Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

WOW, you are correct. i thought that was bs until i just held on to a keyboard button for 30 secounds and i could hear the fan just going down drastically.

i am wondering if it is the graphics card fan that is doing this. I have noticed that my left palm rest doesnt get warm anymore with this new constant fan noise. anyone else notice this?

 

I want to find some commonality between me and you so that we can tackle this together. it wasnt like this when i had my vista and original hd and all the other settings that i have changed...

current settings: winxp 32 bit, new hard drive from seagate, all of drivers for the laptop installed via sonystyle website including updated bios firmware with R310Y1.

 

I have a WIN 7,64bit on a SR57s with 128GB SSD. It's all original drivers and bios, didn't change anything.

I told Sony support about it and the easygoing chat guy just said that he don't think this is a bug and I should not worry about it?! LOL

I think he rather didn't get the problem, I was not up for wasting my time so I gave up quickly and shipped back my notebook yesterday.

 

I have the same problems too :\

Another thing I found... I'm been using the Vaio 13" neoprene case since I got my SR (about two years ago). I carried it in my bag often. Recently, I've noticed that, when placed into the light, the Vaio logo rectangle on the neoprene case appears to have imprinted itself on the top cover of my SR.

Advice to future users, have your laptop top placed on the side of your neoprene case that is completely flat with no additional pieces on the outside (in the case of the Vaio 13" neoprene case, that would be the "bottom" side). This should keep your laptop top cover sleek with consistent colour.

 

I just bought a sony vaio vgn-sr39vn this week so am trying to set it up myself!! I had it downgraded to XP as that is more familiar to me.
1..I would like to know where I can check the level of the battery as it is charging.
2..Wifi is set up and working well & recognising all the connections in the road incl. mine but I know it is a big drain on the battery. As I have a fast cable (Virgin Broadband) I don't really need to use the wifi in the house so I assume I just turn it off. Correct?
3....How do I set up Outlook Express to work for both...my broadband AND when using wifi? My normal email address?
4...ALSO....I just bought a dLan 200 AVeasy Starter Kit after hearing it is brilliant at boosing internet speeds etc. When I installed it I found another network became installed which is maybe how it works BUT when I tried to send an email from my laptop, I got the message 'This machine has more than one Ethernet or more than one wireless adaptor' so I couldn't send the email PLUS I could no longer get connected to my own wifi connection!!!
Please advise. I would be so grateful as I'm doing pretty well apart from getting this are right!!

 

Hey guys, I am new to this owners thread. I just bought a vaio SR from my local store, at first I was going to buy a new Z but I couldn't justify the price. This vaio SR was only $400 bucks with tax included so it was a win win and I am loving it.

I just had some issues though, when I am watching a video and I go to full screen, the computer goes black and I cant see anything but sound. Is there a way to fix this? I really appreciate it.

I am pretty happy overall, the only thing I would complain about is battery life...It sucks!!

Thanks

 

1) HW Monitor
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php
2)
Yes
3) I don't think that should make a difference, try doing it with whatever account you want to use.
4)
I think you should take that question and post it in the networking section of this forum.

 

How does the 1280x800 screen look like?seems low to me

 

im having the constant fan noise problem as well, its strange as i've had it for about a month and it was real quiet to begin with. tempted to do a fresh install to see if this fixes it, but i spent 3 hours after the last one removing all the Sony Bloatware.

It's strange that holding down any key on the keyboard makes the fan slowly wind down... why is that? as soon as I release it goes back up again. It's rather annoying when i've not had the laptop on for a while, switch it on and the fan speeds up to irritable noise levels soon after and doesnt go down.

 

ya, its weird that it one day just started being on all the time with the keyboard as the only resort to slow it down. i dont even notice the difference between performance and quiet mode on the vaio thermal control like it was before. let us know how the fresh install does for u.

 

I just did a clean install of my SR with W7 Professional. What are the steps to install first to get my top 5 button working and my finger scanner working?

I cant install any of the Sony drivers at all.

I pick "W 7 Professional" from the drop down and each time when I run it say something like 'available for Vista update only'. Weird. Anyone know what is going on?

 

shenofjo, did you uninstall the viao power management by any chance?

 

i played with vaio power management uninstalling and reinstalling a couple of times but nothing worked.

I decided to remove battery and reposition my hard drive by refitting the connections on both ends. somehow that corrected the fan noise problem! my cpu temp is no longer stuck at 36'C due to full strength fan on, but at the same time, my laptop is no longer the noise in the calm room.

 

So what did you do to make the fan noise go away. My laptop is about 2months old and the fan noise is rather odd. I didn't have this problem at first. The toggle switch between performance fan, and silent fan have no effect.

 

So now the SR is gone and we are on our own?

 

yes i think so.

 

to djoutlaw. i unconnected the battery source and reconnected the harddrive and made sure it was secure. that was all i did. try it out and see if it works for u. perhaps excessive movement dislodged the connection just a little bit. let me know if it works for you.

 

Win 7 installed a fingerprint driver for my SR290. Go to Control Panel, click on Biometric Devices and see if you can activate it.

As for Sony Win 7 drivers, they have everything now for my SR290. What model do you have?

 

I got everything working now. I dont know what happen. After I start my 3rd install and going forward, everything went fine. Actually, after I did all that, I whip out everthing n start over.

I have the SR430 and its seldom used. I like it if not for the battery drain.

 

A few days ago in my local BestBuy I had a chance to examine this machine:

VPCS111FM/S

I believe this new S series is a sucessor to the deprecated SR line, it has 13.3 display, core i5 CPU etc.

Even though this machine looks nice and all, I was really disappointed with its screen.

It has narrow viewing angles, like every other cheap latop nowadays.

I still use my Vaio SZ, and the difference is day and night to me.

From the comments and reviews on this forum I see that SR should have a much better screen. Some SR machines are still available from the Sony Outlet..So I started thinking..

I noticed that newer SR-s (like 510, 590) describe their display as "LED backlight" and not XBrite-ECO anymore.

Does it mean that the latest SR models used a different screen? Is it better or worth? I suspect they might have downgraded the screen quality to the end of SR life cycle; there are quite a few comments on this forum about the screen being washed out etc..

(I'm in need for a portable machine with a nice screen (contrast and viewing angles), but Sony Z is a bit of out my range at the moment. Plus I don't really like its 16:9 form factor..)

If anyone had a chance to compare XBrite-ECO and LED backlight, please advice..

Thanks.

 

Hi guys, don't own an SR but saw this and thought I'd link to it. Not putting it in the deals section as its very SR focused and probably doesn't relate to any other Vaio type or user group. Might suit someone from Ireland or the UK, not sure if they ship to other parts of Europe. Its an SR docking station without PSU for €24.06 (£20.50).

Irish link (in euro)

http://www.dabs.ie/products/sony-docking-station-for-sr-series-56BY.html?refs=4294963788

UK link (in Sterling)

http://www.dabs.com/products/sony-vaio---docking-station-for-sr-series-56BY.html?refs=4294963788

 

Hey there, I own a VGN-SR56MG & I have major problems with my mic; it's nearly nonexistent. Moreover, I have problems with the fingerprint scanner as well. Last but not least, the function keys - the mode, the setting & the 5 in between - aren't working at all, not to mention the shortcut keys - those blue ones - aren't operating all the time. Any help, please! Thanks in advance.

 

what is ur operating system? check for the updates in sonystyle.com support section

 

Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. I can't find the 56MG, any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

support and drivers for that model are going to be over at the sony-asia site:

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/product/vgn-sr56mg/modelfirst

 

Anyone have any issues after replacing the hard drive on their SR?

I have a SR220J and purchased a 500gb 7200rpm 2.5" hard drive to replace the 320gb hard 5400rpm drive that the laptop comes standard with. I followed the http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283218 and could not get the hard drive to detect. I figured I may have not connected the hard drive ribbon or something else, but swapping back in the original hard drive also resulted in the same result. I cannot get the hard drive to detect either hard drive now. I've swapped both out at least 5 times with no luck.

I do notice that both hard drives spin up when plugged in to the laptop, but the system claims that no hard drive is present. Any ideas? Should I replace the hard drive ribbon? Would it be possible to damage the ribbon in the process?

 

check to see if the ribbon is connected properly to the motherdrive. other than that i hope u didnt damage the ribbon

 

I may have inadvertently damaged the ribbon that connects the hard drive to the motherboard. It would explain why it isn't being picked up by the laptop. Anyone know where to buy a replacement cable?

 

Here is the latest 10.4 ATI driver for the ones who has a SR with the ATI card.
No modding needed, just download and install.

64Bit
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/10-4_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

32Bit
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/10-4_mobility_vista_win7_32_dd_ccc.exe

 

thanks tony.

 

I damaged the ribbon on my VGN-SR220J/H. I got a replacement from sparepartswarehouse.com. Make sure you release the latch that holds the cable in place when replacing it.

Steve

 

Quick question... One thing I noticed since I got my SR590 is that whenever I plug in the USB receiver for my wireless mouse, a balloon always pops up and says 'this device can perform faster...' Now I'm not sure whether it is the USB mouse receiver that's the problem or the USB port itself.

It's kind of a no-brainer question but just for clarification, does the SR590 come with a 2.0 USB port or not? Before my purchase, I didn't even bother to check on it because I immediately assumed that it does come as standard. It would be unbelievably disappointing if it didn't though. TIA!

 

All SR's are usb 2.0

 

How do you remove the keyboard from the Vaio SR? I tried prying it off but seems very hard and I didn't want to break it. Do I need to remove any screws?!

Thanks for your help,

 

Hello Everyone,

Great and huge thread, did a bit of a search but apologies from the beginning if I'm asking already answered questions.

I bought a Vaio SR59TG last December. May be the model numbers are changing (dont think they are in Europe but may be in America), CPU is P8700, 500GB HDD, 512MB ATI HD4570 GPU etc.

The first thing I did was to format the drives and re-install my own Win7 Ultimate x64, since all of the laptops I and my family own before had lots of unnecessary stuff installed. LAter on I discovered I needed what everything Sony has put on, almost. =)

Anyway, the critical thing is, about two weeks ago I guess, I played Quake III on my SR =) The first time playing Quake, actually the first time me seriously playing a game on this machine. I then read ~60c on corec (from HWMon) for the first time..
Since then, the CPU fan is going on full power all the time. Even when the CPU load is %1, its still blowing cold air from the left end side. The noise is just annoying, and it gets more and more annoying every signle day in meetings. I think it can compete with new tech silence beamers. =)

Also, I think in this thread, I read that someone said he/she could lower the fan speed, by pressing and holding a button on the keyboard. Damn, its working. In ten secs its slowing down and nothing I can hear.. When I let go off the button, it's still there.

I work at the office all the time, no outdoor, no dust-issues. I called the Vaio service and asked whether they already now what this is, and have a quick fix for me. Unfortunately they said I'll have to leave the laptop to them which is not acceptable for me with my job.

I gave up all the hope and just an hour ago re-formatted and installed Win7 again. Just installed the drivers and will begin to install SQL in an hour.

Guess, the fan is still on %100.. Actually, right now, the power schema selected is Power Saving, and I configured it to use only %50 of CPU power on battery. The CPU can only load itself to %50 right now, but the fan is on %100. And core temp is not 30c (celcius), reaches 30c when I do someting.

So this is really really important for me. I'm begging, please someone help me, or I'm sure.. I've started to feel sick...


Thanks...

ps. I know about the setting in Vaio Control Center. =)

 

Here comes the funny solution.

After the format I was sitting at my desk, writing this message and desperately thinking what to do..
Then I remembered..

About 2 months ago, my ethernet input started not to function. I was plugging several cables which are connected fine for sure, and it was not recognizing them. By chance I came upon a post, may be here, which advised to plug-out the battery and wait about half an hour. Suprisingly it have worked then.

Well, why not? =) I plugged out the battery, went to a late lunch and started back after. It was smooth, quiet. =) This may not work for whose SRs are noisy from day 1 boot 1. Mine somehow got stuck to %100 after Quake III.

 

i had the same situation. Gaming nba2k10 and the fan gets stuck at full speed. last time i fixed it by removing the battery and reposition the hard drive. second time around, it just kind of fixed itself after using my laptop on unplugged.

 

My SR complaint about the Parser thing from W7, but when I go to Device Manager to see, there is no Yellow (!) thing. So I dont know what the deal is.

 

Hi!
The right speaker of my laptop SR19 died a week ago... This is a hardware issue, I'm absolutely sure, and also I'm sure, that it is quite simple to deal with it. I think that it's just a problem with a wire by which the speaker is connected.
Could anyone please tell me, how do I get to the right speaker of my SR19? Should I remove the keyboard or the back cover? I've just found some pictures of SR keyboard removed, but there are no directions on how to do it. Thanks in advance.

 

I had Vista Home installed. I purchased Win7 Pro and installed it today. Problem is, I couldnt not upgrade the OS so all software came with the laptop is gone now. Is there a way to restore them? I still have that second partition where Vista is stored.

 

Do any of you have a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse and a Plantronics Voyager Pro bluetooth headset?

My problem is that when I use it with my SR430, the mouse will lag and behave eratic when the headset is on. And my headset get static noise when my mouse is on too. So I have to turn off one of the device when I use it.

Do any of you have any problem with this on your SR?

 

If anyone is looking to purchase one:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...am-ati-4570-3yr-warranty-2x-battery-more.html

I dropped the price to $1049. This is a steal!

 

My SR has wobble feet. I had it since the first day. I had to put a small piece of paper underneat.

Sony had sent me 4 rubber feet and I know it doesnt work.

I had to call them again before my 1 yr warranty is up. This tell me about their quality control.

Do you have this problem? How did you fix it?

 

Have you all ever go to ATI and use their latest video software or just stick with what Sony put on on their own website?

 

its best to just use AMD ati and use mobility modder. its been great for me.

 

What is mobility modder? Can you provide some link?

Also when I have a share screen with my HDTV, I try to move a movie over and the movie would just hang sometimes.

I dont see that on my desktop PC. Maybe I need to update the ATI Catalyst software?

 

search it on google. ati mobility modder. its pretty obvious wat it is. just dl it and follow the instructions on how to modify ur driver so that it would work.

 

I saw it. Do you have to uninstall the Catalyst that come with my SR first?

 

i would uninstall the whole thing, then install with the modded new ati driver. be sure to "unzip" the ati files but cancel the installation and mod the ati with mobility modder. then continue with the install from the ati folder in C: and go from there. if it says there is an error during the install, just go to task manager and update your ati driver in the ati specific folder.

 

Did you run into trouble when doing an uninstall cause the driver is in use? You didnt boot into safe mode right?