Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Is it possible to play Fallout 3 on the z with 1600 x 900 resolution? Sure, only on low settings but who good is the performance in such a game?

Tomorrow i`ll buy a european z21wn

 

...Curious... does anyone with a Z (1600x900 res version) play TF2? If so, what kind of FPS are you getting?

I can't seem to get mine above 30... is that the limit? Also, doesn't feel very smooth... almost feels... a bit slowed down. :S

 

Well just got the Laptop. I downgraded to XP SP3 instead of Vista and installed eboostr (Works well by the way similar to readyboost for vista).

WOW I have ran for about 15 mins at 1600x1900 with shadows at low and spell effects at around 25%.

I am getting between 38fps-50fps with these settings. I guess more is possible with some setting tweaks in game and also perhaps a 10% overclock and new drivers.

But none the less happy with performance as far as WOW is concerned.

 

does anyone know the differance bettween the z540 and the z550

 

I'm so glad that I jumped on this deal yesterday! I checked out the Sonystyle web site today and noticed that the price for the VGNZ590UAB is now $2714.99 (before tax) even after applying the student and $300 coupon discounts. This means that Sony reduced the discount from a whopping $1152.50 down to $650.00. I was on the verge of ordering a z-590CTO model for @$2150.00 (with tax) so paying $300.00 more for a prebuilt/ship the next day model with a 128gb SSD drive, Vista Ultimate, and 4g of memory is definitely worth it. Even better, I am so happy that the SSD drive is the Samsung SLC (64gbx2) with Raid technology instead of the slower 128gb MLC drive that others have received with the Z-590CTO models.

Just hope that my order goes through as it's still in the processing stage though it's estimated to ship today. Can't wait to receive it; in fact, I just ordered a zeroshock III sleeve from Shinza.

Thanks bmzero for the heads-up on this deal! Hopefully, this offer will appear again so others can take advantage of the tremendous discount.

 

Woot my Z getting built now. Probably getting shipped tomorrow.

 

im considering buying a sony vaio z550 but im also considering buying a z540 customized with the same specs which should i go with and whats the differance

 

i believe the 550 is made in japan and the 540 is made in the USA. Is one cheaper than the other?

 

how much ram do you have?

what system specs - and what are you using to report the frame rate?

 

yes one has the same specs for 1,230 with tax and free shipping. have any advice? the z550 sells for less than the z540

 

im wondering if one is better than the other same specs one is cheaper though what do you think

 

Well, I think they just cannot be bothered.

The only issue is whether or not you can virtualize a 64bit OS - i'm sorry if you need to (and for anyone else who needs to) but i doubt the demographic is largre.

Stupid decision, of course.

 

I believe that Z20's are equivalent to Z590's and Z10's to Z540's.

Z600 (Z610, Z620, and hopefully Z640, and Z690) are supposed to be the model refresh, stil unavailable and according to P1 shipped in January of 2009.

I may be wrong, anyone else?

Definitely. Before it used to be even better, because you coudl get same-day on-site service. These days they are pushing their Express-Ship service and have limited on-site to few things (all complex on-site issues get taken care of via express-ship as well). I believe this happened when they changed Warranty Companies.

Anyway, I have gotten the non-ADH 3-year extended warranty with every VAIO I have had, for nearly 8 years and every time I have had to use it for something after the second year: always HDD and sometimes RAM.

 

z20 has bluetooth 2.1

 

Just a quick question....

On the Z with ssd can you do a clean vista install and everything still work?

 

You mean its not really dangerous if I use the battery care function?

 

The only difference is that the Z540 does not have the built-in Sprint Mobile Broadband Service and the Z550 has it.

I'm sorry, why would you think it would be dangerous to use battery care function? I believe its there to serve a purpose and to basically care for your battery.

 

Thats not what i mean xD
I mean that its ok if I use the care function and the AC power supply.
Or is it "better" (for battery) if I do the battery out and only use the AC power supply.

sorry for my english, I hope you can understand :S

 

Received my Z21 two days ago with 4GB RAM and 2,53 GHz.
However, the harddrive is constantly thinking and working even though I'm not doing anything with the laptop, why is that it's kind of irritating. Do you have the same thing?

 

Welcome to the world of Vista. If you are idle, its probably downloading upgrades, or defragmenting, or something else.

 

usually with a fresh install of vista it rapes the hard drive for a few days indexing and optimizing everything.

 

My Z11VN froze 3 times today.
Each time the laptop was using the NVDIA chipset and using High Performance profile. Coincidence ?
I called Sony Support UK and told me no freezing reported for the Z series as yet.
They advised me to just restore the laptop after having backuped up the data and then check if the problem re-occurs.

On a different note, I am not very impressed by the finish on the barrel near the lid, the plastic paint is slowly starting to come off barely 4 months after purchase. Other grip is with the space between the lid and the raised palmrest because it the screen is scratched in a few places in the center.

 

It would have to be OK. If you think about it, lets say you set battery care to 80%, you would need the AC power connected to relay the message to battery care that you want you've selected battery charge to stop at 80% - the two are dependent on one another. From here, you can continue to have your battery connected to your Z because you've activated AC to stop charging it. There won't be any harm as far as I can see.

I hope I understood your question

 

Not sure if anyone here can help but here goes.

I have Z590 and use it at work with the docking station. I use the HDMI video output and use an IOGear HDMI KVM Switch.

This allows me to switch my 22" LCD from my workstation to my Sony Z-Series quickly and easily.

Problem - whenever I switch back to the Sony - the resolution has changed to some super low 640x480 and takes a good 20-30 seconds to realize the monitor supports 1920x1600 to switch back. Well this lag and flashing screen resolutions is super annoying.

Does anyone know how to lock the resolution so it does not change?

I am using Vista Business.

(BTW - I never had this problem with my Lenovo T61 + Docking station)

 

hmmmm.... THis sounds like a KVM issue. But Ia m not sure how to lock the resolution of the HDMI output, because it is directly dependant on the display.

 

GET MY Z TODAY...cant wait!!

What should i do first when i get it. Anything i should check for?

 

pixel faults

 

Do you folks use the foam sheet to prevent the keys from marking up the screen?

I know the TXN keys would mark the screen. I'm curious if this is an issue with the Z also.

Thanks!

 

I put a microfiber cloth on the keyboard before closing the lid. The screen-keyboard contact point for my Z is always where the spacebar is which is quite annoying...

 

download dead pixel buddy.

 

Quick question: How reliable are the Z series notebooks?

I've heard about problems with the battery, the keyboard, the optical disc drive etc. This is what stopped me from getting a Z series notebook in the first place.

 

Thanks for the heads up! I thought it might be an issue with the Zs.

 

Had the Vaio Z for 4 days.

No Battery problem
No Keyboard problem
No Optical drive (Bluray) problem.

Much better build quality than Acer, Dell and Asus....dont worry just buy it you wont be dissapointed.

 

hey would anyone recommend the z550 over the z540 with the same specs if the 2 were at the same price actually the 550 is going for 100 less than the 550

 

No battery drain problem? You sure? Have you got the standard or expanded capacity battery? Power off and power on roughly 8 hours later and your battery reads the same amount?

 

I always charge the Z to 100% before I shut it down for the night. Next day at work, after booted into Vista, battery level always shows 94%. I have the standard battery.

 

Today my Z21WN arrived - love this machine

But when i´m on the right side after reading many of this posts, there is no chance to update the intel and nvidia driver, is that right?

 

Hi folks - just registered after having discovered this great forum looking for Vista 64 bit clean install advice on my new VGN-Z590. ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=292536&page=21)

I've opted out of SONY's expensive SSD options some of which also push out BluRay, instead opting for a regular large HD planning to eventually upgrade to an SSD. Well, long story short, the thing's fan is almost always on and it's fast but does not feel blazing, so I figured I'll get one of the SSD's listed on http://www.tomshardware.com/news/SSD-OCZ-Super-Talent,6683.html when available and do a clean Vsiat64 install there.

The question is, is there a good discussion on Z hard drive upgrade? Like opening the case with minimal risk etc. Also any SSD specific info (like obviously we want to disable defrag - what other tuning?)

Thanks

Alex

 

IIRC, the Intel graphics driver is updateable. The NVIDIA one is not.

 

Ok, thanks! But how can i update the intel driver? Can i use the normal setup from the intel website?

 

here is one http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=272690&page=90

 

Called SonyCente UK TCR and asked them if they could do HDD upgrades and they said they can't, only memory.
I'm a bit disappointed with the hard-drive on my Z11VN, it's a shame such a fast machien is slowed down by this!

 

Guys

tearing my hair out here,

I have followed the instructions by Clever Trevor and cannot get my vodafone 3G SIM working on my TZ-11WN?

I have installed the new smart network drivers (I assume that is whats meant) and installed the vodafone software and I am getting device not found.

I have also tried the Globetrotter software and the same problem.

The modem appears in device manager as working fine and has the drivers loaded etc!!

can anyone point out anything else I should be doing. the SIM card is from my white vodafone dongle and is PIN unlocked.

I hope someone can help!!

regards


Kerry

 

I have a Vodafone Data Only contract (12M, £15/Month for 3GB) SIM on my Z and it's working fine.

 

Anybody experiencing random freezes with their Z laptop ?
It happens very randomly on my machine, sometimes it's fine for 5 days and then it will happen 3 times in a morning. Weird.

 

Yes I get the same problem asweell, frezzes and having to restart.. sometimes it says that the grafikdriver has been restarted....
Anoying any solutuion??

 

I've seen some people ( http://forums.techguy.org/malware-removal-hijackthis-logs/771460-hijack-log-trying-figure-out.html) who point the finger to the NVidia driver.
I don't think now it's due to overheating, I ran FurMark which stresses the GPU quite a lot for 10mins, GPU temp reached about 90C for a while but the machine wouldn't freeze so my guess it's purely a driver issue.

 

Hi all--

I'm considering returning a FW290 (not happy with the size/weight and screen) and getting a low-end Z. The Z540 models that I'm looking at all have Vista Business, and I was wondering if there is a way to easily do a "sidegrade" to Vista Home Premium with the Vaio recovery system & license.

Also, has anyone had experience ordering from californiacomputer.com? They seem to have pretty decent prices on a few of these lower spec & older Z models. Thank for any input.

 

has anyone tried updating their nvidia drivers using the nvidia site?

 

I bought a Z590 last month and wanted to find a solution for the fact that the Home/End/PageUp/PageDown keys required the press of the function key and could not be done one-handed. The quoted post above seemed like a great idea aside from the problem listed at the end.

I have solved this issue and thought I would share my AutoHotKey script in case any other Z owners find it useful.

HTML:

~Left:: 
if (A_PriorHotkey <> "~Left" or A_TimeSincePriorHotkey > 125) 
{ 
KeyWait, Left 
return 
} 
Send {Home} 
return

~Right:: 
if (A_PriorHotkey <> "~Right" or A_TimeSincePriorHotkey > 125) 
{ 
KeyWait, Right 
return 
} 
Send {End} 
return

~Up:: 
if (A_PriorHotkey <> "~Up" or A_TimeSincePriorHotkey > 125) 
{ 
KeyWait, Up 
return 
} 
Send {PgUp} 
return

~Down:: 
if (A_PriorHotkey <> "~Down" or A_TimeSincePriorHotkey > 125) 
{ 
KeyWait, Down 
return 
} 
Send {PgDn} 
return

I have the timeout set pretty low (125ms) so that I need to double-tap the keys very quickly in order to get the secondary command. You can modify this as you see fit.

Hope this helps someone else wrestling with the same problem.