Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

[To no End]

Sony has not issued any formal statements whatsoever. Everything here is still up in the air... With a few including myself talking to Sony specialists but I can't consider that real proof. Speculations were bound to happen since the F series sales was taken out globally just soon as it was released.

The moderator has already asked us to stop 'speculating' since there were complaints

[MelodyMaster]

Two tiny things:

One is that the system does of course, include 64-bit Windows; that would seem obvious with up to 8 Gigs of memory available, but nowhere does it specifically mention that, whereas the CW series and others blurb about 64-bit all over the place. It's a slight issue since I have a couple of preferred programs and codecs that will NOT run in a 64-bit environment, nohow, but virtual XP will take care of that.

Secondly, Ive seen the F-series packed three ways: (1) as an eco-friendly edge-opened box with all-cardboard supports and the manuals in a clear plastic bag, (it has to all be slid out)
(2) a top load box with black carbon plastic, and a special tray for the laptop (I think it's biodegradable) with the manuals in a box,
and (3) top-load box with FOAM packing materials, no special tray for the laptop, and the manual in an opaque plastic sleeve.
Just observations...

[JDrafke123]

Two things:

One, has anyone had the problem of coming out of sleep mode after an extended amount of time, and having the mic buzz noise return. It happens to me and when I go into the sound tab in the control panel and click on the mic the window stops responding. I have to restart the computer which will then usually automatically mute the mic (and listen) again. WIERD! The event viewer shows a run32 error. Eventually I start noticing slowdowns and applications stop responding. The event viewer shows a bunch of different timeouts in the system control manager. After a restart everything goes back to normal.

Two: I did I fresh install with a copy of Win 7 Ultimate and need the network controller driver. It has to be the artheros WLAN driver but I can not find it on Sony or Artheros website. It will not install from the recovery disc either!

[RSCO]

The speakers aren't great. maybe a little louder than the FW.

I can comment on the Dell Studio 17 and the HP dv8t. Both have, imo, great speakers. The dv8t has altec lansing and a sub at the bottom. Hell, it sounds better than most built-in hdtv speakers, let alone other laptops

My daughter has an Ideapad from Lenovo, not a high end machine at all. But it has five speakers, two above the keyboard, two on either side of the screen and a sub on the underside. It sounds amazing. NOTE: this is not a competitor for the F Series at all, but it does show what a laptop can do if the vendor wants to.

[To no End]

@ melodymaster

I received the top load box with tray. I went high end with the spec. I thought it was a nice touch. The handle was extremely useful too!!

[MelodyMaster]

Two things:

One, has anyone had the problem of coming out of sleep mode after an extended amount of time, and having the mic buzz noise return. It happens to me and when I go into the sound tab in the control panel and click on the mic the window stops responding. I have to restart the computer which will then usually automatically mute the mic (and listen) again. WIERD! The event viewer shows a run32 error. Eventually I start noticing slowdowns and applications stop responding. The event viewer shows a bunch of different timeouts in the system control manager. After a restart everything goes back to normal.

Two: I did I fresh install with a copy of Win 7 Ultimate and need the network controller driver. It has to be the artheros WLAN driver but I can not find it on Sony or Artheros website. It will not install from the recovery disc either!

You don't want just the driver, but rather to install the whole software suite, some 35 megs. The general link was posted two pages ago, #1395, but here it is direct to the files. Also there are some important pre-prep instructions.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu...=5266&os_id=45

You can also get a generic connection suite from Atheros itself. I had to do that when updating my Asus laptop since Asus's Atheros software was not compatible with Win7 at the time.

[JDrafke123]

Thank you! Sorry I missed the link a few pages back. Has anyone else experienced the buzz coming back after coming out of sleep? It is def. causing performance issues, based off what i am looking at in the event viewer.

[MelodyMaster]

@ melodymaster

I received the top load box with tray. I went high end with the spec. I thought it was a nice touch. The handle was extremely useful too!!

I see the other packing methods on YouTube. The foam method was used for the FW's..

[To no End]

The speakers in the F are not that great. It does sound a whole lot better with headphones or external speakers.
That said... it's fine for daily listening. (set low and usually just for background noise while you work). If you want hi-fidelity to watch movies or music, then it might be a better investment to get external speakers.

There are laptops with better features but it comes to a cost in other factors such as bulkier cases, shorter battery life..etc. As mentioned before by many, the Vaio tries to balance performance and design. After all, Vaio prioritizes it's decisions in creating 'lifestyle' products.

[MelodyMaster]

My daughter has an Ideapad from Lenovo, not a high end machine at all. But it has five speakers, two above the keyboard, two on either side of the screen and a sub on the underside. It sounds amazing. NOTE: this is not a competitor for the F Series at all, but it does show what a laptop can do if the vendor wants to.

For general purposes I'll be using the system with an external 96/24 USB DAC, that beats any built-in sound card..