Official Sony VPC-Z2 (VAIO Z 2011) Series Owners' Thread

Ah, btw, did Sony manage to get rid of the annoying battery drain problem with the Z2? I always keep my Z1 on AC when not in use because of that.

 

Is there anybody who want to do some benchmark with PMD???

We'd like to have some benchmark of application/games that you can find here: AMD Radeon HD 6650M - Notebookcheck.net Tech to make comparision (with the same settings).

 

Just received my z21 today and boy is it sexy. Anyone know where to find the office key though if you purchased office with it?

 

I hear that with 'Fast Boot', the sequence skips a lot of stuff and might make it difficult to recover in case the laptop craps itself. Sounds like a massive trade off to me.

 

Damn, I should've really done more research about the memory. I didn't know about not being able to upgrade. I'll probably be selling the this one and ordering another one.

 

Why not just exchange it and save yourself depreciation.

 

I wonder if they will be making a keyboard skin for the Z considering how short the keyboard travel is.

 

It's owner-made. In Japan they don't allow you to change anything or cancel after ordering it.

 

Just recieved my new Z2 earlier this week and i'm really impressed with all aspects of it, however there is one 'major' problem I have with it and it's the sound.

I've watched and read all the reviews which all claimed that the quality of the sound isn't great, however I didn't realise it was ogoing to be this bad. My iPhone 4 has 'far far' better sound quality on it's internal speaker than this £2,000 beast of a laptop. I'm actually wondering if there's actually a fault with it as the sound is so bad!

I tried a Skype call yesterday, and could barely hear the person on the other end.

Most reviews explain the sound has being tinny. I could live with that if the volume was reasonable. The laptop volume is so quiet I permamantly have the volume at around 90% and find myself constantly cranking the volume up to full to try and hear the damn thing and that's when it becomes tinny and distorted.

Another review explained that it should be ok for watching TV or a movie on, however I've tried this and found it very difficult indeed and resorted to earphones.

Easily the worst sound of any laptop I've ever experienced and I hate using these words as the laptop is so awesome in all other areas. Just disappointing considering it's one of the most expensive laptops, even average sound quality / volume would have been sufficient.

Is everyone else's so bad, I'm seriously wondering if mine is faulty.

 

The Z1 also had bad speakers. I found putting SRS Audio Sandbox on the Z1 helped out a lot.

 

Don't know what you read but, I've only seend bad reviews.. always low volume, tinny sound, always the need for additional sound system. So, it's normal what you're seeing (well.. hearing)

 

For making the recovery USB drive, can it be FAT?

 

Whats the performance and heat difference like between the i5 and i7?

I cant make up my mind whether to go for i7/8gb/256gb or i5/4gb/128gb. The local store has one i7 model in stock but none of the others.

 

So another complaint in an early review - no bluetooth 3.0 just got fixed by running the vaio update software. Also, I found the settings to tone down the "accidental touchpad engagement" setting. Now much better.

Anyone played with the webcam yet? I'm getting very dark and at times grainy images/video - not at all what I expected.

 

As in there is a big big boost in the max output volume...?

 

Clean Install Question(s):

Sony seems to have multiple drivers for similar purposes on their site. Were all of these installed on the original machine (US CTO Model)?

The video driver package runs an error every time I boot saying "C:\Windows\system32\atipdlxx.dll" has an error or something? I tried reinstalling and having windows install their driver, no luck.

 

Just recieved my Z2 and I love the feel. As for the look and sound, I am very dissapointed. I preordered my Z2 in mid july, and from the pictures I saw the carbon indigo (stated as blue in my customization summary) is indeed purple as I have read other people say. Strange thing is that when I take a picture of it with my cellphone set to auto white level, it actually looks like the blue that is shown on the website and the one I was expecting. After a loooong day with customer service I finally have a new black one on the way.

The speakers are also just as bad as everyone here is claiming them to be. I agree with the other poster who said that for such an expensive laptop we should have had at least midrange speakers. I wouldn't want to watch a movie or tv on this without headphones. It is nice of them to pack in headphones, but I hate earbuds and will need to buy a good set of headphones to replace them.

I didn't unpack or test the PMD since this system is going back, but will when I get the chance. I am typing from the Z2 right now and I must say I really like the keyboard. Though I have only been browsing a day, I think after some use I would still feel the same way. And turning up the sensitivity on the touchpad does help a lot.

Battery life is also decent without the sheet battery, certainly not the 7 hours stated but a whole lot better than my previous laptop. Between 4-5 hours of browsing I would wager, as I believe other posters have stated.

My only warning would be to watch out for the Sony reps, they either are supposed to play dumb, or just really do not know what discounts can be given. This is my third (and final) reorder I have made. I was told by a few reps that I couldn't receive 10% for the 2 accessory bundle with warranty, yet a few others gave it to me. I walked away happy when I finally talked to a supervisor so I do not want to bad mouth Sony too bad, but it is something to watch out for when making a purchase through Sony. I got the best warranty they offer since it will be traveling a lot with me, and I hope if I need it the experience is a little smoother.

Edit: Just want to be clear that though I do have gripes with the laptop, I am overall very happy using the purple Z2 in front of me right now and I am looking forward to recieve the one I will actually be keeping. It is fast, light, and sturdy!

 

The Z2 is LOUDER under load and has worse speakers than the Z1.

 

Can anyone that already recieved the laptop please answer this question.

TIA

 

^

I am not familiar with the battery drain problem. Do you mean that the battery would drain fast when put to sleep, or maybe even when turned off? I will have this laptop till monday and would be happy to help find out. Are there any steps you would take to test this aside from: charging it full and then either put it to sleep or turn it off; for an hour, two hours, or perhaps the night?

 

well problem with Z1 is, once battery fully charged and you unplug it without any usage and machine being turn off, battery will be like 92% or less.

 

Change your laptop to a new one. You have 7 days.

 

Did you purchase it in Hong Kong?
You are supposed to get a key card with it.

 

For those that have run some games/benchmarks on the Z2 so far, would you say that the following video is fairly accurate of the fan noise made while gaming?

Link

 

I would say its pretty accurate, but it's always hard to compare or to get a good impression of noise-levels.

I've recorded the fan noise myself, while stressing the CPU with Prime95 In-place large FFTs and idle and "Performance mode" (dunno if the translation is correct) in "VAIO control center". When you select "silent mode", the fan is hardly noticeable when idle or at light office work.

My recording
I've recorded it in a relative quiet environment, the Z2 was the only noise source inside the room.

 

It's a lot better than normal. You might have to sit there and tweak it a little but it sounds decent.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the earlier reply regarding my screen problem. On closer inspection it seems that the main cluster of stuck pixels is a group of 3. In addition to this there are at least 10 other individual stuck pixels on the screen. The individual stuck pixels are so small though that I would never have noticed them if I wasn't looking for them.

So I called Sony yesterday and the support guy at first said that that number of stuck pixels was fine, then after I disputed this he said I could send the laptop for repair. I wasn't happy with sending a 4 day old £2500 laptop for repair so he gave me the number for the Sonystyle support line (instead of vaiolink support). I spoke to the support guy there and he was very helpful, the outcome is that they are building me a new laptop and I get to keep this one until the new one is ready, so that is a good result!!

The photos below show the main cluster of stuck pixels (near the centre of the screen)

 

I repeat: sound "problem" was well known by reviews.

As for noise, I'd like to know from somebody who own Z1 if noise is higher, similar or lower

 

I don't have my Z2 yet but I'll take you word for it. I'm not saying the Z2 will sound better than the Z1 with SRS Audio Sandbox but it will sound better than stock with the right settings. It's worth giving it a try at least.

 

There is software out there that will fix stuck or dead pixels. It's not a 100% but maybe worth a try if you don't want to send it back.

5 Ways To Fix A Stuck Pixel On Your Screen

UDPixel fixed a stuck pixel on a Toshiba RX3 that I owned. Hope this helps.

 

Once I had a few pixels like that suddenly appearing on my Z138GG out of the blue. I turned the laptop off, disconnected the adapter and took out the battery. I turned it on after like 30 minutes and they went away.

 

I did try a couple of the software programs, including leaving one running overnight but with no success.

Thanks.

I'm happy to get a replacement, the current Z2 that i have has so many stuck pixels that I can't believe it is normal..

 

Yea, I believe if it less than 3 it is not considered defective. It's good that they are going to get you a replacement but I agree that it sucks that it happened so soon. Good luck with that.

 

Guys, is there somebody with PMD who wants to these?

 

I would but I'm still trying to get the ATI card recognized after a clean install. Still having problems reinstalling the graphics driver. Sony went as far as to remote access the machine and after 3 hours doesn't know what the problem is. Oh silly Windows :/

 

So drivers that sony updated don't work?

 

Ok, about to turn off my Z2 and charge it till the light goes off. Then I will unplug it, turn it back on, and check the battery level. If I am testing this problem wrong please let me know. By the way I put my computer to sleep at 79% battery life, 8 hours later when I woke my laptop it was at 72%. Not sure if that is good or bad.

 

You have to charge the laptop till it's full. Then switch it off (if it's not already off) and THEN unplug the connector. Wait some hours and then check battery level.

 

Nothin to do.. TNT don't work in the weekend here and Monday it's Holiday... so it'll arrive on Tuesday it's since this night that it's stuck in Liege HUB TNT hangar

 

Your right, the battery does drain overnight to about 92-93% when attached to the Z1 from 100% charge, however though, when the battery is detached from the Z1, it holds its charge. At least from my experience.

About 4 days ago, I charged up the battery on purpose to only 99%, this morning I attached the battery, and it kept its charge at 99%.

I charged it to 99% because I didn't know if the battery could or would take a charge of over 100%, without the indicator, indicating and corresponding to the actual charge, if it could go over 100%.

 

I've got this same problem on my VPCS1, but after some researches I discovered that it's only Windows' battery-level indicator fault, because despite "capacity drainage" my vaio can handle about 4h (light use + web browsing) after top up the battery to 100%.

 

How long does it take to wake up from sleep compared to hibernate?

Does Sony no longer have the battery charged to just 80% as part of Battery Care?

 

Thank you for the video - really helped me get a feel for what it's like under load. Sounded a bit like my Vaio SZ6 under load, which did not really bother me as much, but it did get hot to touch at times - hopefully the Z2 is at least cooler by a bit.

 

sounds like a jet engine ready for take off

 

I am going to do this again tonight and leave it unplugged for a longer period of time, but after having charged it full, then left it unplugged for a couple of hours, turning it back on showed me a battery with 100% charge.

 

^
If you are able to do it again then it seems that Sony has solved the battery drain problem.

 

You're welcome. The sound in real life is a bit lower pitched/deeper. At full speed I dont think it's that bad actually. My old laptop made more noise, and got a lot warmer. It even needed to throttle the CPU on long runs. So I'm quiet happy.

I think thats a good description, but than with less volume and heat . Maybe a small, quiet, idle running jet engine

 

What was you last laptop??? Maybe we can find some data on fan noise about it.. and make comparison.

 

That is a 17" MSI GX700, I still got it. It has a Intel T7500 2.2GHz (65nm) and a Nvidia 8600m GT. The heatsink doesn't fully touching the CPU, so thats probably the main reason.

 

It doesn't influence max fan speed.

Google Translate -> 47.3 db it's less then Z1 (obviously if in that review, that was maximum fan speed).
If you say that Z21 makes less noise I can expect 45/46 db which is a big improvement against old Z.