Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

well the idea is for adobe stuff like photoshop, bluray ,web and gaming

 

the gaming isnt that important but i wouldnt mind being able to through in a game and play it with bearable framerate, i know the 64 bit will help interfacing but im wondering how far i can stretch this spec

 

its ok for you i guess.

and your laptop should be fine for games.

will you do lots of photo editing, as if you will, the SSD option will be good for you as it speeds up loading times a LOT. although the downside is it costs a lot more and has low space.

the 2.66ghz wont make a big difference like i posted earlier on with the stuff your doing.
im guessing your buying it from the uk, dont waste your money on the extra £75 for the option.

also if your in the uk, call sony up and buy it, as they are allowed to give anyone a 5% discount with an accessory.

i didnt pick blu ray as iv got a ps3, which covers me for games and blu rays .

 

yeah-if I didn't get a pre-configured one I'd also stick the BD option out-especially that it's a writer as well and is soo slow As owais said-save the monies from the cpu and get yourself a decent SSD-no noise is the other benefit...i'm stuck with my crappy HDD for few more months as have few other things to take care of

 

oh-and you'll defo be able to run most current game by sacrificing either res or detail level,cod:waw goes like a mad man @800x600 and runs with small hiccups @ full hd

 

just in addition to my recent post-here's the link for the new CCC 9.3-hadn't had a chance to check it out yet so please post any updates u found
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista32.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.14&lang=English

 

would love to see a refresh by June(my birthday )with better GPUs

 

there will be no FW refresh, sony will bring new laptops out around Q3 2009 tho maybe.

i can assure you that you wont be seeing any 4XXX ati's.

 

Hi! Sorry, but cant i just put in the new unformated hdd in the FW and then boot up with my recovery discs? Do i get the option to format the new hdd?
Thanks in advance.

 

so u wouldnt recommend the 2.66. so the 2.2 or 2.4 doesnt show much difference in power, i would get the ssd mem but the price is very big for what it is

 

Has the FW series been discontinued? It's no longer listed for sale at sonystyle.ca.

 

Still available on the sonystyle.com site, so I'm guessing not quite yet.

 

Where did you get this info from?

 

sony dont usually add new GPU's half way through the products life. they didnt even add new gpu's when they knew that the 8600m GT's were faulty.

sony already did a slight upgrade, with adding SSD, newer processors, colours etc.

its not a gaming laptop so sony arnt bothered with it. its a entertainment laptop...

its already selling good, and it costs them more money to put the GPU's in as they have to make sure drivers work, there is no problems, the GPU itself costs more, may have to redesign the laptop.
no point doing that when its already selling good.

its aimed at the entertainment market, thats why they have the very nice 1080p screen, 16:9, quite a large display, bluray and other stuff. and its already very well priced in its range.
People who buy this, buy it for entertainment uses usually and not gaming, so they want a cheaper laptop that plays movies. They dont want to pay more for a GPU they wont use.

most companies dont add new GPU's in their laptops, after nearly a year of it being out.

anyway, the 512mb 3650 is nearly on par with the 9600m gt.

 

Cheers. When was the FW35V released, anyway? Have you received yours, yet?

Incidently rang up Sony UK to order the FW35V on thursday but their computers were down so they couldn't do anything. Said they'd ring me back but they haven't.

 

the first thing that needs to be addressed is the design of the FW, the barrels need to be redesigned, removed or strengthened.

GPU is fine and needs no replacing, since this is an entertainment laptop, a gaming device from sony is the PS3.

I'd personally like to see a new FW, whatever name it will have, to be thinner, lighter, easier on the battery life, LED screen and retain Full HD.

 

the FW292 is available http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...productId=1006367&navigationPath=32009n100393

 

Yes me too! I just returned my Dell SXPS 1640 and hope Sony will release a new FW soon!

 

Hi all, second post here. So im rather new to the community, but ive been reading threads of interest here for awhile, and eventually I got around to making an account. Because I have some questions I havent seen answered here.

I own a Sony Vaio VGN-FW26G, ive had it for about 2 months now. Im rather annoyed with it to be honest since it wasnt cheap and ive had some stupid issues with it. Such as a stuck pixel in the first week of using owning it, which is still there smiling back at me. When I rang up the retailer I got it off I was simply told id have to contact Sony in regards to replacing or repairing my laptop. Screw that I thought, since the down time without my laptop would be painful.

Im also annoyed at the spastic touchpad, which has been complained about numerous times accross the net and not acknowledged by Sony.

But I have a question about something that may be fixable as I know the last two problems arent easily fixed without returning my laptop to be repaired.

Its a simple problem of audio lag. For instance when I press a key in a window that doesnt except keyboard input, it plays the usual windows "ding" sound, however instead of instantly replaying the sound for how many times I pressed the key it will lag about 5 seconds and then start spamming the sound out of my speakers in a really distorted way.

Its a really silly problem to have and I was just wondering if anyone else has similar problems with any FW series laptops.

Thanks.

 

I was just watching TV and the MLB '09 - the Show commercial with Dustin Pedroia came on. Notice the laptop that the Sony exec is using:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5b9YdMbG1I

 

thats funny, all five of the ones with dead pixels i had + the one i currently have , all had that issue.

i press back space on msn window conversation and the noise happens 5 seconds later, but starts going crazy.

maybe a sound card issue or an issue with the drivers.

 

Can someone try to wooble the circle hinges and see if theirs shakes a bit?

the power side is perfect, tight in place, the power plug side is very woobly and shakie.

 

Both mine are tight on the Fw285

 

My circle hinge on the left side (power plug side) wobbles.
Right side is fine.

Also Lastdon, its nice to see my complaints dont fall on deaf ears.

 

Couldn't agree more about those faulty, flimsy barrels!

 

well, I don't have any issues with the barrels-mechanically and visually-I guess it's a matter of taste... I do have a squeaky side of the keyboard tho-anyone noticed on the left hand side between caps and tab buttons that it is moving a bit?
If I could add to a wish list I'd defo agree with the battery life-apart from it all is simply brilliant!

 

if anyone wants windows xp drivers PM me for what i guess is the full set
this is for the FW-373J/B



also, if anyone can tell me......when i load windows xp, it says "blah blah Windows has found a virus or bad sector and cannot continue, restart and try again"

I do and same error pops up......after the first blue "loading files" screen.

thanks

 

Okay got my FW290 CTO over this weekend from outlet. It is a beauty and simply amazing machine. I got 2GB RAM and want to upgrade it to 4GB as it came with 64bit Vista. I want to know if DDR3 RAM works with it (tried running crucial scan my sytem and got Blue-screen error), will any of this RAM work with FW290 CTO ? I got P8600 with 2GB RAM + 160GB HDD + FullHD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0381 1309239101 1309121118&name=4GB (2 x 2GB)

 

I have a FW390 that I received 2 weeks ago and so far I love it. I opted for the XBRITE-ECO screen rather than the FullHD screen. I was kind of worried after I purchased it and then started reading about the differences in the 2 screens. I went to the Sony Style store in Philadelphia on Saturday to look at the FullHD screen in person. They had a FW378 with the FullHD screen sitting beside one with the ECO screen. The problem was that the screen resolution on the FullHD one was not 1920x1080. I went into the display properties and it did say 1920x1080, but the size of everything on the screen was exactly the same as the FW beside it with the ECO screen which was at 1600x900. They also had a FW290 with the FullHD screen and it was set to 1920x1080 and was displaying it properly (everything on the screen was really small). I found it weird that the FW378 FullHD model said it was set to 1920x1080, but the screen resolution was exactly the same as the ECO model beside it that was set to 1600x900. I asked one of the workers there, but he didn't know why. I also didn't notice that much difference in terms of brightness between the 2 screens. I am very happy with my ECO screen, but I do like the 1920x1080 resolution as I usually have multiple windows open. I am just trying to decide if I should return mine and order one with the FullHD screen.

 

the size of the icons and text is determined by the DPI so next time you'll have a chance to visit sony centre please check the DPI on each pc-the full hd is a dual lamp technology meaning it is a lot brighter than the ECO screen and the color is simply amazing compared to pretty much anything else-it's down to yourself tho I would highly recommend the full HD to any1

 

the only time it really looks great is at full brightness.

once you put it to once Notch or like the first level of brightness or non brightness u can hardly see the screen clear.

Even on hp or lg with no brightness u can see the dam thing clear.

I am afraid that if you run the LAPTOP on full brightness everyday that the brightness levels will decrease more faster .

 

Are you talking about the LED or the 1080p screen? I've got the 1080p screen, and I've been completely happy with it turned down to two steps on its eight-step brightness scale.

 

not sure, i have the fw285d i am its' the 1920x1080 1080p full hd bluray one.

turn it to 0 and look at the bottom of the screen towardsd the cloclk and start button u'll see it's very dark...... I am comparing this to my LG that i have right beside it at 05 brightness it is noticeable way brighter then the sony.

Sony has offered me a full refund because of their mislleading ads and that they dont inform users that VT is disabled, but i can't find a laptop that i am like yet... the 16.4 high res screen is tops


Will running 100% brightness daily decrease the life of the Display?? i wonder what the verdict is on that.

 

http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/

INTEL + VIRTUALIZATION = END OF THE FRAKKING WORLD

Seriously dude. You DO NOT walk virtualization enabled on an Intel processor. Come to think of it, I think I forgot to disable virtualization on my desktop just now. Hehe.

Intel hasn't fixed its virtualization bug for the past four years. They just don't frakking care. They expect you to buy a new processor. Virtualization is probably broken on Nehalem too though so seriously. Just forget about virtualization altogether. Or go with AMD virtualization.

 

wish i could . but for work i need Virtual OS in 64bit which aren't supported by VT without it enabled.

Hmm an FW with amd lower power turions budget, that would be nice !

 

Same here, power LED side tight, power plug side can be moved right and left with light finger presssure. It does make me nervous when I pull off the plug. And if I trip on the cord, it will snap for sure! Besides, I have seen it snapped off on a display model at a shop

 

Hi guys, Just wondering, Has anyone's FW's power barrel thing came off?, Mine came off completly and is only just attached to the unit by the power cable, Any info on how to get it back on or has anyone got a step by step guide on opening up the FW?, Thanks

 

for real yours snapped off?> u have a picture?

 

A lot of people mention battery times being shorter than they'd like, but are they the ones with the 2-lamp HD screen as opposed to the 1-lamp ECO screen?

I'm guessing the ECO screen stands to give you significantly better battery times. (Hence "ECO"nomical.) Anyone know how much extra battery life an ECO screen gives you (I know it's still subjective, depending on what you're doing, gaming, surfing, etc.)?

And yes, setting the DPI manually will 'zoom in' somewhat to emulate the same sort of sizes of lower resolutions, but I have noticed that some websites don't render correctly when using manual DPI in some circumstances due to occasional sloppy web coding. Text wraps all around, or off, the screen in these instances.

 

If someone of you have access to another sony FW you should try this.

My neighbour came over so i can set up his FW 285 as well that he got from futureshop on sale cause it's discontinued.

I've had mine since January .. in reality i use it about 2-3 hours a day maybe less on some days.

anyway having the laptops beside eachother

on yahoo.com, msn.com, google.com etc his was way brighter then mine.

I mean it's only been three months or so, how the heck can a monitor be less bright even by a small margin with minimal use.

 

@lastdon

Do you both have the same XBriteHD or ECO screen?

Did you compare brightness just after powering up? (The lamps take a few minutes to 'warm up')

Are you _sure_ you were at full brightness?

The fluorescent back lighting does dim over time but it would not be noticeable after only 3 months I think.

 

I have an ECO screen (FW11M) and I can certify you that battery performance is as lousy as can be. 1 lamp instead of two does not make any significant difference. Oddly, too, the battery drains very fast when laptop is off and disconnected from power.
ECO just means lower price, lower brightness and fewer colors.:cry:

 

Heres the pics, Has anyone tried re-assembling it before?

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3968/02022008062.jpg
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/5308/02022008063.jpg

 

Ouch!

 

I have to disagree with the last one-all is fine, the only thing to mind when changing DPI is to set the scalling ot XP style as some programs don't support vista and font may appear blurry.

 

Both 1080p XBriteHD, exact same model comptuer., both full brightness,even reset all the settings in the ati control panel.

tried with normal solid colour wall paper, and then them side by side over 10 minutes

 

okay wow,

thats horrible!

did you contact sony on this? maybe try and see what their responce is? that is something that shouldn't even be denied.

 

I presume the laptop is still under warranty. I don't see why Sony wouldn't replace it. As a last resort, you can always use superglue.

 

I called Sony Canada and USA to see what their stance is on broken barrels and hingers, and they specifically stated " the determine is it is issue in the factory, and since it is, the loose hinges and misalignments and some that might come off will probably deemed physical damaged.
"

Though from pictures i posted some HINGES were so croocked it was horrible