Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

yikes isopropyl 70% alcohol ?? I am surprised your paint-polish-finish didnt peel!

 

No confirmed reports. No factual evidence.

The 9xxx series use different die-packaging according to AnandTech but inquirer ofcourse ran a story about them being defectice (POSSIBLY) - for publicity I am thinkin..

Get the warranty, love the laptop, and dont be paranoid

 

I'm sure the structure of this keyboard comes natural for Canadians, but it looks awfully confusing. You've got blue, pink, orange, and green keys And not to mention the main keys. IMO, not to be rude, it looks messy. But again, this is normal and natural for Canadian keyboards.

Question, Just Curious?
I see the "Num Lk" that controls the orange keys.
1. What key controls the pink keys?
2. And what key controls the green keys?

 

Yes. I was surprised myself when I saw the Canadian keyboard. The USA keyboard is exactly how it appears on the SonyStyle website (num-key symbols are orange, Fn-key symbols are blue and all other symbols are white).

 

Awesome! Thanks a lot for confirming it.

I wouldn't like to have THAT many labels on my Z's keyboard. How in the world did Sony decide to use pink and British racing green on a keyboard for a 13.1 in.

 

Can yah guys list yah battery life ? my only around 4-5 hours tops .. is that accurate? or is there something wrong. on stamina , on speed i never really tested it but i think around 2-3 hours.

 

yes 4-5 hours is about right. I was expecting around 4 hours and that exactly what the Z delivered.

If you want more than that, get the bigger battery.

 

I'm hoping this will put brightness questions to rest.

I've taken a shot of both my new Z and old TZ side-by-side at the highest brightness, displaying the same image.

I've noticed that the Z is equally as bright, I wouldn't say any brighter but it display's a 'warmer' color tone, where the TZ is a little cooler and toward the blue side.

Both great display's but a 'little' different.



Stefan

 

awesome. thanks alot stefan

 

Great pics Stefan,

Only now I really realize how similar is the Z to the TZ.

Btw, what resolution is this on the Z?

 

At least you get blueray. We in the UK don't even get blueray in the UK.

 

exetlaios; 1600x900 onthe Z.

Stefan

 

Thanks StefanB, really great shot.

 

my LG screen is similar to your TZ's screen with the strong 'blue tinge' to it, why is that? I prefer the whiter screen of my Z to the blue'ish P300 display by far.

What makes one screen so much blue'r than the other?

 

Stefan, thanks very much for the comparison picture, rep +1 for you.

Could you perhaps take one more picture of the two, but this time, have both display one solid color? Such as opening Microsoft Paint and displaying one color like red on both screens? Thats what I have done when there's a Z on display next to the other laptops and how it blows them away completely in colors.

 

We ve got to make this thread more navigable any suggestions

 

There is a Vaio Z FAQ thread thats small now but the Z owners should go and expand it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295113

 

hi .. i received my Vaio Z 570 .i just wana know were i can insert the sim in the WWAN .. i dont see any Chip or somethin.. ?!

 

I believe it's behind the battery. Get the battery out and you should see the sim-spot.

 

Yeah, it's in the battery housing, far left-side. I signed up for Sprint's 30-day trial on the WWAN and I am going to cancel in the next 4 days before the 30days is up. What did they charge you monthly with that 2 yr. contract?

 

acutally i orderd it from amazon US and im living outside US in (BAHRAIN ) Middle east.. so i dont know whaats goin on about this contract..
i was searchin for the chip to insert the sim .. but i didnt find it .. i found a thik plastic near the battery .. but the sim cant be insert.. and im afraid its broken or somethin happend to it
can u show me in pic .. how to insert it or where is it exualty..

 

Hey TorontoGuy or anybody else with a canadian Z,

Does the Z have the WWAN slot for the sim card? I checked the far-left side of the battery housing of the display model Z555 at Yorkdale Mall and I couldn't find it.

 

Intel Graphics Resume from Standby Bug in Windows XP

Is anyone else seeing this? I've downgraded to XP, and have found a bug in the Intel Graphics drivers.

If I close the laptop, let it go into standby, and then open it and wake it up the screen will not switch back on. The machine is working (it appears on the network and I can hear audio) but the Intel card does not wake up - it stays off (no back light even). This is 100% reproducable under Intel on battery and AC and does not happen when using the NVidia card. It is better if I use the Start menu to Shutdown->Standby, but still (seemingly randomly) sometimes won't resume.

I made a quick video showing the problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1theSIVM0E

I've read about similar bugs in Intel graphics drivers before (in a Dell IIRC) but am I the only person seeing this behaviour in the Z? Can any other UK users of the Z11VN who have XP let me know their experience? Thanks.

 

Yeah, no problem. Here are photos of the internal battery housing

 

I was in the same boat, was hoping to replace the sprint cars with a sierra wireless hsdpa card (I'm from Kuwait) but discovered that the us Z does not require a Sim slot because sprint doesn't need one, what you're seeing is the slot with no Sim holder inside!
I got a bandluxe C100S Hsdba express modem for about BD60! and it working fine and doesn't seem to affect battery time much over wi-fi

 

Hey guys, can you guys see if the extra 1k is worth it for me to get the higher end version of the Z series?(price is in SGD)

http://www.sony.com.sg/product/Comp...=hp_en_SG_i&models=VGN-Z17GN&models=VGN-Z16GN


thanks.

 

Went to the Sony Building today (with my Panasonic bike, heh heh) and saw the 1600x900 Z for the first time today. That screen definitely blew away all of Sony's other laptops in comparison (with one notable exception: the new A Type which was also a phenomenal laptop). To be honest, the type of laptop I would find most ideal for my purposes is one with roughly a 15" 16:9 Full HD (1920x1080) screen (the new A Type has an insane 18.4" screen and therefore weighs over eight pounds (4kg). Since the Z offers such resolution in such a small screen, a Full HD 15" screen should be possible. As far as I know, nobody makes something like that yet..

 

For those of you that say the fan is loud, do you expect the laptop to be completely silent? Or is there something else? During the brief time I had the Z, I found the fan to be pretty quiet and sometimes turned off completely. Even when it was on it was a very quiet constant flow, especially compared to my old S360 which sounded like race car.

 

Have you tried updating your video driver to the latest version? A lot of fixes have been made since May.

 

I'd like to avoid plugging/unplugging usb or express card modems if possible.

Anyone know if you can scavenge the PCI express mini EDGE card together with the SIM holder from an older SZ, and replace the Sprint card in the US Z (without voiding the warranty)? I think it will work since the Cingular connection manager software should be able to be installed on the Z.

And what about the antenna -- do you think they can be swapped? This is not so critical though because I think the modem will still be functional most of the time without one. I just pulled mine out and the signal strength was basically the same, but I think the speed might have dropped a bit.

 

It isn't really possible...

 

Could someone please take a few pictures of Z with extended bettery installed?

9cell battery itself is obviously "one cylinder" taller, than regular one, but I see - there is some space under standatd battery, so not all extra cylinder will protrude down. I'm curious - how much thickier will the Z be with 9cell batt.

 

Well...got a tracking number today from the shipper. Looks like we're in business! It should arrive tomorrow or Monday at the latest (nearly everything in this country is overnight delivery).

I still wish Sony had imparted a bit more discretion in their communication, however..it's still showing a "possible delivery date" of between Sept. 21st and 30th at Sonystyle.

 

Here it the official image with extenede battery, maybe someone can post real life image.

 

Thank You Looks quite thick.

 

What?! So I won't be able to use my own 3G sim card in EU if I buy my Z550 from (i.e.) Amazon? Anyone please confirm?

 

I don't think the Canadian Z comes with integrated WWAN. You'll notice that it's absent from the specs on the website. I think that explains why the Canadian Zs are about $100 cheaper than identically configured U.S. models.

 

Yes that's right. If you buy a Z550 you will not be able to use it in Europe.

Another user has found that you can buy from Japan and unlock the module for use in the EU so that's your other alternative or just buy form the EU

 

Is that because of Sprint's simlock? If so, is there (there must be) any way to unlock it?
And how about this?

 

The answer there is for an unlocked EU Vaio because the module is unlocked but the software is locked in the EU Vaios.

The module in the US is locked to Sprint and also, the US version does not actually have a sim card slot so there really is no way unfortunately!

 

Anyone got some experience with the sony z and linux?
At least tried to load a ubuntu live cd or even install it?

 

Just want to ask , is it possible to change the HD to SSD yourself. Is there any compatibility or interface issue?

 

It can be done as long as you don't have BR

 

Hey guys, took some pics of the backlight bleeding I was talking about. Is this pretty normal or is there something wrong with my display?

 

Why? I thought the BR drive is separate from the HD drive.

I mean to replace the HD to SSD, not to replce the optical to a SSD

 

No I know, sorry I should have explained. Sony's BR and SSD both use the same connection so that's why Sony CTO doesn't offer them together. If you can find a SSD that uses the same connection as the current hard drive then you can by all means use both.

 

That's hard to blieve. I thought till now to replace a HD you take away this and replace it with a SSD at the same S-ATA IF. What the hell has this to do with the BR? The BR drive has it's own S-ATA IF, hasn't it?

 

My Z replaced a 4 year old Dell which had a 1920 x 1200 screen in a 15.4" format.

As you say though, PPI is very similar to the Z.

S

 

I just force-installed the drivers from that link (6.14.10.4980 - 25/08/2008). They won't install using the standard installer so you have to do it from Device Manager with Have Disk.

And they still have the same problem unfortunately!

I have two Z11VNs, both running XP, both exhibiting this behaviour. Can any other XP downgrader confirm that it is not just me?

Howard

 

Looks normal to me. Mine has those same bleed areas, as have others I've seen screenshots of.

I have had this problem on several of my machines in the past, but all were NVIDIA graphics. Sometimes the problem can be "fixed" by moving the cursor while the system is waking up, but I never found a definitive answer as to why it did that. This was always under Windows XP. That probably doesn't help much, but if it works hopefully it'll save you some restart headaches.