Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

Thanks a lot. Monday morning I will call Sony Poland help line to confirm that because they are not sure about that at Sony Stores.

 

Are you planning on buying one in Canada? and shipping it over or bringing it over yourself?

 

Absolutely not. Someone will bring it to Poland next month for me. I was tempted by the latest promotions at Sony CA (mentiond by you btw. - thanks for that) and ordered i5/PCIe256GB/8GB/Carbon black/Touch. Now waiting for delivery I started thinking about the warranty and other issues. Anyway I can still cancel the order.

 

Makes sense. Ya the deals were great, I couldn't wait for them since I was coming back end of july so I had mine as quickly as possible and I coudn't get the win 8 pro option with fresh start.

btw I was reading the S7 thread and folks have mentioned installing the stock synaptics drivers to improve the trackpad...anyone tried this yet?

Drivers | Synaptics

I am contemplating it to see if it will solve the 2 finger scrolling issue I have, but unlike the updated S7, I don't think any of the options are grayed out on the Sony.

 

You need a minimum airflow, else the 60°C will be reached quickly anyway. Maybe the fan speed is too fast even on the minimal speed? A very slow speed (500-1000 RPM) shouldn't be hearable, and could maintain the temp bellow 60°C when idle.

Compared to the Mac, maybe the heat exchanger has a poor design too...


Edit: looking at the photos, it seems that the Vaio is using a fan with only 1mm thick blades, which seems to be half the size of the mac air blades. That would explain too why the RPM need to be higher to move the same amount of air.

 

After dumping the old Z series for the last 3 years and using a MacBook Air with boot camp on 3 Airs ( 1x13" & 2x11") all maxed out spec wise it was a tough call to opt for the new Pro or Duo, especially as the new MB Air was with the 5000 graphics chip, which is why I also considered the Duo. However with a 30 days return grace in the USA I thought there was no harm in trying the Pro

There is no doubt the MBAir's are a nice product and the trackpad is second to none and the keyboard is also very nice, but with the same clamshell and no retina display or even HD,I think Apple were taking the mickey now. Even though they are over $600 cheaper (on the max out ones) it's no surprise with an old footprint design, lower res, no touch and no SD on the 11". Make no mistake there are problems running windows on MBAirs under bootcamp even with Apple other peripherals including Icloud/mobileme, even 2 finger scrolling, back clicking and BT all play up from time to time and don't forget those who hang on to their laptops Apple do not give support on certain windows upgrades after 2 or 3 years.

I have decided to keep the Pro now simply as it fits my needs with the higher res and sitting nicely both weight and size between the 11/13" MBAir's. I am even more pleased now there are a few reports out there with MBAirs running W8 to find out the battery life is only around 6 hours as it's a well known fact that bootcamp W8 on an Air is less efficient then the straight OSX.

I think the Pro Fan noise is a little over exaggerated and compared to my old Air's the Pro does seem a little over enthusiastic at times to kick in especially on charge. The air's also had the fan on the back and away from you to help, but it did kick in at odd times but not as often as the Pro.

Like most out of the box was hard work for a few hours until all the updates loaded etc and finally the WiFi was up to speed and I had to manually do the trackpad to get the full features, but no more than installing bootcamp. Now 2 weeks on and I am use to the keyboard etc and I'm almost settled in. I did have a bit of fan day today on just casual browsing but I found this seemed to be due to windows search protocol over exciting the CPU for no reason. I have now switched off or deleted a lot of the tiles that are just a waste and now back to a silent running.

Now all I have to do is get my file history working with my 2TB Apple router which is all connected up and the directories are created but just won't run and save the files

 

darck wrote yesterday:

"[...] looking at the photos, it seems that the Vaio is using a fan with only 1mm thick blades, which seems to be half the size of the mac air blades. That would explain too why the RPM need to be higher to move the same amount of air."

If this is correct, I would say that this, IMO, must be close to be a rather serious design/construction mistake, a mistake which results in unnecessary and very annoying (to say the least) noise coming from the fan, and this on a so basic level as being a result of the physical design of the fan itself.

If this is correct, I cannot really understand how the responsible designers at Sony can do such a thing, and even more that Sony's QC is so "out of order" / "not working". It's incredible.

 

It makes such a nice change to read a balanced post about the Pro on this thread.
Gets really boring hearing the same exaggerated 'fan noise' posts and the various 'throw my toys out of the pram' (I've lost all faith in Sony, never buying Sony again etc) posts.

 

Fan and laptop cooling designs are complex things, and I suggest not making a snap judgement about Sony engineer's prowess based on the thickness of fan blades. A fan need not have a specified number of blades, a regimented diameter or required blade thickness to be effective at cooling a machine.

The Pro 13 does not overheat, in fact if anything Sony has the fan running more than required to keep CPU temps relatively quite low. Is the fan noisy at high RPMs? Sure, but small fans are higher pitched noise makers. Maybe Sony will "chill" and let the machine run a little warmer via a BIOS update. Lenovo is also guilty of running the fans like a worried mother and keeping the CPU cooler than needed. Apple generally abhors noise and will run the CPU and GPU at higher temps to avoid spinning the fan at high RPMs.

 

Well said this pure speculation on the design of components, else we would all be saying don't use your MBAirs outside in the sun as they warm up too quickly with their Alloy shells

Interestingly some carbon fiber make-ups are almost as good as aluminum alloys along their section, cross section alloys can easily be 10x or more conductive

 

That's not really speculation. A higher RPM is required for a fan to move the same amount of air compared to another one if it uses smaller blades for the same size. That's why we increased the fan size in our computers...

But indeed, the fact that Sony could or couldn't have added a fan with thicker blades is another story

 

Pitch may also have something to do with it

Still the MBAir and the Duo both have rear exhausts which I would guess is better/ more efficient based on distance only, interestingly the Duo fan looks remarkably similar to the Pro.

 

I found out the problem with file history and my Pro and Apple 2T airport, It's W8 having some problem with naming conventions and file name lengths as some directories would back-up

However I though I would have a play with the NFC on my Pro and with my Galaxy S4, no problem synching just can't send much as the Pro does not support photo transfer according to my error messages on the S4, so what else to do with this other than web page links ?

 

Hi there! Since i also own a Pro 13 (Touch, i5, 128MB) it wasn't that great to read that there are a lot of problems with my expensive toy.

The Haswell (desktop) chips suffer from a heat problem caused by the TIM Intel applies (the TIM is a thermal grease which resides between the chip and the IHS). Since there is no IHS (integrated heat spreader) on the VPro one could try to apply LM (liquid metal) on it. You have to isolate the VRMs on the chip with some "Shin-Etsu MicroSi" first. Then apply some LM and there you go. I really think that this will also help a lot. You could also use "innovation cooling diamond 24 carat" and get rid of the Shin-Etsu cause it's dielectric. I will try LM with Shin-Etsu MicroSi when i have all the components on my desk and report the temperatures here.

What i think Sony/Intel completely messed up is everything radio related on the vpro: BT doesn't work as expected. WLAN is a hell of downside. NFC doesn't support necessary functions which turns it useless.

If the vpro would cost about $400 euros i wouldn't complain... but this device is so expensive that i expected something else. When there is a WLAN problem in the year 2013 with the laptop you build than you just did an awful testing.

What also f***s me up is the fact that everything in the BIOS is locked. Does anyone know where to get a unlocked BIOS of how to enter the hidden settings?

 

Personally I am not a fan of hot air being directed towards my legs or uh elsewhere

 

Hey, I just got my Vaio pro, and I'm curious about the fan noise. I knew before that there was some issues with the fan noise, but as I understand it the fan doesnt kick in as easy/as hard after a few days or am I mistaken? Everything is updated and I'm only surfing right now, but the fan is spinning really loud.

 

Same as Apple then with their 2013 Haswells...
If you want a perfect PC/Console, then don't be an early adopter!

 

Windows is probably still indexing. Give it a few days & it should calm down.

 

This might be McAfee. He eats a lot of CPU.

Just received my Vpro 13 today, and the fan is at its lowest speed while browsing.

 

Is there any fix for the light sensor? Isn't it possible to turn it off or is there any tool?

 

@e.v.o which light sensor? the one for the screen or the keyboard?

 

Good point as my Pro is a coffee top and not a lap or belly top I never considered it could be warming my nether regions if it was rear vented

 

Hey,

Is anyone running Windows 7 on their VP13? If so, could you help with any of the following issues please:

• Brightness keys (Fn + F5/F6) not working - other Fn combinations, e.g. for volume, are working fine
• NFC Driver not found by Windows - is there a way to use the Windows 8 driver?
• Intel Management Engine Driver not found; as above
• Two finger right click on touchpad does not work (using latest synaptics driver)

Other than that, I am pretty happy with Windows 7 on this machine... however, can someone tell me the best way to scale fonts? 100% fonts at 1920 x 1080 is unreadable, but using scaling to 150% makes everything look blurry

Cheers,

Su

 

For some reason vaio care didn't pick up this update for the bluetooth/intel PROset

Sony eSupport - SVP132190S - Drivers & Software

 

Hi, all

Would any Vaio Pro 13 user care to comment on the notebook's pointy corners? Is it necessary to be careful during use to avoid accidentally cutting oneself?

Thanks.

 

Try (be careful, though!) and see...

 

The corners are sharp but you will not cut yourself unless you decide to intentionally stab yourself with the corners.

btw installing the bluetooth/PROset driver requires that no usb ports are being used at the time of installation. I had my mouse plugged in and it gave me an error, unplugging the mouse and reinstalling the drivers caused no issues.

 

I absolutely love this machine more than any other laptop I've had. With that said, I have one small issue that I don't know how to fix. When I close the lid to put the laptop to sleep while it is plugged in, it goes to sleep then wakes up 5-10 minutes later. I don't want to ruin the battery by having it on and plugged in overnight. Has anyone else run into this issue?

 

Has been covered several times already, most recently as just a few pages back.
It's due to Intel smart connect.

 

This was discussed a few times in the thread, you'd have to do a search in the thread, as far as I know it might be the wifi driver waking the computer, you can disable this in the networking properties via the device manager, and finding power management and uncheck allow this to wake the computer up, etc.

 

Leaving a laptop plugged in over night wouldn't ruin the battery anyway, would it?

 

Does anyone else have an issues with the trackpad making a noise when just moving the mouse around? The trackpad on mine doesn't seem to have been secured properly to the chassis and you can see there is a slight gap even with a very slight press.

 

Funny 2 days past I down loaded INDBLT-00299645-1082 and now its changed to INDBLT-00304838-1082 but you are correct no notification, just my BT Mouse was dropping off sometimes so I hope this third driver update fixes it

 

Hi, new owner here. Anything I should be aware of, although I've been following the thread it's hard to keep up without physically having the beast on hand. I'm loving this laptop. Z2 to Pro13

 

BT mouse dropping off has also been covered several times in this thread, the last time just a few days ago.
Do a search for the solution.

 

new wlan update:

Wireless LAN Driver Update (Intel) - 16.1.3.1
Improves the stability of the WLAN connection.

 

That's standard. Its kind of "floating". Completely normal

 

BIOS UPDATE OUT !

Sony : SVP1321C5E updates | Download updates for SVP1321C5E | SVP1321C5E

And guess what one of the fixes is apparently?
Improves FAN management in silent mode.


Probably underclocks it to knock the temp down but lets see! I'm installing now and will take temps on silent mode as it is now and then after

 

ok so I've taken some idle logs but... because of my extended battery, I don't carry the charger around with me at work and it requires it for the bios update
Won't be doing this until I get home - some 8 hours away

If anyone else tries, do post on how you got on and whether you noticed any changes.
What I did was run an idle log and then run a few apps while logging using HWinfo64

 

Unfortunately doesn't make much of a difference for me. Still have a fan RPM of 3K with a CPU temp of just 50C.

Very disappointed. Should have known better than to expect Sony would do this properly. I guess I'll be sending the laptop back in the next few days.

 

Is that after installing or speculating?
I've not tried it but my guess would be that in silent mode, cpu underclocks after the update more than usual thus lowering the temperature and so the fan wouldn't need to kick it because 50c would be out of reach at that underclocked level. Obviously eventually it would probably hit it but depends on environment etc

At work, my fan never kicks off as the temp around is low and so the highest my cpu gets to is 41/42 with load

 

That's after installing. From what I can see the profile of when the fan kicks in hasn't really changed at all. My temps are around the 42/43 mark when idle. Play a video on YouTube and this will rise to late 40's early 50's and the fan kicks in more to around the 3K mark. Absolutely no need for the fan to be active until around the 65+ mark as all it is doing is blowing cold air otherwise.

 

I have installed the new BIOS update. In silence mode, the fan is less aggressive now and I can really feel the difference as it is much more silence now compared to before the update. However, it will still kick in only when needed like CPU running at turbo speeds. And one more thing is that, after CPU returned to base speed, the fans returns to low RPM much faster compared to previously where CPU has returned to base speed but the fans still spin at high RPM for a longer time before going back to low RPM. Overall, it is an improvement and the fan does not simply kick in unnecessarily like before and the laptop is much silent now in silence mode.

 

Hey guys I just picked up the Sony Vaio Pro 13 from the windows store and noticed that my SSD drive only has about 70gigs free out of the 128gig hard drive. Did your guys laptops come like this as well?. Is there an easy way to trim it down so we have more storage? Thanks!

 

Will be installing the updates shortly, also noticed a wifi driver update as well, grabbing that as well, wonder how well it will work.

edit, well the wifi doesn't seem to change much per se for me, sure I get more bars but I don't think the speed is improved, I will determine if there is any speed changes once I get back to my uni in early september. Range seems to not have change since the wall to the balcony seems to kill the signal to pretty much zip, but it doesn't disconnect as before. Before on the balcony I couldn't even connect to the wifi, so it is an improvement.

As for fan noise, hard to say, so far the fan hasn't kicked in as it did before, so slightly better, but I will have to make a full test later on when it is quieter in the house and I can see how loud it really gets. That being said, a 1080p video still kicks up fan noise and perhaps it is a few db quieter, it still is audible.

I am sure Sony tried as best they could, but I wouldn't mind comparing both the pro to the new s7 and see if the S7 is actually that much quieter. I still feel the carbon fibre might be the biggest culprit here as it isn't conducting the heat away from the laptop as in other models with metal chassis.

Biggest worry now is this supposed new Vaio yoga device at IFA and if it will be better than the pro. :/

 

So my trackpad started acting all crazy earlier today. It kept right/left clicking randomly and the mouse would move by itself in a circular pattern going upwards then back down again. i was like is going on. then i remembered that I turned on NFC earlier just to see if I could send anything other than links (you can't). So I turned it off, and now the track pad is back to normal. Weird.

 

Does anyone have the steps for a clean install of Windows 8 on the Sony Vaio Pro 13? How much space would it free up on the SSD? I only have 70gigs free and I havent put a thing on it!!! Thank you

 

To the owners of the extra battery sheet:

Can you configure the charging settings, so that the internal battery is only charged to max. 50% and the external sheet battery to 100%?

thx

 

Is there any way to turn off the dynamic contrast? The "Feature" where it dims the backlight if there's a dark scene in a TV show or you load a dark webpage. The auto brightness feature in the Sony control panel doesn't seem to turn it off.

 

No, they share the same setting.

Yes, has been covered several times.
There's a setting in the Intel HD graphics settings you have to change. Can't remember exactly which setting- just do a search.