Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

I would hope they are false as thats some pretty high temps your seeing, with a room temp of roughly 21 - 22 degrees, the highest temps my 5650 see's (according to msiafterburner) is 68oC while gaming and with a 585 core 880 mem OC.

Do you have any kind of super overclock running at all?

 

I'm running with the defaults. 450 core, 790 memory. I tried to check the temps from bios but it lacked that option. At the moment hwmonitor is showing idle temps around 67'C cpu, 71 GPU with only hwmonitor and firefox running.

 

Got my Vaio last week.
EB:
i5
4gb ram - need to upgrade eventually
5400 rpm drive, some 300 gb or so - this as well
that sexy 1080 screen
blackness

just wondering if there is a vaio forum that is easier to navigate than this one? or are we stuck with this completely unorganized owners thread?


also: any way to change the assist, web, and vaio keys?????????????????

 

Hmm the fact that idle your GPU is running 3'C higher than mine when I'm gaming with an overclock suggests to me theres a problem, although again I don't know what sort of room temps you have whereever you live but 71'C idle seems very high.

Might be an idea to contact sony.

 

hi there all!
i'm using vaio EA16FG, and i'm in a problem..
my ati 5650 doesn't have the ati stream, why?
can somebody help me?
or i have to install a new driver? which driver?

 

how do you know it does not have the ati stream?

 

i'm installing xilisoft video converter. it can use the ati stream and nvidia cuda ability to make the conversion faster, but it said that i have to update my driver first and install the avivo package. what should i do?

my driver is 8.732. updated around december 2010

 

as long as I use my laptop, it only ever reached 67'C once, the rest was only 58'C or 62'C maximum. the idle temp is around 40-44'C. I use the GPU-Z to see my temprature.

 

funny, these should already be present. download the catalyst suite in the first tab and all installations in the third tab. Then try. didn't know xilisoft could use ati stream.

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

can i install the driver from ati.com for vaio? i thought that vaio has its driver and it can't install driver from ati.com because sony provide the driver theirself for vaio?

 

Here, this one should work
*UPDATED 26/01* ATI Catalyst 11.1 For Toshiba/Sony/Acer Notebooks - Get it here!

 

Hi,
I just received sony vaio vpceb37fdw laptop , with 15.5" screen having 1366* 768 resolution.
Other specifications : 4gb ram, bluray support, 500 gb harddisk, i5 processor.

The only problem I have with this laptop is text remains blurred and the images look sharper...I can clearly find a vast difference b/w this new laptop and the other dell or toshiba or acer versions..
I tried changing the DPI, changing the font,removing the cleartext, or changing the smoothness in fonts feature in "appearance section"...

Nothing helped....Just getting annoyed with the screen and planning to return it soon..

But, apart from the display, I love this laptop..

Anyone else had similar issues ?? pls help..

Can anyone tell me if this is a problem with Windows 7 or the sony vaio monitor and display size ?

 

should not be a problem at all. you can get a direct download for the driver pack a few posts above ( poster- kiratachibana) but remember to install the AMD codec package(avivo) from the site. to confirm that you have installed it, you should be able to access the video encoder from the catalyst control center

 

hey man hows it goin in brooklyn? havent been there for a long while!, thanks for the driver link.

 

I've read the changelog of it, but people said that the driver isn't compatible...

 

i'm using it right now and seems to run call of duty black ops, need for speed hot pursuit(the new one of course), burnout paradise and star wars force unleashed 2 just fine, the amd CCC looks great too.

 

Too much snow recently... Schools have been cancelled because of it last week.

I am using it without problem, and just like ravenperch said, new CCC is cool.

 

I'm also using 11.1 and black ops/Halo 2 Vista/Dirt 2/Bioshock all run extremely well

can't really say they run any better than the 10.12 driver, but they are in no way slower or any less stable

also, using a synaptics driver for a newer hp laptop I now have multi-touch scrolling with no additional software or modifications needed
-Tyler

EDIT: after reading a little bit of the ATI CC 11.1 driver thread my curiosity sparked and I used gpu-z to find that my driver version is still 10.12

I then did a clean re-install (un-install using the setup.exe and driver sweeper, ran 11.1 setup as an admin) of 11.1 and the driver version is still stuck on 10.12

is there something I'm missing here? it interests me because I hear it gives a small performance boost (and I like to take what I can get)

 

I didn't realize until you said it, maybe AMD just updated the CCC without updating the driver.

 

Is this the right thread to ask questions about the Viao EA 14" notebook? If not sorry and disregard.

I saw a thread on the i5 between the two and the only difference I remember was some coding and the ability to run two applications at the same time, is that correct as the major differences? What one would be better for gaming?

How is the battery life would you say you get on average? I will get the blu-ray player, so can you watch two movies (4 hours ish) or play some EVE or bad company 2 for 2 hours?

I am planning on upgrading the ram ($130 for 8gb 1066 seems high, unless this laptop is picky) and hd to ssd if not to hard.

Anything else that would be good to know before I order one? Thank you for the help.

 

mine gets around 2.5 hours of battery life with normal usage, but then again I do not put the screen brightness to the lowest it can go and I do not have ATI powerplay enabled.

also, you're not likely to get more than an hour of gaming on the standard battery (you would need to either have an outlet available or get the weird extended battery)

may I suggest you ask here for which notebook you should get
http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/
perhaps other users here can find the right mix of power/battery life for you,
- Tyler

 

you can ask questions about the E series here even though the models do slightly differ. I dont quite understand what you mean about the i5 thing. The stock battery is really poor (3500mah) and wond last you long and I suggest you invest in a higher capacity one. You will not be able to watch the average hollywood movie(2hrs) on full brightness. The internal speakers are poor but the soundcard headphone out can provide dolby surround (7.1ch from HDMI port). I strongly suggest you invest in a battery for the laptop.

 

I think he is asking about i5 480M and i5 580M

My friend who is working in IT told me that as normal user we don't really use those instruction for 580M. Both can multi-task if it is what you are asking. 480M is enough for normal gaming, unless you have extra to spend.

I would also recommend spending extra for a better battery.

Upgrade to 8GB is not really necessary, I can get it much cheaper at other places. I didn't upgrade HDD also, pretty much same reason for ram.

 

Glad you chaps have that as well it was puzzling me why the drivers remained it 10.12.

 

hey guys i just got a vaio eb and i noticed that everytime i change the sensitivity for the touchpad, whenever i restart the laptop the setting that i changed wasnt saved and i have to change it everytime i turn the laptop back on. its kind of frustrating lol, i have logitech setpoint installed for whenever i use a wireless mouse and i tried to see if that was causing the problem but i couldnt find anything.

 

I advise you go to vaio care(I think its the assist button) and reinstall the Alps Pointing Device Driver.

 

Thank you guys for the information. I did post in the "what should I buy" area and have gotten a few sugestions and the Vaio EA series is at the top of the list.

Yes, I was asking about the difference between i5 480m and the 580m.

Do you guys just get the sony large battery or an after market one?

Thanks again and the information is much apperciated!

 

No experience with third-party Sony batteries, but having good experiences with 3rd party batteries for MacBooks in the past, and bad experiences with those meant for Dell, I'd say the rule of thumb is, only buy 3rd-party batteries from reputable companies that have a track record of supporting the brand in question.

Many modern laptops would refuse to charge a battery that is not identifiable -- and sometimes BIOS upgrades affect third-party batteries that work fine with older BIOSes!

 

hey guys, windows on my vaio E just crashed. Can anyone here tell me how to enter recovery when starting up.

 

when the laptop is off, hit the assist button (or the vaio button) cant remember which one. Although if it has simply crashed you dont have to use recovery. If you still want to check for errors or problems then you can use the assist button (or the vaio button) cant remember which one.

 

Hi all, I have been a semi-regular lurker to this thread since I got my E-series last September, so I hope my first post asking for help does not come across as rude.

Laptop's been fine for 3-4 months however the graphics driver has recently started crashing a lot, frustratingly often. I have reinstalled the drivers to no avail, tried googling however it seems a common problem across all Windows 7 laptops, so finding specific information has proved difficult. I get the message...

"Graphics driver stopped responding and has recovered"

Screen goes black for a couple of seconds then comes back, however any video, etc. crash and need refreshing.

Specs are: Core i5 2.4ghz, 4GB ram, 64-bit, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470.

It only seems to do it when under heavy load, i.e. several youtube tabs open and buffering. Having the laptop connected via HDMI to a monitor only makes it worse.

Is it possible that it could be a hardware defect? Am I simply putting the graphics card under too much strain?

Open to any advice, really disappointed with this at the moment :-(

Thanks all

 

Try follow these steps to update/reinstall the driver to make sure that you have a clean install.
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/mobil...1-1-toshiba-sony-acer-notebooks-get-here.html

PS: try not to update driver through Windows Update because those driver may cause problems.

 

well, I have been having a lot of driver crashes recently because I installed an 11.1a beta driver.

I should probably just switch back to 11.1... or is that still 10.12...
- Tyler

 

The driver should still be 10.12, but CCC is 11.1.

Didn't install 11.1a, but running 11.1 just fine, maybe you can revert back to 11.1 and see if problem still exist.

 

Hi guyz how u doin ...... anyway I have a sony vaio VPCEA22FX and it works great I have just a little problem with the graphics I adjust the refresh rate to 60 Hz ,but everytime I do restart or shut the laptop off it returns to 40 hz I don't know what to do ............... any help please thanxxxx

 

No. It seems like this is not correct. The only option in driver settings I see is "Virtual Surround" which according to tool tip encodes surround audio into stereo output to be decoded by receivers with matrix decoders.. that's certainly not what I need. To use this you need to start with multi-channel sound to begin with, but the DVD player gives you no option for that. (I do have a very old sound driver and have no intention to upgrade because newer driver is broken, see http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/870198-left-ear-pops-windows-7-file.html). Little can be done at sound card driver level if the DVD player has no way to play 5.1 sound track from DVD. There are technologies to upmix stereo sound into many channels, but its really silly to play stereo track and then upmix when you have 5.1 track on the DVD. I may or may not be right, but the point that Sony has shipped us a crippled DVD player still stands.

 

Hey folks!

I have a quick question for you kind people! I purchased the Sony Vaio VPCEB31E around 6 weeks ago, and am generally quite happy about it. However, the loud fan is very annoying to me, and as I had asked around what to do with it, most people did not really know an answer, or thought that it was just the version of this laptop, and there was not much to change - This brings up my question, does your fan also spin on quite a constant basis, even if no other programs are running? I do use my laptop a lot, and still, considering it is very new, I am a bit disappointed by the constant noise. Any suggestions/shared opinions?

Thanks!

 

Hi guys, I just discovered this site after researching about Sony Vaio VPC EA490X 14". I am customising it but I have a few baffling questions (not IT-savvy) I hope you guys can kindly help me out with..

For some bg info, I need the laptop mainly for quite simple usage, like running Ms Office Applications, university projects, networking, surfing, non-intensive photo/image editing, watching a lot of videos online, movies and maybe some games like sims3. Not really a gamer though. I really enjoy high quality streaming, picture quality esp HD but if it is too ex I'd do w/o it.

1) Is the $80 upgrade from i3-380M processor (2.53GHz) to i5-480M processor (2.66GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz worth it?

2) Is the Coconut White colour true to what is depicted? I saw some reviews saying it has hints of grey. I'm going for the design and can't bear to spend the extra $50 if it is not really nice and classic white.

3) Should I upgrade my graphics card from Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD with Intel® Wireless Display technology to ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 GPU (512MB VRAM)? It costs $50. Another $50 to 1gb.

4) I was following the thread and came to realise a common problem, are the fan noise level, speakers quality really bad?

5) Approx how heavy will the high capacity battery make the notebook weigh?


Overall if I choose basics, i3 2.53ghz, 320GB RAM, 512VRAM, it'll be $869.99, is it an amount worth its specs? only 1 yr warranty.. I'm really sorry for the multiple questions, I'm pretty hopeless in this aspect.. Hope you guys can enlighten me Thank you!! Your help is greatly appreciated!!

 

1) It is worth it, i5 is much better than i3, esp with turbo boost.

2) I am not sure, maybe you can go to see the local store if they have one. For color it is really better to see one than hear what people say.

3) It really depends on your usage. If you are also using it for gaming, than upgrade it to 1GB (is it Radeon 5650?) is necessary. I don't really recommend the 512MB RAM one. Either go for 1GB or stick with the original.

4) Fan is not that bad, but speaker is a bit worse than expected.

5) Higher capacity is not that heavy, probably add around .5lb to listed weight.

BTW, what is the currency you are talking about? USD or Canadian?

 

Turbo boost relies on being able to disable one of the cores in order to clock the other one higher without much of a temperature increase (because, especially in laptops, the margins for higher temps aren't there). The higher clock speeds are often only available for a very short time before it downclocks to normal speed again.

There's a reason as to why they aren't simply saying that the "i5-480M" is clocked 2.93 GHz but instead wraps it in a fancy word like "turbo". Mostly you won't see it being up in that clock speed.

 

thanks so much guys!! i meant it in USD. i have a much better idea now thnx!!

 

is there a way to disable turbo boost with the i5 460M?

from what I read turbo boost disables a core to increase the clock speed, but I want to try games with multithreaded support

also .3 ghz isn't much of a performance boost, even for a single core,
- Tyler

 

As far as I am aware it only disables a core to initiate the speed boost if the core is not being used, if an app or game is actually using all the cores then it will stay at the default speed with all cores running.

 

where can i find replacement keys for vpc-ea? (2s1e to be exactly)
my C key is broken

 

JonnyCasino is correct, i5 will only enable Turbo Boost when the core is not being used by the program. So if you are using a program that only use one core, i5 will turn on turbo boost only when needed. If that program will use more than one core, then i5 will not turn on turbo boost.

 

Hello everyone i'm new here and have some questions. I have a Intel Core i3 which is very slow would you recommend a upgrade to a i7 or i5. And would this increase my gaming performance?
Thanks

 

Notebook CPU is not upgradable as they are fixed to the motherboard.

 

Its the GPU thats generally soldered to the motherboard, the CPU should be perfectly upgradable, just don't know if I have seen anyone bother to do it on the E series before since the i3 / i5 range is enough for the 5650 gpu.

 

yep i CONFIRM IT, I've seen screws around the CPU for the actual CPU which would mean that the CPU was placed into its socket and heatsink arm on top whereas the gpu heatsink is soldered directly to the GPU (which is affixed directly to the motherboard), so I am 80% sure you can replace it, however yes as JonnyCasino says, the 5650 should be enough coupled with even an entry i5 model as graphics tasks will be significantly shifted to the GPU.

you can check out the inside of an EB here

 

What do you guys think about VAIO EA vs VAIO S if both have same specs except Nvidia vs ATi?