Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

Thank you guys for your comments and KijetilV for the detailed overview. Actually, I never understood the metro interface and gave up on it relatively quickly. I love android (surprise surprise) and I would feel absolutely OK with my main PC running a droidlike interface with all the power and functions of Windows. However, if that's what metro attempted to do it wasn't doing a good job. So I switched to desktop and almost no-touch very quickly. I still use touch a lot for scrollin or highlighting or just for moving stuff around, since I can't use a mouse and on such a small device as the 13A I find it more convenient than the touchpad. But metro, no. I uninstalled almost all the apps, and made the desktop default as soon as I could.

I don't use NFC either and bluetooth only very sparingly. So I think I should be fine. As I did a factory reset around a month ago, do you guys think I would still need a fresh install of 8.1 to upgrade? I haven't changed or tweaked the system or the setup any, the flip's my main work tool so I prefer to keep it clean and simple. As all my stuff is in the cloud, I technically could wipe the machine quite easily. I just really wouldn't if it wasn't absolutely necessary. One weekend reinstalling everything a month is plenty enough for me. Thx for your suggestions.

 

Can anyone help me install an older version of the bios or reset the one already installed to stock settings?

When I use the bios install tool from Sony it says that I already have the latest version installed and then exits.

Thank you for your help!

 

Erm... I'm no win wizard and certainly not really good at this, but I usually pick the latest from the Sony (or whatever now they've sold it) website and install it manually. Although, now that you mention it, I wonder if the latest ones are up there, given that Sony sold the lineup.

 

Hi, wwwasdwww. Please excuse me for the late response to you. I highly appreciate your help man! Hope you understand.

So, anyway, please look at a pic of my Nvidia Inspector. I screenshot this while playing COD: Black Ops II. As you can see, the P0 state is active. I overclocked it to 1100 MHz using this argument in the task scheduler:
“-setMemoryClockOffset:0,0,244”. But the graph reads that the game is playing at 941 MHz, not 1100 MHz. Why is that If I overclocked it at 1100 MHz? Am I reading this right?

How do I force Forcepstate16? Whats the command line for this?

And I set “-setMemoryClockOffset:0,0,244” as an argument in task scheduler for Nvidia Inspector to start up when Windows boots. But after it boots up, the status for Nvidia Inspector on task scheduler says “ready”. Even when I play a game, the status still says “ready” instead of “running” even though on Nvidia Inspector it says 1100 MHz. Is this normal?

 

I tried that but it won't install the same version or an older version of the bios. And since I already have the latest verion installed, I can't test if installing a fresh verion of bios and not having any sony software installed eliminates the throttling issue.

 

You don't need to use the "-forcepstate:0,16" command, it is already active.
941Mhz is your grapgics processor clock and 1100 is your memory clock.
What is wierd is that your gpu usage is 0% (first graph) is your exe of CoD set to use the nvidia gpu by default? Are you getting decent performance? How come your temperature is only 60 degrees? Mine rises to almost 75 in the first few minutes of gameplay... Is your cpu reaching 2.8ghz? Or do you have the turbo boost feature disabled?

 

Yes, I went to the Nvidia Control Panel and in the ‘Manage 3D Settings’, I selected COD: Black Ops II. Then I selected ‘High Performance Nvidia Processor’ as my preferred GPU.

Was there something else I was supposed to select, maybe under, ‘Select the Settings for this Program?’

I’m getting excellent performance. No throttling and gameplay is smooth. Playing GTAV is amazing also.

I don’t know.

I don’t know how to find this out. How do I find out if I’m reaching 2.8GHz or if I’m on Turbo Boost?

 

Well, after reading yesterday's update on TweakGuides, I'm a bit skeptical about Win10... maybe waiting a little while longer won't be so hard after all...

 

Has anyone been able to use the surface hub app to adjust the pressure curve on their mutli-flip? http://surfaceproartist.com/blog/2014/10/11/surface-pro-3-pen-control-app-now-available-for-download
I also wanted to disable the windows button on the bottom of the screen because I often accidentally press it while writing. The surface app is supposed to let you disable it along with adjusting the pressure curve.

Has anyone tried the newest wintab driver that microsoft released? http://surfaceproartist.com/blog/2015/6/2/new-download-link-for-n-trig-wintab-driver It is version 1.0.0.18. The last one was 1.0.0.17 which is what I have installed right now.

 

Nope. I didn't expect it to work, but I tried to because the sensivity is a bit too low for some programs. There really should be a way to change these settings though.

 

Does anyone's disable touchpad hotkey work? Mine says touchpad disabled in the right bottom corner in a notification but the touchpad doesn't actually disable. I also am not sure if that same button is supposed to toggle it back on and show another notification that says something like "touchpad enabled" because my notification just keeps popping up touchpad disabled. I have to hotkey driver installed. My volume, brightness and other function keys work fine. It's just that F1 disable touchpad key that doesn't work.

I did do a fresh install of windows 8 and 8.1 if that makes a difference.

 

Doesn't work for me either on 8.1.

About the Recovery Media: I'm about to create one. Do you guys happen to know what capacity USB stick I'll need?

 

My recovery was about 24-25 Gb but I guess it depends on what you have installed...

 

Hi guys, I would like to fully format my hdd but I don't know the rysks of deleting the OEM partitions. Can you live without them or it is very important that they remain untouched? Did anyone do this already? Is your pc working fine? Can you access the bios without them?

 

I replaced the original hybrid spinning hard drive that sony included with a blank samsung evo 850 ssd. I didn't put the oem partition back on the evo drive and have not had any problems. If you are worried about losing it, you can make an image of the hard drive using something like Acronis true image. That's what I used.

 

HI koolxxx,
From what i'm seeing, your system is running at its peak performance especially if you don't have the throttling issue anymore.
What settings are you using on gta v? I use high shadows and water and everything else on normal/off, half vsync and 720p resolution and dx11. If you are getting good performance chances are you are reaching turbo boost (you can open task manager and see your cpu performance there. If it is over 1.8 then you have turbo boost enabled). Have fun gaming and keep in mind that our flip 15 is an ultrabook and is not meant for gaming (even though it can do it pretty well). Now I'm just hoping that I can solve my throttling issue too

 

OK, I can confirm that the throttling is NOT caused by Sony drivers. I have completely formated my hdd, installed win 8.1 pro and only the official Intel and Nvidia drivers. Tested with the gpu stress test from furmark (and the graph from nvidiainspector) and after 11 minutes it throttled. Did this again with a fresh copy of win 10, same result. Win 8.1 home, the same. I even tested win 8 and sadly the result was identical. Every time I completely formated my hdd to ensure no sony settings were saved. If someone think's he/she soved the throttling issue, PLEASE please please do a test for me: open the graph in the nvidiainspector (top left) and run a stress test in furmark. If it doesn'doesn't throttle in 15 minutes please contact me

 

HELP NEEDED

I somehow managed to brick my laptop. The thing just stopped suddenly and will not power back on. No lights come on when plugged in, no sign of life whatsoever...

I tried pressing the reset button on the bottom and plugging it back in, I tried removing the battery, waiting a few minutes and then trying to restart but nothing. Neither the power button nor the assist button is working.

When it died I was running a stress test to see if I can fix the throttling problem (the temp was about 75 C so not a lot):
I undervolted the cpu to -55mV and the gpu to -100mV (this was stable, tested it and everything worked ok). Except this everything else was normal.

Is there any way to reset it, or at least to troubleshoot the problem to see what needs to be replaced? Or do I just need to scrap it and not buy sony products ever?

Thank you for your help!!!

 

Hi wwwwasdwww.. I know you tried the reset button at the bottom. But maybe you csn try it again with these more in-depth steps. Some steps below may seem redundant to you. But try them anyway in the same order as stated. I truly hope it works again.

Also, can you please show me how to undervolt the CPU and GPU? And whats the benefit of undervolting?

1. Ensure that the VAIO is turned off. (Nice easy start considering the problem!)
2. Unplug the AC adaptor from the VAIO.
3. Locate the battery off button on the VAIO bottom and press it using thin paper clip. (small hole on the bottom, next to the HDMI port)
4. Wait for a few minutes ( 2-5 )
5. Plug in the AC Adaptor.
6. Press the Assist button, if it turns ON, please move to the next step
7. Press F2 to access the BIOS.
8. Press F3 or F9 to followed by Enter to reset the BIOS to the default settings.
9. Press F4 or F10 to save and restart.

 

Hi koolxxx, thanks for the tips but sadly my vaio is still dead.

There is a thread on notebook review.com about undervolting (it has everything you need to know) I can't find the link right now cause I am using my old and laggy s3 to write this post but I'm sure you can find it on Google easily. Mainly it reduces the heat produced (and by this I was hoping to stop the throttling ). Besides that, you get a bit better battery life. The performance is not altered and supposedly there is no risk to damage the cpu/gpu if you undervolt.
This is why I don't think that the undervolting caused the sudden shutdown. (Or maybe it was not stable enough, it suddenly turned off and that might have fryed some components) I just hope that it won't cost a fortune...

I have to mention that no lights turn on when plugging in the power suply. (I checked the power brick, it works fine). Also, the battery is OK because it was 100% charged and plugged in when this happened.

 

Hi wwwwasdwww.. Very sorry to hear this..Damn.. And we were on the road to making progress. Did you ask Sony how much it would cost to replace the motherboard? I think I saw one selling for $290 on ebay. If you want check out the link:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...ng.TRS0&_nkw=SVF15N17CXB+notherboard&_sacat=0

If you could find that link on undervolting I'd appreciate it greatly. FYI, I'll be using 2 programs to unlock the BIOS. I first got to backup my system which I'll do today.

BTW, is the touchscreen driver working well when you installed Windows 10?

Hope you get it fixed soon. We're actually close to solving this.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-undervolting-guide.235824/

This is the link to the undervolting guide.
Since this is the Fourth time I am writing this message (my phone keeps dying on me) I'll sum up what I want to say:
1. Thank you soo much for the ebay link, I searched for a compatible mb but didn't find one
2. The people at the laptop repair service said they can write a new bios for me with all the extra features for about 50$ (and of course I'll share it with you guys) I just hope they can do it...
3. There is a video on YouTube called flip 15 video service manual or smth like that. The guy says that you can tape some electrical tape around the cooler to keep it from getting starved of air. This reduces the noise and the time it is on. He also explains how to easily apply thermal paste (sony used a low quality one and did not ally it properly). The video is about an hour long. Watch it, he explains things a lot better than I can...
Here is the link:

 

Don't know if this will work, but this is my third vaio. I have thought I bricked my older vaios before too fiddling with stuff. I had all the symptoms you have stated. Sony has a way of shutting the laptop off and locking it for electrical reasons (overheating, shock). My guess is some flag is set not allowing the computer to turn on. I always eventually got mine to work by taking the CMOS battery in and out a couple times and holding the power button down. Also hold down the reset button with the cmos batt out too. Tricky thing is the main battery in these can't come out, but I did all this with the battery out on my old ones and I always got them to power back on eventually. Good luck!

 

Just to quickly chime in and give my 2 cents:
Not only could removing the CMOS battery help (and of course reinserting it after a while - perhaps a few minutes or longer, if necessary) but the main battery can be disconnected, too.
You need to open the Flip by removing the back cover for both activities...

The CMOS battery is next to the HDMI jack and is a standard socketed type so removal is no big deal.
The main battery is fixated by, I believe, eight Philips-type screws. After removing them you can slide the battery out.

 

Also, stopping all of the sony services does not end throttling. I haven't done a clean install of windows, but I have eliminated every drip of sony services and still see throttling.

 

Thats strange since I've stopped all Sony services through Autoruns and the services console. The throttling is limited. I'm able to play GTAV. I'm able to play COD: Black Ops II smoothly for long time.

---EDIT---
In addition to disabling all the Sony services and background processes, I disabled many non-Sony services. Many this has to do with me being able to play games? If you guys are interested, I can upload a list of these services that you can turn off also.


As a side note, I haven't been able to make a backup image of my Flip yet. I need to get a bigger storage device to back it up to first before I can use 2 programs from bios-mods.com to see the code in the BIOS. Sorry for the delay guys. I know many of you are waiting for this. But as soon as I get my hands on a storage device (I need 500GB) I'll let you know and I can then "unlock" the BIOS. I'll then upload the BIOS data to all of you.

 

Hi guys, I've finally managed to fix my comatose laptop...
The thing that worked was removing the CMOS battery (I tried everything else at first except this because I thought that the small reset button did the same thing as physically removing the cmos battery).

Thank you all for your help! You guys saved me a pretty penny (...worth about $300). I will still try to contact the laptop service where it says they can modify any bios in case koolxxx doesn't succeed.

koolxxx, can you please upload a list with every single process you modified (and how) so we can test this? I've tested disabling everything sony and non-sony that I thought could have any impact on the graphics card or the temp check but nothing works. I am now using windows 10 completely free of sony software and the throttling still persists.
Also, can you provide us the two programs that you will use to alter the bios? I would like to try it myself since I don't have to backup my system... (P.s. are you sure they produce a safe to flash bios since installing a corrupted bios will definitely brick any PC)

Also, can you try to figure out how come your average temperature is 60 C? This is most likely why you are not experiencing any throttling.

When I opened my Vaio I saw that on the battery it said not to expose it to temperatures higher than 60 C.... this is weird since this is the temperature after which the throttling occurs.

 

I've been following this thread for the last month or so hoping someone would find a fix for the throttling and tonight I fancied trying out Windows 10. From what I'd read it still wasn't totally obvious if doing a completely clean reinstall of windows and formatting the hard drive worked or not, so I firstly installed windows 7 and removed all the partitions. (I did this because I wasn't sure if the formatting options would be available in the Windows 10 installation.) Then I did a clean installation of Windows 10, I didn't install any Sony drivers myself but I can't be totally sure what Windows installed for me.
Finally I opened up Cities:Skylines to see what would happen and unfortunately as you can see in the picture below it still throttles after around 10 minutes.

 

Hey wwwwasdwww .. Wow.. Thank god! Good for you. For some strange reason I was confident you'd fix it.

I attached a list of disabled services below so take a look. Last month I also uploaded a pic of my Autoruns showing all Sony background processes disabled -- check that out too. And I created a thread in bios-mods.com that contain the links to the 2 programs to unlock the BIOS. Just to let you know, one of the programs came up as a virus on my Flip. But the same program came up clean even with the same AV on another laptop. The URL to the my thread is here:
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Need-to-Unlock-Bios-in-Sony-Vaio-Laptop-HELP

I've used other programs from the forum to unlock the BIOS of my Gateway laptop with no issues whatsoever. Also, the forum admin assured me that the 2 programs for the Flip were completely safe. So given my experience with these guys, I trust them 100%.

Here's Steven Code's youtube URL where he discusses with me his fix without throttling. Maybe you can communicate with him through youtube;

 

Can some one confirm that disabling ONLY the performance logs and alerts service cures the throttling? It is not a sony service, it is a windows service but the everything works great without it. I've noticed that I still get throttling if the temp goes over 70 C but now it rarely does. I don't know if the cooling is way more efficient with the electrical tape fix I talked about earlier or that by removing the CMOS battery the bios lost the flag that was causing the throttling but now I don't experience it anymore. That service was the only one I disabled... I have some exams now and don't have a lot of time for testing but I've narrowed it down a bit. I see that the internal fan is capable of keeping the temp under control so that the machine doesn't need to throttle... Also, I noticed that if it throttles, if I keep the laptop on it's side, with the exhaust upwards so the hot air can escape faster it cools a lot quicker and in this position, the fan can keep the internal temperature under 65 even with full load (stress testing GPU and CPU at the same time). Good luck guys! I'll be able to continue testing only after Nov 15...

 

Tell me what service to disable and I will try it.

 

Hey wwwwasdwww... Were you able to use the 2 files from the bios-mods link to unlock the BIOS?

 

The service is called "performance logs and alerts" it is the last one from the list that koolxxx provided.

No, I was not able to modify the bios (I thought that the files were to read some bios parameters and upload them to the bios-mods forum so that someone there can unlock it) also, I didn't have a lot of time to learn about BIOS modding but I'll get to they as soon as I can. Also, the people from the laptop repair service said that they can write a new bios but they can't flash it because it has to be signed by sony and they can't replicate the signature (or something like that).

 

But thats what the files are for.... to upload the data to the site so someone there can unlock the bios.

 

Quick update.. I'm still trying yo buy an external drive to bsck up my Flip. When I do, which should happen soon, I'll experIment with the BIOS. I'll let you guys know.

 

Hi all. Guys I found this one inside my laptop Svf15n2b4rb. I dont know what is it. Can be this unncessary part that
accidentally put inside?

 

I can't remember having seen anything like this in my Flip 15.
I also compared it with some photos of opened Flips but can't come up with a good idea.

My recommendation: Put it away safely and test if everything works fine.
If it does then it's probably some alien part that didn't belong there in the first place (I had an experience like this with my very first car when a service technician left something on the motor...).

 

I checked photos with Vaio multi flip 15 components, and didn't find anything that looks like it, but the color of material which it made are same like on motherboard. Laptop is working, but I didn't check it for properly work. I mean that I didn't use any software to check.

 

I don't think that you need software to check that. Just test all functions / connectors.

It could very well be that the part comes from another motherboard and somehow fell into your Flip while in production.

Also be happy that it didn't create a short somewhere...

 

Just wanted to say I've been lurking in this thread and I've been looking forward to everyone's results of the various tests/experiments/etc. I use my flip for school and with the semester about to start I'm reluctant to do anything drastic. Point is, I'm extremely grateful for all the thorough work you all are doing to find a solution for this throttling thing. I'd be happy to assist if anyone wants me to test something on a mostly default system without formatting or messing with my bios. That said, I've got some time until school starts so if there's a solid solution found I'd be happy to test it while I still have time to fix it.

 

Hey guys, I decided to ask y'all because nothing I've found on the web seems to work and this is driving me nuts. After a recent Windows update (still 8.1), but now I'm thinking possibly since a factory reset a month or so ago, my Flip no longer connects automatically to Wi-Fi networks. As I'm spending 16 hours a day between my home network and at work, this means I have to log into these almost every single time I turn on the machine. I'm getting fed up and the only half solution I've found so far is to handle connections from the Intel interface instead of Windows, so now I only have to select one of the profiles I've set up. Still, I'm contemplating another reset, which would be just a pain, so any other suggestions are welcome.

 

Try uninstalling the wifi in device manager. Then reboot.

 

Wow, thx, man! I googled the move a bit before going ahead with it and first I tried simply updating the driver from there. Seems to have solved the problem, I'll see if it stays that way.

 

Hi Calibrator. Ok, I finally backed up my Flip and am ready to proceed with the steps to unlock the BIOS. I backed up the Flip as an image using Macrium Reflect. I backed it up without the Recovery partition, which Macrium gave me the option to either add to the backup or not. Anyway, my 2 questions are:

1) If I decide to restore my Flip with this backup without the Recovery partition, will my computer mess up?

2) Some people did a clean install without the Recovery partition in the hope that this would eliminate throttling. Do you think that if I restored the Flip with this backup that it would be the same as a clean install and without the Recovery partition?

Youre welcome.

 

1) If the backup is done correctly your Flip won't mess up (I don't know Macrium Backup) but what do you want to accomplish with this? You won't get rid of the throttling as the recovery partition isn't the culprit here. It only becomes important if you do a recovery - only at this point it is seen by the system - and doing a recovery is not a clean install.

2) False hope. Do a clean install, if you believe that it will help you (I remember having read here, that even owners with a clean install got throttling...) but
a) getting rid of the recovery partition isn't going to help you ("proof": I don't have one anymore and I still got throttling) and you lose the option to recover the system to factory settings.
b) restoring your own backup will at most restore the system to exactly the same state as it was when the backup has been created (if the backup & restore process works optimal). If it throttled back then it will throttle again.

I really have no idea who the real culprit could be if no system service is behind this. A clean install would get rid of unwanted services but you may lose certain Sony Vaio functions (like those in the Vaio Control Center - which is why I personally would under no circumstances do a clean install). However, we have read conflicting reports from people doing a clean install and still having throttling.

The only way I see the BIOS being involved is by either setting some parameters at boot which then result in the graphics chip doing the throttling on its own when it gets hot or independently checking temperatures independently of the OS and changing the CPU/GPU registers on the fly.

But modifying the BIOS isn't easy and very risky. Even if you manage to find the correct trigger settings - how do you interpret them in order to set new ones?
Therefore you should really think long and hard if you want to risk bricking your Flip. I don't see an easy way to restore the BIOS if its contents are damaged for some reason. Given the track record of the Sony support and their associated repair partners I shudder at the thought about the price they'll charge you for replacing the main board (if they can't or won't reflash the BIOS)...

 

Calibrator youre not giving us much hope with the throttling issue. But I hear you. Its a risky endeavor.

Regarding unlocking the BIOS I was hoping that someone with knowledge about it could modify it. As you said, its a big risk. But I want to still unlock it just to see.

Do you think its possible that the GPU may have some code that initiates throttling? If so, is there a program that can unlock it to see that code?

Also, does touchscreen work in the Flip with Windows 10? I'm thinking of installing Windows 10 even before Sony readies its drivers for it come November when they release them.

 

I don't want to discourage you from trying but just make sure that you have a clear idea about what you are actually trying in order to better estimate the risk involved.

So again: Even if you unlock the BIOS (which is likely not very dangerous) which values can you set that will help you in reaching your goal? I haven't found information that I would bet my machine on so I hope that you have better sources.

I can also help only theoretically but not with experiments on my own right now because I'm in a job phase where I'm on travel Mon to Fri and depend on the Flip to work on those days without a hitch. I would really suck to have no laptop and I don't want to buy a replacement machine because I experimented on it without too much background knowledge/experience.

In fact I don't even install updates when I'm away as I don't want to risk bricking the system because Microsoft f*cked up one of their updates again...

That being said I'm of course interested in the progress you guys make and will hop in from time to time to add my two cents or words of caution when I feel that an idea could be either dangerous or a total waste of time.

As for your questions:

I don't know if Win 10 supports the touch screen (or the pen) of the Flips out of the box. Chances are good because the Surface 3 series uses a very similar nTrig technology but this is of course no guarantee.
One way to check this would be to install Win10 and if it doesn't work do the recovery...

I think it's very much possible and also likely that GPUs have mechanisms like throttling built into them just like regular CPUs have. I haven't experimented with ThrottleStop to know if it is capable of preventing throttling on the Nvidia GPUs, though.
As I haven't overclocked the Geforce 770 in my main PC (it is already factory overclocked) I'm not up to date with modern tools for this.

While GPUs have become pretty complex the real magic often lies in the drivers, though, and those are also proprietary and not open source. So only a handful of companies really knows what goes on behind the curtains and can't tell you about it because of the NDAs they had to sign. Nvidia and AMD fiercely control the information flow because of the highly competitive market and would sue the hell out of people who break NDAs (the same goes for Intel, of course).

I still think that having a clean system would be a good starting point but even on a clean system we have all sorts of drivers and other software working in the background: The BIOS doing it's own stuff after booting the OS, the OS, the drivers, services, applications and combinations of apps and services (like VAIO Control Center or the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility).

Here are some questions I don't expect an answer for but that anyone experimenting on this should think about:

Does the throttling concern only the Intel CPU/GPU-Combination, the Nvidia GPU or both?
I think it applies to both - but both chips are separate and have separate drivers...

Does the throttling only occur in Windows or also with Linux systems?

What graphics drivers are actually installed on the Flip?
Is it a Sony-certified driver? Those are different from the regular drivers - but in what way? Do they adhere to the (clock frequency) parameters Sony specified for the Flip?
Or is it a regular driver that decides upon the GPU it finds on the system?

What triggers the driver? Is it throttling automatically because it supervises the temperature? In that case modifying the BIOS would be a useless endeavour...
Or is the driver indeed controlled by something else?

Before starting risky experiments I would try to find the weak link in the chain of software.
If the throttling occurs under Linux, too, the Windows is likely not a guilty party.
etc.

 

Hi everyone,
I decided to take a day off to tinker with the flip's throttling bug.
Here is what I have learned:

1) The throttling is not caused by Sony software. I am running Windows 10 with nothing from Sony and it still throttles. The touchscreen and the stylus work great by the way...

2) The problem occurs when the gpu temp goes over 70 C. Anything under that won't trigger the throttle. I've noticed something strange in my testing: if the temp rises constantly, it will throttle. If I manage to drop the temp during testing (ex. Adding more fans) I can get up to 80 degrees without throttling (it still throttles after 80).
So after 11 minutes of constantly rising temperature the throttling occurs.

3) I decided to completely take off the back cover, place the laptop on a laptop cooler pad (I improvised an insulated stand so nothing would short-circuit) and point 3 fans towards the gpu.

The temperature did not get over 64 C and usually ran at 61 C during stress testing (using furmark). No throttling happened, not even after one hour of continuous 100% gpu usage.
I even managed to overlook the gpu clock and memory using nVidiainspector to 1200mhz memory clock ( going higher generated visual artefacts) and I also over clocked the core gpu clock to the maximum that nVidiainspector would let me (1100 I think) and still no throttling after 30 minutes of testing. I got about 40% increase in performance at the cost of an extra 7 C.

After putting the laptop back together, I ran the test again, with no over clocking and it throttled as expected.
I have marked where the gpu and cpu heat sink is located and I will cut a hole there to let some air get through. I'll do this as soon as I find a plastic mesh to superglue over the hole so the components are not that exposed. In my opinion this is safer than the bios mod and it fixes the original problem that Sony overlooked. The only downside is that you need a cooling stand with a decent fan for this to work.

 

... and that you're cutting holes in your notebook...
Well, if it solves an issue that bugs you so much then I guess it's (kinda) worth it.
Can I ask you how your experience with Win10 has been? The Sony website says November's the earliest for the FLIP drivers, and I guess it's only safe to wait for service pack 1. But TBH the notification's quite annoying and I just know that I won't have time for a reset between October and March. Rather tempting...

 

After seeing notice from Sony regarding Windows 10 update issues, and seeing that my Flip 13, SVF13N27PXB, was not cited for any problems, I updated to Windows 10. I have two external hard drives and 2 additional monitors hooked up to it through a Belkin DisplayPort dock, plus wireless keyboard and mouse, printer, etc. Everything is working fine after 5 days of use. The only problem I experienced was with Quicken which would not open. I reinstalled it and it too is working fine. Also, the pen and touchscreen work perfectly.