Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

I just picked up a Z610y/b and in my excitement of putting windows 7 on it I formatted the drive. During the install process, Windows wouldn't let me install to the drive without wiping all three partitions, and evidently that included a 10GB partition that housed the Vista 64-bit files. Now that that's completely gone, is there anything I can do to get a copy of it back?

Thanks for the advice!

 

Greetings everyone,

I've also finally decided to go with the Sony Z CTO, but I have a question:

I've browsed this forum and have read that it is best to get the same RAM modules, I'd like to upgrade the ram on my own from 2 GB > 4 gb, but cannot find the manufacturer or timing of the ram.

Does anyone know which ram module comes with the new Z?

Thank you.

 

Wait until you get the machine, then run a utility like CPU-Z, which will tell you all the details you want.
Or order the machine with the cheapest memory option from Sony, and then replace ALL the RAM. If Sony still has a 1 GB option, that may even save you money, and even if they don't, the difference between buying a 2 GB module and a 2*2 GB pack is very small.

(If you're going to run 32-bit Windows on it, I recommend going to 3 GB instead of 4 GB. You'll only get around 48 MB extra from 4 GB, and pay for it with increased heat and slightly reduced battery life.)

 

I believe I'm having the same problem as you, but I didn't go as far as you did, so everything is still in tact. Can't you use your restoring discs to get Vista 64-bit back and start from scratch? If you find a solution, can you post yor detailed steps. Thx.

 

Well my restore discs are the downgraded XP SP3. I didn't even boot the system when I got it - I just installed the Windows 7 DVD and went from there. Apparently when you boot the machine there's a popup that reminds you to create the Vista 64 Restore Discs - which I didn't do, since I hastily installed Windows 7 instead. Now I'm regretting it as the brightness settings don't work with the nVidia beta drivers - which makes me want to revert back to Vista...but it's not there for me to revert back to! Does anyone live in/around LA with a Sony Z and some Vista restore discs?

 

Have a look around the forums and you will see that people have fully working Windows 7 on their Zs, mattedmunds. Perhaps finding the right drivers will save you the hassle of tracking down recovery discs.

 

Yeah, there are several useful instructional guides that helped me - the problem is that with windows 7 64 bit, the brightness control doesn't work using either Windows' settings or the Sony Control Center's, despite me following the install instructions line-by-line. Now the notebook is stuck at a certain brightness until I reboot, which then changes it to the setting I had just prior to rebooting. If there's a 'fix' that that would be awesome!

 

Has anyone ordered a newer Vaio Z that has the Gobi card in it and been able to use the free Verizon Wireless Day Pass? I messed around with the wireless manager and it wouldn't let me connect to the Verizon network because I was roaming. I didn't even consider it and ended up reformatting.

Later that night I read up on some mobile broadband; US cellular offers coverage in my area so I started looking it up. I saw that Verizon offers three free Day Passes when you buy a notebook with the embedded WAN card. I wasn't sure if I would still be able to try it (once I get into a coverage area) or if I had just sacrificed the free trials when I reformatted. Or maybe my notebook didn't qualify despite it being on the list

 

1)Can I swap the HDD if I don't have any experience with it? does it involve removing the keyboard, or can you just take it out from the bottom with 4 screws like a macbook?

2)2,5 ghz - 2,6 ghz - Is the difference in price worth it? The Z is supposed to last me for years, but I don't wanna pay for petty upgrades. Long term, is the 0,1 extra worth it?

3)anyone who can direct me to some videos where they are gaming on the vaio z, or with some benchmark? I tried searching youtube/google, but couldnt find anything.

 

It's a little bit more involved than that -- there are print cables that have to be moved without breaking or scratching them, for example. Whether it's too hard, only you can be the judge of. There are several pictorial examples floating around on the web: Google is your friend.

The bus is 266.67 MHz, so unless there's a model with a slower 200 Mhz bus, there aren't any 2.5 or 2.6 models.
There is a 2.53 GHz one (9.5x mujltiplier) and a 2.67 GHz one (10x multiplier).

Whlie the difference of 133 Mhz per core isn't all that great, it matters if you intend to undervolt the machine to gain battery life without sacrificing speed. If so, beware that there is currently no undervolting app that works with half-multipliers, and the speed of the 2533 MHz CPU will be dropped from 9.5x to 9x, i.e. it will run at 2.4 GHz. For a multi-threaded app, the difference is then 533 MHz, which is noticeable.

It's not a gaming laptop, that's why.
Almost no modern games are playable in the native resolution, even with graphics turned way down, so you'll have to play in something like 1024x768, and live with the blurriness and visual artifacts due to scaling. Even then it's not exactly fast -- a 2121 GPU score in 3DMark Vantage, or 4-8 fps on the two main tests.
The graphics card is fast enough to handle 1080p video decoding and run Vista Aero without any noticeable problems. Games, not so much.

 

I have the Z550, and made 2 copies of Vista, however, mine is 32-bit - not sure how that will work. Maybe, someone can offer to PM you and make a copy of Vista 64.

 

Ok, thanks for the answers.


But I seriously don't understand all this talk about blurryness or artifacts. I would want to run the laptop in 1200x800 as it's desktop resolution(and games) in the same spectrum. ... why does this screen become blurry or have artifacts?

I mean, I had a 15'' laptop with native resolution(max resolution = native?) of 1600x1200, and it ran fine in 1200x800. On such a small screen I don't feel comfortable with such small icons.

 

please do enlighten us, o wise one

 

That's a great idea. If anyone has the time to make me a Vista 64 recovery CD/DVD I'll be happy to paypal them $25+the cost of shipping and discs. It shouldn't be piracy since the OEM key and hardware is needed for the OS to work properly, right? I don't want to break any forum rules so please let me know if this is against them and I'll edit/delete my post. I just need to restore the unit the way it came from the factory. Thanks and please PM me if you're willing to help me out!

 

Because on an LCD screen, the number of pixels don't change like on a CRT screen. If you want to display 1200 pixels on a 1600 native-width screen, the display circuitry has to scale the 1200 pixels up to 1600. There's no way around that scaling if you want to use a non-native resolution full screen.

No way, Jose. The aspect ratios are even different. The only way you could run 1200x800 "fine" on a 1600x1200 LCD display is if you placed the unscaled 1200x800 image in the middle, with a large black border around it.

Non sequitur. With Vista, OS-X, Gnome 2.2x, and most other modern GUIs, the icons follow the DPI size. When the DPI has been set correctly, the icons (and fonts) will display the same physical size on all your computers. The number of pixels used to draw them will differ, but the size will be the same.

 

Unless you want to replace the HD yourself too, I would go for a 7200RPM.

 

I just did. Sony is cognizant of which limitations they choose or choose not to allow on any given model (Virtualization is a prime example). Your implication that it's because they're incompetent -- and not that it's a conscience choice -- is erroneous.

True, and if it's a price issue I'd probably forgo the P8700 in favor of a 7200 RPM drive.

 

This was happening to me on my Z570 and then the whole laptop shut down - I purchased it three months ago and was told by Sony that it could take up to a month to repair it in Europe so I payed a hundred pounds in the UK to fix the problem - the power chip had gone wrong and the technician said it was just something that happens sometimes. It's a Japanese build, as well. Now it runs very cool again with the fan hardly on and the speedfan temps very low even though I am using the laptop in exactly the same way I did before (GFX intensive video-editing etc.)

I had similar heat problems with my SZ and assume that Vaio problems with heat always lead to much-needed repairs, unlike Dells etc. It's just that when Z series laptops actually work, they are great.

 

What is a "power chip"?

 

Probably a chip that converts input voltage from power brick into multiple stabilized voltages for various elements on motherboard (CPU, RAM, various other circuitry require different voltages), controls power on/off, battery charging, powering certain circuitry during sleep, etc.

 

I can vouch for that. I bought my 690 with the 7200RPM drive and am very pleased with the speed with which it boots...about as fast as a HDD can boot Vista (that I've seen). I boot to the desktop in just about a minute, which is pretty stinking fast for a hard disk - and that includes the logon time.

Consider that in order to speed up a system, you must always address your slowest component. In the case of computers, that is almost always the HDD. That means that unless you are springing for the over-priced SSD, you should instead opt for fastest HD offered. Even then - and even with the slowest CPU available, the hard drive is still going to be the slowest component in your laptop. (That's why my plan it to replace the HDD with an SSD as soon as the price comes down enough so that I can afford 250GB.)

 

question: will it make a SIGNIFICANT difference to my system (ie negatively, rather than positively affect program launching etc) if I stick another 2 gb of the cheapest ram i can get into it? Im guessing the cheapest ram probably has slower firing times etc, but wont having 4 gb vs 2 gb make a larger difference than the actual speed of the ram? Any help would be greatly appreciated. THanks.

 

hey guys breaking news, all u buyers just hold on . As per akihabaranews, New Vaio Z with 8GB of Ram, 512GB SSD and 3.06GHzis coming in Japan. Even Singapore models carried a 500SGD discount last week so something must be happening soon. link is mentioned below http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/new...GB+of+Ram,+512GB+SSD+and+3.06GHz…+YEAH+!.html

 

My store clerk here in The Netherlands told me a couple of weeks ago to hold off on buying a Z because they expected new models to arive soon. I was told to give him a call at the beginning of June as he would have more information from his wholesaler by then. Let's wait and see, these specs look awesome but I expect a hefty price tag to come with it.

 

I think I would need to take out another mortgage to get the Z with 8GB of ram and 512GB of SSD!

 

http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Computer/Vaio/Z/index.html

Z now available with bordeaux red lid..not my cup of tea though!

Quickly specced up a Z with P9700, 4gb RAM, 2x128gb SSD (RAID 0), 1600x900 screen, DVD ROM, WWAN & Vista Ultimate 64bit - came to 290,800yen (£1938 or $3000) - not too bad considering! 512Gb SSD not selectable yet.

 

Looks like they also changed the palmrest to a solid black finish instead of the dark gunmetal finish we have now. They did this same thing on the SZ

*edit

New Z spec bumps for Japan. Includes support for 8gb of ram, 512gb SSD, 3.06ghz processor.

 

I just upgrade my Z to 500GB Seagate Momentus 7002.4
Sequence read is really fast ~100MB/s.

 

Thanks, I had all auto-dimming, auto monitor switchoff, auto sleep, etc. disabled - I was just getting random complete shutdowns of the backlight. Warranty provided on-site repair tech is here now, he has 9 years experience in laptop repairs, typical backlight replacement takes him 20 minutes. He's been here over 2 hours, couldn't make heads or tails of the Sony documentation, my laptop is in many many pieces on the desk (apparently necessary to get at the screen on the Z), and he's declaring inability to put it all back together, going to bag it up and send it to the factory - joy, pure joy. Sony is telling him right now that it's a week and a half turn around time.

Part of the price to be paid for being as thin and light as possible, I suppose.

 

Just saw that Vista SP2 is available now. Has anyone installed it yet? Any problems?

 

I just did on my Z570. no problems so far...

 

I installed Core temp and got some questions..

First of - is that idle temp of 40 C healthy/normal ?
next.. why the heck is my cpu clocked at 1595 Mhz ?! - its surposed to be a 2,4 Ghz P8600.. ??

 

Keep in mind that not all 7200RPM (or faster) and SSDs are created equal. A high end 5400 RPM model can outperform a lackluster SSD or higher RPM conventional HDD, both in burst speed and average throughput. The issue with OEM drives is that you never know for sure what exactly you're gonna get. The only way to be sure is to buy the cheapest OEM unit available and purchase and install an aftermarket drive, though this is something of a hassle on the Z.

 

Yes. Actually, that's pretty cool.

All Penryn CPUs drop down to 6x multiplier when idle. At load, the multiplier will jump up again, in your case to 9x.

 

I probably missed it while I was out of town, but BIOS 2168M3 is now posted at the VAIO USA website.

 

I don't understand what you are trying to say mate, and I don't understand why there artifact and why the screen gets blurry if you dont see it in 1600. I understand that is has to scale,

but my normal 15'' laptop looks fine when lowering the resolution to play games or watch films. and that was a WUXGA display I think.


I feel uncomfortable if I can't see the picture clearly just because I want to lower the resolution. vista runs slower in higher resolutions from my experience. so to get a really smooth experience i would like to lower it.

If the screen is good, why does it have this problem if other lesser laptops who also use LCD don't?



I am looking for the best ultra portable i could fine to game on. Nothing has fit the profile better than this one, so far.

 

Just looked up information about display in SIW on my Z690. It shows manufacture date 2002, Week 45 and display size 14.5". That got me thinking. Looks like they took old 14.5" 1600x1200 LCD, cut it down to 1600x900, which also turned it into 13.1" (try measuring and calculating - it fits), slapped LED backlight on it, and put into the laptop. Refurbished FTW! Or am I going crazy?

 

AHHH! Sony is releasing updated versions of all their vaio's (including the Z) in japan. Which means how long till its here? I was going to order my z690 but if they're going to get updated soon i might as well wait... Curse you laws of technology!

Ok so it looks like most of the updates are simply aesthetic so i'm not that worried yet. However they seem to have updates the keyboard slightly too, I'm wondering if they're adding a backlit one which would be amazing!

Aside from that, is it possible to have a raid array in the vaio z?

 

I just installed vista SP2 on my SZ48 , no issues so far

 

Thanks a lot arth1
I just realized it was Speedstep in action.. when I powered up photoshop it went to 2400 Mhz.. pretty neat!

Also glad to hear about the temperature.. - I have no clue what are normal temps for such little powerful thing

 

I just gave me Z a Vista SP2 update... And it frees up 40GB worth of memory on the HDD...! I would be correct in saying that it probably got rid of all the past system restore points... Would hate to see some of my files missing here and there...

 

ok.. I just realized a odd thing:


..I should have a P8600 cpu.. but in windows device manager it says a P9500 with a higher clock.. - just vista playing confused?

 

What does CPU-Z say about CPU?
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

can't see why not, that's what I did on my TT going from single SSD to RAID, you just need the Raid cable, add a disk and some patience to understand how to build the array and still keep your current config without having to reinstall... If you start from scratch no pb at all.

 

Make sure to install Intel Chipset Utility/Drivers.

 

It only works with specific SSDs that are half-height of regular laptop HD so that they can be sandwiched into HD compartment. It also requires special ribbons to connect. So, if you Z did not come in RAID configuration, you do not have these ribbons.

On the other hand, DVD drive has a SATA connector and can be replaced with second HD. There is a thread here about that. Then this second HD and original HD can probably be put into RAID - chipset ICH9M-E definitely supports RAID 0/1/5. Then the last piece is whether BIOS supports setting RAID in general or only allows it on specific SATA ports. In the latter case this DVD->HD replacement won't let you have RAID.

 

I see, ok won't be doing a raid setup, but also glad I waited before ordering. I guess I'll just wait till I start school in august again before ordering my Z. Hopefully Sony will have a student discount/deal to compete with apple. I also hope these refreshes aren't expensive. $2200 for my 690 config was the limit, so anything beyond that just kills me.

 

There is a 10% student discount for Vaio Z models.

 

Someone with Z with Vista already updated to SP2? No problems?

 

Yes, i´m on SP2. Problems only with NOD32 AntiVirus v4, switched back to v3 with no problems ;-)