louie tran spot – daily gadget blog

The new build of Windows 7 (build 7100) has swarmed the torrents all over the net and I just managed to get a hold of it and installed it late last night from a clean install. I’ve been runing it for a few hours already after installing all the updates and the programs I frequently used. So far the experience has been very positive and this Build of Windows 7 runs even more faster than 7077. The Windoes Experience Index scores 1.9 on the Sony Vaio P vs 1.5 on the previous build that I was using.

I have not tried out the biggest feature in this build yet which is the virtualization of Windows XP. Unfortunately there aren’t that many hours in a day and I can’t just waste my entire Sunday staying at home! I’ll be back later.

By the way… I have been loathing Windows Mobile 6.5 on my HTC Touch Pro which has a ton of bugs and stability issues. I’ll probably be downgrading to 6.1 tonight or tomorrow.

After waiting 3 hours for Windows 7 Build 7077 to finally complete the upgrade from Build 7000, I was treated for a very pleasant surprise. This Build ran so much quicker than 7000 and it smokes Windows Vista. My Windows Experience Index went from 1.2 on Build 7000 to 1.5 on Build 7077.

Navigating through Windows 7 is much better than Vista and they’ve taken a lot of pages out of Apple’s book for this OS and I enjoy how everything is streamlined. Now that it runs a lot faster than Vista, I would highly recommend the upgrade or even trying out this version of the build because the difference in performance and usability is night and day. It may look like Vista at first glance but once you start using it, you will hate Vista even more and curse Microsoft on why they didn’t do this in the first place.

As stated below, remember to install ALL of the Vista drivers on the Sony website for the Vaio P as they are all compatible. The one driver that I overlooked was the Firmware Parser Driver which left me wondering what the unidentified device was under the Device Manager. Remember to disable UAC and download the Sony Shared Library to get the function keys to work correctly. Also, I’ve disabled all the visual effects in the Performance Options and left Visual Styles and Smooth edges on so it will still look good and perform fast.

Just remember, to save yourself some headaches, DO NOT INSTALL BUILD 7000!!!

Windows 7 running on the Sony Vaio P using the HP w2207 monitor!

Yesterday I went to go an external DVD burner for my Vaio P ‘netbook’ so I dropped by Fry’s electronics and picked up a generic one for $69. Big mistake! First of all, it has to be plugged into two USB ports and the cable that it comes with won’t reach both sides. Second of all, I tried it on my desktop and even though Windows detects the drive, it won’t read ANY discs so it’s going back to Fry’s tomorrow. Instead of making the long drive back to do a return, I just went to the Best Buy in Pasadena and bought the LG Super Multi Drive for $80 and it worked perfectly.

Right after creating the restore discs for the Vaio P, I deleted the recovery partition using the Windows XP disc I had laying around and then rebooted the notebook. I then got an error saying that it can’t find the boot partition! I just shook my head and then popped in the Windows 7 beta DVD I had to repair the boot drive. I was happy to see the familiar Windows Vista loading screen and then it went blank afterwards. I didn’t REALLY want to restore the whole thing again which was why I was hoping that it would work. Since I had to do it anyway, I restarted and went on with the Windows 7 Build 7000 installation. After it was completed, I ran Windows Update and  then downloaded all the drivers off the Sony Website for the Vaio P (Vista drivers work fine). Just remember to download the Sony Shared Library files and to turn off UAC to get the function keys to work properly.

When I completed installing all the programs I use on the road which are Microsoft Office 2007, FireFox, Digsby, Combined Community Codec Pack, and AVG Antivirus, I then proceeded to move about Windows, played a few songs and videos. I don’t know if it’s just me but the OS itself felt sluggish and a few steps SLOWER than Windows Vista. That was around 2:30AM so I thought maybe I was just tired and then I went to sleep leaving the hard drive to defrag.

I woke up the next day (which is today, 3 hours ago), I restarted the notebook and noticed that Windows 7 loads up at least a minute quicker than Vista. Everything else however, was still sluggish. I’m not sure I went to check the Windows rating on this and it scored a pathetic 1.2. I’m not sure how people with the same hardware configuration get a score of 1.5 – 1.9. I’m thinking that it could be the build that I have which is why I’m waiting for Build 7077 to finish downloading at the time of this writing. Once, that’s done I’ll load it up and see how much better, worse or the same it is.

I also have at least 5 reviews that I have to complete for this site!

The problem that has plaugued this device since launch has been solved by yours truly! I said in the previous post that the video stuttering on Youtube, Xvid, and Divx movies were unbearable but I stumbled onto a solution without having to downgrade to XP. This is exactly what I did to geteverything to work:

1. Uninstall all the bloatware (Office 2007 trial, etc…)
2. Run Windows Update
3. Restart Vaio
4. Defragment Hard Drive
5. Start-> Search Box type MSCONFIG
6. Click the Startup tab and uncheck the following: Adobe Acrobat, ISBUTLITY, Smart Wi Helper, Unattended000001, Vaio Media Plus, and AutolaunchWLASU
7. Restart Vaio

Give it a try and your videos should be working fine now! Also, I’m using the Combined Community Codec Pack with Windows Media Player Clasic to play my Dixv and Xvid files, but Youtube on Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3 work just fine!

I just scored a black open box Vaio P 530H from Fry’s for $799. Looks like it’s hardly been used and apparently there are A LOT of returns on these things, most likely because people are disappointed with the performance. So far, I can see why these keep getting returned.

My first impressions so far is that it looks great, love how it’s light and thin and the build quality is everything we expected from Sony. I love how sharp the screen looks and everything is so much easier to read when compared to my Vaio UX380N. It’s also a lot easier to type on this. The UX hurts my hands when I use the keyboard for more than 15 minutes. Now this is where all the positive comments stop…

Initial startup time was painfully slow. Slower than any netbook I have ever tested and much slower than the Vaio UX380. Uninstalling some of the trial programs and software that I didn’t need made the hard drive light go crazy and everything ame to a crawl. Installing Office 2003, running the Windows Update and waiting for all that to complete was a joke.

Now this is where it gets ugly… Everyone comments on how bad video plays on this thing and I thought it was just an exaggeration, but believe me when I say all those negative comments are true. Youtube videos are extremely choppy (unless you turn off hardware acceleration), Divx and Xvid files are horrible on full screen, and forget about the HD videos! I know this is most likely a software or driver issue but Sony should have addressed this problem before releasing in it. My HTC Touch Pro and iTouch play videos way better than this.

Surfing the web, sending out e-mails and typing up documents on this work great. But what’s the point of having such a beautiful screen if videos run like crap on it? For $899, I can buy 3 of the Acer Aspires and they perform much better! I hope they get the video issue fixed soon because I can still return this within 2 weeks and I will keep the Vaio UX. I want the P to work out because of the size and build quality but it doesn’t justify replacing the UX the way it is.

I walked into a Sony store yesterday in the Beverley Center and spotted a nice display setup for the Sony Vaio P. They had a varierty of colors from white, black, pink, etc and the aesthetics look amazing. After holding the mini notebook and being impressed with how light and small it is, the wow factor came to an end when I openned up Internet Explorer and saw how tiny the words are on the screen.

Navigating through Windows was also an eyestrain and I know it’s an easy fix to increase the font and icon sizes in the display settings but I wouldn’t really spend $900 on this when I can get an HP or Acer mini-notebook for half the price. My eyes hurt to much to play with it any firther, but again…. these are my first impressions and I was not really impressed.