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

Actually, $4,500 for the VPCZ11FHX/XQ. Same deal with the VPCZ21SHX/X, of which I own two.

 

I have an i5 with 128gb and 900p, for my usage there is no noticable difference with a faster cpu, I find 1080p too small and SSD is so expensive, rather use my network storage for storage

 

Ugh... Do any of you guys have any idea what on earth this is supposed to be?
Sure doesn't look like a VPCZ1 to me.

 

^
Is looks like a fake VAIO from China.

 

oh yah that's really fake huh?!!

 

Well, it is really weird for sure. Would also say fake.

 

But is that with battery care turned on vs. off? Because if so then it's not an apples to apples comparison, 80% capacity vs. 100%.

 

I have a Z13, i5-460M, 900p display (always on 60Hz). With WiFi enabled, brightness kinda low and just OneNote open I can get about 6 hours on a 80% charge. Always used Battery Care to limit charge to 80%.

Watching 720p-video on Intel graphics with DXVA gives me a little over two hours on an 80% charge. I've been quite pleased.

 

That's really good.
I have a Z11 i5-540 900p 256GB 8GB.
When new I would got 5+ hrs at 100%. I have not measured it lately but I believe if I did it would be down to less than 4. So maybe 3h at 80%.
(Video is at normal scan rate).

 

Never use battery care cause <4hrs with "full" battery is unacceptable for me.

 

Well if you don't use battery care after 6 months you'll be down to 4 hours on a full battery too. With battery care you keep your capacity constant. Very constant.

 

That's why I never charge 100% But rather 90-95%.

 

are you using a program or do you remove the ac/battery when it hits 90-95%?

 

Remove it myself.

 

Wow that seems like way more trouble than it's worth. If you are sitting there plugged in you would have to constantly plug and unplug your computer, just to be able to do 90% instead of the 80% that vaio batterycare provides.

Or else you would have to remember to remove your battery but also not forget to plug it in after a few days to make sure it doesn't discharge too much below 90%.

I'll take simplicity and convenience any day.

 

I'm getting a Sony Vaio Z soon. While I know that it has some of the worst speakers created by man, what about its sound card? It has theIntel® HM67 Express Chipset, so it should have Intel HD Audio. Of course I'm not expecting it to perform anywhere near a proper sound card, but how does it compare to an integrated desktop sound card?

I'm not looking for top quality, but I want to determine if the audio will at least be bearable through a good pair of headphones, or will everything simply sound like metal drills. The headphones I shall be using are Audio Technica ATH-AD700.

Thanks in advance.

 

I dont use battery care - so my battery is charged to 100%.
I still find that it lasts approx 3hrs & if I use the DVD its 2hrs
Cheers,
t

 

If I replace my current stock 4GB memory with some 8GB memory sticks, will I be able to find some faster one? Currently my WEI reports only 5.9 for the stock memory...

 

My ATH-AD900s sound okay through my VPCZ1, so I think you should be fine as well.

edit: though seeing your other thread, it would seem you should post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-vpc-z2-vaio-z-2011-series-owners-thread.html

 

I _always_ remove my battery when hooked and battery "full". Everytime you battery charges only a few percent counts for a whole charge cycle. And I want my battery to live as long as possible.

 

@naujoks
I bought these; Kingston DDR3 HyperX SO-DIMM 1600MHz 8GB KHX1600C9S3P1K2/8G, windows WEI went from 5.9 to 6.8!

 

How much RAM did you have before?

 

I leave the battery care settings at 80% since I usually have access to a power plug.

Part of my travel ritual is to disable the setting and charge to 100% on all batteries; Two standard and one extended capacity on the Z1, the internal and two sheets on the Z2(s).

Does it help? Yes, but lithium batteries loose charging capacity over time regardless of what setting you use. I've seen around 5% per year. If you constantly top the batt to 100%, this percentage could double but that is a guess on my part. You mileage will vary.

To go off on a tangent, I like to check the remaining charge percentage when I get a new phone, tablet, laptop or other contrivance. For some reason I feel better when the charge is high since it means the gizmo just came off the assembly line. Kinda like a freshness check of sorts.

 

Oh and by the way, how long does it take for you guys to charge the stock battery? I need 2,5 - 3 hours to get it above 90%, starting charging at 7-10%.

 

Hi There!

I have an ongoing set of issues with my Z Series whereby the Keyboard produces extra keypresses, and the touchpad sometimes gets a mind of it's own.

I know both are known issues, but I can't find any documentation around them, and Sony is denying there is any known issues.

This is also going to sound wierd, but there was an app to stop that double key press issue, but I can't find it again? Anyone able to link me to it please?

 

I've set mine to only charge to 80% (ever), it's usually done in a little under two hours starting from a low battery.

 

I use battery care 80%.
And my battery would last between 4-5 hours on 40% brightness and surfing on wifi (no youtube though).

 

whats with the new vaio z btw guys?

looks way ugly compared to the old bad boy!

what does everyone think?

 

I didn't like the transition either - which is why I got a Z13 about two months ago.

What I'd really like to see is something along the design lines of the Z1 (or the old VGN-Z's), with an Ivy Bridge CPU and GPU, proper nVidia Optimus, good SSD raid and without optical drive. Perhaps slightly better speakers too. But they should really keep the awesome display of the Z1 (tiny bezel, very thin, very high quality).

 

Honestly, I think I wouldn't mind the Z2 too much if I could afford one, besides that screen bezel... Though I haven't had the chance to see one in person yet.

I'm still not too much a fan of the RAID and proprietary hard drives since it makes data recovery very difficult.

 

^
The thick bezel is a bummer but I got used to it already...

 

Just reporting back here, maybe someone runs into the same issue: Updating to latest Intel Gigabit Network driver did the trick. No more BSOD's happening since using ver 11.13.51.0.

 

I think I'd rather have the laptop a few mm's thicker and 100 grams more and have a good GPU inside. Or not pay 1800 euro's for the cheapest version WITHOUT external dock. And the thick bezel is not exactly pretty but I could live with it.

Good to know, have had some BSOD's since my reinstall at purchase. Thanks

 

damn

i seem to have a virus where when browsing the internet it will suddenly close and a 20 error boxes come up saying there is some hard drive error

uh

what do i do

(directed at anyone for that matter, not just wellju)

damn. again.

thanks

 

Try loading Microsoft Security Essentials.
Also, if you are using IE try switching to Chrome or something.

 

thanks oscar, you're right chrome seems to be exempt

okay what about now when these boxes start popping up crazily as soon as a log into my main account?

im currently using the administrator account and its working okay but its a bit annoying obviously and i would like to fix the main account.

ill try microsoft security essentials

thanks

 

^
I had a PC at work infected like you laptop.
You better back up your stuff and clean your system ASAP...from what I saw it eventually also migrates to other accounts.

 

okay think i fixed it

it was the infamous 'system fix' error in the end i learnt, which is a program that makes you think you are infected so you pay money to buy their programmed which removes all their own fake warnings!

 

Good that you fixed it.

I hope you fixed it by removal and not by sending them money!
If you send them money then 2-3 months later it just pops up again demanding more money. It's a form of extortion.

 

Sony Vaio Z (VPC-Z14) / SSD RAID 0 / Strip Size Alignment Check / Datenstreifengrösse | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

^ Oh damn, now I'm jelly...

 

Nice disk. Good luck for never having a disk fail on you.

I work in IT, having a RAID 0 of 4 disks is like challenging Murphy's Law/fate.

 

Kind of depends on the fail chance of a single SSD, maybe the chance with 4 SSD's combined is even lower than a single mechanical HDD.

 

Well this is a RAID0 not RAID5 or RAID10 etc. If one of the 4 disks fails the whole RAID is gone = all data is gone.

 

Yes I understand that but maybe the chance of 1 or more SSD's failing in a 4 SSD RAID 0 setup is still even lower than 1 mechanical HDD.

 

hi everyone!

my bleeding pixels have gotten so bad i think i might look at getting a new screen

how difficult and expensive is this, anyone know?

thanks!

 

Could you post a photo? Also, I think you can buy just the LCD panel off eBay for about $400.

Are either of these compatible?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/11075100...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_5678wt_1163
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/11074584...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_5678wt_1163

 

I was wondering if anyone is playing games on his Vaio Z. I want to play a nice (recent) game with a decent performane but I have no idea which one to play. Could someone please give me some advice.

 

VPCZ1 owners with SSDs, could you please download Hard Disk Sentinel and check the SMART statistics for your SSDs? Just wondering if mine are in line with normal use.

For me, both SSDs report 2422 hours of use.
SSD 1: 0 bad runtime blocks, 1827 unused reserved blocks left.
SSD 2: 3 bad runtime blocks, 1790 unused reserved blocks left.

Also, is anybody running the latest official Intel RST 10.1, 10.6 or 10.8 and finding it noticeably better performing than the stock Intel RST 9.6 drivers?

 

I just installed the Hard Disk Sentinel Windows Version 3.7 (trial or not registered) and the report/numbering looks different from yours.

Each SSD says "163 days, 17 hours" of use (bought this laptop new 10/25/2010).
Both drives do not have bad blocks.
25.0 GB free, of 107.8 GB total.

(I just realized I'm still running on intel RST 9.6 )

bye.

 

I tried it. It said I had no bad blocks.
I'm using v9.6. I seem to recall upgrading to that from 9.5 when I first got the machine back around March-2010.

Anyone know what I'm missing out on by not upgrading to 10.8?