Sony SE Owners' Thread

Hi Darxide, thanks for your answer.
I tried exaclty what you have suggested: I've downloaded the AMD mobility installer from AMD website and tried to install it on top of older drivers, but when I launch the installer I receive an error telling me that the video board is not supported and to contact the laptop producer.

 

My another system uses UEFI boot to support a 3TB hdd with GPT partition. Since I have a USB flash which was configured for UEFI booting, I am trying to see if that can be used to setup a cleaned Windows. My ultimate intention is to check if SATA 3 connectivity can be recovered if BIOS or legacy boot is avoided. Anyway, I managed to do a clean install with SRP (100 Mb system reserved partition).

With the stock Windows (on ssd), I do not have any difficulty in running AS SSD Benchmark, CrystakDiskMark or Anvil’s SSD Benchmark with Corsair GT120. However, if VAIO SE is set to Power SAVER mode (under Power Options), the system freezes (not responding) when running ATTO disk benchmark (2.47) and that is another issue I would like to investigate.

 

I know this was intended for someone else, but I would like to remove some of these programs. I just don't know which ones, if any, are useful and which ones are bloatware.

The only thing I see under Programs and Features is Vaio Care. Under Application Manager, I have:

VAIO Smart Network
VAIO Improvement
VAIO Update
VAIO Remote Keyboard
VAIO Control Center
VAIO CPU Fan Diagnostic
VAIO 3D Portal
VAIO Manual

Which of these should I get rid of?

 

uninstall the following (if you're not using them, of course):
VAIO Improvement
VAIO Remote Keyboard
VAIO 3D Portal
VAIO Manual

the latter, i believe, is just a couple of PDF files of user's manual. i have also removed VAIO Update myself as well, since i can always check SONY's website and download the updated software/drivers manually. if you like the convenience of VAIO Update, just keep it.

 

i'm currently running Catalyst 11.9 installed on top of SONY drivers, and everything works fine. this is the download link for the 64-bit mobility Catalyst 12.6, directly from AMD. which version did you download?

EDIT: the driver package's file size should be about 150MB to 200MB. you might have actually downloaded the utility that checks the compatibility and then downloads the drivers for you automatically, which is much smaller in size.

 

SATA III is disabled by SONY with a BIOS update. i don't think you can restore it by avoiding the Legacy mode and using UEFI. (the 2012 S series is also crippled by the SATA II speeds, and they are indeed using UEFI.)

 

Thanks for the pointer.

Bad news if they have done it on purpose. I think if I did my homework, I would have bought a different system. But other that, it is a nice system.

 

You are right, I have downloaded just the utility... I'll try again this afternoon, thanks for the link!

 

Darxide, the update worked fine, but the problem still there.
In five minutes I had two crashes, the second one while I was changing the name on a file in the explorer... I'm beginning to think that is not a problem related to Vectorworks.
Maybe disabling the Aero interface may be worth a try...

 

^ sorry to hear that. i'm out of ideas. could be a hardware issue, or could be the drivers again. i can't be sure.

 

I hope it is not an hardware problem... after waiting 4 months for the delivery of the computer, I don't want to wait other 8 for the repair...

 

I can confirm that! Under linux I use two 1920x1200 screens via HDMI and VGA with the Intel driver. It failed under Windows.
I chopped the plastic of the VGA-connector between the "main body" and the part, that contains the screw. That's no problem with a cutter. Afterwards I bended the rest of the metal shield against the "main body". Not only Sony places the video interfaces too close.

 

I noticed that switching to the "Stamina" setting, the problem has disappeared. It looks like it is definitively an issue with the AMD video card...

 

I put a SSD in my SE and did a clean Win 7 install. I hooked the SE up to my amp last night to watch a file which had the AC3 codec. I wasn't getting DD5.1. I've got the right codecs I think. tried with both VLC and WMP running on the 6630m. Any ideas what drivers i need to download or settings to change? Thanks.

 

Hey everyone looking for some help

The screen on my Vaio SE which I bought in January has kicked the bucket. Seems like a loose connection to the motherboard. Does anyone know the exact Sony UK support number? Don't want to be passed around call centres or have any hassle that way.

Also I assume web sales have to go back to Japan? If that is the case has anyone else ever sent their laptop back and has a rough ETA for me? Being without the laptop is going to impact my work efficiency.

Thank you!

 

Sony are trying to quote me £272 to repair my LCD as there seems to be a small crack on the display.

Already contacted and complained at how extortionate it is. Waiting for a reply.

In the mean time cheapest I can find to do it myself is £78 - Sony VPCSE1C5E Screen, Sony VPCSE1C5E Laptop Screen at BatteryMall.co.uk Anyone have any experience with said site and any alternatives?

 

hi, just read the last 10 pages to dive into the matter,
just got a new se and i want to make a clean install.
is there somewhere in this thread a guide to do that?
especially with only the minimum vaio sotware to install, so every (fn&special) keys are working. also read about lechcat drivers for switchable gfx, which one exactly (mine is ati 6470) and i didnt find a link to lechcat, his site seems to be down.
also to adress the somewhat offset color calibration, where to download a better profile and how to apply it globally.
thx

 

197 pages and nobody cares to answer??

 

check the SA/SB/SC owner's thread. i think there are instructions for clean installing there, and there are color profiles in that thread as well (calibrated for SA's screen, so you've been warned). do a search, and you'll find it.

 

Does anyone know of any panels that have orange gate fixed? The panel is my Vaio is LP156WF4 (SL)(B1)

There are later revisions of it, B2-B7, does anyone know if LG fixed the issue?

 

The Envy 15 thread has more information about OrangeGate.

Last I remember, it's better but not completely fixed.

 

hey guys i just got a Sony Vaio SE1 15.5 inches with i5 2nd gen... I see in the first post that you can enable 2 finger scrolling? how do you go through and change that registry?(step by step please, not too good with computers)... and also, any other drivers that I should download to improve the laptop? I was looking and found a google code called 2fingerscroll, is that a better option or is this way smooth already? thanks.

 

Hi Mastapro,

Hit the Windows Key to open the startmenu.
Type "regedit" (if a prompt shows up with a warning or a password, type it in and continue)

Hit Control + F

Type "TwoFinger-Scroll"

Wait for it to search for the key.

A list of keys should appear, double click "Visibility"
The Value data should be 0, change this to 8
Close Regedit and restart.

You should now have the Two Finger scrolling option in the trackpad control panel under Synaptics.

I definitely recommend getting 2finger scroll and making it start with Windows. It works really well and is lightweight. You can adjust the settings to match your preference and the difference is night and day.

If you're feeling more adventurous, try this

Get Mac-Like Scrolling and Gestures on a Windows Laptop

I think that's the right article. Keep a backup of your current touch pad drivers.

Good luck!

 

When i try to ctrl-f that TwoFinger-Scroll, it can't seem to find it. anyways what i did was delete my current drivers and downloaded new drivers from theh synaptic driver site...v15_2_20. i got 2 finger scrolling option now but it's not that good in my opinion. it's not as responsive as a mac and sometimes doesn't pick up that fact that i'm scrolling... oh well

 

Ah sorry it didn't find the option. You would have to manually go there but I'm glad it showed up with the new drivers.

It won't be as responsive as a Mac no matter how hard you try but I found it's much better than the stock drivers when you combined it with TwoFingerScroll.exe

It took a lot of tweaking with the settings but I ended up fairly comfortable with it.

 

hey guys so i just got this laptop(VPCSE13FX) and i recently just looked at the task manager... there's about 120 processes running.. is this normal? on my desktop, there's only 50 processes running and even on my old laptop it had 70.... which processes should i turn off at startup?

 

^ uninstall some of SONY's bundled software; if in doubt which one to uninstall, ask here or google for more information.

 

how do i go about doing that? i'm kind of a computer noob lol. i want to get under 70 processes

 

Most can be removed using the Control Panel and the Uninstall feature in the Programs section.

 

hope someone can help me I cannot turn on my keyboard backlight on my vaio. I just bought it last night (SVE15116EA) in the Vaio Control center under" > "the Keyboard/mouse options" there is no option for the keyboard backlight"".. the only option there is for the trackpad options. hope somebaody can help me

 

yes. Control Panel > Programs and Features > Application Manager for VAIO.

 

I'm planning on upgrading my RAM in my VPCSE13FX, and everything I find says the laptop as a 8GB limit. Why is that? I was going to throw 16GB in this bad boy, but is that not possible?

 

12GB is the maximum, see this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...22-sony-se-owners-thread-195.html#post8778134

 

From what I remember from the disassembly, there is a spare mSATA slot on the motherboard. It looked big enough to take a mSATA drive. Since a 256gb mSATA is quite cheap now on Newegg for only $230, I was thinking of trying to install one. Has anyone successfully installed a mSATA into this spare slot?

I'm thinking of changing my Samsung 830 256gb to a 512gb, and then using a 256 mSATA for a total of 768gb. I already have my original 600gb hdd in my optical drive, but I would put the optical back in and completely remove the 600gb hdd. Less noise, less power, and no chance of data failure while moving the laptop with power on.


Here is a screenshot from kruegsch's disassembly video.

 

i think it's a mPCIe port, not a mSATA one.

 

HI!
I have vpc-se2n1e, i5,amd6470, 8gb, 500gb hd
When i have the computer in hibernate mode its work fine when i wake up the pc. But if i will reboot later system try to update windows setting and it allways stuck in 15% and i have to close pc from the power switch and restart from last working configuration. This never happen if i not have the pc in hibernate mode. Happy if some one can help me here

SRY for my bad English

Best regards//Patrik

 

my guess is that the last Windows Update got interrupted somehow and didn't finish, so any reboot will trigger it and make the OS run the update process again (but it will fail). have you tried to System Restore your laptop to a previous date before that last update and then to rerun Windows Update again?

 

In case anyone is curious, the WiDi works great on the SE with this: Amazon.com: Netgear NTV200S NeoTV Pro Streaming Player: Electronics

I bought one last week and have been using it to stream VLC player, youtube, and whatever my PS3 won't do without converting. DVDs and BluRays don't work but that's not really an issue I care about,

Nice to be able to use this feature.

 

Has anyone gotten the bezel off of the dvd drive of a VPCSE? I can get all the clips off except the one on the far left hand side (with the lens faced down). There's no screw I can see holding it in place and it seems any more force will break it.

In any case, got a cheap $13 hard drive caddy and it works great. Removed the two clips from the dvd drive that secures it to the laptop and placed it on the caddy. Would be perfect if the bezel can be removed.

 

Hey, I got some problems with my DVD drive, It's a "Matshi.ta DVD-RAM UJ8A2AS".
now my problem is that it doesn't seem to be able to write any DVD's, well sometimes it can and sometimes it can't, even when using the same type of media.
I keep getting "power calibration error" when using nero and when trying Win7 burning software, it just says it just stops before the burning process starts.
I did do a clean install of Win7 at the time I bought it, so it could be driver related, but I have been updating the drivers also so I'm at the end of my wits... can somebody help me?

 

Has anyone tried to install the official Windows 8 release on their SE yet, using the drivers Sony has released for WIN8? Personally, I'm finding the instructions to not be very clear (I have the VPCSE16FX). I'd like to do a clean install, and have read these instructions: Windows® 8 Clean Install Instructions for VAIO® PCs, which end with an ordered list of the WIN8 drivers to install, some of which say "(if applicable)." And, in the notes it says: "If a file marked (if applicable) above is not listed on our web site for your model, you do not need it." I'm assuming what Sony mean here is that when you filter the driver list for your machine by Windows 8, if a driver doesn't appear in the list, you don't need it. However, that raises a number of questions for me:

1. When they say "if it's not listed, you don't need it," are they actually referring to the scenario where one is installing WIN8 on top of WIN7, rather than a clean install? Some evidence for this is that the page: Windows® 8 Upgrade Instructions for VAIO® PCs is identical in every way to the instructions for doing a clean install.

2. The WIN7 graphics drivers were a combo of AMD & Intel drivers whereas the only WIN8 graphics driver listed is "Intel® Graphics Driver." I'm not sure how to interpret this: Will Windows install the AMD driver? Should you download it direct from AMD? Did Sony just forget about it?

3. Other drivers are missing completely from the WIN8 list, for which I have the same questions, except in this case I'm also wondering whether the WIN7 drivers should be installed in their absence. For example, no audio drivers appear in the WIN8 list, which is a concern as I've found that the Dolby drivers are a must have in order to make the internal speakers usable. Also conspicuously absent from the WIN8 list are a number of Intel drivers/apps as well as the Synaptics touchpad driver.

4. Many of the WIN8 drivers are uninstallers, so I'm assuming they're not needed for a clean install? This is especially confusing for the "VAIO Care ™ and VAIO® Update Uninstaller," as its description says it installs VAIO Care and Update.

If anyone has some insight or experience with these issues, I'd really appreciate it, as although I'm interested in installing WIN8 I'm not so interested that I lose key hardware functionality from WIN7.

Thanks!

 

OK, Windows 8 Pro 64-bit.

After reading and playing for 3 days, this is what worked for me, with the hybrid/switchable graphics
It's a combination of what others have posted in different areas for different reasons/issues:
Laptop is VPCSE190X,i5-2430M, 6GB RAM, 120GB HDD (for testing), HD6630M ATI

Clean-installed Windows 8 Pro 64-bit

Installed:
Sony Firmware Extension Parser from Windows 7/64-bit on Sony site
Sony Shared Libraries from Windows 7/64-bit on Sony site
Sony Vaio Control Center from Windows 7/64-bit on Sony site

--REBOOT--

Installed (switch set to SPEED) Win7/64-bit AMD/Intel driver from Sony site - I used ONLY the 2nd "update" file

--REBOOT--

Installed AMD driver (switch set to SPEED) from Sony Asia Pacific for VPCSE17GG ( Graphics Driver (AMD) version 9.1.0.0 for Windows 8 Upgrade : Download : Sony Asia Pacific)

Works for me.

WEI confirms differences between STAMINA and SPEED, as well as PowerPlay changes in CCC when in SPEED mode.

I haven't tried the Win8/64-bit Vaio Control Center yet, so I may image it out, image back to pre-drivers, and try again using the WIn8 version.

Can't see what it'd offer that's new, though.

When using just the win7 drivers, it would switch for me, but I'd get all-black Metro icons, and artifacts on the desktop/explorer side, on SPEED mode.
Switching back to STAMINA would correct it, but obviously no AMD 6630 video.

Cheers, and enjoy!

 

Glad to hear you're seeing success. Where did you find out that the AMD driver from the Sony Asia Pacific site might work for your machine? I chatted online with a Sony support rep who was pretty clueless about the Windows 8 drivers, and the only real input she provided was to say to wait a bit to see if Sony release more (but she didn't know whether they would). I did notice that for some other VAIO laptops with hybrid graphics, they have separate WIN8 drivers for the AMD Radeon HD 6630M and the Intel on-board graphics (e.g. the VPCCB190X), which leads me to believe both that there should be an additional WIN8 AMD driver for the SE and that, unlike the WIN7 drivers, they both can be installed individually (I'm assuming you would need to switch between STAMINA/SPEED accordingly). I'm also therefore wondering if it would work to install the most current drivers direct from AMD and Intel (no idea if this would work, but assuming not)?

 

I tried the latest AMD drivers afterward, and they did not work.

Anything I tried, like to run Catalyst, would fail, complaining about the driver.

Also, when switching modes, I'd always get an error in the notification error about the AMD driver crapping out.

As to where, honestly I can't remember - don;t know if it was on here, or somewhere else. What I D/L seemed to be a VPC SE, so I imaged the machine out, and created a restore point, then followed other instructions elsewhere about activating the buttons using SFEP + Sony Shared Libraries + Vaio Control Center, and then saw the mode switch worked.

First I tried the first set of W7/64 drivers, but that kept blue-screening, so then I restored back, installed the 3 hotkey tools again, and then used the W7/64 drivers labelled as "update" and then it worked, although when switching, the Metro UI tiles were black, and there was artifacting on the desktop, as well as the charms slider, and all other pull-outs being invisible.

At that point I remembered reading about the APAC drivers, switched to speed mode, installed them, and been working great since.

Note that you probably need to install the W7 drivers first with switch set to SPEED, to have switchable, and then apply the APAC drivers, again switched to SPEED, for it to work most likely.

 

I see now that this page: Move up to Windows 8 includes a listing of different ways by which to get Windows 8 drivers for my SE, including as part of the "VAIO Upgrade Tool," which costs $19.99 and will be released here in early November. Hopefully by that time they will have added the drivers that currently appear to be missing (i.e. I hope Sony actually knows they're missing to begin with).

 

I just bought a VPCSE290x with i7 and 8gb ram and 750 GB HD from the outlet. Looks new and was built in 05/2012. I am going through windows updates and planning on removing some bloatware. Problem is, it is verry slow as it is. I mean installing windows updates took 4 hours!!! The hard drive is made by Hitachi and their DFT tool does not support the controller so cannot test it. Memtest86+ passed.

Is this normal? I will continue testing but I seriously believe something is not working right. Any suggestions? I almost read the whole thread while waiting for it to finish!!

 

can someone help me with this ? http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...e2aj-too-many-problems-after-bios-update.html

 

If you're using the OS as it came from Sony on the HDD, then yeah, it's bloated to death.
Is it a 5400rpm HDD, or 7200RPM? That would also slow it a bit, although, you do have an i7.

I always image out the machine when I receive it, and then reload from WIndows DVD.

 

So I've been emailing back and forth with Sony support, and I asked them to tell someone that the Windows 8 AMD graphics drivers weren't up for the VPCSE. Not sure if it's just a coincidence, but there now is a combo AMD/Intel driver for Windows 8 posted on the support site (at least I checked for my model and yours). The individual "Intel® Graphics Driver" is still there too, but I'm guessing it's been obsoleted by the new combo driver and possibly that Sony neglected to remove it. Now I'm going to email them and ask about the other missing drivers, such as the audio drivers, and see if that works too .

 

I believe that your computer is not SE or S series but E series instead(at least if you wrote model number corectly), and I think that E series doesnt have uderlit keyboard. So thats the reason why you cant turn it on.