Sony SE Owners' Thread

As much as I want to read through 190 pages, I thought it would be better if I asked here. How is the SE version with the 6630m graphics card, 15.5 inch? Are there any major issues that were identified through the 190 pages here?

 

Do you mean does the card have problems? Not many people posted about games but the 6630 seems to be able to run most modern games if you play with the settings enough.

Some people use a cooler, I play Diablo 3 and leave the laptop tilted on a stand to let the air out better. The fan kicks into high gear when gaming at some points. This is usually when it's really chaotic or in town (not sure why in town... must be a lot to draw).

I sometimes can't see flash video when using the ATI card but I imagine that's a driver issue. A refresh usually clears that up.

 

Thanks, what about the laptop itself ? Any issues there? Can it last me a good 4 years?

 

So no other suggestions on how to get it to power on when I open the lid?

This is only a minor annoyance, but it seems strange this is not the default behaviour.

 

I'm not sure, the build quality seems pretty good. The screen is flexible which concerns a lot of people but I haven't had any issues with it.

Might depend on luck and how well you treat your laptop. I made the jump from a budget Toshiba that lasted 4+ years (still runs but it's in a closet now) with a harsh life from Photoshop and gaming.

I'm waiting to see if Sony can live up to the past performance of that brick.

 

Anyone sort this, have the same problem, really annoying ;-)

 

As far as I know, this type of feature is a BIOS or vendor supplied option. You may want to check for it on another Sony thread.

I can do the "Power on on lid open" on my Toshiba Z835 but I have to enable in a Toshiba utility.

 

Hi guys, a weird issue exists on my laptop. When it's charging, web browsing is more faster. After unplugging it, if speed mode is on, there is no problem. But when i switch to stamina mode, there is a latency while surfing. Do you have any idea about this situation?

 

anybody tried the new lechcat drivers? I'm still on the OEM driver and looking to update mine.

 

Yes, I just installed on a clean Windows 7 install on my VPCSE2C5E, all working perfect and finally getting decent battery life (4-5h instead of 2-2.5h).

 

thanks. So no issues opening CCC then? read a few reports that the 6630m was effected.

 

I had another look at the Asus Zenbook UX32VD specs and it actually looks pretty good, except it's 13". I wonder if there is a 15" equivalent anyone knows of?

According to notebookcheck the IPS screen has almost complete coverage of sRGB. This is important to me.
Review Asus Zenbook UX32VD Ultrabook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

The HDD can be swapped out for a 7mm SSD, and has some kind of internal 32gb SSD for caching which is normally inaccessible but there are instructions on how to get to it.

There is 2gb ram onboard, with one slot up to 8gb, for a total of 10gb. I would prefer more, but 10gb is more than the 8gb I have now.

The ULV is a bit slow, but the i7-3517U might be almost as fast as the i5-2430M that I have in my SE. It is much slower than the i7-3520M though.
Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist - Notebookcheck.net Tech

I can't find full reviews yet of the ULV.

So between the UX32VD and the SE1, the Asus has a better screen, lighter weight, could be similar in speed. But the Asus is slower compared to 3rd gen laptops, 13" might not always be big enough for me, and can't have more than 10gb of ram, and no space for 2nd HDD.

I might be able to live with those restrictions.

Any thoughts?
Other laptops to consider with accurate (IPS) screen colors?

 

No issues with my 6630m, but as I said, I was on a clean install and had no ATI drivers/CCC installed before (which I suspect was the reason for poor battery life - I reckon without the drivers, even with the device disabled it must have been drawing power all the time).

I was surprised how easy installation was and how well all worked after seeing some people having issues.

Have to say - now with the battery issues solved, HDD swapped for 512GB M4 SSD and clean Win7 install it's fantastic laptop, 15.5" 1920x1080 IPS screen with decent i5-2450m, 8GB RAM and 6630m in 2kg for such a price is bargain.
And I absolutely love the screen, resolution, viewing angles and even colours are great.
No comparison to U2711 desktop but on the laptop is fantastic.
Would be great to have sound or aluminium body like wife's UX31, but again - for the price it's amazing value.

BTW - After testing fast (Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec) SD cards in card readers in USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and built-in card readers I have to say the built-in card reader is pretty pointless.

Here are results, using very inexpensive (£4.99 delivered USB 3.0 SD card reader):
USB 3.0 Card Reader in USB 3.0 port: 78.4 MB/sec read and 71.4 MB/sec write
USB 3.0 Card Reader in USB 2.0 port: 32.5 MB/sec read and 22.0 MB/sec write
Built-in Card Reader with Realtek drivers: 22.7 MB/sec read and 22.3 MB/sec write

After tests, this was the last device which I disabled and uninstalled drivers

 

have you considered this 15.6" FHD Vizio laptop?

 

good to know. +1 rep for you.
again, SONY failed by putting mediocre hardware in such a fantastic laptop.

 

Yes I've heard of it, but its over 5LB, almost 1kg heavier than the UX32VD. It also isn't IPS. I assume it uses the 95% gamut TN screen that Clevo and Lenovo uses, but the viewing angle and black levels are probably not so great.

 

Thanks. I don't think Sony failed, it is typical for laptops to have rather mediocre built-in reader speeds unless they are connected directly to more/faster bus on the board.
Perhaps this will change with Ivy Bridge boards (more USB 3.0 ports).

I'll check reader speeds in wife's UX31E, but so far when I checked same card in the same USB 3.0 reader in her USB 3.0 port I actually got slower speeds, ~67.7 read & writes, so thumbs up for Sony.

 

I thought the same thing, but it actually says it uses "IPS technology".

I'm quite interested in checking out some reviews of the new Vizio laptops.

 

I have a question, I'm using the latest graphics drivers from sony and I'm experiencing problems with the opengl acceleration in Photoshop CS5, so I wanted to ask everyone here what is the latest stable driver that fixes my problem?

should I install ATI's official drivers over sony's or does leshcat's drivers work good?

 

you can install AMD's official mobility drivers on top of SONY's in order to keep the graphics switching functionality. or you could uninstall the stock drivers and install Leshcat's drivers, and that will also make your graphics switching functionality work. i've read on Guru3D that the new Catalyst 12.7 has improved OpenGL support, so maybe you could try that one first.

 

I notice there are updates on the Vaio care for the ATI drivers. Which version are these?

If I was to install the leshcat drivers what is the full procedure to do so on the SE for best results?

Thanks,
Guy

 

you need to read the instructions on Leshcat's website and follow them exactly.

 

Done it so far as I can tell. updated the ATi and Intel drivers although I cant get the overclocking features that are shown in the lechcat thread on here. I need to read up on that side of things.

 

So, the latest leshcat drivers works flawlessly? I read about a lot of problems with video and stuff in the comments though...

 

i suggest you post questions about Leshcat's drivers in this thread.

 

will post in that thread but for mikkie I have issues with youtube videos not working. I have green screens.

 

that's related to AMD's newer drivers and is not Leshcat-specific.

 

Ah Ok, thanks. Hopefully there is an update then soon. I can switch to the 3000 gfx to view flash videos.

 

Another option is to Rightclick the video and go to "Settings".

Uncheck "Enable hardware Acceleration" and then refresh the browser window.

That's if you don't wanna hit the switch or if you have some program using your graphics card that won't allow the switch at the time.

I usually dont use the graphics card but always run into it when I have been gaming and forgot to flick the switch off.

 

Hello everybody, I've just receive a VPCSE-2C5E and I would like to share some considerations.
Bad things first...
I've been waiting for four (4) month to have this laptop, officially due the shortage of 7200rpm HDD. After two month, I was called by the shop to propose to switch to the 5400rpm HHD with bigger capacity: I was really against this choice (my other VGNAW11S has a SSD drive and it is just a nightmare to go back to a 5400rmp...) but they said that no more 7200 HD were expected to be available... so... not really a choice.
Two month after, I received the computer. So, first big complain: in four month I can have a car assembled, or I can mount my own computer mounting component by component.
About the laptop itself: it is extremely noisy. I would like to meet the one who designed the fan output, because it is half covered by the screen, that will off course get hot. Even loading a web page, the fan begins to scream to a really unacceptable noise level. On the other hand, my other laptop in the same room is as quite as it were off.
The right side of the palm rest gets also really hot after a short time, with the computer just installing a few programs (so, not real hard work for CPU or GPU).
Finally, the speakers are the worst-speaker-ever. No, really, I don't expect anything special from a PC speaker, but these really takes the computer sound back to earlier '90, a level between the Sound Blaster 16 speakers and the "default" PC speaker.
Just a note on Vaio software to close the "bad things" section: in four windows sessions, I had three crash of Vaio Idontreallyrememberthename software while it was updating itself. Annoying.

Ok, good things: the screen is very nice, good colors, very bright. The computer is impressively light (well, for me, anything below 4kg is light, with a 18.4" -but no, this is *really* light) but looks reasonably strong.
The keyboard gives a good feeling, I don't really like very much the light under the keys and I have not found yet a way to turn it off, but it's not a real problem.
The computer looks fast, 8Gb of ram are really nice and everything else looks fine.

Conclusion: I'm changing my opinion on Vaio laptops, I had always thought they were some of the best computer from the quality point of view, but after this experience I'm not so sure about that anymore. We are talking of a 1300€ laptop with a very poor cooling design, noisy fan and extremely uncomfortable palmrest. Not to mention the delay in delivery.
The worst thing is that I suggested this computer to my girlfriend, hearing the complaining about the delay was bad, but when she will hear the noise... that will be a real pain in the ...

 

Couple comments since I have similar spec:
1) 1300€ seems an awful lot and not great value, I've paid £699 for mine (i5, 6630, 8GB)
2) Mine isn't noisy at all, fan does pick up a bit while encoding etc. but definitely not noisy, and other than similar heavy CPU/GPU load - it is completely silent.
3) Does not get hot at all, it is warm in some places but again only after a period of heavy load. I've swapped HDD for a SSD though.
4) Speakers are not great, but they aren't bad either. Way better than on my previous Acer Timeline/Travelmate, but worse than on wife's UX31E

I have to say I'm complete opposite - with this one I've changed my opinion on Vaio's from overpriced and poorly engineered to excellent and great value.

To me is still amazing how they managed to put that much hardware and gorgeous IPS Full HD panel, all in magnesium alloy body for that money.

 

ok, you should first uninstall some of SONY's useless software. if you can give a list of what installed applications you have under Control Panel > Programs and Features and also the ones listed in Control Panel > Programs and Features > Application Manager for VAIO, i can help you with uninstalling the useless ones.

second, this is a very thin laptop compared to other 15" ones. given this, some amount of fan noise should be considered acceptable. note that i said "some" and not "jet-engine like". so i agree with you that the cooling is not very efficiently designed. i think part of the reason for lower temperatures on SVS15 (the 2012 15" S model) compared to SE15 (the 2011 15" S model) is clearly shown by these two pictures:

extra exhaust vents on 2012 SVS15:
blocked vents on 2012 SE12:

i have marked the extra exhaust vents on the 2012 model by red. i wonder if we can get that part from SONY and put it in our 2011 model laptops. to reduce the fan noise, you can set the Thermal Control Strategy in VAIO Control Center on Silent or Balanced. note that Silent keeps the CPU from going full-speed to reduce the generated heat. Balanced has been working fine for me, and i have the 13" version (VAIO SA) which is even smaller.

as for the speakers, i agree with you. they could have been better. however, they can be improved with some tweaking. you could try fiddling with Dolby features in the properties and also enabling full-range on the speakers which bring back the bass frequencies.

 

Lately I've noticed my computer seems to wake up a lot when the lid is closed and it's on standby. Sometimes I hear it power up for 10-30 seconds and then go back into standby. It also has been using up a lot of battery power (sometimes as much as 30%) while it's supposedly on standby. Has anyone else experienced this, or does anyone know what might be causing it to wake up repeatedly?

 

Just ordered one from the outlet store, as the deal was too good to pass up. $800 shipped for i5-2430M/6GB/500GB-7200/6630M/sheet battery/Win7Pro64.

However, a few days ago I found a post here that had a link to the Sony site to order clean-install media.
Of course, now that I pulled the trigger and ordered the lappie, I can't for the life of me find that post or link.

Anyone know off-hand what that link is? It sends you to the Sony site, and asks for your computer model # and serial number.

...shoulda' bookmarked the sucker...

Thanks!

 

Well, this is a i7, same graphic board, same ram... I suppose in Spain they are more expensive than in UK. It was bought through the shop with the official Sony prices - discount in march...

I made a simple measurement with the phonometer on my... phone -not really the best scientific measurement, but this is what I have here.
My AW11S at 50% of CPU load, with the phone at 10cm in front of the air duct, emits 13dB. The phone is almost not able to distinguish it by the noise background -me neither.
On the SE, at the same distance and with lighter CPU load, the phone measures 34dB, that is a HUGE increase in volume. When I was hibernating the PC the fan begun to speed up like an airplane at takeoff and when the computer shut down the room was impressively quiet.
Maybe the power consumption of an i5 is sensibly lower than the one of an i7, but on this pc there is a serious issue with cooling.

With 30ºC of room temp (I know, quite hot in southern Spain), the palmrest was at 36º, which is quite uncomfortable for me. I'm not sure if there is the HD down there or what, but it gets a lot hotter than my AW11S with an HD AND an SSD...

Well, I had an Asus, a Toshiba, a Sony and worked at least on three laptops of those brands, and I can guarantee that this one has the worst sound. I'll try to configure it a bit better, but I don't have much hopes...

I guess it depends a lot on the computer configuration and on previous experience. My 17" Toshiba broke literally in pieces after three years, so anything stronger than that would have looked well built, for example...

 

I've already begun, I'll come back on this topic if I have any doubt, thanks

I agree, I cannot understand why they partially covered the fan output with the screen.

Anyway, two questions:
- is it any way to control the light of the keyboard? It is completely useless during the day... and I don't really like it.
- did they change something in the "suspend" mode? On my other laptop -with Win7-64 too- when I select suspend, the computer actually turn itself off, with the power light blinking in orange. On this new one, when I select suspend it looks like it just... turn off the screen. As I touch anything, the screen instantaneously comes back. The power light remains green, the HD keeps spinning... What am I doing wrong?

 

Is the 6630m in the Vaio SE2 the GDDR5 version?

 

no, it's using DDR3 memory.

 

Will adding a 4GB RAM stick at 1.5V work with the SE2 series? I recently talked to a Sony representative online and they said the on board stick runs at 1.35V.

 

afaik, the onboard RAM for SE runs at 1.5v; the 2012 models (SVS13 and SVS15) run at 1.35v. fyi, i'm running a 1.5v 4GB module on my SA which is identical to SE hardware-wise, and it's been working flawlessly for 11 months now.

 

Hi, just ordered a 128Gb Kingston SSD (Not the best I know but for £50 worth a punt). I'm wanting to do a fresh W7 install. I am sure this has been asked a lot before so I apologise but it's tough to find info in this thread specific to this.

Is there a guide to doing this considering the switchable gfx and other SE specific drivers etc?

Also, best place for a 2nd HDD/SSD Caddy in the Uk?

Thanks,
Guy

 

So I installed a 4GB RAM stick into my Vaio SE2 which already has a stick soldered. I checked CPU-z, and it only detects the new G.Skill stick I have installed. However, Windows detects 8GB.

Is this normal?

 

I would like to connect two external displays in dual mode to my notebook, but sony support says this isnt possible, even with docking station
You seem to have it running in linux though and I want to ask whether it will run in Windows 7 aswell, or do I need some driver or special software for that?

 

I have the same problem, but mine will wake up and stay on until the battery dies and it auto hibernates, or until I physically address it myself (if plugged in).

Anyone have any idea's?

 

I just bought vaio se1 from amazon for $750 Amazon.com: Sony VAIO SE1 Series VPCSE17FX/B 15.5-Inch Laptop (Jet Black): Computers & Accessories
It comes with 4gb ram. I was thinking of getting 8gb ram to make the total ram 12 gb. Can anyone tell me if this is possible as I have read that we can install maximum of 4 gb ram in each slot. And is there any specific type of ram that I should look into (other than being ddr3 and 1333 mhz)?

 

12GB is the maximum, so you can install a 8GB stick. any PC3-10600 DDR3 SODIMM will work.

 

Hi all

I am new SE member. My model is VPCSE17GG, i7-2640M (2.8 Ghz) / 8Gb Ram / Win 7 Prof

I have replaced the internal storage with a Corsair GT 120 GB ssd.

I thought of doing a clean install with an UEFI usb flash but found out that the SE series is unable to boot up from external UEFI devices. Is that true?

Thanks.

 

Hi, I need a suggestion...
On my laptop there is a Radeon 6630 HD, which is giving some problem with 3D software like Vectorworks. The program freezes, a window pop out telling me that the video driver stop working and I have to close everything.
I've checked the driver version and it is the same provided by Sony, so I tried to install the Radeon software but it says that it is not compatible with the notebook. From my previous experience, it is just a non-sense introduced by sony for some purpose that I don't understand: it should be possible to insert the right .inf to be able to install the original driver.
Someone could help me with this problem? How can I install the last version of the driver? Thanks!

 

^ download and install the latest GPU drivers from SONY. if they fix your problem, then fine. if not, you can install the latest mobility drivers from AMD (the regular Radeon drivers do not work on laptops) on top of SONY-provided drivers (that is, without removing SONY drivers). again, note that you need the mobility AMD drivers, and you need to install them on top of SONY drivers.

 

why do you need UEFI? i'm not sure it works on SE.