Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

 

any pics of the SR with extended 9 cell battery?

 

I don't mind the extended battery. The battery% estimates 4hrs at 100% charge, but it takes an hour for the estimated time to go down 20 min (If that makes sense). The weight isn't a huge issue. It's still lighter than my dad's HP. It props it up so no wrist injuries either.

 

Hello i live in Toronto and im looking for a VAIO laptop from the USA as they are a lot cheaper..could anyone tell me where could a buy a notebook?

 

lol thanks for the pics! for some strange reason i started laughing when i saw it...it elevates pretty high compared to my friends CR with ext. battery, as far as i remember.

lol..i cant stop laughing! why? i dont know!

well, is it at least comfortable to type with? more comfy than flat? does it provide good ventilation and coolness??

one good thing about the ext. batt. is when its in the backpack, the batt end takes most of the pressure, not the center of the LCD screen! So yea..good point here I think.

thanks!

 

It's very cool and has never run hot on me. It's not uncomfortable to type on either. I've never typed on a flat laptop, so I can't decide on that.

 

Not only does system restore take a lot of space, but I think Vista Business has a features that backs up ALL of your files automatically, which could easily take 50GB quickly. You can probably turn it off somewhere.

 

Great to hear! I had the ATI and it ran reltively cool. But the left palm rest got a bit warm even when just word processing. I think its just the combined heat from my hand+the graphics card (im assuming its under there as the VGA port is on that side).

So you said 4 hours is what the batt life is estimated... Have you tested it fully?

I remember my SR with ATI card and std. batt est. 2 hours 30 minutes on vaio ult. battery, but actually got 3 hours and 30 minutes.

 

Big question here. I just got my SR an hour ago and it's really nice. There's just one thing wrong, but that thing is making me consider returning it.

The touchpad button takes so much pressure to press!

I don't mean that it's unpressable, it's just twice as stiff as any other laptop I've tried. You've gotta really stab at it, and it responds with a pretty loud click. Someone brought this up before, and I did play with an SR briefly at Best Buy. But really, I'm trying to imagine pressing this button for the next three years and it's making me wonder. Is there any way to manually change the pressure needed (it's a longshot, but I thought I'd ask). Also, anyone one else gotten an SR and returned it?

The keyboard is awesome though after just five minutes, with a huge touchpad, and the computer feels quite light but well built.

 

I am in the same boat

 

I have not tested it.

 

So i just got my SR today and i love it. There is noticible flex in the right palm rest but other than that, its a great computer. GJ Sony

 

can you test it if you have battery drain while laptop is off or not please ??

 

Update on the touchpad buttons: I'm using the tapping feature now to avoid using the buttons. It'll take some time to get used to, and the stiff and loud buttons are still annoying by their very presence (jesus I sound complainy), but it could be okay.

Are everybody's buttons this hard to press? My right button is almost normal, but the left one is a beast.

 

I find mine hard to press compared to my old laptop. It doesn't bother me though.

 

Perhaps they loosen up after use. maybe sony built it to last.

P.S. http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...0001&productId=1005447&navigationPath=n100393

Canada Sonystyle has posted the BZ picture under the SR page. Wow. Sony is hilarious sometimes...

 

I also see the battery drain, just by turning off an on the computer while it is not plugged in. At 100% battery after charge, turning off then on the computer the battery went down to 95%, turning on and off again, the batter was at 93%. First time was obviously noticeably more dramatic.

I do already love this computer though. The keyboard is so nice, the touchpad is good though the buttons are a bit loud, the screen is bright and beautiful, the machine remains very cool, seems like excellent build quality. The speakers aren't so great, haven't tested the headphone jack though i'm assuming they are better.

 

Hugh_G_Rection,

that's a great setup you have there. It will run games well. I played CS Source on full settings, except no filtering (except with 2X AA or AF...I forgot, it was one of those) and got flawless FPS. However, as I don't game much I decided to change it up because it was basically a paper weight during what I do most: music production, word processing, web browsing.

Anyhow, the headphone port is alot better. It depends on your headphones really. It's going to sound just like any other realtek soundcard, as far as I know. I have a realtek on my computer and they sound the same. I make music using the headjack port on my SR and quality is great. doesnt hinder my production.

 

Is there any way to turn off the power button glow? One of the reasons I got the SR is the lack of constant-glow buttons and indicators (well, other than the big ol' power button).

 

Just got my SR! It is one nice looking machine, im a big fan.


So far, i have not noticed the so called right palm rest flex at all, i pressed down hard on the right side and then i notice a flex, but i notice one on both side when i press down hard on either side i notice some give, but very minimal. They keyboard is excellent, i haven't really used the touchpad yet, ive been using my sony laser mouse.

The worksmanship is excellent. As duke mentioned in earlier posts the dvd drive does scrape your desk or whatever surface it's on when you open it fully. No big deal, also the other complaint is i would have liked a higher resolution screen, but the brightness and color is phenominal.

So far, im a big fan, i will do a full review with photos if anyone is interested, let me know!

 

Could you please do a full review with photos?? I am looking at this vs, the x300 thinkpad and the sony sz and t400

 

I got mine did a clean setup, and here comes the problem:
the biometric scaner have a driver on sony's site but not the software, so windows would recognize the hardware but I can't really use it for anything without the software. It would be greatly appreciate if by chance someone could tell me what the software for it is, thank you.

 

how did you do this clean setup? i really want a clean setup as well!

 

Just ordered

Customization Details
Microsoft® Office Home and Student Edition 2007 [Regular price $145]
No Fresh Start™
Photo Standard
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] [Regular price $150]
Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery (BPS13A/B)
Video Standard
No Engraving
Trusted Platform Module / Biometric Fingerprint Sensor
QuickBooks Simple Start
Wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3470
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9600 (2.80GHz)
DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
13.3" WXGA (XBRITE-ECO™ technology)
Windows® Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
Night Black
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2) [Regular price $150]

Expected ship date is 9.2.08

I saw someone wanted some testing with the 2.80 GHz processor...I'll be happy to do that for you once I get this in hand.

 

Just ordered my SR. I have been checking this forum every day for the last month and a half. Thank you for everyone who contributed. It made my decision so much easier. Does anyone know how accurate Sony is with their build estimate? Also, I know they are shipped from California and I am wondering how long it will take to get to the east coast...Pennsylvania. I took the free shipping.

 

Sony is VERY ACCURATE, my vaio came the exact day they said it would, pretty fancy.

I've been having some "issues" with my new vaio, mostly the speakers, so be informed that the speakers are crappy on the notebook. Other than that, its a quick little machine with some great looks.

 

Still no one's gotten around to comparing battery life on the SR between Vista and XP?

 

Presumably with SP1 on Vista and SP3 on XP, they are similar. Every other aspect has become eqaul, such as gaming, something which originally took a hit over vista's requirements...etc.

So, im sure if you have aero off, and are just browsing in vista, it will be similiar to just browsing the net or doing office work in xp.

This is just speculation....

 

What settings would you have to do get 3hrs or more with an ATI card without having to use an extended battery pack? According to the battery meter it says 2:40 mins at 100%. How do you get the extra 20 mins?

 

to do a clean setup,
1. reboot with Paragon Partition Manager recovery disc to get rid of that 10gb hidden drive
2. setup vista
3. setup drivers
4. turn off battery eaters (vista back-up, sync, media center etc.)
5. turn off useless service
6. twick the power plan

 

it said you have 2:40 but actually you have more about 3:30 and you can test it !!

 

To the left of the touchpad, there are two lights, one has a picture of an arrow pointing to a battery, and to the rightof that there is a picture of a cylinder. The light next to the cylinder has been flashing like crazy whenever the laptop is turned on - Is this normal? What is this light for?

 

Isn't that just to indicate when the HD is running or something?

 

That is the HDD light and welcome to Vista. Vista does a lot of caching and indexing in the background so the HDD gets a workout.

 

the estimate time is off. i put my previous SR with ATI card in Ultimate battery mode and disabled wifi/bluetooth as well as the DVD drive and got nearly 3.5 hours with it.

 

I thought the recovery partition that is included has all of the bloatware as well??? im confused.

 

so this is normal?

is there any way to stop all the useless caching and indexing?

 

I just got delivery of my custom Vaio SR today!

A few things I noticed:

-the heat sink on the left runs quite hot (in my opinion) while I was just browsing through the computer and it's pre-installed programs... just a notch below 'burning' hot

- left palm rest is a little too warm for my liking (the right palm rest is relatively cool)

-the base of the computer is ALMOST even-footed. It might be just my SR, but the lower left of my notebook is ever so slightly raised.. but raised enough to be noticeable

- the optical drive tray is a little loose on the end that is to the front of the notebook... anyone else notice this with their SR?

- bloatware... badd


Haha.. sounds like a list of complaints but let me assure you... I'm quite happy with my Vaio SR. Overall, it's a solidly-built machine with stunning looks and competent performance. Oh, and the engraving is very nice - subtle yet sophisticated.

 

i said get rid of the recovery drive, and could you please look up the biometric software for me?

 

also, besides what i asked a couple posts above, another question:

There is a "balanced" mode, "performance" mode, and "power saving" mode. You can edit these through the power options to be, as far as I can tell, exactly the same. Does each mode have its own inherent qualities that the user cannot change, that makes it better in its unique way? I mean, does the "performance" mode actually make your computer work faster, give better gpu performance, etc?

Thanks.

 

actually if you go to the power settings you can easily find it in the cd/dvd icon in the task bar you will notice that the max processor speeds are different.

i made a new setting that is balanced mode i changed some of the settings so it would save alot of power while on battery turned off everything and copied the vaio optimize plan for when i go a/c. that way i wouldn't get a warning if i change to battery or to a/c. It also keeps it cooler.

by the way any thoughts on setting the thermal control strategy to silent mode cause the performance mode is quiet as well.

 

I saw someone write somewhere about a "tapping" feature they had enabled because they didn't like the loud clicks of the buttons...what is this?

 

This is basically a feature where tapping the touchpad rather than clicking the buttons acts as a double/single-click.

 

what happened to the extended battery for the SR on the accessories page? they have TWO standard battery options , one is silver one is black, but no extended battery to be found..not even back order.

i got my laptop config. wiht it but now that worries me that they have none in stock or plan to get any? now my laptop will be delayed tons?

 

for the mode switcher, i was on my friends SR. (mine should be shipping today ) when i switched modes it washed away his old wallpaper and flipped around the 3 sony vaio wallpapers.

is there a way to have 3 custom wallpapers?

 

yes there is

 

just got my sony sr today at the comex show here in singapore, then had to buy the international warranty for canada for $100, but i dont mind since i get to save the gst on the laptop when i leave singapore

had the sr for a few hours now and LOVING it!

 

Ah its the one at SG$2499 right? Wow plus $100 for international warranty. Don't know man but I think all laptops here in SG are over priced badly and couldn't you have got it for cheaper in Canada? Other than that, congrats on your purchase, it's a heavenly laptop (minus the stupid draining battery prob).

 

for those of you who interested in installing 64bit windows i made a post here, i used vista ultimate 64bit :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=292687

 

My SR shipped last night, unfortunately they used FedEx standard delivery and no Saturday delivery and Monday being a Holiday I probably won't get it until Tuesday.