Any problems with the SR?

Hey guys. Was just wondering if you guys knew when the GPU for the SR was last refreshed from the 3470(?) to the current 4570? And whether you've heard any news of an upcoming refresh.

Looking to maybe purchase this over an SXPS 13 but not sure if I should wait for the next update. Who knows, maybe it'll get the upcoming 40nm ATI 5470 (aka DirectX 11 GDDR5 Park XT with supposedly same 12-15W TDP as the 4570). Then again, it's rumored to be released in November.

Also, could someone please summarize all the negative things about this notebook such as overheating, loud fan noise even when idle, driver installation issues, case instability, screen problems, etc. that they've experienced so far? Thanks.

 

The most severe imo is the legendary Sony battery drain. I just download the Realtek latest driver to fix this and I'll tell you the results later

In addition, some certain drivers are not quite stable, for me its the brightness adjusting issue but some have others too.

 

Battery drain issue for me. I have tried everything suggested here to fix it but nothing has worked. Device manager shows the modem keeps disabling itself. I re-enable it and it will disable by itself again. Not like I use it but I can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with the battery drain issues. I really like this laptop but I spent quite a bit of money on it and am somewhat dissapointed that it is not what I had hoped as far as battery life. I am seriously considering returing it.

 

can i get more detail about this battery drain issue? what exactly is/causes it? and does it exist in every SR?

i really want this laptop due to its size, weight, 13', and power

 

The SR series changed to the 4570 graphics starting with the vgn-sr4 xx models. (SR490 for example). If I had to guess, the next graphics update would probably be a year or more away. I think the SR190 had the 3470 with 128mb, the SR290 - 390 had the 3470 with 256mb video ram, and now the SR4xx series has the 4570 with 512mb.

The battery drain affects all current Z and SR models. there are a couple main threads on it which should be easy to find. Basically while shut down or in hibernation, the battery loses something like %5 per day. no one has found an official fix yet, but the latest threads say possibly using the latest audio driver from the realtek site might fix it. some people are testing the theory now.

The only other issue is sony has disabled VT (virtualization technology) in the SR and Z (and probably others). there is a bios hack out, but from what I've read here lately sony is going to enable it starting with the SR4xx series.

Also if you plan to use linux you'll have an easier time with an nvidia graphics chipset. Ati chipsets are supported but really only in basic mode. getting drivers to work in advanced mode such as compiz desktops are a real pain. this may change in a year or so when ati starts releasing working drivers. right now only some ati "x" series cards are supported.

 

S.Prime pretty well covered the battery drain issue. I tried installing the latest audio drivers direct from the RealTek site and it did not fix a thing. I can put my system in hibernate or shut it down, then start it up (on battery) in as little as 1 or two hours later and at least 3-5% of the battery has been drained. This is NOT due to startup. As i mentioned in my previous post, I can unplug, shutdown and then do a cold restart with no battery drain so the startup drain on the battery is negligable. The issue presents itself when the laptop is turned off and unplugged for a couple of hours or more.

 

The Realtek thing didn't work for me, 9 hrs = 5% drop