Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

That is correct. If you plug in the HDMI while in Stamina mode, you get a popup window which tells you to switch to Speed to use DVI or HDMI.

 

Doesn't blu-ray burners use read-after-write verification like DVD-RAM which approximately doubles creation time?

 

Umm, that's actually an English guy - funny to see a post about me on this forum

It was a **** take and although you might not understand Japanese, you might guess that its pretty over the top. I was also testing out my new Sony TG1.

Man, Im wading my way through this gigantic thread and havent yet found anyone with ssd experience on their Z. So many questions go unanswered, I think they just get lost....Moderator, i it posible to make a Z section with some topic areas tp help people navigate.

I have 2.8ghz/4gb/320gb HD which has a 5.6 vista score - wondering how much peppier the Z feels with the SSD, or if Vista bottlenecks it, coupled with 2.8ghz processor ad 4gb ram with vista prefetch - will it make an difference?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=294632

That guy has a SSD in his Z.

This is my WEI score...(even though it doesn't truly prove anything)

Processor: 5.4
Memory: 5.9
Graphics: 4.4
Gaming Graphics (based on the NVidia score): 5.1
Primary hard disk: 5.4

 

Nope. You cannot even access the HDMI port when you are in STAMINA mode. But I thank you for trying to brainstorm it for me.

Many Thanks...

 

Thanks for the helpful response.

 

Also remember that bigger/better processor means more processing throughput so even with slower hard drives, they'll still be pretty efficient. As you can tell with the 2.53 and the SSD from my scores linked above, there's no bottleneck

If I was going to get a Japanese model, I was considering the 2.8 but the extra power drain wasn't worth it to me and I think there's a better cost to performance ratio with the P9500 vs. the T9600.

 

Wow...this might be a real contender against the Z. Hopefully LG will reduce the weight and use carbon on this new model.

 

tried googling this laptop and couldnt find much, not even a picture.. maybe fake?

 

well.. just received my Z today and straight away i could notice that it got warm pretty quickly.

so i was messing around the "heat control" settings and i left it at the "performance" mode, honestly, the fan is not that loud, i can barely hear it from less than 40 cm away. Using coretemp, with this setting, i am averaging 47-53 degrees.

 

Well, if PhilFlow says so, then it is so.

Anyway, check out this thread on the P310:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=293964

 

Got my Z yesterday. I opted for Business and Fresh Start and am glad I did. I also pulled all the stickers off the inside of the laptop, man i hate that. If Sony is going to take their status seriously as the "Apple of Windows" then they need to stop polluting their beautiful machines with stickers.

 

Just got my Z today. I'm having a problem with interferrence through the headphone jack when also plugged in to A/C power. Is this typical? Are you guys experiencing this? Should I send this thing back or to service?

Thanks,
C

 

Ditto, I took off the stickers too, and use goo-gone to get rid of the residue

 

I actually had problems hooking my Z to a Sony 32" XBR Bravia 720p; 3 yrs. old via HDMI cable. I set the TV as an external monitor and all I get are jagged lines. What am I doing wrong? As for audio, there is absolutely no problems. Just the video! Thanks.

Who makes that? I want to purchase one.

 

Here's the website:

http://googone.com/

You can pick it up from home depot or walmart, or even fry's electronics, I've seen it everywhere.

Sticker residue, tape residue, or whatever, it literally wipes it right off with this stuff.

 

hey guys, I GOT MY VAIO!!

I'm abit concerned tho. When i opened the package the battery had already been opened (the tape ripped, etc) and the rubber pegs on the bottom had stuff on them. I feel like i got a refurbished laptop...what do you guys think?

Should I call sony and see if they will send me another? (the battery also doesn't sit level); the laptop is fine otherwise...am I being too anal?

 

I would SO love to have this on the Z.

http://ati.amd.com/technology/xgp/index.html

But sadly, its exclusive to AMD powered notebooks for now and has not even been released yet, I hope there will be a similar solution perhaps from Nvidia for Intel notebooks, but they have their hands full with their GPU failures.

 

I personally don't see it as contender to the Z. The P310 is a pure gaming machine.
While Z is not made with gamers in mind imo.

thanks for the faith. Well this shop is listing it so it seems credible sofar.

 

I am all for it, but other moderators are not.

But what someone could do is start a F A Q on the Z. I am just looking for a volunteer to start the thread.

In the F A Q we could have links to the most important topics like exchanging the hard drive, doing a clean install etc.

Edit: Ok did it myself. Here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295113

 

Yea I think thats a good idea, yet not. I dont think we should open too many threads for one laptop IMO. But then again im sick and tired of hearing about SSD's and DDR2 vs DDR3 and WiMAX and all. There should definitley be seperate thrreads for that. This thread should really only be for when the Z's are coming in, reviews on the Z's, and what not, but thats it. Just a thought.



By the way, Sony Stores are tell me 18 of Spt for here in Canada.

 

Maybe see if you can take off the keyboard cover to access the internals, and sniff around in there. In my experience, if something's burned, the smell won't go away. Otherwise if nothing's gone bad, perhaps it was the electronics of someone who was near you, or you caught a whiff of something in the air on the train? Hope it's not your Z...

Congrats! If you had a CTO, I think what they do is open an off-the-shelf Z, pop in the battery to set everything you wanted up, then they wrap it all up again. My battery came opened, too (which was concerning at first), but unless the battery fails for some unexplained reason, I don't think it should be a problem.

The battery does fit a bit loosely. Kinda wobbles around on mine.

I have both types of cards lying around, so I'll give it a shot tonight. There are two icons in Computer, so I would assume it can access both at the same time. (will edit later to update).

Edit: Yup, works with both inserted.

Uh oh... I had this problem on my other laptop, and it was a real problem for me. I'll check on this, too...

Edit: Crystal clear here. Sounds like it's time for a call to tech support. >_<

 

I'm more a PC enthusiast than I am knowledgable about them....

I'm glad you mentioned that about the LG being 'purely a gaming machine' ...

I have a question because I don't understand something.

If a notebook like the LG P300 is a pure gaming machine why would that make it an inadequate or a poor choice as a business machine? It could easily handle any business tasks you could throw at it, right? Any likely much more.

On the other hand, I can easily understand why a business class notebook could be a poor gaming machine, it lacks the spec's/fast graphics etc.

So, wouldn't a business user be well served by getting a 'gaming' style notebook, it could handle all the business tasks and more and in case you wanted to do something that required more power, such as gaming you'd have the option.

The way I look at is buying a gaming style machine for a business user is like buying a high power sports car when you only really need normal sedan, but it's nice to have the sports car so you have the power if you want it

Or, are there reasons why a gaming style notebook is a poor choice for a business user?

Thanks.




I'm only a business user, and I'm using an LG P300 right now, it takes anything I can throw it and runs so smooth...

 

because game machines are usually big, heavy, loud, hot, and get really bad battery life.

Stuff business users consider really important.

I personally want something light, cool, gets great battery life, good power, and something that isn't too huge.

The Z fits my needs almost to a T. The only complaint is the slightly loud fan, and the battery life could be longer. I guess you can't have everything.

 

The heat producing and power consuming GPU is aimed at gamers. The GPU comes with a large heatsink and fan making the laptop more heavy.

While you could still do business tasks on it, a Z will be lighter (including DVD), produce less heat and have better battery life.

To say that the P300 is a pure gaming machine is a bit strong. It's aimed at gamers though.

 

I understand when you look at it that way ... I've always only looked at the smaller, thinner/lighter gaming machines.

Then my revised question would be; What makes a thin/light gaming notebook a poor choice over a thin/light business notebook for a business user?

From reading I guess possible heat issue's. I haven't experienced that, again the little LG I'm typing on runs cool and can sit directly on my lap no problem, actually much cooler than my older Thinkpad.

I'm told the Z570 will impress me so much more than this P300 ... I can't wait! Could have it by Friday I hope.

 

thanks, makes sense to me now.

 

Uniquesto, could you do a comparison of the P300 and the Z when you get it? I'm hesitating between the Z and the P300's successor, the P310. So if you could list the pluses and minuses of both, that'd be great.

Thanks in advance.

 

today i will receive my vaio z11mn, does it need to calibrate the battery? and how?

thnx!

 

for sure, i'm anxious to compare them too, the P300 will be close by, my wife is taking it.

 

Mine is dead silent, with or without AC. But this could be related to interference in your power lines - read up on ground loops.

 

Was the other laptop a Dell? I returned my dell last year because of the headphone jack noise. Supposedly, it has yet to be fixed by them...sad.. That's why I switched to the VAIO series and got an FZ..

DON'T TELL ME THE Z IS BEGINNING TO HAVE THIS ISSUE!!!

 

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but for those interested here's a link to an interview with the Z developers.

http://www.sony.com.sg/microsite/vaio/about/vaio_z_interview/index.html

Also, if you browse around the Z microsite you can find some videos of them conducting toughness tests. Pretty cool I thought, especially the ones that drop the notebook and the pressure one.

http://www.sony.com.sg/microsite/vaio/products/vaio_z/f5.html

 

My other laptop was a Sager 9860, upgraded to a 9890 motherboard. Great, great laptop, just really poor sound out of the built-in sound card through the jacks (lots of static and electrical noise, low bass), which sounded fine through the speakers. This wasn't an isolated case, either; a lot of 9860 owners on the forums seemed to have this problem, and it seems like they never fixed it through motherboard revisions! Their later boards did fix this problem. I didn't realize Dell had these kinds of problems, too! o_o

Hopefully headphone noise won't be a problem on the Z. So far it only seems like one case.

HungryPillow: Thanks for those links! I was reading the interviews a couple days ago (good read btw, especially about the carbon casing and aluminum keyboard plate), but I didn't see those videos. I love the open/close test! Looks like it's being played faster than normal, but I think it's real time. lol Looks very strange, but I'm glad Sony conducts very rigorous tests so we don't have to.

 

If you're Sony is suffering from headphone jack noise make sure the power jack is 'earthed' (that's how we called it here) or grounded.

 

i dont know why im not getting as much battery life (according to the estimate as you guys)
im using a standard battery, and as soon as i unplug my Z i have a 3h 20min estimate with power saver mode on and wireless off.. can anyone elaborate on the settings for the power saver mode?

plus, i cant see a "vaio ultimate power plan" either

thanks for the help

 

The battery life indicator really is just an estimate. I think 3:20 is about what I see most of the time, but the lappy will often go longer than that. I've edged toward 6 hours with the screen off and only music playing (this is with wireless on) on the standard battery.

Try pulling the plug on a full charge, then do normal tasks with it in Stamina mode and keep an eye on the time. I think you should average about 4 hours if you don't do anything taxing on the battery (ie: lots of data transfers, watching DVDs, etc.).

Good example of the battery life thing being an estimate: my old laptop reports 1:30 hours of life remaining on a full charge but won't last longer than a half hour.

 

wow, thanks for the info! I'm really happy w/ the laptop otherwise.

 

thanks for the reply, i noticed my battery life is gradually increasing after logging in/unplugging it

 

i ordered my Sony Vaio Z570 from Amazon Total: $2,335.23 include tax and One-Day Shipping..

 

GREAT idea! Thank you for following up and taking action on it too!

 

Does anyone out there know if the DVI-D port on the Z docking station (VGP-PRZ1) is Dual or Single Link?

If its Dual Link, has anyone successfully driven a 30" monitor at 2560x1600?

Thanks for the help. Sorry if this question has already been answered.

 

Finally seen real Z in store today. Diagonal interference is clearly visible

Interesting, that SR, standing next to Z has same defect, while having totally different screen (glossy 1280x800 vs DuraView 1600x900)

Maybe the interference depends on some factors, like surrounding lighting, but in place, where I've been - diagonals over taskbar were very visible.

.... was ready to buy one today... now thinking...

 

diagonal interference, what!!! Oh man..don't even get me started -_- I hate when I think everything is fine and then someone from here posts issues that I never noticed lol i appreciate the info but I have to get away from this place!

could you explain in more detail/show what this is exactly?

 

The same effect was discussed here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=227251 (Thread is about TZ, but there are photos and Z's/SR's issue is the same )

In my case lines were much more obvious, than on pictures on that thread.

I hope that appears only under specific lighting conditions, but no I don't know how to make sure. Return policy is very non-loyal here

 

I think its not fair to jump the ship based on a display model @ a store (could be prototype for all we know) And probably has been on all day plugged in it still stresses the LED LCD..

Any CTO owners get the same interference??

 

Guys, will Z support 5.1 and/or 7.1 external sound system?

 

I'm not leaving. Still want Z

Just need to make sure diagonals won't bother me in real life.

Our local stores never get prototypes. And yes - vaios there are all day plugged.

I think I need to sisit another store with different lighting

 

Was your's a CTO? Maybe, that would explain why battery package was opened and rubber pegs had lint.

______________________________________________

Where in 'settings' do you go to turn off Z screen (to save battery life) when Z is hooked to a T.V. and Z is mainly used as a dvd-player?

 

Did not try that, mut quite sure HDMI can send multi-channel audio to a receiver.