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

6. If you use Windows Media Center, you might deactivate the "Timer" when disabling Wake Timers - programs won't record.

7. You can also disable this in Registry (Regedit).

 

@Geee: regarding disabling of wake timers: Personally I just don't like (or need) the laptop coming on inadvertently. But if you use this feature to have it come on and record a show or something, then I agree that this one is not one that you would want to do.

 

re #5 Bloatware removal. Why don't windows tool?
answer: You can manually remove things just by uninstalling what you don't want/need, or you can use tools like pc decrapifier to give a small assistance.

re #6. Disable Wake timers. answer: I don't like my laptop coming on by itself, some have complained of the thing coming on in their backpack and overheating.

re #10 & 11. Disable Superfetch v. Prefetch. answer: Here is one discussion regarding the merits of disabling one vs the other http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?70352-Prefetch-and-Superfetch.

re #14. Disable Hibernate. answer: To enable hibernate requires preallocating a large file, equal to memory size. esp. on a 128G machine this is precious real-estate. The main issue is that it's wasted space since cold booting realistically takes about the same amount of time as recovering from hibernate (because of the flashdrive) and also because, if you want instant on, you're better off just using sleep instead of hibernate.

re #8. Disable indexing. answer: You can still search with indexing disabled, you might even notice a difference in speeed (or not), but you will get less thrashing to the drive from Windows trying to keep everything properly indexed.

re #13. Ram disk. answer: Some folks set up a ram disk, copy certain files to it and use that as a speed up for programs that do a lot of disk I/O (personally I don't have one set up, but a search on 'ramdisk' in this forum, turns up various examples)

re #15. Turn off pagefile. answer: It's my opinion that the more memory you have, the less pagefile you need. Windows on the other hand, sets aside an amount of space on the hard drive, equal to the amount of ram you have. If you have 8GB of RAM, I would say the the pagefile is absolutely not needed, it serves no purpose. To verify this: turn off pagefile, open task manager, watch the memory usage while you do your thing. Now others argue with this and a quick search will turn up counter arguments about Windows being optimized to work with a pagefile. I see no evidence of it myself.
EDIT: I seem to recall that it's actually better to leave a tiny pagefile (around 256M or so) which Windows will use to report errors in certain cases of a system crash

 

Funny thing about Photoshop is that it has been using it's own built-in, OS-independent paging for several versions now. So, if anything, Photoshop won't be affected

 

Hello guys! May I know how to activate the bluetooth in my VPC-Z1. i know its there but it seems not working well? Can somebody teach me how to troubleshoot it?

 

in task bar, open the SmartWi Connection Utility and turn on Bluetooth Hope that helps! (I know i had trouble finding it the first time)

 

Thanks!

When I add a Bluetooth device I was prompted later by a Bluetooth password as this is the first time I used it by connecting my mobile phone to it. Is the password the same as I used for logging in to this PC or I really have to create a unique one?
"It says here during the failed connection
Adding this device failed because of an authentication, this might be due to the use of incorrect pairing code. Try adding it again using the correct pairing code to the device. You might refer to your device’s documentation details. Check your device documentation to see if you need to first install special software or security settings. Check for any firmware or software updates for your device."

 

^ create a unique one.

 

i recently picked up a z series with an i5 ( 520m - 2 x 64gb ssd ) i love the screen and the keyboard which is the main reason i bought this laptop but i would like to make it faster, can i add a third ssd into the raid 0 array with an optical drive caddy ? and would it make it much faster ? just wondering as i was considering selling it and picking up something with a sandy bridge i7-2720 and putting in a fast ssd ie. ocz vertex 2, any comments appreciated

 

Thanks , I just learned that the simplest code 0000 works well..

 

Usually bluetooth devices use 0000 or 1234 by default.

Glad you got it working.

 

Well, just had the first major failure with my Vaio Z128GG.

There is a vertical line of bright pixels running from the top to the bottom of the screen which suddenly apepared 5 months into ownership. 1 pixel wide.

Sony Service Centre have assessed and will order a new LCD panel.

Anyone else had similar problems?

 

All VPC-Z models have been removed from Sonystyle Hong Kong.

 

People have had bad screens on the Vaio Z, yes. But that's just a fact of life for high pixel screens... you got 1920x1080 chance of getting a dead pixels... so yeah, just a fact of life. At least it didnt sound like you had to manhandle Sony support to get them to replace your screen (although judging by the way you spelled "centre" you're in Europe and their service apparently is better than Sony USA). Do keep us update with the progress of your fix though

 

Hi everyone,

I am a long time lurker, first time poster, and I have benefitted tremendously from the information shared in this forum, so thank you to all. I am a proud owner of the Z12 (VPCZ12JHX - i7, 512SSD, 1080p Screen, upgraded to 8GB) since June of last year, and could not be happier with this laptop. I come to this forum today because I have not been able to install the new Internet Explorer 9 on my computer. I can download and run the installation .exe file from:

Internet Explorer - Microsoft Windows

But no matter what I try, the installation process stalls after roughly 15%-20% progress has been made, and I get a “Internet Explorer did not finish installing” message in a window. This window offers up a troubleshooting list (disable anti-virus and firewall, check that all prerequisites are installed, that no other update processes or system restart is pending), but I have tried all these suggestion and I’m still not able to install IE9. I am running MS Windows 7 Ultimate.

I was wondering if anyone has encountered this problem as well, or if anyone has any thoughts on how to solve this issue?

Thank you.

 

Hi,
I have the same laptop & spec as you - and am very happy with it, it is indeed the best laptop for its size, weight & performance. Anyways, I updated to IE9 with no problem. Make sure you are selecting the correct win7 x64 version plus make sure your 'windows update' (security patching) is fully up to date. Make sure you close all other applications before the update.
My IE9 was downloded here & worked fine:

Download Internet Explorer 9 - Microsoft Windows

Good luck,
T

 

i figured it out - thanks

 

Has anyone with Firefox 4 noticed slower start up times? My old version was up and running in a fraction of a second on my Z..now it takes about 2 seconds...sounds ridiculous, but come on!

 

I don't know all the browsers are starting to look like chrome >< first IE9, now Firefox 4... *sigh*. In any case, maybe try uninstalling an add-on or two? Some aren't compatible with Ff4 so maybe some performance hits there? I like the speed of IE9 over Ff4 (the scrolling looks much nicer on IE9), but i can't live without my Adblocker Pro on Ff4.

 

Has anyone tried ripping dvd to the hard disk and noticed from the task manager that the cpu capacity approached 100%.
I thought before that having a core-i7 chip in this VPCZ128G , with 8gig ram and 1 gig graphics its not that taxing to the cpu?
I thought having multicore the power needed is not so severe as in single core pc?

Is this considered normal?

 

I don't rip DVDs very often, but I rip blu-ray almost every day. I don't notice any extra load doing either... but that is a simple file copy operation. Are you re-encoding the DVD with DVD Shrink or similar to save space? Encoding takes a lot of CPU power even on the mighty i7.

 

Thanks for your reply! so if you are using this VPCZ1 Series to do the ripping job what does the task manager say about the CPU capacity? does it reach 90% often?
I am using the Any DVD cloner to do the ripping.

 

Port replicator and Docking Station:
May I know if anybody have ever used a port replicator/docking station with their VPCZ1 notebooks?
What are advantages. aside from increasing the number of available slots for USB?
If its perpetually attached to the notebook ,would it prolong battery life and its discharging-charging cycles can be minimized?

 

No, I also use Any DVD, the HD version, and it doesn't use anywhere near 90% of the CPU time. I suppose I could try ripping a regular DVD with AnyDVD and see what happens.

 

So yea, like I said, creating images does not use much CPU time at all. For some reason though the DVD rip was running super slow. See attached pictures.

EDIT:
Adding a picture of ripping a DVD on my old Dual PIII 500 with 768Mb of ram running Server 2008. Not much CPU usage there either. This N440BX motherboard is 14 years old!

 

I use the docking station and it is very handy if you are always using your laptop at your desk and have lots or peripherals. I have mine linking up to two screens, one through the onboard and another through a usb video card. But the main benefit is that you are not continually plugging and unplugging stuff from your laptop.

As for the battery, it is no different than from having your laptop plugged in and the battery just stops charging when it reaches 100%

 

I heard that the dock got some pretty bad reviews... but the extra USB ports look nice. Right now I can't plug all my stuff in with only 3 USB ports. I use an ESATA express card to hook up two 2TB hard drives, a third 2TB drive on one of the USB ports and two 1080P LifeCam Studio (for capturing 3D video @ the desk) on the other two ports.

When I use the computer to play 3D Blu-ray, I swap out the web cams and plug the 3D Vision emitter and a USB > TosLink audio adapter for surround sound.

The doc sounds like the ticket.... if I can still use HDMI out while docked!

Can you?

 

You can use the HDMI on the computer while docked.

I have a dock and what I did was get a DVI->HDMI adapter, and a USB-> optical out adapter hooked up to my media center.

The dock does everything it says it does, so if you know what it does, there will be no surprises.


But all it sounds like you need is a USB hub?

 

Meh... a USB hub slows things down. It'd work ok for some things but not for a Hard Drive that is slow enough already. Dual 1080P capture seems like something I wouldn't want to do through a hub either. I wonder if the inner workings of the dock are a hub or if they are all dedicated ports. Either way. A total of 7 USB ports with the dock must be nice.

How about the DVI... is it Dual link. I don't want a USB > DVI monitor adapter, I don't think display link performs that well. I can get the HDMI to run 3840 x 1080, I am planning to buy a Matrox Triple Head 2 Go and another Sony 1080P TV soon. It would be cool if I could run that off the DVI port. I know I can do it over VGA and HDMI, I've tested it already. When you pass it to the HDTV it just squashes the image to fit.

I wish the dock had some ESATA ports or USB3 ports on it. Basically I just want to take the Z to is maximum potential. I am already hitting some of the limits of what it can do.

 

Does dual link DVI mean you can drive two monitors off the DVI port? If so, then NO. The dock doesn't allow you to hook up more monitors than if you just had the laptop unit by yourself.

 

So you mean there is something abnormal in my VPCz1 as it behaves differently? Does this mean that the CPU is starting to show some faults indicating its defective...?
In one ripping regiment the CPU capacity sometimes arrives 100%...?
Is there a way to determine if the heart of my Sony vaio is ailing.....?
BTW i had seen the same behaviour in my old Pentium M 2.28Ghz single core notebook .the only difference the multi core VPCZ1 takes about less than half the time in DVD ripping......
I thought previously that DVD ripping is really taxing to the CPU?

 

I don't think ripping is taxing. it's the encoding and compression of the info that is... maybe you activated some setting in that software that is making you compress or encode the data? I'm just speculating as i'm not too familiar with that software (or ripping DVDs for that matter).

 

Hmm so the battery performance remains the same...? What worries me is the notebook is permanently fixed to the dock, the battery does not have the discharging/ recharging cycles so it wears off faster than without ths extension device( dock). And I will never know that when I want to use the notebook again as a mobile PC, the battery is not working anymore...or have depreciated greatly that the battery juices becomes to short for the laptop use in mobile state...?

So this imply if the VPCZI is permanently fixed to an AC connection via adapter, its battery is not stressed that much as it has its own self regulating facility that stops the charging process when its full of juice...?

 

I remember in that recent ripping there is some sort of dual work; ripping to VOB and converting to MPG,,,,does it mean there is some sort of encoding that happens so it takes much of the CPU energy?

BTW
The ripped DVD file ws 4.33 GB and it was converted to a sort of MPEG file with almost the same size....I always notice the CPU capacity hovers at 90%.....

 

I was talking about using a Matrox Triple Head2Go box. It takes Dual Link DVI and drives 2 or 3 DVI monitors. It can also take VGA. I have gotten the Z to output 3840x1080 over HDMI and VGA. That is what I would need the DVI to be able to do also. The Matrox box takes that and makes it into 2x1080P DVI. HDMI and Dual-Link DVI can drive that resolution, single link DVI can't. Dual link DVI can also drive higher refresh rates than single link. NVIDIA 3DVision @ 1080P requires Dual Link DVI. You can tell the difference between a single link DVI cable and a dual link by looking at the pins. Single link has a big gap... a few rows of missing pins, dual link has all the pins.

 

So maybe it's DVI-D Dual Link: http://michael.ilabsolutions.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/z11dock4.jpg ???

 

I'm sure there's bound to be battery degradation due to being charged to and left at 100% and the heat from using the laptop, especially since at the dock, you're probably doing some CPU/GPU intensive stuff and i don't know about you guys, but my Z can really crank out the heat. BTW, HWMonitor tells you much % wear there is on your battery if you're curious.

 

aside from the idea being discussed

I say that "Someone Needs a RAM Upgrade", which is YOU! lol, seriously think about adding another 2GB to your 4GB, you will live happily ever after !

 

Yea I need to dump my RAM and get 8GB. When I bought the Z I got everything that I could not easily upgrade later. I haven't looked a RAM prices for a while, perhaps it is time to have another look.

 

Two questions folks:

First off, this is a little off topic, but I'm running this program on my Z, so here goes.

I'm using a VAIO Z11 with 6gb RAM. I'm trying to render Sony AVC .mp4 files in Sony Vegas Platinum. Longer files (anything over 10 or 11 minutes long) get very choppy during playback toward the end of the .mp4 file, but there are NO problems if the file is shorter. I'm wondering, if I should upgrade from 6gb RAM to 8gb RAM on my laptop. My thoughts are that more memory might help. And here's why: When I watch the Resource Monitor while the file is rendering, it runs out of "free" memory about 3/4 of the way through rendering the piece, and has to revert to "standby " memory. Could this have anything to do with the way the file is rendered?

FYI, when I render with MainConcept AVC, or MainConcept MPG there are no problems.



And a second, unrelated question. Does anyone use a 802.11n wireless router? I'm having problems with any router with an "N" setting. "A" and "G" is fine, but "N" is all over the place...from 5mps all the way to 300mps--and this is happening when I try to access my router, or any other "N" router. Is there something special we need to do with our wireless cards on the Z?

Thanks

 

One other question that I haven't been able to find anything about on the internet, is an error I'm getting when I run a system health report...



Symptom: Device drivers marked as corrupt.
Cause: A device has a configuration problem that prevents it from working properly.
Details: The device, A6M6BP0X IDE Controller, is reporting "tv_ConfigMgrErr39". This device will not be available until the issue is resolved. The Plug and Play ID for this device is ACPI\PNPA000\4-5D18F2DF-2.
Resolution: 1. Verify the correct driver is installed.
2. Try updating the drivers using Windows Update.
3. Check with the manufacturer for an updated driver.
4. Attempt to uninstall and then reinstall the device using Device Manager.
Related: Explanation of Error Codes Generated by Device Manager
Manage Devices in Windows


I can't find the driver for this device ANYWHERE online. In fact, I don't even know what this device does. I've disabled it, and re-enabled it--it still doesn't work. Any suggestions? Does anyone have a clue as to what A6M6BP0X IDE Controller actually is??

 

OK I just looked at RAM at Crucial.com and wow, the price is way down from last year. My question is which package to get? I think the second package is the correct one, slower speed, lower latency. When I looked at this before six months ago my impression was that the Z could not make use of the faster RAM so if I got the faster RAM it would just clock lower and have the higher latency.

See attached screen shot... please advise. Also if there is a better place to buy an 8GB package with the correct clock and latency, let me know.

 

Maybe try Newegg? Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Memory,Laptop Memory,8GB (2 x 4GB)

They have one set of 2X 4GB for $60 after mail in rebate. Regular price is $80.

 

Well, it's saying that it is your IDE Controller. This is the device that works your hard drive.

The fact that your computer is working means that message is wrong when it says this device will not be available (unless you have some kind of additional controller for ide loaded in yours and so is conflicting?).

When I look in the Device Manager for my Z11, I see that the IDE controller is listed as "Ricoh PCIe SD Bus Host Adapter" ver 6.13.2.7

It also could be that your message is one of those virus scams that tries to get you to click on something. How exactly are you running this health report? Is it the regular Windows 7 one in Resource and Performance Monitor?

Try going to "Device Manager" and look in devices under "IDE controllers"

 

No it should work, but if it doesn't. Go to intel's site and try using the latest wireless drivers. They've been updated to newer drivers, but for people like me whose wireless card doesnt drop a signal, etc. we don't need to upgrade (unless they bring in extra features). In any case, go update your drivers and try again.

it will clock lower... and have a lower latency... so...

1333 MHz => 1066MHz
and a little math...
1066/1333*(9-9-9-24) = ~7-7-7-20... but it'll read 7-7-7-20 (the 9-9-9-24 is rounded anyways). In any case i'm using 2 1333MHz 4GB sticks and they're both clocking at 7-7-7-20 at 1066MHz (one's a Samsung chip, other is SuperTalent).

But now is a GOOD time to purchase RAM. Check out slickdeals... i've seen 4GB chips go for as low as $27... but yeah. the average price right now is about $40

 

So basically it doesn't matter which kit I get

 

My idea of traveling with a laptop is to put it into a well padded sleeve, then into a well padded pack/tote bag, and always keeping it in my possession. Is there any reason the Z can't handle that kind of traveling without developing screen damage or other problems? Any other precautions to take? I understand that there are tradeoffs in a 3 lb notebook that does everything a laptop can do, better than 95% of the competitors, and that durability has to be one of them. I also believe in treating a $2K "instrument" of any kind with care, unless it is specifically made to be "indestructible."

 

yep doesnt matter, i'd go with the 1333 MHz so you can sell it to those using the SB procs later (they can actually handle 1333MHz RAM)

It should be fine. Some of us have taken to putting a microfiber cloth between the screen and keyboard when we store it because the screen is quite flexible and could be pressed into the keyboard. Personally, i use a razer kabuto gaming mouse pad, it's thin and has a microfiber surface and doubles as a screen protector. found here:

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

i guess be careful when sliding your laptop out of the case as the zippers can scratch the lid (common sense).

I think it's fairly durable, it just feels weak because of it's lack of weight, but my Z took about a 3.5 ft fall onto carpet, that's what happens when you're using earbuds and you rush to grab the phone although i guess if the laptop was heavier, the headphones would yank out as opposed to pulling the laptop off the table, but that's another story. The main problem with laptops are the screen and HDD, and both are remedied a bit. The HDD you dont have to worry about because you've got SSDs so no moving parts and the screen is quite flexible (it'll bend rather than shatter).

here's an example of the VGN-Z's extreme screen flex courtesy of Rachel: http://forum.notebookreview.com/app...acbook-late-2008-vs-sony-vaio-z-thread-5.html

 

I have a hard briefcase for my Z. I got it at staples for like $30 and it has a nice foam padded bag inside that fits the Z perfectly. I can also put the power brick, mouse, and a few other things in there. I like a hard case because I feel like the Z is really safe in there. Plus a simple leather briefcase looks sharp with a well cut suit. Better than some bag... looking like some bum college kid or something.

 

has anyone replaced the toshiba's ssd's with 2 x 1.8" ocz vertex 2's - just wanting to speed up the computer a bit and thought this would be a good option, i am really waiting for my local stores to get the vertex 3 in stock - picked up an asus g73sw yesterday and want to put the vertex 3 in it to see how fast i can get that going