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Sony Vaio
Subsystem Checkout

Jim Carter, 2014-04-09

When the new machine was received, I checked out these features. In summary, every one of the features that the machine was supposed to have, performed as they should. However, a few needed software love for optimal performance.

Legend

Box Worked out of the box.
Conf It needed editing a configuration file or running a setup GUI.
Add-On Needed additional or patched software: download it; follow instructions to compile and/or install it; it works.
Fiddle As with Add-On, but it required some workarounds in the procedure, which might seem minor to an experienced user but which might prevent a newbie from making it work.
Hack So you call yourself a guru? This one will challenge your skills. But this guru eventually got it working.
Fail I wasn't able to get this one to work, at least so far.
N.T. Not tested.
* A prerequisite did not qualify for the Box or Conf rating, but once that was set up, the listed component worked with no further hassle.

Checklist of Features

Does it boot at all? Box
 Yes, it boots the installer and the installed kernel with no problems. This is OpenSuSE-13.1 with kernel 3.11.10. See the Setup page for how to turn off UEFI boot and revert to Legacy booting.
Processor Box
  Model: Intel Core i7-3632QM @ 2.20GHz
  Cores (ignoring hyperthread) 4
  Technology 22nm
  Maximum clock speed (1 core) 3.2GHz
  Minimum clock speed 1.2GHz
  Bogomips 4390
  Jimc's benchmark (Mb/sec) 130
  MPEG-2 playback, CPU% N.T.
  Chipset IvyBridge
Graphics: nVidia GeForce GT 640M LE (1Gb video RAM, NVE7 engine). Box
  It has an onboard Intel HD Graphics 4000, and the X-server initializes it for use on the panel, but it's not clear whether or when it's used to produce output.
Displays: all 1920x1080px
  Panel: LCD with LED edge lighting, in-plane switching (IPS), nearly 90 degree viewing angle. 508x285mm (582mm diagonal, 23in, this is a lie! Really 15.5in = 394mm) Box
  HDMI N.T.
  VGA N.T.
Touch Panel (see comments) Conf
  SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
  X axis range: 1472 - 5638 px
  Y axis range: 1408 - 4692 px
  Pressure range: 0 - 255
  Finger size range: 0 - 15
Keyboard Box
  Keyboard feel is pretty good. See comments for more details.
Card Slot Box
  SD/MMC slot works, 21.9Mbyte/sec for this 8Gb SD card.
  There is a separate slot for Sony Memory Stick (not tested).
Memory Box
  Memory parameters reported by memtest86+ and /proc/meminfo:
  L1 Cache size (per core) 32Kb
  L1 Cache speed (Mb/sec) 73170
  L2 Cache size (per core) 256Kb
  L2 Cache speed (Mb/sec) 33259
  Total RAM 8Gb
  Main RAM speed (Mb/sec) 15350
  Video RAM reservation None
Disc: Box
  Seagate Momentus 2.5in 750Gb 7200 RPM, 16Mb cache, model ST9750420AS
Optical Drive Box
  MATSHITADVD-RAM UJ8A7AS slot loading.
  • Reading CD: OK (but an unknown kernel thread maxes out one CPU).
  • Burning CD: 12x, 2.16e6 bytes/sec excluding overhead.
  • Reading data DVD: 24x, 4.8e6 bytes/sec.
  • Play movie DVD: Partial success, obviously codec problems.
  • To signal the software to eject the disc, press the button labelled with an up arrow, above the keyboard Esc key.
LAN Box
  Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCIx gigabit ethernet (IEEE 802.3). r8169 driver. Our net is limited to 100Mbit/sec.
Wi-fi Box
  Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 (802.11abgn) on PCI
Measured speed, ideal conditions on 802.11n: 2.6Mbyte/sec = 20.8Mbit/sec
Theoretical maximum: 54Mbit/sec
Bluetooth Box
  Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 (802.11abgn) on USB. Works with headphones. Usual complaints about A2DP sound quality, which is the fault of the algorithm, not the laptop or the headphone.
Other Features N.T.
  Has WiDi (wireless display) client.
  WiMAX modem is mentioned but I see no trace of it; maybe an optional feature.
  Trusted Platform Module (TPM). I disabled it in BIOS.
Audio: Intel PantherPoint Box
 
  • Analog stereo (3.5mm): Works.
  • Internal Speaker: Works (pathetic sound).
  • S/PDIF on HDMI: not tested (yet)
  • Microphone (3.5mm): not tested
  • Webcam microphone: not tested
Webcam Box
  Foxconn/Hong Hai (0489:d601) USB camera. Resolution: 1280x1024px. It works.
USB ports Box
 
  • Bus 1: Bluetooth (Intel 8087:07da), Webcam (Foxconn/Hong Hai 0489:d601)
  • Bus 2: Unoccupied
  • Bus 3: 3 external USB slots as USB-2.0 (EHCI)
  • Bus 4: 2 of these slots as USB-3.0 (XHCI)
Battery Box
  Lithium ion, capacity self-reported as 52.3 watt-hours. The life depends on the workload but is not much over 2 hours. Life under Windows is reported as 3.75 hours up to 5 hours; maybe Windows is using some tricks that Linux doesn't know about.
Power consumption  
  Maxed out, 4 cores (37.0 sec to do 4 benchmarks) 59W
  Maxed out, one core (31.2 sec to do benchmark) 45W
  Idle (normal session, lamp at max) 30W
  Suspend to RAM (alternate 0W, 3W) 1.5W
Suspend and Wake Box
  It will suspend to S3 (RAM) and S4 (disk). Onboard devices including graphics can suspend and wake successfully. Hardware and software cooperate so when you close the display the machine suspends to RAM, and it wakes when you open the display.
Startup times Box
  Booting, power on to greeter 42 sec
  Greeter to session (XFCE) 4 sec
  OS shutdown command to power off 9 sec
  S3: Suspend to RAM 10 sec
  Wake up from S3 2 sec
  S4: Suspend to disc 13 sec
  Wake from S4: 45 sec
Dimensions  
  Width: 39.8cm (15.7in)
  Depth: 25.5cm (10.0in)
  Thickness: 2.3cm (0.9in)
  Mass: 1.97Kg (4.3lb)
Jaguar Portrait