Official Sony VAIO BZ Series Thread

After months of research, I've nailed down my choice for a laptop to BZ11XN or its BZ12 equivalent. However, I want to ask a question about HDD clicking noise.

I purchased a Sony Vaio CR42S/L about three months ago. This was the best looking laptop I've owned in recent times with generally good performance overall. However, my joy did not last long when I found its HDD - Fujitsu MHY2200BH (if I remember correctly) - had this new advanced power management enabled that resulted in it making routine clicking noise every few secs (typically 5-10 secs). This had nothing to do with the HDD being faulty. It's the Low Power Idle Mode (as part of APM settings) that conflicts with either the OS or the BIOS (no one knows) that results in the HDD going into Sleep mode and then being waken up again every few secs. I complained Sony. They were unaware of the problem, but agreed to replace the HDD - albeit with the same model. As expected, the new one had the same problem. Being frustrated, I returned the laptop back and got the full money back. Little later, doing more internet search showed that this has been a known problem and there are solutions out there (e.g. DELL has recently released a patch) but Sony or Fujitsu were unaware of any.

Anyways, I tried my luck next with HP Compaq 6530b - a great business laptop with good performance. However and to my misfortune, it had the same model Fujitsu HDD (what can I say). Know what, it also clicked. I complained HP and managed to return the laptop / get my money back.

I am now hoping to be third-time-lucky and want to know whether any BZ series models have the same or any similar problems? Can you tell which make/model of HDD do you have? Do you experience or have experienced any such problems in the past? I know this does not guarantee mine will have the same make/model (because mfrs use different HDDs depending on the country etc.) however I can at least take some comfort that at least few people out there have no such problem.

Regards

nnc20

 

muhammad, why do you want a "mn" when you read that you will certainly not be happy with the display ? Buy a "xn" or a "vn" or try another model or brand.
Anyway for your other question I don't ear the fan very often, but it's winter and I have 19°C in my room, and yes the fan is a little bit noisy...

 

It has been a long time since I last visited this forum.

Anyway, Sony should consider expanding or updating their business line-up of notebooks. The BZ series has many disadvantages and is behind the competition.

The hardware needs an update. Integrated graphics is just not enough.

The battery life is also horrible for a business notebook (3-4 hours only!)

 

I'll grant you they are not perfect, but where are the behind the competition here on the BZ?

The integrated only option is a downer, but for the majority of the business space they are targeting with the BZ, having a dedicated graphics card is not an issue.

The hardware itself is the new Montevina. What more do you want?

I only ask because I like the BZ, but I want to hear the other side and understand it.

 

I'm really surprised to hear this, because on my VN I tried a clean Vista install first and I ended up with a whole bunch of question marks in the device manager. I managed to resolve them all except one by installing some of the Sony drivers (I had to guess which ones were needed). In the end, WiFi was still not functioning properly (took a nearly a minute to reconnect after booting up).

So after all that hassle I did a factory restore and tried to clean up the lot. It is now reasonably clean, but I'm hoping to succesfully do a clean install one day.

I wonder why your clean install worked so well...

 

Not even one question mark in the device manager after a clean install of a OEM Vista SP1 on my BZ12xn.
I loaded the drivers and apps in this order :
Chipset Software Installation Utility
Audio driver
Video Driver
Intel Network driver
Marvell Network driver
Fingerprint driver
Memory Card Driver
SD card Driver
Modem driver
SONY NC
Pointing Driver
Bluetooth Driver
Intel WirelessLAN Driver
Sony Shared Library
VAIO Event Service
Setting Utility Series
VAIO Control Center
Battery Checker
Px Engine
VAIO Location Utility
VAIO Power Management
Windows Image File Mini Filter
VAIO Update
All the drivers came from Sony Asia website and were for a VGN-BZ15GN

 

Here is the link for Vista drivers
http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/275063/product/vgn-bz15gn

 

Anyone else tried out Windows 7 yet on the BZ series? I've gotten it up and running, but have not played around too much to see what works and doesn't. Updates later.

 

EXACTLY. This is absolutely ruining it for me.

If anyone has any idea how to make the fan less noisy, please share.

 

What about software that regulates fan speed?

It exists - I believe I have heard "speedfan" mentioned before...

 

You can undervolt the CPU. Less heat from CPU -> less need for the fan to come on.

Won't work with most (if not all) notebook fans.

 

hi all

i just joined the forum.

I was looking for somewhere to shout about the Sony BZ12 VN inermittent fan noise driving me crazy as i eork alone in a quiet room.

On-Off-On-Off and each time you have the starting noise. Its sooo anoying.

I spoke to Sony UK who told me to turn off transpareny which helped a bit but not enough to stop the stop/start every 2 mins. I was hoping for a BIOS update which would include thermal control stratefy like the old BX where yo could set he fan to QUIET but its not present on the BZ.

Beware if you are ever going to write a book/presentation in a quite room - the fan noise will break your concentration!

I love the lapop looks, functions security, but if i cant fix the noise - its on ebay shortly.

Anyone tried the XP downgrade to see if that helps?

 

Have you tried undervolting mentioned above? You can also limit your CPU's top speed so it runs cooler for let say, in a library when you are on battery.

 

yeah had a search back and cant se an undervolting post specific to the bz

 

I downgraded to xp with the included disks . You can in fact set the fan to quiet mode under the power management settings after the downgrade . The fan still does the 0 - 10,000RPM's test at post but runs much quieter during operation .

Only drawback of downgrading to xp is the hard drive protection no longer functions .

 

thanks vaio tz for that. its crazy that sony took out the quiet functon from vista power management making a great laptop noisyand anoying. come on sony and offer a bios or software upgrade for the bz!!

 

Hi,

Had a BZ for a few days, and the fan suddenly is soo loud. Was an ebay purchase, so looking to get a receipt for a guarantee claim, but may not happen. Any ideas on the best solution? Replace fan maybe? If so can this be done at home, or would I need to send it off. Any help appreciated.

J

 

On my IBM, I installed this software:
http://www.pbus-167.com/
After undervolting cpu, temperature went 10° down.
Maybe worth a try on the BZ...

 

This may be of interest

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=312303&page=24

Seems like it effects the BZ aswell. i have a bz15 which was/is also noisy, so will look into this

 

Now i have a question, those of you that might have a docking station, can you tell me if you have to open the laptop lid BEFORE you can actually get the unit to power on? I have a docking station for me, and expect to not have to open the lid, could there be some kind of lid switch in the barrel or perhaps software that is causing this to happen. Once the unit is powered on i can close the lid and work fine ( via external keyboard and LCD screen ) but to power the unit on i need the lid to be open which is very annoying. Anyone gotten around this?

Thanks

 

Yes , you have to open the laptop lid whether in the docking station or not to get the unit to power on .

The issue of the noisy fan in not due to a faulty fan . Anyone who has downgraded to xp has seen first hand , the fan can be controlled & silenced .

Power management software installed on the bz is the problem . A updated version along with a update for bios would fix the problem . Sony would rather replace a million fans before admitting that thier power management software sucks .

The feature to control the fan is present in xp but not vista . Did they just get lazy? Its available in just about every other series except for maybe the cs which is having the same problem with the fan . Now im no sony technician
but even i can figure out they need to call back those two programmers they laid off last year .

 

Anyone actually know HOW to fix this problem ? I'm having the same problem. Sent it back 3 times and they didn't fixed it.

Thanks.

 

Hello,

I have this laptop since Febrery 10 (aprox.) and I use the laptop like 12 hours per day. The laptop noise was confortable but suddently, one day of April, the fan/s started to make a really loud noise. Now the fan noise is always loud, sometimes more and sometimes less but always a loud noise that never happened the first two months of usage.

I thought the problem could be dirt inside the fan/s or a fan/s moved/fitted in a wrong way so I was looking for info in the Internet to know if I could open the part of the laptop where the fun/s is/are located without loosing the warranty.

But what I found is that many of you are complaining about the noise. Anyway what I do not understand is if you have the noise from the first days or it happened suddently like me and if so why suddently stop to work properly?

Thanks in advance for your comments

 

it happened to me to too, after about 2 weeks of using, I'm not in US to send it back to Sony Service center, I changed Thermal Control Strategy in VaiO Control Center to Silent Mode now and in cool off for a few days, dont know when this weird sounds come back
Vaio BZ560N34 - T9400 - Windows 7RC 7100.

 

Same here...I bought my BZ in March and in April it started being very loud...then in June it just stopped working.

I called Sony they sent a tech out and replaced the fan...not about 2 days ago the fan started making the same noise and my trackpad went out.

I called up Sony told them to come out and replace my trackpad and to bring another fan. So Im on my 3rd fan and 2nd trackpad.

Not very good Sony!!!!

 

HI
i want to buy bz560n34 is it good one?
can i use it to playing games?
cpu performance on using photoshop is good?

 

Next time use the "Edit" post function.

You won't get very far gaming with the intel integrated GPU. Nice CPU and nice amount of ram though which is good for photoshop.

 

Im on my second fan after sending it back to Sony UK (takes 3-4 days) and low and behold, 3 weeks down the line, its gone again. Now i have to ship it away to Sony for the 2nd time. If it goes again, its going on ebay and Im off to buy a different manufacturer. Shae as ive had Sony Laptops for 10 years but looks like they are letting stuff slide nowadays.

They have finally updated the BIOS so that Vista has Thermal Strategy control in Viao COntrol Panel but it maks no difference to my fan noise. It just stays very niosy all the time unless its idle for 10-15 mins.

 

Hi everybody,

I'm bringing this thread back because I'm going to buy one of the new Vaio BZ series that came out last month.

I'm thinking about buying this model : http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/VGN-BZ569P45

It fits my needs perfectly but however, I have some questions that maybe you could answer about this notebook.

1. Is it a good price for a business model like this one? Would you buy yourself one for this price?

2. About the screen, does this notebook have some sort of anti-glare option, or is it like all the other shiny notebooks (thinking about the new U series from Asus)?

3. What about the quality of construction? Does Sony make solid and reliable business laptops that could work for years to come?

4. And finally, I saw that there were some noise problems on the last year series, what about these new series? And what about the battery life?

Well, that's all, iI know that's a lot of questions, thank you in advance for all your answers

PS: i'll be be buying notebook in France, do you have any suggestion or advice about the customer service and the warranty?

 

The price looks reasonable considering you are buying from France. Screen is matte. It's a pretty solid notebook from the couple of them that I have used. The BZ should still be the same as last year but with some new parts (different configurations).

 

Thanks for the answer

I went today to a Sony store to check out these new models. I can say that it looked very solid, the keyboard was very good, the screen is matte just like you said but I don't know why, it seemed a bit fuzzy to me. Probably depends on how you look at the screen, I was looking at it from above, when I looked straight on everything was good.

Noise level seemed ok, though I'm not sure about it since I was in noisy room. But putting my ear on it I couldn't hear anything, maybe just the fan a little little bit.

 

Hey Everyone,

So, I have the VGN-BZ560 which I have had to replace the CPU fan on twice. I purchased my notebook in December and had the fan replaced in April and now again (in September 09).

I actually just got off the phone with Sony, who will be sending a tech out for my second repair in 4-7 days. Here's the scoop on the CPU fan issue:

Basically, the CPU fans that came with our notebooks are defective. In not so many words, the Sony rep told me that "we have identified an issue with your CPU fan and we now have replacement CPU fans that will address the defect. This should not be an issue moving forward and you will receive the new fan that we've procured to address this issue."

Read more from Sony here:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=VGNBZ560&news_id=299

I have to say that Sony tech support is great. Vastly improved from their earlier days, so give them some credit. The first replacement of my fan went really well. Sony sent out a tech to my workplace and he fixed it at my desk in 5 minutes. Not too shabby.

After my fan gets replaced in a few days, I'll be sure to update my post and let you all know how it's working. Hopefully they've found the correct CPU fan that will fix this issue permanently. Fingers crossed.

- Andrew

 

I have a Sony VGN-BZ560 with the Intel Integrated 4500MHD and i can safely say that it can play Counter-Strike source okay (but fog/smoke in rooms makes it lag a bit) but it doesn't play COD or L4D or more modern first person shooters very well. It can do basic games and works with my Nintendo emulators and the like, but the 4500MHD is not ideal of modern PC gaming.

 

Glad to see they are adding on an additional year of service for anyone who has the fan issue. That'll help some of the ill will I've heard from people who have had this issue, including myself once. Though they were quick to come and fix it and I didn't even have to send it away.

 

I've also had the 'noisy fan' issue repeatedly on a BZ12XN. The first time support was able to replace it in 2 days, no complaints from me on that point. I called again this week with the same issue and was told that, as of 24/09/09, the european service centre will be stocking replacement fans that don't suffer from the issue. My warranty was extended by 2 months for having replaced my initial fan with one that they kneww was also likely to fail.

 

I have a VGN-BZ560P22. Has anybody managed to turn on the virtuialization on in Bios on this model. I have read about some people who managed to flash the bios from a usb but this modle is not mentioned. I would like to do this if possable.
What are the magnifier symbles on th F9 and F10 key supposed to magnify. I have gotten all of the other Fn enabled keys but these to work.
Sony replaced my fan and motherboard several weeks ago and I hope there are no other fan problems.

 

It's an option in the bios when you turn on the machine, no update needed. Just press F2 at the splash screen when you turn on the machine, and switch on the setting somewhere in there. Very easy.

 

I just went back into bios and selected the virtualization and selected sub directory and it worked. Now all I need to do is research drivers. I emailed and did the chat with sony and all I get from them is some of the vista drivers will work. They state that they will not offer any drivers and will not give any support once I place Windows 7 on the computer.

Has anybody put Windows 7 pro on this model computer. If you have I would like to know any problems and solutions that there are. I may do this after the 1st of the year.

 

Just grab the drivers for the BZ540, which has the Win7 drivers available for it.

 

The Fn function for the F9 and F10 keys do not work. They have never worked on this computer and when I go to sony for information all they will tell me is the software must be corupt. They also ask me if I have changed the operating system. Is there a different driver needed for it or is this the norm.

 

My Sony BZ12XN just went back for the THIRD (and final - it will the recyle bin if its theres a 4th) time to Sony's repair centre in Colchester for the same 747 takeoff style fan noise.

They have admitted it was a design fault and use different fans now since Autumn after replacing TWO of the same previously and keeping my machine for a total of now 14 working days in total.

In my opinion, DONT BUY AN OLD BX12XN manufactured pre Sept 09 (and possibly other BZ models)

If you buy a new sony, buy an onsite service warranty if you dont want to loose your machine for days at a time let alone the backup giref prior to sending it back!

I hope Sony and Google pick this up for all to see and be warned.

 

Hey guys,

I'm writing this because I'm very disappointed with my BZ21XN. The fan is so noisy that the laptop is almost unusable for me.

I'm not talking about the problem that everyone had, the one that you can see on youtube. I had the same problem and Sony changed the fan. Well, the fan is as noisy as before, even though it doesn't make the clicking sound.

I don't understand why it activates every 15 seconds, even when the laptop is totally idle. Can anyone tell me if they have the same problem? Do you think it is normal?

 

There is a newer intel wireless driver for the XP models. 12.4.4.0. I had to uninstall the current driver so the new one would load.

 

Windows 7 system drivers for BZ at Sony support

 

No More BZ on sonystyle.com, they took it out

 

I downloaded the windows 7 drivers for the VGN-BZ560P at Sony support.

Access to the page only works through the Vaio Support Central shortcut on my computer. http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNBZ560P

 

Just picked one up from a third party seller for fairly cheap.
How hard would it be to pop in a blueray burner and a 6300 intel wireless card..?
Easy swap or not really?
I'm assuming the dvd-r thats currently in there is sata.

Wish they made this unit as a gaming laptop... same case, specs, everything.

Also, what do you guys think of the led vs standard screen?
huge difference or not really?

 

Bought a Vaio VGN-BZ11XN from a UK retailer while living in London back in APRIL 2009.

Now living in Australia and have been very happy with the laptop (sturdy, good design, great screen, hard disk more than adequate size) but I have 2 main gripes...

1) the fan noise (as everyone else says) is excruciatingly loud. I have been using my laptop in libraries a lot of late and I am still surprised that no-one has shooshed me yet. It's not always loud but enough of the time to be painful and I noticed it within a few days of purchase.

2) the battery life is terrible. My previous laptop was a VAIO TX3XP with battery life of up to 8 to 9 hours so to have 2 to 2.5 hours battery life (or less if I am using power hungry applications) means I am constantly limited to using the laptop where I can plug in to a power outlet.

Hasn't really affected my view on laptops though...I will most likely buy a VAIO next time as well...

 

Greetings,

Need to replace the LCD screen on my VGN-BZ560.

Trying to gather any information/instructions, screw locations before I get underway.

If anyone could help in that regard it would be greatly appreciated.

ty

 

Yeah, I want to replace mine to a glossy screen.
Can this be done?