I just got my new FE but...

Hi!
I just got my new FE and i love it, the screen is so bright and its so fast! I just have 2 "complaints" that maybe some of you can help me solve.
1. The volume is way too low even when its to the max. I looked into control panel and everything is to the max but its really low, my old dell 600m was way louder. Even when connected to speakers its not that loud. Am I missing something or is this normal for the FE?
2. All the bloatware. I uninstalled everything I was sure I didnt need like the trial software. But what should I do with the Sony software (clickdvd, dvgate plus, sonic stage, vaio wireless lan utility...) do I need all this stuff too? What is the cleanest I can leave the system withough losing basic funcionality such as burning dvds?
Thanks in advance!
Specs:
Processor: T2300
RAM: 1 GB
HD: 80 GB
Graphics: Nvidia 7600
DVD burner
wlan + bluetooth
winxp home

 

Congrats on the FE. As far as the volume, at least on the FE's and the AR's, it seems to be a common problem. Mine is far too quiet, and haven't found a way to increase the volume. There is a surround program posted here at the board that's for Toshiba's, but has been modded to work on most systems. It worked great on my Dell, but did a number on my Sony and I had to reformat. It adds plenty of volume, but it's up to you whether you want to try it or not. People have had it work on their SZ's. Search "TVS" to find the posts.

The Sony software you mentioned can all be removed, except for the wireless lan utility, I'm not 100% sure you can remove that. I actually like Sonic Stage for burning audio discs, click to DVD I haven't tried yet, but the interface looks nice. DVgate is just for digital video. If you do the partially clean install explained in another thread you can get a very clean system. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=44587 From what i've read, most of the Sony specific software is purely superfluous.

Edit: Here is the link to the thread here that discusses TVS...along with a link to the actual download site. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=70276

 

I strongly recommend you do a clean install or at least a semi-restore from the post mentioned by kgbeerzr1. It will make the system boot up much faster without all the junks Sony gave you.

 

thanks for the quick reply! its a shame about the volume since I use my laptop + speakers to listen to my music. Do you think its only the laptop speakers that are low or is it a "system" problem where even external speakers connected or headphones sound low?

 

hi totono, i got my FE this week, pretty much the same config as urs. The volume is very low,nothing to do about it, other than that, its a great system. You need to keep both the volume control bar & wave bar to full if you want the best sound. I was very disappointed too, i tried using the toshiba virtual sound program, it works on my computer, but didn't see that great of a difference, so just uninstalled. I have coped with it, its not bad, the volume could have been better, but the thing is most laptops these days, to avoid too much power usage have pretty bad builtin speakers, so listening with headphones is the best choice for FE owners. I am looking into external audio cards, check out creative soundblaster and indigo io

 

i wouldnt mind if the sound is loud enough on headphones

 

im dont think its as loud as my old dell even coming out of speakers or headphones....weird how such a great machine would have this simple problem...

 

You can turn the speakers up in the bios, Just hit F2 when the vaio logo appears, My FE has much louder speakers than my friends Acer and HP. As for the clean install I never did the whole recovery disc thing, i just installed a fresh copy of XP and got all the drivers online, Works wonderfully now.

 

matt_h1, does that work on all FE's. I want to try that out, but I am afraid. Did you have a low volume on ur FE too? Did anyone else try out this increasing the speakers volume in hte bios? thanks

 

congrats on ur purchase

 

hey matt,
thanks for the advice, how can your fe be so loud? i went into my bios and the speaker volume was set to 4/8 , i put it at 8/8 and its louder now but not loud enough. For example, if my volume control is at midpoint (with wave to max) i cant hear anything even with external speakers, i have to have it almost at max to get anything decent. my old dell was loud enough at half way. I just cant accept that sony has this problem, Im still hopefull there is a setting i can tweak that i am not seeing? the bios change did help but not as much as i expected. thanks for everybodys replies! hope we can find a solution to this...

 

Hmm I usually have my speakers at the very Max sound, its just part of the laptop, Its not great I know but theres not much you can do about it.

 

same here, my bios had sound volume 4/8, i kept it all the way to 8, there was some change in volume, but not too great. its ok though, i have good sound through the headphones, like matt_h1 said, keeping both wave & volume control bar to the max will give you the best sound on a sony. totono, i was upset too, i came from a fujitsu laptop to this sony, fujitsu is just too good man, i like this sony, but when i go back to fujitsu, i see how great that laptop was, the touchpad was smooth, the keys were smooth, volume was great. sony has nice design, great screen, and the volume is the biggest problem, but have to deal with it.