Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Incorrect, the 9300M GS supports Cuda:
"Providing powerful visual computing features to thin-and-light notebook PCs, the NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300M GS GPUs take mainstream systems to a new level of performance. With best-in-class HD video and audio combined with the ability to run visually-intensive applications, this graphics solution is ideal for your everyday computing needs to enjoy Windows Vista™ and todays popular games. This product is also enabled for CUDA applications and is NVIDIA PhysX-ready."

Link: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_9300m_gs.html

I'm counting on it, as Cuda is not only useful for games, but also for video/picture editing. A plug-in for current generation of Adobe Premiere CS3 should be available shortly ( http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/how_it_works.php), and CS4 should support Cuda natively.

No idea when the first games should start supporting cuda, butnif they do, the 9300m gs in the Z will be supported.

 

@isamux: thanks a lot for the pictures and tutorial, this is really useful!

 

Oh, that is great news then. So it should be only a matter of time before nVidia releases a driver for the mobile chips. One thing I noticed on the nVidia PhysX site is that you need at least 256 MB of vRAM, so I presume the 128 MB version of the nVidia card will not be able to handle the PhysX.

 

I think you can return CTO's. If you check Sony's Website under " Sony Outlet and Refurbished Products" Tab, you will see a number of notebook with different CTO's. These are the notebooks people have ordered and returned. Here's a link. After clicking to the link, just "check mark" and specify is you want it to list refurbished or clearance.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...////UserSearch=Inventory+>+0+and+Price+Ss+>+0

Wow! Someone is already selling second hand Z's. It must be IsamuX. He's the only one I know who has one.

Hey! Hey! Hey!, There are Americans present... LoL, I can't imagine the Discovery Channel doing a brief clip / story on how american's are slapping parts, gluing pieces together and coming in to work sick blowing their nose directly on your laptop to simply moisturize it due to heat dissipation, and then rushing to get a value meal at McD's, just to get your laptop shipped to you in mediocre shape. Give us a little more credit for trying.

 

Not everything is so simple....most of Japanese cars sold outside of Japan are made in Europe and the quality is not really 'Japanese'
(I can say, was working there ,)) and the notebooks are made by Japanese women not Chinese just because they can give them nearly as low salary as to Chinese without taking care of (most usually illegal) foreigners in Japan. But still as I said I believe in Japanese CTOs more than in the US one....but if you'll take one from Japan, it doesn't matter if you'll take CTO or not (what more, I think the FeliCa card reader at Z is really awful).

If you want one more opinion...I wouldn't trust completely to things which are even though 'Made in Japan' but made for outside of Japan (what is case of pre-conf Vaio as well)...as I know Japanese, they are always taking care of things made for Japan in a different way (that's why there are so many products which are 'For sale in Japan only' and you can't order them even through internet)...

 

You have a used Z? Already? If not, your inquiry is in the wrong thread.

But anyway, hate to say it - stuff like Limewire and such is your problem. It's not your Vaio. They're resource hogs and sometimes loaded with spyware and crapware.

 

The CTO think is not that big of a deal to me. Sure it might be assemlbed in the US, but I dont think they are putthing these together from scratch. I chose the 2.5 CPU and 4GB of RAM - I dont think this means they are going to put it together from carbon fiber and plastic the way I want. I bet they are just going to unscrew the bottom pannel, put in the CPU and memory I asked for. This seems basic and efficient.

It makes sense to make all basic Z's in a facotry where quality can be controlled, and ship them to places to be customized with simple options. It doesnt make business sense to make them from the ground up the way Canadian Guy is suggesting, and I think Sony is in the business of making money

 

It looks like the drivers which should support the 9300M GS are available now (although haven't tested on a Z yet of course): http://www.nvidia.co.uk/content/forcewithin/uk/index.html (not sure if these are the same as the one in your link Wolf04)

Apparently Unreal Tournament 3 supports Cuda... http://www.trustedreviews.com/graph...PU-Accelerated-PhysX-Launched-In--Ge-Force/p1

They even offer a free game to try it out...

Maybe IsamuX will let us know if these drivers can be installed on the Z, or if we need updated drivers from Sony (which means a wait of a couple of months at best...)?

 

Everything Ive had thats Made in Japan is still working till today perfectly.

Anyways, I phoned Sony U.S and Canada support, they told me If I were to buy a laptop from U.S it would not be supported in Canada. Now that makes me wonder if that would apply to Portable One aswell, If I buy from them, will it be supported in Canada cuz their laptops are U.S model.??????

 

That's the same as the link I used but there is no mention of the mobile chips on that site, or at least I can't find any.

 

According to P1, a Vaio purchased from them can be repaired in a Canadian repair depot. I think you got that email as well.

 

This is getting ridculas, I mean come on, I phoned up MTC (Sony Autherzied Service Center in Canada) as advised by Portable One, so i phone MTC, and they say cannot support laptops if Sony Canada will not. Im all over the place, I cannot even friggen contact Portable cuz their god **** number doesnt work. This is pathetic.

 

lol ok I finally got his persnal contact number for Ivan at Portable One, nice guy, so he said I should be fine, other cusomters from Canada are he said that have bought from Portable One, and said thers no conplaints. Im still a little sketchy though.

 

Hm... a hard drive upgrade is very likely going to void the warranty?
Any one know if this is for sure? I thought almost all notebook manufacturers allowed users to perform hard drive and memory upgrades without voiding warranties. Is sony different?

Just curious since I bought a CTO Sony Z with the cheapest 200 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm] and 3 years ADH warranty thinking that I'd be able to perform a hard drive upgrade myself without voiding the warranty. Otherwise i may reorder with the upgraded 320GB HD.

 

Just a heads up to anyone who ordered the Sony Z with the Campus Pack Promotion which is going on... There's now a $300 discount on Sony Z notebooks as opposed to the $200 off that was offered earlier. I just got off the phone with the Sonystyle Customer service and they wouldn't credit me my $100 because it was a CTO. They said that I would have to cancel my whole order and reorder. I talked to a sonystyle floor supervisor and was still not able to just get them to give me $100. This is unfortunate since I have to spend shipping costs to send my accessories back in to sonystyle and reorder the exact same two same accessories to them which they are again going to have to ship back to me. I guess that is the route I'm taking though because of the incompetent sonystyle customer service...

 

is it me or did they raise the price of the warranty :X

 

By law in the USA, a warranty can't be voided due to a modification that does not do any damage to another component of the notebook. Even then, it would only void the warranty on the damaged component. Manufacturers like to say that doing mods will void the warranty so that you won't send it in for a warranty claim. Just an easy way to get rid of people and claims.

Just like with a car: if you mod the suspension, it WILL void the warranty on your suspension, but not your engine.

If you put the machine back to the original configuration before sending in for a claim, you won't have any issues.

 

Hm. No price increase on the 3 year ADH. Don't think any of the other ones switched either. The exact same order that I made on August 2, which costed me $2594.17 costs me $2,493.83 if I order it today with $300 off promotion instead of $200 off promotion.

With this $300 campus value pack promotion anyone ordering through sonystyle might as well go with atleast the 2 year ADH warranty since it will save you money. Or pay around $50-70(including 2 accessories) and get the 3 years ADH.

 

I think it's been said about cars already, but a lot of stuff in Japan is being outsourced as well. Games and animation have used outsourcing for quite a while now. Even Japanese toys and such... Made in China. Sad, really, but that's how it goes.

However, that being said, I've had rather excellent service from a couple of US-based laptop companies, one which makes custom laptops and the other which is the manufacturer's US repair facility. Both are (I can't say this with enough sincerity) extremely good at everything from customer service to build quality to repairs. They were always courteous, friendly, and whenever my laptop needed repairs it always came back cleaner than it went in. If it had anything small missing (like a trim cover, for example) they'd replace it for free. Absolutely the best support I'd ever received from any company. The only reason I didn't go with them again was because none of their laptops had everything I needed this time around, which was when I found the Z.

There are bad grapes, tho... I had to send my laptop to a particularly bad repair facility once (warranty-defined company). My poor laptop came back horribly mangled.

 

I spoke to the sony rep the other day, he said september. there wont be a blu ray option and they will be $3k or more

 

Sigh, now this really sucks. I think I'm starting to regret my pre-order...

So far Sony has been nothing but a pain to deal with. I pre-ordered on Jul 23, and then later thought I might actually want to have the blueray. So I called them back and they said it couldn't be done without canceling the entire order. So I asked them if I could just buy one from them later on at add it later, and they said under no circumstance can the laptop be modified. So I thought, oh well, do I REALLY need a blue-ray, probably not...

Subsequently I've been reading through the forums about a battery-leakage issue thats supposedly experienced by virtually all of the new lines. Specifically SR people are all pretty much reporting a several percentage loss a day when the machine is off, and a few are reporting 10s of percent over a few hours...

And now, before my Z has even been built, they have dropped the price $100; and the only way I can get that $100 is to cancel my entire order, package up and re-ship them back the accessories they sent, and replace my entire order for the exact same stuff...

I really like what I've seen so far about the Z; but I'm starting to think if Sony is this much of a pain at the sales stage, what are they going to be like later on? I'm really just considering canceling my whole order and possibly keep looking around...

Any suggestions from you guys in a similar situation? Are all of you that took advantage of the $200 off deal going to return your stuff for the $300 deal?

 

$3K AUD or USD - that's expensive. I'm assuming that's for a basic model. I use to travel to Sydney, Aus. quite a bit, and everything imported was ridiculously expensive. My friends from Paddington would always ask me to buy them Levi Jeans which you could get in the US for $17, but would sell in Australia well over $100.

Can you get your Z cheaper in Japan?

 

jpoe:

I had a similar reconsideration on my Z config. I thought maybe I'd go with the 7200 RPM HDD instead of the 5400 one, so I talked to a sales rep. They said nothing could be done after the order was placed, and had to ask to see if I could even cancel my order and place a new one with the new configuration.

Seems like you have to purchase a crap-load of additional stuff before you can take advantage of the $300 off deal, so I'm not going to even try. I was worried about my order being delayed if I decided to cancel my order and place a new one.

 

Can you re-explain what you just said above (in red text)? Why can't you just cancel your order and just start over so that you benefit from the extra $100 savings?

I've heard that Sony Customer Service when ordering CTO's can be very difficult if you decide to modify your order later. I think this will be the only problem you encounter unless you have to send your Z to a Sony Repair Center in the USA.

edit: Oh! you mean to just keep the Z which you've already preordered and then send it back to Sony later so that they can install a Blu-Ray Drive later, right? Oh, don't do that. If you want blu-ray, just cancel your order and reorder one with a BD. You don't want to be without a laptop. And you don't want them messing with your Z later. Besides, they just said it can't be done, so REORDER!

 

Yeah, essentially when I first ordered it - I thought that the extra $500 for a blueray was (and in truth, it still is) out of my price range. So, my plan was to purchase it now with the DVD option, and maybe half a year or a year from now, as the prices of blueray drives drops, replace my dvd with the blueray drive that I really want now but can't afford.

Later I read a bunch of posts saying that this would void all warranties, and that you would need to contact them to get the correct drive...

Well, when I called them and they said that I would have to cancel the whole order; I also asked them if my original plan would be possible (that is, in about a years time upgrading the DVD to Blueray). They said no, that even if I sent the laptop in to them to perform the upgrade, they would not do it and that it could never be upgraded once I purchased. I guess I could try to find it second hand and perform the upgrade myself, I'm just worried about warranty issues since I also purchased the 3-year ADH.

 

I would call Sony Support and ask them this question (and not the sales center where you placed your order), because you'll need to get through Support first anyway, to write up any issues you have on your Z (during it's warranty period), before they send you Boxes and Shipping Information (at their expense), which then you send your Z to their Sony Repair Center.

I have one of their business cards I got from SonyStyle.
But if your in the US, the toll-free number is:

1 (800) 282-2848...Sony Service Center
1 (800) 488-SONY...Sony Parts and Accessories
1 (800) 4 SONY PC...Sony Technical Response

 

Thats AUD, and yeah a basic model

 

THis is why I advised u guys from the beginng, take ur take time, dont rush cuz this is what happens, u realize sometthing later or this and that, crap like that. Its barefuly out and u guys have already orderderd. Now that im waiting I still have so many choices ahead of me till I make my final proper decision, headache free.

 

Well, to be fair I was still happy with my decision until Sony dropped the price $100 before they even began US production, and refused to adjust it for those of us who had preordered. And really, my hang-up now is not the blueray - but rather to cancel the whole order or not due to my experiences with the sales department (which in my experience is generally the most customer friendly department of organizations). That plus I must admit the battery leak issue has me a bit spooked....

 

Thats correct. In fact, the premium version will not have BD as well. We get the same models as Sony HK.

Budget Version
Sony VAIO VGN-Z16GN

Premium Version
Sony VAIO VGN-Z17GN

Reminds me of when we got SZ6. The rest of the world got Wireless-N, we didnt.

I think it is time to import, if you want BD.

 

I don't want to offend you, but I don't think you being rational about this:

Web-based sales of laptops and desktop PC's are offered with a different price every week. The only way to stimulate sales of notebooks is to have what seems like a better deal than the last one every week or two. A free this, or a free that, price up or down. Back to school, father's day, Memorial day, etc. etc. sale. There is no reason to believe that a pre-order will be the lowest price of the season.

That said, suppose you return the one you ordered, which happens to be a perfect unit. You order one for $100 less, and it has a defect. Then you are ordering a third unit. Do you see the problem here?

$100 is not enough to fool with a return. I am not saying that $100 doesn't matter, but a new notebook is likely to be $300 or more lower in price in a few months. Then, have you really "lost" $300?

If you don't like the notebook, send it back, but SONY is far from being alone in changing their prices. Lenovo, HP, Dell, every manufacturer does it all the time. It is what drives the sale of the notebooks.

This is the same as retail store, car dealerships, everything. There has to be a "sale" every week.

Again, not trying to offend you in any way.

 

Wow I can't believe I read through all 94 pages in the last few hours. A lot of good info, but I have a question. I'll be buying mine when I move to Tokyo in September and plan on using it while outdoors (outside coffee shops). Is the screen viewable in these conditions?

Also how much will the blue ray drive increase the weight of the laptop by? Plus, I would feel more comfortable going into that huge electronic store in Akihabara to buy it. How long before they start carrying the models with blueray and 4 gigs ram?

Thanks so much guys. I may be getting mine a little late (around mid September) but by then i'll be able to see all your impressions

 

Did I just miss this? What's the issue with the battery leak?

 

I noticed there's a lot of you moving to the Far East; or just moving to other parts of the world. Are you all students traveling abroad to Asia and that's where you've all decided to get your Z's?

 

I'll be moving there for work. I'll be teaching english in Tokyo. I figure I might as well get in when I move there. I'll be there for a long time and the warranty is a big reason I'll get it there. Plus I don't want that annoying sprint thing in my computer. Oh and the credit card support thing for the Japanese version.

Which brings me to another question. Does this have 1seg built in or do you still need to buy the adaptor?

 

Reading the latest Inquirer article is making me worried:

http://gizmodo.com/5035980/inquirer...8800-9600-and-9800-graphics-card-is-defective

Does anyone know if the Nvidia 9300 in the Z is affected?

 

An American buying in Asia is going to pay way more. The dollar is not strong worldwide right now, plus cities like Tokyo are the most expensive places to buy electronics or anything. Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities to be in anywhere in the world. I was there last year and prices were astronomical. Digital cameras were almost twice the Newegg price there. I wouldn't consider buying a SONY laptop there living in USA, plus international warranty would not work for repairs.

 

It is certainly enough to make me want a 3 year "bumper to bumper" warranty!

 

Sorry for repeating this question, but is it possible to buy a Vaio Z for $1,800 in a physical store? Or the cheapest one is $2,000?

 

I totally agree. I canceled my order. Even though I'm out shipping costs on sending my accessories back to Sony, I'll still end up saving a $90. It's really dumb how i'm going to return(with my own shipping costs) two neoprene cases which are going to end up being sent straight back to me just because sony couldn't adjust a price on a product that is not even out yet. They haven't even processed my order nor charged my credit card for crying out loud. Maybe Dell's new XPS will be released some time soon and I'll change my mind altogether.

A note for those that ordered one of the preconfigured models: They told me they would be able to adjust the $100 fee if you had ordered a pre-configured Z. They said that only the CTO ones were impossible to adjust.

 

the 9300M GS is in all likelihood affected as well as its just a respin with faster clocks of the older 8400M G (identical specs bar the clocks and the addition of hybridpower). The 8400M G is based on the G86M core which is indeed affected by the weak die packaging issue.

For those that are unfamiliar with the issue, the weak die packaging means that the GPU is more likely to fail under continuous temperature cycles. i.e. repeated cold-hot cycles. The likelihood of failure increases as the range of temperature fluctuations increase. e.g. a range of 45-90 vs 45-70 degrees celcius.

This issue is most relevant to notebooks as notebooks go through these cycles regularly through daily use and many notebooks have substandard cooling which allows for a large range of temperature fluctuations. This is why notebook manufacturers such as Dell are releasing these a set of new bios. This is enables the fans to kick in more frequently if not constantly in an attempt to reduce the temperature range. Note this is not solving the issue directly but rather reducing the likelihood.

Having said all that, I'm not sure about the cooling performance of the Z, but in any case, merely knowing the fact that you own a notebook with a defective product may be a deal breaker for some.

 

I thought the 9300m GS used a G98 core?
If so, we're safe
*crossing my fingers*

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9300M-GS.9452.0.html
(not sure how accurate that site is though)

 

It's just nvidia's naming scheme. The G98 is indeed the G86 with a few extra bells and whistles, just like how the 9600M GT (G96) is a rehash of the 8600M GT (G84).

 

I dunno about worldwide, but the USD is still stronger than the JP yen. It was weaker than the yen a little while ago, but now it's stronger.

jacf29: there was a post some pages back with a link to a Japanese site that had photos of the Z next to another Sony laptop both indoors and outdoors. I don't think the Z will be very easy to view outdoors.

SPEEDwithJJ: if it does end up that the 9300s are affected and there's some kind of mass recall, I'm sure there will be some kind of public backlash in the form of a class-action lawsuit. In such a case, nVidia would likely settle, and the customer will likely win in a big way. But since nVidia's been good to me thus far I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt and will take my chances.

 

I'm not overly concerned by this as I'll be using the IGP much more often than the 9300M GS. That could change if CUDA makes my Photoshopping much more efficient in the future, but I don't game at all and will only rarely be outputting video via HDMI.

Manni - do you know if there will be a plugin to enable CUDA in Photoshop CS3 as well as Premiere CS3?

 

was there already a word from isamux about battery time?

 

It does have one of the defective cores?
Oh boy... time to reconsider getting this laptop for me...

 

I agree mate, the saving grace of the Z is that it also has an integrated GPU as a spare if anything goes wrong. If thats your primary GPU then you should have no issues. Enjoy the the laptop mate, its a real beauty all in all.

 

Now word from me yet. I just installed the new HD and have a fresh copy of Ultimate on there. I plan to do some gaming for testing and give a general feel of the machine. It won't be professional down to the minute but the machine I have would be atypical as it has the 2.8Ghz (35W) processor, standard battery and a the new Scorpio Black 7200 rpm. SO the result are going to be fitting, just for me. *^_^*

But I'll post again soon.

Also someone asked about the keyboard. It's very nice! I have yet to make a mistake due to a key being mis-hit, yet my spellling hasn't changed.

The keys have a nice feel to them, springy, good tactile feel and a soft clacking, not a typical laptop sound but a bit softer. I'm a tall guy so the keys have good spacing with them, I think it helps to type more accurately. And everything is laid out in a good fashion.

Heat so far is pretty good. It's been on my lap for an hour as I do usual things, web surfing and setting up (everything is on full, no power saving and I'm on battery power). In fact there's not much heat. The only warm part so far is at the bottom of the screen panel near the battery. Not the battery itself, but the LCD panel. ALSO as a side note, when I removed the black dust mesh from the memory door, it's actually quite cool down there, it is really breathing better I feel. I can feel the air being sucked up through there. So, watch for dust for those concerned for that.

Hope that helps.

Really, I can't recommend this machine enough, those of you on the fence, should just jump and get one. You won't be disappointed. My brother loves it too. The next day he got a TZ though. He wanted something even smaller and more portable. The two styles are so close together, it's like the TZ is the baby in the family and the Z is a slightly older sibling (but more mature on the inside...) *^_^*

Jacf29: The shops are carrying a middle of the line version. I don't think they will carry any other versions for a long while. You can get it order made though if you want blueray. I too am here teaching English, have been the past 3 years (with other odd jobs on the side). Also there's no 1seg option, I think you gotta buy a separate card/dongle but I know on the smaller TZ is has the option to have that put in.

 

Don't worry about offending me, no problems here - in fact I was hoping to spark a bit of discussion about this.

And in general I do tend to agree with you. In fact, had I actually received the unit or had the unit even showed any signs of already being shipped, I think you would be right about the $100 - it would have been a premium I payed for having the unit before those that ordered it after this drop in price.

However, in this case, the unit (as far as I know) hasn't even begun to be built. It's really not an apples-to-apples comparison to a person that purchased a laptop, gets it home and sees a cheaper price online. Additionally, I'm not aware of any other company that wouldn't simply adjust your price within a certain grace period (I know any retail store would, and a good number of online stores would - especially for something that has yet to ship). Plus, is a return really a return for something that hasn't even been created yet? Really, the only reason its any discussion at all is that Sony is making me send back two accessories that they will have to turn around and send right back to me. Grin, makes me wonder about all that Japanese efficiency I've been reading so much about the last 95 pages ... .. , (please read that as the sarcastic joke it was meant to be, not offensive...)