Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

Well, the metallic frame hangs over the entire right side for me if that's what you mean.

 

The sound is really thin on this laptop... and the audio port is on the front! Any wired speakers would be a problem! What to do? How do you guys get around this problem?

 

You can always buy a creative audio expresscard and use that.

 

I bought a top of the line VGNFW290-CTO less than 2 months ago from Sonystyle.com and right away I noticed that the area where you plug in the power cord on the laptop was VERY poorly designed. It was really flimsy.

Well last night when I was unplugging it, the entire area snapped off! It was poorly designed compared to other Sony laptops where the power area is protected internally. This is a separate plastic piece. Fortunately the power is still working but it's literally hanging snapped off by a black wire and the broken plastic piece.

Has this happened to anyone else? I called Sony and they said I have to send in the laptop. I'm curious if this has happened to anyone else. Lately I'm having bad luck with Sony laptops.

 

I was being sarcastic. I bought two computers last year, both had Vista, I have both running XP now. As far as I'm concerned, Micro$oft owes me replacements for those two copies of Vista I dumped.

Like I said, I'm not buying anything more from Micro$oft... when security patches end for XP, I'll decide my next step. It won't be giving hundreds of dollars to M$ though...

 

Just got my VAIO FW11S
CPU - P8400, 2.26GHz
RAM - 4GB, 800MHz
GPU - ATi 3470
HDD - 300GB, 4200rpm (Going to be replace with WD Scorpio Black)
Optical Drive - Blu-Ray read/write, DVD read/write, CD read/write.

Although this is my first day with the computer, i'm very pleased. Vista seems to run smoothly on it. I haven't done any gaming or really tested the performance, since I've got no empty DVD discs that I could do the recovery discs on, so I'm just getting to know the machine today. Tomorrow it's recovery discs, ordering of the new HDD and then some games and maybe buy meself a first Blu-Ray movie
Anyway, my concern is that is there a skin for that kind of laptop. The size is fairly new and awkward and I haven't had any luck of finding any skins that would be 16.4". I was thinking of buying a 17.1" skin, but then it wouldn't fit perfectly - any ideas guys?

 

Can anyone talk about the Full HD Screen brightness ? Is it clear and bright ? If compare to a Macbook Pro what are the differences ?

 

I'm taking my FW on a trip and need to get a DC adapter for the plane, does anyone have any recommendations for a good DC adapter, hopefully reasonably priced? Also, has anyone used the FW on a plane and if so how did it handle? Thanks!!

 

Hi man,
By seeing your signature, you're using the full HD screen, what do you think about it brightness ? is it clearer than other Vaio Laptop ? Can you compare its brightness to a Mac ?

 

Does anyone know how to find out the EXACT part number of the screen that is in my FW laptop?

My screen cracked and I need to order a replacement. Sony gave me two different part numbers for my screen, and I want to see what I really have in my unit. I want to make sure I'm ordering the HiBright screen and not the Eco screen.

 

It is very bright, perhaps too bright (at optimal settings) in some low light situations. I find the color and contrast to be slightly superior to the Mac. Both are nice screens, I give a slight nod to the Sony.

 

Need some help from some of the more knowledgable FW owners here. I bought a FW290 with the HD screen and ATI HD3650 card. I also own a Pioneer 5080 HDTV which has a native screen resolution of 1,366x768.

I was able to get Intervideo to play Blu-Ray movies on the HDTV but the quality was horrible. The picture was very grainy or noisy. I was also unable to get the picture to occupy a majority of the screen.

When I use a stand alone blue-ray player the quality is much better.

Can someone explain to me what I am encountering and whether or not there is a fix that would allow me to use the laptop as a BR source for the HDTV?

 

Open up your computer and look at the part number on the back of the LCD.

 

Thx ascariss! Good idea! I saw another thread where you say that you do music production... So which expresscard do you recommend for a FW?

 

Thanks autumnale.

The modtool driver worked. I can see a lot more resolutions than the basic 3.

 

I managed to install XP on my FW390 using "essential's" guide. Everything works except for the FN keys for brightness and the Conexant modem.

I heard that you could set the LCD brightness in the BIOS. But the BIOS in my FW has no such option. In fact, there are only a few screens in the BIOS with most of the options greyed out.

Any thoughts?

 

I guess I'll have to do that. Thanks. I was hoping for a definitive way to know before opening it, since once I open it I won't be able to use the laptop any longer.

 

If you want to try and upgrade to an 1080 screen. It should probably work.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4463204&postcount=2820

 

Hi All,

New member here & a new & Proud owner of a VAIO FW230J/H. I'm sure Im not the only one giving thoughts on downgrading to an Xp64 OS.. was wondering if someone here succeded in doing it.. Does all VAIO functions work perfectly?

 

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/289330

Is anybody feeling particularly adventurous and want to tell me if this BIOS program even runs. And if it runs if it'll brick their computer or not?

 

Not a bad idea... but if it didn't work I'd be out a fair amount of money. In any case, both of the places in that post say they don't have any 16.4" screens in stock.

By the way, I took my computer apart. Due to the hinge assembly in the FW it makes it impossible to take the bevel completely off. This makes it hard to disconnect the necessary cables -- and nearly impossible to re-attach them. So hard that I'm concerned about being able to install a new LCD screen.

Anyone know how to get the bezel *completely* off the screen? Specifically, how do you get around the hinge assembly?

 

Oh, I forgot to mention...

In case it helps someone else, my screen is a Sharp LQ164D1LA4B.

 

Thanks man. Good to know

 

The bezel has four screws. To get it completely off, you need to remove the hinge assembly. Take the four screws off the speakers.

That'll give you access to the hinge screws underneath.

By the way, you need to remove the media launch button thingy as well as the keyboard screws unless you're really nimble.

You'll need to remove the WIFI antenna cables on the right. Or at least loosen them from the plastic tabs holding them in place.

Then you'd want to disconnect the 3 things on the left. They're the LCD connector, the camera and the microphone.

Then you can take the whole hinge assembly off. Assuming you've removed the two hinge screws on the bottom too.

Then you can gain access to the two bezel screws that are completely inaccessible without the hinge being removed.

Once the hinge is removed and the two screws left on the bezel are removed, you can just gently pull the bezel off. GENTLY. The bezel has plastic tabs. You'll need to pull the bezel off with a little bit of wiggling.

Once the bezel is off, it's just four more screws to free the LCD assembly from the carbon fiber backing. Then you need to remove the LCD screen from the LCD assembly metal tabs. 6 screws.

Have fun.

Let me know if you get it off.

 

There is no legal solution for you problem unfortunately. You would need to mod your drivers to the latest ATi drivers. Unfortunately, doing so would almost certainly break the blu-ray playback program's "signed drivers" requirement. You can fix that by installing Slysoft AnyDVD HD, which wouldn't be legal because AnyDVD HD basically removes all DRM on blu-ray playback.

It's a little sad that you'd have to break the law to do something that's completely legal. That is watch blu-ray movies that you bought on your HDTV with your VAIO FW as a blu-ray player.

The only fix is to write to your government and ask your elected officials or kings or queens or whatevers to make Digital Rights Management illegal in your country.

Until then, you're pretty much forced to either watch the blu-ray on your laptop's screen or buy a Sony blu-ray player to play blu-ray for your HDTV.

Assuming your HDTV is even HDCP compliant of course, which it may not even be since it has such an odd resolution.

Look at the bright side. You'll be in on the fat class action lawsuit about how blu-ray's DRM prevented you from watching movies you bought.

 

Need some help with VGN-FW373J/B.
I found good price for this model in Amazon.com.
My question: is display of this model XBRITE-FullHD (1920x1080) or XBRITE-ECO (1600x900)?

 

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/SPECS/VGNFW373JB_mksp.pdf

 

hendra thank you very much.
I was mislead by product description in Amazon.

 

I have the 373J/B and it's full HD, very nice laptop and beautiful screen - I highly recommend it!

 

It is a bright screen but I like the brightness, however, if it's too bright for your taste it can be lowered very easily. This is my first laptop so I can't really compare it to other laptops but I've shown it to a lot of my co-workers and they all comment about how nice the screen is, a couple people even said they're jealous The display is really crisp and clear and the color is excellent, I highly recommend getting the HD screen, you will not be disappointed!

 

Quick answer is NO!!!! Battery life is bad, has battery leakage of power even when not switched on

 

Question about battery life - if my laptop is plugged in most of the time would it be better for my battery if I take it off while the computer is plugged in? I read that repeated charging/discharging of the battery is bad but when the computer's plugged in the battery says 'plugged in not charging' - I guess I just want to make sure I'm not slowly hurting my battery by leaving it in while it's not being used. Hope that's not a dumb question

 

When is Canada getting the new models? Is there a refresh coming soon?

 

Wow. Major hassle.

First off, where the heck are the four screws on the speakers?

Second, how do you remove the media launch button thingy?

 

Do anyone knows the color gamut of the FW 1920*1080 resolution screen??

Is it the same with the Sony Vaio Z series (100% Color Gamut)??

I would be glad if someone could confirm this for me before I make any purchase..

Thanks..

 

You keep perpetuating this nonsense...I've seen you say the same thing in several posts. Any 64-bit Vista will support 8 GB RAM. Here's the breakdown, from here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_vista

Vista Home Basic 64: 8 GB
Vista Home Premium 64: 16 GB
Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate (all 64): 128 GB

And now you know.

Paul

 

Here's a good explanation on why you're not going to see more than 3.5 GB in Vista 32:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

See my previous post in this thread correcting this incorrect statement. Vista Home Premium 64 can see up to 16 GB, and all Vista 64 editions can use at least 8 GB RAM.

Paul

 

I'm not sure what you're suggesting. That you cannot output Blu-ray to an external display with updated ATI drivers? If so, that just isn't true; I have the latest ATI drivers and output Blu-ray on my Panasonic display.

My Panasonic is display is 768p, too. I found that the best compromise of resolution and PQ, is to just set the display setting to 1900x1080 and scale it with the Catalyst. While its not good for computing, as the resolution for text is off, it looks fine for BR playback.

 

Hey.
Just got my FW a few days ago.
But from the HDD, there seems to be missing about 50GB. When I check for used space it says 126GB of 266GB is used (141GB free, then), but when I select allf files from the HDD and check how much are they, it says that they're only 76GB and simple math would tell me that I should have 191GB free.
Is there somekind of a hidden recovery partition that I can't see?
If so, how could I see it?

Cheers.

 

Huh, oopsie. I must've read it wrong somewhere then. My bad.

 

I mean the program you're using to play blu-ray should not be able to run without signed drivers. That was one of the requires for the whole HDCP thing I thought. At least that's the case with PowerDVD.

Modded drivers won't be signed.

Maybe the program Sony included doesn't have those requirements.

You can output anything else fine. Just not blu-ray playback.

At least that's what is supposed to happen.

 

Will Canada get the FW390?

 

So I modded the latest ATI drivers and installed. I then plugged in the HDTV via HDMI, upon recognizing the display I chose the closest resolution to the actual resolution of the HDTV (13??x768, @60hz).

As mentioned previously (as required) I disable the laptop screen, forcing the HDTV display options.

Ran WinDVD and viola, blu-ray on my HDTV. Doesn't conflict with the security protection of blu-ray.

Of note, the quality was good, but not as good as my standalone player. I suspect the procs in the standalone Panny player are superior to what is in the laptop player.

One other note, the black bars were huge on the HDTV. I think that the standalone player somehow accounts for the size of the screeen relative to the native screen size of the movie being played. I tested this by playing the same movie on the laptop drive then the standalone. It is possible this is related to the screen resolution I am forcing off the laptop, beyond my technical understanding.

Anyhow, for anyone buying one of these with the hopes of using this as a source for blu-ray on an HDTV; not really a good solution in my opinion.

 

Hidden partition would not count toward 266GB. There is ~10GB of hidden partition for recovery but that doesn't answer your question.

Some explanations:
1) Did you include hidden files? On mine, it accounts for about 1GB
2) Paging file (mine is set to 4GB)
3) Shadow storage for system restore (probably the largest contributor to the discrepancy you are noticing)

Open cmd as Administrator: All Programs->Accessories->CommandPrompt, RightClick and select Run As Administrator.

Type the following:

vssadmin List ShadowStorage

On mine, about 20GB is used for this purpose.

I have a second partition and free space estimate matches all files size total from properties. What you are seeing has much to do with how vista operates.

 

Is this a good deal, im thinking about getting this or the Dell studio XPS 16"

VGNFW35V

Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo 2.40 GHz (P8600?)

320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)

4 GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM 2 x 2048 MB

DVD disc drive Reader / Writer (DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM)

16.4" LCD, 1600 x 900 webcam 16.4" WXGA++ (1600 x 900) Widescreen X-black LCD screen with built-in "Motion Eye" Digital Camera

ATI MobilityRadeonHD3650 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 3650 512MB

Vista® Home Premium - (64 bit) Windows Vista® Home Premium

All for £ 818.95 Delivered?

Although it says its going to take 3 to 4 weeks to deliver is that normal?

 

If doesn't have the dual lamp screen it's too expensive IMO.

 

i just got my FW390 and so far i love it, i will be doing a clean install later today

 

in vaio control center, power management, battery charge functions, enable it and set it to 80% or even 50%, then can leave it in all the time.

 

Converting it to native resolution for movies is not a good solution. Try what I suggested above, i.e., using 1920x1080 and scaling the image with the Catalyst. I too have a standalone, and I am satisfied with the PQ using the FW (it's not as good, but certainly an acceptable compromise to me).

 

I just had a few questions...I searched the thread multiple times (with the search function) but couldn't find anyrhing...sorry if I missed it. I wanted to stick to his particular post in general rather than going to the more general sub-forums so I can get responses from other FW users.

I have a Sony Vaio FW290 with the ATI Radeon 3650.

1) What are good idling temperatures for the CPU and GPU after about an hour of use?
2) What are good gaming temperatures for the CPU and GPU after about an hour of use?
3) In order to prevent overheating, how can I clean dust off the latop? If I wanted to clean both the outside and inside, what would be the best spot to clean the dust from? Which compartment would I need to open?

Hopefully I'll get a few answers to my questions and I can sort of find a "middle" between all of them.