Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

I would suggest:

- Defragmenting the hdd
- Update drivers
- Closing unnecessary background programs and processes
- Reinstall the game if nothing else works

Good luck!

Also, I'll ask here seeing as no one seems to want to answer my question over in the alienware forums:

My brother bought an alienware m11x yesterday (arriving tomorrow). He likes the look of all the games that I can play on my VAIO. So I was wondering if the m11x (Intel Pentium SU4100 @1.6GHz (it's dual core), 4GB DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA 335M) would have similar gaming capabilities to my VAIO (specs in sig). So would it be a safe bet to assume most games will play fine on the m11x if they can run smoothly on my laptop? Thanks!

 

@Cakefish

About the graphics card, notebookcheck says;

"The 3D performance of the GT335M is on a level with the Mobility Radeon HD 5650 in the middle class. Therefore, the GPU is fast enough for all games in 2010. Demanding games like Metro 2033, Battlefield BC2 or Crysis run only in low-medium details fluently. Less demanding games like Call of Duty MW2 or Sims 3 can be played in high detail settings (see Benchmarks below)."

So that should be fine, however, for the processor it says;

"The Intel Pentium SU4100 is an entry level dual-core processor for subnotebooks. It is based on the Penryn core, but may feature less power saving functions due to the Pentium brand. The slow clock speed qualifies the CPU only for less demanding tasks."

So it sounds like if anything, it will be the processor slowing it down, which may have a big impact on recent games. It sounds pretty poor for an Alienware laptop, especially compared to the graphics card..

 

do you have ΗΑ on youtube video at 720/1080p with hd5650?
YouTube - Street Fighter: Legacy - Short Fan Film

according to gpu-z the gpu usage is zero

 

Most likely the buggy Ati catalyst drivers. Have you updated to the latest one?
Ati got major problems with BFBC2, but nivida isn't much better on the subject tbh. Somehow think it's DICE's fault in some way since it seems to be so hard to make good drivers for the game.

Catalyst 10.8 should be fine. Else you might want to just experiment with older drivers. Anything but 10.2/10.3.

 

I recently got my EB Vaio and have like it quite a bit so far. The only issue I'm having is that after I shut the lid and open it back up later the screen is not full-screen, i.e. there are two strips of black on either side. If I put the computer into sleep mode then fire it back up the problem goes away. When I talked to Sony, they had me delete and reinstall the video/graphics drivers, but that didn't fix the issue.

Any ideas?

 

Hi, for some reason when I have the laptop off and use the instant web button, when I try to enter the password for my Wifi, the keyboard doesn't work. Any ideas?

 

go to device manager and uninstall the driver for the DIGITAL FLAT PANEL and restart. yeah, the eb's seem to have funny problems with sleep mode....

 

Thank you, I will try this as soon as I get home. Do I need to reinstall anything or is the Flat Panel driver unnecessary?

 

So the customise your vaio section on the sony site stil says alot of configurations dont work due to no stock

Spec wise the Vaio EB1Z0E is pretty much what I want....but it seems to have been discontinued

Has it been replaced by a newer model?

 

no, windows will reinstall the flat panel driver itself again. this might solve the issue. WAIT!!. TRY THIS FIRST: UNINSTALL ANY ATI DRIVERS, then install ati 10.8 drivers posted a few pages earlier. once catalyst control panel is installed, apply a lower resolution, then apply the native resolution. restart

BY the way guys, the 5470 aint bad: here

 

i definitely still have the whine when mains lead on before disabling C3/C6 CPU state , both with and without battery

 

I'm sure it can render stuff fine. The Radeon HD 2400 and probably Intel HD as well. But the FPS?

 

I have the VPCEB190X - it was one of the earlier models and I got it at a time when VPCEA and VPCEC didn't exist. I've been having the annoying noise from the fan ever since I bought the notebook. I've noticed that it's bearable for casual browsing, but if I'm on a video call on Skype or watching a movie, the CPU temperatures spike up and the fans kick in. I've had the temps go up to 60 deg using Skype alone which is pretty ridiculous. Mine is a Core i5 notebook without the ATI graphics card.

I was wondering if the noise is an issue only for the people without the graphics card - the people who say that their fan's noise levels are fine seem to have the ATI card.

I've talked to Sony reps to no avail.

 

well at fraps shows around 35 even 40 in an interior location, 30 in an exterior but falls to about 25 fps with action going on. heavy battle scenes make it fall to 15 i've seen sometimes. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. This is in 1920x1080 note, I hate running anything in a lower resolution.

 

anyone????

 

What are you asking? Not sure what you mean by HA.

 

Flash Player 10.1 Gets Hardware Acceleration Through ATI Stream Technology

Flash Player 10.1 Gets Hardware Acceleration Through ATI Stream Technology - Softpedia

 

Does youtube even use flash?

I figured it used something else since I can use youtube on the iphone and it definitly doesnt support flash unless you jailbreak, which I havnt.

 

Like, I believe MYTHDAT said, the root problem is caused by capacitors which resonate inside the laptop(probably due to their insufficient capability) because they cant "handle" Intel's electronic technology - the c3/c6 thing. Therefore, turn off c3-c6.

Youtube used to use the flash(flv) and the h263(.3gp) formats long ago- like when it started out. now they use only and only h264(AVC MPEG-4).(your i phone probably played it(i dont have one) because Apple have close ties with the h264 encoding format-i.e. iphone supports h264) DVXA should automatically initiate upon detection of a stream technology compatible card.



Allright!!! I'mm celebrating!! Finished Modern Warfare 2 Campaign- first finished game on my Vaio EB!
Aww man, I sure hope call fo duty black ops runs on the 5470, god damn you 5650's

 

Should run fine I guess, its still using the same engine as MW & MW2 albeit with some enhancements.

I played through MW2 but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one and didn't like world at war at all, hoping Black Ops will be better, feel like I havnt really enjoyed a FPS game in a while. MW2 flew along at around 50 - 60fps maxed with 4xAA on my 5650 / 1366x768 screen combo hoping the new enhancements arnt too much of a strain.

Currently addicted to Burnout anyway atm thanks to you posting that vid, 33 races from my elite licence

 

Hi, I'm looking at doing the semi-clean install and trying to find the executable file under Sony recovery.

I'm looking under Computer>C:>Program files (x86)>SONY>VAIO RECOVERY
Is this the right place? If so, what's the name of the executable file?

 

That's right. It's called VAIORecv.exe

 

ok battlefield bad company 2.
i updated ati to 10.8 - did not work at all, insteadd made some lines appear across my screen randomly...

I have found a way to play battlefield bad company 2. By opening counter strike source then switching to battlefield the screen is responsive and their are no menu lag problems. wierd, help? what would this suggest.

opening battlefield normally - menu lag

 

bad company seems to work fine....on 5470....

Guys help me out, I'm thinkin about getting this to replace my 320gig in the EB. it will be compatible wont it?...should be...i'll just have to use my recovery disks for the new drive wont i?

 

It'll work, but if you're going to upgrade your HDD, I'd go for a 7200RPM model like the Hitachi 7k500. Or even better, a Seagate Momentus XT (HDD/SSD hybrid). Both available in 500gb flavours - so a bit less storage than the Samsung, but they'll be a fair bit faster, especially the XT.

 

Myth beat me to it but would also recommend the Seagate Momentus XT if your not looking to go for a pure SSD drive, has had good reviews.

Seagate's Momentus XT Reviewed, Finally a Good Hybrid HDD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

do you really think an almost broke college kid can afford an ssd? but i will definitely look into these 7200 ones(i'm saving up a dime a day for an ssd some time in future). say, why is the kingston ssdnow v series so much cheaper than other similar capacities? is it because of the transfer speeds? i'm thinkin about gettin this one soon or one of those samsung ones...exactly like JonnyCasino's

......later..
thanks mythdat/jonnycasino...i know a computer guy in lewisham(mythdat might know what that means..how lucky is that!!!!) who has one and wants to sell it for 65-the 500gig one...not bad for a hybrid..cant wwait to go get it now...god dammet, i've gotta go look for HDD cloning software now..

 

Hey, my CTO EB arrives in couple weeks' time, and I ended up with 6gb of ram and the teardown video (thanks!) got me thinking that dual-channel won't work with that? 4 gigs is ok when 2+2, but I'll have 4+2, so I'll lose in memory speed right? Is the difference noticeable today, in wiki it says ca. 0 - 5%? I'll do just basic internet surfing, Word and games..

Bought a new, but test-driven 7200rpm 500gb Hitachi for €45 before I knew I'm getting a Vaio, well now the original 320gb Samsung will serve in gf's Acer..Good luck there buddy, hehe. Maybe an SSD in 2012 when they're better priced and more reliable.

Btw, nice thread of stuff you have here, one factor in my decision between Asus & Sony.

 

i just got My vaio a few days ago..
2.4 turbo boost 2.93
500 gb
4gb
5650
anyway, starting up is so slow!! like really slow!!
maybe its because of all the bloatware crap?
any thoughts on that? which bloatwares to uninstall? or a windows 7 complete format is required?

 

Hi ,
I have vaio EB2aFdWi. its audio is mentioned as realtek high definition audio. But the sound quality doesnt seem good. i am a music fan. so how can I improve my sound settings? please help!!!!

 

Please refer to this post and your sound quality would be much better than what is now ;-) Enjoy.

 

Has anybody bought Keyboard skins here in UK or Europe?
Any recommendations for cleaning screen?

 

The difference cannot be noticed at all. I was like you before thinkin that same kinda memory will prove better performance, my uncle(teaches computer science at university) told me that even servers ignore this. The only situation in which you have to worry about different memory types is if absolutely high end servers have like more than 10 sticks of ram, consolidated latency becomes an isssue. On the average desktop/laptop you will notice a performance increase of about "unnoticable%". For the requirements you state, you should be fine off. i'm glad you liked the teardown video.

Still searching for keyboard skins...no luck..just get screen wipes, you can get em like for under a fiver. Hell I even saw loads at poundland! I remember once that I had an LCD screen that used to collect loads of dust. Some computer guy gave me these screen wipes and after, the screen used to get less dusty-like magic! Anti-static screen wipes- discharge the screen so that it attracts less dust-some antistatic ones even have cleaning solution- stilll under a fiver.

 

Come on.......

 

has anyones function keys stopped working after removing the bloatware?

 

Thanks for the info. Please let me know in case you find any skin.

I called Sony Vaio Support and the support person on the other side was very sure that SKIN is available for even UK Keyboard and one can buy it from Sony Style UK.. huh.. wish she was right and I could protect the keys from dust ;-(

 

Depends on how did you remove the bloat ware?
Did you go for clean install?

 

Try and Install CCCleaner and try to remove unnecessary apps from starting up while booting. If that helps it's great else you can go for the option below.

a. Back up your files on hard drive
b. Restart lappie and press F10
c. Go for recovery without post install softwares

This should fix your issue.

Try not to go for Clean install.. installing drivers and getting functions keys to work might be troublesome..

 

I used PC Decrapifier to uninstall anything Vaio related and all the trials etc

 

Thanks for the reply. It did work. But still... Is there some audio softwares I can install to improve the sound? I had Soundblaster audigy software with my dell, thats why I have this bias.. Thanks in Advance

 

The speakers are a definite weak point in the E Series, you'll probably find they are sounding about as good as they ever will, my previous laptop was a HP DV7 and altho in the end the inadequate heating solution lead to the laptops death the speakers / sound quality was outstanding compared to the Vaio.

 

Thanks for a quick answer, that was good to know. We have two 5 year old computers, and back then everybody talked about dual-channel.

Btw, my EB is going to be kinda similar to yours; i5 520M, 6gb DDR3, 320gb HDD (+ that 500gb Hitachi), Radeon 5650, but didn't want a full hd screen or needed the blu-ray. Nice gadgets, but price would have gone up 200€ also so no thanks.

And yes, the video was rilly, rilly, rilly nice. Admire your courage to open it up Nice copper inside, would love to see an Acer or HP that way..well I've opened one but can't remember how it looked like. Nothing special I guess..

Btw it seems that only one HDD fits inside? How could I connect the 320gb externally?

 

get an external hard disk case- or sell both of them- the one you have and the one in the laptop and buy a combined capacity one.... i opened the EB up the same day I got it!...funny thing I did notice though, I think the motherboard they use in the EB seems to be from an old model as you can see the Inverter connection still exists...

 

You mean 1 Tb? I would rather buy an SSD, I don't need that much space and 500gb is more than enough, but speed is always a good thing. But SSD doesn't fit in my budget right now, I already went overboard with the Vaio First my target was a 300€ second hand laptop, then max 700€ Asus and I ended up with this 960€ Vaio (incl. shipping from Germany).

I guess with an HDD case and 320gb Vaio's hdd (Samsung?) I can't connect to eSata, but to slower USB 2.0? Well that should be fast enough too, don't want get too picky and measure everything. Btw, what's the future with eSata and USB3.0, which one is going to be more useful?

What about the motherboard, could that also be a good thing, if they ended up using one that has proved to be reliable? HP etc have a lot of MB problems I hear, due to overheating probably.

Btw, does the whining exist in every laptop, and what are those F3/F6 you need to disable?

 

I bought one of THESE and threw my 500g hdd in when I put a SSD in the laptop. Works great and can be used via either USB or eSata, I use the eSata connection, is nice and quick.

Also someone asked before about wether running a 4gb and 2gb memory combination would affect performace compared to 2 x 2gbs running dual channel. If you google "dual channel vs single channel" you can find a lot of test results showing not much different for most applications however in gaming your seeing anywhere from 5 - 10fps differences between single and dual channel, now if your games running 60fps plus who cares but in games where your below 30fps that 5 - 10 fps is the difference between smooth gameplay and things getting a bit jerky.

 

sup Jonny, How do you power an esata external drive? I was going to buy one but they came with an adaptor which is something I dont have free sockets for. Are there esata cases that dont require external power connectors?

esata- niche market, USB 3.0 mass market...why do I think so? Because esata connections have to be externally connected to power. Usb- power+data, no adaptors or extra cables and usb 3.0 will also probably be backward compatible so it makes sense to install every pc and laptop with one because compatibility wont be an issue...and esata...well it has nothing to be backwards compatible to.

The older motherboard shouldnt be a problem(however it may possibly explain the whining from some EB's), dont worry about it...I dont think the whining exists in every laptop. It did in mine- simple. As soon as you hit the power button, keep hitting F2, then disable C3/C6 Stepping, save and exit, bata bing bata boom. by the way, if you'd like the pictures in the teardown video, reply.

 

Dunno what I was talking about ... Now I found it, a comment from the web:

---
eSatap in Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp

If the difference is 5fps in 60fps, isn't it 2.5 in 30? StarCraft 2 is going to be hopefully my next 10year slave, and it should run about 28fps in high setting so hope I didn't go wrong with the extra 2gb It would be the first time when there's too much memory.. well excluding some sunday mornings in the blurry "teen years".

What do you say about that, is C3/C6 needed for Turbo boost?

 

I use a USB cable to supply power and the eSata for the data connection, I don't think theres any cases which dont require power, possibly can get some which work with the eSatap ports to get the power via the eSata cable but I don't think the E series port is capable of this anyway.

 

Can you check my Wiki link and the picture and confirm does EB have an eSatap connection?

 

eSATp can be found on almost every laptop nowadays, yes the EB does have one