Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 (VPCZ1) Official Owners Thread Part 2

If u knew the part number, ordered the part and looked extensively through zoinks disassembly thread... i guess you could... or i guess u could go to the sony service center to replace the lcd...

in any case is the "rainbowing" just the screen getting pinched by the bezel? it happens on all the Z series cuz the lid/screen is so thin(or when u apply a force to the lcd, say a finger). or is it something else?

 

This is a good question, because there were instances where the hinge would be screwed in too tight which gives the lid a more secure feel but puts a slight bend on the bottom edges of the screen causing the pixels to slightly change different colors. My Z has doing this since purchase but I believe over time as the hinge begins to loosen up it will probably go away.

 

Anyone here figured out how to turn on/off the touchpad with a hotkey?
How about a program that does it automatically when typing? I can't find one that works.

 

I have to say this is one sweet machine but why wouldn't the design team use the quality aluminum used on the inside for the lid? It's such a shame.

 

So you can pay for the premium carbon fiber, duh!

I know I did.

 

So it actually uses a different material and is not just a change in colour finish?

 

When I close the lid from the top near my webcam the bottom two corners of my laptop screen tends to "rainbow" in circles about 3-4 spots the size of a digit "0" on a keyboard to give you an idea. Seems like pressure point issues. Does anyone else experience such issues?

I wouldn't install it myself (don't trust myself) I would pay to get a service center to replace it if necessary just wasn't sure on the price point. Just would be nice if I could pay extra and get the full HD screen since the video card and specs could handle it if I could have it replaced under warranty.

Cheers.

 

The lid is the same material for all colors/designs. The only difference is the finish. The carbon fiber lid is just a regular lid with some carbon fiber dust.

It's normal. That's what happens since we have a flexible lid, if it were rigid, it'd snap since it's so thin. However, considering what TigerBone said, maybe yours is tighter than the rest of ours? Usually i dont notice the distortion because either i use my external monitor or i turn off my Z before i close my screen so i barely notice.

 

Because they are looking after their interests not ours. Should they have made an aluminum palm rest, that would have cost them about $10 per palm rest as compared to only .50 cents for the plastic one it comes with now.

What about the palm rest for the the Z13 series is that one plastic or aluminum?

Cheers.

 

Hi, this is my first post. I just configured a Z1390 fully decked out and it the configuration was about $3000. However, on the Sonystyle Canada, the same config is about $2500. I live in the US, and would like to order from the Sonystyle in Canada for obvious reasons, have any of you ordered your Z from the Canada site and live in the US?. Is it cheaper in the end to do it this way, i love this machine and would like to know as much as i can before pulling the trigger. Thanks!

 

Your profile says otherwise, that it's your 10th post. And that your others were 1 year ago.

Regarding purchasing from the Canadian website, you might need a "Canadian connection" in order to make that happen, because I'm pretty sure they won't accept a u.s. address for the delivery. Also, warranty may be an issue.

 

Plastic

 

Thank you Oscar. Yes, i meant to type my first post in a long time, anyhow, i have a Z690 and would like to upgrade to the Z1390, this new machine has great specs but i'm not sure if the 1080p screen would make text hard to see. I guess i'll be ordering from the US site once i get back from Depolyment. Thanks for the info!.

 

Hello e14,
The only way to disable the touchpad is from mouse properties, Device Settings tab, and then disable the Synaptics device. I'm afraid configuring this through a hotkey from windows is not possible, as far as I know. There are third party apps that can build hot key macros for windows, and if my memory serves me well, a forum member has posted sth relevant a few days ago. In addition to that it looks like the enable/disable feature is some kind of registry entry/value. Would that do for you? I'll look into it when I have some time, soon I hope.

EDIT: The registry key where all that lies is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadPS2_1. The relevant key is DisableDevice. It seems that it does not work on the fly.

 

Does anyone know if there is an aluminum palmrest?

 

I have the premium carbon fiber version on my Z1190 and the palm rest began to darken in two spots where both my palm rests in less than a month with minimal use. I'm still peeved off about it as it is VERY noticeable.

I'm really surprised they didn't put the aluminum on the Z13 series, I'm guessing if they do that then Sony would inadvertently admit liability of a problem. To bad you guys with the Z13 had to get screwed with the palm rests too.

 

But... can we do something?
If all the possessors of Z send a mail to sony complaining the problem... maybe...
at least creating a "custom part" in aluminium...

 

there is a Poll for How-To: Protective Film Application on the Z11
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/478061-how-protective-film-application-z11.html
it is made because of the palm rest problem. I contacted Zagg and many others like ghost armor and bodygard to look for protection for the new VPC-Z11 palm rest. if many of us contact them they will probably make some protection for that. I think that sony making the palm rest with aluminum will be a dream lol. the only way to go for now is to cover it I think.

 

That's a pipe-dream too :wub: :laugh:

 

Just got z136.

All good but the fan louder than 25% Speakers when playing game.

 

Someone can take a palmrest, get it mapped in a CAD program, then get it machined out of aluminum.

 

That's why Sony sells noise-canceling earphones with the Z

 

The fan is surprisingly loud...hope this won't be too much of a nuisance in the library disturbing myself and those around me...

 

Well unless you're gaming within the library you shouldn't have a problem... i'm posting this from within a library... and the person's horrible sound-leaking generic ipod earbuds leaks more noise than my Z's fan will ever make... maybe that's why the Z comes with the noise-cancelling earbuds, to liberate us from them generic iPod earbud users

 

Z's fan speed can be regulated, so you can actually set it to silent, albeit at a performance penalty - but then, you are not playing counterstrike in the library, are you?

 

I remember seeing this option but can't find where now

 

why not... if someone do it I love him!!!

 

Its in the Vaio control center under power management/power options.. (Thermal control strategy)

 

Here's a place that can create the drawing & mill the part:
Custom Design Services

They probably need to be sent a physical part (I think this is ~$90 from the Sony spare parts store). I think the first person to do this will need to spend hundreds. But, because the shop's the one who does the CAD drawing, the number of experimental iterations may be low. If there's sufficient interest, he can use the CAD drawing to make more for sale, recouping his loss.

 

Few days ago I asked AGabi for his broken palm rest and wanted to do something like that but with full carbon fibre, unfortunately hi was not able to send it to me. But I think the problem will be the touchpad, I remember AGabi told me that the touchpad can not be removed, it is glued or something like that !!

 

I think you may be right about the touchpad being permanently attached, here's a picture sent to me:



It looks like the palm rest + touchpad (but not the buttons) is a single part to Sony.

P.S. How does one break the palm rest??

 

Btw, for those who don't have the WWAN Gobi card option, the part numbers for the daughterboard and cable are

A1769452A COMPL PWB IFX546(WAN_GY,SY)(S)

and

183747811 FLAT CABLE W/CONN

respectively. Here's what the parts look like:



It looks like the daughterboard provides a mini-PCI-E slot:



I'm wondering if I should put a WWAN card in there or something else (and what that is)... For instance I found a mini-PCI-E USB 3.0 board but I'm not sure if it'll fit. The board looks a bit long-ish and the cables from the ports to the board look like they're designed for desktops...

 

I have looked through dozens (maybe hundreds) of pages here and on other forums but I have yet to see a clear answer about this.

My Z1290 was delivered a few weeks ago and I am in the market for another battery. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find an OEM / aftermarket battery that is compatible with this particular laptop. It seems like every other Sony laptop is listed but the VGP BPL10, BPL20 and higher units aren't available.

Personally, I think that $199 - $300 for the Sony-branded one is simply highway robbery.

Has anyone had success finding a replacement battery for these laptops??

 

@SKYMTL: Have you tried.... Ebay? There are a few for $150... but careful... some are knock-offs.

@TofuTurkey: Thanks for the diagrams and the part numbers... time to write them down... in case i ever need them, i DONT want to go through this thread again...

 

I don't buy on EBay due to too many bad experiences unfortunately. I just have to wonder why it is that the Z-series seems to be the only Sony line that doesn't have aftermarket batteries available for it.

 

I read somewhere that Sony batteries have identifiers: if you use an aftermarket battery, something... goes... wrong, e.g. the laptop refuses to recognize that a battery is present. I think there's a hack around that, but I haven't read about it for the latest Zs.

P.S. At least the aftermarket battery doesn't explode in your lap. I think.

 

That's why the z's batteries are so expensive! if they were cheaper, Al Quaeda could afford to use 'em!

I'm KIDDING! Dont go off calling the CIA/FBI/NSA or some other 3 letter agency on me (calling the FDA is acceptable)

In all seriousness, didnt the Z come with some uhh flier that offered like 15% off accessories or something? If not, have you tried student discount? maybe an external battery pack?

 

Haha. Figures, since i probably pinged all the "keywords" they use to look for terrorists in one post lol. If i dont post for a few days, y'all know why . (or it could be just me cramming for midterms ><)

 

Thanks for posting daughter board and cable part numbers for fitting WWAN to the VPC-Z. Will the antennas in the screen be there already for WWAN?

 

Mine didn't. I bought it during the Canadian sale that was on a while back ($1093 + tx for the Z1290) and didn't pony up for the extended battery due to it slanting the laptop but now I am hating the decision.

Battery life isn't bad per se (between 5-6 hours) but on long flights, I'll be seriously hooped.

It still surprises me that there are literally nadda aftermarket batteries available for the newer Z series.

 

My Z came with 3 antennas (I have the 6300, not 6200), so if I add a WWAN card I'll use one of the 3 antennas for WWAN. If I do buy antennas, I don't think I'll get them from Sony, they're probably cheaper elsewhere. I mean, they're just wires...

(Edit) I went to look up antennas, here's a set of them: http://cgi.ebay.com/WWAN-EVDO-HSDPA...395?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a165b253

Apparently they've got more stuff at the end of the wires . Some of the antennas have a mini-PCI-E connection at the end, I've no idea what's going on

 

Wait, how did you get the 6300? dont all the Z's ship with 6200? Also, in order to install the antennae, dont you have to disassemble the LCD because the wires go around the frame? (behind the bezel)

 

My CTO is from Japan I also have FHD, and HDD.

I guess if you want to route the antenna vertically, then you'll have to mess with the bezel. I'm not sure how much worse it is to route the antennas around the keyboard area...

 

the new Z1390 has the 6250, t foud a lot of difference in the internal component between the Z11 and the Z13, eaven the ram are different !!! i really don´t knew whay, the kewbord is also softer the the Z11 (the keys feel softer !!)

 

Seems that the New Z1390 with the i7 640M is a lot faster than the old ones, (19 sec full Boot) it beats my 'old' Z11 by 12 sec with the clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate N

 

It's a numbers game IMHO...all I know is that its damn fast regardless of which Z you have!

 

It also depends on how many SSDs you have on your raid0. Loading 4 SSDs in POST is going to take a lot longer than 2.

 

sorry if this is the wrong thread, but as of date, is the z-series the only laptop with a 1920x1080 resolution on a 13-inch (be it 13.1" or 13.3", etc..) screen?

does another manufacturer offer the same screen, or is sony currently the only one?

 

AFAIK, it's the only ones... the only "competitors" are possibly the acer 3820tg - bad screen/bad keyboard or the Lenovo X200 - bad screen/no graphics

 

for 13" it is the only one with build in 1920x1080 screen nothing in the market at this screen resolution for now.

it is very surprising when the screen is probably a toshiba !!! the Toshiba R700 is very close to the vaio Z if they put better graphic and screen