Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

SSD on 128 GB eu version (core i5, 8GB RAM)

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CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
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* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 499.084 MB/s
Sequential Write : 160.874 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 410.865 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 133.323 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.419 MB/s [ 4985.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 70.576 MB/s [ 17230.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 359.249 MB/s [ 87707.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 134.962 MB/s [ 32949.7 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 31.6% (37.7/119.2 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2013/07/18 15:31:52
OS : Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

 

There are a couple of things you should check. I can look for exactly where they are when I get home, but essentially there are options in power settings that allow the computer to wake from sleep at any point to start certain activities. Eg, defrag, windows update at 3am (default), etc. As mentioned previously, WiFi can also wake the computer (I think this is Intel smart connect?)

I bet you this is why your computer is waking. I doubt its a problem with the actual laptop.

 

I have recently been look at replace an aging T400 with the Sony VAIO Pro 13 ultra book but I have one concern. My concern is that I have a 24 inch external monitor, mouse, and keyboard that I would like to use when I'm in the office. Does the VAIO Pro 13 support a standard USB 3.0 docking station? And will it our put a resolution of 1920 x 1080?

 

I believe that's Intel Smart Connect Technology at (poor) work. It wakes up periodically to check email... like a smartphone so that it's all already loaded when you open the lid next. It happened to me the first day. The thing woke up in the middle of the night to try to synchronize the missing 5GB of Outlook data, and started furiously spinning the fan for a couple of hours until I woke up and realized where the noise was from (and a bit later, after the 3rd attempt why the PC was still waking up by itself and not going back to sleep).

I don't really have a use for for the feature, so I turned it off. The on/off switch is accessible in the Vaio Control Center / Power and Battery bottom of the page.

Laurent

 

Great tip, but on my US version that box is tic'd and greyed out and won't let me un-tic it.

Any ideas?

BJ

 

Yes it does. You can drive an external monitor through HDMI directly and 1080p is supported. You can also plug an USB3 docking station and drive at least of couple of 1080p monitors.
Note that the software that drives the display on the USB3 dock takes CPU compute power. Not much, but enough to raise the temp a bit every time you actually do something and spin the fan a tad faster. After some experimentation, I decided to drive my main display with HDMI and my secondary, less used display with the USB3 dock.

So you could do USB3 dock > monitor (mouse/kbd/ethernet on dock) or HDMI>monitor + USB2 hub for kbd/mouse. That's two connectors.

Laurent

 

I have my Vaio Pro 13 (non-touch) for several days now and I think it is alot better than the touch-version.

Overall I am quite happy, but the fan is really annoying.
It starts at about 50°C and gets really loud at about 60°C.

I hope Sony "fixes" this by increasing the threshold to 70°C or more.

By the way, no problems with wifi.
I disabled bluetooth and set wlan to "high performance".

I will test the device about 2 more weeks.
If there isn't any information from Sony about the fan noise, I will most likely return it.
I hope i don't have to.

 

Only for 2-chip Haswells. 1-chip Haswells used in the Pro/Duo Ultrabooks aren't affected: Intel 8-Series Chipsets: Z87 Is Nice - The Core i7-4770K Review: Haswell Is Faster; Desktop Enthusiasts Yawn

 

Good Find! Didnt think even think of checking there. Just turned it off so what I will do is leave the lid closed tonight and see if it wakes up.
I'm a very light sleeper so I will hear it!

 

I am sure I have messed this up somewhere but I have lost USB charging when the unit is off.

In the VIAO Control centre, it is turned on but will not change anything when I put the unit to sleep

Any thoughts ?

ty!

 

When it next does it run

Powercfg /lastwake

This will tell you why the pc woke up. Personally I would turn off smart connect even though this wont fix your issue. Also goto the wifi card in device manager and turn off the option to allow it to wake the computer.

 

Have you tried the USB port on the adapter?

 

A new wireless lan driver was posted for SVP 11 at Sony Asia today:

version 16.1.0.14 that resolve the followings:

-The transfer of WLAN cannot be completed in Settings.

-WLAN connection is unstable.

 

Has anyone done a clean windows 8 install yet? Wondering if its even worth it

 

I did a clean install a couple of weeks ago - it felt more involved than I remember a Windows install being (having last done Windows 7 on my SZ61 a few years back) but it was worth it purely from the point of view of getting a nice clean start menu (in Metro or otherwise). The hardest part is actually finding an ISO with which to create a bootable USB stick. The high level instructions that I used were posted here (although additionally I made some notes of which utilities had to be installed in a particular order from the Sony website which I've since deleted).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/720737-official-vaio-pro-13-owners-lounge-svp13-2013-a-45.html#post9266602

 

It supposedly covers the SVP11 and SVP13. The Intel driver site seems down, but the link to the Japanese Sony site is here: (click the button almost at the bottom of the page). Thanks Google Translate

¥¢¥Ã¥×¥Ç¡¼¥È¥×¥í¥°¥é¥à | ¥µ¥Ý¡¼¥È | ¸Ä¿Í¸þ¤± | VAIO | ¥½¥Ë¡¼

Just tried it. It's not a standard packaged Sony silent-install driver. It's just a barely packaged standard Intel driver with Wifi and Bluetooth (maybe a solution for Bluetooth issues too?). My connection issues are very sporadic since the last driver update so I don't know how much improvement the new driver is. I do see using inSSIDer that 5G connections seem to be of much better quality.

UPDATE: The new drivers just hit the US website. Link for my SKU:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/swu-download.pl?mdl=SVP13215PXB&upd_id=8875&os_group_id=24

Laurent

 

I just got mine.

I found an odd bug along similar lines.

Whenever I hook up my USB 3 flash drive to either ports of the laptop the WiFi just goes AWOL. It doesn't look like it dies, but it does. The moment I take the key out, my connection's no longer on hold.

Aside from that, the over-aggressive cooling profile has shown to be an issue as well as pretty much all the other design flaws people have discussed.

One notable oversight I simply wouldn't find on a 'well-designed' device: the caps lock key LED color doesn't match that of the power button's LED. It's OCD-worthy , honestly, but it just goes to show how this product was rushed to market (clicking the touchpad from underneath the unit is another occurrence).

Still, that screen... That lightness... Awwww yeaaaaaa.

 

That works fine

I am talking charging a device off the laptop's battery with no adapter

 

I got money back. I could't work with this noise.
If sony fix fan and wifi problem i'll buy next one. Bot one, sorry, this is alpha prototype.

And some movies with noise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VFrkNWdj5I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUzMqeDwchc

 

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed a static/crackling speaker noise coming from below the keyboard, on the left and right sides of the keyboard? I assume the speakers are below the keyboard.

Anybody else found this and found away of stopping the static noise?

 

Try to turn off BT. It have the same problem and was able to narrow down it's form BT device. When I turned it off, it's gone.

 

Looks like the Wi-Fi issue will be fixed sooner, rather than later.

A moderator over at the Sony Vaio forums is asking for feedback on the new update on behalf of Sony. Seems like Sony is actively trying to resolve the issue now.
Re: [New Sony Vaio Pro] Wifi Issue! - Page 7 - Sony Community

 

Sony has posted a new version of the Intel drivers on their web site. See posts on the previous page. It may or may not be a conincidence that they were posted the same day as the MBA update, also supposedly trying to fix the Intel wifi issues.

Laurent

 

Hello again,

Just an update after having used this laptop (actually the Pro 11) a significant amount over the last week.

1. I just wanted to reinforce how LIGHT and THIN this is. I've had several people ask me, "is there even anything inside??" because it's so light.

2. Battery life is great. Most of what I use the laptop for is light internet browsing, Word / Excel / PPT, PDF viewing. Not exactly heavy usage. But with WiFi on, battery life is at least 6 hours. I'd say closer to 7 hr. For an 11" notebook this thin and light, I think that's amazing.

3. Keyboard is a bit louder than I had hoped. I was typing notes during a plenary session, and it was definitely quite audible. Nothing that will make me return the notebook, but it is noticeable.

4. I still do not have ANY problems with the fan noise. Or rather, this supposed "fan noise problem". I have tried holding up the fan on the left side up to my ear on several occasions and have never heard any loud noise from it. Occasionally there's this low-pitched ring, but it's not loud at all; I can barely hear it even when holding up the laptop to my ear. I'm not sure if this is related to specific models, or if it's a defect, or something else? I did lower my CPU max to 75% on battery, I have brightness around 50%, I don't have much running in the background (Dropbox mainly) although I do have lots of Word / PDF / Chrome windows open.

5. I also have yet to experience any problems with WiFi. I have not yet updated the drivers but will do so tonight. I constantly have WiFi on, and have had no disconnects. It works at home with my router, at work, and at several coffee shops (mostly Starbucks). No issues whatsoever. I do have Bluetooth turned off, although even before I turned this off I didn't notice any problems.

6. Touchpad is much better after tinkering with settings, but still this is my biggest issue with this laptop. Sometimes it becomes unresponsive for a few seconds, sometimes missed clicks, scrolling is not as smooth as with other laptops. I am, however, quite satisfied with the click mechanism.

7. Screen is fantastic. I was working in a Starbucks today with loooots of sunlight, and on max brightness I could still work. See attached images for some samples.

8. I have run the SSD benchmark and took some HWmonitor screenshots, see attached. Seems as though I have a Samsung model (256 GB).

9. I know some people were asking -- yes, I did reinstall my laptop completely, with Windows 8. It was a pain in the #$%, but perhaps this solved some of the issues some people are having?


Overall, I am EXTREMELY pleased with this laptop, and will definitely be keeping it. I am amazed at how Sony is able to create such a powerful, long-lasting, durable machine that is so thin and light.

SSD:


CPU:


Screen at max brightness, in VERY bright conditions. (These shots were taken with a phone, so not the best quality)

 

for the clean install, did you follow the guide previously posted? and what was a pain in the about it?

thanks so much for the pics, looks like you were having wifi problems in the last one

 

Haha, oops, I guess that was a bad picture to post I actually hadn't even connected to the WiFi network there yet, but opened Chrome a bit prematurely.

I suppose the re-installation wasn't that bad, but I didn't have any experience with UEFI / Windows 8 yet, so that was kind of a pain. Finding a Win8 ISO, trying to find my product key (and realizing it's actually embedded in the UEFI), and then getting rid of all these stupid Win8 things and reinstalling all the drivers. I suppose what I really mean is that re-installing Windows 8 is a bit painful (especially for someone used to installing Win7 on multiple desktops), not so much the laptop. Oh and also, I wanted to create a backup / recovery media ISO prior to reinstallation, but my OS was in Japanese (I really wanted the non-touch model), so that was also somewhat tricky.

 

Is your Pro 11 CTO or did you purchase preconfigured?

 

CTO, from Conics Net (Japan).

Core i7, 256GB, 4GB, with sheet battery, VGA adaptor, American English keyboard, non-touch (matte) screen.

 

Hi guys! I just bought a non-touchscreen Sony Vaio Pro 13 and succeeded in installing Windows 7 (SP1 integrated, x64, Ultimate) onto it. Finding a working WiFi driver was problematic, but the Sager notebook site came to rescue. The only thing that doesn't seem to work is the hotkey utility. The steps are:

1) first create recovery media with the VAIO software, just in case. You'll need a 16g usb stick. Write down (or take a photo of) the model, service tag number and serial number that are displayed in the VAIO Care software.
2) create a bootable USB drive from a Windows 7 install image (Windows 7 usb/dvd tool from Microsoft)
3) while the laptop is turned off, press the assist button. Go to BIOS. Change boot mode to legacy (not UEFI). Disable secure boot.
4) insert your Windows 7 USB stick and again when the laptop is off press the assist button. Choose to boot from USB.
5) Make your way into the recovery console and run diskpart. Enter the following commands: (WARNING!! Everything on the SSD including the recovery partitions will be wiped! Make sure you have created the recovery media!)

select disk 1
clean
convert mbr

6) (You may need to reboot again). Install Windows 7 like you normally would, activate etc.
7) The WiFi drivers you have to get from the Sager notebook site. Intel Wireless-N 7260 Windows 7 driver. It says Wireless-AC but it'll work, trust me. Ferry the exe to your laptop via a USB stick. Run the exe to uncompress it, then go to the Win7Plus folder, Win64, Drivers, Win7 and run DPInst64.exe (and iProDifX.exe?). Also run setup.exe that's located in Win7Plus\Win64\Install. That made the WiFi work on my laptop.
8) The rest of the drivers you can locate on Sony's support site. Install the Intel HD Graphics 4400 driver (which you can also get from Intel), Synaptics Clickpad driver, Intel Chipset driver, Intel Collaborative Processor Performance Control (CPPC) Driver at the very least.

Set up the power options as you wish, I prefer hibernate from the power button and sleep by closing the lid.

The only thing that I haven't been able to get to work is the hotkey utility. This isn't a big deal for me personally since I can adjust the brightness in control panel (power options) and volume from the volume icon obviously. I have not yet discovered a way to conveniently disable the WiFi.

I think that's it! The battery life is insanely great, Windows 7 flies compared to the bloatware-ridden pre-installed Windows 8 and most of all the display and the keyboard are awesome. The non-touchscreen Sony Vaio Pro 13 is really the best Windows 7 laptop you can find! ;-)

Update August 17, 2013: It looks like the official WiFi drivers for Windows 7 are available at Intel's site now. Intel Wireless-N 7260 Windows 7 driver. I just installed them and they seem to work OK.

 

I am really in love with my 13" Pro!
i7, 8GB, 256GB, Win8Pro and touch is inside my one

Wlan is great! No drops, long waiting times, timeouts or whatever can happen (testet at home, at Munich Airport and in two different hotels so far).

But one thing is really wired: How can I disable bluetooth?!
The blue bluetooth symbol in the taskbar just offers me to connect to a device.
When looking in the General PC Settings of Win8 (the MetroUI) where you can enable/disable the flightmode, NFC and bluetooth everything is working except the bluetooth slider. This one is there but just grey

best regards

 

I installed a brand new ASUS router yesterday and ran some tests with my Dell XPS 12 (Windows 8), my Ipad (newest generation) and the Vaio Pro 13 (latest drivers). All tests are on 2.4 GHz.

The three locations I measured are one room over from the router (series 1), downstairs (series 2), and at the point farthest away from my router (series 3).

The Vaio clearly has the worst connectivity of the three devices, not connecting at all in point 3. It still shows 3-4 bars, but will simply not connect to the Internet at that location.

 

Welcome to the club. You're in good company. My Galaxy S III has better connectivity than the SVP13...

Did you try to update to the very latest Wifi drivers from yesterday? Things seem better.

Laurent

 

using the windows 8 UI, it should be under "wireless" settings. when you flick open the charms on the right and select settings, on the bottom it should say "change PC settings." click on that, and you should see it on the next page that opens up.

 

that is exactly the menu I tried to describe
Look at my picture below. All sliders are movable except the Bluetooth! This one is just greyed out. (Bluetooth works! I have already transferred a file from my phone to the Pro)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6yvm3bazm8y8g1o/bluetooth.jpg

any ideas?

 

The data were taken with the latest drivers from yesterday. I just ordered a $10 Wifi USB stick from Amazon. Lets see what that does. Wouldn't it be sad to put such a stick into a $2,000 laptop to have internet......

 

I've got the same problem. Discussed - but not solved - a while back in this thread. Seems to affect European models in particular. I'm using a bluetooth mouse practically all the time - so not being able to switch off bluetooth doesn't bother me too much.

I still hope it gets fixed by a driver update, though.

 

Have you guys gone into the full Control Panel --> Network and Sharing Centre --> Change Adaptor Settings

In there, right click on the bluetooth connection -- you should be able to disable it there.

Does that not work either?

 

try uninstalling the drivers, reboot and reinstall it. that happened to me but with the wifi instead. i just did that and now i can turn it on/off again. weird.

 

Yes this is probably the only solution for this laptop. But then you are down to 1 USB port and have a little sticking out part on your laptop. I returned the laptop for now as I am heading for holidays. I will be back in 2 weeks and hope that things get resolved. So far it seems there is no good solution. I will reorder the laptop when I come back and give it one more chance

The usb stick is a good testing scenario for Sony because it would be the same machine with the same Windows 8. So it isolates the problem somewhat,

BTW the USB stick does not have any antenna I presume and still work really good. I tried it before on Vaio Z and worked great at the location where Vaio Pro worked. Unfortunately could not try it on Vaio pro since it was already returned,. Sony are you reading this ?

drjoe66- Please let us know if this works for you. At least it will shed some light on this

 

As for the bluetooth switch problem: I really tried everything (see my posts from earlier this months).

It does look like a driver problem, though.

As for the Wifi: The latest driver (16.1.0) drastically improved wifi-reception for me. I can directly connect to my router without using a repeater now.

Ironically, when using my repeater, the connection is less stable than before.

 

The fan noise drives me crazy.
It starts at 40°C and gets really loud at 50+.

I can't watch 720p twitch or 1080p youtube with this ultrabook.

Weight and display are great, but everything else is not satisfactory.

I think I have to send back this unit. :-(

 

Somebody tried this program with the Vaio Pro?
http://www.computerbase.de/forum/showthread.php?t=1070494

I only read about problems with Speedfan.

I ordered a unit myself, but it will take some time until I receive it. Loud fan noise would be, additional to the wifi problems, a reason to return a notebook like this for me.

 

Funny, I use the Pro 13 every day for an hour of streaming HD video and the fan is very quiet. I have it unplugged-- plugging it into AC will get the fan going.

 

I had the problem with the vaio unplugged.
Streaming Twitch @ 720p+ resulted in 55°C+ and a really loud fan.

Vaio Pro 13, i7, 8GB, 256GB SSD, non-touch.

 

Wonder why the difference. I have the Core i5 and stream mostly Flash-based video, though some Silverlight content too.

 

temperatures around you and your country could make all the difference...

 

LOL, I'm in Dallas, TX where it's 100F outside and generally 76 to 77F inside, so I seem to have a quiet machine in a hot place.

 

My was loud with ambient temperature at 22C/72F. It's not a tropical environment.

I have a wish for pro 13 owners who don't have noise problem:
please download hwinfo64 http://www.hwinfo.com/files/hw64_420.zip, run youtube at 1080p and check cpu temperature and fan speed.

 

I just ordered my pro 13 this morning

got a carbon black touchscreen / i5 / 8GB / 256 on the way. Looking forward to it!

 

Hello. I have been following this thread for a while, as I am really interested in the Vaio Pro 13. The ongoing discussion about the WIFI issues has had me holding back for now. However, I noticed today that the Sony Canada web site, is now offering $100 off a custom ordered Pro 13 ($50 off the Pro 11). This, along with the $90 256 GB SSD option, has me tempted. I have a couple questions.

Has the recently released WIFI driver improved the WIFI situation? Better, worse or the same? Any feedback from anyone who has tried it would be great.

Also, I cannot find any mention of the TPM security chip on the Sony Canada web site. I know you need to order Windows 8 Pro, but even with that selected, there is no mention of it. Does anyone know if the Pro 13, with Windows 8 Pro, in Canada comes with the TPM security chip?

Thank you.