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

Sounds like a driver issue, go through all the major ones and update
chipset
lan
wlan
video

make sure your bios is up to date

poke around in the event viewer
check the action center for messages

 

computer noob, i dont know what any of that means or how to do. where do i get the major updates?

thanks

 

Plan B: don't sleep it overnight, just leave it on.

 

Wake on LAN (or rather WoWLAN - Wake on Wireless LAN) or Bonjour Sleep Proxy?

 

i have no idea what this means :S can you explain sorry?

 

i didnt realise there was a difference between sleeping and then just leaving it on and the sleep by itself after 20 minutes or whatever it is

whats the difference between sleep and hibernate then?

 

The difference between sleep and hibernate is that hibernate saves everything off to disk whereas sleep keeps everything in memory.
Sleep is quick to recover from, hibernate takes longer (in fact, because the Z boots so fast normally. Hibernate is not so useful on the Z)

If you have yours set up to sleep after 20 min, then that is the exact same thing as you putting it to sleep yourself.

I believe Nautis is recommending that you check your settings to see if you have your laptop set to wake on LAN events (i.e. Ethernet)

 

Hi

How do you guys keep your Zs cleaned? i.e, screen, keyboard, etc

Armed with a microfiber cloth but not sure what to put on it!

thanks

 

^ I use brillo usually


*kidding

I use some mild sunglasses cleaner like the kind from sunglass hut, with microfiber, I don't spray it on the computer, I sprray it on the cloth and wipe the computer.

 

micro-fiber Brillo pads.

 

I think so, yes.

The first one sure. I didn't cheap out on the second one though. I guess I just got unlucky since it doesn't look like its fixable. I can live with it I guess but its hard to stomach after maxing my credit card over this.

 

I just ordered Z2 i7/128GB laptop and will arrive next week. I also own a Z1 series with 512GB SSD. Does any one know if I can swap the hard drive from between Z2 & Z1 ?? How easy it is???

Previously owned Ultra Portables Sony C1MSX, U101, TZ, TT, Z1 and coming Z2 (Sony Vaio is the best).

 

Gah, I have some terrible bad luck. My Vaio is already showing serious defects if you ask me. Since a few days my 8-key on the keyboard hardly ever responds anymore, and it doesn't at all while using Shift. Now since today the surrounding keys are starting to show the same issues (U and I mostly). This is extremely annoying, since I always have to turn on Caps Lock to be able to type a capital I, U or type an 8 (Belgian Azerty keyboard).

I've already mailed Sony and asked for a replacement product (in Belgium you have the right to choose replacement or repair during the warranty period). For a €2000 premium top-of-the-line machine these kinds of defects are simply unacceptable if you ask me.

Anyone else experienced issues like mine?

 

Thats one problem I can't say I've had. Have you ever disassembled your Z1 before? I know that another user got a flakey keyboard after taking it apart and tearing the connectors on the keyboard ribbon cable. It could be that this cable is either damaged or has a loose connection. I would leave well enough alone until you hear from Sony. If you get jilted then the first port of call I reckon is to check the cable. Worst case scenario is you may need to replace the entire keyboard assembly and the cable. They are expensive but mercifully nowhere near as expensive as having to replace a lid or display and they seem to be easier to source.

 

Hello,

About a day ago, I had a problem with my 1080p screen on my Vaio Z11 and I'm not sure if it's regarded as accidental. There are black blotches on my display, with light distributed unevenly. This is worrying me a lot




What happened was, I was cleaning the screen using a damp water cloth because there was lots of debris and dust on it. After cleaning and drying using a microfiber cloth, I turned on my Vaio Z11, I noticed the black blotches and thought, 'omg, what am i going to do?' Now, obviously the water could have entered into the display because there are small gaps visible on the frame.

My question is, will it be regarded as accidental or a manufacturer build quality failure? (the gaps in the frame)

Also, I am mostly worried about whether there will be any new spare 1080p displays available?, since the Z11 is discontinued.

I would have called sony support team today but they open from Monday - Friday. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

Never ever opened anything, otherwise it'd be the first thing I'd check. I thought it could be the hacked bios giving me problems, so I reflashed it to the normal one (all files from Sony's site) and it was still the same...

I do fear for the warranty on my Z. Even though I just bought it and I have a solid 2 years of warranty (Belgian laws ftw), I bought the laptop quite a while after it went off sale and the ones with a Belgian Azerty keyboard always were extremely hard to find.

In a way I hope they'll just give me some alternative options. While pretty much everything about this laptop is very good, I think I might have misjudged my needs. Something with more graphic power and disk space would be nice. On the other hand I really don't want to loose this magnificent display...

We'll see what the guys at Sony say, should have a reply by tuesday.

 

I get this from time to time on computers. Whenever I have run into this it has always turned out to be some debris under that key (I almost always get this after having eaten sunflower seeds while programming ).

One way to find out is turn your laptop upside down, preferably at some sort of an angle, and give it some sharp raps from behind with your flat palm. Watch all the debris fall out from the keyboard. Rotate it at different angles while slapping it to help let all the dirt out. You can also used a can of compressed air if you have it.

 

Maybe you can open it up and dry it out. It doesn't appear like anything has actually gotten fried.

 

Well I'd go with that explanation if it were just keys being stuck. But the problem is that using shift affects it. I can press u and i just fine, UNLESS I'm using Shift. Same with 8/!. The key works most of the time, but never works while pressing Shift. How can that possibly be due to something being stuck under the buttons?

 

^
With both shift keys?

 

Yep. For some weird reason. I really don't know what caused it. I've reflashed my BIOS and tried several different operating systems. This laptop was brand new, always treated with care and never opened.

And while typing something on Facebook I just noticed the , button does it too (was trying to get a question mark, which is Shift-,)...

 

Hi Folks
I am finally on the Vaio bandwagon after being able to get my hands on a 2nd hand slightly damaged VPC-Z128GG here in NZ at a price that finally enabled me to get my hands on this dream machine!
Apologies if this has already been asked (there are A LOT of pages in these two owners threads...), but:
I'm about to delete and re-set-up the 4xsamsung 64gb SSD raid 0 set up to make way for having two volumes (partly for backup reasons, partly in case I feel like installing the Developer Preview/Linux in the future and partly because I just plain like separating things sometimes!),
and I'm wondering if the best way to do this is to set up two separate RAID-0 configurations, to create C/D drive's each with their own 2x64gb SSD's in RAID-0
- or -
create two volumes of whatever size each than span across all 4 of the drives in one RAID-0 config.

Any thoughts/is the first way even possible? I'm completely new to RAID configs, my only knowledge coming from reading the wiki articles, so help/recommendations appreciated!

Cheers!

 

Could someone please confirm for me if tightening the two slilver phillips flathead screws that can be seen on bottom right corner of the screen in the gap that is somewhat between the VPCZ1 sign and the green slit power light will generally fix the right hinge clicking when opening and closing? I'm not under warranty.

The two screws down there... (screws not actually visible in photograph )

 

Hi guys, my Gfx modes have been bothering me.

My mode is currently on Auto, when I disconnect the power supply cord from the laptop, it should normally change from speed to stamina mode quickly, but now, it takes some minutes to change to stamina.

But, conversely, when I'm in stamina mode, and then I plugged the laptop, it quickly changes from stamina to speed mode.

how can I speed things up again like before?

 

Yup, it's supposed to fix it.

 

Thanks! Should I also tighten the dark screw that's in the corner next to the silver screws? I prey that these screws aren't easy to accidentally strip.

I believe more drives in RAID will gather better performance. I have no idea if it's possible to change (if you still want to do it), but I know that there is a hide/show RAID settings option in the BIOS.

Have you already tried uninstalling/reinstalling the graphics drivers?

 

Not yet. I don't know how to do that. Newbie here
Should I re install both graphic drivers?

 

Here is the combined package for Intel and nVIDIA - probably best to do it in speed mode:
Sony eSupport - VPCZ133GX - Software & Drivers
(it is the latest "official" one, though it is relatively outdated)

 

Thanks, so I should just install this, right?

 

I suppose, yes. Don't uninstall the old one. I fear for your laptop if you don't know how to install afterwards.

 

Okay. fyi, I've checked the version of my nvidia, it's the same as the one Im downloading.

 

I installed it already, but I think it's still the same.

 

Help!!!what's the next step??

 

hi, how come when i try to shutdown my computer when it needs to install updates, it never seems to install the updates, but shutdowns straight away?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...30m-drivers-bios-hack-people.html#post7802234

 

hi,

as a caveat to my last question: how bad exactly is crash closing my vaio z?

i always feel like im stabbing my baby with a knife when i do

can anyone elaborate ?

thanks

 

I have no idea with it started but my Z11 makes a tick noise every now and then. It comes through the system's audio so I can hear it via the speakers and headphones.

It's random and doesn't seem to have any patterns.

Anyone else had this happen?

 

Thanks, but can I ask, what does this do? thanks again

 

I got that, but that's cuz my vaio's screen is loose (the hinge part again). It always happens to me every few months, then i gotta open and tighten, not sure if that's what you got.

 

wow good question snapehead, ive also wondered this often

...anyone know?

 

You were asking about graphics drivers... the BIOS hack allows you to install the latest drivers from nVidia and Intel the minute they come out. You loose on the fly switching but you gain the absolute best driver support which give you features not supported by Sony's graphics drivers (like 3D Vision for Blu-ray and games) you also get the best performing drivers. The latest graphics drivers from Sony are over a year old and they suck. The community hybrid drivers are better but the latest drivers are the best IMHO. They are stable and fast, but you have to reboot to switch graphics modes, that is the only drawback.

 

Hey guys I just got my VAIO Z in today and excited to use it...can anyone tell me a sticky where I can start doing cool stuff ?

 

I've updated all my drivers and stuff. I'm guessing it's software but what software?

 

how bad is crash closing my Z?

thanks

 

Hi guys, crossposting this from the general Sony forum. Apologies if it's been discussed, I've searched pretty thoroughly and didn't see anything like it... thanks for your help.

I've been having a problem over the last couple weeks with my VPC-Z11CGX/X where it's randomly freezing or turning off while plugged in. It's happened about a dozen times in as many days. Oddly, it happened a few times several months ago and then stopped before restarting recently-- not sure what the explanation for that could be. I'm in a new location now and it never happened where I was before... could it be the power source here?

Oftentimes (but not always) it occurs when some sort of media playback is occurring, and when there's sound playing when it happens, the speakers make a loud buzzing noise. The screen goes black but remains lit, and I have to hold down the power button until it shuts off completely. When I restart it pretty much works fine, I get the "Windows didn't shut down correctly" screen though. There is no real pattern to when it happens, which is making it that much harder to diagnose. I don't think it's a heat problem, the fan appears to be working fine and the temperature (when I've monitored it) has not been going out of the normal range. The fan usually is running high when it happens though, and is running high again when I turn the computer back on.

Sound familiar to anyone?

 

Hello guys!
Just recently I started using Roxio media creator 10 in my VPCZ128GG and its always pesky during start up:

"Please wait while Windows configures Roxio Media core" and you are urged to look for the file in the network....unfortunately I can't find such file in the system...

Is this an abnormality with Roxio or I just have to ignore it. Is there a way to stop this notification?

Well in fairness if I kept on cancelling this pesky prompts which takes about 3-5 repetitious prompts , the Roxio media creator works just fine in doing its job in the end.... s

I just want to use this Roxio smoothly.... any suggestions?

 

Cool! Which one did you get, and from where? The first things to do are to make recovery disks and to just use the system in every way you can imagine to make sure everything is working ok. Then, if you have some specific problems, see if there is a thread addressing it and if you can't find one, start a new one. If your Z is returnable for any period of time, it's really important to determine if you have a "lemon" before that time runs out. One area of wear that is chronic is the barrel hinge. It can get loose, creaky, not smooth, and worse things to come if not addressed. I have an 18 month old Z11 and don't have that problem, knock on wood, but for some it is a regular maintenance thing. If you catch it early and keep it tightened, it will not get worse. But if your are not good on arrival, and you can return it, that may be advisable (at the moment there are great deals on Z1s in the Sony Outlet). Even if you can't return it, it is best to check it out on all functions right away so you can identify issues to resolve. Don't worry if you find things; they all came new out of the box with problems, due to lousy drivers if nothing else. These machines are infinitely "tweakable," especially for a laptop. Many people have taken there Z's apart numerous times, and have shot videos or stills of how to perform certain operations.

There are so many threads, you almost have to go category by category. Video drivers and such are probably the number one area where members have created community drivers that go far beyond what Sony intended. There are also several threads about doing clean installs, changing out your DVD player for an HDD/SSD, changing the Sony SSDs for non-Sony, issues with fading paint (palm rests especially, more on black and CF than on silver) and various skins and coatings you can use, extended warranties, ExpressCard USB3 and eSATA ports...

Best bet is to just look at the latest couple of pages of threads in the general Sony forum and you'll find the majority of them are for/about Z1s! What I call the "Z1 Brain Trust" is comprised of about 12 or so regulars, who peruse all the threads frequently and answer all the noobs' and intermediates' questions. They're really like mentors! Plus they initiate all the really cool stuff, like BIOS hacks to improve and update the nVidia drivers, registry hacks to increase the maximum brightness from factory settings (900p screen only), and to have the keyboard backlight stay on all the time. It's really an education when a bunch of them go back and forth on hardware and software "exotica" and they even let you chime in and ask dumb questions without making you feel stupid - though it's best not to be stupid, just uninformed. It will be easy to tell who these people are as you read threads. I'd name names, but won't for fear of offending someone whose name I omitted.

Good luck and report back!

 

Would anyone know if Adobe Elements is included on Z134GX?
I've deleted most of bloatware, hope I didn't delete Adobe as well...
Thanks.

 

Hi all,
I have an issue with my sony z133.
all of sudden, the screen goes blue and I turn the computer off.
When I turn it back on, it would show the sony screen for like 1-2 seconds and then it goes blank with a blinking cursor on the top left.
I have check that there's no CD in the cd/dvd drive.
When I press the eAssist, nothing happens also.
The computer will still run and it'll get hot fast.
Has anyone experience this? It looks to me that the windows os has problem or ssd is dead..
thanks.

 

^
Did you try booting with recovery discs? (if you made them)