Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Yep, the SZ with the carbon fiber lid (weave patterns) were only released on the following SZ models for the US market:

VGN-SZ381P/X
VGN-SZ491N/X
VGN-SZ691N/X
VGN-SZ791N/X

 

The premium carbon (brown tinge) on the SZ/ X is similar to the premium carbon Z just recently released in Japan. And the SZ matte carbon (without the /X, but with the /C after the model no#) is similar to the Z as it is now sold for the USA, no.

That's why I feel strongly that we will get that premium carbon on the Z. I have no confidence that we will get all the other lids, just the premium one. Anyway, we'll see on the next refresh, hopefully after Thanksgiving, but before Christmas.

 

I don't want to sound negative but when I was in Canada and visiting Bestbuy and any sony style in mall, that gap doesn't exists..

I don't know why I keep looking at Z every time I visit comp store... LOL

 

Canadian has immediate sales at CA$1999.99 for Z555 (Standard mass product)
1600x900, 3Gb RAM, 250GB, P8600
At any best buy/sony style

American can get tax rebate at the airport

 

I think I understand why ppl want to have this premium carbon.

I went to Tulilip Sony Outlet Mall (Near Seattle) yesterday, and they are selling the old SZ cheap.

I saw this SZ680 with T7500 with 160GB, 2GB RAM with WWAN (sprint) in very black thin carbon (is it premium carbon?) for US1199.99... thats before 30% discount, so total is about USD$840, you can get 3 of this for the price of 1600x900 Z... talk about Quad Core2duo LOL

I grab one with less powerful Proc T7250 and 80GB hardisk 1GB Ram for USD630, cant resist the deal. It is very black! and (the color) looks cooler than the Z.
The built Quality is perfect, unlike my Z which has gap in carbon fiber, this one is super smooth, the line in LCD is straight.
And they are Made In USA!

They have 6 of these left, so check out the Sony Outlet.

No, they are not refurbished, it is listed as Factory NEW

 

Buy... a... Z...
or buy another one if you already have one. Seems like you're in love haha

I looked at it again, and I think I know why that gap is there, now. Those brownish areas that were mentioned appear to be an area where material was either cut or broken off during the manufacturing process, and may not be clean cuts/breaks. Because of this, some of the material is still sticking out, and not flush with the rest of the surface, thus keeping the two halves of the lid separated in that area.

I suppose if you're feeling brave you could separate the lid halves and file down those areas, in which case it would probably fit together quite well. If I ever need to get in there for whatever reason, I might consider doing just that.

 

Hi TJ, thats what I thought too. but why my left side is perfect, only the right one has loose gap.

Also my new SZ680 LCD carbon are joined perfectly with straight and smooth line, unlike the Z :O

SZ680 USD$638 has perfect built vs USD$3000 Z17/590(non CTO-blueray/SSD)??? It doesn't add up

If I only I bought it in SonyStyle US, I will return it and will join other ppl here to wait for refresh Z with Intel 4800, Nvidia GS96, SSD 256GB and premium Carbon (these are just my prediction)

 

when is this refresh going to happen? any speculation or estimate date?

 

2 weeks before Xmas is my best guess. Just CANT wait!

 

You probably tried MemTest86 which is the standard for geeks the world over:

http://www.memtest.org/
http://www.memtest86.com/

 

If anyone is interested, you can read a short review of my Timbuk2 small coder bag in the "z case and sleeve thread" on page 15. I posted some pictures for everyone to see, as well.

 

OMG, the Z I ordered from Portable One just arrive. I have a huge disappointment with this company.
The AC Adapter is MISSING. They ship me a laptop with out a charger.

Another huge disappointment fellowing after I turn on the Z. They did optimized the system. I DID NOT order them to do P1 Optimized. No wonder they ship so late. Seriously, I'd rather do the software optimized by myself. Compare my first Z from Sony with Fresh Start, this P1 Optimized system is slow. And they left a junk Vista user account named, P1.

 

How long does the lock up last??

 

Can someone look at the Port Replicator at the bottom for me please? Is it very easy to open? Does it feel loose?

Mine feel loose. I'm think if it is P1 break it when they put it 320gb 7200rpm hard drive.

 

lol, they probably shipped the wrong laptop.. which i agree, is pretty disappointing..

 

is it worth it to get an external sound card for the z? i don't hear hisses and pops but i'm a bit disappointed with the sound... i don't know what kind of sound card the z has... but it just doesn't sound good :/ it sounds kind of flat (with headphones that sound good on a desktop)

 

That is so terrible. Are you going to exchange it?

I think you just gave me a great idea. Did you happen to see any SZ's with a higher CPU i.e. T8100, 8500 ? And for how much? There's a Sony Outlet near Lake Elsinore. I don't think they have a website. I know Sony Online has a website for their discontinued p.c.'s, but the prices are still too high. I may drop by there next week and if I can get an SZ Carbon (non-premium...lol) for under $1000, I'll purchase one. I'll wait for the Z with premium carbon to reach USA or wait for the Z premium carbon with 256SSD and BD to drop down in price.

My guess is Dec. 08 or even as late as Jan. 09

I totally agree with you. When I had my Z, the speakers don't compare to the SZ. It was awful.

 

Yes, I am. At first they say they will send me the charger overnight. Then I stop them and request an exchange. Their P1 optimized system sucks.

Does the Port Replicator cover on the Z suppose to be tight or loose?
Mine is loose. It simply just open with minimum force.

 

Haha you might be right. That name is very familiar, but it's been so long I can't even be sure anymore! Regardless, that's likely also a very good test to try.

... should link to it.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4003429#post4003429

Mine's very loose and has been an annoyance since the day I got it. Same with the ExpressCard slot door, which doesn't always close properly. Hopefully these are known issues to Sony and they'll fix it in a refresh somewhere down the line.

I'm considering an external sound card, but if anything I'm gonna wait to see if an ExpressCard 34 solution becomes available. Too many USB devices and not enough USB ports!

Honestly tho, I don't find the Z's sound that bad at all. Through the speakers, yes, but through headphones they sound fine. Then again, I'm coming from a laptop that had a mono speaker, and another that had really, REALLY bad sound from the headphones.

 

i dont think the sound is that bad trough my speakers (JBL Creature)
maybre try upgrading the firmware?

 

When I had the Z (4 weeks), I noticed that port to be loose, just like the SZ. Good luck with your exchange!

Well, so much for getting an SZ for under $1000. This SZ is still over $2k. For this price, I'll stick to a Z.

 

Hi Gee, they have lots of type.

I saw SZ7XX series with T8000 for US$1100 after the discount. It's super black and they have 3 stocks left. Just for comparisons in Canada, London drugs are selling SZ780 for Can$1499

I don't see any kind of these deals in Sony website.

 

Questions on the Z, After finally getting though all 403 pages of posts I've put together some questions that I'm not sure have been fully answered or even asked:

1. Does at least the video work on hdmi support when downgrading to xp? http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3858702&highlight=xp+issues#post3858702

2. Is there still issues with linux/ubuntu or which version should i look at using? http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3958187&highlight=linux+warning#post3958187

3. issue with large battery and leather case? does the "VGP-AMB8" or "VGP-CKZ2" leather case work ok if you have the extended battery?

4. external battery charger? Does something like http://www.lapzone.com/servlet/the-10778/VGP-dsh-BC1--Battery-Charger/Detail exist for the Z

5. Dual boot / vmware/ virtual pc? Is there any one running any of these, can any issues with it? Also can you run mac os X on the Z ?

6. Since Verizon uses EVDO can you unlock sprint card and use on verizon?

Thanks
Matt

 

Here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4005976&postcount=153
are my results of battery issue discussion with sony support.

 

Just an update to my lid situation. I wanted to get my carbon fibre lid on my SZ7 changed to a premium carbon fibre lid. Sony UK on the phone told me that i could have the lid that i liked as i was paying so i sent in my laptop for service last week Wednesday.
On Thursday/Fri/Monday i was told that engineers were looking at my laptop which was basically just lies.
Anyway today when i call again i was told that that they cannot change my lid. What a complete waste of time why did they have me send it when i made it clear what i wanted on the phone and through email.
Why did they keep my laptop since Thursday to come to that conclusion. I also included a letter which they read on Thursday and i outlined clearly what i wanted.
They could have looked at my laptop on Thursday or something and decided that and sent it back to me. If they had done this it would not have been so bad. This has been a real waste of time and i hate Sony right now.

Story is if you want to upgrade your computer don't look to Sony to do it.
I have asked them to send my laptop back to me immediately i hope that they have not damaged it in anyway while it has been with them.

 

^

You should have just bought the part and did the swap yourself. With all the info you can find online it wouldn't be hard to do.

Sorry to hear about Sony's ineptness and your frustration. Hope everything works out...

 

The machine just locks up. The fan is going at full speed and the only thing I can then do is a hardware reset.
I am going to run my laptop using the intel chip for the next few days as much as I can to see if the lockup is due to the nvidia graphics chip...

 

yikes, sorry to hear about that.. I would definately complain to higher-up level and at least get a refund/compensation of your trouble - I have noticed that if you are persistent with the CS reps "FIX MY ISSUE I AM NOT HANGING UP" instead of getting frustrated and just hanging up after the 10th person says they cant help you, you get better results

I did NOT hang up after like 4 CS reps told me I could not return/cancel my order *initially, when I placed Z I had forgotten to select blu-ray* but my fighting with them just led to a supervisor who did cancel the order right away

A premium carbon fiber lid is on stakes - richer black look and better quality go for it!!! lol since they ALREADY have it, just fight till the repair supervisor APPROVES the lid replacement!

 

1. No one has answered this yet; i'm waiting for a response too.

2. The NVRAM corruption problem has been fixed, but Ubuntu made a very irresponsible decision to release the alpha distributable without fixing the bug or disabling the e1000 adapter. As a result, there is an alpha-version Ubuntu CD image floating around which contains this bug. The bug has already been fixed, so the next beta should be fine. Or just wait for the final release.

5. I'm using virtual PC with no problems (it's quite fast), although you should know that virtualization is disabled and you can't enable it in the BIOS. There is a workaround for the SZ which will probably work with the Z as soon as someone takes the time/work to figure out where the set bit is in the Z's BIOS settings.

 

Sounds like Sony put a really low power amp in the Z. Some alternatives:
Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro (USB)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! (USB)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook (Expresscard 34)

I think the Turtle Beach is the most elegant solution (and cheapest at <$30). I have it and like it but can't be bothered to use it much (but if I get the Z it sounds like I would probably make use of it!). The cool thing is that it's headphone output can also double as optical digital out for surround sound via your home theatre system.

I'm guessing that the Sound Blaster Expresscard has a built in DSP which would offload sound processing from the CPU and so might be good for gaming. However, it only outputs in stereo, and also, knowing Creative, it will probably burden your system with tonnes of bloatware. For the life of me, I don't understand why they would make this kind of device without any digital (or analogue) output for surround sound.

And I thought the SZ speakers were pathetic, yikes!

Creative has an Expresscard 34 as mentioned above. It's $82 at Buy.com. Pretty expensive though for such a limited card, if you ask me.

 

Can you post how your SZ was returned to you. When I received my laptop from Sony, sent to Pennsylvania, I really thought I had someone else's notebook. There were so many scuff marks on the lid and underneath. And it was dusty/powdery. If it hadn't been for CompUSA rep. remembering how pristine a condition my laptop was in, Sony Probably would not have replaced the lid. I had to go through Comp USA to have them send my notebook to Sony (procedures then) and the guy kept making comments as to how I kept it in good condition. That saved me. There were other items I sent to Sony Repair Center, all except for a camera, came back thrashed.

 

This happens to all manufacturers and not only Sony. They have this company policy that they will only replace parts "like-for like" according to system specifications. Unfortunately, your best bet now is to buy the lid & do the swap yourself or seek third party companies to do it. Do be aware of your laptop's warranty policies if you decide to do either one of that.

Sorry to hear your troubles. I was surprised earlier when you mentioned that Sony (uncharacteristically) agreed to do the lid swap to a different one not intended for your model. It seems most likely that the customer service rep who attended to you didn't know what he/she was doing.

 

Yea please keep us posted. I was askin cuz I had the same problem but for just a literally a second it stops. But I found out that its the Power settings that turn my hard drive off every like 10 mins which I can turn that feature off. Cheers.



Please read below for everyone:


I should also note again how Beautiful this laptop is. Almost flawless. Wether you want to say I got the "Good bunch" All I know is that I cant be happier with this laptop. Speakers I think by the way are from HP. They rattle quite a bit, thats the Only problem I have with this laptp. Not to mention it gets so much attention!...But the Japan verion laptops as you guys can see don't seem to be having the same problems as the CTO'ers. And I had warned ppl from the beginning of this Thread. Also, for the record, ive downloaded all the drivers for my Z555 from the Z590 CTO Vista Ulimate drivers from Sony.com. That shows you its all the same components, just assembly is different. This goes on to show you how much assembly of the laptop makes a difference, just keep that in mind. All the problems that everyone is spotting out with their Z's, not finding a single one. Everythings perfectly put together and working as it should. So think twice before getting a CTO.

 

Mine was much looser. I fixed it by using tape and a screwdriver. It's on track now. At least the cover can stay closed. Still feel kind of loose compare to TZ.

 

I had a look at one of these around the time I got my Z. For just stereo output I'm wasn't impressed, especially since the last card I had (Sound Blaster Audigy Notebook) had surround and I'm quite satisfied with the Z's sound quality. Creative's drivers are notoriously bad, and I couldn't even get the optical output to work on it.

This one, however, does perk my interest.
http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-advantage-srm/home.aspx

 

err ... I have a Z591U and my port replicator doesn't have any type of cover... what does it look like? Is it necessary?


EDIT: Actually, I just noticed for the first time there is a cover there, but I have to use my fingernail to slide it closed. I guess It's always been open? How bad is it to just leave it open? I use my port replicator all the time (on and off multiple times a day), am I suppose to slide it open and closed each time?

 

Instead of exchange, I request P1 to send me a VAIO Recovery Disk with the charger. Haven't heard any response from them for a day. I have no clue on what is going on.

 

What made you change your mind? What about the situation with P1 Optimization System?
----------------------------------------------------------------

Before I make this leap on purchasing the SZ at a Sony outlet, provided I get it for under $1k, is there a difference in performance between DDR2 3GBRam (SZ) versus DDR3 3GB Ram(Z)? I'm still getting the Z, it's just a matter when US gets the premium carbon. That way, I've got a back-up pc.

 

Well... after I "fix" the loose port cover the only thing I don't like is P1 Optimized System. For example, they removed Touch Pad Driver Control. Without it, the edge of touch pad can't be used for scroll. I can simply download everything from Sony web site but I have to do it again if I need to restore the hard drive in the future. There are also some Sony software that I like to have. Since the recovery partition is removed by them, I can't change the Z back to its original system. I maybe possible do it with the Z590 VAIO recovery DVDs.
So I request them to send me the DVD with the missing AC adapter.
Right now, the Z's battery has 20% left.

I try to avoid exchange because I don't want to wait any longer and this Z has a dead pixel free screen and a good express card cover which doesn't half open like some member mentioned.

I sent them an email yesterday about my request and I have no response from them today. I don't speak good English so I prefer email. I've read positive comment of Portable One. From my view, negative, negative and negative.

PS. Before I placed order they told me they would ship 2-4 days (no mention on business day) and it ended up 8 days or 5 business days. I thought the delay was because of their P1 Optimized which I did not order them to do.

 

I take it back...battery drain confirmed; just didn't wait long enough. Girlfriend used the computer on Friday and Saturday. Charged it up to 100% end of Saturday night. Didn't use it until Tuesday night, had only 17% on start up.

Time to call Sony

 

Yea, P1 sucks a$$. Hold my laptop for over 5 business days rather than 24 hrs extra as they stated. Called in and they said there is a computer clitch, can't see my order.... I chose the P1 optimized b/c ppl's feedback up here and that's it. Normally, I have no trust on those third party resellers. Next time, if i ever to order from them. Just get my laptop shipped and that's fine. DON"T TOUCH IT again!!!

Also, some dude up here said Sony fresh start is someone will come in and uninstall the bloatware manually. That dude is so DUMB. once again, they are a big corportation, everything is optimized from the lowest level of employ to the highest --> no time to sit down and unintall individually. (regardless their website may hint so).

BTW, I'm getting extended battery for my laptop. Whoever said the Z can do 5 then he's lying. 4hrs with 100% start off + screen to lowest and bluetooth turned off for web surfing. 3:30 should be the average without hassle. I need around 6hrs to cover my entire days --> carrying the charger may just as good as carry the laptop itself with extended battery.

 

5 hours i think its kind of a stretch, but i can easily get more than 4 hours at stamina
did you change the power plan and reduced the fan speed?

and fresh start from sony is nothing like you described, it is literally a fresh start.. its vista + the drivers + programs that you can download from the support page

 

I was one of those who said I got over 5 hours, and I wasn't lying. What you need to understand is that my reaching that target involved partially not using the machine, just leaving it on. This wasn't a constant 6 hour browsing session or anything. I surfed the web for a little while, then let it play some music while the screen turned itself off, in Stamina mode. I can't remember what I said in my post some while back, but I believe I said I was nudging the 6 hour mark.

With constant use, fresh out of the box, I had nearly 5 hours under mostly Stamina use, and some Speed use to play a game. This was in the first week of having it in my possession.

Btw, I have the 2.53GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 200GB 5400RPM HDD in mine, with the standard battery.

 

To get 5+ hours, you just need to be careful with your power profile settings and take a look in the VAIO section of the options. If you use the Quiet mode for cooling/CPU performance, lower the screen brightness, use 16bit colour, turn off all devices you're not using (e.g. Bluetooth, iLink, modem, DVD, WWAN, etc), use Stamina mode and just have light usage (e.g. browsing, office) then you'll easily get 5 hours - that's no lie.

I can top 6 hours, just, but I also downgraded to XP and tried out the undervolting guide.

One thing to mention is that it takes a couple of full cycles (fully charge and fully discharge) for laptop batteries to reach their full performance, so you might like to try conditioning your battery (by entering BIOS setup to avoid any power management, closing the lid and waiting for it to go completely flat) then charging it fully again of course.

I have the Z11 model with P9500, 4GB ram, 320GB/5400.

 

that's bad... I'm now using SZ440, with Debian for almost a year, and it's still has many bugs which rather irritates me... such as blinking screen from time to time, doesn't work Fn key, and I can't set my screen brightness.
That is very disappointing... Vaio aren't best choice for Linux users...
****! I love this Z-series... but I'm afraid of many new problems... for example, I couldn't use the PgUP, PgDOWN, Home, End keys, cause they work only with Fn!! >_<

 

No guys, I think it would be more informative if you set up a standard on how to measure battery life here. If you say you can get 5hrs no lie except you partially did not use the machine then I can tell you that yours is doing worse than mine because I got 8hrs of listening to music with my lid closed (this' prob how Sony got their 8hr top with standard battery).

4hrs of surfing webs is included of using Stamina, lowest brightness (come on, don't bring it down t 16bit color), bluetooth off, wifi on and Vaio battery optimized & silent mode on + battery care off (started at 100% charged)

3hrs of the same thing with battery care on (started off at 80% charged)

I have Z590, 2.5ghz, 250gb HD and 2Gb ram. Will take a look again once I got my new one (same thing except with 3Gb ram)

 

No, someone from here managed to say that fresh start from sony is performed by having someone come in and uninstall all the crappy stuffs.

 

That's obviously not the case and it doesn't take much to work that out. How could Sony afford to do that for so little charge, and why would they?

Fresh start just means they put a different drive image on the machine at the factory - one where it's had less crap installed on it.

 

I had Vista Business with Fresh Start it had Vista + Drivers + Sony utilities nothing else = nice and responsive bootup

 

Thanks all. Gee I got my laptop back today and it arrived back fine they cleaned the screen and gave me a standard cloth with it as well.

I was a bit hesitant to do the swap myself because of the warranty situation. I got a decent price from Sony to do this job so i went with it rather than buying a lid of Sony service sales or something and paying someone to fit it for me.
I think i might forget about the lid thing for now maybe if i see one going for a decent price i might be interested again or you never know next week i might want to chase it up again lol. They sent me back the letter i included and it is quite funny reading it back all this over a lid colour. I still wish they could have decided on this sooner but i will forget about it now.

I spoke with a supervisor or something yesterday and they offered me 2 months extra warranty for my troubles so i took it. Now my laptop is under warranty until June 2011. They also said that they have sent an email to those who handle the calls instructing them that Sony does not do any type of upgrades or a change to the system etc. They suggested if i want to do this i should take it to someone else to have it done.

I don't know what the position is regarding doing upgrades with non Sony authorised techs so i will look into it.


About the Z battery life try disabling Aero if you do not do this already and also use Firefox and a good ad block and no script as they might well make a noticeable difference for you.