Sony X Series Official Owners Thread

Hi David. I think the problem with Chrome is that it now enables GPU acceleration by default. But the GMA500 driver doesn't support it properly so rendering becomes unbelievably slow and buggy. Try adding these parameters to your Chrome shortcut:

chrome.exe --disable-accelerated-compositing

This worked for me.

Also, one more thing I've noticed - do NOT install IE9. I've tried it 3 times now and I swear, each time it's caused Windows to feel more sluggish. Just simple file copying, for example. Every time I un-install it's fine again. Maybe I'm imagining it, but when you install/re-install you get the whole "Windows is making changes to your computer" routine on start-up, so maybe IE9 is overstepping its bounds and affecting Windows Explorer too. It wouldn't surprise me given how unnaturally fast it starts up.

 

Hi Quiff and thanks for the information.

Actually I wasn't going to say that there is a problem with Chrome. Rather, it is the opposite (regarding video): 720p flash seems to play best in Chrome, not so good in other browsers. However, compared to Opera, Chrome overall is just too heavy, slow and noisy on the X.

Thank you also for the advice to uninstall IE9. The X actually DOES feel snappier now.

Thanks also to matthias2468 for the teardown images link.

Anyway, for comparison, I am currently testing one of the supposedly overall still best subnotebooks, the Acer Aspire 1810TZ.

The acer looks very nice, has a decent (large) keyboard, and can be run completely silent (for standard tasks) with a special tool, it consumes only 9-15 Watts, has a Synaptics Touchpad with great features (gestures & momentum) as well as powerful graphics.

However -- although the Acer supposedly is among the most stylish and thinnest netbooks, it looks like a brick when compared to the X. The Acer feels at least twice as thick and heavy as the X. Place the acer somewhere in your living room, and everyone raises the eyebrow asking "so you have a computer even in your living room!?"

Do the same with the X: if it DOES get noticed at all, it does not appear as "a computer in the living room", but instead sits there like a stylish piece of art. Besides, of course it beats any imaginable assortment of the latest Apple gadgets.

Anyway, what I was going to say: Although that little Acer is a fantastic subnotebook in every sense, I'm pretty sure it won't replace the X any time soon in my case.

However, I will keep it around for the kids (or something)

Cheers David.P

 

Hey guys! It's been a while. I just wanted to let the forum know that I've settled on intel's 2030 driver until we get something better - I like having the FN buttons working, and Flash 11.1 is pretty good. I was very disappointed at Intel's last round of EMGD "updates".

In my disappointment I went out and got myself a Z2 - and it's a dream. I can't believe how responsive it is, the thing's a workhorse, and is *almost* everything I want in an ultraportable. I guess to me, the Z2 is missing the "ultra" that the X has. I can't bring myself to get rid of my X and honestly I split my laptop use evenly between the two. When I'm out of town or out of country, you all know what I opt to take.

Just wish Intel would release a *real* EMGD update!

 

Glad you're enjoying the Z2 MM. I went to check one out and it's an amazing machine. How does it feel so solid for such a light unit? But I've become too attached to the X's form factor that I think I'm basically stuck with it until it breaks!

David - thanks for the tip about Opera. It's not a browser I'd tried before and I'm currently testing the "Opera Next" Alpha with Opera Adblock installed. I have to say this is something of a game-changer. It makes Chrome seem slow and bloated as you say. And the email client is something else - I can't believe how quick and easy to use it is. Now I just need a Calendar extension. Once I get used to this idea of the sidebar I will be sold on it.

One of the remaining themes for this thread is probably going to be "software to revive the X" and I would urge any X owners to follow David's advice and check out Opera. Somehow that browser had just passed me by. It makes Chrome feel like IE6!

I'm also glad to hear I wasn't imagining things about IE9. But the correlation is clear for me. After installing it I get 2-second lockups every time I copy a simple file in Explorer. Also, I see two of the copied file in the Explorer pane until I manually refresh the window - clearly some kind of bug. I un-install IE9 and the problem immediately disappears. Get rid of IE9 folks.

 

Here's a tool that is quite neat since it allows to edit, save, and apply different configurations of the windows services:



What's new - Advanced Uninstaller PRO

You can play around until you find a minimum services configuration that works for your usage and network scenario. In case something breaks you still can go back to the original (full) configuration, which otherwise (with no way to save service configurations) can be hard to do.

Make sure to save your initial configuration before you start changing your services startup type.

Cheers David.P

 

Unfortunately, Opera 12 Alpha ("Next") which now at last has hardware acceleration, again is not (yet) compatible with the Intel GMA 500 of the X (meaning that hardware-accelerated scrolling is off, see in the Opera:GPU page).

One more Opera-related tip: the only Windows Aero feature that DOES seem to have a negative impact on Opera's speed (especially scrolling-wise) is Transparent Glass. Everything else is perfectly fine with Opera (including Aero Peek). If only Transparent Glass is switched off, Opera scrolls VERY smooth (of course with smooth scrolling turned on in the Opera settings.

Cheers David.P

 

Thanks, I've turned off smooth scrolling and that saves plenty of CPU cycles. I've also disabled 'UI animations' in opera:config, which stops the CPU spikes as you mouseover tabs.

I'm surprised at how snappy this feels. It's like using Chrome on my ugly HP work laptop that never leaves its docking station. Now if only Opera let you middle-click on bookmarks in the Bookmarks Bar. That's the only painful thing I'm struggling with.

 

You can try and run this Autohotkey script at Startup (with Autohotkey installed, which is a matter of seconds):

Code:

#Persistent  
#SingleInstance force
#IfWinActive, ahk_class OperaWindowClass
$RButton::
Send, ^+{LButton}
#IfWinActive

(copy and save as text, rename *.txt to *.ahk)​

This way, right clicking on things opens them in a new tab in the background. A normal right click can still be made via "Ctrl+Right Click".

Cheers David.P

 

BTW: is there actually any notebook in the world that is thinner and lighter than the X? I think not! Not even the legendary X505 is lighter, let alone thinner. And by "thinnest notebook" I mean of course by looking at the thickest part of the notebook, not by measuring "how stupid is that" the thinnest part

Cheers David.P

 

Thank you, I've successfully bound MButton to open things in a new background tab. I'd prefer it if it was foreground tab, but this is still pretty good.

I'm currently trying the sidebar with "Bookmarks Split" mode, which in theory is the perfect configuration as it opens tabs in the foreground.

 

would any further person who has uninstalled IE9 confirm that there is a plus in speed afterwards? i still doubt this could be true (just beeing skeptical, no offense ), but I'd uninstall it rightaway when there's truth to it.

>> for opera users:

Opera: check out this extension: Open With Long-Click
by spadija:
https://addons.opera.com/de/addons/extensions/details/open-with-long-click/1.2.1/

i am using it all the time.

Also, note that you can put the back and forward button as well as a small address bar left of the tabs bar, thereby getting rid of the main address bar, saving you a line (and also get rid of the status bar, it suffices to see a links url in a popup when hovering).

to open an address in a new tab, get used to hitting f2 before entering the address.

<<

 

hi there,
i've been using X for more then 1 year now and i must say I love it

2matthias2468
since beginnig i've been using ie8 and then updated to ie9 - i have to say that was an improvement (i mean ie9 worked faster - the whole system of refreshing windows and switching between them (while using ie) worked faster)

not so long ago i changed to opera and it was an improvement again !! - in my opinion.

but anyway - windows update still gives me updates for ie8 whlie it is uninstalled


2others talking about performance
on my X i'm wattching ts (1080i50 with h264) without any problems.
since that is what i mostly do on that computer i'll list things you need (there is realy nothing else needed):

-as splitter use av splitter - unpack and take only one file from there: "avsplitter.ax" and register with regsvr32

-as decoder i made a lot of experiments and finally came back to ffdshow, but be aware: LATEST FFDSHOW WITH WORKING DXVA ON GMA500 is 3758 built from february this year - I already have a ticked on mpchc forum and looks like there found a problem so maybe it'll be fixed shortly.
There is no need to install ffdshow as well - just copy its folder somewhere and register the file "ffdshow.ax", then run rundll32 ffdshow.ax,configureDXVA (case sensitive!!) and configure dxva - there is no other way of doing it since you haven't istalled it

Finnaly the player:
belive me vlc is not for this computer (I read some post earlier ppl were really trying using it)
use mplayer (nogui - veeeeery fast) for ordinary avi, mp4 (with xvid,dvix or other fmp4 inside)
use mpc-hc for the rest (in preferences switch off all internal filters and set external: avsplitter and ffdshowdxva to prefer)
do not use mpc internal dxva decoder since it is using same code as ffdshow and has been broken for 8 months now (on gma 500)

that's all.

yt movie 1080p - while playing - gpu load is about 20% (not full screen)
the movies I mentioned at the beginning (1080i50 bitrate=13800) take about 45% - not in full screen. Since its handled by dxva then processor takes about 8%.

edit:
some posts ago somebody asked if it was possible to buy a new casing for X - i'd like to know this as well since my X has also damedged corner already.

 

Very happy X user for 2 years now, been reading up on the latest tips. Looks like I have better alternatives for Chrome and VLC to try, thanks!

 

@pch: that's great and detailed information for anyone looking for maximum video performance on the X!

@matthias: ...and I thought I had a pretty minimal Opera GUI already (with 2 toolbars). Thanks for pointing out that it is possible to truly have everything (including tabs) in ONE toolbar row! Thanks also for the F2 hint.

Here's some information I gathered by installing Passmark Performance Test (they literally have stored millions of user-made benchmarks to compare with). First, my result is a Passmark overall rating of 204 (note that this is with almost ALL services disabled, for testing). This is still among the "fastest 20%" of all Atom/GMA500 systems overall.

By looking at other Atom/GMA500 systems that have been benchmarked by their owners and uploaded to Passmark, I found two graphics drivers that show exceptional performance 2D-wise (regarding Windows interface and scrolling performance).

One of them is by far superior to my 2030 driver since it is reported as two times (scrolling) to 25 times (Windows Interface) as fast as the 2030. It is however a Windows XP driver, and it's version is 6.14.11.1009.

The other is a Windows 7 driver, and this one still scores about twice as fast as the 2030 driver, 2D-wise. This driver's version number is 8.14.10.2011.

I have not tested one of the two drivers to date. I will however soon do a passmark run with all Windows services set to default, in order to find out if it is worth the hassle of fiddling with the windows services configuration in order to make the X snappier and faster, or not.

Cheers David

 

BTW, how can I install Windows XP on the X? I'd like to dual-boot Win7 and XP using the Boot-US boot manager.

However, the Windows XP setup program (booted and started from USB) doesn't recognize the hard drive of the X. And it seems there is no SATA/F6 driver available for the X.

Any experiences how XP setup can be run successfully on the X?

Cheers David.P

 

small update:

I woke up this morning and checked mpc forum - they fixed a bug - latest mpc-hc build 1.5.3.3851 (dxva decoder) is working again on gma500 - in this case no need to download ffdshow (I'm talking about dxva)

The things you need to sett in mpc:
playback - output - direct show video - make it EVR (plain one)
playback - output - audio renderer - set to speaker/hp... - otherwise the sound will start later then video (but there won't be any a/v sync problems anyway - just small delay during startup)
internal filters - under Source filters (these are splitters) uncheck all
internal filters - under Transform Filters (decoders) activate h264/avc (dxva),
in addition if you dont have ffdshow you may want to activate others as well,
first 12 positions are audio decoders - you may use them - sometimes windows built ones are not working corectly.

you may as well download LAV filters - this is a pack of splitter, audio and video decoder - and use its audio decoder - do not use lav splitter - I had a a/v sync issues with this one, and do not use lav video decoder - it doesn't support dxva - only cuda.

To activate any of external filters (splitters/decoders) go to
external filters - add filter - choose one - then on the right side of window set Prefer.

If you disabled all internal source filters then make sure you added avsplitter ubder external - otherwise windows will use its own - not good idea.

If somebody is willing to use coreavc:
be careful - some combination with gma500 driver will make you reinstall all system - i just heard a loud noise like a loose mechanical part is moving somewhere in my notebook - to switch off the notebook I had to temove power cable and battery - after restart there was a loud CLICK every minute or so. Only total reinstall helped.
With gma driver 2030: coreavc will give you a green screen in about 20% of playback and the rest will look like jumping frames fore and back - no good

edit:
2David.P
I was trying to find a link to this driver you mentioned: 8.14.10.2011 - but no luck.
I,m on slow connection network so extensive browsing is not a joy
If you have a link pls post it - thanks.

 

@pch,

here's the 8.14.10.2011 Win7 driver:
Windows 7 Upgrade Intel Graphics Driver version 8.14.10.2011.0910160 : Download : Sony Asia Pacific

And here the 6.14.11.1009 driver (probably XP only):
Packard Bell dot m Intel VGA driver v.6.14.11.1009 download for Windows XP

Cheers David

 

thx, downloaded 2011.

just for now I can tell that windows performance index hasn't changed

driver........2030.....2011
processor...2.9.......2.9
ram...........4.4.......4.4
graphic......4.6.......4.6
gaming.......2.7......2.7
disk...........5.9......5.9

anyway when playing "heavy" videos performane drops down on 2011 - video slows down while seeking and needs more time to catch a/v sync.

will keep it for a while and then we'll see.

 

Agreed -- pls note that the benchmarks by Passmark (that were the basis for my driver suggestions) do not comprise video playback performance.

Anyway, I might do some Passmark test runs with different drivers and post the results later.

 

ran the passmark test - but switched back to 2030 for this - and my final result was:
288.2

but during 3d graphic mark - I got an error about direct x and one test was skipped and tjen I got a msg that there was no dx10 vidoe card capable on board (?)

eta:
just to be clear, my X:
vpcx128lg, z550, 2.0ghz, 120gb

 

Hello Everyone!
I m a happy owner of the vaio x for about one year now and since I m studying abroad its in intense everyday use. I m writing all my essays with it, doing research, looking at pdf files and watch a 1080p movie from time to time.

Every time when I look at it I m really appreciating that I got one and the coolest thing is, when you are in a cafe to know that you have the most beautyful looking machine on earth and apples and others look like average or ugly toys

Anyways the performance can be annoying if the wrong software is in use, so I post the adjustments I executed in order to have a very fluent experience on the x:

PDF files: I think the best software here is "Foxit Reader".- scrolling is so fluent and you can zoom in when viewing full screen + you can add coments, highlight texts... Adobe reader is worlds behind when it comes to use of hardware/ performance!

1080 movies: I can watch every HD movie regardless of its size by using the Windows media player in combination with "haali" mediasplitter and "ffdshow".Full HD movies are for some reason perfect, while SD movies performance is not 100%. I thinkI still have to find a good avi codec.

WEB: I use opera and I think this is a good way to go..

All in all, I m glad that there are other people out there who enjoy this amazing peace of hardware too.

peace out

 

Oops, probably something went wrong with your benchmark? Because, if the results were true, you'd have about the fastest machine with an Intel GMA 500 "on earth". Below is the Passmark results of the fastest 20 (out of 500) systems with an Intel GMA 500 (that have been uploaded to Passmark). Interesting enough, the top ones are all Vaio X's



My X always seems to score around 200 in Passmark (it's the one with the 1,8 GHz Atom).

Further, I ran some tests in order to find out if it is worth fiddling with the windows services and/or the Windows GUI effects. From below screenshot it can be seen that there is already not really much difference between ALL effects including Aero on, and NO effects (meaning the "Windows 98" look of Win7). There are even less speed gains when you try and disable almost every Windows service on the X. Thus, I'll quite happily leave everything as it is (except Aero Glass which seems to harm Opera's scrolling smoothness).



Contrary to what seemed to be the case (according to the Passmark online results list), that 8.14.10.2011 driver turned out to be NOT faster than the current 2030 driver in my measurements (not included in above screenshots). Thus, I'll stay with the latter on the X.

Lastly, another trick for Opera: only recently I found out that for reading on the Web, using the Spacebar for "turning the page" (a.k.a. "Page Down") is much more convenient than the somewhat awkward scrolling function of the touchpad.

But what about quickly flipping UP a page when reading, or quickly going back to the top of a page?

I figured it would be good to have a keyboard shortcut close to the Spacebar also for these tasks.

Thus I assigned "Jump to top of page" to the "context menu keyboard button" (a.k.a. "Apps Key") which I never use anyway, and "Scroll up one page " (a.k.a. "Page Up") to a combination of the Apps Key and the Spacebar, by adding the following two lines to the AutoHotkey Script discussed a few posts above:

Code:

AppsKey Up::Send,{Home}
AppsKey & Space::Send,{PgUp}

This makes reading and navigating long web pages a pleasure on the X. Especially when smooth scrolling is ON in Opera.

Cheers David.P

 

david p,
your are my soulmate!
here is what happened: i was reading your post, and when I read the words "another trick for opera", I though: "oh I should also post another trick, namely that I use space for PageDown and AltGr(!!) +Space for PageUp, which is far more convenient than the touchpad". Then I continued to read and YOU WROTE JUST THIS. how cool is that? =) vaio x owners shoud rule the world!
anyway, I didn't know one can combine the context menu key with the space bar. Does this really work? when I press and hold the context menu key, the context menu shows up right away, leaving no time for a combination.

i also recommend you modifiy the context menus of tabs, so "close" will show up as the first item. this requires some tweaking though.
see Reihenfolge des Tab-Kontextmenüs ändern - Anpassungen - Opera - Deutschsprachige Community
for this. it's german though, you will need to translate.

=)

 

Hello and welcome. It's a classy, understated and unique design without question. I whipped the X out in a business meeting on Friday and the attendees couldn't stop looking at it. Even visibly leaning over to look at it from different angles whilst they should've been paying attention elsewhere

Opera continues to be a revelation - Opera 12 is so much snappier than any other browser. For page scrolling I actually find the right-Fn plus Up/Down arrows to be a convenient combination. I've also solved the problem of the 1-pixel gap at the top of the tab bar in Opera Next:

Open the theme in the Program Files/Opera Next/Skins folder and open skin.ini. Go to the [Pagebar Transparent Skin] section and set Padding Top to -1. Now tabs are flush with the top of the screen like Chrome, for easy mouse navigation.

One more thing - someone on the Intel forums says they've got full Flash HW acceleration enabled by using the latest EMGD driver in combination with this specific Flash Player 10.1 release:

http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/ge...hive/fp_10.1.102.64_and_9.0.289.0_archive.zip

Can someone with EMGD installed test this?

 

@matthias:
cool

 

I'm on it - I'll try it with one of the EMGD 1.8 drivers, I'll let you all know tonight.
PS: the Vaio Z forum is lame - X owners DO rule

EDIT: my results with three flash players [10.1, 11.1, 11.2beta] and three drivers [2024 official, 2032 EMGD, 2048 EMGD]
Paramaters: Vaio X, GMA500, WIN7ultimate, AERO off, Opera 11.52 stock

DRIVER-----FLASH------FLASHMARK SCORE/AVERAGE FPS
2024-------10.1--------666/7
2024-------11.1--------680/7
2024-------11.2--------711/7
2032-------10.1--------670/7
2032-------11.1--------564/6
2032-------11.2--------669/7
2048-------10.1--------675/7
2048-------11.1--------638/7
2048-------11.2--------637/7

Range 564-711
2024 avg 686
2032 avg 634
2048 avg 650
Flash 10.1 avg 670
Flash 11.1 avg 627
Flash 11.2 avg 672

The 10.1 flash version I used was the one 50squiff linked. No sign of HW acceleration anywhere. Stock drivers and beta Flash FTW!

 

Ugh. Thanks for trying sheen. One day we'll have 720p fullscreen flash!

 

David.P - just saw your post on adobe forums:
Adobe Forums: Flash player slow: Intel GMA 500

50sQuiff - just read the post you referred to:
HW acceleration on GMA500 (US15W) with...: Embedded Community

This is great, keep up the research and we'll find something. I'd like to share that I stumbled across this:

System requirements | AllBoxing TV

Under the "Intel drivers" subsection it says "For the Atom/GMA 500 chipset, hardware decoding is supported starting with graphics driver version 5.2.1.2020 (8.14.10.2020) for 32-bit Windows 7. Systems using GMA 500 video decoding should use a Windows Aero theme for optimal full-screen playback performance."

Hmm...I ran all of those tests with aero off. I'll turn it on and see if it makes any difference.

 

well -yes.
because test was not completed successfully (something with directx went wrong) so the result was partial only

next test gave 220 and the msg that no directx x video card on board.

 

Nope. Flashmark of 668 with 2024, Flash 11.2, and aero on. Still haven't found the silver bullet.

 

hi guys, sad thing happened to my vaio x over the weekend. kept it in my backpack along with water bottle that was insecurely capped. as a result, water spilled over in my backpack and got into the vaio x. this happened when i was outside and managed to discover it probably 10 mins after the leaked happened.

initially, i only thought that the water only got onto the surface of the laptop which i quickly wiped it dry with some tissue papers. when i got home at night, i turned on the power but there was no response. removed the battery, opened the back cover to remove excess water and let it dry overnight.

fortunately, the next morning when i turned on, it is working fine. here comes the problem. water has seeped through into the lcd screen. i can clearly see the capillary action of the water moving 'upwards' from the right side which was the bottom when i placed it in my laptop.

now, there is a blotches of water stain stain on the right side that makes the lcd screen brighter then the unaffected part. will the stain eventually go away over time as i read some similar cases where tungsten lamp is used to speed up the drying process in one example. now, i am using the vaio x hoping that the heat generated by itself will be sufficient. anyone has any better idea?

update: water blotch is getting smaller. hope it will disappear soon. anyone knows where to get spare screws for the back cover? lost a couple when i opened the back cover.

 

hey smurfchang, in german, a saying goes s.th. like "when bad things happen, more bad things are up to come" =)

--> given your personality (water bottle + vaio, losing screws), I think the best you could do now is not worry too much about the screen, but rather do clone your drive immediately / or do any other, adequate type of backup unless you have already done so, immediately! (and keep doing that regularly) =)

personally, i use paragon drive copy 11 for a complete image of the disk every other week, and several profiles within the backup program second copy 8, to save text files etc. every 10 mins (resp every day), to a 16 GB memory stick (thank god the vaio has 2 slots =) ). there, I am continuously backing up opera the opera bookmarks file and opera *.win files; text and document files, and windows life mail 2009 email files (i indeed do recommend wlm, in version 2009.). i prefer the straightforward, transparent approach of second copy to other backup solutions like various nonstop backup solutions (norton, acronis). a hint: initially being a fan of acronis, i made very annoying experiences with the latest version / severe uninstall issues. check their support forum before trying this software, i don't think they fixed the problems in the meantime.

hope it's ok to post that many recommendations etc. i am not affiliated with any of these products.

oh and i am having terrible problems with my hbh800 sony ericsson BT in ear phones. Bluetooth is A MESS. can anyone recommend nice, working, smallish BT phones? on 2nd thought though, i am afraid of radiation constantly that near to my brain, long term, anyway.... (edit: as can be seen in this post, radiation is taking effect already....^^)

m

 

My recommendation to all of you, who want to make a regular Backup: try Windows Live Mesh for constant syncing with other PCs (slows down the system a little) or Allsync for automatic syncing to a harddrive.

I had a mainboard error and the X wouldn't start anymore, so Live Mesh really saved my ... Now the X is repaired and Everything is alright agaIn

 

update: the water blotches have gone almost completely. one or two days more, i believe it'll be back to the same as before. everything else is fine; the ssd, wwan card, etc.

unfortunately, i lost a few screws in the process. are these common screws that i can buy easily? heading down to sony service center will be my last option as they charge a premium for everything.

 

^ could buy some at any local computer shop

 

EDIT: Subejct: Hibernation stopped working on my Vaio. =(

Hello, since yesterday, hibernate has stopped working on my X. I have been troubleshooting for about 45 mins now and can't solve the problem...
Possible cause: Installation of various drivers that have to do with the HBH800 bluetooth in-ear-phones.
FYI: I am using the hybrid hibernation function, which I recommend to everyone: when doing standby ("save energy"), it will AT THE SAME time hibernate AND go into standby. --> advantage: wil wake up very fast, but in case of power problems, the session will not get lost as it has also saved RAM to disk thanks to the parallel hibernation. I do NOT think that the hybrid option has to do with the problem, though.
Using the Fn-F12 combination, it used to do hibernation (save RAM to Disk) only. Using "Save Energy", it would do the hybrid thing (RAM-to-Disk + Standby).
--> Fn-F12 has stopped working, so has hybrid standby.
Here's what happens: it will do an attempt (the screen will dim down to black), but after 10 seconds, simply toching the touchpad will reveal that has not done anything, the pc is still running.

--> if anyone is willing to help me, you may want to do win-r -> cmd.exe -> powercfg -energy -> an energy-report.html is generated -> post the report so it can be seen how a WORKING vaio's report looks like, to track down the possible causes...

Of course, I will post how the problem was solved, should it ever be solved.

- also: can anyone recommend a good free tech support forum?

thanks. sorry for being off-topic a bit.

 

This guy on ebay has some X parts listed. You might ask him if he has any screws on hand. Screw sets for various machines pop up now and then.

 

hi again. I spent 2 hours trying to troubleshoot the disfunctional hibernation (S4) problem, to no avail... =( (I read various support forums but have not yet posted anything there so far. I am still hoping for the fellow x owners to give me a hint, I feel more at home here =) (haha, emotional blackmailing) )
i disabled hybrid standby to rule out this is the cause, so standby and hibernate is separated. standby alone (=power button flashing red) DOES work. however, Fn-F12 is still defunct, so the problem is about S4 hibernation obviously.

the behavior is like this: trying to hibernate, it will dim down the screen, and one can't reactivate the pc, just like it SHOULD be, because the pc is hibernating. however, after I guess 8 seconds or so (whilst these 8 secs the orange HD light is flickering as it should), the process seems to get interrupted, and moving the mouse pointer reveals the pc has obviously had problems hibernating, i.e. the screens goes on again (and one can continue to work, instead of hibernating ). (i.e. the system doesn't hang).

I believe this problem might not be all too much vaio _X_ specific, and it's not suitable to troubleshoot problems of such potential magnitude in this thread, I believe. Once I have posted the problem elsewhere, I'll immediately point you fellow X owners to that thread by givint it's URL.

thanks. I'm really desperate, I use hibernateion constantly...

 

EDIT:

If anyone would be willing do the following on an X with working hibernation
win-r
cmd <enter>
powercfg -energy
go to specified path and post c:\users\<yourusername>\energy-report.html in the forum....
thx

(((
you can IGNORE my old posting:
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Please, would anyone be as kind as to see -- after putting the X into hibernation (S4) -- if there is an item in computer management -> event viewer -> windows protocols (German: windows protokolle) -> application (German: Anwendung), which occurs at the time you set the X into hibernation and names VSNService (vaio smart network), and s.th. about event ID 0 from source VSNService that could not be found?

I would like to know if this is an event that is normal X behavior, despite sounding somewhat like a problem.

it's just a few seconds' work, thanks really for you help in advance...
<<<<<<<<<<<<
)))

 

Here you go. I changed the extension to get around the attachment file type issue.

 

Paging mmmsheen: version 1.10 of EMGD has been released.

 

I'm on it - downloading now.

 

Get ready for disappointment - 1.10 is no better than 1.8, which was no better than 1.6, which is no better than stock.

Flashmark - 579, 582, 630 three tries (latest opera, latest flash)
No WMI score change - for those of you who think that's a good benchmark
Passmark errors (just like before, no DX10)
There are 4 levels of brightness with FN keys (like before - off, low, med, hi)
The Intel Software refuses to install so no configuration, just a driver (like before)

I tried 2 packages, neither put out better performance. Sorry guys.

EDIT: Silver lining: I was able to edge out a little extra performance by enabling aero, but disabling "glass". That accounts for the 50-point jump in flashmark 579-582->630. This works even better for stock 2024 on latest flash. With aero and glass enabled, performance is about the same as with it disabled.

For future reference, or for anyone that'd like to try for themselves, I'm posting the modelines for the vaio x: (I forgot where I stored them and had a hell of a time, so it'll be good to have them posted for my own sake):

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel_EMGD-0"
Driver "emgd"
VendorName "Intel(R) DEG"
BoardName "Embedded Graphics"
BusID "0:2:0"
Screen 0
VideoRAM 131072
Option "PcfVersion" "1792"
Option "ConfigId" "1"
Option "PortDrivers" "lvds"
Option "ALL/1/name" "lvds-display"
Option "ALL/1/General/DisplayConfig" "1"
Option "ALL/1/General/DisplayDetect" "1"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/General/name" "LVDS"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/General/Edid" "1"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Attr/70" "0"
Option "ALL/1/General/Accel" "1"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/General/EdidAvail" "0"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/General/EdidNotAvail" "4"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/FpInfo/Height" "768"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/FpInfo/Width" "1366"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/PixelClock" "74060"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/HorzActive" "1366"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/HorzSync" "60"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/HorzSyncPulse" "128"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/HorzBlank" "297"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/VertActive" "768"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/VertSync" "1"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/VertSyncPulse" "1"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/VertBlank" "7"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Dtd/1/Flags" "0xc000000"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Attr/26" "24"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Attr/27" "0"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Attr/45" "1"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Attr/72" "1"
Option "ALL/1/Port/4/Attr/70" "100"
EndSection

 

Thanks for your hard work on this. Is there consensus on what the best driver is currently for the GMA500 on the X? I've read through this thread and it seems like 2030 is about as good as it gets.

 

Sigh. Thanks for your work on this anyway sheen. Roll on March's update!

 

I just got a VAIO X and I haven't seen such a comparison photo in existance so I took one. I'll just leave this here...

 

i still remember the first feeling of holding an X in my hands.. i was stunned! i couldn't believe how light it felt. i still think it is one of the best laptops sony's ever built.
but now that i have a z2, it feels so much heavier it just isn't the same. although i get more compliments on how thin the z2 is than i did with the ex (get it?).

 

Beautiful photo!

I'm posting this in case it's of use to anyone who has just started using Opera. One of the minor annoyances has been the need to click on a flash object before it becomes responsive. I've found it can be solved with the user javascript found here: No Click to Activate - User JavaScript - Opera Community

Flash 11.2b3 is the first version where YouTube is perfectly smooth in windowed 480p mode (for me at least). It may be a small step but at least it's progress. I find that viewing mode very watchable.

 

Do you guys think it's wise to buy one at around $700USD at this time, or do you think it'll be wise to wait till after CES. Maybe sony has a successor or another 11' ultrabook planned?

I just think this notebook is so amazing but am afraid that the technology is too lacking on this system.

 

At this point, I'd wait to see what emerges soon...you could always get one after CES if you don't find anything offered compelling to you....and if there is a new Sony X successor released, then if anything, current X's will be probably cheaper....so, you'd have a choice to make...