Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

VLC player lets you zoom and choose aspect ratio's freely. Very useful to make black bars smaller.

 

Thank you so much for the translation!

 

Thank you so much! This has definitely ended my doubts...

 

I will appreciate if someone can help:

If I buy a pre-configured Z series laptop with Vista Business, I would like to install Vista Ultimate (either full retail or upgrade version) afterward in order to benefit from bit-locker feature of Vista Ultimate.

The thing is that I am reading some comments regarding clean installing and I see that people are talking about installing drivers etc. So it seems to be a cumbersome process.

My questions are:

1) I was wondering, since I am not going to make a clean install, am I going to deal with the same processes?

2) If so, what do these guys mean with driver? Do they mean drivers of each hardware within the laptop?

3) May I simply follow what those guys do?

4) What do these guys do in essence BTW? Do they copy some files pertinent to each driver to a flash disk or something?

5) When upgrading to a new OS, what other stuff do I have to consider other than drivers?


The thing is that I have serious money considerations plus I will leave the U.S. permanently very soon and don't have time to order a CTO model and any pre-configured model is far much more expensive in Europe, and unfortunately the model I am considering buying does not come with Vista Ultimate.

Shrotly, my concern is: Utilizing bit-locker feature of Vista Ultimate by virtue of the TPM of Z series is a very important issue for me, but I do not want to ruin everything when upgrading/installing Vista Ultimate.

Many thanks in advance!

 

hey guys almost a fellow owner of a z here , but i have several questions ..

1. Does the Z comes with a extra internal slot for a wwan card from verizon?
2. If so can i add my existing Dell 5720 or my verzion usb 720 internal card to it? This is extremely important for me.. Please if anyone can open up there Z where the wifi card is it and see if there a slot for it it would be great! or open up whereever it would be lol. Kinda use to my xps 1330 wwan is next to the wlan
3. I was playing with the sr at fry's couple of days back , and notice it is extremely poorly made .. not sure if it was display but it felt like the sr was gonna break if i drop it lol.. how does the Z feels like in term of durability , solid ness ? lol .
4. and how long does the battery typically last on it? My old dell xps 1330 gets around 3 hours , but on like lowest setting ever..

and btw i'm considering the z540 1,699 one from portableone. Since i already have a 2.5 320gb wd scropio blue hd laying around from my xps 1330 and 2gbs ram stick everywhere lol.

Please reply as soon as yah can guys! .. Because i might just buy another 1330 , since it was one of the best laptop i ever own ... next to the sz that my friend sat on =/ .

Thanks in advance!

 

Finally someone with Blu-Ray As I'm planning to get exactly the same version, may I have a few questions?

At first, as I'm planning to take Vista Ultimate as well, so I hope it'll be soon less buggy and I do believe that bugs are Sony problem, not Vista....because I would say, XP are not appropriate for this machine anymore...

Second...there should be also WinDVD for Vaio...it's not capable to play Blu-Ray?

Also I hope I'll not have to change the resolution every time I'll want to play DVDs (as I'm watching film on nb everyday). In speed mode it's OK?

And the last question is about burning DVDs...did you already tried some? There were some mistakes in the Z manual...so my question is, is it capable to burn DL DVDs...and at what speed it's able to burn DVDs and DL DVDs?

Thanks,
eM.

 

anybody help me pls ????????

 

Have you tried reinstalling both the video drivers?

 

Why is that?

I would rather stick with my older lappy, than switch to Vista. Why would XP not run (or run not 100% good) on vaio Z?

 

At first after SP1 and some tweaking I think Vista is not bad system... (I loved my XP, but they were quite bad without SPs and tweaking as well)

And here are a few reasons posted above:

 

I cancelled my SonyStyle order and managed to pick up a VGN-Z11VN from the Sony Centre in Basingstoke (UK) on Wednesday this week.

It's an excellent bit of kit. Amazingly light, solidly constructed and with all the toys I need.

I tried Vista for a day or two, but the new network stack still doesn't play nice with my Infrant ReadyNAS devices, and I still prefer XP. So I created the Vista recovery DVDs, and then did the XP Downgrade. It's a fairly painless process: all the drivers are now on the UK site (although you have to register your name/email/serial number to get them).

The only slight niggle I've found is a bug in the Intel graphics driver under XP; if you close the lid while in Stamina mode, and then later resume, the screen stays off - the only way to get it back is to kill the power and reboot. Strangely this doesn't happen if you use the start menu to enter Standby. Anyone else seeing this?

Everything else I've tried works well under XP and the battery life is awesome: 6+ hours of stamina mode wireless (2.4GHz) browsing/software installs yesterday. I've activated the T-Mobile card and will try that in various locations over the coming week.

I've not tried the HDMI under XP yet - that's a job for today.

I was pleased to find that I can play Rise of Nations in stamina mode with a very acceptable framerate of 60fps at 1600x900.

Oh yes: fan noise. My previous machine to this was a first generation Macbook Pro 15.4" Core Duo. It ran at a constant ~60 degrees and was warm to the touch at all times. The Z runs MUCH cooler and the fan is barely noticable in comparison.

Any other questions you want answered about this model running XP?

Howard

 

Thanks for the info and some more questions:
When clocked down in energy saving mode, are you able to run it without any fan noise in XP?
Maybe you would have to undervolt with RM Clock to achieve this.

Is the switch between Stamina and Speed still working without rebooting?

 

yes , but from beginning install OS to install drivers, i don't see the light of stamina or speed button turn on , i think this is my problem

 

Thank You ) I've missed that post. That's very useable information. Very basic functions like HDMI won't work on XP. And I don't understand sony's "Maybe" in that line I would rather say that "Z's are incompatible with XP. Period." I don't want getting $3000 lappy with something "Maybe" working, maybe not.

I need XP due to some Software I use, wich is totally in incompatible with Vista Hope sony will solve those drivers issues.

 

That's something very different than "HDMI function maybe cannot be used." as the Sony site says.

I'd like to see it confirmed. Maybe it's just a matter of installing the right laptopvideo2go driver.

 

I'm happy to see someone with XP here!

What are Fn+F9/Fn+F10 functions? Mentioned as "cannot be used." here

 

I bought a ZV11VN from a Sony Centre yesterday and it's a beautiful piece of machinery. With regards to the fan noise I don't think it's too bad at all, esp when compared to the noise of my S5XP! Hard drive is quite clicky and this noise is more noticable than the fan noise - is this normal?

 

What discounts are people in the UK getting on the VGN-Z11VN?

I've been able to get a 5% discount from both the stores and SonyStyle directly.

Has anyone managed to get anymore than that?

Thanks.

 

Is anybody encountering some battery drain problem in off mode ?

Bernd

 

So I've been using this thing for about a day now, checking websites, installing applications... With the exception of one program, everything runs smoothly, and the one problem program was only a problem due to Vista, not the laptop itself. I'm very impressed with it!

The performance is amazing. I installed both Zbrush and Softimage XSI on it and they both ran very smoothly. Zbrush, was extremely smooth under Stamina mode, and XSI ran very well under Speed mode.

I haven't installed many games on it yet, but I did manage to do some benchmarks and test out UT2004 for frame rates. Under Speed mode, 3DMark05 got a best of 3604, 3DMark06 got a best of 2044, and PCMark05 got 5394. I only have 2GB in this machine so my scores are a little less than some of the reviewers' scores or some of the others given on this forum.

UT2004 was interesting. By default there was no option for 1600x900, only a maximum of 1024x768, under fullscreen rendering. I was able to modify the settings to allow for fullscreen @ 1600x900, after which I averaged about 25fps under Stamina, and 40-45fps under Speed, with all settings set to max. The Intel integrated chip may not be a powerhouse, but it's certainly not as bad as I thought it was.

Battery life on the normal battery is really good. I've been using it on battery for nearly 4 hours under mostly Stamina mode (with about 15 minutes of time in sleep), and Vista's battery meter reports I have about 1h and 30m left. This is with WiFi on and the disk drive off, with 5 bars of brightness, and the power setting set to VAIO Maximum Battery.

The only real problems I've found so far are that the laptop gets a little hot in some places, the touch pad is a bit too close to the left side, and that it takes time to get used to the keyboard.

Under the left side keys, the laptop gets very hot to the touch under heavy CPU (or GPU? I dunno what's under there) usage, and while you can hardly feel it when you're typing or just resting your fingers in that area, it can get somewhat uncomfortable while playing FPS games. Everywhere else on the laptop stays very, very cool, as if it wasn't on at all.

The touchpad seems a bit too far to the left, as I find my left palm constantly rubbing up against it. To its credit, I have yet to accidentally double tap it with my palm, but it's still a little concerning.

I've mistyped very few letters with this keyboard, but I've double, and in some cases triple-typed letters. Maybe it's just my method of typing, but I feel this is going to be the hardest thing to get used to. Perhaps this will make me a better typist all around.

I end this mini-review with a question... How do you clean out the spaces beneath each key on the keyboard?

What HDD did you get? I have the 200GB 5400RPM model and I can barely hear it.

 

320gb, 5400. It's not too bad actuallly, just getting used to different noise I guess.

 

im gonna be getting my z soon and am gonna be using it for engineering in uni.
i was wondering if anyone had used 3D programs like AUTOCAD or sumthing?

if anyone has can u please put up a review of how the program functions? are the graphcis good or wat?

 

Can you tell me anything more about this unlocked Novatel module? is it GSM/accepts SIM? This would be a dream, as I'm in Australia where Sony AU are a ripoff. My choices are to go for P1 from the US (clean Vista image, good US price) or a UK model (GSM card).

If this Novatel unit does GSM then I can get my dream config at a great price...

BTW, I think EDGE was switched off in Aus months ago (Telstra). All the carriers here offer 7.2/14.4MBps HSDPA. That means that unlocked EDGE is pretty useless for an AU import, and being locked to Sprint (which we don't have) is even worse.

 

Thank you for a mini user review I'm planning to get this cleaning set from Sony...I think it should work for the keyboard as well ,)

​

 

Where can i get vgn z 540NAB cheaper than 1600$?

 

I added that cleaning kit to my custom order. I'll let you guys know how it is (when I finally receive the laptop in a month!).

 

I don't use Autocad, but I do use XSI and Maya. I haven't had time to try Maya yet, but I can do a small review of what I've seen in XSI thus far.

I'm using XSI 5.1, and for starters, it does not like Vista too much. It seems to have weird drawing problems when marquee selections are involved. I haven't gone too deep into it, but it plays back animations very smoothly, and I've clocked a maximum of around 200 million polygons (wireframe) at 2.1 fps before it crashed while trying to create 270 million. It does help that XSI has a very good 3D engine, as I've often been able to create more polygons in XSI than in Maya.

Zbrush handled quite well, too. I was up to around 13 million polygons under Stamina mode. I've read that Zbrush does not use hardware acceleration, so that might be a good indication of why it ran so well under Stamina. It was slow at around that point, so I'm not sure how much higher it could go (just shut it down around that point).

Overall the Z isn't a very powerful 3D workstation, but it's decent. It'll likely be enough for it to become my main work horse, with my more powerful (and heavy and hot) machine being the powerhouse when I need it.

I can put more impressions about it up later next week when I go into full work mode in XSI, if you like.

Ah thanks for showing that! Unfortunately I couldn't find it on the US site. I even went as far as to type in the product code, but no luck. Is it a Japan-only product? Maybe I can find something similar on a different site.

Glad you liked the mini-review.

 

So you are saying that is not worth the money this blu-ray drive?Have you tried burning some blu-ray discs?

Are the models that are sold in Europe (Z11/VN/WN) made in Japan?

 

thanks alot for the review i really appreciated it.

i wud enjoy reading ur full review of XSI.

so basically the Z isnt the BEST choice for 3D programs..hmmmm... i mite hav 2 look at other laptops but rite now, the Z is still my first option.

 

Can anybody confirm, there is no drain, like in SR series?

 

So... No Labor Day deals on the Z.. figured =(

 

I think he is saying the bundled software use to play BD movie is horse-shyte. Id install PowerDVD.

 

I'm looking for XP for similar reasons - we've got work-specific software (which don't work on Vista), and our IT department will not provide support for machines running Vista.
Looking through the threads for the other VAIOs released this summer, there is a wide problem of HDMI with XP. Video is fine, but audio doesn't work. In these drivers, there are files in the audio section that are specific for HDMI.
The Fn key and S1 issues are handled by the Event Manager, which is a utility and not a driver. That link has a Event Manager posted on Aug. 28.
Will these work? I'll find out in about a week & post.

 

I'll post it later this week.

It's true, the Z isn't the best laptop for 3D work, but it's probably one of the best in its class. If you're looking around and can wait a bit, word about Dell's upcoming 13" was floating around some posts back. Looks fairly powerful and will probably compete with the Z, but I doubt it'll look as slick.

I haven't been able to try any of the newer 3D versions, such as XSI 7.0 or Maya 2008. They may have better Vista compatibility.

 

In fact "HDMI" is not a basic function to me I'm looking for a VAIO as a pure mobile solution. (At home/office I always use desktops).

What I'm worried about - is Fn keys. Will I be able changing brightness/volume with XP?

 

Yes. I have the Z11VN/B and it is made in Japan

 

so can anyone answer the question about the wwan card? Please. will some just open up the bottom to see if there a extra slot for wwan? like some users said above it comes with only sprint.. anyway to take it out and swap it with a dell 5720 verzion evdo card? let me know thanks guys

i might just go to sonystyle and buy one retail lol. anyone knows how fast does portableone ships?

 

All of the Fn keys work in XP apart from those on F9 and F10, as they're the zooming buttons for Vista only.

 

Is Autocad demanding on the GPU?

S

 

It looks like you're in Egypt so I'm not sure if this will work for you but the cheapest Z I found is from PortableOne:

http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=VGNZ540NAB&Category_Code=SONYZ

$1699

 

Anybody can upload driver original VGA card 9300M GS from Sony Vaio for me pls ? . I don't want to use driver from laptopvideo2go bacause it doesn't work

 

I talked to the guy at the Sony Store a few mins ago, he said if u had pre-ordered it already, u'll be the first one to get it. And that we should expect it by this coming week as its already in the Sony warehouse.

Ciao!

 

i have 2 latops with regular drive in front of me and i dont really hear the drives "click". Why are people hearing it on the Z?

 

Ive read on this forum that if u look at the Z screen u can see "diagonal" lines?? i didnt understand this until i saw a picture some pgs bak. the diagonal lines were clear. is the whole screen of the z like this?

in wat cases can u see the diagonal lines and when r they present? r they very distracting or am i worrying for no reason lol?

 

I don't see anything on mine... I think the screen is great..

Maybe if I put my face half inch to the screen and stare at it for 15 minutes I might be able to see something. But I don't use my notebook that way.

 

All I know is that Portable One claims to sell the Z with an unlocked EVDO module... I have no idea if a GSM module is available from them or elsewhere.

 

I saw them the moment Vista started for the first time. It appears similar to a diagonal version of interlacing, but I don't know for sure what the cause is or what it really is.

I don't notice them 99% of the time, but when I do notice that 1% it's not very distracting to me.

They appear to be present when my eyes move rapidly across the screen, or when I move rapidly toward or away from the screen. The weird thing about it is that my eyes get used to them about half a second after I notice them, almost like my brain is trying to match the refresh rate of the screen.

If you really think it'll bother you, order from Sony Style as some people have suggested (so you can easily return it if you can't stand it lol), or check one out in person before you decide to buy. I was a little worried they'd bother the crap out of me, but I got used to them fairly quickly and they're not a bother anymore.

 

Can anyone give me a hand?

I can't seem to get the same amount of power management options after a clean install...

What else do I need except Vaio Control Center, and Vaio Power Management?

 

I was trying to search for this the other day, where exactly do you go to TURN OFF Vista warnings? Thanks!

Bottom line, it comes down to the types of film selected for filming a particular movie, right? I made that statement based on statements made by a Cinematography program I was watching. But what I don't understand is how it's clever marketing for Sony?