

Yeah, I've got the bright-lime-green keyboard skin for my F23, and it completely obliterates the backlight. I only use it when my kids are around or when the laptop is on the kitchen counter, so that's okay with me, but it's worth noting.

 

I agree that having a white skin on the keyboard makes a good contrast in the dark , as shown in your picture , but at daylight I don't think that it looks so good while this skin is rounded by the black color .
What's your opinion ?
Is this contrast of a white skin on black keyboard looking good also at daylight ? Can you take a picture of it in the daylight ?

 

Here's one I have uploaded that I took with my phone a while back; I'm currently at work so this is the quick answer to your request.



I prefer the heavy contrast as opposed to just putting a black skin on the black keyboard. Sure, it'll help protect the glossy bits in between the keys, but I might as well have some fun with the color while I'm at it.

 

Hi eehpeehthreeh ,
Thanks for the reply and the picture . You're right about the contrast and this white on black it looks a very nice combination .
Still hard to decide what I like more - this white on black high contrast or the uniformity of black on black ... Probably I'll have to check the both on the store in order to take a decision .

 

At worst you can always get both. I'm trying to decide on what color I may pick up next!

 

Hi All,
Will our F22 support 16GB of Ram? Anyone tried yet?

 

I'm looking to buy a high performance Laptop with i7-2860qm, mostly for heavy number crunching/simulation/CAD, but don't want to compromize on portability, noise, and also want to avoid neon-lights and psychadelic pain-jobs.

Ultimately I am trying to determine if the new F23 series are capable of supporting 16GB DDR3-1600MHz RAM? If not, what is the actual limiting factor?

I've tried mutliple channels at Sony, and they've all been less than useless to help confirm this.

Depending on the chipset installed on the motherboard, number of RAM slots, BIOS features, it's possible that althought not advertised, the F23 with i7-2860QM could potentially support up to 32GB of RAM.

It would be great if someone with an F23 series with i7-2860QM could shed light on the following questions:

1) What is the chipset (e.g. HM67, QM67, HM65...) reported in device manager? (Start > type: "devmgmt.msc" + [ENTER]); Expand "+Sytem Devices"; One of the devices should be called something along the lines of "Intel(R) HM65 Express Chipset..." or is it HM67? QM67?

2) or Better: Run CPU-Z ( CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting) and report the chipset, southbridge and revision from the "mainboard" tab. Pictures of the CPU, Mainboard and Memory tabs would be most helpful.

3) If someone has tried 16GB of RAM what does the BIOS recognize for installed RAM and what does Windows actually see? (right-click My Computer > Properties...)

4) How many RAM slots on the PC's mainboard? (I'm assuming there are only 2, but who knows? I haven't seen this clearly documented anywhere...)

I've never considered anything other than Toshiba until about 2 years ago. When it seemed Toshiba dropped-out of the reliable high performance market, I jumped on a Sony F1. I've been extremely pleased with my F1 and never looked back. Now I'm hoping to find the same experience and more power with the new model.

At the moment I'm split between a DELL XPS 17 and Sony VAIO VPCF2390X. I gag at the thought of having to settle for a DELL. I hope the F23 will remains an option.

 

I've seen on a couple third-party sites that the F2390X maxes out at 8 GB max ram.

Have you thought about a G74SX? It's got a very quiet (yet effective) cooling system, so you're not compromising on noise. It's a similar price point. But it supports up to 16 GB ram. Like the F23, it's got some styling to it--it's not just a box--but it's an angular black design, very modern and classy, not at all garish like an Alienware or an MSI design.

http://www.amazon.com/G74SX-XA1-Republic-Gamers-17-3-Inch-Gaming/dp/B00592CFFM

Edit: Better yet, The Thinkpad W520 has the i7-2860QM and can be configured from the factory with up to 32 GB of ram. Probably your best bet.

 

There is no "trying" really. It only has 2 Ram slots. So the only way to get 16GB Ram would be to buy 8 GB x2 Ram sticks which are ridiculously expensive.

 

arg8 ,
The problem with the Dell XPS 17 is that there are two types of displays available for it . The difference between the 900p one to the 1080p one is about $400 .
If you need it for CAD applications , the screen native resolution should be one of your first considerations . The Sony F23 has a native 1080p and it costs almost the same as Dell's model with 900p resolution display .
I am almost sure that the maximal RAM capacity of F23 is 8Gb but I think that it is far more than enough for most of the CAD applications that are recommended a 4Gb RAM memory and working even with 1-2Gb of RAM memory .

I had the same dilemma of choosing a high performance laptp for Electronics simulations softwares and I'll go for F23 after I considered the Asus and Dell mentioned above .

 

Skyrim is lagging for me even at the lowest settings help please =(. Every game is lagging actually. I have the 540m model signature edition

 

Turn your Vaio to High Performance with the battery setting.
Set the fan to Performance mode with Vaio control center.
If you want a smooth performance knock the resolution down to 1600 x 900. And beware, particle effects kill Frames Per Second.

 

Even my watercooled, overclocked Q9450 desktop with crossfired HD 4850 was lagging on Skyrim initially, but installing the FXAA injector solved that completely. It's worth trying.. FXAA Post Process Injector at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim Mods and community

Oh and turn off Sky reflections, that's a resource hog.

Otherwise use the advice in this forum about optimizing the GPU.

And make sure no other processes are using up CPU and GPU cycles.

 

im going to try that right now but it seems every game I play is lagging no matter what. Even on the lowest resolutions, and its not normal lag I get great FPS 99% of the time but it just stops for a millisecond and everything freezes and starts up again, it's like my computer is stuttering.

 

If you've got it set to high performance, I'd check screen resolution settings. Most modern games need to be at 1366x768, not 1920x1080, to run properly with a 540M. With the 540M, most games will run at medium or high detail at 768p just fine, but will choke at 1080p regardless of detail. Just my non-scientific experience.

 

There's a thread right now in the original F-thread (part 6) about stuttering, and various tools to check latency. It goes on for many pages.. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/569280-official-sony-vaio-f-series-owners-thread-part-6-a-175.html#post8082252

It seems to boil down to actual problems with the disc image provided by Sony, but along the way are issues such as bad ethernet drivers, antivirii software causing hangs, and defective drivers...

 

Im running the lowest possible settings, I checked the DPS thing and when I play I see lots of red bars. So what do you guys recommend I do? Should I call Sony and tell them about this problem?

 

As suggested in the F thread, maybe a fresh install with ONLY any service packs, but no optional updates.

 

As MelodyMaster mentioned we discussed DPC latency issues in the F1x Owners Lounge thread. The solution was a combination of fresh OS install and HDD firmware update.

If you are experiencing anything like in this video (even without the beep), and you have a Seagate HDD ( any of ST9160412AS, ST9250410AS, ST9320423AS, ST9500420AS, ST980412ASG, ST9160412ASG, ST9250410ASG, ST9320423ASG, ST9500420ASG ) you should check out doraemon801's post.

 

How do I do a fresh install of my OS? I reformatted it 2 days ago but it installed all those useless programs -.- .


Also my problem is exactly like that, it annoys the out of me. I might cry if I can get this problem fixed. Also does this happen to everyone or do some people just get faulty ones?

And it says I have a toshiba HDD TOSHIBA MK6461GSY

 

The Toshiibas are good drives. Offhand I don't believe the bloatware will cause stuttering, extra HD and memory usage maybe... You mean gameplay is poor with a fesh factory installÉ

 

it's like that youtube video he posted. The game runs smoothly but then just stops every few seconds. I reformated my computer 2 days ago and just reinstalled skyrim but still it was the exact same thing

 

I had the "everything stops for tea" syndrome on my E8400 Q35 media server (ironically) with Win7 and a classic 5-year old WD SATA1 SE HD. The problem was intractable right from a clean install. Then one day it went away and the system has been fine ever since.. My F11 has never had stuttering or freezes, at any time during the original and then a reinstall from the recovery dics. It uses a Toshiba no-trim SSD.

Again, look in Task Manager for a program that jumps to the top of CPU usage. Something is interrupting the interrupts. Look at it DURING game play (windowed mode). However Skyrim seems particularly fussy about having the graphics display all to itself. I've tried to run it as full screen on one monitor, with a second monitor running desktop, (ATI cards with mirroring) and Skyrim always crashes to desktop after a minute or so. This may be a bug addressed in future patches. Do the testing with other games, and of course multimedia.

One thing that wan't suggested in the F thread - try downloading and running the latest Intel .inf , to update chip properties for the drivers, and install Intel's HD IO drivers. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Chipset+Software+Installation+Utility