Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

Thought we could use an FW Owners Thread as there are threads for each of the other series.

Feel free to post comments, questions, answers and what not about the FW with other owners and experts.

If someone has found all drivers and instructions for xp downgrade and drivers, please post with links to xp drivers. I would like to put it up in here so that the people that want to run their FW on XP will have a good life.

People installing driver updates, here are drivers provided by members:

Recommended Driver Updates:
Realtek HD Audio Driver Update: - daneel3001
http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads/...&GetDown=false

Atheros Wifi card(for those who got pre-release models(bestbuy and newegg): - bobo99
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=14833

Drivers:


for Vista 32/64 bit:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNFW190&LOC=3
use the options for your model to find drivers for your OS.
It seems the drivers check for your model number, so check your model numbers first to save all types of hassles. CTOs use 190.

for XP:
someone who has downgraded send me a message please.

Guide for upgrading to Windows 7
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=355715 -- mcgregor


Guides for Optimized Usage:

Clean Install Guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=292475 - roninwz

Really nice, concise guide to clean installing.

 

Somehow I thought you might be the one to start it...

 

lol. i actually thought someone would do this before me. but the search didn't show anything so i made one.

 

im getting one soon in like a week LOL

 

lol. which one did you get?

 

Excited to learn more about this laptop and hear from other who receive it. I have poor vision so th eHi-Color screen I believe would help me out quite a bit. Also, like the portability compared to other 17" notebooks.

How much more weight to you think an extended battery would add to your load? And, how much more battery time do you think could be expected from it? Is anyone getting the extended battery?

Another questions I though of, is it worth it to get the upgrade for th P8600 processor? Will daily activities be noticably faster than with the P8400?

Thanks a lot.

Gary

 

I believe this is correct:

Standard Battery VGP-BPS12 - 0.687 lb.
Extended Battery VGP-BPL12 - 1.036 lb.

But note that the extended battery sticks out (slightly) from the rest of the laptop.

 

Thank you. Now, what about the processor upgrade. is it worth it, give significant performance gains in daily use?

Gary

 

Ok so I was thinking about getting one of these FW series to do a few school projects on and maybe a few power point presentations. I was also thinking about using it to take a few programming courses in college/university. Would it be a good pick?

 

Hey guys, scroll up and look to the left.

See what's #1 on the "Popular Sony Laptops" list?

 

haha this is a good choice jrome. =D atleast good enough for me to buy it and ive been researching the longest time for a great one. haha

 

Does anyone know whether or not the graphics card is soldered to the motherboard? I may be looking to upgrade the GPU to an HD3650 or an HD3870. Assuming European models have it, it should work...

 

I believe it like other notebooks with be impossible to upgrade that way. But Cossack, you shouldn't need to worry about that, Ukraine should have 2 models with the 3650.

 

perhaps one day companies such as sony will allow for a swap in gpus on their models. maybe one day...

 

That's the problem. I will be traveling to the U.S. and will be planning to buy a notebook there. Prices in the U.S. are much more cheaper.

 

well in that case, in Europe, i think the warranty is covered for all European states no matter where you buy it from. So if you wish to save some money and get the 3650, buy it from UK. Conversion is much better there. Something like 1 dollar to 75 pence rather than the 1 dollar to 1 euro.

 

Theoretically I bought this..........or more precisely actually, my mother bought 3/4 of it as a way to express her thanks for me being her vaio tech and training over the last couple of years...

KInda rather out of left field...I was most pleasantly surprised.

THANKS MOM!

(wow)

So, now we will both have two Vaios a piece.

OMG: my mom and I are fuggin dorks!

So, I'm waiting for SONY CLAUS to hurry and get this sweet thing to me....I'm kind of getting a little too fixated on this thing that isn't on my desk with the other Vaio!

Hurry Sony!

 

For info, updated Audio drivers ("High Definition Audio Codecs" (1.99) and the other one for the "ATI HDMI Audio" (2.0)) could be found here:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

First time you launch the installer it will just uninstall the previous drivers and then you have to restart. At that point Windows will use some generic driversn and then when you install it will replace those with the latest ones from Realtek.

 

thanks daneel3001 appreciated.

 

hey guys, can we change the fan settings ourselves? by default it seems that they come on very minimally.

 

glad to have someone start a thread dedicated to this really nice laptop. i was thinking of getting it for school this year over my original plans of a macbook pro. just want to ask cuz i didn't find it in the review, is the FW body made mainly of plastic or metal? does it have a good feel to it or is it like the few cheap NR series which feels nothing like anything sony tends to make?

 

The body feels like very sturdy plastic and the screen has a substantial metal casing of some sort.

 

The body seems quite sturdy as somebody said earlier but nowhere near in my view as robust as the macbook pro aluminium casing. And indeed the lid is actually quite thick and doesn't bend too easily so hopefully it is a good omen.
AFAIK the only piece of metal is on the end of the hinge/barel although it could just be paint or a very strong plastic. Hard to tell.

 

magnesium alloy case for the lid it seems.

 

I'm pretty sure the whole thing is magnesium alloy...I ran my fingers all over the lid and frame this past Sunday at Best Buy. It appears almost plastiky but I believe it's metal.

 

For some odd reason the FW CTO stopped working for me on sonystyle.ca and changing the options does not affect the price nor the specs. Anyone else getting this or is it just me? (in canada that is)

 

I had the same problem, but if you configure it to the last step (the back order button), the price and estimate date will be refresh.

 

I think its made of magnesium alloy with a few of the removable parts for ram and what not probably made of plastic. I can tell you this much its better than any hp case and that includes their business line.

To tell you the truth most macbooks felt like glossed heavy plastic to me so eh.

 

I've fondled the magnesium alloy casing of the FZ and the PLASTIC casing of the FW (aside from the metal casing of the screen) in the store.

Unless they are trying to make metal feel like plastic, the FW is made of plastic with the exception of the screen casing.

And it's just fine.

 

What's the SR made of?

 

THe SR also felt like plastic to me. The Z they had was carbon fiber. I think they should make the FW in Carbon Fiber superman stuff and charge the same price!

 

Something fondle-able I hope.

 

Ha!

I saw that too, but I wasn't gonna touch it. So to speak.

 

I don't know what's all the hoopla about aluminum use on laptops. basic thermochemistry...

Aluminum transfers heat very well compared to plastic. If you place ice on a piece of aluminum, it will melt faster than if its just on a countertop. This can be seen as two sided pro and cons:

May keep inside of laptop cooler -> Making palm rest much warmer than plastic would be. Also, it can cause those little shocks/tingly static.

OR

May transfer heat (if its hotter outside of laptop) INTO the laptop. BAD.

Plastic on the other hand, probably does little to transfer heat, putting most of the work on the internal fan system. However, you likely won't have to worry about too hot of palm rests if the internal cooling system works good enough.

Conclusion: Aluminum looks nice, but I don't think it's functionally beneficial all that much, and may even provide to be a con as described above.

 

Ok so, I'll be getting this laptop in september for my birthday ^_^. It will take me through my last yr of highschool and hopefully programming in college/uni. $$

 

Check out the "Most Popular Laptops" on the home page.

 

WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS. lol

 

Well, aluminium is a lot easier to recycle, and depending of the alloy (I believe macs use aircraft grade aluminium) has way better mechanical properties than plastic, which means they need to use less material to make a good casing. that's another reason why the MBP is so thin.

EDIT: I'm thinking on buying an FW to replace the crappy HP I have now. It looks damn good. but this gpu thing (no HD3650 for the US) is making me doubt. I don't know if I can cope with a GPU so inferior to what I have now.

 

i am a to-be owner of a FW. planning to do a cto with xbrite-hicolor and 3gb ram.

I have posted this in another thread but this might be a better place. I have read abt one problem faced on this laptop. If u try to do fullscreen on a youtube video, instead of the video, all you get is a black screen with a diagonal line...something on these lines.

Whats your exprience with that? Can you please try it out and report back? mention the graphics card...ATI or Intel? I watch a lot of full-screen youtube videos hence this is important for me.

I researched on the net abt this youtube issue. It is happening with other monitors (probably all high-end ones) too. From what I gathered, people have reported this to be related to the ati graphics card....might be that coupled with the high resolution. but there's a solution to that.

it seems that if u right-click on the video (in small-screen not fullscreen), go into the flash settings and remove the tick-mark on the 'hardware acceleration' box, the problem does get resolved.

Can you try and see if it works? after you do that, does the video become choppy? Do you have to do it everytime you watch a new video...or does it get memorized? hoping for the latter to happen.

thanks in advance.

 

YouTube on an iPhone looks like complete garbage. Why in the world would you want to blow that up on a large hi res screen?

 

I prefer putting it full-screen and viewing from 6 feet than looking at the small screen from 2 feet. just personal preference I guess.

 

Hi, my FW11J arrived today, but I´ve found a problem

Apparently anydvd cannot work with Matshi ta BD-CMB UJ-120 drive. So I cannot play DVDs from another regions. Does anybody know if this can be fixed?

Thanks in advance.

 

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/region.html
http://www.dvd-x-player.com/
http://www.dvdidle.com/

 

so is FW bad at heat management?

I played Crysis (grahics was set to medium), for the first time on my plasticy new laptop for about 2 hours on my lap the whole time and it barely got warm at the bottom and it was normal temperature where the palms rest. Imagine how I suffered using a touchpad in FPS game, but after awhile I got used to it...

 

definitely plastic, on one of the forums, i think the original review, someone posted how after a week of use the metalish look has rubbed off due to rubbing against the screen when closed

 

Where did you get your Fw11J from ? As im am looking to get one! currently only available in Germany and Spain, !! but i want a UK QWERTY KEYBOARD So where u get urs from ?

 

Just read that heat thing. Guys, I highly doubt FW is made of plastic. Different elements (crosses between pure metals and nonmetals of some sort, or just straight magnesium) are probably used by Sony.

And no, the Macbook Pro isn't as robust; I've read a lot on how it dents easily.


Anyways.....





Can one of you FW139 owners tell me what color it is? Like what white or grey, and what color keys? I got one from NewEgg coming to me soon.




Thanks

 

Is that a blu-ray burner or just a blu-ray reader?

 

Thanks I´ll check it

I´m Spanish, I bought it from sony shop

FW11J is just a blu-ray reader.

 

The inside of a laptop will ALWAYS be hotter than the outside environment. That's basic physics - the laptop's base temperature IS the temperature of the environment, and only heats up when the computer comes into use. Therefore, aluminum is always better for heat transfer as it transfers heat from inside the PC to the environment outside.