Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

no 2xx fws have hi color in the 1600x900, only the older 1xx series had it. all 1600x900 in 2xx are eco

 

I see. Then I can only hope for the FullHD on this 245J.

 

is it correct that the FW11 Blu-Ray Writer only writes CD-R's at 8x?? I can't get it to write any faster, and I think it's very slow for a new notebook these days... DVD+R's write at 4x, also not too fast

(it's the Mat****a BD-MLT UJ-220S)

 

Hi, prospective Vaio FW buyer here. Is the slightly loose battery problem common to all units? I have noticed Vaios have poorly designed battery fittings. This could be a deal breaker for me so please tell me if yours is able to move slightly in its slot. HPs and Fujitsus never have this problem.

 

Woot, my 290 came in today \o/

runs silent, heat is not an issue, and the full hd screen, 1 word

gorgeous!

the book it came in was huge, the weird thing is, it first went from cali, to memphis then to winnipeg, and finally to my house lol. took a photo or 2 and will post it shortly.

the widescreen format is fantastic, much better than i thought it wouldd be. the letters are not that small actually and fine for me, infact its almost not even noticable for me, coming from a 19 in 1600x1200 screen.

WEI is 5.1 and the lowest score is the graphics card for those interested, well gaming graphics

 

Lucky YOU!!!
Which 290? What color-details. Those of us about to order want to know.
I'm looking at the 290JTH but also the FW.

 

hehe 2 photos





specs are as follows

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz)
LCD 16.4" (XBRITE-FullHD™)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650 with 512MB vRAM
WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Windows Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
Standard Battery
Microsoft® Works
Black
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
3 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GB+1GB)

no blu ray since we have a stand along player at home already.

I plan to start uninstalling trail stuff soon and streamlining bootup, but not this week, probably next.

 

Random comment, I went to check out the FW in person the other day and I wondered why the "white" and "black" colours have a rugged type surface while the "Titanium Gray" color has a sleeker and smooth surface. Is there any reason behind this or did I just misjudge?

 

not sure, i noticed that myself as well, maybe its just something sony decided.

that is why I choose the black one, not shinny and no fingerprints.

 

i was looking to buy VGNFW285DH - would this have the hiColor display?
it comes with the 3670 ati.

the post on this seciton confused me as to what has hi or eco.

thanks

 

Yes, it does come with the full HD screen

Resolution: 1920 x 1080
XBRITE™: Technology: Yes

 

Wow! CONGRATS, ascariss!
I'm glad it finally came and the wait is over. When you can please post more impressions and maybe even a small review. And especially some more pics of the screen and the available screen-res (1920x1080, 1600x900). THX!

 

I noticed that when I looked at them this past week in a Sony Style store. I actually like the smoother finish of the titanium gray better, because the rough black surface seems like it shows scuffs and scratches more. I tested them by scraping my fingernail across the lid on each of them (hey, it's a demo, that's what they're for!), and it left a scuff mark on the rough black surface but not on the smooth titanium gray surface. I wish they would have made the black color smooth, too. Not a shiny black, because shiny surfaces are one of the most annoying design trends in laptops right now, but a smooth matte black finish would have looked nice.

I am about 95% ready to pull the trigger on an FW290 myself (the $1,149 NewEgg special), but there's still that 5% of me which is considering the smaller SR290 that I could get configured exactly the same as the FW290 for the exact same price. I just don't want to have any buyer's remorse, especially since NewEgg doesn't allow returns on laptops. What to do, what to do....

 

and some benchmarks as well, pls.

 

DAMMIT!! I just looked at NewEgg and now the FW290JAB is back up to $1,399!!

 

Congrats ascariss .

When you have the time, could you do a 3dMark06?

 

no 1600x900 on the 290 1920x1080, it only has

1024x768
800x600

no other resolutions are available. I will try some benchmarks latter on but problem is the programs are not small and I am kind of busy. maybe later today or tomorrow.

battery drain is kind of bad, I left it at 100% charged, and put it to hibernate, came back this morning, 10 hours later and the battyer was at 70%.

lol maybe I should have turned off wireless.

 

Congrats Ascariss!!
Beauty. Hope to be a Vaio member soon.
nice pix.

 

I ran hd tune on the drive here, not sure I am happy with the results, was expecting better performance myself, perhaps I will upgrade to a better drive next year, again not sure

HD tune - 320 7200 rpm drive




btw someone was looking for xp downgrade for FW here it is
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=277129

 

what do u mean by pre release laptop?

I like the vaio from futureshop

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10113574&catid=

R the video anygood for call of duty 4 at 50 FPS +??? or CS Source? it's a ATI 3650 but whats up with that intel graphics chipset confusion plz xplain!!!!

 

I must say I've owned everything from dell laptops to macbooks, but a couple months ago I purchased my first sony vaio laptop (vgn-fw190) customized it, and i will never buy anything less than a sony vaio again. Just a couple of weeks ago I bought another sony vaio vgn-fw290(customized) and its just great!

 

Congrats. the 290 is a fantastic machine, especially with the full hd screen.

Where did I write pre release? if I did please tell me hehe, since I can't find where I wrote it , the 285 does come with the ati card, but like all pre configurated models on the canadian sony site, they only have 256 mb of ram on the video card, whereas the configure to order FWs come with 512mb of ram.

the chipset is on all models as far as I know. btw not sure you will like the bilingual keyboard, I for one did not like it at the store, that is why the cto was a nice fix since it only comes with an english keyboard.

 

Post those 3dmark scores ascariss!!!!!! Pretty Please

 

I have the extended battery and mine is loose. Also, both the rubber feet on the battery have fallen off.

 

My power button barrel has gotten very loose and it feels like it's about to fall off. I've had my CTO FW since early August and I like it but these minor consruction quality issues bother me a lot.

 

I am downloading the programs tonight, and will do a tests tomorrow.

 

Hello, I have a Vaio FW11M and I can assure you that the battery (regular: the one I got with the unit) is not loose.

 

Hello, I had to change my DPI resolution from 96 (default) to 110 to make reading fonts comfortable for me. There is also a 120 dpi option, but I would not recommend it as it may produce display bugs in poorly designed programs.
Note: DPI is freely scalable.

 

Would it be possible to upgrade my processor in my FW from a Intel P8400 to a Intel T9400 without any complications?

 

hmm I can't seem to get pcmark05 to work correctly, it seems to crash after one of the tests.

I get an error in vista

says windows - no disk

I skip the test, submits results, but no results show up, I've never used the program so perhaps someone can help me out here.

 

Yes, you can swap CPU's with no problem. Just make sure you get the newer version which has a 1066mhz FSB, rather than the older 800mhz FSB.

However, you might run into a problem with Sony if you have an issue with the PC which requires warranty repair, because they could claim that you voided the warranty by swapping out the CPU. I don't know how picky they are about things like that, every company is different. What I would do is contact them, preferably via email so you have it in writing, and ask them if upgrading the CPU will void the warranty. Obviously it will void the warranty on the CPU itself, but hopefully it shouldn't affect the warranty on the rest of the system.

 

Thanks for your reply. Do you think it would be better to go for the Intel P9500 rather than the T9400?

 

ok err, I tried running pcmark05, but it fails and I could only get CPU. graphics and memory to run, so no hdd test or pcmark score :/ The hdd tests fail for some reason. not sure why.

scores were:

CPU - 6113
graphics - 5651
memory - 5118

this is all on stock drivers, no updating on any drivers

in comparison CeeNote got these scores for his FW

CPU - 5828
graphics - 4127
memory - 5014

only differences are
I have a P8600 vs P8400
same memory, so not sure why mine was larger (only tiny bit difference of score)
I have the 3650 (512mb) he has the 3470 (256mb)

edit
ok so I ran 3dmark06, and can't say the results are that great, infact I was expecting a bit more

3053 using the resolution of 1280x1024

using standard drivers mind you, on notebookcheck.net the average for the card seems to be 3500 so hmm I am way below average here. :/

 

Anyone here can explain why Sony not give the 1600x900 res for FullHD FW? That's a shame, and I wonder why? Thanks all

 

not sure, perhaps they want to keep the FullHD theme, so 1920x1080 but interesting situation just occured today, I plugged my FW into my tv via hdmi and all of a sudden more resolutions became available

1400x1050
1280x1024
1280x720
1024z768

not sure what happened, I did not update the drivers, all I did was connect it to the tv

 

Yeah that 3dmark score isnt good. i figuredit would be 3800 plus because of the ddr3. So if get the HD screen can i still set the screen for a lower resolution to play a game???

 

Yes, you can lower it, but the options are only 1024x768 and 800x600, no 1600x900

 

I would personally get the P9500 because it uses 25W instead of 35W, and therefore it will run a little bit cooler and you will get slightly better battery life (before people flame me, I said only slightly better - maybe just a few minutes or so).

 

The resolution choices are governed by the graphics driver, and Sony probably modded the ATI driver and deleted the 1600x900 option for some reason. Maybe if you go to ATI's website and download the newest unmodified version of the drivers then you will get those resolutions back as an option. Just an idea.

 

i got the white, rougher colored one because i like the keyboard better. the darker laptops have black keyboards with white numbers, and the lighter ones have white keys, which i like better.

 

mine isn't loose at all and the rubber hasn't fallen off yet. i guess it just varies from computer to computer.

 

Not even a little wobbly?

 

Hi!
Mine Fw with Ati hd 3470,
Connected it HDTV via HDMI,
And used Catalyst control center.make Tv as a second monitor.
TV recognize 1080P and played Windows 1080P trailer smoothly.
Sure do with Bluray

 

I could previously install Vista 64bit on the second partition successfully, all FN buttons, S1 button, On Screen Display did actually work, and I had noted down all steps.

I replaced HDD of my FW11S with a Seagate 7200.3 320Gb disk. And followed the same steps for a successful installation. But this time FN buttons, S1, and OSD didn't work. I also tried to install Sony Video Shared Library, and it said "my system was NOT recognized as a Sony Vaio". Why on earth does this happen? I only replaced the HDD, does Sony software check the recovery partition to see if it's a Vaio?

(All drivers and Sony software are working correctly, except mentioned above)

 

My FW11ZU has a slightly wobbly battery. I don't really notice it unless I pull the laptop out of it's case. When I grip the rear of the laptop and the battery, I can feel it wibbly-wobbling slightly.

It's very annoying.

 

When connect the computer with the intel graphics to a tv has the 1080p outpout or is better the Ati card?

 

what do you mean by a little wobbly? every battery on every model of laptop that you can take off has at least a fraction of a millimeter of give, otherwise it wouldn't fit in the laptop. i know that if i take my hand and shake it, there will be a tiny but of space between, but i have never felt it just by using it normally, just like every other laptop ever made with a removable battery.

 

What's everyone cleaning their screen with?

 

Sony Notebook Utilities (containing Vaio Control Center etc) is what controls the multimedia keys and OSD, so you probably haven't installed it...

 

No, I installed them in the way Sony site suggested, I followed the exact same steps as I did last week for a clean install on the original disk, I had no problems then... I also noticed that Vaio Power Management doesn't work neither on the new disk. And I think the problem is Sony software can't tell it's a Vaio anymore, there might be a hardware footprint in the BIOS.