Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

I recently purchased a flip 14 with an i5-4200u 8gb ram and 500gb hdd. After the bios updates and 8.1 update, the laptop has maintained pretty sufficienty low fan noise. Although under even a bit of load it kicks in, but what can you do. My question is, does turbo boost not kick in for anyone else? my flip will not go passed about 1.78ghz even under full load. I really wish it would hit the turbo boost speed. And i couldnt find it in the bios to turn it on/off.

 

The bios on laptops i locked, and it's not a fun process to open it.
About to CPU lock, this laptop get very hot very quick, and locks the speed to avoid overheat.
if i do too much work on mine i get locked on 0.58GHz...

 

Question does anyone know why Sony only offers the 8 MP rear camera with a SSD?

 

Is there any place in Europe where I can still get the VGP-STD2 stylus/pen from? It's not for sale in any shop and it's not available in the online Sony shop (anymore) as well..

 

Ok everyone - I've noticed my fan increase activity a few times lately, but it always happens right before I have problems on the internet. While online, sometimes the screen will start to scale up or down VERY SLOWLY. While this is happening, I can't close IE or click on another area of the page. After about 5 seconds of this, the fan starts getting louder (not TOO loud though). Once I use Task manager to stop IE, the fan slows down very quickly.

Any theories?

 

Tomorrow I will have a look in the Sony Gallery shop in Barcelona.

I am too interested.

Ruben

Enviado desde mi iPad con Tapatalk HD

 

hi guys im thinking of putting in a samsung 256gb evo drive in my sony 15a....can i use my orginal serial number from the one that was installed on my laptop ,or will i have to purchase a new win 8.1...my laptop came with win 8 not the pro version .

 

Hi,

I have had my 14inch Multi-flip for a couple of weeks now and I simply cant get comfortable with the trackpad. It doesnt always register taps (turning off smartsense as recommended in this thread has helped to some extent) but its still not as smooth as I would like it to be. I am on 8.1 and have the latest BIOS and updated drivers for everything. The other issue with the trackpad is that sometimes when I "double click" an object say a folder to hold and drag it, it doesnt always respond. Finally, double clicking to hold and scroll down is also not always efficient. I wonder if others have had similar solutions and found any solutions?

Thanks

 

Make sure the "tap-touch" or something like that is disabled as it makes the pad ridiculously sensitive. Also, sometimes (and this may be an 8.1 thing) but if you try to open a folder or shortcut etc, look to see that another isn't already checked. Because nothing will open if two are checked. Honestly, scrolling, I usually use my finger.

 

I found the trackpad to be awkward and difficult to use. I'd find myself with a finger on the pad, ready to left-click, and it being detected as multi-touch and ended up with a pinch or zoom or something. Very frustrating. In the end, I bought a Wedge Touch mouse. Now I just use the touchscreen or the mouse, and save the trackpad for those very rare occasions when I can't or don't want to use them.

I can highly recommend the Wedge Touch mouse - it has no dongle because it connects straight through Bluetooth, and it's really lightweight and small. I thought it would be uncomfortable, but you use it with your fingertips, rather than resting your whole hand on it. A great little piece of kit.

Here's a picture of my setup with the mouse next to my 13A. The second monitor is an Asus MB168B+ USB 3.0 1080p screen. Viewing angle isn't brilliant, but it's great to have a portable second screen.

 

Hello all,
I'd like to share my experience so far with the Flip 14A. Got the 899$ BestBuy deal, an Intel i5 with 8gb and 500GB HD, with Full HD screen with touch, to which I added the stylus. Fan noise is very low, and had absolutely no issues updating to 8.1
No probs whatsoever with the touchscreen.
Trackpad is absolutely garbage, even worse than I thought... I disabled every possible Windows 8 multitouch hype (got the touchscreen for that!) still, it does not work for me. As above, I suggest a Bluetooth mouse. I even tried an Apple Magic Mouse with it, and it does work (using a specific freeware driver).
In any case, the stock HD was incredibly slow, so I purchased an 840 PRO ssd, 256GB.
A nightmare trying to make it work! At first, I imagined it would be easy... bought a HP 32GB usb stick, and created the recovery media.
Everything went well, at least that is what I thought. Once the SSD was in the machine, I tried restoring... nada. It gives me an 1126 error (or something along those lines) and the recovery will not work.
I slaved over this thing for a whole weekend, before giving up. Not even a clean install would want to work (seems my old Addonics USB DVD drive is not compatible in boot mode!).
So I opted to simply ghost the drive and download the image on the SSD. I noticed the drive in the Flip is a WD. So I went to the WD website and downloaded the Acronis True Image WD Edition Software, which recognized the original drive from the Flip as legit to use it! And it copied the whole, whooping 6 partitions to the SSD, resizing them to fit the smaller drive. Then, I removed the recovery partition and resized the primary partition to reclaim the unused 30+ gb from it. Did not touch the other partitions.
Fired it up, wow! Boot time is possibly undur 10 seconds (I have to log in, so the time to type my password adds up).
Incredibly fast and zippy. Up to now, quite a happy camper.
So I ended up with a full install of Windows 8.1, with Office and Photoshop (both 32 and 64 bit to support the darn N-Trig digitizer) and some utilities with still 200GB free.
As for the Broadcom NIC, what a piece of ****. Waiting for an Amazon Intel AC card, then I'll also post the results.

Does anybody know the specs of the SD slot? Will it accept a super hi speed card like this one:
Komputerbay 64GB SDXC Secure Digital Extended Capacity Speed Class 10 600X UHS-I
it says that it's only compatible with SDXC-labeled host devices (Not compatible with standard SD & SDHC devices). Will it work? Otherwise, what is the fastest SD card I can use as a secondary SSD drive to store files I seldom use?

All my best

Oh yeah, I kept the stock HD intact both for warranty and also because this way I still have a fully working original installation backup from which I can get a ghost image from!

 

@pizzigri - Thanks for the experience. I just picked up a Flip 14A from BB over the weekend for $699! The same model as you bought (it was a 2 day sale). I appreciate you writing up your process as I played with a clean install, which was ok, but had some issues. I just ordered a Crucial m500 240gb SSD so I'll keep your list in mind.

 

From the other items I've read, at the very least they're trying to address the WiFi issue with an upgrade to A/C.

 

Repasted my 15A while putting the 16GB memory in, a few days ago. I can notice a quieter/cooler PC. At the same time I don't encourage it. This laptop is very delicate in the back. The entire thing flexes without the back cover and everything is live and exposed. I feel that I got lucky and didn't fumble anything.

I am posting a picture outlining the screws and a couple areas of caution for any would-be hackers.

I highly recommend removing the battery before anything is done to the PC. Once you remove the screws around the battery it lifts off and you can see the contacts. Just study the contacts and be aware when reassembling.

The yellow marks on the picture are the screws for the heat sink assembly. It was pretty straight forward and the one screw is buried under the cables. The screws over the chips are captured and marked 1-5. I followed these as torque sequences when retightening. The entire heat sink and fan assembly lifts off the board and needs guiding out and in.

Over the years I've found inadequate and inferior paste that adds up to a lot of thermal waste. On this PC I found an excessive amount of thermal paste and nothing really wrong with it. I have noticed a cooler computer the past few days after the repasting to a high quality paste.

Again, I wouldn't recommend anyone doing the repasting unless they've got a lot of experience working around/on these type of components. That means antistatic wrist strap, good lighting, everything - any doubts and it's not worth screwing your new PC. That means if you are snapping in new memory, hard drive - ANYTHING. This board has power on and a bump with the screwdriver and shorting the right components can smoke $1,200 real fast.

 

Hello
I bought http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00G3PAZUQ?ie=UTF8&at=&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links
And there is few problems.
1 click sound ( i guess its hdd)
2 beeping sound
3 ssd missing

So

1
I found some comments that this is hdd issue and i need to conact sony.

2
I dont know what to say...

3
Can i add ssd as 2 disk?

 

Hello
I bought Sony Vaio 15.5 inch Fit Multi-Flip Laptop (Black) - (Intel Core i5 1.6GHz Processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB Hybrid HDD, Windows 8): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
And there is few problems.
1 click sound ( i guess its hdd)
2 beeping sound
3 ssd missing

So

1
I found some comments that this is hdd issue and i need to conact sony.

2
I dont know what to say...

3
Can i add ssd as 2 disk?

 

Thank you for this :thumbsup:

Yeah, a delicate job for sure. I hate how they hid the one screw under a serial number sticker (cheesh), making sure we're voiding the warranty.

Did you by any chance take temps before and after the repasting ? But when you mention an excessive amount of TIM, I'm convinced that repasting with an adequate (ie smaller) amount would help ; too much paste does hurt the heat dissipation process.

About disconnecting the battery : it's so much safer when the pack is external so that you have to remove it before opening the case.

===========

@grybanas : welcome to the forum

I don't have a spinning HDD in the Flip so I have no experience with the clicking and/or beeping sounds. Others may be able to comment. Doesn't sound like a healthy drive though...

When you say *missing SSD", do you mean you would like to have one or you were expecting to find one inside when you bought the Flip ? Anyway, you continued with a question about the possibility of adding a SSD as a second internal drive : the answer there is no, because there is no space for it (no optical drive space, no extra Sata or mSata connector on motherboard, etc...). If you want a SSD, you'll need to replace the existing HDD. Western Digital now sells an interesting hybrid, which sports 120GB NAND with 1TB on the HDD, but this drive is too thick for the Flips at 9.5mm

 

Well I have done allot of reading in this thread ... my eyes hurt .....

There have been allot of issues with this laptop but I still want one lol my main question for you guys is do you think I should be purchasing a warranty with this machine ?

I plan to purchase the flip 15 with core i7 8gb ram and nvidia graphics from best buy.... With all the issues do you think this is a logical investment ?


Also has anyone tried playing or editing high quality video ? Gopro video 1080p and 100 fps

Also anyone use the gopro editing software on this machine


Thanks
Devin

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

Quick question about the "clicking drive"... I never hear a noise, but when I sit back with the machine in tablet mode I once in a while get a click of some kind, Is that the click of death or... something unrelated? Thanks

 

No, I didn't do the temps before/after or any software runs. I just know that it was getting pretty warm prior and it's not even close to as warm during normal use now. I know that's a BS answer; only perception and no data. I should have taken a picture of the excessive paste, too. Because the paste was way too much. It was over the chips and spewing out the sides which deadheads the heat radially vs. linearly to the heat pump - no good. The screw wasn't under the sticker. I actually moved the sticker off of the copper and placed it over the clip area for reference. It doesn't make sense why manufactures put stickers on the heat pump - they are retarding the thermal transfer process. The copper tubes are conductors in the heat pump circuit and I don't see the value of insulating or reflecting the heat back to the board via the vinyl material in the sticker. After the past job I assembled everything and turned on the computer to make sure the fan would turn on. At first it wasn't turning on and the chips weren't even getting warm to the touch. I opened a few programs, Youtube, etc. and watched the temp climb to ~94F and the fan kicked in. Also to do a measured test properly we'd have to measure the temp after the system has had a chance to burn in, with the factory paste and the new paste job - Nahhh; not for me.

Battery comes right off with a few screws and no reason not to take it out.

This being the my third 15a, I'm just going to get through it, no matter what. The first one I was paranoid about a bright spot on the screen - they all have them - I could have probably kept that one. Second one my hard drive clicked too many times and died. Now this hard drive does click and I haven't played around with the auto park feature of the software. The clicking is nothing like the 2nd machine that died, but a clicking sound nonetheless that hard drives should not make, IMHO. Business cash flow dictates this will take place in a few weeks and the hard drive change looks a little involved where I'll be taking out the battery and dissecting their thermal tape and assembly job on the factory hard drive. After opening this and screwing around I've resolved myself: "What warrantee?" I'm Pot committed. Totally love the laptop...

 

Devin,
I got the same one from Sony directly. The only thing I've seen is that twice, the internet explorer screen started to scroll up very slowly. While it was doing this, the fan got a little louder, but it wasn't annoyingly loud at all. Otherwise, this thing has been GREAT. I'd say to get the warranty but I wouldn't worry about having to use the warranty much.

 

hi guys ive just got a samsung evo ssd..i intend to take the sony hybrid drive out and put the evo in and do a clean install of windows 8.1 of a usb stick....any problems that i may come accross

 

Thanks for the reply I will look into what the best buy warranty costs and covers.

I have had my last laptop for 4 years (ailienware m11x i7 8gb 500gb hybrid drive) never had a single issue and I don't have an issue spending 1300 on a laptop I just want it to last.

Devin

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

You will like it Devin, Just use the heck out of it and understand your warrantee period from BB. 14 days return/exchange standard, 30 days + depending on BB point status - if enrolled. Use the heck out of it the next few days, leave it plugged in and on, etc. try to stress test it to see if there is any hiccup within the exchange period. Not to alarm you, every manufacture has a few lemons and there's been a few of the flips. Chances are you'll have a good one. This isn't a super computer, but for an ultra book it's pretty capable and cool as hell.

I think BB's extended wanted $300 plus for accidental or more than warrantee. For me, At that point I'd just assume live with exchange period + any manufacturers warrantee.

 

@UncleRico : no worries about the lack of hard testing data, before and after. I also wanted to test a few things pre/post SSD swap but got too excited when the day came and just... went ahead with the swap. I will take your word on the feeling cooler statement. And about the pic, don't sweat it, we have a picture from another member somewhere in this thread where we see the excess thermal paste. That very picture led me to believe they (Sony plant) applied too darn much. I don't have enough experience to do the job alone, but I know who to call to help me and I think I will repaste after the one year warranty is up.

And about warranties in general : it's like car or home insurance. Cover what you can't afford to buy again quickly. If you can afford to buy a new $1200 machine tomorrow, then you may not need extended coverage.

 

Amen Brother - on the same page. I was really surprised to see so much paste. The new HP touch for the daughters last year was failing to boot because there was almost no paste. Crazy.

Rarely time permits the excessive testing and documentation. Usually I have to push myself to make sure I get everything back together and working and not leave anything open or disassembled as one of the 3 kids or even the dog will get to it before I can break it. With all it's ultraness, it's not too bad once you snap the back off a few times. That being said, this machine does not look to be a forgiving one. There's no Sony Flip 15a parts store should one fry something.

 

I can't believe that this topic is still not discussed here.
Meanwhile I have a new Flip 14" here, because the tech support told me that this is probably a hardware problem, and I should just send it back and order a new one if I'm still within my 30 days return period. Which I than did, but the new one has the exact same problem.
I even downgraded back to Win 8, to see if this is really a Win 8.1 problem, which some suggested, but no help.
Finally I think I found out how to reproduce the problem. It occurs once the Flip gets a bit hotter.

So does nobody here have a huuge problem with there trackpad, once your Flip gets a bit hot???

Maybe this just occurs on my model, which is the SVF14N1C5E.

 

Hey, the past week has been the first week that I used my track pad a lot. (otherwise I use a mouse). And I've noticed an annoying issue:
Every once in a while the trackpad becomes unresponsive for about 5 to 10 seconds. Anyone else experienced this? Any way to solve this?

 

This happened to me once or twice; try tapping the screen to register a touch, that should make it come back.

 

That's the HDD protection I think. Try turning off Hard disk protection in Vaio Control Center and see if it resolves.

 

Last night I performed the HDD to SSD surgery on my Flip 14.

I have to say it has made the computer SO MUCH BETTER. The HDD was definitely too slow to deal with all the bloatware that comes preinstalled. The new SSD is so much faster that having the bloatware installed doesn't seem to slow it down.

Anyone who might be on the fence about the laptop, if you can afford to put an SSD in it, you'll be much better off.

Before installing the SSD I made both disc and usb drive recoveries (just in case). I was able to use the USB recovery drive without issue to restore to the factory settings. From there I just did all the updates etc. Everything seems to be working well.

 

So I just got a Flip 14A. It seems that when I flip the LCD back and forth, I can hear the ribbon cable just as it locks into laptop mode (via the magnet). It sound like a crumpling sound I guess.

Is this something to be worried about? The BestBuy floor model did not seem to have this issue.

 

Sorry to bother you,I just want your opinion and your advice.
I am going to buy a laptop mainly for design architectural programs like autocad sofistik (some even heavier)and gaming.Thats why I want a pretty strong laptop to handle with them in the next few years easily without struggling.I had a vaio for 5 years and it proved to be more than I expected both in performance and duration.Therefore I am thinking of buying again one and more specific the Flip 15A with i7 8gb ram and 750 nvidia.I ve read some problems on bluetooth wifi ethernet cable and touch screen on tablet mode(which of them are true and which of them just some deficient products).Which are your thoughts and advice on my concerns.

 

Welcome to the forum, Jok3r :hi2:

It's kinda hard for us to say, because we don't know exactly how much power you need and want. Sure the Flips will run Autocad and other resource intense programs, but they won't run the same way they would on a "powerbook". What I mean is : the Flips are ultrabooks, designed to be slim and as light as possible, with decent battery life. They have ULV processors, so the i7 (dual core here) is not as powerful as a *straight* mobile i7 with 4 cores and 8 threads.
The strenghts of these Flips are : laptop/tablet hybrid design, relatively *portable* with Ok battery life and that digitizer. Oh, and you will get looks too. Not a power notebook. Not for serious gaming, and not really designed for heavy CAD or video editing either.

So... it depends on your specific needs. If raw power is important though, look elsewhere, I'd say.

HTH

 

Well thank you a lot Mark.You helped me understand some things.Any suggestions on powerbooks mainly in sony?

 

You're welcome

To be honest, it appears that Sony no longer produces powerbooks. All I see on the Sony store now are ultrabooks, even the "Pro" models. These all have low power processors like the Flips and are designed for portability mostly.

Now I'm no powerbook expert, and I do know there are quite a lot to choose from out there. There is also a niche category aimed at intense CAD users, with Quadro graphics and entreprise specs components, but those are very expensive ($2000+) and they are often called "workstation laptops" : Top 10 Workstation Laptops - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

There are lots of *powerbooks* available from brands like Asus, HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer (to name the most popular ones) that do run from about $800 to $1500 depending on options. These would be available with hyperthreading/turbo boosted, regular mobile 4 core (8 threads) Core i7s, 8 or 16 GB of RAM and sometimes a hybrid HDD. SSDs are often available as an option but very pricey, so best to install your own if you can. Thes notebooks are heavier than ultrabooks, have bigger batteries and inherently better cooling than slimmer machines. They can usually handle power intensive tasks much better than low powered, slim ultrabooks. Most laptops nowadays are available with touchscreens, though I fail to see the need for them on regular laptops.

Some examples of affordable powerbooks you might see everywhere : HP Envy, Dell XPS 15, Asus N56VZ (and similar), Toshiba Satellite "P" and "S" series, Acer Aspire V3, etc... None from Sony, as they seem to have abandoned this segment altogether. Oh and there's the MacBook Pros of course.

I wish I could help you pinpoint on some specific models, but I just don't know what your exact needs are.

 

That works yes, but that is just a work around. It shouldn't be happening in the first place. Is there no way to prevent this? It won't be an issue most of the time, as I generally hate touchpads anyway and use a mouse. But for the instances I do not have a mouse available, this is making the touchpad experience even more irritating...

 

Hey,
I'm an industrial designer, and using quite some CAD as well (solidworks). And I have to say, it performs quite well! However, the complexity of your CAD models is going to be an important factor. I generally do not create Solidworks Assemblies of more than a 100 parts, and for that use it is performing well within my demands. The 2GB nVidia is mandatory though. It is by default set to use the internal intel graphics, and this is not sufficient at all. (nVidia control panel can set the preferred GPU for each program) I don't use Autocad, so I'm not sure how that would perform, but I guess you'll be fine.
Rendering is much more intensive. For simple models you would be fine, but for more complex models it will take a lot of time. A few weeks back I was rendering a 100 parts Solidworks Model, and at the same time running photoshop, illustartor and manga studio. CPU was running almost 100%, but everything was still running smooth, without any hickups.
When rendering the same model while video editing at the same time (primiere pro) was the limit though. The render crashed before finishing.(out of memory (12GB ram).
For your reference, I have a 15A, i7, 12GB ram, 256GB ssd
So for not too complex CAD modeling and other graphics software, you would be fine. Rendering has it limits though, so if you will be performing a lot of renders I would suggest something more powerfull (quadro gpu, quad core i7)
And one more note: 2D graphic work (rather than 3D CAD) is of course the whole reason to buy a flip. (at least for me). Photoshop is performing crap with a touch screen/n-trig. (but for use with a mouse of course it is perfectly fine.) I would recommend manga studio if you wish to do a lot of drawing with the n-trig pen. If you were not planning on that kind of use, but just 3D work, then there are probably a lot of options with more value for money out there than the Flip.

 

Now that Sony is selling off the VAIO division, how the customer support will be? I'm on the edge to buy a Flip 13, but I'm a bit worried about that.

 

Hi there fgve

Interesting news, I wasn't aware. Maybe Sony doesn't like the type of heavy criticism they've been getting ? Heh. Anyway, there's probably nothing to worry about :

Source : Sony May Sell PC Business, But VAIO Fans Should Not Worry

 

Have a look on this news: Sony selling off VAIO computer business

By now, Lenovo isn't involved. So, there's no garantees that the present VAIO line will be preserved, or the support will continue (by support I mean software updates, like that BIOS update, for exemple).

EDIT: Here is the detailed release by Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201402/14-019E/index.html

 

Thanks for the links.

I wouldn't worry about software updates. Sony will support, directly or indirectly, any new machines it sells before the transition is complete. This is Sony, not just a small player, so they have to maintain their "good reputation" even after a move like this.

I'm not surprised this is happening. They invested a lot of money in these new lines and expected to do very well with innovative products. The engineers and assembly plants weren't up to the challenge and now they aren't generating the numbers they expected (and promised to shareholders). So heads are rolling, along with an entire division. Everything in business moves fast these days.

And the whole PC industry is at a crossroads. Sony isn't willing to ride out the uncertain times. Might as well sell, considering the VAIO's product image is no longer one of quality above others.

 

It's a shame and really sad. I hope that in some way the Flip and Duo designs evolve in the new VAIO. A second-gen would be even better than the current ones Flips. Anyway, I think I'll be plenty happy with my Flip 13 in the coming months.

 

Really too bad Sony is stepping out of the game. The evolution of the laptop and it's sibling devices; tablets and smart phones is something to behold. Microsoft is the reason most of these companies have taken a bath over the years, like the Vaio lineup. The early windows phones didn't work. The earlier windows tables were mostly broken. And even now, the operating system is to do with much of the crippling aspects in the present Vaio lineup. I'm not saying Sony doesn't have any of it's issues, I'm just saying for the record that Microsoft has screwed the computing world for some time. Apple & Android are the rock solid performers when it comes to serving apps and running solid. But that's not what we want in an laptop, I want the widgets and spreadsheets we've been playing with for over 25 years when Windows 2.0 came out for the 286. Too bad for Sony to give up on the Vaio lineup because the flip is really a great starting point toward a new line up of ultralight-heavy working machines. If windows 8.0 wasn't pushed on the world, the laptop business would be doing much better. Instead, still, many of the reviews on any new laptop is how bad Windows 8 stinks.

 

That's the whole problem though. Windows 8 doesn't stink. It's Windows 7 with added features. But there's no start button!! People are just afraid of change. Especially when it comes to technology. Microsoft had to make a touch-friendly UI to compete with Android and iOS. I really like Windows 8.1 and if people would just give it a chance, they would as well. You don't have to use the Metro side if you don't want to! Drives me crazy.....

 

Hi all.
Reposting the question...
Does anybody know the specs of the SD slot? Will it accept a super hi speed card like this one:

Komputerbay 64GB SDXC Secure Digital Extended Capacity Speed Class 10 600X UHS-I

it says that it's only compatible with SDXC-labeled host devices (Not compatible with standard SD & SDHC devices).

My question is: the SD slot on the Flip is SDXC or not?
Otherwise, what is the fastest SD card I can use as a secondary SSD drive to store files I seldom use?

 

I think Windows 8 (now 8.1) is great on a touch device/tablet. Where Microsoft screwed up big time is when they decided that they would shove Metro down everybody's throats, not giving desktop and non touch laptop users a choice to use the good old Desktop (and Start menu + button). I installed W8 on two non touch machines early on (I got the $15 W8 Pro upgrades) and absolutely hated it, until I installed Classic Shell. With Classic Shell, W8/8.1 is more or less W7 with a few minor mods. MS had a chance to make things right with 8.1 by adding a full function Start button, but they fell short, again. I'm hearing that W9 will see the day early and that we just might get a UI choice this time. Yeah, a little late perhaps.

A lot of people reading this thread know how to handle Windows 8, but I know countless people who don't and need help to get there. Some don't get the help and absolutely hate the computing experience because of Metro (they think they have no choice).

Sony wanted to create a buzz with the new ultrabooks and hybrids. They did. Unfortunately, a louder buzz is being heard because of problems with components and quality control, something Sony doesn't like at all. Not to mention all the returns they are getting. And I'm not sure they know how to fix all the *problems* in the short term, which kinda kills the corporate enthusiasm to continue. Just my opinion though..

 

I get you guys on windows 8/8.1. I waited as long as I could to avoid it. Right, with the start button enabled it's Windows 7 running Metro in the background. I'm use to it and over it. However, as a software developer, legacy programs will prevent me for some time using windows 8 for a full blown work horse. This entire experience with the flip and a tuned up windows 8.1 is what I needed for an in-between full laptop/desktop and tablet. Its just that windows with it's week's worth of battling updates and tweaking the UI to get it usable, along with Sony driver/hardware issues, I can see where people get turned off. All that said, the ownership of this machine is probably not the most logical for me and more on emotional. But I justify the " need," lol.

 

Loud and clear. And I'm sure there are many Flip buyers who wouldn't be able to fully justify the purchase on logic alone. We can expect this from cutting edge products, from slightly compulsive buyers too
As long as we're aware and willing to cope with the shortcomings.

@pizzigri : I researched this about a month ago and posted here in this thread about large SDXC cards. Can't remember exactly, so let me look into it and I'll try to get back to you asap.

 

Hi guys, purchased a flip last week and been having fun with it installing brand new Samsung 840 Pro ssd and 16 Ram.

Did a clean install and everything working fine.

For those having troubles or questions about clean install, it works fine but follow some important steps:
You will need:
2 x 2.0 USB Drives (important that it is 2.0 and not 3.0) You will need one drive at least 32Gb , I bought 2 32gb drives as they don't cost much
Windows 8.1 64bit ISO Image

Steps:
1. Make a bootable USB with Windows 8.1 by downloading a iso image from torrent sites, should be easy to find. We will use this for the clean install later. For making a bootable usb just google search. Though I had just copy all the files from the ISO image to the a formatted FAT32 USB drive and it worked.
2. Make an recovery usb drive from OS first, this will ensure that no matter how screw you are, you can still recover from it (32GB USB 2.0)
3. Update to 8.1 if you havent already, very simple, just update it from the Windows Store
4. Copy C:\Windows\Drivers Folder into a external HDD, you will need this after the clean install to install all the latest drivers back
5. Restart the laptop and hold down Assist button to boot from the usb drive with Windows 8.1
5a. Delete all the partition till your left with one when your in the windows setup (I left out the partition that contains SONYSYS as someone here mentioned that it is IMPORTANT). Rest is self explanatory
6. Once back on desktop, copy the Drivers folder back to C:\Windows
7. Inside the Drivers folder, you will find and EXE folder, go through each one and reinstall all the drivers. I suggest that you keep device manager window open to ensure that all drivers will be installed.
8. If incase there are device unknown in the device manager, go to the sony website for our laptop and go through the drivers again. For me I only had one left that was unknown device and that was the Sony parser driver.
9. Now remember you have 2 USB drives: one that contains the factory recovery for this laptop and the other one a copy of windows 8.1. I would keep this SAFE as you may need it in the future.