Sony CW i3/i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

I have CS4 now. No problems at all. Running smoothly.

 

I am liking this laptop so far!

I figured out how to get the speakers little louder by messing with the Sounds>Enhancements settings, so that saved the laptop from being returned. I even have some pseudo surround going on now. I don't need Bose quality sound, but I do prefer to hear my laptop without having to wear headphones all the time.

My one concern that I am still considering is the battery drain. Each morning after my laptop has been completely shut down at 100%, I start it up to anywhere from 84% to 94% charged. I don't do sleep mode overnight, so this concerned me that I may have a faulty battery. I'm still getting 2 1/2 hours of battery life which is what I expected. I saw the battery drain thread and will contact Sony to see what they are doing about this. In the meantime, I'll try some of the fixes, but again, since my laptop is shut down each night, I'll have to see if anything will help.

Otherwise, I love this laptop! Perfect size despite me being stuck on wanting a 15 inch at one point. I love the screen resolution, but I do have to make some things bigger depending on the site I'm looking at. I do that using the gestures which are TOO COOL! Reminds me of working with my iTouch. The touch pad is a tad sensitive, but I know that can be adjusted.

I LOVE the jet black! It is sexy! Fingerprint magnet.. sure... BUT I'm not messing with the lid like I'm typing on the keyboard. Soooo, there's minimal fingerprints on the lid to begin with. Once I'm finished using it for the day, I give it a good wipe down with my microfiber towel (I have a plush towel that works great too) and zip it in its Case Logic sleeve at night. I do plan on getting something for the lid to protect it from potential scratches. I'd rather not hide the Vaio logo, but protecting against lid scratches is more important.

The machine runs cool and quiet. The fan kicks on from time to time with a soft quiet mildly warm breeze. The only place I feel any mild warmness is on the right side of the wrist pad and that's when I actually touch it. After my egg cooker HP, that mild warmness may as well be an ice cube.

No clean install at this point since I'm still debating the battery issue, but it still runs fine and FAST. I've only uninstalled Norton's to use Kaspersky instead. My machine boots up quickly. My windows experince is 5.9 because of the hard drive, but again, the machine boots fast, and I'll be investing in an SSD in a year depending on prices at the time.

I'm thinking of getting a new router if anything since my downloads are slower than I would like them to be, but wireless connection is no problem at all.

I'm trying to think of anything else.... oh, I was looking for how to get to the BIOS.

Now, I think that's it.... overall, 9 out of 10 for me!

Any other considerations I should be thinking about will be appreciated. This my first Sony product.

 

Yes just the default MS driver when you don't load up the realtek ones. I also did the equalizer thing and that boosted the sound too.

On another note tonight I was messing with the drivers and originally I loaded up the newest nvidia drivers (it was from a post a couple of pages back) but then I reloaded the default Sony Nvidia drivers from the vaio care because I wasn't getting any video playback thru bluray only sound. And when I did that the bluray video playback started to work again but it also seems to start up a bit quicker the black screen after bootup didn't happen. So if you did a clean install with those drivers that could be your problem too perhaps?

 

Does anyone know how to make this laptop wake from sleep by using ONLY the power button and not the keyboard/mouse? It bugs me so much...my computer just wakes up in my backpack as my books lean against it

Right now I set it to hibernate and that's working so far, but I'd like to save myself the 3GB of space by turning off the hibernate feature.

 

Honestly you should always just turn off your notebook when you put it in your bag, not put it in sleep/hibernate for the sake of heat.

 

I mean it's in such a low powered state that the heat is negligible, except in the case of waking from sleep and heating up in the sleeve. But hibernate works just fine without waking.

Shutting it down completely isn't feasible for me as I travel from class to class and need it up and running immediately. I guess now that I have an SSD, I could experiment with that though.

 

Yep -


Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options -> change Power buttons.

Mine is default set to Sleep. Did you do a fresh install?

 

It takes like what, less than a minute to boot up from shutdown?

You really don't have that much time?

 

What? Why? I never shut any of my laptops down and always use sleep mode...they are designed for this...there is no heat issues at all. This is the same kind of advice as "conditioning" batteries...maybe useful in the early 90s with early primitive laptops but in 2010 this is meaningless.

 

Sleep Mode was designed for the times when you're away from your computer for a short period of time yet also want to conserve battery life.

It was never meant to be your reducto shut down. I rather fully shutdown my notebook when I'm done with it for the day or when taking it from class to class rather than leave it in sleep/hibernate.

Um... no. It is proven that hear in the good ol 21st century batteries die over time, especially if you aren't allowing them to charge/recharge properly. Hence why if you're going to use your notebook as a desktop you should remove the battery.

Honestly, shutting down your CPU isn't going to kill you. As you said, this isn't the 90s when it took 5 minutes for your computer to start up. Most boot up times are around a minute.

 

For protecting the lid, try InvisibleShield or a sheet of BestSkinsEver. Actually, I think the IS is new since I don't remember seeing it when I got my CW a few weeks back. Lucky you! I got scratches on my lid already, mostly if not all because of my own fault.
Not bad, only visible in direct light at an angle, but a pristine lid with such gloss is sooo much better.

I and others also feel a slight warmth on the right palm rest compared to the rest of the unit.

I also am using Kaspersky. It's funny that you have a 5.9 index; I get a 5.8. No biggie, I suppose. I shrunk my C:\ drive and made new partitions for data instead of doing a clean install. Working okay as far as I can tell except it deleted restore points.

To get to the BIOS, press F2 as the unit is turning on. F8 for safe mode options.

 

Thank you for the explanation.

I actually did my shrinking before your post, so I did it differently. Also, I spent much time tweaking Windows settings that I did not want to do a restore of the C drive.

I used PartitionWizard to do it. A few errors telling me to defrag early on, but now it's done. It also deleted restore points; I got error 0x80070007B when trying to turn on System Protection for the new partitions but I fixed that fairly simply.

I'm sure your steps will help others.

 

erm how u manage to get 60fps at that setting? u overclock ur GPU to what setting plz share. my is clock 625 mem815 and shader 1370. tell me how u do it plz i so in love with that game and i only get about 30 to 40 fps with medium setting.

 

question to the experts, with my config below do you think I can manage to play crysis? if you think I can, any recommendations as to settings to make it playable? Many thanks!

 

Can someone post screenshots at 1366x768 and 1600x900 resolutions with just a web browser open or something. I am interested to see how big the difference is. Cheers, thnx.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=370180

 

I play crysis at medium settings 1600x900 resolution: gpu overclocked to 600/1320 memory to 800. The fps ranges from 10 to 20, but thats playable for me.

 

I'm gonna back you up on this completely. I had an HP laptop with those stupid heat sensitive touch buttons. I put it to sleep once and closed it, threw it in my backpack, only to find that 10 minutes later the notebook was blowing extremely hot air out and the screen was discolored on the bottom left hand corner. (theres still a mark there) Appearantly when I closed it, the screen was warm or something so the hp touch buttons woke the computer up in my bag. Ever since then I have ALWAYS turned the computer off before putting it in my bag.

 

guys some help pls, why cant i install the new driver i downloaded from nvidia the old driver runs fine but i wanted to update its kind of weird because it would install but after restart the graphics would crash and i have to reinstall the old graphics card driver its kind a frustrating pls help

 

Thanks, I'll try ordering it, anyone else have any opinions?

 

I also keep all my laptops in sleep mode, especially my macbook pro. All I do is shut the lid and open it when I need it. sometime I don't even restart it for about a week.

As far your problem slaughter my wife's sleeps fine all I have to do is shut the lid and when I open it again just press the power button to wake it up. It does seem to go into hibernate mode if its sleeping for an extended period. I did a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro, but try the settings that were posted to see if that works.

 

I am having a majior problem staying connected to the internet. It is not my wireless router as it works on my other laptop and all Xbox's and desktop. Just on this one. It picks up the wireless right away but my internet goes in and out . Anyone have any idea what I need to do?? It is driving me nuts!

 

Ughh! I finally decided this is the computer I want and Best Buy is sold out of half of them. Does anyone know where else I can find it with the GT 330M graphics card other than J&R?

 

me.
I made a post on it.
PM me, it should be around $1200 (possibly less depending on address) shipped with a 1 year Best Buy accidental damage warrenty (this is no profit)

 

Thanks for the links and the additional info! I'm going to order the lid shield this week... pending the issue outlined below.

I may try shrinking my C drive. I made a recovery disc (forgot to mention that before) so hopefully that will be a good enough back up if I accidentally do anything wrong.

Now I have noticed something new that may be a concern. I received an error twice now. Once yesterday, but it happened so fast I missed it. Today I caught it. It has to do with the NVIDIA driver. Not exact, but it essentially goes like this:

"Display Driver stopped responding and has recovered. NVIDIA Windows Kernal Mode Driver Ver. 187.83"

Yesterday I got a flicker of the screen to black and then back to the normal display. There was also a very rapid movement of my screen saver just prior to the black flicker. Today, I got these weird F's on the screens all randomly, then the error-recovery message the moment the screen recovered.

I don't want issues with my screen as its more important to me then what's under the hood, so will the proper driver update take care of this? Can someone link me? Anyone else experience this?

TIA, everyone

 

Are you using *nix or Windows? If its *nix there is a workaround but if its Windows I'm not sure what the issue is.

 

No, I wasn't asking how to change what the power button does. I'm asking how to wake the computer from sleep by using ONLY the power button and disabling the keyboard wake.

And yeah I did a fresh install.

 

Windows.... Idk what Nix is loll

 

Hmmm is that invisibleshield cover worth it? I've never really protected my laptops lol

Are they easy to remove after a while or are they glued on or something? I don't want my laptop to be all sticky afterwards.

 

I will have to agree that shutting down is very 90s. I don't remember last time I actually shut down a computer (not counting reboots of course!). Why?? The current scheme with Windows 7, where it puts it to sleep for short time, then hibernates for longer breaks, is perfect. You do know that hibernate is a complete shutdown, but with the machine state saved to the hard drive, right?

What a heck is the point of a laptop if you have to wait a couple of minutes every time you want to use it? Sorry, but instant-on is one of the selling points of a portable machine, and a full start is way too long.

Oh, and don't get me started on conditioning modern lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries Yes, they will last longer if you don't keep them charged all the time, but this is NOTHING compared to what we had to do with NiCads back in the day...

On a positive note, this is the best $1k I've spent in a long time on tech stuff, despite the damn shiny plastic. 1600x900 14" with 330M and Core i5, together with the great keyboard, all the ports, etc., etc. Go Sony! For perfection though, please offer a different case option, even for extra $

Polbit

 

Got my new CW27FX in yesterday. Just like with my "old" CW17FX, I was pretty happy with the factory load. Pulled off the Quick Book (or whatever the heck it is) the Office trial and Norton trial, then loaded my standard suite of software.... This thing is pretty darn quick!

I picked up a MS Pro HG-Duo card, and allocated 3GB for ReadyBoost, but haven't seen any real performance increase.

Question asked a few times above: what are people using to OC the GPU? RivaTuner?!?

 

IMO, If I were to game on the laptop I guess I would use 1366x768 instead of 1600x900. It gives more fps and Allows you to go to high settings instead of med. Besides 1366x768 would look great on vaio cw 14" screen.

Lenovo ideapad y550p, acer aspire 5942g native resolution is 1366x768 and gaming on it looks nice too (15.6" screen)

even asus n61jq 16" screen uses 1366x768 as it's native resolution looks ok when gaming.

So I guess 1366x768 should look good as well with the benefits of more
fps or higher graphic settings

correct me if I'm wrong

 

I think most people use the nivida program to
oc their vaio gpu. (from what I read here) it's safer because there's limitations to how far you can go, as for rivatuner it
allows you to oc even further but at a higher risk. Risk of blowing up your gpu. If I were to get a a Sony vaio next
week I would use the nividia program to oc my gpu.

 

lithium ion batteries begin to degrade the instant they leave the factory regardless of how treat them under normal use conditions. It is a long held myth dating from the NiMH days about the benefits of full discharge/recharge, memory effect, etc. with lithium ions. Regardless of how you treat them, they will last a certain amount of discharge recharge cycles which for most standard uses runs about 2-3 years of useful life. Doing what you do provides no benefits compared to what I do, but you can obviously do what suits you. However, the bottom line is that a lithium ion battery will happily live its life regardless of how it is treated (well don't throw it in a fire or freeze it) under normal conditions no matter if you choose to shut down or use sleep mode:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/lithium-ion-battery.htm

I just choose not bother shutting it down because I just don't see the point of waiting for it to boot, even if the time is short because it confers no benefit at all for the laptop/battery or any of the other components of the system.

 

hello... Can share how it performs in 1366x768 resolution.
thanks!

 

I use Nvidia System Tools...but I haven't had a chance to mess with my new CW yet.

1366x768 is an awful resolution, I absolutely hated it. The 1600x900 screen is so much nicer.

 

If you're asking because of the $40 price tag, just know that it comes with a lifetime replacement guarantee, or something like that. You'll get a new set to cover your CW should your InvisibleShield rip, which is highly unlikely.

If you're asking whether it will truly protect the unit, I say it will. I bought a used Creative Zen Vision:M with IS pre-installed by the previous owner. It felt good (no ripples or "orange peel" texture like other films), it looked good (hardly noticeable except for the edges of the film), and it seemed to work (no scratches went through it or on the film).

Months ago, I actually took off the IS. The reason being was frankly it is an old MP3 player and I kinda stopped caring about how good it looked (works great and still love it though!). Also, since the day I got the used unit, I saw what I thought was dust under the film. In fact, the dust was under the screen and not the film.

Anyways, it came off cleanly. The only thing left over was a slight gummy residue here and there, but that came off easily as far as I remember. It wasn't sticky and I don't feel anything sticky or residue months after removing.

The only tiny concern I had, if my memory is not exaggerating, was that it turned a bit discolored (yellowish), but that was only on the bottom white side of my player. The top side is black, and when the IS was on there, I couldn't see any discolored effect even if it was discolored. Just the edge of the film, like I said before.

Overall, I think it's a great investment should you be gung-ho about a mint lid and palm rest. If you buy and install, can you post images?

My biggest advice when installing is to have a clean environment (film, laptop, hands) and do it in a not-dust place (bathroom?) because I can imagine the chance of dust actually getting under the film during installation, plus seeing that there was a smudge or fingerprint under the film AFTER you install. That would be frustrating!

Hope that helps!

 

Any luck with Dragon Age at 1600x900 all details maxed?

 

Really? Hmm but so far bigger screens using that resolution in games looked ok. Maybe I havnt seen cw's.... Haha ok.

 

Thank you so much! Yeah $40 is just too much to me for something like that. It's just to prevent scratches for christs sake, it hardly protects your laptop.

I suppose it's a personal thing. All I know is I'm never buying a laptop with a lower resolution again.

 

Well I see you have a white CW, so scratches should be less noticeable compared to a black one.

I'm guessing the "yellowing" put the nail in the coffin.

 

lol well I was seriously considering it, and if it were $20 I woulda jumped on it. But yeah $40 for a piece of clear scratch resistant material is ridiculous.

 

Bah, I still opt for shutting down the computer rather than leaving it in sleep or hibernate. Its safest for the software and OS.

 

i've never liked low resolution screen either. currently i'm on a 15.4 with 1680x1050 - it's great
i'm not looking forward to 16:9 on my CW, but i'm sure i'll get used to it.

 

I think I'm gonna start doing this to be honest. There's no reason not to if you have an SSD.

By the way, what video drivers are you guys using? Is it me or are there no official Nvidia drivers that support the 300M series GPUs?

I was using 191.00 for a while and then I just switched to 196.75 today. I like them a lot better so far. Temps are a few degrees cooler and I don't notice the fan as much anymore.

 

LOL...you sure don't want to break your OS by keeping your computer on...sorry, I just thought that was funny but I guess you must turn your cellphone after you are done making calls so you don't break the OS on that either or do you not consider your cellphone a type of computer...oooh better turn off that mp3 player too just in case...

yes, I know I'm being an a$$ but this is...okay I'll stop now.

 

guys, whats the difference between cw26 and cw27?

 

It boosts it by like 5 - 7 FPS so like 15 - 25 fps on average.. didn't see it drop below 20 too much though.

 

LOL.... The last couple of pages have been absolutely hilarious! Thanks for the morning laughs! Let me add to the laughs........

I'm going to try a clean reinstall this weekend AND I'm going buy a $40 piece of plastic for my lid AND wrist area ($40 buys both) AND I'm going to keep shutting down my laptop at night...

I am used to matte exterior laptops that didn't have high scratch potential. No need to be concerned with protecting it since there wasn't a need. If there was ONE thing I could change on this CW laptop, it would be the exterior material. Even white will show scratches especially if you get one from the result of something that leaves a colored mark! Things happen -- it may only happen ONCE -- but it only takes that ONE TIME for me to regret not having taken that extra step from the beginning. Again, its just me, and I appreciate the links. I'll look around and see if I can get it at a better deal, but if not, then I'll go with site given.

The other link provided was to a much cheaper priced DIY plastic. It should probably do the trick also, but the IS site gave me more information to go on, plus a lifetime guarantee!

As for the shutdown thing being a 90's thing.... LOLOL .... that was the funniest... I am literally cracking up as I type this up. My desktop hasn't been shut down in weeks, but I just have this quirk where I always shut down my laptop at night.

Personal preferences....

 

I'm not a guy, but...

CW26 - no bluray player

CW27 - has bluray player