Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

Where i can find driver for Ricoh PCI-E Memory Stick Host Controller ?? I tried install one from official sony site, it said that succesfull install, but no changes - windows shows yellow triangle after restart

 

Tried out the Ati Catalyst 10.10 drivers again. The WHQL signed one this time.

Looked at the blue display picture in the middle of the desktop and displays page in ccc, closed the lid, reopened. And as with the 10.10 beta the color depth becomes bad.

Have the 1366x768 display. Maybe that matters. It does not do this for me with 10.8 however.

I urge other people to try this out anyway.

 

I just installed 10.10 drivers with hotfix 10.10a - no problems so far, also the mentioned above doesn't occur.

 

After several restores trying fix the error in VAIO media software, I got fed up and I decided to format and have clean install.

The only thing that worries me is the top buttons (assist, web, vaio) not functioning correctly, and loosing the quick web access.

I searched the forums and it seems that after the format you will loose the quick web access and there is absolutely no solution to fix it.

Please correct me if I am wrong. And if there is a way to keep it functioning after the format, please advise.

thanx

 

btw does the EB i3 Series laptop come with bluetooth installed ?? As ive got a send to bluetooth option in my browser but manual reckons it may or may not be installed..

 

For the top buttons, install:

Sony Shared Library
Setting Utility Series
VAIO Event Service

Quick Web Access you can install from the recovery partitions or DVDs using VAIO Recovery.

 

Yes it has bluetooth.

 

Mythdat cheers for reply.
Any idea on how i get it up & running as i cannot see anything in device manager etc. I dont even know if it's turned on or even if it's installed??

 

If you don't see it in device manager it's probably not turned on - look for VAIO Smart Network in your system tray.

 

The only thing mentioned in smart network is wireless lan and it's Off, no mention of bluetooth.
btw what sub section will it be under in Device Manager!!

 

No, it depends on the model. Mine doesnt have any bluetooth device but still got the driver pre-installed.

 

Just an FYI: There are many reports of the 10.10 and 10.10a drivers causing some to experience a pinkish tint to the whites after install. The solution as is to open the catalyst control center (ccc) in advanced mode, click on options then preferences and "restore factory defaults". They made a buried gamma change which is fixed by doing this. You will have to redo any changes you usually make to the CCC after.

My VAIO (1366x768 display) did not exhibit this but my other 1920x1080 laptop and home desktop did and the fix worked.

 

I have also discovered some early 1366x768 and 1920x1080 VAIO E-series do not have LED backlights - I was using a friend's e-series 1080 version and noticed on the back it has the "HG Lamp Contains Mercury" notice. Mine does not have that notice, but I checked around on overclock.net and found some do and some don't. That is kinda shady lol

 

Dear campb292
can you kindly tell me what your notebook's BIOS version is?

 

BIOS Version R0300Y8
BIOS Date 7/30/2010
Video BIOS Date 6/21/10

 

If this is not off topic - I am looking to buy the VAIO VPCEC35FG model (17.3", 4 GB Ram, 1 GB ATI, 1 TB HD, i5-560M). There have been some posts on forums regarding the display quality of the E Series and the EC series being below par (even when compared to dell, lenevo etc. let alone other Sony Series) - recall reading some where that the display is not even bright enough for indoor office use (non-gaming) and the speakers are barely audible. I am inclined to think that the person who wrote that must have had a defective piece, but want to make sure before I buy. Can some VPCEC owners please comment. Links to the VPCEC35FG model:

VPCEC35FG : E Series : VAIO Notebooks & Computers : Sony Australia
VPCEC35FG : E Series : VAIO Notebooks & Computers : Sony New Zealand
VPCEC35FG : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India

 

So you are saying that the recovery partitions will still be working after the format? Doesn't the format change the MBR?

 

NHianho
Where would i be able to double check if i have the bluetooth driver installed??

 

Whoops, I assumed bluetooth was standard these days.

 

If you actually formatted everything then you probably won't have your partition. If you installed a fresh copy of Windows and kept the partition it'll still be there.

But the recovery DVDs are basically the same thing as the partition, albeit a lot slower to install stuff obviously.

 

Turn on the vaio smart network. If you dont see the bluetooth option then you dont have any bluetooth device.

Or go to the hardware device manager to check. ( I dont know if the name is correct, I'm using Ubuntu right now and I used Windows in French)

 

Mine is an EB but I think it is analogous between models of the same series. The displaying quality is good, I occasionally do have to reduce the brightness because it causes me eye-strained. But the speakers are really bad.

 

The display quality is not below par. I routinely use some Lenovo 1080p machines for work that are less bright and less clear than my 1366x768 vaio. My wife has a Dell Latitude 5530 that is just dismal compared to my screen. Brightness is also dependent on what settings used. 100 brightness on mine is bright under any condition, in any environment. I can't imagine if it was brighter, it would hurt to look at. I use mine at 90% and it is wonderful. Some say the 1080 screen looks even better than the 768 but I have not done side by side comparisons other than seeing both at a best buy.

The speakers are disgusting.

 

Does anyone know of any software which is capable of controlling the E series' fan speed? All the ones I have tried (eg Afterburner) seem to have no effect on the fan at all.

 

Sadly, no. Sony frowns on giving users any real control over things hence the extreme limited bios options and crapware without-a-choice and the locked graphics card and system bios. I would like to have one - sometimes the fan will run way more than it needs to on a cpu that is only 50c or so. These 32nm i-series processors can run at 70c for years and I would prefer to set a more forgiving fan ramp curve.

I will say I believe the bios update on sony.com increased the fan noise for me regardless of whether I have c3/c6 enabled or disabled. Also, it makes no difference whether I put in the stock HDD with the VAIO install or my SSD with my own fresh install. It is laid out in the bios somewhere - hidden and locked. It really isn't that loud or bad, just would be nice to have some control over something that is yours.

 

Hi.
The noise problem i hear about in this thread ,is it due to ix
core ?
I am not a gamer nor i use the laptop for any heavy tasking.
I want to buy the eb from sonny. should i buy the duel core ?
Is it generate less heat and wont have the noise ?
Is the ix core better for watching online movies ?

 

The noise is related to i-series cpu on certain motherboards. It is noticeable in certain power modes but the e-series bios has a feature to turn off the offensive c-states if it bothers you.

If it is the Pentium P6100 that a basic 2 core unit and would suit lower level usage. It is 2 cores 2 threads and still built on 32nm process. Its lack of hyperthreading could reduce heat by up to 20%, but if Sony activates the on die gpu that would be negated. You would know the on-die gpu is active if there is no dedicated graphics card. The i-series does have command sets more suited to video watching or encoding/decoding. I am unaware if the P6100 would have noise as it also has Speedstep and multiple power states.

Also worth noting - Intel is releasing 6-series chipsets in the next month. These will have integrated USB3 and SATA 6Gb/s. If I was that close to a new purchase, I would hold off for another month and grab one of those.

Anyone want to buy a vaio with the specs in my signature? PM if interested

 

Agreed that some control would be nice, but I can see it from sony's point of view too - the more control you have, the more likely you are to break something..

Just noticed today that my battery wobbles quite a lot when i put pressure on it (it is on the lock position). Anyone else have this problem?

 

Hey all,

I am brand new to this forum and actually the laptop world in general. Always been a desktop guy, but due to a new job and going back to school part time, I had to spring on a laptop. Anyway, I obviously bought an EB series Vaio or I wouldn't be here I sprang for this laptop due to the highly rated keyboard, the 10-key numerical pad, good vid card/processor/ram, and most importantly, basically the only 15.5" laptop with a full size keyboard and a 1080p screen. I do mostly excel work so the high resolution is key.

I'm loving the laptop so far, the screen is almost TOO sharp. A few quick gaming/display related questions. I'm having a very hard time updating the video drivers. I am reading in this thread that I need to find direct links. Is it OK to use these direct download links? Is Sony protecting me from updating bad drivers or are they just ignorant to them?

Also, along those lines, I just installed World of Warcraft and I'm getting only about 25-35fps at middle of the line settings and 1080p resolution. This isn't a very graphic intensive game and I realize 1080p is a high resolution, but I'm reading about people playing more graphic intensive games at high/ultra settings without problems. Maybe they don't have the 1080p screen?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any answers you can provide!

My stats are as follows:

VPCEB390X
Core i5 CPU 2.53ghz
4.00GB RAM
Radeon HD5650
Windows 7 Pro w/ fresh start

 

I am looking for a buyer for my VAIO. If anything interests you, private message me!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebooks-desktops-sale/528407-fs-sony-vaio-e-series-notebook.html

 

Such praise I had for this laptop 2 posts ago. I just bought a USB wireless mouse for it, plug it in, and what do you know, the dreaded high pitched whine. After about 2 hours of use I had a splitting headache.

It looks like this problem is not fixable without messing with the CPU power and fan speeds. I'll likely be returning this laptop for a full refund Not too happy about it as I really liked the specs and keyboard layout. Might have to switch over to a 15" Dell XPS without the numerical 10key.

Unfortunately, the high pitched whine is really just unbearable. If Sony could guarantee me 100% that they could send me a different laptop without the noise, I may reconsider.

 

There's no guarantee you'll get a laptop without high pitched noise from any manufacturer, unfortunately.

You can get rid of the noise by disabling C3/C6 states in the BIOS, though obviously your power consumption will suffer a bit.

 

Ive used a Logitech USB wireless mouse on my Vaio from day 1 and have never had this dreaded high pitched whine. What's that all about then. Anyone got any info about this??

 

Does this problem vary among the models? I've never heard any kind of this sound from my laptop.

 

I guess it's a possibility that some people's ears won't be able to hear the whine, as it is very high pitched.

I myself can hear it and don't find it particularly annoying, so left the c3/c6 power states on in the BIOS so as to preserve battery life. However I can confirm that disabling them does stop the whine completely.

I find that unless i'm in a completely quiet room, it's really not even noticeable.

 

I,m 3 floors up [tree level ] and my room is deadly quiet and i cannot here anything but the low noise of the fan running. Unless the c3/c6 is allready turned off in the bios and thats why. Where do i look int he bios for this c3/c6 setting just so i can look. Never been in the bios on this laptop so dont no if it's F2 on boot up or not. I've had my i3 since mid april and i'm sure i'd off noticed it by now though!!

 

1. Remember the noise is only there when having either an USB device plugged in or when running on batteries. When being on AC with no USB accessories you shouldn't hear anything.

2. C3/C6 state on/off switch requires you to have done the BIOS update which is available through vaio update. If you haven't installed that there won't be an option to enable/disable it.

3. I believe it is f2 yes.

 

Wokis
Ive allways had usb mouse in, but i only run it on batteries sometimes but still have usb mouse plugged in also i use usb dongle for mobile broadband allways plugged in with an ext cable attached to window, and never ever heard a sound and i'm not deaf lol. Will put it on bats and listen. Done the bios upgrade a month ago so i'm ok there.

BTW Does the power cord have to be unplugged or will it be ok to leave it in but turned off at the mains!!
As ive been on batteries 10 minutes and laptop is still the same..

 

Maybe you just got lucky and got a processor that doesn't make the noise.

By the way, I could be wrong but I think it's F8 to enter the bios, not F2.

 

hey guys i will be returning my sony eb vepceb390x in a few days. I just noticed something. How come there isn't a place to connect the laptop to an external monitor? My old dell inspiron 6000 has a socket for it but how come this laptop doesnt? I am shocked at this.

 

I don't know about yours, but the UK version has an HDMI port and a VGA port on the left hand side. Google says yours has at least an HDMI...

Why are you returning it?

 

Hi everybody, I've purchased Sony Vaio VPCEB26GM for a month and now I have a problem with my video hardware. Yesterday, when I was using computer, windows crashed and a report appeared saying that there were something wrong with my video hardware. I attaches the log file below, could anybody check that for me?
View attachment log.zip
my notebook's specs:
processor intel core i5 M430
RAM 4GB (DDR3)
graphics: intel graphics media accelerator HD
OS: windows 7 professional 64bit
p/s: I contacted Sony's supporters and they asked me to perform a full system recovery without trying anything. What kind of support is that?
sorry for the English.

 

Maybe it's a common occurrence with vaio-e and Intel GMA HD, and the solution so far has "simply" been to do a full sys recovery?

Try installing the latest drivers for GMA HD here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19336&ProdId=3231&lang=eng

 

I've had my EB nearly a week now, and it's been absolutely great.

Keyboard - a dream. The best notebook keyboard I've ever used other than MBP. Backlit would be a nice optional extra but I pretty much touchtype anyway.

Screen - the 1080p 15.5" screen is beautiful. Exceptional clarity and colour rendition out of the box is fab. Normally when using a new screen I reach straight for my Spyder to calibrate it, but this has been so good I haven't even bothered yet.

Build Quality - very solid. Typical weakpoints/more flex around the DVD drive area, but that is an issue in every non-unibody notebook. Other than that it seems very well made, screen hinge seems tough etc.

Noise - quiet as a mouse. I've not noticed the fan at all, nor any changes in speed/ramping up. No high-pitched noise that I can tell.

I can take pictures if anyone wants to see (UK EB model in sexy matte black, with 1080p screen) more details of any parts.

 

Oh and yes, the speakers are bad. But if you think there are any inbuilt laptop speakers which sound good, then you don't deserve ears! Hook it up to a proper hi-fi system, or at least some decent external speakers.

 

Does anyone know if you install a new video driver does it uninstall the old one 1st and then put the new one one.
Dont want to mess laptop up. Mines got the Intel GMA HD and the driver date is 2 years old with version number
8.15 lol. Also is there any difference in using the ones from that link above that are on the intel website and sony's ones??

 

Regarding the "bad speakers", remember that they can sound just a little bit better (but I guess it's subjective) by enabling the Dolby audio enhancer available in the sound device properties.

In theory just installing over the old drivers should work. But you never know when a programmer screws up. If you can spare the extra time uninstalling the old drivers, rebooting, and installing the new ones, consider that time well spent.

The Sony ones are the last ones that they tested and put an OK stamp on for their vaio. Now, intel MIGHT have done what amd did, which is to restrict you from using the drivers from Intels site because of that sony haven't tested them yet. But I don't think so. Think that deal is exclusive to Ati chips. Don't have GMA HD as gfx chip in my vaio so can't test.

 

Might just let the viao update app do them. Cheers for info though..

 

The ones on VAIO Update are probably waaaaay out of date. Sony never updates drivers unless there's actually a specific problem that needs fixing.

 

Hello, this is my first post, i'am going to get my eb37 tommorow.
I have serveral question although, can we add extra hardisk in this notebook ? (by replacing optical drive?) and does this series support switchable graphic?

thank you