Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

What drive does the Z use? (more specifically the 320gb 7200rpm one)

 

My Z690 bought in US uses Hitachi 320G 7200rpm

 

The price for each single 4G DDR3 1066 module in China is normally around 125 USD. But it can only be found on Taobao (i.e. a Chinese eBay) at the moment.

I have ordered a pair of Micron modules from the Sony repair center in Chengdu (a southwestern city in China), which is more likely to be trusted than some random vendor on Chinese eBay. However you'll have to have a friend there who speaks Chinese to order for you in person. They'll tell you according to the regulations/terms by Sony they can't sell you parts directly. by further negotiation they'll ask you to pay a non-refundable 30% deposit to place the order. Also you need to ask your friend to ship it to the US The shipping fee by DHL is about 100 USD or so, assuming it can bypass the customs without being intercepted.

TBH I have no idea why there is such a big difference in price between Asia and the Western world

 

Thanks for the reply!

Wow, arcane process, but it looks like you probably got the actual Sony parts for a great price. Please post on how long the process takes and, importantly, if they work as expected. I guess you have friends on the ground in CN. I've got friends in Hong Kong and Shanghai, but not Chengdu, which is in the remote Szechwan province. If it works out for you, would you be willing to do so for me (of course no risk to you)?

One reason things are so much cheaper is that retail prices in China can be significantly lower than the US or EU. Also, closer to manufacture source thus less supply issues that make 4GB SODIMM module prices here artificially high. Sometimes, the products are counterfeit, but unlikely how you are doing it (from a Sony shop). I've gotten incredible deals in Shenzhen particularly, but you must be careful.

 

My Z finally arrived! And it's beautiful, really really gorgeous.

Right so... What should I do now? Recovery disks? Clean install?

 

Where can I change the actions for the S1 and S2 buttons? Vaio Control Center ist installed and the other buttons (CD, Brightness etc.) are working fine.

 

Recovery disks and be happy
Congrats!

Unistall the junk you think you do not need (e.g. norton, office test etc.). As long as "the junk" does not start any services or applications you do not need, you probably should not bother.

Just wait for you Win7 upgrade to make a clean install with the prper drivers at that time.

 

If you open Vaio Control Center, there should be a segment at the left bottom menu indicating the special buttons with an "S"-symbol.
You should be able to change the "S"-button function there.

 

Jorlin, you've been very helpful throughout my decision to get a Z so thanks again for the advice. I think you're right, I'll wait for win7 for the clean install.

 

Thanks a lot

What I actually did (in order to run Win7) is installing Win7 64-bit RC over the Vista Ultimate installation...
So far everything works very good. No issues but not Working WWAN (due to a lack of drivers for the 64-bit version and the hybrid GPU problem where you cannot adjust brightness in SPEED mode...Anything else works very good and I like the new desktop, "super bar" and windows features with it
That's why I could not wait until the Win7 upgrade. I was hoping WWAN would work... but it does not... and I am just to much used to Win7 now that I can stand this until proper drivers are released.

 

I realize I'm posting this in a Sony subforum and Z-centric thread, but I'm curious about what you folks think of this idea.

I have a Z720 nearing the end of its return window, and I'm considering getting a MacBook Pro -- probably a 15" one -- as my primary machine. Parallels would allow me to use OneNote (as I'm a medical student, and that's basically the only piece of software without a good Mac analogue), and I'd have the build quality and design in those aluminum unibodies.

Of course, 5.5 lbs is a good bit above 3.3 lbs.

Your thoughts, folks?

 

No - there isnt such an option. But the keys are working. I already reinstalled event service.

 

So you want to get a macbook pro because its heavier? and doesnt have one note?

 

The MacBook is really a different class of machine. It's much heavier, larger (though thinner, I believe), and will run much hotter. The VAIO really does a great job staying cool (better than almost any machine I've used). The resolution of the MBP (1440x900) is less than that of the Sony (1600x900...does your screen have this model?). The graphics on the MBP will be better than that of the VAIO, if you want to play games. Battery life might be comparable with the Z, but the Z's extended battery the VAIO will last longer.

Furthermore, if you run OneNote in a virtual machine, your battery life will fall like a rock (20-30%+). I know this because I've tried running OneNote on a Mac extensively (with VMWare Fusion). Also, the Screen Clipping function will not work through a virtual machine. I use OneNote all the time (for keeping all my notes for the Cisco CCNP exam, currently), and tried to find a comparable solution for notetaking on the Mac, but, unfortunately, nothing even comes close. Actually, Office 2007 in general is vastly superior to Office 2008 on the Mac (which doesn't even have feature parity). As for OneNote on the Z, I've found the 1600x900 screen to be excellent for taking notes because you can have a .pdf (or web site, etc.) open on one half of the screen and OneNote on the other. This is not really possible with a screen that has less horizontal resolution. In this case, the MBP 17" WUXGA screen would be pretty nice.

Also, it's not possible to put an Intel SSD (or really any drive that moves above 1.5Gbps) in the MacBook pros...this is a known issue in MBP 13"s and 15" models that still hasn't been fixed by Apple. I will be selling my MBP 13" due to it not supporting my Intel drive.

It really comes down to the software. OS X is nice, and the touchpad is amazing, but if you need to do some serious notetaking, stick with a PC for now.

 

I've having some definite problems with graphics and/or power management on Windows 7. I have the Windows 7 Ultimate RTM installed (I'm a TechNet subscriber), but the video drivers work strangely. Of course, the brightness doesn't work in SPEED mode, but that's to be expected until proper drivers are released. I have the default Intel drivers and Vista 64 NVidia drivers installed. My other problem is that the machine, after resuming from suspend, seems to "reset" the power management settings, and gives me a message like "Your power settings have been changed" upon resume. In doing this, it resets many of my settings (such as the Battery Care function, which automatically reset itself to 80% for me, and the Windows logon on resume, which defaulted back to "on" after I specifically disabled it). The screen flickers after that, killing any videos I have paused. Furthermore, the on-screen display (volume, brightness notification, etc.) sometimes stops working when resuming, after which restarting is the only way to bring it back. These are all serious issues for me, and I hope a solution is found before Sony releases their next Z with Windows 7 (which will undoubtedly be the first time we'll have any access to the working hybrid graphics drivers).

The VAIO Z is hardly alone with video/power management issues in Windows 7. Every single notebook (5+) I've used with Windows 7 has had major issues with graphics drivers and/or power management. The problem is that the manufacturers aren't releasing WDDM 1.1 drivers or custom power management drivers yet. Basically, until you're running all the official Windows 7 drivers from the manufacturer, Windows 7 will not quite work properly.

What is the WWAN model in your machine? I have the Option GTM378 in mine (tri-band/quad-band), and the drivers were successfully installed. I also got it successfully unlocked with DC-Unlocker. However, I don't have a SIM card to test it with, and I may never use it, now that I've managed to get my iPhone tethered.

 

I thought Apple had released an EFI update to fix the 1.5Gbps SATA issue.

 

This problem was one that the original X consortium had in mind when they designed X11. The solution was to encourage users to not blow apps up full screen (or edge-to-edge), but use focus-follows-mouse without click-to-raise. That way, you can have a large number of partially overlapping windows, and cut and paste between them without losing your visual focus, nor even touch the keyboard or use menu choices to copy/paste.
Unfortunately, Windows "won" the GUI war, and other operating systems (including MacOS) started doing things the Windows way instead of the X11 way. So you have click-to-focus, click-to-raise and application windows designed to be run full screen or tiled instead of an optimal size depending on the content.

 

Yes apple did release an efi update to fix the sata issue. lol

Also, i really can't wait for win7 drivers. Life will become so much easier.

 

Actually, the EFI 1.7 update (which enabled 3.0Gbps on the SATA bus) WAS what triggered the beachballing issue for those of us with Intel drives (or other fast drives). You can see all the problems customers have been having in this 44-page thread at Apple

 

Actually, as a long-time *NIX user, I actually prefer the way Windows handles window focus. Too many times, I've been in the middle of typing something when the mouse gets bumped and the focus hops to another window (along with the text I'm entering). This happened to me the other day in Solaris. However, one thing I really do like about focus-on-mouseover is for wheel scrolling. That's really useful when I'm working with multiple apps. Do you know of a way to get this functionality in Windows? I haven't really looked around.

Back to the topic of the Z, I really need the horizontal resolution with which my windows have no overlap, since my work usually involves formatted text on both sides. As far as I'm aware, there really is no laptop out there that offers a horizontal resolution as good or better than the Z in such a small form factor. Machines with a higher horizontal resolution than 1600 pixels (probably WUXGA) weigh at least twice as much as the Z. I suppose the VAIO P has a 1600 pixel horizontal resolution in a pocketable package, but the vertical resolution is lower.

 

Well, that didn't take long. This program does exactly what I wanted: scroll whatever's directly under the cursor. It works perfectly in Windows 7.

 

Hi guys!

I've been the proud owner of a Z31WNB for the last 3 months. Great laptop

I have however run into a slightly annoying 'bug' with the fingerprint reader when you use it for boot authentication: sometimes, at a frequency of roughly 50-60%, the prompt asking me to sweep the finger will indicate 'No fingerprint match' 3 times in row real fast and go to password authentication EVEN THOUGH I didn't even touch reader! It seems that the fingerprint reader is not recognized (possibly not enough power gets to it).. I would however doubt there is any damage in the reader itself as it works perfectly otherwise.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem and/or knows of a way to fix it?

Thanks in advance,

-LordPhoenix

 

If you need true portability MBP is not really an option imo.

Other than that it's a great notebook with excellent display quality.

 

That's odd... I know that the US sony support site gives you advice in which order to install each driver. It might be that this is a problem...
I have not yet made a complete clean install of the OS but simply upgraded from Vista to Win7 RC... and everything worked fine... :/

 

I am using Win7 RC 64bit and I did an upgrade from Vista 64 bit ultimate. I am using the latest drivers provided by Nautis (using test mode). I once had the issue that the battery care function reset and that the intel graphics did not want to stay on 60Hz instead of 40Hz in battery mode. But I changed most of the energy settings (mostly time until something happens) and I am not having any issues at all but brightness not working in Speed mode... I am also using RM clock utility to undervolt. Even that works fine...
I cannot imagine that there is any major difference in the RTM and the RC. So I guess if you made a clean install, there might be an issue with how the drivers integrate into the OS. Have you installed all the drivers using vista compatibility?

Certainly you are right. I hope that Sony is going to have those ready by the official release (meaning it has the Z series ready with working drivers and provides those on the support site [hopefully even earlier])

I have the Qualcomm GOBI chipset working in my Z and the main issue is that the QDLoader service which is responsible to upload the proper firmware to the chipset once you turn it on in order to provide the proper hardware settings for your region and provider simply hangs and stops communicating with the chipset. I cannot figure out why this is. Even gobiloader (a workaround software tool that basically does the same) does hang...
I have never tested it in Vista but since I am able to upload CDMA profiles at least properly with the gobiloader-software tool, I assume that the chip works fine. But here in Germany we use GSM...

I am eagerly waiting for the Win7 64bit drivers...

 

Which software does this (focus on mousescroll)?

 

My vaio is working perfectly, except for Vaio Update. When I press "Go to Vaio Web Support" on Vaio Update 4, it takes me to http://www.vaio-link.com/vu/error/error.asp?p=relief&e=novuax which says "HTTP 500 Internal Server Error".

Not a huge deal as I'm sure nothing needs a huge update at the moment given it's new but would prefer it to work! Any ideas?

 

I have the same problem... it just does not work...

 

I've successfully gotten the Nautis drivers to work. However, I have issues with the screen flickering whenever there is a power state change (plugged in or unplugged). Does it happen to you, where the screen turns black for a second or so? The graphics seem to "reset". This reset has the nasty effect of moving my windows around and killing off playing videos I have (depending on the codec). I move around a lot in my apartment between different places, so this flickering is a big problem for me.

The software is called KatMouse, and can be found here: http://ehiti.de/katmouse/
I've been using it for the past few hours and it works exactly as described. I'd highly recommend it.

 

Well, I do not often change from Stamina to Speed or vice versa. Certainly when changing from one graphic card to the other, you change the hardware settings of the OS and then you get a black screen for a second or so. Before this, the Nvidia software asks me to terminate any software that depends on grapical hardware support including running videos. Since I only play with RMClock Utility and the "fan spped button", which basically works as a very basic switch to change speed step options, I usually have no issues. Even when changing the energy profile, I do not experience your problems because I have not associated those with a change of the grapic adapter. So, your issue only occurs when I use the Stamina/Speed switch, and what happens then is completely normal.

Thanks - seems to work fine

 

Actually, the SPEED/STAMINA switch wasn't the problem. The video reset is expected there. The problem I was having is when the AC power is plugged in and unplugged. Does the screen turn black when you simply unplug the power connector? The Vista x64 drivers work without the drivers "resetting" when I unplug the power (there's no black screen at all with the Vista drivers).

 

LMAO i've been running win7 RC for awhile and never realized it had mouse over focusing. Really useful!

Regardless: The week has come where i'll be ordering my Z before heading to school. If someone could post the rebate link and any other hidden ways of getting the Z (in the US) for cheaper I'd really appreciate it. Also, do you recommend ordering online/over the phone/or from an actual Sony Style store?

I sure hope intel doesnt throw brand new stuff at me as soon as I get this machine and the 30 day return period expires. Thanks Everyone!

 

I just put in the AC and had a short flicker. But it does not kill any videos. And after that plugging it in or out does not cause a flicker at all... I guess I am lucky and do not have your problems... :/

 

Actually, I don't think Windows 7 has built-in functionality for mouse-over scrolling. The program I linked to is required to be running to make it work (it's using almost no system resources running in the background, currently)

The problem only affect videos with certain codecs installed. Particularly, my Cisco training videos, which unfortunately use an unusual WMV codec.

 

Pretty sure i didnt add any other program for that, so I'm gonna go with win7 does have mouse over scrolling... tried it again just now to make sure i wasn't halucinating...

EDIT: LMAO turns out it was Google Chrome that had mouse over scrolling... leave it to google to do stuff right =D

 

You can get Vista and Windows 7 to do "focus-follows-mouse without auto-raise", which includes the scroll wheel acting on whatever window it's over, but it requires a registry change.

If you're not faint-hearted, open regedit, and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Find the key named "UserPreferencesMask", and or the value 0x1 to the first byte. (In human terms add one if it's even, e.g. if it's 90, make it 91). Log out and back in again for the change to take effect.

Unfortunately, not all Microsoft software plays nicely with focus-follows-mouse, but I still find it worth doing unless you have a mouse that wanders off on its own.

 

Just to report bad news (yet again) regarding 8GB. Sniper_Sung is having problems with getting 8GB to work, and here's my response to PM:

Oh, well...

 

I found the Vaio Z to be perfect for my gaming needs. I can emulate ps2 games really well and it plays at the same speed as a ps2.

 

Do they still make the Z with 1366 x768 resolution anymore?

Where can I get it at a good price from the resellers?

 

Portableone.com. The last generation or two has been all 1600 x 900, but some of the earlier 5-series models have the 1366 x 768 resolution.

Not sure about the 6-series.

 

Check Google.com and Pricegrabber.com for Z540 for example.

 

anyone running w7 RTM with the switchable graphics working correctly?

 

What happened to your Vaio SR notebook?

Anyway, the following are the Vaio Z notebooks that offers the 1366x768 screen:

VGN-Z520N/B
VGN-Z530N/B
VGN-Z540
VGN-Z550N/B
VGN-Z570N/B
VGN-Z610Y/B

 

He had a Z and looks like he got rid of it to buy a SR.
Now perhaps after 2nd thoughts buying a Z again.

 

Thinking of upgrading my Z540 with newer wifi card. I have an x200 for work and noticed much better connection / performance on my router that on my Z. Thus figured I switch to the 5300 card. Can anyone confirm if this is the correct one?

http://www.provantage.com/intel-533an-hmwg2~7ITE90CT.htm

Thanks

 

Appears to be the right one. "Bulk" in the title brings some doubts whether you can purchase just one. Perhaps it just means OEM/no packaging though.

 

Currently on Windows 7 Ultimate RTM here. All drivers are working perfectly, with the exception of the brightness in SPEED mode. I'm using the Vista x64 graphics and Bluetooth drivers, and have installed all the necessary VAIO Utilities. I had to uncheck the Video & Photo Color Setting in the VAIO Control Center, because it kept overwriting my color profile. I'd have to say this machine works better than any other notebook I've used with Windows 7. Now, if only Sony would release proper Windows 7 graphics drivers...

Replacing the card shouldn't be too difficult, but the benefits of the 5300AGN won't be fully seen unless you also purchase at least one additional wireless antenna and route it somewhere inside the casing/lid. It can clearly be done, since I have the 5300 option on my Z.

 

Switchable graphics works with SONY's Vista Driver. But not brightness in speed mode.

 

Thx for the info DR. Perhaps my perception of mediocre performance is due to unrealistic expectations in addition to the Vista 'experience'. I'm starting to think you're right about the drive. Apps like Excel and Word load in less than 1 sec.

 

Hey guys -- good news! I came across the fix for the VT issues that's plagued us since these laptops have been introduced.

check out this link and happy hacking !

http://feature-enable.blogspot.com/2009/07/enable-vt-on-insydeh2o-based-sony-vaio.html

You can also enable advanced features in your bios setup! I've done it on my z590, works like a champ. There are so many features in there, reminds me of the days I would put together desktops.

The z is now officially a powerhouse!