Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

That's pretty weird. I can tell you that is not happening on my Z690. From your brief description of the sound, it seems like a description that would fit the sound that the DVD drive makes when spinning up. Do you have a disk in there when you shut down? If so, try shutting down without a disk in there. Even so, I've never heard of the laptop spinning up the harddrive when shutting down...unless some sort of anti-virus software is checking it to make sure there's nothing malicious on the drive (which could be theoretically be booted) as a last check before exiting??

 

Hey guys I settled on buying the Z, now I gotta figure out where I can get a good build on a 1366x768 screen (since I know the 1600x900 wont be for me). Anyone ever ordered a computer from this compsource.com? I was thinking of getting the following:

http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=VGNZ570NB&vid=416&src=F

I like the specs of that Z build and it's about 100 cheaper than on amazon. Also a 3 yr warranty is 118 so just wondering if anyone has any experience with that online store. Thanks in advance guys.

 

I dont think that price is reasonable. I got my Z690 for 1600 with 2.66 p9600, 2 gb ram, 320 7200 rpm harddrive and premum carbon fiber. I got mine as a deal on the sonystyle outlet website, a clearance priced deal, they happen sometimes. I would also look into the refurbs they have on their website. I know someone that got a refurb z590 from them with a 2.53 ghz p9500 4gb ram, 320 7200rpm harddrive for 1400. I saw his computer when he first got it, it was brand new in condition. Its what made me want to get the Z. You can spend approximately 200 and get a 3 year warranty from them too. Plus sooner or later, they are going to come out with a CTO640 which means, that the 540 will be old, ie better deals on the 5 series notebooks. If you can wait, I would stalk the sonystyle website for the most opportune moment. Just my thoughts.

 

Fair enough, thanks for the input...

 

Been using my new Z690 CTO for the past 2 weeks. Extremely pleased. My experience has been better that I had anticipated.
Before I was primarily using a Thinkpad X41T

(Also have a Thinkpad T61 and a powerful Dell desktop with blueray burner etc.)

Main positives are the speed, the look, size, feel, screen resolution, brightness and contrast, keyboard feel, weight compared to the X41T. (The X41T screen was absolutely pitiful and the speed was unbearable)
I use my new Vaio primarily between home and work. Both places I have a power supply, so I don't carry that around. Both places I have 22 inch high def LCD screens that I connect with an HDMI cable and use the 22 inch as an extended desktop. I currently use the Sony bluetooth mouse (very pleased as well), and have a Targus Radius 13 inch vertical messenger bag for carrying.
In retrospect, I would buy this again in a heartbeat.
My computer stats are listed below, I purchased with student discount and bundle discount. final price around 1730. I upgraded to 4gb ram shortly after.

 

As soon as I saw your username Glomerulonephritis, I figured you were in Health Care/Medical Field. Do you use your Z to look at xray images of kidneys? (LOL) That was my favorite region to study in my Anatomy and Physiology class. It's what I'm using my Z for.

 

There are now new Z models on the website n the z540 cto has disappeared, I bet that the z640 cto will come soon

 

Hi guys,
I am looing to upgrade the memory RAM for my Z590, but not too sure which type of RAM would match up with the one I already have from Sony. Please point me to a realiable online source too. Thanks in advance

 

The conventional wisdom with RAM is that you don't match up, you replace all of it.

That said, look up the RAM you currently have in your machine with a tool like CPU-Z. If you have two DIMMs, you'll have to replace both anyhow, cause you only have two slots.
If you have just one module, and you really want to match it, look up the latencies listed -- these must match 100% for the new module you buy, or you'll pay a speed penalty. Even if the new DIMM is faster, you'll lose symmetric access.

Chances are that you have one or two non-ECC 1333 7-7-7-20 modules -- that's the fastest available consumer grade DDR3 at present.

Note that on the Z, you can use DIMMs of different capacity without losing dual channel. It does dual channel per module, not across them.

 

DDR3 1066mhz or above.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&Description=ddr3 sodimm&bop=And&Order=PRICE

 

What do you mean by, "Pay a speed penalty"? Loss of Performance? I had no idea it had to match 100%. I went to Frys recently and they asked me what model Sony I had. I told them an A Series. They looked it up in their computer and they suggested I get the Kingston. I think my old notebook came with 512Ram upgradeable to 2GB. So they gave me one 2GB stick. So your suggesting I get 2x1GB = 2GB, right?

 

Yes, speed penalty means loss of performance. No, it doesn't "have to" match 100%, but if they don't, the modules will run on the speed of the slowest one, and you won't get symmetric operations, which drops the speed a little.

If that notebook can't do dual-channel for a single module, yes, two 1 GB DIMMS will be way faster than a single 2 GB DIMM. The difference between dual channel and single channel is very big.
Check with CPU-Z whether it reports dual channel or not.

And 2 GB + 512 MB will work the worst of all -- chances are that the newer 2 GB module has lower CAS/RAS latencies than the older 512 MB module, and if using both at the same time, it will be limited to the speed of the slower module.

(For the Z, though, you can mix and match different size modules without a speed penalty, because the dual channel works per DIMM module, and not across them. You're still subject to speed penalties for having mismatches in latencies for a given clock speed, of course.)

 

That's the max resolution of your screen isn't it? Well, is the screen displaying as 1:1 pixel mapping, or is it obviously displaying a 1366 image on a 1600 screen, with visible blending to achieve that?

S

 

Does anyone use their express card/34 slot regularly? What for? Just curious

 

I can't even think of anything that the Z doesn't have that I would need to add to it using the slot. About the only thing I could conceive of would be to add a non-Verizon (or non-Sprint, for older models) 3G broadband card. What else is there that it could be used for?

 

E.g.: firewire and sata/e-sata adapter, serial/parallel port adapter, pci expansion adapter or external sound card.

 

Use a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook sound card like the following:

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=17988

 

Thanks Arth1 for your "Support"? I went to Frys and exchanged it to 2x1GB.

 

Have you tried that? Is it create a significant improvement & really worth $90?

 

I apologize for not being able to answer your question. I wished I have the answer. Unfortunately, I've already sold my Vaio Z before I could test it out.

 

The problem is that besides carrying the sound card, you also need to carry headphones/external speakers as this doesnt work with built-in speakers.

@

 

I'm close to pulling the trigger on a Z. What's the difference between a z590 and a z690?

 

Oh, then it's really inconvenient.Btw, so you have tested it or you know this somewhere?

I don't think that's there is any difference between them.

 

From what I gather, the only real difference is that the current 690's (not sure about the very first ones) come the the Gobi wireless card which works with Verizon's EVDO.

Even more interesting to me is that the Gobi card also has built in HSDPA and GPS. FrinkTL mentioned that the GPS is enabled and his 690 came with MS Streets. I believe the HSDPA is disabled from the factory. However, I read a blog where some girl was able to get the HSDPA working on her Gobi card in a P series. It involved soldering a sim card slot onto the mainboard, among other things. I wish Sony would stop making their wwan exclusive to certain carriers/networks.

 

In addition to what others mentioned, a cfcard reader. Compact Flash cards can't be used at full speed through USB.

The Z also has a dearth of spare USB ports, so even if something is available through USB, one might want to use the expresscard slot instead, particularly if the device is carried, and having devices dangling from extension cables or external hubs is impractical. So things like a ExpressCard/34 GPS receiver might be handy too, if only someone made one.

 

100.

A different WLAN provider. Also, Windows 64-bit drivers from Sony, who blocks the 590 from installing them even when they would work. Oh, and a newer BlueTooth.
HTH, HAND

 

Hello @all,
need some ones help - how can i disable the touchpad on the vaio vgn-711mn/b running under win-xp?

thanks in advance for any help.

cheers - bevan

 

I also use the creative xfi sound card... the built in one just sounds like crap. It seems all manufacturers skimp on this but 99% of people don't care. You'd figure sony could do better considering their walkman line etc though

 

I believe that there are only a couple of possible differences:

1. The 690 has faster processor options available
2. The 590 3G Built-in WAN is through Sprint and the 690 is through Verizon

 

I've got a z590 and I love it. But I see that the 690 buyers now have windows 64 bit... this is simply because sony wasn't ready w/ the drivers when the 5's were hot. Can someone with a 690 post up an image of their recovery partition, or at least their recovery disks so us early adopters can up ourselves... thanks

 

Very, VERY funny

 

Doing music composing, and having a prosumer setup at home, I have to disagree with you here. The Creative cards resample everything to 48 kHz internally, and you lose details.

With earlier versions of Windows, everything had to go through the windows mixer and be resampled anyhow, so for most users that was no big loss. And the rest of us used ASIO drivers to bypass the mixer, and lived with not having a working master volume control, but having to set that from each individual ASIO-enabled application.

However, enter Windows Vista.
Vista now has WASAPI, which works pretty much like ASIO in that it bypasses the kernel mixer and thus avoids resampling and added latency, but still allows for controlling the master volume from Windows itself.
If using the internal sound card on the Z with Vista, and a player that supports WASAPI, you get the sound to the D/A converter bit-perfect.

Using foobar2000 as a player with WASAPI on the Z, I get sound that's at least on par with an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card, and for CD quality (as in CDs and FLAC at 44.1 kHz ~1700 kbps, not as in "CD quality" rips) it is close to my MOTU UltraLite firewire audio interface.

What the internal sound lacks, though, is a line-level output. It only has a headphone jack which isn't suitable for driving external speakers.
But listening through headphones, the internal sound card of the Z beats the X-Fi (even the old X-Fi from before it got nerfed) hands down.

If you really want good sound and external powered speakers, I'd recommend something like the M-Audio Transit instead.

 

That's illegal piracy. Please don't ask for that here, or you risk killing the entire thread.

Besides, it would do little good, because Sony in their infinite wisdom have their driver installers check for the model version and refuse to install if the model number doesn't match, even if the drivers would run just fine.

 

Sounds like oxide needs to just ask Sony to update the drivers for his model. Easier said than done, I am sure...but they will need to have slew of new stuff ready for W7. Suprised have not already made 64 bit drivers for recent Vaio models (such as Z590).

 

I bought a Z36GD in Singapore ( here). Similar to Z690 series in the US (mine is the Asian model #). After tax rebate, only $2,049 with a free Sony bag. Love living in Asia! (pretty sure that is cheaper than the US...based on Sony.com anyhow)

Sorry...back on topic. Not sure of all the minor differences. Too many darn models from all the manufacturers these days and I think Sony is a perenial leader "model overload". Still...I love the machine! It is great. Dual booting Vista 64 Bit Business and W7 64 Ultimate. Both hum along nicely. Go with the latest model...get the P9600 chip or better. Will serve you well for years to come and you have adopted W7.

 

I have something for you to try (with a potentially negative consequence): Open Mouse Properties (by double clicking the trackpad in the system tray) and go to the "Pointer Options" tab. Uncheck "Enhance pointer precision". When I selected this, I could get the mouse to travel all 1600 pixels in one swipe of the pad. The downside is that it now requires more care to make small movements with the pad.

Near as I can tell based on the results of my tinkering, when selected, this option action like a shock absorber countering movements to keep small movements from being jumpy. That has a downside as the first "inklings" of a movement are nearly ignored - until the software is sure you really mean to move the pointer - creating a sensation of a decrease in sensitivity.

Anyway, you could try that and see if it is what you are looking for.

 

It's not particularly what I'm looking for since it doesn't change the sensitivity speed. It's mainly that many laptops have noticeably faster touchpad sensitivities. I'm not sure if it's the actual touchpad that's built-in slow, or if it's Sony's drivers -- probably the latter.

 

OK. Are you referring, then, to how the touchpad sometimes hesitates or initially ignores movement? If so, I've noticed that there's a checkbox on the Tapping tab of the Mouse Properties dialog in the Typing section (near the bottom) that says "Tap off when typing" with a slider bar from Short to Long delay after typing for when the touchpad starts accepting input again. I've noticed that when I uncheck that, the lag in response from the pad goes away (with the occasion accidental tap getting registered if I inadvertently touch the pad). I usually leave it checked and have the slider moved all the way to the shortest delay possible. But maybe the other setting will work for you?

 

Sorry for interrupting your chat dudes but I've gotta ask. So as far as I know it's possible to change the CPU on the Z am I right!? So I'm thinking what's the best processor to get, that would not burn the whole Z ? I don't know much about voltages n stuff.

 

I use a powered eSata card in my slot. I use it to connect external 2.5" hdd, with high speed data and power in one ( eSataP) cable. It can also be used as an additional USB port.

 

I am not having technical problems with the touchpad, no lag or anything. Only that the sensitivity of the mouse pointer is low (even on the highest setting), just my general observation.

 

Hey guys, do you really have to be a student to get the student discount ?

And does it apply to Canada as well ?

 

No you don't have to be a student, and yes it works for Canada.

 

This question was asked months ago but nobody seemed to have an answer, so I'll try again.

- WIll NVIDIA support 2560x1600 external resolution via HDMI (either directly or through a docking station) ? Has anybody tried that?

 

Can I use my 590 product key on a 64bit cd? I've seen some people do this but I dont know if its works all the time. Anyone have any insight on this?

 

thanks man ! Is it 10% or just 5% like someone mentioned earlier ?

 

No. Max is I think 1920x1080 or something.

 

Login to your SonyStyle "student" account. Put the config you want into the online basket & you'll find out the answer.

 

I remember this being answered at least two times.
The answer is that for higher resolutions, you need dual-link DVI, and for that, you need a 29-pin HDMI type B port, not a 19-pin type A one, like on the Z. While you can get a converter from 19-pin HDMI type A to dual-link DVI, it won't have the necessary signals to provide dual-link output.

 

Thank you! couple followups:
- Is the same true for the standard SONY Z docking station?
- Do I have a chance with ExpressCard34 -> HDMI (or dual DVI) solution?