Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

So Newegg is apparently not selling the FW290JAB for the time being, possibly permanently - guess that's what happens when they keep shipping out the wrong model instead of the JAB. Anyway, still really need this computer but with Sony's lack of parts and deals right now does anyone know anywhere else to get this model of the FW?

 

I don't know what screen you got but the ECO screen on mine is perfectly fine. I'm not doubting that the Xbrite is better but the ECO is not horrible, especially not that horrible that one wouldn't buy the laptop because of it. There are are worse laptop screens out there.

Personally, when I was comparing the XPS1530 with the FW at Future Shop, I found the ECO screen better. And the ECO screen is miles better than my old laptop's screen.

 

Yeah, Sony ran out of black and titanium lids and only has white left now. They will not be getting any more CTO base units. I ran into this same problem when I originally ordered black and am at the razor's edge of getting a Titanium.

Sony has no way to modify an order - they can only cancel and they you resubmit again. I am not defending this process; I think it is crazy stupid but it is what it is...sorry bout the bad luck man - I really do know how you feel.

 

I guess I am very lucky to have received my black CTO last Thursday. Seems they also raised the prices too!

 

Thanks, turns out the problem was VLC player stutters when playing a 4GB file on the FW, but when i downloaded the codec someone mentioned i was able to run it perfectly on Widows Media.

 

Looks like they put the JAB back up, but increased the price by $50...I still think it's a good deal at that price though -

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117832

Here's to hoping that you get the right model shipped out to you if you try out newegg again.

 

Guys noob question here, i got a 250GB with mine and slow RPM or whatever, i wouldnt mind upgrading to a 300-500 GB hard drive with faster RPM.

Anyone got a link to a replacement hard drive and is it easy to do?

thanks i love this site

 

Any 2.5" SATA drive will work. I bought 320GB 7200RPM drive from newegg.

Check here for discussion on replacing hard drive on FW.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=333214

 

Thanks buddy, besides for the quieter noise, does a 7200 RPM speed up the system at all?

 

I would imagine, I have a 7200 rpm drive and bootup is quite fast, the drive at the sony store was the 5400 one, and I was not satisfied with the boottime on it.

 

Yup they canceled mine also. They said I could get a white one. YUK looking at trying to get the CTO replaced with a JRB.

 

A 7200 RPM drive will not be quieter, however one drive may tend to be quieter than another. A faster drive will help you load things quicker - windows, maps in a game, launch a program, but it will not change the inherent speed of a computer.

 

VGN-FW390 Configure-to-Order

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=20153&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921665751055

 

There are some yummy options there, including the 2.93 Ghz CPU and the SSD option

 

LOL they have the 390 up now. I think that is a mistake. Nice move Sony.

 

indeed, but I personally have no need for a ssd now, not at that size at least and the faster cpu wouldn't make a difference for me.

 

I wonder why Sony removed Intel integrated card from FW290 CTO and slashed $200 from the other models? Does it mean that a refresh for FW is imminent?

 

I think that would be a safe bet, especially with Sonystyle Canada jumping the gun with the FW390 CTO on their website.

So far all I see is CPU/hard drive upgrades for the FW3xx series.

 

The SonyStyle.com sales supervisor is supposed to call me to see what they can offer me, but he hasn't called and he honestly probably won't. Sony has the worst customer service!

 

*Shrug*

They're probably going to use the 9600 Nvidia graphics maybe? Kind of a mistake in my humble opinion. I personally will never trust nvidia again.

I mean y'all know about the nvidia notebook graphics card scandal right?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10000910-64.html

The 9600 is the only possible upgrade really. There is literally nothing else that can change. Maybe DDR3 ram? Not a big deal. DDR3 ram is more expensive to upgrade. Better to have 4GB of DDR2 ram than 2GB of DDR3.

The nehalem for laptops isn't due until Q4 of 2009 so basically Centrino 2 is all you're going to get for about 12 months.

The other possibility is an LED backlighted 1080 screen. That would be really sweet, but it'll definitely cost 100 bucks more. Worth it though.

It may not be a refresh. It may just be what Sony meant when they said they were cutting 33 percent of their consumer electronics. Liquidating inventory to get more cash flow. And hoping that the massive price slashes will move enough product that they'll look good in their Q3. Sony's Q4 ends in March.

You have to look at everything in the context of Great Depression 2.

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10106736-64.html

If you can wait another 6 to 9 months, 34nm solid state drives from Micron/Intel will be out.

If demand for the solid state drives go up, those poor people who got layoff in Idaho might get their job back....

 

Yeah it should run perfectly fine at the highest resolution. I think... I mean it's not a first person shooter. You should get at least 35fps at 1080p, which means you won't be able to tell the difference between that and a higher frame rate.

Starcraft 2, Civ 4, and generally any game that's not a first person shooter should get great frame rates.

I'm guess you get like 3 frames per second with Crysis though. :-D

 

eSata would be so sweet. I mean the PM45 chipset can support up to like 8 sata ports or something and they're only using ONE.

You know what would be even sweeter? An eSata port along with a power port to plug in the power for the hard drive.

and AHCI support.

That way you can just take an internal hard drive and just plug it into the laptop and BAM! :-D Hot swap too with AHCI support.

I've never gotten AHCI to work with Vista though.

 

For comparison's sake, the HD3470 handles RA3 on medium settings and 720p resolution, running at high 20s to low 30s fps.

 

How do i find out how many FPS its running with the graphic details on Ultra High?

 

Download and install Fraps from here:
http://www.fraps.com/download.php
Run it and minimize before you start the game. Your fps should appear in yellow numbers in the top right corner, though you can change it where it appears.

 

If you can't tell that it's stuttering, you're fine. If you CAN tell that it's stuttering, then it's time to turn down the resolution or turn off anti-aliasing.

Seriously, it's a real time strategy game. You don't need the 250fps that I get in Call of Duty 4 with my desktop. :-D

 

So um... The holiday discounts for the VAIO FW configure to order are gone. I hope they come back. I'm thinking about getting another one.... A cheaper, crappier one. I hope they have a 600 dollar version of the FW soon. Maybe before the March 31 Q4 deadline I hope.

 

The Sony Style.com USA store still has VGN-FWJVH ready to ship model for $800 or $719 if you can get the EPP. It's specs are:


T3200 2.0 Ghz 1MB cache Processorh 800 Mhz FSB
4 GB of Ram PC2-6400
16.4 inch X-Brite-Eco screen
CD/DVD burner (No Blu-Ray)
Integrated Graphic Card Intel 4500M HD
250 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
Wireless A,B & N
Standard Capacity Battery
Microsoft Windows Vista Home premium 64 bit

 

Just joined the Sony FW club tonite. Went to a Sony Style store where I live and bought the following laptop:

FW290JRB
P8600 Intel Core Duo 2.4 Ghz 3MB cache Processor 1066 Mhz FSB
4 GB of Ram PC2-6400
16.4 inch X-Brite-Full HD screen
Blu-Ray Read/Write Drive
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 with 512 MB DDR3 vRAM
500 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive (slow) soon to be replaced
Intel® WiFi Link 5100AGN (802.11a/b/g/n)
Standard Capacity Battery
Microsoft Windows Vista Home premium 64 bit

And I purchased the 3 year extended warranty and accidental handling insurance.

I purchased all this and an eight inch digital picture frame for $1679 including taxes.

 

It's an xmas miracle....I recvd my shipment from Fedex today, 10 exact days since I placed the order on sony style canada website! Have been on the laptop for 6-7 hours now and it is pristine, great quality & build, so quiet & the large battery gives it enough elevation to get air flow happening underneath. I did not rcv any accessories though, just the Blu-ray movies that come with it. You would think with such a nice laptop a sleeve would be a given since it's 16.4 inch and no other notebooks come in this size

 

is FW290JRB a gud option?
I wanted to go for FW290JRB but felt that 500 gb hard disk 4200 rpm would be slow.

 

What a minute... What blu-ray movies? I didn't get any free blu-ray movies. Doh! I want free blu-ray movies too.

 

Hey does anyone have one of those Intel 4500 integrated graphics and know if it it can do 1080p out of the hdmi port?

 

It was running at 5 FPS!!! at Ultra High graphics and 30 FPS on very Low Graphics!

WFT is wrong here?

just got FW last week and i wasnt running any programs besides firefox.

could i do now besides return it?

 

Heh I bought it actually. I bought it from J&R got them to price match PC Nation at $1266 delivered plus $20 shipping upgrade to 2 day air

* Microsoft® Works
* LCD 16.4" (XBRITE-FullHD™)
* No Fresh Start™
* 320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7400 rpm]
* Video Standard
* No Engraving
* Standard Battery
* QuickBooks Simple Start
* WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650 with 512MB vRAM
* Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8400
* None
* Blu-ray Disc™ Read and Write Drive
* Windows Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
* Titanium Grey
* Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
* 4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)

The spec sheet showed this model as having a P8600 and a 5400 RPM hard drive, I'm OK with the differences.

A lot of vendors sell this SKU and list conflicting specs, most prominently stating it has blu-ray read only (ROM), I checked the still-unopened box and it is indeed listed as blu-ray read and write.

I had originally ordered the J&R NY Times special VGN-FW280J/H for
$1149 delivered, essentially the same machine but with XBrite ECO and Intel graphics, and a 5400 hard drive, but decided I really wanted the HiColor display.


I told my dad to refuse the first package that came in, he said he'd like to keep it and pay me for it. We put the two boxes under the christmas tree to be eviscerated in the morning.

J&R did an exemplary job shipping each of the two orders immediately and offered to take back the first one with no restocking fee since it wasn't really what I wanted (but my dad will love it). I do love the free shipping with $20 upgrade to 2nd day UPS option, they came through despite the Christmas holiday rush.

Meanwhile I get to type this on my employer's ThinkPad T60, a great laptop but no fun.

Am pleased to join this forum, thanks all for posting a lot of useful info.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650.8839.0.html

Turn down the resolution from 1920 by 1080. It's probably a bit much for just 512 megs of DDR3 video ram.

 

Indeed, gaming at 1080p on a mid-range card is pushing it.

-----------------

Try with 720p first and work from there.

 

What does that mean?

since my system has a 1080p screen i cant play games as well as a 720p screen would?

 

Hi there,

I just got the FW21L for xmas and am having some trouble connecting it to Sony 1080i LCD TV. When I connect it up using the HDMI cable, it displays my desktop (with parts cut off) on the TV, but only at 720p and the quality looks worse than if I hooked it up via VGA. I have tried using some mod drivers and when I select 1080i or 1080p the tv screen goes blank. The ATI thing recognised my tv as Sony and say it can support upto 1920x1080.

Anyone pleaseeeee able to help me???

 

what the AV mode button does?
i push it when fw is off, but nothing happens!
when should i push it to get it to work?

 

I placed an order for FW290 CTO (P8400, Vista Business, 3GB RAM, Full-HD, 250GB/7200rpm, Blue-ray read/write, Titanium) on 12/11 with estimated shipment 12/23. I will be travelling from beginning of January for several months and this was going to be mostly my work computer. Since I live only a few miles from the place where Vaios are assembled, I thought there would be enough time even if it shipped a few days later. On 12/24 I received an automated email saying the date was changed to 01/09. As there would not be enough time for me to setup the system before leaving, I had to call and cancel the order. Fortunatelly, it took only 29 minutes on the phone with their customer service. If the order would really ship on 01/09 I will never find out, but I wish Sony were a little bit more proactive with updating the estimated shipping date and notified me earlier than on 12/24 that 12/23 delivery was not going to happen. Unfortunatelly, no FW290 for me and the old Toshiba will have to keep working for a while.

 

Try it when the laptop is on.

 

Hi guys,

I really enjoyed going through this loooooooong thread.
I have long been looking for a satisfying laptop and I think I finally found it.
I am planning to CTO an FW with the following specs:

1. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.80GHz)
2. Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
3. 4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)
4. Color:White
5. 320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
6. Blu-ray Disc™ Read Only Drive
7. LCD 16.4" (XBRITE-FullHD™)
8. ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650 with 512MB vRAM

The total would come to 2,128 CAD$ after using the 200$ discount coupon from sonystyle.ca

Before I finalize my order, I want to know the following:

1. How is the FW when it come to gaming such as Crysis and WoW?


2. Is there a difference between the Vista Ultimate and Home Premium Other than the remote desktop and the Data Recovery Support?


3. Is the White casing easy to maintain? I have never bought a white laptop before.


4. Would be possible to find a converter for PCMCIA devices to plug into the Express/32 slot?


5. After uninstalling the crapware that ships with the laptop, does the Vista performs like a fresh install?


I will appreciate any comment and reply.

Thanks,

Louai

 

What's the model# of your TV?

 

I had the same problem, until a member here guided me to a solution

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4304836&postcount=2293

once you hook the laptop up to the hdtv you will get the scaling options to underscan the screen and make it fit, that is how I got it working on our bravia.

 

Well I finally got a call from Sony after they canx my CTO. I ask about replacing my CTO with a JRB and to my surprise it was only 50 bucks more and they are overnight shipping it, Should get it on tues. Plus I still have the locationfree they sent earlier.

Thunderflight

 

No, that's not how it works. It's just that 1920 times 1080 is way too many pixels to shade at 60fps. If you turn down the resolution, the video card will be able to shade less pixels and then map those pixels onto the 1080 screen. The screen itself will ALWAYS display 1920 by 1080. It's just that it won't be as detailed.

You may be able to play it at 1920 by 1080, but then you'd probably have turn anti-aliasing and anthropic filtering down to zero. You probably don't need anti-aliasing anyways on a screen that small and detailed at the same time.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm

Did you do a clean install? You may have to reinstall the latest graphics drivers from the sony support website.

You'll have to remember that the 3650 is a video card that costs 75 dollars on a PCI-e version that goes into a desktop. It may be a mid-range video card for a laptop, it's really a low end video card for a desktop.

And there is really no way that will change in the future. The high end video cards for desktops draw somewhere between 100 to 150 watts of power per video card. That's more than what the whole VAIO FW laptop draws.

There is no safe way to make a laptop that draws that much power. The lithium ion battery would have to have like 20 cells. It wouldn't be a laptop anymore.

That's why my advice is get a decent laptop that can play like Civilization 4 very well for those long trips and build a desktop for your gaming needs. It's really cheap and easy to do.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the responce. So how best should I adjusted the sclaing options? So I should drag the bar right down towards underscan? This will enable 1080i mode and increase the quality? Is there anything else I need to do?

P.S: I forgot to say, my TV is the 40V2000 - purchased around July '06

 

there is no best method, just move the slider until the entire desktop appears on the tv.