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

Wow. I didn't think the keyboards were that different. On my keyboard, you could see how the Shift is awkwardly placed on the right side of the Up arrow. Every time I typed I hit the up arrow. I couldn't seem myself getting use to that, mainly because you literally had to leave the home row to press the shift.

 

Unless it is broken too badly, superglue works wonders. I've repaired clips on a Logitech DiNovo and a old Sony SZ this way. Superglue works best, model glue not so much. It gets too brittle.

Not advocating gluing on the key, mind you, just repairing the clip.

If possible, it may be a good idea to swap the clip with a less-used key. One of the F keys, perhaps.

BTW Tae1, It would appear that a rabid monkey is attempting to steal your daughter's pacifier by climbing up her torso. Better look into this ASAP

 

does anyone put up a picture of the z2 with a slice?? Curious if it's thinner than the z1 even after the extended battery.

 

^not the best, but I posed some here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/603509-sony-vaio-z2-vivisection-2.html#post7821668

 

The retainer broke at a very thin piece in the plastic. It looks kind of like this ['@'] the bottom part of the right "]". Normally I would have glued it but even if I did it would definitely break again. Maybe an epoxy would do the job but it would be cheaper to just get a new retainer. Thanks for the info.

Yea that monkey is constantly harassing her but she doesn't seem to mind.

 

Hi rrm998,
Do you noice a difference in screen picture quality between the hdmi output of the laptop and the hdmi of the PMD??
When I've plugged my 40" Bravia into the PMD via HDMI the quality is distinctly less than when plugged directly into the laptop HDMI. Does this happen on yours ? Same resolution but just more grainy in quality... Certainly notice the difference with blu-rays.

 

External Display Bugs or another bug with the PMD/ATI drivers!!!
Speaking of attaching an external display has anyone connected a full 1080p display and turned graphics mode from "External Display Mode" to "Computer Display Mode"... Is so you will have spotted the bug! It scales incorrectly even if resolution correct... "External display mode" works fine on the same bravia display when connected also to the laptop HDMI.
I would like "Computer Display mode" to work if I just want one big external display to run and it be supported by the ATI graphics card... So the laptop screen is off and the HDMI is connected to the laptop and then uses the full power of the ATI.
Note: Correcting the display scaling to 60% in X and Y diminishes quality compared to the when it switches to "external display mode".And surely that mean it is scaling twice unnecessarily...

Any thoughts or settings i don't know about? I have tried pretty much everything I am aware of...

Guessing this is another ATI/PMD driver issue ... bring on the updates SONY!!!

 

Can you please explain this in layman's term? I dont know much about linux but would like to get rid of the recovery partition without doing clean install.

Many Thanks!
Eric

 

^the process is fairly risky if you don't know what you are doing. You can stop windows from booting very easily so make sure you have burned off the Restore media.

That said, you can get a bootable distro with this tool. Parted Magic should set you up. Burn it to DVD or use a USB stick.

 

Without getting in to too many details about Linux, all you have to do is

1 Download the Live CD for either Fedora or Ubuntu from their respective sites and burn it to a cd

2 Boot to the CD.

3 Open the terminal.

4 Copy and paste the commands I listed.

5 Search for the program in the program menu or type sudo gparted from the terminal.

Once the program is open it's pretty self explanatory. There is also a progam called Easeus for windows.

Free Partition Magic alternative & free Partition Manager Software for Windows PC, Workstation and Server - EaseUS.

 

So you want to accelerate an external screen with the ATI GPU through the HDMI port on the laptop? If so, I've done this without the scaling issue you mentioned. I've got a 2011 60" Sony LCD.

This is somewhat inconvenient for me, so I simply disable the laptop's screen in the Windows Screen Resolution dialog. Same net effect you want, all through the PMD.

I wish Sony would allow the Bravia connect feature on the laptop. In theory, the home theater receiver and TV would power on and off with the laptop. It would also autoswitch input modes (Bluray to the lappy, for example)

 

I wonder if the HDMI resolution setting is different on the laptop port versus the PMD port? Say one is 720p and one is 1080p for example?

I didn't notice a different between the two side by side. Most of the time my two monitors are on my desktop so I didn't spend a lot of time with them on the laptop. Mainly I was testing to see if it was possible to do.

 

Thanks ZoinksS2k,
It was a Bravia issue.

One final question - if I have my Bravia linked to the Laptop HDMI and I want it as an extended desktop display. In the ATI performance settings- which is better for this - "Computer Mode" or "Multiple Displays" ?
Looking at the diagram I am assuming it is "Computer Mode" as it suggests that the PMD will enhance both the Laptop and the display going out of the laptop? Multi mode would be for the displays connected to the PMD directly??

But it does keep saying that "Video may not run smoothly in Computer Mode. Do you want to change to Multiple Display mode?"
But surely this will put all the pressure on the Intel 3000HD and leave the ATI/PMD unused ?

Wish Sony would make this more clear and robust...

Many thanks

 

At home, I have a 40' HDMI cable running from my Sony AV unit to the PMD.

I set the CCC to "Allow Additional Displays." Bluray movies and HD Netflix work well. I'll get some stuttering if I do something CPU intensive, but I think that is normal. My desktop does it as well with an OC i7 2600 and a GTX 580.

I think this is more of an ATI thing than a Sony thing.

 

IIRC, the Z22 should be out by about the end of this month. My understanding is that it will have a slightly updated processor (i7-2640M). I'm not sure what other updates may be included in the refresh but there are certainly enough annoying issues people here have complained about that shouldn't be too hard to fix, e.g., OpenGL version, docking/undocking the PMD, etc.

 

Wish I could get my hands on a Z2 so I could work out how to properly mod the graphics drivers. Updating to the AMD/ATI 11.8 mobility drivers have solved some of the issues the SA/SB/SC users were running into, including OpenGL version issues. I am confident that updated drivers would help the Z2 immensely.

 

I've now done two major trips using my new Z. Here are some impressions about using the Z on the road.

I took the slice battery both times. This was fortunate, as in both cases I wound up on planes with no power outlets. It's funny that the slice doesn't add that much weight, but feels significantly heavier. On the first trip, I used the computer for 4 hours, and the battery went from 90% to 40%. I had it set on power-saving mode, screen jacked up to almost full brightness, WiFi off, just doing MS Word. I consider that a reasonable result given the very bright display setting. During the day on-site, I was finding that the Z+slice was reporting 10-12 hours lifetime, even using WiFi. I think I just need the screen brighter in a plane.

On one of the planes, the tray was a bit awkwardly placed. I found that the corners of the Z are surprisingly sharp, and the left-front corner was digging into my wrist. Over a few hours, this became quite painful.

I do not love the keyboard. It's ok, but I do find myself hammering the keys a bit harder than usual to avoid skipping keys. After a few hours of solid typing, my fingers were cramped and sore. (I hadn't noticed this before, as at home I use an external keyboard/mouse if I'm going to type any length of time.)

I am running TouchFreeze, but still find occasional problems with mouse pointer skipping all over the place because of unintentional swiping of the track pad.

Just for fun, I brought the PMD along (in my suitcase) and set it up in my room. This was actually awesome. During the day, I took the Z along on its own. In the evening, I was able to plug in just using the PMD cable, and treated it like a little dock. I even got an hour of gaming time in one evening.

Over all, this is a big step up from my previous computer (a Toshiba R600), but there are definitely a few little issues.

 

thanks for the info, your method of use is about how I'll be using the z2, so its nice to know what to expect.

 

I have now noticed that my Z sometimes doesnt register when i type "s". Like if i type it too lightly it won't register but the other keys will. It kinda annoying.

 

ZoinksS2k,
Do you not find the picture quality of HDMI out of the PMD less good than out of the laptop HDMI? For me the picture quality very grainy and with is very noticable with blu-rays.
I am disappointed as wanted to have it all connected up to the PMD on my desk so I just have to plug in the one cable..

 

No different. HDMI is HDMI, but each GPU has its own color settings. You might want to reset them

 

Thank you. I will give it a go. Regards Eric

 

Thanks for the tip - again Bravia/resetting HDMI sorted it..

 

3D Displays:
Has anyone tried running a 3D display with this Vaio ?
If so how does it fair?

 

Has anyone else had similar results? Any sites or posts with benchmark comparisons? Just trying to get as much information as I can before I make a decision as to which suits me best.

Y2J

 

Not sure if anyone else is used to having the behavior that is supposed to be given by the Synaptics "Scroll item under pointer" Scrolling properties Clickpad option - it is broken on both my Z21 and the demo Z21 in the Sony Store -- I presume it is not working for anyone? This functionality is meant to be similar to that conferred by the programs Katmouse or WizMouse (you can scroll a window without having to give it focus by clicking on it). In fact, the broken Synaptics driver precludes either of these programs working for the touchpad either. Once you've used this scrolling function it is hard to go back. Bummer.

 

Today i´ve tested severall things with my new machine. The Open GL problem is also when PMD is connected and external VGA monitor is connected there, desktop expansion is set.

Can´t start minecraft in this mode. (or anything else which requieres open gl 1.2 or higher)

After setting to internal display only, minecraft will start.

Can this problem be confirmed by other users?

 

Instead of using any random Linux Live CD and installing gparted there, you can also just get a gparted Live CD on its website: GParted -- Download
That way you just burn that image, boot from it and automatically get a working gparted.

 

hi all, I have been reading this thread for a while. Finally, I purchased my new Z217 today. Very nice laptop.
I have a question here. When I connect the PMD, the DirectX Diagnostic Tool shows the Display as 6650M but only with 710MB Total Memory. Is that right? I thought it should be 1024MB. If so, where can I find the information about this in the system? Thanks in advance!

 

Does anyone else have the problem that the brightness controls don’t work when coming back from hibernate/standby? This however only happens when the lid is closed while the computer is still awake (i.e. you click “go hibernate/standby”, and close the lid immediately and don’t wait for the computer to power off).

I had this problem with my nearly 4 years-old Vaio FZ, and I can’t believe it happens again on the Z2..

[edit] “Fun fact”: Closing the lid and reopening it again, fixed that issue.. So apparently there is something else that makes this problem appear on the Z2.. Will investigate.. ^^

 

Is it using the Intel or AMD GPU? I know the PMD is connected but it would make sense that if its using the Intel GPU it wouldnt output to the display connected to the PMD. I would assume it is using the Intel GPU for that OpenGL stuff if its locked to the internal display.

This may be something to verify.

 

hey guys, i havent been following this thread and i'm about to pull the trigger

could anyone please fill me in on any issues that have arisen with the Z2?

 

One issue is that it looks like Sony is going to release an updated version (Z22) with a slightly updated processor by about the end of the month. You may want to wait for the new model unless you need the box now.

 

you mean a refresh with the option for a faster processor?

thats strange, usually refreshes occur every 3 months

or when you mention updated processor.. you mean that intel actually has an updated processor? or just the usual option for a faster cpu whenever sony refreshes?

 

What i can say is that the AMD GPU is used - it must have something to do with the option in the AMD settings to drive external / drive internal displays i think.

 

This has probably been posted earlier...

If you run the "Mood Pad" app from the Synaptic's tray icon, you'll see that the buttons are actually touch sensitive like the textured section. It is also plastic covered, so it won't get shiny.

Sony: Double the size and move the finger scanner, you'll have something then.

 

My understanding is that the refresh (for the i7) will move to the i7-2640 which was just released.

 

This happens with my X61T too. It's been like this ever since Windows 7 was released. I'm guessing it's something Microsoft needs to fix, but they probably will never fix it. Ever! I've seen some hotfixes describing this problem, but it didn't fix my X61T.

I haven't experienced this on the SA, but I have to return it because the touchpad went bad in three weeks.

 

If you install the driver available from Synaptics.com the buttons become a mousing area (they remain buttons). So you gain a little more usable area.

 

Can you point us to the driver you are using - and can it simply be installed over the Sony version? Thanks.

 

The driver is available on their website, and you need to uninstall the other driver first, as the setup reports that the Synaptics Scrybe driver is older than the OEM drivers.

 

I found out something interesting:

I have a MW600 Bluetooth by Sony Ericsson and it doesn't work with Vaio Z21 (during the pairing process windows cannot find drivers for services provided by MW600).

The way to solve this problem is to install Intel® PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth Software (which is not the WiFi one) which provides required drivers (it's meant to be useful only for Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 130; Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 and Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030. After this, pair the MW600 (or other Bluetooth periphericals with similar problems) and that's it.

 

Is there a way a make the 2-finger scrolling smooth like in osx? I have smoothscroll for chrome, but its still step scrolling with animated "stepping"

 

Is everyone here for the most part happy with their Z2, especially from those that have or use to own a Z1? I noticed that the inventory for the Z1 @ Microcenter has diminished tremendously this week - and that's with a $2249.99 price tag on a Z135GX/S. I can't help but think, after reading some of the user reviews of the Z2, that these people opted for the Z1 instead. Thanks.

My cousin ordered a Z2 (i5 128ssd - Base Model) and will be picking it up next Saturday. I'm really curious what it looks like in person and how it performs without the PMD. Both of us have yet to see it. With a price tag of $1799 for the Z2 versus 2249. for the Z1, there's no question which is the better deal.

 

love my z2, much classier look (my opinion), incredibly thin and light for something so powerful.

 

how do i remap the web 'quickbutton' to chrome? i made chrome my default but no luck and the vaio CC has no functions for mapping anything but the vaio key. p.s. i just turned this machine on...

EDIT: NEVERMIND exploder knocked chrome off as the default for some reason, now i see the button is set to load whatever browser you have set to your default.

 

p.s.s. this machine came with BT 3.0 on the Intel 6230...if I remember some of you were complaining about the machine not using intel or maybe I'm just making that up...

 

also i dont know why you people are complaining about the docking and undocking methods of the pmd...its got one tiny button you press on the connector and then windows says undock complete and youre good to go...bunch of prima donnas i guess...I mean wow...come on...it probably takes you more time to lift your laptop out of whatever docking station its using than to press this tiny button and wait the 1 second to unplug the device.

Similarly I have no issues with the keys, they travel shorter but thats fine I never full press any keys on any keyboards I own, and this is the first time I actually do based on the short travel inherent to the design of the keys.

Also I find it odd someone on here needs to move their hand off the home row to use the arrow keys? or is it the page up? I don't remeber, but whatever its no different than the vgn-tx610 (i believe) that I owned and this stuff just comes with the territory and given the small form factor its not like you're spending days going back and forth between Fn+Up Arrow and the home row....

over all I like the laptop and you guys come off as emaciated divas with hands the size of dimes.

At this point if I could change anything I would have gone for a full bandwidth light peak port to take full advantage of this mid level gpu, but I am sure sony had their compromises given the form factor and it will be rare if ever that I would game on this machine. I'll update as I become more familar with the machine and start loading up my usual work programs.

 

I love my Z2.
I absolutely don't regret getting it.

 

i wouldn't have minded if they made a bigger PMD, w/ a more powerful card, and maybe stick like a hdd in it too, something like a mac mini form factor.