I currently have the SXPS 16 but am thinking about returning it and ordering the FW490 instead. I'm actually on my second SXPS and both computers just run way too hot when in normal room temperature.
On my current machine I also have a few stuck pixels on the bottom of the screen that you can really only see against black backgrounds.
I am in the process of deciding which laptop PC to purchase. I had decided on a Dell Studio XPS 16, but then received a suggestion on this site that a vaio FW series could fit my needs.
I dropped in on a Sony Style store and they have the FW378 DH in stock. I also called the online Sony store and they suggested the FW490.
The differences in the two PC's were:
1) the processors: The FW378 came with a P8600 at 2.40GHZ, and the FW490 with the P8800 at 2.66GHZ
life of the battery on my new Vaio FW490. The battery on my previous laptop (an IBM Thinkpad circa 2004), was always connected to the laptop, and almost always plugged in. I rarely used the battery. After a couple of years, I noticed that the battery could barely hold a charge for more than 15 minutes.
Is it a good idea to regularly run the laptop off the battery? Is keeping the laptop plugged in for long periods of time OK? What should I do to ensure that my battery lasts.
I have a Vaio FW490. I took it with me on vacation. When I realized that the LCD TV in the place I am staying had an HDMI connection, and that there was no blu ray player, I decided to connect my laptop to the TV via the HDMI. I had no problem with the video, once I discovered that I needed to shut off the laptop display. The sound was fine for all of the various previews on the Blu ray dvd. But once it started playing the movie, which was in DTS 5.1 audio, there was no sound. It played sound when I chose the directors comments, but I was unable to get any sound when the dts track was chosen. This occurred with 2 blu ray movies. I checked my sound settings while the hdmi was connected and it showed "digital audio HDMI (ATI HDMI audio) as the default device.
Is it just not possible to play a blu ray dvd from my laptop to a TV via hdmi only? Do I need a separate audio connection?
I just recieved my Sony Vaio FW490 today. After uninstalling the trial version of Office 2007 (student version), windows refuses to boot normally. I tried several system resores without success.
Although it said that the restore worked properly, I kept rebooting to repair windows or vaio restore center or something like that. I finally called Sony tech support, and they walked me through restoring the C drive to its original state option
I am about to order a Sony Vaio FW490, and I would like to know how much of a difference visually that these 2 screens are. I know that the FullHD obviously looks better, but how much better exactly? And is it worth the extra $100 or so?
I have yet to see a FullHD screen at the Best Buy near me so it is difficult for me to compare the two. I have also heard that the FullHD screen is not adequate for gaming. Is this true? I am not a hardcore gamer by any means, but I did plan on playing some of my new games like Street Fighter 4 occasionally. In addition, a 1920x1080 resolution does seem quite large for a 16.4" screen. Can anybody provide some sort of screenshot of the FullHD screen?
what screens are most people buying here? 1920x1080 or 1600X900 ?
I don't need a blueray player I think!
I won't be playing any movies on it. I played 1/2 movie on my last and hooked to tv for fun but never played another.
It has the option for (fresh start) or (no fresh start) does this matter ?
I don't want the bloatware and I have my own Vista Ultra Full, I'd put in.
I'm buying the 160 gig with my intention on putting in my own 200 gig 7200 HD
I have tried a slew of overclocking programs including rivatuner and ati tool, to try to underclock my gpu for better battery life. They usually give errors about a unsigned driver installing but I boot with signed driver checking disabled. Has anyone been successful over/underclocking the gpu on a fw490?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI've been trying to boot from USB in my new Soy FW490 but nothing happens.
Can anyone confirm that Sony VAIO laptops can't boot from USB ports?
Does anyone know how to enable this option in BIOS?
what function key should I press?
I just ran PCPitstop on my FW490 (running Vista Home Premium 64 bit), and the Driver recommendations report listed two drivers which they suggest changing:
1) Realtek High Definition Audio current driver is 6.0.1.5759 , to proposed driver 6.0.1.5888.
2) Marvell Yukon 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller current driver is 10.53.2.3 to proposed driver 10.70.6.3.
The recommended drivers do not appear on the Sony eSupport site for my specific model (VGN-FW490CJ).
Should I leave well enough alone, or is Sony not posting the most current drivers for my Vaio.
What is a good and relatively inexpensive one
View 10 Replies View RelatedI want to order myself a FW490 but the problem is I have to go study in London soon and the warranty wont cover outside the us. This is really problematic and possibly force me to go back to buy dell. but I was just wondering about the possible option I can do. Would it be possible to buy a warranty in the UK?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have an FW490, and noticed when looking at the device manager that under Portable Devices that there was a problem. There is a warning beside something called "R5C592". When I checked under properties it says Device type: Portable Device, Manufacturer: Ricoh, Location: on UMBus Enumerator.
Under device status it says: "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)
Click 'Check for solutions' to send data about this device to Microsoft and to see if there is a solution available."
I checked for solutions and couldn't find anything. My PC seems to be running fine. Is it possible that it could be that I used a USB key that is causing this problem?
I notice a significant difference in volume levels on my FW490. When listening to music via iTunes, or to Sirius online, the levels are adequate. However when I watch a dvd (Bluray or regular), even after turning the speaker volume as high as it will go, the volume is very weak. Is this normal? Headphone volume is fine btw. Is there a setting that boost volume when playing dvd's? Otherwise I will be buying notebook speakers.
View 10 Replies View RelatedI bought Sony FW490 with full hd screen (1920x1080) but after hearing so much about wonderful RGB LED display on Dell, I got one from Dell outlet and now I can compare them both side by side and send one back. To my surprise Sony's screen is a tad brighter,
white color is white and red is very accurate too, on Dell screen is dimmer (on full brightness) red is more brownish and white is yellow-greenish.
I was reading this forum for a few months and almost everybody says that RGB screen is very bright, that one can use it on half brightness, but that is not the case with my SXPS16.
There are so many post but none for the FW490. Has anyone downgraded and successfully been able to get their FN keys working,
particulary the ones to control the brightness
I ordered a FW490 CTO w/ P8700, 4650 1GB, 4GB RAM, Vista 64, etc. Anyways, I was a little disappointed with how well it ran Americas Army 3. I downloaded and ran GPUZ, and I got some interesting results... It says that my 4650 uses GDDR3 memory, which is apparently the best setup for the card, but it also reports that my clock speed is 450 MHz, and my memory clock speed is 600 MHz. From everything I have gathered, that is below what most 4650 Mobilitys are at... what gives? What are the speeds of everyone elses 4650?
View 10 Replies View RelatedI may be over-reacting here, but I just realized that I can access the Internet from my VAIO FW490 via Bluetooth tethering using my LG Vu.
No special tools or software needed, except the Broadcom Bluetooth Driver from Sony eSupport. It's really quite handy if you plan to take your laptop on the road.
Here is a simple guide.
http://fw490.blogspot.com/2009/10/ev...bluetooth.html
I was about to Order FW490 from sonyStyle but while i'm searching about it i found this forum and the upcoming FW590
this is my customization.:
Code:
* 16.4" widescreen with XBRITE-FullHD™ LCD technology (1920x1080)
* 250GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] *will be replaced by Vertex SSD which already have.
* Large Capacity Battery
* WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD4650 graphics card with 1GB vRAM-great for games and movies
* Engraving
* Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz)
* CD/DVD playback/burning
* Chocolate Brown
* Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
* 4GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)
and this will cost me $1,139.62
now as i read here maybe at 10/20 or 10/27, SonyStyle will but FW590 online!, but don't know will be for Ready or just "Coming Soon"?
Do you think FW590 deserve the waiting and i should cancel the idea of buying this?
I hope the FW590 is same price and the FW490, and also i get tired of thinking about the LCD in the FW590 will be LED or not which is like FW490?
I was asking about the difference between XBRITE-ECO and XBRITE-FullHD. To my surprise, the rep told me the XBRITE-FullHD is LED backlit (which I think it's not true). I ask her to confirm that and she came back with the same answer.
View 10 Replies View Related[url]
The page says that it gets 4 hours on battery life is that true?
Trying to get rid of these questionably useful programs -- but I don't see entries for them in add/remove programs in the control panel (or for any of the other useless VAIO software packages that come on OEM machines sans "fresh start")
View 5 Replies View RelatedDoes anyone have a link to a website or PDF describing how to properly open and disassemble a VAIO VGN-SZ75GN?
I have a VAIO VGN-SZ75GN, bought about 8 months ago, and now I want to exchange the built-in hard-disc with a solid-state disc.
I need some guide with illustrations/pictures, how to reach the disc
I have just been given a VAIO PCG8A2M (GRX316MP) , i was told "it's broken but if you can fix it yo can have it" so having a quick look at it there's no sign of life on the display but the lights come on and i can here the HDD heads moving about.
Looking a little more i found that all the ram is missing , so now im not sure if its worth buying some ram to see if it works or not ? The lack of ram would prob explain the lack of display but i wonder if i should be getting POST beeps at least, which im not.
So my question is if a VAIO had no ram should (if all else was working) it be getting POST beeps ?
Just performed a successful XP downgrade on my Vaio Z520, but have noticed that on this copy of the Vaio Silver Desktop Theme/Appearance doesn't exist.
I had it on my SZ and loved it over the XP Blue. Is there a way to get it back? I still have the restore discs from the SZ.
I don't know whats the diference (besides the price), between VAIO TZ295N & VAIO TZ395N. Specs in all the websites I've checked say they have exactly the same components: Intel coreduo 1.33Ghz 2GB RAM DVD-RW and 64GB SSD Hardrive. I was wonder if the diference might be in the hard drive interface, with the TZ295N being PATA and TZ395N being SATA.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI'm wondering if the Blu-ray optical drive (Panasonic UJ-232A) of the (old) VAIO Z series will be able to fit into the (new) VAIO Z series? I would really appreciate it if anyone is able to answer my question.
The reason I'm asking is because I'm seriously thinking of selling my VAIO Z690 & just buying the base Sony VAIO Z (VPCZ112GX/S). I may just be able to afford that base model & the icing on the cake will definitely be the UJ-232A drive being able to fit into the (new) VAIO Z series & work.
Am planning to get a sony laptop for me. The design simply rocks I am getting mixed reviews about cw and E series. But i made up my mind to get one.
My budget is aroung 40000rupees. Thats around 800$. So suggest me a better one between these two for occasional moderate and less(mosltly) demanding games. I dont care whether its 14 or 15 inch.
Am looking at lower end versions of both the models.
Only difference is CW uses Nvidia Geforce 310 and the E series uses some Radeon 5000 series one. CW has 14 inch screen whereas E series has a 15.5 inch screen. In the models which i am looking at both have matte finish and both has WXGA:1366 x 768 VAIO Display.
which one should i go for. whether the screen quality will be on par to Inspiron one atleast? ( I dont need HD).
im planning on using the laptop for videos, photoshop and a bit of gaming, maybe even a bit more gaming :-)
The Vaio F Series only has 330M Nvidia Graphics Card with i7QM and up to 8GB of Ram and up to 256GB SSD.
The E Series has ATI 5650 (a less powerful version, reduced clock speed) combined with a i5 520M with up to 6Gb of Ram and up to 500GB of HDD ? Why can i not choose SSD ?
if I can use the AC Adapter of a Vaio TT on the Vaio Z. The standard AC Adapter that comes with the Vaio Z is of 19.5V and the one for the Vaio TT is of 16V, which I don't know if it's enough for the Vaio Z to function properly or if there could be any problem or damage. Both machines have batteries of 10,8V.
I have an undervolted Vaio Z by the way (last multiplier at 0.9875) so I don't know if this could help in any way for my Z to work ok with the TT AC Adapter.
