Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

I've had experienced sending in a previous laptop to Sony. My only complaint is I never got my laptop in the same condition as I sent it. In other words, though Sony fixed the problem, the laptop case had so many scratches underneath as well as on top. Sony did replace the case as soon as I lodged a complaint. The only reason why they did, is because CompUSA tech guy remembered the pristine condition my laptop was in when I went through them during the warranty period to send it in to Sony's Repair Center.

Unfortunately, I've had the same exact issues with a recall on a digital camera and a dvd-recorder. All came back like I had owned them for years.

Yes, on my Z550, there are still black rows when playing widescreen dvd's. I was told by a friend who works in the industry, it's due to the type of film that is selected and actually used when filming movies. That's why sometimes in certain dvd's you see wider black bars and in some, they're much narrower, but either way are still visible.

 

I think what this is is actually a software setting. The driver deactivates the touch pas while you are typing so you don't accidently move your cursor in the middle of your sentence. It makes sense and works well. Chances are if you wait a second it will become responsive again. You can change how long the delay is between you last keystroke and when it reactivates. If you need to know wher let me know. I'm on my blackbery right now and don't recall exactly

 

Hi all,

Okay, so in preparation for the arrival of my new Z, I'm interested to know:

Apart from creating the recovery discs, what other precautionary measures should I take when I first receive the notebook, in terms of maximizing performance and stability? I.e, I've been reading about the benefits of partitioning your drive - one partition for the OS and programs, and the other for your files (photos, music, videos, documents, etc). Is there any way of going about doing this without losing software that comes pre-installed with the notebook that I'd like to keep (such as Premier and Photoshop Elements 7).

Of course, I shall be installing the necessary anti-virus/security tools, CCleaner and the like. I will also be using an external portable drive for most of my file storage needs, if this makes any difference.

I guess I'm looking for suggestions on the best course of action to take when I first get the notebook to try and ensure that it runs as optimally and securely as possible.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

I don't think it would make a difference between the two models, as both are 16:9.

The difference is in the widescreen format. Widescreen movies filmed in 16:9 will fill up your screen. Some movies are in an even wider screen format (like 2.35:1) and those will still have black bars.

 

Wouldn't the time to ask this be before you buy? ;-)

I've been shopping low end Vaio Z models this week. Anything around $1000 is a very good deal. That's what I paid, but it was an outlet item, supposedly a customer return that was unopened. We shall see when it arrives, hopefully today.

 

I hope I can help you to solve that issue. You can download original Gobi 3G Connection Manger here. It should work with all major carriers in Europe.

 

yeah thats true but i can return it within 15 days they only had 1 left. what do you mean by low-end whats the differant bettween a z540 with the same proccesor and ram

 

There are tons of different model numbers and suffixes for the Z series, even within the Z540 line the features and prices vary considerably depending on the suffix. A low end one would be with less RAM, smaller hard drive, no SSD, lower resolution screen, Vista Premium instead of Business or Ultimate, etc.

 

oh yeah. are you still looking for your z? whats the best option for ram i have 3gb but i would like to max outsince it shouldnt be that expensive do u have any recommendations,? the z520 has ddr3 by the way

 

Well the OS install shouldn't take long - presumably quicker than with a HDD. It just depends how many apps you have that you have to install afterwards.

Make sure you use the Sony instructions for releasing the keyboard to open it up.

S

 

Not much point on going above 3GB unless you are planning to upgrade to Vista 64-bit.

 

can you elaberate on that a little bit more ?

 

32-bit versions XP and Vista can't utilize much more than 3GB of memory. You can probably Google for the technical details. I'd save the money and put it into some other upgrade.

 

Not 100% accurate. XP can utilize 4 GB, but some is reserved for GFX, expansion cards, etc. If you use the IGP, I wouldn't be surprised that could use some of the memory above the 3 GB limit. But in that case, XP still has only access to 3 GB system memory.

I also thought that dual channel doesn't work when you have unmatched memory banks. Not sure if the Z can make use of dual channel.

 

If you bought it at Best Buy, I wouldn't be too sure.
Checklist:

3 or 4 GB RAM?
7200 RPM HD or a reasonably large/fast SSD?
Windows Vista Business or Ultimate? (Home and Home Premium lack file synchronization and caching, making them bad choices for notebooks)
Not filled with trialware and other bloat?
Premium Carbon Fibre lid? It doesn't matter for use, but without it the price (and resale price) is lower.

Avoid memory with 8-8-8-* latencies.

 

the 520 has 250gb hardrive, p8400, vista buisness32, i also had bestbuy do optimazation to remove the bloatware but when i got there to pik it up it was still running at 80 proccess we were able to get it down to around 70 after further tweaks . i dont think it has premium carbon fiber lid. so what do you think 999 good?

 

Ordered my outlet Z540NBB yesterday for $1000 + $200 for the 3 year ADH Sony warranty. Got it today. I was told it was an unopened return. It was clearly opened, though not obvious if it was just checked by the returns department. In any case, it appears perfectly clean and in pristine condition and no issues so far.

Compared to the Samsung X460 I just sold, the display is awesome. Better resolution, looks better and no problems with awful vertical viewing angles, like on the X460 that limited you to a very, very narrow sweet spot and inverted quickly as you tilted the screen. It's a bit lighter and a lot sharper looking, too. The matte finish isn't a fingerprint magnet, either. No Vista crashes so far and no Windows error history, either, Kudos, Sony.

Keyboard is very nice so far, no complaints except for the lack of dedicated page up/down buttons. Touchpad and buttons work nicely, too. Wireless LAN and bluetooth are working fine. As I type, I'm tethered to my Nokia 3G phone and a wireless Microsoft mouse. I'm on Stamina mode at 3/8 brightness and battery bar is estimating 5:30 hours on a full charge, but this is the first time on battery so it doesn't have a lot of data. The Microsoft battery indicator says 5 hrs 5 mins left and it's been on battery for about 30 mins. That's also somewhat better than the X460 if it holds true, though the X460 had only 9200M GS graphics and no integraded stamina option.

Not much else to report. USB works fine. Still have yet to test camera, mic, headphones, card readers and HDMI. Anyone happen to have a nice delivery checklist or a link to one? Since it was an outlet item, I have 30 days to return it with no restock fee, so I'd like to make sure everything is 100%. So far, I have no regrets about upgrading from the X460.

Great thread, everyone, lots of very useful information and helpful people who respond to PMs. Thanks!

 

How much did Best Buys charge you for that optimization? What further tweaks were done to get it from 80 to 70. I'm considering having them do the same.

 

Yes 999$ is a steal, how did you get it for that price? Was it on inventory?

The Z520 was around 1900$ 2 months ago when we were talking about, until they pulled it off from their website. Although I'll admit that $1900 was overpriced. They stopped selling it (atleast on their website) so that could be one reason why the big price cut.

 

it cost 30dollars. the further tweaks they did was eliminating what you would probably already know to remove trialware but there are certain things that they know to speed up your computer. he showed me when he went to the run menu and typed in msconfig e.t.c. i did tell them when i got there that i wanted eveything barebones except all the windows stuff. this i had to tell him as they kept some trialware on . you have to specify this they dont do a clean install but they did some tweaking

 

yes this was at the store not on displayed though . what happened was i was gonna buy one online but i wanted to see it up close so while i was looking at the 610 (1800.00) this young girl who worked there said they had one for 999. yes 999 i was floored and told her to show me when i saw that it had a 250 gb hardrive and 3gb ddr3-1066 ram i had to buy it and square trade will give me a 3 year warrenty for 125.00. by the way the z520 that i bought was the last one and it was not a display it was brand new factory sealed.........................

 

does anyone have a link for vista tweaks. or any good advice for tweaking a new z

 

They charged you 30 dollars for using msconfig.exe?... Just another reason not to like bestbuy...

Best way to tweak it? Just create a new partition and install windows 7 on it.

What you get is a clean, fast, fully functional OS, with the ability to dual boot Vista.

My Z fully loads windows 7 in around 45 sec. Instant sleep, wake up. After installing 7, I've never used my Vista OS. I wish I had made my Windows 7 partition larger (of course you can still access your Vista partition while running Windows 7, just have to assign a letter to the partition under computer management)...

 

Thanks! That's a pretty good deal. Office Depot charged, I think it was around $60 and they did say, they wouldn't do a clean install on my Z550. Do you get it for $30 because you bought your Z520 with them and cut you a deal. Or is $30 the standard price for this kind if service?

 

Anybody?..

 

i think the 30 is standard all they do is take most of the bloatware that the average consumer would not know to take out. you may have to tell them to take everythinh out except windows. which then you can see what they say

 

no they didnt just go to msconfig and do there thing. when i got there and turned on my computer there were still things in there that they thought i would need after i explained what i didnt want they then went to msconfig

 

hey what do you guys reccomend the zeroshock 3 for my z or the incase neoprene sleeve made for 13 apple is one or the other better

 

Personally, I wouldn't pay $30 for someone to go through add/remove programs and remove what can be removed there, and delete the icons for what's left. And that's quite frankly all they can do -- they're not experts who can manually remove programs (including database tables, direct and indirect registry entries, .NET assemblies and similar). If they were experts, they wouldn't work at Best Buy for $15 an hour.

 

I agree. Best Buy is not even doing a clean install of Windows for the $30 spent. I personally would think that following the numerous useful guides in this forum is going to bring you a better solution that what Best Buy is providing. The good thing is that there is always someone knowledgeable in the stuff you need to find out & the best thing of all is that all this is FREE!

 

please, can someone confirm on defective touchpads? thanks...

 

I am trying to customize a z690 online and I cannot find where I choose which screen resolution I want.

 

z690 1600X900 THAT'S IT

 

I know this is old news, but I finally got to see the premium carbon lid at the Sony Store. I agree that the premium carbon is only noticeable under direct light or angled. But the feel is different. They had both premium and regular carbon lid side by side. And the premium lid feels smoother/velvety and the regular carbon is definitely not as smooth.

 

STAMINA / SPEED Selector?

I find the swich for speed & stamia really great idea & workis fine - generally adds about 45mins to batt life.

However, I have a question & would welcome any ideas?

When I move switch to 'stamia' a box appears that enables me to 'modify' seetting, is there anyway to stop this box appearing? I have made the setting I want to keep & wonder why this appears evey time - It seems to retain the previous setting fine.
Is then an option to bypass this ?

Cheers,
T

 

Quick RELATED Question.

Does seeting the dislay to 16bit rather than 32bit colour make any 'real power difference?

Plus, does using 16bit cause more problems than benefit (eg. do programmes run is 16bit okay or will some not function?)

Any advice welcome?

Cheers,
T

 

16-bit color settings should not have any adverse effect, other than the obvious effect on color gradations and such. I'm also curious to know how much power this actually saves, I wouldn't think it to be much at all but it must be worthwhile enough to make it an option.

 

I was all for the premium lid, which I got myself. I now wish I had realized one thing ... it is a total fingerprint magnet, and possibly more prone to scratching with its smooth surface as well. So while it's pretty, though subtle, it might not be as durable. Had I been aware of this, I think I probably would have skipped the premium lid (personally).

 

Having just sold a Samsung X460 that had glossy black plastic everywhere, I'm very happy with the standard black lid and brushed aluminum palmrest on my new Z540.

 

i own a 520 with 3gb ddr3 ram with 32bit vista. i heard that its not reallly neccessay to upgrade to 4gb, as the 32 bit really dosent utilize 4gb. my question is whether i should upgrade or not will it help me in any way if i do upgrade or is it a totally waste of money... pleases answeer

 

Save your money. 32-bit Vista won't use 4GB of RAM

 

I feel silly asking this, but I'm about to get a new Vaio, probably the Z, and I'm getting Vista Ultimate 64-bit as the OS.

My silly question is this. I know I'll have to get 64-bit drivers for my printers, etc., but will most of my applications run on this? Just because a program was written for a 32-bit world, that doesn't mean it won't function on a 64 bit OS, does it?

See what I mean....but I figured better safe than sorry.

 

Every 32-bit program I have installed on 64-bit vista works and installs fine but you may want to check and see if your peripherals have 64-bit drivers available.

 

Yeah, I agree.

Most 32-bit programs will install & run on a 64-bit Windows OS. I may be wrong but I believe that 64-bit Windows OS has got some kind of "emulator" function to run those 32-bit programs in a soft of "backward compatibility" method.

 

I thought it was the other way around. I held the prem. carbon lid and noticed no fingerprint smears. I thought my regular carbon lid was more of a fingerprint magnet. I do agree with you about the surface of the prem. lid being prone to easy scratches - it seems like you have to be more careful with it. Your the 2nd person on this thread to post a similar comment on the prem. lid.

 

I can't change what you saw, but in my opinion the premium lid is a fingerprint magnet. It is smooth and in school and looking at it I see them easily, unless it's sitting just so when I look at it.

 

I rarely post here since i sold my FZ few months back...but now im a proud owner of a Z555 (P8600, 3GB, 250GB HDD 5400rpm, 1600x900 screen) bought over here in Canada. This rig is overkill for net / webcam / movies but the design is too sexy with its ca-ca-ca-carrrbon fiberrr everywhere; and im one of those individuals that requires excessive firepower LOL.

I was going to CTO it but i heard premade ones from Japan was the way to go so i managed to track a brand-new discontinued 5xx model which is $470 less than the newer 6xx ones. Not to mention over here in Canada the difference btwn the 5xx and 6xx is one extra gig of ram to 4 GB ram, and 1300x700 screen (vs 1600x900 for the 5xx). Which in my opinion does not justify the price increase; since changing ram is easy...screen = hard.

future upgrades include: (some time from now till early 2010)
intel P9600 cpu
intel x25-e ssd
and maybe 8gb ram (2x4 GB) if i can find 64-bit drivers for windows 7 when it comes out

My cover is black and whether it attracts fingerprints depends on how clean and sweaty my hands are.

My questions for you guys are:
1) Is a HDD to SDD upgrade straight foward drive replacement? or do i have to remove/add anything? (like maybe the g-sensor or add adaptors)
2) How often to u clean the fan and its innards?

 

Starting about two months ago my Z590 started getting really hot and shutting down. It would frequently go up into the 80/90 Celcius. I've notice some people have had overheating issues. Anyone know how common this is and the cause? Experienced this? I've called tech support twice and on the second time they said they would have a technician call and set up an appointment. Any help would be appreciated.

Aside from this, I've been very satisfied with my Z-Series (until this issue came up).

P.S. My Z590 is configured with 4GB ram/128GB ssd/2.53GHz...etc (the max config.--every option--when the z-series came out)

 

I would like to know if it is worth it to upgrade my 32 bit OS to a 64 bit OS. Is there a way I can copy the files on it, including the programs, without reinstalling everything all over?

 

There was a review of SSDs in PCPro June 2009. Samsung's 256GB SSD comes second after Intel. Average read speed 167MB/s but fastest average write speed with 151MB/sec. To quote "It's a stunning performer".

Hope this helps,

Brian