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

Still no word on display driver updates?

This is preventing me from going forward with the Z2... I can handle that the machine is limited (there is nothing better on market now) but not that it's limited even in its limitations (i.e. the PMD doesn't give significant performance upgrade over Z1 gfx chip due to driver and possibly "lightpeak" bandwidth limitations).

 

I've sent a complaint/request to the Vaio representative in Norway and also opened a support ticket in Vaio support Europe requesting updated display drivers.

 

maybe if we all did that, then they might update the video drivers? How outdated are they btw?

 

The Sony supplied AMD drivers are version 8.830.7.0.

I believe this is similar to AMD Catalyst 11.3 (v8.831):
AMD Catalyst? 11.3 Release Notes

The current Catalyst drivers are 11.10 (v8.902):
AMD Catalyst? / AMD Vision? Engine Control Center 11.10 Release Notes.

 

yeah... this is frustrating...
anyone else having ghosting issues?

I feel like it's only gotten worse.
any ideas on how to resolve?

 

What do you mean by ghosting?

 

do you see how "save PDF" is ghosted in that screen shot?
That "Save PDF" is a shortcut I placed under "Send To"...

for one reason or another, occasionally drop down menu items just get stuck on screen.
The only way for me to get rid of it is to change my display settings (external to internal back to external... or vice versa)

 

Well, I've seen nothing like it, isn't it some issue of this Save PDF software?

 

No. this is a standard windows function.
enter "%AppData%/Microsoft/Windows/SendTo" in your a Windows Explorer address bar.

you'll notice a bunch of different links.
I have a droplet for photoshop linked here...

next you can right click any file. under the drop down menu you'll see a "Send To" menu. Mouse over it and you'll see a menu that will take you deeper.

This menu item is what's sticking.
But sometimes it's the font dropdown from my character palette...

etc... happens all the time.

I hope I won't have to turn off DWM. Feels so primitive to have to do that. As is it's already pretty primitive that I can't use OpenGL drawing features in Photoshop with my Z2...

Guh. Hoping... just hoping that Nautis and Andrew08 and crew crack that hybrid graphics sometime soon.
BTW are they taking donations for their work? Wouldn't mind tipping them for their work.

 

I very well know, what is "send to" menu is I meant the added entry.

 

yeah I just have an application link in there... So it's "sending to" an application... pretty useful.

 

looks like others have encountered this as well.
windows vista - "Ghost" UI elements - Super User

but I don't mean to hijack the thread. mostly what I mean to say is...
I'm really hoping either someone cracks the hybrid graphics driver, or Sony provides updates.

 

That ghosting issues because the gpu and the LCD went out of sync.
did u reinstalled ur driver? if that is the case u may have a corrupted drivers issue.

 

haven't touched them.
Can you explain went out of sync?

btw, mods, should I move this discussion to a different thread?

 

OK, do u have different refresh rate for intel and the PMD?
for some reason both should be the same while the PMD is connected.

 

Just got my Z22 about a week ago and loving it!
This is my first Sony VAIO, and I have a question about the VAIO Care program. It keeps popping up and telling me that I have new messages. I click on it, and the same old message keeps re-appearing called "You have new hot topics". I read through them (barely), but it looks like a bunch of tips & general information. I don't see any way to "delete" this message, and the system keeps popping up and reminding me about this message. Any way to delete message notices, or mark them as read to make it stop bothering me about the same thing over and over?

 

Is there anywhere on the web, other than the Sony site, where I can order a Z2 with i5, 8G RAM & 256G SSD ? The 4-5 retailers I looked at only do prebuilts.

 

Yes the drivers and OpenGL is a huge issue. I'm actually considering not using the docking station. I'm getting screen redraw issues when I have Firefox open before docking. When I dock, the content of Firefox window gets scrambled and I have to restart it. Then when the Z goes to sleep, and I want to undock it at some later time, like in the morning, it has to power up before I can undock it. That drives me nuts. I might just plug in the power, USB to hub for keyboard and trackball and HDMI cables and leave the dock not used.... besides with broken drivers the dock is not very useful anyway, and consolidating the cables threw it is not a time saver at all....

Anyone else has any thoughts on this?

 

I was wondering whether anyone knows of a way to buy a Z sans PMD and save the money. I've had the original z540 for three years, and am looking for a replacement. I almost never use the graphics card, but love the form factor, high def screen, and weight. I'm trying to save money, and would rather get a Z without the PMD if possible. Thanks!

 

both the same... experimented with both 59 hz as well as 60 hz. reinstalled video drivers. seems like nothing really makes a difference.

I've resorted to disabling some Visual Effects in System Properties.
Hopefully I won't be seeing those issues anymore.

I've sent along another message to VAIO tech support. They've mentioned that they've forwarded along to VAIO Sustaining Engineering.

Huff... fingers crossed.

 

Pixels on LCD stay on until they are told to change; they don't have to be refreshed. The LCD however, must poll the video card at a certain rate for new frames. That is how LCD's still have a 'refresh rate' even though they do not actually have to refresh.
If u select a different 'refresh rate' u force the LCD to redrawing the images being presented on its screen, which removes the ghosting being seen.

 

Try this
CCC > Performance > AMD XGP Docking Station > Allow Additional Display.
Keep that choice all time.

 

I picked up my laptop yesterday but didn't really get to start playing with it til today. Upgrading from a Vaio X it feels like its 2x heavier and the sheet battery another 2x more, i guess it will just take a little bit of getting used to.
it seems that windows alternates between charging the internal & the sheet battery and prioritizes the battery with the lower charge but occasionally it gets stuck to charging just the internal battery. can anyone explain how the battery charging pattern works?

btw, does anyone know where i can buy a spare sheet battery charging adapter (VGP-BC10) online? mine didn't come with one since i bought the z2 off another member here.

so far i've only heard of one person complain about the pointed corners on the wristpad. not sure about you guys but i occasionally bump my wrist on it and it's not a nice feeling.

so far i'm very pleased with the speed even when it has the base model specs (VPC-Z212GX) and it is set at Power Save in the power options setting and Silent in Vaio Control Center. i'm not sure how many laptops have the dual-fan design but to me this will be mandatory on all my future laptops. with two fans, they don't need to spin as fast (compared to just having a single fan) and results to less noise for the cost of extra space.

the PMD seems to be more problematic than beneficial. i hate that i have to close all my programs just to be able to undock.. i want to undock on the fly.

 

Outside of the USA, it appears you can order the Z2 w/o the PMD in some countries. Also can order it without the backlit KB o.0

 

mak yeah. tried this as well as without. regardless it's the same. happens even when I'm not using PMD.

 

Is it any cheaper to import one from outside the country without a PMD than to just buy one with the PMD in the us?

 

AMD Catalyst 11.11

 

But now newer driver for us yet. Sony, as we know them!

 

Well, I've never get to cloase any program before I unconnected my PMD, it always ask politely, if I mean to undock, and it will allow no matter what.

 

Drivers before 11.8 DO NOT SUPPORT AMD HD3D technology stereo 3D for products such as Samsung 950 series 3D monitors or new 3D-capable monitors
If anybody managed to have a 3D monitor wiht the current drivers
please, report your experience.

 

Just wanted to share for those who guys wanted to know there BD/DVD ROM PMD Capabilities.

imgur: the simple image sharer

@As for inquiries regarding our problematic PMD Undocking/Docking, I have the same experience as well. Added to that, have you guys wonder as well when you tried scrolling the site such as FB and Google Image there this "lag" and slowness displaying the screen (choppy).

also, tried comparing it to my lower end laptop (smooth scrolling) and the difference is really obvious and sometimes irritating.

 

@bashmonroe : As for FB or Google Image, I use Firefox 7, and didn't fell any lag or choppy behaviour Not on Intel HD, and not on AMD

 

I believe this is a problem for all computers with switchable graphics. Browsers like Firefox use GPU acceleration now, but they dont handle switching between internal and discrete GPUs well..

 

We should all be contacting Sony a couple times a week. Hopefully this would pressure them to get this resolved sooner then later. Who knows where this is not in the priority list.

At my work we are overloaded with projects, bug fixes, user reported issues etc... the pipeline is very large while developer resources quite limited. When issues popup, they are prioritized based on a number of factors. Security or critical issues go to the top and are worked on immediately. Then its new projects. User issues are only pushed to the front of the pipeline if there are many users reporting it otherwise its pushed down and in many cases on the TODO list for a long time.

We have to make the issue heard and keep pressure on Sony to get if fixed quickly.

 

I have not used my Z much and still use the X as I'm just too busy to get my whole dev environment setup on the Z. Hopefully in the next two days I will make the move.

From the limited experience I had, I did undock with out closing programs as I always run my machines for weeks with no restarting and have way too many things opened to make shutting down realistic. The issue I had so far was Firefox getting the content scrambled. I have to test it a bit more but thats a complete killer for me. I tend to have 10-20 tabs open at any given time and restarting and reloading all the content all the time is a complete productivity killer in my case.

 

Any idea if this is something that can be user disabled in FF? Not like one needs GPU acceleration for a bunch of static content.

OK found it under advanced options ...

 

in Fx: Options>Advanced> Use Hardware Acceleration (uncheck this).

 

?!?

Switched on my Z 5 minutes ago, but all that happend was, that the screen turned white for a split-second.
I tried again, but the screen stayed black.

So I took out the battery pack and placed it back in -> it worked...
... until my login screen appeared and the display went black again!
The power button was still glowing green.

I tried it serveral times, but after a few minutes the screen will turn black, whatever I am doing...

Any one experienced this before, I can't spot any damage from the outside...

 

yes, I did find it already, thanks, I tested and looks like FF is fine now. Yes it might effect CSS / HTML5 animations but Flash looks not effected.

 

My had similar issue once, while just sitting there the external monitor connected via HTMI in the dock, turned off, lost signal. The only way I could get the notebooks or external monitor to work again was removing the battery. Did not see it again but then I'm not using it much yet.

 

Seems like it doesn't even boot. No HDD activity...

 

did you try running it with no battery and only AC?

I had something like this with an old PCG-TR3 Vaio that the kids use. One day it shut down and would not come back up. Tried everything, took it apart to check the power button, wires etc... It was sitting here in my home office and one day I decided to plug in the charger before listing it on ebay for parts. Guess what, magically it bootet with no issues and has been working fine for the past couple months. No idea what it could have been. Possible that the CMOS battery ran out and that reset it. I think its not holding time now so it might be drained.

 

Doesn't work either...

 

Well, if Firefox gets scrambled, the best solution is to turn on Anonymous browsing, and then simply close it, and reopen = voila, everything is back as it was

 

So yesterday, I reinstalled the VAIO driver and I had VAIO care check for Registry Errors.

It was working well for a while... until I plugged in a Apple Cinema Display into it. (DVI --> HDMI --> VAIO)...

Now the ghosting is back...

 

Does the Assist button boot up in recovery mode when pressed with the power off? At least you can run some diagnostics if that comes up.

 

I'm glad, that everything seems to work normal again
Thanks for everyones help

But what I remeber, even pressing the Assist button didn't work...

 

Drivers ... u need version 11.8 or later.
ur lucky though with ur ghosts , if u try to connect to a 3D display
that is calling for real troubles.
I doubt $ony will be able to provide us with drivers update in the near
future, if at all, upgrading the PMD card is much easier ...

 

Mak - yeah... but this... even without PMD.
argh.

 

Intel drivers has some issues in switchable and non-switchable graphic configurations as well..
Efficiency is what $ony compromised here,
480 Stream processors -HD 6650M-is not an architecture
for cable connection it is for inside a rig sort of connection.
Having difficulty updating a driver, r not the one to crack major solution. Expect such modular solution,if it is technically possible, from NVIDIA for instance, $ony then will give us Z911.