Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

you sure you have the extended battery? I have the standard one and get the same battery life for max, 2hrs and 20 min.

I still don't understand why sony would mention 256mb of ram on their site for that specific model.

 

Yes, I definitely have the extended battery. It sticks out quite a bit underneath the laptop.

Any chance we have different specs? Mine has a blu-ray drive, P8600 cpu, 320gb 7200rpm HDD, Radeon 3650 gpu, and the FullHD 1920x1080 display.

I was really hoping for 3 hours battery life with the extended battery, in power saver mode with wifi turned off. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

 

hmm that can't be right, check to see what model of battery you have,

my specs are identical to yours except, that I do not have a blu ray drive.

VGP-BPS13/S this is the standard battery.

the model number on the large cap battery is VGP-BPL13

 

Yup, my battery is VGP-BPL13. Is it possible that the Blu-Ray drive consumes THAT much more power? What were you doing when you tested your battery life?

 

Finnius,
I purchased the FW245 from best buy on Black Friday also, and yes under the screen it says VGN-FW200.

 

I only browsed the net, and posted on forums, some also word processing work, but mostly browsing then, on the lowest brightness for the screen and on power saver mode.

 

Irittmer,

Thanks for the quick reply! Only other questions I have then are these: When I check the specs, it says the Hard drive is 222 GB. The ad and box say 250 GB. Also did you box have any Sony manuals or software from either Sony or Windows Vista discs? All mine had was the Geek Squad Restore disks - which will do the trick - but just wondering if I lost anything during the setup.

Thanks again.

Other then my scare with the number - I love the look and feel of this laptop and testing the Blu Ray player was incredible - you can change scenes in a heartbeat by dragging the little indicator at the bottom. On my Blu Ray DVD player hooked up to my TV, that process is painfully slow.

 

This is normal...after formatting, OS, and other bloatware you will have much less than 250gb available.

 

where in the Sony Documents does it says that VT virtualization is disabled?

i have gone through the documents annd setup guides i got, and i cant seem to find a mention of this.

 

It should also be noted that drives never really have the amount stated.

Interesting read here:

EDIT: It should also be noted that Sony laptops also have a hidden hard-drive partition that holds the Recovery data.

 

I also got the sony vaio from BestBuy and my model number is VGN-FW200 as well. for me it came with a movie on blueray disc and a antivirus, but i didn't receive any restore disk. is that something that's supposed to be in the package?
Thanks

 

Yup my 320 with the hidden partition comes out to 298 GB and that is a shame, since 20 gigs is a nice chunk of space :/. Oh well.

Not sure of best buy or futureshop provides the recovery discs perhaps some do others do not. It's always a good idea to make the discs right away and get it out of the way.

 

Can anyone with a 320G/7200rpm FW290 tell me if your HDD is noisy? (There was a post earlier about a "sparkly" sound....how about under normal running conditions?).

I'm returning my 250G/7200rpm FW290 to Sony (because of bad pixels and something loose inside the case), and want to order a replacement. My 250G drive makes a constant whirring/hissing sound that's a bit annoying in a quiet room, but is the 320G any quieter? Should I switch?

 

Some of the drive space also gets used for the Linux partition that runs all the "instant on" features.

 

guys i got my FW285J last week, and want to make sure i have the latest video drivers.

is this the latest for the ATI Radeon HD3650?

(taken from device manager)
Driver Date: 7/17/2008
Driver Version: 8.513.1.0

 

Hello,

I got the 320 7200rmp hard drive and it's noisy!
when in a silent room u can hear it spinning.. sometimes when i take my hand of thep palm rest u can hear a vibration noise etc..

weird to be honest, but somethings are making me wanting to take it back

 

The VT virtualization where is it located that it has been disabled?

i can't seem to find it anywhere in my books etc.

any clue where?

 

I've been trying to get in contact with a Sonystyle customer service rep all night, with no luck. Does anybody know offhand what the return policy is? I'm not at all satisfied with the battery life of my FW, and want to look into returning it.

If I purchased it from Sonystyle.com, could I return it at a Sonystyle store?

 

Recovery partition is only about 8-9GB

it reads 298GB because Windows counts hdd space as 1024MB=1GB
but hdd manufacture counts hdd space as 1000MB=1GB
that's why Windows is showing less hdd space than what the hdd manufacture says it has

 

see the previous page tony, wolf posted a guide of the actual storage capacity and that is why I said yup, I have 298 with C drive and the partition.

 

ohh
sorry..
i have only read this page..

 

No worries, I myself was shocked to see the drop in storage space but realized I still have 220 gigs left so no point in complaining. Perhaps once the new 500gb 7200 rpm laptop drives are for sale, I will pick one up in the future.

 

Guys,

I noticed when customizing on sonystyle website that they give you a $500 option for 8GB of RAM....Can I just select the 4GB of RAM and then just go buy a 2 x 4GB of RAM? Has anyone tried to put in a pair of 4GB RAMS in each socket? What makes it 8GB RAM Max?

 

Hi mcgregor. Can't find a link to email you Can u send me a link for the XP drivers? Much appreciated

Has anyone else installed XP on the FW? All working, all good, no glitches?
Chris

 

Theoritically, if you have bought a Notebook, and inside your package you find no documentation that they disable the VT nor do they advertise this cause some people do spefically buy laptops for VT etc

you could hypothetically call sony and demand a refund or they fix the issue, as it is not adveristed anywhere and you actually have to search on their site to find it.

but if you go to a store bestbuy, futureshop, etc they dont even know that its disabled... cause if a person is just doing research on the intel p8400 processor at the intel site VT is standard.

 

I heard something like what u heard, I heard a noise from right side, from USB socket. did u heard from this place ?

 

2 Months on, still enjoying my Sony Vaio FW11e very much. Lil sad that it's already gone down to as low as £550 (in Makro) since I payed £680 in September.

 

Yeah, I have a 250G/7200 drive and I hear the whirring from the front right hand side, where the hard drive is. The USB ports are an opening in the case, so the sound comes out from there loudest. I also get the same vibration sound sometimes when my palms are off the rest. The hard drive sound is probably normal, but how about the vibration?

 

it's a mechanical device, vibration is a given, especially in a tight space like a laptop.

 

I should have been more clear....it's the vibration noise, not the feel, that I was questioning. Sounds like something is loose inside the casing; it makes a buzzing sound.

 

hi, i purchased a FW290 CTO with the 200 dollar discount on black friday but now they have a way better deal and i was thinking about adding some stuff to my previous order like upgrading the ram and the processor.

So i called customer service but they said i couldnt cancel my order since it was in the manufacturing process already. But i wanna know if thats true that i cant cancel or they said that to convince me to dont cancel the order.

And i was also thinking about if i could add the better procesor and the ram to my existing order or something like that.

Could you guys help me?? what are my real choices what can i do in this situation.

Thx in advance

 

ask to speak to manager then complain to manager then if the manager tells ya you are stuck then tell them that you will call your credit card company to have the credit card company cancel it. If they said go ahead, then I'd call your credit card company, tell your credit card co. that sony's website was excruciatingly slow(which it is), and you accidently hit place order when all you wanted to do was to check the price and sony will not refund it. Your credit card will then take steps to force Sony to take the product back!

 

I just went to the same situation as you.

Tell me when you have it canceled successfully.

 

They said that i will get a refund for the price diference once i get the laptop i should call them and remember the refund. They gave me a confirmation number....i think i can live with the difference of 0.13mhz i was planning to make

 

thanks bro....

 

lol, that sounds good. Could you tell me which number I should call?

 

Yes, I'm going through the same thing and I'd like the number too please.

 

I'm in the same boat hamstervil. I ordered a FW290 CTO on Friday but today saw that I could get the same config (2.4 GHz CPU/320 Gig drive/FullHD) but with a Blu-Ray drive and 3GB of RAM vs. 2GB for almost $200 less than what I paid on Friday! Of course I couldn't even get through to customer service this morning ("above average call volume" -- I wonder why), so I called the sales line. They put in a cancel request but couldn't promise it would go through depending on where it is in production and said that customer service would have the same disclaimer. I then placed the new order online.

If in the end the first order ships, I'll send back to Sony as an unopened return as they have a full refund policy. A little bit of a hassle, but worth the $400 savings on the new config and some Blu-Ray for Christmas

p.s. Just call their main number 877-865-7669 and try for sales

 

I'm amazed at how much Sony has dropped the price. From yesterday to today on the FW290 CTO, it's about a $400 drop, and that makes it worthwhile to throw in the 3 year accidental damage warranty (from Sony). The Sony site is now way cheaper then JR and Amazon. The other main lappies with BD Write, the Dell's (XPS), remain way overpriced although I considered the XPS only because of compactability at 15.4. Anyway, the FW's now are a great deal and the biggest bang for the buck in the PC World I would certainly say, at least for now.

 

I just got through to Sonystyle Customer Care. The direct line is 1-800-236-1877. I was on hold for over an hour, but it was worth it. I placed the order for my Vaio FW290CTO on November 12, and the price (before tax) was $1449.99. The price for the same config today is $1149.99... an absolutely insane price for this rig (XBRITE-FullHD 1920x1080 res, P8600 CPU, 4gb DDR2 800, 320gb 7200RPM HDD, Radeon HD3650 512mb GPU, Blu-Ray drive, large battery). They happily agreed to refund the $300 difference. As long as you are within your 30 day return period, you can get a price adjustment.

I was thinking about returning it, but at this price I may have to live with the less than stellar battery life!

 

The deal is amazing, but it's still only for Students, Faculty and Staff?

 

The big difference is the drop in price for the upgrades. Sony made a blunder IMO dropping the price right after Black Friday. Left many people who just placed orders feeling a bit ripped-off. Now the CSRs are paying for it with high call volume.

 

Configuring a T9400/4GB RAM/ATI 3650/FullHD/Blu-Ray on sonystyle right now still sets me back 1499$ so as sweet as the deal is, the above better prices are still not for anyone.

 

Was the price the same on Black Friday?

If you look at the agreement terms it states:
"If a Product's correct price is higher than our stated price, we will, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before shipping or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation." Eligibility is not even discussed in their terms and conditions.

So the worst they will do is cancel an order they don't think is correct.

I personally work with these types of vendors on a daily bases. They want to make the sale and would not do anything to jeopardize it for a measly 10% or whatever the discount it. One other note if you called them to haggle the price I bet you can get the same discount.

 

The price went back up a bit today... glad I called them last night! I just got an email saying that a supervisor has approved my request for a $318 price adjustment. I can't believe what a great deal this laptop ended up being.

Has anybody played any DVD rips (from DVD shrink) on their FW? When I try to play them using the included WinDVD software, it tells me that they aren't encoded for my region and they won't play. I installed PowerDVD, and it plays them... but they have black bars on the top (expected if the source wasn't 1.78:1) AND the sides (?) I checked in device manager, and my drive is set to region 1. When I rip them in DVD Shrink, I make them region free... so I can't understand why they won't play.

 

The $100 off promo ended.

 

Why would you be amazed? Lay off the sony cool adi. Sony, first and last of all, aggressively over prices every one of their products(especially the VAIO line) due to their so called "brand" name out of the box. The way I see it, the prices are now where it probably should have been/be.

 

Sony's Term Agreement Translation:
If you call us and bich, moan, complain bemoan and threaten us, then yes, we will refund you the money. We are just not going to give it away, you have to fight for it!

 

Stop being a Sony hater
I don't think the current Sony models are over priced, they are all fairly priced
and Sony has WAY BETTER quality over dell, hp, gateway, etc.

 

I priced out Dell, Lenovo and Sony and I received the best price from Sony. I still prefer Thinkpads but until they improve their LCD's they might as well be a Dell .