Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

anyone able to extract out the Sony Utilities (Vaio Control Center etc)? I tried universal extractor. Cause i'm trying to install win7 64bit.

 

How do you get the Windows XP battery care function on the Sony SR430? I tried installing the older SR's XP version, and it wouldn't let me.

 

Nope, I didn't touch that. It is just personal perference. Too bright will reduce the color contrast in my opinion.

 

Yeah, my experience is my system would boot up the first time I plug my usb hub. After I installed the driver of the hub, problem solved.

 

Are you really having all hot keys working? Like the mode and setting buttom?

 

im not too thrilled with the build quality either of the SR, for instance press the plastic underneath the spacebar. its like nothing supports it...

 

Yes i am, I had the mode keys working but i disabled them since i didnt like using them. Win7 is too convenient for me atm and i didnt find a use for them yet. As for ppl with issues I will be posting my extracted files for the Sony Notebook Utilities later on as soon as someone PM's me with a good uploading website.

 

That's because the memory card slots are under it.

 

Actually it sounds like you've never held a pro duo or SD card in your hand. The actual readers do not spread that far.

As for the issue of structural integrity. The absolute most solid piece of equipment would be a solid piece of material with no air gaps whatsoever. Literally a solid block of machine. Unfortunately this will never happen (at least hasn't happened yet). Still dont know why people are complaining then again i am using the newest refresh of the SR so maybe a lot of the issues have been addressed.

 

"underneath the space bar" is kinda ambiguous. I probably interpreted it wrong. The only places where my SR has a hollow like feeling is where the memory card slots are and around the optical drive.

 

Can you please post some instructions? That will be highly appreicated! Thanks

 

Hey there, i'll definitely post my instructions on what I did to get it all working.


I however, have a question for you all. It turns out that the keyboard (or the edge at the bottom of it) scratches the screen just like on the Z series. I understand some of you remedy this with keyboard skins. Any recommendations on what kind/type. And possibly a good retailer too would help. Thanks

 

JR has dropped the price of the SR 430J/B to $1149.99 after the $100 mail-in rebate. That's a drop of $100 from the previous price of $1249.99.

I called up JR customer service, and they said I can get a refund for the difference I paid originally ($1249.99). Since I used the cashback offer from Bing, I need to wait until I redeem my $162 from Bing until I can ask for a refund from JR. If you don't want to wait, you can get a gift card valid at JR.com.

 

It takes up to two month for the Bing cashback become redeemable. Will JR.com still respect this kind of price drop adjustment after so long time?
Why do you need to wait until you redeem your bing cashback? Will the price adjustment affect your cashback? Thanks!

 

Hi! I have installed a SSD into my Vaio SR41. It is totaly silence now. But the fans will start up at 100 F. Is there any way to fix this? At 140 F is okay.

 

She told me she would make a note of me asking for the refund today, and that I should call in after I get my cashback from bing to claim my JR.com refund.

She just mentioned my cashback from being wouldn't be valid if I chose to get the refund check immediately, and not wait the 60 days.

 

I will call them tomorrow to get my $$$. Thanks for your information.

 

got my sr430 from jr today. They drop the price right after I ordered it but a quick call to customer service and they easily refunded the difference back to me. $1250 no tax free shipping plus a $100 rebate is great.

Has anyone clone their drive? which software works? I've read many issues with vista64.

 

harobiker1987, when did you buy the laptop from jr.com? I bought mine about a week ago and I am wondering if I can still demand a refund.

 

Can I still call JR to get a refund? I think my purchase is more than 30 days but less than 60 days.

 

Anyone else have the docking station for SR? Is it just me or is it pretty weak? no audio, etc

 

Just called JR.com, they said that the period for price adjustment is within 30 days. The refund does affect the bing cashback. The bad thing is that the lady I called said that I cannot make the price adjustment otherwise I will lose my cashback.

 

I ordered mine on August 12th. I don't know if you need to call them within 30 days of purchase to receive the price match like in regular retail stores. You should be able to get the refund.

 

also could someone post the link for the bundle rebates for the SR? ty.

 

J&R makes me sick. No word from them for 3 days so I call in to be told there's a problem with my phone number? I use my work phone number....for B&H, for Newegg...for everyone, I buy a lot of stuff. On the 4th day the hold is removed from my credit card....no email, nothing....just a canceled order.
And I order a lot of stuff from Amazon also, so I order the SR430 from them, it ships the next day, no stupid questions about my phone number. Suck it J&R.

 

Hi guys, My Sony VAIO SR is just over 1 year old. When I use it on battery power, it lasts no more than 30 minutes. When I fully charge and unplug the adapter, it shows "100%, 2h 30min". But within 5 minutes, it drops to 50%, and then in another 5 minutes, it shows "15%, 20 minutes".

And after 20 minutes, the battery dies out. This is incredibly annoying as it effectively means I cannot use the laptop without being plugged in at all.

I don't really know when this problem started. I think it was after a 3 month period where I did not use the laptop on battery at all. I was using it plugged in all the time.

Surely the problem is not a physical problem with the battery? Could this be a software issue? Is there a known fix to this?

 

It definitely sounds like a hardware issue - replace the battery and check the results. You may have a faulty battery.

 

I had the same problem. The phone number I gave them didn't match with the phone number on my credit card, so there was a hold on my order. I called in after 5 days of my order not being shipped. I guess mine would've been canceled if I hadn't called.

 

Where are you guys seeing the $100 price drop?

http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VGNSR430JB/

Shows the same price it's always basically been.

 

It appears that JR.com changed the price back to the original $1349.99. I guess it was a 1 week deal where they dropped it another $100.

 

just got my sr430 from frys a few days ago. love it so far, the screen quality is just beautiful, much better than any macbooks. love it

 

does sony HDD protection slow down the pc at all?

 

I don't think so, its just an accelerometer that parks the hdd heads when it detects hard hits or drops.

 

Most laptops these days have this feature enabled and u wont see a performance decrease. BEsides the force need is about dropping it onto a bed from 1.5 ft above.

Also, does anyones SR occasionally slow down or freeze up? Whenever i'm in chrome it'll hesitate for a second or two.

 

Unlikely a SR problem; most likely a user problem.

 

Is this a clean install or system preinstall, and have you checked to see what procsses are takingup all the CPU cycle during these moments of freezing?

 

Sorry for this noob question here But can you pls tell me how to configure that warning lights when its low battery cause I dont wanna waste the last 10% and the flashing lights to me's very annoying/
Thanks in advance!

 

Just curious, what are the temperatures for your SR.

 

Ya this was a clean install of win7. As for processes. I'm running around 75... Which i know to be high. Does anyone have 2 ATI2evxx's running? I feel like my gpu drivers got installed twice. If so that could really be impacting my performance. I have the ATI 4570.

 

You can disable the services for the ATI! I also disabled most things i dont need, so i am running Win7 Ultimate x64 with only 29 processes

 

29 processes? What stuff have you disabled? Mine with all 3rd party disabled is still like 50

 

Good to know I can disable those. my other question is this. I have the extended battery and only get about 3.5 hours of battery life on my SR. is this normal? Sony reports up to 9hours with it, which is nowhere near what I'm getting. is wrong with my system?

 

My laptop was in my bag, and it happened to turn on and it overheated. DOes anyone have any suggestions to not let this happen again. I dont know how it turned on. I also had some unexpected shutdowns while my laptop was in my bag. I walk around with it but I dont think I bang it on anything.

Also, my fan started running very fast even hours after that last overheat. The fan speeds up to maximum then slows down after a little while. Is there any solution to this, or will the computer self-correct itself? It seems to be cycling fan speeds or something and I don't know what's going on.

 

Well.. I returned my new Sony sr custom build back to Sony. I would of kept it had the battery life been up to par and as advertised and reviewed by a certain site.. it was not sustainable and having to constantly be near an outlet at school sucked.. lol

I do have my mobility bundle coming in the mail soon.. not sure if anyone here is interested and what you'd be willing to pay?

I also found out the trade up program is for non custom build sonys only.. who knew..

still a nice machine though.

 

If you have the ATI GPU, then it will require more power to run versus the Intel IGP, I believe. I get around 2hr40mi (at least that's what the power bar says) on an SR290, sometimes it goes more than that because of my level of activity.

 

I'd run a clean install over again, if you can't find the problem. I had a desktop with this problem before, and I traced it to a wireless card, had to disable the wireless card in order for this intermittent freezing to stop, because it made using the desktop inefficient.

 

It IS because you used your laptop for 3 months just plugged in. Laptop batteries need to be used and drained and recharged or else the battery life will die after awhile. Don't always leave it plugged in, you have to let it get used and drain. Now you need a new battery and this time use it, instead of just having it plugged in all the time. Let it drain down and recharge and it'll last. I do that with mine and it lasts up to 3 hours.

 

The fan on my vaio started running very fast even hours after that last overheat. The fan speeds up to maximum then slows down after a little while. Is there any solution to this, or will the computer self-correct itself? It seems to be cycling fan speeds or something and I don't know what's going on. Cna someone help me fix this?

 

Anybody know how long confirmation for the free bundle is supposed to take? I sent mines out last Friday and haven't received any kind of notice yet.

 

Just want to let you all know that I successfully re-enabled Intel's VT on my VGN-SR29VN.
(see http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=350209&page=10)

How it should have been from the beginning.

Eamon