Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

I created a hardrive image using window 8.1 'System Image Backup' to External Hardrive (usb3). So I don't have to reinstall all the Apps (like Office, Adobe PS, etc..). From the system image recover screen, I was able to select the system image from external harddisk, then click next, I get a generic error that recovery failed. Hopefully somebody ran into this problem and have a solution.


thanks,

 

Hi again, so I got my Flip a couple of days ago and it's fantastic! No issues with the fan noise after updating everything, and it's all running quite smoothly.
However, today I decided to repartition my hard drive and tried using the Windows Disk Management tool. I have about 660GB free on the 750GB hard disk and it only let me split to as low as 330 each. I wanted to have 150GB on C and the remaining 500GB on D. I used AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition instead, and it let me split the partitions accordingly. Following the reboot, my Flip got stuck in an infinite reboot loop where it would come up with the blue screen and a sad face, restart, and repeat.
I would like to know why this happened, and if it is something I should be concerned about.
I fixed it eventually by resetting my PC back to factory state using the Reset option (I had created Recovery Media too but didn't use it because I wasn't sure what the difference between that and resetting was).
Now that it has been reset, I DO have the two partitions that I originally wanted.
However, there was a note in the box that said

My second question is, do I need to be concerned about this after resetting my PC? Not sure if it constitutes as a clean install, but how do I check if my Flip is using this cached space?

 

Did anyone in the US rush off and get a Surface Pro 3 pen to try on the Flip?
Probably a bit premature to ask : ) but would be interested to know how it feels compared to the other pens.
Perhaps even the button on the back could be made to work (apart from the connected standby part).

 

What you didn't do correctly was to stick to the instructions in the note - that's why you killed your system installation and had to use the recovery feature (= the factory reset).

However, if your Flip boots up fine now you should be good and don't need to be concerned. The method you used isn't a "clean Windows install" nor a true factory reset (then you would have gotten the old partition layout back) but a "clean Sony software install including Windows" - and it's similar to using recovery media. Recovery media should, unless it has grown more intelligent in recent times, should reinstall the old partitions and is usually slower than using the hidden recovery partition on the harddisk (which you did).

The recovery media is really only for cases when the recovery partition is gone or not OK - like for example when the whole harddrive has been wiped - including the partition table - or replaced with a new one.

The hybrid drives from Western Digital use a special set of drivers (WDBoost, WDHybrid...) to actually make use of the flash cache (8 GB on your 750GB drive).
You can't access or even see this 8GB area with regular Windows methods (not even the disk manager can) - only these vendor-made drivers can. But as your recovery was successful there is no real reason to believe that the hybrid tech isn't working. You should see a speed increase with time for tasks that you do often, like for example booting the machine.

For the curious mind this answer naturally doesn't suffice ;-) and the hybrid effect is perhaps not as noticeable as some people say... - so you may still want to check.
However, as I don't have a hybrid drive installed anymore I can't give you precise directions as to how to diagnose if it actually is working on your machine but I would inspect the Windows services if something from WD is indeed running (or something like "Hybrid HDD Filter Driver").

 

Since this is my first time using Windows 8, and having just upgraded from a Core2Duo to a Core i7, everything seems plenty fast to me, so I'm not sure how I'd be able to isolate the effect of the cache..but it's nice to know that it's there.
I do have something called WDBoost installed (was wondering what that was for) so I guess it's working as it should. Thanks for clearing up both my questions.
Browsing some other forums, I also came across something called ExpressCache which is supposed to do the same thing. However, as I only found instances of this on Lenovo forums, I'm assuming it's their equivalent of WDBoost.

 

SVF15 owner checking in I picked mine up in February and I love it! Swapped out the Wireless card to a BCM4352 thats 802.11ac
It fixed the issues I had with the Intel Chip and I anted to use it for my development project...

Running OSX Mavericks





However I kind of slowed down on working on it since I need to figure out how to disable the nvidia card and perfect a DSDT and enable the wifi card :/

 

Hi,
I haven't heard or read of this problem before but I can assure you that I control the LED keyboard light with the Vaio Control Panel, which normally has several options: LEDs generally off, LEDs generally on, LEDs only on when powersupply plugged in.

My guess is that solving this problem is either quick & easy or very hard and will take a long time.

As I don't have my Flip with me right now I'm not sure if there is a key combo that enables/disables the keyboard LEDs (some notebooks have that).

In your situation I would try the following methods in order:
1.) As you can't really power down the Flip (because of the battery) you can do a reset with the button on the underside of the Flip (-> tiny hole).
2.) You could try to delete the keyboard in the device manager so that the Flip tries to install the drivers again and initialize them
.
.(other methods I can't come up with, that aren't destructive)
.
8.) Do a complete recovery with the BIOS (press the Assist button and follow instructions) or with recovery media to get back to the factory settings.
You can still create recovery media if you haven't already done so because the recovery partition isn't affected by the updates you got.
This is the last possible method you should consider, though, as you will lose all your other files on your partition(s). Back up all your files before you attempt this!

If all of this doesn't work you should send the Flip to the Sony service (back up your data before you do that!).

Good luck!

 

As an update, After a week of sending in my laptop to Sony for repair for which I learn that they have sent it to geeksquad bestbuy, I have received the email that the laptop has been received and repair has not yet started. no further updates. I chatted with the agent as it was quicker to get a hold of the agent that way and the agent directed me to 1-800 GEEK SQUAD. I had a bad feeling my laptop isin't going to get the repair I wanted. Lets wait and see what's going on.

 

Hi Everyone,

I've been using the Flip 14 (Fit 14A) with i3 4GB/500GB config for almost 4 months now and in the very beginning I noticed a some weird problem with the touchpad but it was very rare and a quick reboot used to fix it. The problem is the pointer just hovers around automatically and when I use one finger to move around it registers as multi finger gesture and zooms in/out on the screen and selects text like crazy. It has now become very frequent and completely makes it impossible to use the laptop.

I tried updating the drivers from Sony's site and also from Synaptics site as well but the same problem persists. Also cleaning with micro-fibre cloth/tissue paper doesn't solve anything.

Could anyone please help me with a solution or did anyone else come across this issue and how they fixed it?

Thanks

 

You need to download a Sony screen calibration tool and run it.. check important messages from Sony Care and it will direct you to such tool.

 

I suppose it depends where you live. I've had surprisingly good luck with the Geek Squad near me, but I'm in So. Cal.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. By touchpad, I mean the mouse trackpad. The screen is perfectly fine, only the mouse pad is giving me problems. Did you encountered any such issues with the mouse touchpad?

 

Quick Info:

There is a new pen-driver release from N-trig!

Support for the following programs has been officially added:

- Anime Studio Debut 9.5 Version 9.5 build 9768
- Crayola PhotoFx studio 1 Version 1.5.0.42, 1.5.0.46
- Flash Professional CC Version 13.1.0.226
- Adobe Flash Professional CS6
- Corel Painter Version 12.2.0.703
- Sculptris
- MyPaint Version 1.0.0
- Mischief Version 1.12
- Zbrush Version 4R6
- Adobe DreamWeaver CS6
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 Version 12.0.20130925
- Krita Version 2.8.3
- Substance Painter Version 0.5.0

I can also confirm that the older Corel Painter Essentials 4 now also supports pen pressure sensitivity.
Photoshop Elements 12 did already function with the older R13 release, though.

Download: Wintab - N-trig

 

Anyome know how to get into safe mode if you cant boot the computer? Some error after running some antiviris/malware software mist have messed something up.

- I never made a backup
- automatic repair wont work
- system restore aparently dosnt make restore points by default.

- I have files on the drive I need

Can i get a repair drive from sony ?

I would have serched more on this issue but its hard on the phone.


Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

Can anyone give me an alternative to the Vaio Digitizer Pen. It has been discontinued and I really need pen compatible with my Sony Vaio Fit 15A.

 

If you can get hold of a pen from the Asus Taichi (tested) or the Acer R7 they should work just the same. The HTC Scribe pen also works nicely, although it's one from an earlier generation - is easy to get hold of and cheap. Lastly the new pen for the Surface Pro 3 should also work in theory, but haven't heard of anyone testing it yet.

 

Here's the opinion of Rick Rodriguez who is the guy behind SurfaceProArtist.com when asked if the SP3 also works on the Flip:

"Yes, I've tested several applications on both the Flip and Acer Aspire R7. They work pretty much the same as on the SP3. Generally speaking, the SP3 pen provides the best experience across all three devices, followed by the Acer's pen. It's unclear whether the control panel will be available for anything but the Surface Pro 3."

Apparently all those pens work on all the devices mentioned:

"I was pleasantly surprised recently by the Acer pen. Until I used the Surface Pro 3, I had run the Sony Active Pen on both the Flip and R7. I ordered the Acer pen to compare and it is much nicer to draw with than the Sony pen. The nib softness falls between the Sony and SP3."

While they all work he has a clear opinion that the Microsoft pen is the best, the Acer one second best and the Sony pen the worst one.
This is of course highly subjective and if the Sony pen would be the universally worst one then I wonder how good the others are (they must be truly sensational) because in my mind the Sony pen is even better than the icky Intuos pens that attract dust like nothing else on the planet...

What's important is that the SP3 pen works and is an alternative to the very hard to get Sony pens - like I have posted weeks before here...

And keep watching the N-trig website for driver updates! These guys do their homework!

 

Thanks Calibrator, that's useful to know. Looks like I'll have to try the Surface Pro 3 pen too : ).
A bit skeptical about there being major differences though. The Acer pen looks like it's the same as the Asus apart from the end. I rather like the narrower front of the Sony, the little ridge to rest my fingers on and the fact that it's longer ... but all in all, it's a toss-up, could use either one. The grey tip is much nicer than the black though - wonder how that is compared to the SP3 which I've heard is pretty soft.

 

I'm fairly sure that he is mostly referring to the tip quality here but the point is pretty moot if one can't buy the Sony pen anymore...

The SP3 pens on the other hand will probably have much better availability and you'll find them in the bigger stores and online where the SP3 is being sold. I'll likely get such a pen, too, simply to have a spare...

 

hi, i'm owning Sony Vaio Fit 15A, suddenly these days my laptop screen becomes like this Anyone know what's problem?

 

I'd first check if it's a hardware problem (there are several possible scenarios: defective graphics chip, defective LCD controller, defective cable...).
You can check that by booting the Flip using the Assist-key which then shows a menu screen, offering several options.

If this menu screen looks OK (= not green like this) then it's unlikely that you have a hardware problem.
If it's green and even the "vaio"-logo that should be white on a black background is green you have a possible hardware problem!

 

To Vaio Flip 13 Owners:

Was the fan noise issue ever fixed? I see Sony has pushed out a few updates addressing the fan so I wanted to know if the loud fan when doing basic stuff has been fixed?

I'm debating buying either a Vaio Flip 13 or Vaio Pro 13. I'm coming from a Yoga 13. Anything I need to know about the Vaio Flip 13?

 

I have a flip 13 , i bought it in jenuary and i can't be unhappy, i really love the machine, it's really what i was looking for. The only issue yes is the fan, but it's not a huge problem in my opinion...sometimes you hear the fan going on for no reason but the noise doesn't last long..so if yu're extremely sensible to the fan issue maybe this is not your machine, if you're a normal person like me and like a lot of people out there i have to reccomend the flip 13

 

I'm quite sensitive to sound, especially in a silent room. How long does the fan remain loud while performing undemanding tasks?

 

questions, just got a Flip 15.

1. Is there a way to force the nvidia chipset all the time?
2. Why does the touch pad fail to work if you are also holding down a keyboard key? Noticed this while testing the performance using Minecraft and STALKER: call of pripyat. can only do one or other, hold a keyboard key down OR push/move around the touch pad. Like one cancels out the other. This even happens on the desktop.

 

I'm running the 15A, and for the most part it's silent with such tasks, but from time to time it does rev up. The main problem is how aggressive Sony is in keeping the temperature down, and the difference in volume between fan off and the lowest speed. If you're in a slightly noisier environment (office, or just having the window open) though it's not a problem. My guess is though - if silent operation is of prime importance to you there are better choices.

 

1 minute, max 2 but it's rare, then it get back to acceptable sound. And keep in mind I use it in normal mode, if you have just to browse the web or similar not heavy tasks you can use it in silent mode and in this mode you can barely hear the fan

 

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone already unlocked the BIOS? I have seen pictures of other Insyde H20 BIOS where you had full control about CPU/GPU Voltages (also turn of Turbo by default) and the most important thing is that you could control the CPU fan speed. It was like low fan speed @xy°C and high fan speed @xy°C. This would make this Notebook just fine.

You could make low fan speed at 60°C and high fan speed at 80°C. The Intel® Core™ i7-4500U is specced to max 100°C - this would work just fine.

Also someone tested to change the thermal paste? I think that would just save another °C. Or can be the fan itself be changed? Is it a normal specced fan or something just for OEM's?

Also my GPU dont clock down. It always sits at 600MHz Core and 800MHz Memory. I have the Sony drivers installed. Is this BIOS forced or wil changing to Intel drivers affect the Clock and Memory MHz? I think its something like 200MHz or 350MHz Clock speed when in idle. This also would save some °C.

Greets

 

Anyone know where you can buy the 15a with 12 or 16 gigabytes of RAM right now (preferably in the US)? I'd love to buy it and add to the discussion but I'm not finding it anywhere...

 

Hi there Thecoolduke,

I'm in Canada. Just checked the US Sony store and they don't even have a computer/laptop section anymore. The canadian store still has some listed, and there's a flip 15A with 12GB or RAM listed for sale via stores only (not online). This tells me you should contact Sony via the US store and ask about 12 or 16GB models available. Sony Canada gets its stuff from the US I'm sure, so you should be able to find them (I would think...).
PC VAIO® Fit 15 Multi-flip - All VAIO Flip PCs Sony Store - Sony CA

I'm also guessing you don't wish to add RAM yourself ? If you're not comfy doing this, perhaps you have a friend or someone who could ? Buying RAM yourself is cheaper than getting it pre-installed from Sony...

 

Ahhhh, didn't realize you can get to the internals of the 15a. So it's possible to add more RAM yourself or switch out the hard drive?

 

Yep, RAM and hard drive are accessible and upgradable on the 14s and 15s. Drive only on 13s and 11s (RAM is soldered to mobo).
I know this thread is long, but we've had a few members post about how they opened and then removed/upgraded RAM and hard drives. There are teardown vids on YouTube as well. Opening the Flip's case is a bit delicate because of the plastic clips ; if you've ever opened a laptop before, or a smartphone or tablet, you should be good to go. Watching a teardown vid will give you an idea of the difficulties. I upgraded the hard drive on my daughter's 14A back in November and it was fairly easy (for me). The 15s offer an extra level of difficulty accessing the hard drive because of two wire harnesses that are routed over the drives. Those harnesses need to be disconnected and the connectors are small compression type "clips" ; you just need to flip them open with a small flat screwdriver.

Some things you must know before proceeding :

1) We're not 100% sure that opening the Flips doesn't void the warranty. We have had members return Flips to Sony that were opened and none have reported a problem with Sony (not yet anyway).
2) RAM in the Flips is low voltage DDR3 SODIMM (1.35V). Regular 1.5V laptop memory sticks don't work (Flip won't boot). Low voltage - aka ultrabook memory or DDR3L - is rather easy to find nowadays.
3) Hard drives or SSDs must be no thicker than 7.5mm. Bigger drives just don't fit. Most SSDs are 7.5mm, so not hard to find

Here's a link to a teardown vid, and I'm sure there are more for the 15A : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9qiu_q9cl8
(start at 14:00 for the actual teardown)
Remember to first remove the battery when opening these up so there is no power when playing around inside.

 

Hey, did you ever get to finding out if the card reader is limited upto a speed? And if anyone else has used an SD card, could you post the read/write speeds (+advertised read/write speeds of SD card) that you acheive. Here's a crystal disk mark result on a 90/60MB/s read/write SD card I tried on my flip 13A:

View image: Crystal Disk Mask SD

 

True - and it can't be stressed enough to be very careful with these connectors as these can't be easily replaced!

Additionally, this may also depend on the laws of the country you live in as those would usually override what Sony wants to grant you. It's better to make a careful disassembly and not break anything in the process in the first place, though.

The drive cage assembly is the most critical part here as it involves a very delicate metal film or foil that can tear quite easily when you remove it from the harddisk. It may be better to just keep that on the disk you just pulled out and try to mount an SSD without it.

True - it's not a slot for 9 mm drives!

And one might add that it makes sense to buy a Flip with a low amount of RAM in the first place if one wants to upgrade/exchange it with higher capacity modules oneself.
It's also always a good idea to buy (or upgrade to) either 8GB or 16G - but not 12GB (= 1x 4GB + 1x 8GB) - as the machine's memory management prefers equally sized modules to be able to achieve the highest possible speed.

I have seen the teardown of this enthusiastic fellow, too, and I wondered how long he would keep swishing around the opened Flip (lying on the top side) on his table as he complained earlier how easily the case can be scratched...
So remember, folks: If you open your Flip - put a blanket or something under it and don't move it around!

Also keep in mind that static discharges can kill a machine easily so avoid touching the electronics/connectors!

I also got around 45 MB/s with a SanDisk UHS-1 card specified for up to 45 MB/s using real-life file transfers (large photo files). It would be interesting if anyone has a faster SD card to see of the card reader can make use of it.
On the other hand you are pretty much stuck with this card reader so if it doesn't you can't change a thing anyway (of course you could use an external reader but that would defeat the purpose of the notebook, wouldn't it?).

 

True, I am just wondering because I am not entirely sure if it's just the internal card reader that is limited or I've got a bad SD card. They advertise upto 90MB/s read speed (and 60MB/s write speeds) and I've seen from other reviews that some people get around 60-70MB/s read speeds, compared to the 45MB/s I get from the flip

 

I truly believe that the built-in card reader in the 13A is limited upto 50MB/s. I bought another SD card that advertised read speeds greater than 50MB/s (see: Transcend 64GB Ultimate SDXC Class 10 UHS-I 600x Memory Card: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics), but I wasn't achieving read speeds greater than 50MB/s. Once I benchmarked the SD card, it gave very similar results to the other SD card I have, albeit the write speeds on the second one is higher. You can have a look at the benchmark comparisons of the two here:

View image: ATTODisk SDComparison

At least I know now that my SD cards are not underperforming. Speeds are decent enough, so I'll live with it

Edit: Another person has said that their card reader is limited at around 45MB/s for the Sony Vaio Pro, so I think it's safe to assume that if you go for an SD card, an upto 45MB/s card would do. See: http://community.sony.co.uk/t5/pcs-accessories/vaio-pro-sd-slot-specification/td-p/1263572

 

Thanks! This possibly saves us some money - by not buying faster SD cards than needed...
Of course it also depends on how you use the card. If you use a camera, for example, that is able to write with a higher speed than that you may actually get some use out of it, after all.

 

Hi Guys,

My Multi-Flip has been causing a lot of pain recently. A couple of months ago, it was making a lot of noise (which apparently came from the fan) but the problem resolved itself and rarely occurred a couple of times later. The engineer said at the time, that it was most likely a fan noise (as sopposed to the HDD).

However from the last few days, the computer has been behaving very strangely. It just shuts down out of nowehere (not even a blue screen). This happened 5-6 times consecutively, after which I was somehome able to do a system restore to a couple of weeks earlier, to see if it might have been a software issue. That temporarily seemed to fix it, but a few days later the issue is back. It happens every now and then (say once or twice a day). The laptop just shuts down completely in a snap. I wonder if anyone has faced this issue before and what might be causing this? I have an important business trip coming up and the last thing I want is for this to happen when I am in a client meeting.

Update: I notice my CPU temperatures are normally between the 60-80 degrees on average usage with cooling pad connected, so I wonder if replacing/cleaning the fan is the way to go?

Thanks

 

Hi there consultant2b,

I'll just throw some questions your way, to try and figure this out :

60 to 80C *on average* with a cooler sounds excessive to me. Do you hear the fan come on at all now ? The shutdowns could be caused by an overheating protection routine. Hard to say without more info.

Have you had any error message onscreen just before a shutdown ? Anything at all ?

Does this happen on battery and/or on external power ?

Others may have experience with this issue. We'll see

 

Hi all . Have u read about sony recall in usa for the vaio flip ?

Sony Recalls VAIO Flip PC Laptops Due to Fire and Burn Hazards

Sony Recalls VAIO Flip PC Laptops Due to Fire and Burn Hazards | CPSC.gov

anyone knows anything about that ?
is it for all models ? or for a specific one !

 

Only the 11 inch models


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Has anyone else found issues whilst using the Vaio Flip 15A with the 2880x1620 screen? It seems that if I try to play a game on a lower resolution, the intel HD gfx have an issue where it cant scale for DX11 games. There doesn't seem to be a way around it at present so my next thought was if it was possible to re-install a clean Windows 8.1 to remove Nvidia Optimus and always use the dedicated 735m? I remember seeing there could be issues surrounding the cache on the hard-drive and also that Optimus may be required as the 735m routes through that to the display.

 

You definitely need the Optimus drivers (and therefore the Intel drivers, too!) as the graphics data is output via the Intel graphics hardware - to both the LCD or the HDMI output.
I doubt that a clean Win 8.1 install will help you with your graphics problem - have you tried to use the Nvidia chip for the problematic games?

As for the cache on the harddrive you should read the note that accompanies the Flips that have a hybrid drive installed before you modify a partition (for example when installing a fresh Windows).
You also should create recovery media before you attempt stuff like that!

 

Hi,

Thanks for your input. Yes, the fan does come on, but its not noisy anymore like it used to be. Also, every now and then, I hear a "beeping noise" and I notice this is usually when I lift the laptop up or tilt it slightly, while it is still running. I havent had any error messages or BSOD's at all, it simply shuts down with no waning what so ever.

This is shown as a critical error in my event log, with error source "Kernel Power" and error description " The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

I feel most of the time this has happened the machine has been charging, but I cant be 100% sure of this.

Thanks.

 

The problematic games are using the NVidia chip but the issue is to do with the Intel drivers and Direct X11, from doing some research there seems to be scaling issues when an Intel HD, Optimus and Direct X11 are combined. Trouble is I can't see Sony releasing any of the Intel updates via Vaio Update tool and we can't just download from the Intel site as it won't let you install them.

 

So I ended up buying the 15a (1920x1080 screen, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM, nVidia 735m) refurbished from Best Buy. Mostly the computer seems practically new. The only signs of use are a few minor scratches on the lid and two or three dead pixels. If anyone has any questions about the refurb quality I'll answer them.

 

1. I don't believe its possible, though you can see if you can do something about it in Nvidia's control panel.
2. On my 13A, in Elan's touchpad settings turn off TP Rejection. It disables the TP when you press something.

 

Hello,

Did you manage to have answer ? What about a modification of the bios ? What about thermal paste and changing the fan ?
I have the same problem about the GPU clock : it's always at 600MHz... (you can verify with GPU-Z). It should be at 200Mhz when idle (I have the Intel i7 4500U : ARK | Intel® Core™ i7-4500U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.00 GHz) here you can see the normal idle clock for the GPU is 200...)

 

I finally received my Flip 15 (svF15N18PXB) after screen replacement form Sony/GeekSquad.
I had a question on the Fan noise. I read a lot that this laptop has that issue. In my case with the new bios, the fan is very silent, however I’ve kept it on the silence power profile. However the fan starts up in bursts at full speed and goes off. Is there a way to make the fan run constantly at low speeds vs. making the loud noise.?

I also got the recovery dvd's they are about 6 of them.

 

Hello,

So a month after I bought the 14A, I have to say I'm quite pleased with it's performance. However, I've been experiencing a couple of minor issues that I haven't found talked about on this thread, so I''m wondering whether anyone else has also experienced these:

1. Occasionally (1 out of 10 times or so), when I put the lid down to put the laptop to sleep, I later find that it's awake (the green power light is on). I'm not sure whether the computer refuses to go to sleep when I put the lid down, or whether it sleeps and then wakes itself up after a few minutes. I read about how Intel has a SmartConnect feature that does something similar, but as far as I know the Flip line doesn't support it. Anyone know what's going on?

2. When I pause any type of video, and then resume it again, the video starts playing immediately but the audio stutters and starts after 2-3 seconds, which means I then have to rewind those seconds to catch the dialogue. This happens every single time, without fail, on both VLC and the Video app. The only exception is if I pause the video and then immediately resume playback after a few seconds. Maybe I've tweaked a few settings that I don't know of?

Lastly, are there spare batteries available for the Flip? I know that Vaio is now officially gone, and the Flip doesn't have a removable battery, so if I could get my hands on one right now when it may still be available, I won't have to worry about battery life after 2-3 years.