Vaio Duo 11 Owners Thread

Thank you very much for your help.

I've installed the add-ins but, it seems nothing much has changed except now the default mode during the slideshow is the pen and not arrow and it will accept any touch including the finger. I thought the add-ins will only register the stylus touch as pen and the finger touch as normal slides navigation.

or is there anything wrong with my installation ?

 

What is it like using this laptop without the trackpad? I was considering this until I noticed it didn't have one, lol.

 

It does not have a trackpad and also does not have the traditional poiting stick/trackpoint that you see on Lenovo's thinkpads.

Rather, it has an optical sensor that senses your fingers movement in order to move the cursor around the screen.

While I do not own one of these, I have spend a good deal of time with one and find that it is not as bad as some people/reviews make it out to be.

 

Hi,

Have you found a way of resolving the freeze issue,
it is really annoying.

Mohammad.

 

I do. I have tried to change it with another one but it is not available in stores yet ! There is a long wait.

 

Is this ssd compatible with the duo 11?
Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD3 mSATA 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Hello guys

Happy owner of a Duo 11 i7 8G/256G, I am just a bit frustrated by the poor handling of the virtual keyboard display when the pc is in Tablet mode.
I have noticed that the physical keyboard is desactivated as soon as you start to slide the screen (=the pc knows there is no keyboard anymore), so I do not understand why the virtual keyboard does not show up automatically then when there is a need to enter any info.

This feature did work perfect in my old fujitsu win xp tablet edition.

Some ideas ?

Another thing : any news for Chrome to enable the pinch to zoom ?

Thanks

 

Yes, it is compatible with your Duo.

 

I also notice that. It could be an update later.

 

I believe this is a problem with Win8 and appears on all convertibles, not just the Duo 11.

 

well i just contacted sony about upgrading the SSD and it defiantly voids your warranty and all they could tell me is to get ahold of the closest sony store near me which is 300 miles away from where i live and couldnt really give me a price or anything so that sucks ill prob be paying double what i would doing it myself

 

I have been using my new duo for couple of days and I notice the wifi isn't that great I keep getting dropped anyone else have this issue?
I live in the back house but its not far from the wifi setup. My old Alienware laptop which is 2yrs + old has really good wifi connections.
Is there a driver i need to update or any type of settings?

 

does anyone have a problem with the touch screen? The upper-left corner is self-clicking every now and then.
I tried to calibrate it, turn off/on the touch screen device, reinstall the OS, did all the upgrades and it is still clicking.

anyone with the same problem?

 

I haven't noticed issues with mine.

 

I don't have this problem.
I did a fresh install windows 8.
You may go to Intel support site to download newest wireless driver and update your current one.

Sent from my LT30at using Tapatalk 2

 

YES!
Appart from the self-clicking at the top left corner, the 'Active Clip' function keeps activacting itself, interferring with the touchscreen and the optical trackpad, making the Duo 11 unusable.
Are you experiencing that Active Clip affect too???

 

If this problem mainly occurs when using battery power, check your power settings. I think the default is to reduce WiFi power to save battery. If you set WiFi for maximum performance on battery, you should see a big improvement. With this set up, my WiFi is rock solid.

Ira

 

Can anyone tell me how much battery life they get on the 11 with light usage?

 

The Active Clip function seems ok so far. It is supposed to be activated only with the pen button or by opening the program the standard way, right?

For me, I've noticed that a gray circle appears whenever the self-clicking happens (the same when the user touches with his finger).
I`m afraid it`s a hardware issue, in my case.

 

Set up: Displ 1 = Duo 11, Displ 2 = Dell 2560 x 1600 to HDMI, Displ 3 to VGA = Dell 1200 x 1600. The Duo could drive all three displays, but as expected Displ 2 max resolution was 1920x1200 (can't remeber exact resolution, not full res anyway).
Have ordered a FUJITSU USB 3.0-PORT REPLICATOR PR08, hopefully this will be able to drive the full 2560x1600 throug its display port.

Edit: Can confirm that PR08 works very well with Duo11 outputing 2560x1600 on DisplayPort. Havent succeded in connecting the second screen to the PR08, though (no output). But connecting second screen directly to Duo 11 either on HDMI or VGA works welll. Drawback is that you have to connect two cables (USB to PR08 and HDMI, well, and power also). The LAN works through the PR08 as well.

 

The main thing I miss from a trackpad is being able to do things like 2 finger scrolling or "right side of the track-pad" type scrolling. Other than that it seems fine.

 

In case you're not aware you can scroll if you hold the middle button although admittedly it doesn't work so well on the Vaio as the buttons aren't great.

John

 

Did everybody hear about to the Duo 11 that Sony debuted @ their CES?

It now comes in silver as well with 512GB SSD!

 

Quite like the silver option! And of course a 512GB SSD is definitely a winner... but at what crazy price?

 

Some pics on the computershopper website from the silver Duo 11

New Sony VAIO Laptops at CES 2013: A Silver Duo 11, a Touch-Screen VAIO T14 and T15

 

Hey guys, I was looking at some of the comments about the flickering screen issue, and I tried some of the solutions posted about using the intel drivers, but it didn't seem to work. It shows 60Hz in the graphics display, and when I change it to 40Hz, the flickering stops, but then al the animations look choppy. Does anyone have any other solutions to this problem? I'm wondering if this is just something the laptop comes with, (which is just unacceptable) or if I need to get in replaced.

Thanks!

 

Yes I'm wondering the same thing. I set mine to 60hz at all power option settings in the hope to eliminate the flickering. I use the laptop (as all other screen tech I use) at quite a low brightness (are people insane? over 30% brightness on anything just seems like staring at the sun).

-anyway, failed to get rid of the flicker (though not as yet tried the 40hz option but seems like a retrograde move).

I notice it basically all the time, ie if I'm looking at one side of the screen, in my peripheral vision the other side of the screen strobes. If there is a mid-tone such as greys (like the zbrush interface) the whole screen starts strobing.

My screen has more than ideal lightbleed from the bottom and a distinct yellow/muddy cast on the last 20% of the right side of the screen.

So my question as yours is, is this a phenomenon of all these laptops just noticed more by those susceptible, or do I have a dodgy model?
(the bad news for me being I bought it used on ebay- though hoping I can register a warranty with sony as it's only a month and a half old)

Hopefully someone has some answers! Otherwise generally delighted with it and happy to work around foibles like missed keystrokes and trying not to lose the pen...

 

I was just at Sony Booth at CES. Duo has new silver top keyboard frame and 512GB SSD (a guy told me) but I forgot to check for real.
External battery will also be built in IR for remote control like Xperia Tablet.

 

I think you won't have any luck by getting another VAIO Duo 11. I got the same problem with screen flickering. It is obvious that many owners are describing the same issues and no one could get rid of them.
I read many articles in the web dealing with backlight flickering of LED-driven (IPS-)screens, some examples of devices suffering from backlight flickering are the MacBook Pro of 2007 and the Lenovo X220.
The reason for flickering backlights of LED-screens is the so-called "pulse-width modulation (PWM)": When not at full brightness, the backlight is naturally changing between the state "on" and "off" very quickly. It is "dimmed" by rising the amount of time between the two states (for the human eye it seems that the brightness gets lower), so that the flickering gets more and more visible by lowering the brightness towards zero.
Whether the flickering is noticeable or not depends on the user's eyes and how the PWM-frequency is set by the manufacturer.
Some manufacturers are driving the backlight-PWM at high frequencies so that even very sensitive persons can't see the flickering. I think, SONY chose (by chance?) a very low frequency.
In the past, Apple could change the PWM-frequency of the 2007 MacBook Pro by releasing a firmware/BIOS-update, so I hope that SONY gets aware of this problem an will release an UEFI-update as well.
Besides that, there is only one solution: Set your brightness at 100%, so the backlight is on all the time. I experienced as well that changing to 40 Hz can remove the flickering behavior, but I don't know why. Perhaps, PWM-frequency and refresh rate don't interfere then.
Sorry that my (technical) english is not quite good, I hope you understand what I'm writing.

 

Hi ngvuanh, If you're still at CES can you check to see if they have a release date for the updated Duo? I've been checking online and the current model has been discontinued or is out of stock everywhere. I'm looking to buy the all black one in the next week or so. Thanks!

 

New competitor.

Razer Edge Pro Gaming System: The World's First Tablet Designed for PC Gamers | Razer United States

 

I'm really suprised to see so much discussion about flickering. I haven't noticed a darn thing. Or maybe my 40-year-old eyes are desensitized to that kind of thing.

On a different note, my biggest gripe so far is not about the hardware but about Windows 8. Apparenty it's used a new kind of drive partitioning scheme .... my favorite partioning tool - Minitool - is unable to shrink and resize NTFS partitions on this machine. A real bummer because I wanted to create space for a Linux partition and have a dual boot system.

Has anyone here had success making this laptop dual-boot?

 

hi mitlov
Wow you know your stuff it sounds like. I hope you are right that a firmware upgrade could get rid of the flicker, it feels very un-sony to have such a nice gadget with such a (to some of us) dodgy screen. I feel like I notice it more all the time (never noticed it when doing finger paintings on it in the shop...)
I guess it is somehow similar to fluorescent lights on certain frequencies affecting video cameras differently. (or perhaps not like that at all)
.
Still, seems like using this device as a creative production tool might become migraine inducing. I hope things work out-

good luck to us all

 

I've noticed that it shows up more on blueish green colors and grey, so I just changed my background to a different color and it doesn't bother me as much

 

iirc there was a wifi update on the sony support page for the duo; yep "Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 Update 11/29/2012 Version 15.5.6.48"

 

I just contacted the SONY customer support by mail, hope they will reply soon.
I would recommend all of you to do the same so they get aware of this problem.

 

Hi! I am owner of a japanese Vaio Duo i5, 128ssd and because of mispelling using US language pack and graphic bugs in freshpaint i updated the intel HD drivers that solved theses issues.
But i noticed a side effect when i plug in or unplug ac adapter the screen dimmed to match the setting on battery (that expected to work like this) but 2-3 seconds after the screen go black for a second and resume, that very annoying. I am looking for a setting in graphic panel but cant figure what to change....ll do a factory restore...
Anyone has this issue using stock drivers?
Another point is the recover area reserved on the SSD, whith stock refresh i got 50go free on my 128ssd... that quite low. I read i can recover the space using vaio care to delete this recover. How many space can i retrieve? Doing fresh install maybe more efficient?
thanks a lot for your help

 

Has anybody tried the power adapter AC10V5 ?
Any other suggestion that is tried?
And have anybody tried the iGo laptop charger and know if it works and what tip should be used?

 

I tried the iGo adapter and it didn't work for me. My other universal adapters also didn't work...

 

Click with pen does not recognize about one cm from the right hand boarder e.g. in desktop mode a left click with the pen brings up a cirkle in the middel of the screen. Moving the pen near the right hand boarder makes the cirkle disapear.

Edit workaround solution: Seems to be related to Display link drivers for my Fujitsu USB display/port replicator and external monitors. With the Duo 11 stand alone, if I enable "extend screen" (FN + F7 and "extend screen") the problem goes away. However, I then have a "fantom" screen to the right and can move the cursor outside the screen estate. A minor problem, can live with it, just a bit anoying.
/voz

 

Bummer, what tip did you try with the iGo?

 

I got this Lenmar Netbook adapter. It gets a bit warm, but it seems to work well and is much cheaper than the Sony model. Watch for sales. I got mine at BestBuy for $28.

LAC50

Ira

 

Hi, I am just wondering how long your battery is lasting after being fully charged. My Duo only manages about 2 hours, even in energy saving mode. I fully charged it for app. 5 times during one month (since I got it) and I first did not use it so much as I had no time for that. Is it normal that the battery has to be charged several times before it reaches its real capacity?
In the web there is mentioned a life time of about 5 hours???

 

3,5 hours normal office use for me.

 

Who knows what's going on with the Sony FTP server? It's impossible to download any updates over the last few weeks. Is starts to download and after a few seconds the connection just dies. It takes forever to download even the smallest file. Are there any alternative servers which work OK?

I use; ftp.vaio-link.com

 

I'm getting 4.5 hrs typically with just the main battery. What I do find is that you need to monitor the desktop side of things quite a bit to get the best battery life. When you use Metro apps, they stop using CPU cycles the moment you switch apps. On the desktop side of things, though, if you for instance leave IE or Chrome running in the background with a few tabs, you get lots of RAM usage and enough CPU usage to see a hit on battery life, this gets even more pronounced when one of those pages is running flash. If closing your desktop apps doesn't improve things, then try running powercfg -energy at the command line.

In fact I recommend that everyone run powercfg -energy, and check out the following page. Understanding what your power draws are, makes a HUGE difference in you can optimize your computer for those days you have to forgo an outlet.
Guided Help: Get a detailed Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report for your computer in Windows 7

 

Hey All,
/
Been a happy user of my duo 11 since it came out... but I do have a question... did anyone notice the start screen is limited to 3 rows of tiles only? I have my resolution set to 1920x1080... but the start screen does not seem to take that into account... if I drop my resolution one notch down, I got to 5 or 6 rows... anybody have an idea? At that resolution, I should be able to have 6 rows of tiles..

help!!!!

 

Its linked to monitor size, not resolution. Go here to add more rows (MOD) how to add more rows of tiles on surface - xda-developers

 

I am considering buying the Duo 11 to replace my VPCZ2.

For all you Z owners prior to the Duo 11, are you guys satisfied with the performance compare to the VPCZ2?

Also, I couldn't find any info regarding this....I know the Duo has a SD/Memory stick slot....is it one SD slot+one Memory stick slot? Can both these cards be used simultaneously?

TIA!

 

My duo 11 has on SD slot and two USB slots.

Regarding battery life, mine lasts for several hours - I would say at least five - I usually have it in Desktop mode running IE and one or two desktop applications.