Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

It did take about 2.5h for me.

 

I created a iso-file for restoring by emulating a blueray-disk. But now i have the problem, that after putting this to a usb-stick it didn't work.
It boots up, but if i start there appears a error message, thats says recovery only with original recover-medium. Has someone a idea how to fix this?
Only thing that could work is to put the iso to a blueray, but if even have a blueray neighter a br-writer...

The next days i get the vaio flip 15a for my father, maybe i can make a usb-stick with that and Change the data on the stick?

 

I have no clue about the format or specifica of a blue ray but if it is a standard ISO there is no reason why it should not work.
I let mine create with an USB stick and then dumped it to a ISO file with Linux standard tools. Before I started to restore I did it the other way and wrote the ISO file to a USB stick, again by using Linux standard tools.

Did you try a different "ISO to USB stick" tool? Which one did u use?

 

Yes, thats correct. After reinstalling a plain Win8 I had about 200Gig free disk space.
As long as you do not boot into Linux you wont see some hidden partitions - some of them are not needed if you do a plain install.
Eg. 39 Gig recover data (Partition #6)

Please see one of my earlier posts in this thread were I list the default partitioning scheme - I think the Sony comes with 6 partitions where you only see 1 (which is C: obviously)

 

So what is Sony secretly saying?

1) "What fan noise? It's supposed to sound like that!"
2) "Yeah, we rushed the product out and bought lousy fans to reduce costs as usual. We know its loud, we just don't care and we're also not going to acknowledge this issue. "
3) "I'm just an untrained tech support agent who's never even seen this product in person nor do I have any idea what this product even is. All I know is that when I type the issue in the computer, nothing comes up and I don't have any flow charts to solve your issue."
4) "Whoa whoa, slow down. You're telling me we have laptop that's also a tablet? When did those come out?!"

 

So I owned a 13A for 2 days before it shut off and wouldn't turn back on... it sucked but things happen. I have the best buy nearest to me ordering another unit from one of their stores in a different district.

The thing is I was too worried about the fan noise when I first turned on the lappy, only to find that I could barely hear it. Even under full load it was no louder than I would expect from an ultrabook fan. I'm just wondering here if there are units with louder fans than others, which makes me hesitant about picking the 13A up or ordering a Duo 13 and calling it a day.

Decisions decisions.

 

I still haven't powered it up yet, so I can't vouch for the fan, but AFAIK it's not that the fan's just loud or that the flip heats up, but that the fan spins too fast even when it's not needed. Acer notebooks of old used to have (need I say a software) issue with the fan, where it just didn't kick in or at too low speed. That resulted in a couple of our notebooks simply melting inside :O until we installed some third party driver that monitored the heat and switched the fan on. So this could be solved just as well.

BTW I've just bought this sleeve in 13" at, and it's simply perfect. There's some 1.5 cm extra coverage on top, which I don't mind at all. This way I can slide my flip in and out of a page bag without having to take the sleeve out, and even if it doesn't slip all the way in it won't scratch. Have the silver one with the orange stripe (not a lot of options at fnac), looks classy too.

 

I've been considering getting the Duo as well to finally end this quest for a new notebook, especially with it being $1200 on Amazon right now. Unfortunately, those have wifi issues and I'm not a fan of the fixed screen angle.

 

Thanks to Livven and teiger for helping with the screen resolutions. All sorted.
Now used the PC for 24 hours and since upgrading to Windows 8.1 and putting on silent mode, I have had no fan noise issues when using battery only or when plugged in. The fan comes on more (actually, I don't remember the fan coming on at all when on battery alone). I guess I should experiment by going back off silent mode, but at the moment I have a machine that does exactly what I hoped for. Will take a while to get used to Windows 8.1, but at least it's touch screen. More apps are needed, but I will probably also install Android as someone else posted about. Also will take a while to get used to controlling the pointer compared to my old PC - especially the lack of buttons to click.

 

Yes i tried different tools, most of them wasn't able to make a bootable usb-stick out of the iso.
Can you give me a short introduction how i do this with Linux? I like to try it with a live-Distribution.

Thanks before!

 

Maybe the low fan noise and the fact that the laptop won't turn on anymore is related? Maybe you got a unit with defective (slow?) fan, which didn't cool off the processor as it normally would (thus causing internal damage to the components)...

 

The following can be put in the "Well so much for that idea" department.

So a crazy thought popped into my head and decided that since a few in the forums did actually get SpeedFan installed on their flips, i figure why not try again. (The first time it didn't). Then it dawn on me that the error message that kept popping up was nvcpl.dll. Upon checking that file it is a nvidia control panel. search and no such file on the Flip 13a, but being that the 15a does have a nvidia GeForce G 735M graphics, maybe just maybe I'll install the drivers.

Well after numerous tries trying to download the file (it refuse to download completely) i finally downloaded it and tried to install it. Not dice.
in one of the Stream community threads it mentioned to disable the Intel HD 4000 graphics in the bios, install the file and then enable the HD 4000, but as been mentioned previously there is no such setting to enable or disable hardly anything it in the bios. So back to square one. aarrgghh.

And speaking of Sony, i swear their customer service department is so out of touch. I sent an email inquiring about how does one go about putting the Flip 13A in my list of purchases on the Sony Rewards site. and I get back the most totally off-topic reply to what i was asking about. Unbelievable.
But that leads me to believe the replies some are getting back about the fan issue, "that no such issue exists". i think Sher said it best....

TS out

Edit: Aha, got Speed fan working, I was downloading the wrong (older) version. Also downloaded Open Hardware Monitor and neither of them show the fan. bummer

 

I assume you have no experience using Linux so I am providing a more detailed explanation.
Don't be afraid - it's not really complicated and experienced Linux guys will handle this in 20sec.
But if you have never used a shell in Linux take your time, read twice and ask if not sure

1.) Start a Linux Live (I'd recommend OpenSUSE or (K)Ubuntu).
2.) Open a shell - you'll find it in the start menu (Linux still has one - name depends on Distribution and GUI )
3.) Become root by entering:

Code:

sudo su -

4.) Plugin in the USB Stick - the graphical interface will ask you what to do. Same as in windows.
Ignore it because we are going to continue in the shell.

5.) Determine the name of the USB Device by entering:

Code:

dmesg

You will see something like this:

Code:

[  704.281065] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 15731711 512-byte logical blocks: (8.05 GB/7.50 GiB)
[  704.281584] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[  704.281586] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 08
[  704.282146] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  704.282147] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  704.284359] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[  704.284361] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  704.289246]  sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3

In detail "dmesg" shows you messages from the kernel ring buffer which also logs info about newly plugged in devices.
In this example a new storage device was plugged in (sdb) - its always sdX where "X" is the "number" of the device starting with "a" for the first harddisk.
If you have three storage devices it would be sda, sdb and sdc ... could be two harddisk and a USB stick.
The number behind it (sda 1) relates to the partition - so

Code:

[  704.289246]  sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3

means that my USB stick already has 3 partitions. But we don't care about the partitions since we will overwrite it anyway.
Make absolutely sure that you know your device name - it's sdb in the example above. Just a warning: the Linux shell is probably the most powerful and fast interface available but it's not forgiving and often not asking "are you sure" when in "root mode". So if you continue and using the wrong device name (eg sda) it will kill your installed system.

6.) Get access to your ISO file - this maybe is the most "complicated" part since it depends on where you stored it and hence how to access it from within Linux Live.
In general: if it is on the same machine's harddisk where you started Linux it is easy - just open the graphical file explorer and browse throu the filesystems. When you found it remember the path or copy it to the clipboard. If the .iso is accessible via network (smb/cifs share) its also not a problem but then you maybe have to copy it to the local machine.

7.) The "main" task - write the ISO to the USB disk - again: be sure you know the device name of your USB stick.

"if" means "input file" - of means "output file". Replace the sdX with the USB sticks device name.
The dd command just streams data from if to of and that is all you need to write an iso file to a storage device.
This will take a couple of minutes or even longer depending on USB1/2 and system speed - when it is done the command returns to the shell.

 

Anyone in the U.S received shipment of a loaded Flip 13 (512G, 8G RAM, i7 CPU) ordered before or after October 15, 2013? Please reply if your shipment has come through or what 'excuses' Sony gave for not having shipment? Thanks.

 

Couldnt find your post on that :/ I followed the steps here - http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...lti-flip-pc-owners-thread-25.html#post9447441
But i made a recovery on a Sd memory card through the windows 8 program for recovery, then followed the steps on step 5, restarted, but cant install windows because, it just tells me that there is not system image. So i choose repair, and now im on step one with the same windows and all bloat softwares that came with the laptop

 

Did some performance tests on my i5/256 which might be interesting for some of you.
I used a Linux Installation because I wanted to make sure there is no stupid windows driver error that causes the fan going wild or is the main reason for the "performance drop" mentioned in the review above.
Intel has a focus on Linux and contributes high quality open source driver to the main kernel even before a new chipset/CPU/GPU is available on the market.
So my hope was, that Linux has pretty "clean" and new Haswell drivers directly from the intel engineers without any bloatware or "Sony hacks".
In the beginning everything works out of the box - powersafe governor, dynamic CPU clock, hibernate, suspend, GPU throttling, display power safe mode, WiFi.
The only thing that does not work is rotating the screen when converting to tablet mode. I guess thats a Sony-proprietary solution and I will get into this later (maybe).

So, lets get back to my amateur test scenario. I compared the Vaio to
- my desktop machine which is a Core i5-2500 (4 Cores, 3,3 GHz). 8GB RAM
and/or
- a Linux Root Server Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz. 32GB RAM

No uber-machines but still pretty powerful .

On the Vaio I watched the CPU load via

Without any load it was at 800MHz by default for all 4 Cores (2Cores + 2HT)

I additionally watched the temperature on the shell via

Default value without any load about 42°C


Please note that I had no time (and interest) in creating CPU/temperature stats.
I was mainly interested in getting info if Pcpro.co.uk could be right when claiming

"We suspect this result is down to the CPU running too hot to use Turbo Boost effectively."

because this would mean that the hardware has a defect by design and I would send it back.



Test 1 - a pretty "stupid" benchmark - calculation of PI on the shell.

Sony Vaio: real 0m13.156s
Desktop: real 0m10.544s
Root Server: real 0m9.643s
Further results from an internet user: Linux CPU Benchmark für die Console › Andreas Kaul

Temperature for the Vaio: between 52 and 59 degrees, fan was louder than normal but not max.
2 of 4 CPUs went up to 1700MHz


Test 2 - Phoronix Test Suit pts/encode-flac

5 runs

Sony Vaio: Average: 6.88sec
Desktop: Average: 5.70sec

Test was too short - CPU went up shortly, fan remained silent.

Test 3 - Phoronix Test Suit pts/audio-encoding
/usr/bin/phoronix-test-suite benchmark pts/stresscpu2

--> 5mins

I got no results but at least I was able to get an idea of the relation between fan and CPU temperature:

Temperature for the Vaio: between 55 and 64 degrees, fan was loud, maybe max
4 of 4 CPUs went up to 1700MHz


Test 4 - Phoronix Test Suit pts/x264

5 runs

Sony Vaio: Average: 48.35
Desktop: Average: 106.66 Frames Per Second


Temperature for the Vaio: between 59 and 64 degrees, fan was loud, maybe max
4 of 4 CPUs went up to 1700MHz but some dynamicall fell back to a lower frequency from time to time

I think the performance difference is due to 4 real cores vs 2x2 cores (HT)


I have no comparison to other Ultrabooks and this is clearly no "real" benchmark but I am satisfied with the result.
Question really is: why does the CPU not go up to the turbo max which is 2.6GHz (see http://ark.intel.com/products/75459/)
Maybe a Linux problem? Or is it really the hardware ...

It would be interesting to see the temperature from other haswell ultrabooks, to get an idea if the Vaio gets hotter or if it is "normal".
This would be a interesting statement to see if it is close to the temperature limit already or if there is still some tolerance to make the fan more silent (and the device hotter).

Would be nice if someone could do some benchmarks under Windows.

Edit1
Just found out, that the cpuinfo under Linux is "wrong" - due to intels power saving mechanisms it does not show the real clock. I now used the tool "i7z" which clearly showed me that the turbo kicks in and speeds up to ~2.6GHz. The tool also shows the temperature per core which is pretty the same level as mentioned above (44 when idle, between 52 and 62 on high load).

 

Yep I do. Also my right mousepad click pops a loud noise when I click it. Poorly build, I contacted costumer service for a replacement unit.

 

Hmm my right mouse pad has a type of 'crunchy' sound or a pop too. If you send it back can you keep the original one it until the replacement comes? Otherwise it might take ages to get a new one! Thanks

 

Ok, the thing that really annoys me is not the fan, but the disk. A 256 GB SSD should show had the capacity of 238 GB in windows. Why does Flip show 201 GB? And why do i only have 155 GB free space in 'factory settings' without having installed anything. This is really annoying me :/

 

I know. I asked whether I can change it for a unit in a store. I need a notebook for school/work, and when I recieved the Flip I sold my old Asus.


Also the settings for the trackpad keep resetting when i reboot the system. Sony needs to put out those drivers for 8.1 ASAP.

 

Thanks for this very good howTo! I will try it this Weekend.
I worked with Linux before, but i'm a windows-man ;-)
But my for my studies/work sometimes i have to use Linux

 

LOL check this out. Just happened after I opened the lid and rebooted it from sleep.

Sony Vaio Fit Multi-Flip 13A Crazy Fan - YouTube

Definetly sending this back.

 

I'll ask here as well, since it's very uncomfortable. I'm on 8.1 and trying in vain to install Intel's graphics driver. I know it's the appropriate one, however, a message pops up every time saying it's not suitable for my notebook. Any ideas what to do? Thax a lot!

 

Have you tried downloading the Zip file and following these instructions?

1. Click "Start", right-click "Computer", and click "Properties".

2. Click "Device Manager" on the left.

3. In the "User Account Control" window, click "Yes".

IF UPDATING DRIVER GO TO STEP 5

4. Double-click "Video Controller (VGA Compatible)" if present under
"Other Devices". (Go to step 6).

5. Expand "Display adapters" and double-click the graphics controller.

6. In the "Driver" tab, click "Update Driver".

7. Click "Browse my computer for driver software".

8. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer".

9. Click "Have Disk..." and click "Browse".

10. Browse to the directory where you unzipped the file you
downloaded, click the "Graphics" folder, and select the
kit56666.INF file. Click "Open".

11. Click "OK" and click "Next". The operating system will install
the driver.

12. Click "Close" and click "Yes" to reboot. The driver should now
be loaded.

 

rest of those 201gb is probably taken by recovery patition which you can recover by moving it to usb drive. and to free additional space disable hibernation and pagefile for start.

 

The fan drives me crazy right now - its on, off, on, off, on, off .... every 5-10 seconds.
Is there an app that shows the (accurate) temperature?

I'd say, at least, there is some hope becaue I experienced this behaviour only under windows so far. Not during recovery, not under Linux, not during booting or login screen.

 

Under linux, there is lm-sensors. Just type sensors on a shell or you could use conky.

 

, That sounds like a swarm of bees lol wow. Although the video is way too short to determine if it is the fan, that would drive me nuts whatever is making that sound.

TS

 

I bought the 15 inch. No fan issues to speak of. After updating the touch screen cuts out for periods of time. My biggest issue is the keyboard. It looks uneven like there's bumps here and there and flexes

 

Yes, thats exactly what drives me crazy to... is there also a rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhh when your fan turns off? Thats the most terrible thing.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7l6QQdZsws&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Here's a longer version from boot.

 

geez what is dying in there?!

 

lm-sensors or pwmconfig under linux doesn't detect the fan, only the temperature sensors
does anyone know if there is a module that supports it? can't get it running

 

Here
Update: I dumped the partitioning under Linux which shows what Sony/Windows reserved for their stuff:

1.) 260MB Sony Sys (Fat32)
2.) 1.44GB Windows RE Tools (NTFS)
3.) 260MB EFI Boot (FAT)
4.) 128MB Microsoft Reserved
5.) 93GB Microsoft C: (I shrinked this one!)
6.) 350MB Microsoft (MS Bootloader stuff)
7.) 32GB Recovery

8.) 2GB Linux SWAP
9.) 20GB Linux System (XFS)
10.) 50GB Linux Home (XFS)
11.) 37GB Shared Partition between Linux and Windows (NTFS)

You can only see 1 of 7 standard partitions coming with the default installation.

 

(my) standardtool for this on the shell is "acpi":

sadly acpi -c can't fetch the info from the hardware since the sensor does not seem to be detected or configured correct.
So, same problem as with lm-sensors

 

Did you have success with cpu scaling under linux?
Somehow the various outputs:
12.04 - Any way to check the clock speed of my processor? - Ask Ubuntu

Always show fixed frequencies, according to the indicator applet of ubuntu it should go down to 0.77

hm looks like it only scales from 1500 to 1900mhz

 

Yep, as stated in my mini-benchmark the scaling works out of the Box under OpenSUSE.

All cores (+HT) are down at 800MHz by default, dynamically raising up to a max of 1700MHz under load when watching /proc/cpuinfo
I was wondering what is wrong with my turbo cause it should be a peak of 2600Mhz - I came across an article that states that the "real" clock is harder to calculate and hence cpuinfo does not show the turbo.
The tool "i7z" (there is a precompiled download in the inet) shows the correct value of the turbo modes and also the c-states (which tells you something about powersaving).

So from this perspective: everything works out of the box under Linux.

Edit: I guess you should use a prettey recent Linux distribution since it comes with newer and optimized haswell drivers

 

how did you check the current cpu mhz then?

 

ok, in this case the following howto would be enough:

1.) become root on the shell
2.) perform following command:

 

Yes ;-)

But it didn't work. The stick was after writing not bootable. I think that sony has made different iso-files for usb and optical media. But my Problem should be solved nearly, my father has a Blueray-writer....


@all
Today i got an E-Mail from sony relative to the fan issue. They said that the reason for that is the graphic-Driver. Download the Driver from sony-link.com and reinstall it should solve the Problem. I didn't try it yet, may you could?

 

Widespread reports of Sony Vaio notebook Wi-Fi issues - TechSpot

I guess the multi-flip has the same problem, very disappointing to read..

 

The Flip don't seem to have any WIFI issue.
most people reports good connectivity with no drop signals.

 

so I will report bad connectivity with dropping signals

 

really ? on linux / windows / both ?

 

currently linux, didn't use it under windows yet

 

I received the Multi-Flip today. It really is a beautifull machine. I'm doing updates now so I dont have a lot of first impressions yet but here are the ones I have:

1. I'll say it again, it's really gorgious. I chose the silver version and its real nice and feels like good quality
2. Unlike the exterior and the screen the touch of the keyboard feels a little cheap and there is some flex but I'm sure I will get used to it. The keyboard is something so much used that a little unease when changing to a new one is to be expected.
3. I cant say much yet about the fan because I havent used the laptop alot but from what I've heard its not on constantly. It's much louder than my old laptop for sure but I can live with it especially if this is the only flaw it turns out to have.
4. I did not experience the crunch when using the mouse button like some have reported
5. Screen is real nice and the flip mechanism works like a charm

 

Would someone mind trying this? Thx in advance.

 

Other Linux users have this problem ?
Can You try on windows ?

 

can you provide a link to the place where they have this driver update? All i see are the original intel hd4000 graphics drivers (sony-link.com doesn't exist)

 

I guess he means the driver download from the sony support section. Not an update, the one marked as preinstalled.