Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

It could be possible(I believe) that you have driver registration problems, in which case, download the Driver Sweeper software from GURU3D

And then reinstall the AMD Suite 11.3 from the AMD site.

 

not sure if you already received an answer to your question, here's what I did (see attachment)

 

I always use driver sweeper and remove all references to ATI after uninstalling the entire catalyst suite. When I install the 11.3 (i have also tried the 11.4 preview) update and reboot, after the windows loading animation, it goes to a blank black screen. I do not think it hangs at this point as the hdd activity light continues to flash for a while. I've also tried plugging in a monitor via HDMI and this screen is also blank.

 

So my Vaio is getting pretty hot nowadays. No dust in it, just gets very hot even when idling. Have anyone had to replace their thermal paste? I'm thinking maybe it's gone bad or something.

 

why dont you try with the stock driver(dont install anything let Windows Update find the driver)? or RMA the laptop, it seems like your two options, unless you get lucky...

 

It works fine with the stock driver, most games work fine but starcraft 2 doesn't like it.

 

last but not least, have you reinstalled the OS from scratch? VAIO System recovery? ( btw I apologize if you think that I shouldnt be helping out since I have a 5470 and I've never had any graphics driver problem.......)

(i would suggest plugging the HDD in another PC and formatting it, then reinstalling with VAIO recovery disks (but I think its un necessary here))

 

Anyone here has been able to install SP1 on their Windows 7 OEM installations? The required update KB976902 is already installed.

 

for those wanting a clean install

could you not just reload everything than remove the vaio stuff via remove programs? or does that leave traces/takes time?

 

I got it, works fine. Try- Uninstall the KB and check for updates.

 

I have another quick question. I was wondering if anyone here has taken apart their E-series laptop to clean and change the thermal paste on the processor and video card and if all the screws on the rear have to be removed?
I did a quick search on the forum and didn't come upon anything pertaining to the E-series.

Thanks

 

Nevermind. I took it apart earlier this evening and, yes, all the screws have to be removed. I also removed both the hard drive and the RAM cover.
I'm not sure if its known here or not but the CPU is not soldered in and is easily removed. Every post I seem to come across concerning most of Sony's laptops is that the CPU is soldered in place but this is not the case with my EC.

 

Hi, I'm just about to buy the 15" model online (UK store) and am trying to decide on a colour. I've seen the matt white model in stores and don't like the glitter on the palm rest area. Does the glossy white/glossy black model definitely not have this glitter effect?
Edit; I know the glossy covers have the square, matrix-style pattern, which I like.

 

Go with blue. Embrace the glitter.

 

Can't say I wasn't tempted when I saw one in the Sony Centre, but I think a more conservative black or white is for me.

 

True. Most folks sidestep around blue, giving it a glancing chuckle. It is not for the squeamish. I happen to be crazy enough I guess...

 

Hello, thread,

Does anyone here have VPC-EC (or has seen it in store and lived to remember)? I'm thinking of getting a refurbed VPC-EC2TFX/WI because my main requirements for a laptop are that it be 17"+ and look nice, and being white is the best way that it can look nice to me. And this is the only thing I've found that fits. And anyway.

I remember some time back, I saw a laptop in a store that was 17" and white, but it looked terrible because the white was almost glittery. The area around the keyboard was nice and matte, but the palmrests were screaming for eye bleach. Is this it?? (If it is, I'd rather get something that's black & actually worth the asking price.)

I'm wondering about build quality and screen awesomeness, too, but glitter vs no glitter is the overriding concern here... Thank you, all!

Malia

 

Hello,

does anybody know which program you have to run for the brightness controls?
When my ea resumes from hibernate there is no brightness controls and its stuck on the brightness that it was on when i put it into hibernate. I have tried going into power options and using the brightness slider but it doesnt do anything and when i press windows key and x there are no brightness options.

 

Hi guys,this is deepak from India,I recently bought a viao E series laptop with 5650 GFx card.
now when i switch to 640 * 480 in the screen resolution or from ATI panel ,the screen gets very small ,when i switch to 800*600 the screen gets slight bigger and so on .
I play Counter Strike on it and same thing happens there.I want to play on 640 * 480 and the screen gets small again.and also how to maintain aspect ratio so as to open games with 4:3 resolution and not widescreen.
waiting desperately for a solution.....

 

KB976902 can't be installed.

 

I'm afraid I dont really understand your question. 640x480 will always open in 4:3 because thats what the output shape is like! I think you are using terms incorrectly. Aspect ratio is the shape of an image, widescreen is something that is rectangular in shape (16:9, 16:10). I believe what you actually mean is how to maintain fullscreen stretch and fill in 640x480- if your laptop is widescreen, it will always place black bars/ empty space around a resolution that is not a native screen shape.

-you cannot play counterstrike full, filled screen in 640x480.
-check in settings and change from full screen to windowed.

- I dont understand WHY you are playing in 640x480, the 5650 should be able to handle counterstrike in 1080p!

 

Hi,

Is there a guide on how to perform a clean install, like there is for the F series ? Has anyone sucessfully tried ?

 

HI guys,I have a Vaio e series VPCEB46FG....I have got following problems-----
1) My laptop came with loads of programs which i rarely use mostly with vaio tag on them.....And average RAM consumption is around 1.6 GB out of 4,and number of processors running are around 105.So what is the solution here and what programs to uninstall "safely" so that i dont mess up the laptop.

2) as i posted on my previous post,my native resolution is 1366*768 which fills up the whole screen.
When i turn it down to say 800*600,the screen size gets remarkably small with black bars forming on ALL THE FOUR SIDES.Then i notch up the resolution to say 1024*768 .Screen size gets a little big and black bars on side still remaining.(note-here the screen maintains aspect ratio by itself with balck bars on side.).DO any of you guys have the same problem....And when i try to play games in small resolution to gain some more FPS,the screen size gets smaller even if i change resolution INGAME and NOT OF WINDOWS.Ideally this shouldn't happen if i change it within the game.

3). any way to disable temporarily the TOUCHPAD ,as i have GAming mose to play my games...


HELP ..!!!!

 

dude seriously.....

1)The only way ro remove junk is to a)uninstall them yourself (then use msconfig to disable startup programs), b)do a clean install of windows 7.
The more the RAM your laptop uses the better. I turned off pagefiling and my laptop uses 65% of 8GB RAM(Idle). If you do a clean install of windows- buy windows 7, fewer processws will show up.

2)If the screen adds black bars on ALL FOUR sides then you may want to try clean removal of the ATI drivers using the cleaner software from GURU3D. Then reinstall the latest. In game, of course the screen will add black bars to non 16:9 ratios because the resolution you have selected is not 16:9! It cant stretch the image because then it will be distorted. If you have black bars ALL AROUND, then you may want to reinstall the drivers(after using Ati cleaner). (I have no idea why you want to play 800x600 on a 5650, it can handle almost all games smoothly on a 1300x700!)

3) There is no need to actually disable the touch pad, just dont use it!

 

Hi!

I have a Sony Vaio VPC-EB4S1E that I have done a clean re-install of Windows 7 on, everything has worked out just fine with installing drivers but I wonder which piece(s) of the Sony software that originally came pre-installed with the laptop is worth installing again.

Here are the ones that are available:
VAIO : Sony Europe

More specifically I am mostly interested in installing the software that enables the special keys located on F1-F12. Those would be the volume/mute/up/down as well as the screen brightness ones. I am not sure which download that is though.


Cheers,
minim

 

Disagree. I keep moving my mouse pointer a little by having parts of my hand accidentally touching it when in WASD mode.

Disabling the touchpad can be done in Vaio Control Center (/Keyboard and mouse/Pointing device) though. Just gotta remember to enable it before removing the mouse.

Edit: I find all of rocky001's questions to be valid actually. If you uninstall too much of third party programs you might remove some important parts accidentally, like the Event service or control center. I had a list for myself of stuff that shouldn't be removed but that is long gone by now I'm afraid. Event Service, Power Management and Control Center should be kept for sure, though.

Though yes, the HD5650 should be able to do CS in 1366x768 with perfect 60fps (keep in mind the screen can't display more, as with most LCD's). Why downrezing?

 

Dude I know it can be disabled but I didnt actually know that people accidentally trip on the touchpad when playing...but if you do then yes hit the ASSIST button and you can disable it from there. And by uninstalling sony applications you'd have the sense to go google exactly what you are uninstalling first....come on....

 

thanx a lot man.......i will try latest drivers.
and coming on to playing cs on 640*480.The thing here is that cs is a very old game which is known for its gameplay rather than graphics and it is one of the most known fps game available..The gameplay is much smoother on 640*480 rather than higher resolutions.every professional player on 640*480 so thats the way to go actually.and this screen is so good that it don't try to expand and maintains aspect ratios for games as well as videos by itself..loving it...but its a little reflective..and loving the keyboard...

AND we can play cs at 100 fps by disabling the vertical refresh on control panel....

 

hi....a small problem...my scroll on the touchpad is not working...any suggestions to get it back runniing

 

ok well thats not to do with the screen but to do with the setting with the graphics card. To make the game fit the screen aka remove the black bars so you can play full screen at 640x480 you need to right click on the desktop and then click on catalyst control centre
You then need to click on my built in displays and then click properties there should be two options:

Full screen
Centred

check the Full screen option and click apply

If you cannot select full screen then you need to change the resolution to a lower one than your screeens native res and then the options should become available, after you have selected the full screen option and clicked apply you can then change back to your screens native res.

Now when you go to play cs it should be full screen!

I hoped this helped!!

 

hit start, then type device manager in search bar, open device manager, go to mice and other pointing devices, open the Alps pointing device and uninstall it. Then hit ASSIST on the vaio, go to recovery and reinstall the Alps Touchpad software. should work.

 

actually you didn't got what i said about aspect ratio...opening games with black bars on both sides and maintaining a 4:3 aspect ratio is a good thing.....the games does not look good when its streched out..moreover there is option for widescreen inside game itself so if any one wana play with widescreen he can go for it....

 

dude I have not idea what you mean, please speak english

 

Hi I have always wanted a Vaio but the high prices always put me off and I settled for cheaper Acers. Finally found a nice Vaio EB at a price that's right:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083613.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=tsid:11527%7Ccc:%7Cprd:5083613%7Ccat ffice%2C+pcs+and+phones+%2F+laptops+and+netbooks+%2F+laptops+%2F

I have vouchers to knock this down to £470 and wonder if you guys think it's a deal?

Specs:
Intel Core i3 330M.
2.13GHz processor speed.
4GB DDR3 RAM memory.
500GB SATA hard drive.
Display features:

15.5in display.
Resolution 1366 x 768 pixels.
DVD optical drives:

Blu-ray.
Graphics:

ATI Radeon HD 5470 graphics card with 512MB memory.

 

I always wanted to buy it in Argos because they have the insurance pack...but I bought it from the store.

when i bought mine, all the bluray ones were like atleast 600, the bluray writers were like 900! big hard disk- mine was 728 and I only have the 320gb hard disk. I also have the same graphic card(a big bummer). so from the looks of it DEFINITELY good price for whats inside and you may want to take the Argos insurance, its like a million times more useful than Sony's own warranty. plus+ you can get it straight away after paying, I ordered on sony online and I got mine 2 months after paying(no typo).

on the otherhand, I do suggest that you bear with whatever laptop/ dektop you have for a while because the new vaio S ereies will be out in stores like at comet and pc world- its not about the fatures but major technololical advancements like USB 3.0

 

Thanks for the info Ravenperch. I have this model reserved and plan on picking it up tomorrow. I can get it 6 months interest free and really fancy my first Vaio. The only downer for me is the GFX card. I saw the laptopmag review near the start of the thread and they stated games FPS with the 5470 are higher than I expect. I only plan to play older games like Battleststations Pacific and Medieval 2. I note from your sig you have the same GFX. How are you finding it?
I mainly want it for the occasional older game and outputting Blu Ray films to a projector.

 

@angel18
Maybe an tedious one, but reinstall sony shared library, firmware extension parser, utility setting and then power management?

 

Just going to recommend EVERYONE does a clean install. I just switched drives and I didn't realize how much bloat I had. On startup (untweaked) I use far less RAM than I did before I switched HDD's/ windows installations.

 

i unistalled the old ati drivers which came with notebook and downloaded latest drivers from offiicial website...done evrything ...uninstalled rebooted then ran driver sweeper for proper cleaning...installed new drivers and now the problem is that by right cliking on desktop then oncatalyst icon nothing happens means ati control panel is not opening .i tried to run it even from start menu....just a green wheel comes on top of cursor for few seconds.....
what should i do,.,.
thanks

 

Because your vaio will have the 1300x700 screen, I gurantee you that latest games will run atleast on medium settings,(not assuming the capabilities of the CPU). My 5470 runs Burnout Paradise 1920x1080, Call of duty black ops 1600x something- totally smooth, unreal tournament 3 1080p and need for speed shift full quality at 1600x, so you should be able to run all 2010 games on full quality on that thing.(with the exception of some like crysis).

Coming to the bluray- its like this, graphic cards dont break a sweat running GPU intensive windows applications like bluray and photoshop or adobe premiere. these kinda applications will fun perfect.

for the games you mentioned you should have no problem at all(dont know for an i3 never tried one).

and yes I wasent expecting very much out of the 5470 but after I tried some games, it really surprised the hell outta me (I bought the 5470 by accident, the 5650 woulda only cost me 20 pounds more). The guys over at notebookcheck are conjuring some questionable fps for the GPU. but I have to admit the 5650 is significantly better than the 5470, a friend of mine got one, and I'd say that by running an application to check its fps rate, the 5650 is twice more powerful than the 5470.

Neverthe less you will only whine over the GPU playing games full quality late 2010 onwards. Windows applications will be a breeze.

 

i unistalled the old ati
drivers which came with
notebook and
downloaded latest drivers
from offiicial
website...done
evrything ...uninstalled
rebooted then ran driver
sweeper for proper
cleaning...installed new
drivers and now the
problem is that by right
cliking on desktop then
oncatalyst icon nothing
happens means ati
control panel is not
opening .i tried to run it
even from start
menu....just a green wheel
comes on top of cursor
for few seconds.....
what should i do,.,.
thanks

 

repeat the process, install the CCC suite again, using driver sweeper, if it dosent work, then obtain just the CCC installer from AMD and install it.

 

I picked up that Vaio from Argos today. It's the most beautiful laptop I ever got my hands on. I was expecting the sparkly black from some YouTube videos but it's matt black and looks fantastic. Blu rays look great even though it's only 720p. Not tried any games yet but loving it so far

 

Just ordered my Vaio E series fresh of the Sony website today!!

Here is the config i went for

Optical Drive : Blu-ray Disc(TM) writer
Hard drive : 320 GB Serial ATA (7200 rpm)
Intel® CoreTM i5-480M, 2.66GHz
Display : 39.4 cm LCD, 1920x1080, webcamGraphics :
ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB
Finishes : Matt Black
Memory : 6 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM

 

hi, can anybody tell me the list of programs which i can safely uninstall .i m comfortable with using windows clean(the programs are mainly of vaio and other preinstalled ones)

 

If you chose glossy black you would have gotten the sparkly one, didnt it state so at Argos? Did you know that the E series has zoom controls under f9 and f10? I just found out today. Oh yeah and if you feel that your laptop is getting slow, Sony have some incredible bundles for disk cleaning and registry cleaning. Hit assist and perform checkup. The tools Sony give are paid for tools from Auslogics and Seagate. Cool.

Damn you and your 5650. Humph

 

Damn you and your 5650. Humph[/QUOTE]

I have to admit im abit of a newbie to the vaio world! im gessing from your quote i have went for the right laptop.

 

The Argos description didn't mention glossy or mat. Very glad it's the mat black though, very stylish. One nice touch I have never seen before is the empty desktop, with the icons on the vaio toolbar at the top of the screen.
Build quality is best I have ever seen. The chasis is nice and compact with the screen bezel being very small.
The rough surface touchpad is my only negative, will take some getting used to that.

Now I wish it had a 5650 too! but can't complain for the price

 

The rough touchpad is useful for letting you know if your fingers are off the touchpad but yes a smooth one does feel nice. You'll find that the built in speakers are not too good. The Sony dock is a little limited in functionality and so I use a combination of the taskbar and Rocketdock like so:

 

The 5650 is a beast! Well ok, not the top of the top but it's good considering its price and that it fits in sleek and small laptops.