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    Sony Vaio CA Official Owners' Thread

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony Owners' Lounge Forum' started by Micaiah, Mar 25, 2011.

  1. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    The CA is now available to order. This is the owners' thread for prospective owners and owners of the 14.1 Vaio CA.

    Just ordered a VPCCA190X with the i5 2540M, 6630M GPU and the 900p screen, will be here in 5 to 7 days. Crossing fingers they are not using the same display from the CW series.
     
    Micaiah, Mar 25, 2011
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  2. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    Tailgunner, that's the same as my order, if you got it in black. I did not choose to upgrade the memory though, I can do that for $80 from newegg/amazon and then sell my existing sticks.
     
    soguxu, Mar 25, 2011
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  3. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    I got it in white. I actually configured the notebook with the base 4 GB of RAM and the 320 GB hard drive. I have a pair of 4 GB DDR3-1333 RAM sticks sitting around and I just picked up a 160 GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD for it. Other than the underclocked GPU and a possibly disappointing 900p screen, this notebook is the closest I've seen to my ideal notebook.
     
    Micaiah, Mar 25, 2011
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  4. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    I ordered on 3/14 and I got Fedex tracking information on 3/25. It's being shipped directly from China.
     
    soguxu, Mar 26, 2011
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  5. billu77

    billu77 Notebook Guru

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    Even I ordered on March 14th but the order status still shows as "being built". It shows the estimated shipping date to be 03/29. When is yours due to arrive?
     
    billu77, Mar 27, 2011
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  6. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    Mine is already in the US! Estimated delivery is 3/30 by 10:30 AM according to Fedex.
     
    soguxu, Mar 27, 2011
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  7. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    It shipped really fast. I have my Vaio CA in my hands already and it looks good in black:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    soguxu, Mar 28, 2011
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  8. NYSportz

    NYSportz Newbie

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    Looks nice! How's the screen?
     
    NYSportz, Mar 28, 2011
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  9. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    The AMD Catalyst control center is missing many options, such as gpu information and overclocking. How can I enable them?
    The screen looks fine by the way, not on par with the best screens, but definitely better than the 768p screen on my 13" Asus.
     
    soguxu, Mar 28, 2011
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  10. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    I am absolutely hating the software on this thing with regards to switchable graphics. Every time I need to run something, I have to specify whether it is intel or amd graphics, what a POS. I don't want any settings for applications. I just want a PHYSICAL BUTTON to turn graphics on or off, that's it.
    Ridiculous that they can't get such a basic feature right. AMD sucks.
     
    soguxu, Mar 28, 2011
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  11. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    Try the drivers off AMD's site. OEM drivers tend to be missing some advanced features in exchange for simplicity/compatibility. So how's the fan noise?
     
    Micaiah, Mar 28, 2011
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  12. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    The fan is constantly on but not really bothering me, similar to my UL30VT under moderate load. The amount of bloatware is bad, I absolutely hate everything made by Symantec. I'm copying the files off my SSD at the moment so I can put it inside the Vaio.

    A good thing is that the hard drive and memory are really easy to upgrade. The DVD drive can also be removed by just undoing 2 screws. I'm going to order a caddy for a 2nd hdd and an external enclosure for the DVD I'm removing.

    By the way, you cannot get drivers from AMD for Sony OEM laptops, they won't work.
     
    soguxu, Mar 28, 2011
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  13. vasra

    vasra Notebook Enthusiast

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    vasra, Mar 28, 2011
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  14. Midnighthawk

    Midnighthawk Notebook Enthusiast

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    What's the battery life for this thing?
     
    Midnighthawk, Mar 28, 2011
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  15. billu77

    billu77 Notebook Guru

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    Congrats on getting ur CA so soon. My order status changed to "shipped" today and it shows that it was picked up from a location in china and ETA: before 10.30am on 31st March. I hope it comes soon. Could you provide a brief list of what all bloatware to remove?
     
    billu77, Mar 28, 2011
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  16. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    Vaio CA uses the flawed B2 Sandy Bridge chipset, but Hard drive is on port 0 and DVD is on port 1, and there are no eSata ports on the thing, so it's not something that will ever effect anyone. This also means that if you replace the DVD with an SSD in a caddy, you can raid it with the main HDD (replaced with a SSD) and both would be on 6 Gbit/s Sata interfaces.

    About the bloatware, I am not even going to bother with it since I'm installing
     
    soguxu, Mar 28, 2011
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  17. fitftw

    fitftw Notebook Enthusiast

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    bloatware is why I would get Fresh Start with Windows Pro. It's only $50 and seems worth it to me.
     
    fitftw, Mar 28, 2011
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  18. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    For me fresh start is not that useful since the first thing I do is to replace the hard drive with my SSD :)
     
    soguxu, Mar 28, 2011
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  19. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    Screen info: (I got the 1600x900 screen)
    AUO B140RW02 V0
    Manufacture date: 2009, ISO week 33
     
    soguxu, Mar 28, 2011
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  20. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    200 nit screen with a rated contrast ratio of 400:1. Only a 45% NTSC spectrum display. Better than what the CW and EA had, but not by much. That's not going to fly for me, I guess I will start hunting for a better screen.
     
    Micaiah, Mar 28, 2011
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  21. ota-con

    ota-con Notebook Deity

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    ota-con, Mar 29, 2011
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  22. lemongalaxy

    lemongalaxy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Got mine today.

    [​IMG]

    Mixed impressions so far. The white version looks good. Screen (1600 x 900) better than average but not great. Key travel a little shallow. Radeon 6630M performance better than expected. Also, mine doesn't seem to have switchable graphics unlike the person who commented earlier (not that I care though). Bloatware is very heavy but not too difficult to remove.
     
    lemongalaxy, Mar 29, 2011
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  23. Midnighthawk

    Midnighthawk Notebook Enthusiast

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    Did you tested the battery life yet?
     
    Midnighthawk, Mar 29, 2011
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  24. lemongalaxy

    lemongalaxy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Not got round to that yet. I'll test the battery tomorrow - but with HD3000 graphics not available I wouldn't expect much out of the battery. Now I'm using it in the dark, the poor vertical viewing angles are becoming VERY apparent. The software build on this thing is crazy - brand new laptop but all the bloatware is massively out of date - for example, Google Chrome 5 was installed!

    Vaio Update doesn't work yet and the Vaio Care software lags really bad, is unstable and constantly prompts to install an update, which appears to install and reboots the laptop but seems stuck in a constant update loop. I only want to use it to create recovery discs, a massive 13GB required!
     
    lemongalaxy, Mar 29, 2011
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  25. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    What do you mean you don't have switchable graphics? Right click on the desktop and the menu that says "configurable switchable graphics" pops up there!
     
    soguxu, Mar 29, 2011
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  26. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    Anyone curious about the battery life, mine is showing 4 hours and 45 minutes remaining at 1/3rd brightness and a VM running with the standard battery. If you get an extended battery, it's going to stick out the back.
     
    soguxu, Mar 29, 2011
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  27. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    For those that have gotten their VPCCA190X, does your order status go immediately from Processing to Shipped? I was wondering if it was like Dell where it started at Processing, then to In Production and to Shipped.
     
    Micaiah, Mar 30, 2011
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  28. lemongalaxy

    lemongalaxy Notebook Enthusiast

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    No, I have the catalyst control center in the desktop contextual menu but no switchable graphics options. Also Intel graphics are not in the device manager at all.

    Do you have the 6630m option or the standard graphics? Perhaps it doesn't work with the 6630m?
     
    lemongalaxy, Mar 30, 2011
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  29. billu77

    billu77 Notebook Guru

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    I havent got mine yet but it is "on transit" from fedex. After "payment processed" for a couple of days, I saw shipping notification e-mail from them. I did not see any "In production" status.
     
    billu77, Mar 30, 2011
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  30. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    Thank you for the feedback. It appears they are having an issue with my order since I'm still stuck on the first stage. I'll contact Customer Support.
     
    Micaiah, Mar 30, 2011
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  31. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    I have the 6630M and right clikcing on the desktop brings up a menu, where one of the options is to configure switchable graphics. I also have access to the Intel graphics control panel as well as Catalyst Control Center.
     
    soguxu, Mar 30, 2011
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  32. lemongalaxy

    lemongalaxy Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've worked out what the problem was. They've pre-installed the 6470 driver instead of the 6630M switchable graphics driver. I can tell by the version numbers - on the Sony website the driver version for 6630M is 8.811.1.0 , I have 8.802.1 installed. Downloading the correct drivers now!
     
    lemongalaxy, Mar 30, 2011
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  33. lemongalaxy

    lemongalaxy Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hopeless. The 6630M driver doesn't install properly. It installs way too quickly and only a few Intel Media components end up being installed (only 20MB or so out of a 480MB decompressed installation package) but no display driver! I've tried everything I could think of. Had to give up and download the 6470M driver again. I'll give them a couple of weeks to straighten out their updates and give it another try.
     
    lemongalaxy, Mar 30, 2011
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  34. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    Try the VPCSB190X's drivers. The driver version is the same, but for some reason the size is different.
     
    Micaiah, Mar 30, 2011
    #34
  35. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    I set up mine from scratch and the VPCCA 6630m drivers worked fine. They were mistitled as 6330m drivers in the install file though :)
     
    soguxu, Mar 31, 2011
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  36. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    Did one of you guys find out what the 6630M's clock speeds are?
     
    Micaiah, Mar 31, 2011
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  37. lemongalaxy

    lemongalaxy Notebook Enthusiast

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    485Mhz Core
    800Mhz Memory

    I don't think AMD allow this one to be custom clocked.
     
    lemongalaxy, Mar 31, 2011
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  38. billu77

    billu77 Notebook Guru

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    Can someone please provide a list of bloatware that can be safely removed from the VAIO VPCCA?
     
    billu77, Mar 31, 2011
    #38
  39. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    Holy cow Sony didn't underclock it. The HD 5650 in the EA and EB was underclocked by 100 MHz!
     
    Micaiah, Mar 31, 2011
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  40. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    Pro-tip: Download the Synaptics driver from the Synaptics website, not Sony support website. You'll get multitouch scrolling, zooming this way. Unfortunately the Sony drivers do not have multitouch.
     
    soguxu, Apr 1, 2011
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  41. ota-con

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    ota-con, Apr 1, 2011
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  42. lemongalaxy

    lemongalaxy Notebook Enthusiast

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    It seems we ended up with completely different software builds on our CA's. As well as the apparent differences with switchable graphics drivers, my CA has full multi-touch capabilities on the touchpad, with the pre-installed driver. Seems to be no consistency at all from the factory.
     
    lemongalaxy, Apr 1, 2011
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  43. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    I swapped out the stock hdd with my SSD (and put the hdd into my old computer) and reinstalled windows from a usb stick, and then downloaded the drivers from the Sony eSupport website (US). It all seemed to work :)
     
    soguxu, Apr 1, 2011
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  44. ota-con

    ota-con Notebook Deity

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    ota-con, Apr 1, 2011
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  45. revamperz

    revamperz Newbie

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    Hi

    Can someone ( owner perhaps? ) check out if the optical drive is easily remove for upgrade?

    eg. back panel screws or complete keyboard removal

    thanks :)
     
    revamperz, Apr 3, 2011
    #45
  46. Micaiah

    Micaiah Notebook Deity

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    Here you go.

     
    Micaiah, Apr 3, 2011
    #46
  47. Dreamycreamy

    Dreamycreamy Notebook Consultant

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    Hi!

    Can anyone tell me what the battery is like with and without the large capacity battery please.

    I'm really loving this laptop but I saw on pg3 I think that with only 1/3 brightness they only got 4:30 battery life and my minimum is 5 hours...






    Also, would anyone be willing to sell me this:

    http://www.sony.co.uk/product/batter...pe=Compatibles

    As you can see, its not available in the UK AT ALL! It's the large capacity battery to the Sony Vaio CA. If someone can sell me this battery via Ebay I would buy it (obviously for the price you/they bought it for).

    Just buy it, put it on ebay and contact me and I'll buy it, I don't care about the import tax. I'm a respected Ebayer with a Paypal account...

    If you are willing to do this (thankyou!) I'll give you my email so we can arrange/plan this.
     
    Dreamycreamy, Apr 3, 2011
    #47
  48. soguxu

    soguxu Notebook Evangelist

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    I am probably the first person who just swapped out the internal DVD with a second hard drive on the Vaio CA. It's a very easy task, just get a 12.7mm SATA caddy, available from various places and ebay and a SATA 2.5" Hard Drive.
    DVD is attached to the computer with 2 screws. Take them out, take the DVD drive out, then get the two metal pieces that those 2 screws go in out from the DVD RW, and attach them to the caddy along with the faceplate. That's it.

    I can confirm it's working well on my CA, I now have a 2.5" Intel SSD as my primary drive and a 640GB low power drive in the DVD bay. I also took the faceplate from the DVD and put it on the caddy, my CA looks perfectly normal, except you can't eject the DVD :)

    I also got a USB case for the notebook DVD's and put my DVD-RW in there to use as an external unit in case I need it.
     
    soguxu, Apr 3, 2011
    #48
  49. SheldonCooper

    SheldonCooper Notebook Consultant

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    Hello,
    can anybody kindly provide his DSDT?
    Thank you
     
    SheldonCooper, Apr 4, 2011
    #49
  50. merzbow

    merzbow Notebook Enthusiast

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    Got tired of waiting for Asus to get with the program:

    Product: US-VPCCA190X-LBOM
    Component: Blu-ray Disc™ Player
    Component: High capacity battery
    Component: AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB VRAM) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
    Component: Fresh Start
    Component: No additional AntiVirus Software
    Component: Sony® Imagination Studio™ Suite
    Component: 6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
    Component: Intel® Core™ i5-2540M processor (2.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.30GHz
    Component: 500GB Hard Drive (7200rpm)
    Component: Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter (Click More Info for details.)
    Component: Black
    Component: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
    Component: 14" VAIO Display with LED backlight (1600 x 900)
    Per Unit Price: $1,399.99
    Quantity: 1
    Total Price: $1,399.99
    Description: VPCCA190X Configure-to-Order
    Ship Method: Expedited
    Estimated Ship Date: 04/13/2011
     
    merzbow, Apr 4, 2011
    #50
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