Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

Feels like you like the argument for its own sake. Considering how much tweaking the unit needs to even enable testing "sitting on the coach" the Sony QC was not 1st class in this instance.

I never said that I am certain that carbon fibre is the problem, it does not really matter. What matters - if there is a hardware issue that Sony is unlikely to fix, especially if folks put up with it, as the "silent majority" mentioned in prior posts. I feel if the problem is with antennas, it could be just that.

For those disbelievers I have posted some factual data comparison between the pro and my old well working laptop. The signal strength on the 2.4 GHz band with the Pro is 16 Db lower in the same spot. What else is there to argue?

 

The sheet battery.

 

Great post wiclee .

And you almost had me ready to buy...but then I went to the Sony Community forum ( I hadn't heard about it until now) and wow... there are a lot of Sony diehards not very happy with this machine...especially with the wifi issues. I climbed back on the fence.

 

My apologies if you thought it was an argument, lets just hope what ever is wrong it gets sorted

Out of intrest I tried your couch test (sorry can't get neighbors WiFi too far away) hope this helps:

 

Cool, your "coach test" suggests that your coach is located in the -32 dB signal area and your WiFi should be fast and stable, even with the poor antennas :smile:
The main point of my charts was the signal strength comparison between the Vaio's pointing towards signal deficiency of the Pro 13 in the broadly popular 2.4 Ghz wifi band. The VGN-Z gets -50 dB signal strength and the Pro -66dB.That's why I am thinking this is antennas-related. As a result, the Z downloads at 38 MBps and the Pro between 6-20 Mbps when connected to the 2.4 GHz network.

 

I'm sorry can't run any other laptops for you as my work Dell won't let me add unauthorized software and my family are aboard with their MBAir's and MBPro unless you have a web based one you can suggest then the Dell may work

 

Anyone know what maximum resolution can be put out from the HDMI port? I found out it can put out more than 1920x1080 by connecting it to my wife's old Samsung 2048x1152 SyncMaster monitor. Pretty nice to extend the desktop and have two screens: one 1920x1080 and a 2048x1152.

But then after googling around, I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sF8cnCgx4E

Can the Pro really put out 4k resolution?

 

WIFI is a complex subject, there are just many variables that can affect the performance such as interference from neighbors, microwave, cordless phones and even bluetooth etc that are using the 2.4Ghz band. I am connecting all my PCs, Devices to 5GHZ band and only use the 2.4Ghz when I have the range issue. I see that are using channel 3 for 2.4Ghz. In Europe, I believe the non-overlapping channels are 1, 5, 9 and 13. Have you tried a fixed one on 9 or 13?

Here are my InSSider Charts:

Sony Vaio Pro 13 (2.4Ghz has better signal strength than 5Ghz)


My Dell Desktop (Both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz signal strength are on Par)


I did a test with my Vaio Pro to confirm it is in working order. The best is to test it with my Dell XPS8000 i7 Desktop that is using Linksys AE2500 Simultaneous Dual Band Wireless Adapter at a location 40 ft away from the router(2 walls with metal studs) and comparison including iPhone 5 and iPad 3 as well. Theoretically, Dell Desktop should have a better performance because of Linksys Router & Adapter compatibility.

And yet, Vaio Pro outperformed everyone else in 5GHZ band while the Desktop has a better result in 2.4Ghz band.

 

@Geeee and @david4455
I am not here to convince anybody to buy this machine. Merely want to share my happy experience plus providing some guidance to those who may have come across the same issue that I faced.
Whenever, there is a new product or new technology coming out, there are bound to have small percentage of units that have issues here and there. But most of the issues, I believe, are software related which can be fixed as you move along. Take 2013 MacBook Air for example, they have the WIFI issues as well and their forum discussion on this subject has grown to 100 pages long as of today. My iPhone 4, 5 and iPad 3 have all experienced wifi issues from the start (not serious but intermittent), but they have all been fixed after few rounds of IOS updates.

 

Don't know about 4k, but it works great running at 2550x1440 resolution. The pro is actually quieter than MB air 2012 refresh running the high red screen. I changed from a mb air w8 to the pro because of the way apple handled w8...

 

So did I, not because of W8, more the fact the display and case is so dated now on the MBAir and Sony has got back on track with the Pro

 

the sheet battery for the Vaio Pro, I bought it when I got my Pro in July.

 

Good point, the reason for me was not really W8, but the bios in the mba did not work well with W8.. Got bluescreens, mic not working in skype when using headset, USB issues when flashing bluetooth devboards.

 

Hey guys! I own a viao pro 13 with 256Go of ssd. Only 212Go are available, is there any problem if delete the 23,79Go recovery partition? It seems that only the 1,44Go recovery is necessary if windows 8 happens to crash...

 

I would also be interessted if any of you deleted the recovery Partition - or why not...!?

 

i completely wiped all the partitions yesterday as part of my 8.1 RTM install. Unlikely they're ever really going to be needed. (Dislaimer: i created the recovery cd's and i also took a disk image that contains all these partitions, just in case)

just need to find all the proper 8.1 drivers now.

I need video drivers, i also have 2 unknown devices in device manager, the NFC driver won't start properly and also vaio update won't install/work and not all the same settings as before are in vaio control panel. (battery care and keyboard lighting are missing for instance)

 

Once you create a Recovery Media (USB), it will give you an option to delete the recovery partition.

 

Great, which backup program should I use to get the option of deleting the recovery partition?

 

Acronis True Image - to do a backup of partition

Deleting hidden partition - you can do this while installing windows, there is an option to delete it and create a new one.

 

Under Sony Vaio Care, Create Recovery Media(32GB USB Drive required) . Once completed, it will give you an option.

 

Strange I did not see this option it just said completed and re-boot and check validity of recovery, not that I was bothered as I have the 512G SDD

Generally I found the whole screen/menu system confusing

The recovery worked fine and the pre installed McAfree was not present fortunately, although someone said there were custom options on the restore to get rid of bloatware I did not

 

I had a slightly better experience ie no blue screens but BT was troublesome and few other software conflicts, now if they had opted for a retina display I may of been tempted again just for the HD5000, but the Pro looks more business like and the MBAir are as common as muck, especially in my house

 

Hi szycha3h,
could you please describe the steps how did you install a clean version of W8 without all the bloatware?

 

Ok, so I got the lappy. My biggest fear was the noise.
While installing all the first stuff there was a lot of noise, because of a stupid bug of Windows 8. An annoying process was taking a lot of CPU, even in idle. One of the windows updates fixed the issue.
The laptop is VERY quiet in a regular load. it's even impressive how quiet it is!

The weight is something really impressive. it feels like you're holding something really light..
Booting and the screen are also amazing.
The keyboard could be a bit more flat maybe, but that's just to my taste.
All in all for now, really good stuff.

As mentioned earlier the edges are very sharp, like dangerously sharp in some cases..

That's all for know.
If you have any questions let me know.

 

Did you get any results from this yet? Interested as may try this out myself as a last resort to fix the fan noise issues.

 

Ya!! You may be right.
When I first got my Vaio Pro and did the Recovery Media Creation, it asked for a15GB of space required and the Option of deleting Recovery Partition was not present.

However, the second time I did it after a Refresh because of my previous software issue, the wizard indicated 16GB was not enough for the Recovery Media and so I used a 32GB one. After completion, it did have an option to "Delete Recovery Partition to restore space".

Just now I tried again to replicate it but it only required a 16GB USB and no option for deletion. May be the latest Vaio Care Update has something to do with it.

Anyway, procedures are here from Vaio Pro User Manual:

Removing Recovery Content to Free up Disk Space

Your built-in storage device contains the recovery area where the data for system recovery is stored. If your VAIO computer includes a solid state drive (SSD), you might want to minimize the recovery area by removing such data to free up disk space on the C: drive (or the last drive in your drive list, for example D: drive).

You need Recovery Media to remove the data for system recovery or to recover the computer after you remove the data.

Note that removing recovery content makes it impossible to use the refresh function.

If you use Recovery Media (optical discs) on the model without a built-in optical disc drive, connect an external optical disc drive (not supplied) to the computer. See Connecting an External Drive for more information on how to connect the external optical disc drive.

If an AC adapter or a power cable is supplied, plug it into a power source.

1.Create Recovery Media if you have not yet created it.
2.Insert the Recovery Media into the optical disc drive or connect a USB flash drive (not supplied) to the USB port on your VAIO computer while the computer is in Normal mode.
3.Turn off your VAIO computer.
4.Press the ASSIST button to display the VAIO Care (Rescue Mode) screen and select Start from media (USB device/optical disc).
Follow the on-screen instructions until the Choose an option screen appears.
5.Select Troubleshoot and VAIO recovery solutions.
Follow the on-screen instructions until the VAIO Care (Rescue Mode): VAIO recovery solutions screen appears.
6.Select Tools and Remove recovery partition.
7.Follow the on-screen instructions.

 

Why not to do it through diskpart? Much more simple than rebooting with USB and all that..

 

Thanks for confirming thought I was not that mad

 

Because it's a command line base and not everyone is familiar with this, you could also use disk management

 

Can someone please send me the Vaio Wallpaper.. Please... Unfortunately I missed a backup before the clean install.

PS: Have my Pro since yesterday. Until now I have no problems with Wifi (I will still continue to test it).

 

Hope this works!

 

Sony's technician gonna change the motherboard of my vaio pro. I've ptich noise, fan loud and sound sizzle sometimes, do you think it will change something ?

 

Not unless they have re-designed the motherboard with a new version or components!

 

@aj84: Thanks! But isn't there a 1920x1080 version (this one is 1919x1919) ? I am wondering about the resolution.

 

seems like uploading has shrinked it !
Can you PM an email add I can send to? I don't have access to any sharing sites from work at the moment

 

Actually this works: Temp Share : vaio 13 img1 wallpaper 1920x1080 - Copy.jpg | Free temporary file hosting
You want the download button on the right and not the big one at the top

 

Agreed

While mine is no way audible from the distance that I use it even after the bios update, I could hear it when the back cover was off and from what I could tell, it was coming from the wifi/bt card.
Obviously if there is something under it or next to the black tape who knows but it was certainly from that area.

Maybe this weekend when I open it to test out the arctic silver 5 gunk, I will remove the card to see if it still happens...might be just something unrelated.

 

How did you get on with your temp tests so far?

 

It's good so far - Not near as loud as it was prior with the standard Sony gunk on it but today/tomorrow will bring me to it's minimum cure time so I'll know more then. Also on Wed/Thurs it's meant to hit around 28 celcius so that will be the real test as it was around this temp outside that made the laptop run it's fans like mad inside. The room it is normally used in can get as hot as outside if not a degree or two hotter whereas currently in the office and it's air con, the fan almost never spins up

 

normally they will send my vaio when the different problems will be fix ! I Hope.

People here do not have this problem so maybe i will have a good new motherboard or they will change an other components.

What are the components of the motherboard? Ethernet, Sound ?

 

normally they will send my vaio when the different problems will be fix ! I Hope.

Some people here don't have this problem so maybe I will have a good new motherboard or they will change an other component.

What are the components of the motherboard? Ethernet, Sound ?

 

Excellent - will definitely try this myself if your initial indications show a reduction in temps and thus fan noise.

 

I think either way I would mainly because of the way the old gunk was so dried up on the heatsink to the point it was crispy when scrapped off.
Remember if you use AS5 or AS Ceramique 2, it's a one liner on the haswell processor as opposed to a dot/spread etc. I am going to assume this is for all Haswell rather than specifically for Arctic Silver
See: http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth/int/vl/intel_app_method_vertical_line_v1.1.pdf

If you can/want to wait, I still want to try out AS5 and then run that for another week to compare.
What I will do if I remember is I'll start logging via HWinfo from the moment I turn the laptop on tomorrow morning to the end until hometime and then again in my room.
That will be compared to next wed which I will test using AS5 and logged in the same way

 

That's great. Will wait for your results then apply the same.

 

My "FN+Touchpad" doesnt work after clean install. Any ideas? Also the shwitch in the Vaio Control Center doenst work..

PS: Someone from Sony is active in the sony community (look here: [New Sony Vaio Pro] Wifi Issue! - Page 55 - Sony Community)

 

hey guys, I've just found out from germany outlet, there is like 50% off for highest spec non-touch model, but it's no longer available.
https://outlet.sony.de/shop/VAIO-Notebook-PC/VAIO%AE-Pro-11-13/SVP1321C034Q.G4.A
New Preis 845,99€
You Save 923€

btw intel just release "refresh" wifi driver yesterday. (same version, new date)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/co...roducts&ProductProduct=Intel®+Wireless-N+7260

finally one of sony's software engineer replied on sony's forum, after like 50 pages?
[New Sony Vaio Pro] Wifi Issue! - Page 54 - Sony Community

 

Have you installed all the drivers?
I too did a clean install on day 1 and it's fine. The ones that stand-out for me would be the
Sony Hotkey Utility x2
And maybe Sony Shared Library

 

Yes I have. I will try it one more time when I am back at home.

 

I saw at some point there was a dual VGA adapter for the Pro but can't see any info on it now. Is there any way to output to two displays from the Pro? I know Haswell itself supports it.

 

I downloaded the Network Speed Test app in the Windows Store and got 31.42 DL speeds and 6.1 UL speeds. This is on Windows 8.1 RTM.
This test was done with a Dlink DIR-655 router going thru a concrete wall.