Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

You are from Canada, am I correct??

 

Couldn't answer 1 for you, but seems like there was that option on other sites other than Sony Style.

2: 32 bit

3: the 2.8GHz option may or may not be offered on Sony's site. Perhaps if there's a demand it may appear. Perhaps they feel it'll confuse the US public if they add a higher-wattage processor and customers come back saying it doesn't last as long as advertised?

4: I had fresh start, but seeing as I've never owned a Sony laptop or Vista before, I'm not exactly sure what it removes or now much performance is gained. I got it because I wanted a nearly-bare performance laptop.

 

Hi blusyit,

I would say, it's a LED backlit, a nonLED needs more depth due to the cold cathode tube!

 

Thank you, it's a good news

 

All Vaio Z's have certain features, which are HDMI out, switchable graphics and LED backlit screens for starters. The main differences between the models are the screen resolution, hard drive, processor and optical drive.

 

Yes I am! According to the tracking number I should be getting my Z on Tuesday!

 

Does anyone know the link to the thread on "Z Sleeves". I can't locate it. I think(?) StrongerThanAll posted a pic of a sleeve via google search, do you know the maker and cost?

 

Anyone? Thanks a lot in advance for your insights!

 

Z owners: what sleeve?

 

Why is that model only available in Canada?
I would get that model, if it was available as a US model.

 

New user here and I got a quick question.

I just recieved my VAIO CTO Z590 and it's been working great. I live in NYC and use my laptop sometimes when I'm in the train and I found that the HDD shock protection will pop up and notify me that the protection is turned on but constantly and nonstop, so I would have a bubble telling me this on the bottom right of my screen every few seconds.

Now I know there is a option to turn this off in the VAIO control center and I uncheck it but the moment I shut down and turn it back on this setting resets.

Is there a reason why the control center is not saving any of my settings? Thanks.

 

May i ask wen you ordered?? Cause i ordered m 540 CTO on Aug 22nd. Wen i called previously they said that it will shipp on sept 5th. but wen i called yesterday the guy said it would ship on the 12th... You got it from Sonystyle.ca right???

 

I thought I read somewhere that Sony felt that since we don't always get as many models as are available in the US, for example, this is our only pre-config Z unit available in Sony's Canadian stores, whereas, you guys get a 1600x900 unit available at retail that we may not get - they felt like they wanted to give us something to make up for their lack of options in the Canadian market...

 

a couple of observations about the thermal modes.

In balanced mode, the fan is always on, albeit at the lowest setting.

In silent mode, the fan will go off below 40c. But when the fan goes off, the temp goes up so after about 15-30 secs, when the temp goes above 45c, the fan goes back on.

In performance mode, the fan stays at the medium setting and goes up in loudness from there.

I actually prefer balanced mode to silent mode because its kind of annoying for the fan to go off and on all the time since when the fan goes off, it doesn't stay off for very long.

In balance mode, the fan is always on and stays at a constant low hum which after a while, you don't hear anymore.

 

Fellow Canadians, I would just forget about the laptop coming like im doing. Its gonna come Spt 18 wether we like it or not. It comes when it comes, nothing really we can do about it. I already have a letter ready to be shipped to the President of Sony.

 

What do you mean? That's 300$ cheaper when compared with sonystyle's price.

So why did the price drop so fast? And will it go back up again?

 

Is there a reason not to peel off all those stickers that are sticked onto your Z when you get it?

 

any1 know how the Z's hard disk partitioned?

 

Yes, I ordered from SonyStyle.ca. I placed my order on August 28th because that was the day the P9500 processor was made available for the Z590 CTO. The wait is killing me!

 

I wouldn't peel off any stickers.. the Full HDMI+ Nvidia looks nice and I feel slightly better after shelling out 2.3k on it lookin @ em lol

Also useful if you ever send it to repairs, according to a thread before but I dont think it matters now

 

I have a little hdd issue. My vaio has a 320GB hard drive. In windows that is about 300GB. Count in the recovery partition and I still have 291GB storage, which is nice for a portable. The weird thing is, there's only 21GB data on the drive. (including hidden/system files like pagefile.sys, hiberfile.sys) but when I right click on the drive it tells me I'm using about 39GB capacity. Where are the other 18Gigabytes gone? weird...

 

OMG that sucks... i ordered mine nearly a week earlier but still mine is gonna be shipped a week later according to them...grrr....must have been something with the parts i chose....

 

Ok, 18GB is a huge difference... but generally a difference beetween the sum of all file sizes and the disk usage (displayed in the properties tab) is normal. E.g. assume the drive is formated using 4K cluster size. Then the real disk usage of an file is the file size rounded up to the next multiple of 4k. A lot of small files and the difference between file size and disk usage becomes noticable. The opposite is also possible. One example are sparse files: They may appear to be lots of GB, but actually the use only some MB... Look at individual file properties. There you can see file size and disk usage.

PS: Forgot to mention... System Volume Information. Can get quite large. Explorer assumes it to have no size, as access is denied by ACL. There might be also other folders that are access denied: user profiles... (thus file size seems to be 0, too).

 

Can you or anybody describe the steps needed to accomplish this? Thanks!

 

for those who own this laptop..

Is this made in Japan or made in USA?
what will it be if I buy from sony's website?
and r there any difference between these two?

thanks

 

if you order pre-configured -> Japan
if you CTO -> USA

does anyone have pictures (shot by themselves) of the Z with the extended battery?

would anyone like to report on the battery life?

 

For those that want to check out the Z but aren't close to a SonyStyle store, it may be on display at your local BestBuy as it was in mine. They had the Z520N/B model for $1999.99. I had already seen it at my local SonyStyle store a while back but still managed to amaze. A Vaio FW and CR were next to it and it blew them both away in screen quality and color reproduction, but the price reflects that.

I really like the matte finish on the screen while having excellent colors and contrast, I hope more notebooks can use it.

 

Does the Nvidia 9300M GS in the Z use high-lead bumps or eutectic bumps? I'm asking because I'm concerned about the GPU failing if it uses the high-lead bump.

 

I hate to bring this up again, but I was surprised that more Z owners didn't respond to this last time (except for Geee).

I charge battery to 100% at night. Shutdown on battery. Start up the next morning (10 hours), shows 92%. I've tried not turning it on for 16 hours and battery life shows 89% after bootup.

This seems like 1% loss an hour, which means a full battery will go dead after 5 days. Is this not unacceptable for a business class notebook?

 

I don't think this is exclusive to Sonys. All my thinkpads have done the same thing (i've had 3).

 

Hmmmm... Compaqs/Dells/Toshibas have never given me this problem. There is loss, but the loss is usually like 2% overnight, if at all.

 

Thanks for the response! When I connect the two using a HDMI cable the TV doesn't automatically switch to whatever is on my laptop screen?

 

Dude, u got ur laptop!??

 

Sprint, like every other provider, only provides up to 5GB of 3G data per month otherwise you incur additional charges.

 

My Z came with one hidden partition (used for system recovery partition) and one gigantic C partition.

I normally split my HDDs into two partitions. One for programs and OS and one for data. I used Acronis Disk Director to repartition the drive without need to reinstall the OS.

 

It is estimated to be delivered to my house on Tuesday!

My Samsung has a 'Source' button that's apparently going to search for my laptop.

 

I was considering the SR to the Z due to the battery drain on the SR until I realised that the Z had the same battery drain problem and this is really turning me off.

I would appreciate if more people could comment on the battery drain issue because if both the SR and Z have the same problem, I must really re-consider getting Vaio laptops.

Oh yes, 1 more thing, any users notice flex on the palm rest area?

Thanks a lot peeps.

 

Anyone know how to use sony.ca's "track your order"? I put my order number and my email and it just won't work. It's been 4 days since my order was placed (replaced)

 

Has anyone tried HDMI -> DVI? Does it work with non-HDTV resolutions (like 1600x1200)?

 

Some of the stickers look really nice, and I've gouged under my fingernail trying to take off the Vista, NVIDIA, and 1080p stickers off because they're foil-backed and laminated. The Energy Star sticker looks crap. I took them off because they're right under my palms and they started accumulating some dirt between them. Nasty!

Whut? ****, that's a pretty technical question... (goes to Google)

Well, I looked it up and I still don't understand what it is. However, I don't think I've ever had a graphics card fail on me because of anything other than heat. I would love to hear more about the differences between high-lead and eutectic bumps, if you wouldn't mind explaining.

I haven't noticed this battery drain, but I'll try to keep a lookout for it. I've never been too far from an outlet yet.

I haven't seen the battery drain issue personally yet, but as far as the palm rest flex goes, there's very little, if any. I saw those videos that were put up here some posts back, where a machine tested the flex of the palm rest, so I tried it myself. It barely flexes, if at all, and it looks like the bottom of the case takes most of the stress by being flexible.

I would like to know if anyone else is experiencing the same keyboard issues I'm having. On the left side of the keyboard I find myself frequently typing double letters... maybe it's just the way I type, but it's kind of getting on my nerves and it's never happened with previous keyboards. Also, does the space bar squeak on anyone's keyboard? Mine squeaks when the right side of the bar is pressed (which is the side I frequently press it on). Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

 

You call them at 1888 2897669. Press 1 and then press 2 you will get a representative to talk to. Tell them you want to find the status of your order. Give them your order number and they should tell you.

The online tracker thingy never seemed to work and its been nearly 3 weeks since i placed the order. So the only way is to check over the phone.

 

Any guide on how to use the 3G modem in the UK?
I am tempted in taking the 3GB/month offer from Vodafone.
The thing I am not sure is if Vodafone software can use the built-in modem, the Z came with some TMobile software.

 

thx for the reply. I knew about that but still, 18GB is huge for only 21GB data... Apparently there are a lot of small files on my C-drive I guess...

Something else: The diagonal line sceen issue. Am I the only one noticing it?

 

I am hoping to be able to get my 3 Mobile PAYG BB to work, I have a delivery date for the Z now, should be here Tuesday but might not get time to play with it until the weekend.

What is the Vodafone offer?

 

Sorry I forgot, ur gettin the CTO or Z555?

 

Ur Canadian I assume?

 

Hi there,

I recently bought a Z series and I thought I'd sign up to the free months trail for web n walk in UK. I cannot connect through web 'n'walk manager and was wondering what module does T-Mobile use in the Z? Is there any settings I should check to make sure thinks are right?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

Check this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i_BVdVKj9Q

 

I'm considering the Asus N10, hybrid graphics like the Z (from Intel GMA 950 to Nvidia 9300 GS), better battery life. HDMI out, and the price of course that is 1/5 of the Z.

 

I got the Z590 CTO.