Sony CW i3/i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

I think the problem is with the new firmware. Where are the fans on the CW? I can only the exhaust on the left side working. Where is the air intake fan? Also, speedfan does not detect fans?

 

theres only 1 fan in the cw, no intake fan.
I have taken my cw apart, and applied artic silver, it
was good for a 5 degree drop, I also used copper shims
for the cpu and graphics chip.

 

Did some digging for you
Here you can see all the internal components. Link

 

I was tempted to replace the TIM, but I seemed to have used up all my AS. Besides it will void my warranty. I will leave the temps as they are as long as they are stable. TJ max is 105C so if the CPU ever gets that hot it'll throttle down.

The thing with the GPU is that because the heatsink of both components is one, heat seems to travel from the CPU to GPU. Without Prime 95 running, load temps are 70 and 75 with and without overclocking respectively.

I think that's a flaw in their design. I will leave it overclocked to 600/1320/900 and hope that the GPU lasts its desired lifetime. I think the GPU will still outlast other components. In a year or two I'll be looking to upgrade anyways.

Thoughts?

 

I'm on the different side

1) Waranty - you might want to check it again to see it the parts are also covered. If I'm not mistaken, warranty will only give you free service/labor.

I would rather replace the thermal paste to get cooler temps than using it with that hot temps. You laptop wont last long at those temps.

2) Can't agree on this part "I think that's a flaw in their design" because I find my CW27 cooling system to be very efficient, idles at 37C for the GPU and maxed at 70+C while playing War Hammer (high settings), CPU idles at 30/32C.
Of course I replaced the thermal paste.

PS: Just make sure to create a sketch for the screws before proceeding (thermal replacement). Some screws are longer than the other and there's a risk cracking your components/casing when screwing the wrong screw.

On a side note, AS is not my choice

 

My GPU doesn't reach 95 unless I'm running Prime 95 + something graphic intensive. Do try. SC2 gets up to 75-80 Oced. This obviously might have something to do with ambient temps. I think my room temp must've been atleast 35+ when the GPU almost reached 100 because there was no ventilation and it was rather uncomfy. I was playing SC2 with the AC on and room temp at about 25. Currently the GPU idles at 45. Room temp at about 26-28

 

Mine idle's around 45 (GPU) and goes up to 60-63 maximum playing sc2 on my couch (sometimes I block the vent when I get uncomfortable on my lap, but I try to keep it open). What I do though is ONLY overclock it if I'm doing something graphics intensive, like sc2, otherwise I leave it unclocked, it only takes two clicks using the EVGA utility...not too annoying. That's what I recommend just to keep the wear and tear down on your card. I live in Florida so it gets damn hot for me as well, and I've used it outdoors in the 100 F degree weather and still not gotten the card up past 65C...so just be careful!

 

So, my hard drive started making a clicking noise and froze up my computer so I shut it down turned it back on defraged and it was acting a little slow. SO used Seagates HD check and any long reads makes it fail. So my hard drive is going out...\
Question: I want to buy the new momentus withe the 4gb flash on it. but what is the easiest way to reinstall windows since I dont have a copy of it? Will the recover disk reinstall everything fine on a new hard drive?

 

@EBAN44
Fresh install is the way to go if you are looking to have more responsive system.

Recovery disk might work but not worth, IMO (waste of resources-bloatwares)

 

@EBAN44
I agree with lousy. Get a install disk/image of windows 7 and do a fresh install. You can just take the key off the sticker on the bottom of your computer and use it. That way your still using the license that came with your laptop but you dont have to put up with the crapware that comes with the recovery image from sony.

 

OK well I'll get a copy of the windows 7 install, Next question do you guys think it would be worth it to spend the $130 for the Momentus with the 4gb of ssd or better to just spend around $80 for a good 7200rpm drive? I have heard the momentus with the 4gb can really hamper the battery. Its not like I use the battery much at all anyways since 90% of the time I'm corded. I'm also just using this machine for web surfing mostly no gaming really or anything hardcore. THanks

 

Personally I would opt for a 60-100 GB SSD. Specifically a model with a Sandforce 1200 or 1500 controller in it. I would just make sure and keep an eye on prices and not pick up one until I could get a 60 for $130 or less or something like an 80 for $150 or a 100 for $180.

May cost a little more than a standard hard drive but the speed improvement will be lightyears better plus it will help out your battery life too.

 

I would love an SSD but logically for me I would need at least a 256GB one and I wouldn't want to go cheap on one if I got one. So, its not worth it at this point in time to get an SSD.

I ended up pulling the trigger on the XT just because after looking at a couple reviews and comparisons against a WD Black it still beat it in, battery life and speed when its not even able to put things into its cache. So, with the cache it gets pretty close to a standard SSD plus you get the benefit of the 500GB

 

Congrats!

Share your thoughts when arrived.

 

Loving it so far. I can really tell the speed advantage when booting and just opening up firefox. Only negative, which I don't mind is there is a good amount of vibration due to the new firmware makes that drive always be spinning. I haven't test how much battery life is effected yet though since I rarely use it off battery.
Also having a fresh install of windows is a ton better.

 

Nice to hear eban. Im really wanting to upgrade the stock hdd in mine as well, 5400rpm is so dang slow!!!

 

So, just to brag after a clean install of windows and with all my programs I use downloaded and install. With 62 processes running after a reboot. My boot up times after 3 runs with a 5 minute break between run go from.
30 seconds
17.5 sec
18.4 sec
I'm pretty happy with the results. I used boot timer for the results.

 

What were your boot up times before the clean install? Trying to decide if the hassle of reinstalling everything is worth it.

 

I'm not sure but I would say at least around 40 seconds but thats also because it was on the stock 5400rpm HD vs the momentus and got rid of all the sony bloatware.
Did you just copy your stock drive to the momentus?

 

My current (stock) HD boots in about 2 minutes according to Soluto...I CAN'T WAIT until my momentus xt comes in this afternoon and I get a clean install plus the naturally faster drive...I'm drooling in anticipation!

 

Got it, fresh installed windows 7 pro and ubuntu 10.10 dual boot system, boot times are between 25-30 seconds, previously was 2+ minutes...I love this drive.

 

Blimey I'm having a hard time getting Ubuntu 10.10 working on this thing. Just getting to the root of the Wifi slowdown caused by the AR9285, but still got to work out why it simply refuses to show anything when using nVidia drivers. Any tips? Already tried setting EDID...

 

I have it working on mine...when you boot you have to boot into recovery mode and install the nvidia drivers (from the website, not from the ubuntu repositories) manually by "sudo sh NVIDIA-x86_64-256.xx" whatever and then it will show graphics during a regular boot. It's something screwy with sony from what I can tell, you can't use the "enable additional drivers" feature using ubuntu system administration menu. Also, if you are having trouble even getting to where you can download the drivers, add "nomodeset" to the boot line of your regular ubuntu boot (by hitting E i think depending on your boot setup)

edit: also if you already enabled them you will have to purge your system of the nouveau and nvidia drivers initially...I forget what the command is but it might be "sudo apt-get purge *nvidia*" and "sudo apt-get purge *nouveau*"

Don't try that command without first checking it, like I said I'm not positive it is the exact command and don't want you to lose your data or install, I'm at work and can't check it personally atm. Obviously all commands are without quotes.

 

I tried basically all of that last night to no avail. Using the nomodeset parameter got me in and let me configure most of the stuff I needed, but neither the nvidia-260 drivers from the PPA or from nVidia's site wanted to work.

Looking at the kernel log, seems it's due to memory allocation issues stemming from me using the 32bit flavour of Ubuntu with 4GB RAM.

The solution: tonight I'll be installing the 64bit version of Ubuntu instead. We'll see how that goes!

For reference, if anyone else is experiencing VERY slow transfer rates using the provided ath9k driver, download and build compat-wireless from the linux wireless site. It sorted everything out immediately. The PPA backport isn't new enough unfortunatey.

 

Ooh, also I heard a few suggestions about removing the nouveau drivers as a solution (this would provide more video memory). I didn't want to do that at it would cost me the text-mode ttys.

 

Oh, I'm using 64-bit, forgot to ask you . I remember when I was first setting up my ubuntu install I HAD to get rid of the nouveau drivers...but now that I think about it when I did a wipe and installed 10.10 I didn't have to, I just immediately booted into recovery and installed the nvidia ones...kept them on a flash drive...I think I use the nvidia-linux-x86_64-256.53 off the website, I downloaded it a few weeks ago and it works so I haven't tried to upgrade to the latest...if there is one that is more recent, I haven't checked : /...when I get home I can try and upload them somewhere if you want to try them, I got them by going to the "pick drivers" or whatever on the site and choosing my graphics card version (GT 330M) and Linux 64-bit

 

I think I may well have to try the 256-era drivers next. No luck on 64bit 10.10 with 260.19.12 - get stuff about "Bad RIP Value"... http://sprunge.us/jVUd

Fortunately NVIDIA keep an archive of old driver versions here: NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Advanced Search

 

Installing 256.53 seems to have done the trick. System reboots and nVidia driver loaded correctly!

Now all I have to do is go home and see if there's anything actually being displayed. The wonders of remote system administration with SSH...

 

haha yeah I love it too...if it doesn't load on the screen (I just did a fresh install cause I screwed my wireless driver and couldn't figure out how to fix it, only been on linux a couple months in spare time) then add the "nomodeset" to your boot file, it still loads full resolution, it just gets you to the point where the nvidia drivers load, there is some hole inbetween the boot and the point where the nvidia drivers kick in, at least on mine, and sometimes it hangs on a black screen, but you can hear the ubuntu sounds on boot and it is running, just no display.

edit: How do you have your ssh set up? I've been using Teamviewer for a graphical interface (teamviewer has a portable application since on my work computer I can't install software). This is off-topic so if you want to take it to personal messages we can do that as well.

 

Good tip. I'll see how it goes!

Nothing elaborate. Just installed the openssh-server package and connect remotely via the appropriate port.

(Actually, that's a lie... I SSH into my VPS, then to a PC I have at home, and finally the Vaio. I'm not forwarding a port for it on the router yet! But it's just a series of tunnels really.)

 

That's neat, I'd like to learn more about that...where did you learn? Teach yourself?

 

Hi.. I bought this laptop recently My model is VPCCW29FX. I bought it refurbished from the Sony Outlet Store.

My problem is that the fan is _always_ on. It doesn't turn off, even when I have only a browser running. This happens on both Windows and Linux. Is this a hardware issue? Should I be claiming warranty?

A second issue, in Linux. Is anyone able to adjust the brightness? I tried the nvidia_bl driver, and I can manually set the brightness by echoing values in /sys/class/backlight. However, the hotkeys (Fn+F5 and Fn+F6) are not detected. I tried using acpi_listen, and only Fn-F6 emits an acpi event. The brightness down key doesn't generate any acpi event. Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks!

 

So my system is now running pretty much perfectly now. Except for the corrupt screen issues when coming into and out of hibernation...

A bit at uni, but largely self-taught.

 

8 posts? really? anyway, the laptop has issues with overheating so they released a BIOS update in the firmware that turns the fan on more often than normal, to get rid of excess heat. That is pretty normal, if it isn't idle then the fan runs, not sure if there's anything that can be done about it. As for brightness in Linux, I haven't gotten mine to work at all, so please post here if you find a fix for it, but usually I run mine plugged in to the AC adapter so I don't really use brightness very often.

 

Well that's better than me, I can't get sleep or hibernate to work very well, it's hit or miss about 50/50 if it will crash on startup (both win7 and ubuntu, but sleep works almost all the time in win7) so I just don't use those options anymore...never really used them all that much to begin with though. On a side note: what sites did you use to teach yourself? I'm beginning to delve into all of that stuff and have taught myself a lot via google and ubuntu forums, etc but looking for a one-stop-shopping sort of place.

 

Well only done one hibernate cycle so far, I'll see how it goes.

I just pick stuff up as a I go along, or as-needed. Google and DuckDuckGo are my best friends!

 

Hi.. I bought this laptop recently My model is VPCCW29FX. I bought it refurbished from the Sony Outlet Store.

My problem is that the fan is _always_ on. It doesn't turn off, even when I have only a browser running. This happens on both Windows and Linux. Is this a hardware issue? Should I be claiming warranty?

A second issue, in Linux. Is anyone able to adjust the brightness? I tried the nvidia_bl driver, and I can manually set the brightness by echoing values in /sys/class/backlight. However, the hotkeys (Fn+F5 and Fn+F6) are not detected. I tried using acpi_listen, and only Fn-F6 emits an acpi event. The brightness down key doesn't generate any acpi event. Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks!

 

You may want to consult this thread:
Linux backlight driver - Page 3 - nV News Forums

 

Thank you Johnsto. The problem is that Fn+F5 (brightness down) does not generate any ACPI event(s) at all.

 

What event does Fn+F6 produce? There used to be a similar bug on Thinkpads which simply required a kernel recompile.

Should add that on my VPCCW2C5E, both those keys generate ACPI events.

 

Here is the output of acpi_listen:

Code:

$ acpi_listen
button/fnf6 FNF6 00000080 00000000

No event is produced for FN-F5. I am trying this on the Fedora 14 beta, kernel 2.6.35. Can you tell me which distro you use? I really hope this is a bug, because I am almost read to return it back to Sony

Also, any idea about the fan? It's very silent, and barely audible, but if I put my ear near it, I can definitely hear it running all the time. Even if I have only Google Chrome open, and nothing else going on. Is this the expected behaviour, a hardware problem, or just my over-sensitive ears?

 

OK, this is definitely a bug, or a kernel configuration issue in the Fedora kernels. Here is the output of acpi_listen -c1 on Ubuntu 10.10:

Code:

sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011

This is looks right.. I'll probably try updating nouveau in Ubuntu, and installing the nvidia_bl driver.

 

I believe that's normal. Mine does that.

Yup definitely sounds like a config issue to me!

 

The fan is normal, it is expected due to the sony BIOS update because of reports that someone's vaio melted.

 

Hello,
I have a Sony Vaio CW VPC-CW290X. I have a 320 GB 7200rpm hdd that is what I ordered with it. Would I be able to replace this hard drive with a newer one that is preferably 1 TB for more storage without having to use an external. I have tried to look around for videos of this but I couldn't find one for my model.

 

Thank you, johnsto, Mrnelson1986.

Felipe7: If you open up the laptop and put in 1TB 2.5" SATA drive, it should work.

 

Thanks for the quick reply rohandhruva. Do you know if there are any videos out there that show you how to take the laptop apart to do it? I have never taken mine apart at all but I believe I should to give it a good cleaning since I haven't so far.

 

If it is anything like mine, swapping the hard drive is the easiest thing in the world: There is a square plastic piece on the bottom that comes out by unscrewing 2-3 screws, revealing the hard drive. You just pop that out and replace with the new one...done. As for cleaning out the entire thing, that is more involved with many more screws, and you don't want to touch anything you're not supposed to. There is a guide in this thread for opening up the whole thing, I forget what page it is, but search is your friend!

 

FYI, I've posted my experiences getting Ubuntu 10.10 on my CW2 here:
Ubuntu on the Vaio CW2 - Dave Johnston's posterous

 

Wow, that sounds really helpful! Thanks! I'll go through it.