Sony X Series Official Owners Thread

Hey! First you have to remove the 3 black screws on the bottom, which hold the small plastic part above the keyboard. Then lift it up, you will see 3 latches of the keyboard which were secured by this part. Gently lift up the keyboard. There are sticky pads beneath it, so use a flat plastic something to divide it.

 

Thanks, I will try.

 

Just got the X117 yesterday! Same as X118 without the 3G, but oh well, I don't need it anyway.
Now just figuring out what's the first thing I should do. Probably remove the bloatware. Gotta go find if there's any 'instructions' on that.

 

No USB devices connected at all. So far it seems as if removing the SIM card prevents batttery drain, but I have changed quite a few settings by now. Alas, at least it doesn't *always* occur. I'll upate once I have some more conclusive evidence of what works and doesn't work with regards to drain.

 

Thanks for letting us know! Im still waiting to buy it, since I dont know how the drain is!

 

Anyone use the method here to remove the bloatware?

 

Anyone tried the program EkoBatt on their Vaio X?
And anyone know if there's a Launch.exe or Launcher.exe in the recovery folder? Tried searching but couldn't seem to find. Need to find if there is one in order to use the method I mentioned earlier to remove bloatware.

 

Just got my Vaio X. I am in Canada. Could someone post a list of bloatware that can be removed from the unit

Thanks

 

Anyone burned their recovery discs yet? Just wondering how many discs I'd need.
A little new with this, but recovery means a 'factory reset'? As in equivalent to a hard reset on a phone? Cos wanted to do a 'factory reset' to start from scratch again, but not sure if I had to burn the recovery discs first.

 

It would be recommended to burn recovery discs, just in case. I'm not sure how many discs were required for the X but I doubt it's more than 2 as the recovery partition on the laptop itself is only 6.75Gb.

I've yet to actually use a recovery disc in over 6 years of Vaio usage. I'll typically wipe a drive, install an OS and then manually install utilities and drivers (obtained by downloading from Vaio Support). Can sometimes be a bit hit and miss, especially if you install things in the wrong order, but I prefer it as it gives more control over exactly what is installed. The standard recovery will install every piece of crap bundled with the original VAIO, such as the Antivirus, Office trial and Google stuff etc

 

VAIO update

"What is this?
Vaio Update is an application similar to Windows Update. It is designed to help you keep your computer up-to-date by assisting you with installation of the latest updates for your VAIO.
Is this relevant for you?
This is a required update, as previous versions of VAIO Update will become unusable soon.
What does it fix?
VAIO Update becomes a stand-alone application which does not require Internet Explorer. It contains several improvements to the process of keeping your computer up-to-date"

 

Sorry to be such a bug, but just wondering how many here removed their bloatware by:
1. Uninstalling the programs one by one?
2. Doing a recovery and somehow preventing the bloatware from being installed?
3. Doing a fresh install of Windows 7?

For me, cos I don't have a copy of Windows 7, so I'd to stick to option 1.

 

You can only install the windows if you want, but you have to do it manually, no need to fresh install some "pirated" copy.

There is a thread somewhere here and somebody also made a script to make this proccess a lot easier.

 

Amazing , isn't it , doing everything to achieve that the laptop consumes as less as possible BUT on the other hand you have that battery drain...

And that for a company like Sony..

 

Uh? There's a script? But I suppose the thread ain't for the VAIO X, right.

 

No, its not..its a thread about how to get a clean windows installation from recovery media. I am sure sombody here have it bookmarked or knows how to find it. Sorry, have no time to search now.

 

Just FYI, there's a new developer-only GMA500 driver on Intel's website, driver version 2019 (compared to latest publically-available 2015), released 18/12/2009.

Coincidentally, Flash 10.1 beta 2 was released 17/12/2009.

If you're thinking what I was thinking, then the answer unfortunately is no Having installed both, I can report that there doesn't seem to be any progress in getting HD Flash video working. Ordinary flash video seems worse, and HD video just doesn't play (stays on a black screen). Elsewhere, the Intel driver doesn't seem to have any impact, positive or otherwise.. Windows Experience Index went to 2.5 from 2.4

For now, I'm sticking with GMA500 driver 2019 but reverting to the standard Flash 10 so that ordinary videos work properly.

Maybe after xmas!

 

As in this thread? Tried following it, but couldn't find any Launch.exe or Launcher.exe so ddn't succeed.

By the way, not sure if it's just me, or does it seem the brown cloth that's supplied seems to leave some marks/stains on the notebook? Cos I keep it between my screen and keyboard when it's closed and today I just realized there's a 'line' across the notebook near the touchpad. And well, the 'pattern' of the line seems to match that of the cloth.

 

No.

Here it is: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=121966&page=3

Check the thread #28, its everything there, what you need. I had some problems with images that had sony.wim over two DVDs, but I fixed it by manually copying the SNY file.

 

Has anyone in the US purchased the 4 cell battery? If yes, where did you buy it? I have the 2 cell and the large extended batteries. I would like a battery that is similar to the 2 cell but has more power without adding much wieght. Does the 4 cell accomplish this.

thanks,

Don

 

Aloha (sony fan) Folks

Researching the 'X'-Reason I am on this thread is I began to research replacement and thought I could get one of these x's but I see they have their issues with batteries as well and don't have a nice leather case.

SADLY I have just had a burglary and the thieves made off with my TZ191/n/carbon, the morons left behind the batteries because I always used to remove it and I had two that I carried with me, as well as they left the power supply behind- I am without my lovely and they have basically nothing
except .. well I don't know what will become of it.


I think I may get a reconditioned TZ 295 from a third party seller

I really like the way the Gold Signature appears- it certainly has the APPEAL- I don't understand why they removed the optical drive and how well will the atom processor work in the real world-

Thanks for your honest and candid review of the X signature..

Alan- out here in mid Pacific

 

but then again maybe I should road test one of these X models myself after all the technology is three years newer eh? even if is an overpriced netbook with no optical drive..bah..!

 

hey X owners,
a new BIOS has been released in Japan, I updated successfully. Read translation and download here: http://bit.ly/5MTENa

 

thx vaiofreak,

i installed the bios update for my german X. Also updated successfully.

There is also a new Version:
# Setting Utility Series - 5.0.1.10300 Auch verfügbar über VAIO Update 32 / 64 bits 4.18 Mb 30/12/2009

 

Did you notice any change? its supposed to change the fan behaviour...

 

Hello,
I just registered to share my frustration with my otherwise pleasing vaio x.
I have been using it for some 2 weeks now and the fan is driving me
crazy.
Yes, I do have the latest bios (dec 30) installed, yes I did check
task manager so there is no process using cpu like mad, yes I did
try any of the 9 wonderful combinations of "silence mode, performance
mode, balanced mode" (all vaio control center), and "energy saving,
performance, and balanced" (windows 7 energy settings).
Very slight browsing will turn the fan on, and it will do its best do drive you
crazy. It will change its speed all the f***** time, so you will have
no chance of getting used to a certain tone. Oftentimes, it will stop,
then start within 5 seconds again. Who the hell did the programming
for this? The noise the fan is doing sounds like it could be used to
torture terrorists, it's like a mixture between a mosquito and a dentists
drill and a sirene.
I am using ear plugs now because I cannot admit to myself that I should
rather put this anti-ergonomic brushed-carbon design wonder on ebay.
Why did I take the financial sacrifice of a costly silent 256 ssd (don't
mention TRIM) and the performance sacrifice of a low voltage cpu if
its comparalby mimimal thermal emissions need to be cooled as if it
were a high performance machine? So this is all about battery life? Yeah,
and don't forget to brush your teeth and take the battery out so it won't
thwart your battery saving aspirations.
So bottom line, what is needed is a better fan control software.
Some research I did on the web led me to the conclusion that -- apart
from undervolting adventures and the likes that probably won't change
much 'cause it's an Atom -- one will have to hope that one (-> we) can
somehow get Sony to do a better job with the fan control software. It
seems it is not possible hack the fan/cpu control (?) (I am not a programmer).
I mean, how come other units (dell mini, vaio p, x505) can do
without a fan, and this machine cannot even shut up at minimal system
usage and all silent switches enabled... I also fear that in summer, things
will get even worse.
And what is worse, I have the impression sony has been ignoring such
problems of other vaio models for years already, judging other forum
discussions. So is there no hope?
Does anyone know how much worse the Vaio P SSD Z550's performance is
compared to the X? I fear the P might be unable to play movies
because the cpu might be held below its capabilities for thermal reasons (?).
That's why I am generally in favor of a fan - but one that sounds
acceptable and is adequately managed!
Anyway, plan B is keeping the vaio x for a short time, then sell it
favor off something that runs quiet (if all else fails, vaio p), and
shift the tedious customizations and installations with acronis for
dissimilar hardware.

CoreTemp says 37°C. The fan is runniiiiiiiiing. Is this as it should be?

Thanks for your thoughts.

matthias

 

The Japanese page mentions that CPU Performance Configuration Optimization is new in this BIOS update, and the improved fan control is also included (from a previous BIOS). So I'm not sure if fan control is addressed any differently in this update. Not that the fan is an issue for me (unlike matthias above ) as it's whisper quiet compared to my SZ!

I've not installed the new BIOS yet but the "CPU Performance setting optimized" claim intrigues me, I wonder if there's anything noticeable... will report back.

 

@jdbrookes: oh well, this just means they are using SZ's for the real tough ones. ;-P I think I will solve the problem like I did with an old PIII 600 (mobile version): I stuck a match into the fan grid. Peace and quite since. Nothing ever happened, years after. I've found courage to stick a wire into my beloved vaio x yesterday for 10 sec, and it seemed it liked that kind of very mild SM. Will gradually increase up to hardcore. Of course, I'll take it out when
cpu temp is higher than e.g. 45. What do you think?

 

As long as you keep a very close eye on the temperature reading of the CPU then disabling the fan probably isn't a terrible thing to do... however, that fan might also be keeping other bits of hardware cool, and the temperature of those components cannot be measured using core temp.

As I type this, I have the X on my lap in a warm room, I'm on battery power, and the core temp reading is 41 degrees. The fan is running as a result. If I lift it off my lap for only a few seconds the temperature will drop to 35 degrees or so, which I think is pretty good. Under stress testing the temperature reaches about 50 degrees. So personally I wouldn't be happy letting the temperature get higher than about 52 degrees. But I have the 1.86Ghz CPU, so maybe it doesn't get as hot as the 2Ghz one.

If you use your laptop on a desk quite often, have you thought about using a cooling pad? I don't use one myself but I imagine it would considerably lower the temperature at the base of the laptop so that the fan wouldn't kick in half as often.

 

hi jdbrookes,

thanks for your opinion! I have similar views on this.

I somehow cannot get coretemp to show the task bar bubble when
a specified threshold has been exceeded; the developer seems
to speak of an already-fixed bug, but fixed only for an upcoming version -
which still seems due since the time of his October posting, cf.

http://www.alcpu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=686

One could open the vaio, remove the fan from the circuit, and feed it
with usb power and add on-of control through some miniature USB relais
devide with coretemp giving the on-off signal.... =)

As long as the vaio fan is controlled solely by the cpu temperature
sensor, I doubt one should give too much attention to other hardware
that wants to bee cooled, since there must be a high correlation cputemp-
otherhardwaretemp then: I.e. if the ssd gets too hot whilst the cpu does
not, how should it be cooled if not by a signal of the cpu's temperature
sensor.

...if I stop the fan physically with a removable wire and configure
coretemp (once it works) to set the pc to sleep at 50° just in case some
process runs amok.... hmm. I should look into some overclocker forum for advice perhaps.

I will be contacting sony and ask why the notebook does not tolerate 40°C
cpu temperature and thinks it needs to cool this down already, whilst
it has no problems running at far higher temperatures for hours with fan
at max (and the fan being unable to cool it down to anything near 40°C.)
It just does not make sense. My guess is that some super-smart
programmer at sony is responsible for this control program and he thought
what a great idea it was to let the fan run a tiny little bit at slightly increased
temperatures and then increase gradually. Sounds like a good idea, but
is not.

> So personally I wouldn't be happy letting the temperature get higher than
> about 52 degrees."

Yep, that's what I think as well, I hope it's good reasoning.

> But I have the 1.86Ghz CPU, so maybe it doesn't get as hot as the 2Ghz
> one."

I read somewhere that the 1.86GHz and the 2GHz version have the same
Wattage, I guess there is not much difference, not to an extent of
concern anyway (?). Just guessing though.

A cooling pad could indeed smoothen things out a bit, and some of them seem
to be virtually silent indeed, but, withoug having done research, I would
guess they are way larger than the vaio x and after all just negate the
whole point of a light portable design laptop (that demands little desk real
estate).

Matthias

 

Update on my previous post: there seems to be a new option in Vaio Control Center under Power Management => Power Options, for "Thermal Control Strategy". I'm almost certain it wasn't there before the firmware and Setting Utility updates (the setting utility software is needed for Vaio Control Center to function). Can anybody that hasn't updated already check it?

Anyway there are now options for Balanced, Performance Mode and Silent mode. I've been trying out the different modes and the (unscientific) results are good:

Silent Mode:
When stress testing the CPU (100% usage for a few minutes) the core temp reading never reaches more than 41 degrees and the fan never kicks in

Performance Mode:
When stress testing the CPU (100% usage for a few minutes) the core temp reading gets to 45 degrees and the fan kicks in fairly quickly, and seems to be making a lot of effort

Balanced Mode:
Stress testing temp maxes out at 44 degrees, the fan takes a while before it will kick in (as per my usual experience with the X).

I'm sure that battery life is also a little better with Silent mode as the CPU seems to be limited at some point, and the fan is used less.

An excellent update from Sony!

 

hi jdbrookes,

these options were there before the dec 30 bios update.

your results are unscientific indeed in silent mode, the fan will
kick in eventually even at low cpu stress. I too thought at first
it would be silent. I actually had the impression the fan might
be off more often in balanced because it is able to cool faster,
but that too is just an unscientific guess from what I have experienced
so far...

Anyway, I did it, I stuck in a wire for 10 minutes. results:
I wrote an email in WLM. I found it interesting that when
typing very fast, cpu is 40-60% (*because* of typing), whilst when
not typing 5-20 (some background processes etc.).

I first had it set to win7-power mode and vaio-power mode,
temp went to 41-42°. I then switched to win-balanced and vaio-silent;
cannot say how this affected temp because I typed less
a that point, anyway it dropped to 40°C. When I took out
the wire, the fan went ca. at speed level 3 of 10. So hey, if
there were more heat sensors in there other than the coretemp-monitores
cpu sensor, the fan would go like mad to compensate for my
heat attack. Since it cannot know somebody was halting the fan,
it also be the laptop entering from wintery outside into a warm room. So
there.

I also found out in some forum that the vaio p seems to have performance
issues because in cannot compensate for increased heat other than by
lowering performance.

I still don't understand why windows allows fast typing to push cpu
to max levels.

Matthias

Disclaimer: Just to clarify, I really don't have too much understaning of
computers, so be careful and don't do what I did unless you know
what you're doing.

 

Aha I must have missed those power options before the update; normally those thermal strategy options are in Power Options under Vaio Power Management.

And yeah definitely my methods above are unscientific but I've been using the X for about the last hour on and off, and the last session for about 20 minutes on my lap, and the fan has yet to kick in (I'm on the Balanced profile). Core temp reads 36 to 42 degrees. To me, it looks like Sony have increased the required temperature at which the fan starts. Or it could just be the fact that I have the 1.86Ghz CPU; I think it runs cooler and needs less thermal discharge as a result.

The Vaio P doesn't actually have a fan, so the only way of cooling the CPU is by limiting it. So I suppose with the X, the patented Matthias method of "sticking a wire in there" would have the same result

edit: in regards the high CPU usage with typing (major lag when typing at a fairly reasonable speed): I used to get this when typing into text boxes on this forum (and only this forum, funny enough) when using the "Notebook Review Style" theme (selected at bottom of the page), so I selected vBulletin Default Style and typing was fine again. Odd.

 

OK... I have been even more courageous today and left my wire;-) in the grid
for some 10 minutes with max cpu load, however I kept the cpu at 800MHz
min&max - I was afraid I would brake it otherwise... The maximum
temperature reachable this way seemed to be a mere 45°C *with fan physically halted*. Performance is sluggish of course at 800 MHz, but
sufficient for light tasks were you need to concentrate in quite surroundings.
Versus 56°C max. temperature @2000MHz 100%CPU and fan running.

Room temperature ca. 23°C, even surface.

This is how I believe the various thermal/cpu/fan settings work;
there might be wrong conclusions from my observations, but
it's what I think is basically the case .

1.1 vaiocontrol.silent: throttles cpu down after some time. This
means that video performance will suddenly get worse and worse.
fan is running at low speeds always.
1.2 vaiocontrol.balanced: seems to throttle as as well, but probably
not as much as .silent.
fan is running at low and medium speeds only.
1.3 vaiocontrol.powermode: seems to have no effect
and leave winprocessorcontrol do its work as configured.
fan is running at low and medium and high speeds,
with mediium and high speeds preferred.
2.1 windowsprocessorcontrol.yoursetting1 (e.g. an "energy saving scheme"):

[*note* percent settings are not what happens. they are
converted to mostly (2GHzversion) 800......1333.......1600.......2000MHz
(in case of speed step) (and 133MHz steps inbetween). This is also
what vaiocontrol.silent will do when throttling down.]

e.g. you configure processor.min 10% and .max 10% likewise.
->result: 10% (just like e.g. 20% or 30% would) is converted to 800MHz,
which the processor will keep no matter what happens.

2.2 windowsprocessorcontrol.yoursetting2 (e.g. a "balanced scheme"):

e.g. you configure min 5% and max. 100%.
-> processor will go to 800 when idle and up to 2GHz when needed.
note: vaio.silent will work against this after some time of cpu load!

2.3 windowsprocessorcontrol.yoursetting3 (e.g. a "maximum power scheme")
you configure min 100 and max 100
-> procesosr will be at 2GHz at any given time.
note: vaio.silent will work against this if enabled. It thottled down
to eventually 1066MHz when I tested.

I have yet to test if there is reason to prefer 2.3 over 2.2 when
performance is crucial.

Matthias

Edit: vaio.balanced seems to throttle cpu as well, but probably not as much as .silent.

 

Hello again, I am not 100% sure about this, but I have hope
that I managed to lower cpu temperatures to a sufficient extent
by disabling windows search (wsearch.exe; go to control panel ->
programs -> special windows services (I have a Germany Win7, don't
know the English names therefore)). I now have 33°C most
of the time on idle and the fan stays off. Prior to this, it often
exceeded the 36/37 barrier and the fan kicked in. I am not
absolutely sure if all this is right and have not yet re-enabled
wsearch (requires restart), but it seems not unlikely things are
as I described above. Please report success if you manage
the same; make sure you have speed step enabled so it
can go down to 800MHz when there is little cpu demand.
You will not be able to quicksearch the program folder anymore in
start menu, however you can solve this through better
alternatives anyway, like e.g. launchy.

 

@matthias, another tip for reducing CPU usage: use Firefox with Adblock Plus, or Internet Explorer with Simple Adblock (simple-adblock.com). This way, a lot of the CPU intensive banner ads / flash ads don't load up when you're browsing. Definitely makes a difference on my system.

 

How were you able to install these drivers on your x?

 

You have to first remove the Vaio-modded video driver from the laptop before you can install a generic Intel driver (Setup will fail otherwise).

Open the Device Manager (search from the Start Menu), click Display Adapters, then right click Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500 and click Uninstall. When it asks, choose to delete the original drivers as well.

Either your laptop will shutdown automatically, or you'll have to hold the power button till it does. Not ideal, but this is what usually happens to me when the video driver is removed.

When you reboot, the display will be wonky but you can now go ahead and install the updated 2019 driver from Intel.

Just FYI I haven't noticed any major improvements; there might be fewer Aero bugs and artefacts but that's about it. And twice since I started using these drivers (2 weeks now) I've resumed from sleep to find the screen "whited out" and you can barely read the text on screen. A reboot fixes it. Odd.

Oh and Vaio Update will attempt to overwrite the Intel driver next time you check for updates, so make sure you don't accidently re-install the old 2015 driver from Sony.

 

Vaio X 3G/WWAN issue.
I have the x118 with built in 3g. It works fine at home in Australia, I have tried 2 different companies and both work well. I am now in new Zealand and purchased a prepaid data sim, the sim works fine in my iPhone with the apn internet.telecom.co.nz. However when I try to use the sim in my vaio it says incorrect apn. Everything looks normal, it comes up with telecom nz, full signal strenght etc, just gives me the apn error when I try to connect. I have contacted telecom nz and they asssure me that is the apn that should work, and as I said it dies work on my iPhone. Does anyone have any thoughts? I really don't know where to begin....

 

Where does it say incorrect apn? Are you using the WebToGo OneClick Internet utility?
Is it possible to ignore this utility and connect directly using the Windows 7 Wireless Connection manager instead? This works with our UK mobile broadband sims.

 

Doesn't work with either of those programs. Using the W7 connection manager I get the 'incorrect APN' and using the OneClick it just hangs on 'connecting' and never gets any further.

I am back home in Oz now and both my sims are working as usual here, connecting via either of those programs. Out of interest I tried to connect to 3G here using an intentionally incorrect APN and I get exactly the same errors I was getting in NZ. I think I will just have to give up until wireless broadband becomes a little more popular in NZ and others have the same problem. Just so odd that the sim works fine in my iPhone for data, but not in the computer.
The only difference I can see is that the APN has full stops in it, where neither of my Australian ones do, they're just single words.

 

Thanks! I've been getting a little better performance with the new 2020 release that came out last week. Aero is a bit better and hardware acceleration of H.264 is signifiicantly better. Just waiting for Flash 10.1 full support.

 

Didn't notice that 2020 update, thanks. Well it seems that Intel are really putting some effort into the GMA500 platform (finally).

There's a post here that suggests that Adobe have deliberately locked out GMA500 hardware acceleration support in the Flash 10.1 beta 2. This is until Intel release an updated and stable driver (possibly the 2020 driver) later in the month. So looks like proper acceleration is on the cards. I also saw a post somewhere that suggests that Intel may be enhancing OpenGL support on the card which would help with certain apps like Google Earth. Lots to look forward to by the sounds of things.

 

Hi,

I was thinking of buying a memory stick (for data backup purposes,
so I would still have a free SD slot); there are two types,
hx, and pro duo mark2. These two types seem to lead to much confusion
on the internet, and I too am still confused...
reading the specifications, pro duo mark2 seem to be faster, on
the other hand the hx modelle are newer, and at sony new zealand (;-) )
I've been reading at a sony support forum that the hx models were
as fast as the pro duo mark2 if used with usb readers provided. Well.... :-/

I was now wondering if the vaio x's memory card reader supports the
hx modells to their maxium speed, and which of both card types is
actually faster, esp. concering write speed. (Also wondering if I should
take SanDisk memory sticks.)

Thanks for your opinions!

Matthias

EDIT: been researching for hours on end... looks like sandisk are faster,
but wondering what is the difference between extreme iii pro-hg und ultra pro-hg (sic,
not the older ultra ii).

 

Smart network update

VAIO Smart Network 3.0.2.12280
What does it fix?
The VAIO Smart Network does not always hide automatically.
VAIO Smart Network cannot be started from within VAIO Guide.
After creating a WLAN profile, the DNS server address is set to a fixed IP address.

 

Hi X series owners. I've been researching for a few days - x300, adamo, others and I'm 9/10ths of the way towards going for the Sony X.

I have one pressing question that I cannot seem to find an answer to anywhere online. I'm hoping one of you has tried this or can try it out for me:

Q: What is the maximum VGA output resolution the X supports? I use 23" LCDs at home and work with a 1080p resolution (1920x1080) and I really want to be able to hook my next laptop up to each of these LCDs like I do currently.

Thanks for your help!

 

On the Vaio P it's 1600x1200 since the X also uses the GMA500 I'd assume it's the same.

 

I just tried it there on my Samsung 40incher and all I'm getting is 1024x768. I assume that's because I'm using the 2020 "developer" driver and the intel utilities that go with it.

Same TV works at a much higher resolution with my Vaio SZ.

Can anyone confirm that the official 2015 Vaio video driver works at high resolutions?

 

can someone help me?

I downloaded 2020 update for gma 500 video driver
from intel site but when I run setup I get an error message :

"the driver being installed is not validated for this computer. please go to computer manufacturer etc etc"....

I can tfind 2020 version on sony's website so what do I do ?

thanks!

 

you may have to hack the registry to skip the validation process. Worked fine for me.