Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

VMWare runs fine without it. XP Mode on Win7, however, will need VT enabled.

 

hey thanks for the response. I finally got VMware running Ubuntu just for the hell of it. And XP mode would be great since that hopefully means i'd be able to possibly run IE7 (which i need at work, stupid programs wont work with IE8).

 

Sounds great! The alternatives are to 1. wait until Sony releases BIOS updates for the rest of the systems; or 2. run VMWare in Unity mode. I'm not sure if this is slower than XP Mode, but it lets you have XP windows floating around like normal windows, so you don't have to run the XP machine inside the VMWare box.

 

I ended up purchasing the docking station and wanted to post my findings.

The docking does in fact have a second gigabit network adapter which Vista sees as different from the 10/100 network adapter inside the notebook. When docked, the device manager shows both of them (Marvell Fast Ethernet and Marvell Gigabit Ethernet).

As well, the docking station has another USB host controller.

 

ok you guy got me worried here some say the battery life is only 2hr40min even though sony state's 5hrs ???

so how long is the battery on a Sony Vaio Laptop, VGN-SR41M/S, (Intel T6400, ATI 4570) at medium brightness with wifi, like just simple web browsing please tell me it gets more than 3hrs

one persons has also posted a pic of extended battery but did not mention how long the battery lasted, considering the battery is only 50% it should only give 50% more time???

 

So I found out that after I installed the relevant Sony software/drivers from the FW Win7 thread, hard drive shock protection just works. I had an incident the other day, put my laptop down, turned it on, and then the hard drive kept clicking for a little bit and then a little window popped up saying hard drive shock protection was engaged, then it was back to normal.

 

I have the extended battery and get approximately 4+hours. I usually run with wifi on and max brightness... I still feel as if my system is retarded at giving me the correct time because I do believe i've lasted almost 7 hours once even though it said 4. The 5hours Sony says is standard battery on the intel video card. The ATI one drains a lot of power.

 

okay thanks, hopefully same goes for mine; not that i would want to really test it though haha

 

IF you read back from my post, at 50% brightness, wifi on, internet surfing / streaming some vids off youtube, I was able to get 4 hrs 17 minutes until computer hibernated. This was with the standard battery.

 

interesting... you have the 4570 model as well? did you do it without any modifactions like undervolting or jsut slect low power consumption from power management?

found this on NotebookCheck (reliable?) http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-SR41M-S-Notebook.18254.0.html

 

I did undervolt too but that is pretty much it. By the way, these results are consistant because I go to class everyday and I get 4 hrs or more everytime with a 100% charge. Cheers!

 

Can you let us know what software you used to undervolt, and what was the stable voltage you settled at for your particular processor?

 

Well my Vaio finally came in the mail and I have a few questions.

I was testing out the battery charge loss people have been complaining about, but when I turned it on this morning my battery meter disappeared. Anyone know what would cause this and how do I get it back?

 

I used RMclock. Made a little adjustment in the Registry Editor to maintain max clock speed (Making 9x into 10x, RMclock will not recognize 10x since it does not exist in P8700, therefore it will take advantage of 9.5x [the full 2.53ghz!]. Look around this thread on how to undervolt.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

 

Hmm, thanks I'll check that out. I used RMclock for my old Dell, but the newer versions of RMclock got confusing, guess I'll have to figure it out slowly.

 

Is undervolting make a significant improvement?

 

Undervolting do decreases cpu temp about 5C on my SR490, but I don't think it helps battery power since your cpu can never run at full speed under battery.

 

Unless I am missing something, I thought RMclock also allows you to reduce the voltage regardless of what speed the processor is running at. Lower voltage=lower battery load.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but it applies to my 2.2G cpu. 1.0000 VId is the lowest one you can choose under windows 7, which applies to the lowest FID you can get, like 6 X = 1.2 G. And software cannot let you lower that. Other speeds may have higher VID like 1.1000. What I did is to set every speed at 1.0000 vid. And it is pretty stable so far, no BOSD whatsoever.

However, when you are using the battery power, your clock ( at least my CPU) was constantly locked at 1.2G(6 X VID. And there is no way to undervolt that. So, my conclusion is the battery won't last longer unless we are able to lower the volt for the lowest cpu clock.

 

Read around somewhere that Intel locked the voltages so they won't dip too low, like the Pentium M which I can downvolt to 0.7 from 1 V, and the only way around it is to hardmod the CPU pins. So it's stuck at 0.975v or whatever it is on these Core 2 Pxxxx CPUs.

 

True, my older Pentium M 715 could go much lower than that. But my CORE 2 is stuck at 1.0000.

 

I think I see what you are saying. I took a look at my SR490. It has a P8800 and will go as low as .8750. My HP DV2 which has the AMD Neo will go as low as .5500. My VID ranges are the same on all FID's. Niether one of them seem to be locked at the lowest FID when on battery. FWIW - I am running Vista 64 on both.

 

anyone with sr-420 extended battery suggestions including price type etc??... thanks!

 

If you're asking about buying them then get them off of ebay. They're about $30 new, whereas Sony has them for $100.

 

Well, I finally got my bundle in the mail yesterday.. the one w/ the extra battery, etc.

My Sony is since long gone now..I've sold it.

I thought I'd come in here first and see what knibbles I get and
what you'd offer for this brand new package of goodies.

Thanks.

 

there was a person on this thread talking about how his SR turned on in his bag and overheated. can someone confirm whether or not the SR powers on even when the lid is closed?

 

If my VAIO is broken, will i pay the money to send it repair center? Also do they charge me?

Sometimes, especially when waking up from sleep my VAIO shows Blue screen error- those include: keyboard, zonelalarm's driver and etc

 

Yes it is possible.

When on battery, SR is set to hibernate after 5 mins.

So on battery, if I close the lid and put it in my bag - it will turn on and hibernate itself. This could be the cause why it overheated.

 

wow thanks for such a quick reply. bummer, that's pretty annoying. i assume there is no way to disable that? a shame, i like everything else about this machine..

 

i think you can tweak it in Vaio Control center - so it won't hibernate after 5 min when its on battery.

 

oh i meant disabling turning your computer on while the lid is closed. i personally think it's an issue and possibly even a flaw in design. but judging by how many people have not had a problem with it, i guess it's not much of a problem huh.

 

You can. Simply change settings.

 

oh.
then all is fine and well, thanks!

 

I have been considering buying an SR laptop for some time now. But was always put off by the ATI 3470 graphics card, as I’d like to manage some gaming (specifically Empire Total War!)

So, now that Sony upgraded the graphics card on some of the SR range, I was wondering whether to buy it now. What I’m wondering is whether they’ll upgrade the range further or not- i.e. should I wait a bit longer before buying one?! I really like the SR size and design, I’ve just been waiting for it to be able to handle a good game or two.

The RAM is still DDR2, which isn’t ideal, and I hear that a bunch of new processors are due in the next few months..

Any thoughts?

 

laptops are constantly upgraded, in about 6 months vaio sr will have 5470 ati or something like that, unless sr is discontinued. Not really worth waiting my friend, i purchased from sony style. i paid 1300 for it, its 1700 now. These laptops before the recession were not cheap. the fact that the price difference between a sony and a dell is tiny at the moment, means that right now is the best time to buy. Sure its gonna be better in a few months, but price wise, its not gonna be worth it.

 

just ordered mine :

Product Description: Sony VAIO VGN-SR41M/S - Core 2 Duo T6400 2 GHz - 13.3" TFT


Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 / 2 GHz ( Dual-Core )
RAM: 4 GB (installed) / 8 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM - 800 MHz ( 2 x 2 GB )
Hard Drive: 320 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm
Graphics Controller: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 - 512 MB



Anything I should when I get it? (besides getting rid of the crapware)

 

Make the restore discs, just in case!

 

lol, dam, why do companies do this dvd's cost less than pennies these days.

 

Yep. The DVDs are cheap these days & that's true.

However, if you didn't burn the restore discs, need to restore your system later, & worse of all have your restore partition corrupted for some reason, guess what? There is a very high chance for the companies to "catch you in their trap" when you call their support department. That's because they'll get a chance to sell you the restore discs for something like $30 & so on. Isn't that good business? Furthermore, by saving the use of blank DVDs themselves, the manufacturers can also claim to be a bit more "environmentally friendly" just because of saving the use of DVDs.

 

I'll also recommend to make the recovery discs. However, I suggest making at least 2 sets of them to be really safe. Good luck.

 

They'll send a tech out but make you run through a series of hoops and loops before that happens. My HD died and they sent a hard drive (after making me first wait for their recovery disks before sending a new drive.. took week + half total) but had me replace it myself. Not a problem, but this isn't what I'd call customer service. Dell sends a tech to do the job, Sony makes you do the job yourself.

I'm gonna say those errors are more than likely user errors and you somehow screwed it up. Of course you can diagnose hardware problems yourself - memtest and whatnot.

 

are windows 7 drivers out for the SR yet?

 

Thanks, I'll probably send my Vaio back to USA. I think its faulty motherboard. If I sent it to Sony, is it possible for Sony to preload Win7 in it?

 

Got a problem, maybe someone can shed some light. SR290 running Win7-x64. If it is plugged in, close the lid, enters standby and stays on standby. If unplugged running on battery, close the lid, enters standby, but a few minutes later wakes up and enters hibernate. Any clues?

 

Hey Guy's got it today, and it's a pretty neat laptop, only gripes are two usb ports and build quality of it is pretty flimsy, however it shines in all other aspects especially gaming, most games are playable at med/high settings and taxing games like crysis got around 20fps at med 1280x800 so not bad for a 13.3 laptop

thx for the little gems of help found on this huge thread, was kinda worth wading through all these posts in the end

-other issues raised by members:

screen bending - yes occurs
battery drainage - didn't seem so left it for 6 hrs off, everything was same
wobbly battery - OH YES
Battery Duration when on - conducting test now
crapware - too much trial stuff >_>
screen - not the best sony quality, but still pretty good not played hd content yet
heating/noise very quite even when gpu runs, gets warm but not enough to make you take hand away after an hour.
cpu - average T6400
gpu - ATI HD4570 kinda like a desktop 4550 which is good (or compare to 8600m)
ram 4gb but they give me a 32bit OS lol


feel free to ask any questions about it

 

Do you have to do anything special for them to send you the HDD to replace yourself instead of dispatching a technician? The reason I'm asking is because I tend to prefer the companies send me parts to do the swap myself instead of risking getting a "rough handling" technician do the job for me.

 

Did you engage the lock? I've had absolutely no issues with a wobbly battery after doing that.

 

They DON'T send a tech out unless something else goes wrong. It's DIY self service. Sure you/I may like handling it on our own, but this kind of service is complete BS. It's like calling a plumber when your sink blows off and the guy sends you a wrench, only in the case of Sony is that we "prepaid" for the warranty when we threw out a premium on the cost of it, only to receive inferior service.

The rep I called was saying repeatedly how it's very easy to replace the hard drive and I quote, "even a 6 year old can do it". Seriously, that's how [she] responded. If my parents were the ones talking to them .. oh hot damn.

Wobby battery is common and doesn't impact anything (aside from confidence).

 

it's because of the hibernation setting. On battery, Sony set it to Hibernate after 5 minutes of Standby.

 

Do you know how to change it to maybe a longer time period? I've looked around but haven't been able to find the setting to change it. Thanks!