Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

I've noticed that the battery drains quite a bit when leaving the laptop on sleep during the night (went from 78% to 39% this night). Is this normal? I can of course put it in hibernate but I really like to be able to start again right away.

 

Hey owais,

It looked like you tried some other models then returned them. I was looking at all those models before settling on the sony FW. Could you comment on what you didn't like about the other models you've tried recently?

I've exchanged my first fW 200 series purchase for an earlier 100 series because they are supposed to have better screens. Now I am waiting for it to come in. If it has the same crappy screen as my first purchase I am sending it right back and would like to know about any potential problems with the models you have already sampled

thx

 

hi everyone,
I've got FW140E for myself, downgraded to XP SP3, installed all the drivers that were on the sony support website for my model. but still having some issues with Brightness buttons, a bunch of functions from the VAIO utilities (it simply says "You can't launch") etc.

anyone had the same problems?

 

I'm not sure what is going on, but the battery charge level drops significantly even with the laptop completely shut down. When I shut it off last night, the battery was at 40% then this morning when I start it up it reads 11%. Very odd.

 

gave the m1530 back as its only centrino, and have problems with the 8600m GT. plus that fact for a centrino laptop, its overpriced.

i gave the acer back as it just looked pure ugly, was too plastic, and you can even bend the whole of the laptop caseing with your hands easily (even screen). also i had a 18" which was just too big.

the studio xps 16" is a ok laptop but i had the WLED screen is just pure , the resolution is too small, the colours are dull and i had lots of faint lines going across my screen. and i didnt want the 1920x1080 one as its too expensive (no way am i paying £140 for it)

so i picked this FW, i like it as my bro has onne and iv just picked one with better specs.


also, the dual lamp/1920x1080 are the better FW screens hence why i picked the 1920x1080. in america i think they are Hicolor in the 1920x1080 models.

 

Hi all,

I've recently purchased VAIO FW21E and the notebook is overall very good - in fact I was shocked that the Sony VAIO for the given price was better spec than what "cheap" manufacturers like Acer or Asus have to offer.

Still, there is one thing that really annoys me and it is noise. I'm not sure what the today's standards are but compared to my 2 previous laptops (one is 5 year old Acer and the other one is 3 year old Asus), this VAIO is really loud. Even the HDD itself (320GB Toshiba) makes more noise than the whole Acer laptop. Furthermore, the cooling algorithm of the main fan is really stupid - it is turned off until the motherboard temperature reaches 50C, then the fan kicks in, cools the NB down to 40C, then the fan is turned off which makes the notebook reach 50C after some time again, rinse and repeat.

To be fair, my old Asus model was infamous for getting laud due to the GPU fan and VAIO FW is certainly better out of the box, but on that Asus, I could install SpeedFan which is unfortunately not supported on VAIOs.

The noise is so annoying to me that I am considering returning the laptop. It would be kind of sad because I love almost everything about this VAIO but quietness of a notebook is really important to me and I was fooled by the many rewievs that claim this notebook is quiet.

Before I return it, does anyone have any tips on how to fight the noise? SpeedFan is not an option and installing clean Windows 7 will be my last bet. Is there anything else I could try?

Thanks,
Borek

 

my bro has a fw11e and his is not very loyd at all.
i think urs might be faulty, might aswell get a replacement if you just got it or call sony up to fix it.

also. my laptop is already shipped, within 1 day of order

 

I just wish the AV Mode button would work like its supposed to, they have a knowledgebase bug report but no solution yet ID:C1000489

http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/...ES_1_1&dialogID=28730203&stateId=0 0 74023779

 

it might actually be a driver issue. I would suggest chating(much faster than calling, waiting time for me was generally 1 minute) with a tech support representative about it.

 

on another note, has anyone been having problems with their wireless card? i switch mine on and it is apparently powered on but it doesnt work for some reason. the LED stays off and SmartWi settings have it turned on, but for some reason or the other it turn on.

 

Just wanted to see if anyone has purchased the extended battery for there FW and how it lasts compared to the standard battery?...i waiting on my fw378j/b to get here that i ordered from jr.com and of the reviews i have read is that the battery isnt the greatest...and i can imagine using bluray would only make matters worse...

 

Dear FW owners, could someone post what motherboard temperature your laptop usually runs on? (After an hour of usage or so...) As I've discovered, the main fan goes off when mobo temperature reaches 50C and this happens far too often to my taste - it's winter now with room temperatures around 20C; I am worried that in summer when room temperatures are easily 25C or more, the fan will be on constantly.

Are temperatures around 45-50C normal for this laptop?

Thanks,
Borek

EDIT: Good programs to read the temperatures are SpeedFan or Everest.

 

Hello Borek :

I am glad you finally bring up the matter of noise, as I was myself fooled by the many reports claiming this notebook was 'quiet'. I have an earlier FW11M model, and, as I was bothered by the fan, I installed CoreTemp to see what was going on.
I noticed the same behaviour you described, i.e. alternate peaks of temperature (not much above 40° C, though, but that may be due to the earlier P8400 processor), followed by fan activity, and subsequent lowering of temperature.
What annoys me is that the fan kicks in for even such modest activities as web browsing (without video) and word processing.

I contacted Sony Support, who said they were sorry, but this was 'by design', as the processor was high-end and needed cooling.
They advised to reset BIOS to default values ('optimized defaults'), which I did, to no avail (I had not meddled with my BIOS anyway). Also, they said they might release a BIOS update to fix this, but this was 6 months ago, and no update has been made available to this day.
The only way to reduce fan activity and noise is to set laptop to 'power saving' plan

 

You can reduce the temperature of the CPU and reduce fan activity, without losing performance by 'undervolting' your CPU.

The guide is here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

I use lower voltages without any stability problems, I get less fan noise, and longer battery life!

 

Toaday, with screen brightness at 30%, I got 4 hours on my 9 cell batter. Teaching without any wireless on browsing but screen recording powerpoint with Camtasia Studio, I got 2.t hours and then at holme with browsing and emailing, got another 1.5 hours. Hope this helps you.

Gary

 

Please help if you can.... Screen Resolution Problem - No 1600x1200...?
ATI Radeon Mobility 3650 with 512mb

Several folks on this forum have been very kind and helpful but I still have not been able to resolve my issue. SONY say's they're not aware of the problem.

I have a new FW298Y, the screen resolution of 1920 x 1080, is great for HD DVDs, but the text is far to small for my daily work. I only have 3 possible resolutions available per the ATI Catalyst Control, and the other, lower resolutions are too large. 1600 x 900 or 1280 x 720 would likely be excellent.

Per the suggestion of another forum post, I just installed the new driver posted on SONY's site, following the instructions EXACTLY. Although I can see that the new driver is now installed, I still only have 3 resolutions avaialble.

Please, I love my new machine but this is extremely frustrating, and I cannot understand why SONY disabled all of the screen resolution options(?!!)

Thanks VERY much!

Martin

 

I have FW290 CTO. Driver shows 8.513.1.4000 dated 11/29/2008

I have the following res since installing new driver.

800x600
1024x768
1280x1024
1776x1000
1920x1080

So it seems it only added 2 new ones, 1280 & 1776. It's never been a problem for me but I like 1920x1080. I purposely bought my wife a HP 17t 17" with a 1440x900 display even though it came with Blu-ray, 4GB ram and 320 7200 HDD because she wanted bigger text and icons.

Sorta defeats the purpose for me but she's very happy.

Cheers,

 

i downloaded this program called PowerStrip. It allows u to create custom resolutions and really solved a lot of my problems. Give it a try...

 

On another note, can anybody tell me if im alone here. When i double click on the CCC icon in the system tray, it seems my color settings change. My desktop changes to this sort of pale drab color and i cant change it back unless i log out and back in....

anybody else experience this?

 

Just wondering, carrying the FW around in a backpack..won't cause it any harm right?

 

Same problem here. Fn brightness keys don't work. VAIO Control Center is a joke since it is full of utilities that got nothing to do with FW, such as changing the FSB 400 to 533 or light sensor. FW has none of that. That's why you get you can't launch error message. Looks like Sony just slap the utilities in a hurry for the sake of being able to post something on their site.

 

Thanks very much, DaRonRon... I'll try it.....

Martin

 

Thanks, Panzer...
Hmmm.... We're running the same driver, but I can only "see" three resolutions, 1920, 1024 and 800. Are you also running Vista 64?

Looks like the 1776x1000 (if I could see it...), might be an interesting option, given it's similar ratio to 1920x1080, although I must admit to not having a grasp on LCD resolutions, vis-a-vis native versus emulated....

Wish I could understand why I can't see any other resolutions, though....

I'll keep digging on this. It's quite important for my work. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Martin

 

To get more resolution, download ATI Mobility Modder. It will solve your resolution problem. However, it may break Blu-ray functionality. You may get incompatible graphics driver error with your Blu-ray software player.

 

I am running the Vista Home Premium 64bit it came with and have never loaded anything other than the Sony drivers (no mods).

BTW, I also have a 22" Dell external monitor which is native 1920x1080 and when I connect it, the ATI Control Center wizard offers the same 5 resolutions for the ext. monitor. Are you using the ATI program or Windows to change resolution? I haven't tried Windows, just assumed it would offer the same result.

Cheers,

 

So.......


I've had the FW notebook for a while, and my new job actually requires i use VMWARE and on my sony well things didn't go well.


So i know that sony had it disabled in the bios..... So i Initiated a complaint via my mastercard stating how sony on their candian site when looking at the specs doesn't list that it is disabled and that u actually have to search the site etc.

Had a person from management call me, saying that VISTA disables it LOL and i took him to intel site etc etc and then he said OH, well we can trake the laptop back or offer you a SOME CASH BACK.

THE FUNNY THING.. he told me not to trust forums like these because all we do is make up lies, and it's false information

and ALSO that no one HAS COMPLAINED ABOUT VT ON THE INTERNET.

 

Hello,

Today I get the new FW21Z.I have started the VISTA but I have the problem with Network Connection.I wanna connect to Internet with Automatic options
in the LAN but without success.I get the ip : 169.....

The laptop is new I didnt change/install, everything is default.

If i move the cable to another laptop with XP everything works fine.

 

Hi,

Has anyone managed to get the brightness keys working under XP on a FW 390?

Thanks

 

I have the ATI Mobility Modder installed and don't get any errors with blu-ray playback on WinDVD BD For Vaio. Of course I use the native resolution 1980x1080p with Vista 64-bit.

Anybody know what is up with the Sony Style Canada website only offering FW290 with Intel GMA 4500MHD instead of ATI Mobility 3650, hope they phasing them out and getting ready for the next FW series

 

Well...


levicki has managed to undisable it!

See HERE:
http://www.levicki.net/articles/tip...ony_VAIO_notebook_with_AMI_Aptio_EFI_BIOS.php

 

My wife owns a VGN-FW245 (the Black Friday one with Blu-ray). She wants me to install an internal bluetooth module. Does anyone know which one I can use? She doesn't want an external dongle so that's out. Thanks in advance for your response.

 

I thought the FW came with bluetooth, mine does.

 

This one didn't. I assume since it was a "door buster" they wanted to save money where they could. What I don't understand is how they can put a Blue-ray player in it and not a $10 bluetooth module!?

 

is it worth paying an extra £75 for the 2.66 ghz T9550 over the 2.4 ghz P8600?
im not going to play games.

 

Has anyone worked at getting XP to run flawless on 373J/b?

I will still pay someone for a pack of XP drivers

50 dorra

 

Has anyone have similar problem;
The Vista (32bit) shows me the 4 GB of Memory in System.The Bios also.
But in the task manager I have only 2056 Physical Memory.

I have FW21Z model with Vista Premium.

 

Could anyone who owns the FW373, post the brands of the 320gb HDD 7200 RPM and the BD-ROM Optical Drive in the system?

Also if anyone ventured into looking in the RAM bay, what is the brand of the 2X2GB RAM modules which came installed in the PC?

Thanks!

 

I have a FW373 and the HD is made by Hitachi and the BD-ROM drive is Optiarc.

I have a question too. I have a Western Digital My Passport 500 GB external drive and the first time I plugged it into my FW the computer stated that it had installed the driver for the device and all was hunky dory for me to use the drive. Unfortunately I have yet to be able to get the drive to show up as a drive that I can put data on or off of. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

OS 32 bit can not use more than about 3GB of RAM

 

Thank you darkmage!

To see a removable drive, you will need to connect it and go to Control Panel/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management. You should see the drive listed as removable.

Most likely the OS has assigned a drive letter to it, which is already in use by a local or network drive.

Right-click on the removable drive and change the drive letter to a letter which is not currently used.

Then you should be able to see the drive in Explorer.

 

Im about to pounce on a premo refurb from sony style, but i have one noobish question.

Can the Blu Ray Read/Write Drive, read regular dvds?

 

About to pull the trigger on a FW390

Customization Details
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650 with 512MB vRAM
* Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2.0GHz)
* WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
* DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
* Black
* Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
* 2 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 1GBx2)
* LCD 16.4" (XBRITE-ECO™
* 160 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
* No Engraving
* Standard Battery

Your Price: $879.11

should I? any bad things I should know?

 

go for the P8400 or P8600 they arnt much more but quite a bit better

 

Yes it can, have same drive in my FW285 - works great on Cd/DVD.

 

is it really that big of a difference?

 

Depends on what you do

I have a 373J/b, with a p8600.....its flawless with vista for what i do

 

what do you do? I do programming and gaming mostly

 

well the cpu will not be the issue here, even though the P8400 or P8600 are probably a better option. if you do cpu intensive work such as calculations or something statistical then get a faster cpu.

games will be limited by the video card in this case.

 

Thanks mate, but I'm not seeing a computer management option after opening up the control panel. The odd thing is that I can eject the external hd (comes up as external USB controller device) but it doesn't show up in explore like say my thumb drive does.

 

I just ordered an fw390 cto with:

* LCD 16.4" (XBRITE-FullHD™
* QuickBooks Simple Start
* 320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
* Windows Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
* None
* Engraving
* Standard Battery
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650 with 512MB vRAM
* Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz)
* WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
* DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
* None
* Microsoft® Works
* Black
* Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
* 4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)

sound good?