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    Official Vaio Y 13.3 Series Owners Lounge

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony Owners' Lounge Forum' started by vaiofann, Jan 14, 2010.

  1. S3K04

    S3K04 Notebook Enthusiast

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    So far soo good, all working well.

    It is installed with 4gb ram, why is only 2.87gb showing?
     
  2. dmk2

    dmk2 Notebook Evangelist

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    Because you installed Win 32-bit. 32-bit = 4 GB total address space. Some of that address space is reserved for memory mapped I/O with various devices, the page database, etc. On systems with dedicated graphics which don't use system RAM for graphics memory, you can typically use about 3-3.5GB depending on the system. With integrated graphics, the GPU reserves a certain amount of physical memory so the total is less.

    More explanation here:

    Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory - Mark's Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

    If you had used 64-bit, the system wouldn't have to fit physical memory, device mapped memory, page tables, etc. all into the same 4GB address space. So the only deduction from the 4GB total would be the physical memory reserved by the integrated graphics. You'd probably have a total of ~3.6 GB for the system.
     
  3. lokhor

    lokhor Notebook Enthusiast

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    The screen on my Vaio Y series VPCY115FG 13.3" has been smashed. I intend to replace it myself but am having trouble getting the front bezel off. I've watched some videos on other models but this has a recessed bezel at the bottom and for some reason it will not come off :( any help would be much appreciated.
     
  4. dmk2

    dmk2 Notebook Evangelist

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  5. hircus

    hircus Notebook Geek

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    After discussing this with Red Hat kernel developer Matthew Garrett, it appears that Vaio Y's firmware is totally messed up. The way to control backlight is to use the graphics card's native backlight control, not through ACPI, or even through setting the PCI register (not sure why *that* does not work, precisely).

    The general infrastructure is in kernel 3.0, but the specific changes for the Intel i915 driver has not made it in yet; so what you can do is either:
    • On Ubuntu, use Kamal Mostafa's mjgbacklight PPA. This uses Matthew's patches, and patches the userspace to control the new backlight control
    • Otherwise, use the script I made to monitor the state of the (ineffectual) ACPI backlight control, and apply a corresponding value to the native backlight control. You'd need a 3.0 kernel (or a late release candidate, but why?) and cherry-pick the latest patch from Garrett from the linux-next kernel tree (he updates it periodically)
     
  6. Viktator

    Viktator Notebook Enthusiast

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    Wow, I am impressed that you have come up with a solution. I gave it up, sold my vaio y, obviously lost some quid on that. Will never try a sony again in my life. (hehe.. it will at least take some time to recover). I bought my self a desktop and I am scouting for a new laptop. At the moment im into the Toshiba R830, or I will go for a system76 Lemur-like one (It is sold under many different names, manufactured by clevo).
    Caio!
     
  7. Say Chi Sin Lo

    Say Chi Sin Lo Notebook Enthusiast

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    DEAD LAPTOP! :eek:

    So, I know the laptop was recently attacked by malwares/viruses. Then one day, it decides to stop booting.

    I have pulled the HD out, with the help of another laptop I ran a malware scan and cleared whatever Malwarebytes could find. Also ran a virus scan and cleared whatever AVG could find. Put it back into my Y series and it still won't boot!

    It stalls right after the VAIO screen. I get the flashing _ on the top right corner and that's it. I can still get into the BIOS screen, but nothing beyond that.

    Any suggestions? Thanks!
     
  8. dmk2

    dmk2 Notebook Evangelist

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    Can you boot from the recovery partition using Assist? Did you burn recovery DVDs you can boot from? The first thing I would try is a full system restore. Or burn a Windows Rescue CD on another computer and see if you can boot from that.
     
  9. yv1650c

    yv1650c Notebook Geek

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    does anybody here has increased the RAM to 8gb?
     
  10. Peach1200

    Peach1200 Newbie

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    Hi everybody! :)

    I have a Vaio Y21B7E (1.2GHz Core i3, 4GB ddr3) and i was thinking about installing a SSD.. until i discovered AHCI is disabled by default on my unit and that there's no way to activate it in bios!
    ..i really wasn't expecting that!

    Is there any known workaround to fix this?
    Am i supposed to edit the bios?

    Any help is appreciated.. :)
     
  11. lokhor

    lokhor Notebook Enthusiast

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    Has anyone overclocked their Y series? I was thinking these days the 1.3Ghz cpu isn't quite cutting it anymore and I don't want to get an ultrabook yet.
     
  12. dmk2

    dmk2 Notebook Evangelist

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    How did you determine it is disabled? It should be the opposite, AHCI enabled by default with no option to disable it without a BIOS hack. My Y11 is that way and it posts faster SSD benchmarks than my i7 VAIO F.

    IIRC, the 11.6" YB with AMD chipset was different and the stock drivers were IDE mode, but the 13.3" Y (Intel) and 11.6" YA (Intel) were AHCI.
     
  13. blahih

    blahih Newbie

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    hi holzmann, I noticed your specs say you have 8 GB of memory. I have the same computer, but I bought 1.35 volts memory instead of 1.5 volts. I'm wondering which voltage your ram is, and if you know whether 1.35v should work in the VPCY2 or not. thanks.
     
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