My S460 Comments

I got an S460 a couple of days ago, and would like to share some of my thoughts and discoveries.

First thing I noticed was it came with no manual and no quick start booklet other than a single sheet. I thought I'd get at least the quick start booklet because of this photo posted here in the S380 review, and it looked like that might be a manual under it.

Anyway, the manual is available online at sonystyle, and also comes on the notebook's hard drive. But it's 200 pages and I don't like reading it on the computer, nor do I care to print out 200 pages. They should of included a manual. I called Sony, and spoke to three different people. One thought there should be a manual, two thought there wasn't one, but no one seemed sure, and no one had one to send me.

Also, there are no system restore CDs included, but at least Sony has a nice utility that lets you burn your own. It takes one CD-R (to boot from), and one DVD-R (or +R) to store the files (or 6 more CD-Rs). Still, why do they put you through this and just not include the restore CDs?

So far as the notebook goes, I was very impressed with the display. It's very bright, very sharp, and had no bad pixels. In fact it's brigter than I need for indoors and I usually set it 2 or 3 settings from the brightest (9 total settings). It has a very wide side-side viewing angle, which is great for more than one watching a DVD.

Yes, it does get hot with AC power, enough to annoy but not enough to burn. And the fan is pretty noisy, but not any noisier than the DVD drive (and the DVD drive noise is normal compared to other notebooks I've had). The good news is there are some work arounds for the noise and heat.

The fan is actually a variable speed fan with 5 speed settings. And you can set the maximum speed to any of these five choices by going to the control panel, Power Options, and selecting the Vaio Control Options. You can set up a profile for both AC and battery operation. Besides the fan settings, you can also select CPU performance (3 choices; performance, adaptive, battery), LCD brightness (9 choices), and the usual time to turn off monitor, hard drive, go to standby or hibernate.

So if you want less fan noise, set the max fan speed to one of the lower settings. But if you run the CPU in performance mode (default is adaptive with AC adapter), you cannot set the fan speed. If you want less heat, you can set the CPU to battery mode which is fine for most applications. If you later need a faster CPU, it's easy to switch back to adaptive or performance mode.

I've heard people mention the LCD was dim. I didn't notice that. But there is a mode with the nVidia drive to dim the LCD when running from a battery. That can be disabled by going to the control panel, select Display, Settings, Advanced Settings, and going through the nVidia options. I also noticed the brightness of the display changing on its own when not set to the brightest settings, but as someone else mentioned, this is fixed by updating to the latest nVidia driver which is posted at sonystyle.com.

I opened up the RAM door and was disappointed to find that the S460 has two 256MB sodimms. Before I bought the notebook, I checked the specifications
at sonystyle.com and it clearly said 512MB x 1. So now it's going to cost me about $55 more than planned to upgrade to 1GB because I need to buy two 512MB sodimms instead of one. I called Sony about this, and after a lot of delays, I was told it was a typo (there is also a link to a PDF spec and it says 256MB x 2 unlike the other spec). I felt this was their problem and that they should mail me a 512MB stick, and I'd return the two 256MB sticks. But they wouldn't agree to it. Seems like a poor way to treat a customer to me, especially considering thier own spec is wrong.

So far as battery life goes, I watched a DVD movie with good brightness (level 6 of 9) and volume about 2/3 up. CPU performance was set for battery. The move ran smoothly and looked outstanding. With WiFi off, I got about 2 hours, 15 minutes before the battery went down to about 6% left (8 min remaining) and hibernation began. I tried it with WiFi on and did a little web surfing while watching, and still got about 2 hours, 5 minutes. Guess I'll get the larger, 7200 mAhr battery. It's way overpriced at $299 from Sony, but I've seen generic versions with the same spec in the $99-$120 range.

 

I purchased my s460 last week and got the very same results you did on battery life while watching DVD, etc. I too was very disappointed with the 2x256 mb sticks rather than the 1x512. And I agree there should have at least been a users manual and recovery disks - I mean how much can those things cost to make? Sony must make a sweet profit on these given how little they provide (over the machine that is). I agree the fan is not as loud as others have complained about - but my only reference to this is an Averatec 3200 series that got hotter and had a fan at least as "loud" if not more. As to the new video driver, can you post the link? I can't find it on Sony's site. I tried Nvidia's latest 77.72 driver but got an error saying "no compatible device found." Strange.

In any case, I'm pretty happy with the s460 so far and have successfully loaded/played HL2, Chronicles of Riddick, and a few flight sims - so far, fits the bill video-wise. I'll try Doom 3 and Area 51 demos tonight.

One thing I don't like is the flimsiness of the DVD drive - feels like it can easily break off. The Averatec's CD-drive at least felt sturdier and on a flat table, would be flush to the table so you didn't have to worry about breaking it when inserting/removing disks.

I had concerns about the s460 vs the s360 on video and battery life - but the midnight madness discount compusa had last Friday night was too much to ignore - funny they had a demo s360P that they could not match with their 460 sale price - go figure - you'd think they'd want to move those display models.

 

I was mistaken in saying the updated drives were at sonystyle. You can get them here. I loaded in all the new updates, plus updated the BIOS.

I'm also playing around with the Centrino Hardware Control program to lower the CPU voltage in order to further reduce heat and increase battery life. I've lowered the low speed battery CPU voltage from .988V to .712V. That should improve battery life a fair amount, so I'll run a DVD movie again soon to see what I get.

So far as Sony vs. Averatec goes, I had been waiting for the 13" 4100 Averatec Turion to come out, but got the Sony once the big sales started. Averatec gives you a lot for the money, but it seems they have a lot of problems, especially with bad pixels and flakey mouse pads on newer models. I don't know if Sony screens for 100% good pixels, but I haven't seen any mention of bad pixels on the Sony machines. Still, that 4100 looks like it will be a nice machine, and will probably sell for $900-$1000 after rebates. Just don't expect it to be perfect...

And oh... maybe you could try calling Sony support to see if you can talk them into exchanging your two 256MB RAM sticks for a 512MB stick? Maybe you'd have better luck than me?

 

Well, I ran a DVD movie at the lower voltage. And I didn't get as much an improvement as I would of liked. It was at least 10 min better (2hr 25 min), maybe another 5 min because I didn't have everything set up exactly the same. But still, for just 10 min, not sure it's worth it, unless it runs much cooler. And I didn't notice it being much cooler.

There are other options I haven't tried yet. But for just 10-20% improvement, it's up to you to decide if it's worth tweeking the voltages, risking a crash, and just gaining 10-20%.

 

I'm looking for a bag for my new s460. What do you guys carry yours in? it's hard to find a perfect case that would fit the s460 snuggly so it won't move around during transit. most bags are designed for 15" screen.

Renoguy, this is the second time that you've helped me out. the screen's tendency to dim for a split-second was fixed after i updated the driver thanks to your link to the sony support site.

 

The Sony cases shown in the brochure that comes with the notebook look good to me, and they seem reasonably priced. Especially considering we are supposed to get a 20% discount after registering our S460 at the Sony web site. Well, I've registered twice, and still haven't received the promised email coupon for 20% off. Hummmmm...

 

Bought the same unit for my daughter, same thing about the disappointment of the 2x2556. Saw the Sony case at Fry's but the width is a bit tight, ended up buying her a neoprene Targus case at CompUSA for $30, perfect fit though the side may be stretching a bit to fit the AC. This case should work well for her as she can stuff it inside her backpack w/o creating much bulk.

 

I use a Booq ( www.booqbags.com) Vyper XM laptop sleeve coupled with my NorthFace backpack or pretty much any medium sized messenger bag. I also use a Booq PowerSleeve for my PowerBook. Booq products are well built and match the sleek design of the Vaio S Series. The Vyper XM is 1+ inches deeper than the S460 but temporarily i use a piece of black foam cut to size to fill the small void to prevent the notebook from sliding around. A long black sock would do the trick also. I plan on buying the Sony extended life battery as soon as Sony sends me the 20% off e-coupon for registering online. From my understanding, it will add some depth to the 460 hopefully creating more of a snug fit. Probably will end up buying one from Amazon though as they have a good price with free S/H and no tax, plus you have to love the point system for their Visa card.

 

Thanks for the input on the booqbags!

So far as the 20% off coupon goes, don't count on it anytime soon. I ended up emailing them 3 times before I got mine. And they are dumb as hell. You have to explain to them over and over again that yes, I did register, yes, I gave the serial number, yes, I gave the part number, etc, etc. They kept telling me to repeat the same stuff.

Anyway, I got a generic extended battery elsewhere for $119 and I see no problems with it. The only problem is you have to remove a Sony program running in the background, because it makes the notebook reject any replacement batteries. Remove "ISBMgr.exe" buy running "msconfig". See my topic here about "Problem with a lower cost battery".

By the way, the extended battery does add about 1" to the back of the notebook, and about 1/2" to the bottom (good for ventilation). It's not too bad at all!

 

Where didiyou find the generic battery for your S460?

 

You can read about it here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=20440

I've had the battery for awhile now, and it's working great! The only problem is you have to remove that Sony program from the startup as described in the post.

Good luck!