Official Vaio Y 13.3 Series Owners Lounge

Larry,

I don't have my Y with me at the moment, so I can't confirm this, but I believe there are a couple of screws securing the keyboard from underneath. Once you identify and remove those, then I believe you can lift the top edge of the keyboard up and slide it towards the screen to free the tab on the bottom edge.

 

Exactly!

You need to remove 5 or 6 screws and just pull the panel up. Still don't understand how you managed to break it that badly but anyway... sh*t happens.

 

there are two screws holding the keyboard in inside the ram/hdd cover. they are the ones that are sunk down in. after that remove the HDD and push the silver u shaped cut out and the keyboard will popup. then run your hands around the keyboard popping out each clip.

 

hello, does anyone know if the upcoming YB model has a backlit keyboard? laptopmag and other blogs report that it does, but no link to confirmed sources or an indication from sony

 

Just launched in India,
sony yb series ,was thinking if this is a wise choice to give to my daughter who has just joined a college.
here
TechJungle | Sony Vaio YB series ready to hit the markets

 

If your daughter doesn't need DVD playback, edit videos, or play the newest games at high settings I think it can be a very good laptop for her.

For the student that needs a laptop for note-taking, viewing powerpoints, facebook/skype, browsing the internet, and streaming music/video it's a great notebook.

 

Of course one could always wait for the sony tablets

 

Tablets aren't good for the generation of documents, they're solely for viewing and interaction. So for watching movies, browsing, yes they are fine.

But you need a keyboard IMHO for writing papers, notes, and and work in Excel spreadsheets.

 

I complete agree. Of course, this fact must not be forgotten or denied in these times with so far too much attention and admiration given to tablets with virtual "keyboards".

 

Hey guys, another slightly frustrated Vaio Y owner here regarding the fan/noise. I've noticed both, people praising it's quietness, and others complaining from its loudness. I guess this is due to the different hardware combinations.
I got mine (i5/ati combination) 2 months ago, and I'm a bit annoyed with the fan issue. 90% of the time the thing is on.
And no, I don't have any cpu-sucking processes running, just some mild firefox browsing. If I leave it alone for a while, it stops, but as long as I start doing something or switching tabs, it comes back again.
Temperatures seem reasonable (~40° C), I can post a screenshot of the cpu/gpu temps if u think it would be relevant.
I am guilty of using the laptop in bed and soft surfaces sometimes, and must say that my room is a bit dusty. But... come on! it was like this since week 1.

For those with a similar configuration: should I give up, and learn to live with it? Has anyone found a reasonable solution?

cheers

 

I am not an Y owner, but as my S is the second laptop with dedicated GPU I own, I can tell you one thing - there is no such thing as Laptop with dedicated GPU and FAN off )

The GPU is what triggers the FAN, as it is always getting warm, no matter whether you browse the internet or just stare at a photo. I have i5 + Nvidia and my FAN is on 95% of the time as well and to be honest - I hate it when it goes off (usually when the PC is still cold... up to half an hour after starting it), as this way the permanent on and off going of the FAN is far more noticeable than a constant background airflow!! If I can't have it OFF for long periods of time (say half an hour), which is impossible with dedicated GPU, I'd rather have it run on its slowest speed all the time!

 

Dear Y owners

as I plan to order a few accessories for my S, which are advertised to fit on Y, I need your help to compare the LID size of the Y to the S.

I'd appreciate if any of you would take out a measuring-tape and accurately measure the following 5 dimensions and write them down for me!? Number 5 is not marked - it would be the length of that small panel on top. Thank you very much in advance!

 

Thanks for the feedback! Indeed it seems there is no way out, and I agree with you that the most annoying thing is the fan moving along its off/on/hardcore stages.
While the Y doesn't offer many options to control our power settings by default, there is a slight difference with the 2 different video card settings (power saving/performance). Still, with the latter the fan stays on almost permanently, which is a bit less annoying that the intermittent on/off.

 

Have you checked in the vaio control centre under power plans to see what power plan it is running on? I'm not referring to W7's in built power options. There should be three options, silent mode, balanced and high performance. Other Sony models with dedicated graphics have these options so the Y should have them also. I would leave it in balanced mode on AC power but i guess you could experiment also with the other settings.

 

In my experience they make ABSOLUTELY no difference! They have small influence over the CPU clock, but it is not the CPU that triggers the FAN, but the GPU!

I keep mine on "Performance", at least I loose no power this way

 

yup even on balanced or power saver, the fan still turns on, and when watching hd movies or flash video the fan is always on sadly.

 

No other way! Those 3 mods in Vaio Control just limit the CPU... but as I said it is the GPU that gets hot and triggers the FAN, so those mods are only applicable and of any use to models without dedicated GPU.

But FAN constantly ON is fine with me - I barely hear it. I just hate when it goes on and off every 20- seconds - this is far more noticeable. My S does that when I switch it on in the morning and is still cold... for about half an hour. After that it rarely switches off the FAN and that's perfectly fine.

P.s. I am still looking forward to those dimensions I mentioned above!? Could someone help please!?

 

Don't know about the S with the Nvidia card, but the Y includes an "Ati Power Play Setting" which lets you choose between Maximizing battery life/performance. So indeed, we do have some way of controlling the GPU. Not sure exactly the impact, haven't tested it at all, but I agree it is not enough to survive without the help of the fan.
Anyway, I don't really care much. I only switch to power saving when I'm on battery. The important thing what I wanted to know was that there was nothing particularly wrong with my laptop

BTW, only tomorrow evening I could help you with the measurements, in case still need it. Don't have a measuring tape right now.
cheers!

 

Hey everyone, just out of curiosity would anyone know if there is a 12 cell battery for the y series?

I was searching a replacement for a VGP-BPL2 battery and found a 9 cell and 12 cell and found a few. I know the VGP-BPL2 is the 9 cell battery but I might get the 12 cell if it will work on my y series laptop as it is advertised as a replacement for the VGP-BPL2.

Any input on this would be great.

Thanks!

 

Guys, I still need the above dimensions!! Is it really so hard? If you ask a question about CPU specification or RAM compatibility you get 10 replies in a minute... but if you ask for a simple measurement it takes days??

Not cool!

 

Sorry. I'd help you but I've been in the UK for the last couple weeks with only my work laptop. If you can wait a few more days I'll post measurements when I get back.

 

Hey there, not sure if you still need them, but I just checked those measurements on my Y:
1) 21,85 cm
2) 32,65 cm
3) 1,65 cm
4) 9,55 cm
5) 30,3 cm

cheers!

 

Hey guys,

I been reading through quite a lot of the posts here but hey, there are 108 pages so im sorry if the question is a repeat.

My laptop is an old and awesome VGN-S5HP. That's an 13.3" WXGA, 1.73Ghz pentium M, 2GB RAM monster.

And it is time for my upgrade. Maybe. The reasons for upgrade are that it makes noises, gets hot and the screen got some marks. Also the battery runs out in an hour. Ubuntu runs, but recently there have been problems with noise in the speakers. (software problems that are probably not to hard to solve if i just wanted)

Okey, so my questions are as following. I assume that the Y is a faster machine, even though it cost 1/4 of the price of my old one back in the days. Is this so? 1.2 GHz doesnt sound amazing, even though its dual core.

Also, my old ones run counter strike source smoothly. Well, i dont play anymore but..if i did. How will the Y handle that.

The screen on the Y is not gonna be as good as the one i got right? I think that screen is perfect.


This is the model im heading for. (the reason is that this is the one i can get cheap and easy here in Sweden)
Sony VAIO Y Series VPC-Y21S1E/SI - P U5400 1.2 GHz - 13.3" TFT
Intel HD Graphics Dynamic

Anyone who runs ubuntu or linux on this machine? Problems?

What can i expect from the battery? Seems to vary a lot from processor to processor. This is the Pent. u5400.

Thank you very much for answers

 

Finally someone!! Thank you very much! Turns out the LID of the Y has totally different measurements... didn't expect that. Even thought the part used is probably the same. Thanks for that information!

 

I heard sony vaio suffer with battery drain, the y series how is the battery drain.

 

I'm picking mine up in two weeks -- a CTO with the Core i5 and Intel graphics -- so I can let you know then. I'd be running Fedora on it, but the results should be comparable.

From what I've heard from the thread, I'd say battery life should be better with integrated graphics. You *definitely* don't want ATi -- I have a Vaio EB with ATi graphics, and on Linux battery life is terrible. The Evergreen family of chipset is only very recently supported by the kernel, so with any currently-released distribution you get no power management (fan always on). The ATi Catalyst drivers finally support the latest X.org release, but it does not support vertical sync in anything but full-screen GL, so running any 3D-accelerated desktops (Compiz, GNOME Shell, Ubuntu Unity) will result in horrible screen tear artifacts.

If you worry about 1.2 GHz being too slow, I'd suggest trying to find a model with an i5 (when one core is idling, it can boost the other to 1.73 GHz). That has trade-offs on battery, though.

 

Viktator,

let's hear your verdict if you buy the U5400 model and try out Linux/Ubuntu. I've been thinking about getting one of these since I tried one in a store a few months back. Really nice keyboard and screen for the money I think.

 

I had a VGN-S560P which is a slightly newer version from the same model range as your VGN-S5HP. The Y is somewhat faster on CPU intensive tasks and also more responsive due to the 2 cores. The current generation of integrated graphics in the Y also performs quite a bit better than the GeForce Go in your older computer.

Ubuntu installs easily and runs well. Without tweaking anything, you should get somewhere around 5 hours of battery life in Linux with light usage and medium screen brightness, or about 5.5 hours in Win 7

The screen will not be as good - not even close.

Assuming you mean battery drain while sleeping or off, the Y does not suffer from this problem.

 

@dmk2, OldJim,hircus

Feels great knowing that ubuntu will run without tweaking. I heard on a page that everything worked except the speakers. That would make be boot windows instead.

And the screen is not even close as good. Well, lets hope i can accept that...

Anyway! I put my order sunday night, and i also managed to sell my old one. All in less than 24 hours Yey.

Ill get it on Wednesday!

 

Let us know how it goes! Regarding speakers -- every snd-hda-intel installation is different, and I had the same problem at the beginning with my Vaio EB and Fedora 13 (my Vaio W netbook, on the other hand, had working sound from the beginning with the same OS installed!).

If that occurs (it should not -- the proper pin-out mapping has now been entered into the kernel, and most distributions have shipped patched kernels) you can use ALSA's HDA Analyzer tool to tweak the settings and get things going (it's best if someone has already discovered the proper settings for you, of course, otherwise there are tons of dials to experiment with). Here's the bug report for the Vaio EB, for instance.

 

I just packed up my new vaio. First, silver does look pretty neet. Second, the keyboard...is allright nothing more. Makes kind of much noise but easy to write on.
But hey, the screen! What a horrible piece of crap. Where did sony find this...... compared to my 5 year old vaio this is just a big laugh. I once had a 5 kilo monochrome laptop, i think it was an 386. This reminds me a little bit about that one. When you move your head it really changes its character. And the gloss is so much worse than my old x-brite. Seems like i have to get a real monitor to work on.

And the extra software features are just too funny. What the hell is this laggy thing on the top of the screen. Why do companies keep installing those things. Well, at least that is an easy fix.

Fan makes pretty much noise as well..

hmm...this is my first 30 minutes on this computer. Hope it gets better by time. But I think i sold my old one to fast.

joder as the spanish would say.

 

How is the screen in the Y compared to the one in the S series? Thanks!

 

Buyers remorse in less than 30 minutes - wowee, that was fast! I hope the first impressions doesn't last, though. The only place I know where you can see the S series in-store is at Elgiganten, as far as I know - not sure where you live, so I don't know if you have that option?

I didn't find any significant difference between them, but I don't think I am the right guy to judge such things - I mean, I prefer matte screens and the MacBook screen over the MBP screen, so... your opinion is highly likely to be different.

 

The fact is that probably there is no way to get a good screen without paying a decent amount. But somehow it feels like it should never be a let down when you buy a new computer and compare it to your 5 year old one.
Anyhow, i think ill give it some time. Maybe ill get used to it. But heck.. bring me amoled now!

 

Whoa, *now* the Sony Style store sells the Vaio S, and the Y has entirely disappeared. That really explains the fire sale in December!

 

Seeing as, in the past, Vaio Y has been available in the US online as well as in the shops, while Vaio S only in retail shops, do people reckon the situation is now reversed, or will Y be completely discontinued in the US (pity if that happened), or is it simply a line refresh that's taking its time?

Speaking of refreshes, I note that the newly-available S still does not have the latest Sandy Bridge CPUs -- the part numbers should be four digits starting with '2' but they are all still 3-digits.

How long does Sony normally take to refresh their lines after the release of a new Intel CPU?

 

Hehe, told you the screen wasn't even close to what you're used to

If you want a nice screen in a 13", your choices are the VAIO Z and MBP 13. If you want a nice screen that's not as reflective as a mirror, the Z is it. It makes sense in a way since the Z is around the same price point that you paid for your old VGN-S. As prices have come down, so has the screen quality.

The S is no better than the Y. I don't know if they use identical panels, but they sure look the same. Pretty much the whole VAIO lineup has similar screen quality except for the X, Z, and certain Euro/Asia F models with the matte screen. And with a few expensive exceptions, most of the other laptops on the market now have low quality screens. The Y and S are actually above average compared to the 13" models from Acer, Asus, Toshiba, and Lenovo.

I'm surprised about your comments on the keyboard. I like the Y keyboard quite a bit more than the old VGN-S; it feels more spacious and the keys have more tactile feel.

 

Viktator,

let's hear what you think of it when you have installed Linux and what sort of battery runtimes you get.

When I looked at the Y a couple of months ago, it was almost the same price here in Sweden (9000 SEK) as the S12 with a i3 350 (9995 SEK)... So pricewise, the Y is a bit cheaper now.

I've seen that the smaller 11.6 version with the i3 is up for sale now at sonystore. It's looking nice, but I think the keyboard would be a bit too small for me.

 

The non-discounted base price of the Y on Sony Style USA was around $749, IIRC, compared to the base price of $849 for the S they have now. Similar configuration apart from clock speed (Y: 1.2 GHz (Pentium/Core ULV); S: 2.53-2.66 GHz) and the obvious optical drive. I wouldn't expect the screen quality to be any different between Y and S -- I've seen the new 11.6" Y on a Sony shop next to a 13" S and they look similar, and both better than my old Dell Inspiron.

Keyboard-wise .. I like the Sony chiclet keyboard too, actually about on par as my previous Thinkpad T61 (and Sony actually sells keyboard skins; the only other laptop maker for which skins are easily available is Apple). I'd rate them better than Apple's keyboards (apart from the keyboard on the W netbook which requires more force to register a keypress).

Battery life is probably a bit better on the Y but not by much (a 13" screen is probably the maximum size for which a ULV CPU would still deliver meaningful overall power savings -- until we get those transflexive Pixel Qi screens). IIRC Sony's latest battery life quote for the Y promising 6.5 hours compared to 5.5 for the S, both with standard battery, so a difference of less than 20%.

On balance I'd probably still go for the Y -- here's hoping its disappearance from Sony Style is only temporary -- in any case, the Blu-Ray option for the S still costs way too much.

 

Don't know about US (and honestly don't care much), but Y (as well as the new YA and YB) are still offered in Europe, as well as S S has been available with its 3-4 pre-configured models and CTO option for each of the 3 generations (S11, S12, and S13) nearly 1 year now. Y has always been the small brother of S. Y starts at 600€ and S at 950€.

What's new however, is that the VPCYA1V9E/B model has been added to the Business series of Sony - this makes Y the third Sony business line model, after Z and S which have been there since forever, although VPCYA1V9E/B is the only Y sub-model listed as a business one.

I don't think you will see SB on S soon as the last sub-model S13 was released not very long ago and SB is not really such a great upgrade over Arrandale. I think they will wait with that.

 

Yes! Thanks for the warning huh. Today i kept my eyes open on laptops and wow they are all loaded with horrible screens. Even the screen on the MBP is not that great. Its awfully reflective and I never really liked how the mac screen looks. It seems like they have a different pixel pattern. More like a regular tv where the pixels are moshed together. And they can't display anything that looks like black. I got an amoled screen on my phone, and that would be pretty nice to get in a laptop.
However, i saw a vaio, but i didnt see what serie it was. But the screen was awesome so i guess it was a Z.
(i study computer science so, computers are everywhere if i just look around. When i had my vgn-s1 i didnt take much notice)


The keyboard is nice.. but the buttons are higher up which makes me type less fast. But really, the keyboard does its job good. Too bad for no backlit keys though.

Yup, got a lot to do now, but ill get linux on it in some days.

I bought it for 6000 SEK (600 euro) so really, complaining too much seems unfair.

And what about the fan? Is there any way to regulate it? My cores were around 25C and the fan goes on all the time. Im almost thinking about opening up this thing and modify the cable to lower the curret so it will spin slower. But thats not prio one at the moment.

 

Something i noticed that i think others may be interrested in is that if you turn off some of the windows 7 special effects and other things running in the background, the fan will spinn a lot less.
Right now it keeps spinning in its slowest mode for me. Which is pretty acceptable. Poff! now it stopped. It is when the fan spinns at its fasted that it gets annoying.

 

Doing a clean or semi-clean install without the bloatware seems to help as well.

 

spinning on any other speed than the lowest by idle or low activity is not normal even for a stock windows! You should see what triggers that! Obviously some process/program uses a lot of CPU resources. Look at your task manager.

 

Yeah, I think having a look at what's running and what's installed is a good idea. Especially if the fan is running a lot at idle or low usage.

But then again, I tend to rip out as much as is possible without breaking the OS and use small things like Q10 for writing.

Sony makes a lot of good stuff, love their keyboards. The big Y is still tempting me.

 

The reason I care about the US store is that price-wise and accessories-wise, it makes sense to shop there, if one happens to be traveling anyway (I couldn't find keyboard skins in Germany, from Sony or from third-party sources). Sony's stocking policy is bizarre, though -- one wish they could offer the same products everywhere, like Apple.

Just found out about the YB -- interesting; wonder how the battery life would be like. AMD chips in the past are not known to be the best at efficiency. It'd probably be on par with the 13" Thinkpad Edge.

Yeah, the promised much-improved graphics coming next year would be interesting, and at that time my other laptop would be nearing retirement age.

 

Times have changed... Shopping from the US makes less and less sense nowadays. I remember the times everyone of my colleagues who traveled to the US was bringing electronics back - now it is the opposite - buying from Europe for someone out there

Specifically about Sony:

1. You get 2 Years international Warranty by default if you buy from Europe (except UK).
2. The prices are very often better
3. The configuration options are much better
4. Delivery terms and conditions - better
5. Availability - better
6. New models are released earlier (take YA and YB for a fresh example)
etc., etc.

This is not the place and time to discuss this but US economy is going down every single day and this is one of the milliard consequences...

And I didn't really get what is it from Sony you can't buy in Europe but can buy in the US? Keyboard skins!???

 

Hmmm.. im having huge problems getting this thing to work with ubuntu. The problem seems to be the intel HD graphics card. Right now i can run it, just for a while, with the vesa drivers..which just gives me a low resolution and after a while the screen turns black. Anyone got any linux distro version upp and running with the Y?

 

Hopefully this helps a bit along the line (click the first part of the crazy-looking hubub this forum made of my link):

intel graphics - Ubuntu on the Sony Vaio VPCY 21S1E - Ask Ubuntu - Stack Exchange

 

On availability and new models, I definitely agree. For the models that Sony USA stocks, configurability does not seem to be *too* different -- the main EU markets might have a bit more options, but OTOH the smaller markets (I've heard people on this forum reporting from the Iberian peninsula, etc.) seem to have only the basic configurations.

I've yet to see lower prices on EU Sony stores compared to the US. At least comparing the official online stores. The 13.3" Y was around $749 in the US, and (IIRC) 600-something €, pre-tax, in Germany (they now only show the 11.6" Y for 599€; the 13.3" is missing). I ordered mine at the December sale and managed to max out most of the components for only $700.

Which EU country are you in, out of curiosity? I've bought several Sony laptops over the past year and in each case the US price is cheaper.

I grant you that the warranty support is better in the EU, but from past experience, the only problems I get with my Sony laptops are not covered by basic warranty anyway (e.g. accidental damage).

It's not the time and place indeed. The UK economy is more in the tank than the US, for example; I suspect it's more that Sony is not a big player in the US market (compared to Japan, obviously, and the main EU markets) and so has to slim down the lines it offers. W

You've never used keyboard skins? Sony sells them in their US store for most of their laptop models, but because each main EU markets has a different layout, getting keyboard skins is always more difficult in Europe. Even for brands with tons of 3rd-party accessories (e.g. Apple) -- iSkin makes really well-fitting skins for the US layout, but it's hard finding one that fits in the UK. I've tried finding a skin for my German-layout Sony laptop keyboards here and gave up.

They're not as important these days, with new keyboard designs having smaller gaps than in the past, but really make it much easier to maintain the keyboard, and reduce wear and tear. It's like having dust mats in a car.