Sony CW i3/i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

I pulled the trigger. Just bought myself the VPCCW27FX model. With the i5, bluray, 1600x900 screen etc. It was from bestbuy, so backorder, but it says probably 1-2 weeks. Now to selling my macbook as I go broke. I LOVE high resolution screens. If they could screen 1080p in a 10" screen, I'd take it. You can always increase the font size. My macbook is 1280x800, so I'll love the extended resolution. The i5 will be nice. I've always had a PC (I have a htpc now) so the macbook was new for me. I kinda fell in love with the mac, especially OSX compared to windows and the magnetic charger, but I love a powerful computer even more. I'm going to try to hackintosh it. If there's anyway to get OS X on it, it would be great. Anyone know what the BIOS is like on the sony? Very limited, or does it give you some control? I might also remove the blu-ray and replace it with a hard drive or nothing. I find cd / dvd / blu ray drives useless. Either way, I'm just super excited to get a new computer to play around with!

 

Sony USA been having the CW via CTO for a few months now. What they dont have is the new nVIdia 330m and higher resolution screen version of CW that Bestbuy are selling.....

Damn it...

 

Ok confirmed it. I rolled back my drivers and my score went up to 7k.

I was using the 196.34 which killed my score. I rolled back to 187.83.

 

Daamn. I want my CW already

ETA of 3/5-3/15

 

hey all, im looking to buy an external portable hard drive ( i just got the CW i5 from bestbuy). any suggestions? i've read you need to be careful when you buy in making sure it works with 64 bit and not just 32 bit

Thanks

 

Who told you that? That is a load of BS LOL. Any external drive will work, just find a capacity at the price you like and go for it.

 

Yeah those topics are not related at all.

 

I just ordered my cw27 from bestbuy . This will be my first laptop ever and first new computer in 9 years (finally time to put the desktop dinosaur to pasture). I was wondering about laptop skins. Are they worth it to protect the laptops body and/or should i get a screen protector. Has anybody found any laptop skins for the cw's anywhere, would like to protect my new baby when it gets here. any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi guys, I also ordered my CW26 from Bestbuy (Icy White) last Feb. 10 (so glad I was able to secure one before Bestbuy ran out) and I just heard that it already arrived at my brother's house! My brother has yet to open and test it....

You guys might be wondering... why doesnt he test it himself? Well, I actually live in the Philippines and the prices of Sony Vaios here are quite high as they're being marketed as a premium brand. So, I decided to order it in the U.S. and have my brother ship it to me (along with tons of other stuff that I want him to send over).

Just like ClydeHunter, this will be my very first laptop. My desktop died on me around six years ago and since I didn't really need a new computer at home at the time, I've been computer-less at home ever since (except for the last year or so when my wife would bring home her office laptop). But when my brother told me that he'd be sending over some stuff, I finally decided that it would be good for me to have a computer at home and I started surfing for a good online buy.

Heck, when I was looking at specs of my possible purchase, I was still looking for Core2s and didn't even know that a new batch of processors were already out! So, when I went to Bestbuy.com and saw the specs of this CW beaut, I was floored.

Just today at lunch, I went to our local mall and saw that the CW26 finally came out. But, the price point for this laptop here was Php77,000 card or Php69,000 cash! Converted, that's roughly US$1,605 and US$1,437, respectively! You can just imagine my happiness at knowing that I was able to get it for only US$1,001 through Bestbuy (plus probably around US$80 for my brother to ship it here).

Man, can't wait to get my hands on the laptop!

 

my beautiful pink laptop is supossed to be here tomorrow!

 

and there was much rejoicing...

 

fyi, seems that the 26 and 27 models are back in stock at bestbuy.com, same prices.

I'm going to cancel / return my 27 model I ordered last night, and just ordered the 26 model. I really like the white. Reminds me of my macbook...plus no use for a blu-ray

 

Yep, I just ordered the icy white i5 CW from BB. I have no use for the blu-ray either. If I want blu-ray or have a need for it in the future I will just buy the drive on ebay. As for now I have a blu-ray player hooked up to our LCD.

BTW...all i5 CW at BB are back in stock online (royal indigo, icy white, and black).

 

I bought my icy white from JR computers. It's a core i5, and I paid $70 higher for it. I needed it shipped internationally with someone who was leaving this week and I guess bad luck for me.

Also are all core i5s equipped with a 330m and a 1600x900 screen?

 

I just noticed too the CW27 are in stock.

 

I was looking around for things that I could put in my ExpressCard slot, since I found them thusfar to be pretty useless, and I came along this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=expresscard_ssd-_-20-161-325-_-Product

Its an ssd that plugs into the ExpressCard slot, this would allow the use of the internal hd for data and boot from the ssd for faster operation. The only problem is that I have read that you can only boot from it with some certain chipsets. Older macs cannot boot from it. I was wondering if anyone had tried this, or knew what type of chip was powering the ExpressCard slot?

(alotta reviews state the ssd as breaking quickly, but I was curious just for future reference because I think verbatim and some other companies are coming out with this type of solution too.)

 

Any of the vast legions of CW owners located a "cheap" extended battery? Something around $100 bucks?

 

m trying d hackintosh install tomo
will post if nething comes up.........wishing myself luck with it......hope it goes smoothly

 

I am typing on my new laptop! It came in today! It is beautiful and runs soooooo fast. Litterly was up and running within 2 minutes out of box!

 

Does any one know if there is a Driver update yet for the 310m?? My aero affects with windows 7 keep screwing up and the troubleshooter says I need to update my drivers, but when I go to sony's site or nvidia's site there is no option to do so...help!

 

this laptop is SO FAST and soo bright ( love it).

only thing is I need the words bigger on websites. How do I do that?

 

In Firefox to increase text size either go to View -> Zoom -> Zoom In or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + +. Not sure what it is in IE.

 

Can someone who has reformated everything tell me what happens when you press the assist button? I was able to load a different operating system using that button ala quickboot but i wanted to reformat that hidden partition for linux but not sure how the laptop calls the partition when u click the assist button

 

Ctrl ++ on google Chrome to make it larger
Ctrl +0 to go back to normal
Ctrl +- to go smaller

If you're using IE:

Ctrl + (zoom in)
Ctrl - (zoom out)
Ctrl 0 (set to 100%)

 

And if you're using Firefox - check out the nosquint plugin. It's great!

 

Hmm here is something interesting...
In the last page I said I updated my drivers, it killed my performance in 3dmark, so I rolled back. Now that I look at my LCD, the colors seem a lot more "washed" out.

I wonder if the complaints are really a setting? I swear my colors were much more vibrant BEFORE I fiddled with the drivers.

Anybody know how to correctly calibrate colors?

 

now get dressed up in pink, lovingly clutch the laptop, and post a picture on the forum so we can all bask in girly pinkness...

 

Hey man sorry kinda off topic but when you opened up your CW, did you happen to notice whether the wifi card was a half-PCI card or a full one? I'm pretty sure it's half but just wanna make sure.

 

Ok. I seem to have problems when I am using the laptop in full screen. Like playing a movie or farmville etc. it freezes. ?

 

i dont think that nvidia optimus is compatible with cw 27 coz of the chipset used i read it some where ill find that link and show it, any way is there a storethat sells an intel wifi card for notebooks coz i whant to replace the atheros coz i have a bad experience with atheros on my eee pc100ha and is the wifi card replaceable?

 

here is a link about pm55 and hm 55
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mobile-core-i7,2443-3.html
is the cw 27 hcdp compliant? coz in the link pm 55 is not

 

hey, cw touchpad supports multi touch! care what ctrl ++ or ctrl +-.

use 2 fingers and squeeze it gently and u can zoom in and out =)

 

Whats is your digital vibrance set at? If you goto nvidia control panel and then click on adjust desktop color settings u should have the options there

 

try reloading the drivers using the restore function......else head on to sony's support site....i saw the drivers there too.....jst enter the correct model no and you shold be good to go........all the best

 

get all windows updates and try reinstalling flash.
that happened to me right when I just got mine.

and don't forget to restart after installing those.
good luck!

 

Since I have my CW26 being shipped with ETA next Tuesday. Could someone kindly explain to me what each of the "Assist," "Display Off," and "Vaio" buttons do? This is my first Vaio laptop and I'm not sure what those do and haven't found any information.

I have a pretty good idea of what "Display Off" does. Turns display off while hooked up to external monitor (HDMI...). Not sure why a button is needed since it should automatically turn display off once connected to HDMI. At least our Gateway laptop does this.

Not a clue about the other two. I think I have seen "Assist" boots up a different partition/OS. Or is that restore?

Also, any recommendations of what to do when I get this? Clean install of Win 7? Or some kind of backup disc(s)? I thought I saw a thread somewhere of doing a clean install of Win 7 on CW series.

Thanks

 

I finally after 4-5 days discussion with sony customer care,Gave back my cw26 to them.It had heating problem on right side of palm rest and hdd had noise.
They will lunch e series in india 4th march. so I'm waiting if it has full hd screen I will buy it,because in sony-asia web site there are 2 model with full hd lcd.but they have i330 processor.if the motherboard support i5 i will upgrade it.

 

I can certainly think of a lot of cases where you'd want both the LCD and the video port active on the PC at the same time.

 

oh....dunno if dats good or not.........but r dey replacing d same model or giving u d money back?.....and ne more news on d specs of the E-series.........?

 

Im looking to buy this laptop, does anyone know if its available in store at sony in UK yet? I have been checking on line and it still says its available for pre order

 

Yeh I think it was a half.

 

Was it really that hot and loud? Out of the normal for a laptop? I couldn't see this as a huge issue seeing as there is a warranty and the option of getting a replacement/fixed.

Good luck to you.

 

Hey does anybody here have an i5 with the Atheros AR9285 wireless card AND a linksys WRT54G wireless router?

I have an Airport Express at home, to which my i5 connects to just fine, but I've now caused both my in-laws and my friend's WRT54Gs to crash when I try to connect my laptop to their networks. ("Crash" means router boots off all connected computers - whether connected wirelessly or via ethernet, also stops broadcasting its SSID)

Friend's router needed a hard reset to get up and running again! This is a BIG problem for me considering how many WRT54Gs there are out there. Both linksys's were running WPA encryption.

I would like to confirm that this is a problem with my computer (which I assume it is or else I would see other people having this problem too...)

Thanks,
Alex

 

You can configure what these special keys do with VAIO control center. You will want to create recovery disks. Clean insatll -- it is up to you. Personally, I wouldn't bother doing it, just getting rid of some bloatwares is enough, IMO.

 

I am running a WRT54G v8 (WPA2-PSK) and haven't had any problems with my CW26, BUT I am running DD-WRT on it rather than the stock firmware. Presumably that could make a difference.

 

does anyone know the temperature limits of the i5 520m cpu?

 

Woodgypsy, you mentioned that you can re-assign the Assist and Vaio buttons in VAIO control center, but I can't find it. The only thing that shows up under Special Buttons is something about Document Zoom, which I can't figure out what it even is...

Polbit

 

I have a 27 ( i5 & Atheros ) with a WRT54G and mine works without problems.

My daughters PC (Vaio VGN ) however kicks my work machine (IBM) off everytime she turns it on. So similar problem.

Her machine also kicks her friend's pc off of her friends Netgear router too. So I dont think it is WRT54 specific.

I havent been able to figure out why ( rebuilt her machine recently and it still does it ) so I just live with it.

 

I have a WRT54GS v2 but I am running Tomato firmware so that may also make a difference for me as well.

 

Not sure, but I would guess it will start throttling at ~80c. You will NEVER want this processor to hit anything higher than 85c with a 35nm design. Not a good plan!!