Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

any Z owners can help to verify that the expresscard 34 slot opening seems to be a bit wierd?
as in not able to have a full spring closing mechanism?

i just seem to realised tht the door hatch doesn't close fully.
chcked some display models as well. seem to be the same throughout

faulty batch or supposed to be tht way?

 

Hello all,

I just got my Z.. A little problem.. I haven't done a clean install of Vista yet. There is a CPU usage of around 17% when idling (i believe its svchost.exe). Does anyone know how to get it down to the normal ~1-2% with all this crapware installed? I don't have any time to do a clean install right now.

 

my expresscard 34 slot is normal, i press it all the way in, and release it, and it goes back to its original position...

faulty spring maybe?

 

You load movies and TV show so I think more space is better. Mostly, you won't feel a big difference between 7200rpm and 5400rpm while watching movies and internet surfing. Maybe Office Word will load up a few second faster if you have a 7200rpm hard drive.

Actually, 2GB ram is enough for vista. I suggest to keep your money. From what I heard, Z comes with 2GB ram as a single ram so it has an empty slot for another ram. If you find out you really need more ram for some reason, you can still add it by yourself and the price maybe cheaper than ordering from Sony.

 

I recommend 2GB OR 4GB, unless you're not going to upgrade your RAM. Reason being if you ever decide to upgrade to 4GB from 3 at any given time, you're going to end up with an unused 1GB stick. 2GB seems to be just fine for me so far, but since I work in graphics I'll be upgrading to 4GB later when I have more income. I may not be able to access the full 4GB, but if ever I switch to 64 bit it'll be there for me.

Edit: I guess I took too long to reply lol. I second human668's comment.

I noticed this, too. It's kind of annoying, but since I don't look at it all the time it doesn't bother me too much. But when I do look at it it's a real bother.

Aha, just looked at it for a bit and messed with it... If you press it in on its left side and let it spring back, it doesn't close fully. But if you press it on the right side and let it spring back, it closes just fine. I haven't opened the case, but if I were to guess it's probably bad engineering of the door and the spring mechanism. It just doesn't appear to seat properly if you press the left side.

 

I read somewhere relating to desktop mainboards that dual channel can function on 3GB of ram, despite the sticks being different capacity. I imagine this is the same for modern notebooks like the Z. Can someone please confirm this?

One possible advantage of 4GB on a 32bit OS is that the Z might be able to use the unused memory for additional VRAM, but again, someone will have confirm this. However I wouldn't get 4GB just for this as the difference is probably not noticeable.

This brings up the question of whether the unused ram can be setup as a ram disk instead. I guess if it can't be done in the bios, it can't be done. Anyone?

 

Thank you Zhengkit!

 

What are the possible resolutions on the 1600 x 900 pixeln screen size without loosing quality? I did'nt found that information in the web...can somebody help me please? Thanks in advance!

 

TFT Displays only display their native resolution without quality loss. Every other resolution requires interpolation. In games you won't notice this to much, however doing office work it is a must to use the native resolution.

 

In theory, any resolution that's half of the previous resolution (without fractions) should display without loss of sharpness when scaled to the native resolution of the screen. Following this logic, pixels will end up being 2x larger with each division. 800x450 should look crystal clear (pixels 2x larger), as should 400x225 (pixels 4x larger). Beyond that, there is no resolution that should look crystal clear because 225/2=112.5, and since there are no half pixels this would not work.

But that's just theory... In practice, I doubt the video card supports those weird resolutions, even by use of a custom resolution changer.

One way you could get around the blurry lower resolutions is to turn off NVIDIA's resolution scaling, then all resolutions will remain high quality. The only drawback to this is that the screen's active area will be smaller (see attached: screen shown at 800x600 w/o scaling).

 

My Z's graphics card (9300) is running at around 100 degrees on load. Is anybody else getting temps that high, or should I give Sony a call?

 

I would like an answer for this as well. I took only 3gb of ram.

 

I haven't checked mine, because I don't really care... But from what I've been reading here, it seems normal under full load. 60 while idling is what people are getting.

 

my gpu runs 65° on mormal load and around 75-80 under full load. 100 seems a little to high to me. what ru meassurung with. what load? games?

 

As stated, I haven't checked myself.

This is just what I've been reading. Many people reporting 100c under full load. I don't know which kind of load though.

 

By the way, in my task bar menu as far as battery life is concerned, its only showing me 3hrs and 25 mins. Is that normal? Is that an accurate reading? Or is there a Vaio battery software im not aware of? that tells you accurate tbeery life??

 

That seems about normal. It's only a very rough estimate. I usually get at least a half hour more than that, sometimes longer if the screen's off and I'm only playing music on low volume.

 

No comment on scaling but more on your pics and comments from others. I think it's cool to see people finally receiving their Z's after all this waiting around. Unfortunately (lol), I'm parting with mine today. I'm gonna return it (P8600). I'm going to wait for the Z570 (P9500) to hit retail and purchase then or maybe wait when the Z6 is out. If I recollect, Sony started with the SZ Carbon Prem. USA versions at SZ5, then it went up to SZ6, and finally SZ7 which I ended up with and wish I hadn't sold.

 

Aww, that's a bummer! But hey, I think it's good to go with what you feel is right. The Z's great (I'm LOVING mine ), but tech will always improve.

On a side note, I noticed a very peculiar bug just a few moments ago. In Stamina mode, I attempted to move the browser window to another location on the screen only to be greeted by several startling bands of noise and color on the screen which lasted for about two seconds, then disappeared... like there was a bad connection or something. I hope that's not a sign that I have a bad graphics card, otherwise I might have to part with mine, too... for repair...

 

Noticed something. Whenever I move the lid, up or down... on the bottom of my screen there is the LCD wave(?) effect (from when you touch an LCD screen).

It doesn't bother me much... but anyone else seeing this?

 

I don't know about the last question. But regarding dual channel, the chipset supports dual channel with uneven sticks.

use CPUZ (freeware)... it will tell you if it's running single or dual.

 

Other than battery drain, perhaps?
If you intend to keep your Z plugged into an a/c outlet 24/7, no issue.
If you intend to have it charged up on a shelf, in a briefcase, etc....there is an issue, at least there is with mine. I have started a separate thread about it.

 

Anyone notice that wen shuting down from vista the screen flashes a couple times between the logging off screen/ shutting down screen/ and the desktop. I donno if this is just Vista or is it actually a problem?

 

U'd think he'd give me the link to the tread lol.

 

Well removing the battery would solve the issue as far as I know.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299109

 

Yes, I noticed it too. Probably a side effect of the hybrid graphics.

Have you noticed this,

"Noticed something. Whenever I move the lid, up or down... on the bottom of my screen there is the LCD wave(?) effect (from when you touch an LCD screen)."

 

Do you mean the 320GB HDD? How much weight does the extended battery add? With traveling I am not always around a power source.

As long as it isn't a huge different in load times i should be ok. I have no problem ordering and adding more RAM later on....which I may do. Just test out the 2GB for now and if it isn't fast enough then buy the other GB.

EDIT: I went to Best Buy today to look at one and seal the deal on the size....I AM SET! I played with the Z for a good 20 minutes and the keyboard was no issue. The sales rep didn't know much about them ( I seemed to know then him about the options and specs). The only issue I had was Best Buy keeps security bar on the notebook so I couldn't close it or get a real guess on the weight.

 

I don't know if this has been posted already, some nice video mini review in Czech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN-9eVLC9Rk
followed with full review (translated):
http://translate.google.com/transla...08/sony-vaio-z11xn&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=cs&tl=en

BR
Miki

 

I dont get any of that. It just doesnt look as good as if i were looking at it straight on...

 

thanks. it seemed to have magically dissapeared when unplugged.. weird.

 

Question;

Does the Z come with a small lid or cover you can put over the area where the battery goes, in case you aren't having the battery in there? I guess probably not..? If it doesn't standardly come with the Z, does anyone know if something like that does exist at all?

 

Doesn't come with it and never heard of it, Tomassi...

 

My Z doesn't have Blu-ray disc drive, is there a way to enjoy HD content on my Z ?

 

You can still download HD movies onto your computer and play them without probably. It's blu-ray discs that you won't be able to use. I prefered investing the 500 dollars in a PS3 that can play BRs.

You can also buy an external blu-ray drive...

 

Just a quick comment on battery leakage. Actually, I wasn't surprise when I'd loose 6% over night on the Z. I thought it was normal, but I guess I was wrong. I've had A Series, S Series, X505, SZ, and recently Z and all have had this same issue on leakage. I guess if this is such a big issue, wouldn't Sony have corrected this problem? But according to some of you who have owned other makers, this is not the norm.

 

Not the norm for any other brand that I have owned in the past 5 or 6 years, including IBM/Lenovo and even a Dell. Not considering that the maximum leakage that I and others have measured would leave the standard battery totally dead in about 5.5 days! I have a thread discussing the issue at:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299109&goto=newpost

Now, PhilFlow suggested that this issue can be "resolved" by removing the battery from the Z when not in use. It is true that this would stop most of the battery drain, but I find this even more unacceptable. Since I like to carry a small notebook like the Z in a minimalist slip-case, I would then need one case for the Z, another for the power cord, and a third for the battery. Not acceptable.

 

I understand the thought about a cover if the battery were removed. I don't believe this exists, but cool idea.

I am wondering ... if you take the battery out, does the Z sit properly? Or does it wobble or anything funky?

 

What I personally think is that since batteries have a certain number of life cycle, isn't this a good "trick" by Sony to get the batteries' life to run out faster so that we will have to buy a new battery quicker. And look at the price of the original Vaio batteries....

And I've also used Dell, HP, Lenovo, & Toshiba laptops. None of those exhibit such battery leakage "problems."

 

Finally bought my Z. Hope this was a good idea.

 

Congrats on your purchase. Buying a Z is definitely a good idea.

 

Congrats on your purchase! If only I could make a choice on what I want I would be there to. Just can't decide on which to get...

 

I just noticed that the eject button on my VGN Z530N doesn't eject the dvd tray. Should I contact NewEgg (who I ordered from) or Sony? thanks!

 

There was I thread about this "issue", I believe that eject button (the one above keypad) "ejects" first drive letter, so if you have mounted virtual drive like Demon Tools or similar it will first try to eject drive which comes with first letter (eg. it will first eject D, then E, then F....). Someone also mentioned that simple changing drive letter can resolve this issue.

However if you have problem with drive eject button on the side, you should contact you reseller.

BR
Miki

 

hello, everyone, im reading this forum for so so long, and really decide to become SONY vaio fanboy. Im on the way for my 1st laptop (yeah, first one) so i need your help.
1) I want to ask if there is a way to buy laptop on amazon and ship the laptop to Australia(where all suck price compare to us). You can check at sony.com,au , or if you know any other website to buy a sony vaio with ship to AUs and cheap price ?
2) I am in middle of Z and SR, my first impressive is more on Z, but after a while ..... I heard a lot of people talk about HEAT problem and BATTERY DRAIN
a) Battery drain, ok, i can live with charging everday. It loss % while shutdown is not a big deal unstill it has long live when carrying out and go to work. But anyone sure that SONY will consider and update bios fixing this problem in the future ? .... should i wait a little bit longer to get more perfect one ?
b) well ~ ~ as i said the Z is look much more $ and better build compare to SR in my view but .... is it worth to get a Nvida GPU which feaking hot (80+ is unacceptable), and its like a bomb that will kill ur laptop someday in the future ( look at HP5vt or vaio TZ or .... a lot of other heated laptop ). I want to ask if anyone here uses Z and see that the design of fan or... watever cooling internal this laptop will make u feel 90% safe while playing game 5 houts/ day . If not, maybe i will go to SR is better choice ~ ~ but still love the Z
3) I notice that the Z has HDMI while the SR does not, so wat is HDMI is it allow u to connect to the HDMI tivi with better resolution or If u have a blu ray movie in ur Z and only HDMI is support to watch from Z to this HDMI tivi ? ..... if so how about SR, wat it can do with high definition movie? can it watch normal on HDMI tivi ?
4) if 1) is cant complete then i have a cousin living in US, i will ask him to send to Australia for me, anyone know how much for 1 kg of sending?
Really waiting for your help and thank a lot men.... my new house

 

Get the Z with 1600x1200, it's the best 13.3" screen I've ever seen so far.

 

It's 1600x900 and 13.1. 1600x1200 would be insane lol.

 

Right, but 1600x900 isn't as small as I thought. It's a great resolution for a 13.3 inch display.

 

huh? but the Z is 13.1"

 

lol, correct. It's getting late here in Sydney.

 

for those of u who want to do a fresh install, im not sure but maybe this program can help:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/multiset-61/

taha.

edit: Time left until download is taken off: 18hrs 40 mins after time of post.

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