Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Yes, it has the standard black carbon lid. It is still a very nice lid IMHO.

 

"Built tough for business, the Sony VAIO Z690PEB Notebook offers the portability of a 3.4 lbs (with standard battery) form factor with the performance of a larger computer. Encased in durable and elegant premium carbon fiber and featuring scratch-resistant XBRITE-DuraView LCD technology, the Sony VAIO Z690PEB Notebook is designed to withstand the rigors of the road."

I'm confused about this still. I copy and pasted this info from Sony's website.
Carbon fiber lid...

 

Well Actually i don't think it's the thing to matter about.
i recived my lap on a week with a reguar lid, but it not a black lid, but with something in. It depends on angle you look at. I see that carbon lid differs, but regular black is quite stylish also.

can post any photos of black one if you want.

 

If I paid for a premium lid, I would want a premium lid...

 

Hey i own a z520 with vista buisness if i get the windows 7 upgrade. will the drivers automatically transfer over or do i need to redownload them from sony which they have told me are not yet available if some one can please help me in response i need the media center

 

Despite Sony's own description, I'm very sure that this model VGN-Z690PEB has the regular black carbon lid. You can always go ahead purchase it & see for yourself if I'm correct on this one. Good luck.

 

Some time ago, someone in this thread mentioned that W7 will automatically fix resolution issues when multi-tasking - having multiple tabs such as Word, Excel, Surfing the Internet, etc. Since the Z is only offered in 1600x900 high-res., will W7 allow settings to be changed to a lower resolution such that of 1366x768, a res. that was offered earlier when the Z was first released, and still keep those application and web pages clear as if it was in native resolution. Thanks.

 

No. The problem is that LCD displays have a fixed number of pixels, and using other resolutions will always mean scaling and loss of accuracy. There is nothing any OS can do about this, as it is a mechanical property of LCD screens.

To understand how the process works, grab some drafting paper. Make a small image in a 10x10 grid by filling the squares. Now try to transform that same image to fill a 13x13 grid, without just adding blank space around it. You'll quickly catch on to the problems.

An old-fashioned CRT doesn't have these problems, because a "pixel" doesn't correspond to a fixed number of colored dots, but is determined by where an (analogue) electron beam hits the back of the screen. No matter what resolution you run a CRT in, as long as it can handle it, the "pixels" are going to be pretty much the same amount of blurry; never as sharp as an LCD in its native resolution, but always sharper than an LCD in other resolutions.

 

Understood. Thanks arth1.

 

I've had my Z690CTO Since March of this year (7 months) and have subjected it to constant use since then (both for work and play). This weekend I noticed that the left side of the left mouse/trackpad button is lower than the right side of the same button. Said differently, the button is now tilted, not level. I'm guessing that my constant use is starting to wear the button out. It still clicks like it's supposed to, but I worry about the problem getting progressively worse. I do have a 3 year, on-site extended warranty plan, but I hate it when they have to open up my "baby."

Anyway, all this to ask if anyone else who is a heavy user of this or any other model of the Z have noticed anything similar.

 

Hey i own a z520 with vista buisness if i get the windows 7 upgrade. will the drivers automatically transfer over or do i need to redownload them from sony which they have told me are not yet available if some one can please help me in response i need the media center

 

i rarely use touchpad and its button, since i bring around my razer everytime i go to meeting and such. i can feel that the left button doesnt feel same firm as right button tho. im not sure if its occured to the new release of Z, since early batch tend to have bad built quality rather than the later.

 

Premium Carbon models always go with the X in the name.

 

Yes, I'm having the same issue. Left button is now lower, but it still clicks. The click is not as loud as it was, which is a bonus.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. As long as it doesn't fail, I guess I won't do anything about it.

 

Anyone have any advice for me? Trying to figure out the problem here. The fan will randomly just crank into high mode and NOT STOP unless I restart. It cuts battery life in half. Can't seem to nail down the culprit. Help!

 

Have a look at your BIOS and make sure everything has been set to default.

Might want to try reflashing the BIOS?

 

i use the buttons frequently.. but no such symptoms for me

 

Whats better, a P9700(2.80Ghz) or a T9900 (3.06 Ghz) for multi-tasking: Word, Excel, Photoshop, Net Surfing. Or would P8800 (2.66 Ghz) be feasible for W7?

I recall 3GB Ram was max. for 32Bit Vista, so what amount of Ram is reasonable for W7 64Bit Professional to run efficiently?

 

it seems that P8800 is enough for you.

Vista 32bit will see only 3 gigs of ram. And any 64bit OS(XP, vista or seven) will see all the memory you will install.

Vistar requirements is less then Windows 7. And AFAIK Vista recomended memory is 2gigs. I'm sure Word, Excel, Photoshop, Net Surfing would run fast with 2 gigs. But 4 gig cost only a little more so i'd advise to get all 4.

 

This is totally off topic, but how many of you Z-owners out there are currently attending the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Vegas? I'm looking out across the room and see quite a few Z's out there!

 

you're not that crazed looking homeless guy who keep staring at my Z across the conference hall are you? Back off buddy, this is my Z!

LOL, I'm just kidding, i'm not there, but my friend is and he's rocking a Hackintosh Dell Mini 10v...@ a MS Conference. haha

 

Haha, there's so much security here no homeless guy could get within 100ft of the conference centre!

Lots of cool stuff going on, but unfortunately the sessions are pretty dry.. not that I expected it to be exciting or anything =P

 

It seems that Sony just made available new Windows 7 drivers for the Z's. However Video drivers were not made avaiable yet. I read somewhere that some models can install Z890's after performing a bios upgrade. Does anyone confirm this information?

 

Just checked, the drop down menu has Windows 7 now (didn't show last night). But once you select it, it tells you there are no drivers available...

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNZ530NB&SelectOS=46

 

need an update to get the brightness FN shortcut key to work. anyone got any advice?

 

anybody knows if a mobility/productivity bundle's on the way?

now that win7's out, im planning to buy a new Z. Without the bundle tho, the two accessories i want will be really expensive (docking st. + mouse).

 

Took the risk and bought 750gb 12.5mm WD HDD. The space is big enough to install the 12.5mm height, but i have to remove 3 rubber pad and go with just 1 at the corner, cause it can't close with all 4 rubber pad.

I also realize that there are less vibration with the new HDD, and is very silent.

 

i assume you're using the recovery discs to get your OS back in right?

 

I am using Acronis 2010 trial - clone the HDD then use Arconis diskmanagement to partition - All trial works like full version.

Of course I will buy after 30 days

 

I also dun notice any decrease in performance. It feels the same with my old 320gb 7200rpm.

 

My computer has started doing something it never did before: the color coming from the VGA port is "washed out" (no red color), but only when it is plugged into a projector. Here's what I have tried and the result for each:

1. Plugged different laptops into each of the 2 projectors
   RESULT: only the Z exhibited the washed out colors; the projectors displayed reds just fine from other laptop
2. Tried the Z set to Stamina and Speed settings
   RESULT: both setttings resulted in the washed out colors
3. Plugged the VGA port into a home LCD
   RESULT: Color was fine, vibrant, actually

Clearly the signal out of the VGA port is fine if the LCD monitor displays the output from the Z in perfect color. What could possibly be causing the two (2) different projectors to drop the reds? Could it be a Vista/XP thing? The Z has Vista Ultimate and the other laptop has XP Professional.

Has anyone ever heard of this before?

 

I was at Frys today checking to see how responsive W7 is on the Z - I'm impressed. Anyway, I asked if they had Z's with SSD and he said, no Sony's w/SSD - they did however pull all pc's/notebooks/netbooks with SSD's off the shelf because there were problems. Does anyone know what the issues were with SSD? I was planning on going to SonyStyle tomorrow or next week to check on the X Series and possibly pickup a new Z with SSD.

 

@Geeee - I am following pretty much every major Vaio Z-related forums. I haven't seen many complaints regarding Z's SSDs.

 

To Sony Z 790 owners,

After a lot of hours I finally managed to successfully migrate to windows 7 64 with all devices working and with the most up-to-date drivers.

The video driver I am using is the same available for Z-890. However this driver will only work after updating bios to r4043m3 - only currently available on sony's ftp site - ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/VAIO/WIN7UPGRADE/ - In addition you can perform such upgrade from within windows 7.

I have been using Windows 7 for 3 months now; this bios update and video driver were the most important software upgrades I have done so far. It greatly improved my overall experience. My ssds are much faster, my 3d programs open quicker and I can now control brightness on windows - I had to update event service to 5.00x.

 

Thanks, I think the sales guy was hoping to make a sale. I just wanted to see if they had the X on display and somewhat make some comparison to the Z. Glad to hear no major issues on SSD's.

 

Bios Revision : R2170M3 w/sony2.1 slic
and
Bios Revision : R4043M3 w/ sony2.1 slic
i got !!!

 

relima,
I run W7 Ultimate.
After upgrade to new bios, and installing nvidia driver from 890 model, i still see only Mobile Intel (R) 4 Series Express Chipset family as my Display adapter.
with this driver i unable to use 2nd monitor via HDMI.

please advice.

 

I updated the R4043M3 and it doesn't have 2.1 SLIC

 

This guys modded r4043m3 to slic 2.1
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?p=167685

@rami69 Does your speed/stamina light turn on? Do you have vaio event service installed?

 

How are you checking your slic version? You might be getting false-positive due to some windows-7 crack Slic 2.1 emulation.

 

I'd rather wait for the Z5 or Z8's Bios. I don't feel like to do some BIOS hacking for that

 

thank you, this is resolved the issue.
do possible to configure when on dock - speed, when without stamina?

 

Advice and Suggestion:

Which would you go for 500GB HD or 128 SSD. Both specs the same on the Z with only this exception. The price is also the same?

Will I really notice a difference in speed and performance on the SSD? Thanks.

 

If you need speed, the SSD will be a lot faster! In fact, miles faster. Have a look at YouTube. There is a few videos comparing the speed of standard HDD to SSDs.

 

Hi,

I have Z610Y and just installed my own copy of Windows7 x64 and everything is cool except for the following issues:

1) Can't control brightness with the buttons
2) I get an error about "The installed battery may not be properly connected to the computer or may not be compatible with the computer. Click "OK" to enter Hibernate mode, and remove and reinstall the battery."
3) Hybrid Graphics or even manual mode will not work, there's no longer any light specifying what mode I'm on now. Or even manually switching to Speed and rebooting, still thinks it's on the integrated.

Now, i've installed all provided Win7 drivers but have noticed no Nvidia graphics drivers posted up on the Sony support site.

Thanks,

Jay

 

I thought so. I figure with W7 and SSD, performance should improve just with that alone, compared to Vista and HHD.

I just hope that Sony does not redesign the Z after Z8xx. I wonder if there will be a Z9xx before a redesign?

 

Hey all,

I just received my Sony upgrade kit for Z47GDX in the mail (W7 Upgrade User Guide, W7 Professional 64-bit upgrade disc, VAIO W7 Supplement disc).

My questions are:

Should I just follow the "How to upgrade your computer system" instruction section of the user guide, or is there a more efficient way of performing the upgrade that I should know about? Here's the recommended process, as written in the user guide:

1. Backup your data
2. Recover your computer (via partition or recovery discs)
3. Prepare the necessary files for an upgrade to the Windows 7 OS
4. Uninstall the software and software drivers
5. Upgrade your computer to the Windows 7 OS
6. Install the software and software drivers
7. Update the BIOS
8. Install the software and software drivers manually
9. Restore your data from the backup copy

Is this how people are going about their upgrade? Also, there is a vague reference to a second Supplement disc in the manual, but I only received one. Is this right?

Some feedback/recommendations would be greatly appreciated before I start the process. I'd like as clean a slate as I can get with Windows 7.

Thanks in advance.

 

Anyone??.. Just want to know whether to go about the process as recommended by Sony (above), or whether there's a better way to get a 'cleaner' install via the upgrade kit.

 

Well...the button is getting worse. Now it gets stuck in the down position on the left-hand side of the left button and then snaps up if I push down on the right-hand side of the button. Looks like I'll have to call for on-site service. ::sigh::

I hope it's just a fluke because I don't want the laptop being opened up every year just to get a cheap mouse button replaced.