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

Alrighty, just purchased a relatively decent leather Burberry messenger bag but lacks a dedicated laptop section (protection padding that is).

So, I now need a new laptop sleeve and can't use the S series leather case anymore as it won't fit (VGPCKS4....not recommended as it is a pain in the to remove the laptop when you have the extended sheet battery installed). I'll still use it without the sheet battery on days when I only need to carry the laptop with me.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a decent quality laptop sleeve that fits the Z together with the sheet battery at times? Don't want it getting banged up in my bag. Budget is up to $100.

 

Try SFBags.com. They make quality bags and sleeves for all kinds of laptops. Enter your laptop model and they have custom bags and sleeves to fit it perfectly. I bought mine from there and did a YouTube video if you wanna see how the Z2 fits in it perfectly. Mine is a combination bag and sleeve as it has straps for when I'm bicycling and just want to carry the laptop.

Another suggestion is to look for a sleeve for the 13" Mac Air. You may wanna also look at sleeves for the 13" Macbook as it would fit the Z2 better with the battery pack.

 

That's a great review! Thank you for posting that.

 

I can recommend that one: Artwizz Leather Pouch Echt-Ledertasche für 33,8 cm: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

Fits very nice. Front case is big enough for the PMD/Power if you need it.

 

i truly recommend the VGP-CKSR1 if you're looking for something OEM that isn't a soft case (neoprene sleeves for example). it fits the Z2 perfectly with the extended sheet battery but is a bit snug at first. it's also tight enough that the laptop doesn't move while inside the case without the extended sheet battery. i bought it on ebay from this seller: link.





with battery sheet



without battery sheet

 

Great pics! And can't beat the price. Although I have one from SFBags.com, I went ahead and ordered this as well. I ordered it directly from Sony as they have "refurbished" ones for $16.95 and free shipping.

Thanks for the recommendation. An authentic Sony product for less than $20 is a heck of a deal!

 

The "ultimate" Z2 case will be this one. It's not available yet, but soon. I've been talking with the head of the company and they are working on getting the fit just right. The case will probably accommodate the Z2 either with or without the sheet battery.

 

That's a really nice case. Wish they would have added some type of straps to carry around the shoulder. I bicycle around town often and shoulder straps are mandatory. That's the reason I chose the SFBags. Almost like a sleeve with straps. The little side pocket is also nice as I store my Sony headphones, a USB cable (to connect to phone - charge & tether), and my cell phone.

But I like the carbon fiber case. Kinda steep at $200 though.

 

It's meant to go in a briefcase or suitcase. Most of the people that carry those aren't riding bikes. There are, of course, always exceptions.

 

Hi, I'm the exception.

I've got a VPCZ2290S with the mach3 case ordered about a month ago.

I bike to work every day. (But yes, I have a panier to carry it, not a messenger bag.)

Kevin Novak is in Hawaii now, but he said my mach3 case should be ready in about 2 more weeks. We'll see...

 

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and pictures/videos. I think I might go with this one or the Waterfield (Would come out to roughly $80 after taxes/duties for a sleeve purchased at $42...bloody Canadian duties and taxes but I quite like the look).

 

Is anyone using the VGP-CKZ4 bag? How good is it?

I am looking for a bag, which protects the laptop well, is elegant and as small as possible, and which can fit the laptop, the AC adapter, the PMD and some documents. Unfortunately I have not found any suitable bag (maybe I have too many requirements...).
The CKZ4 seems to be the best option, although it does not have a shoulder strap. But AFAIK it is only available in Asia.

 

Cool! I'm glad I made sure to include mention of exceptions. Are you one of the demo customers that will be trying out the fit?

 

What? No wonder we have a global warming problem! Maybe more people would bicycle if bags like this had a shoulder strap!

Yay bikes! We'll save this planet together! I ride mostly to bars. I hate Starbucks as they only serve coffee and are filled with Macs That's why I just need the smallest bag possible for just the laptop. Most bags with shoulder straps are bulky. SFbags were the smallest I could find with a strap. I would love to see this small hard case with straps.

 

A couple of sellers who've import it or will export. This seller offers refund and is based in US (other one is based in Japan and doesn't offer refunds).

SONY VAIO Z series Genuine Carrying Case VGP-CKZ4 Leather Black | eBay

Ordered the CKSR1.

 

Has anyone heard anything related to any internal refreshes in regards to the Sony Vaio Z (2011)? CES is coming up, so I'm assuming there may be something announced. Perhaps an Ivy-Bridge refresh, though I think that would likely be released in Q3?

Only other spec bump I could imagine with this system would be a hard drive upgrade (512GBx2 SSDs for a ~1TB total?), or a 1080p screen option on the Vaio S (13").

I'm about to purchase one of these finally, but feel waiting until after CES is likely my safest bet. Don't want buyer's remorse setting in before I even get the laptop shipped to me.

 

You should keep in mind also that many things shown at CES do not become commercially available for months.

 

Heh, I know, that's why I mentioned ~Q3 (July-September) as an approximate timeframe. Sometimes the new announcments come out in Q2, so anywhere from ~April to the beginning of October is a good guestimate.

A 512GBx2 SSD setup (~1TB total) would actually be very very useful to me, since I have a vast collection of lossless music (both for listening to and using highest quality audio source in some of the video editing I do). Even 512GB total would force me to pick and choose specific songs from my external music hard drive, so that I don't fill up the majority of the hard drive with just music. 1TB of total space to work with would allow me to include a lot more full albums without worrying too much about slowing performance or whatnot.

 

Thanks for the link! I also found some sellers on eBay and Amazon selling the bag.

Before I buy it, I would like to get some more information and opinions about it, though.

Does anyone here have the CKZ4 bag (or has anyone seen it in person)?
What I am intersted in:
- How good is the paddig, how well does it protect the latop? Is the outside of the bag hard enough or does it bend easily?
- How well does the laptop fit inside? Is it a perfect fit or is there some free space left?
- I saw that there is a velcro strip instead of a zipper on the top, but from the pictures, I could not figure out how the bag can be closed exactly. Is the bag fully closed, or are there some open gaps? Can e.g. some rain go in? If yes, is there some cover inside which covers the laptop and/or the accessories?
- What is the general impression?

I hope someone can help. Thanks in advance!

 

^
That's the thing. It's too hard to source and quite an expensive investment to buy something that isn't readily available/easily refundable for most. Only available in Asia and I doubt most people even have one considering the lack of available pictures on Japanese blogs/sites.

Here are available links from Japan for you to try with pictures:

official site giving some views:
¤•i‚Ì“Á’· | VGP-CKZ4 | »•iî•ñ | ŒÂlŒü‚¯ | VAIOƒp[ƒ\ƒiƒ‹ƒRƒ“ƒsƒ…[ƒ^[ | ƒ\ƒj[

A few pictures/short info:
?????????VAIO Z?????????(VGP-CKZ4)????SONY?????So-net???

Quick comparison between some cases for the Z series in Japan (has dimensions and what fits): C-TEC??????? | So-net???

I think based on the pictures, there's a flap that closes the sides between the handles but there may still be some slight exposure to the elements. There's a lack of pictures from the top down when it's closed. In the third picture below, you see the velcro for the flap.

 

Thanks again. The second and third link were new to me. I have found another blog post with photos as well. I wrote a mail to the author of the blog, I hope he can help and give some more information.

 

Oh, btw, what color is the backlighting on the keys? White? I saw some photos where it looked yellowish. Any chance it's configurable for most colors like Alienware? (doubt it)

 

It's only one color (two if you count "off") and it is somewhat yellow.

 

Hi! Got my VPCZ21C5E (German) right before christmas, and was reading this thread literally until now - right from the beginning. Learned so much thanks to all writers!!!

I must say I really like my new Vaio (see my hall of fame here if you like ). All the problems others report with the trackpad and keyboard don't seem to apply to me, typing fast as never before. The speakers...well, I can live with (without Dolby). Material and screen are amazing, and I really love the understatement/retro look a lot! Still amazed every time I grab into my bag and drag out a powerful computer weighting not more than the paper notebook. Carry it with me on my bike every day and don't even feel it on my back. Not to mention the jealous looks by the heavyweight Powerbook owners

Enough praise. Useful things I might contribute here:

- OpenGL with Intel: I bought the Z2 without PMD, so after reading this post on page 115 I was feeling lucky, went to the German Sony Drivers page and downloaded the Intel HD Graphics Driver from there. Before I was on OpenGL 1.0, and now I am on 3.0 100% and 3.1 still 37% in OpenGL Extensions Viewer:
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/OpenGL.png
Rotating the view now works in Photoshop. Yay! So I guess that's good, isn't it? Driver version is 8.15.10.2353. Anyone knows a newer driver that works better?

- Trackpad: if you have problems using it, have you noticed the advanced control panel in the mouse settings, last tab, Settings? These help a lot in customizing the trackpad.

- Greenish Screen: I noticed the screen has a slight greenish tone, and I saw some guys offering ICC profiles here, not sure how to use them. But I managed to calibrate my screen "by the eye" (do you say that in English? I mean simply by looking at the screen and comparing it to others) by using the "Intel Steuerung für Grafik und Medien" (Intel Control for Graphics and Media), the tool that opens when you right-click on the desktop and choose Graphic Settings:
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/colorAdjustment.png
There under "Extended Mode" - "Display" - "Color Optimization" (all translated only, sorry) I used the following settings:
Red: Contrast 48
Green: Contrast 47
This makes my screen look rather neutral.

- If somebody needs a good notebook stand, I think the Matias iRizer suits the Z2 really well. I even bought the smaller (and cheaper) iPad stand, it works perfect with this light laptop. See my setup here if you like:
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_setup_01.jpg
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_setup_02.jpg


What I did not find out yet is which and how a headset (non-bluetooth) might be connected to this laptop? I have a headset from my mobile with integrated microphone and a 4-contact jack, but it does not work. Are we really limited to the internal mic here?

 

For the jack, I don't have a z2 (just yet). But I'm pretty sure the mic link is also inside the jack. Maybe your headphones don't support the layout of the z2.
I'd try another earphone with mics, preferably not apple's
And BTW, great review and pics! I might just need that stand.
Anymore pictures of the ipad stand by any chance?

 

Real quick again, I'm slogging through this entire thread (started @ page 100, currently reading page 143), at this point, are there m/any outstanding driver issues? There seem to have been quite a few around the beginning of September (page 100-143).

Also, is it possible to connect a monitor of a resolution greater than 1080p (for instance, 1920x1200[23/24"], 2560x1440 [27"], or 2560x1600 [30"])?

 

Blu-Ray disc movies don't play using the included PowerDVD BD app. Says, "Playback stopped because your graphics card driver is incompatible" Error code 0012.

Tried troubleshooting to no avail. Anyone know what's up?

 

This seems to be a promising little hack, and ur on ATi Graphic Driver ( Catalyst 11.12 WHQL, ver. 8.920.0.0000 )+ Intel HD Graphics ( ver. 8.15.10.2559 ) with
optional ATi HDMI driver ( ver. 7.12.0.7704 )!
I did not try it -currently short of time- thought to share it here...
see it here and please, post ur feedback here.

 

Is there any way you can watch movies via HDMI on TV with laptop lid closed? When I close lid it cuts video as well. I have set up extended monitor settings.

With VGN-Z simple video driver reinstall would solve this.


Any idea?

Cheers,
Miki

 

Go to the power setting and switch what it does when the lid is closed, also make sure it only displays on the tv so the screen isn't on when its closed. having said that I haven't done this with my Z2, but I did do it on my old FW.

 

By default my Z2 goes to sleep with the lid closed, HDMI or not. I assume you've already changed the power setting as mentioned above? Once I did that, I had no issues with the lid closed.

 

Finally! After Amazon screwed up my order (twice!), I finally own one of these
The i7/4g/256g/1080p/black version...and a small question:
does upgrading to another version of windows remove the bloatware installed on it? Should I clean the system before or after the online upgrade?

 

No, make some recovery discs, reformat drive freeing up 6gigs from the hidden recovery partion, and, then do a clean install from those discs.

After, insert Windows anytime upgrade code and be done with.

 

Can I do it with a external hard drive? Actually i think I might just skip the freeing part, since I'm one of those people that has basically nothing on their laptop and several hard drives filled with software and documents...

 

I dont see a reason to backup any files. You can download everything on the internet.

Also, in my expierience it frees up 14gb of storage <3

 

Did that already I also tried paying with presentation mode (Windows Mobility Centre) but that didn't work either. Are there any other setting to look into?

Another question (mousepad): any advice how to make trackpad more responsive? It feels quite sluggish comparing to VGN-Z. I've seen a lot of settings to play with, but have no idea where to start. I don't care too much about two/three fingers gesture, just want to make it more responsive or to register action every time. Now I have a feeling it's a bit hit and miss.


Cheers,
Miki

 

Thanks here are more (still a little blurry) pictures of my office setup with the Matias iRizer:
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_setup_01.jpg
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_setup_02.jpg
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_setup_03.jpg

And a size comparison between the Z2 and the stand:
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_iRizer_01.jpg

You can even take it apart easily and take it with you:
http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_iRizer_02.jpg

There is of course a "normal" size stand also, but I tried it and its not necessary, and as the iPad stand is cheaper I went for that one.


And BTW for all people unsure if they should start with a clean setup: I really tweak my OS quite a bit every time I get a new vaio and was always angry about Sony putting so much bloatwar on it, but this time I think the default install is really OK. Did not find anything interfering with my work. What I did was:
- I used the computer as it came, for one or two days, uninstalling everything that seemed unnecessary to me, in order to find out what I can uninstall without messing the system up. I found out that all media- and helper-applications from Sony and the usual testversions, antivirus- and webcam stuff might go without any problems
- then I used the procedure described in the manual to create recovery DVDs
- then I used the procedure described in the manual to remove the recovery partition (and free up the 8 or so GBs) and reinstall the system from the recovery DVDs
- then I removed all the applications I found OK to uninstall
- I let Vaio Update and Windows Update do their work
- I installed the Intel HD Graphics driver as I described in my post on page 243 to get OpenGL 3.0

Since then the system works flawlessly, and I don't have the impression my 8 GB RAM care a lot about maybe one or two registry entries I might have gotten rid of with a clean install

 

I turned off the "smartsense" feature so that it will reject no touches. That helped me.

 

Thanks. If it's just 8 g or so I won't go through the trouble. Chances are after a year I'll still have only 100g of stuff on the laptop itself.
The pictures are great and that's indeed a nice (and cheap) stand. Is the lowest angle of the stand low enough to type?

 

Laptop bags by booq

small enough?

 

I fixed that problem where Blu-Ray discs would not play. First I downloaded the BD advisor from PowerDVD and my system passed with flying colors.

The problem turned out to be in the device manager where under Storage Controllers, the "Generic Marvell 61xx RAID Controller" device driver was not installed properly.

 

Restart computer should fix the problem because I also face this problem too when I using daemon tools to emulate DVD Drive on my computer.

 

I fixed my issues with BD playing by byuying PowerDVD 11.
The version 9 provided by SONY played the Pratchett Going Postal just fine, but the Harry Potter and horcruxes or what it is called in english is in some new format BD-J and the 9 version decided not to play it no mater what

 

I want it to work seamessly plug and play. For the cost, one should expect seamless operation of the dock.

Sony is made up of a bunch ofd_cks . How much was powerdvd 11 and is it better than windvd?

 

Upgrade for 40$, don't know about the later.

 

I wonder if there's a regional difference between the discs? I've had no difficulty playing "Deathly Hollows" parts 1 & 2 using the software provided by Sony. I did upgrade from the Sony web site a while back but it's still version 9 of PowerDVD.

 

I upgraded too.. but it just refused to play , both version are set the same settings.

 

I've noticed another weird problem with Power settings (Brightness) on Z2:

I have 60% for battery and 90% AC setup in Power options. However if I manually change brightness (Fn+F5/F6), those settings are automatically stored as default values. For example if I (on AC) set brightness to 70% (via Fn buttons), unplug and replug AC it will keep brightness at 70% not 90% as setup in Power plan.

I don't have such issue with VGN-Z, upon unplug/replug AC it will always go to default value from Power plan (in my case 90% brightness).

Any idea?


Cheers,
Miki

 

Hi,
Has anyone had the issue of hard disk score in wei kept dropping? I have had 7.9 before but now its just 7.6. If not, how should I fix it?

Thanks

 

Just got my z2, loving it so far