Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

Hi guys,
Seems everybody raves about the HiColor screens in this thread. I tired to configures a CTO FW but all is offered is XBRITE-ECO or XBRITE-FullHD. No Hicolor.
I am assuming the FullHd is the same as HiColor, am i right?

 

Full HD is the way to go, well worth the money - screen is fabulous

 

Check this link - fabulous work by several of the members here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

 

Please can anyone explain me is there any diffrence beetwen the model FW21Z and FW21M with display?

 

The difference between the FW21M and the FW21Z in terms of display is that the M has a single lamp lighting its display and the Z has 2 lamps which give you a higher contrast level, better viewing angles and overall a brighter display. All here agree I think that if you can go for the better display, you should get it. And one more important difference between them is that the Z has a better graphics card, the Ati radeon HD 3650 opposed to the M's Ati radeon HD 3470

 

has anyone got pictures of the 1920x1080 Hi colour screen compared with a 1600x900 ECO screen?

 

HI, i just got a GREAT deal includeing a 128gb SSD for £908.95

its:
# Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo 2.00 GHz (P8600)
# 128 GB Ultra ATA Flash SSD
# 4 GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM
# DVD disc drive
# 16.4" LCD, 1920x1080 + webcam
# ATI MobilityRadeonHD3470 256MB
# Vista® Home Premium - (32 bit)

is it worth it getting a 128gb SSD, as the 128gb is quite small, and i download quite a bit, although i havent filled my 160gb pc yet .

also, i know when i get the laptop, vista will have taken 15gbish right?
and how much does the recovery partition take?

i mean, i wont want to the laptop and be left with 70-80gb of HDD space, i want at least 100gb.

also is the "128 GB Ultra ATA Flash SSD" sony give any good?

 

Ah, I didn't realize you had the 3470. I have a low profile desktop version in an old Dell slim desktop. Not the best card but beats the Intel 950 it came with.

I like the FW, I just wish there was a 3870 or 4xxx option.

Cheers,

 

Thanks.
I have ordered the fw21z but the DHL lost the package and the seller doesnt have the Z model, but only M, and E of F series.He has got also AW11M.
The problem is cause Iam 8-10 hours during a day and Iam looking for really good display.I dont have other option than wait for new fw21-Z model.

 

You got lucky because you waited. I looked at previous Vaio models (such as the FZ) and I noticed that North America never got the better videocard so I never thought the FW would get the HD3650 in North America (when it was available in other parts of the world). Plus, I needed a laptop for university in September and the FW290 came out around November.

Oh well, considering the specs, I got a great deal on my laptop so I can't really complain.

 

I can't figure out how to post a new thread, so I'm asking my question here. When I run Vaio Care, it gets hung up at "Analyzing Performance Data" and I get an error message. I tried contacting Sony, but they claim to have never seen this error message before. Is anyone familiar with this? Thanks!

 

lol the first one that was sent to me also got lost but by royal mail-i can only blaim severe weather conditions at that time
anyways i was lucky enough as seller had a second one

 

Thanx for your reply, but i didn't understand, is the FullHd screen they are offering the same as the HiColor, or they took the Hicolor option away?
Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi every one,
I recently ordered my SONY VGN-FW378J/B and i have some question regard it.
For this model graphics specification indicated ATI HD3650 card with total available graphics memory of 2280 MB, and nothing about dedicated memory of 512MB. As long as I know all last FW series has HD3650 card and they have 512MB vRAM dedicated (for example vgn-fw373j/b).

My question, is VGN-FW378J/B have also dedicated 512MB and Sony just did't mention it?

Thanks,

 

The FullHD replaced the Hi-Color screen from the 100 series to the 200 series FWs

 

I see, so does it offer the same color quality like the HiColor, or is it just a high resolution screen? I know i am asking a lot of questions, but you don't buy a laptop everyday. And sony customer rep. was of no help on this topic btw.

 

Same as the hicolor - great viewing angles, rich colors, beautiful screen. Makes looking/working on other computers a chore. My work computer screen looks awful compared to the FW.
Well worth the extra money. Plus the extra screen real estate with the high resolution is great. Font sizes are fine, I need glasses for small print and the letters are so clean/crisp I can read the screen without my glasses.
Go with the better screen, you'll be very pleased.

 

Hey thanx for your help dude. I will go with the FullHD screen.

 

Considering just how small the font of FullHD is, I suggest that you come and see the screen in a brick and mortar store yourself. Some people have no problem with it and love it, others hate it.

The lower resolution has just the right font size in my opinion. Not too big, not too small. The only problem is if you want lower resolution, you have to settle with the ECO screen, which has inferior color and inferior brightness than FullHD screen. But again, take a look at the ECO screen yourself and see if the screen is acceptable for you.

I for one was lucky that I got the screen with both HiColor and lower resolution. But such screen was not offered anymore.

Tip: if you live in Europe or could get someone to buy it for you from Europe, get the older FW11ZU. It is the BEST model for all FW. It has XBrite Hicolor at 1600x900 with Radeon HD3650. You get everything right with that model. If I could order it from Europe, I would have done so.

 

Please.....
Anyone who has modded their 3650 driver for their FW (I just bought a FW298Y), would you let me know how this is done? Or is a more recent driver available for the 3650 offering more res control....?

I can't work with the three resolutions available. I do engineering models and the full HD makes type too small, while the other options make type too large. I have a ton of work due and I'm trashed without some other resolution options.

Thanks very much.

Martin

 

I used the official driver from Sony FW390/FW290 and I have more than 3 resolutions available. But I installed it with my FW190 with 3470 though.

 

I downloaded and installed the new Sony official driver:

ATI™ Graphics Driver Update 02/10/2009 8.513.1.4000 114.54 MB

and now have about 10 resolutions to pick from. Looks like the problem is resolved.

Cheers,

 

Hendra & Panzer.... Thanks VERY much for the fast responses. I had downloaded the new SONY ATI driver but it didn't mention anything about the res issue being fixed so I hadn't yet started the install adventure.

Panzer.... Any tips on the install or did all go smoothly?

Thanks again,

Martin

 

After spending 2 days on my fw373j/b.......I dislike that it has 79 processes running.

However, it runs like a effin champ even with that. Not one hiccup, not one glitch. I had 5 tab websites up. Along with a long list of task bar icons.

And I still played Halo Demo for PC at 30fps with all eye candy at 1600x1200 not a single glitch!

This is one great laptop. Very sturdy build quality, love the black backlid for the lcd. The dvd drive is kinda loud when its working but its a non issue once Everquest is loaded.

Even playing a friends blu ray version of Iron Man, it didnt get too loud! And Iron Man looks pretty bad on this Viewsonic VX2233wm along with the 16.4 inch lcd!

I am really pleased, and I paid 1199 free shipping from newegg (on sale currently off sale)

Don't get me wrong, if I was not so lazy and someone did find drivers to throw windows xp pro on it, I prolly would.

But my MX5500 duo works perfect with Vista, and the thumb nob on the MX rev mouse does a neat trick with Vista, forgot what its called, but it shows me everything thats going on (web browser, yahooim, and background) and I can switch and the twist of my thumb.

I am digging this laptop :O

 

On mine with 64bit Vista Home Premium, it installed without error and did not even require a reboot.

Cheers,

 

when u say problem is resloved, do u mean the problem some of us were getting in that it doesnt want to install?

 

No, I meant the problem of only having three resolutions to choose from has been resolved.

Cheers,

 

I went and tried out the Vaio FW the other day at Best Buy. The touchpad put me off. I live everything of it but the touchpad. It doesnt feel comfortable for me and too sensitive.

 

You can adjust that in the control panel ->mouse properties. The only disappointment I have with the FW is no drivers for Wireless or ATI 3650 under OSX - Leopard. I should call Sony and ask just for the entertainment value. But the reality is, the FW rocks! Although, I'm curious if it would take a quad core processor upgrade.

 

Do they have mobile Socket P quad core chips?

Cheers,

 

There are options for quads in the Alienware m17.
http://www.alienware.com/customize/M17-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-M17&Subcode=SKU-DEFAULT

 

I wouldn't expect much, if any, noticeable difference in hard drive performance for most software applications with 3G vs 1.5G SATA. The actual sustained throughput off the drive is about 100MB/sec on the outer tracks--less on the inner tracks. 1.5 SATA is about 200MB/sec. The faster SATA would deliver data cached in the drive's onboard read-ahead memory (usually about 8MB) twice as fast, but most audio-visual apps that are highly disk intensive don't benefit much from the drive's cache.

 

Looks like the cheapest retail Intel QX9300 (2.53 mobile Quad) is almost $1100 just for the chip. That's a bit much for me to tear apart and experiment with my FW290; though if I had a few thousand laying about I just might.

Cheers,

 

The trackpad works when it's wet though.

 

Has anybody gotten http://www.dban.org/ to work on his or her FW? I can't seem to get it to write my disc. Kind of an annoying hassle if you need to send the computer in for servicing.

 

I've already bought an FW 290. I really like it except for two problems with the screen (I got the eco bright as oppose to the fullHD):

1) The viewing angle is small vertical wise. Simply nodding my head will change the colors.

2) The colors fade toward the bottom, especially dark colors. A solid collumn of color will fade whiter toward the bottom of the screen.

My question is if these things annoy me would I have been better off getting the full HD screen (I didn't want the higher resolution mandatory with that option). In other words does the full HD option offer a more robust viewing angle and/or better color integrity (especially the black)?

I know that the FW190 series comes with a hicolor screen with the 1600X900 resolution I want. Can I still buy this series new? If so where would be a good place?

thx

 

The FullHD viewing angles are much better (have the FW285J), no fading, colors are vibrant. I actually prefer the resolution - but that's a matter of choice.
Where I'm at (overseas) they still offer (at a large discount the FW100 Series) with what you're seeking FullHD Screen with lower resolution - so should be able to locate one (assuming in the States).

 

Did you use the ISO file to make a bootable CD or did you just copy the ISO file to the CD? You can't just copy it to the CD. You have to select the ISO file as an image and burn that to the CD. Use Roxio Easy Media Creator -> Copy -> Burn Image and select the ISO file to make the bootable CD.

For FW, you need to use the Preview Release ver 2. The stable release ver 1 is not compatible with Core 2 Duo.

 

Hi, im currently contemplating on buying the FW31E model, but I will be using it for realtime audio applications, so before I spend all my money on this one, could a current FW31E owner help me out with a little test?

Please have a DPC Lacency Checker (available at http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml ) run for about a minute or two, and tell me if in that time period any red bars passed the check?
If the latency stays within the green/yellow zone I'm good to go to order one.

(Currently owning a Dell Studio 15 which has serious device driver issues which are impossible to solve )

Thanks in advance!

 

Just wanted to say thanks this was very helpful J&.

I wonder if sony would/could put a hicolor screen from the FW 100 series onto a FW 200 series machine if I could convince them my screen is defective. That would be ideal, even if the FW100 screen was re-furbished.

 

Well this is how it looks while i'm just browsing (ethernet connection, wireless switch is off) and working on some documents in Word / Excel, this is on a FW-290, Vista x64 SP1, Realtek HD Audio Driver 6.0.1.5653.



Same machine, similar use, Windows XP SP3, Realtek High Definition Audio 5.10.0.5605

 

Just purchased a FW-285 here in Canada. Just wondering if the S buttions are suppose to work? Can't seem to get them to work or are they just for when playing moives and such.

Thanks.

 

Thanks, Panzer.... I'm jacked to solve this resolution frustration....

Much appreciated....

WM

 

The "S" button needs to be set up in the vaio software in order to work. It is just a quick launch button. Haven't really found a good use for it yet.

 

Thanks. Should the Vol. buttons work also normally? or do they need to be set up as well.

 

Hi all,

Please help me, I bought FW31ZJ, have problem with wireless. I couldnt connect to internet using wireless. Laptop find my adsl modem when I enter ask me my pass for enterance but coundt handshake it

 

I solved the problem thanks

 

Volume buttons should work out of the box.

 

I set it up to use it for Mute/UnMute.

 

just got a FW35V today, hopey it should be made and come within 2 weeks.
i got :
P8600 2.4ghz
4gb ram
DVD RW
320gb HDD 5400 RPM
1920x1080 dual lamp display
ATI 3650 512mb
vista home premium 64bit

and some crappy sony headphones
all for £835 which is ok i think.