Sony CW i3/i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Everytime I start it, it says "Minimum resolution not supported" so I have to run it at 1600x900...

Main test results
3DMark Score N/A
CPU Score 15925
Graphics Score 2011
Test Results
Graphics Tests
Jane Nash 6.08 FPS
New Calico 5.7 FPS
CPU Tests
AI Test 1022.33 Operations/s
Physics Test 50.77 Operations/s
Feature Tests
Texture Fill Test N/A
Color Fill Test N/A
Pixel Shader N/A
Stream Out N/A
GPU Particles N/A
Perlin Noise N/A

Hope that gives you a good idea...

 

Looks like LaptopVideo2Go has latest GT330M supported with the 196.34 drivers.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/159-19x-series-geforce-driver-releases/

You must use the modded INF to support it though. Gonna install and test.

 

thanks ps2cho, did you get a total score? Like a performance test.. so usually a score like P6800 or so is what my 260m GTX scored or something like that (I forget). So I'm guessing your score would score maybe ~P3000? It's much more based on GPU than CPU, gives me a good idea on gfx cards. But just looking at your CPU/GPU scores, the i5 is a beast of a procesor and the 335m is slightly better than 330m =) I'm just curious the total score.

For those who care, hardware heaven did vantage test with SU7300 OC off/on with the 335m. Notice how the overall score doesn't really depend on CPU.

*edited*

thanks for trying ps2cho

 

Because of the res error it won't give me a Pxxx score. Not sure how to fix it.

 

3DMark06 Score: 6120

No overclocking but modified power schema to my liking. Did not do clean install just spent time removing what I didnt want from factory. Score was with Avira Antivir antivirus software installed and running. Also modded startup vis msconfig to get rid of some uneeded programs and services.

Will work on overclocking and post back with clocks and scores.

 

Based on your current experiences, how's the turbo boost of the cpu? Anyone here uses stuff that's really hard on the cpu?

Since I do my video editing on the desktop and this lappy is going to be for music and performance, I won't need the gpu power.. (I still would have enjoyed the 1600x900 but meh..) However I'm going to need this cpu to work hard running 2-3 audio softwares + 5 or more audio plugins at the same time.. and I'd like a short latency..

the results will mostly not change my purchase since I already ordered but I'm just curious about what this lappy can do... the i5 should be fast.

 

If I erased the vaio recovery partition is there a way to remap the assist button to something else

 

how to open and tewak the bios?as in which key will open up the bios options?

 

the cpu is quiet poweful thats a for sure....i use it for my simulations and it gives a real good performance. From what i knw, your work should be handled quiet well by the processer. Jst sit back and throw whatever you want at this machine and see the results for yourself. Cheers

 

tried out some combinations myself and all seems to work perfectly well.......guess its a problem with just the machine....try returing it and getting a replacment.............all the best and cheers

 

Purple rocks!

 

i5 is fast for sure...........lol....i do my simulations on this laptop and its really good on performance.......jst throw your stuff at the processor and see the results for yourself...cheers

 

Did you try out those specific combinations? I tried dozens of combinations that were similar and all the other 3 key combos were working, just not those couple. If the keys are registering at all, its just more likely a design issue than a defect.

 

Hello I just bought a VPCCW27FX/B and the ram is at like 33% and I just have google chrome running. any thought of why this is so high or is it normal?

 

Thats kinda what I was wondering. Many of the combinations, if not all, worked perfectly. The specific ones which I mentioned did not though.

Also, Sorry I didn't have time to take any pics but I promise you that you will like the purple if you are a fan of the ipod color. I will try to post pics later.

 

I'm gonna do this as soon as I receive it.

somewhat unrelated by apparently in Canada they aren't overloaded with orders since mine got shipped yesterday night and it was supposed to be shipped on the 15th... Fedex's estimated delivery date is supposed to be the 16th. that's a bit earlier than I was expecting, good.

 

Hi CW owners,

I have ordered a CW but haven't yet received it.

I am wondering if someone could tell me, are there any free (unused) Mini-PCI express slots inside this machine? Has anyone popped the bottom covers off?

 

hi
I have some issue with my cw26.
when it is in idle mode some times the palm rest in the right side up the wifi switch become hot and when i use my laptop for long time and for example move or copy large files around 20gb to its hdd it is cool.can anyone tell me it is normal or not?
2-some times its fan speed increase and it's sound become loud and in that time cpu usage is maximum 20% and only I opened IE .and its fan speed increase and after a while decrease.

 

that is because of other sony srevices, apps, and tools like the gesture recognition,vaio smart network, vaio care etc. runnig in the background. If you want to get rid of them and free some space on the ram try disabling some at the startup by accessing msconfig or runnig sumthing like ccleaner.

If you want evn more performance enhnacment den try a clean install of windows 7 without any sony crapware....many on this thread reccomend the clean install. Chk out the post by ananth for more on this. It also improves the startup and shutdown times marginally........fully tried & tested......

Cheers

 

dats mayb cos of temp increase around the core.......the fans jst kick-in to decrease the temp......chk the ventelation around when u r sitting with your system.......

i guess you stay in india and the ambient temps here arnt cool, so this is expected.

Still if you have doubts try a driver upgrade for your chipset and later for the entire system. Check if this solves the problem.

Cheers

 

chk out the thread.der are many pics of the interiors contributed by ps2cho.....dat may give you a much better idea about things......

PS:n dont forget to thank ps2cho.....hes a real asset here .........
HAIL ps2cho.......hehe
Cheers

 

Has ne1 tried installing Mac OS on the system?
I tried Kubuntu and its runnig stable.......want to know about the Mac and if any1 has encountered any issues with it?

If any issues, will b prepared b4 i go in and perform the install myslf......

 

tick tock tick tock wish I had my laptop.

 

can anyone tell me which key to press to enter bios?....am feeling stupid asking this question......

 

Press F2 when vaio logo?

 

hey tx for dat......cheers

 

Anyone who has the i3-330m / Geforce 310m version, can you post your numbers (fps etc.) for WoW?

 

as I said earlier I have some problem with fan spped.
some times fan speed increase and it is loud .yesterday i checked threads and everythings that increase cpu usage.I found that when I open IE and i go to the web pages that use flash or any heavy content such as facebook mycpu usage goes up around 35 -40% and fan speed increases and when I close IE imidiately fan speed decreases.I want to now that anyone has same problem or not.
you now that windows 64 bit does not support adobe flash player.Almost always when I open facebook I have this problem.
And even my hdd has problem .it is noisy and i call to ccare ,they told me bring your laotop we will change it.

 

I wondering the same about os x.

I'm gonna give it a try.

 

Does anyone know how the assist button calls the partition and bootloader? and if i install another boot loader for this partition if it would still work?

 

My local Best Buy had a Royal Indigo (CW21 model for $799) so I got to see the color in person. It looks AMAZING! Love it w/ the black. The color in store looked very much blue/purple. Matches my iPod haha. So yeah I give a thumbs up to it. It looks really slick, reminds me of some cars that have this color. Only problem I noticed was the fingerprints. Very noticeable.

 

OH MY GOSH. got a email. they don't know WHEN it will ship now. My Dh is upset and canceling the order and we are going to best buy to look at laptops.They said the pink cases are out. so went from getting it on the 9th to the 23rd of this month to not knowing when it would be available. WOW.

 

That was the reason why I didn't order online. I could've gotten it a little cheaper because they have the school saving program, but I felt impatient and feared they will run out of stock since they only produce the pink one in limited numbers.

I called our local sony style store here in NY and made sure they have it. They said they only had 3 left so I rushed there the same day and got it.

It must be so upsetting. I'd like to suggest to you to call any or the nearest local sony style store to you and ask if its possible if you can purchase and have it shipped to you. If you really want that particular color why don't you try again and ask.

 

Just purchased a new CW w/ i3 and am looking for a few tips while I wait for it to arrive. This forum has been a huge help while I have looked at different options.

1. Is there anyway to force it to use the i3 onboard graphics (through BIOS or something)?
2. Is it possible to re-program the quick assist and other buttons at the top of the laptop?
3. How bad is the atheros wireless (or why does everyone seem to hate it)?
4. Is there place to buy a replacement battery (standard or large) for a decent price (i.e. <$100)?
5. Any good suggestions on power management?

Thanks for the help in advance...

 

I did call one where my friend lives and they didnt have it. Best buy had none at the stores. so now I have no laptop ordered and need to get one ordered. is The CW the best for the money right now ( on the market)?


I don't want anything bigger then 14 inch. want it to be fast. Needs to be portable . NEEDS TO STAY COOL when I am using it ( my hp is so hot that I can barley touch it even with a cooling pad/fan.

Color just dont matter any more I can order a skin LOL

 

To the person who asked about the heat above the wireless switch -- it gets hot because that is where the Hard Drive is. Not much you can do about that. Keep in mind a 7200rpm drive is going to put out a little more heat as well.

 

Asking again:

Has anyone found a way to toggle lock the page up/down home and end keys?


Also, what are you thoughts on the settings that extend lifetime battery performance by not charging fully each time? Does anyone remove the battery when it is plugged in for quite a while?

 

Well let me put it this way...

I have had my Inspiron 1520 for over 2.5 years. According to HDTune that hard drive (so I can get total power on time) was like 2.35 YEARS so its been on pretty much 24/7 and only been taken out of the house probably 50 times in those 2.5 years. It only JUST shows that the battery is worn so if you consider 2.5 years adequate for a battery, then don't worry about pulling it out. I never cycled the battery at all. It has been at 100% most of its life and never removed....

This should give you an idea of keeping a battery in the state I did and longevity. Obviously I can't guarantee those results, but it should give an indication.

 

Not to say that your wrong but isn't the hard drive on the other side of the computer? Just from looking under the laptop isn't the bigger hatch for the hard drive bay?

 

Originally Posted by ps2cho
To the person who asked about the heat above the wireless switch -- it gets hot because that is where the Hard Drive is. Not much you can do about that. Keep in mind a 7200rpm drive is going to put out a little more heat as well.

if you look carefully u can find that hdd is on the other side.

 

Stumbled across a review of the core i5 version of the laptop using the 1600x900 display.
http://www.expertlaptopreview.com/?p=470#more-470

 

what is the best deal on a Sony on bestbuy.com what is the order number or link? Is there another site that has a better deal?

 

Those of you who have gotten the new CW model from Best Buy, can you confirm that it comes with an Atheros wifi card? Thanks.

 

Here are the network adapters for the CW27 from Best Buy [image below]

 

Ordered this one from Sonystyle outlet
Display : C50874811
Graphics Card : C50874815
Color : Brilliant Pink {VAIO Signature Collection}
Processor : Intel® Core™ i5-540M processor (2.53GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
Memory : 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
Optical Disc Drive : Blu-ray Disc™ player/burner
Battery : Standard Capacity Battery (VGP-BPS13)
Channel : C50874875
Warranty : C50874879
Operating System : Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Software Optimization : No Fresh Start
Software : Microsoft® Works
Photo Software : No additional Photo Editing Software
Video Software : No additional Video Editing Software
AntiVirus Software : Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
Base Unit : C50875197
Software2 : Works w\HST C50875226
Hard Drive : 320GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
Limited Warranty Term : 1 Year Parts & Labor
Plus I got the 2 yr accidental warranty. I went with two year since this one was a bit more ( i didnt have any added software on mine or blue ray)


Says it is IN STOCK and will ship the 16th of this month LOL
we shall see

anyone know what Software2 : Works w\HST C50875226 is?

also it has a different harddrive the other one had 500gb but (i think 5000rpm) this one has 320gb (7200rpm)

 

wow was reading on my order and its a blue ray player and blue ray burner. LOL never even watched a blue ray before lol this shall be fun

 

I am planning to buy a laptop, I have two laptops under consideration.

Sony Vaio: VPCCW26FG/W : Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor 2.40 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz / 14 (35.6 cm) wide (WXGA++: 1600 x 900) VAIO Display, LED Backlight/NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU with CUDA™ Technology / 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM / 500 GB(Serial ATA, 5400 rpm)

Dell(TM) Studio 14 Laptop (S541029IN8 : Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor (2.4GHz, 4 Threads, turbo boost up to 2.93GHz, 3M cache) / 14” High Definition 720p WLED (1366x768) Display with TrueLife / 4GB (2GBx2) 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (Work at 1066MHz for Intel Arrandale CPU) / 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

The specs are almost the same and so is the cost.

I am more concerned about the looks, battery life and service being provided by the two brands in and after the warranty period.

I am really stuck and confused here ... Please somebody suggest.

 

I am planning to buy VPCCW26FG/W the only issue i am concerned with is battrey life. Can anywone who owns CW26 let me know howz the battrey life for this machine. Thanks

 

Wow pretty close specs. I think your model is fom the dell india website where they offer more options than in america. In america the dell studio 14 dosnt get as many options and trying to configure the same as sony is hard but when getting close the dell costs more.

Personally I would go with sony because of the overall higher build quality and I think the 330m video card packs a little more than the dells 4530 radeon.

Still very close builds and it probably comes down to more of a personal preference than anything. (personally Im not a fan of dell because of their outrageous upgrade prices).

 

Out of box config will get you 3 hours and that has battery mode screen brightness too high.

I tweaked my battery mode settings and lowered brightness to 20% and can get over 4 hours.