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

Hey guys, I started to see Battery Wear, 2 weeks back it was 0.5%, and now it's 1.0%.

Since I bought it in Sep. I use battery care, and its set to 80%.

Isn't it weird to start deteriorating after 5 months?

I use BatteryBar Pro, and lately noticed that I have excessive drains in mW/h, I was used to 13-16 mW, now its constantly on 19-23 mW.

Any thoughts?

 

Hi guys, do you put your battery in a "battery care" up to 80% or just leave it up to 100%?

and I also noticed that when I play videos, probably tried 6 videos, the audio in not sync with the video, is this just coincidental or I need to do something?

Thanks

 

I always use the 80% battery care.

 

how long could you get?

 

The drivers didn't install? or after installing them you don't get any new options or better performance?

 

No, seeing wear after 5 months is not unusual. If anything your battery bar is being kind if it is pretending you have only lost 1% of your capacity.

LiIon batteries 'wear' with every charge (internal resistance builds up). Usually you are lucky to get a year to 2 years out of them.

@gardevior411: Yes running 80% Vaio care helps greatly, with regards to wear.

 

What a slick forum this is. Great to have down people's interactions with Customer Service/technicians in the past (soooo confirms my own experience) as well as the helpful video, battery repair tips. Kudos!

I just bought a new screen for my VPC-Z11 after Sony first told me they were going to fix it (as well as meet me on vacation!) and then reneged after I got no call back from a local contractor. The next call to Sony got me a "sorry, your LCD has a crack and we're not liable for it".

So, fast forward to reading about shortages and then the Sendai quake supposedly making them worse and I ended up ebaying a screen to replace myself. I've opened up laptops before with some success

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I pulled the keyboard ribbon off from the wrong side (it was actually taped on, which I suppose shows prior damage?) and just thought I'd ask if anyone has found a cheap price for such ribbon ($10-20 instead of the $40 Sony wants) since it seems a common problem. I'll order a warranty repair otherwise, just wanted to save the hassle.

Thanks much in advance!

 

The two ports on the back are just like ports on a switch, its so you can connect another device to the dock as well. The laptop still uses the same LAN device in the OS so there will not be an additional device on the laptop when connecting the dock.

I wouldnt connect up both the ports to the router/switch as this will create a loop in your network and cause problems.


Hope this info helps.

 

Actually, I guess since I'm already posting for help I might as well throw out another big issue: on my old vgn-z690 the hinge popped off where it attached to the bezel and won't reattach (I think a metal piece on the bezel got unglued and since has been lost).

If anyone has a derelict first-gen Z they'd be willing to sell the bezel and/or bezel-hinge assembly from, I haven't seen too many out there. I might also be missing some of the case screws.

Thx.

Funny that even after 8-10 negative interactions with Sony over the past couple of years, the performance of these things makes it all worth it.

 

By 'wrong side' do you mean that you somehow 'unplugged' it from the keyboard side instead of the motherboard side?

 

Yes. It detached about as easily as a normal connector would (though this may have been due to previous breakage, as I think I noted).

 

I haven't seen any significant changes since I bought mine last April. I hear Sony has discontinued them? What's that all about? Mine still works great; the paint is still flawless even on the hand rest.

 

I think the Z is still available in Japan (VPC-Z14) and also via CTO in the US.

 

They've stopped selling some models in some areas because they're rolling out newer Sandy Bridge laptops.

 

Thanks for the info

 

The Z's dock just features an Atheros AR8315 ethernet HUB (no switch, no second NIC), so connecting two cables to it is pretty useless. It should also be transparent to the Z when docking it. I think Sony did this in order to let you hook up the Z's dock and another computer to a single ethernet cable.

 

Is it capable to reach up to 4-5 hours when just browsing the net using chrome, fully charged(80%), screen brightness(4 out of 8), and 120 processes?
Because it says here in the battery icon, it is just 3 hours 20 minutes, is this the right one or it will extend more?

Thanks

 

This sounds right. You can squeeze out more by lowering the WiFi power, setting 40Hz refresh rate and disabling aero effects, perhaps you might get to 4 hours browsing the web with 50% brightness. Lowering the brightness certainly gives you an additional 30-60min.

 

How can I lower the wifi power? and disable aero effects?
Im now using for browsing for over 2.5 hours, and about 1.5 hours is still left.

 

Just wanted to share this cause some of you like to really customize your computers like me and I thought this was pretty cool. Thanks for looking fellas! I post it here cause I had some questions answered here and by the way, the temperature problem was fixed when HUGE CHINESE DUST BUNNIES were found making love under my computer's hood!!!

 

I don't know that you can lower wifi power. You can probably save a tiny bit by disabling aero, but realistically what's the point? Once you are at 4h for an 80% charged battery, it's just diminishing returns after that.

I mean you get what you get. if 4h is not enough, it's possible to buy an extended battery or else one of those external power source type ones from targus and others.

Also, when you are needing the maximum battery life, you should not be using the 80% vaio care option. At that point you should be charging to 100%.

 

What battery are we talking about here? Seems to me I do much better than that. Sometimes I forget to plug my Z in and watch a couple blu-rays on it before noticing my mistake. 4 hours seems pretty poor for light duty.

 

When does the refresh take place?

 

You must be running the extended battery, I would suppose.

 

It seems like, every three months (or so)

 

yes and I don't mess with that stupid VAIO care crap, I want to have a big battery and use 100% of it, when it dies, if it dies, I'll just buy a new one. I would likely have a new computer by then anyway.

 

but non of the models right now have sandy bridge chips?
no point in buying a Z133GX...
Also how is sony's refurbish Z? are they reliable like apple's refurb macs?

 

Yup...none of the Z's have SB chips.

 

I only get 3.5hr max! (nearer 3hr on average) on standard battery & this is web suffing, email with wifi, bt & wwan on. This is with Batt charged to 100% and auto brghtness on & in 'auto' stamina mode.

The only way I found to get better batt performambce was purchase of the larger battery.

I have tried all mannor or tweaks to increase battery but only real way is to switch off all wireless & run screen very dark - but this is not what I want from my laptop,

Cheers,
T

 

Download a battery monitor program and let us know what your consumption in mW/h is.

I find that Cyberlink PowerDVD, if left in upscaling/truetheatre mode uses a lot of battery! Vaio's media/content collector is another culprit alhough once your computer has settled in, then you should have a battery drain of approx. 14-16mW/h with the use you are describing above.

 

not using those programs sounds like a pretty good idea for more reasons than just battery drain, don't subject yourself to bloated poorly written software.

For example use MPC-HC or VLC instead of PowerDVD, if you need 3D use StereoScopic player, the first two programs are free and great, and SS player is a bargain for how awesome it is.

Also with regards to batter drain, do a clean install of Windows 7 and only load what you need. I only load about a third of the stuff for my model on esupport.sony.com. Don't just install everything just because it is listed there. I would not recommend using any Sony Computer without a clean install.

 

Hmm Interesting....
May I know what is the actual boot up time and battery life ( number of hours before being recharged) for your selected settings?

 

If you want, you can use HWMonitor to see how much battery degradation you experience as well as current and max/min temps.

 

I'd have to run a test, I've never run the battery completely out on the Z. I do take it out and about. I use A/C power when available, which is a lot of the time, for example a cafe or whatever.

Boot up time is fast but I would also have to time it in two parts, since I have the Chameleon boot loader to for booting Windows 7 and another OS. I always buy the extended battery so I don't have to worry about these sort of things. I have the extended batter for my UX also, although that only gets about 4.5 hours.

 

For my experience, I can go up to 6h or a bit more battery doing Websurfing or office stuff, with this config (Which is set automaticaly when switching in stamina mode and unplug the AC Adaptor :

-Lowering the Max CPU Usage to 40%
-Switching to 16 bit colour instead of 32.
-Refresh rate @ 40Hz
-Disabling Aero
-Powering save from WiFi card.
-Brightness @0%
-Bluetooth deactivated
-CD Drive shuts down
-Config Nirdcmd to shut my screen off when pressing S1 button.

 

That sounds about right, I was going to guess my extended battery will go for 6 hours.

Like I said earlier I can watch one blu-ray then put on a second one and it will pop a message about battery running out part way through the second one. This is on speed mode, forgetting to plug it in. I'll try running it down on stamina mode while surfing, maybe, sometime, I am not very patient.

 

Huh, how do you do that stuff...? Mine where the blue tooth is deactivated and the graphics in stamina mode, CD drive is shut down,...but I did not know how to do the rest ...
I only get 3 hours max with my battery for my Vaio PCZ128GG....

BTW what is Nirdcmd..., how do you recognize aero as I may have not noticed this in my unit so I can't deactivate it.
how do you power rate save and convert the to 16 colors, how do you enable 40z refresh rate?
Would the resulting power cuts make the laptop so difficult to read the text specially in day light conditions?

 

hi all, i don't know if this was previously posted but i've noticed some scuff marks and light scratches on the cover of my new sony z13, i was wondering if anyone knew of a way to remove these markings, i don't want to make the problem worse by attempting to fix it.

 

Unfortunately it's a scratch... and they're pretty much unremovable... maybe try a wet microfiber cloth... but if it's a scratch... sorry!

 

Allright bro, all you need is a program called RAINMETER. go to rainmeter.net to get that.

Then get a program called OMNIMO 3.1 from deviantart. Get that here: Omnimo 3.1 for Rainmeter by *fediaFedia on deviantART

Then just install it and download the optional panels from the omnimo official website at omnimo.co.cc.

Then you just move all the panels and texts around and customize it. I changed the pictures and addresses of my websites and also the skype logo and mail logo and the launcher icons and targets and a bunch of other stuff. Took me a good 4 to 5 hours to get it all right.

GOOD LUCK DUDE!!

 

I get a good 5 hours of web browsing with Wi-Fi on, Bluetooth on, and battery up at 2 notches (out of 8). I make sure I'm only doing web browsing when I'm browsing, and nothing else. Multitasking just kills your battery.

You can disable aero by simply choosing "Windows 7 Basic" as your theme. Go to your desktop>Right Click>Personalize>Windows 7 Basic, and you're good to go. Set your display to 16 colors by going to Desktop>Right Click>Screen Resolution>Advanced Settings>Monitor (at the top). You can set the screen refresh rate here too.

 

thx! downloading it right now.

 

There is no need to choose a Windows 7 Basic theme. By switching on the Saving Energy plan, aero is disabled automaticly. Plus, with the soft mae by sony for power plan, it can switch automatically to 16 bit when you are on battery !

 

Thanks for the link !
Why I do not have this "Organize windows" option for my S1 button in the control center?

 

Are you using the extended battery for that or just the normal one for having 5 hours? are you in "battery care" function and do you know how many processes do you do?

 

Thanks for that information!

 

I'm using the standard battery. I have never used the battery care function, and I bought my notebook for 5 months.

 

Aero is not fully disabled when you choose the power saver. When you click on applications with multiple windows (e.g. web browsers), they will pop up in a small window with previews. Choosing windows 7 basic will make them appear as a simple line of text without any graphical elements.

Also, "Aero peak" (activated with windows+tab) is still usable in power saver, but of course you can opt not to use it. Doesn't make any difference unless you use it often (which eats up some battery as it involves graphics processing).

Windows 7 Basic does knock out all the good stuff, but it increases battery life, so fair enough.

 

Nirdcmd is a little soft that allows you to launch some command.

( NirCmd - Windows command line tool at the end of the page for download)
I use it because I'm a student using my laptop on amphitheater and there is no need to have the screen on all the time like when the teacher stops talking for 15 sec or showing us some picture/diap or whatever. But it's too small and repetitive period to put the computer asleep not to mention that switching on/off the SSD too often (like 20 times in 2 hours if I use sleep mode as often as I use nirdcmd ) is not reccomend.
As the screen is certainly the most energy consumer of the laptop, it's very welcome and if some will perhaps find the method a bit restrictive, it become quickly a reflex.

Shortly here is the way I use it :
-Copy Nirdcmd.exe in a directory (I put mine in C:\Windows\)
-Create a shortcut like that "C:\Windows\nircmd.exe" monitor off
-Since I don't find the "Organize Windows" function for my S1 button, I program it to launch the shortcut.
Nirdcmd allows to do a lot of thing and it's pretty useful.

For 16bit/40Hz, it's due to the Vaio Power Managment ( VAIO : Sony Europe ). Installed, you will have this tab in Advanced power options.

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Maybe in some conditions, it would be hard to read but I use my laptop almost Indoors.

My advice is to check all the option in the Advanced power options. You can also parameters your WiFi card for less energy use.

But what maybe saves the most my battery is lowering the max CPU usage !


Edit: @Brianho1337 Yeah, you're completely right ! As a matter of fact , I'm reaaaaaally lazy and switching all the time between Aero/Basic theme is reaaaally too much to ask for the benefits ! When I'm on battery, I just switch on Stamina mode and all is done automatically !

 

hello, can you please give a step by step guide in programming the s1 button using the nircmd?