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

So, it's not the same problem as mine.

Did it happen again?

Try a SFC /SCANNOW (in start search bar) to make sure any system files are corrupted. Is your antivirus full update?

 

I did try the SFC there was just split second appearance on the screen of an unknown application . Scannow just don't work.
I am using Kaspersky Internet security and its regularly updated and periodic scanning is done but found nothing...

BTW , it did not happen again( the hanging I mean...)

 

DVI and HDMI are bascialy the same thing. Just get a passive DVI>HDMI cable.

Using different resolutions is not going to work well or at all with the Matrox Dual or TripleHead2Go. If you want different resolutions. Get a DisplayLink USB adapter, or get a ViDock.

This one for example can run your second monitor, and it has all the adapters you need.
For only $48.10 each when QTY 50+ purchased - USB 2.0 to DVI Display Adapter w/ Audio (1920x1080) | USB to Video Converters

Be aware that DisplayLink USB works great but the video performance on the second screen is not like the native display. It uses CPU power to render the second display. Some things don't work on it, like Skype for some reason, maybe they fixed it now. I haven't used a DisplayLink Adapter in a while.

 

So, can anyone confirm :
1/ Does this require any license when upgrading from the previois 'stock' sony version support ?
2/ Anyone confirm the installation workes without issue ?
3/ Is the original software provided with any customisation or generic ?
4/ Finally; what does this upgrade offer ? (ie is it worth doing)
Cheers,
T

 

1) No

2) I confirm : No Issue

3) Don't know.


4) Read my previous post about it http://forum.notebookreview.com/7371903-post2196.html


There is not too much risk to install the software. Make ​​a restore point before installing if you're afraid of something.
More infos are provided in the website of upek.


Edit :

Write "SFC /SCANNOW".

Like this : http://img546.imageshack.us/i/sansre2zp.jpg/

Let's hope it won't happen again !

 

Thanks; sorry for seeming paraniod but I have done other upgrades and often find a trade off of small benefit after lots of agrow with updating.
Cheers,
T

 

He's right about the performance, although that seems to improve if you are using nVidia. It's fine for most anything that doesn't require high framerates. Skype does work with no problems that I have noticed. Also the USB video device can be switched between computers with a USB KVM and the driver handles that switch pretty well.

 

well that's a good sign that it didnt happen again... hopefully it never comes back, but next time look at the HDD light and see if there's any activity there. Maybe check if RAM is maxed out too etc. Did alt+tab work? Did the keyboard work? etc.

 

I got no items match your search

 

What about Video calls? That was where I had the problem.

 

Hmm it works for me. And i skype at least 30 mins a day so... I dunno. Maybe downgrade to a lower version? Or a more updated one?

 

Hmm that is interesting.......Is there a possibility that an 8gig RAM could be maxed out by multitasking process.....? I noticed if I do such multiple task the CPU just reaches slightly 50% at most.....
How can you check if your RAM is maxed out....?

 

Yea like I said it was a while ago, before I had the Z even. I had a MIMO DisplayLink monitor hooked to the UX and Skype crashed everytime I started a video call.

Apparently they fixed it.

 

Fire up Windows Task Manager (performance tab). See how much memory is being used.

 

Blimey,,, I often ignore that portion and just watch the CPU all the time. .in the current w7 system..<grin>
.
Thanks for that reminder...
.
.Mebbe becoming complacent having huge amount of RAM for a small notebook... which I never did previously with WinXP and just 1gig of RAM....


But the thing that makes me wonder...even if you mulitask immensely is there ever a chance that this 8gig of RAM is not enough for this unit and would this PC hang just because of it?

 

I have 8GB of ram and the paging file is disabled. I run huge memory hogging apps like multiple instances of Visual Studio 2010, Photoshop CS5, Outlook 2010 etc. I have no problems.

When I tried disabling the pagefile with 4GB of ram it would occasionally complain that it thought it was going to run out of memory and that I should close some programs. It won't hang though.

 

So it implies that the large RAM is not the reason for hanging of Vaio Z..but something else.....? likely the graphics...?

 

what is this hanging of which you speak?

 

Try This :

1) Start Typing CMD.exe in the start search bar. Right click on it : "Launch as an Administrator".

A CMD window opens

2) Type

HTML:

SFC /SCANNOW

Wait for the scan to proceed. Maybe It will find some mistakes and try to correct it. Keep us in touch of the result !

Try also in a same CMD.exe windows a

HTML:

CHKDSK /F

It needs a reboot to run.

I think it is more likely a system error (SFC should fix it), an overload of the ram (maybe due to a bug from a software or a website) or disk error (CHKDSK should fix it)
If it was a CPU overload, your fan would have been in full power and you tell us that it was silent.

For monitoring your laptop, I highly prefer the Ressource Monitor (You'll find it in your start menu, I don't know the exact name in english) which offers more information, more precisly !

 

After a long scan this is the result:

Window Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations

That noisy hanging happened several weeks ago and I think someone posted that it has something to do with drivers...
Unfortunately I can't find the link where I can get such as the there in none in Sony page i searched....

One says its on one particular model but can't find it either....
That particular peculiarity did not happen anymore.... but it might be in the future...

 

hey everyone, i havent been on this thread since i purchased my Z last march.

anyway i am back now because i am having problems with heat. my graphics card used to run in the 80*C-90*C range. i didnt have any problems with gaming at those temps. anyway recently have had trouble runnings starcraft 2 the lowest possible settings at 1600x900. after a few minutes in gameplay my FPS drops to 8-10FPS and my temps are around 95*C to 90*C. about a month or two ago i tightened the screws on the display to get rid of clicking and i cleaned out all the dust by the fan with air.

so really im just wondering: what changed? what should i try?

also i uninstalled SC2 and reinstalled and cleared space on my SSD thinking it was bogging game down being near-full.

currently i am forced to run SC2 at lowest settings at 1280x720 which is really annoying. any help would be appreciated.

also does anyone recommend installing the user created graphics drivers from the "Our discoveries on Vaio Z’s Hybrid Graphics" thread.
thx

 

Same thing for me ! My Z11 is hotter than last year ! It's now burning my lap in speed more when I'm watching a dvd movie, I have now to put in stamina mode.

I don't like that because : higher temperature = life time of laptop decrease.

Also my 1 year warranty ended 4 days ago, I hope I'll don't have big problem with it in the next 2 years otherwise I will regret to not buy the 2 years sony care extra warranty. I didn't buy that because 400 canadian I found it too expansive (on a macbook pro it's the half of price) but buy a new sony Z it's more than 400$.

Last month I sent my laptop to Sony to repair the hinches (were loose), I'm afraid to have this problem again next year, if it's the case, I'll try to repair it myself.

 

Are the included noise-cancelling headphones supposed to not have any active effect?

I feel absolutely no difference in terms of outside noise being blocked when the "Noise Cancellation" option is on or off in that vncutil.exe program. Ironically enough, when in absolutely silence, if I turn it on, I hear a little static noise in the headphones (so I know the checkmark is doing _something_).

Using a Vaio VPC-Z122GX/B here. I've reinstalled Windows from scratch, so maybe I've messed it up.

 

I've heard great things about them... but honestly I've never even opened them.
If it is not wireless.... I am NOT using it.

 

I use the noise cancelling earphones when I watch a movie.

 

Yeah, but do you feel any noise being actively cancelled when that checkbox is enabled? Or is it just a gimmick beyond the fact they are tight in-ear phones that passively block out some of the external noise?

 

Yes, it blocks out alot of noise.

 

Damn, I guess mine isn't working then.

 

It doesn't block all sounds mind you, it blocks repetitive noises like the drone of jet engines etc. It doesn't do anything against speech or tv, things like that.

 

Oh really, I'll have to try that. I was testing it against TV, people talking, clapping, etc.

 

Maybe the thermal paste has worn off? I dunno... maybe you should go in and place some of your own thermal paste between the heatsink and the GPU.

Actually just try it with the TV on or some ambient noise... you should notice a difference between having it plugged in and unplugged. It's quite noticeable, although it's not perfect it's good enough.

 

Hi - This is a follow-up to a question I posted months ago. My laptop, and my wife's laptop are both just several months old (VPCZ-118GX and VPCZ-112LX). Both our laptops have the same problem. They mysteriously reboot on their own about once a week. No idea why. This happens even when firefox or internet explorer are off, so it's not an adobe flash issue. It may not be a heat issue either, as it can happen even when the laptop is not on for long. It's seems somewhat random, but enough to frustrate me. I'm planning to send both vaios in for repairs, as they are still under warranty, but because the frequency is about once a week, the service technicians may not see the problem, and even if they do, what can they do about it? My question is has anyone else had this experience, or can suggest something? I already re-installed the OS in one of the vaios, which did not help.
Thanks,
Will

 

That's weird in that it happens to BOTH vaios... Unless you got two duds... which i doubt. Have you tried going to Intel's site and possibly updating the Wifi drivers? Or... have you installed any weird applications to both laptops? Go into start menu and in the search/run bar. Type reliability history and click on view reliability history and see if there are any errors.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. I wish I could help, but I can only offer my condolences. My VPCZ122GX has frozen without explanation (nothing could be done except hard reboot) on two or three separate occasions, during the last 6-9 months. However, I use it for only 1-10 hours per week, so maybe it'd happen more if I were a heavier user. All I can suggest is consider switching to MacBooks if possible, but that's not an easy solution.

 

That may actually become a reality. The Sony Vaio Z is the highest end, lightest laptop that money can buy, and that's why I paid 4x to buy them. But now, I'm considering going totally to Mac. I been using PCs for 20 years, and I have every software under the sun for them that I need, but people who have switched from PC to Mac always say it's the best decision they made, and they'll never go back to PC. (--I actually go through a linux phase every 5 years or so, and had a dual boot Ubuntu linux system, but the lack of drivers, accounting, and video-editing software available brought me back to PC.) I just don't like the high price of Macs and lack of variety of software for the Mac, but maybe that will change in time.

 

In my experience that is more an exception to the rule...There is less you can do with a Mac compared to a PC. I have some friends that were formerly Macowners but get frustrated as they have limited softwares to use in it .

 

The reason my next laptop will be a MacBook is simple: I value User Experience much more than anything else.

Apple makes both the hardware and software (the Operating System), and they make them work really well together. You don't have to worry about different drivers and stuff, because they know exactly what hardware to support.

Sony does a pretty great job at making top-end hardware, but software is a second thought for them. They just slap on the latest version of Windows, add their own inconsistent, buggy and poorly working, not nice looking drivers/utilities, and you're on your own. Some people can handle it. Some choose not to.

There was a time they used to rent servers as hardware, so if they died, it was your problem. Now they rent servers as a service, and you don't have to worry about unnecessary stuff.

 

I've heard both ways for people who used WINDOWS PC and switched to OSX PC. <-- They're both PCs. Some love it some hate it.

 

Well having a parallel desktop on your VAIOZ could at least provide the experience of both worlds; windows and apple environment..

I think the most important part is how useful is it to you....User experience is a subjective assessment and vary from from person to person...

 

Could the problem be due to the SSDs/RAID setup/RAID controller used in the VAIO notebook that is causing all these freezing problems? Does a lot of VPC-Z owners have this freezing issue?

 

Aren't the RAID controller/drivers/software Intel's? I mean... we use Intel's RST right? If that's the problem then i guess you'd see everyone else using RAID affected right?

(p.s. thanks for bringing this thread back on track... as much as i wanted to get into the Windows vs. Mac debate...)

 

I Just got VAIO VPCZ-138GG

I try to slipt the patition and I delete the OEM partition.
Then I can't recovery to factory default

Any body can help me to find the recovery disk for VPCZ138GG.

Thank your all.

 

A recovery Disk, isn't necesseray ! YOu can find on Microsoft WebSite ISO from each OS (32 and 64) in free download : Télécharger l'image iso de Windows 7 depuis le site de Microsoft
(If you don't want to copy it on a disk, you just need an USB flash drive (4Go at least) and this little app : Télécharger WinToFlash - Gratuit )

You'll maybe need to extract the ISO. 7zip will do the stuff.


And you can find in Sony website all the drivers and software pré-installed on your sony !


I also have a little problem : How to get back the Organize Windows function as a keyboard shortcut, the one that we can have by right click in taskbar ? It's certainly manage by a .exe with parameters. Anybody have an Idea of what .exe do the thing??

 

And no instructions that explain the order in which the drivers must be installed. Because it makes a huge difference. Reinstalling Windows on the Z is far from trivial (if you want everything to be perfect).

I doubt it's a .exe with parameters. Much more likely it's an internal system call in Windows. So it's probably trickier than you think, but it may still be possible (it'll require coding). Sorry, I don't know what the system call would be, if any.

Btw, do you mean "Cascade Windows" or what, exactly?

 

Check this out : http://forum.notebookreview.com/6155868-post96.html


I meant Windows Side-by-Side. I find this pretty useful with a keyboard shortcut.

Is there (maybe a software can do it) a way to see what the system do when clicking on "Show Windows Side By Side"?

It's strange that it desepears when I made a fresh install, in the Vaio control center button parameters.

 

Where's the source for that list?

I've found the Windows API that performs that action, look here.

I can make a small .exe that simply calls that function. So running the .exe would be equivalent to right clicking taskbar and picking "Show windows side by side".

Would that work for you? Do you already have a way of running an .exe when a keyboard shortcut is pressed, or do you need that functionality also?

 

Isnt that the "organize windows" options under special buttons?

 

That would be great and I would be very grateful to you, I don't know how to do that !

A .exe would be enough, I think. In fact I will assign it to a special touchpad gesture.

For the list, I don't know where it comes from. I just pick it here : http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/477806-sony-vpc-z11-frequently-asked-questions.html and it worked fine for me ! (Except for this organize button, yes Achusaysblessyou, it's the same function I'm talking about)

 

Ok, here you go. It's a 7 KB .exe that simply performs "Show windows side by side" and exits.

Download OrganizeWindows.exe.

You can see its C++ source code here, so you know it doesn't do anything fishy.

It works fine, but be careful. Running it once will tile windows vertically (i.e. side by side), and running it again will NOT undo the operation. If you run it just once, you can still undo it by right clicking the taskbar and clicking "Undo Show side by side". But if you run it twice in a row, you lose that undo option.

Let me know if that's what you want. It would probably make more sense if it would tile windows when run 1st time, and undo it 2nd time, etc.

 

Excellent work there Shurcool.
In addition to your executable, if he doesn't have Visual Studio installed he may get a missing dll error for msvc100.dll.

That is available from Microsoft at: Download details: Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)