Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

what is a normal drain after a week or so without turning it on, how about a day?

 

check out these two threads about the battery problems
these were about the SR190
the SR290 might not be affected.. not sure though

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=282258
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295886

the Z and SZ are also affected too
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299109
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=146956

 

What speed is Lenovo card set at? I want to underclock this thing right now, but I'm not sure how low I can go with it.

 

hmm, guess i will find out tomorrow, tony, do you have any mouse to recommend, editing videos with the touchpad it kind difficult. Cause i m no sure which kind to get and whether wireless mouse consume more battery or not.

 

I use a VX Revolution with my laptop all the time. It won't consume more battery from your laptop (at least not noticeable)
I highly recommend this mouse, it's very accurate! I use it to photoshop and game, and it works just fine
the VX Revolution is kinda big for a laptop mouse though, if you want a smaller one get the VX Nano, it basically the same thing, except smaller

 

awesome, thanks might add this on to my xmas wishlist, a little too much for me to buy myself haha

 

Battery drain of my SR290 after being in sleep mode for seven and half hours -> it went from 97% to 84% -> 13% while in sleep mode is not bad.

 

When I shut down on ac, and boot-up on battery, I loose 3-5% per night. If I do both on battery, i loose 7% (constant). So I'm thinking:
total drain - (start-up + shut-down) = ~1%?

The problem is that I have to use my PC everyday so I can't test what happens for over 8-10hrs...

 

i check this morning, and i lost 4 percent over a time span of 4 hours, is this considered drain?

 

Hey - what model DVD drive is in your SR190? Maybe being able to turn off the DVD drive is dependent on this, too. Any SR290 owners have the option of turning off the DVD drive on battery?

 

I haven't been able to , no.

 

Does anyone know where the SR sucks air into to blow out the left vent?

 

I'm hoping folks can give me some good advice on the SR that I'm about to buy.

The two models I'm deciding between: SR250J/H and SR290PDB.

These come in at about the same price, the biggest differences are:
SR250J/H: Vista 64-bit, bigger HDD, more RAM
SR290PDB: ATI discrete graphics

I can always buy more RAM (not really necessary since 3GB vs. 4GB) and bigger HDD, but that can always wait. 64-bit Vista I may or may not need - not sure yet. I have a backup copy I can use, but I may need 2 down the road...

I have a SZ right now and actually take advantage of the GeForce 7400 that is in there for testing out games on occasion, but I do not use it for heavy gaming (I have a desktop for that if necessary).

So, my questions are:
1. How much of a difference would the discrete graphics make in Vista (32/64 bit)?
2. How much of a battery hit are people seeing with the discrete graphics?
3. Do ALL SRs with the discrete graphics have HDMI output? It doesn't really show up on the Sony website, but I'm under the impression that is the case.
4. Is the older NVIDIA Go 7400 going to be that much better than the 4500MHD (using that as a benchmark)?
5. And finally, the BIG question: can I add in the discrete graphics card at a later point in time or is the M/B different?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

In my opinion,
1) Discrete graphics won't make a difference at all in 64 bit. The 4500 from intel is enough to run 64 bit Vista.
2) I believe with discrete graphics the power hit is 45 minutes -1 hour less. From my SR with the discrete graphics, I get about 2.5-3 hours
3) Yes, I'm pretty sure the HDMI comes on all discrete graphics models.
4) Not sure, but I would say that the 4500 and the older 7400 are almost the same? But the 7400 would be better, but I don't know to what extent.
5) You cannot upgrade the graphics card ever in these Sony's.

I can't really say which model you shold go for because I don't really know what your needs are. I thikn either would be fine, however. But from the fact that you have a gaming desktop already, I think you should go for the 250 based on that.

 

Has anyone with an SR290 successfully used some sort of shortcut that can put the laptop into Sleep mode? I usually do Windows_Key, U, S. But Vista has its search box that overrides it. I can do Alt+F4 and sleep, but still...

 

Just Ordered my SR290 and these are the specs.

Sony Vaio VGN-SR290

Processor:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz)

Operating System:
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit

Color:
Night Black

Memory:
4 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)

Hard Drive:
250 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]

Graphics:
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3470 with HDMI™ Output

Got it for $1590CAD. What do you guys think? Is it a god deal or did i pay too much for it? Also, what do you guys think about my setup?

 

you can just close the lid.....

 

I think if you can wait a little bit, maybe there will be a coupon popping up that can take more off. It's nearing Christmas time, and Sony and the economy are bad, so they might push out discounts and coupons to increase sales. My personal opinion, though. =| What about a student discount. But I don't know if they apply in Canada.

 

In canada they dont offer student discount saddly

 

My SR has a Optiarc AD-7910S

 

I got the exact same specs (except hard drive and ram, which I upgraded after) and you won't be disappointed!

I paid a lot less than you, because I used their trade in service.

But overall, it's an excellent choice. THe specs are excellent, very fast. Although you will have to get rid of a lot of the junk that comes preloaded on it before it gets fast.

 

Can someone help me with the magic-i application?

 

^ i also for the same spec except ram and hd.

Just got my SR290 today. Wow is there alot of bloatware on here. Putting a new HD and doing a clean install of vista ult. so its cool. And upgrading ram to 4gb.

So far i'm very impressed with it. The screen is one of the best laptop displays ive seen yet.

Only regret is not getting it in night black. But titanium doesnt look half bad.

 

Is there a vista clean install guide out there? cause i only seen downgrade to xp guides, i dont want to mess up and get stuck, if there is guidance, that would be awesome

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=146033

 

I need some help with my new SR. My SR has such specs: 2.4gig duo core, 4gig ram, ATI HD 3470 and 250gig memory @ 7200rpm.

So, the SR seems perfect but, when a lot of processes are running, the mouse could freeze for a few seconds. Like if I were to open firefox or something, it could freeze for a few secs, unfreeze for a second and freeze again. Ultimately, it would eventually unfreeze and works properly. This happens once a day and I dont use the SR that much either. BTW, it is running under high performance.

So, what is the problem? Is it Vista, or my SR has some kind of defects? How can I fix it?

 

Hi everybody

Iam planning to buy SR13Gn (because of WLED), but the sony center ppl say that sony has replaced the model with SR26GN & SR13GN won't be in production anymore, i loved the screen (WLED) display in SR13GN but not sure if SR26GN also has display with WLED, could someone pls suggest on this ...

thanks

 

All SR's use LED screen

 

Thanks Tony, but the sony india website doesnt mention this explicitly for SR26GN model but whereas for SR13GN it clearly says with WLED, sorry iam not allowed to post URL's but can be checked in sony.co.in SR series laptops, thanks ...

 

Does anyone have an answer to this?

 

Have you tried running in safe mode - less processes running? It could be due a specific/certain process.

How many processes is "a lot"? How many do you have on startup?

 

I only have a moderate amounts of programs running, about 5-10. I dont think its this problem because it happens randomly and it resolves quickly. I have 4gig of ram so this shouldnt be an issue right?

What does running on safe mode do?

 

Oh btw, my SR crashed on the 2nd day I got it because the graphic driver failed. Could it be the graphic card/driver? Thanks!

 

was it a blue screen?

 

i have seen alot of people upgrading rams on their sr290. My question is how come you guys dont get it pre-done by sony whne you order?

 

Yes! It crashed and the blue appeared, it rebooted. When the window finished booting, it said it was due to the graphic driver. This is on my 2nd day with the SR, quite depressing indeed.

 

did you try to update the drivers yet?

 

Because its ALOT cheaper to do it yourself. A 4gb(2-2gb) 800 ddr2 cost about 40 bucks. Sony charges 100 dollars?

 

icic.. also, whats the difference between a 250gb hd running 5400rpm vs a s250gb hd running 7200rpm?

 

Anyone used a docking station with an SR machine? Especially this one? VGPUPR1 ( USB Dock )? Thanks

 

Has anyone swapped out the processor in these?

Specifically, what about going from the T5870 to the P8400 (or higher)?
The chipsets appear to be the same, but not sure what would have to happen with the clocking.

Thanks.

 

the 7200rpm drive gives faster boot and load time...

 

rec'd my sr today, need to make my back up disc. Does anyone now how many dvds you need to do back up, or about how much total gig it is, thx

 

2 DVDs
about 8GB

 

Mine needed 3

 

I intend to buy a SR, but I have a difficulty to decide what type of HDD I should choose.

I think 320GB 7200 rpm is faster than 320GB 5400 rpm. Is it true?

 

Yes it is faster.

 

Yes . . . . . . .

 

For anyone looking for a deal on the SR with a blu-ray drive, ABT has
the sr280y/h for $1199.

This includes blu-ray, ATI, 4g ram, 320g HD, Vista ultimate.

 

http://www.abt.com/product/37538.html
=)

Enjoy!