33dots

Model name: Sony VAIO VPCCB15FG

Hardware
Intel Core i5 2410 @ 2.30ghz
Intel HM 65 Express chipset
4GB RAM, 500GB 7200 Toshiba HD
Hybrid graphics AMD Radeon 6630M 1GB DDR3 VRAM / Intel HD 3000
Matshita DVD RW, 15.5” 1920×1080 Full HD WLED screen
ATHEROS WLAN and Ethernet
Realtek Audio, Exmor 1.3MP webcam
HDMI and VGA output. 1 USB 3.0

Installation
Install Media: Fedora 15 64bit DVD

Installation went smooth.
This is the state just after installation,

Sound: Works. Recording: Works.
External monitor via VGA and HDMI: Works in both extended and mirrored fashion. You can use both LCD and external monitor, or LCD ON and external OFF in either mirrored or extended fashion, by using the accelerator buttons. But i couldn’t find a way to switch off the LCD and use only the external monitor.
Accelerator Buttons: Sound+/-, mute, screen brightness+/-, Screen->External monitor, hibernate works. Touchpad On/off and Zoom buttons dont work.
Atheros WLAN: Works. ON/OFF switch: Works.
Atheros Ethernet: Not tested.
Bluetooth: *Not working*. Bluetooth settings show ‘device disabled’
USB 2.0/3.0: Works.
Card Reader: Not tested.
Touchpad: Works fine. Mouse clicks and two finger scrolling works after enabling in the GNOME3 settings.
Webcam: Works.
DVD drive: To Do
Suspend: Works.
Hibernate: Works.

Hybrid graphics: Fedora 15 includes vgaswitchroo module and switching OFF the Radeon card manually works fine. However, when switching to the Radeon from the integrated card, GNOME3 fails to load.

To switch off the Radeon card use the command,

[root@localhost ~]# echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

It can be confirmed whether the card is switched OFF by checking the remaining battery time before and after that command. There will be a difference of ~1.5hrs.

Some issues
Fedora comes with a default Radeon driver. However this seems to have a problem and sometimes during boot the system hangs at “dracut : starting plymouth deamon”. I found a dirty solution read here

As GNOME3 doesnt work with Radeon driver. No 3D support available.

Screen brightness gets reset to maximum after every restart.

..

For those who are interested here is the lspci of the VPCCB15FG

[root@localhost ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 0116 (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point HECI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Cougar Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Cougar Point LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Cougar Point SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 6741 (rev ff)
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
03:00.0 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e823 (rev 04)
03:00.1 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e232 (rev 04)
04:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Device 1083 (rev c0)

—

Model Name: Sony VAIO VPC CB15FG

Specs
2nd Gen Intel Core i5 2410 @ 2.30ghz
Intel HM 65 Express chipset
4GB RAM, 500GB 7200 Toshiba HD
Hybrid graphics AMD Radeon 6630M 1GB DDR3 VRAM / Intel HD 3000
Matshita DVD RW, 15.5” 1920×1080 Full HD WLED screen
ATHEROS WLAN and Ethernet
Realtek Audio, Exmor 1.3MP webcam
HDMI and VGA output. 1 USB 3.0

Backlit keyboard.
Automatic screen brightness control

Windows 7 Premium OS pre-installed. No DVD given.

Free Targus bag(not backpack) worth 1.3k

Price: 53600/-

My few bits
Full HD Screen is fantastic if you want a lot of screen space. However the font size will be a bit too small. I like large fonts and less strain on eye, so increased DPI settings to 125%.
The island keyboard includes a numpad and is the best i’ve used. Very very nice!!
Touchpad is sometimes less responsive. Not the best in the class.
Sound is alright. Not too good or bad.
Includes a wireless ON/OFF switch.
Heat dissipation seems good. There are many air vents at the bottom. Normal operating temp is 45-48C (Room Temp ~25C). After two hours of gaming(FIFA) it came to 71C max.
I found the automatic brightness control irritating and disabled it very soon.
Hybrid graphics is really cool! Greatly helps to maximise battery life (a diff of 1.5hrs) and minimize heat when you dont need 3D acceleration.
HDMI output is fine so that you can connect to your large HD TV for gaming and movies.
Build Quality seems fine. But its an all plastic body, no metal even at this price.

Booting for the first time
Upon booting for the first time there were some bloatwares installed. Removed them all and created rescue DVD’s. These are required in case for reinstalling windows, as no Windows 7 DVD is given.

There was only one drive (C:) with all the available diskspace.

DiskManagement showed 3 partitions. One recovery and system protection partition (may be for system restore) which are hidden and the visible C Drive.

Tried to shrink this drive using the DiskManagement. But it was only possible to shrink it to 200 something GB. Tried shrinking after de-fragmenting, but still the same result.

Finally used GParted from an Ubuntu Live CD. GParted allows non-destructive shrinking of partitions including NTFS. Reduced the drive to 50GB. GParted has a nice easy to use GUI and is available for download as a Live CD. This is a howto on how to resize a partition.
When you boot back to Windows after modifying partitions with GParted, windows’ checkdisk check the disks for inconsistency. Allow it to complete and you are fine.

Created some more partition using the Windows 7 DiskManagement.

Performance
I have’nt done anything intensive yet. However it seems i5 is good enough for almost anything. I have had 20-25 tabs opened in FF without any problem. The Windows 7 Experience Index gives a 6.9 for the processor and 6.4 for the gaming graphics, in a scale of 1.0 to 7.9.

Gaming
AMD HD 6630M seems good for casual gaming. The left side of the touchpad gets bit hot after sometime.
The maximum system temperature i got after 2hrs of FIFA was 71C. Seems fine.

Tried my favourite game FIFA 11 @ 1920×1080, connected to an external monitor via VGA. With all the settings set to max i got a frame rate of ~42FPS during gameplay. The frame rate drops considerably during replays (20-35).
Barcelona Vs Real Madrid @ 1080. FPS and screenshot using Fraps.

FIFA 11 @ 1366×768 with all the settings set to max gives you 60FPS. Note that this is the maximum FPS for an LCD panel, the card must be capable for more. There will be slight blur at this resolution (noticeable if you compare with a 1080 pic) but excellent framerate.
Barcelona Vs Real Madrid @ 768. FPS and screenshot using Fraps.

Battery
Battery life seems to be decent. Without the Radeon On, its shows about 4hrs+ during idle. And when the Radeon is on it there will be a 1.5hrs difference.

—

I recently did a yum update firefox. This caused my FF to be updated to 3.6 from the earlier 3.0.
Very soon i noticed that while browsing certain sites, i was getting logged out from the X server. The FF seemed to crash my X server.

One such site was this: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/VNC-Server

A quick google search reveals that this is a known issue with the the video driver.
The solution was to update the CentOS to the latest 5.5.

However, a quick fix can be done,
Add the following line to the ‘Device‘ section of your xorg.conf file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf).
Option    "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
Restart X by Ctrl-Alt-Backspace

Check out the problem page again.

In some computers it might also be required to add this line too
Option     "AccelMethod" "XAA"

13AD was one of India’s top most rock bands from the 80’s to the mid 90’s. This band was playing in a hotel called “Sea Lord” in Kochi, Kerala, India.

They released two albums, “Ground Zero” and “Tough on the Streets” in the 90’s, before breaking up in 1995.

The Band
(1) Vocals – Glen La’Rive (Till 1993)
(2) Vocals – George Peter
(3) Lead & rhythm guitars – Eloy Isaacs
(4) Bass guitar – Paul K.J
(5) Keyboards – Jackson Aruja
(6) Drums – Pinson Correa

Audio release by Magna Sound

Check here for more info about the band and songs.

Credits to my uncle Taj who got these songs from an old Cassette.
This is copied from an old cassette so the quality may not be that great.
(Any suggestions to improve the quality is welcome)

TRACK LISTING
(All songs in .mp3 format. Right click and ‘Save Target As‘)

Bad Taste
Ground Zero
Desolate Prisoner
Your Company
Down Deep

Won’t give up
Revelation
Fortune’s Domain
Can’t make up my mind
City Blues
Rocking in Faith

All songs in a .zip file (46.2MB)

—

My brother bought a PS3 from US and these were some of the issues that came up when we were trying to get it working in India.
Its a PS3 Slim 160 GB with a firmware 3.51 and was bought on Dec 2010.

 

Power Supply

Although it is written 110VAC on the PS3, the power supply is universal and it works perfectly on 230V. You just need the correct plug adapter. No need for any converters, step down transformers etc they may do more harm if they dont have the necessary output power  (PS3 requires 380W).
The model no: of my PS3 is CECH 2501A 120 V 2 A 60Hz and it works perfectly on 230V 50hz here in India without anything.
The Wikipedia article on PS3 also says that the power supply is universal.

Note: There is a report that some one damaged his PS3 by plugging in to a 230v though we dont know the exact details. So do at your own risk.

 

BD/DVD playback and Region Codes

US PS3 is Blueray Disc (BD) region coded 1, and will not play movie BDs of other regions, except region free versions. India is region 3 and Europe is 2.
However, many of the movie BDs currently released in India are region free (ie playable in all regions). This may soon change once BD becomes popular in India.

US PS3 is DVD region coded 1 and will not play other region coded DVDs, except region free versions. India is region 5 and Europe is 2.
Most movie DVDs released in India are region coded, and so not playable. Even if you get a region free Indian DVD it may still not be playable.
Indian movie DVD’s and CD’s use PAL system. So PS3 wont be able to play an Indian movie DVD or CD even though it is region free. It just shows and error message ‘PAL format not supported’

 

NTSC (Interlaced) Vs PAL Issue for standard TV sets.

By standard TV sets i mean the SD (4:3) resolution CRT TVs and not the new crop of LCD/LED TVs which are HD ( marketed as 16:9, wide screen, 720p/i, HD Ready, 1080p/i, FullHD etc)
US PS3 supports only NTSC(480i/480p) output and not PAL(576i/576p) output in SD resolution. That is, it works only on TV’s with NTSC system.
Indian television uses PAL system. However, most of the new TV’s (year 2000+)seems to support NTSC too and so it wont be a problem.
[Note: The above issue does not apply to you if you have a HD TV and connect to it using HDMI or Component cables in HD resoluton]

 

PS3 games

All PS3 games are region free. So you can use a game purchased from anywhere. However, some games require HD resolution and so may not be playable in SD resolution, thats is, on standard TV sets.
PS2 games seem to be not playable in US PS3.

 

How to connect PS3 to your TV/monitor?

The PS3 has an HDMI, Component and Composite (commonly called RCA or AV) output. Note that only composite cable is supplied along with PS3.

The HDMI is the easiest and the best method. Just plug in the HDMI cable to your monitor/TV and the settings will be automatically setup. This is the best method because it gives you the full HD (1080p) video output along with 7.1 Ch audio [ofcourse you must have the necessary audio setup].
You could also use an HDMI->DVI cable if your monitor has a DVI input but no HDMI. [Note that for this setup to work your monitor should support HDCP (via DVI). Check your monitor manual].

The composite output works only on TV with NTSC system and supports only SD resolution. Indian television uses PAL system. However most of the new TV’s (year 2000+)seems to support NTSC too and so it wont be a problem. The BD playback and PS3 games does not look good in the standard TV. You must consider a 32+ inch HD TV or atleast a 22 inch Full HD monitor.

The component video cable for PS3 has to be purchased separately and used if your TV supports it. It supports full HD.

Note: Turning off and turning on the system again by pressing the power button for 5+ seconds until you hear 1 beep resets the video output to default settings [which is  composite output for standard TV].

 

How to get Audio output?

PS3 supports 7.1 Ch audio via HDMI, 5.1 Ch via Digital out (optical out) and 2 Ch via RCA cable.
By default, the audio will be output through HDMI if you are using HDMI for video, and RCA if you are using a composite or Component video output.

PS3 supports simultaneous audio output from all these outputs. Go to Settings > Sound Settings > Audio Multi-Output and set this On.
This is useful if you are using a HDMI-DVI cable to connect video output to a monitor with no HDMI port. In this case you will have to get audio from the RCA or Digital out.

 

Watching videos in PS3

By default, PS3 may not list all the audio/video files in your harddisk or USB drive. It would say “No Titles Available”. In that case just use ‘Triangle’ button, choose ‘Display all’ and then you can browse and play the other videos/audio
PS3 can play  DivX, WMV, AVI, MP4, H.264, MPEG – 1/2/4, MP3, WMA, MKV, Wav etc.

 

Using PS2 controller in PS3

The PS2 controller can be used in a PS3 by using a controller adapter. The adapter plugs in to the USB slot. It costs about 300-400Rs in Ebay India. It may not work with all types of games, especially the games that use the PS button and accelerometer. But for games like Fifa it works perfectly.
After connecting to the USB slot, press the start button in your PS2 controller to enable it(the light glows).

 

 

FAQ

These are some of the repeatedly asked questions in comments. I wont be replying to these anymore.

Will i blow my US PS3 if i connect it to Indian 230V power supply?
Wikipedia, and several internet forums say there will be no problem, as the internal power supply is universal. Many users including me have been using without any problem.
Sony Inc doesn’t say Yes or No.
There is no guarantee that all models, especially the future models will be having universal power supply. Its upto you to decide.

Can you suggest a good step down transformer?
Sorry, no idea. I dont use it. Make sure the one you buy has 300W rating.

Will Indian DVD/CD’s play in US PS3?
No

Will PS3 games purchased from India work in my US PS3?
Yes, if you are using HDTV. Some games may not work in old TVs.

What about online gaming?
Mostly yes. You may come into problems as you are logging from a different country. But you can contact support(game publisher) and they will mostly sort it out.

Is PSN region free?
No. US PS3 does’nt play games downloaded from other PSN. Also some games are only available in certain regions’ PSN.

What about controllers and move? can we buy them from another country?
Yes.

Can i play pirated games in my PS3?
You can, but you need to do a hardware modification. And once you do that you cant update your system, and so may not be able to play newly purchased genuine games.

Can i exchange PS3 games with my friend?
Yes.

The power button is flashing Yellow or Red and PS3 doesn’t power on?
Sorry most likey you have a hardware failure. Flasing yellow is ‘generic hardware fault’ and flashing Red indicates an overheating.

——

HDMI to DVI cable which we use to plug in the PS3 to our Samsung B2230.

The RCA female to Stereo 3.5mm female audio jack which we use to output audio from the PS3’s RCA cable to our Creative speakers. The jack is available at electronics shops.

The PS2 controller adapter