Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

Oh, so I will have to live with it at 720p? Because, on the ATI control centre it says my tv can support upto 1920x1200, but it greys out 1080i and 1080p options Anyway to force it?

 

you have to select 1080p in the options in vista, it should not be at 720p, it was at 1080p on default on my FW.

 

I've been looking at the VGNFW235DH for awhile now but haven't been able to find many reviews of this particular model. Does anyone here own this laptop and can give me some feedback?

 

Does anyone else lose their wireless connection the instant your FW goes into standby mode? Anyone know how to fix it so wireless stays on the whole time running XP?

 

How do I do that? When I go to change the resolution the most I can select is 1600x900.

 

what screen resolution do you have on your laptop?

 

My laptop can only support upto 1600x900 but says it can output upto 1080p "full HD". Even the catylst centre says my tv can support upto 1920x1800 (even though its 1080i) but it won't let me select the 1080i or 1080p options in the catylst centre, they are just greyed out

P.S: I forgot to add, anyone got any luck with enabling wireless n? I have enabled n from my belkin router, but my laptop still only connected at 54Mbps.

 

Um... Wireless can't stay on during any "standby" mode. S1, S3 and S4 sleep all shuts down the wireless connection. If your connection is active though, it shouldn't go into standby at all. I don't think the SONY BIOS has a "wake by wireless" option if you want the computer to go to sleep until an internet wake signal is sent.

What you want to do is go into Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Power Options

And set the power option to HIGH PERFORMANCE. That means that the computer will NEVER go to sleep. Obviously you'll only want to do this when the laptop is plugged into the wall otherwise when the battery runs out, ain't nothin' in the world is going to keep your computer on.

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/belkin-n1-wireless-router/4505-3319_7-31864345-2.html?tag=mncol;txt

Do you have the Beklin N1 router? If you do, there's your problem right there.

"Despite these impressive feats, we were still underwhelmed by the Belkin's overall performance. 802.11n networking promises speeds up to 300Mbps (though all the networking vendors will admit that this is a maximum burst speed and cannot be maintained), and the Belkin N1 router could reach only a top speed of 53.3Mbps at close range, nowhere close to the max. "

 

Just to chime in about the Wireless thing, you have to be using WPA2 and in AES (not TKIP) to go over 54mbps as well.

 

Sorry if this has already been answered, but it's tough browsing through a 240+ page thread...

I just bought a FW235J (with the Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI disk controller) and I'm having trouble doing a fresh XP install. I've already slipstreamed the SATA drivers (f6flpy32_85.zip) into a new XP iso.

The initial installation attempt detects my drive fine after loading the drivers -- I can format partitions and everything. After that, it reaches the main windows installation stage ('setup will be complete in XX minutes') and everything still seems fine. The problem happens when the system tries to boot into XP for the very first time: it consistently blue-screens right when the Windows XP splash screen appears. Booting into any of the safe modes result in BSODs as well.

Any help would be hot.

 

It would be really, REALLY funny if that's what the CNET people forgot to do when they reviewed the N1 router from Belkin.

It would be even FUNNIER if they did that with ALL the routers.

Sometimes I wonder why they get paid to review these things.

 

Anyone able to help shed a bit more light on this? I read somewhere on the Internet that vista home premium doesn't support 1080p, it has to been enabled somewhere.

 

To whom it may concern, i downgraded my brand new FW21E to windows XP with the drivers from FW190E and it worked like a charm. It works.

 

I don't know what the problem is because my TV is only 720p and I have the option to select 1080p though the signal is interlaced, aka 1080i since the TV doesn't actually have a resolution of 1080p.

Could it be a driver problem?

 

Your choice is the same as the VGN-FW285J which can be had MUCH cheaper from www.jr.com. The main differences are CPU (P8400) and color (Titanium Grey). I believe the CPU won't make that much difference and you can save a pile of money by buying an "off the rack" FW.

UPDATE: it looks like J&R is sold out, have removed the product from their site. But PC Nation is an authorized Sony reseller and still has it at a very good price:

http://www.pcnation.com/web/details.asp?item=T15740&GEN0=Y

Shipping to the US is free, I'm sure they wont gouge you for Canada.

I have this machine and love it. The performance is flawless, the grey color looks great. Windows Experience is 5.1 right out of the box with no tweaking or upgrades. The limiting score is on Gaming Graphics, regular graphics have a score of 5.9. These numbers are OUTSTANDING for a machine in this price range. Also, the Blu ray drive is READ WRITE not read-only. Drive on mine is by Panasonic, I don't know if Sony uses multiple sources.

Good luck!

 

Hmm... that link has the TITLE showing P8400 processor, while the SPECS LIST underneath shows P8600... also, it says BD-READER, it doesn't say anything about BD writing...

Also, if the poster you were responding to was picky about his hard drive (he ordered 320GB @ 7200 RPM), then the one you linked to also only has a 5400RPM [slower] HDD.

(just pointing these things out so people don't think it's the same, not raggin' on ya... thanks for the info)

 

Ummmm, I don't know. I have installed the modded catylst driver.

 

Um, that's a little pricey for those configurations. I got those specs along with a 3650 video card and a 1080 screen from sonystyle.com for about 250 dollars less than that.

If you haven't ordered a Configured to Order from Sonystyle.com yet, it's too late to do so now. The free Blu-ray is gone and so is the free ram and hard drive update. You're probably going to have to wait until the next time Sony decides to unload stock.

Which is soon I hope... I kind of want another laptop but with really crappy specs that I can leave in the car and take it everywhere without worrying about it being stolen or broken.

 

Yeah I don't know what's going on. It's definitely the drivers though. The HDMI port itself is fine. I had the same problem you had, except I had absolutely no idea how I fixed it.

What I did was do a clean install of Vista and went down the list of drivers at the sony esupport website and install all the drivers in the right order.

The right order being the sony shared library and the sony utilities being the LAST things to be installed and in that order. I also installed the 3650 drivers from the sony website. You can't use the drivers from windows update. They look like they're working, but they're really not.

Also the 3650 drivers from sony do not install that catalyst control center.

After I did that, I was able to just plug my FW into my HDTV and the 1080 showed up fine without any problems.

I think the problem is that the catalyst control center has some interesting settings.

Go into the catalyst control center and go to the HDTV tab. There should be a section with all the possible settings for HDTV. I forget what setting you want, but 1080p is something you have to enable in the catalyst control center because catalyst assumes that no one has a 1080p TV and if you try to send 1080p signals to a 780i TV, you can damage it.

 

I can verify that it's a BD RW, 7200 RPM 320 GB, and indeed has a P8400 CPU. I got mine last week from J&R, don't think Sony would ship multiple configurations under the same SKU number. In fact my dad bought the FW280 which was also supposed have the slower hard drive but has the 7200 RPM Hitachi.

Both units feature the Panasonic BD-MLT-UJ230AS reads and writes on BD media. Strange that the mail order companies can't get the specs straight (but they were perfect on the JR site)

 

Anyone?, please I have to give a present.

 

Hi i have a Sony Vaio FW285 that i bought from futureshop. It has a P8400 cpu, ati 3650 gpu and a 300 gig 7200 rpm hd. Im new to laptops and im wondering what can i upgrade on this computer? Later on can i install new cpu's? Thanks

 

Nope don't have that bag sorry. I personally always liked this for carrying my laptops. It looks cooler but you can't really carry it around like a briefcase....

http://oakley.com/pd/5040

 

Thanks for the reply jdef,

I am really so picky on many things including the CPU and the HD because I am a heavy user with all kinds of taks (Simulation, Graphics, A/V editing & production, Simulation, Gaming, etc). The color is also kind of important.

BTW, do you know if the ATI GPU is 256 or 512 ?


Thanks for the reply and the info.

Thanks for the observation kjazzzy,

BTW, do you know if there is a real difference in performance b/w the P8600 and T9600. I am kind of liking the new CPU over the old.


Thanks,

 

I am not sure if you mean the one I configured or the preconfigured suggested by jdef. However, note that I was qouting in canadian dollars.


The offer for 450US$ saving on upgrades on Sonystyle.com is not available on the SonyStyle.ca. I tried using both and the total was cheaper when going with CAD$ for both.

 

The ATI 3470 is 256 and the 3650 is 512.

I'm not too familiar with the performance difference between those two particular processors. From what I can imagine: if you're doing processor-intensive things (less multi-tasking, but harder working programs), then I'd say the T9600 would be ideal. The P8600 consumes less power so it will give you a slightly different battery life.

 

I just bought a FW21E. Has anyone managed to get Intel VT working on it, either through a BIOS hack with symcmos or any other way?

VirtualBox gives fair performance, but nothing to go wild about without VT. I'd really wish I had known Sony cripples their laptops before I bought one...

 

There were a few threads regarding VT being disabled for the FW, a simple search is always a good idea.

 

Assuming you mean I should have searched before buying: I had no clue laptop builders would disable standard processor features, nor had I any reason to. I just read reviews about the laptop, which were positive and assumed that was good enough information.

Assuming you mean I should have searched before asking: I did, and didn't find anyone actually having made it work, so I figured this the place to explicitly ask again

 

This seems like a pretty good deal: http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VGNFW373JB/

Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4 GHz Processor
3 MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz Bus speed
4096 MB DDR2 (PC2-6400) RAM Max: 8GB
320 GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive
16.4" (1920 x 1080) XBRITE-FullHD Display
Built-in 1.3 Megapixel Webcamera and Microphone
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 with 512 Dedicated Video Memory
Blu-Ray Reader DVD±R/RW Drive with Double Layer
Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN 802.11a/b/g/n
Integrated Stereo A2DP Bluetooth v2.1 EDR
10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet LAN
Built-in Memory Stick® Standard/Duo PRO with MagicGate™ Card Reader
Built-in Secure Digital (SD) media slot
ExpressCard 34 Slot
Connections: 3 x USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, Headphone; Microphone, VGA, HDMI, RJ-11 (Modem), RJ-45
Approximate Unit Dimensions: 15.1" (W) x 10.3" (D) x 1.46"(H)
Approximate Unit Weight: 7 Pounds

I built it with those specs on the Sony website and it came out to about $1550 vs. the $1300 jr.com is charging. Am I missing something or is this just a really good deal? Also, is it worth waiting for the 390 series to debut or should I go ahead and get this one now?

 

Greetings,

The dedicated video memory on my ATI is 512. My dad's 280 is the exact same laptop less the ATI graphics and the HICOLOR display, and costing $119 less. Both wonderful machines for the price.

Fit and finish on these machines is flawless, There "Vaio" logo on the cover is inlaid mirror finish. The titanium grey looks great (I haven't seen any other color).

Good luck!

 

390!!!!

When is it coming? what is the diffeence from 290?

I followed the link below, but it does not look available yet?

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

 

The 390 is due out in January-February I beleive (this has been a moving target). I don't know all the changes but the major difference I see is slightly faster processors (like the P8700 vs the P8600) and larger hard drives. If you find a good deal you should probably jump as my assumption is that the 390 will cost more than the 290 and is only improved minimally.

 

Before Christmas, Sonystyle.com had a sale and this configuration would've only been $1100. I'm guessing JR.com bought the laptop from Sonystyle.com. In fact, I'm guessing JR.com bought like 20,000 of these things so they can sell them back to the consumer at elevated prices. Probably why people couldn't buy them from Sonystyle.com because they kept running out.

 

390 should come with Radeon HD 4670 instead of 3650.

 

Nah, Canada just has retarded names for their VAIO FWs. Those Canadian 390s are the same as the US 290s... A recipe for disaster in my humble opinion.

I'm guessing that it's the 9600M GT. If you really want an Nvidia video card, you can wait for the 390 I guess.

I rather have a less powerful ATi card that doesn't burn out in 6 month than a Nvidia card that has bad soldering that fails when your laptop heats up above 95 degrees Fahrenheit or something.

If you live in Alaska, by all means, get that Nvidia laptop graphics card.

 

Yeah, I went into the BIOS of the FW. There are NO OPTIONS AT ALL. The BIOS can't be set at all, which means VT is permanently disabled for the VAIO.

It kind of sucks considering how the VT errata is supposed to be fixed with the Wolfdales. At least I would hope that they bothered to fix it when they switched from 65nm to 45nm.

Just keep sending Sony hate mail to release a new BIOS that enables VT. :-D

 

a guess for now.

 

It is going to be incredible if they come with one of these.
In fact the only piece that I am not much happy with in the FW290 is the GPU.

BTW, how big is the difference between the 4670 and the 3650?

 

Only if Sony changed their mind in the last two weeks...it will be the 3650 again...

The 390 is a new FW model. The US will also have a 390 and the major difference will be the processor. I cannot tell for sure if it will have anything else (esata port, etc) but from what I see it will be virtually the same lappy.

 

When you connect the tv to the laptop via hdmi, a small icon will appear in the taskbar, double click the icon (in the photo I have attached), you will then see 3 boxes, 720, 768 and 1080 to select, 1080 is default on my tv and laptop. I did test out 720 and it works on my tv and laptop, but it overscans, so I would have to adjust it in the ati catalyst control centre.

vista does support 1080p, since it works on my laptop just fine.

I tried taking a screenshot of the 3 options, but I couldn't since when I did print screen, they were not there .

 

When is the FW390 comming out in Canada?

 

FW390 is real. Here's the link to Sony Support Site for the 390 http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=VGN-FW390&region_id=1

 

Well, if Jan-Feb for US, then Canada will follow later I think.

It is indeed. You can in fact see the preliminary CTO in here:
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=20153&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921665751055

The noticable differnce is the T9800 CPU with 2.93GHz. The GPU is still 3650 if we assume it is true specs.

But I did not get what this means :

ATI\64OS / SP09-IRX4670

ATI\32OS / SP09-IRX4670 [add $0.00]

Int\64OS / SP09-IRX4670 [add $0.00]

Int\32OS / SP09-IRX4670 [add $0.00]

Any Idea?

 

Son of a....... Yeah, I saw those sales on Sonystyle and kept building a laptop but couldn't decide if I was ready to buy, guess I should have! I guess the only good thing is this one has a black case and those are impossible to build with the HD screen right now.

 

Anyone else have any odd issues with their touch pad?

The other day, the mouse pointer would hardly move, and wouldn't even work on certain parts of the touch pad if you touched it, and moving it around was a chore, it just hardly moved. So, I restarted, it persisted, then I like tapped it with some force (not much, just like a 'ping') and it worked again. I have yet to get the problem to happen again, even if I try the 'ping' again.

Any thoughts? What are your experiences with the Sony Vaio FW touchpad?

This is the 4th Sony Vaio i've had in a month. Three Sony Vaio FWs, and one Sony Vaio CS. Are these laptops manufactured by squirrels?

I take serious good care of my stuff, I don't even have a book with a weathered cover, so it's not that.

 

That means nothing. It's a driver thing since the page is obviously still in construction. You can see that they have 32-bit and 64-bit. The first two correspond to the ATI HD3650 and the last 2 to the Intel videocard.

We won't be getting the ATI HD4670 videocard. If you look at the optical disc drive, you have "SP09-IRX4670". The superior videocard on the FW390 WILL still be the HD3650. Nothing special.

 

So should I wait for the FW390 or just buy the FW290?

My concern is that probably the 390 will have better specs but it will cost more as well.

What do you think guys?

 

Indeed it will likely cost more with a very very minimal upgrade...slight processor improvement and hard drive improvement. If you can find a good deal on the FW 290 you should go with that. I did and am comfortable with my choice. Had they decided to up the vid card, I may have waited...but alas...such is not the case.