Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

just a suggestion...
1. my dev environment is on vpc... i've got multiple w2k3 environements, one has vs2005 (1gb mem), one is a dc with mssql and another is configured as an app server. i can load these up on any workstation with windows xp (or higher) + vpc, as long as it has sufficient ram. Z26 has 3gb ram and enuf processing power to handle my dev requirements (i dont know if you have different reqs tho), also, if you use vpc, you wont need to install another OS.

2. i dont like laptops that are bigger than 14in, portability reasons... i do use an external monitor when im at the office... at home, i would remote desktop to my laptop if need to use it...


btw, my VHDs are stored on an external hd, i just plug this external hd to my home pc (or any workstation) if i need to work at home.

 

I use a suede leather sheet. It's thin enough that it doesn't prevent closing, but protects the screen. It also doubles as a travel mousepad, or rolled up, as a wristrest.

 

Hi, I have just upgraded my Vaio to the Z16GN (in New Zealand). I have had a couple of issues though and have now sent it back to get them to have a look at it and perhaps replace. The cursor was jumping around in text when I was working - to the point I had to keep editing and moving cursor back to where I was working on a doc/email etc etc. I looked up on forums (CNET) and found this was apparently a problem with the SZ. Has anyone had it with the Z?

I said to the supplier over the phone that the problem might be hardware - insulation issue with touchpad and interference from finger print thingee and wireless. That was what was being said on the forums and he flatly disagreed. Oh well. Will see what transpires after they have had a look.

Also, the invisible scroll on the touchpad was not working....maybe something that needs to be switched on?

AND tried to do the downgrade to XP with disc supplied and I hated it. The quality (welcome screen) was dreadful and I could not get it going as no drivers etc. The recovery discs I made did not recover things easily so ended up going to tecchies and they restored to shop settings and I bought licence and had them install virual PC so I can run an accounting programme on XP. Seems to work fine like that. The dollars I spent on licence though was the same as if I had upgraded the programme, so not sure it was that smart after all.

Anyway, first time EVER on a forum like this and have to say you people are great. I love your enthusiasm and support re the Z. I love the thing and did huge amounts of reading/research before deciding on it. Back here now on my old S56GP and need to have my other one back soon as son taking it off to uni.

I'll keep reading your posts as very helpful when getting to grips with new features etc.

Have a great day!

 

In XP, you have to log in as "Administrator" and change the screen resolution there. The resolution you set for Administrator is what's going to be used for the login screen. The Administrator account isn't normally shown -- press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice at the login prompt to get a login prompt where you can type in the name instead of clicking it.

 

Thanks for the tip! What a shame I did not find you before I headed into the downgrade session. There is such a small amount of instructions that you get the feel they are actively discouraging the downgrade. I went back to Vista anyway and found it OK the last couple of days. Just needed XP for MoneyWorks.

I really hope the cursor issue fixes. That was a major for me this morning when working and two emails sent off accidentally before finished cos the dratted cursor had leapt up to the send box and cos I was typing it took that as a yes to send. Embarrassing!

 

Dell e4300, toughbook latest, lenovo x200.

 

Any answers?

 

naif824 - you can get rid of it by looking for the sound under "sound" (type "sound" after pressing the windows key).

 

I'm having a real problem and I'm hoping someone can help me out.

When I'm on the internet, I'll touch the track pad to move the cursor and the page will jump backwards. Just as if I hit the back arrow in the upper left hand corner. It's very annoying, especially when I've benn typing a lengthy post and it gets erased. I know the track pad has an invisible scroll on the right side. Is there an invisible "jump back" feature too? It doesn't happen every time so it's very hard to figure out whats causing it.

 

upper middle edge of the touchpad acts as prev and next buttons on browsers

 

The mouse control panel allows you to disable this function

 

Ah Ha! Thanks guys!!

 

Hello, how happy are you with Windows 7 ? any improvment with regards to speed and ergonomy ?

 

Love it! Seriously.
I thought I would just install it to have a play, but it's so stable that it's now my main platform on 2 machines including my Z. Here are the things that I personally like.

1. Faster
Definite improvement in speed. Load the OS is much faster, to a ready desktop. Loading apps (office etc.) quicker. Sleep and resume from sleep more reliable and faster. Shutdown much faster. The whole experience is snappier. Considering this is a beta I'm pretty impressed. File copying is also now what it should be.

2. New taskbar
Love it. Love the grouping and the previews. I like that it merges quicklaunch with running apps.

3. Dragging windows
Nice feature - drag window to top = maximise. To left or right and it half fills that side of the screen.

4. Wallpaper cycle
Cosmetic but slick.

5. Libraries
You can now choose which folders are included in 'documents'. Then the documents window shows contents from them all separately. I keep my docs folder on D: and now I just add it to the docs library. Same with pictures etc.

6. Homegroup
Very nice easy to setup folder sharing with other computers on a home network

7. Don't wake if on battery
Now my Z wakes up at night and does a full backup only if plugged in. Nice. Before it happened regardless and it could come on in my bag and get hot. Now it never turns on if on battery

8. Action centre
All security and maint. control panels in one place - nice

9. Remote desktop faster
Seems to establish RDP connection with my media centre pc much quicker

10. Compatibility
Virtually all of my Vista software works fine, even things like Acronis True Image.

There you go. I'll definitely buy it when released. In the mean time I'm keeping the beta as my main os.

Only issue so far. I'm not sure if syncing my windows mobile treo pro is working properly, but I've not really experimented yet. It's currently the only reason I dual boot back to vista.

 

ha, i'm still happy with my decision to get a z... other than the pixel problem, it's really been everything i need/expected it to be.

it's a bummer about the pixel thing, but i might go the same route as sigma and see what sony can do about it. if they don't do anything, oh well. like i said before, it's really only noticeable when i look for it.

if i started all over again, i'd probably get the same.

 

Hi all,
I am waiting for my Z590NGB arrive and have a question.
I want to see how the RAID0 SSD be configurated inside the laptop.
Does anybody know if there is any internal photo for Z with RAID0 SSD?
I appreciate your help
Thanks.

 

Thanks for your review on Windows 7 on the Z. I've been waiting for someone to give an overall experience on this OS. Do you know when MS will have Windows 7 available for the public?

 

Nobody does. It's still publicly available via the beta -- at least for a little while longer -- but as far as the RTM and retail availability of the OS goes, your guess is as good as anyone's.

 

Im in the process of deciding to buy either a z590 njb or waiting to see what the z690 ends up like. I wanted to find out if anyone knows if the z590njb on the sonystyle website, does it come with the premium carbon fiber or is it standard black. They do not list it anywhere on the specs so I wanted to see if anyone had bought it on this forum and had experience with it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

integra - the suffix of the model indicates colour.

/b is black,

/x is premium carbon.

 

Yep, that's correct.

/B is Regular Black Carbon Fiber
/X is Premium Carbon Fiber (With "Weave Patterns")

So, the pre-configured VGN-Z590NJB is regular black carbon fiber.

 

I can't seem to figure out how to take a still picture w/ the Motion Eye camera. Halp

 

You run VAIO Camera Capture Utility and it will see how to take a still picture.

 

Yeah, sorry. I lost the driver when I did my clean install. Just realized it. thanks.

edit: and I just took my first photo (see avatar)

 

Thanks, I did that but it didnt solve the problem, it appears only with "back space" key.

 

I am curious to know which Lenovo has a lid nearly as thin as the Z?

 

Out of curiosity, is it possible to see the full model number except when ordering? At least on my machine, the sticker on the bottom simply says "VGN-Z590", the paint job on the screen bezel says "VGN-Z590", and the Vaio Control Center says "VGN-Z590N" (i.e. North American OS version).

 

i'm guessing the x300/301 series

 

TBH I'm not overly bothered with another 2mm on the lid if it was 5 times tougher
Sent my laptop to Sony, see if they will fix the screen

 

I have MMCQE28GFMUP-MVA at 220 USD

 

So has anyone had problems with an erratic cursor on the Z? I have sent mine back as was totally unworkable....not sure if they will try fix or replace it entirely.

 

So what is 590E? European version. That's what mine is but I'm pretty sure it was built in San Diego.

 

I read somewhere where someone speculated that the new Z 6 series were coming out (in the states?) Feb. 5th. I can't seem to find the post now but if you are reading this, why this specific date?

 

Amazon's estimated shipping date for the Z6 is Feb. 28th. But I won't rely on them.

I haven't heard anything about the Feb. 5th releasing date.

 

that was actually me, i was guessing that it is going to be the 5th at the latest because on sonystyle canada, it says that the anticipated arrival date for a preassembled Z620 is the 5th, http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...Id=1006038&navigationPath=32009n100299n100509

of course, i could be wrong

 

I called sonystyle.ca today regarding the new release of Z-series CTO and they said Z690 is availabe TOMORROW! It's time for me to pull the trigger FINALLY.

 

Nice!! Keep us posted. Hopefully US will get em' soon!

 

Yeah, don't rely on that. Anyone notice something "funny" from the date Amazon.com listed in the following?

Quoted from Amazon.com:
Date first available at Amazon.com: February 28, 2008

 

omg, i'm tearing up.. this is the happiest moment in my life

 

I am planning to get the 690 too but i just have a question? Is that blu-ray drive really worth it? Like how does the graphic look on the screen when playing a blu-ray movie.

 

the screen is the best in the industry, blu-ray would look awesome. however, i personally don't think it's worth it (unless you have the money!) you could always upgrade it later if you REALLLY want to. and also, i dont know much about hdmi and that stuff, but i think you could connect an external blu-ray reader to the laptop and watch from there

 

That's what I'm waiting for.

 

yea I have 2 blu-ray players so i am not sure that the blu-ray drive is really necessary. But i always want something top of the line. I guess that the screen wouldn't look as amazing as hdtv. but would it look like dvd quality?

 

Well, at my normal viewing distance, blu-ray discs played look better than dvd on the Z.

The other thing is that the blu-ray drive acts as a BD burner - but given the price of media I'm not sure that's an entirely compelling reason to get one.

 

No, it's not.

- It's 6-bit, not 8-bit, meaning dithering.

- The white balance is horrible. Maximize a blank browser window, then hold up a sheet of bright white paper next to it, adjust the screen brightness until the brighness is about the same, and compare the colour. The screen is purplish blue, not white. Dark greys, on the other hand, look brown -- not that they are, but compared to the bluish white, they look that way.

- Then there's the gamut, which admittedly is rather large, but it's skewed. It displays colours it can display instead of those it can't display.

- The saturation is exaggerated. Which is about the same as cranking up the bass and treble on a stereo -- it sounds good unless you want fidelity.

- The viewing angle is not good at all. Check out http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php and tilt the screen just a few degrees back and forth.
(The other tests on that site are worth trying too.)

If anything, I'd call this screen mediocre. It's excellent for powerpoint presentations, and OK for watching videos (which have a smaller colour space anyhow), but "best in the industry"? No way, no how.

 

It's actually been available since at least this afternoon (link below). The major changes seem to be an incremental increase in cpu speed to 2.66GHz & it is now possible to get 64-bit vista Or is that 62 bit? The smallest hdd has been kicked up 250 GB to there are various (and expensive) options for 128 & 256 GB ssd's.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=20153&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921665746555

 

unless there is a link to that page from the main page of sonystyle canada, then it's not available yet.. from what i know, if you try ordering it will not work

 

It actually is from the homepage of the Sonystyle.ca website

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/HomepageView?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001

 

I just don't understand the pricing on the Z690 CTO page.

The Z620 pre-build can be bought for $2299 from SonyStyle.ca with the following specs:

P8600 CPU @ 2.4GHZ
4GB RAM
320GB 7200RPM HD
1600x900 LED Screen
DVD Drive
Vista Business

An indentical CTO except with a P8700 @ 2.53ghz is $2578, and it's not even certain whether that comes with the high resolution screen or not.

 

No, a BD burner doesn't make much sense at the mpment...if it ever will? But for some reason, I want one so I can burn a couple of BD videos in the 1st year of ownership. Sometimes you just want something "in case", if you know what I mean.