Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

IMHO yes - if you don't need a "powerhouse PC" (see my post above) but rather like the 15" hybrid form factor and want/need the pen digitizer.

True, but Sony will honor the warranty. IMHO: Don't expect too much of that, though.
If you buy a Flip and it fails I doubt that they will be able to repair/replace it in the near future and may only compensate you. Sony is ridiculously bad with notebook repair & warranty service - at least in Germany where I've seen polls rating them in the last place of all bigger manufacturers. I suspect they will be bad in other countries, too (perhaps better in Japan).
If you absolutely need good service then get either Dell or Apple - even Lenovo is getting worse (at least with their consumer machines).

Despite the service issues described above: I don't - at least not in 15" if you want to have a real mobile computer. All other 15" machines are either weaker or worse (IMHO).

The only "real" alternative for an artist is probably is getting a large Wacom Cintiq with 24" or so which is only a display with digitizer but not a mobile PC platform.
The only tablet PC available from Wacom - "Cintiq Companion" - has only a 13.3" screen...

Here are some compatibility notes from Surface Pro 3: What Runs, What Doesn't — Surface Pro Artist
Note that the Surface Pro 3 uses the very same pen drivers as the Flip (the most recent being Release 16).

-> Illustrator 18.0.0 x64 (CC 2014) - runs (intermittent pen with N-Trig Wintab R16)
-> Illustrator CC 17.1.0 x64 - runs (intermittent pen with N-Trig Wintab driver 14-16)
-> Illustrator CS5 - runs
-> Photoshop 15 (CC 2014) - runs, no Wintab driver required
-> Photoshop 14.2.1 x64, CS6 Extended 13.0 x64, CS5 x64 - runs (requires N-Trig Wintab driver 14 or higher)
-> Mudbox 2015 SP1 - runs, no multi-touch
-> Sculptris - runs

Read the last few pages here for impressions from people who used different pens, sometimes comparing them with the Sony pen. From their descriptions it seems to me that the other pens work at at least as good if not better.
But such pens are always a highly subjective affair - some people only want to work with Wacom pens which of course don't work with the Flip display.

 

I don't have one either, but here are the specs on it (Google is my friend, and yours too ) :
Previous Surface pens (Wacom technology) had a top button eraser. New Surface Pro 3 pen has three buttons (well two, the side button is double function) :
The top button opens OneNote via Bluetooth for quick note taking. If you double-click it, you can paste a screen capture/image in OneNote.
The side button has the eraser function and one other ; both are programmable though (I think...). This is the typical N-Trig pen side button.
Bluetooth top button requires a proprietary MS driver, which isn't available outside the SP3 echosystem.

That's all I've got. Someone with an SP3 pen will be able to fill in the gaps.

I don't know however if the eraser function works on machines other than the SP3

 

This thread in the sister forum outlines the devices with digitizers. The direct link to the spreadsheet is here.

With my Flip 13a falling to the fan noise issue I used that thread to get a replacement device and eventually settled on the Aspire R7-572. I'm actually quiet impressed with it, granted it is not as thin as the Flip or as powerful (i7) but ironically enough after putting in more ram in it, it hasn't hiccup at anything I through at it. my (long) review is on amazon.

TS

 

Thanks for the reply. I ended up placing an order through Best Buy today for a refurbished 15a. Figured with my Rewards elite plus status I have 45 days that I can return the product. That should give me plenty of time to update everything and give it a good run to see how it works. If the worst problem the Flip has is the fan noise I can deal with that. I got a high end desktop that sits on my desk that has 6 fans running at all times, the noise from them is nothing. I almost always have music on while working anyway.

I also picked up the Surface 3 pen today. Figured for 50$ I would see if it works, and if not return it. The laptop should arrive Friday, will check back once it does. Hopefully I won't have some of the issues I have read throughout this thread. Like I said if it wasn't for the 45 day return, and priced at 750 I might of waited to see what comes out this year yet. Hope I am happy with the machine.

 

I just got my SP3 pen today, and I am not overly impressed with it at this point. I say this with caution though, as this is the first time I am using any pen on any device, so perhaps my expectations were higher. Having said that, the problem may be at the user-end. the main problems I'm facing is that it's not quite as silky as I expected, and several times it fails to pick up strokes midway through writing a letter. This latter part could possibly be because of palm-input.
Right now I'm using it out of the box. Perhaps I need to install a driver or do some calibrations, change some settings around. Any help with that? I have the 14A with the 1920x1080 screen.

To the person asking about SP3 button compatibility with the Flip, I can confirm that after testing on ArtRage, Vaio Paper, and OneNote, one of the side buttons can be held down to erase. The other is used in OneNote to select an area and then copy/move it around, but it doesn't seem to do anything in ArtRage or Vaio Paper. The top button, as someone else said, is used to launch OneNote on the SP3, so it does nothing on the Vaio. A single click on the sidebuttons opens up Vaio Clip or Vaio Paper depending on which of the two buttons you tap.
All of this is with me using it out of the box, I don't know if they can be programmable.

EDIT: Interestingly, using the erase button on OneNote erases the entire continuous line you tap on, while in Vaio Paper you can trace over the line you drew to erase only sections of it.

 

Gaming on 15A, i7-1.8GHz, 12GB RAM, 2GB Nvidia, 512GB SSD, 2880x1620 screen

I play the following games... SupCom:FA, XCOM:EU, Civ5, Homeworld2 all on max settings. Short story, you have to sacrifice the resolution. I was getting BSODs playing on native res - no matter how much I fiddled around with in-game res and graphics settings.

What made the BSODs go away was to set the Intel Display Res setting to 1920x1080 instead of 2880x1620 (refresh = 60Hz; Scaling = Scale Full Screen). Then set the in-game resolution to be the same as native (Intel) res - 1920x1080. Also set the dpi-scaling to 100%.

Remember, with Optimus, the Intel Graphics is always in charge of the adapter. NVidia is just used for brute processing.

The above setup effectively set my native res to 1920x1080. I lost on resolution but I gained performance. With less pixels for NVidia to manage, I can set my (ancient) games to max graphics settings.

With the above, you can probably get away without setting the res to 1920x1080. Just set the dpi-scaling to 100%. But then, with more pixels to manage, NVidia will struggle. Also with dpi-scaling set to 100%, things will really be small. My eyes are not that sharp. That's why I chose 1920x1080 as a compromise.

Also remember to set, for each game executable, NVidia as the default graphics processor. You do this using the NVidia Control Panel/Manage 3D Settings/Program settings.

BTW, I also turned on DEP for ALL programs and services. But that is just me being paranoid.

Always play on A/C instead of batteries. Then you don't trigger any throttling. With me, the fans eventually kick in but I've never had my Flip die on me because of heat thresholds. But that's probably because the old games I play are less taxing to NVidia.

Yes, there is a way. Go to NVidia Control Panel/Manage 3D Settings/Global Settings. Set Preferred Graphics Processor to NVidia.

 

I do love my flip and for the most part it runs my needs without throttling.


10 inchinch screen Is to small for me for any windows device whether it's a tablet or laptop. This was my main reason for selling my old laptop and moving to something different. (Allienware m11x r2 i7 1gb dedicated graphics 8gb ram) I used to use this laptop on the go and while at home I would "dock" it and use it to run two 21" monitors at my desk through its display port and hdmi out it worked surprisingly well.



I bought the flip because I wanted a larger screen, tablet functionality and to be at a similar computing power to what I was used to. The flip is all around better than the m11x right up to when it throttles..... then it's much worse.


By changing some settings and proping up the back of the laptop another half inch with some spacers I can keep it from throttling for the most part.





Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

Could be very likely palm-related - some programs are better here than others and some tech is better than others.
The problem is related to the capabilities of the N-trig digitizer built into the Flips which offers both touch and pen input.

Note also that the digitizer - depending on the program you use - won't always work perfectly at "hypersonic speeds" without losing precision.
With the better programs the precision is kept but the speed is affected and the line drags behind the pen tip. This is quite normal.
If you are drawing too slowly then the line may become "jittery" so you may need to adapt to the pen to first get a feeling how to draw well with it. As with brushes etc. you aren't automatically an expert and you may prefer a different pen or digitizer technology in the end. I'm no professional artist but I can assure you that many do use these technologies and while more artists use Wacom tech the N-trig based solutions are gaining ground for simple availablity reasons (more and more devices use these - even if it's mostly for cost reasons).
Also, a pen is more complicated to process than a keyboard where each keypress should register a perfect input so there is definitely a user element included. I wouldn't expect problems after a few days of usage, though.

You should get the newest N-Trig drivers from here: Wintab - N-trig
These /may/ improve drawing performance for you but they *definitely* improve compatibility with many programs so installing these is practically a must!

You should be able to configure the side-buttons so that they don't launch the Sony applications but the top button remains without function unless someone writes a special driver for it or adapts the Microsoft one (won't be easy as 64-bit drivers need to be certified - by Microsoft...).
Also, the top button uses a bluetooth connection which means that there would be a certain additional power drain - but would the functionality really be worth it? It's not a pressure sensitive button like on Wacom pens that you can use as a pressure-sensitive eraser, anyway.
I do have a Wacom tablet & pen and even I don't the button on the other end of the pen as it means that I have to flip the pen around for each deletion - which really slows down the workflow. I always program the delete key on one of the two sidebuttons (on the Wacom pen) and I've had no issues with that with the N-trig based pen, yet.

My recommendation therefore is to simply drop the issue - the biggest advantage to me is that it makes the pen longer which may be better for larger hands and I actually look forward to trying one out.

That's probably because of the way these programs are designed - the behaviour should be the same using the mouse.
I don't use both programs but I suspect that OneNote is vector-based while Vaio Paper is likely bitmap-based.

 

Is there a setting anywhere to adjust palm-rejection? I vaguely remember seeing something like that when I was first exploring the Flip..perhaps it was somewhere in the Synaptics driver settings.

The drivers here are 32 or 64 bit. Does this refer to the bitness of the programs or Windows? Windows, of course, is 64-bit, but I'm assuming that ArtRage, OneNote, Vaio Paper etc will be 32-bit apps.

Is there a program for this? I can't find any relevant setting in the mouse/pen and touch options in the Control Panel.

 

Synaptics is the company providing the touchpad drivers for Flips equipped with Synaptics hardware. What you need are settings for the pen digitizer or touch display but there are no such system settings to the best of my knowledge.
Your only hope is a setting in the program that supports the pen (or at least good behaviour of this program).

A lot of the bigger applications - for example Photoshop or Lightroom - are actually already 64-bit apps. With a 64-bit OS you then know for sure which drivers work.
I only installed the 64-bit drivers and I gained pressure sensitivity in Photoshop Elements and also in an older 32-bit version of Corel Paint (was bundled with my Wacom tablet), for instance.
Installing the 64-bit drivers is probably the best bet for most people and they probably won't do any harm to anybody, anyway.

The only settings related to the pen that I have found are in the Sony Flip settings (a separate program, where you also control how the keyboard light behaves). There you should be able to disable the program start when using one of the side buttons of the pen.
I'm not at home right now so I can't give you more specific directions.

 

Search for the Vaio Control Center, go to Input Device/Action When Pen Button Pressed, click Details and uncheck the two checkboxes.

 

OneNote has 2 erase tools. If you click on the control wheel, and then on the little arrow in front of the eraser you get the option of the stroke eraser and the regular eraser. Whichever you've last used there is the one it will use when you hold down the upper button.

 

So since the 15A s supposed to arrive tomorrow, I remember somewhere in the last 252 pages reading about setting up a recovery of the system on a 32gb flash drive. Anyone know is something like this will work? PNY Turbo Plus 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Silver P-FD32GTBOP-GES3 - Best Buy

 

Hi there Rsinart,

Been here for about 200 of those 252 pages myself. I also have done the recovery sticks and disks (for fun) for two Flips : my daughter's and her friend's. Although a USB 3.0 stick like that one might work, it's best to go with a 2.0 stick instead. Reason : there are known yet unpredictable issues with booting from some USB 3.0 devices. Issue can arise from USB sticks, external drives or even external optical (DVD) drives too. USB 2.0 sticks also happen to be cheaper than 3.0 sticks, most of the time anyway. That PNY 3.0 stick is cheap at $15. This one will probably do just fine :
Amazon.com: PNY Attache III 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (P-FD32GATT03-GE): Electronics
I used cheapo Lexar 2.0 sticks because they were on sale like the PNY above.

When you create the Recovery stick, you'll be prompted at the end to test the drive by booting from it with the Assist button. The second one I did was with my daughter's friend's dad because he couldn't figure out where to launch the Recovery disk/stick program from ; I tried to help him over the phone but he just couldn't find it with the lousy W8 Metro interface. At first, he had launched the W8 Recovery program which also offers the possibility to create disks/sticks for Recovery, but that fails on the Flips for some unkown reason ; once I realized he wasn't using the VAIO utility, I had him install Classic Shell (free) so he could look for it more efficiently with a W7-like Start menu, which allowed him to find the utility directly from the "Programs" list (VAIO Care > Recovery > Advanced..." or something like that).

If you have an external USB 2.0 DVD burner already, you could burn Recovery disks (DVDs) instead of going out to buy a 32GB stick.

Good luck, and enjoy the 15A !

 

This brings up the Pen and Touch utility from the Control Panel, and the two checkboxes present here are "Use the pen button as a right-click equivalent" and "Use top of pen to erase ink (where available). There doesn't seem to be an option to program what these buttons do. I don't particularly mind, though it is slightly annoying that one of them is assigned to Vaio Clip, which I've uninstalled from my PC.

 

On a separate note, I installed ThrottleStop and right now I have little idea of how it is supposed to help and what to change. I'm guessing I'll have to trawl through these 250 pages and find answers. I did compare ThrottleStop with the Task Manager to check performance while rendering a video. i'm wondering why the former is showing 100% CPU utilization and the latter only 80%. Plus, shouldn't TurboBoost be kicking in at this point and taking it to 2700 Mhz?

 

You sure you didn't click on Pen and Touch Actions/Details? That should take you to where you described. The one below that should allow you do turn off the Vaio software (unless your control center is different from mine).

 

Thanks for the reply. I will just go out today and grab a 2.0 one instead for around the same cost. Thanks for also mentioning doing the recovery from the Vaio utility and not the normal way.

Also any one know if it's best to update all the drivers then do the windows 8.1 update or the other way around.

 

chuchugaga - If you have any ThrottleStop specific questions, there is a thread here on Notebook Review where you can ask away.

There is a problem with the Windows 8.1 Task Manager graph. It is wrong. If you switch over to the Task Manager - Details Tab, you should see a percentage that is more accurate. If you want a really accurate look at what your CPU is doing, trust the C0% number in ThrottleStop. It uses high performance timers within your CPU and closely follows the Intel recommended monitoring method so it can measure CPU load very precisely. The 19.65 multiplier that ThrottleStop displays is also extremely accurate. Intel CPUs can be changing speed so rapidly that many monitoring programs cannot keep up.

The problem with Intel's low power CPUs like your Core i7-4500U is that it has a long term rating of only 15 Watts. Depending on the application you are trying to run, this might not be enough for the CPU to run fully loaded at its full rated speed. These CPUs automatically throttle and slow down to keep under the 15 Watt power limit. When this is happening, the little black dot beside TDP Throttle in ThrottleStop will light up to show that throttling is in progress. That helps to confirm why your multiplier and CPU speed are running below spec.

The next thing I noticed is PROCHOT - 15. Intel set the thermal throttling temperature for this CPU to 100C but Sony decided to play it very conservatively and reduced this temperature by 15C so your CPU will start to thermal throttle and slow down at only 85C.

What can you do about this using ThrottleStop? Usually not much. It is what it is. Intel designed the U CPUs for low power consumption so they will throttle and slow down and sacrifice performance to accomplish this. There are a few minor things that you can tweak in the ThrottleStop - TPL window such as the Power Balance feature. Version 7 in my signature also lets you adjust the core voltage on some of the 4th Gen CPUs. Lowering the CPU voltage will reduce power consumption which will allow your CPU to run a little faster before power or thermal throttling begins.

 

You're most welcome.

Yeah, that Windows 8 Recovery disk creator sounds like a good idea (think it's new), but on the Flips - at least on the 13A I was on - it doesn't detect the Recovery partition at all. Not finding the partition means it cannot burn it to removable media. This created a rather stressful situation where my daughter's friend (well her dad) had ordered a new 512GB SSD and needed the recovery stick to reinstall the system on it. When the W8 utility reported there was no Recovery partition, you can imagine the moment of panic... Then, we found the VAIO utility ;Sony should make this utility much more visible though, like making a tile specifically for it (for those who use Metro) and a specific entry in the Programs list for the rest of us. Many OEMs used to put a shortcut on the Desktop for Recovery disk creation while some would even nag you with popups to create the disks ASAP ; don't know why they've stopped doing that as less and less people create the media now. Oh wait, maybe it's because they want to sell you the disks/stick for $40 when you're stuck and need them
Ok enough ranting on my part...

About updating : use the VAIO update utility to update everything you see there, before going for 8.1 Just know that the VAIO updater program will have an update for itself as well, which you need to apply before migrating to 8.1.
You'll also need to do one round of updates via Windows Update, because 8.1 isn't offered (in the Windows Store) unless you have some of them installed.

Good luck

 

Alright so I have had the 15a for 3-4 hours now. So far done all the updates via the Vaio care, now working on the window updates. Got 2 main issues so far. One is that my touch screen is barely working. And when it does it seems to open that Vaio Paper app all the time. I could be trying to swipe to see other apps and it will just open the paper app. Besides those two issues, and the fan being sorta loud I haven't had any real issues yet.

 

I purchased the recovery dvd's for my flip 15. I believe the software is the same for all the flips with windows 8. Do you recommend I make the recovery usb as well? I've swapped out the original hard disk with a 1tb samsung ssd. The samsung didn't bring over the recovery partition, so I'll have to re-open my laptop to swap the drives and make the recovery usb.

I've also swapped out the wireless card to get the proper N network card and the Bluetooth working simultaneously.

 

@Rsinart : Ok, you'll probably need the screen calibration tool from the Sony support site. Fastest way to get there : Google "sony support" and add your country in the search phrase ; that'll take you to where you need to be. Look for a box where you can enter your model#, and that will take you to the section specific to your Flip. Look in the Drivers/Downloads section and you'll see a bunch of updates ; those are updates you can do manually, most of which are offered automatically via the VAIO Care updater, but some aren't and you should see the screen calibration tool there. Run it adn you might just cure those issues with the touchscreen. The loud fan can be improved with a BIOS update (available from that same page).

Hope that helps.

 

That is great advice! Set mine to -50 mV for the CPU, cache and iGPU. Temperature running benchmark is now down 6 degrees compared to earlier (max at 57 degrees C instead of 63). Seems to keep the fans in check (not that they were bad before, just slightly annoying from time to time) - and so far it's stable.

 

Hi asadani,

No, you don't need to create Recovery media since you've purchased the DVDs. Unless you really want a stick instead of disks.

I believe you had an option to copy the Recovery partition onto the Samsung when you reinstalled, so you probably opted out. So yeah, if you want to write the partition to the Samsung Evo, you would need to load the original disk. EDIT : forget what I said in the last sentence lol : to write the recovery partition on the Samsung, you would probably just need to reinstall from the DVDs and check the option to write the partition on the Samsung when propmpted [/EDIT]. But you have DVDs now. There is a very-very-very small chance you could lose or damage the DVDs and thus have no recovery media, but what are the odds ? If it were me and I had opted out of writing the recovery partition over, I would just keep the original drive from the Flip tucked away somewhere safe adn have that as an emergency backup/Plan B type thing.

As far as all media being the same : not quite. My Flip was ordered with the Fresh Start option, meaning less bloatware, so the Recovery partition content reflects that and is somewhat smaller. The option also brought W8 Professional along for the ride, so a different system (slightly, but different...).

I think I remember you saying you had installed a more efficient N card ; could you just give me the model# again please, just in case I need to swap the 7260N we have ? Thanks..

 

Thanks Mark I have already downloaded that. The issue is still there. When on the screen with the apps, it doesn't want to scroll side to side with touch. And half the time when I am trying to scroll side to side it launches that Paper app. I don't even have it on the screen any more and it launches out of no where. I can't see to find settings for that app to see if there is some way to disable it. Right now seems my only option is to uninstall it.

I am starting to think the touch on this laptop may be messed up. Hoping once I have windows 8.1 installed it gets better. As far as I know I have all the Vaio care updates, and windows updates downloaded. Is there anything else I should be looking to download for sure?

Thanks again in advance.

 

@Mark. I was hoping to sell my Sony Vaio’s 1tb hard disk on ebay to make something out of it. I’ll hold on to the recovery disks. Hopefully they will hold back. The reason I said the disc’s may be the same is because the disc had multiple model numbers printed on them.

As for the wireless card, I have dabbled between a few. I had the Intel Centrino 6235 which works well on Windows 7 with Wireless N and Bluetooth simultaneously but I couldn’t make it work on the Sony Vaio for Bluetooth. I updated so many drivers but blurtooth never worked. I couldn’t figure out why the stock Wireless N card could not connect to the 5Ghz network. Upon researching I found out that the card is capable of 2.4 Ghz networks only, thus limiting my 100 mbps speed to about 38 mbps on speed test. The Bluetooth worked perfect with Stock 2.4 Ghz card.

I then finally upgraded to the Intel Network 7260.HMWG card. The card installs perfectly fine. Its cheap and Connects to N networks with 5 Ghz and Bluetooth works fine as well even when 5Ghz network is connected. I read on an Amazon review that the Bluetooth works only when connected to 2.4Ghz network but in my test with the laptop that is not true. Bluetooth works when connected to 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.

Here is the Amazon link of the card. Hope it helps.

Intel Network 7260.HMWG

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMCVKMU/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

So I uninstalled the Vaio Paper app.. Now it keeps trying to open it and its not there and its saying that the top button of the pen was pressed. So any idea how my finger is being recognized as a button press on a pen?

 

Go into the bios mode and move the mouse around and touch the screen. See if the PC misbehaves. If not do a clean install.
On another note, the other day I spray cleaned the laptop with a screen cleaner and the mouse started working erratic. That was because the touchpad would move even without touching it. I though I had fried the touchpad but few hours later everything went back to normal. the liquid inside the pad must have dried up.

I have the pen with my vaio but have never removed it out of the box. don't really need it.

 

Hmmm. Hopefully another member here has experienced this, because I know I haven't. I could be way off to left field, but it sounds to me like an N-Trig related problem : the Flip's touchscreen has an extra layer for the digitizer (active pen) but this also controls the touch features. What you are describing is making me think there could be a problem with the screen itself, or perhaps the software controlling it. I'm going with you on this : install 8.1 and keep your fingers crossed.

 

Yeah those multiple model numbers indicate that many models share the same basic system so yes, your disks would work on many other Flips that shipped with W8, in your language. I was referring to mine being different because of a special option it shipped with : less bloatware and W8 Pro. Your disks would not work on my Flip and mine wouldn't work on yours (mine has a French system which also requires a different set of disks than English systems).
As far as selliing the 1TB HDD goes : you have Recovery DVDs, so unless you are nervous about losing those, you could go ahead and sell the drive. I would however advise you to wait until the Flip's warranty is over, because if you need to send it in for warranty repairs, it should have the original drive inside.

That helps a lot, thanks. I remember you asking earlier why you couldn't connect to N networks and I was scratching my head trying to understand ; now I realize you wanted a 5Ghz connection from a single band card (2.4 only). Makes sense now. I also remember you mentionned the 6235 one, but now I see it doesn't work for Bluetooth.
The card you have now looks great : dual band (2.4 + 5Ghz) and also AC+N which is terrific. Next time I go into the 14A, I might just pop one of those in

 

Well after spending the last12 hours on the 15a it's finally working better. Not entirely sure what the issue was with the touch screen but the past 4 hours it's worked.

 

Does sketchbook pro 2015 version 7 work with the vaio flip? I have the latest wintab driver installed which has been reported by surface pro 3 users to work with that program but there isn't any pressure sensitivity when I use it. Also a little ways back in this thread someone said version 6 worked for them so I thought 7 would too.

 

I have version 7 on mine and it doesn't seem to be working with Pressure Sensitivity. Does work in the free app version but not Pro it seems on the Flip.

 

After ploughing (or skimming xD) through most of the thread, my Flip 13A is running much better than before. It's a shame that Sony can't even get these basic things right before releasing the Flips. This form factor holds so much potential.

I am wondering if anyone runs a dual monitor setup? i.e. the laptop screen + an external screen?

I find that the CPU gets very hot (from 70C-75C) with me doing nothing but browsing the net and such (no youtube either). When I used the external screen to watch BD rips, the CPS gets to about 80C.

Is that the case for most people?

I love my Flip 13, but it can't even handle simple tasks like watching a single video and using the internet, that's taking the 'it's an ultrabook' argument a little too far. I hope I am an isolated case?

 

Did anyone try to undervolt his Intel Core i7-4500U with throttlestop? If it works, can you share the settings please?

 

I used ThrottleStop 7, clicked on TRL, checked 'Unlock Adjustable Voltage', then changed the 'Offset Voltage' to a negative value.

Hope this helps, as it shaved a good 6-8C off of my CPU temperature.

 

And you did of course stress test the CPU afterwards, didn't you?

 

At least I did - ended up using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility with the built-in benchmark. Had no problems, but didn't do any multi-hour burn-in either (which I probably should do). Left the cache voltage at standard settings as I read some negatives about doing that, and didn't spend enough time to figure out if that was true or not.

 

So is there any noticable difference in fan activity? I'm not in front of the 15a (owner = relative), but if throttlestop is working without problems and no user interaction is needed, i'll risk to install it.

 

Throttlestop may work without problems but the problem with undervolting is to make sure that the CPU itself (!) works with the lower voltage.
Because of variances in manufacturing you get CPUs that can be overclocked and undervolted better (or worse).

In other words: You *have* to try out and test undervolting like one would test the maximum overclock frequency.
Of course you can risk simply reducing some milivolts but make sure you at least give the CPU some stress like KjetilV did.

What will you do, for example, if you undervolt too low and the Flip (which isn't even yours) doesn't boot anymore into Windows?...

 

Get the card. I've tested it extensively and I constantly hit 110 mbps and 5 up. I have the 100 and 5 up plan with timewarner. I could never get over 30 mbps with the stock card. I just sold the stock card on ebay for 8 bucks. . I opened my flip 15 just to change this one card. For the life of god I couldn't figure why I could not pick up the N network. I thought the N equated to the 5Ghz protocol.

btw I also sold the hard disk for 80. Some offset for my 1tb Samsung SSD.

 

You certainly know how to get a point across lol. I don't like that single band 7260N card. I've also been putting off upgrading the RAM because of prices staying so darn high. Next time I go in, it's for extra DDR3L and the 7260AC.
Not sure I could get much for the original 500GB hybrid drive on eBay though, but I could use it for external backups after the warranty expires. I wasn't lucky enough to get the extended warranty deal, so it's just the one year here.

Question about that AC card : what did you do for drivers ? Just planning ahead

 

Just put the drive into your cupboard as a safety measure for restoring/recreating the original system (for example when selling the Flip - or when you donate it someday to a computer museum - LOL).
The drive isn't really fast and additional 8GB flash memory won't help you at all when used as an USB drive.
Believe me - I tried with the 1TB+16GB drive... ;-)

Also, you will laugh about 500 measly gigs in a year or two anyway. I have several "small" drives in my cellar: a 250GB one from my TV recorder-PC, the original 80 GB drive from my first PS3, another 60GB from a defective PS3 etc. - even added together they don't equal a single terabyte which is the minimum size I touch nowadays (except SSDs!).

 

Hi guys, I recently purchased a 14 inch Sony Flip. I wanted to get a 13 inch because I prefered the smaller size and it had an ssd but unfortunately for some reason (anyone can explain? I thought they are very similar specs?) it was WAY more expensive. I'm wondering if its possible to upgrade the 500gb HDD. Do you think its necessary? I heard that its much better to have an SSD rather than an HDD, But It doesn't have a CD slot so I'm not entirely sure how to go about installing a new OS on an empty SSD.

Just for background info, I purchased this laptop for art usage, to run Zbrush, photoshop and other graphic software and this was a recommendation after posting a topic - but Im having horrible stuttering making it a generally not so fluid experience, basically on my main PC when Im rendering and using full CPU, I know the exact feeling and this is what's happening here. I'm not doing anything intensive yet and yet it struggles to run and the fan whirs like a beast. I'm having serious buyers remorse and wondering if theres patches/fixes or was i sold a defective product (I bought it second hand refurbished). Thanks guys¬!

 

Hey has any one tried to run ubuntu on this laptop? I really like this laptop but really want to mess with linux. I have a option to buy this for 555 after taxes refurb. or the dell 14 5000 i5, 8gb ram for 500. trying to decide between the two

 

Smaller machines with the same performance are usually more expensive. This isn't a Sony problem, they only adapted to the market.
With the Flips the SSD-equipped machines are considered more powerful than HD-equipped ones so Sony demanded much more money - they apparently calculated those prices when SSDs were still very expensive.
SSD prices fell sharply this year, though, so it was cheaper to get a HD-equipped machine and replace it with a cheaper SSD (or bigger one for the same price), which is what I did.
Even the refurbished Flips with SSDs were still way more expensive than doing an upgrade yourself, at least here in Germany.

Yes, it can be easily upgraded. There are videos on Youtube for the procedure and several people have done it in the forum. You have to follow some rules (the SSD can have a maximum height of 7 mm and for each Flip model exist separate instructions!), though, so check these posts out!

Personally: YES!

An SSD will deliver a dramatic improvement in boot time and system reaction speed - especially in a slow/medium speed notebook like the Flip. System boot is especially quick with Windows 8(.1) but you'll notice an all-around speed increase.

Keep in mind that it will also result in less noise and the system becomes also much sturdier as you can move around with the notebook without the risk of a HD head crash. It literally becomes a true tablet, even if it's quite heavy compared to smaller tablets.

There are several ways. Here are some:
a) You transfer (clone) the HD to the SSD - via USB. Some SSDs are available with an USB-adapter (for example Samsung's EVO series) and software to do just this. You can also use an external USB drive dock if you have one (which is what I did - with USB3 this works very quickly!)
b) You create a recovery media with the Sony software. You need either an USB stick (32GB, USB2 - don't use USB3!) or an external DVD burner and several disks (I think six to seven... - so a USB2 stick is usually the best option).
c) You can also buy recovery DVDs from Sony but this isn't cheap and you still need an external DVD drive...
d) If you already have a Win 8 licence you could do a "fresh install" but I don't recommend this as you will have to make sure you don't miss any special Sony drivers you need (and there are quite a few). Still, some people did that and posted in this thread so you may want to check that out.

In short: This isn't really a problem. Just go with a or b.

Not all hope is lost: Before you return your machine or sell it you should really get all(!) driver and software updates for it and especially all BIOS updates! Sony has changed the fan profile so it may become bearable for you.

If the supplied VAIO Update software doesn't offer you any updates go to the Sony Vaio support website for your specific model (you can read the model number (not the serial number!) on the back of the flippable LCD or in the Vaio Care software). Then download the drivers and BIOS update files and install them manually.

If you still have problems you should post again here so the small but helpful Flip community can make suggestions! ;-)

 

I just popped in the card and installed the Intel drivers. No issues at all. Performance is vastly much better than the pre-installed 7260 N card (or any other wifi card I ever had).

 

I totally agree with your statements and know the risk of undervolting. I did it with my pentium m notebook years ago... back then it was very easy and effective. (no turbo, only one core, ...) With the new core processors, energy enhancements and other features it got more difficult and the development of common undervolting tools like chc/nhc stopped.

Present cpus are far more complex as the pentium m, that's why i ask if it is working without problems. I don't think that you can brick your Notebook, because the changes should be gone after a reboot. (no persistent hardwarechanges) So you probably should disable the automatic startup of the tool, before you begin to test.

 

As Calibrator said, get an SSD - it will make a huge difference, and by now, it's not very costly. Whether you chose to clone the drive or create recovery media... you should probably create the recovery media anyhow : ) That way you're covered if for some reason the cloning should fail.
As for the performance. You're running it on the high performance power plan? Might be an idea to install Throttlestop and keep an eye on the temperature and speed it's running at - should give you an idea if something is truly faulty. My own experience on the 15A with Photoshop is that it's ultra-smooth... but then that's not really comparable.