VAIO Type S - Page 71

No, it is the same fan.

Thanks for opening the road and confirming the upgradibility for us...

Well.. I finally got mine in, and I love it

Congrats!

Has anyone gotten linux up and running?

I'm on slack 9.1 right now and trying to get things working properly.

I am on KDE an using xfree86 as opposed to xorg, and I am trying to get the 1280x800 working. I think I only have 1024x768.

Also, on the ocnsole its 800x600 or smaller. I'd also like to get 1280x800 there.

I looked at linux-laptops and tried to follow the guides from the two people who have the s series, but have been unable to do it. Can some1 post any relevant changes I need to make. I have the s270 w/ Radeon 9700.

Sonystyle warranty returns?

Hi-
Has anybody had experience with returning a laptop with sonystyle.com?
More specifically, how long did the whole process take?

TIA!

no experiences returning it after its been used. They couldnt deliver it to me and it got returned. Took more than a month (maybe more than two) and many calls to get my money back. I'd have to check credit card bills to be more exact. But in any case, may god have mercy on your sole during this process.

Well, I'm running Slack 10 with xorg and to get 1280x800 in X I simply added "1280x800" to the display modes list in xorg.conf (you will have x86config or something similar -I cannot remember the exact name- in /etc/X11/). For example

Section "Screen"
...
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800 "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
...


I don't know how to help you for the console, I didn't hack that yet... :P But I want that too so I'm going to work on it...

tried that already :P. It auto selects 1024x768. IF I just leave it at 1280x800 is fails

Here is my X86config

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "record"
Load "extmod"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "xtrap"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "speedo"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "ShadowFB" # [<bool>]
#Option "DefaultRefresh" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "vesa"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "Unknown Board"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800 "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Quick Q(s) for ya:

Does anyone know what brand of MicroDimm Sony uses in the s 260/270?

And what is the cheapest you have seen 512mb dimms and where?

Thanks guys and Happy Holidays to you all.

I see.... I am sorry but I don't know if and how you can hack that setting... I can suggest you upgrading to xorg, but there are other issues there (for example, if you upgrade to the latest version, unless they already fixed it, there is no way to get the ATI fglrx module to work...).

What kind of video driver are you currently using? VESA or RADEON or ATI proprietary?

I am usign the vesa driver. I read that fglrx doesn't work well with the xfree86 ati driver. I dind't try the ati official driver because it doesn't support the 9700 mobility, even though some people suggested it sorta works. I think i tried "ati" and "Radeon" as drivers and they didn't even show up as being valid drivers.

To be honest, I haven't played much with it because I would like to find out the hsync/vsync info for the LCD. The pre configured x86config file doesn't have any of that and it works to my surprise. I guess I am used to the older X servers where that didn't work.

I have tried placing a "Modeline" specyfying what 1280x800 is, but that hasn't worked very well. And everywhere I google, it uses that as the last hope.

Alot of people who got it to work seem to be using Xorg and I'm debating whether to upgrade to that or not. I'd like to think that xfree86 would work.


Heres a little somethign I whipped up in a hurry abotu what I've done,

http://myamazing.com/sonylaptop.html

has anyone ordered the S260 from Amazon.com from Canada ? I am just wondering how much custom fees and taxes and other crap I would have to pay ?

its like 1800 USD .. anyone know how much it would come up to total if i wanted to ship to Toronto Canada

Thanks!

I really doubt that Amazon would actually let you complete the order & ship to Canada. I believe Sony doesn't allow mail order retailers to ship things like laptops from the U.S. to Canada -- they want you to buy through Sony Canada.

Alternatives are --
1) Find a smaller US mail order retailer who might not have qualms about breaking the Sony policy and shipping to Canada. I believe you would pay both taxes on it (15%), a brokerage fee of like $30-40, and shipping ($40?).
2) Travel to the US, buy one there, and bring it back with you. You can decide whether or not you choose to declare it at Customs....
3) Have Amazon ship to a friend in the U.S., who in turn ships it to you. You would very likely need to give them a U.S. credit card, or else have your credit card company add on a U.S. billing address to your file (which is what you would give to Amazon) if they allow this.
4) Configure your own Vaio on sonystyle.com -- this allows you to select full North American warranty coverage fro $50 more. Then have it shipped to a friend in the US, who ships to you.

The problem with options 1,2 and 3 is that Sony Canada won't honor the warranty. If it does need repair, and you don't have a U.S. mailing address that they can mail the laptop back to you at, you're screwed. If you buy a pre-configured Vaio, Sony WILL NOT let you add the North American warranty coverage as an option after the fact -- I found this out the hard way.

I went for option (2). No Canadian warranty.. I thought I would be able to tack it on after as an option. But anyway, I saved such a ridiculous amount by buying in the US (about C$1000 on my S170/512mb/1.7ghz/ATI 9700 and DVD-RW -- i.e. it cost me roughly C$3000 all-in, back in August) that it doesn't bother me too much.

It REALLY annoys me how so many US retailers/manufacturers continue to price things in Canada with a $1.40/$1.50 exchange rate. We should start a boycott.

yah it is pretty horrible how much extra they charge in Canada... considering how well the CAD dollar is doing to the USD one nowadays. All companies are like that from what I can tell, Sony and IBM seem to be the worst. However I did something similar to you to get a Dell Flat Panel.

is there a firmware hack for the matshita uj 812 in the s series to make it region free?

I live in Vancouver BC and I've been going down to Washington to buy computer stuff since the Cdn dollar went up so much. The savings are quite large and...get this... there is no duty on computer products. Now, a lot of you might jump all over me on this just as all my co-workers and friends have. But you can call Canadian Customs, Border Services, Import brokers, whatever, and they will tell you the same thing. *Specifically* computer products are duty free. That's not to say you can extend this to electronics because things like stereos and TV's still require duty from 0-6.5% depending on where they are manufactured. And regardless of what you buy, you still need to pay taxes, and I urge you to declare purchases because they are not very happy go-lucky these days. The guideline is anything related to computers, even software is included. So far I haven't been hassled when I declare computer items at the border.

For warranty with Sony Canada, it's exactly what MrT said. Sony Canada will not cover warranty for Sony USA products. You can't even buy a SonyCare package from Sony Canada if it is a USA product. Of course you can just send it down to Sony USA for warranty but again, just like MrT said, they will not ship back to Canada. Should you have a need to get your Sony USA notebook repaired in Canada, let me give you an idea of how much Sony Canada service center will charge you. It is $75/hour minimum and you must pre-approve $350. This is standard policy for all VAIO products at Sony Canada service center. So even if there is nothing to fix, it is $75. You can do the math on whether you'll need service in Canada versus the cost savings of purchasing in the US, and it's completely up to you. Personally I'm a long-time owner of all kinds of Sony products and I have needed service on every item so I've bought my S260 at home. (no issues yet, touch wood, but I live 2 mins away from the Vancouver service center *g*)

Cheers,

"Personally I'm a long-time owner of all kinds of Sony products and I have needed service on every item so I've bought my S260 at home."

Why do you keep buying sony products? If every item you bought from them has needed repair, and they are really overmarked in everything. Especially warranties and repairs and spare parts! This was my main and probably only reason i went against S270 purchase living in Canada. Sure I can get it for the US pricing, but if something went wrong I would have to pay royally...

Anything could require service, it's in all probability. You make it sound as if every Sony product I bought had died and needed repairs. That's not the case and I specifically said service, for example something as simple as getting a new TV remote cuz a key was sticky. Or my DVD changer began making a crackling whine when changing. Nothing's broken but I just wanted it looked at and the warranty covers it. The point I was trying to make was with regard to the warranty and the support you would get for issues that are unforeseen.

Why do I keep buying Sony products? Because their style fits my profile and the products provide me with the best entertainment experience. The price is more than budget brands, yes if you want to look at it that way. So go ahead and buy the cheaper products. Nobody's stopping you. I like what I get with Sony and I don't have a problem with their price. You can say the same about my BMW X5 and it's "really overmarked". I've also needed to bring it in for servicing and certain recall parts but is it a bloody nice vehicle? You bet. So is warranty important? I think so and when you say Sony repairs are overpriced, well, you should worry if you buy in the US. Buy the product in Canada and you can fall back on the warranty.

I love my S260 and again, it fits my profile precisely. Did I consider other brands? Yes I did. Why did I go with the S260? Because I couldn't find another with such a gorgeous screen at 13.3" with a resolution of 1280x800 and XBrite. More importantly, because I feel like it.

Didn't I say "it's completely up to you?" So do what you want to do. I've shared my experience and I don't disrespect anyone who doesn't like Sony. That's their prerogative and I'm more than happy with my Sony products.

Cheers,

I think you are taking my post too personally.. I merely asked a question.. I to liked the S260/S270 models.. the "mark up" i am referring to is the fact for Canadians their prices are outrageously high compared the US converted price. This has nothing to do with the quality etc, ie) the same produc 50km away from where I live is being sold for 600 dollars cheaper.... If they sold the sony s270 its expected converted rate or slightly higher I would have NO PROBLEMS> JUST TO MAKE THAT CLEAR.

I also bet for the same price you paid for the S260 you could have got a better processor, and a bigger hd, etc.. for the US converted price. I am not ragging on the fact you choose sony at all, in fact this has nothing to do with you, just my opinion on sony canada.