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

My company ordered a CTO Vaio Z2 last week. I thought we chose "Premium Carbon Fiber Black" but the order summary just says "Black". Does "Black" indicate "Carbon Fiber Black"? Hope it's not too late to let them know that we want "premium carbon fiber black"...

 

Hi All, I'm reading all those 281 pages but I'm confused yet.

I Just bought a VAIO Z215GB with 6gb of RAM and 128 SSD RAid 0.

Its possible to upgrade this ?

I've read the memory has 2 GB soldered on MB and another one of 4GB;

If its really soldered can I substitute the 4gb for one of 8gb for a total of 10?

THe MB recognize this ?

and what about Hard Disk ? can I change this one ? where to buy?

Here in Brazil those things are so limited.

And one more question, anyone here has the service manual for this model and can share ?

Thanks in advance.

 

Are you indeed sure you have read it all.You can find your answers in there..

 

@zimbros12:

The guy is .... well, no comment about the facts, but am willing to give some help:

@netwolf

You cannot upgrade RAM in Z2 once bought - as simple as that, plus 6GB of RAM is more than enough for Any Multiple tasks you run. So enjoy it!

 

Wanna See something Really Really, and I mean REALLY COOL?

Check this out, It has been captured on my Z2!

Well, before the ranting starts, it happened for a reason, Guess What!

a PMD will be given for FREE, to whom unfolds the truth (lol)

Will

 

What are your CPU temperatures when in idle? Does the fan kick in?

 

Hi there,

just want to ask if anyone tried to use the Z21 as Mac (that is, as a Hackintosh)...anyone has some experience with this? Want to know because probably the SSD RAID will cause much problems...

thanks in advance!

 

Idle temperature hovers around 47 C, fan is running all the time, even when I just come back from standby. Only notice it, however, when I put my ear directly at the exhaust. Guess this is to maintain a little air circulation in the whole chassis all the time.

 

I'll try the big thread, maybe someone has an idea.
As reported here several users experience odd noises coming from the Z2 (emerging around the "S" key). It's especially there while scrolling in webpages. It sounds like the old hdd access noise - but it's probably coming from the mainboard.

I found out that it's gone when you set it to the "silent mode" in the VAIO Control Center - so there has to be something different between these modes. Is there anything we can do? Disable some CPU steppings or something like that.

 

As I said in my original post, the noise went away after a few weeks. I think it was just a burn-in issue in my case.

 

^kay let's hope so. It tends to be annoying - I'm just wondering why it's there on balanced & high performance, but not on silent mode.
Changing the Windows power profiles doesn't have an effect - it needs to be changed to the silent mode in VAIO Control Center.

 

Did you made the custom cut or is for sale anywhere?
Thanks

 

Are there major diff. between Z with i7-2640M and i5-2410M???

 

Power, HT, name, battery life

 

Intel Core i7 2640M Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech
Intel Core i5 2410M Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Ok, I'm to lay about this but I think there are slightly difference between those processors. Am I corretly?

 

Still didn't do much - again, thank you for the thoughts but I hope to know what people have done about their docking issues, esp. to do with locking.

 

Anyone else have a consistent clicking noise coming from the dock when it's accelerating the notebook display?

 

Hello everyone, thanks for all your answers, there's quite a lot of information down here thanks to you !

My question = Have anyone tried putting a 128Go SD XC into the Z series?
I've just bought a VPC23 and wondering whether to buy a 64 or 128 SDXC

Thanks !!

 

Does anyone know where I can purchase a Portable Media Dock with Bluray Writer for my Vaio Z I bought about 6 months ago.

Didn't think I needed it at the time, but could do with it now for the extra graphics power and also the Bluray burning capabilities.

I'm in the Uk so preferably somewhere in UK would be great.

Many thanks,
Dave

 

^Well I would guess here: Docking Stations : VAIO & computing : Sony
;-)


Which will guide you here: http://www.sony.co.uk/product/docking-stations/vgp-prz20a
450GBP wow, that's even more than the 499€ they claim here!

 

Geez this is just awesome.

What monitors are those btw? I see there's another one in the background. I had no idea Sony makes flat screen computer monitors. Do you have a model number perhaps?

 

Does anyone know where I can find an update parts number list for the Z23? I'm looking to buy a pre-configured Vaio Z2 (VPCZ22AGX/B) but wasn't sure if Sony has already released versions with the Z23 identifier or whether it even matters. It seems the Z22/Z23 are identical except the addition of a new case color and LTE option for the WWAN card.

Any input greatly appreciated!

 

http://www.nachbild.de/Z2/z2_setup_01.jpg

Thanks They're old SDM-P234 23 inch monitors that we bought some of in 1995. Still working good! I seem to be lucky, because I saw some of them go rather red after a few years. But mine is still fine. If you get one cheap and you like the looks go ahead. It works perfectly together with a HDMI to DVI cable and the resolution of 1920x1280 is a great companion to the Z2's 1920x1080, lots of pixels

 

I have bought the new serie Z (Z23) with 128 SSD.
Are there any 256 SDD that i can use to change for my 128 SSD?

I have seen this:
MZRPA256HMDR

is it valid? Only is change one for other?

Thank you

 

If you're still using this driver I think you should update. I use leshcat's newest drivers (which you won't need because you don't have the PMD) and it includes 8.15.10.2696.
OpenGL Extension Viewer tells me that I have 100% 3.0 and 3.1 and 70% 3.2 and 3.3

 

Intel tells me that there is a newer RAID storage driver available:

v10.8.0.1003 ( link)

currently installed (and the newest from Sony for my notebook) is: 10.5.0.1026

can we upgrade or shouldn't we do it because of the raid array?

 

I already have 11.1.0.1006
You can (and should) upgrade without problems!

 

Where did you get that? I used the intel updade check utility.
And I have Gen2 SSDs only, if that makes a difference.

 

Curious to know, has anyone else been getting warped memory slots? I recall it being an issue near release, just not sure if it's still a problem.

I just looked at my ports today and noticed the warping. A little heart broken given the cost of the machine...

 

Simply go to Intel Support Site and run the Update Utility.
Here:
Intel® Driver Update Utility

 

Sadly I noticed them too, but nevermind, I don't look at the front bottom side of the machine very often

 

It still just offers 10.8.0.1003

 

Strange...

 

yeah that's what I did - and it showed me another driver version. Strange - maybe due to the ssd gen2 I have?

 

Could anyone please post a picture how this looks?
And I'll put a spare SD adapter in as precausion I think

 

It's the flex in the laptop that causes the problem and once it starts it's done forever.
Aluminium stretches a little when it deforms so you can't get it back to the correct shape without extreme measures.
Grab the laptop by the front two corners and flex it up and down a fraction to see the stress concentration at the centre where it' weakest.
I noted that the Z2 looking ultrabook concept pictures that are on another thread somewhere don't have the same slots.
I wish that I'd put the sheet battery on since day one to stop the flex.

 

I updated to 10.8 from the link and I have the third gen SSDs (which are great).

 

Does the version 11 support TRIM?

 

Sheet battery didn't help at all Inserted SD card didn't help too, so. never mind

 

Bummer. So nothing to do there? And what will happen with SD cards inside? Could they break?

 

Don´t think so...

 

I would say, no damage could happen to th sd card inside the slot.

 

Hey all. I'm experiencing an annoying issue with my Z214. Whether the default battery or sheet battery is connected, I'm experiencing battery drain with the system completely shut off. I can't say exactly how much percentage per day, but easily within a week over half the battery is drained. It's mega annoying!

Is there something still running in the system with it powered off, or do I just deal with it?

 

The German Sony support site once stated that this was due to "technical reasons" or some other useless blahblah and could only be avoided by taking the battery out completely when not in use for a longer period of time. Can't find the information on the website any more, so you need to rely on my memory. Searched for this problem a lot myself, and found only others reporting the same thing for many Vaio types, no solutions so far.

 

I have a battery drain abou 4- 6% per night. On my old Vaio P it was something about 25% per night....
Also with the battery charged to 80%, I have a real life battery life at the university with Wifi and halb screen brighness of about 4 hours + X!

Now I have only one Question:

Where can I buy a palmrest sticker / protector for the Z2? Even are there existing TPU Skins for a German layout keyboard?

Another question: When on battery I enable that the Laptop goes into standby, when the lid is closed. After wake up, the Z does not recognize the Wifi! Any solution to this? Maybe newer Intel driver?

 

^Do you have this problem with every wifi network? I experience this only occasionaly with my university wifi (eduroam), not my private network at home.

 

Sometimes at home, too!
I think I will try different networks and report if this issue appears every time!

 

Anyone know why the picture quality of flash video is so poor with the built in graphics? I have upgraded the drivers bto the ones SirRoin posted but it made no difference.

For example, I have attached two screen captures of the credits in Boardwalk Empire which shows a pixelated image on the left file without dock attached and the right one with no pixelation and more detail with dock attached. Is there some way to correct this?

 

Try these newer drivers : http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/636724-universal-driver-set-all-switchable-intel-ati-graphics.html#post8214130

 

i just bought a transcend 64GB class 10 SDXC card from ebay, I plan to use it with the Vaio Z2 as an extra storage space, does anyone know if you can stream videos and music from SDXC? I plan to put movies and my iTunes library on it.

And I will put apps and games on the main SSD 128GB drive.