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

I'm running the power profile as "High Performance", I checked the task bar icon and the DVD is on, but error persists.

Here's a print screen.



Thanks.

 

See attached picture, there is a little icon in the tray that allows you to control the power to the DVD/BD drive

 

Yes, it saying that the drive in on.

I've tried to to power off and power on again but no success...

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the recovery media unless you want the applications from it. I made the recovery disks and pulled WinDVD BD off of them, that is all I have needed from the recovery disks. Also you can order a copy from Sony for like $25, just call support. Sometimes you can get the for free if you complain enough. I would say if you call and tell them your problem you should be able to get the DVDs for free. Best policy with Sony is don't ask, demand, repeatedly and forcefully.

 

my 8GB mac memory for the Vaio Z is in the Fry's ad this week for 89.99+ (2x 4GB kit, 8500/1066, Micron chips). I got it on sale for 150+ last October (usually back then was 190+ or 200+ before the price crashed).

Have to go back there later today (they're nearby)... my kid's new AMD Phenom II B.E. processor is suddenly on sale now and they've gotta price match themselves!! ha ha. Bought this a few days ago only.

 

I'm ordering a Z125GX/S, last quarters/refresh model. Anyone have this model and has there been any issues? Also, has there been any type of upgrade from the Z12 to the Z13? The only 3 things I could find is:

1. the CPU went from i5-520M 2.4Ghz (z12)
to i5-450M 2.53Ghz (Z13).

2. and someone posted the the High Speed SD Card is not compatible for the Z12, but is now compatible with the Z13 for Super High-Speed SD Card transfer rates.

3. Stereo A2DP 2.1 +EDR on the Z13, but not on the Z12's.

Found a site and these Brand NEW VPC-Z125GX/S (w/ 256SSD) are now going for $1710.00, I recall Sony had them back for $2499.99 Thanks.

 

#2 Z13 has SDXC support (cards that are 64GB or larger) while the Z12 only goes up to SDHC (up to 32GB).

Z13 also has a TPM chip.

 

Hello!I also have a Sony VAIO VPC-Z13A7 wich i bought it a few days ago..the problem is ok how it was the windows in french i had deleted the recovery partition,after that i downloaded a english version of windows 7 pro oem but on my licence it says is for windows 7 pro oa and have no ideea what it means because i only knew about retail/oem thas anyone knows exactly what means oa?
After this i installed a fresh copy of windows 7 pro but when i give properties it says i have 4gb of am but only 3,68 available why?and i also have a problem with the keyboard because the lights dosn't work i found a topic about some settings in sony control center for it that i've read but in my control center i got only the properties f the sistem what should i do to make them work?and the last thing my notebook camed with the battery empty i use the notebook as a desktop on AC adaptor the thing is thas it do any harm to the battery if i leave it like so empty ?
PS:I am very glad that i found a community so big with Sony VAIO Z series Ooooo...and sorry for my bad english

 

I'm not exactly sure what the problem is with the OS problem, but i think it could be a problem in that Microsoft limits OEM keys to 1 activation, which can be solved if you call in and tell them you had to reinstall windows <-- i think...

Uhh, I'm not sure exactly why, but when i had 4gb of RAM, it'd say the exact samething, that i only had 3.68gb "usable" I'm not sure exactly why, however i think there was a thread on it around. If it's any consolation, I got 8gb installed now and windows says there's only 7.68gb "usable". I'm thinking windows probably reserves .32 gb of RAM for something? I dunno, but rest assured everyone has that (unless I was right about Windows reserving the .32gb of RAM and they told Windows to not reserve it, or maybe it's reserved for the Intel graphics?)

about your keyboard backlight. I'm not sure about your model, but a select few Z's dont have a backlit keyboard (IIRC, that's in Japan where they've got a plethora of options). However, you can turn on the keyboard in the Vaio Control Center under the Keyboard and Mouse tab. There is no way to actually turn on and off the keyboard, but instead it is controlled by the ambient light sensor right above the F9 key on the US keyboards at least (right next to the num locks/caps lock lights). There's a registry hack where you can change the threshold for when the backlight should turn on.

Hope that helped, and welcome to the community!

 

I'm thinking to upgrade to my VPC-Z119FJ/S's keyboard to the backlit keyboard. I've looked at the service manual and found all the parts and need an already got the prices for the parts. My question is would Vaio Control Center recognize the backlit keyboard or would it recognize that the model I have doesn't come with one causing it not to work?

 

It should work. VCC only reads the information from the components. If the connector is exactly the same from the backlight keyboard as the non-backlight it shouldn't be a problem. Don't think Sony makes different motherboards for the Z for a keyboard (connector).

 

It´s the same connector and board, you can install it without problems!

 

I'm just curious, does the non backlight KB Z have that ambient sensor near the number lock indicator? If it doesn't, is there still that dot there?

 

It should still have the ambient light sensor as the ambient light sensor also controls the automatic brightness levels... but no one ever uses that.

 

Hello again!So i found also a web site in english with my model Sony VAIO VPC-Z13A7E/B i hope it is useful,and about the thing with 3,68gb usable could someone put a link to the thread?about the backlit i don't have anything else in the vaio control center no settings no nothing just the specification of the system and i had installed corectly i think all the software from the site and exactly from the model.One more thing could anyone tell me what is the order of installing the drivers and software for this generation of VAIO Z?

 

Has anyone here tried the SGP covers for the Z series?

Z Series - Sony - Laptops

 

Anybody know a way to get a foreign Sony Z?

They don't offer Quad SSD in Canada -_-

 

^ask some local friends (nearby you) that have relatives overseas(?)

 

Which countries Z are you looking for? I live in Japan

 

Jackpot! I want the Japanese Z. But they won't ship to me !

Oh wait... I do remember someone in Hong Kong. I'll have to think twice though, as Sony Hong Kong doesn't offer customization.

 

Yea, most companies don't ship outside Japan. Even Yahoo! Auction's seller won't ship outside Japan.

If you can think of a reliable way to do it that you feel comfortable with, let me know.

 

You buy it, I paypal you for the product + shipping to Canada, then you ship it to me.

 

There are sites that do import out of Japan customized laptops. Conics or PortableOne are two that come to mind. Note that they do charge a little extra for doing so. If you find a friend (or fellow forum member) from Japan that'll help you, that's even better! (I'd also check to see if the Japanese Vaios come with a international warranty although i'm not sure if ANY Sony warranty transfer from owner to owner)

 

Conics overcharges @_@

I finished customizing and it turned out to be $3815 .... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But thanks, at least I know it's possible now. Conics is a wonderful site.

 

sorry this has probably been answered before, but I didn't find it with a quick search

I read that older Vaio Zs have problems with the screen coming in contact with the palm rest and keys when closed sometimes. Does the Z13 have the same issue?

Thanks

 

Older Z?

How often does the Z series get updated btw? How long did old Z last?

 

There's the VGN-Z series which came before the VPC-Z. In response to the above question... if you place the laptop into a place where there's pressure on the lid, there'll prob be a imprint of the keyboard on the screen (at least for me). It wipes away (prob just my finger oils depositing on the screen after contact with the keyboard). Some Z's apparently came with a microfiber cloth, and people just placed the cloth between the keyboard and screen. I'm using a razer kabuto mobile mousepad:

Amazon.com: Razer Kabuto Mobile Mouse Mat (Black): Electronics

 

I've had mine since October and have never experienced the keys coming in contact with the screen when closed/ transporting it. I keep my Z in a backpack with a binder and some books in a Sony hard case.

The ironic thing is that I bought a silicone keyboard protector from kbprotector.com and when I leave that on the keyboard and transport my computer around in my backpack, the protector comes in contact with the screen and leaves oily marks (which can be wiped), so I have to now carry my protector separately.

 

hello again!i've seen that no one has answerd to my question and the thread has past very fast to another subject.Ok i had reinstalled my windows on my Sony VAIO VPC-Z13A7E and i'd managed to do somehow that my vaio control center see all the option but it doesn't see my option for keyboard light and i am begining to think that i was a fool to buy this model because normaly on the shop that i had buyed and other specifications of this model it says that it has keyboard with light but if its like so why it doesn't light the keys? does anyone know what should I do to make them work properly?
PS:sorry for my bad english and thanks for any forward answears

 

When you first boot/ turn on your computer do the keyboard lights come on? If not, then it doesn't sound like your system has that feature.

 

Do you remember if your keyboard back-light was coming on before you did the reinstall?

 

no it didn't work before and it doesn't light the keyboard at system startup, probably i should call sony to see what's all about

 

Nightmare service story:

Bought a loaded Sony Vaio Z from Portable One with 3 year ADH, and have babied it for the 6 months I've owned it. Portable One was great, but when the right hinge started coming loose, they could not get Sony to get them a replacement part. After over a month of waiting I gave up with them and logged a repair call to Sony to have them fix it on site.

Two weeks later a repair tech shows up. Scratches up the formerly perfect case pretty badly, breaks at least 3 tabs from the bezel, successfully tightens the hinge screw, but breaks the screen. Hands me back the laptop without all the screws (when I showed him the missing screws he later found most of them in the carpet) and says he will get another tech out to replace the broken screen in 3 days. When that doesn't happen I call Sony to find out when it will be fixed. They say they don't know, it depends on whether they have the parts in stock, and they can't find that out. This is Tier II B2B support! When I asked to speak to a supervisor I was told "there aren't any at Tier II". I figured I must have just gotten unlucky and called again, different person, same story. It's been a week now, and Sony still claims they have no idea if they even have a replacement screen in stock.

This is utterly crazy. I used to love the laptop, but carrying around a separate 17" desktop monitor when I visit my client doesn't do anything for my image or Sony's.

 

That sure doesn't say very much about the type of person Sony is hiring as service techs.

Taking the Z apart to fix the hinge problem is actually a pretty simple operation. As laptops go, the Z is one of the easier ones to take apart.

For someone to screw that up, that badly, makes him completely incompetent. That they would send out a guy like that is indefensible,

 

Do you mind telling us where on our not so small planet this movie takes place?? Most of the names mentioned tell me absolutely nothing! Japan? China? Canada? Bulgaria? Sweden? South Africa?

 

Hey guys. I am interested in buying a vaio z but I am not so sure after hearing about some issues. One is the loose hinge and the other the screen getting scratched. Can you owners please give me your honest opinion on whether this laptop is worth the investment despite the issues?

 

I'm thinking to buy the IBM Ultrabay to add an extra HDD to my Z (I am aware of the Quad SDD issue) and noticed that there are many different models. Do they all fit or is there a specific one I need to buy?

 

Uhh most people use the NewModus caddy here:

http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=335

installation guide here:

Sony Vaio Z installation guide 18

 

+1 on the newmodeus caddy.... because the optical drive's bezel (plastic face-plate thing) is not flat.... therefore we've gotta pay a whole lot of money for a newmodeus thing

 

The only issues I've had with the Z are the Bluetooth problems, which I've solved by using a dongle. It really depends on what kind of BT setup you want some things work great, others don't.

All that aside the Z is the best computer I've ever owned besides the UX. I love it and I'll buy a new one when they update the line.

 

Loose hinge: this makes me think, "Should I not buy laptops because their disk drives may fail?"

Scratched screen: I don't think there are screens that can't be scratched. The issue with the previous Z was the screen could be pressed onto the keyboard leaving marks. That's not the case for this Z. Also, I'm not sure I see large numbers of screens scratched, only in those cases where Sony technicians messed things up as they try to fix other issues.

 

I have a similar and ridiculous service story - let me try to keep it short.

Bought a Z11 for my wife to use in her dental practice. 3 months later the screen malfunctioned. Sony sent the screen to FedEx, but they were doing a "upgrade" to their system, so they could not push the electronic trigger which signaled the local technician to pick up the part. Part sat at fedex for over a week, I had to make probably ten phone calls, even a couple conference style calls with technicians and Sony. Only way I solved it was to find a technician who took pity on me and broke protocol to pick up the part,
Elapsed time so far - 2weeks
Technician fixed the screen, but broke something that controls the keyboard and mouse, rendering the laptop useless to my wife. Waited another two weeks for this part to ship - and guess what? Stuck at Fedex for another week and the part almost got sent back for sitting at Fedex too long.
Second technician came and fixed the keyboard/mouse piece - but then there was a fatal hard drive failure!!
Total elapsed time now - 5 weeks
Was told by Sony that the easiest way to fix was to do it by myself, and they could just send me the hard drive to put in myself. I thought that sounded fine...waited a week...nothing...kept calling (and you CANNOT speak to any managers - the highest I got as a consumer was to Customer Relations - which is a group that is completely useless - they have no power to do ANYTHING. They just keep saying "Sorry to hear that sir, give us two or three days and someone will call you - but no one ever did)
Total elapsed time now - almost 2 months.
I called every two or three days to see when the hard drive would be shipped - but no one could ever say - they didn't even say it was backordered. I was told my case was assigned to a special group that deals with delays, but that I could not speak with them directly. I was supposed to receive a call from them in 2 to 3 days. Guess what? No no one ever called. I called and ed out numerous people to no avail and then finally after about 3 months of my computer being down, I got smart.
I posted on Sarah Kepler's Facebook page (she works for Sony), she told me to send my complaint to a Sonylistens email. Within two days I received a call offering my a replacement of the Z11 with a128gb HD with a Z13 256GB HD.

I feel bad for people who are in a case similar to mine, but do not realize that ing on social media will get much quicker results. Who knows when they would have fixed my computer otherwise, seems they were content to just keep me waiting and waiting.

 

I just witnessed a scary event with my VAIOZ 128GG/XX which is powered by Window7 pro. What I noticed was the whole PC just froze up that I can't use the cursor/mouse and I can even use the ESC, Cntl alt del, and it even took me quite a time to shut it down by pressing the start button for more than a minute...
When I restarted the PC it took it some time about nearly a 2 minutes for full boot up but was notified to restart it to sort out window7 errors and repair the windows....
It took me two restart before the pc started to work normal..
Now after this experience I would like to know what is the main cause for such scary event?
Never experienced it in my decades of using desktops and laptops but only now and can't even find any viable answer in the net.
Does anybody had this experience before that everything just stand stlll that you can't do anything...?

 

Was it a black screen and a buzzing noise? And was your laptop on "SPEED"? If yes, it's a problem that was fairly prominent when the VPCZ11 came out. When watching 1080p videos on the Nvidia Graphics card, sometimes the screen would go black and a buzzing noise would eminate from the laptop.

the fix:

download and install the latest official drivers from here:

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

 

The screen looks normal but all the applications just hung up . the touch pad and mouse won't work. The ESC, Task Manager, etc., won't work. I tried closing the lid but it won't even turn the screen off.
Finally after being exasperated I pressed the power button for a more than a minute and it finally shut off.
I don't know what made this happen as its pretty strange which I only experienced in this new VAIO Z I have.

BTW, as it was on batteries then it was on stamina mood with the CD/DVD drive not running. I did not hear any buzzing sound either.....

 

woot as of today i am officially a member of the vaio z owners group =) managed to get an awesome deal on a display model of the z115 series. only gripe is that i didnt manage to get a ssd with this model.

which brings me to the question, does installing a 3rd party ssd (ocz vertex 2 most probably) completely void my warranty??

edit:

also ive been poking around with the settings and noticed theres the battery care option which leaves it at only 80% of charge. How many of you use that option and how much battery life do you get out of the 80%? (assuming ~40% brightness, wifi and light usage)

 

When you say a fairly prominent problems with the Z11's, were those drivers updated on the Z12's. I'm assuming not because the person that had issues has a Z12. I'm asking because I may be purchasing a Z125GS/X and didn't want to encounter the same problems. Thanks.

 

Currenty, I have a Z112. The hinge is fine, but have heard many here in the forum have had to take apart their Z's to tighten the hinge to prevent it from loosening up further; so that's its flushed alongside the barrel hinge. Not sure if those that had this issue were CTO's since they had to be pre-built based on customization. It would be interesting to know if any one here, whom purchased a preconfigured Z, had their hinge loosen up.

Issues like this is discouraging for such an expensive notebook.

 

There are no tapes on the screws and no way for Sony to know that you've opened up your laptop, so if something does break, just put your HDD back in and Sony wont be the wiser. Barring that, it needs to be said, be careful when opening your laptop, people have managed to break their keyboard ribbon cable and it takes weeks to get a replacement.

As for battery life at 80%. I get about ~4.5 hours on full, which means about 3.75 hours at 80%? It really depends on your configuration (here's a helpful tip, if you want to stop your cpu from turbo-ing, go into power plans and set max cpu frequency at 99%, that'll stop it from turboboosting)

Which drivers were the eventual cause? I know for sure the official updated drivers didnt ship with the VPCZ12, they came out with the Z13.

 

I use it. It will extend the life of a LiIon battery to not charge it all the way every time.
What I do is leave it at 80% when home or on short trips. When I take a long trip, then I disable battery care so I get 100% charge for the long flight.
As far as how long you get, well I would say its around 80% (never really measured the exact delta) but normally ~5h, with battery care ~4h.