Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

I got the Mobility bundle for my SR290 using that "rebate". Ah, good times...

 

Hi. Long time reader, first time poster. I'm still using my SR390 from a couple years back. I love it. The build quality of it seems better than any of the newer laptops out there today. Plus, mine was made in the USA, which is quite rare nowadays. The Core 2 Duo is plenty fast for my needs.

I am tempted to upgrade my HDD to a solid state drive. Any thoughts on this? Does the SSD make a big difference? Will battery life be noticeably improved? Thanks.

 

If you look at the post before yours, go_ahead_ed is running a ssd in his. If he doesn't see this, you could PM him.

 

Hi ttran97,

As S. Prime noted, I have an SSD in my SR290 (for about 3 months or so now). It makes a huge improvement in boot up and shutdown times, and applications like MS Outlook and Word / Excel / Powerpoint, etc. load very quickly. Like opening Notepad.

For example, on booting up Windows 7 the bootscreen animation doesn't even finish one animation cycle before I'm at the login screen. Other than that, it isn't very different than using a regular hard drive (for me, anyway).

Battery life hasn't changed for me as far as I can tell. No better, no worse. If you're going to keep your SR390 for a couple more years I'd consider getting the SSD. Just my opinion, of course

 

Thank you for pointing this out.

That's very helpful information. I do plan on keeping my SR for a while, especially since I'm not too excited about the SA/SB's hinge lid. My dad has a Z12 and we often get our laptops confused since the SR looks like a slightly chunkier version of the Z. I think I will end up buying the SSD that you have listed in your signature.

Thanks again!

 

Do you know where to get an SR290 thing to replace the optical drive with a SSD drive, or just leave it empty?

 

Has anyone got any tips for cleaning the trackpad? I've had my SR39 for two years and its pretty much good as new except the trackpad has got a nasty yellowing on it, can't seem to clean it off.

Any ideas how I can clean it up?

 

My battery literally gave up on me today

Its model is Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/B.

I found two online stores to replace it. I'd rather buy it through Amazon but its twice the price. Also, I am not sure battpros is a reliable store; never heard it before.

Did anyone here replace the battery before?
Did anyone purchase anything from battpros?

Amazon.com: Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/B Standard Battery (Black): Electronics
6-Cell Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Compatible Battery 11.1V 4400mAh Black - Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Replacement Batteries

 

A site showing how to disassemble your SR and change out the cpu and wireless cards:

http://erkinson.altervista.org/en/smontare-sony-vaio-vgn-sr-upgrade-cpu/

(there is a translation box in the top right corner)

edit: this is not my website.

 

Thanks for posting the dis-assembly guide S.Prime. I saved the pictures for future reference

 

Hey guys,

So I have been a SR290 owner for years but recently my DC power jack has gotten loose and the power plug will not remain in place to charge the battery. In order to get it charging, I would have to pull the plug half way out and push and hold it up or down. It's getting really annoying as the battery is not in great shape either.
Has anyone got a hold of the service manual for the SR or happen to know of any good tutorials on how to completely disassemble the laptop to repair the jack?

I know about the erikson post but it does not go all the way to the power jack.

 

also issue with power jack, its not loose at all just the cable no longer goes in fully so it wont charge. I can still charge it using the dock.

Today called in for warranty service was told not covered, i asked how can it not be covered when there is no physical damage. Asked for a supervisor who gave me attitude before finally transferring me to level 2 to get a authorization for service.

In a few days will see how this turns out.


Sony needs to look at who it hires for customer service positions, because as a manager to give a customer attitude completely unacceptable.

 

My battery will stay charged for about half an hour before it shuts off. I'd say that's still better than not having any battery at all, but it's not exactly very portable anymore. Rest of the SR still works fine, even though I have had issues with the keys popping off for no reason occasionally (the 2, enter, b, and z keys have popped off from use here and there).

I haven't upgraded anything at all since buying it 3 years ago (never needed to until recently). The ram and everything else is still stock. This makes it hard to do much multitasking now since there is a lot of things that have come out more recently I like to do such as Skype, Firefox, and Minecraft. Skype and Firefox with all of the other background tasks takes up 50-60% of the total ram, so I can't do much else (like play Minecraft also because the SR will start lagging).

Also, there is a design flaw which seems to show up on a lot of other older laptops- The mic/audio jacks are on the other side of the USB ports and I have recently bought a Turtle Beach headset for future projects and Skype calling. The cables barely stretch far enough to reach both ports at the same time. I have to string the cables behind the laptop or on top of the keyboard. I'd rather not have them under the laptop since the laptop does get decently warm there. (The 3470 mainly.) Newer laptops seem to put them right next to each other which is a lot nicer. Headphone tech certainly has changed in the last couple of years.

/rambling

 

I have found the (translated) manual on how to remove the keyboard on my SR, but I would like to remove/access the mouse/touchpad. The left button only works if I press it hard and I would like to clean it as I suspect there's some bread or cookie crumble lodged underneath.

Does anyone know how?

 

Hi, my wife has an SR-140 with W7 64 bit in it. The lappie has 3gbs of Ram. Do you guys know what is the max ram i can put it to speed things up a bit?

 

go_ahead_ed was able to run 6Gb in his SR290. see this post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/444388-sr240-sr290-8gb-no-6-gb-yes.html#post5645987

 

Hello,

I have a sr190e The cmos indicates atapi for hard drive. I t does not indicate size or anything else. I can save but the cmos will not close down. I remove power then reboot no hard drive recognized. I can use optical drive to load win 7 but it also sees no hard drive. I then used Win 7 repair and it shows a Drive: X 28 gig out of 32...but waith there is no drive x and the drive installed is a 60 gig and I did try a new drive 320 WD same results.

Anybody have any ideas aboout this situation.

 

1. does anybody have a windows 7 upgrade kit for sony vaio vgn-sr400 series or a driver pack for windows 7 (32 bit)? if yes, pleese email me: [email protected]
2. is it possible to turn on original vaio function (special keys) after upgrade from vista x64 to windows 7 x86 ?

 

Has anyone sold their SR lately? what did you get for it?

 

Long time no see. Well, for the first time my poor little SR190 is having problems (I think HDD).

Anyhow, to answer "is it possible to turn on original vaio function (special keys) after upgrade from vista x64 to windows 7 x86 ?" the answer is YES. I upgraded to Windows 7 and I can use my FN keys. I never bothered to figure out how to get those buttons near the screen to work (the mode, 5 custom and settings buttons).

I still love this laptop after all these years Just need to replace HDD I think.

 

I have a SR-129E... still running strong after nearly 4 years!

Just ordered a SSD to upgrade my hard drive... I hope it works...

I upgraded to Windows 7 Pro64 bit back in 2009. I figure all the same drivers and stuff I had before should work again, right?

Anyone have any tips for SSD installations on their SRs?

 

SSD does wonders for an SR.

 

Just a quick note to mention that I have successfully installed Windows 8 x64 RTM on my SR290. It installed quickly from a USB key, and I installed the Sony Windows 7 drivers / apps to get the Fn keys working and the VAIO Control Center up and running.

It's been stable as heck, faster than Win 7, and has brought new life to my SR. Now I have no excuse to buy a new notebook (darn).

 

japper88,

My SSD installed in 10 minutes. 2 screws to remove the cover, a few screws under that to remove the drive. Just be careful with delicate ribbon connector when disconnecting/reconnecting.

 

Hi, i just upgraded my VGN-SR11M from Win7 pro to Win8 pro. And since then i have a problem with the fan, now its always at maximum speed, when with win7 this notebook was so quiet.
What can i do? I tried installing the vaio control center and the other utilities for windows, and set the fan to silent mode, but nothing changed.

 

The only thing i can think of is to install the latest Intel chipset drivers. Your SR uses the Intel GM45 chipset I believe.

Support for the Mobile Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family

 

Mr. S.Prime are you considering getting a new laptop soon, I ask because of my Vaio SR feels like it should be replaced soon, and I'm having a hard time deciding between Vaio Z or Asus Prime.

 

I've tried, but on the intel site there are only windows 7 driver, and if I install them they don't appear on the program list under "uninstall a program".

I have to try a format, but is so annoying.

 

I'm considering getting something new, but its hard to justify a new purchase when my SR does everything I need, not to mention the SR still has a beautiful screen. Also while I do dual-boot, I mostly run linux 95% of the time, which is fast and works good on it.

I think my next upgrade will either be a ultrabook or a tablet similar to the MS surface coming out because I want something even more portable.

 

I upgraded from Vaio SR129 to VAIO SB36FA , My SR works perfect till now and when I use my new SB I really missed my vaio SR screen and design even my SB has more pixels but SR screen is away way better .

 

For who have installed windows 8 on the SR, which version and in what order exactly have you installed the sony software and the drivers?

 

Hi Guys!
I just wanna say I am brand new to this forum and I finding a place where there are ton of other SR owners is definitely a good find!

I currently own a VGN-SR590CG (I custom created with Sony Canada)

Recently I decided to part ways with the original Windows 7 x64 Professional (Sony version with all the original files/bloatware) and have installed a copy of clean copy of Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. After doing this I thought the process would be simple by going to esupport.sony.com site and downloading all drivers/update as normal, installing them and everything would work as normal... (Fn keys - volume, brightness, mute etc...)

Being that Im a noob here... I was wondering if someone could give me a detailed/ step by step guide of how I can get my "Fn keys + keyboard jumping while typing etc" all functions working again???
From my understanding I know there is a specific order in which I need to install my drivers/updates... This would be great appreciated!!!

Please let me know thx!

RR - Thanks in advance!

 

Has anyone purchased a replacement battery recently. Where do you guys get them? I looked at sony site and it almost seems like no longer made because it's such an old model. I was thinking of purchasing from laptopbatterylife.com. Anyone have any experience with them?

 

No experience with the laptopbatterylife site but I bought my wife a new genuine Sony battery for her SR590. It works great.

Original Genuine Sony Vaio VGN TX VGP-BPS13/B VGP-BPS13/S Battery Laptop Black | eBay

 

correct, they have to be installed in this order:

utilities, utilities update, shared library, firmware extention parson, hdd protection, both memory card drivers, bluetooth, fingerprint scanner driver, audio driver / video driver.

also see page 373 of this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-sr-series-owners-thread-373.html#post5769843

 

Hey guys anyone have any experience upgrading their sony vaio? If so what did u upgrade?

I am going to upgrade to an SSD with a replacement optical drive bay. Hopefully that goes well. If someone has had any experience about the process please share!

Also anyone got any ideas of a long extended (like 12 cell battery) for relatively cheap for the vaio considering how crappy the battery life is. Seems like its hard to find a relatively inexpensive 12 cell but there's a lot of 9 cells all from random sites. Just wondering if its worth the effort to try and buy one considering I think there's a bios modification required and I dont know how much more time I can use my laptop with the new battery. Anyone with any experience ??


Thanks guys!

 

If you read back in the last 20 pages of this thread, there have been people who have upgraded to SSD, upgraded CPU, and upgraded ram (SR max is 6GB, (4+2). I haven't heard of anyone doing any battery mods. There was some mention in this thread about volt modding. Besides trimming down windows services, also check out the Devcon thread. A guy made a utility to turn of hardware to save some battery life. Post #42 has the last release of the software.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...native-control-off-devices-5.html#post4658204

 

Thanks for the info. Wondering if its worthwhile to upgrade the CPU relative to significant performance improvement?

I really want an extended battery but after reading it seems like many people have had problems of incompatility and shady battery dealers.

Any extended battery suggestions?

 

My wifes SR590, which was bought in Dec. 2009 as a CTO from Sony Style has been upgraded from the 4GB of RAM it came with to 8GB. I am not sure at what point the SR Series was able to do that so it is possible to have more than 6GB.

 

My wife's SR590 was upgraded from the stock 4GB of RAM to 8GB and recently I installed a 512GB Samsung 830 Series SSD into her SR590. I performed a clean install by loading Windows 7 and then all the drivers and specific Sony Utilities with no bloat applications. It loads the desktop within 40 seconds from complete off. It's like a new computer because of its increased speed. SSD is probably the best upgrade to do.

 

Awesome I am hoping to do the same with my ordered SSD drive. I am probably going to use the mod where you swap out the cd rom drive. Therefore there's not a storage issue cause i'll have both hard drives. The installation for the SSD was straightforward right?

 

^It was very easy to install. Remove the bottom panel and if I recall correctly, the hard drive was held in by 3 screws. Once those screws were removed, be mindful of the ribbon connector when angling out the hard drive. Unscrew the brackets from around the old hard drive and attach them to your new SSD. Reattach the ribbon connector and slide in the SSD. I had the Samsung SSD with the notebook kit and the SR590 did not need the spacer that was included. It was a nice secure fit. Attach everything back and begin the install.

 

sweet good to know. thanks for the reply.

do you have any ideas on extended batteries?

 

^I don't know too much on the 12 cell battery solutions to recommend anything. Sorry.

 

Thanks anyways. I appreciate it.

For those who are interested I just installed the SSD and there's a huge improvement so far but then again this is a clean install. I have been having some problems with some freezes with keyboard and mice but I'm updating the drivers as we speak. Looks like the benefits of having both a fast hard drive and another more space.

For those who are hesitant do it!

If only I can find an extended battery.....

 

having trouble with the keyboard and touchpad not working. anyone have any ideas? it basically stops working however attaching an external keyboard and mouse works. Wondering if its a chipset or driver issue......

 

Hi,

I have a SR290 P8600 4gb ram. Im thinking of upgrading it to 128gb or 256gb SSD and 6gb ram.

What can you recommend? preferably from amazon or newegg. I just want to make sure its compatible. Nothing too fancy, I prefer value for money.

Technology is too fast for me lol gone were the days where a ram is a ram and a hdd is a hdd.

oh I'm currently having problems with my battery. When I plug it in, it will charge for a few seconds and then stop. Still says plugged in, charging but the charging animation will stop moving

tia

 

For SSD's you could probably ask in the SSD section: SSD Forum
but from what I've been reading, the Samsung 830 series is a pretty good price vs performance ssd. newegg just had the 128gb one for $69 after coupon code. I'm going to upgrade my SR290 with that model as soon as the price dips again.

For ram, the way I have upgrade in the past has always worked well. I run CPU-Z and see what my installed ram specs are (timings and voltage). Then I browse newegg and look for decent ram with the same timings and voltage and pick from that.

 

Hi
So does anyone have a solution for the fan being constantly on in the SR?

I upgraded to windows 8 and my fan is constantly running at 2800 rpm (from speedfan). Is that normal for the SR. What speed are your fans running at?

 

Might be a program running in the background that's using the video card. I would check your task manager. My fan only runs when it's tapping the video card.

BTW anyone thinking of upgrading the SSD and keeping the HDD should definitely do it. It's extending my laptop use so far!!!