Sony Vaio VPCF22S1E/B.G4

I couldn’t find a Sony Vaio VPCF2xxxxx series owners thread, so I started one.

Re: Sony Vaio VPCF22S1E/B.G4 (Sony Model PCG-81312M) Win 7x64
This is a new model laptop purchased in late August 2011 in Austria from a factory sealed box shipped June 25, 2011 to a retailer in Germany and reviewed on this site.

This model has 8GB DDR3, a Blu ray burner, and Bluetooth 3.0 HS, and a 1920 x 1080 LCD and NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 1024 MB, Intel Core i7 2630QM Quad-Core, 2.0 GHz, L3 - 6 MB

I have USB3.0 and Bluetooth issues that have not been resolved after several days of trouble shooting with Vaio Care updates, and installing and uninstalling drivers, and finally contacting Sony Customer service which was, as expected, a complete waste of time ( no offense Hakim, as corporate has set the policies for these economic times. ) All utilities and drivers are current using both Vaio and Win 7 update ( as of today August 28, 2011 ) and diagnostics all pass and all drivers in Device Manager are reporting working status, with the single exception of a USB diagnostic tool showing a failed status without elaboration. Although everything else works just fine after all upgrades, updates, and downloads, two major problems persist:

1.) The LogiLink QP0016 USB 3.0 docking station will not enumerate with an error 10 message in the driver viewed with Device Manager for the Crucial M4 128 GB SATA 6 SDD, for which I had planned to replace the HDD. However the same hardware, the docking station and laptop, works fine with a SATA 3 HDD installed. ( I can not image the SSD to replace the HDD )
2.) Bluetooth will not enumerate or detect Bluetooth devices, both a LogicTech V470 bluetooth laser mouse, and a QStarz Sports Recorder GPS data Logger model BT-Q1300ST can not connect or be detected. ( I will not be using a wired mouse or a BT dongle )

So I repeated the download, uninstall and reinstall process for both the Bluetooth drivers:
Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth Adapter ( 127 MB), and
Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator (147 MB) aka Bluetooth_Suite_win7 first version 7.3.0.100 as failed in the Vaio Care update, and then later the latest version 7.4.0.82

Upgrading to Win 7x64 Ultimate allowed downloading and updating to a version where the English language library can be installed, from the factory German only Premiere version for only $150, but did nothing to resolve the USB or Bluetooth issues even after SP1 updates, nor improve the diagnostic messages.

The unit was factory fresh in a sealed box with a delivery date of June 27, 2011.

The Vaio care and Win 7 update are all happy about the installs, upgrade, updates, and drivers. Device Manager sees all drivers as working.

I have contacted Sony Service and support, but they want me to go back to do a factory restore to installed drivers saved on the original HDD partition. Which I would do if the Acronis True Image Home 2012 could write to the SATA 6 SSD in the docking station. Then I could undo the factory fresh restart to satisfy Sony service without losing all the upgrades, updates and downloaded MS Office products and other program files, just to verify that it did not work as shipped before Viao Care updates.

I purchased and installed Win 7x64 upgrade from Win 7x64 Premier, to save a few dollars, however this will prevent me from doing a clean install of Win 7x64 Ultimate. ( Oooops - Buyer beware – no clean install from Win upgrades ) Sony service also does not support Windows Backup and Restore FWIW.

Only one of the diagnostic tests for USB fails but without leaving a clear message as to the cause: The message says to contact Sony support. However since the external USB works with the exception of the error 10 message in the USB 3.0 docking station with SSD I am assuming these are software drivers and configuration issues.

In diagnosing and troubleshooting, I learned a few things along the way that should be of interest to forum readers with this model. I downloaded and installed CPUID ver 1.58 to check the southbridge chipset for the Sandy Bridge bug recall eight months ago back in January. This Vaio laptop has a B2 stepping on the main board southbridge Intel HM65 as reported by CPUID, I have not included a screen shot, you will have to trust me, and additionally I verified B2 stepping this way :

At the command prompt > type “wmic idecontroller get deviceid”
DeviceID
PCI\VEN_1180&DEV_E232&SUBSYS_9089104D&REV_06\4&43CF3A0&0&01E1
PCI\VEN_1180&DEV_E823&SUBSYS_9089104D&REV_06\4&43CF3A0&0&00E1
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_9089104D&REV_04\3&11583659&1&FA

Here . . . “REV_04” indicates this is a recalled chip. Shipped factory new 8 months after the recall – Go figure!

Now we know what “second generation” chipset really means and it’s not at all subtle. It is clear that the fix is in the B3 stepping. That means there may be some “work arounds in BIOS” as an agreement to mfgs that nobody knows about to contain costs with broken chips sacrificing performance and connectivity. Other mfgs also have not replaced mainboards with the recall due to the huge expenses involved. However, it remains quite disturbing that some still ship B2 steppings factory fresh eight months later which is the real shocker. Intel did not forget to change the B2 stepping to B3 with the design revision for the SATA port fix. The two tests are conclusive regardless of mfgs statements to the contrary on web pages, as they provide no alternative “definitive or accurate” tests in exchange . This SATA issue only affects ports 2-5 and only the 3 Gps SATA ports, not the 6 Gbps SATA ports. Hey, I got burned like everyone else assuming the production pipe was cleared of recalled parts, and we have to accept that with many mfgs., but I still want to fix the enumeration issues to use this laptop “as is” without a corded mouse and external dongle. The SSD is SATA 6Gbps to work around the B2 stepping if I can get it installed. I would also highly prefer using that very expensive SSD I bought over the factory HDD, and even over a hybrid drive on SATA 3Gbps for boot time performance with drivers installed which is my main peeve for getting a new laptop in the first place.

Time may heal this one with driver releases, as many are having the same issues and they are show stoppers over cheaper laptops which don’t, and there has to be some Sony cooperation and disclosure if this is to get fixed in the next six months. A refund won’t do me much good either, as I would have to turn around and buy a Dell or Alienware or Asus Lamborghini to get the Blu ray burner, and a half decent processor without heavy loud blowers and fans. Ideas? Thanks for reading all this!

 

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