Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

thanks PhilFlow. any way to manually upgrade the gcard? its a pretty basic one and i would prefer something stronger

 

No. That's not a possibility with Sony as far as i know.

 

Hi, just wondering, is the T5800 socket P, like the P8400 and P8600, T9300, etc ?

 

Hi, the website says estimated ship date is Nov 19. Upon checkout, it says Sony needs to verify the order within 24hrs. When can I expect the package to arrive? still Nov 19?

 

SUp illian, just wondering is that the titaniam grey sony sr you have in the picture? if it is how do you like the color? I've seen the black one in person but yet to see the titanium grey. On the fence between the two colors.

 

also, if there is anyone out there with the titanium grey please input your feedback of the color. thanks

 

For 290 series owner, did they improve the mouse pad? (make it quieter and more...clickable...?) And the build quality, when I had the 190, on the right side where the disc drive is, the cover seems to cave in a bit. Is it as solid as the left side on the new 290?
Thanks to anyone who can answer my question. Sony claim that the SR is mainstream, but I have yet to see it at any retail stores.

 

by the way, can we connect the SR to an external lcd monitor?

i recall the older versions were unable to be connected to lcds. has this been enabled now?

 

All SRs can

 

I think so. I see it used a lot in Montevina laptops as a budget option.

 

Ok, I got Sony 290 CTO with Intel GMA and P8400 with 320GB 5400rpm..
Well, I want to upgrade to 4Gigs (have a 64-bit system)..I would like to order the RAM online, so it comes by the time the laptop is delivered..
One question..on newegg, they have 2 types of 2 GB DDR2-800 laptop sticks..one is with CAS 5 and other is with CAS 6..
Now, I don't know whether Sony SR290 is compatible only with one of those, or with both types?..because I've read that many motherboards are compatible with only one CAS type..
Please advise..
-sr

 

I don't think the CAS-latency makes much of a difference. The default Sony RAM (a Samsung on my SR) has 6-6-6-18 @ 400 MHz. The Kingstom RAM I bought has 5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz. Both are working fine.

Also! Fun story time! I was on my laptop in outside one of my classrooms today, and it literally managed to turn a head, as someone actually walked by, turned around and asked me what model/brand it was since he was also in the market for a 13" laptop. *pets shiny SR*

 

i'm debating whether i should get the 320gb hd @ 7200rpm or 320gb hd @ 5700rpm.
i read on the thread, "Laptop Purchasing Guide" that,
"A second way to increase the speed of a drive is to find one that rotates faster. The standard HDDs in most laptops run at 5400 RPM. Many manufacturers allow you to upgrade to a 7200 RPM drive which will significantly reduce load times"(Lithus).

but the sony rep from sonystyles.com said that paying the extra $50.00 for the 7200rpm isn't worth it. that there is not too much of a difference. anyone here know which info is more accurate?

thanks! mark

 

also, i read on here that people are getting the $200.00 off when purchasing an express ship service plan and two accessories, and also getting 7% off for being a student. Well, a sonystyle rep told me that they offer either the $200.00 one OR the 7% student discount; not both. anyone here know if that is accurate as well? thanks for any feedback given.
mark

 

If you are looking for performance, yes this is worth it. However, don't forget by adding a 7200RPM drive the battery life will decrease. So its a matter of battery life or performance. Depends on what you need. Also, if you choose the 5400ROM now you can always upgrade it later on down the road.

 

thanks for the info mark6614. went with the 7200rpm one.

 

Good choice.

 

I suggest updating your flash drivers.... or switching to google chrome(or both). I have an SR190 and never had such issues...but then again i only use chrome...

 

I wish more people asked me what model/type my laptop is! But then again...it sits at home 85% of the time.... and people do in fact STARE at it when im traveling on a bus with it...prob cause fancy sony laptops aren't a dime a dozen like macbooks

 

I just took some pictures of my SR inside the ZeroShock III sleeve, in case anyone here may be considering buying it:

 

Hi! I just wanna ask if it's possible to use a DDR3 Ram on the SR. Many thanks!

 

No it is not. DDR3 uses different slots. DDR3 is not even that much better anyways! Just because its a bigger number doesn't mean its always better.

 

Thanks mark!

 

Prospective buyer. Any build quality issues like loose/shaky batt. I heard there's a rubber flap on the right that covers the modem and LAN port that's kind of loose.

 

hey lattice. Do you think that zeroshock case has enough room for an SR with the extended battery or would it be too tight of a fit?

 

I think it might be too tight a fit. The problem with the Sony extended battery is that it makes the laptop thicker, and I'm not sure how much thicker it really gets it. Mine fits quite snugly already on a standard battery (though due to the material inside, there is enough "give" for something a bit thicker). Do you have your laptop right now? If you give me some measurements for how much the battery protrudes from your SR, I might be able to pad some paper or something under my SR to see if it still fits into my ZeroShock.

 

I just got this notebook, and while I love it to dead. I only have one complain, and it's the sound.

Really really low, the speakers are awful

 

Oh, I definitely hear you there. I thought my old Toshiba's speakers were weak, but I can't even listen to the speakers on this laptop for extended periods of time. I recommend just going with headphones for long periods of music listening. I guess in a laptop this small, it's hard to find decent speakers.

 

Update the audio driver, it improves the sound quite a bit!

 

Do you mind pointing me out towards the update? I tried through vaio update but didn't find any Audio/drivers updates

 

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/SO...High-Definition-Audio-Codecs-R208-Vista.shtml

 

thank you!

 

hello all,
looking for some real world benchmark scores from an SR with ATI 3470. i was thinking of picking one up because of the nice deal they have but need to still play some games during downtime. not sure of the difference in generations of SR, so I need some from pretty recent purchases. thanks.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295866

 

Hi all, this forum has been invaluable to me for deciding what laptop to get. I've set my sights on the SR290.

There is currently $200 off the SR290. My question is would this coupon code "SRFVXERTYU" add an additional $200? Add student program savings for a potential ~$500 in savings?

Also, I'm on the edge right now about purchasing the blu-ray drive option. A part of me says I'll most likely get a new laptop 2-3 years down the road and I should wait then when they're cheaper. Also I already own a blu-ray player at home, and if i was to consider burning any software down the road, I'd buy a blu-ray drive for my PC. Anyone care to convince me otherwise? Or have I pretty much told myself blu-ray is out of the question. I can only think of having it as a bling factor.

 

Yes, the $200 Sony price drop and the $200 coupon and any student/EPP discount you have are stackable.

No, there is really no reason to purchase blu-ray when you already have it.

 

As mentioned if you have blu-ray at home no need, plus the current laptops drives are not the fastest. I'd rather wait for the tech to improve.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you know the changes between the 190 and 290? I see they added HDMI, has anything else changed? Same GPU?

 

yes, the hd3470 in the new SR has 256mb of vram instead of 128mb

But that doesn't really make a difference..

 

Are there any pictures out there the show the difference between the standard battery and the extended? I tried google images looking for a pic of the extended battery installed but didn't find any.

 

I think the standard battery props it up a bit... but the expanded props it up quite a bit more. So, less flat.

On the other hand... it's a lot better for cooling too that way. O_O

 

Just recieved my SR290 laptop yesterday. I am very impressed with everything. From the packaging to the laptop; everything was perfect. I am thinking of doing a full out review on it. Do you think this would help or are there already to many reviews?

 

Is anyone in using a 4GB Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo for ready boost in their SR290? Does it help anything or would it be a waste of money?

 

It's always nice to see another review
Plus I think there aren't any for the new SR290 series yet.

The write speed of the card reader is ridiculously slow
In my opinion, ReadyBoost is totally pointless, cause a USB flashdrive or a Memory Stick is nowhere as fast as the internal memory, and your hard drive just keep writing stuff onto your flash drive when you have readyboost turned on.. It doesn't improve anything, it might even make the machine run slower (unless you only have less than 2 GB of RAM i guess...)

 

I think it would be very useful! I found only one real review on the web about this notebook...

 

A couple of hours earlier today, I was actually looking for reviews on the 290 model, but I already ordered it now.

But I'm sure there are others that would still like a review of a 290 model as I couldn't find a thorough one.

 

Hey have you guys checked out these reviews, I know these are for the 190 series, but the only addition to the 290 series is the HDMI port, so these should still work

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=279726
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=277739
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/213993/sony-vaio-vgnsr19xn.html

 

I would love a review of the SR 290 since there is none at all. Plus being a previous SR owner (who is waiting for his credit to be funded so he can buy another one), a review would help me make an inform decision before I make the plunge again...and risk going through the hassle of returning it.

If you're going to do the review, let me know. There are some things I want to ask.

 

You can PM any questions you have on the laptop. It might take me a few days to get a review up. Don't think i'm going to do a benchmark review though. Unless people think it would be informal.

 

Can I ask it here?

Well here goes.
-mouse pad. How is it? Loud? Hard to click?
-Build quality. Does the right side near the disc drive cave in? Does the battery wiggle in its place?
-screen. Good? Picture with hq background would be amazing.
-external display. Video quality? The first didn't come with HDMI. So i'm wondering how the graphic card handle external display. Picture would be great.

I know i'm asking a lot. You don't have do this if you don't want to. But thanks in advance.