Official VAIO FW Series Owners Thread

Save yourself a lot of money and go with the VGN-FW41M/H. Like you said, Blu-ray is unnecessary, the extra vRAM is useless - the impact of real life performance is near zero - and 4 GB RAM is more than enough and you can upgrade it later if you think you need more.

For 300 euros, the gains are extremely minimal and not worth it... unless you're a person that burns a lot of blu-ray discs for some unknown reason.

 

I live in Australia so there were only 3 options when I bought it. I ended up getting the VGN-FW36GJ/B which has a 400GB 5400RPM Toshiba HDD.

 

I have a VGN-FW275D/W and I would like to play Empire Total War on it. The game lets me only use the most basic level of graphics. Is there any way I can tweak it to run the higher graphics--either through changing some driver settings or upgrading the graphics processor (if possible)? Thanks in advance.

 

Your FW comes with Intel Integrated Graphics which is never intended for gaming. Upgrading notebook GPU is impossible. It is soldered into the motherboard.

 

Hey guys, i am looking to purchase a fw490 CTO, but i was wondering if there is a real difference between the p8700 and p8800 (2.53 ghz vs 2.66 ghz) and if it is worth the extra 50 or so dollars... In addition, does anyone know how this laptop holds up for COD 4 and if it will be able to handle the new COD 4 MWF 2. Thanks

 

I think it can handle cod 4 in medium setting with fps around 30 40... well that good for a laptop at decent price. Anyone know if i should up my screen to full hd? Since I getting one tmr. Thanks.

 

There is no major real-world difference between the P8700 and P8800. You are probably better off using your $50 to get a good laptop case/stand/mouse or something instead. It will play COD 4 easily with the ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4650 GPU

 

Is the new ATI 4650 graphics card that much better than the AW's 9600 Nvidia graphics card? I don't really do ay gaming, mostly Photoshop & architectural work. I was thinking of getting the AW with the large screen and then saw this new graphics card-if I compare the FW with the AW with the same specs other than the graphics card, will it be that much better for my use?

 

As far as i know, the Radeon 3650 was quite close to the Geforce 9600, and the new Radeon 4650 has double the number of stream processors as the 3650 so it should be quite a bit faster than that Geforce.

 

blah made a new thread for no reason I shoulda just posted here, but I have a question that I would appreciate if any FW owners could answer for me:

So ensuring i didnt get a defective device and while i'm still within my 14 day return period I was wondering if other people with the FW series (I have the 465J) version have a little give on the piece on the laptop where you plug it in to charge (top left of the laptop) and if you press it on the top part of it, it sorta pushes in a little bit. I also noticed its easily scratched as a I have a small scratch right where the the screen touches that part when closing the laptop (look at it from above as you slowly close your screen youll notice a little piece sticking out from the screen that can scratch the power input piece).

 

You are right, it should be substantially higher performance than the Geforce 9600. It's actually a bit better than you described; the HD4650 actually has 64 5-wide VLIW pipelines, comes to 320 ALUs (stream processing elements) total, so about 2.66 times the amount on the 3650. The memory bandwidth is definitely by far the bottleneck, I think especially in terms of texture fill.

So in future games with higher vertex compute to texture ratio, the advantage of Radeon 4650 over the Geforce 9600 should become even more pronounced. If they had designed a 128bit GDDR5 controller into the 4650 (like the controller of rv740), it would have been a monster in performance for the thermal envelope; but I guess they have to sell some of the 4800s .

 

Battery question here.

I looked at Bestbuy's site here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...io+fw&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1218092151066

and it says the FW480 comes with a 12 cell battery. I went to Best Buy and the battery was flush with the rest of the system. Does this mean there's a flush 12-cell that doesn't stick out or that Bestbuy's model really has a standard battery?

Also, I thought the extended battery was 9-cell, not 12

 

is this the best deal online for the FW series?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117938

because it looks really tempting right now for me to get it.

 

will i still be able to burn ordinary dvds?

 

Yes it will burn CD and DVDs just fine.

 

Dude it's 80 bucks cheaper directly from Sony

 

To all those who object to the unfavorable-to-Dell comments which occasionally occur in this Sony forum, please note that last night someone posted this link about Dell's bait-and-switch issues in Taiwan (Dell's even having to hold press conferences on it): http://deceptivedell.blogspot.com/

I added a comment to that thread -- and lo, and behold, the thread and that link are nowhere to be found on NBR. But if you go to the Dell forum section you see that Andrew, an NBR moderator, implies that NBR receives kickbacks from Dell for those sales which come through this site ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/announcement.php?f=4&a=37).

So, here's the scoop: NBR engages in censorship of postings not based on departures from the truth or libel/slander issues. The power of the purse, eh? I wonder how long this posting will be allowed to stand....

And whether we can trust any postings on these non-Dell forums to be as they were intended by their authors. After all, one more non-Dell notebook destroyed is another Dell sale opportunity for NBR, right?

 

Follow the links here to get the same machine with a Blue-ray reader for $50 less, and sign up for Fat Wallet "Cash Back" to knock off another 2%

 

Derrida, I have gone back to look at some archives and I can see that the thread that you posted in was deleted because the person that started that post was advertising. Advertising in such a manner is against the forum rules. It also had nothing to do with this forum either. The same message was also posted in the Dell forums.

 

NBR is proud to help diminish the rampant misinformation that is prevalent in society today. Forums like this one allow people to share their stories as long as they follow the forum rules. For the most part, many people have shared their successes and failures with companies without "us" censoring them.

As mentioned, that post violated the forum rules...Per our forum rules, you are not allowed to pots links to personal websites or blogs, or websites you are affiliated with in your posts. Those sort of links are restricted to the signature area only.

FYI, he spammed the forum with two messages of the same nature-basicailly "Dell lied, click my blog to see more"), along with other places like this selling/shopping forum. Beside it being advertising, it is distasteful( plain common courtesy dictates that you don't send people to another site for discussion), and dangerous-links can lead anywhere( click the link if you dare - http://deceptivedell.blogspot.com/ (again, that link could have gone any where).

Also, when you see a newly created blog(only two articles), be weary. They are only created for ad revenue and they most likely stole information from good sites like the consumerist and/or its international counterpart(s). These type of sites(and not blogs) verify their information and work hard to make sure that the customer is protected/informed and are not just doing it for ad money.
http://consumerist.com/tag/dell/-Consumerist page on dell's failures...hope I don't get fired for posting this

It is unfortunate that you have a hard time trusting us(guys in green along with me do not get paid to participate...we only do it <S>for the power </s> to show our appreciated for good sites) but it is understandable. Thanks for your cooperation and I hope you continue to use this forum(your post are informative and we always appreciate it)

 

http://www.buy.com/retail/usersearchresults.asp?querytype=home&qu=FW-465&qxt=home&display=col

has the same Sony model (FW-465) for about 20 bucks cheaper than J&R, that's probably the best bet with the 100 dollar rebate.

 

Dear Super Moderator,

Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to respond to my posting and explain NBR's rationale. To tell the truth, it is difficult to find all the "rules" and the procedures and codes for the NBR site. (For example, I still don't know how someone can have a zero for a rep with a red indicator next to it, and I don't know what that means, either!).

But let me say that an "unfortunate" situation of mistrust is "understandable" when words like Dell often find themselves linked in blue while words like Sony don't (where is the explanation of what words get automatically linked and why, for example). In other words, NBR gives the impression that it's a kind of "Animal Farm" where some manufacturers are "more equal" than other manufacturers! Or where the money of some manufacturers might buy some preferences....

That said, your reply goes a long way to establishing a sense of trust and is greatly appreciated -- for indeed, I was beginning to ask myself whether I should continue to read and post here.

So, thanks again and best wishes....

P.S. Did I miss an announcement concerning the problem where "click here" often appears in the browser history when one tries to use the back arrow in Explorer to go to an earlier NBR page? Sometimes the "click here" experience goes on for several entries while the screen image stays on the same page. I sent an email a bit back concerning the issue but the problem still reoccurs, though not every time....

 

Information about rep can be found here.

As for the autolink it is most likely part of a ad campaign(linked to a product and not the dell's homepage-money is needed to runs sites as large as Technologyguide.com-notebookreview is apart of that "family"). There is a Sony coupon page(along with other manufactures) and pages just for Sony(like this one) so I doubt it preference. First come, first served...though, this is just speculation though.

As for the "click here" issue, it is mostly related to a browser and/or ad issue. The admins are probably busy with the site performance/stability(if you haven't noticed, the stability has been lackluster-see sticky) so they may not have time to address the issue. Keep an eye on this thread for any updates/some solutions to that issue. Firefox users/people with ad blocking software have not reported that issue so that is one possible solution.

Also, since this thread is not for this type of discussion, I suggest that you either Private Message me for general forum questions or the admins(-guys with red usernames) for site related questions(again, they get a good amount of PMs/emails so they may not get back to you for a while).

Thanks for your cooperation.

 

FYI:

Here's where the Dell link in your reply goes:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...=6G2D&m_8=256SSD&dgc=SS&cid=39716&lid=1003790

Just so you know.... Again, there are ads and there are ads. That's as clear a manufacturer homepage as it gets -- ready to order!

That said -- yes, I recognize that ads make the world go 'round but it's only natural to wonder when the set-up of the site is altered to "automatically" advantage one advertiser over another. Even the Sony coupon page you referred to has a separate email alert for Dell coupons rather than for Sony coupons (in the box at the right on the page): http://www.notebookreview.com/coupons/sony.asp

Anyway.... I appreciate your replies.

P.S. Did you see how "Dell coupons" got a link in my text above (I did not put it there) but "Sony coupons" did not? That's what I mean.

 

Just brought FW41MH for £1199

Nice screen but looks like bit over bright & I wanna get used to the 16" 1080P screen. Overall better than my previous FW11E

Quite fan & less heat than the previous one . going to install Vista 64Bit HMP with provided original drivers

 

The M in the model number and the first description of the FullHD screen as having multiple lamps and 100% color purity make me suspect that this screen, at least in Europe, has a different lighting system than in the US: http://www.cheapelectricals.co.uk/a...GB_BDCOMBO_500GB__vgnfw41mh_vgn-fw41m_h_.html

Otherwise, its lighting would not seem so very much brighter than the FW11E's Eco since, in the FW3 series, the FullHD was not overwhelmingly bright, and much less bright than the HiColor in the FW1 series.

Remember: Even in Europe, up until recently, the terms double-lamp and dual lamp were used -- multiple lamp leads one to believe that there are MORE than two in that screen in Europe.

 

Just read in the notebookjournal.de-Forum that it's not sure sony will offer Windows 7 - upgrades for customized notebooks. According to vaio-link the issue will be decided within this week.

Would be a shame for sony if they don't offer the upgrade for users that customized their notebooks.

 

im buying a notebook for school before september. Would it be better to pick up the fw465 right now? Or hold up for a better deal with a gts 260m/gts 250m or hd 4860?? Or a price drop with the FW series?

 

My personal preference would be to watch the Sony Outllet for clearance (as opposed to refurbished) items. My guess is that later in the summer some pre-configured models will be dumped there, as well as recent FW3 and FW4 models customized and then rejected by buyers who decided to up or downgrade to a different model.

As a student you would qualify for a 10% discount on anything in the Outlet, only 7% on regular stock -- and if you watch the Outlet for its 10% and 15% off everything sales (there was one just before the FW4 refresh came out), you can get a new computer for 10% and then 15% off of its original price directly from Sony. And during the first year of the warranty that comes with them, SonyStyle-purchased computers in the U.S. often receive service from onsite techs, too.

While there might be another FW refresh, it will almost certainly be after September. The school rush is on with the current FW4 models.

 

sony.com is out of question, since I'm in Canada. I've been looking at this fw465 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/628615-REG/Sony_VGNFW465J_H_VAIO_FW_VGN_FW465J_H_Notebook.html

The black model is already gone from the website, so should I buy it now or wait until september for better deals? The $100 off coupon is valid until september 30th.

 

I can't imagine that waiting until the last-minute before-school-crunch will cost you. If anything, a better-equipped model will come down to the price of this one and you'll have more for the same price.

 

My Sony FW490CTO has just shipped! I was not expecting it this soon.

Ordered: July 3rd
Estimated Ship Date: July 14th
Processing: July 7th - E-mail at 08:30 PDT
Shipped: July 7th - E-mail at 20:50 PDT - Fedex Pickup at 17:00 PDT
Estimated Delivery: July 11th

I will try to get some sort of mini review on Friday.

 

Hi there,

just broke my FW-290 screen and I am shipping it to Sony for service.
Does any one know how much it costs for to replace the 16.4" XBRITE-FullHD sceen?

Thanks,

 

My FW-190 XBRITE screen cracked (not the FullHD version). Sony wanted around $700 to replace the screen for me. Plus shipping!

 

How exactly did that happen?

 

Do you mean, how did it crack?

 

Thanks for the replay SoundsGood.

700$ for a screen!!! That is insane!!
So I am expecting them to quote me 1000$ for HD.

I would be better off buying a new one.

 

I'm going to buy fw390JFB!
can i active the windows vista after windows is recovered for the first time?
or it's pre actived?

 

What else?

 

Please help!

I'm going to order an FW direct from Sony in the UK, with the new 4 series graphics card.

I'm undecided as to the screen however. I saw the 1600 x 900 in PCworld.
But the 1080 is on offer this week on SonyStyle

Does the 1080 offer better brighter colours and blacks for viewing? Can anyone please offer some comment on the 2 screens in the UK at all? Or anywhere? People are talking about the the ECO brite being substandard to the 1080 version?

I'm typing this on a 22inch LG Flatron @ 1080p and the screen real estate is massive & sharp as, text is on the smaller side but OK. On a 16 inch screen wont it be tiny and unreadable?

I'll using it for forex charts & numbers & coding & stuff and also films & games in spare time. I wanna get the best one though so I have no gripes with it for the next few years.

 

What??? It's only $839 for a new baseline FW.. the whole computer.

The FullHD LCD is $349 direct from Sony.

http://servicesales.sel.sony.com/ec...archOperation=modelSearch&searchText=VGNFW290

and $235 from Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sharp-LQ164M1LA...temQQimsxZ20090626?IMSfp=TL090626189002r23230


And it's probably cheaper if you look harder:

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=lq164m1la4a

 

When the local service center charged Sony for the screen replacement in my FW, I saw the amount and it was in the range of $540 CDN, which is more than half the amount I paid for it in the first place! The most expensive thing is the actual labour so if you're confident with taking laptops apart, I think it would be better to buy the replacement parts yourself and replace them. Well, if your laptop is out of warranty.

 

It will be small but very sharp, clear and readable. 1080p have deeper color and contrast is really nice. I would recommend a 1080p one.

 

Yep. That's why I ended up replacing it myself, but I was hoping Sony would be cheaper since it is NOT easy to replace this particular screen. I really wanted them to do it, but not at that price.

That's just for the screen itself. Louai said he was gonna send his FW in to be fixed... and for parts and labor they charge around $700.

Just be careful. When shopping for my screen I ran across a lot of sellers that advertised a particular screen, but actually shipped a "compatible to" screen. Meaning it was NOT the better higher priced screen that came with my FW, but a cheaper version of it.

Right. What happened is I took the FW on a plane in my carry-on bag (a small suit case). Turns out it was a plane that didn't have normal size overhead compartments, so they told me they would have to put my bag down below with the other baggage -- but since it would be the last bag on and first bag off, it would be perfectly safe. WRONG. When I got home I discovered that the screen was cracked, badly. As you might guess, the airline claimed they were not responsible "unless there was physical damage to the bag itself", so I was out of luck.

 

I'm going to buy fw390JFB!
When for the first time you turn on your notebook, the windows coming up
and try to install.
after that do i need to register or active vista?

 

So you never disputed it?! I mean the laptop was fine before it was put down with the other luggage and cracked after. I'm surprised you're so calm about this, I would have went insane on the airline.

What about Sony? Did they say they wouldn't cover it under the warranty?

 

Someone please upload Sony Firmware Extension Parser Driver for VGN-FW41M/H (UK Version) Vista 32Bit

I can't find it on sony uk site

 

If the screen is that much, I would never pay Sony 500+ to get it fixed.

Since you went through replacing the screen, how difficult was it?

My Laptop is still on warranty and I have not sent mine yet, but I am not sure whether Sony would fixed it under the warranty or they will consider it my fault and thus blaming me for the damage.

Just curious, if Sony refused to fixed it under warranty, would I be responsible for the shipping and diagnose charges?

 

Well I tried, but it's listed in their "luggage rules." Besides, it was my own fault -- I really should have known better. And lastly, it wasn't until the next day that I took the laptop out and realized what had happened (we got home very late). So all airline communication was over the phone.

To be honest, I now believe the FW is too big to take on a plane, but I'm obviously a bit biased at this point. I'm currently looking into getting a Netbook for the few times I do travel.

Oh, I'm calm NOW. But I was not a happy camper when it happened. And I totally freaked when Sony said it would cost $700 for them to fix it.

It falls under accidental breakage, which is not covered. And it looked like it was hit with a fast-moving baseball. Very obvious that it wasn't a defect on Sony's part.

VERY DIFFICULT. Thanks to the design Sony used on this laptop, it was a royal pain in the butt to replace the screen. On the FW you can't get behind the bottom part of the bezel. The bezel on other laptops comes completely off, making it easy to replace the LCD panel -- but not on the FW. You basically have to do surgery to properly re-attach everything correctly, and it is NOT easy. I certainly would not want to do it again.

Yes, at least that's what they told me. Come to think of it, I even talked with two different Sony people since I didn't believe how expensive my quote was. I thought the guy must have been mistaken.

If your screen looks anything like mine did, no diagnosis is necessary.

 

Sure it does I will try to find a way to replace it I guess.

BTW, did you get the screen from Sony?