Sony SE Owners' Thread

Which issue?

 

The screen doesn't show the color red? It shows orange instead

 

I could be mistaken but I don't think it is something you can fix.

I think the colour/red discussion starts at this post.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/614822-sony-se-owners-thread-29.html#post7995251

It shows up for a few more pages but maybe you'll find a more concrete answer.

 

@ moralar

thx. i did just that now and the system works considerably more smoothly.

@ all SSD OWNERS

i am thinking now of buying an ssd. it will either be 256 gb or 512 gb.
now i have to questions:

1. IF i go with the 512 gb version: how long would the life-span of an ssd roughly be under normal to intense usage?

2. i am thinking of getting the crucial m4 OR the samsung 830. now i know that many people in this thread own the m4 and some own the 830. do you have any experience (goog or bad) with the respective ssd's that i should know about in advane?
such as...
- does the size even match the storage slot in my vaio?
- how annoying is that noise several owners talked about earlier in this thread?
- is it easy to flash the firmwares onto the ssd's?
- do i need to change windows 7 settings before and/or after installing the ssd? (e.g. defrag-settings and such...)
- in germany both ssd's are about the same price. so: would you go with the crucial m4 or the samsung 830 if you had the choice?

thanks in advance!

 

Hi,

So for the noise, it is really not bothering at all. It did bother me once, at 6h00 in the morning after 20 hours of work, nearly straight...

As long as you have a 2,5" inch SSD it will fit in the slot.

There is, to my knowledge no need of changing Win7 settings for the SSD.

For the life span and the firmware flash, I do not know.

I went for the Samsung 830, as I read multiple posts on the web, saying that crucial does have some firmware issues...

 

Hi all,

I have used the SE in the store and have had the Envy 15 2011 for a few weeks now. I have a hard time deciding if I want to jump boat to the Sony Se. Main reason for getting th SE is for the matte screen. Anyone here owns both, please share your thoughts and opionions. I use it mainly for gaming and some coding on it when I dont few like working in the office.

Thanks.

 

Been working with my VPCSE190x for a few days now. I have everything the way i want it except...

Dual monitor display not working. Kind of. The laptop is in a docking station that has 2 ports - 1vga and 1hdmi. I have 2 monitors hooked up and the mobo and gpu can see them both, but i cannot extend the desktop to both.

The only combination it allows me is the laptop lcd and ONE of the TWO connected external displays. What is wrong?

My old Dell Precision M90 was hooked up to a docking station with an NVIDIA and the dual external worked just fine.

 

Im looking for a 4gb ram to put in for my beautiful black SE. Can i just buy any type or is there a special type i have to look for?

 

You must buy a SODIMM (For notebooks), any reputable brand (but low price) will do, but specs must be 9-9-9-24 DDR3-1333.

Any owners with the keyboard skin, can you comment on how the typing experience is? Would also like to see it on the SE in a photo, because I have only seen the skin itself on Sony's website. I may decide for the "Evil Empire" (Apple) look with the black keyboard skin to look somewhat like a MBP.

Does the skin not "smudge" the screen (when the lid is closed)?

 

The definitive Orangegate answer

Before I bought my Vaio SE, I thought everything was fine and dandy, but then I stumbled on Orangegate. Lucky for me, I already ordered it online and it was far enough along so I couldn't cancel the order.

In any case, I couldn't find a definitive answer to whether the colour of the screen is going to bother me. In a word: it doesn't bother me.

To help anyone else thinking of this computer, I gathered all my electronics that had a screen and took a picture with all the computer screens showing the same image: picture

The equipment and details I used to compare the colours are as follows:

• Camera: Canon T2i on Standard RGB colour settings
• Lighting: No Flash. Natural light from a window on a cloudy winter day
• Laptop 1: White Macbook (2006, glossy screen)
• Laptop 2: 15.5" Vaio SE (2012, Anti-glare screen)
• Phone: iPhone 4 (not 4S, glossy screen protector)
• Monitor: 24" HP W2407 (92% Colour Gamut, glossy screen)
• Car: 1:18 scale Red Ferrari Enzo by Hotwheels (glossy paint)
• Other: Image unretouched, no colour calibration performed on any monitor

This is the result. Of course, if you're looking at this picture on a Vaio SE, you're going to think all my screens have some form of Orangegate. However, when previewing the image on my T2i Camera, its very obvious that even the Macbook, which I thought had an awesome screen, doesn't display red as "red". Its still pretty orange, if you ask me. The HP LCD really shows it as "red" and deserves it 92% colour Gamut rating.

One thing to note: You can't see any reflections on the Vaio SE. Shows how awesome the anti-glare is. Should you buy one even if the colour is off? Yup.

 

Great picture VaioCanuck!

I wonder what your favorite car is.

 

Thanks for the comparison, VaioCanuck. I wonder how a modern Macbook Pro would stack up; I think it would do better than the 2006 Macbook you have in there.

Incidentally, I find the term "Orangegate" amusing enough that I took this little screenshot in Google Street View.

 

Moralar,

I ordered a Sony SE, and waiting for the shipping ! I have a question for you :

I think you have done a calibration on your sony SE screen.
Have you notice a better red color after it, or it still not at all very orange ?

Thank you

 

@Fatflo
The colour issue is something you cannot "Calibrate out". I've gone into the settings and boosted the red in the RGB and it still turns out very orange. Even tweaking all the other colours doesn't change a thing

 

Fatflo,

As VaioCanuck observed above me, it's not possible to calibrate out the bad colors. You can kind of fool yourself a bit by tweaking the color properties in the Intel graphics control panel, but ultimately that's all it is -- fooling yourself. Here is the xy chromaticity diagram for my SE:



To oversimplify somewhat, the white triangle is the set of colors that the display is physically capable of reproducing. The dark triangle is where it "should" be according to the sRGB standard. Let's imagine a third triangle (I'll call it a grey triangle) which represents the set of colors that the display is configured to reproduce. In an uncalibrated state, the white triangle and grey triangle are identical. Calibration can shrink the grey triangle by moving its corners inward by various amounts, but it can never make the grey triangle move outside of the white one in any way. Since the red corner of the dark triangle is physically out of gamut (i.e. outside the white triangle), there's nothing that can be done.

 

Thanks for the explanation.

And tweaking saturation of red could be an answer?

 

If you desaturate red by a lot, you won't see orange anymore. Instead, things that were supposed to be brilliant red will look washed out, like ketchup mixed with mayonnaise. And of course, many other colors besides red will be affected. I experimented with this but, as I said, I came to the conclusion that I was only fooling myself, so I reverted all those color settings to default.

After using the machine for a while, I got used to the bad colors and the orange doesn't actively bother me as much, although it's still noticeable all the time. I would never do any color-critical work on this display, such as photo editing, or watching videos where I really cared about the colors for whatever reason.

 

I used to buy the Sony Vaio F23 for his good screen and great performance. But I prefered to take the Sony SE which as a good screen, a better battery, a great design, a lower weight. Despite of his bad color accuracy...

For photo editing, i will use my old 19" MVA external monitor... Photo editing is not my main use...

 

I'm considering the SE base model for a work pc (design) and have read the horror stories on the fan. Does this thing howl like a mule running photoshop/dreamweaver?

If it doesn't by default, what settings can/should I edit? I don't mind lowering clock speed on cpu or gpu if it still runs smooth AND quiter..

 

Unless you're running a 24/7 production database on an SSD, life span isn't a serious issue anymore, especially one as big as 512G. A 24/7 transaction database server doing thousands of transactions a second can kill a moderately sized SSD in less than one year. Since you'll be doing at most a few thousand writes a day, and not a second, you'll likely replace the computer or SSD before it ever wears out.

 

Thanks alot! The drivers really improved the sound and other issues! But the speakers are still bad compared to my lame toshiba i had before.

 

Is this laptop available anywhere with a lower resolution? Like 1600 x 900 rather than 1920 x 1080?

Thanks...

 

Blasphemy!

I think only the SA has 1600x900.

 

Vaio Screen Dimming on Dark Background Web pages/pictures

I've stumbled on a really annoying "Feature" of the Vaio SE. Every time I navigate to a dark webpage (Gmail with the "Graffiti" Theme) or open up a dark image, the screen will automatically lower its brightness. Then when I switch back to a regular bright webpage or the desktop (bright blue), the screen will increase brightness again.

I've turned off the automatic light sensor in the Vaio Control center, and my Power Plans do not have anything switched on related to brightness. I've disabled all "Dim screen after _____Minutes"

I'm sure this is a Vaio feature as I have never encountered this on any other computer. In case you're wondering, the screen takes a few seconds to dim and brighten on its own. It happens on every brightness setting, even on the "lowest" brightness setting, the screen will dim even lower than its lowest brightness setting. It doesn't matter if the computer is switched to Stamina or Speed mode. zit is most definitely NOT related to the ambient light sensor because when I put my finger over the sensor, nothing happens, only the keyboard lights up.

Thoughts

EDIT: Solved

Its related to the Advanced Power Options> Intel(R) Graphics settings> Intel(R) Graphics Power Plan , You have to set it to "Maximum Performance". That resolves the issue

 

Yeah, I know. But that resolution is a bit high for me on that size screen. 1600x900 is perfect (for me) on a 15 or 16" lappy in my opinion...

and 1600x900 is a bit high for me on a 13" screen.

Oh well...

 

It's a dilemma. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

But if you really want the "cake" (the 1600x900), it's possible on SE, but it's not native resolution (you can't have the plate for the cake!).

 

Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel > Power > set Power Source to "On battery" from the drop-down menu> uncheck Display Power Saving Technology

 

You could also buy the 15" Sammy series 7 laptops, which use a 15" 1600x900 display in a similar form factor.

 

That's a good one too. I also like the 14" version since it doesn't have a number pad (I'd rather not have the number pad on my laptop) although it's got 1600x900 too! So hard to find the "perfect" laptop, isn't it?

 

just a quick one to any one who has ordered a configureable se model from the uk-do they have the fingerprint reader ??

 

I purchased mine online (configured for me) from the UK Sony Store and it came with the fingerprint reader between the two touchpad buttons

 

thanks for the reply mate !!

 

Theres so many different ram sticks.... can anyone in the US who bought an extra 4gb ram for their SE possibly recommend me one? links would be greatly appreciated!

 

the estimated ship date for a customized SE on the canadian site is march 2012.... is it normal for them to take this long?

 

I didn't get a reply a few days ago so I'll ask again.

Can anyone using photoshop comment on the fan issue...does it constantly howl using design programs?

also, is sony the best place to order.. I see em on newegg a little cheaper, but don't think it comes with sheet battery

Thanks!

 

I bought this from the Canadian version of Newegg but it's the same model. No problems so far.

Newegg.com - Crucial 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model CT51264BC1339

Mine came in 14 days and it was ordered a bit before Christmas, maybe they are restocking them after the holiday rush.

I use Photoshop CS3 all the time and the laptop is usually silent or close to silent.

It does gets loud when on SPEED mode and playing videos/games. Sometimes it is loud during Windows Update or Backup.

Also I ordered from Sony, no problems at all and seemed to be a lot cheaper because they had a lot of deals on during the holidays.

Hope that helps.

 

I ordered mine from Crucial.com. Entered model number and ordered recommended ram module. Sorry, I don't have a link handy. Easy install (found great video on YouTube). Shows 8gb and works great.

 

thanks a ton..i have a desktop for gaming so this will be primarily a work pc. that helps alot..

 

The Screen in this laptop is pretty amazing, not far of the Z in terms of viewing angle, contrast, leaps ahead of the SA and SB screen which is terrible..

Also does this use the Exmor camera?..

 

Anyone can cmpare SE screen to chronos? Cus when im reading reviews by notebookcheck, theres info about color gammut and chronos and sony have almost the same, the only diffrence seems to be problem with magneta in sony. Also Vaio have better contrast and viewing angles.

And how you can say this screen is brillant after that .

 

now that people have had this laptop a while, is this scratch issue common? wasn't sure if it is the way the extra battery clips in, a manufacturing issue or a pretty isolated incident. I'm purchasing my vaio today and am just deciding between silver and black...this will help me figure it out..thanks!!

 

No errors like that on mine that I can see.

Black looks great but shows dust, more incentive to keep cleaning it I suppose.

 

picked up a virus on my new se. will doing a fresh windows 7 install ruin any functionality on the computer? hotkeys, etc.

i wanted to clean out some of the apps anyway, but still want functionality of linking ps3 to pc and maybe some others. if i do a fresh install, can i get those back?

my computer didn't come with a windows boot cd that i can tell

 

What virus did you get?

I have a feeling I got one on mine... but it seems like the same as on my 15z when I had it.

Does 2 things:

1. Browser opens a LinkSys web search page (I don't have a LinkSys router)
2. When I hibernate or sleep, it randomly turns itself back on.

 

i had microsoft security 2012 virus. turns out pressing f10(?) on bootup brings you to a restore utility..

takes a couple hours, but i was able to successfully restore to stock. not a big deal since my computer was basically brand new..

they did have a recovery section where you can try to keep your files within that utility..worth looking at.

good luck!

 

How long You can surf in the Internet guys with wifi on the battery (no slice one)? Of coruse stamina mode on.

 

Hey guys. I just picked up my vaio and I'm having a few issues and I was wondering if anyone is having the same issues. First my iphone headphones (with mic) don't work very well. Sound is quiet, no bass and there is crackling, any one have any issues with something similar? Also my touch-pad clicks and is somewhat loose as well as my left mouse button. It seems as if the spring that pops it back up is out of place or broken/weak. In all its a great laptop and these are just minor problems other then the battery/ram cover not being on all the way. I really don't want to return to sony as I don't trust fedex, this one arrived in decent shape.

edit:its a cto with a 2.4ghz i5 8gb ram 6630 ati card with 750gb hdd if it matters

 

Same for me!

 

I manage around 3 3/4 hours on mine

 

I heard one guy says with ssd hd he can took 6 hours it is possible?