Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

How bad is the fan noise and flex on the flip13???

 

Aaaaand yesterday it arrived. Flip15 with 4200U, 8GB, Hybrid 1TB, 1080p.
The fan is like a jet engine when it's on. And there's light vleeding at the top of the display, but overall, I love this piece of japanese gadgetry ))

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I am planning to get the flip 14, with i5 , 4GB , HDD 1 TB.
Does this model easy to change the HDD to SSD and to upgrade the memory

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Yes, you can replace the RAM and the HDD quite easily on the Flip 14.
The only difficult parts are getting the right parts (HDD/SSD must be of the 7 mm variety (thickness) and RAM must be low-voltage RAM) and removing the back cover (I believe the Flip 15, which I have, is a bit nastier, though).
There are instructions how to do that in this thread and even videos on youtube by Sony, no less.

Edit:
Oh, and yes: Before you modify anything: Create recovery media as soon as you get your machine!
Most people seem to use a 32GB USB 2.0 stick for that (USB 3.0 can introduce problems with recovery).

 

Thanks,

Also does there any common problems in the flip 14

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Same thing happened to me today - thankfully I had read your post beforehand, so it was an easy fix.

 

Glad it worked -- mighty small hole though.

 

Hi I own a Sony VAIO® Fit multi-flip 15A

I choose a 128 SSD (org. from SAMSUNG), but Im not satisfied with that size.
It was full of extra Software and the "Rescue" Partition. only 55 GB left and I have still no other SW on the device.

I open it and take a look at the SSD. Hm.. yes SSD m.2 with that:
1..75 --> 6Pins-Hole-19Pins-Hole-5Pins connector. (Look at the pic below please)

Have someone expierence with that SSD? CT480M500SSD4 :: Crucial 480GB M500 SSD M.2
I can buy it, Reichelt.de but I m not sure if it will be accepted from the Sony BIOS.

Anyone that buy a Crucial M.2 SDD for an Vaio Multi-flip?

Best regards

Nighty

http://cdn-reichelt.de/bilder/web/xxl_ws/E600/CTXXXM500SSD4_01.png

 

Sorry for this late reply, and welcome to the forum

As far as I know, we've had three or four members here who said they were upgrading the 128GB M.2 drive in the 13A, and so far none have been back (if memory serves) to say it didn't work. When drive swaps don't work, we usually hear about it pretty quickly ; when they do work, some just walk away happily into the sunset and forget to come back to give us feedback (positive). So my guess is yes, they work just fine.

Note that Crucial has a new generation of drives out now : the M550 series. Also note that these new drives have slightly larger capacities than the previous M500s. For example, the larger drive is now 512GB instead of 480GB. Here it is : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148799

Right now the 550s are roughly 15% more expensive than the 500s, but they are a bit faster as well as having a slightly higher capacity.
For those interested, you can of course get them in regular SATA and mSATA configurations as well.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi all,

I am new to this forum.

I have a Sony Vaio Fit 13A and in response to SSD compatibility, I confirm that I replaced the the original Samsung 128gb M.2 SSD with the Crucial 240gb M500 M.2 SSD (CT240M500SSD4) and all is working just fine.

 

Hey guys,

I'm new to the Flip club and was wondering if anyone could post an BIOS update file to an older BIOS? I flashed the 250 BIOS and my fan still sounds like a jet engine, so I tried to reflash it but it says that BIOS is up-to-date :/

That and the fact that after I replaced the wifi card, my speeds are still absolutely terrible compared to a $300 laptop, are the only things that I HATE about this laptop lol.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I have the i5 14" Flip.

 

Anyone please? The fan is so bad to the point where watching a youtube video makes the fan really ramp up... and according to CoreTemp, the CPU temps are still well within the acceptable range for Haswell... :/

 

Hi there kpopsaranghaex3,

I didn't reply earlier for a few reasons :

1) I have a few BIOS versions that I've picked up since November, namely the 220, 240, 250 and 260. The only one I don't have is the 230 and I don't know why I didn't keep it :\ (I have it installed, but that's it, no remaining copy)

2) According to a Sony support rep who chatted with a member here a while ago, you can't flash from 240, 250 or 260 down to 230 or 220. He said it can only be done in-shop. Can't remember why exactly and I'm not sure there was a definitive/plausible answer given at that time, but the guy did say that anyone wishing to downgrade the BIOS had to contact Sony.

3) When 240 and then 250 came out, Sony later said there were problems with those two upgrades and that 230 was the stable version to use (this is a few months ago). That was when someone inquired about downgrading to 230 or 220 and the support guy said we couldn't (by ourselves). They then released 260, which sounded like the 240/250 "fix" we needed. The jury is still out. Ironically, they reinstated 250 after that (not too long ago) as "the" version to use. Confusing ? You know it.

I wouldn't put any older BIOS up for download because I'd be afraid it could brick your machine. And I don't have 230DD. Sorry...

I'm still using 230 on the 14A. It's not perfect, but the fan is well under control.

What kind of temps are you getting ?

 

Thanks for the response Mark.

So that means I am currently stuck unless Sony releases a newer BIOS version on their website? :/ I think it's stupid that I'd have to send my laptop in just so I can downgrade my BIOS...

My temps look fine. The computer idles in the high 30s/low 40s and when I stream videos, it bounces from mid 50s/low 60s. Being familiar with Intel ultrabooks, I know that low 60s are perfectly fine for an ultrabook, but for some reason the fan REALLY starts to ramp up. Once it starts, even if the temps drop back down to idle temps, it won't stop. It just goes through its phase and then becomes dead quiet. I tried Speedfan, but the program didn't detect any fans in the system :/

Any help would be appreciated as this is the only gripe I have about this device.

EDIT: What model number is your 14A? Mine is SVF14N13CXB.

 

Hi kpopsaranghaex3 ;

Busy weekend and I haven't been around much. But here now...

The 14A is actually my daughter's now (a gift). I set it up for her back in November, including swapping the hybrid drive for a SSD.
Model # : SVF14N190S
I'm in Canada. It's a Core i5, 4GB RAM, Intel graphics and it had the 500GB hybrid drive (now has a 480GB M500 SSD). It came withe W8 Pro (needed for the Fresh Start option). Original BIOS was 220DD, which I upgraded to 230DD and I stopped upgrading it after that, sensing a bit of panic BIOS upgrading from Sony.

Your temps are just fine indeed. I don't use the Flip anymore but I do remember the fan coming on full RPM and not stopping with 220DD, and then 230DD brought a major improvement on that front. I haven't tested with 240, 250 or 260 so I can't compare
But for me and the daughter, the fan with 230 isn't annoying... We can hear it because of that silly hair dryer / high pitch whine when it does rev up, but it usually comes on at lower RPM and doesn't stay on for long, depending on load of course, so not a major issue here.

Yeah, I wouldn't try to downgrade the BIOS myself, unless I had full backups and was ready to ship it back to Sony in case of disaster. It's hard for me to compare the two machines without having them side by side, and we've heard from many in this thread who have reported fans *under control* with 250, so... I'd be hard pressed to give you advice on what to do...
Some have complained about the fan under 260 though.

Wish I could be of more help. Perhaps giving Sony support a call, just to check whether an older BIOS (like 230) might be better for you or not...

 

First time post :hi2: ... i think (EDIT: I see I have posted 31 times now. Please excuse my dumbazz)
Didnt realize I made an account here in 2010. Anyways, enough babble...

I just bought the 14a with the i5-4200. Have not played any pc games in pretty much forever. (unless the original NFS for windows 95 counts! Man, those were exciting times)
I tried Battlefield 2 which ran pretty well on my Acer 4820tg on medium settings in 1366x768. Play it for around 6+hrs on that system and the heat finally throttles down the GPU. Mine does have the i3-350m so I know that is a limiting factor.
So i have heard how "great" these new intel HD 4000 and 4400 chips were. Supposedly more powerful than the Radeon 5650m in my Acer. That has not been the case at all. I have BF2 running at absolute lowest settings and either 1024x or 800x640. It looks terrible but the game is unplayable at even 1366x.
Even after a few minutes at the lower settings and low res, the frame rates drop off the end of the map. It almost seems that I am getting some temp throttling after just a few minutes gameplay. I seriously thought that the i5 could handle these older games, especially at low settings. What gives?

I have already updated all the drivers to current settings and adjusted the Intel settings to get max performance.
Unit is plugged in and running on High Power mode. Set the CPU state to high. Anything else that might make it run better? Also wanted to know if there are settings in the BIOS that I can adjust to give the GPU more allocated RAM.
Sorry for long post

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I am currently up to date on 8.0. I am waiting to Update to 8.1 later

 

The Flip's thermal management really isn't the best... it's just too thin. Also the CPU is too underpowered, isn't it a low voltage 1.6 GHz CPU? You might try downloading ThrottleStop to make sure that TurboBoost is kicking in at all times when gaming. But of course that will will definitely raise your temps and shorten the lifespan of the internals if you aren't careful so keep the laptop elevated, or on a good cooling pad. I moved to a Lenovo Y510p with double GPUs to do heavy gaming and it's been way better than the Flip. The Flip can play simple games bought from the Windows 8 store, or maybe games older than 3-4 years.

 

Exactly what I was expecting, but I have not even been able to achieve those results. Isnt Battlefield 2 3-4yrs old now?
I have tried DeadSpace1, Alan Wake, BF2, and now a 2d game called Dust: An Elysian Tail.
Just for example, the game dust is a 2D sidescrolling fighter. It does have some nice particle effects and details, but nothing a laptop in the last 1/2 decade should not be able to handle.
Let me put it in perspective. I just recently bought and Acer V5-122p-0869. Yes, the one with the horrific A4-1250. This machine is out pacing my Flip 14. It has a very anemic 1.0ghz dual core processor, 4gb of single SLOW channel RAM, and the on chip Radeon HD 8210. I am running Dust at the full 1366x768 laptops res and blowing the Flip 14 away in FPS. AND! that was after playing the game for 2hrs on the Acer. On the Flip I get good fps till about 10mins in to the game and then it drops to like 10-12fps. This is on a low end 2D game!!!
Something is seriously wrong here.

Something is kicking in the throttling way too soon. Might give that program a try and see what it can do.

 

Hi,

I want to buy the flip 13 core I5
Does the 128 SSD drive enough, is it easy to upgrade it or shall I go for the 14 inch better.
I like the 13 inch weight but the the hard issue also important point.

Please help.

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Its throttling. If you use a temp monitoring software, you will see that this ultrabook gets scorching hot. Heck, when I watch HD youtube videos, my temps reach low/mid 60s and I believe the temp before throttling is 80 on Haswell. If this thing is anything like my previous ultrabook, the CPU approaches close to 90C while playing games that make use of multi-core CPUs.

I had a Asus UX32VD before this laptop, which had a dedicated GPU, so while the CPU would throttle because it was heating up too much, the GPU temps were low enough to prevent throttling. I guess I can say that's the benefits of 1) having the GPU on a separate die. 2) Having good enough cooling to cool both a GPU and CPU. The Sony Flip has never been advertised to be a gaming machine, so even though the iGPU in the i5 4200U Haswell CPU is far better than the Radeon HD 8210, the cooling was definitely not a priority with this laptop and it is bottlenecking performance for longer periods of time.

 

In the past week my Flip 13 has started firing up more update notices from Sony. I could not get them to install, so today thought I'd try them one-by-one. Compared to when I looked last week, the list of updates had also grown. There was a new BIOS 240A. Can't say that I noticed it making a huge difference in fan noise yet (though as I write this, it has quietened down & I am in standard mode)... may experiment with Silent mode again (after the machine came back from the repair shop, I had it shut down on me when running in silent mode as I posted about before).

Many of the other updates have required restarts, but there are 2 that I have not been able to install & one (Playmemories Home Updater) that I don't want. There are 2 (VAIO Care Recovery and NFC Connection Utility) which it calls automatic updates, but I have not been able to get the update to install - just tells me to try again later. Any ideas?

 

Dumb question, are you on 8.0 or 8.1? I am still on 8.0 and I updated everything manually. I do not recall a NFC Connection Utility update

 

8.1.
The update app never did anything by itself for the first 6 months - it would only check if I forced it to. Suddenly it's started sending me notifications & there were around 15 apps to be updated - albeit with the dates of the updates going back to January time which further shows how useless the update app had been until now.

 

So I did some digging around on the interwebz for more information regarding the throttling. This seems like a problem as a whole with all the Flip models, even the 15a with dedicated graphics. My system started throttling around 58-59 C. This is when the FPSs (yes, itsaword) drop to almost nothing.
I had noticed the system getting sluggish from time to time just browsing around the web and other simple tasks. This is not acceptable.
I will be contacting Sony about this problem and see if I can get ahold of an engineer. (dont hold my breath right?)
Using CPUID Hardware monitor, it looks like the system has only ever peaked at 78C. Looks like that is well within the acceptable range.
I was using Bioshock1 to test. I started out from a room temp running Bio at 1080p on low/off settings for everything. After just minutes the temp climbs to high 50C range. Performance gets reduced, so I dropped the res to 1366x (still fullscreen). Runs better for a little while, but gradually starts to drop FPS. I played it for about 1.5hrs. It was painful with lots of frame stuttering and drops but I pushed through it.
During this test I did have a laptop cooler running under the Flip to ensure good airflow. I am using the CoolerMaster NotePal U2. Ive got 4 fans on mine of which I stole 2 from my other NotePal U2.
This cooler worked well on my Acer 4820tg. The Radeon 5650m in that little machine could woop azz but heated up in a hurry. Using this cooler would allow me to sustain Battlefield 2 at medium settings for 6+hrs. So I know the cooler works well, but still didnt prevent the Flip from going belly up. Should I but a replacement bottom case and drill some holes??

 

Reason I asked that is because windows 8.1 updates are apparently very funny. Did you update to 8.1 yourself? If not, I wonder if the laptop was updated in the proper order before updating to 8.1 Ran across this issue with my Acer V5 also that came with 8.1 out of the box

 

Yes, did the update myself & in the correct order.
The 3 which won't update are new updates - from February & March this year, so well after the 8.1 update.

 

did you try Throttlestop yet? I found this quoted in a post in another thread:

"Hi Unclewebb, just wanted to thank you for Throttlestop. My friend is using 7.1 on a Sony Vaio Flip 14A and it would throttle to 800MHz as soon as it hit 50C, even with a proper power profile set. After disabling bd prochot, now the laptop can handle all of the games he throws at while never going above 72C, which is great because the HD4400 is actually quite capable."

 

I would like to get a anti-glare screen protector for my Sony Flip 13. Does anybody have any recommendations?

 

Just got my wife 14a (SVF14N1E2E) for her birthday. After updating bios to 2.50, calibrating the touchscreen with the Sony util and updating Windows to 8.1 it runs very smoothly, all problems with erratic mouse / touches are gone, fan is silent and the overall impression from the laptop is very good. I'm glad I got this one. This is our 12th Sony Vaio in the course of 11 years - while probably the last - I'm sure this one will keep working well like the others!

 

Hi there Medotheking,

Your post was a little hard to read, so I'll do my best to answer with what I got from it ;

The 13A (and 11A) has a special type of SSD drive. It's not a regular 2.5 inch SATA drive, but a thinner and smaller "M.2" drive.
128GB is small, too small for a lot of people. It all depends on how much stuff you want on the Flip though.

Yes you can upgrade the drive to a 240(or 256) or 480(or 512GB) unit. Crucial makes some nice M.2 drives, like these :
Amazon.com : Crucial M500 480GB SATA 6Gbps M.2 Internal SSD [Crucial PN: CT480M500SSD4] : Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gbps M.2 Internal SSD [Crucial PN: CT240M500SSD4]: Computers & Accessories
(the 240GB drive is selling for really cheap right now...)

You also have the quicker M550 series like this one :
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-512GB...d=1398866476&sr=8-14&keywords=crucial+m.2+ssd

The prices on M.2 drives are very similar to what you'd pay for a regular SATA SSD. Not hard to swap either. The case on the 13A is tricky to open though, but very doable.

 

I was going to until I read on another forum that ThrottleStop had no affect. Apparently the bd prochot disable has no affect. The system flag keeps getting thrown pushing the CPU into throttled status. This was for both the 15 and 14. I dont know much about ThottleStop as I have never used it before. Looked up the program and started trying to read how to run it. It was like 1am and I just gave up before I made things worse.

 

Hello all!
I've been struggling with buying Flip 15 for a while now. This topic is great and I'd like to thank you for all the experiences shared here.
Still, I don't know which machine should I choose: Flip 15 or MacBook Pro 15 from late 2013.
Flip has this great advantage over mbp - tablet mode. I'm a designer and this tablet mobility/functionality would be great advantage for me (it is very strange that Apple doesn't have such a device). Yet, I'm also a gamer and I don't really know if Flip can handle some games without overheating (and turning off), for example Starcraft 2, Dota 2, Titanfall, Civilization.

Could you advise, please?

 

Depends on your priorities between the two.
For art/design the Flip 15A would be far preferable (especially the former).

For gaming the MacBook Pro 15 with 750M would be a better choice.
The Flip with 730M and the MacBook with Iris Pro seems to be pretty similar.
None of them would make for great gaming machines though, but the 750M would be something I'd consider a minimum if you want to move beyond casual gaming and/or older titles.

The Flip does need a bit of tweaking to get it to behave properly though - and in that sense the MacBook is probably going to give you a smoother ride out of the box.
Battery life would also be in the MacBooks favor, while the different viewing modes and the touch screen makes the Flip a much more enjoyable computer when you're in the casual corner.

Personally, after having used laptops exclusively for many years, this time around I got both the Flip and a desktop with a high-end graphics card.
Gives me the best of both worlds without the trade-offs between power and portability. It's so much nicer to be able to run a game effortlessly at it's highest settings, and on top of that in near silence - and likewise, being able to draw directly on the screen of the Flip, it does feel a little absurd that I couldn't do that before. Work files reside on Dropbox and OneDrive making it effortless to move between them.

 

Thanks for your answer.
The 750M would be sufficient imho, just for my casual gaming. The problem is I don't know if the Flip fully utilizes the power of 735M or is it really throttled. Also, I wanted to buy kind of "all in one" device for portability - I travel quite a lot and take my hardware with me, also for playing games. I'd really buy MBP 15 late 2013 with 750M on board, but the touch screen and possibility of drawing without additional graphic tablet is just too tempting

I wish there was MBP with touchscreen and tablet mode - this would be perfect machine for me. I think I will have to go for Flip 15 (drawing, tablet mode!), nevertheless I think this thing looks just ugly (those long rubbers on the back and "table-like" design on the front - yuck!).

 

I lost one of the feet to my Flip 14. Does anyone have a part# handy for replacement feet?

 

From what I see (and what is confirmed in some reviews) it is indeed throttled, at least under constant heavy load like in benchmarks.
It may be still "good enough" for games on low detail settings, though, according to some reviews.

But the Flip with the Nvidia graphics configuration is IMHO not a "great" gaming platform - simply because of the deafening fan noise.
IMHO it's simply a "more compatible solution" for 3D graphics because of the better Nvidia drivers.
Example: Clip Studio Paint ("Manga Studio") shows 3D errors like black textures with the Intel graphics but works well with the Nvidia chip.

Neither the MBP nor the 15" Flip with Nvidia are great gaming notebooks, IMHO. You simply get more bang for the buck elsewhere and the Flips without the Nvidia don't even qualify...

The MBP is certainly a great notebook and it's a great desktop replacement if you aren't into heavy gaming. But it's definitely not a tablet in any sense of the word. It's not meant to be.

The Flip on the other hand has exactly one standout feature: Thanks to its genious screen mechanics and touchscreen it *can* be a tablet, although a very heavy one (about 2.3 kgs!) and with the digitizer it is also much better at precise drawing than most tablets on the market.
So with that weight you either put it into your lap or - better - on the desk. Especially if do precise drawing. You can doodle in the lap but it's way easier on the desk (as you know, there is a "table" in "tablet"... ;-))

But it's not a Cintiq and not a Companion: The digitizer by N-trig is less compatible (regarding pen pressure sensitiviy) than the Wacom hardware, even though there are now better drivers that allow the Adobe products to be used with pressure sensitivity. Some programs are still not supported, though.

I also use a Intuos with my desktop and while it has a nicer "feel" (because of the rough tablet surface and the bigger pen) it's way more natural to draw on the screen. I can definitely say that my Intuos now gets less use...

(Of course I could have gotten a "gaming notebook" and simply carried my Intuos with me - but the medium Intuos I have is nearly 1 kg heavy...)

Another disadvantage of the Flip is that in tablet mode you don't get additional keys for drawing commands like Undo etc. like on the Cintiqs. And I'm not even talking about a (touch) wheel to change brush size...
The keyboard is also under the display (which is good, of course, but here it hurts) and not next to it like with the Sony Vaio Tap 11 (which is too small and too slow for my needs).

If you like to have keys like that you have to find a specialized solution. Of couse you could use a dedicated (Bluetooth or USB) keyboard but that would be lots of additional weight for an already heavy device.
There are indeed specialized solutions like the Tab-Mate Controller but it pretty much only works with Manga Studio / Clip Studio Paint and it appears to be available only in Japan.
As I'd like that kind of functionality I'm now experimenting with a Sony PS3 Navigation Controller (and accessoire for the Move controller) which is cheaper and supports both USB and Bluetooth and several utilities to make it work. I'm not finished with that, though.

I had a very hard look at the 13" Cintiq Companion but I ultimately didn't like the smaller screen size and the keyboard, attached to the back of the device, appeared less ideal to me. It's probably better built than the Flip and runs less noisy but it's quite heavy for a 13" machine (about 2 kgs), has an older CPU and only integrated Intel graphics. With the 512 GB SSD it's also quite expensive (my 15" Flip with 16 GB RAM and an additional 1 TB Samsung EVO SSD was cheaper).

So what you get with the Flip is truly a compromise: Not the best (power, noise, price) notebook, not the best (weight, ergonomy) tablet and not the best (software compatibility, features) drawing platform -- but you get all of that in one device and I personally wouldn't trade it with anything else on the market right now.
But then again I put a SSD into it... ;-)

Write a letter to Apple. Who knows? Perhaps they will eventually listen to their customers?

People have different taste, obviously, as I like the black Flip much more than a "standard" silver notebook, whether it's a MBP or something else. The silver Flip with the black screen border is the worst, IMHO. Whatever you get, you won't mind the looks of it after a few days.

The rubber feet serve a purpose, though: First and foremost, they prevent overheating because the 15" Flip sucks air from under it and secondly, the feet prevent the display hinge from lifting the entire lower part of the Flip (and also getting scratches on the hinge...).
It's probably not the best possible design but it is a very minor problem, IMHO, and easily overlooked. I don't even have a problem with the bag I carry it in, but of course your mileage may vary.

Good luck with your decision!

 

Hadn't heard of the Tab-Mate controller - looks very interesting, and more so your experiments with the PS3 Navigation controller.
Let us know how that works out. If it's possible to map shift, control and alt on it that would be amazing.
I did some brief testing with the a standard PS3 controller a while ago which seemed to work alright (beyond the slight hassle of setting it up) - but didn't figure it for this kind of use.

 

Will do!

It was not my idea, to be honest, as I didn't know the controller was independent of the Move unit (it really is more like the left half of a PS3 controller without the rumble motor). I saw a comment on one of the Tab-Mate videos on Youtube and drove as fast as I could to the local electronics store to get the last one available...

I got it working on my main PC with Bluetooth right now but the drivers and mapping software needed is a bit of a hassle. Apparently there are several solutions and not "the ideal one" as this controller isn't supported natively by Windows (Sony doesn't supply drivers and even less so signed 64-bit drivers, which are necessary for 64-bit Windows 7 and newer).

However, I haven't had the time to map the buttons, yet, as I also had to decide if I'll get Manga Studio / Clip Studio Paint or use something different (which I bought in the mean time). What I can say is that MS/CSP allows for keyboard mapping itself - which is very handy - and I quickly got it working with my Intuos like I wanted to. The navigation controller is the next step... ;-)

 

Thanks for your opinion, Calibrator.

I was thinking about Cintiq Companion as well, but the prices are really scary and this device isn't good for main machine. I'm not demanding, I don't have to have 1000 levels of pressure and dedicated keys for design applications

I'm using Vaio F11M1E for now and I feel like it should be replaced. It was really nice for gaming with the 330M on board and great for designing with its fullHD 16,4" screen. I hope an upgrade for Flip 15 would be noticeable, but I'm still not sure about this design, I mean why there is so much space under the front part (it looks like table)? Imho, they should utilize it somehow and maybe correct the cooling or make the laptop more flat. Also, the problem with screen just horrifies me: Sony Vaio Fit Multi-Flip 15 display analysis and strange IPS flaw [HD] [ENG - ITA] - YouTube

I don't think you can say here that "all in one" device is good for nothing really and we have to deal with some compromises. The Flip could be solid laptop and a solid graphic tablet - there should be no compromises, except performance (internal hardware) and device size (it's thick tablet really). All other Flip issues are just flaws and engineering problems. I believe we don't have to trust those engineers because they work at Sony and they really know the stuff etc. That's not true. It's a regular company, with regular employees who also make mistakes and who also are incompetent at some point. We have a right to be disappointed and say "I'd have done this better" (engineers, designers).

Too bad that Sony will no longer produce laptops, I'd like to see Multi-Flip Mark 2. This would be a killer device and could easily win with Yoga (only I see this potential?)

 

Of course we are dealing with compromises (we do that all the time, even the folks with a Macbook Pro do that) but I certainly didn't write that the Flip is good for nothing. I only wrote that it is nowhere the best device - only at combining all the roles into one device.
There aren't too many 15" notebook-tablet convertibles, for example - especially not with digitizers...

But that's exactly where you do a compromise I wrote about! Some artists would rather hang dead over the fence than use a Flip instead of their trusted Wacom for professional work... (note that I'm not a designer, but I know the preferences and opinions of those folks).

They did. There is practically no empty space in that case. The battery for example is flat and needs lots of space.
See for yourself here: Inside of a Sony Vaio Flip 15

Even flatter? What did you smoke? Or did you eat some of those weird mushrooms? I want some of them, too! ;-)

He has a 1920x1080 screen - I don't see this behaviour on my 2880x1620 panel.

I agree with the Flip Mk.2, really, as second versions often iron out lots of the minor and some major issues.
However, I don't care about the Yoga at all as it's too small for my needs and I certainly don't like the keyboard on the bottom in tablet mode. At first the Yoga wasn't entirely without its share of issues, too (look up screen problems).
I also don't buy devices because they are popular or "must haves", I buy them because I need or want them. Sometimes they are not "fantastic" but only "very good" or "slightly flawed" (like the Flip), though.
In contrast to the Flip Lenovo *could* bring a Yoga 3, though...

 

Anyone have issues with their laptops charging? Recently had a bit of a blonde moment where I didn't realize that AC connector wasn't plugged into the wall so I hit the battery reset button to see if it was a issue with the laptop. After that, I've noticed that the machine doesn't charge when I plug it in, I have to press the battery reset button on the bottom for 30s in order to charge. Having to rinse and repeat every day is getting tiring. I know it's not the Vaio Control Center settings, been through there and made sure everything is off. I'm about to uninstall the ACPI battery driver but I thought I would ask first before following through.

Model is SVF14N15CDS.
i5-4200U
8GB Ram
500GB HDD

 

Would a BIOS update for the SVF14N1C5E work for the SVF14N13CXB? I'm looking at the specs and it seems that they are identical. 250D is terrible on my Flip; fan noise is ridiculous and ctrl+shift combinations do not work.

OR

If you are someone with the SVF14N13CXB model and was able to download the .exe file for the 260 update before Sony took it down, it would be really awesome if you uploaded it ^_^

 

Hi there,

I see you've asked the same question over at the Sony forums. No answer as I write this. I have a 14A model# SVF14N190S ; I haven't installed 250 nor 260, but I have them.

One thing concerns me though : why was 260DD pulled ? Aren't you a little concerned as well ?
Let's see if you get an answer over there. If you don't, or get one that doesn't satisfy you, then we'll talk about the 260DD I have

Cheers,

 

Hey,

I actually went ahead and tried it out and it worked perfectly. My Flip 14 is currently on the 260 bios and I have no issues so far. Most importantly, it fixed the ctrl+shift combinations that were inconsistent on 250. Idk why 260 was pulled, but it is still on the UK website, so I think only the Sony US site pulled down the 260 bios.

 

I'm in the USA and was running 260 w/o issue. Then I began to get video issues when I would bring the machine (14A) out of suspend -- as in raising the screen. The attached, external monitor would not activate. Going back to 250 solved this.

 

I went with Zagg's Invisible Shield made for a Samsung 13.3 Series 5 touchscreen ultrabook. Did a little triming and it's been perfect!

 

Thanks, Scrannel.

I think I've read other minor complaints about 260 here as well. Jeez, I've never seen so many BIOS updates in such a short period of time, and we're still waiting for a good one ? In your case, has 250 brought back more fan noise ? It seems that it has for some, but not for others.

This is just my very unscientific opinion : all those BIOS versions have strenghts and weaknesses, but Sony support isn't talking. They've been rushing to fix a bunch of issues and they haven't done it well at all... My guess is that lower fan noise (meaning lower RPM) via BIOS update = more heat = CPU throttling = weaker performance under load. Those who use the Flip to game or to do demanding tasks feel this more than others. Under light load, it gets the job done.

Let's see if we're in for more BIOS updates...

 

Actually I never had a loud fan. 250, 260 sound the same to my ear.

 

I don't have an external monitor to test with, but I'll keep an eye out for this.

Loud is relative, but my fan is audible when my CPU hit 50C in a classroom environment and if temps get close to 60, I starts to become irritating. The bad thing is that my laptop typically operates at 50C and if I watch HD videos, the temps reach low 60s. When watching videos, I have to mainly use headphones because the fan noise drowns out quite a bit of the sound coming from the speakers. If that is not a problem, I do not know what is.

The fan curve is WAYYYYY too aggressive because I know for a fact that these laptop CPUs can handle much higher temps without a significant decrease in longevity. If Sony does not release a BIOS update to make the fan curve less aggressive, I might try re-pasting the heatsink and see if that helps with CPU temps.

 

That's pretty much the same behaviour as with my 15A. According to CoreTemp (latest release) the temperature trigger is 48C with mine - which is easily to reach with only a little bit of CPU stress (not even using Turbo-Boost!).

I agree with that as with every single degree over 48C the fan of my Flip seems to rotate faster and therefore gets noisier. At over 50C the fan is getting annoying and at 60C it's unbearable without headphones, IMHO, at least when used longer at this temperature.

It's my understanding that this temperature is measured on-chip and therefore as close as we can get to a real CPU temperature. The different temps for the two cores should be taken into account, of course.
According to CPU-World.com the maximum operating temp of this CPU is 100C (!) so there would be a very wide margin (and that's not even the temp the CPU gets destroyed, it's the maximum *operating* temp!).

At 60C the case doesn't get more than luke warm, though, so one can only speculate why the machine is cooling that aggressively.
I can only assume that Sony wanting to avoid lawsuits of people with "burned thighs" or to reduce service costs with this large margin.

Some repasting reports here are promising but I can't remember convincing before-after temperature comparisons and much less temperature data some time after the repasting so that the new paste could really set it (I read the whole thread, as time-consuming as it was). So I'm a bit sceptical if this really brings down the temp as much as we need to stay lower than the trigger temp, at least for a longer time to cope better with peaks.

Also one would definitely lose warranty and there always is a slight risk with such a method. Because of this my personal opinion is that I only do that when there is literally no other way like dried-up paste like on my six-yr-old Acer PC I only use for TV recording or on my 5-yr-old fat PS3, which really helped bring temperatures down (-10C on the Acer).

Obviously, the manufacturers don't want these machines to exist much longer than a few years or they would have used better components (I also had several capacitors fail in the Acer power supply after only three years...).

I consider both machines easier to repaste than the Flips, though, and obviously both were out of warranty...