Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

Don't bother with such software, software like that almost never works.

The manufacturer drivers are good for everything and don't need updating, except for the video card (given you have a dedicated gpu).

In which case just download the new driver from a mirror (amd's web installer isn't supported by sony), uninstall the old one, reboot, install the new one and reboot once more.

easy, right?
-Tyler

 

******* A! Nice guide!

 

Sorry about the late notice, I've had exams and been all over the place.
I followed ravencrofts and junglegurus guide and ive now updated to 11.6 successfully. My problem is now installing physx drivers since i require them to play Trine: Whenever I try to install the packages I get a fatal error with no details attached to it and the installation stops. I've had a look around the net and couldn't find anything which identified the cause as it being a series E laptop so I'm unsure.

 

whose ravencroft? anyway...imna try install trine and see what happens...i'll get back4
later......ok so physx installs, game installs, but i get to the first intro movie and then..... Trine has stopped working....darn.....no idea what the problem is.....
as for your physx problem....install the system software direct from nvidia http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.10.0513-driver.html

 

Haha Ravencroft. I have a teacher called Mrs Ravencroft, sorry about the mixup

I tried that file and it came up with the same error as before: "Fatal error: Installation ended prematurely because of an error"

I've tried that driver beforehand aswel as 9.10.0129 and got the same error.

 

I remember that once I installed a piece of software and I got the same error. I used to make stuff using Installshield installations and I used to get these problems with some installations I used to make. I dont know exactly why but it used to be solved when the installer was accessed from another place on the system and sometimes ive seen some installations failing to work in normal conditions but work fine as a background process....weird..... (I think this is why loads of installations like Adobe and Microsoft office have a shortcut to the actual installation that is supposed to run first, if you run the actual .exe or .msi it dosent work)

Try doing this: Cut the installer to another folder like my documents or something..then right click copy, go to the desktop and paste SHORTCUT. Then open up the shortcut properties, go to TARGET; go to the end of the address, hit space once and type /quiet ( this makes it a background process)(dont type that at the end!)
Now run the shortcut

later.....it seems like other people have had this problem too and have found that this method works

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME OUT, HAS ANYONE TRIED FITTING A 1.2MM DRIVE INTO THE EB LIKE A 1TB HDD? PLEASE RESPOND! THANKS

 

I'm afraid this didn't work for me. Insted of going to the license agreement theres now options for modifying, repairing or removing the Physx drivers, all these options comming back with the same error. I haven't done a semi clean install (no dvds lying around) so was wondering if this is part of the problem.

Edit:
Looks like it worked, Trine now runs.
I checked program and features and found the Physx drivers installed.
I've analysed Nvidia - Physx in driver sweeper and have found alot of entries, i was wondering if i should try uninstalling and cleaning using driver sweeper and try again.

 

Dammet; Trine runs? Mine crashes after the first movie....maybe I should try Physx Sweep

 

Like some others here, i have been looking to upgrade the single SATA M980 HDD Connector to a double.

So far, i have been unable to order the part, as sony require a serial number of a laptop that comes with the part installed.. very annoying!

therefore i have 2 questions,

1) if i got the part, would it work? i have read conflicting information, has anyone done this successfully?

2) if answer to above is yes, does anyone have a serial number for an e series with the double connector that i can use?

or..maybe i can make a serial number up, does anyone know the format? - if i use my serial number the order is rejected by sony.

Thankyou

 

Hi all,
Just noticed Catalyst 11.7 was just released ( link here). I haven't updated since 10.12, is there any point updating?
My system hasn't given me any trouble until the other day, when Team Fortress 2 crashed, leaving me with a frozen screen and a loud buzzing noise coming from my speakers. Are any hardware updates I should have installed? Anyone else playing TF2 on their E series?

 

I am a die hard fan of Sony Vaio. I already have a 15.4'' Vaio VGN-FS115B model purchased in the UK in May 2005. It is more than 6 years old and still works well but has been slow when using internet, MS office, Adobe photoshop altogether. It is a 60GB HD with 512MB RAM, 1280x800 TFT display (I love the display which is better than most of the current E series).

I am planning of buying a new Sony vaio with a wider screen and with latest i7 processor, HD display. I will be using this laptop mainly for internet, MS office, picture editing software, movies, music. I play games very rarely.

I was initially looking at the EJ series 17.3'' display in sonystyle.com (VPCEJ190X CTO). But they do not have a i7, a backlit keyboard, bluetooth in the EJ series.

I was chatting with Sonystyle sales team. One of them suggested the F series as it has the i7, a backlit keyboard, bluetooth.

I am really concerned about the thick lid/bezel and the fan noise in the F series model.

Please let me know if I should go for the EJ series with customizable option to i5 (but no backlit keyboard, bluetooth) or the F series with i7.

If I am correct, does the laptop gets louder and hotter with an i7 quadcore processor? If so, I will be happy to stick to the EJ series with i5 processor (and does it remain less louder and hotter). I am a novice when it comes to difference between i5-i7

VPCEJ190X 17.3''-comes with 17.3" LED backlit display (1600 x 900)
VPCF2290X 16.4''- 2D Full HD LCD display (1920x1080) with LED backlight

Please let me know which one should I go for. If anyone has the VPCEJ190X 17.3'', please post your reviews.

 

Half a gig of RAM will definitely make for a slower PC, especially when running programs like PS, some Office apps, and graphic internet pages/streaming multimedia.

While you mention the PC has been slow, you never said that was the reason you are buying a new one. If that's the reason, I'd try upping the RAM first - it will definitely breathe new life in what you have (and cheaply - certainly much less than buying a new system)! Check out Crucial.com and see what their on-line analyzer recommends.

If on the other hand you are buying new just to generally upgrade to something nicer, by all means do it - but don't be frugal with RAM in the initial purchase.

 

thank you very much for your reply KZ I got this laptop in 2005 and its been more than 6 years. I really wanted to upgrade to a newer one. Finally decided to go with the latest 3D laptop from Sony. The RAM is 6GB (as you have advised). But the old laptop is deifnitely in good condition and hopefully soon, I should up the RAM in the near future.

I ran the Crucial Sytem scanner from the website. It says:
Memory Type: DDR PC2700, DDR (non-ECC)
Maximum Memory: 1GB
Currently Installed Memory: 512MB
Total Memory Slots: 2
Available Memory Slots: 0
2x256MB installed.

Compatible: 512MB
DDR PC2700 • CL=2.5 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR333 • 2.5V • 64Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT435306
Price: US $25.99

So I can get 2 of the 512MB RAMs for $52 and upgrade it to 1MB right? Should I take my laptop to a showroom or someone who works on laptops (as I have no idea how to do this). I looked in youtube about upgrading the RAM DIY videos.

 

Hello guys,

I've just bought a Sony Vaio VPCEB490X(EB series) laptop and I find it great except the speakers.

Are they supposed to be that bad? I mean mine are quite bad, at maximum volume they seem to be buzzing or shivering ), i can't quite explain. Also it doesn't seem very clear.

The song i tested them with is "Adele - Someone like you"(can be found on youtube in HD quality) and the quality of speakers is really poor.

Should I send the laptop to warranty?

 

Hi - I'd just go ahead and pop those memory modules in yourself - I know it seems easy just to say that, but the process is really that simple. YouTube how-to videos are great, and the PC manufacturer may have written or video instructions on their support site. The time you spend figuring out how to install the new chips would likely be a lot less than the time spent to take it to a PC tech center.

A 1 GB expansion ceiling isn't much, so you probably made a good move going to a new laptop. Still, it's worth upgrading the memory on the old one. I have a 2003 Thinkpad that takes 2 GB; I upgraded the RAM from 512 to 1.5 and it made a big difference. Now it's relegated to the kitchen where I use it to access recipes on the home network file server or from internet sites. There's always room in the home for an old PC assigned to a limited-duty station.

 

From what I've seen, getting more RAM isnt too helpful if your OS keeps using page files on the hard disk(n/a if SSD). I know windows will still force use of virtual RAM but the least we can do is turn the page file off. I have 8GB RAM on my EB and with the page file off, at idle, its like at 45% usage. Now no matter how many programs I open, my RAM is used fully(went to 95% yesterday) and the hard disk can keep doing what its supposed to be doing- reading and writing program data, not being used as virtual RAM. So go ahead. Go turn that page file off and your pc will be much smoother(if you have less than 1gb RAM, you'll get "out of RAM messages all the time" .

 

Can anyone please answer me? I am undecided whether to send it to warranty or not. Are the speakers supposed to be really bad?

 

Yes even mine crack and break when on full volume. But you may run into problems with warranty because you may be unable to state the exact problem- I mean, I cant hear your speakers but VAIO E speakers are really crappy. Normally speakers crack if the source audio is really poor in quality. So what you should try do is play an audio file that has an extremely high bit rate. Download from the internet, like a track thats encoded in FLAC (or 320kb AAC). If your speakers crack playing this at 75% volume, you may have a problem.

 

I entered into my ownership of the VAIO with very low expectations with the speakers and am happy to say I have not been disappointed.

With any laptop speaker, the best you can expect is narrow but reasonable midrange with no dynamic range to speak of. As far as sending it back to Sony, you could go to the moon and back trying to resolve the issue and you'll still end up with something not much better than tinny sound.

In other words, in this case at least, it makes more sense to lower expectations than repair fundamentally deficient quality. I just use a decent set of earphones, and stream to my multi-media system if I want to give anything a serious listening.

 

1) Yes, it works
2) You don't need a serial number.

The part is available in the states through Sony service plus page, or on a independent online store, BUT, it costs nearly £130 through them (inc. import tax)...

Search Results

and through Sony you need to be an approved Sony technician or something like that. There is a thread about this on the Sony UK support website. On researching I found a solution.

You can order though either of the following sites, but on the markit.eu/uk site you need a company registration number or VAT number as they are a business to business seller, and I suspect you need one for the site too.

- RPA Distribution

uk.MarkIT.eu ? Hard drives all ? m980 sata hdd fpc double connector

I went to my local IT laptop repair shop as I don't have a VAT number and asked if they could order one in from markit.eu, they told they can order it cheaper from their supplier, for just £65, which is cheaper than direct from sony!

This is their site -
pcrepairsltd.com

Laptop Xperts LTD,
Unit 3,
82-96 Old Kent Road,
London,
SE1 4NX
0207 701 7818

You need to order over the phone, as they don't sell though their website what with being a shop.

The part you need to ask for is M980 SATA HDD FPC. Took about 1 1/2 weeks for the part to arrive in their shop, fitting it, while a little bit tricky, was really a piece of cake. I put in a Seagate Momentus 750GB into the second bay for £75.

Seagate Momentus 750GB Review (ST9750420AS) | StorageReview.com

So I now have a 128Gb C300 & a 750GB Momentus in my laptop, and they are all full already...Just need another 2TB now!

 

I've just got a 3D Samsung plasma, and have a phat PS3 updated to play 3D blurays.
Am I able to make backups of any 3D blurays I buy, in mkv or as a Iso, and play them via CyberLink Power DVD 10 down the laptops HDMI into my hdtv?

Have not yet updated to CCC 11.6, still on 11.5, any bug fixes or changes anyone has noticed?

 

Hi everyone,

My name is Cesar Baptista from Portugal and i have a Sony VAIO
VPCEA2S1E/W.

Can i install a SSD on it?
Which SSD fit in this laptop?
What the best SSD for this laptop?
Videos or tutorials of SSD instalation on Sony VAIO VPCEA2S1E/W ?

For example i also have an ASUS EEEPC 1215N with an Intel SSD X25 80GB and it works like a charme.

Thanks in advance,

Cesar Baptista
Portugal

 

this is what is available here in brunei---->SONY VAIO VPC-EH18FG with the following specs

Processor Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.90 GHz
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1 64-bit
Memory 4 GB (4 GB x 1) DDR3 SDRAM (upgradeable up to 8 GB)
Hard Drive 500 GB (Serial ATA, 7200 rpm)
Display 15.5 inch wide (WXGA: 1366x768) TFT colour display (VAIO Display, LED backlight)
Optical Drive DVD SuperMulti Drive
Graphic Card NVIDIA GeForce 410M GPU 512 MB DDR3

does anybody have this type of unit? is this any good?

 

@cabaptista, I have put an Intel SSD X25 80GB in my EC series and it works nicely. You can site a write up and some photos here:
Matt Norrie's Blog | Sony Vaio E Series

@jojosince1, The resolution of the screen looks a bit small on that laptop.

 

@MattNorrie, that's what's keeping me from buying it. they also have this
SONY VAIO VPC-CB15FG/B with the following specs
Processor Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.90 GHz
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory 8 GB (4 GB x 2) DDR3 SDRAM (upgradeable up to 8 GB)
Hard Drive 500 GB (Serial ATA, 7200 rpm)
Display 15.5 inch wide (Full HD: 1920x1080) TFT colour display (VAIO Display Plus, LED backlight)
Optical Drive DVD SuperMulti Drive
Graphic Card AMD Radeon HD 6630M / Intel HD Graphics 3000 1 GB DDR3
and it costs an additional B$300 or around US$250 compared to the one i cited above.

and this too SONY VAIO VPC-CB16FG/W for an additional US$417 when compared to the E-series one.
Processor Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.90 GHz
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Memory 8 GB (4 GB x 2) DDR3 SDRAM (upgradeable up to 8 GB)
Hard Drive 640 GB (Serial ATA, 7200 rpm)
Display 15.5 inch wide (Full HD: 1920x1080) TFT colour display (VAIO Display Plus, LED backlight)
Optical Drive Blu-ray Disc ROM Drive with DVD SuperMulti
Graphic Card AMD Radeon HD 6630M / Intel HD Graphics 3000 1 GB DDR3

 

you're more than likely not going to need a blue ray drive and you're not going to use 8gb of ram (unless you are a 3d graphics designer).

If you're going to do some gaming then the 6630m is great for it, but don't expect it to push new games at 1080p with a lot of AA at very high settings.

Given that you're set on getting a sony laptop, I would go with the SONY VAIO VPC-CB15FG/B that you posted, and if that's your configuration I would drop the ram down a peg (6gb at most).

If it's pre-configured then it's a solid build that should do anything you want/need,
-Tyler

@Matt 1366x768 is the standard resolution for most 13-15 inch laptops, I wouldn't call it small at all.

 

I received a Sony Vaio VPCEB4X0E last week from saveonlaptops.co.uk. I'm happy with nearly every aspect of it. The screen (Full HD) is beautiful. it's nippy, has a great keyboard, the trackpad works well (after I adjusted the settings) and it's pretty speedy (once I removed some of the bloatware).

BUT! Big 'but'...

The fan (or CPU or something...). It's so loud. On idle it's louder than other laptops I'm accustomed to using (an old Dell Inspiron, my old Toshiba Satellite A210, Acer Extensa 5220, macs, my boyfriend's Samsung R510...). In short I'm not imagining it! The fan is always on. It's loud at normal usage, and when you want to do several tasks at once, it roars up, sounds like it's going to lift off the desk and fly away. (I'm not even talking about heavy, heavy usage - the CPU will be at about 50% and it's roaring away....) Considering that I'll be recording and editing music, this is a big problem for me. I spent so long researching models, was really happy with this one (particularly for the screen) and then to discover this.... I never thought a modern laptop's fan would be as noisy as this. I was hoping that after a week's use, it might stop, once the machine had stretched its legs a bit, but no...

Are there any fixes? I've searched through the 300+ pages of this thread as well as I can, but no joy. I'm reluctant to turn off the C3/C6 thing in BIOS, as this affects power consumption or something, and only fixes the beeping problem (which I don't have - I have a really loud fan.). I don't think the fan needs cleaning as it's a new, just-out-of-the-box machine.

Is this normal? Or should I be asking the retailer to take it back? Any other owners of this particular model? I'm worried that they won't even take it back as no part seems to be faulty as such. The laptop works, it's just extremely loud, excessively loud to my ears...

 

peGGi, I'm in a similar position to you, except I've had mine for a year and have been on/off looking for a fix the whole time. It's just noisy, I took it apart today as I thought maybe the insides are dusty after a year hampering cooling? No, it was clean as a whistle inside, still noisy now.

Infact I only logged in here today to see if a newer BIOS had fixed the problem, for what it's worth I'm on R0300Y8 don't think there is anything to do...

And yes, great 1080p screen!

 

Hi, congras on your new laptop, lucky, you probably got it quick, mine took almost 3 months to deliver as it was custom made. Imagine what I thought when I heard the fan. Truth is, the fan is very loud. Good thing is, when I took the laptop apart, I saw that it was an extremely good Panasonic fan. On the other hand the only thing you can do about it is to START, VAIO CONTROL CENTER, POWER MANAGEMENT, POWER OPTIONS, THERMAL CONTOL STRATEGY AND select the BALANCED MODE. This will slow down the fan further when it is unnecessary to run at a higher speed all the time; reducing the sound level. Ultimately, know that the Panasonic fan is an extremely good design. So you shouldnt have too many heat problems.

 

Aha, good option to change there! Didn't know about that, hopefully it can take the edge of this thing!

Good fan, hmmmmm, not by judging how noisy it is! It'd be down to the heatsink design surely? Which by my eye looked to be rather small, especially when shared with the GPU like it is.

 

Fine, if you wanna get all techy, its not a great heatsink apparatus, but for the purpose of the notebook, it certanly is the best I have seen, in over 300 laptops I have opened up(does not include gaming laptops). The only flaw is, the blades of the fan are too small, so when in order to produce the necessary airflow, they spin really fast; producing too much noise. plus, I think the fan is not run by a brushless motor, adding to the noise.

 

No offence meant dude

Have you ever reseated the cooler with new thermal paste underneath, or used a a fancy aftermarket thermal paste? Might knock 1-3°C of the temps?

 

I kinda was thinking of doing this sometime soon. I havent had it for too long so I was thinkin maybe in a month or two...

 

I have recently bough Sony VAIO VPCEH18FG with nVidia GeForce 410M, the problem i am facing is that the text is not good in browsers and some applications and even web images , Its blurry. Searched lot of forums and installed the latest nvidia drivers but no success .. Any help would be greatly appreciated ..

 

This may be fixed with paying around with motion compensation or refresh rate of the screen. Problem is, I really cant remember where those options are on the NVIDIA panel. They should be under "built in display" or something similar.

 

There is a place to create a custom resolution in NVIDIA panel, but i am not sure what options to chose and i tried to create one with 30 hertz and no improvement .. may be its Windows 7 Home Premium fault ? I tried the Clear Type text too ... Also one symptom i noticed that when the laptop boots for a little while desktop icons text is fine but a refresh happens or may be the driver loads and they become rough

 

get driver sweeper, remove all nvidia drivers, use ccleaner to clean the registry, then try only the windows update drivers if available or use the default sony for nvidia drivers. by the way you say it, looks like a driver issue

 

i bought my sony E Series VPCEA36FG and i wonder to know can i put some thermal paste? inside the laptop or outside the laptop (on cooler maybe) ? because i'm often to play game with this stuff..

 

if you got the laptop, it is totally unnecessary to apply thermal paste unless you exprience some issues. instead, it would be much more helpful if you got a laptop cooler.

 

yeah.. even i'm using cooler master fan,it still not enough
and it makes the touchpad getting hot i rarely using mouse for this stuff.

too hot

does anybody know what is unnecessary programs which active in the background? i heard sony vaio had problem with the background programs, and causing performance's loss

does anyone know how to solve this :



everytime when windows start up, it always come up and i dont know what's wrong with my laptop

 

press the "windows key" and "r" together at the same time. A "run" dialog box should pop up. type in "msconfig". This will bring up system configuration. Go to the startup tab. As the name of the program that comes up is "Sony" then look for something like a program called Sony. If you can't find one, disable all the Sony or VAIO related ones (do not touch microsoft/ windows ones or ones in System32). This should disable the start up program and possibly make your laptop start up faster. Exit and restart (check the don't show me this again box). p.s. i see you have adobe acrobat, in my opinion it's really slow, try sumatra pdf and fastston imageviewer for editing and viewing images instead of picture manager

 

How hot do peoples i5's in there E series get?

i5 M430 here and under Prime 95 it hits 90°C To me that is a little on the hot side? Notebook is totally clean inside with no dust on the fan or heatsink.

 

nah, dude, that's not hot at all...if youre worried about it, get a laptop cooler from zalman

 

I'm not interested in going that far! Don't do much gaming on it, only when away from home like now. Just the noise the thing makes when it's at full speed (as discussed here a few weeks ago!) got me thinking to check the temps out properly.

 

Hey fellows,

I have been wondering, is it possible to set the Vaio E to auto wake up on lid opening? Mine goes to sleep on lid close, however does require a power/space button tap to wake...

Thanks for replies.

 

Hit the Windows Key
Type VAIO
Click on VAIO Control Center
Click on Power Management
Click on Lid Action Settings
On "Settings for the Behavior when opening the LCD Screen Lid", click
the dropdown box and select "Resume from Sleep or Hibernation"
Click Apply at the bottom
Click OK

Now from the start menu, click the arrow next to Shut Down and click sleep. Close the lid. Wait for the laptop to go to bed. Then open the lid. Should work now.

 

Hello people!
I have quick question and I hope you will help me.
My familiar has VPCEB4E1R which is shortly VPC EB-series, right?
As you may see his processor sucks. Have anyone put I7 CPU like I7-740QM inside it? And how is it working, cool? Doesn't have overheating?

If you also can please tell me how complicated is it to change CPU on this model? Should I do some tricks or smth special? Is it one heat-think for both and CPU and GPU?

Maybe smth else? Thank you!

 

Hi, there are a couple posts a few pages back but the main blog is here:
Matt Norrie's Blog | Matt's Blog -scroll down

If you'd like to get yourself familiar with the guts, I took a coupla shots here: http://my.opera.com/ravenperch/albums/show.dml?id=7300582

 

Thank you for pictures and the link. It is very helpful!

 

Ok so was directed here after asking around, I want to buy a Sony E-series model with latest sandybridge i3 (2nd generation) , something like VPCEH1L0E which I saw on sony uk website, well I have an intel 510 ssd which i want to install once i got this laptop in my hand. My question comes here..is it a pain to change the hard drive , I mean some models in the E series are basically similar. Do they have a drive slot or you have to dismantle the whole thingy ??