Sony: Message List

Re: regarding my previous post - Done the unthinkable

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:30:16 GMT

Hi - sorry to hear about what happened but I have done similar things myself.

Anyway to backtrack on something you asked in your previous post:

could this spinrite software mentioned before run in the knoppix system ? ? ?

I have a copy of SpinRite 6 - its standalone software that runs either from a floppy disk or a bootable CD-ROM. You need to run SpinRite first BEFORE running Knoppix - this allows for SpinRite to work well - let SpinRite work at level 5 - It'll use DynaStat to rebuild and recreate data - you may loose 512KB blocks here and there with corruption but I had a similarly damaged drive with a 13000 Gauss magnet (a neodynium magnet too!) which almost totaled the drive. SpinRite did restore most of the drive - around 94% I remember.

Steve Gibson is a genius with this tool its well worth the money - even if you only get some data back it will be something :)

When you come to recover data using Knoppix you might need NTFS-3G - its the Linux project which needs Libfuse and Linux kernel 2.6.X to install. NTFS-£G will allow read and write support from your drive - however the native kernel mode driver may be enough - and besides some write operations on the drive may render it even more susceptible to corruption.

If you need NTFS-3G for whatever reason and need the packages I will obtain them for you.

Good luck with your data recovery - if you need some help with SpinRite or the linux disaster recovery process let me know :)

Re: MY SCREEN IS SPLIT INTO 4, EVEN BIOS, PICS INSIDE

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:03:57 GMT

Hi

To install a new inverter module and LCD cable as my mate suggested means disassembly of the screen - its not a nice job to do either. I own the older model of your laptop - the PCG-K115B but it has the same GPU (ATi Radeon IGP345M - oh BTW its actually an IGP 340M chip the 345 never existed its just Sony PR talk :P)

To get at the inverter and LCD cable you need to snap away the black bezel around the edge of your display but be really careful as the tabs are fragile and very easy to break.

You will need a disassembly guide - damn where is Rich912 when you need him with t'service manuals lol... ?

The LCD cable you could try replacing and it may prevent your screen from being so damn schizophrenic lol. I am inclined to think initially that if the problem does not exist with an external monitor on VGA out, the problem may be the LCD cable which connects the LCD to the GPU output.

yes guys the ATi Radeon IGP 340M chip is an internal chip soldered onto the motherboard - which requires a new motherboard replacement.

If you have the cash to hand go ahead with a Sony repair, thats [the repair] guaranteed for a period of one year from the date of repair.

Otherwise if you wish to tinker inside your machine and replace the cable so see if that cures the problem or outsource your own motherboard etc I'm sure I can help you disassemble the unit piecemeal and help you fix it.

In the meantime I'll try to locate my VAIO PCG-K Service manual I misplaced lol.

Good luck, I hope Sony fix this for you!

Re: The "Hello" Thread - say your hellos here

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:42:52 GMT

Awwe shucks!

Thanks Pandora. Makes me want to help out all the more now :)

VAIO PCG-K115B: Extreme Customisation with Linux

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:09:33 GMT

Hey everyone.

Wanted to share my experiences with you on ditching my copy of Windows XP on the VAIO Recovery DVD (you don't get one of those anymore).

I got quite frustrated with Microsoft Windows in general on my PC, performance always lacked, spyware was a problem for me - and I have a lot of experience with Windows as well. Generally I was getting more and more fed up with my experience.

I have heard a lot about Ubuntu Linux, so I tested it out by ordering my free CD.

The nice thing about the live CD system with Linux is you're free to run Linux then on your system safe in the knowledge that your installation of Windows will not be touched. It was handy for me because it enabled me to see what components of my laptop didn't work as expected.

Fortunately everything, video card, MemoryStick Pro, DVD-ROM+CD-RW Drive, hard disk, Synaptics TouchPad Mouse, USB controller, PCMCIA cards, Ethernet, ALSA compatible sound card, keyboard, LCD panel - all supported.

Colour me impressed! So with this working at the time I installed it to a small 10GB partition to live next to Windows XP on my original hard disk. The install proceeded in just 15 minutes flat - now thats impressive! I was then able to pick which operating system I wanted from the boot menu, install new software and enjoy the Linux environment.

10GB is enough for a base system installed for general day to day work - which is more favourable than Windows Vista and 15GB before you even install anything. OpenOffice 2.0 was included as was Firefox, GAIM and some useful audio playback tools. If you need more its just a case of opening the Synaptic Package Manager, picking something and letting it continue. If your software needs any dependencies Synaptic will download those as well. What I like as well is the installation and removal of software is completely clean.

Better still, the Ubuntu Updates will upgrade your entire operating system so when a new version of Amarok or The Gimp becomes available it gets installed.

So far I'm 7 months into my new operating system and its still as fast as the day I installed it. I was impressed that the laptop works so well with Ubuntu.

If anyone is interested in installation instructions for Ubuntu, or needs help with Linux in general I am on hand to provide assistance :)

If anyone would like a few eye-candy screenshots of Ubuntu Linux in action just say and I'll attach a few. :)

Re: The "Hello" Thread - say your hellos here

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:39:40 GMT

Hello everyone.

Missed me? lol

I've been away for months at a time, since quitting uni I'm trying to seek a job - its not happening at the moment :(

Anyway I'm back for a while now so I'll be on hand to help out as and when with VAIO support problems.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say hello to my mates here:
Faith
TR
Kee-Lo
Pandora
Seb21
TT
Thalamus
Jumpsuit
Beardo
Rich
William

Missed you all.

Nice to back in the VM hotseat again tho :P

Re: odd folders on D drive after Windows update

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 21:17:22 GMT

Just to clarify, if you get some folders named:

C:\938388908098a363ef3833dd2228e78772288

(Well you get the idea, its normally a random load of numbers and letters anyway)

And there's a folder inside labelled Update and one text file (which is in actual fact a Microsoft Log file) then its safe to delete those.

They are left behind when the Windows Update programs forget to clean up correctly.

As a rule these programs install using the drive with the most free space. So my system drive has only 5GB free, my other drive has 7GB free so these folders end up on my drive D partition instead of the systems drive C partition.

Go ahread and delete them, no harm to your system will result (trust me I know!).

HOWEVER, the folders inside C:\Windows that begin with NT (usually hidden, compressed) are best not deleted as these contain the original files should you wish to uninstall a patch, you can delete all of them anyway but then it means if you wish to remove said windows update afterwards, you will not be able to roll back the original files.

I hope that clears up the confusion!

Re: FAULTY QSI SBW-242U (US06) Drive...

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:48:22 GMT

@Rich: Cheers for the starting point mate, I'll give disassembly of this machine a go, the other good thing is I can get the dust and fur balls out of the fan of this computer.

@Blencogo: Cheers for the information, I suspect the drive is beyond hope lol but with an external drive I can cope as I rarely move my computer around much these days, lol come to think of it there is little I have replaced (mouse, keyboard, optical drive, external hard disk, eventually a second display.... lol).

I also tried a safedisc driver update (eugh I hate DRM management on computer software CD's, its bad enough Microsoft think we are criminals!) but sadly that has not worked. I also tried installing new CD drivers but the result is the same.

Trouble is I think safedisc has so many garbage sectors that some drives cannot read the disks.

Anyway thanks a million guys, I'll strip my PC down and install a new internal drive in a couple of months time lol.

FAULTY QSI SBW-242U (US06) Drive...

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 02:17:43 GMT

Hi guys,

I think my QSI SBW-242U DVD/CD Combo Drive inside my VAIO Laptop (model: PCG-K115B) is faulty. Its got firmware revision US06 uploaded on the drive since Sony have replaced this drive once already...

The problem I've got is irritatingly it's conveniently decided not to spin-up correctly whilst reading CD 2 of the Sonic Heroes game I purchased from Maplin Electronics.

Now the thing is CD 1 worked fine, and got to 50% installed, dandy I thought lets pop CD2 in the drive and continue. No go. The drive just seems to stick with the disk light on for ever, then it seems to very erratically make the laser jump up and down for 10 minutes before the drive just gives up totally.

I thought initially that CD2 was faulty, but I've since tested CD2 in my mates PC using his desktop PC, and the disk was read and accessible in seconds.

So does the drive seem faulty? I mean the drive works with other CD's but its been erratic with certain CD's which work fine with other computers, even though I've cleaned the drive with a CD cleaner too...

Not to worry, I'll replace the shite QSI drive by using a Plextor PX-760A (IDE) drive, and USB 2.0 Interface Enclosure with the VAIO instead, that way I get a superb DVD writer with my VAIO (those new AKASA DVD Enclosures for £25 from PC World look ace so I'll try it with the Plex DVD Writer, its far better than this crap internal drive of mine anyway lol).

Oh and one more thing, does anyone know where I can get disassembly instructions for my PCG-K115B? Eventually I will replace this terrible QSI Drive abortion inside my computer with a better internal drive. The warranty hasn't expired but I don't give a rats arse about that anyway because the Sony Warranty is not worth the paper its written on for them to reinstall faulty hardware and say its fixed (GRRRRRR).

Cheers.

James.

Re: BIOS replacement... URGENT!!

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:53:44 GMT

Oh and remove your service tag as well, only you and Sony should know that number

Re: z1sp fan noise episode II

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:23:15 GMT

ATA-100 I believe is the ATA-5 standard, it means a theoretical transfer rate of 100MB per second, in Ultra-DMA mode.

ATA-133 is the ATA-6 Standard, reaching a transfer rate of 133MB per second, in Ultra-DMA mode.

Correct me if I'm wrong...

Re: Harddisk Noice - Repairing for long time

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:12:59 GMT

Hi.

The trouble is with Sony they can be very slow to repair computer equipment, a hard disk should be replaced in two days maximum, its a simple five minute job after all.

After saying that, when I sent my laptop in for repair with a serious LCD failure, it took them SIX WEEKS to repair it and ship it back to the UK. At the time I did need it, but I had to wait until the summer holidays so I didn't have any university work to do.

The best thing to do is to keep ringing them, and escalating the case until they return it, but I have no idea if Sony are liable for compensation if its taken more than 15 days to be returned.

Re: Dual Monitor issue

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:43:49 GMT

Yes I can see your problem here.

Its a funny one to crack, but you've successfully isolated the problem being with the external LCD panel - as that works absolutely fine.

I'm inclined to say there might be a problem with the VGA port on the laptop, which initially seemed more likely, but then you say you've tried two other monitors or LCD's with success.

Beyond the obvious one, of ensuring the resolution is in range, I'm at a bit of a loss on what to suggest. Have you tried using 1024x768 as the resolution on the Samsung LCD? Its a resolution that I'm sure most modern LCD's will support without too many problems. At least this way if a picture forms on the screen after setting 1024x768, 32 bit Colour, then it may be the LCD not accepting your chosen resolution.

I admit that is a stab in the dark, and maybe you have already tried that.

The only other thing I'd suggest is getting Sony to look at it. Some advice here though is NOT to go for the e-Support route, as they are as helpful as wearing shorts and t-shirts in the middle of the South Pole IMHO.

Instead you could try ringing one of Sony's helpdesk people from VAIO Link, by getting the phone number from HERE and just pick the country you're calling from.

I can only apologise for not being more helpful, but this is a wierd problem...

Anyway, good luck, and I hope if nothing else, that Sony will sort it out for you, even if it does mean being without your laptop for about 6 weeks (sometimes more sometimes less).

-- James

Re: RECOVERY CD[:((] [:((]

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:13:58 GMT

The bad news is tho that these disks can cost around £50, hardly fair when Sony used to provide them!

Maybe my laptop (2004 model) was one of the last ones to get them?

Re: Driver problems in Vaio VGN-FE31H with XP Professional

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:59:15 GMT

Hello, and welcome to ClubVAIO.

I've found the drivers for your VAIO VGN-FE31H computer, you can download all of the software for this notebook from HERE

The software you will need is the original drivers package, simply follow the instructions on screen to reinstall all drivers.

Unfortunately, Sigmatel will not release audio drivers to the public, you will have to extract them from the Preinstalled Drivers package (pity as Realtek etc provide updated AC97 drivers all the time)...

Re: Where can I find this.....?

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:47:45 GMT

Cheers Rich, I've looked high, low and level for this lead.

Ironic that I was in Maplin Electronics in Stoke yesterday, to pick up a Zippy EL-610 keyboard, and probably walked straight past the camcorder lead lol.

Where can I find this.....?

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 11:16:16 GMT

Hi guys.

I'm looking for the Sony media cable for my PCG-K115B, the one which plugs straight into the yellow socket on the side of the computer, and I think has the component photo's on the other end, one yellow one for video, and the red and white ones for sound.

I was going to use it to display DVD's from my laptop onto the TV set we have in our student house downstairs (the lappy only has a 15" screen, and the TV is about 32" lol).

Cheers.

Re: LINUX ACPI SUPPORT

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 11:11:58 GMT

Hi

Sony don't support Linux I'm afraid, driver availability might be a problem, especially getting your modem and wireless card(s) working correctly.

As for the hotkey service (FN+F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F11 etc), you can download a kernel module which will work with most (but not all) Sony VAIO computers. There are also a number of Sony VAIO specific modules written to take advantage of the temperature monitoring service .
Your mileage may vary here, because some distributions have limited support for Sony VAIO computers, others will not support it as well.

I know SuSE Linux is good on a VAIO Computer, because I've run that for over a year without too much of a problem.

Let me know how you get on, because I have a few bookmarks which may be of some use to you (searching Google, and Sourceforge might be an idea).

Remember it is possible to use Linux on your VAIO, just be prepared to do some manual configuration, and searching the internet for a while to get the resources you need.

Good luck.

Re: Power Calibration Error

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:22:36 GMT

Power Calibration normally refers to the area of optical media (thats CD's, DVD's and the like) that the laser uses to adjust the writing power of the laser. This area must be free from dirt and debris, and is located near the central spindle hole in all CD's and DVD's.

What make of Optical Media are you using? Try using a different make of dual-layer media.

Personally, my favourite is Sony or TDK CD's and DVD's as these are very much less likely to fail.

Failing this, get your drive repaired by Sony if it is still under the standard guarantee or extended guarantee(s).

Re: problems with display when entering windows

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:37:03 GMT

@Kee-Lo: Yeah good old Sony, efficent as always Shame I was under the disillusioned opinion that they might just break a sweat (and fingernail) to fix the screen.... but no.

@schouw: Your problem seems related to a loose cable, but without looking inside your display I can't elaborate more than that.

Sony will repair the fault free of charge providing it is still within guarantee, otherwise Sony then charge for the most valuable part of the repair, an LCD will cost about £430+ the inverter module likely to be about £140+ however this is a VAGUE guideline at best.

If it is not under guarantee, then Sony will provide a quote for you based on how much it will cost.

This is Sony's statement for Out of Warranty Repairs.

If you wish to arrange a repair, forget e-Support, they are useless.
Ring Sony on THESE NUMBERS (just select the country you are calling from) to arrange a pick-up and return service.

Note: If you are out of warranty, Sony may charge you £12.50 for speaking to a representative, even if it is to arrange a repair. Yes it is a rip-off, so you may wish to try the useless e-Support first to make an out-of-warranty claim to save your pocket!

Re: problems with display when entering windows

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 11:43:19 GMT

Just for informative purposes.

This is what happened to my VAIO, and may not accurately reflect what will happen your machine, as every fault may well be unique.

My inverter module appears to be faulty, and even after Sony "repaired" it (I use the term repaired loosely because it appears they did well naff all), the problem persisted.

What I noted on my VAIO, is that if the screen is tilted sometimes only by a fraction, the backlighting comes back to life. A torch is handy as well, if shone directly onto the screen you can verify if the display is still working - allbeit very dimly.

In other cases, merely going into standby (I press my power button to toggle power states - adjustable from Control Panel in Windows), is enough to make the screen come back to life, in other cases a full system reboot can trigger a working display.

Once the screen is illuminated on my VAIO, I experience no further problems. I've put my fault down to loose cabling, but the problem is far worse when the temperature is cool.

The problem has persisted for two years, so I doubt that unless a cataclysmic chain of events follows, its not likely to worsen much...

Sony hopefully will do a good job, but in my experience they did next to nothing to improve my fault, hopefully they will actually do something to correct yours.

In any event, I hope that this has been at least in part somewhat useful background reading.

Re: BOOTING PROCESS TEMPORARILY INTERRUPTED BY BLANK SCREEN

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:29:52 GMT

Hi

I'm not sure if this will be very useful but here goes lol.

One reason might be that Windows is still adjusting its configuration data based on the fact that now the Windows Activation (*Shudder*) application is monitoring hardware changes on the computer, which may well include partition sizes.

Now this is something of a guess to an extent, maybe defragmenting your hard disks may help.

In any event because its only a brief pause, and more importantly, Windows boots correctly then as the old saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Re: buzzing problem

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:17:18 GMT

Oh I thought it was the other way around? [:">]

Cheers Thalamus, goes to show I haven't been here in a while!

Even so, a Sony repair is your best bet.

Re: upgrading graphics card

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:15:22 GMT

Sorry its not possible to change the graphics card in a notebook computer.

Later models may have PCI Express removable modules, but this seems a long way in to the future yet.

Unfortunately you are stuck with what you have.

Re: Vga Doesn´t Work [:((]

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:13:45 GMT

Hello Andre,

Glad to hear Sony have heard about the problem, and they are going to contact you about it.

Good luck!

(P.S. Your English is fine, it rivals that of many people here in the UK in fact lol)

Re: Vaio FJ-1S doesn't power up

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:11:38 GMT

Here is the phone numbers page - Click HERE and select the country you are calling from.

Re: Display appears snowy/scrambled/grainy

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:09:09 GMT

it sounds like the graphics card IS slowly dieing!

What you should do next is open an e-Support case HERE or alternatively, if you need a somewhat faster response, pick the country you are calling from the list shown ON THIS PAGE and phone Sony directly.

Sony will arrange to investigate your problem, but bear in mind that the repairs take place normally in Germany but possibly elsewhere, which nearly always involves overseas shipping. it can take up to about 6 weeks for you to recieve your repaired unit, sometimes less.

Sony will send you a box to ship the computer in, collect it from you, and then return it to you with details of what they replaced or repaired.

If the unit is under guarantee it will be a free repair, otherwise Sony will charge you for the most expensive cost of the part to replace, which can be as much as £470.23, further details of this can be found HERE

Re: VAIO VGN-TX2H | CPU higher than 80° C

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:58:37 GMT

What may help though is a transparent "upgrade" installation.

This DOES carry a few risks so a complete backup is advised. What this does however, is use the WINNT32.EXE file (in English thats the Windows XP Setup Tool) to expand known working files from your i386 folder on your hard drive, into the Windows System folders.

Here's how you do it.

1. Click Start > Run
2. Type in C:\Windows\i386\WINNT32.EXE
3. Ignore any errors about NETMAP.INF or NETUPG.INF - this applies to XP Professional only.
4. Select the Upgrade option or the Reinstall option (sorry I don't know what the German equivalents are! [:">] )

This process takes about one hour to complete, dependant on many factors.

IF however, you have Service Pack 2 installed already, and your computer came pre-installed with Service Pack 1, you may wish to slipstream these Windows XP Setup files with Service Pack 2 (in other words upgrade the setup files to SP2).

This is handy to prevent having to install Service Pack 2 after you have re-installed Windows.

The instructions for slip-streaming can be found on my website forum >> HERE

You may also find this post very useful >Click HERE

Re: VAIO VGN-TX2H | CPU higher than 80° C

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:58:37 GMT

Re: New Sony Vaio FS515h

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:57:16 GMT

Should you need them, here's the LIST of software components for your VAIO computer.

Try installing the sound card drivers from this website (you will find that in the Pre-installed Drivers package).

A full system recovery may help, but as always back up your computer's vital data first before you proceed!

Re: buzzing problem

noreplyforum@eu.sony.com — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:53:01 GMT

This problem CAN stem from the computers internal LCD Inverter module (the bit that drives the LCD backlighting) and some users found it helpful to dim the screen to reduce the noise...

Send it back to Sony for an Under-guarantee repair.