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

From what I've read on nVidia's website, Sony is the only manufacturer for which you can't get the graphic drivers from nVidia directly.

For the rest it seems to be too "customized" to get the generic drivers, for example the Intel integrated graphic is kind of special since there's a switch nvidia <-> intel...

From my experience, we won't get updated drivers for our Z on the long run...
I have an old Sony laptop, and I remember that they stopped updating the drivers only few months after I bought the laptop.. I couldn't get improvements for the graphic card etc., that sucks!

 

I think he means other drivers too.

For most components within the Z you can use standard drivers from the respective companies' sites (ie. Synaptics, Intel, etc.)

However, the OEM drivers you can't get are for the GPUs (as stated above). If you're on a VPCZ11/Z12, the Z13 drivers work and are more updated. However, if you're the type that loves to get the latest and greatest, you can use the community created ones on this thread here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/342947-my-discoveries-vaio-z-s-hybrid-graphics.html

I just finished my finals and finally i can get to testing out these new drivers since i didnt want to risk, in the worse case scenario, having to reformat my Z after a bad install.

 

Are the speakers in the Z really that bad? I'm getting ready to purchase a Z, but that is the only thing holding me back at this point. Any advice from the seasoned vets here?

Thanks so much,
Lindy

 

IMHO the speakers are ok. The volume is adequate but there is no bass whatsoever.

 

Thanks! I just want to be able to hear the you-tube videos I watch without having to lift the (albeit lightweight) computer to my ears to hear it.
Headphones for movies and music, so no problem there.

Appreciate the help!

 

Sure no problem!
The sound is pretty good with the bundled noise cancelling earphones.

 

The Z's speakers are not the best, you already know. But what do we expect in such a small package? I have seen bigger laptops with even worse speakers than the Z's. If you want clean cinema sound, hook up some external speakers or go with a goot pair of headphones.

One thing I would like to know tho is, is there a "true" 5.1 usb soundcard or only the creative ones that connect to expresscard?

 

Hi Pyr0,
I found these two creative ones by doing a quick search. Hope that helps.
Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 | Creative Labs Online Store
Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! | Creative Labs Online Store

However, I wonder if connecting our Z's bluetooth interface with some bluetooth speakers would make a difference. Plus it's wireless. Check those speakers if you like the idea:
Creative T12 Wireless Bluetooth Speakers | Creative Labs Online Store

 

Hey guys.

I bought an i5 Vaio Z in black a couple of months ago and I'm kinda bored with the color. I love the premium carbon fiber one, so I ordered the cover via the parts and accessory sales call center for like $75 bucks, which is great, but the problem is where can I get it installed? I don't want to send it to the Sony repairs because it would probably take weeks for them to install something that would take like 10 seconds, so where do you reccomend that I should take it?

Thanks!

 

I have the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. I is usb and you can plug a TosLink cable into it with the included adapter. I use it to plug my Z into my 5.1 receiver and it works great. Plays Movies in 5.1 and the sound is much cleaner for music than if I use a 1/8 mini to RCA analog cable.

The thing only cost me like $20 or $30.

 

I also have the ASUS Xonar U1 which is a USB soundcard with TOSLink out. Unlike most other USB soundcards it also has Dolby Digital Live, which is what you need if you want to play games in 5.1 digital surround. Otherwise you are limited to videos and movies which were originally encoded with Dolby Digital 5.1.

 

Re: Partitioning

I'm trying to partition the C: drive so that I can download all my files separate from the OS. I can't seem to get it done. I've allocated letters other than whats listed under "My Computer" i.e. C:, D:, E: and F:. Can someone guide me Step by Step as to how to partition.

Also, I'm backing up all my DVD's to this partition. Does anyone know of a program for this. Most importantly, I need the file to be compatible to sync to an iPhone. I believe the movie file must be converted as an MP4, if I'm not mistaken.

Thanks!

 

Partition wizard (shareware) can partition your drive. It has a fairly user friendly interface too. Regarding movie formats, I'm not sure what formats are readable by your iphone, but it sounds like you need dvd ripping software as well, if you don't already have it.
Good luck,
Will

 

Breakthrough news on this issue! I found a solution on another forum that basically disables the adobe flash player hardware accelerator. When I disabled mine, the problem almost went away entirely. (In the past week, it only rebooted twice, but I think that might be due to something else. Beforehand, it would reboot twice a day. No joke.) Here is the thread outlining the solution:

Adobe Forums: Flash player randomly crashes computer

I'm hoping no one else has this frustrating problem, but if anyone does, they can search this forum and try this solution.
Will

 

Thanks, is this something I buy or download somewhere (lol)? So, I can't partition using the instructions offered in Windows "Help"?

Let us know about the Firefox reboot issue your experiencing. I, too use Firefox, but I don't expereince any type of shut down. Maybe, I have a different version than yours.

 

Re: Optical Drive Enclosure for Leftover DVD Drive

I removed the DVD drive from my new Vaio Z13 laptop (installed a HDD in there with the newmodeus caddy). So here I have a leftover DVD drive. Is there any third-party enclosure (USB to SATA/optical bridge/interface) that's available so that I can put this drive into it to make use of this leftover DVD drive? Will any of the standard/generic slim optical drive enclosures work with this DVD drive or are there any specific ones due to the special tray/bezel? The Vaio Z DVD drive does not have an eject button as this button is on/above the keyboard.... will this button continue to work for the USB optical drive... or do I do it by software (right-click on the optical drive letter)? Is this an ok idea (re-use the leftover drive) or should I just bite the bullet and buy another USB DVD/BD drive? Thanks.

 

Partition Wizard is shareware (I believe). Just google them and download and you're good to go. I don't particularly find anything in 'Windows Help' helpful or useful. 3rd party applications are typically far better than most built windows programs. You can always try different partitioning programs and use the one you feel most comfortable with.

If your laptop isn't rebooting by itself, then I wouldn't worry about firefox. If you do ever have this issue, you can try the solution in my last post. But, it sounds like it's a rare problem, considering I didn't see many others with this same issue. Although I think I fixed the issue 90%, it still has the odd reboot once in blue moon. Therefore, I'll keep looking and post my findings. Perhaps I'll try monitoring my cpu temp too in case it's thermal related.
Will

 

Off Topic: Nobody has said it yet:

Merry Christmas!!!

I am sure soon, we will be more!!

 

Merry Christmas from a snowy Holland.

 

Merry Christmas from a snowy Paris.

 

Merry Christmas from a sunny and moderate San Francisco.
hey we're only visiting not living here
bye

 

Merry Christmas from Orange County, Southern California, where the weather is 72 degrees (lol). It is very warm out there.

 

Merry Christmas from sunny India

 

Guys what's the big story with the GPS?

Seems like the US model has one? but the European doesn't?
However it seems that the European one does have it but that it's just disabled, and that we can enable it somehow...

Why would Sony disable the GPS on the European model? How to enable it? With which software to use it? What are the side effects on performances/battery life?

Thanks for your help!

 

Hello, I got my screen broken and I found this replacement on eBay, do you think it's reliable? Any advice?

Thank you!

 

I have the Canadian version and there's no GPS, I've read somewhere that it can be activated but it's impossible.

 

The Z only comes with a GPS if you ordered one with the Gobi 2000 card (the mobile broadband card)

Look through the Vaio Z manual and see if the part numbers match (The manual can be downloaded here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/114814-sony-models-specs-support-dissassembly-links.html)

 

Merry Christmas from rainy Melbourne, Australia!
Will

 

Please find out what panel you have first and then match it with the panel in the link you posted. IF both are the same, then go for it.
It should most likely be this

LT131EE12000

 

Yeah, it's the same code, thanks for helping!

 

If you have the pc with 3g modem (the gobi other user named) you have the gps, but it is disabled.

I enabled mine (also from Europe), but I must be a bit silly since I did not get to make it work.

 

isn't it scary?

YouTube - vaio z13 fan noise

do you have the same noise?

 

Merry Christmas everybody

No, this must be a faulty fan. As I have already stated in some other thread here, not all Z fans make the same noise. If you consider yours as a noisy one, maybe you should also consider changing it.

 

^ yah... definitely not a normal fan noise. Please have it checked by a service/tech person.

 

Mine makes a similar noise. I purchased a z13 back in November and I wondered if my fan noise was "normal".

I might call Sony support and see what they say. It doesn't bother me that much and I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.

 

Hi all,

My first post on NBR after years of lurking around reading the reviews is a sad one.

I recently bought a Vaio Z-136 with the following config from India:

- Core i5 580M, 6GB DDR3
- 128GB SSD RAID 0 (2x64GB)
Modified with a newmodeUS caddy with a WD 750GB Scorpio Blue drive.

It was working fine till last night and was easily the fastest laptop I've ever used. Last night when I opened a new tab in Firefox, the laptop just crashed with a Blue Screen with the text "Unknown Hard Error" and does not boot anymore.

I restarted it immediately without noting the code of the error, but that was the only text shown. The PC refuses to go beyond the Boot Screen, Vaio ASSIST doesn't work as well. (It goes past the "Vaio" screen, show a blank screen with a blinking cursor and does nothing).

Any help with this?
Joseph

 

Sounds pretty much like my machine.
SONY's are and always have been (and probably always will be) LOUD!

 

Does your PC not boot at all ? Try restarting a couple of times. You might try recovery as well as last resort if nothing works

But I'd suggest you call up Sony India support and consult with them.

 

Sounds like maybe a corrupt hard drive or your drives died in RAID etc. In short, your Z isn't posting. If you created recovery disks, it's probably time to bust them out. If not, maybe try calling Sony and see if they'll send you some.

 

Somebody please help me!!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/543384-sony-bdx-s500u-bd-drive-bundled-software.html
I'm trying to figure out if this is going to be a $200 USB BD drive, ... or will it become a $250 or $300 drive after I have to buy extra software :\
Thanks.

 

Hi Joseph,
I suggest you enable the RAID posting from your BIOS. Then check your RAID status and let us know (RAID status normal? - hard disks all present and active?). If everything looks ok there, then you could try to restore. If it's a RAID hardware fault, you'll have to sent it to SONY for repair.

 

You can also try pulling out the caddy since that's an easy way to rule out any issues related to the Scorpio drive.

 

If you guys are trying to free up extra space and do not have anything in your personal safe, you should go to

C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Protector Suite

the PersonalSafe leaves a backup file there and i just freed up 5 GB

 

wow 5GB is a lot of space to recover!!

i just looked at mine and found a psqlsa.swp file in mine and this is a 1,028 KB (1 MB) file. No other files in that Protector Suite subdirectory though.

I can recover a lot of space if i wipe out my 3 outlook PST files

 

Can anyone help me with my wireless card? I put it into sleep mode and when i start it back up 50% of the time it doesn't auto-connect to my network for some reason. I have already re-installed the driver

 

Hi,
I have a similar problem & have updated to the latest driver & still the problem persists.
If I boot from cold, it connects fine but from Standby/Hibinate, it does not auto reconnect. I have ensured all the setting are correct (eg, preferred network/ auto connect option selected etc)....., to no avail.

I have sort of got around the problem by enabling my 3G software to manage WIFI, so it will connect to the 'best network'.

Cheers,
T

 

As recommended on the thread, I turned off the scheduled Disk Defragmenter. Now Vaio Care is screaming bloody murder that it needs to run Disk Defragmenter, Disk Cleaner and Registry Defragmenter.

Should i just ignore these "critical warnings" from Vaio Care?

 

Can anyone help me please? I had the issue with the creaking hinge on the laptop which is a vaio vpcz112gx. I opened up the laptop and accidentally tore the edge of the flexible cable that connects the motherboard to the keyboard. I need to get a new one fast but sony says and all the parts distributors say that they are on backorder for 4 weeks plus. I'm an engineering student at PSU... and classes start back on the 10th.. anyone have any suggestions where to get this part quickly?

the part number is A1769469A.

any suggestions appreciated.
I called the MD, MD and Illinois parts distributors none of which have the part.


Please help. I'd even consider buying a used part if one of you has an extra sitting around- the retail is $38.

thanks!!!!!!

 

Hi,
Upgrade to the later v6 of vaio care, if it sees you have an SSD, the defrag option is then unticked by default.
I would not recommend a defrag on any SSD, so if you cannot update vaio care, then just untick defrag & ignore the message.
Cheers,
T

 

That's the weird part. I do have v6 of vaio care.