Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

I cannot really tell what kind of difference bios makes, coz right after I bought it I've updated it.

I know after having Macbook Air for over 2 years the fan was too loud for me, even when idle. Coz Macbook Air was literally silent in indle, altghough fan was spinning.

I've performed hardware mod to the Vaio. There's temperature sensor fixed to the heatsink, near the air vent. I've unglued it and covered it with tape - so the sensor thinks temperature is lower. Fan is much quieter for me now.

The temps are obviously higher now, but they are still in the mid 50 degree C, when heavily web browsing.

 

You risk of destroying the cpu. In vaio control there is a "silent" option which makes the fan spin less.

 

Don't you think i know there's a silent option? It still was too noisy for me.

Max temp of i5-4200U accoriding to Intel is 100 degree C. I'm hitting a little over 70 degree in high load.

 

I thought I had posted this earlier, but I don;t see it so here I go again.

I just got my Pro 13 back from a Sony repair center in Laredo, Texas. They didn't replace any hardware. The "repair" consisted of "rework wifi." The Pro 13 now gets an erratic download of 1/10th to 1/2 of the Mbps download of what I get if my Netgear USB adapter is installed, which is better than the no connection I got prior to the "repair." A side note: I just bought a $400 Asus T100 which has much better wifi than my $1,300 Pro 13.

Anyway, I have seen a few posts where folks have replaced the dual band 7260 with the 7260 AC. But, I haven't seen any followup posts about whether the wifi issue had been fixed. I would not replace my router with an AC router, so I don't know if replacing the dual band 7260 in the Pro 13 with an AC 7260 would be worth the effort. Could/would anyone summarize the results/benefits of replacing the dual band 7260 with an AC 7260?

Thanks, Jim

 

I am also very sceptical about your mod. the 100 degrees are core temp. my vaio pro 13 hits around 85 degrees core temp for a very short time before the fan spins up. i used intel xtu to check this. if your temp is measured on the heatsink, this means actual core temp will be higher. not sure you can destroy your cpu, because it should lower speed/shut down before any damage occurs, but i am still sceptical.

speaking of intel xtu. you can lower voltage of the cpu with xtu (read undervolt) which should lower load temps and thereby fan speeds. i only tested this for a minute, so i am not sure there is a big benefit.
but still a better way to go than manipulating sensors.

 

I am checking core temperature. This mod makes the fan quieter in indle/light work. In high load fan is still spinning loudly, and I did not see a major change in temps.

Modern CPU's are very "safe" - they can throttle very much or shut down.

I've been running the mod for over 2 weeks now and I haven't experienced anything wrong. And the unit was tested in max load few times.

 

I'm going nuts. Even on "silent" it's running whereas before it never used the fan. Stupid support claims it doesn't have the old bios file. ?
Anyone knows a program to overwrite the fanspeed that works on win 8.1 ?

For everyone else: Do NOT update the bios to R1043V7

 

Updating of BIOS may sometimes screw up some software that are running in background. If you find your fan is running even when doing nothing, check your task manager to find out which files are using the CPU in high percentage. This happened to me when I updated one of the earlier BIOS and the fan just kicked off in full blast for no reason (even in idle) and was draining the battery. Turned out it was APPLE Photostream downloader running in the background for over an hour but no photos had been downloaded. I eventually uninstalled iCloud control panel and reinstalled again to fix the issue. Hope this will help.

 

there's been a couple of people that reported that it fixes the issues and brings it back to the speed it's suppposed to be. and if you have a wireless AC router, obviously it will connect at that speed too. someone even posted pictures/graphs i think.

also, i think this was Sony's fix for it with the refresh hence the AC upgrade as they call it.

 

Installing an AC card did not give any improvement. And yes, you are right, there is no post verifying this as a solution.

 

First time caller, long-time listener here. Was just provided an SVP-132A16L with the Core i7/8GB/256GB. I can honestly say it's a gorgeous computer. It is apple-esque in terms of looks and puts all but the very high end Samsung ATIV's to shame. Great performance, even better battery life, and being someone who spends 1,000's of hours on a plane or an airport it's an absolute godsend. So, fast, light, great battery life, I love it right? not entirely. I can't fully commit for a very few but important reasons as follows:

1 - The trackpad - It's terrible. Yes it's marginally better than most windows' track pads, but it's just unacceptable. It mistakenly picks up gestures repeatedly. The right click/left click delineation is a mystery. Some times the middle of the pad is a left click at other times it's a right click.

2 - The fan - many have complained about the fan, and I understand physics enough to know that it takes very special cooling to make something this thin and light. But the pitch of the fan is just the worst. And, the fan kicks on at a usage percentage as opposed to a heat percentage it seems. So if I have two or three tabs open in chrome and the CPU temporarily kicks up to 40% the fans start blowing LOUD. I'm rarely doing anything processor intensive for more than a few minutes, but when you combine the finicky fan with the pitch with the inability to truly manage the fans it's just a bad combination.

3 - The power button and "assist" buttons - why are these so hard to push? Why does it feel like my whole laptop is about to crack when I'm simply turning on the machine?

4 - Vaio crap - so much bloatware. I had my company order the fresh start device but there was still quite a bit of bloatware. Vaio care and vaio update are garbage. You will have just updated a device driver or other software and the update shows up again a couple days later in vaio update. On top of that, I have gone through two or three bios updates unfortunately each time the pc boots up and says "operating system not found". this is not a huge deal as I just go back into the bios and change the boot to UEFI. I don't know why this happens but I can only imagine some of my less tech savvy folks trying to deal with a bios update.

So, if you're thinking about buying this you should understand the following things. It's not perfect, it's got all of windows 8's built in issues which will be fixed, but still are a wart on the nose of an attractive person, and you're going to have some growing pains. other than that, it's one of the best laptops out there if you're a frequent traveler. If you don't need something so light, there are definitely better options out there for you including Samsung's excellent machines as well as Apple's and even a couple of Lenovo's great business laptops.

I would definitely not recommend this for a full-time personal machine. It lacks the horsepower to do any gaming, it's too expensive (the expense is warranted because of the weight, but unless you need the lightness, it's not worth it). My recommendation to anyone looking for a great personal laptop, or a family computer is to pickup a lenovo or HP all in one. the ones with haswell especially are just excellent and some even have detachable monitors that can be used as tablets.

 

You're not the only one seeing this. Sony is doing an absolutely terrible job releasing the correct updates to the Vaio Pro line. I really regret buying this laptop.

 

try to replace in your head the right click with two fingers tap. Is possible in any place on trackpad and need less effort to do it. The bad thing is that you'll do same in other computers by habit and it won't work there (just with Asus zenbook I found to work same thing but in DELL or an older VAIO Y2 that are still around our office is not working)

 

Repost
can I use a keyboard cover? I read it somewhere that the gap between the keys and the laptop is to help increase air flow. is that true?

 

make sure you setup the settings the way you like it. and update the drivers. i don't have any problems with the trackpad at all. it's way better than a lot of other laptops I've used. the right click is only in one area, which is the bottom right (if you messed with the settings, you would see that actual area). everywhere else is the left click. unless you're doing the special gestures like 2 finger click.

 

If the trackpad is OK when set up properly in the settings, I would not let 3) and 4) bother me. But 2) about the fan noise is critical for me. Some users have reported that there is no or little fan noise (light use of PC) while others have reported a rather disturbing high noise. Is the fan noise still an issue?

And more: When will Broadwell come in the Vaio Pro, and will the PC then be without fans altogether? Hope so, and hope it will come during summer or early fall...?

 

You're using it wrong. Clicking by pressing down (instead of tapping) works only on the bottom edge, thats where the physical buttons are located. Left click is on the left side, right on the right (bottom edge only).
If you want to click by tapping it only works in the middle area (size can be configured in the synaptics driver). Tapping with 2 fingers is right click.

 

I would like to think there was something redeeming from this post but I could not other than like any laptop out of the box will have similar problems or other annoying initial traits

We all go through some growing pains with a new device regardless of make and why we end up on forums like this to make the process easier

Your alternative suggestions would also not have any HP for gaming unless you spring for a $3000 heavier MBPRO which my sons top of the range one has its own issues and if we wanted a tablet we would not of selected this in the first place. Unless you have mits like a bunch of bananas most users use their nail to push the assist or power button, I only update via Vaio-Care, improvements on fan noise and trackpad have been posted here many times the rest is just triva IMO

 

All of this stuff is only how YOU decide it is. Any of this can be changed in those settings.
I'm now using MacBookesque settings because that's what I'm used to and much prefer it to my previous MacBook.

 

I hated the trackpad out of the box, but once I messed with the settings its working great. especially assigning the four corners to different programs.

For the cpu fan noise, coming from an xps m1330 the noise was comparable. If you change the power settings in control panel so that in power saver mode the max CPU usage is 25%. AND you also change the fan mode in vaio to silent - then you can get away with watching a movie with almost no fan noise at all. Not much of a noticeable drop in performance either ~ other than video - around 8 tabs and word still dont result in much noise. And the battery performance also improves considerably.

Its around 40F ambient where I am, summers are around 110+, the old xps makes a lot of noise with nothing running, I hope this machine runs better.

 

Just posting to let you know that, having owned my Vaio Pro 13 for about six months now, I had a LOT of trouble with this laptop.

I posted some of my initial impressions earlier in this thread (look at my post history starting here) - and I actually really liked my Pro at first (even though I did experience the common Wifi and Bluetooth issues - those were no major problems for me).

Now, a few months later, I have to conclude that my unit does have some very serious build quality problems. The touch glass on top of my screen is starting to come loose/unglued in two places (I have to "press" it back in place every now an then to keep if from getting worse), the durability of the keyboard is just a very bad joke, and Sony's support in Germany is even worse.

I had to send in my Vaio Pro two times (back in October) for them to finally fix a broken "Return" key. Now, a few months later, another key came loose - and they object to fixing this within warranty arguing that "mechanical problems" can no longer be repaired at their expense (their argument being that if my current problem was due to material defects on their part, it would have shown ealier). So I will have to pay about 150€ to restore the keyboard on my six-months-old laptop to being functional again... which, in my view, casts an absolutely shameful light on Sony's quality and customer support standards.

Maybe I should mention that (admittedly) I did write a LOT on my Pro - but I am also VERY careful with all my devices (almost to the point of being a little pedantic about it; case in point is that I used a Vaio TZ for more than six years without encountering ANY problems whatsoever) ... and apart from that, I actually thought I could expect ANY laptop keyboard to last at least a few years ... they are an integral part of the device, after all.

At this point, I am really just losing a lot of time, nerves, and money on my Pro - and although I used to like Sony products a lot, this will most certainly be the last Sony device I bought for a long time. Contrary to my earlier impressions, I can no longer recommend buying this laptop (even though I maybe just had a lot of bad luck with my unit and the way the Sony support handled my problems).

I do hope other people's Vaio Pros will prove a little more reliable - and wish you all the best.

Michael

 

Michael

Thanks for the feedback and sorry to hear about your build quality problems

This is one reason I never buy extended warranties as there is always some wriggle room on claims

I never hang on to my laptop for more than a year and usually pass it down to relatives

Of the 15 or so laptops I have bough over the last 5 years for myself and family I have never had any hardware problems other than with Apple chargers where I have had to replace 3 of them at my cost

So I hope my lucky streak continues as I have another 6 months to go with my Pro

Regards
Steve

 

Sorry for your experience with this bad hardware quality. Do you think that using the sheet battery will lessen the flex and perhaps also the strain on the keyboard?

 

I don't have the sheet battery, but I really don't think the flex is that much of a problem in the first place. The carbon chassis is great and basically designed to give without breaking.

As for my keyboard problems, I think they are more related to Sony's aim to make this laptop as thin and light as possible - resulting in the keyboad's mechanical design being pretty flimsy. Below is a picture of the key that loosened in may case: View attachment 1778

You can see how really thin and frail the little metal "hooks" are which keep the plastic key mechanics in place and attach it to the board. It's basically just one broad and very, very thin plate of blanked out metal that's intricately swaged to fit the individual keys. In my case, the upper right "hook" of the "A" key broke off - presumably because it was somehow bent while typing (the key just sporadically got "stuck" during use at first - and I had to press it rather firmly to get it working again. I assume that's when the hook was damaged; eventually, the entire key came off; trying to put it back in - which is what I did after Sony told me that the repair wasn't covered by warranty - resulted in a second hook being damaged after some time, as it just jammed even more often than before). As a result, the entire key came loose - and it's basically impossible to repair without exchanging the entire keyboard plate.

Coming from my TZ, my first impression when using the Pro's keyboard was that it felt "okay" while typing, but also a little rickety and "rattling" - and actually seeing how the keys are constructed didn't exactly boost my low confidence in the Pro's keyboard design. It's just really fragile and delicate, obviously made to save height and weight ... and not designed to last very long during more intensive use.

I just hope my new keyboard will work a little longer. I REALLY doubt it will come anywhere near to the durability of my TZ's keyboard, though. It's a shame they didn't choose to trade a more reliable design for a few more gramms of weight. As a long-term user of Sony products, I'm absolutely disappointed. At the same time, I think most people will probably be fine with the low-quality keyboard. Just don't buy this laptop if you intend to write a lot.

@mandersen/PM: Fan noise is more than acceptable for me. Very silent when just typing in Word (presuming you CAN still type and your keyboard isn't broken yet). Especially after the corresponding bios update a few months ago.

 

There weren't much reports of keyboard issues so far. Either u got faulty unit or you were just hitting keys too hard.

And I guess all those people that are talking about keyboard flex are just hitting the keys too hard - I guess they could have those kind of issues.

 

Well, I do not tend to hit the keys very hard. I would even say I hit them rather softly. If anything, the problem on my side could be that I like to just barely "slide" my fingers over the keys without much pressure, not raising my fingers very high in order to type faster.

As a matter of fact, my habit of not "hammering" the keys right from the top, but just gently "brushing" them from a lower angle could actually explain why it were two rather peripheral keys ("A" and "Return") that jammed and failed first in my case.

That being said, this is the very first time I experienced this type of "problem" on any keyboard I have ever used - and I really type a lot as it has been part of my daily work for years. I mentioned my Vaio TZ - which I am using right now (and had been using for more than six years before my Pro arrived) without any keyboard problems whatsoever).

So I doubt I do something recklessly wrong with my typing style - and the time Sony tells me I can only use their keyboards when really concentrating to hit every single key right from top, right in the middle and neither too hard nor too softly is the time I just no longer buy their laptops - as much as I do love their Vaios in pretty much every other respect.

Maybe more of those keyboard problems will arise over time (with me just being one of the first to experience them due to the fact that I bought my Pro very early (right after release) and really use the keyboad a lot). Maybe my case is singular and/or I just had really bad luck with my Pro unit so far. I don't know - but describing the issue on a public platform like this and hoping for other people to do the same if they experience something similar is the only way to find out.

We will see.

 

During my search for new intel drivers for the wifi card I found this thread and others on intel forum about the wifi problem: https://communities.intel.com/thread/48125

It seems really that our wifi issure is a combination of the wifi hardware/software from intel.

Hopefully intel can fix this in a short time.

 

I have the single band 7260 in an HP Spectre 13t-3000. The wifi is the best I have ever had. I get the down and up that my wired desktop gets which is about 15% greater than my ISP promises. My Vaio Pro 13 gets about half that and is erratic on a good day. So, I guess changing the wifi card to the single band version will solve the problem. Anyone care to try?

Regards, Jim

 

vaio pro 13 vaio With Windows 7 control center options??
Options


i have a vaio pro 13 that shipped without touchscreen and with Windows 7. I currently have only 5 groups with the following subcategories in my control center:



1 system information with "system infomation" subgroup

2 power management,with "battery", "cooling fan control", "lid action settings" and "usb charge settings" subgroups

3 keyboard and mouse with "backlit keyboard" and "pointing devices" subgroups

4 network connections with "vaio smart network" subgroup
5 display with "automatic brightness settings" and "hdmi resolution settings"



As i understand it some of you who have windows 7 machines have addtional control center options. can anybody who has a vaio pro 13 that shipped with windows 7 (or even a version which was added later) if they have only these groups and subgroups or if they have others as well??



thanks a lot, sony support line was unable to answer these questions!

 

What other options? Perhaps you would like to change the view in right upper corner?

 

hi Komoornik, I am not interested in changing windows settings. in fact I am using windows 7 not 8.

I am inquiring if anybody has any other settings in their Vaio control center ONLY and on windows ONLY.

can anybody assist? somebody must have a windows 7 version of the svp1321 vaio pro 13 they can reference!

thanks for all

 

That's very shoddy but unsurprising behaviour from Sony. Did you ask to speak to managers further up the line? It can help inp my experience - my experience of 1st level support is "NOT GOOD" to put it diplomatically. They (deliberately?) fail to understand the problem. Do not call back as promised. It seems clear they are paid to keep customers from Sony - and do a good job at that.

The German c't magazine has an article on service standards every year - no surprise Sony is always near the bottom. You could write to c't - they have a "Vorsicht Kunde" (Buyer Beware) article every 2 weeks.

I don't think Sony's interpretation of "mechanical problems" would stand up legally - customers are well protected in Europe - this sort of decision is not just up to them - 2 years against failure is statutory, and THEY must PROVE it was you if there is a problem in this time. I would set them a deadline (frist) for repair (ask for their legal represantative) and otherwise start legal action. In Germany you could also contact Konsumentenschutz for advice.

It might pay to contact

SONY CUSTOMER RELATIONS TEAM
SUPPORT: http://www.sony-europe.com/support
Sony Belgium, bijkantoor van Sony Europe Limited.
Da Vincilaan 7-D1
B-1935 Zaventem Belgium

email: [email protected]

beforehand.

 

I have been using a Sony vaio laptop for a long long time and i am about to upgrade to a Vaio Pro 13, but am very skeptical if that is the right choice.
I read many stories on:
- problems with updating to windows 8.1
- wifi problems
- fan being very loud

Would anyone have any 'good' experience with the pro 13 or should i just look for another?
Does updating to the latest drivers help with windows 8.1 or the wifi problem at all?

 

there's no problem updating the windows 8.1 at all. all the issues have since been fixed pretty much. just make sure you do the vaio update and update all the drivers, bios, and stuff. then load windows 8.1. then after that, run vaio update again, as it will have more drivers to download, then you're done after that.

wifi problems, i'd say it still exists. as i'm on my second unit, and while there's no longer any dropouts, i get ridiculously slow speeds. i still think it might be a QC problem though. as my first unit had perfectly working wifi in both speed and range.

fan loudness, i think that's subjective. for medium/light use, it's fine for me. light use, it's completely silent. heavy use, it's running like full speed but it's just as loud as any other. my surface pro is even louder and more pitchy than my sony.

either way, I would suggest you hold off until April when the semi-refresh comes in. since they will be including the AC cards which may combat the wifi problem.

 

Thank you very much for your summary and advice!
Will definitely wait a bit then for the new batch.

P.s. i'm guessing that if i don't use wifi but connect through ethernet cable, there will be no problem with speeds/connection whatsoever
Is it true though that the notebook comes standard with the ethernet connection adapter and also the wifi share thing? ( i travel quite a bit and this would be great in hotels)

 

I had no problems upgrading to Windows 8.1. I did a Vaio Update and then a Windows 8 Update, then repeated both until no more updates appeared. Then I went to the Microsoft site and followed instructions.

Wifi is awful. Low down and up speeds and erratic. This is the reason I just sent mine back to Sony for a refund. (I sent it to Sony for repairs and they improved it from no connection to a connection with poor performance.)

My i5 had absolutely no fan noise. But, I never really stressed the system. I do mostly Web, Email, Angry Birds, Spider Solitaire, Updates. Etc. The bottom of the case got warm a few times, but the fan never went to high speed.

Good luck, Jim

 

The refresh is already a reality...let's look:

VAIO® Pro | Scegli il tuo VAIO® Pro | Sony

The ac card, windows 8.1 as default, and many more

 

Awesome!
Perfect timing

p.s. how do you know it is the new ac card though?

 

Wow !

i7 4650 with Iris 5000 in the new version !

I hope also a new wi-fi card .....

 

Yes how?
I also went to the website - placed a dummy order -> list full specs -> no mention of AC

 

In the right panel, during the order (in the "also included" section), it clearly says "Wireless LAN (a/b/g/n/ ac)" (or even at the end of the order, same section under "view full specs")

 

With ethernet you shouldn't have any of those problems.
It doesn't come as standard, I think it's an extra £20-40 or so and plugs onto the end of the charger.

 

so, this is the refresh that sony has announced some weeks before at CES?
I remember that it said that the refresh will be in early april

 

Seems like they've rushed it.

I knew something was not right, when just few days ago most of the SSD configs for old model were not available.

I'm waiting for some1 to order the new model and open it up - I'm very curious if there ary any hardware changes.

 

Guys, I have a problem.. (I also posted this on a dutch tech forum, but assume that there is a lot of know-how here as well). I am lurking around these forums for too long, but this seems like a good time to ask a question

When I got my Vaio I immediately made backup of all the partitions with AOMEI Backupper, and after that I felt safe to remove the restore partition. However, as it seems now I did just that: made a backup of all the seperate partitions and not a full disk backup. Major screwup on my side.

Now I wanted to reset the laptop back to factory defaults, so (not knowing about the above fact) I restored all the partitions. However, now nothing will work anymore. No more windows start, no recovery, no nothing.

Does anyone know how to either:
1. Put the restore partition back in such a way it will be used by the assist menu? or
2. Use the restore partition to create a bootable recovery usb stick

Or can someone help me with:
3. Getting a restore iso (like an iso made from the restore disk made by the vaio care, I hope this resets everything including partitions). In this case I can prove I own the laptop (make pictures, show copy of invoice if needed), and I'm sure we can find a way to transfer the whole thing to me.
4. Same as 3, but perhaps a complete clone/disk backup would work as well (although that would be more than twice the size).

I could just install win8 normally, but I'd really want to just get back to the factory ssd layout and settings (with drivers pre-installed etc).

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Because now the laptop ain't working, not the most ideal situation .

 

Without sending Sony some cash for a set of discs I doubt you can get back to the exact factory status with recovery partition etc

If you just want to get your SVP working again there is a few guides on here for clean install I suggest you follow them

I understand the hardest part is getting a Win* iso file and getting it to read your OEM product key

Someone noted this:
- The product key can key found using : KeyFinder | Magical Jelly Bean
- When installing a clean Win 8.1, you will need another key for the installation and afterwards change to your own key...

 

I think it depends on what country you are in. But in the US, you don't get anything. All you get is a HDMI to VGA adapter and a microfiber cloth for accessories. You'd have to get the that on your own. The sony one, basically plugs into the charger and turns the ethernet connection into a wifi hotspot (basically adapter and wifi share thing you are talking about in one device). I would go for a USB 3.0 to ethernet adapter though.

but yeah, no connection/speed issue at all when using it with ethernet

 

yeah, except there's one issue. keyfinder only works if you're already in windows 8 to get the serial key. so he would have to reinstall windows 8. run it, then reinstall with a clean full windows 8.1 (or he can just do the upgrade after the win 8 i guess). also, after the clean install, you don't get all the functions back, which is the problem i ran into. everything was working, but i was missing some key features in the VCC like the x-reality processing, battery care, clearaudio+ settings, no rapid wake. i ended up going back to get all that stuff back.

 

Yep thought it would be troublesome

The only solution I can think of if trying to do it for $0 is go to your local Sony store and beg to make a set of recovery discs from a display model or phone a friend

Else it's just spending some cash

Fortunately for me having a 512G SD I never deleted my partition, I made a set of recovery discs and I bought Win8 on promotion for $35 and therefore a separate product key. I used the recovery discs to do a less bloated install

It's a shame for RaptorRVL as VC nags at you for the fist few weeks to make a recovery set

Still surprisingly that all the Sony drivers/apps are not available for separate download I had hoped that was just in the early days

 

Well, besides my major screwup with backing up my SSD the wrong way, I did have a moment of clarity since I saved my Windows product key before the backup.
Too bad I didn't create a recovery usb indeed. But thought I was safe with the ssd backup. Oh well..

The things mentioned by sillieidiot is one of the reasons I wanted back to factory default. Because I had a clean 8.1 on there before, but the Sony update software etc just wouldn't work correctly. Then I restored my SSD backup and the rest is history