Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

So you're the one that bought that clearance Z690 fully decked out with Blu-ray? Anyway, congrats on your purchase.

 

Nope.

$1,575.86 + $83.79 tax + $199.99 3year insurance.

Specs are:
Z690 premium carbon fiber, 320gb 7200 rpm, 4gb ram, p9600 2.66ghz processor, vista x64.

It was a clearance offer and used the PayPal 15 code.

Still have two doubts though:

1. I don't know if it was smart to by the 3year insurance (I remember later that you can buy it from other places for less money?). Also I don't know if buying with PayPal (that is hooked up to my Amex) I am entitled to Amex's extended warranty or not... anyone know?

2. It is still listed as Pending Finance Approval after 4 hours.

 

I am also still listed for pending finance approval and I ordered this afternoon approx 4 hours ago. I used my discover card through paypal, and discover called me immediately once I placed the order to check for fraud. I was surprised and am glad they got my back. But I am still a little hesitant because i would have preferred no interest no financing for 12 months that the sony card provides, but its not like i am making any significant interest on the money sitting in the bank, so i guess its okay.

On the other hand, there was another awesome deal on a refurb 590 that had a 2.53 p9500, 4 gb ram, 160 hd and bluray for 1400!!! I had that in my cart this AM and like 1 hour later once I had finally pontificated and decided to buy it, it was already gone. Another good deal for a refurb 590 with a p8600 2.4 ghz, 4 gb ram, 320 7200 for 1100. That one was in my cart too and I was deciding between the two, and both were sold before I could make up my mind! DARN, but at least I am (hopefully) getting a new z690 with a 1 year warranty shortly! (The exact same one I ordered before and had the fedex yellow label shipping fiasco with). Now I will make CERTAIN i am at home when that thing comes.

Today was a good sony outlet day.

 

All Z's come with DDR3 ram.

 

Did you get the 1,700$ Z690? The one with Vista x32?

 

Thats the one! I originally ordered that one on 2/26. Sony shipped it to me and because i couldnt find time off work to pick it up, I asked them to hold it for me at their facility, but they ended up shipping it back to sony! So they credited my account, and I was waiting for a good refurb deal to come up to buy. But then the 15 % coupon came and the computer was already discounted somewhat, so it ended up being a better deal. I jumped on that thing!

 

Yay! My Z shipped 3/19, despite estimated ship date being 3/24 now I will be receiving 3/25. (I regret just a little not upgrading the shipping, but I have a love for $0 shipping so I must wait.)

 

Sorry to ask this question again !!!
What do think would be the best configuration ?
- two SSD drive mounted in RAID 0 on VISTA
- two independant SSD drive on XP ?
But I trully need your advice.THANKS

 

I can't believe it, but it's true...(sigh) my Vaio just (essentially) crashed. It was working just fine for most of the day (I used it nearly all day). It shut down normally when I got done with work. But when I booted it up at home, it started running really slow (no explanation) - like I was trying to run Vista with 1GB of RAM slow - and MS Money reported that it wasn't installed properly. So I restarted thinking something just needed to reload (properly). Nope that super slow boot was the last normal boot. I could still boot to Safe Mode, which is good so that I could off-load my files to my 4GB SD before starting the Recovery Disc Marathon.

Anyway, the end of the story is that by 3:30AM this morning (I started the process and 9 PM of the previous day) I had the laptop back the way I wanted it.

Interestingly (to me) is that it was not configured exactly the same by the Recovery Discs as it was when I received it. For example, I have the exact same program configuration (as far as what I uninstalled and then installed myself) but have observed the following differences (so far):

1. The C drive label changed from "Vista" (factory) to "Local Drive" (Recovery Disc)
2. The C Drive used space changed from about 60 GB (factory) to 48 GB (Recovery Disc)
3. Notification Area is not auto hiding unused icons even though it is configured to

Needless to say, I'm pretty bummed (and tired) that this happened on a $2K laptop after only 3 days of use. Has this happened for anyone else or was this just an unlucky fluke in the factory hard drive config? Should I do the Super Marathon Task of a Surface HDD scan for bad sectors?

 

You should be entitled to the 2-yr warranty with AmEx. They told me as long as the item is purchased with an AmEx card, and the purchase is reflected on your bill, it would automatically be covered.

 

Nope. It hasn't happened to me since I got it like 2 weeks ago. I use my Z pretty extensively too. I usually leave it on for like 18 hours+ in speed mode connected to my external screen too.

I was too lazy to burn the recovery discs... the first time I tried it, the program crashed on me in the middle of burning the 2nd disc...

Does anyone know how I can skip burning the first disc and just jump to the 2nd? also, how did you take out your SD card from the Z? When I put mine in the slot, it goes pretty deep that it was almost impossible for me to take it out..

Thanks!

 

I thought you push on the SD card inwards & it will "pop out." No?

 

Yeah. The slot is intended to hold it in the slot so it doesn't get ejected accidentally while writing a file (which will require subsequent repair to the file system of the card). To insert it, you push it in all the way until it clicks (past the spring resistence). To remove it, you do the same thing. It sort of feels like you're pushing it in too far, but after you push it in as far as physically possible, and then release it and it pops out.

 

Hey, just finished finals and finally have sometime to play around with my new Z. Pretty nice so far, however i realize the hinges do not align well, especially with the left hinge. Does anyone also have this problem?

 

Not me. I know that you asked if anyone else is having the issue, but I figured that it would be just as valuable of information to know that someone doesn't have it as to know that someone else does. I just took delivery of my Z690 CTO on 3/17 and the hardware (lid, keyboard, touchpad, power plug, battery, power button, etc) are all perfectly assembled on my notebook.

 

Just received four dvd recovery set for z540. I ran recovery center from the dvd and it looks exactly like running it from hard disk. Still no listing for VAIO Media Plus, Music Box, or Movie Story.

Please anyone with z540, run recovery center and look in the list of programs. Please look in windows control panel programs features. Are each of these programs listed???

 

Ok, I am returnign my Z and reordering. Just cannot comply that I paid $2k for a badly assembled laptop.

 

If anyone here who ordered the Z690 and decides to upgrade it to XP, let me know I keep getting the BSOD before even getting to the F8 screen of setup) even though I was easily able to install it on the 540 (although the 540 had an older bios which might be the issue).

 

I am giving Sony a piece of my mind right now. Defective hinges that do not align correctly. SQUEAKING by just picking up the notebook and giving it a TINY wiggle. A awkward "CLACK" noise by grasping the left palm rest area with little force. UGH. They better give me a new exchange unit.

 

Well, online-chat was useless. I guess I will wait till tomorrow and yell the **** out of customer service. Hopefully they can initiate a defective exchange for a new unit. If not, I am returning the product.

 

hum... i dont think i felt any clicks... i'll try that again tomorrow.. thanks.

 

This is complete BS. My order changed from Pending Finance Approval, to Processing and then to Cancelled.

Just recieved the following email from Sony.

"This is to inform you that the below item(s) on your order has been cancelled due to the following reason:



We are currently unable to advise you of an estimated ship date."


That is the LAMEST email I have ever read.


Any suggestions? There is obviously now way they are gonna give me the old configuration for the same price....

 

They might, try calling them and asking.

 

Do you mind taking a picture, I'd like to see how bad it is.

 

SSDVaio, how is your Z doing with fan noise afer a few weeks?

 

I managed to have them reissue my order.

$1909 with express ship and tax (no warranty) for
Z690 P9600, 4GB ram, 320GB 7200rpm harddrive.

Btw student discount is
"Save up to 10% on select VAIO® notebooks and desktops"
and they are doing 5% now on the Z.

I thought up to a couple days ago it didn't say anything about ..."up to 10%"

 

Nope it's always said up to 10% and they've made it very clear if you talk to them that it is only up to 10% and won't apply to all VAIOs.

 

Hey guys, I have a quick question. This isn't specifically about the Z series in general, but about ordering online.

How long does it take for the website to update that my order is being processed? I ordered it on Thursday, yet nothing shows on the "Order Tracking" link. It just tells me to contact customer service for further information.

Thanks a lot guys !

 

when i made my orders, my order status was updated almost immediately. My first order was via phone, which i refreshed as I was talking to the guy, and my order was in the system. The second, was online outlet purchase which also registered almost immediately.

 

Your status will change to processed, then shipped, but ONLY after you've contacted them as mentioned in your current status. Sony are anal about making sure about "consumer purchase protection" (whatever that means)!

 

Right now it says "Please call our Customer Care team toll free at 1.888.289.7669 for assistance with tracking your order."

You guys suggest I call Sony on Monday and ask about my order? I'm so eager to get my laptop.

I really appreciate your quick replies integra891 and SPEEDwithJJ .

 

I got the full 10% student discount on my Z690CTO.

 

Even the website the past two days showed 5% discount.
Anyways I still think I got a pretty decent deal!

 

I understand your disappointment. I do. My 690 CTO lid occasionally makes a very quiet squeak-like noise in the left hinge just before the hinge moves. And a clack noise might be disturbing to some people. And I know that spending $2k on a laptop (or anything else other than a car or a house) is a lot of money and raises the bar of expectations.

That said, however, I have to say that I don't think I could ever see my way to returning (or exchanging) my laptop because of these very minor issues. In the end, IMHO, they are just minor, non-function-influencing noises. Does the laptop work? Is it fast? Do all of it's components work properly? Is the display something less than phenominal for a 13 inch display? To me - and this is just me - returning a laptop for minor noises such as these is just crazy. Obviously, it's your 30 day period and Sony's guarantee is for your satisfaction, so you definately have the legal right to return it. I'm not disputing that. I myself just wouldn't feel right exercising that legal right.

 

They may reduce it to 5% right now,too bad

 

Would you happen to have the part number for this cable?

Thanks

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=363312

 

I know this thread but I don't really trust the P/N given description does not match and no figure to verify. I would rather have P/N from the part itself to be sure

 

Returning something because you don't like it is consumerism at its worst. The company then has to repackage and verify the item, and then sell it at a much lower cost to someone else. To cover this loss, overall prices go up and/or quality down. In other words, your free preview is paid for by those who do not return their item.

That said, there are plenty of things that are bad about the Z, that can be more than major niggles, depending on the user:

• Intel VT-x turned permanently off in the EFI "BIOS". No way to run a 64-bit guest OS in VMware, Xen or similar, despite the hardware being more than capable.
• Visible ordered dithering on the 6-bit screen.
• No provided ICC or Vista display colour profile.
• nVidia graphics card crippled by very old drivers (no CUDA, no hardware PhysX, despite the GPU being capable).
• No way to run the WLAN modem without Sony's buggy WiFi utility which kills other connections and doesn't support bridging or bundling.
• Many Sony-provided utilities assume small fonts and won't work if you adjust the DPI correction correctly
• No verification when burning restore DVDs. If a DVD is bad, you won't know until the restore fails.
• "Clean" option still comes with Sony-bundled bloatware.
• Large number of Zs have fingerprint readers that are askew, bezels that flap due to lack of glue or cardbus slots that won't close on their own.

Some of these problems bug me more than a little, but none of them would even make me think of returning the machine. My not having done my homework well enough shouldn't punish other Sony buyers.

Would I buy Sony again, or recommend it to anyone who wants to do some of the same things I do (Adobe Lightroom, Linux programming)? Assuredly not. I learned a lesson. A $2600 one.

 

Why can I not activate the Sprint mobile broadband? There is verizon activation, but not sprint! Am I missing something? Just got my Z-690

 

I'm so mad that I have Sprint subscription, but can't activate this on my new Z-690. Apparently it comes with Verizon activation, but not Sprint! Anybody knows how I can get this corrected?

 

The http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/Sony,Laptop,Part,A1553769A.aspx
is the FPC RAID cable for sure.
The part 4-109-148-01 is the SSD bracket. You can check in the disassembly guide from the Z series ()

 

crack open the case and replace the Verizon WLAN with a Sprint -- or exchange it with a model that has Sprint -- or buy a Sprint Express card.

 

You're right from the guide it looks like this is it thanks

 

I've no comments on the prices.

However, IMO, I think that we consumers here in the US are really fortunate with this customer satisfaction thing. Just go live in an Asian country for a while & buy your Vaio there (I have some experiences from living in Asia for a few years). See if you can even exchange your Vaio for such "imperfections!" One will not be able to make an exchange, let alone return for a refund.

 

Agreed. Unfortunately, those are the only choices for the Z690. Good luck.

 

How are you coming along with the big ??? for your current notebook? Curious what, if anything, you're leaning towards.

 

AlaskaGrown, I've no idea at this point. Probably getting a Mac. However, it depends on whether I am able to sell all of those laptops before making my move.

By the way, didn't you get a Blu-ray drive for your Vaio Z? I thought you said that you will but you didn't put that info in your sig.

 

I'm considering getting a Vaio Z to replace my old ThinkPad x60s. Would you guys recommend that? Also, what should a ThinkPad owner have in mind if he's going to switch to the Vaio?

 

Been lurking for a bit now as this is my first laptop purchase but the Z seemed to meet every need I had. I checked out the outlet items today and just had to jump on a decked out z590:

-P9500
-4GB RAM
-320Gig 5400rpm hard drive
-BLU-Ray Drive!
-Vista Ultimate
-MS Office 2007

All for $1500.95 + tax and the 3yr warranty I added for $199. That's essentially 50% off what a new 690 CTO costs so I'm happy. I couldn't get it to take my student discount so I might call tomorrow and see if they can do anything for me. Anyone had luck with the discount and Outlet purchases?

Does anyone know if the 5400rpm drive sacrifices a lot over the 7200rpm (I thought it was a weird choice given the rest of the configuration)?