Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

Try to clean out the fans and the laptop with compressed air spray.

 

Guys I have question about upgrading my SVE1511W1E. Is there any point (now) to upgrade it to i7-3612QM? I got i5-2450M but sometimes I feel it needs more power. Also how many HDD/SDD I can have inside? I'd like to have Samsung 830 256GB and stock Hitachi 750GB in it. Is it possible?

 

I'm thinking of swapping the HDD for an SSD too.

I've read that Samsung and the Crucial ones are the best/reliable.

Do you know if there's a particular Samsung model that'll fit the Sony Vaio 1711C5E? Is it just a standard 2.5" size?

Also, would it be possible to install the operating system with the factory software using the 5 recovery discs created by Vaio Care? Or Is a HDD clone software required?

 

Any suggestions for the following laptop ?

Amazon.com: Sony VAIO E Series SVE15114FXS 15.5-Inch Laptop (Aluminum Silver): Computers & Accessories

I know the price currently shows in 750$ but this same laptop was available for 579 $ yesterday through amazon as seller. I am planning to wait until the price comes back to under 600$

If anyone can tell me how good or bad this is, it would be great.

 

I would just copy stuff from HDD to SSD Also I would make one copy to external HDD just in case SDD fails in future.

 

Copy by using a cloning utility?

Else, could I just use vaio recovery (and the 5 recovery discs) to install everything onto the SSD whilst the removed HDD will have everything on just in case the SSD ever fails...?

 

Yes by Norton Ghost etc. Well Vaio recovery is alright but You will be safe by just copying recovery partition as well on that SSD and somwhere else. I know that Sony is touchy about it even so better to keep it. So when You put SSD into Vaio copy recovery and other partitions to SSD and do recovery (on SSD it will take "seconds"). Still having the old HDD keep recovery on it. So something similar that I'm doing:
Recovery on SSD
Old HDD put into e.g. Icy Box USB3.0
Have recovery stored on Your DATA Drive (my case 3TB)

Look neat and tidy And voila! Hope I helped

 

My 256GB Samsung arrives tomorrow

So you're suggesting I use a cloning utility? Will that (Norton Ghost) clone the hidden recovery partition onto the SSD too? Or would I need to go to Vaio Care and create a recovery, but select USB drive instead of optical media? Sorry, i'm just a little confused here...

With the Norton Ghost method is it just a case of:

1) Plug the SSD in via USB and look for firmware upgrade.
2) While connected via USB, use Norton Ghost to clone the HDD to the SSD.
3) Replace the HDD with SSD and boot up

I wouldn't need to use the 5 recovery discs I made with Vaio Care?

Also, what about enabling AHCI on the Vaio? Is it automatic?

Final Question:

Would it be advisable to allocate the 'scratch disk' parts of adobe software (premiere, photoshop, after effects, Lightroom) to an external HDD or on the internal SSD?

Those softwares would only be used as a hobby and not too intensively.

I'm led to believe that reliability - number of writes - has increased on SSDs?

 

Just copy whole drive (hidden, Windows etc) by Norton (I think it got that option) to SSD. Creating DVDs is just Sony's explaining "if you lost/deleted recovery and didn't create DVDs we dont give a damn"
Yes first connect SSD as USB drive and do Norton stuff. Also I would recommend to put another copy into another drive just in case.
AHCI is enabled (I think - BIOS is very very poor).

Well put it as You would like to

 

I have a Vaio EB model VPC-EB2UFX/BI it has the ATI Radeon HD 5650 in it. I'm curious as to whether or not I can remove this graphics card and replace it with an nvidia model. I really hate the issue with ati drivers and them never working right.

Has anyone done this or seen this done?

 

Problem keyboard on Vaio VPCEA3M1E

The keyboard on this laptop has developed problems which make the laptop unusable with its own keyboard. An example of the problems is:

Pressing the 1, 3, 5, 7, 0r 8 keys also sends the equivalent F1,F3,F5,F7,F8 key.
The reverse is also true e.g pressing F3 also sends the 3 key.

Other keys which behave incorrectly include = & +, Backspace & Insert, Page Down & End

The shift key only works with some of the expected keys.

Interestingly, a USB connected (Apple) keyboard works perfectly.

It looks like something has gone wrong with any encoding which is done by the in-built keyboard.

I think I'm left with replacing the keyboard.

I have bought a replacement keyboard Sony Vaio VPC-EA3M1E Black UK Replacement Laptop Keyboard (KEY616): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories - hopefully it is the correct one, however I am having trouble removing the existing keyboard in accordance with How to Replace the Sony Vaio VPC-EA keyboard - laptoppartstore. I eventually managed to pry up about 1 or 2 inches of the top of the keyboard surround, however it was so tough I felt that if I tried to pry any further I would break the keyboard.

At this stage I decided to stop and seek further help before continuing.

During my searching it has become clear that most laptops have their own requirements for removing the keyboard.

Has anyone actually successfully changed a keyboard on this particular model.

I would appreciate some help here.

Thanks

Geoff

 

Hey everyone!

I'm a proud owner of a new E15112FXS i3 2370 and I have a quick question: While surfing the 'net, or doing a spreadsheet, the temperature is about 49* celsius as reported by CPUID HW Monitor. When I load up a game (nothing super fancy like Crysis), inevitably the temperature reaches 68* C to 70* C. I am using a Belkin laptop stand+fan that I had for my last Sony Vaio and it served me well, so I decided to keep using it.

Is my Vaio going to suffer a premature death if I keep running it near 70* Celsius? What can I upgrade/modify to decrease the heat, if anything? Do I just have to not run 3D games?

Thanks in advance! I love this laptop besides the heat issue, I'm just worried about it!

 

The Eseries has its GPU soldered onto the motherboard. The Only way to change the GPU would be to buy a new motherboard and this would only get you a different AMD GPU. Sorry. The only laptops I have seen with replaceable GPU's are high end Laptops like DELL Alienwares and other custom gaming laptops that use the MXM GPU Card.

The temperature inside depends on the temperature of the climate you are in and other technical stuff. It may be possible that the thermal paste on the GPU/CPU is not working well and that the fan has dust clogging the fins. Open it up, get some DIAMOND IC pate or some Arctic Silver paste and apply it and thoroughly clean the fan and heatsink fins.

Hi, it may have been worthwhile going to device manager, keyboards and uninstalling and deleting the keyboard driver and restarting. This could have been a driver issue. I remember several pages back that someone replaced their UK keyboard with a US one and had a blog with pictures and everything on how to do it. Try running a search on this forum thread.

 

While I am in there, it seems like a good time to upgrade from 4 GB RAM to 8 GB... is there a good place to buy the RAM for the E series?

 

Hi Ravenperch,

re: Problem keyboard on Vaio VPCEA3M1E

Thanks for your suggestion. I had in fact already uninstalled then reinstalled the keyboard driver. It didn't help. This may be consistent with the external keyboard working OK. I would imagine the external keyboard uses the same driver as the internal keyboard?

Can anyone help with the mechanics of changing the keyboard as per my original post?


Thanks,

Geoff

 

Geoff, this may be the solution to your problems.

Hold the Ctrl and Fn key down together and press also the (Num LK) key. All held together This should revert the keys back as normal.

Answer: Num Lock + Fn + Ctrl all held together.
Alternately: Fn + Num Lock all held together
I understand on your Sony Vaio VPCEA3M1E Laptop FN key is the second key on the bottom row of keys, and Num LK/ScrLk is the fourteenth key on the top row of keys.

The problem occurs when your computer thinks you have the 'Fn' key (otherwise known as the function key) held down right now, even though you don't!

Alternately, try hitting the following key-combos in Windows, pressing the keys down (together).

Dell = Fn + F4
Compaq = Fn + ScrLk
Lenovo = FN + Num Lock
IBM Thinkpad - Shift + Scroll Lock Num

Others:
Fn + F11
Ctrl + F11
Fn + Num Lock
Fn + Shift + Num Lock


Best of Luck

 

I put some Mushkin 8gb ram in mine from newegg. Works great and mushkin is very high quality. Cost $40 I think when I got it. Just make sure you get the same timings as your current ram.

 

I heard that the sve1511c5e ( which should be E series?) had issues with the plastic of the cover and the screen, but since I may want to purchase one of these I wanted to ask if this is true and wanted to hear your experience with the caseand the screen! Can it take some pressure e.g.?

 

Hi!

I bought a vaio eb1s1/bj 2 years ago. Now, the fan as become real annoying, and the temperatures real high, like 80º/85º. I think it's time to clean it, and put some new thermal compound.
For the cleaning i just bought a compressed air can, and i choose the Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal compound.
What i want to ask you is if there is some kind of tutorial, or video, or anything else that show how to open and remove the fan so i can clean it.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi all,

I purchased a Sony VAIO E serie (EB1M1E/BJ) for djing.

The problem is that the laptop randomly locks up when i use it. I mean : screen is on, trackpad is locked, and the fan makes more noise. I sometimes can hear "clicks" of the HDD.

After a fresh install of Seven 64 bits. Then i install traktor, drivers, etc. And *bim random FREEZE*. Mouse, keyboard. I have to reboot mannualy and have the "Windows Kernel Power Error" in the event log of Seven.

Sometimes it works for 1 hour, sometimes a freeze after 3 mins.

Ar first i thought it was the audio4dj or a drivers problem but i tried everything, optimisations, disable any kind of power saving mode, unused peripherals disabled..., even with my M-audio 410 and a express card.

Sometimes it freezes at windows logon.

So... I tested with winxp 64 bits... the same.

My temperatures are good, tested with a OCCT during 1 hour without probs.

I RMA the laptop 2 times they tested it with sony software, occt, they found nothing. Today i call sony support... But i think it will cost... So i someone could help me before...

Thank you.

 

Hey all, took a quick look through the Vaio thread and through this topic (last 100 pages or so) but could not find exactly what I was looking for. My sisters EB laptop was getting really slow, crashing a lot, and kept having some popup wanting to install something or other so I figured it was due for a clean install of windows. I went ahead and reinstalled windows (7 Ult 64bit) and found out none of the fn+ keys to be working nor do the three hardware keys above the keyboard work. Her battery is also stuck at 80% and won't charge any further because of the setting in the power management software from before.

I reinstalled several of the Vaio utilities, but the option to set battery charge was not present and to boot it kept telling me her battery was not compatible. So I am going to clean install windows again and then before I do anything else I am hoping someone here can help me with the order to correctly install everything else. I need the Fn+ buttons to be working, hardware buttons, OSD, and battery charge % options. Not really worrying about anything else unless it is required.

Thanks

 

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say a quick bye! I've been on this thread since page 100 and boy has the EB been one hell of a laptop. But now I went with the belief that systems should get less bulkier and pack more power and so I got the Gigabyte U2442N after I sold my EB on Ebay. This new one is about 1.8cm thick, has a 128GB mSATA SSD with a 1TB HDD, 16GB RAM, i5 Ivy Bridge 3.10Ghz, 1600x900 with a NVIDIA GT640M which has 2GB of dedicated DDR3 RAM.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/other-manufacturers/681789-gigabyte-u2442n-review.html

The 1920x1080 display on my EB was one of the best displays I have ever seen with excellent viewing agles and almost no WLED bleed whatsoever. I have yet to come across an lcd screen (ok maybe the zenbook prime) that's better than this one. plus I'll miss the BD-RW and the NUMPAD.

My EB heatsink used to clog a lot with dust. I recommend IC Diamond thermal paste with this. The temperatures at idle on the EB should be less than 40 Deg Centigrade in a 15 degcenti room.

My EB LCD panel also got some arte facts once. If you do get them, unplug the lcd connector, run a tape on the plastic layer housing the lcd PCB and stick a tape on the connector, plug it in and carefully stretch the tape and stick it onto the lcd. The connector got loose.

My Q key also needed 1 or 2 additional hits to get it to register.

The glossy version is very prone to scratches.

I've also noticed that the EB does not accept single sticks of 8GB RAM. The max you can put in is 2X4GB sticks.

So long folks, its been a good long thread for me!:hi2:

 

It's been fun with my EB as well, but am looking to upgrade to an S15 soon, can't live without the decent screen and numpad now!

 

Hello guys! I bought an E series for $550 OTD for my grandfather. Is that a good deal? Either way, I don't think I'll be returning it. Before handing it over to him, I'd love to do a clean install of the OS partition while being able to keep the factory restore partition. All the drivers and goodies I need are on this page right? Sony eSupport - SVE15112FXS - Support Yes, it's the SVE15112FXS model.

 

You can install all the basic drivers from the Sony website. It may be quicker to only download the network/ LAN/ WiFi driver from the Sony Support website and then use a driver updater software such as Driver Genius or Driver Navigator to automatically download all the necessary software. This will ensure that you get all the latest drivers as sometimes Sony do not post the latest drivers.

 

Hi all.
I am newbie in this forum.
I am proud owner of VPCEB16FG since last 2 yrs.
Now I want to upgrade my processing power.
Is there anyway I can do it?
One thing more, can I upgrade RAM from 4 GB to 8GB?

 

Has anyone succeeded in replacing the E14 (2012)'s standard hard drive with an SSD and replacing the ODD with the hard drive?

 

Let's rephrase the question: does anyone know if it's possible to replace the E14 (2012)'s HDD with a SSD and ODD with the HDD (or at least remove the ODD to lose some weight)?

 

I,m a newbie here. After a lot googling i came here to the forum about official sony vaio. I have a vaio E series notebook vpceb36fg .

Practically i' ve no problem with the notebook but technically there is a problem i'm facing out here is that when i connect my pen drive which is a kingston G3 data traveller it connects easily but when i connect other pen drives or data cards it shows me error stating that

device not configured successfully or driver not installed successfully

what should i do guys??

one more problem arise with the update of ATI Catalyst control center (ccc) 12.8 . I installed it it with the help of topics described here in back pages .

Before i was facing a problem when i removed ccc 8.723 its a update version provided by sony it was ok but when i installed ccc12.8 a physical dump occurred & the blue screen came up continued with installing ccc 12.8 it installed successfully but getting no video.

After the help topics... removed ccc 8.732 used driver sweeper, stopped service amd externel service, deleted atiexx after restart installed ccc 12.8 .. it installed with no problem completed successfully but the same problem was there no video with addition cpu fan continuously on full throttle relaxes for seconds but after that again on full throttle...

what should i do guys????

 

Why? Has it been impossible to replace? I got my E14A190X last week and have been thinking of upgrading it in the coming weeks to an SSD. I'd recommend an SSD that's the same height as the original HDD, which is about 7mm (So Samsung's 830 series should fit alright).

 

The processor can be upgraded to one that fits the socket but you need to be careful as to what processor you choose. If its too high spec, it may cause overheating in the system. Yes you can upgrade to a maximum of 8GB RAM. These have to be 4GB X2 sticks and not a single 8GB stick.

 

Anyone with a Eseries SVE14E290x on this board? I just ordered 1TB (5400rpm) hard drive 8GB (8GB x1) DDR3-1600MHz CD/DVD player / burner (5300mAh) AMD Radeon™ HD 7670M (2GB) hybrid graphics 3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3632QM quad-core processor (2.20GHz / 3.20GHz with Turbo Boost), Touch screen Windows 8 64-bit 14" LED backlit touch display (1600 x 900). I wanted to get rid of the optical drive, and swap in a SSD, anyone with any info on what drive I should get, and if this is even possible?

I looked around , and can't find any videos for this model?

thank you guys for the help!
Raj

 

Hi,
anyne got any experience about upgrading Vaio EA series to Windows 8 ?
is it worth? did everything goes well? or should I as well ditch this one and buy a new one instead?
thanks

 

Many issues, you might want to try a clean install!

 

Hey. I'm a proud owner of a VPCEB i5-520m with a 5650m since more than 2 years ago. Now my laptop every each time that I try to turn him on he doesnt, till I try many times. This can easilly take till 5 minutes. the button goes green but then in turns off. At first the fan goes all crazy, it turns off and then it just that nothing happens till I try many times to put it on. I would aprriciate some kind of advise about what to do. Many thanks in advance.

 

I got a SVE1511MFXS a few weeks ago and I'm having some issues after a clean install of windows 8 on it.
After installing windows and all drivers provided by sony, Vaio Smart Network does not seens to work (even though I downloaded it from from my windows 8 drivers page at sony's website).
As this model doesn't have a physical button to turn on wifi, I have to use Vaio Smart Network to turn it on, but the software doesn't seens to work. I've reinstalled it a lot of times.
Does anybody also have this issue?

 

what ea series type do you have, mine is VPC EA16/FG
sony website said it stopped supporting this type for windows 8
does the fn button works? can you use the three button and also vaio care working?

Thanks a lot

 

I looked around , and can't find any videos for this model?

I feel your pain being an early adopter. I bought my wife this laptop. I believe the DVD drive is shared with the Vaio SA. My rational is as follows. I upgraded her from a Lenovo Y460 in which I had upgraded the drive to a blu-ray burner. The burner was too tall to fit (it's one screw to remove the DVD drive). I assume (key word) that the drive is 9.5mm thick. You'd start with something like this and then follow the steps for other models.

9 5mm 2nd SATA HDD Caddy for Sony Vaio VPCSB3S9E B Swap UJ 862A UJ8A2AS UJ862E | eBay

 

How to replace the EA Series keyboard

Re my earlier post (3561) concerning removing and replacing the keyboard on my VPCEA3M1E.
Thanks to those who responded (ravenperch and Pisani). I eventually got round to getting in touch with Sony Europe via an email address on their Support tab on their web page. I received a reply within 2 working days directing me to a Sony article entitled 'How to replace the EA Series keyboard'. It comprised detailed instructions with photographs. It transpired I needed to remove a third screw which enabled removal of the DVD drive. This revealed a hole in the chassis under the top RH end of the keyboard. It was possible to poke a finger through the hole which released a number of 'locks' under the keyboard enabling it to be pushed out. From then on it was possible to lift the keyboard out of the chassis.

I removed and refitted the existing keyboard a couple of times which entailed disconnecting and refitting the fiddly film-wire connector in preparation for fitting a new keyboard. I checked operation of the keyboard each time. First time I had the same problem; second time the keyboard worked fine.

Bottom line - it appears the film wire was probably not correctly fitted originally and over a period of time had worked loose. I can understand that - it's a very fiddly job.

SO, thanks to Sony for the CORRECT keyboard removal instructions. NO NEW KEYBOARD REQUIRED!!

Geoff

 

Hi, I've had a new Vaio E series 17 inch laptop for about a month now, and the palm rest has started to discolor, it turns a lighter color than the rest of the laptop. The only color I could get the laptop in was black, and is there a way I can prevent this from happening or fix it?
Or can someone recommend me a good skin/cover? I was unable to find any for my laptop
Thanks.

 

I am going to replace the HDD in my Vaio VPC-EB2X because it is failing. I have created a system image onto an external hard drive (I have also made recovery disks and a backup of my data). After installing the new hard drive, how do I restore from the system image? I have read elsewhere on this thread that there can be issues with getting the operating system reintalled but not sure if this can be avoided by using the image rather than recovery disks?

 

I custom ordered the SVE14E290x (it took 3.5 weeks to arrive). It uses the same DVD bay size as the Vaio SA. I swapped the blu ray drive in my SA for the DVD drive in the SVE and it took less than 10 minutes (and 6 screws).

As such, you can look at any Vaio SA SSD in DVD bay video and it will translate (in necessary parts) well to this computer.

 

I hoping for some quick help from Vaio Owners as I'm helping a friend acquire a new laptop. She is very particular on the keyboard action and dislikes the chicklet keys that are now so pervasive on laptops.

She liked the keyboard action on the Vaio S series, which is the only one we've been able to put her hands on locally. But, she doesn't need an S series for the added expense. I've searched high and low to try and determine if the E series is using the same keyboard as the S series, but have yet to find the answer.

So, is anyone here able to give me a quick answer? Christmas is coming fast and I need to get this oredered!!! Thanks in advance.

 

Well, you are in luck. The E14p shares its keyboard with the vaio S -- the 13

If your friend is in college, she can go to the Vaio Education site and get a 10% discount on top of any sale prices.

Here some of the deals possible:

This is how my computer is configured:
SVE290x (with touch)
i7-3632
1600x900 (TOUCH SCREEN)
2GB Radeon 7670
1tb drive
16GB Ram

$900 + tax


SVE290x (w/o touch)
i7-3632
1600x900
1GB Radeon 7670
1tb drive
8GB Ram

$733 + tax

 

where can I get the service Manuel for sony Vaio E

 

My dad has this laptop and the left mouse click button has trouble picking up. It clicks, but you have to press really hard for it to register. I took the laptop apart to see if I could clean the contacts. Unfortunately, the contact is not accessible as the button press is soldered on the motherboard. I assembled it back together and now the bios won't post. I have taken everything apart and rechecked all the connections. I tried all combinations of ram and without HD with no luck. The power light just flashes when I press the power button to turn it on.

Any thoughts? I have taken laptops apart several times before, this is the first time I've been unsuccessful :-/

 

Hello friends, after some googling for some queries I have found this website, so I am new to this forum. Well my laptop model is E series VPCEH25EN, and its 10 months old.

Recently I have noticed that my heat sink fan is running at a more speed,I concluded this from the buzzing and humming sound. The fan runs almost continuously in that high speed mode. This problem is even more recognizable when I run it for long time non stop like 4-5 hrs or more. For the fan running at higher rpm,I decided to check the core temperature.

I downloaded Coretemp and found that my core temp during normal operation like browsing,or watching video or at idle time remains in between 45-51 C near the start time. Then after some time if I go on continuously doing work, it rises to 60-65 C and sometimes reaches maximum of 72-73 C.So the fan speed increases more, and the humming sound becomes irritating.

Is this a kind of problem?? or I am just being over cautious?? I also want to know the range of core temperature it should operate during normal work such as browsing, and also during idle time. Please throw some idea about it. I am being really tensed about it.
Thanks.

 

Hi All,

I recently purchased an e series premium with touchscreen with windows 8 pro.
When trying to setup bit locker I get the message that "This device can't use a Trusted Platform Module. Your administrator must set the 'Allow Bitlocker without a compatible TPM' option in the 'require additional authentication at startup' policy for OS volumes. I know that I can set up the authentication on a usb and configure the bios to boot from it. But I would like to be able if possible to have bitlocker functioning without having to fallback on this last resort option.

My question is that I noticed in the bios in the password area that there is a possibility to set it to custom or standard and there is a key management page appearing when set to custom with the option to set, delete, and one of them is named Trusted Platform.
Should I do manipulations there ?

Thanks.

 

my vaio VPCEB1Z1E/B cant see blue ray disks anymore
model IONEER_BD-ROM__BDC-TD02________________1.02____
somebody can help me!

 

Hello all, I have a query about partitioning a new E14p, I've posted this as a new thread in the Sony forum(which in hindsight maybe I shouldnt have). Please let me know if you have any solutions -

"Hello all,
I've purchased a new E14p with Win 8 64 bit. It has a 1TB hard drive which I want to partition. I tried some of the googled answers I came up with and being not very good at doing this, I fouled it up each time.

Here is my situation, I've got a single C drive(and all the associated Vaio recovery drives et al). C drive is about 892GB in size and I tried using Partition Wizard to resize this into 3 partitions - 150GB system and a couple of other drives 150GB and the remain 592GB in size. Partition Wizard wanted to restart and complete the action each time as it found C: was being used by something. Each attempt terminated with Partition Wizard trying to launch but ending up not launching and a Windows error message cropping up followed by Windows being unable to boot and the laptop using Autorepair to set itself right. I've tried this twice and am afraid to try it again.

I know it seems a little silly given that most people know how to do this but could someone please guide me through the partitioning process?

Thanks in advance for your patience in having read the above and providing a solution!

Ananth"