Vaio Duo 11 Owners Thread

No! I have had one for over 6 months and am very happy with it. Yes, there is an insignificant 'burn-in' issue with the screen, if you look for it, but this is not burn-in in the true sense as it is not permanent, varying day by day, and is not visible on all but the darkest backgrounds and mostly not at all, so if you are using it for general office type activities, CAD, enjoying photos or watching video you will be more than happy. The effect, if present, disappears when switched off. The keyboard does need positive presses but that comes with use and I rarely miss a letter now that I am used to the spacing. The pen is a delight for writing and sketching although W8's method of button implementation needs a rethink but that has always been the case, even in W7. The only downside is that it is not user upgradable to larger memory or SSD (the latter is a risky job) but as I was maxed out at 8GB and 500GB when bought it, this is not an issue for me; otherwise it's a return-to-Sony job.

Do restore it to factory settings and update using the refresh option if you have not already done so; this will ensure that all previous user settings are cleared and you start from a clean base. You will need to re-install any programs/apps that did not come with the machine.

It is a lightweight full-function PC with reasonable battery life for its power, so enjoy!

 

I have had my Duo 11 for 11 weeks and i have been very happy with it, no burn-in at all and it`s on 12 hours a day everyday, i would rather have the 11 than the 13, it would be nice if it was easier to upgrade the ssd and memory though.

John.

 

Excellent thanks guys yeah i have been rocking my Alienware m18xR2 which is huge!!! and now sold as i don't play games and portability is more important to me now. Can't wait to receive mine as at $800 its a steal
Will try upgrading SSD at some stage to at least a 512gb when price drops a little

 

Here`s a photo of the insides i found, the hardest part about opening the case is the speaker grills have to be removed without being damaged, also the ssd is under a big orange ribbon cable to the right of the fan.

John.

 

I'm back guys and still want to fix my screen. Sending away isn't an option at all; sony did send me to a recommended repairer who said no, they no longer do them. As I don't wish to format my drive and I don't want someone else rifling through my stuff, I'm not sending it away.

I still want the replacement glass - since I was last here I've learned how to weld plastic and use polymorph plastic to make things, so I'll be making special tools to get at the millions of weird screws for sure.

Can anyone point me to a supplier or the right part number for the screen or just the glass please?

I'm happy to record a vid of my attempt if it will help anyone else .

 

Thanks going to should arround and see what a 512gb costs otherwise may settle for 256gb. Backing up Recovery Parttions atm so i can just reinstall Win8 on one parttion. Loving this little machine so far. Is the Duo 13 the new 11? also is the duo 11 using just a any standard msata SSD?>

 

Can anyone tell me how I get a USB drive to boot? I am trying to install a fresh win 8.1 and delete all the recovery partitions. Also when in bios is a external USB keyboard the only way to control bios menus as keyboard does register anything?

 

plug in you usb drive and press the ASSIST button under the front of you 11, then you should get a menu look for an option to boot from an usb device, you also might have to go into the bios and turn off secure boot this is an option in the ASSIST menu as well.

John.

 

Thanks yeah worked that out however i am getting a code 10 keyboard in windows. Driver will not reinstall as its stating not enough system resources? USB will not boot and have tried 3 different drives with UEFI on and secure boot off. Still can't get keyboard to work also?
Keyboard is stating
This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{Device Timeout}
The specified I/O operation on %hs was not completed before the time-out period expired.

 

If anyone has a broken duo 11 for spares / repair I'd be interested. If the glass is intact that is. £120.

Thank you!

 

Thanks Tinderbox, I appreciate you having a look - did you understand that this was a feature of the Duo? I found that every review I looked at online indicated a combo Headphone/microphone jack in the specifications. ... bummer that.

Has anyone else had luck using an external microphone

2WG

 

Hi.

Maybe a piece of software is missing, i wonder if the duo 13 has a combined mic/headphone socket and if it works, maybe ask on their thread.

John.

 

good idea!

 

I was just looking at the manual for the duo 11 and it only describes it as an headphone socket, no mention of being an dual function headphone/mic maybe you can buy an usb to microphone/headphone adaptor make sure it`s Win x64 compatible the link below is just an example.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5mm-Mic...uterComponents_SoundCards&hash=item53fa0b8abd

John.

 

Was thinking the same thing

I found this one...

USB 4-pole Headset & Microphone Adapter | LINDY UK

 

Just updated to Windows 8.1, Duo 11, i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB drive. After updating, my machine requires two presses of the power button to cold start. I press the power button once and the keyboard lights and I get a power light on the front, then everything goes dark, When I press it a second time, everything boots as normal. This is very odd, and it happens every time. It doesn't look like a failed boot, just that it won't power up the first time, then it does on the second. If the power remains off after the first try, how does the PC know it's the second attempt and power up? I searched everywhere and have found nothing. Ideas?

 

I have done the upgrade with no problems other than it taking a long time to do. Did you download all the Sony drivers for W8.1 from their support site?

 

Anyone know if this will work in the Duo 11. I just bought one to put into my Vaio TT with an adapter but now thinking I could upgrade the Duo to 240gb and use the 128gb ssd in the Duo in the TT instead.

MyDigitalSSD 240GB BP4 50mm SATA III 6G mSATA SSD | My Digital Discount

 

Hi,
I have successfully realized a trial-boot with Windows 8.1, Ubuntu 13.10 and Android x86.
That said, I'm very happy with my Duo 11. The only things I'd like to get to work are the rotation sensor and GPS under Ubuntu and Android x86. Should anyone have got luck in it, please let me know.
Thank you

 

I did all the updates from the Vaio Update application (which in itself updated after 8.1) and I also did all Windows and Microsoft updates. Strangest thing I've ever seen. Makes me wonder if I should do the 8.1 uninstall and try it again.

 

So, I was on here around february complaining about my screen flickering, and about the stylus accuracy and to a lesser extent the barely functional keyboard, it was a case of heartbreak really as I love my duo 11.
Then the ghosting started happening after I'd institutionalised myself into using the screen on low brightness or high brightness to avoid the flicker, and typing less. I use it for graphics work, and the burn in got so bad it was effecting my ability to use it, comparing photos and renders for differences and not knowing if they're different because the screen is misbehaving..

I phoned sony, on listing the faults, flickering, random phantom screen presses, wireless drop out, and then screen burn (plus a fallen off Z key), and they've taken it in for repair. Amusingly and infuriatingly, they have done the repairs, but cannot send it back as they have no 'speaker grills'. Apparently there are none in the world, there is no 'ETA' on the parts becoming available, and my Vaio Duo 11 is now on a rack in a warehouse probably not unlike the one at the end of Raiders of the Lost Arc...

I'm currently trying to get them to send it back without any speaker grills, I live with a jeweller and I'm a master craftsman, I'm sure I could make some. What a load of faffing just to get a computer...... It really is/was the best computer ever really, but so sad it has been plagued by these faults.

MY QUESTION...

I had budgeted for this to last me a few years, picking it up on ebay for £750 last december. A friend is in the states, and could bring me back a DUO 13, which at $1200 off amazon comes in at £750. Then, if I ever get my duo 11 back and repaired, I could try and sell it, hopefully for over £450. I think I could stomach having to pay an extra £300 if it meant no flickering screen, no image burn in, no wifi dropouts, no phantom screen presses.. and gaining a 9 hour battery life would be great. I much prefer the design of the duo 11, it seems more industrail ninja, the new one seems a bit tacky. So, I could keep the 11 and just hope it doesn't keep on falling to bits, or bite the bullet and get rid of it for the 13. The samsung q whatever looked great but has been abandoned due to copywrite issues (perhaps because it is exactly the same as the duo 11..), but otherwise there seems nothing on the market as good. I'm a total convert to the form factor, the closer touch screen, trackpads are crap in my view (for any actual work) and really not bothered about having a traditional laptop again, they seem so limiting.

Advice is most welcome my vaio duo brothers and sisters, should I stay on board with the 11 or get a lot poorer but maybe less crazed and get the 13. (which also has wifi apparently but you have to assume they'll fix it..?)

And why no f**king display port! I want to plug in my dell u27 2560x1440 monitor! (the ill fated q had a display port I think)..

rant over. I'd need to put in the order for the duo 13 tomorrow for my new plan to work...

 

I decided I would go back to Windows 8.0 (original load) to see if I could get rid of the "only boots the second time" problem I've been having. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Windows 8.1 changes the recovery partition so that you can't go back from 8.1 to 8.0. As a matter of fact, the recovery discs that you burn when you get the PC have been rendered useless also because Windows 8.1 will not allow their use.

 

Damn! I was going to go back to W8 because since the upgrade(!) OPENGL only works in software mode so my graphics package that relies on the hardware to operate now runs extremely slowly.

 

So I was playing around with the VAIO Control Center and l went through all the settings and when I restarted, the taking twice to boot issue had gone away. Apparently looking at some of the settings had tripped some bit that the PC was looking for at boot. Anyway, today Sony had an update that updated the restore partition and my Duo started the damn taking twice to boot issue again. So on a whim, I went into the VAIO Control Center and went through all the settings and it fixed it again. There is some issue with the restore partition that is causing this problem, but going through the settings is satisfying some function having to do with the restore partition. I guess as long as this works, I won't worry about restore partition updates, although you still can't restore back to Windows 8.0, even with the discs.

 

I have an annoying problem with my duo after I updated to 8.1. I cannot figure how to get back the 'automatically disable auto-rotate' function when I switch to 'laptop mode'. I reinstalled VAIO Control Center along with a bunch on drivers several times but it doesn't seem to fix my problem. Any guidance about to fix this issue would be appreciated

 

I was thinking of selling my Duo 11, is there a place in these forums to post it or can I do it here? It's an i7 with 8 GB RAM, 256 GB drive, sheet battery and Sony screen protector. There isn't a mark on it, I've never taken it out of the house. What do you think that's worth?

EDIT: Sold it to a friend for $500, it was better than dealing with the dirt bags on eBay.

 

Hi, ive been a bit silly!!

I bought the vaio duo thinking the windows 8 pro 64bit product key was on the machine or box etc. i deleted the recovery partition....

now the vaio has played up i downloaded a windows 8 pro image and fresh installed on the vaio duo 11.

now as you probably all know windows was not activated so i looked for my key, couldnt find it.

i managed to extract my key for my vaio from the bios using a small tool, so i thought great ill put this one in.

didnt work

went to the official microsoft website to try and download win8 or win 8.1, entered my vaio key and was told i could not use this key with this version of windows.

Is there a special windows 8 sony edition that i can download an use my original key that came with my vaio? or is there a vaio duo 11 image i can donload (UK Version)?

any ideas welcome thats not going to cost me money?
thanks

 

I had the same issue, just didn´t have the recovery partition to start with... Tried to do a recovery after I managed to screw up some drivers for the virtual keyboard and that didn´t work at all. In the end I got me a free W8 pro key from my uni and installed that instead. Only issue with this is that all the special drivers from sony will not install properly so I´m left with a non-working BT, backlight and sony control panel to name a few. So to answer the guy above, no I don´t think there is much to do apart from buying a W8 key.

 

This thread has become very quiet recently. Either that's because there aren't many of us Duo 11 owners left in the world or everyone is happy with their machines.

I've now updated to Windows 8.1. It was incredibly smooth, and I've not had any problems with screen rotation etc. And the latest wifi update from Sony seems to have made it a lot more reliable. I'm not getting the dropouts/slow speeds any more.

In general, I've been very happy with it. I love the trackpoint, the screen is great (I'm not that bothered about the burn-in issues), and there seem to be fewer and fewer light notebooks out there that have both VGA and RJ45. The only snag I have is the keyboard not registering all keypresses - I need to send it in to get it repaired but just don't fancy the 2+ week wait for it to be returned.

So, it's a bit sad to see on the Sony USA site that it's being discontinued. I guess Sony are going to stick with just the Duo 13.

 

yeah very happy too here. win 8.1 pro/mc. Everything works.
except/but last Thursday found out the VGA port/driver (new windows 8.1) doesn't do 800x600 that an older projector in the building requires lol. It's wired over the cat5 cable using a Niles converter box, with no EDID and so the driver/port cannot detect that setting... it just keeps wanting to do 1024x768. The MS guys figured nobody does 800x600 anymore and all the 800x600 monitors must have gone to a recycler/landfill somewhere

 

I had the same problem with my 13-year old 1280x1024 monitor which I use on the VGA port - it was only showing 1024x768. However, I was able to create a custom resolution using this advice:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...about-hdmi-resolution-output.html#post9422764
But I'm not sure it will help with 800x600. Might be worth trying.

 

HI

Since its christmas and I'm home, its time to help all the family members with their PC problems.

First of, my dad got a duo 11. He told me that he read online that if he uninstalled Mcafee, it could hurt the system. So I'm wondering if thats true because i would really like to get rid of it. Can I just go to control panel and delete it right away or?

He also got some serious wifi problems. Out of the blue, the wifi stopped working. It maybe works 99% of the time. He thinks it started after the windows 8.1 update, so i tried to update the driver manually from sony.com but it didn't help. Ive also updated everything on windows update and vaio update. Would really apprecieted if you could help me get his wifi up and running!

Think he got the 1st gen with i7.3517u 1.90 ghz and 8 gb ram

Thank you!

 

McAfee can mess up the wireless. You need to uninstall it the usual way using add/remove programs, and then run the removal tool:
How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee products using the Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR)
That should do the trick. I've found the wireless to be more reliable since I upgraded to 8.1. My driver is: 15.10.4.2
You may also want to follow the advice here:
https://us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/43726/c/65,66/p/48903,49902,74256,85640/

 

anybody with sheet (extended battery ) has a battery stuck at random % while discharging ?? like it's will stay on 80 % for an hour and then go to 45% ?? the problem just with the sheet battery and no problem with the internal battery ??

 

never happened to me. Have you tried other battery reporting programs, like batterybarpro, or the windows utility "powercfg" to see if it's just reporting the value incorrectly?

 

Hi
I wonder if anybody is willing to help me. I need to send my duo 11 back to Sony for repair as the touch screen is registering phantom presses periodically.
Unfortunately they won't take it back until I've restored via the recovery system but I deleted the recovery partition a year ago (foolish in hindsight).

They're being quite unhelpful and want to charge me quite a lot of money to ship me some recovery disks (disks?!).

If anybody made a back up of the recovery partition (i believe it's possible using the sony tools) that would be incredibly helpful if you could share it with me through some means...dropbox or whatever.

I know it's a big ask but I figured somebody out there might have the time or be particularly inclined to give me a hand!

Stupid Sony!
Thanks
Paul

 

...............

 

very nice software just knead a modern design

 

I have the same problem any one have a fix for this

 

explain more please, maybe give an example.

 

Hell kay so guys i purchased my Vaio Duo 11 in Feb 2013, works great.Very happy with it.It's a great PC.Just noticed a few days back that there are a few pixels that show up bright white against only a white background like on Google web page or Microsoft Word and are barely noticable when the background is dark.Actually once you notice they are hard to ignore and to be honest a bit irritating.I would say they are about 8 in number and very very small in size.I contacted my local Sony Service Centre and the technician their said that they are pressure spots that are user induced.I have never put any pressure on my duo 11 and have been ultra careful while handling.It has never been mishandled.He said that the screen will have to be replaced and it will not be covered in warranty.I think it is very unfair.I have 25 months left on my warranty.He said he'll get back to me about the final cost of replacing the screen.What do you think these bright white spots are??How to correct them and can you guys please gimme a rough idea as to how much will it cost me to repair the screen??Thanks and have a good day.

 

Hi Wajahat,That's a typical answer from a no-knowledge technician who is most likely under instruction to pass the buck back onto you! There is no way you can induce a high pressure at a point on a gorilla glass screen that will permanently affect individual pixels. Sony made a poor choice of screen for this model and are trying not to fulfil their warranties. Register your fault and demand a warrantee replacement. If you are in the UK, use your customer rights under the Sale-of-Goods Act but get a second professional opinion to back you up..The Duo is a lovely machine spoilt by a rushed development stage and poor after-sales service. Gone are the days when Sony was synonymous with all round quality. I love my Duo but have had to put up with flaky Wi-Fi, keyboard and touch-screen performance that are driver issues that they have never addressed. My old HP tablet pc still outperforms the Duo in respect of the tablet features and it's 8 years old!In my business, the customer is always right even when they're not and this makes us highly successful. Will we use Sony in future? You know the answer!

 

Thanks alot Mike for the reply.Yes i shall demand the repair/replacement be covered under warranty.I was looking at my whole Vaio Duo 11 under a magnifying glass and no sign of pressure induced damage or even a scratch on the screen.I am amazed at how can a Corning Gorilla Glass 2 be so fragile if the tech guy is right.I shall visit the Repair Centre again in a couple of days and let you guys know what happened.BTW this is the problem i am experiencing as quoted on Wiki, again prooving it is not my fault
Bright dot defects
A bright dot defect is a group of three sub-pixels (one pixel) all of whose transistors are "off" for TN panels or stuck "on" for MVA/PVA panels. This allows all light to pass through to the RGB layer, creating a bright white pixel that is always on. This is commonly known as a "hot pixel".

 

Yes Wajahat, hot pixels are an electronic fault or a manufacturing fault, both of which are down to Sony. You can expect one or two on a screen but it is rare and the screens are usually rejected during manufacture. Unfortunately, if a screen is in short supply, equipment manufacturers may allow screens to be used with a few pixel faults and you may find there are caveats in their warranties to cover that eventuality; this was common in early LCD and OLED screens but today's processes have overcome the worst problems. If your hot pixels are in a cluster, this implies damage during assembly due to undue pressure on the rear of the screen i.e. a knock with a tool or something dropped on it but NOT on the front as the glass is there to protect the LCD.

 

I picked up a couple of Vaio Duos on eBay for $850 each, not sure which one would be my best fit.

Vaio Duo 11, i7, 8 gb, 256 gb SSD. black
Vaio Duo 13, i5, 4 gb, 128 gb SSD, white

I'm leaning toward the Duo 11, b/c of the better specs, but really like the 13's keyboard and battery life, although I'm not a fan of white. The 3-4 hr battery life and keyboard of the 11 is disappointing tho. Don't really want to spend $100 for the extra battery, just to make it heavier.

I had hoped I could replace my 17" i7 laptop, but after 10 minutes, I gave up that idea.

 

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Thanks, but I've decided to try to make the Duo 13 work and sell the Duo 11.

The smaller ssd (128gb) of the 13 seems to be easier to stomach than 4 hr battery and hit/miss keyboard of the 11. The i7 with 8 gb of ram didn't seem to be noticeably faster when I used them.

 

I have i5 and 4 gb and it's really fast can't imagine faster than this , if you won't work with cpu intensive work this is more than enough and sure you can get 4 hr + in 13" model .

 

Last I checked I was getting 10 hours while browsing this forum.

 

Hello......


My DUO 11 has a huge problem.

1. Noisy Processor
2. Pen doesn't work 2" from the screen from the right
3. I can't figure out how to restore to factory settings

I want to restore my DUO 11 as I first bought it. I had made a recovery image in my external hard drive. How do I use it to restore =D I currently have windows 8.1 with no sony tools...