Sony Vaio CB Official Owners' Thread

kk everythin seems to be in order now... i think i was just missin the event scheduler which was making things act very strange.
thanks accel for helpin me out.
and a big thanks for alex and avmaxfan for both the bios and the applications =D

 

btw bios was from alex ... so cheers for him

 

So a lot of action happened here while I was away.

I tried the update & now it works the way it should! Thank you all.

Also anyone interested in overclocking the HD6630M can do so using Sapphire Trixx.

Huge improvement in Windows Experience Index.

Before:


After:

 

somebody tried the last remnant on this laptop? I want to buy it from steam but i want to be sure that this game runs well... I read somwhere that people was having issues with the sahdows using an ati card because the game was optimized for nvidia...

 

Yes in most laptops with switchable graphics the Graphics score is of the Intel HD3000 rather than the dedicated GPU. Hence the low score previously.

And well you deserve credit too since I believe you were the one who found the new BIOS.

Anyways can someone tell me if the Intel HD3000 drivers have a model check too which stops it from installing in your machine ? If yes, I could look into it and upload the simple exe for you guys without any checks.
I cannot check it myself as my notebook does not have Intel HD3000.

 

Actually, the BIOS update was found much earlier by someone in this thread but no one paid much attention to it at that time since the description listed only a "fan speed" fix.

When I observed that "valrond" has a different version of BIOS from all of us & he has the switchable graphics method, I did a simple Google search. The first result was a direct download link to the newer BIOS installer!

I knew that the model no. checking can be disabled on the .exe somehow (hex editing or something like that). Never thoght a simple unzip would do the trick.

I didn't take the risk as a BIOS update intended for a different model can potentially kill a system.

Hat's off to "unpluggged" for taking the risk & trying out the update first.

I don't understand what you mean. There is a single driver package for the driver which contains both AMD & Intel drivers.

 

@avmaxfan

Yes it has.. I can't install the driver from VPCCA290X update 6630/intel 8.8.1.4000.. It has driver check

 

You meant graphics drivers from VPCCA2xxxx models ? The current drivers are working just fine why would we need that anyways ?

 

well, the driver we have, has flickering issues in DX9 games... without any hotfix... you could try it

 

^^ So the hotfix solves the problem ?

Also, I cannot install the CB29 Notebook utilities on my laptop. My model is CB15FG

 

yeah hotfix solved the problem, but i wonder if it has any other effect... in the old siwtchable we have... it makes the AMD always on with minimum clock 100 coreclock and 150 memory clock... so the amd is running hotter than usual

 

I didn't knew that. I'm using the hotfix. See if you could find an alternative.

 

Im also noticing an improvement in battery life now, but does anyone know a way to install newest drivers for the HD3000 card?

Newer drivers might further improve efficiency on the card and give better battery life...

 

Confirmed! Windows is showing about 5hrs left. Earlier, it was 3.5hrs.

Also, this is now behaving as muxed gpu switching. The display gets connected to one or the other GPU separately. When using IntelHD, the AMD card completely disappears from the Device Manager. Hence it is getting completely switched off.

To show you the switching:

Integrated:



Dedicated:

 

hmm i don't think when we use AMD card the intel switch off...

i still get the intel in GPU-Z

when i use intel, the AMD is definitely switched off...

the logic is

AMD > Intel > display

when you're using amd, it still connect to intel...

 

Its fine if intel is still running when using AMD. The main thing is that when intel is selected the AMD is COMPLETELY shut off, which is why the battery life is so much better now.

Before i was getting about 4-4.5hrs on battery with intel, now im getting around 5-5.5 hrs.

What I would like are the newest drivers for the AMD/Intel card. Its possible the newer drivers make the intel HD3000 even more power efficient than the stock drivers and therefore might result in even better battery life.

Can someone upload them without a model check?

 

yeah same with me... i'm waiting for someone who can bypass the model check

 

hi guys....my cb15 is taking very long time in startup..many times just hangup and dont get stsrted..i hav switched off many auto start application but still no luck. i only removed mcafee regedit files and the problem started....may b a coincidence...but its damn frustrating...if anybody could help please..

thanx in advance

 

you could try the CCleaner

 

There is no separate driver for AMD and Intel HD3000 as pauldmps mentioned, both are combined in 1 driver package.
The latest version available for CB2XXX is 8.811.1.5000 dated June 8 2011. What version do you guys have ?

Sony eSupport - VPCCB290X - Drivers & Software

 

True.

Since Muxless switching is a hardware implementation, it cannot be changed using software update. So the workaround is to use the Intel card as Mux.

Linux Hybrid Graphics: A BIOS update has been released for the AMD muxless HP dv6/dv7 61xx series

 

in Asian model we only have 8.811.1.0 dated 5 may 2011

 

Ok i will upload the files soon for you guys.

 

thx before...

really sony should have update their website and provide us update every now and then... damn them

 

@accel:
thanx dude, but i am a med student. dont hav much idea, registry analysis in CCleaner shows a lots of issues to b fixed, should i do it for all???

 

yes... fix it.. run it 2 times... and restart see how it goes

 

tried it...boot up time exactly 2 minutes.....it is still almost double than normal i think.!!1

 

and processing symbols keeps on whirling on network icon????

 

wow! battery life really improved!!

 

hmm, could you please give me the startup appllication list?

start > run > MSconfig > startup tab...

@Larry

Yeah, cos AMD is not sleep but turn off in power saving mode

 

Hi guys. I am thinking of buying VPCCB2C5E, configuring to my liking:

Intel® CoreTM i7-2620M, 2,7GHz
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
39,5cm LCD 1920 x 1080 +webcam
320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
etc. will add ssd.

I've read there is issue with OpenGL when switching from integrated to dedicated. Did they manage to fix it with any updates?

Also how is the recharge time when fully recharging the battery?

Upon reading this review:

Review Sony Vaio VPC-CB2S1E/B Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

"To fully recharge the battery, you’ll need a very long 2 hours and 55 minutes. This is longer than the battery even runs for during WLAN surfing."

If they managed to fix the graphic card issue I will be buying it.

 

@accel: here is the list

 

as my experience in this forum, the europe models do not have issue with openGL.. but if there is, we have solved the issue completely also by forcibly applied bios update from updated bios

@microsunday

i see you have disable many of the startup programs, how was it? any change? i don't see what to be disable again in that... i'd say disable some services too, but that's completely out of my expertise...

 

@accel: i hav disabled all these programs long time back, and all autoupdates also swithed off, still same problem.....which services can i disable????

 

Thank you for the quick reply!

Just curious how models from europe differs from any other region laptop. I assume the internal hardware would be the same, both In design and components. But that only be an A+

How did you know I was from EU or is the laptop im looking at only available there 0.o

 

that's out of my expertise sorry..

but i found some config in the google...

Black Viper’s Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Service Configurations | Black Viper's Website | www.blackviper.com

 

btw do the motherboard on VPCCB2C5E support sata3?

 

@accel: dude thanx but ur link is way heavy for me,i mean i didnt get wat to do,is it possible that there is some problem with some system files or something ??? can i restore my machine to factory settingand would dat help???

 

if you could restore to when do you think it still okay, it would help... the best is restore to factory setting... but remember backup all data to external drive if you restore to factory setting

 

accel

Can you try installing the latest video drivers from the link I posted ? Just choose country United States. There does not seem to be model check.

 

the models of the laptop

sony divided the laptops model on region area, Asia & australia , US & Canada, European

@avmaxfan

ok i'm downloading it now, but i'll try it later, cos my connection is really slow... about 2 hours

 

Ok!

All you other CB owners try and download the video update from the link I posted a while back. Try if it works.

 

I'd recommend a clean install.

The reviewers were probably using the laptop on the dedicated GPU as seen in by the Windows Experience Index rating. So the battery life was low.

There should be no problems running OpenGL applications as the laptop has a newer BIOS, again I can confirm by looking at the WEI rating.

 

I think laptop Is the one for me.. absolutely!

I already bought l502x but due to fan problem, a technicians came to have a look at it, and it seems the thermal paste wasnt properly seated. However the guy managed to cut it off completely, I am now unable to turn in on.

From what I could tell from the guy, this was not the first time he managed to "break" a laptop.

So from there.. it just went downhill. The technicians came on monday and told me he or another would show the day after but it is now friday and I havent heard from the technicians and even Dell couldnt do anything about. Told me to wait till I would get a pm.

Unfortunately I cant wait that long so I am gonna order myself a Sony Vaio and make use of my 14 days return. Well I only had it for 8 days and havent actually managed to use it all..

But the fans were loud, it was surprisingly bulky, but the display was amazing! Vivid colors and the subwoofers was terrific..

 

@ avmaxfan

It worked... Although I didn't know what's the difference... It seems like nothing change, the battery life is not change, nothing change in the CCC, just updated driver I guess...

 

^
Yup you now have the latest driver version. And its really unlikely to see an improvement in battery life (significant at that) from a driver update. However, you might see some extra fps in some games.

 

How much you payed for l502x ?
The CB screen is about as good but the speakers are terrible, just letting you know.

 

You'll get a FHD display but it isn't as vivid as the Dell's display. Also speakers is a downer.

You should claim a replacement instead.

 

I paid 1394 USD for it.

When I spoke with Dell, they couldnt or wouldnt give me a replacement unless the problem wasnt fixed after 3 service.

It sounds like both of you paulmps and avmaxfan would rather choose the dell xps15 l502x than the sony configuration I chose. I will be paying an extra 193 USD for the sony, but I will be getting an extra boost with the cpu, not by much but I guess its worth it for programming when compiling large amount of code and getting an exclusive white cover/panel not to mention a bit more sleek in design. But If I can get rid of the temperature and especially the fan exhaust I would say it might be worth it. I can see I will be losing a bit from the display and the sound.

It is a hard choice because If they did send me a replacement I would stay with the Dell, but they seem to be persistent about their 3 times service before doing anything. Maybe I can convince them by adding that the technicians actually made a few scratches when he did the maintenance/repair.

 

hi guys, how can i do a clean install???? i hav been having problem with my bootup.