Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

Your words in God's ear :thumbsup: It's a fact that the problem might be bigger than Sony admit but we should note that people who are satisfied with their product will not post that in here.. That is my biggest hope at this moment.

 

I had a similar delay from Sony Canada, I called and asked and it seems there was a shortage of certain components, not sure which ones, they didn't know or were not willing to tell me. But the laptop started building 1-2 days after the delay occurred and it shipped more or less on time, either one day later or earlier.

 

PIC-Projekte.de, you are fully right. Satisfied users presumably won´t be in a forum like this one, so definitely conclusion on a failure rate of the Pro is not possible. Basically, the design of the current Pro is pretty nice, low weight, good screen... I´d like it, it it would work for me. Maybe in few weeks I would try a purchase again. Until then I prefer waiting on more Haswells available in laptops, e.g. Ativ 9 plus, Zenbook Infinity or MBP.

 

I just send my vaio pro to sony's technicien, normaly i'll receive it in 5 or 6 days so i'll tell you if Sony fix someting.

I've pitch noise, fan noise and sound sizzle sometimes. Poor Wifi card I think

 

I'd read something about the intel card build in... The card is also in the 2013er MBA. The have similar wifi problems there. Does anyone know if apple could already fix the issue? If yes it should be possible that sony can fix it also!? The Pro is so incredible beatiful.. I would be very disapointed if I also have to send the machine back to Sony :-( I can not belive that this problem can't be fix.. But if it should be so.. Apple, Sony and all the other companies who use this intel card will get in big trouble, or not? It's like a car where the abs system does not work correctly - just to 60% or so...

When I get my Pro I will inform you about the things.

 

Thanks for the replies. Actually, in an optimistic manner, I would think that increasing the delivery delay by 2-3 weeks is not solely due to suddenly high demand, because manufacturing time can be, I would think, predicted as orders are taken, but that it would be more of an excuse to make some changes and improve quality of the final product.

Wait and see...

 

Actually the 9600 RTM build doesn't work for my VAIO Pro 13.
The internal panel goes crazy with noise (like a TV without signal) shortly after installation completes, with either built-in Microsoft driver or Intel's latest iGPU driver for WinBlue.
The HDMI output works fine though, but it's useless if all accesses need to be come from external display.

MSDN or TechNet does not have early access for WinBlue, and actually Microsoft and hardware vendors are still working on GA patches.

 

My screen did the same thing after 8.1 RTM. Luckily I was able to update the driver thru HDMI and so far its working well.

 

Funny how the WiFi reception seems to be greatly improved when taking one of the antenna out of the laptop.

This would confirm a bad interaction between the fiber carbon case and the wifi antennas. The cables are not long enough to put them under the aluminium pad though.

 

A few minutes ago I recived a mail from Sony within the TNT-Trackingnumber...

 

Thank you all for information about very noisy fans, and weak wi-fi. I was going to buy this machine. But I was lucky and found this forum/thread and information from Vaio's problems. I really don't want noisy machine with weak and slow Wi-Fi. I got Samsung Series 9 HD 13.3. Very nice. Everything just works, without noise

 

Same here!

 

Days ago I said that and now sometimes it's been a problem. It's necessary to be careful when using the laptop in not flat surfaces (ie. legs) because the touchpad will be clicked sometimes. Do all of you have the same problem? I suppose that it's not a problem of my laptop but a general problem because of the construction, but I will like to be sure about that anyway.

Edit: Ah, another problem, the lid... it wobbles a lot when I touch it, I will record a video to show it. It's annoying too.

 

Why? Do you think he's going to sue you if it goes wrong?...... Jeez

 

It's OK, it doesn't matter now anyway, since a fix has been found

He probably just didn't want to feel responsible if anybody trashed their system. Which is understandable.

 

I'm seriously considering getting this machine. I've just kinda skimmed this thread, so the fan noise and the slow wifi been fixed with driver updates? So is there really any concerning problems with this machine anymore? Also, I've read somewhere else that someone's keys were popping off the board so he returned it. Was this guy just trolling or is this a real thing?

 

Fan noise and slow wifi remains apparently. IIRC, Vaio Z had fan noise and it never got fixed. Can't Sony get cooling system right? I'm sure the wifi problem will be fixed.If not, you can always replace the wifi card, however the same can't be said about noise, you probably will have to live with that.

 

Can you share which drivers you installed resolved this problem?
Thanks.

 

The fan noise issue I feel is grossly exaggerated or affects only a subset of the units. My Pro is very quiet. However as you can imagine this is subjective. So suggest you just try one and judge for yourself.

The wifi performance, however, is VERY WEAK despite all the tweaks and the driver updates.
I am not filling confident this will be fixed imminently, as it still not clear, if this is only driver related.

In my opinion, there is lot of consistent data pointing towards poor antennas impementation in the unit.

 

Uh oh - is this the Apple - "it's how you hold it" scenario? :- )

 

Hi all

MIGHT have some sort of update on the fan issue - by no means is it a fix but maybe a slight work-around.

I decided today to be brave and open the unit up. It was so I could remove and re-apply whatever thermal compound Sony would have used in the laptop. I was half anticipating that they would have used thermal pads but I was pleasantly surprised to find grey paste. I am however wondering what type of paste they used - my guess is a generic cheaper compound.

So I removed the existing paste from the processor and heatsink. I could not for the life of me find where the GPU was - am I right in assuming the 4th gen mobile haswell is cpu + gpu in one chip? If so, it would explain the x2 die.

What was interesting is that the existing compound was very dry on the heatsink to a point of it being crispy. As I do repairs, I see this a lot in laptops that overheat and shutdown where the compound is dried up...in most cases, I would expect it to still be moist.

Removal was via a couple of nail-varnish remover pads and cotton buds with some arctic silver remover (1 and 2 for prep)
Once prepped, I applied something that is not my usual poison - Arctic silver Ceramique 2. I normally standby arctic silver 5 and have a very large tube of this but Ceramique 2 has had even better reviews and for the sake of safety, I decided to try this as it's not conductive.

On the Arctic silver site, it states for Haswell, the best approach is a single line method rather than spreading the paste or putting a dot so I did just this.
Put the heatsink back in - tested laptop still turned on and then shut it down and screwed the rest of the case back together.

Opening the laptop up:
Very easy in my opinion. There was a youtube guide where he mentions a struggle of getting the back on again, this was not the case with my one.
Removal is a case of removing the long rubber strip and the screws under it.
The rear feet come off also with 2 screws each under it. And then one next to the external battery connector.

Soon as you do this, you will notice the chassis already apart near the front where the rubber strip screws came off. Using a finger nail or a soft plastic opening tool, just go around unclipping it going anti-clockwise if you were facing it head-on. What you want is to start from the middle, go round to the left towards the power socket, carry on going round under the screen and finally you should be at a position where the entire lid can simple lift off.
Putting it back on is the opposite putting the headphone port side in first, and then just dropping the lid and clipping it back in. It will remain in an open state until the front screws are in again.

Removal of heatsink/fan is again easy enough - 3 screws securing the heatsink side down, a couple of stick tape sections and then one screw holding the fan side down under the hinge for the screen. I also removed the screw holding the power connector down with the earthing connector.

And then the whole heatsink slides out.

What I can see is "repairable" providing parts are available are:
The wifi card
Battery
Power connector (good news for those clumsy people who break it by tripping over the cable)
Fan/heatsink
SSD
Speakers
NFC Card

Ram, memory card holder, USB ports, HDMI all are part of the main board

There is also a connector in the middle with a blanked out bit of the board...no idea what this is for and it does not seem to connect to anything.


So the results - Well before shutting it down, the fan was at quite a high level and temp was sitting more towards the 49/50 at simple browsing.
By no means is this going to be the final result as Ceramique 2 needs around 25 hours to cure before it can show any real signs of whether it is working or not but I have noticed a 3-4 degree drop so far and the fan is yet to spin up to it's full speed. Currently it's on at a very very quiet hum @ 3300rpm but it's been sitting more near the 2800rpm with the max being 3800.

I'll keep you guys updated - I should hit the 25 hours easily by mid-week next week...maybe even earlier as it will be on for around 8 hours during the day and then 3 hours at night everyday with today/tomorrow being on for about 12 hours straight.

My plan is to check how it is/monitor it. If it has not helped much, I will open again but revert to AS-5 and check how that is. If it goes up in temp, I'll go back to Ceramique 2 and call it a day. If it stays the same or goes down further, I will stick to AS-5 obviously.

All I am doing here is getting the system to a level where the fan does not NEED to spin up where possible - Whether Sony then fix the issue in it kicking in too early is another matter for them to sort out but maybe something I will no longer face if the system can remain cooler to start with.

I have taken pictures of the board, fan unit, and processor if anyone wants to see in which case I will upload

 

Wow...amazing post.

But as you can imagine 99% of us would be scared "sh*tless" to try something like this even if we understood it.

In the market for a new Haswell ultrabook I too have been put off from buying this machine. Fan noise, wifi issues, and the chasis flex reported here have kept me from purchasing.. I am waiting for some legitimate reviews on the Samsung 9+ before I decide which one.

 

Thx aj84 to have tried the thermal paste replacement. Might do it if I decide to really keep the laptop.


About the WiFi issue, here's my post on Sony Community:

The designers of the laptop might know the issue, but that doesn't mean this information was spread to the technicians.

Anyway, sending your laptop for repair is useless, as the case is most likely responsible of the issue.

A quote from a PDF on planes and radio:

Q. Can I use a 2.4Ghz system in my carbon fiber glider
A. Unfortunately carbon fiber acts as a pretty good shield against 2.4GHz radio transmissions.
This means that if you mount a 2.4GHz receiver inside a carbon-fiber fuselage, it probably won't
work very well at all. For this reason, many glider fliers (especially DLG fliers) are sticking with
narrowband radios where not only are the frequencies less affected by carbon fiber but at least
some of the antenna can be routed outside the fuselage.
Some 2.4GHz receivers such as those from Futaba have extended antennas that make it easier
to route them through the CF to the outside world. It's still very important to make sure that at
least one antenna is visible from every angle.


Let's be even more clear. My download rate is usually around 850 Kbps. With the laptop not opened, I can barely keep a connection 12 meters away from the router and 2 non-concrete walls, and the top speed is 140 Kbps.

When the bottom cover is removed, I get a reliable connection and download speed is around 450 Kbps (which is bad anyway):




Putting back the cover is front of the antenna make the download speed drop dramatically.

When you get the antenna outside the laptop, the download speed is 850 Kbps and the WiFi current negotiated speed is kept around 54 Mpbs:




The signal strength is similar between other laptops. So, it's possible that the fiber carbon reflects the radio waves (like in the end of an optic fiber, where part of the light is sent back if the end is not diagonally cut), and the same signal generates noise by going through the antennas several times.

Two scenarios:

* The fiber carbon acts mostly as a shield:
Sony needs to place the antenna somewhere it will not be surrounded by fiber carbon. The aluminum pad only offer on side without carbon fiber. There is no place in the case right now that would offer a good spot. The only idea would be to use the decorative aluminum bar of the screen.

* The fiber carbon acts mostly by reflecting the radio waves, increasing noise
Same solution as above, but might be improved as well if a material surrounding the antennas could allow the radio waves to go through one way, and be absorbed is they are reflected.


It would be interesting to see if people using 5 GHz WiFi are still bothered with bad reception. This could be a workaround (at least at home).

In any case, the laptop need a major case change, which Sony might not be willing to do, as it would increase the weight, kill the marketing around carbon fiber and maybe cost more than having some laptop returned.

 

Does anyone have an issue with the SD Card/Memory Stick reader? I've put my Memory Stick into the slot and it doesn't detect it. Also updated the drivers for it as well from the Sony support site and the same issue persists.

Anyone can shed some light on this or is this an issue with my unit?

Thanks!

 

I just updated the display driver thru the device manager. It automatically installed the Intel 9.18.10.3165 display driver.

 

If you use this forum as your basis then the fan noise and WiFi is not fixed if you believe the silent majority then yes they are

If you go to any other make forum you will find a series of problems MBAir's etc

Buy on a 30 day return basis at no risk is my suggestion to you

 

I upgraded to the latest BIOS and now I have that high pitched noise. I still have my old BIOS firmware. Can you show me how to revert to R0280V7? Thanks.

 

No problems here; I just put in a 32gb SDHC and it reads fine. Installed all the latest Vaio and Windows updates too. Maybe try a different SD card and see what happens?

 

The assumption that there is a "silent majority" that is allegedly NOT experiencing problems regarding fan noise and/or WiFi, is dubious. There may be many dissatisfied users "out there" experiencing these problems, and many of these dissatisfied users DON'T chime in on this forum, I think. Also all the posts on Sony Community regarding precisely these problems, make it reasonable to think that all the reports of these sad problems, are reflecting a sad but true state of affairs.

 

I am not 100% sure how a fan noise fix would be possible. The laptop runs very hot even when doing fairly few things, like having 20 Chrome tabs open and outlook.

In order to fix the fan noise you would have to have it spin slower; right? And if it spun slower the laptop would be even hotter? right?

The pro 13 runs VERY hot for the things its doing. I cant even imagine running it like i ran my Z1 with 10+ pieces of software open, 3 browser with 10-20 tabs open in each one....

Sony doesnt know how to design cooling properly, they have proven that with just about every laptop in the last few years but... the pro series especially has the TINIEST fan. "Just look at the S-Series" they designed a vent that gets half blocked by the screen being open. This also means if you are laying in bed its very hard to leave some space for the vent, usually i will let the left corner of the laptop float over the blanket to provide cooling, but with that design you cannot.

In comparison (its not fair) my Lenovo W530 has an incredible fan design, the laptop barely even heats up. I can run literally everything, outlook, word, excel 3 browsers with many tabs, photoshop. RDP, ticketing software, PDF's, VLC, league of legends and have 20+ file explorer windows open and hte laptop barely even feels warm. I mean... my Vaio Pro is like 2x as hot as this laptop and it even "lifts itself up" allowing for some extra breathing room under itself which the W530 does not.

It is really quite disappointing how poor the fan / cooling design is on the Pro.

When i am laying in bed and have the laptop on me it gets (way hotter) to a point where i actually have to have it lay on my "leggs" not over my crotch cuz it starts to burn it With the W530 i can lay it how ever i want, i dont even think about it.

Edit: I also wanted to point out since i owned the Pro 11 before the 13, the Pro 11 ran quite a bit cooler. I am not sure why this is since judging by the photos the Pro 11 only has 1 heat pipe vs 2 on the Pro 13.

I just cant help but think if this laptop was 1.5mm thicker it would have been 10x better.

 

I know there are a few pictures of the sheet battery in this thread as well as a video from Newegg showing it, but none of them are that clear.

Can anyone with the sheet battery take some better pictures of it with it on the laptop? The weight I'm not concerned about, it's more of how the laptop looks with this oddly shaped sheet battery attached. Also would be a bit unsure if it would fit into a certain sleeve I have in mind.

 

I'll try and get this done for you SillyPsymin - I'm just charging the two batteries up as they both went down to flat almost and don't really want to unplug it while it has only charged 1/4 way through.

If someone gets there before me then fair enough :- )

 

Ok, here are 2 pix of it. Let me know if you'd like me to take some other pix with different views, etc.

 

Thanks for the pictures!

If I have a silver Pro 11, I wonder how "the whole lot" will look: How is the black sheet battery and the silver Pro 11 looking together? (I think there is not a silver sheet battery - am I correct?)

 

No problem. The battery only comes in black right now. Here's a pic of the battery with a silver Pro 11 further down in this Cnet article:
Sony's ultra-lightweight Vaios go on sale from June [update] - Crave - Notebooks - CNET Asia

 

Thanks for the pics. Can I trouble you for 1 last view? I'd like to see the side profile of the laptop with the sheet battery attached while the lid is opened.

Basically like this (except with the battery attached):

http://www.techcentral.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Sony-Vaio-Pro-side-open-640.jpg

That would pretty much allow me to make a choice of whether to pick it up or not. Thanks again!

 

Yep, here are a couple. Tried to get as clear pix as I could, both with and without using the flash on my phone's camera. Again, I can take other pix if you'd like:

 

No more pics needed, those more than suffice. Thanks again.

From these pics, I feel it looks and fits great with the laptop. I will likely pick one up once I find the funds for it ($150 hurts).

Do you feel it improves typing as it has more of a slant? I'm trying to emulate the angle right now by putting some magazines under my Pro and I feel I type much better.

Also, do you use a sleeve of any sort? I was thinking about picking this one up: MacBook Air 13in Slim Sleeve Case - MacBook Air 13in Cases - MacBook Cases and Sleeves - Devices but it will most likely not fit with the sheet battery attached. Will likely pick up this one instead HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more! which I hope will fit.

Any suggestions?

 

Personally, I find the typing angle doesn't affect me too much; I'm good typing at either angle. But I do like the slightly increased elevation of the screen for easier viewing.

I currently don't use a sleeve. Instead, I put the Pro -- with the sheet battery attached -- into an Osprey Meridian Day pack's built-in spacious padded laptop sleeve. The daypack is the detachable slim portion of the Meridian 22 rolling backpack that I bought recently for travelling: Osprey Meridian: The Best Rolling Backpack | Spot Cool Stuff: Travel

Having said that, if I were to get a sleeve, I'd probably stick with the Zeroshock ones from Japan. I still have the one for my old MacBook Air 11" and liked the shock protection it gave. But yeah, it wouldn't allow you to put in the sheet battery or other big accessories; just only the laptop portion itself.

 

Could you send it to me or put in something like drop box... Thanks

 

Good to see some pics of the sheet battery as I bought my one almost blind. I think in reality it's far more unobtrusive and increases the typing to a more comfortable angle when on a table and for those that use the Pro on your laps gives a secondary shield from any heat.

It's almost incomprehensible the weight of this addition, you almost cant believe it has any cells inside

I bought the Sony slip case that does accommodate the sheet battery just and should note the Velcro is very aggressive and a magnetic catch would of been sweeter IMO

 

I haven't posted but consider me another silent person who's had no issues with their Vaio Pro 13.
"All the posts on the Sony Community fourm"? Compared to other models there isn't much in the way of complaints on the Sony forums except the few who have had issues with their model. It's unfortunate for them but it's not a "sad but true state of affairs".

In fact the only "sad but true affair" I see here is you.
Do you even own a Vaio Pro 13? All I see if you criticizing people who report no issues with their Vaio or jumping in to pat the back of people who have experienced issues.

 

Having owned the Vaio Pro 13 for more than 3 weeks, I must say I am extremely happy with this beautiful machine. It's not saying that I did not have any issue with it but they were all software related which have all been resolved now. I must thank most of you who contributed to this forum that helped me in making this wise purchasing decision especially Boltjames. His positive review especially on the wifi issues has prepared me in the setup process. I would like to share with you, including those who may be interested in this machine, my review including my experience over the last three weeks.

When Sony announced its Vaio Pro line, I was intrigued by its light weight design, reasonably long battery life as well as strong configurations which truly meets my Dream Ultrabook specs that I have long been waiting for. In the end I decided to custom order a Platinum Silver one (less susceptible to dust) instead of a standard Black directly from Sony Store online:
Vaio Pro 13
i5-4200U
8GB Ram
256GB PCIe-SSD Drive

The Order was made on 25Jul2013; shipped from China on 31Jul2013 and delivered to me on 07Aug2013.


Upon unboxing, first thing I noticed was how thin it is. It is extremely light, just 2.34 lbs (more than half pound lighter than 13.3 MacBook Air).
Once opening up this Sony Vaio Pro, it is not only beautiful, but really is an aesthetic masterpiece. The lightweight design is a marvel.

Keyboard

The keyboard is nice and accurate with a well spaced backlit layout. The keys are soft to touch that makes a comfortable typing experience.

Touch Pad
The Touch pad is a bit frustrating to operate which takes a little getting used to. Sometimes, it doesn't register your input and more often it will misread certain gestures. After toying around with Touchpad settings, I begin to get the hang of it and start using it more proficiently. (Control Panel>Mouse>”Device Settings” tab/ Select “Synaptics Clickpad”, then “Properties” button)
I had issues with Pinch Zoom and three fingers swiping but once a new driver 16.5.3.5 is updated, this issue has been resolved.

NFC
The Vaio Pro also comes with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology(under the touch Pad), allowing “one-touch listening”, in which you can transmit songs in the Vaio to nearby NFC-enabled devices, such as speakers as well as transferring photos from compatible devices. As I don’t have any NFC device at this moment so this has not been tested yet.

Gesture controls
The VAIO Pro comes equipped with Sony's VAIO Gesture Control software. It uses its webcam to detect hand motion, allows you to control programs including "swiping" to the left or right to view your previous or next pages; "Pause" gesture for Media Player, or "twirling finger" clockwise or counterclockwise to raise or lower the volume. Unfortunately, this is more of a gimmick than anything useful as it does not respond well most of the time. Best is to turn this function off.

HD Screen

The 13.3" 1920x1080 Full HD screen is just stunning with a 10-point capacitive multi-touch. It is protected by a scratch-resistant glass with glossy finish which tends to give some kind of glare in a brightly lit environment. Fortunately, you can push the backlight strong enough to see this beautiful screen even in a bright room. A HD webcam is located at the centre top bezel of the screen.

The display is constantly flickering, the backlight goes dim slightly and back to normal on a regular basis. Upon investigation, this has something to do with Intel Power Save feature. Once I turn off the Power Saving of Intel HD Graphics, the Flickering is greatly reduced. (Control Panel>Intel HD Graphics>Select “Power” then “On Battery” and turn off the Power Saving Technology). However, if you want to totally stop the flickering, you should go to Vaio Control Center/Image Quality/Display Brightness and turn off “Set whether to sense the brightness and automatically adjust the display brightness” accordingly.

Touch screen is very good and responsive. It is surprisingly helpful and intuitive that actually makes Windows 8 a little easier to use but works best only in Metro environment.

Battery Life
Battery life is great. I get close to 7 hours with a mixture of surfing, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Photoshop and PDF editing etc. By including “ Sleep” breaks in between, you can have a whole day computing (close to 8-10hours) without needing a charge. I kind of notice that in Sleep Mode, the battery will drain about 2-3% every hour and therefore it is ideal for only short breaks. If you leave your machine overnight or long hours, best is to use Hibernate or turn off totally since booting time from scratch will take less than 6 secs only.

Camera
The built in webcam is a 0.9 Megapixel (720p) camera but quality is so so under low lights conditions as it produced grainy images. As I rarely do video chats and so this is not important to me.

Speaker
Speakers are well hidden below the keyboard, but the sound quality is rich and clear and the volume is high.

Power Adapter
The Power adapter is of an innovative and compact design, it features a USB port that allows you to connect and charge most USB powered devices without plugging into the Pro 13. Additionally, one of the two USB ports on the Pro 13 also allows you to charge your device even when the machine is turned off.

There is also an interesting feature of this Power Adapter that you can double it as a wireless router by purchasing an additional wireless router accessory VGP-WAR100; turning your hotel Ethernet connection as your own personal hotspot. It allows you to connect your smartphone, tablet, laptops up to 5 devices simultaneously. The tiny Wireless Router fits very nicely to the Power adapter making both into a single oblong shape unit. I bought one from local Sony Store at C$49.99 and connection is very simple and easy.

FAN Noise
Many users have complained about the irritating Fan Noise which seems to kick off on a continuous basis. However, I didn’t have much of this issue. The Fan only came on a few times when I first did the Windows and Vaio Software Update; transferring of 30GB Data files from my desktop through Home network as well as synchronizing 10GB of my Dropbox files. Even when the fan was on, it’s not noisier than other laptops that I've owned over the years and so Fan noise of this machine did not bother me at all. Other than that, in light use scenarios, it had been very quiet throughout.

However, right after I did the latest BIOS update (Version R1021v7 dated 21Aug13) which was said to be fixing the Fan issue; yet all of a sudden, the Fan was going full blast on my Pro 13 continuously for hours even when I was doing nothing. The Fan blast started to annoy me a bit and was quickly draining my battery as well. The Bios update somehow screwed up my Apple Photo stream that the Photostreamdownloader was taking up 30% of CPU process and kicked off the fan. I had to uninstall and reinstall icloud control panel to sort of quiet it down. As this Bios Update has the following Description –
“ The "Silence" mode of the CPU and the Fan noise is reduced”,
I decided to choose and select the “SILENCE” mode (Vaio Control Center; under “Power and Battery” and select SILENCE under “CPU and FAN” . Since then,for the last 7 days, the Fan on my Pro 13 only kicked in 2 to 3 times but the noise was very very low that you hardly noticed it.

PCIe SSD
SSD is extremely fast and quiet.

Windows Startup
Fast SSD and processor also helped Windows fast startup. The VAIO Pro 13 boots up in just about 6 seconds and takes 1-2 secs to wake up from sleep. The performance is snappy, thanks to the Core i5 that is adept at multitasking.

ISSUES

WIFI Issue
Many users have complained about their WIFI issues when they first received their machines like losing connection on a constantly basis; cannot connect to their router or slow connection speed etc. Most of these problems can be resolved by the drivers update as provided by Sony esupport. So when I received my machine, the first thing I did was to make sure I have all the Windows and Vaio updates completed. During the initial update, I did have wifi connection dropped twice. Once all the drivers have been updated, it’s smooth sailing from then on.
I have a Simultaneous Dual Band Linksys E3000 Router and I ran test with Vaio Pro side by side with my DELL XPS8000 i7 desktop that's using Linksys AE2500 dual band wireless adapter 40 ft away from the router with 2 walls in between in a highrise apartment building. The Vaio Pro performed slightly better than my Desktop in 5Ghz band but slightly below in the 2.4Ghz Band.

For those who are still having problem after updating the drivers, please try the following and see if it helps:
The wireless security mode
Make sure that your wireless security mode is set to WPA2 Personal. WEP will reduce the network speed down to G-mode and setting it to WPA2-AES will allow you to attain optimal Wireless-N speeds.
Update your router’s firmware
Check if your router has the latest firmware version, your router may need a firmware upgrade. However, if your router already has the latest firmware version, you may want to perform a firmware re-flash. The re-flash process lets you update your firmware with a similar version that you are currently using.
Change the wireless channel of the router (fixed channel instead of Auto)
In North america, the preferred wireless channels are 1, 6 and 11 since they’re considered non-overlapping channels. Changing the channel from Auto to a fixed 1, 6, or 11 ensures your router to connect to a frequency band that has reduced interference and crowding. (I remember when I got my iPad 3 15 months ago, I had a tough time connecting it to my 2.4Ghz band whilst all my laptops, desktops and iphone had no issues at all. I eventually changed the 2.4Ghz Channel from Auto to 11 and fixed the iPad connection issue.)
Remove bundled Mcafee security software
Another interesting possibility of the wifi issue is the bundled Mcafee Internet Security especially the Parental Control feature which may have something to do with connection and downloading issues. Try uninstalling it and see if it helps.

BLUETOOTH ISSUE
As there are only two USB ports on this Ultrabook, I don’t want to tie up one of them by using my USB wireless mouse. So I decided to make use of the built-in Bluetooth by purchasing the Gigabyte Bluetooth mouse M7700B. Installation was simple and straight forward with Windows 8 automatically providing the driver and I was able to get it going within minutes. However, for the next couple of days, it would be giving me continuous problems, including

• disconnecting every few minutes that required reconnection or reinstallation
• crashed the system and at one point I couldn't even startup the machine by pressing the Power button. After numerous tries, the machine eventually started up and there was a popup saying something like Windows could not start because of a problem with a component.
• The Bluetooth mouse Device Status would show “Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)”.
• The Windows Event log also reported “The local Bluetooth adapter has failed in an undetermined manner and will not be used. The Driver has been unloaded”.

I almost wanted to give up by refunding my newly purchased Bluetooth mouse. Coincidentally, a new driver has just been released by Sony one day before (19Aug13 Ver. 3.1.1306.0354). This driver update fixed all the Windows warning issues but the problem of disconnection still remained yet less frequent. So I went to Device Manager; under Universal Serial Bus Controller; right click Generic USB Hub; Properties then “Power Management” tab and unchecked “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.
Problem solved. I have been using the Bluetooth mouse for the last 7 days now and no more disconnection. Apparently, the Power Management setting in USB hub was competing with the Power settings under Device Manager>Bluetooth>Intel Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 + HS Adapter. You can only turn on one of them.

High Pitch Noise issue
Some users have complained about the High pitch noise coming out from the Vaio Pro especially near the Assist Button area but that didn’t happen to me. Some have found a way to stop it by going to Power option and turn off the USB Selective Suspend Settings. (Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advance Plan Settings > scroll down to USB Settings and Disable “USB Selective Suspend Settings” .

Vaio Control Center issue
I had the strange encounter of this Vaio Control Center(VCC) which took 2½ minutes to open and I couldn't find my Touch Pad settings in the VCC as well. It took me two days making 3 calls to Sony, talking to the highest tier support; their software engineer; 1 visit to the local store and a total software Refresh of the unit to eventually find out that the Touch pad update version 16.5.3.5 was the culprit. Surprisingly, it was their 1st level staff Mr.Clark, who was providing the solution and guided me to download and install an older driver "Synaptics SMBus ClickPad" Driver version 16.4.0.1 released on 06Jun2013. Voila!! It worked. Fantastic!! He said he had come across 2 other users the last few days having the similar issue and was able to provide this resolution. I commended him for his confidence and great knowledge and said he should be promoted to the highest tier. Then I asked what if Vaio Update would detect this old driver and offered me again this problematic update version. He said no worry, he had already filed a report to his engineer and the software should be patched up very soon. I guess they did; after few days later, Vaio update again shored up this update version 16.5.3.5 and I inadvertently installed it without thinking but this time, no issues at all.

Machine turn on by itself in sleep mode
Some users have complained that occasionally, the Power button light would turn on by itself or the machine would turn on and the fan would kick in loudly during middle of the night. No worry, this is Intel Smart Connect Technology in the works. It wakes up periodically to check email and messages like smartphone or tablet so that they are already on your machine when you resume from sleep the next morning. Especially when there are large files to download, it may kick off the fan. As I have smartphone and tablet to receive emails and messages, I really don't need this feature and you can turn it off in Vaio Control Center/Power & Battery/Intel Smart Connect Technology.

Special Vaio Pro Sleeve
This is a very beautiful thin machine and therefore it needs an elegant thin carrying case. I bought a Carry Case from Sony Store at C$59.99 to complement it. (See attachment)


Summary
To sum up, this machine is simply the finest clamshell Ultrabook you can find at this moment and a legitimate contender to MacBook Air's superiority. In actual fact, after using it for more than three weeks, I am falling madly in love with it. All of a sudden; for MacBook Air, which used to be my Dream machine, now looked so dated to me.

 

Indeed the extra battery is almost incomprehensible and is one of the reasons why I bought it, unlike the SA sheet battery which was much larger and raised the typing surface up.

As for the WIFI issues, I don't have a dual band router so no idea if just using 5ghz would help, but I was planning on getting one since my dorm is filled with countless of 2.4ghz signals everywhere. But if anyone tested the pro on 5ghz and had better or worse or same reception please post your opinions/facts.

Still if there was problems with the wifi that it was impossible to use, I would imagine Sony's engineers would have changed the design so it works, either metal or plastic in places where it should be, but it seems that the antenna runs in the monitor, on the edges? If so the glass wouldn't block the signal but the CF in the back on the lid should, but I guess this was acceptable to Sony.

Using a wifi strength analyzer, it seems that this is the case for the cable location, with having the lid towards the wifi signal, it is -60dBm, and with the screen towards the signal, -50dBm and wth the side to the signal, also -50dBm, closer to the router I can get about -38dBm and not sure if it will go higher, again this is not at my dorm though, but back home. It would be interesting to compare with my older FW, I didn't do any comparisons with my SA but I feel that had a better wifi signal.

This is all done on the current wifi driver, version 16.1.3.1, wheres the newest driver from intel is this 16.​1.​3 and states as the driver date 8/14/2013, whereas the Sony driver in device manager states this as the driver date, 01/08/2013, so not sure if it is newer or windows is just borking the date, perhaps the intel driver is older and just was released on the 14th online.

If anyone who has problems with their wifi wishes to test out the intel driver, here are the links

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...0&DownloadType=Software+Applications&lang=eng

currently for me the Sony driver works, but once I get to dorms I will do more testing. I would recommend downloading the sony driver as a backup in case the intel driver doesn't work.

One thing that was peculiar before was before the 8/21 wifi update, the wifi driver was recognized for me on the intel update utility, now it is not.

 

While I want to thank you for the informative post, I can also assure you that the WiFi performance of the Pro is still substandard even after all these tweaks. Based on my experience (described in this thread) and that of others (described here and in the Sony Community thread) the problem is likely to be with the unit wireless antennas implementation
Therefore all units are likely to be affected.

The fact that some owners do not experience the issue just means that they operate the unit in the area of strong enough signal where the deficiency does not show up.

Please review the attached inSSIDer charts obtained from the same spot on my coach. The first with only two WiFi networks shown is from the Vaio Pro, the second which includes networks from my neighbourghs - from Vaio VGN-Z.

Note the difference in signal strength on the 2.4GHz channel

 

However it remains that simply your statement could be reversed by changing the word "not" ie :

The fact that some owners do not experience the issue just means that they operate the unit in the area of not strong enough signal where the deficiency does not show up

Whilst not inconceivable that Sony could screw up lets face it the have hardy popped down to radio shack and screwed a few components together, slapped a carbon case over them and sat on their couch and tested it . All conductive materials block RF signals to some degree and it's not unique to Carbon Fiber and this is not Sony's first CF laptop.

It simply remains true that you are more likely to see complaints or problems on forums than praise and I agree it is simple supposition that the silent majority are happy as they could equally be indifferent/uninformed etc

WiFi is a fickle thing when it does not work, otherwise you just forget about it. I have had in one hotel where my MBair would not connect but an Iphone would and every other make of laptop also had no problems for 2 weeks . My sons Alienware would not work upstairs but our other laptops did. My Ipad was troublesome in Thailand but my Galaxytab was not. .

We are all guessing size and the true nature of problems. The only thing that is true their are some dissatisfied owners who prefer to stay with their Pro and hope a solution is possible, else they would return their device and leave this forum, dam that's another group we can't account for

 

Thank you very much for the time and effort you have put in to this other than MBAir is a contender to our Pro, just

I'm glad to hear there are 4 working Pro's out there compared to the 1.78874476x10^47 according to some believers that are not :wink:

I too found some problems with McAfee bloat etc and decided to do a full restore as it screwed up my permissions (little padlocks on my doc's) etc. The first DL was manually the WiFi update so the rest all ran really fast on auto

The only problem I have now is AVG outlook 2013 adin blocks my icloud email, guess I could blame Sony, but I had the same on my MBAir when I upgraded to W8 LOL

 

Which "extra battery" do you mean?

 

anyone know where i can find the right graphics driver to use with win 8.1 rtm?

i installed, it went potty and i've fixed it currently by using "rollback driver" but it's not using an optimal driver now, the refresh rate on more intense activities isn't up to scratch.

I don't want to keep installing random ones if at all possible.

 

@ WICIEE YVR, BC.

Thanks for your post - very well written and organized. And, especially, including all the troubleshooting (for each) you've performed to make your pro's performance better. I've decided to still wait for the refresh due out this fall (usually a 4 month wait from the prior models). I still have my SVZ and MBA to hold me over - both going strong. I'll change over my SVZ in the next refresh and changeover my MBA once it's offered (if ever) with MBAr - retina display. I really like Apple's OS (W8 is a headache), but prefer the design, weight, and the latest features Sony has to offer in their notebooks. Sony is always the first to integrate what's out.