Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

I killed everything I could of processes.. I still runs with the fan constant on. Any other tips?

 

This guide is for anyone who wants to remove/replace their Vaio EB series keyboard. It is not hard to do, only a small step above replacing the hard drive.
Strongly Suggested Tools:
Philips screwdriver (even better if magnetic)
Two sharp, medium-thickness, flat-head screwdrivers

Step 1: There are only two screws connecting the Vaio EB series keyboard to the laptop, and they are both removed from the underside of the case. Remove these, and you're about ¼ of the way there. Here they are, circled in red:



And here are the corresponding holes in the keyboard:


Step 2: Flip your laptop back over and grab your two sharp flat-head screwdrivers. There are catches at the bottom of the keyboard, seen here:



But, there are none at the top. So, you want to prise up the top of the keyboard with the screwdrivers. It's tricky at first. My method was as follows:

1. Starting from the top right-hand side edge (just under the power button), I jammed the first screwdriver into the top edge.
2. I then jammed the second screwdriver in just to the left-hand side of it, then took the first screwdriver out and jammed it in to the left of where the second one was
3. I then took out the second one and jammed it in just to the left of the first one etc. until I had gone all the way across to the left hand side of the keyboard like this.
4. I was going to go back again the other way, from left to right, until I had loosened it, but I found that after a few inches I could actually now prise up the whole keyboard.
Here's a picture of the keyboard prised completely up:


Step 3: Remove the keyboard cable. The keyboard cable is held in by one of those annoying cable latches (no idea what they're called). This keyboard cable actually goes underneath the black latch, which is then pushed in above it to secure the cable. I used a flat-head screwdriver to push out the right-hand side of the latch, and the left hand side then slid out, allowing the cable to be pulled out.
Here's a picture of the latch locked with the cable in:


And here's a picture of the latch unlocked, with the keyboard cable free:


Step 4: Remove keyboard, insert new keyboard. I recommend sliding the keyboard in by the catches first, and then tackling the stupid keyboard cable latch. Putting in the new cable under the latch, without pushing in the latch itself first by accident, took me a good five minutes of swearing and cajoling. But hey ho, the stars will align and it'll slide in... eventually. Then, you want to go around the edges, pushing the keyboard down into place. There will be some clicks and cracks, but that's normal.

Step 5: Replace the two screws you removed in step 1.

Step 6: Enjoy your new keyboard!

 

@sweep, does the back light work?


@Sony
hhaaaawwww.....how long are you @$$h0l£$ gonna take to deliver my god damn laptop...

does anyone in the uk have any freakin idea what the hell is going on? i asked a guy whose also buying it and he says that its gonna take a month more, thats like 2 months...god dammet..

 

@ sweep..... very sweet!!!!!!!!

 

So I ordered an EB series here in Mexico on July 10th, it arrived today July 30.
I ordered i5-520, 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm drive, ATI5470, BD player and supposedely a 1600x900 screen. (ONLY available option for EB190L here)

To my NOT delightful surprise when checking it today it came with a 1366x768 screen.. even the label on the box said it included a 1366 screen.

Immediately called Sonystyle to complain as this was not what I ordered (order confirmation stated 1600x900 as well).

First idea from Sony was to connect me with their support area to install some software update that would enable the 1600x900 resolution (!) I kindly but firmly asked to please talk to another technican, who thank God understood the situation and transferred me back to sales.

It seems they finally accepted the build as faulty, but I was asked to send a photo proof of the resolution selected (!) which I did, and was told to expect follow up on Monday...... anybody else having these kind of troubles not getting what they ordered?

 

No backlight, unfortunately. It's just a regular E series keyboard off eBay. If the F series keyboard turns out to be the same dimensions, I suppose (theoretically) you could cut off and reattach the catches at the bottom of the keyboard so they match up to the slots in the E series, then solder the backlight cable to one of the E series USB ports or something, but it seems like a bit of a nightmare job.

Thanks!

 

@Sweep - Why did you change the keyboard?
Earlier one was not working or you wanted white KBD on your black beauty?

 

still @sweep some pro work!

 

Bought the laptop from a German site, so the keyboard it arrived with was German layout (QWERTZ). After using it for a few hours I realized I'd never get used to it and it would always annoy me, so I got a UK one from eBay. White was the only color the seller had for a brand new keyboard, so white it was. I kinda like the fact that it's a bit different now too.

Thanks! .

 

holy hell is it just me or does anyone find that the benchmarks on notebook check of GPU's are kinda inaccurate and unfair?

 

thinking about buying a Vaio EA and need some advice, this is the model that i configured:

after 10% off student discount and taxes being added, pricing is:
962 .98

this is what i will be doing w/ my laptop:

• school work
• photoshop/editing photos
• possibly light gaming, im not a serious gamer who plays the latest games but maybe i can play some older popular games

I have a few questions about my configuration.

1. The resolution is fine for me but is the screen pretty good for amateur photo editing? i went to best buy to look at an i3 Ea w/ ati card and its hard to judge the screen in a bright store since im not able to adjust screen settings
2. is the HD easy to change out? i plan on adding a 7200 rpm drive i have at home and possibly an SSD drive in the near future
3. i chose 4 gigs of ram, 6 gigs is 150.00 extra, for my needs is 4gigs more than enough? and are ram upgrades easy on sony vaios?
4. are sony warranties worth the money? whats the forums opinion about sony reliability
5. im content w/ 3.5 hrs of battery life, should i expect this number to be accurate or will i be prob getting less during normal usage? should i upgrade to a larger battery for 100.00? i dont want the battery to stick out of the machine any farther than the regular battery..should i just wait to buy a third party battery for cheaper on ebay?

finally is this a good deal? (i just bought an HP dm4 and hated the touchpad but the touchpad seems decent on the sony)

 

I personally cant say but the order confirmation that they gave me happens to miss out some details like it dosent say the processor. I dont know whether or not this may lead them to screwing up my configuration but its suspicious.

Imna kill em anyway, its been a month since I ordered.

 

@ravenperch:

I'm also still waiting for mine, ordered on the 10th, got an E-Mail to say that it is estimated to be shipped between 27/07 and 03/08 yet when I log in, my order status still says "Your Sony Vaio is being custom built for you". Starting to get a bit impatient now...

 

yeah man/lady, i've got the exact same dates...i called up sony uk and the guy said that because they have loads of orders to deal with, the build completion may take up to the 20th of next month(thats worrying). the guy however said that they will try to deliver asap and get this: he said that he's gonna refund my delivery costs. so if youre in the uk, yell at the call center guy and he'll give you back your shipping costs as a note of apology.

 

What is it # No Intel® Wireless Display Adapter?

 

i guess since i selected a video card the intel wireless display doesnt work, it only becomes an option if the intel internal video is selected

can anyone comment on my configuration?

 

what do you think about
http://translate.google.gr/translat...U2-14-17-Black-R9-NBC-8PBK-GP.htm&sl=el&tl=en

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBZFLHUmROE

 

Looks good that its cooler master, but there is one hugely flawed thing about these coolers and that is that they focus air only to one point(s). the best laptop cooler out there has to be one from zalman. each of those tiny holes have distributed air flowing through them.

 

link??
thanks

 

just google it in google search or google shopping

direct site link

google shopping

 

no,i mean which one of them

 

any one really the basic idea behind the zalmans is distributed flow, and the feature is available on all of them. i bought the first one. cause the prices on the rest are pretty steep. say...does the eb get too hot underneath?

 

idle,just warm,i never play games anyway

 

man what...you never play games and you get a 5650, man i'm jealous

 

i just a grafik card

the laptop was special offer from a Greek shop at 799€ so i can't tell them to remove it ..

 

Hi guys, I'm new here & have been lurking a bit today to find out some information on the E series! You guys seem very intelligent & know your stuff so thought I'd ask a few questions here - you must be more reliable than the Sony staff right lol?

Anyway, I have been planning to get the EA laptop for quite some time now but was never too sure on it; if I was spending too much, screen sizes to the non important stuff like, well I'll save that for later!

This is what I have configured so far, let me know your thoughts please? (I'm from the UK btw if that makes anything more helpful?):

VPC EA2X5E

Configured:

* Intel® CoreTM i5-450M, 2.40GHz
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
* Blue
* 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
* 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
* DVD disc drive
* 35.5 cm LCD, 1600x900 + webcam (will 1600x900 be too big? I wear glasses & I don't wanna be squintin' too much, but then the other size looks too small with huge icons & stuff.. But I guess it would be useful for photoshoppin')
* Graphics: ATI MobilityRadeonHD5470 512MB

£ 708.98

I'll be using it for:

-Watching/streaming vids online
-Playing occassional games online (Flash mostly)
-Photoshop, Illustraor, 3DS Max etc etc
-Chatting, eg MSN
-Downloading
-MS Office
-General browsing on sites

Now to the less important question. I've seen that the US have keyboard skins & I would really love one so the keyboard doesn't get dirty or anything. I have yet to find the UK to do the same - anyone know if they have any plans to release them here too?

Sorry for so many questions & the seemingly long post, I just wanna make sure this is ideal for me! My vaio (FJ) I've had for about 4 years is dying on me with so many problems right now, I need to upgrade already heh!

Many thanks~

 

Hi I'm thinking of getting one of these laptop. My main concern is how much heat is produced.

1) Does it produce a lot of heat if the computer is left on for a long time?

2) How much heat is produced if I play games on it?? Not a hardcore gamer, but want to play starcraft II.

 

1. Mine isn't.

2. It gets warm, but as long as the air vents aren't covered it doesn't get alarmingly hot. I'd still guess having it in your lap during a gaming session would be a unpleasant experience.

 

how i update the driver for webcam?

i have driver date 21/6/2006

 

resolution- the resolution of the screen is configurable so you can tone it down whenever you want and at just 20 quid more, wont really matter and yes you can work on a bigger space in photoshop.

overall configuration- seems fine for your purpose you can even play some more graphically intensive games so you should be fine with your photoshop and other editing stuff. i see you are considering the 14inch one. a very personal opinion: dont mess up your configuration like I did. You should get the best specifications for things that cannot be upgraded easily on the laptop e.g. graphics card, blu-ray drive...for your purchase i suggest that you go for the 15 inch one(EB), cut down on ram -like 3gb(which you can upgrade easily) and take a better graphics card like the 5650. its a pity you didnt consider buying a month before because they were giving out free bluray writers(true you might not need to use it but it adds a whole new deal to futureproofing). still however if you are not a serious notebook enthusiast, and just want a portable computer to get your work done, your specification perfectly fine.
and a side note- the vaio e series is kinda heavy

 

@ravenperch:

Thanks for your opinion on this, appreciate it!

I did actually see the blu ray offer before it ended but yeah, I didn't really need it since I wouldn't wanna spend more on blu ray discs & what also confused me was if it was able to burn/play NORMAL dvd's, yeah it seems so obvious but it's better to be sure for definite haha... But now the offer is gone, their new offer is the 500gb which I will find even more useful, it's so much more space than my sad 100gb laptop at the moment lol. It also means I won't have to keep plugging my external hard drive in to play music so 1 more port room

Oh & do you mean downgrade to 3 ram instead of the 4 on the 15" one? I purposely chose the 14" coz I love the size, I'd only be having it sit on the desk anyway but if I ever need to take it away or whatever I find this more convenient.
I also hear that 4gb ram would work much better on 64 bit or something - but who knows, I'm no expert at these sorta things hehe. I just want a faster laptop that doesn't crash, so anything will be better than what I'm using now to be honest.

Anyway you've assured me I've made a decent decision so I'm gonna go buy this sometime soon, before the 500gb ends - although I'm hoping they don't give an even better offer after this like screen resolution, 320gb is still perfect for me so it wouldn't bother me!

Thanks again!

I would still love to know whether anybody has any idea on the keyboard skins? What I would do to get one

 

I'm also looking at buying an E series (this one...)


* Intel® CoreTM i5-520M, 2.40GHz
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
* Glossy white
* 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
* 4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
* Blu-ray Disc(TM) writer
* 39.4 cm LCD, 1920x1080, webcam
* ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB


... but have a couple of questions.

What's the difference between white and glossy white? On the configuration page it says:

White = Keyboard white, outside lid silver
Glossy White = Keyboard glossy white, outside lid silver

Don't they mean the lid is glossy white and the keyboard is the same on both of them? I wondered if the glossy white lid would be more durable than the matte silver one?

My other question is the screen resolution. I'll mostly be using the laptop for photo editing, some basic video editing, movie watching and a bit of gaming.

The options are 1920x1080 and 1366x768

I guess 1600x900 would have been a nice compromise for gaming/photo editing but there's no option for that so which would be better. Is 1920 going to look too small on a 15" screen? (it looks fine on my 17" screen).

My other question was going to be the same as AngriiPandas! I've been looking for the keyboards skins as well for the UK but i don't think we can get them here :/

 

@Elektrobix:

I think would go for the 1920x1080 if I were getting that laptop. Like ravenperch said I think you can always adjust the sizes so it's less, that eased my mind & solved the 'problem' The 1366x768 I think people have said is a bit 'dull' looking & not as clear, so yeah..!

Oh I know - I'm tempted to write in or phone Sony up to find the answer to the keyboard skins, I don't get why they wouldn't make it here, doesn't make sense really. I was gonna say you could prob order one from US but the keyboard is different (enter key for example), so that wouldn't be a good idea...!

 

For the differences between glossy white and normal white, here are some pics of my Glossy White, excuse quality taken with phone sitting at work.

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3

Then you can find some standard white pics HERE

Ultimately the main difference is the non glossy has a matt silver cover and plain white palm rest. Where as the Glossy White has the same silver/white glossy finish all over.

 

Btw, I'm trying to get on the customise page for series EA on the Sony UK website, & it won't load properly. It's just 'refreshing' & not doing anything, is anyone else having the same problem?

Just when I'm positive about making a purchase too, this happens heh. I just hope they don't run out of things before the 9th! D;

 

Thanks for the pics Jonny, that's definitely made my mind up, will get the glossy white one

AngriiPanda i'm getting the same thing on the UK site, they must be having probs.

 

Due to boredom at work I decided to test out my new mobiles video ability by recording my replay from a Dirt 2 race on the Vaio, so if anyone is curious about gaming performance it might be worth a look.

Is Dirt 2 with everything turned to at least high, 2xmsaa @ 1366x768, fps hang around 30 - 40 fps which feels nice and smooth to me, this is also with no overclocking, 450/790 standard.

YouTube - Dirt 2 - Sony Vaio E Series

 

can somebody give me the webcamera from device manager

lke he does

 

@AngriiPanda what I tried to help you understand is the idea of futureproofing, I learnt it the hard way(check my config, spot the odd one out) so if you did downgrade to 3gb for now, and downgrade some other stuff that you could upgrade in future, you can buy components that cant be upgraded in future like the graphics card. This will benifit you but then again you say you are no computer enthusiast so you should be more than fine with your specification. and yeah, its great that you managed to bag yourself the 500gb HDD because for me it was like +140 or something.

A note on buying in the UK- Sony UK is pathetic, you need to order ASAP, as they run out of stock very quick and their webpages for sony customize happens to be unavailable regularily; it can unexpectedly not work. Furthermore you'd better hope you arent in a huge queue, you have no idea what happened at the last offer period, I think half the UK population probably ordered and now according to the call center guy, it will take me a total of 2 months to get my laptop(not from now) so...(and dont try to "write" in to sony, they never respond)

@Elektrobix Dont compromise on resolution because you can always decrease the resolution(its as simple as a right click). Get the best one so you can watch blu-ray and other downloaded content like youtube's 1080p. You will have serious laggy(perhaps even crash) problems if you are playing something that is higher that your native resolution. Plus, you wont get the pretty, shiny sticker that says 1080p.

 

Yeah that pissed me off too when I was ordering mine, nothing worse than trying to configure your spec to see "This configuration is unavailable" ARGH. Sony need to learn to do back/pre orders.

When I came to order mine, the 520M was out of stock which made me rage a bit, but after doing some reading I found out that the 430M is good too and not far behind the 520M so I bit the bullet.

Next day the Blu-ray got extended, day after that 520M was available again, I thought about cancelling and re-ordering only to find that black was unavailable lol. So in the end I just left it.

Their status update/delivery estimates is also quite poor. They give you an estimated delivery date and don't even notify you that it has changed. It wasn't until ravenperch called that he/she found out that it had been delayed for up to 2 months lol.

The impatient wait continues...

 

2 months wait? Gosh, that's insane!
I will make sure to order mine tomorrow for definite then, in time for my birthday I guess!

I've also noticed before their website was down today, it said the shipping would take approx 4-5 weeks, now it's gone down to 3-4 weeks, hmm.!

 

Tip- Call Sony center and have a little chat with them asking them how long it will actually take for delivery(in the light of all the high volume of demand). Of course if you are not in a hurry, then just order. I needed it before I started university in september so I was in a must buy ASAP frenzy..A friend friend also ordered the same laptop and he's thinking about cancelling and going down to the shop to get a SAMSUNG one cause he's moving out soon and its been 1 month and 5 days since he's ordered. But its not definite that your order will take that long, I know lots of people who have received theirs in around 2-3 weeks. But then again, they didnt order in peak times like this..

(What the hell? Havent Sony's financial statements been looking good? Why such a massive surge of offers?..free processors, ...free bluray...free hard drives..you'd better order soon or you'll hate to see the yellow "unavailable" box. I literally sat an entire week on my computer checking stock every hour. )

 

holy $H!t !! IS THERE A SINGLE WOMAN ON THIS THREAD??

 

Ahh my laptop I'm using now was bought for uni too, I was really impressed with it until my brother threw a remote control & the batteries from it flew out right into my screen & made a huge crack! (I only had the laptop for a couple of weeks as well!) 4 years later it's just a proper wreck now haha.. There are so many problems I could list down but I'll save ya the boredom!

I don't really mind waiting to be honest as long as I get it, I'm not in a rush so it's cool! But thanks for the tip!

Erm, & in reply to your woman post - you're speaking to one right now?

 

oh....so there is such a thing as female techies!!.....

 

LOL hardly!
I'm just someone who wants a good laptop & wanted to make sure I gotta good deal - times are hard after you have graduated - money is real tight ha!

I admit I'm more knowledgeable on technology than most me girly friends having studied a computer related course & liking technology in general, but I'm still a girly girl & wouldn't consider myself a 'techie'!

 

@WoKis, thanks for the info.

From your signature, it seems like you have the ATI HD 5650, the one I'm planning to get has the ATI HD 5470, w/ only 512 mb of video memory. Will this make a difference??

Will it produce a lot of heat if I play games (i.e. Starcraft 2) w/ ATI HD 5470 graphics card?

 

It doesn't produce much heat, no. But if you're going to be playing games, the 5650 is highly recommended - the 5470 is only about half as powerful. 5470 is a low-end entry level GPU, whereas the 5650 is a very solid mid-range GPU.

 

Roger that, dont make the mistake I did by accidentally taking the 5470, you'll regret it later even when you havent gotten it delivered.

5470 at around 300 million transistors @120 GFlops
5650 at around 600 million transistors @520 GFlops

you can forget everything else, when it comes to processors(i.e. GPU) nothing matters other than the number of transistors.

However the 5470 is kinda funny. It has a higher clock than the 5650 and I tried out some games on a couple of friends laptops, sometimes there seems to be very little difference between the 5470 and the 5650 at specific settings. This can also be seen when you compare both on notebookcheck(even though they are inaccurate). So yeah do whatever you can to get the 5650 because its more powerful but dont kill yourself if you cant get it.

 

new video with hd5650 @675Mhz / 975
YouTube - DIRT 2 BENCHMARK DX11 HIGH 1366X768 ACER ASPIRE 5740G CORE i3-330M ATI 5650 Mobility @675Mhz
YouTube - MODERN WARFARE 2 1366X768 ACER ASPIRE 5740G CORE i3-330M ATI 5650 Mobility @675Mhz

YouTube - PRINCE OF PERSIA 1366X768 ACER ASPIRE 5740G CORE i3-330M ATI 5650 Mobility @675Mhz

+ acer notebook