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

I can confirm that the VGP-CKSR1 case fits the Z2. I had a waterfield case before but returned it for this. What I like about the VGP-CKSR1 case is the rigidness; the front and back are sturdy so it can protect the laptop from some light impact. The waterfield case was made of ballistic nylon material but did not feel it would offer any protection against impact. I do have to admit that the fit on the waterfield case is better. Also another factor was that I got the VGP-CKSR1 for $16 shipped on Ebay.

 

Well duh

I think it's a pretty standard issue if you're carrying your notebook in anything other than a totally rigid case and may, who knows, come already warped as you say. I looked on the last Z2 I got and it was not warped out of the box - but a few weeks later when I bothered to look at it again while plugging in a card, it was definitely warped. The problem is that the aluminium 'strips' under the memory slots are essentially unsupported so any flex in the top aluminium sheet translates to warping of that particular part. Obviously it's of absolutely no consequence functionally, but it would be nice if Sony were to notice these irritating little issues before release in this day and age. Same goes for the palmrest marking.

Oh yes, Z2 sighting a few days ago in London. Glad to know that real life people are actually buying these (cuz I think you're all a figment of my own imagination )

 

Just went to a Sony Style store in Boston to check the Z2.They had 4 models in display and all of them a have noticed that the lid is somewhat warped.When I closed the lid one can insert a quarter right at the middle and still a gap left.

 

I was in the sitting room of my hotel in Paris two days ago. There was a fellow there with a Z2 (+ sheet battery) discussing contracts with someone on his cell phone.

 

Went to Microcenter and the Z2 on display showed the same warped screen..as a matter of fact the right side was touching the body and the left was in the air,..And guess what the Z2 was on top of a Z13..

 

I saw 3 Z2's in user's hands at CES -- plus mine makes four. I was happy to see some "friends."

 

Oh come on. If you didn't see some at CES, the Sony might as well just give up

And 3 Z2's? vs, what, a bagazillion Air's, which on each unit Apple is probably making more than Sony does on selling ten Z2's? That is the frightening thought really...

 

I would liek to ask, if anyone wouldn't know, where to get spare keys for Z2, I'm thinking about laser etching more characters on my backlit keyboard, but I would like to test it on some spare keys, before etching real thing first. I don't want to call SONY support just yet, as I know they are pretty unsuportive bunch of people. Preferebly some European source, the cheaper the better

curiosly enough, I have never seen any "relative" of my notebooks, in fact my toshiba has seen a cousin tablet from HP just last year, and it was only tablet I have seen except my own. I would be surprised, if more then few Z2 units would be sold in my country..

anyway, I still don't have warped memory slots, but I'm quite carefull when inserting SD card

 

My Z2 card slot is not (yet) warped. The Z2's owner, however, cannot make the same claim.

Actually, I suspect that Sony loses money on each Z2. There are way too many custom components on short production runs for Sony to be turning a profit on the thing. I'm guessing that the reason the Z2 is made in Japan instead of China is that it was more economical for a limited production item such as the Z2. Sure, they could have made them in China but that usually makes sense only for mass production.

 

^^ it would explain why the SA/SB got the dual SSD caddy, and the quadfather ssds were dropped in the Z2. Just Sony spreading + standardizing the parts around to get larger volume, lower per unit prices (unless if they are not the same, lol).

 

quick question,
noticing a high ping (150s) and jitter (200+!?) when not in high performance mode. I have created a custom power profile and gave priority to the wifi settings I found within but seems to not make a difference :/
how do I customize so the wifi still runs full throttle while conserving other aspects of battery?

ps in high performance mode ping (15-20) jitter (<10)

Thanks

 

The Z21 has a single sided motherboard because of the reduced thickness of the main chassis. The Quad SSD from the old VPC-Z1 or even the SA are to fat to fit in there. Dual is the most that will fit.

 

What??? I'm glad no one else is carrying the Z2. That makes my Z2 unique! I got all my Z2 friends right here on this forum. If I wanted real life friends, I would buy a Mac and go to Startbucks!

 

@ People in Europe:
What happened to the colour options? Could the reason be that the CTO's in Europe are still Z21s? But even then we had colour options...?

 

there is only premium carbon color available in Germany (vaio.sony.de). Quite strange, however they do state offer ends Jan 30th, so maybe "new" refresh is coming.

Cheers,
Miki

 

All the color options used to be available in Europe, I don't know why they gradually disappeared. But as miki69 wrote, the reason may be that the Z23 is coming to Europe soon (they skipped the Z22).

 

In the USA the color options appeared with the Z23..

 

Quick question, might be easy and me just being stupid so hear goes: I have the PMD with BD drive but when trying to playback a 3D movie, PowerDVD flags an error of incompatible graphics card. Hell, I just wanna watch the 2D movie, it just has a 3D version too...

Any ideas?

 

Sony posted an updated version of PowerDVD. Have you installed that?

 

Anyone know what the max resolution with the PMD is and at what refresh rate?

 

In case anyone is interested, I am selling a Bluray PMD in the computer components section
I would consider a trade for a ipad 2 or samsung galaxy tab (i would include some cash with the trade)

 

I am selling one in the marketplace as well

 

The guts of the Z2..It is in Spanish... Componentes internos de la Sony VAIO Serie Z - YouTube

 

Has anyone managed to get the game Rage running on this machine?
Mine fails just after start up, presumably because of the OpenGL issue, despite me installing the drivers someone has advertised on these pages....

 

Yes, this problem was caused by the pre-installed drivers. You can use the newer official from sony in my signature or modded drivers from the thread in the sony forum

 

Ok, got it to work.
These drivers did it for me:
http://leshcat.blogspot.com/2012/01/catalyst-121-whql-unifl-for-switchable.html

Thanks for the help!

 

What's the "most elegant" way to completely disable the fingerprint reader? Each time I touch it, an AuthenTec TrueSuite pop-up is shown. I don't want to uninstall TrueSuite, but for now I don't need and want the fingerprint reader either.
Is there maybe a way to disable it in the BIOS or can I only disable the device in Windows?
Thanks!

 

Launch TrueSuite and in My Setting set touch control to disable seems to do the trick for me.

 

I turned off the fingerprint reader in the Biometric Settings app in Control Panel.

 

Thanks for the answers!

I have not configured TrueSuite, so I am not able to get to those settings. If there is no other possibility, then I will do that, though.

I tried that before posting the first message, but after disabling the fingerprint reader there, the TrueSuite "Get Started" window still popped up.

 

You can uninstall TrueSuite if you don't need it (that's what I did). If you don't want to do that try also this:

Instructions:
1. Right-click on the Truesuite Access Manager link listed under the "All Programs" area of the "Start" menu. Choose "Run as Administrator."
2. Swipe your finger to access the program.
3. Click the "Delete all fingerprints" button at the bottom.
4. Select "Delete All Users' Fingerprints" from the options, click "OK" and then confirm the decision. The Truesuite Access Manager software is now disabled.

ps. This is from Toshiba forum, but should work just fine.


Cheers,
Miki

 

That's the only setting I changed. I don't know why it didn't work for you.

 

Since I registered my Fingertips I did not have the welcome screen pop up any more. Only time I notice the program is when I enter a Password in IE, but I use another browser usually. And, I can login to windows with the fingertip swipe now which works surprisingly good on the Z2.

 

The reader on my Z21 is much more sensitive than the on I have on my SA, much easier to use. On the SA you really have to press down with your finger, with the Z you just swipe it. I like it

 

It's better than anything else I've had for a long time. I'm surprised by how consistently it works whereas e.g. on my Lenovo's I'm often left switching to password entry in frustration. What's different about it, I wonder.

 

I've been out of the loop with Sony Z. When did these new Carbon Fiber Silver and Gold Lids get released? Very Cool.

Any chance in getting the Carbon Silver preconfigured at a Brick and Mortar Store? I checked J and R and nothing.

Does anyone here have the silver carbon and post photos or describe how it compares to the Z1 Silver? I really like my silver Z1, but willing to part with it if I can get a look at this new silver carbon lid design. Thanks.

EDIT: I guess the Silver Carbon is a Sony Store Exclusive only.

 

Hi !

I just got my Vaio Z2 last week and I also bought a Dell U2410. I connected the external screen to the PMD with the HDMI wire. Then I connected my headset to the audio-out jack on the screen and...
The sound was really bad !
There was some noise when the sound was above 50% (parameter in Windows 7 for the external screen) and it was not loud enough for listening to music or watching a movie.

Is it the same for you ??

Maybe I need to connect to the screen some "traditional" (Creative/Logitech) external speakers with their own source of power ?

Thanks a lot !

Chris


P.S. By the way... I disabled the plugin TrueSuite in Chrome... I got too many "Runtime C++ errors" !

P.S. I ordered the Waterfield Sleevecase for Vaio Z2 (thanks to TraderJoe !), I will get it tomorrow or on Monday but unfortunately I will have to pay some taxes because of the import USA/France... (that's what USPS/Chronopost says on their tracking service)

 

are there instructions on how to get the finger reader to work? I have no idea what program to open or how to make it work.

 

For anyone wondering what gaming on the Z2 is like:
I have yet to find a game that doesn't run well on this machine. I'm currently playing Batman Arkham City, and the laptop doesn't even break into a sweat, with fan noise being very low. I'm super impressed!

 

The audio out is not supposed to power a headset. Just get a cheap USB soundcard and leave it plugged into the U2410.

 

Has anyone sent their Z2 in for warranty work? Mine has a bow in the middle front edge of the screen and a bad left speaker. I was wondering if mine will be returned full of scratches and generally abused at the repair facility.

 

Well... I need some external speakers anyway... (maybe Creative T10).
Can you tell me if connecting these speakers will solve the noise problem with the audio out of the screen U2410 ?


Another question : Did anyone here create a partition on its Vaio Z2 ?
I'm a little be afraid with all these new tech (SSD/Raid/etc...). And I saw some subjects on the forum about problems with the Raid, boot, etc..
I have 256Go SSD :
- 13.21Go (recover)
- 100Mo (system reserved)
- 225.17Go for C:
How should I do in order to have, let's say 100 Go for C: and 125 Go for D: ?
(in fact, if I want to reduce C:, Win 7 tells me that I would only be able to reduce C: from 230,576 Mo to 131,825 Mo.)

I hope someone can tell me all the steps..
Many thanks !

Chris

 

Admittedly I've had relatively few Sony's that have been repaired recently (i.e. last 3 years) - TT's repeatedly, first-gen Z also a small number of times (these two POSs meant I took a break from VAIO buying until the 2010 Z's), recalled TZ's, that's pretty much it - but I've not had issue with additional damage being incurred at the depot. Apple / Lenovo, sure.

I would take dated photos (i.e. enable the date stamp function of your digicam) of the entirety of the unit just before you send it away for repair.

 

BTW, has anyone found a tilting stand worthy of the styling of the Z?

I will likely be using them with an external keyboard/mouse quite often in a couple of corner workstations, and I don't use any of the Z's with a monitor right now so I need something that cants the unit at - well, as far forward as the screen opening allows, which seems to be about a 45-degree angle.

I've set them up using PORT stands at the moment, which while it works perfectly it isn't what I'd call a visual match - and the front bar to hold the notebook in place also juts above the notebook palmrest by quite a degree.

The other stand I have in widespread use is the Lenovo Essential stand, but it doesn't tilt enough for starters. The Mac-orientated stands I have either suffer from the same problem, or are too 'blingy' to match the Z.

 

Out of 4 Z2 a saw at a SONYSTYLE store all of them where bowed in the middle...Even the 4K one...

 

How bowed are we talking? Have you put a ruler on it?

The reason I mention it is that I was looking at two of my open Z's edge-on a while back and I thought the very front edge might be bowed. Since one was almost new I figured both couldn't be subject to the same bending. So I took a ruler to them and realised it was an illusion.

 

Hmm.. how about the keyboard part?

The SA's are quite convex-shaped, or at least when I looked at them..

 

Well I didn't measure it but I could say that 2 quarters could be easily inserted right in the middle..the edges where flush with the palmrest..As a matter of fact one of them the left side of the screen was in the air...

 

The question would be whether it was a flat surface their were on. e.g. if they'd been moved from spending a long time on an uneven surface.

It's an aluminium plate - not a shell - on carbon-carbon tub, so it's entirely conceivable things could be bent into place after a while depending on how you carry / place it long-term. I just haven't seen it on my units yet.

 

The units were on display on a glass counter...Also went to a second store and the Z on display had the same.. lets say.. flaw..I would hate to get my Z next few weeks with this bowing