Sony Vaio CA Official Owners' Thread

Hi everybody,

I'm posting here because I bought my orange CA in april and I'm having a lot of problems with it. Originally I bought it with 2GB of RAM (single channel). The problem is that I'm trying to upgrade it to a 2x4Gb kit from G.Skill ( G.SKILL-Products) but the system freezes randomly. I have passed memtest and VAIO Care checkings without problems; and BIOS and Windows detect the correct amount of RAM. Also, the modules have been running fine on a Mac Mini. But no matter what combination of modules I try (2+4, 4, 4+4), sooner or latter it ends up freezing. It can be just after Windows loading or after a long period of intesive work or playing.

Here is the report from CPU-Z: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6583959/CHEVE-VAIO.txt
AMD drivers are version 11.9 from AMD Catalyst 11.9 WHQL (8.892 September 8) - Download & Discussion - Guru3D.com Forums and they work flawlessly. Laptop is the european model.

I suspect it is a problem with the BIOS, but I haven't found any for my VPCCA1C5E, and I'm not sure about flashing one from a different model.

Any help?

Thanks in advance!

 

At last, the new drivers fixed the hdmi issue for me ...

 

New ATI hotfix for better performance and solved some issues for rage/battlefield game:

http://www2.ati.com/Drivers/hotfix/catalyst_11.10_preview/amd_catalyst_11.10_preview3_win7_vista.exe

 

Didn't help me. The same annoying flickering when connecting and BSOD when switching to extend screen.
European VPCCA2C5E here (UK).

 

hey all -

just a few impressions of my first week with this laptop
i have a VPC-CA15FG/W
Intel i5-2310m
4GB RAM
AMD 6630m/Intel HD
Hitachi 500gb


i chose this laptop as a replacement for my old sony vaio CW (which replaced an even older vaio CS) as my experiences with sony have been some what pleasant. I have owned many sony laptops over the years and have been generally satisfied with them and have put up with the sony BS in regards to driver updates but wow... the CA series is just a little too far over the line...

1. AMD6630M/Intel HD... worst decision ever... why not stick with nVidia 540M with optimus + a physical switch if you really had to subject everyone to this hybrid graphics monstrosity? no clue... i do not want to rely on your slack as software development for driver updates... why wont you be a part of AMD's driver program where we can download the latest dynamic GPU updates instead of systematically destroying your loyal customer base? atm i cant even play bf3 properly... argh... i havent even dared to try any other games... i might actually cry if sc2 or the soon to be released D3 has problems with this card... i hear you can apply hotfixes? but im not really sure how they work and i'd prefer not to mess with uninstalling/installing stuff too much - question: are they cumulative hotfixes? e.g. if i have catalyst 10 and the hotfix is for 11.10b will it work?

2. The Intel Wifi 1000 card is a piece of ... i cant connect my BT mouse, Kb and have wifi running at the same time... my bluetooth devices keep dropping out. It feels like a downgrade from my CW which had a Intel 5100 (at least it supported 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz so they could exist happy). I know they tried at add this fancy Intel Wi-Di tech into it... but seriously... why does my card feel like a downgrade to 2 year old tech?

3. HD web camera? im slightly convinced the older 640x480 VGA motioneye cameras gave better picture quality (apart from resolution - the 720p video looks grainy anyway)... maybe im wrong...

/end rant...

meh... apart from a few problems (above)... i guess i cud live with it. battery life is improved over my CW (i guess the hybrid BS i mentioned above has some use after all...) and it runs a bit faster as well AND it looks somewhat prettier as well - they have managed to create this illusion where the laptop looks like its thinner than it actually is haha - a hand-me-down from the CW series? Keyboard is the usual sony chiclet and i love the response of the kb - nice & springy and has ample space between keys (i actually find that i prefer it to my USB kb...). Touchpad is slightly annoying as the two finger scroll does not work as well... i installed synaptics scrybe drivers. maybe its the patterned touchpad? not really sure - will do more investigation although i cant really complain as i am changing it from the stock drivers but there SHUD be no problem... odd... it does not always register 2 fingers. USB 3.0 is one of the redeeming features of this laptop - fast and runs to spec no complaints here. speakers are average but its a laptop so i dont expect much. at the very least, the laptop runs cool with configurable fan modes.

maybe ive been too harsh? thoughts?

 

Official 11.10 drivers for those having problems with Sony updates: AMD Catalyst 11.10 WHQL (8.902 October 12) - Download & Discussion - Guru3D.com Forums

EDIT: I see all youtube videos green...
EDIT2: Fixed by disabling hardware acceleration. I'm going to try performance on BF3 and if it is the same as in 11.9, I'll revert back to them.
EDIT3: I don't know whether I'll stay on 11.10. I think I'll wait for you to have more opinions. BTW, BF3 is running 20-30 FPS @ 1280x720, with everything set to max except motion blur, no AA, no FXAA, AF 1x and SSAO; which has surprised me greatly.

 

is this a problem? i cant find 6630m in the list of supported cards?

 

Since I installed 11.9, GPU appears as "6600M and 6700M series". But, 11.9 worked flawlessly.

 

Just received a notification from VAIO Updater about a new AMD driver. Installed it (for some reason it's 11.7) and IT FIXED MY HDMI ISSUE!!! I'm so happy Finally. Took them ages but at least it works now. I can extend my screen without it BSOD'ing.

 

Just received a BIOS update for my VPCCA1C5E from VAIO Update: R0230V2 -> R0242V2. The changelog specifies it fixes the GPU switch and improves battery life.

I've installed it and I don't see the new options in Energy section inside Catalyst CC. I've reinstalled AMD drivers from recovery partition, then updated them through VAIO Update. CCC info (in spanish, sorry):

No new features were added to the BIOS menus.

If system remains stable, I'll try again my 8GB DDR3 kit (fingers crossed).

 

Ojalá y te resuelva el problema...suerte!!!

 

what model do you use?

 

Created a signature for my profile with my stats:

Sony VAIO C Series (VPCCA2C5E)
Intel Core i7 2620M @ 2.7+ GHz | AMD Radeon 6640M 1GB | 14" @ 1600x900 | 4GB DDR3 RAM | 320 GB HDD | Windows 7 Home Premium

Asus Lamborghini VX6
Intel Atom D525 @ 1.8GHz | nVidia ION 2 512MB | 12.1" @ 1366x768 | 2GB DDR3 RAM | 250GB HDD | Windows 7 Home Premium​

 

Well, after flashing the new BIOS it seems the problem was a faulty memory stick... (maybe I tested them wrong last time). The good thing is that finally I have a system that is stable with 6GB.

 

hm... and there is no problems with the dynamic switching? im downloading them now but i was under the impression that only hotfixes didnt destroy the dynamic GPU thing? this is a full replacement right?

 

I never had GPU switching. So, in my case nothing changed (apart from better performance in games). They don't include the intel package present in Sony drivers, so if you use gpu switching, better stick with Sony drivers.

BTW, I'm running again 11.9 ( AMD Catalyst 11.9 WHQL (8.892 September 8) - Download & Discussion - Guru3D.com Forums. Same performance as 11.10 but no problem with youtube videos.

EDIT: I'm starting loving this laptop. I made some OC to the GPU up tu 650/1000 and I got a boost of more than 10 FPS on all games (almost 20 in SFIV AE). So, now I find it a very decent gaming platform. Even BF3 runs at more than 30FPS

 

IT WORKSS!!! I'M SO HAPPYYY!!!!!

 

may i ask, what driver do you use?

is it this ?

VAIO : Sony Europe

 

Yes, but you should only use the version that is relevant to your region. The one for the Americas came out first, I had to wait for the UK one. If you're not in either of those regions, I suggest you wait for your one to be available, which I'm sure will not be long...

 

Hi, is there any Linux Distro that support amd hybrid graphics out of the box?, i tried Ubuntu 11.04 with no luck, installed amd propietary drivers but Catalyst CC always crash so i couldn't switch cards.

 

HI all
wondering if someone can help me.
im interesting in upgrading my Vaio CA's ram to 8gb. ive read that a 8GB Kingston PnP 1866 would do the job. IS this ok?!?

 

thanks for posting the info on BF3. are you running your 6630m with the default core voltage or did you overvolt the GPU as well?

 

Im using Kingston PnP 1866 2x4gb around three months and they working perfect, no problem.

 

What processor do you have? i read that the pnp RAM wont work on I3 processors

 

i7-2620M 2.7Ghz

 

Just replaced the Intel Wifi 1000 with Intel 6300. It's not that hard but you do have to undo about 16 screws. Don't lose them!

 

Default voltages.

And just for people who don't switch between GPUs: AMD Catalyst 11.11 WHQL (8.911.0 October 25) - Download & Discussion - Guru3D.com Forums

Working perfectly (as opposed to 11.10).

And now a more general question. I tried playing the new Zelda game emulated with Dolphin and it is able to reach full speed but every 10 seconds performance drops to something like 20%. The same happened today with NFS Hot Pursuit: Sometime it reaches 60FPS without problems, but then drops to 10FPS. Also, performance in Skyrim is awful. And it is strange because if I compare it with BF3, it seems there is some bottleneck, but I don't know where. Of course, I have tried lowering the graphics options (and also updated the MB drivers just in case) but the problem persists. Other games like Darksiders, Portal 2, Alice Madness, SSF IV and rFactor run great practically maxed out.

 

it might be the AMD PowerPlay in CCC, throttling your GPU.

 

I have tried disabling it and FPS got worse. Now I have it enabled for maximum performance when conected to AC.

 

might be bottleneck on your hard disk...

 

Is it possible that we are already at that point when a 7200RPM HDD is a bottleneck for games?

 

yes, that's why they created SSD

 

pffff ok. Then I'll buy one in the future... I already had plans for doing it, but it is still not the right moment for me.

 

Not kidding, but I have had video and audio stuttering issues in SC2 and TF2 before that were resolved when I went SSD

 

Upgraded to an SSD and all games running smooth as silk (40-60 FPS @720p), high-max details. I think I'll have to put one of these in my desktop too

Thanks!

 

great... seems like HDD aren't enough to accomodate games anymore

 

Heh. Now it seems the magic was not in the SSD, but the clean Windows install... I'll have to think about keeping the SSD, because I'm loving how snappy is the system now...

 

really? have you test your system with clean install on HDD?

 

Nope, but the same problematic games installed and launched from the old HDD (connected by USB!) run ok now...

 

i know that SSD won't help on framerates

Well, SSD does empower your machine with the ability to maintain extremely high throughput as queue depth increases. As a result, you can run into performance-degrading situations when multiple apps are running concurrently, reflected as choppiness when you're playing a game. It's not a constant phenomenon; rather, you see periodic hiccups that interrupt the suspension of disbelief made possible by really great games. You don't see it with an SSD installed. The best (and perhaps most typical) example of this is when an anti-virus app launches a full scan in the background.

i know this because i tested it... launching on USB HDD might be alright because it loads on memory first...

 

I understand the benefits of SSDs, but I don't know if it is the best time for me to upgrade to them. Maybe I can live without it for some additional time. I'll have to think about it during this weekend. Anyway, thanks for your help!

 

Can you recommend with that program better to make overclocking to GPU?

 

I'm using Sapphire TriXX. It was recommended previously by other users of this forum, and if I remember correctly it is the only one that allows OC to our GPUs.

 

yes... it is the only program allows OC on this laptop

 

Having problems with Sony VAIO C VPCCA15FG
due to the GPU.

AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M / Intel® HD Graphics 3000
Switchable graphics ;
Although in games , I'm able to switch and utilize the AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M and everything goes on smoothy but it seems that when it heats up to 60C (monitored using GPU-Z)
The GPU starts shutting down as in ( GPU utilization 100% drops to 0% gradually ) which causes game fps to drop and performance drop as well.

This happen just 5 mins the game started , and there's no way or solution that I can find online.

Do need some help here.

 

are you using bios patch unofficial tat provided in CB thread?

 

Nope, mind telling me what is that?

 

OK, I downloaded and used the unofficial patch and it solves the problem.

Thanks

EDIT: Now I have the problem that I cant control the volume and brightness with my FN key, any solutions?

 

use the CB290X utilities

 

Hey! I have a VPCCA36FG since about a month ago.

Suddenly when I tried my webcam it says "webcam not found". I think this has something to do with the driver. Sony website doesnt help me much, what am I supposed to do?