Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

The big difference is 1.5 pounds*. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a big difference if you carry it daily in a backpack.

*Published specifications and actual weights may vary. Not responsible for errors due to rounding up or down or the inability to correctly subtract one number from another number.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Weight is important since they shelp across campus each day. Is the z690 going to be replaced with a newer version this summer?

 

thank you to everyone whose answered so far. I looked into Sony's pricing plans and they easily fit within my budget. I have a few more questions.

Is the Larger Capacity battery worth it? (Is it bigger? or just has more cells in the same space).

Who actually got theirs engraved and if so does it actually look nice?

Does the laptop feel sturdy i.e. will not crap out in a year?
I've been surrounded by Dells and Hp's consumer lines for years now and they are the worst laptops i've ever seen designed and built. Every model i've ever come across is plagued with some sort of issue. So for those of you who have had your sony Z for almost a year now, how is it holding up? is it still as nice as the first day you got it?

 

ok.. on my 6th day with my Vaio Z.. still a great machine..
I am very surpriced by how silent it is.. (I have SSD in it.. but still) - but one thing worries me a little.. sometimes there is a "click" sound from inside around the S-buttons.. whats that? - normal?

 

I covered this earlier, but I would also recommend checking out Zones online. (No affiliation with them) I recently picked up a Z540 for $1200. To me this was a great price; particularly what SonyStore or SonyStyle charges. Processor is P8400 - 2.26 GHz, with 2 MB Ram and 250GB hard drive. Both memory and hard drive are easily upgradeable. Here's link to the particular unit

http://www.zones.com/site/product/index.html?id=002621080

 

Wow.... you cant be serious.

 

I didn't think so. I bought the 7200RPM HDD and it boots to the desktop in about a minute. The SSD could do better, the cost to benefit ratio inverts. Blu-Ray is only worth it if you think you're going to be using the laptop for that stuff a lot. I wasn't.

Yes. I play the following games on 1024 X 768 and medium quality settings:

• Bioshock
• Quake Wars
• Serious Sam 2

I haven't installed any other games yet (haven't had the time).

Mine does, easily. Now, I do have the extended battery, but I got that so that I would only have to charge it to 80% (for better battery life) and still be able to get more life than a regular battery. With normal "productivity" (Office, email, downloading, etc.) use, I get about 5 hours on from an 80% charge. Playing Bioshock, I get about an hour or so - and that's with the the laptop running at full bore. It's easily the best battey life I've ever seen with a laptop. Especially when you factor in that I have the settings set to essentially never shut anything off (not the DVD drive, nor the HDD, and the monitor only after 2 hours).

 

Yes, the larger battery is worth it because you can set your battery care settings to 80% to promote longer battery life and still get more charge than the regular battery at 100%.

As for the Engraving, DON'T. I got it and you can't even see it unless the light hits it just right. It's free and all, but it also negates your ability to return it for a refund - for no benefit in return.

Yes, it is sturdy. Just don't get the Premium lid. It's too polished and easily scratched.

 

If it's what I and others in this forum have noticed, it's probably coming from the left hinge. Place your ear up there and move the lid (to open or close it) and see if that's the same sound you hear.

 

It basically comes down to what is more valuable to you: weight and battery life while still retaining a decent graphics card (vaio) or heavier and lower battery life but having a better graphics card (xps). Unless your daughter is a gamer, I would go with the vaio. But even if she was a gamer, I wouldn't go with the XPS 13. The LG P310 has much nicer scores.

 

FrinkTL: not hinger.. - I do not move the lid at all.. sounds like something mechanical inside it that "switches".. - really just curious to what it is.

 

Is there any info anywhere on the best SSDs for the Z based on things like this? I'm considering SSD when Win7 x64 goes retail (i.e. do the rebuild once!).

S

 

I thought the 80% charge was only needed when you rarely run on batteries.

When you charge every time from 90% to 100%, that seems to be bad for the battery.
But if you discharge below 80% regularly, there's no reason not to charge to 100%. At least, that's what I've read.

 

Last night, my Vaio Z540 woke from hibernate. The lid was closed, yet it powered up and began to resume. The only thing unusual is that I shut it off with an audio CD inside, but I did close media player before I shut the lid, causing it to go into standby (and then hibernate shortly thereafter). Given how loud the optical drive is, it easily woke us up.

Anyone know what would cause this? I haven't tampered with any wake settings that I know. Hopefully there is something I can turn off.

 

I finally got my z690 cto and I'm quite impressed. Great build quality, beautiful screen, lightning fast, light as a feather. I am really liking the duraview semi-matte finish on the screen, it's vibrant and without any glare. The keyboard is taking a little getting used to, not because of the isolated keys but because the lay out feels a bit wider than what I'm used to (maybe my imagination). I haven't done any heavy tasks like video editing or gaming on it yet, but everything else has been smooth so far. After some activity, the vents pump out some heat, but in a good way: the computer itself has remained cool.

So far I've created recovery discs, removed most of the bloatware, updated windows, optimized vista settings, put on battery care (80%) downloaded most essential programs (open office, firefox, GIMP, itunes, avast, steam), and transferred my documents and music... Anything I'm forgetting to do?

I'm still running around 100 processes on startup after removing a lot of the unnecessary windows ones, I guess it must be vaio crap. Anyone have a list of the non-windows stuff they disabled from services.msc?

 

I found some more info and possible workarounds in this thread...

 

God this thread is just booming, hopefully if I decide on this laptop i'll be able to join you all with your awesome awesomeness!

Ok so someone above recommended not to get the carbon fiber finish although that was something I was kinda looking for. Any reasons specifically why i Shouldnt? (I baby all my equipment and probably wont ever scratch it)

Another thing, whats all this talk about charging the extended battery (which i plan on getting) to only 80%? i thought with lithium ion's you're supposed to keep them charged at all times, it's when you actually run them down to 0 and not back up to full that they suffer.

 

From what I have heard, the premium carbon fiber finish is a fingerprint magnet.

 

I have the premium carbon and it's not that bad for fingerprints... nothing compared to an iphone 3g if that's a reference point for anyone.

 

Premium Carbon Fiber Lid:
First, You get carbon fiber on the lid without having to buy the "Premium" carbon fiber lid. The "premium" just refers to extra processing they do to the lid to give it a sort of smooth woodgrain texture.
Second, don't get it no matter how careful you think you are. I bought it and I've always kept it in a case and am obsessively careful with it, yet, within a few days of having it home with me I noticed several scratches on the lid. Save yourself some money and disappointment and don't get it.

Extended Battery:
Using the Vaio Battery Care applet has the following to say about that:

Battery Care Function (80%): "Battery life will be about 80% of the one of the fully charged batter, however, this mode prevent battery degradation and is more effective if you usually use the computer with battery power."
Super Battery Care Function (50%): "Battery life will be about 50% shorter than one of the fully charged battery, however, this mode prevents battery degradation and is more efficetive if you usually use the computer with the AC adapter."​

 

Oh well ok i'll leave it to sony to recommend me what to do with their batteries. (unless of course its a scam to kill your battery faster so you have to buy a replacement sooner).

Regardless though, you guys have convinced me
I'll be heading to my local sony style store to check it out again in person.

Correct me if i'm wrong now, the finish I liked was the dark rough finish. You're saying that the premium one simply smooths that down? (if so that saves me $$$).

 

I got the premium finish and I like it, its very nice looking. I have had no issues with fingerprints or scratches (maybe the manufacturing process changed with the z690).

Also, I don't know how necessary the extended battery is (it will stick out the bottom of your notebook), with the proper power profile I get around 5-6 hours of normal notebook use. Thats with wifi and about halfway brightness. I think thats plenty, and saves on notebook weight and size. If you really need more maybe just get a stick power adapter.

 

One opinion.

I have the premium lid, and it really is beautiful ... I do wish I realized that the smooth surface indeed attracts fingerprints ... I can keep it in check now that I am aware, and if you use a cloth between the keyboard/screen you can easily use it to wipe the lid down if it gets bad. In some lighting the prints aren't noticeable, in others they really are.

The comments on scratching scared me after it arrived, but ... to be honest, I have zero scratches. I've carried mine around a ton since getting it, and it sits on my desk when not in use instead of protected in a case ... no issues with scratching. That said, if you do scratch it, I'm sure its smooth texture would show them rather easily. Still ... I baby mine, and I've had no scratching problems.

So personally, I'm not disappointed. I still appreciate the unique look of it.

If you saw the regular finish and like it, stick with it - at least you'll know what your getting and be happy with it. The premium isn't exactly a smoothed down version, it does have a textured *look* with a smooth finish, and it can look different depending on the lighting/angles ... but it isn't hugely noticeable in my opinion, I consider it more subtle enhancement.

 

Ok another quick question, whats the difference between all the Z69x's? on sony's page there are z691, 94's so on and whatnot. Should i just ignore those and continue to order the z690 online? Also do you recommend ordering online? over the phone? or through an actual sony store?

 

I'm considering getting a Z very soon and swapping the HDD for a 80GB SDD. 80GB minus Win 7 install will probably leave me with 50GB which isn't all that much. That's why I want to fill up every hole in this notebook (expresscard SSD, SD, MSPro) with memory cards and use them for document storage while using the SSD as an installation disk for programs. A few questions about this:

1. I read that SDHC cards work in the Z, what is the maximum capacity (I found a 30GB SDHC) working in the Z? and did anyone do a transfer speed test (the SDHC I found can get up to 30MB/s but it depends on the controller in the notebook)?

2. Does the Memory Stick slot accept the new Memory Stick Micro M2 format? I'm guessing no, as it;s not as long as the usual Memory Stick cards, right?

3. Can you use both the SD and MS slots at the same time?

4. Anyone any experience with expresscard SSD's? I noticed the cheaper ones use USB2.0 internally so that will probably become my "Documents" disk, but there are also expresscard SSD's which use the PCI-E internal connector, basically making them full fledged SSD drives with maximum speeds

 

I would ignore it and customize to the configuration you want. Sony's numerical naming scheme can get confusing.

 

Whoah! really i can get an ssd for the expresslot? thats sweet! I never used my express slots before but now i might just have to. God can't wait to get mine now.

 

Well, I've found plenty of USB2.0 expresscard SSD's (which means 20MB/s read, 15MB/s write) and only one PCI-E expresscard SSD which does 100MB/s reads and 80MB/s writes.

It's (extremely?) expensive, and not as fast as the best SSD drives out there, but it's nice to know that it's possible, I fully expect companies to jump onto this bandwagon and produce more of these mobile SSD's for notebooks in the future.

By the way, with my limited space and no eSATA port on the Z I intend to use the expresscard slot at home for a Dual eSATA express card connecting two WD 2TB My Book external harddrives and using the expresscard SSD when away from home. In other words, time to throw out the PC in the livingroom

 

Mtron also has a 'proper' Expresscard SSD:
http://www.mtron.net/English/Product/ProductDetail_view.asp?ItemCode=MSD-EXCD3034

 

Newegg has a PCIE expresscard 48GB:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161325&Tpk=48gb expresscard

 

Or you might simply get a decent expresscard34 CF card reader, and you can use the new generation of ultra fast CF cards. With the added benefit that you can read the drive on other PCs too, as long as they have a CF card reader.
You now get CF cards up to 100 GB in size and with a read AND write speed of up to 100 MB/s.

 

That is crazy. I had no idea they made CF cards that large and with those kind of speeds.

 

They do. Mostly because for pro photographers, slow and unreliable SD or MS cards isn't a good option.
CF cards have an IDE or SATA controller on the card itself, which is why they're bigger and cost more. But SSDs are so way overpriced right now that a medium-sized medium-speed CF card can still be a good alternative for extra storage.

 

OK i'm back with another question. I was originally gonna get the extended battery, but by the looks of it, it angles the system quite a bit more than i'd like. Anyone find theirs to be irksome?

 

Short answer, no. But I wish it didn't protrude straight down. I like how the old S and SZ large capacity battery angled down and away from the rear of the machine. I think the large capacity battery for the Z makes it sit a little too high. With the Z on your lap, you can feel the battery on your thigh but it hasn't hindered use. I don't find the large capacity battery too cumbersome.

Or if you want, buy an extra standard capacity battery as a spare. Coincidentally, I have two for sale

 

hmm.. I've noticed another quite annoying thing.. that BIP - sound (when you use S-buttons/brightness etc..) - can it be turned off?

Thanks in advance..

 

Yes you can.

 

Yes you can delete/rename the pi.wav file to remove the beep.

 

Is there an chance to use the z`s network features without the smart network service? Can i enable/disable them by script?

 

...very nice - thanks!

 

Anyone know what the normal GPU temperature of the Vaio Z is? Mine idles at 69c and tops at 85c.

 

For everything except WWAN, yes. I'd even recommend that you get rid of SmartWi, which doesn't work right.

If you have to ask, I would have to say no. Yes, it's doable, but you need to know what you're doing, how and why before you script it.
But don't worry -- you won't need to. Microsoft's network applications and services do the job pretty well for almost all circumstances -- far better than SmartWi, at any rate.

 

Yes, they appear as separate and independent drives. They even have separate controllers, so one being busy won't affect the speed of the other.

That's the positive. The negatives are:
- They're both USB drives. With the limitations in speed that incurs.
- Due to the design, it's quite difficult to physically eject just one of the cards without accidentally ejecting the other.
- The MS slot accepts both MS (big) and MS Duo (small) cards, and sometimes you trigger the wrong mechanism when inserting a Duo card, and it disappears too far in. Tweezer time.

 

Is there a way to use the Volume up/down, Brightness increase/decrease without have to hold down the FN key?

 

Hi Guys,

I just switched from my SZ7xx to a Z540 and it's taking some getting used to. I have to admit that right now I miss the added vertical screen size that the SZ had.

I've installed Windows 7 RC1 and everything works as it should, but I can't seen to get the nVidia card to get rid of the exclamation point in Device Manager. Currently it says:

(!)NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS
-Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems (code43)

I used windows update, which downloaded the latest driver (8.15.11.8585) and it still shows a problem. I tried installing the beta drivers from nVidia's website but it refuses to update as it says the 'better driver' is already installed.

Any tips/advice?

Thanks!

 

don't use the drivers from windows update, uninstall it and install the one provided on sony's website, it's the only official one that works right now. Won't have any problems other than your brightness adjustment keys won't work :\

 

For those of you running windows 7 on it, do you recommend it? or stick with vista until 7 is more stable (i.e. better drivers for the Z and such)? And also have you noticed any improvements by switching to 7? I want to know what everyone thinks so I can just to a fresh start the moment i get my Z

 

i'm happy with W7.... not that vista was bad, W7 is just better for my tastes. Everyone is different though. Trying it out is the best way for you to figure it out..... if you don't like it, use your recovery disks to go back to vista

 

Do you have everything working in w7 witht he Z? What install order did you follow when installing the drivers?

 

IMPORTANT QUESTION!

Hey guys! Wow I haven't posted here in a longg time. Anyways gotta quick question about the Z555dnb. I am having issues with the Touchpad for a while now. It intermittently freezes a lot of the time, like not just Frozen, but kinda goes all over the place when you use it, no smooth movement. Anyone else have this big problem? I wonder how Sony will go about fixing it. Thanks in advance!