Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Yep, I agree. What you say is very true. That is why I mentioned that my reasons about getting the Vaio Z only apply to me & no one else.

 

Only the first sentence of my post was really directed to your previous post hehe.

The issue is that the battery will drain regardless of whether or not the laptop is powered on or off. Try turning off your laptop overnight and see if it loses any charge or not. As for the standby, I suggest test it again to see if that is really where it ends up. Standby puts the laptop in a low power state, so it seems strange that it does not lose any charges after 20 hours.

 

People who can't read or can't extract the installers:
http://files.flixite.com/dirsys/list.php?last=Vaio
I have put the Vaio bios "update" here. Is you have the flash utility you only need to download the .rom-file. If you have an Asian supported model you can download the .exe-file. If you want the extracted file you can download the .rar.

 

I.ve just noticed an issue wiyj my Z series in the past wkk. THe laptop will not chare any more than 80%?? Before then it would quite happy chare 100% and then show Fully charges on the icon. Not now though.

Anyone know why???? Ive been offshore for a mon and had no internet acces so I havent done any of the latest updates and wont be able to untill and of may.

 

Check to see if you have the battery save or optimize option (forget the exact verbage). This is exactly what it does, only charges to certain percentage. Not sure why, but supposedly that make it extend the life of the battery overall.

 

New owner impressions.

As mentioned earlier, I just picked up a Z540 from Zones. I haven't really had the time to play much, but have spent a few hours with it, taking backup image of the hard drive, patching OS, uninstalling bloatware etc. I figured I pass along some newbie impressions as well as some questions / issues for those who may be looking.

Pros
1. Screen is absolutely gorgeous. Colors are vivid and bright. Was able to compare against my daughters Vaio CS and wife's Thinkpad Z60 and absolutely no comparison. I am shocked how well the screen looks. Bringing up a high res photo is actually breathtaking.

2. Fast. Z540 only has the P8400 which is 2.24, but seems to be plenty fast. Apps respond instantly.

3. Lightweight. You can't really appreciate this until you sit with it on your lap for a few hours. I spent most of the evening with it on the couch and never felt uncomfortable or tired with it. I can easily move it around with one hand.

4. Build quality seems great. Appears to be solid, no creaks or cheap plastic to me. Keyboard is firm and has great response.

5. 4GB Memory with Vista 32-bit? I upgrade my RAM to 4GB and was only expecting Vista to recognize 3GB but it shows all 4GB!. Will it actually use it? This was the only reason I was originally interested in Vista 64. What do you guys see?

Cons
1. Express slot door doesn't sit well / loose. I have a tendency to hit the express slot door and noticed it doesn't always close back 100%. I need to tap it in again and then it sits back flush. Minor annoyance.

2. Fingerprint scanner useless. Not sure on everyone's experience but this has been the worst feature for me so far. It seems to only work about 25% of the time. It constantly complains about scan "Too short" or "Bad Quality". I have to repeat scanning so many times before it successfully recognizes that it isn't worth the time. I attempted to look for update software online but didn't see any. Anyone share same experience.

3. Boot up time slow. Jury still out as to whether this is due to hard drive of bloatware. Could also be the combination. I haven't tried fresh install yet. Am holding off on that till I get a new hard drive (probably the 5k500.B). Resume from sleep however seems to be ok.

4. AC adapter gets HOT. Do you guys also experience this? Was suprised as to how hot this actually gets. Hoping the free AC stick will be much better.

5. Vaio update doesn't work. Gives me some error about not supported on my model. Not big deal as I can easily search website myself but curious as to why since it came installed.

These are only initial impressions as again, have only played with it a few hours, but I do have to say am definitely impressed. I know I listed more cons that Pros but most of the cons are minor and again, have had limited usage so far.

Also again to all looking for a unit with the lower resolution display, the Z540 has the 1366x768 and Zones currently has this unit on sale. Not sure for how much longer, so if interested I would grab one. Worth noting, my unit has a sticker that has a build date of March 2009! This is great as I originally thought I would be getting a unit that had been sitting in warehouse for over a year beings it's an older unit. This was not the case. Lastly, the Sony spec sheet for the Z540 says 2x1GB mem modules. However my unit had 1-2GB module; which, for me was bad as trying to plan ahead I bought 2x2GB modules to replace and now only really needed to get 1. Hey anyone interested in 2GB stick

 

cheers mate I'll give it a look.

On the Viao power options its on Vaio Optimiszed. I havent changed it from there since I got the laptop

 

Congrats! I'm still liking my Z540 I got a couple weeks ago. I have another 10 days or so to return it, but right now I intend to keep it.

This is a big plus for me, too. It weighs barely more than a netbook but has a better screen and hardware than many models in its own class.

Mine seems to pop back fine.

Mine is not as accurate as the one on the Samsung X460 I just sold. I'd say it's closer to 75%, though, higher if I do it carefully. I did have an error registering a password on a website and it prompted me to a website to upgrade to Protector QL v5.8. Not sure if that helped or not.

Mine was almost 1 min 30 seconds in factory state. After doing a semi clean install on an Intel SSD, I cut off 30 seconds, including fingerprint login. That's from button press to Wi-fi ready for surfing.

Mine gets very warm, but not hot like the one from my ZD7000. Haven't got my mobility kit to compare, yet.

I got a different message, something about no updates available or something. I removed the software after that.

Yup you can get good deals on the Z540 with the lower rez screen right now if you search on Google. For what CDW charged me on an unopened box return, I can't complain much, especially considering the free mobility pack deal.

My 540 also came with 1x2GB, instead of the 2x1GB I expected from the specs. It was made in Jan 2009, not bad considering it was an outlet return.

The only real annoyance I have is that the keyboard misses keys every once in a while. At least a few times in this message that I've had to fix. It seems to be a worse on some websites, like this one, but doesn't happen with any other computer I have or have used recently. It might be a combination of internet connection, typing style and the VAIO, but it definitely has to do with the VAIO. Anyway, your impressions are pretty similar to mine. I made some small updates to my review http://carseatblog.com/?p=2032 . Despite the cons, the features were great for the price and I'm now getting 6 hours with the SSD installed in Stamina mode at 50% brightness and doing surfing and Office with wi-fi and bluetooth in use. I couldn't find anything else comparable at a similar price.

 

That is the BatteryCare function at work. You can "turn off" that fuctionality if you want the notebook to charge to 100%.

 

This is incorrect. If you run a 32-bit Windows version, you will NOT get 4 GB. Open a command prompt, and type in:

wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize

That's how much of the memory that can actually be used.

 

I posted last week about my experiences with the battery drain issue. My final experiment was to remoe the battery for an entire week and let it sit. I put the battery in this morning, booted up on AC and I had 99% battery life left (this is in comparison to a percentage in the 20's I had after my week's vacation with the battery left in).

I know it seems to have been discussed to death, but there really should be something we can do to get Sony to listen up. Even if we could find out how to expand the BIOS options that could be a big help (And I'm alsmot positie there is some undocumented way to get into a more robust BIOS editor on these things, otherwise what do repair/tech support people do when they work on them?).

I'm up for anything at this point: online petition, mass calling/emailing demanding a fix, maybe there's a lawyer on these boards that could help bring it to the attention of the legal dept at sony?

I can't see how this wouldn't be considered a defect in a laptop let alone any other portable device.

 

The problem is that Sony is just like what their advertisement motto says:
" Like.Nther."

That about sums up Sony's company philosophy. No?

 

I have to agree with most of the things you said cbb77. I have the hi-res screen however, and I love it.

 

Why is it bad? This is good news because you just need to buy a "matching" 2GB stick & you're all set for 4GB RAM in total. It saves you money & hassle of having to sell two 1GB sticks.

 

A problem is finding a matching stick.
Unless the sticks have identical SPD settings, both will run at the speed of the slower one, and you'll lose symmetrical access (not to be confused with synchronous access, which you'll still have), making memory access ever so slightly slower than if both sticks were of the slower type.

Normally, I recommend that people change all the memory at the same time, to all identical RAM. Much less risk of headaches that way.

 

They keyboard has been a surprising big pro for me with the Z I was a little concerned, not getting to test it before buying, but I'm finding it really responsive, comfortable, error free, and quiet compared to so many.

Hmm ... I'm not having an issue with mine. I don't have another fingerprint scanner notebook to compare, but I only have a few times when it doesn't work for me, definitely not the majority. Maybe some people are more inclined to scan their finger the way it wants than others. LOL. You might just get used to what it wants and stop having issues with it.

I'm not thrilled with boot time (or resume from Hibernate of course ... though I agree resume from sleep is fine), but I also haven't done a fresh or even semi-clean install yet. I shortened it a bit with clean up stuff, but ... part of it (in my opinion) is Vista - I've yet to be impressed with Vista's boot time on any machine I've seen. :/ I need to get a stinking Vista CD and just do a fresh install.

 

Got my Z540 from p1 a couple of days ago.. Really a great machine!
the screw on the right buttom corner were not attached properbly - but after some reading in the service manual and help from the p1 guys I managed to fix it.
I got mine with 3GB ram.. X-25m SSD and a clean P1 image.. manufacturingdate says oct 2008.. oh well..

Two things..
First... if i right - click on desktop, it takes 1 sec to load the menu.. just vista being slow?

Second.. whats the shortcut to turn of the screen?

 

I disagree with you most vehemently.

 

It was bad in only the sense I bought 2 - 2GB sticks instead of having to just buy 1. Could have sames a little. Not a huge deal though and as Arth1 highlighted, at least I know both my memory sticks are identical now.

 

My Responses:

1. Mine works just fine
2. My fingerprint scanner works just fine. Have you tried uninstalling the Protector Suite QL software? Try totally removing it, restarting, and then downloading it from the Sony's Support site and reinstalling it. If that doesn't work, you should definately discuss it with Sony, as you may have a faulty reader. Mine only fails to read about 1 in 20 finger swipes. Of course, you have to know how to swipe your finger such as pressing down, keeping your finger at the same angle (horizontal) to the reader and swiping it at a consistent and slow pace. That almost always works for me.
3. Mine boots up just fine, usually in under a minute, including the fingerprint logon. Of course, mine has the faster HDD, so that might be making a difference. Make sure to perform the tweaks on: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532. Should make some siginificant performance improvements.
4. Mine does get warm and occasionally hot. If the Vaio is operating under load and also trying to recharge the battery it will get got. No big deal, though. I'd much rather have the adapter getting hot than the laptop.

I definately agree with you 100% that the Vaio is the best laptop that I have ever used. For me at least, it is the perfect combination of features to suffice as a desktop replacement. Still have to play Crysis on my gaming desktop, though.

 

1: Yes, that's Vista being slow, or, rather, it's checking so many different places and permissions when you right-click that it becomes slow.

2: There isn't one, AFAICT. You can assign one of the two S buttons to run C:\Windows\System32\scrnsave.scr -- that will blank the screen, but not turn it off, though.

 

Do the older Z series (I'm mostly concerned with the Z540NAB) also use DDR3 memory and allow for RAID 0 with two 1.8" drives? Do the older screens look as nice as the current displays? I realize the resolution isn't as good, and I am upset about that but the price difference helps me deal with that.

 

I didn't see an answer to this, so:

Start > All Programs > VAIO Control Center > System Information > System Information: BIOS Version.

 

So simple, thanks. I have BIOS version 92140M3

 

Yes the older Z uses DDR3 memory and 1.8" RAID 0 for the dual SSD. I believe the displays are the same quality, if not better, since there is no leakage. Mine is a Vaio Z590.

 

Hey everyone,

I'm about to replace my desktop for a Sony VAIO Z series notebook which I will also be using for my work. I do have a few questions though (mostly because I don't live in the US and have limited options for my Z) which I haven't been able to get the answers to from Google.

1) Does Sony allow you to replace the HDD yourself (or in my case, by someone else)? And if not, does the VAIO Z have any warranty seals that prevent you from swapping the HDD without losing warranty?

2) Does the Z accept both 2,5" and 1,8" HDD's/SSD's?

3) Can the DVD drive be removed and replaced by a dummy to make the notebook extra light, or can it be swapped for a bluray drive in the future when I feel like I need one? (I feel the price of a bluray player right now is too expensive to justify it in this notebook)

4) I noticed Windows 7 is about to be released at the end of the year, will it be possible to upgrade to Windows 7 in the future and retain warranty and be able to run all the included Sony software?

5) Do all the new Z versions with the 1600x900 resolution come with the carbon fiber exterior to make it extra light or are there also standard black exterior versions of the Z?

6) I keep reading about the keyboard lagging or missing keystrokes when using programs. I returned my last notebook (Acer) because it had the exact same problem and it was taking up way too much time correcting the mistyped words when working on work documents, can anyone tell me if this is indeed a problem with this notebook too and does it happen in word as well, is there a possible fix for this (if not, this will definitely not be my next notebook)

 

Ty

Strange mine reads errorM3, anyone have thoughts on this?

Everything working fine.....

 

Probably not, but there were no obvious warnings or stickers

I can only confirm that you can swap a 2.5" drive. The procedure takes a little time as you need to be very careful, but it isn't too hard. There is both a guide and a service manual download earlier in this thread that are helpful.

 

I just got back from a store in town to see if they had the Z series in their showroom. Unfortunately they hadn't but the salesclerk told me that he expected new VAIO models to arrive early June.

Now, this is a European store (Netherlands) so we might be a bit behind on the US, but they already had the TT and Z series for sale, and to my knowledge, those are among the latest releases in the VAIO series.

Is there any indication that Sony indeed intents to release new models in a month or so? If so, I might be inclined to hold off on buying a VAIO and wait what Sony has in store for us next...

edit: I just called sonystyle, the storeclerk meant upgraded models of the TT and Z series not new models

 

Excellent. I appreciate the response. I started reconsidering the cheapest Z6xx that has because it has a faster processor, a free neoprene sleeve, and the 1600x900 (main attraction). I think I'll keep the Z5xx at the top of my list. The savings will allow me to score some more RAM.

The current max RAM capacity is 4GB. Does anyone know or speculate that Sony will offer a BIOS revision that boosts the cap to 8GB? I don't need (and can't afford) 8 GB of RAM yet, but I'd like the future expandability.

 

Well I knew my Z570 was running hotter and hotter and finally the whole thing has packed up...after about four months of use. I'll be going to a repair shop but it is quite amazing that such a top-of-the-line range should exhibit this kind of behaviour. I previously had an SZ which overheated a couple of times - even melting the keyboard glue but I thought that the Z would show how Sony had learnt a bit since then...I just hope I can get it fixed. So much for the "Made in Japan" ones...

 

I agree with you. My Z550 is also exhibiting quite a bit of heat with normal use. There are times when I have to just turn it off to give it a rest because I don't want to fry it. Its sad that you have to work around your Z than it working for you.

 

What's ironic is that the Japanese models have a fan/heatsink assembly that can move out 40% more heat than the US/European models.

 

i have zero heat issues with my Z550. I kinda almost wish I did, bc i've been dying to find a reason to get a NZXT Cryo LX :\ Even when gaming on it, it's still cool to the touch esp compared to other laptops i've used at work (HP's are heat creating beasts). All that happens is that the fan kicks up a bit, other than that, stays cool....

 

Hmm...that's very interesting. Why would they design the cooling system of the Japanese domestic models different from all other regions? How did you come across this information?

The bottom of my Z says 'Made in the U.S.A. with foreign parts'

 

Ok, for whatever its worth, I had posted that an error appeared on bios update.

I just downloaded again to get rid of error message and am now current.

I will monitor and report about battery drainage.

Paul

 

It lost charge (as it should in standby), but only ~5%. I repeated the test again last night to make sure. These measurements are with wireless off, and only the screen, and sound on. I've always turned off everything else (DVD, firewire, modem).

I'll charge it up to full tonite, and then shutdown and leave it for 12 hrs unplugged and see what happens.

 

The Japanese models can take a 35W CPU, while the US/European models can only handle 25W CPUs. There are references to this earlier in this thread, and elsewhere on the forum. Search for 25W and 35W.

 

Agreed. This is in fact "very old" news.

 

And the hordes of people who come in here asking whether to get the high or low resolution disagrees with you too. *kisses*

Sounds about right, the drain is there.

 

Is there a a guide or a faq for brining Z690 from Vista 64bit to Vista 32bit? I'm looking to do a clean install but with out loosing any key VAIO controls / drivers.

Thank you!

 

Here's the link to what you need to bypass the model checker.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=347960

Just scroll down.

And just check for the 32-bit drivers on the Sony site. Choose the Z590 as your model and your OS.

 

Has anyone tried installing Windows 7 RC x64 on their Z690? I have only been able to install the 32-bit version. I'm just getting repeated BSOD during installation of x64 version. I suspect it has to do with the OCZ Vertex SSD which is recommended to use SATA IDE mode (not AHCI) for 64-bit. The Sony BIOS has no options for setting SATA modes that I could find...

Has anyone else tried and succeeded installing 7 RC x64 with a SSD?

 

Hi all-
My daughter is off to college this September and we are researching laptops for her. It has come down to the z690 and an xps 13. I persoanlly am leaning to the z (especially after finding this board). I wanted to get others' input and if anyone knows whether a new model line of the z will be out this summer.

 

I was down to the same 2 choices (Z and Studio XPS 13), and in the end the Sony had the best combination of features for the price. I was especially concerned about the problems XPS 13 owners were reporting. The design looked nice in photos, but up close the glossy finish was a magnet for fingerprints and possibly scratches. The 1600x900 resolution was a really nice feature that only Sony could offer as well... being able to put 2 doc pages side by side is really nice, and it's also a treat for editing photos.

 

The big difference is 2 pounds. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a big difference if you carry it daily in a backpack.

 

Hi everyone, I finally did what I should have done years ago and become a forum member here. Well here I am with a few questions that I hope can be answered.

I am currently looking for a new laptop and am tired of purchasing (or even being around) ones that just fall apart after a few months. I want a laptop that looks its part and does it too. The other day i was at my local sony style store (Garden State Plaza, NJ) and my eyes fell upon the wonderful Z series. It was there that I decided that this model would be right for me.

Now for the questions:
1. Is the processor, SSD, and blu-ray upgrade worth it?
I will without a doubt upgrade to the maximum ram and am currently looking at the 7200rpm standard harddrive. I'll be installing vista64 and w7 64bit when that comes out.

2. Can it play video games?
Now i'm not asking it to play crysis on top settings but I would love to know how it is when playing WoW.

3. Does the battery actually last 6 hours?

I'm sorry if all these questions have been answered before but going through 793 pages is not fun.

Also, anyone know if Sony plans on releasing a new laptop soon? or would like to recommend something instead? I'm a college student looking for something light and powerful, although money is an issue, i have no problem signing up for a no interest payment plan (as mentioned much earlier in the thread, dont even know if it still exists).

Thank you to anyone who helps me with this. I'll be on this thread on a regular basis for any updates. =D

 

1. I believe any of the available CPU's is enough. I think the lowest end is now what? the 2.4ghz c2d? that's more than enough for 99% of users out there. I'd go with the 7200rpm hd over the sony provided SSD. If you want an SSD it's better you get an after market one (x-25m or vertex) and upgrade yourself. The one's sony puts in are not the best choices. bluray? that's total up to you

2. on speed mode, it does far better than i ever expected it to do. i'm a graphics snob on my desktop, and ATI fan at that, so it was a real eye opener how well the 9300m performs. Sure it doesn't come close to the latest highest end cards, but it does the job. WoW will be no problem at all. HL2 series & source engine games play great at mid to upper range settings at that. I didn't buy my Z with the idea of gaming on it, but i'm glad it's been up to the task now that i've expanded it's role

3. no :\ well maybe, on power saving settings, low brightness for the LCD and doing low cpu/hd intensive tasks..... but i'm happy with my battery life with such a powerful & lightweight machine

 

Dell Studio XPS 13: 4.9 lb
Sony Vaio Z: 3.4 lb
Difference = 1.5 lb

Still substantial, but 25% less than what you said.

Other advantages of the Z are
- higher screen resolution
- longer battery life.

This must be weighed (no pun intended) against the advantages of the Dell:
- Better speakers
- Virtualization not disabled (can run virtualized 64-bit operating systems, or Windows XP mode in Windows 7)
- More than 4 GB RAM supported
- Slightly faster graphics card
- Backlit keyboard

All in all, it mostly depends on how much you travel. For semi-stationary use, the Dell is probably the better choice.

 

I routinely get 6 hours of light use like surfing, office, email, blogging, etc, using wi-fi and bluetooth. That's Stamina mode, maximum battery profile (with max CPU set to 50%) with brightness at 3/8 or 4/8. Before I did a semi-clean install on an SSD, it was closer to 5 hours.

Without an SSD, you'd probably have to drop the brightness more and turn off wireless to get close.

On Speed mode with higher brightness, expect it to be 2-3 hours.