My Digital Life

Windows 7 in Place Upgrade of My Sony VAIO P

Since I purchase my VAIO P after June 26^th of this year, I was eligible for the free Windows 7 upgrade kit provided by Sony. The upgrade kit finally arrived Thursday. Here are the steps I followed to perform my in place upgrade:

The Sony Windows 7 upgrade kit came with 2 DVD, one containing Microsoft Windows 7 and one with Sony's drivers and applications.

1. I created an image of my system with Acronis True Image Home 2010 to a 120GB WD USB drive. Without OneCare, I think this is the best backup solution out there.
2. I downloaded, installed and ran the current version of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

 

1. I reviewed the reports and followed the advice given. I hate that Microsoft discontinued OneCare, it was probably one of the most helpful home/small office program they ever put together, but this year has been the year of slashing in Redmond with MS Money, and other consumer apps going by the wayside (Today I just got an email that Office Accounting is being discontinued, maybe MS really wants me to try an iMac…WTF). It is interesting that the VZ Access Manager is listed for reinstall on the VAIO-P upgrade advisor report. I did not have to uninstall it on my X60 Tablet. It probably has something to do with the VAIO P's GOBI chip.

1. Once I completed the un-installs, I reran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. Since I did not have the base VZ Access Manager Sony edition software to reinstall, I have decided to leave it alone and see what happens.
2. As I mentioned in my X60 upgrade list, it is a good idea to check for the latest BIOS. Sony has not released any new BIOS since the original pre installed one so I should be fine and if I need a new one the extra Sony specific disk should include it.
3. I then started the install process using the Microsoft DVD which came in the upgrade kit. The installation process validates and installs any required prerequisite Sony drivers and applications for the VAIO P. This is a big advantage of using a manufacturer upgrade kit and makes it rather idiot proof, versus downloading Windows 7 directly from Microsoft which recommends checking the manufacturer's web site manually.
4. The Windows 7 upgrade took about 4 hours, I then inserted the Sony VAIO P specific DVD and that took another hour. When I rebooted the system with Windows 7, I did have to reenter all of my network keys and network types (home, office, public) but all the drivers where updated automatically. As with the X60 I did have to uninstall and reinstall the Cisco VPN client version 5.0.04.0300.
5. I then needed to install a new Anti-Virus application. For this machine I decided to use Microsoft Anti Virus engine from the Microsoft Security Essentials web page. It is free to consumers and should provide adequate protection along with Windows Defender and Firewall (both come with Windows 7).
6. Since Microsoft is no longer shipping Photo and Video applications with Windows 7, Sony added it's Picture Motion Browser, which is great if you have Sony cameras since it recognizes them easily. I use it for importing AVCHD videos. For Video editing Sony included Sony VAIO Story; I have not tried it yet.

The VAIO P running Windows 7.

My upgrade experience so far has been excellent; it is faster and uses much less memory. Finally Sling Player works well in full screen mode…One more machine to go; my Dell XPS 720 H2C, thinking of rebuilding with Windows 7 64 bit.

Sony VAIO P Power Plug Travelling Solution

In my continuing quest to minimize what electronics I travel with, cords and power supplies are a big target. I thought I had found a great compromise with the iGo Juice system which allowed me to charge my laptop and gadgets with on power brick. Unfortunately it does not support the Sony VAIO P and although the VAIO P's power brick is small, jamming all of the required cables in my accessory case can be a pain. After reading some posts on the pocketables.net VAIO P forum, someone mentioned using an Apple style AC plug rather than the AC cord. This is a great solution since it takes up less room than the cord, but Apple charges $39 for a set of 5 international plugs (a pretty ridiculous $7.80 per plug). I found a knockoff on eBay for $11 which includes a USB power supply. It works well and the US plug folds to save even more room.

The eBay Apple World adapter knockoff kit with the USB power charger (left). The US foldable plug is attached to the VAIO P power brick. For now I have no need for the power charger but you never know. Bottom line the price was right.

Sony VAIO P Microsoft OneCare Defrag and the SSD

I am a big fan of Microsoft OneCare and sad that MS will discontinue it when it releases its free antivirus solution Microsoft Security Essentials. Until Microsoft releases Security Essentials, I plan on using OneCare. However, on the VAIO P with SSD, the OneCare tune up process forces a defrag which is not good for SSD devices and there is no way to easily turn that function off.

After some research I found this thread which addresses the problem by fooling OneCare. You essentially rename the defrag executable in the registry and OneCare ignores the command. There seems to be no error checking so the tune up continues on its merry way without performing the defragmentation.

You should only perform this change to the registry if you are comfortable editing the registry since you could mess up your system.

Before you edit the registry make sure you back it up.

Search for the following key: HKCR\CLSID\{80EE4901-33A8-11d1-A213-0080C88593A5}\LocalServer32 and modify the default value which is currently set to DfrgNtfs.exe to DfrgNtfs_exe.sav .

This will invalidate the defrag executable name for OneCare.

You should also execute defrag from the program menu to configure it and disable its scheduling feature.

 

Sony VAIO P and the Lid Switch Power Drain

Apparently Sony laptops have a power drain issue when the lid switch is activated for sleep/suspend or hibernate. I use both of these modes as part of my routine since the start up time is significantly reduced compared to a cold boot. On my Lenovo X60 I have never noticed a power drain issue, but on the VAIO P it quickly became apparent that something was amiss when my battery was drained after the VAIO P sat in hibernation for a couple of days. After finding this thread on the Pocketables forum I decided to test the theory and sure enough by turning off lid actions in start/control panel/power options/choose what closing the lid does the noticeable power drain disappeared.

I also set the power button to hibernate on battery power and sleep/suspend on the AC power.

Sony VAIO P and the Solid State Disk (SSD)

As I mentioned yesterday a hard disk drive (HDD) is very different than a Solid State Disk (SSD). Yes, both are used to store data, but they do it in different ways which means that the operating system needs to take that into consideration when performing write operations. When Windows Vista was developed the cost of SSDs was prohibitive and very little went into adding features to fully support SSDs. Now that the cost have come down in Windows 7 Microsoft has added logic to recognize SSDs and adjust how writes are performed.

HDDs are mechanical devices which use a magnetic field to record data (Wikipedia), while SSDs use memory technology with flash cells which have a limited number of erase (write) cycles (Wikipedia). So the bottom line is that you want to minimize the number writes to an SSD or in reality you want to use a more intelligent approach to writing like caching the data until the application is ready to commit the write. I was surprised to learn that the slim type 128GB Samsung SSD (mmcqe28gfmup-mva) in the VAIO P uses the Multi-Level Cell (MLC) design which has a lower number of erase (write) cycles than the Single-Level Cell (SLC) design. Wikipedia mentions that the MLC disadvantages can be mitigated by the internal design structure. The reason for their use is cost. Let's hope Samsung and Sony did their homework. I decided to take some steps on to mitigate lifespan and performance issues.

These are the steps I have taken on the VAIO P:

1. Disable all defragmentation operations. A common performance problem with HDDs is data fragmentation (Wikipedia) which is minimized by using defrag.exe (comes with Windows) or an advanced application like Diskeeper. I used it on all of my PCs with HDDs, because it runs quietly in the background like a virus scanner.
2. I used this post by Tony on the OCZ Technology (a leader in SSD design) forum to fine my system:
   1. In the system's registry
      1. Disable prefetching and superfetch .
      2. Enable clearPageFilesAtShutdown, LargeSystemCache, and add the processor's L2 cache size to SecondLevelDataCache. The VAIO P VGN-P698E 1.6GHZ processor has a 512KB L2 cache.
      3. Disable NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation.
      4. Increase NtfsMemoryUsage file cache to 2.
   2. Remove indexing, the SSD is fast enough where you do not need indexing
   3. Enable all caching feature on the disk.
   4. Since the VAIO P only has 2GB of memory, I decided not to get rid of the paging. Instead I use the ReadyBoost (Wikipedia) feature with a 2GB SD card (moves the paging file to the SD card). I have seen some posts about not using ReadyBoost since the SSD may be faster but having the paging file on the SD card minimizes writes to the SSD. I could be wrong on this one (more research required). The Wikipedia reference mentions that ReadyBoost is disabled when the system disk is an SSD but I can vouch that is not the case, my ReadyBoost drive shows activity.
   5. I did not disable hibernation since I find that it boots the system much quicker and I like the functionality of saving my work without using battery.

Sony VAIO-P Initial Setup

In my quest to travel as light as possible, I finally broke down and purchased a Sony VAIO P notebook or netbook or UMPC (whatever…). I waited until 1.6GHZ version became available in the US. As with Apple products, you pay a hefty premium for the "privilege" of owning the VAIO P but against my better financial judgment, I took the plunge. With the US 1.6GHZ model, I was forced into a 128GB SSD (a 64GB would have been fine) but the 18 month no interest deal sealed the deal.

I have had the unit a couple of weeks and after some tweaking, including the purchase of the extended battery I have to say that I am pretty pleased with its performance. Make no mistake this is not a blazingly fast machine, but it handles Vista well and does a good with job with browsing, Outlook 2007, and even SlingPlayer (with some tweaks).

The first thing I had to address was the pre loaded bloatware, which is not excessive but still a pain. Sony actually has a utility to help you remove the add-on software, but you will have to download the VAIO Applications Uninstaller Software. I am not sure what the difference is between this application and control panel/programs and features but I used to make sure things where uninstalled properly. I got rid of all of the bloatware including Norton, I currently use OneCare until I move to Windows 7 (OneCare did not work with the RC1 I tried, I don't know what I will use). I really like OneCare and would love to know why MS killed it. Yes, they are going to provide free Anti Virus protection, but they could have used AVG tactic to provide the basic Anti Virus free, and a paid full feature product.

I did file for the free Windows 7 upgrade but am still waiting for confirmation of my submission.

One of the first configuration changes I made was to the screen's DPI (Dots Per Inch) setting. The screen resolution is great, but it is tough on my eyes so I increased the DPI to 120. To change Right click on the desktop/personalize/Adjust Font Size (DPI)/select large scale 120 DPI and reboot. Although you lose some screen real estate, it makes reading much easier. I also use a zoom of 125% in IE8 which helps with sites like wsj.com and nytimes.com.

A good forum for VAIO P owners is the Pocketables VAIO P forum which has some very helpful information.

From my internet reading; the Solid State Disk is definitely a different animal, than a hard drive. While Windows 7 is SSD aware, Vista is not and requires some tweaking. I will discuss this in my next post.