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

I gave up.. I couldn't do it, it was literally tearing everything down so I feared I might break something..

 

That's how you know you are getting close

 

Just curious, but what does everyone's CPU and GPUs idle at?

It's been pretty cold here this April. At the moment, my Z1's GPU is at 50C and the CPU cores are at 45 and 50C.

 

Haha, go big or go home!

Yeah... not for those faint of heart (or low on budget). Glad to see you around Zoinks

Uhh CPU ONLY (no GPU): 46/51
CPU + GPU: GPU: 49 CPU: 45/52

Over time my Z has gotten warmer... I think the contacts with the thermal pad has gotten separated probably... I didn't used to thermal shutdown playing BFBC2... it does now...

 

Could someone please link me the recommended flush USB 3.0 expresscard? (on eBay, even)

My current one (yup, asmedia something / BC628) is giving me trouble... Crashes when using Windows 8's generic USB 3.0 driver and the Windows 7 driver isn't really working either.

 

AKE 3.0 usb expresscard reader is a good one. Pyr0 and I have one

intresting:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-3-0-AKE...966?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c5cc4c46

that shows a double port whilst the one I have is a single port... Not sure if this one is flush though

 

All right, I bought that one. I think the NEC chipset should be a lot better.

Hopefully it will end up being flush, or close to flush and ideally Windows 8's generic USB 3.0 drivers will work as well.

 

I've had my Sony Z at least two years now and it was running great till recently; the GPU started giving out and it made my game slow down when it never used to. I took a high powered portable vacuum cleaner and went all across the bottom vents with it and now it works perfectly again. The model looks just like my avatar pic. Just a heads up to the long time users out there.

 

I guess this explains why my music has been dropping out lately:


No change on Stamina/Speed mode and no difference if I turn off wireless. I am on Windows 8 at the moment though.

4-20-2012 update:
Received my Renesas/NEC USB 3.0 expresscard today. So far all is good. Proper USB 3.0 speeds, no crashes yet and I don't need to put my Z1 into standby before I try to plug anything in. It also appears to be compatible with Windows 8's generic or inbuilt USB 3.0 drivers! This card, however, makes a VERY tight fit into the expresscard slot. It's also flush like the old card.


4-21-2012 update:
Like I said, this USB 3.0 ExpressCard is very tight in the Z1's ExpressCard slot. Assuming that I will pretty much never take it out again, I've purchased a USB 3.0 to eSATA cable to replace my eSATAp ExpressCard.

 

HI
I have a sony VIAO VPCZ136GG notebook. Just recently, I lost connection to my wifi. After diagnosis by Sony Singapore, it seems that the wireless card is spoilt and needs replacing.

They quoted me Singapore Dollars 120 (labour) + S$160 for a new wireless card, which sounds really expensive.

Does anyone what is the wireless module used in the notebook? This will help me make calls and check if other shops have this module.

 

I think any of these should work:
intel 6200 -bracket | eBay <- That's the card that mine has.

Basically any half mini PCI wireless card...

If you need a new WWAN card (mobile internet) things will be different.

 

USD12???? and Sony singapore wants to charge me the equivalent of 120+ for the same thing, excluding labour charges... amazing!!!!

 

Wow i'm actually surprised at the price of the 6200... in any case, do the repair yourself, the replacement of the Wifi card is fairly easy as it's on top of the motherboard when you remove your keyboard tray (unlike repairing/replacing the fan, which I have to do)

 

Hi all,
I have a VPCZ-118GX. I have a simple question. How can I turn on/off the bluetooth feature? I believe the specs say it supports bluetooth. The switch in the front only says "wireless" which I think is for the wifi. My end goal is to see if I can use a wireless blue-tooth headset with this laptop. (Also, if any of you have used a bluetooth headset, let me know if your model is comfortable and works good for skype, etc.)

Thanks,
Will

 

Do you have the following icon?

 

hmmm... I can't find that menu/icon. How do you invoke it?
Will

 

Seems your model has a different app to do that: Sony eSupport - VPCZ118GX - Drivers & Software

Should be a green icon near the clock.

 

I finally got around to install the latest Intel RST drive/RAID driver from the Intel website.
Was ver. 9.6.0.1014
Is now ver. 10.8.0.1003
Works fine / no difference

 

Yeah, trim with raid won't come yet, is rumored though...

As for the WiFi/bluetooth there should be an icon in your tray on the bott right, forget what its called. Did you fresh install on your vaio? That could explain why you don't see it

 

You're right! I found the green icon near the clock. Thanks!!
Will

 

Ouch.. The current gen Intel HD 4000 graphics seems to bench on a similar level to the GeForce 330M. Will definitely be looking out for the next Asus Zenbook.

 

My only concern is that Intel graphics still uses shared memory, i.e. if you want to have 1GB of graphics RAM, it comes from your main RAM. And it's not as fast as GDDR, I guess. So, 8GB of main RAM is a must if you plan to use HD 4000 in Ivy Bridge seriously.

 

hey guys just bought a vpcz133gmb off ebay, now hunting down a suitable cover/skin for it. i'm a little confused with some of these ebay listings for z11 and z (2010 model), aren't they one and the same?

 

^yes... the z11, z12 and z13 have the same body and will use the same skin. (When i got the skin for my z133, the palm-rest skin didn't fit right - so i skipped this piece - the cover piece fits/looks fine.)

 

I'm close to doing a C: drive restore using my recovery DVDs. Can anyone please confirm that this won't touch the hard disk in my Z1's optical bay caddy?

 

Well, to pitch in, if it's just simply a storage drive, I'd pull it out if I wasn't certain (or just disconnect the SATA cable). Although, at this point, i'd rather fresh install than back-up from a 2 year old image since you're going to have to driver hunt for all the new ones anyways

If you do a clean install:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6155868-post96.html

that's the driver order Sony recommends

 

Yeah, I just unplugged my HDD and extra SSD to be safe. I'm just going to use the default Sony image. Too lazy otherwise and the only driver that I had previously updated was the graphics driver.

I'm only doing this because I accidentally killed my Windows 8 installation when I tried to change the Intel RST driver and for some reason safe mode didn't want to work. Grr...

Well, disassembly was somewhat convenient as I needed to tighten my hinges anyway.

 

Can we change the keyboard of vaio Z 2010 series to keyboard of vaio S 2011 series ? I really like the keyboard of the vaio S 2011 , especially the silver color , very beautiful but i can not found anyone sold the silver keyboard of vaio S 2011

 

^
It won't fit.

 

Oh really ? i think two series have a same size of keyboard i really love the silver keyboard of vaio S series but i dont like some issue on S series , especially the cooling system and the quality of the screen which is not as good as the Z 2010 series

 

I don't know if I've ever tried to burn a dual-layer DVD, but I have burned several dual-layer Bluray disks with no problems at all. One of them was 48 GB. I used Sony DVD Architect, and set the bitrate to "fit to disk."

Hope this helps.

 

I've done some googling and I think the chips used in the Samsung SSDs that come stock in my Z1 are 42nm NAND. (controller: S3C29RBB01-YK40 NAND:k9pdg08u5d/k9pdgz8u5d)

How many write cycles might that be? I think 34nm nand is supposed to be 5k cycles, and perhaps 5xnm nand is 10k?

Just a bit curious as my 2x64GB SSDs are on 6 and 3 bad sectors... I can tell when the number increases as the computer freezes for what seems like a minute when it comes across one.

 

I have a 2010 VPC-Z1. I use the Balanced power plan almost exclusively. In the section where it asks what the display brightness is, it's marked at 60%. And that is the default. It was like this more months...

All of a sudden, if I click on the power icon when on battery power, it says "your current brightness setting might reduce battery life." The only way I can make this warning go away, is if I lower the brightness to 40%.
And if I try to reset the defaults, it now stays at 40% instead of 60%.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do you have any suggestions?

Many thanks

 

Extremely long-shot here, it'll be a good test for you guys

As I went to fit a 2nd HDD caddy I heard a rattling from inside the notebook. After opening it up I found a completely loose screw nestled in the area between the fan and left screen hinge though it could be from anywhere. I spent 30 minutes staring at the innards and cannot fathom where it came from. It doesn't look like any other screw (external screws are black and most of the internal ones are flathead). Anyone have any ideas?

Images: Screw this - Imgur

Major thanks from a perpetual newbie.

 

Is it from the left hinge?

Image: http://i358.photobucket.com/albums/oo23/waleed786/Vaio Z LCD/IMG_0028.jpg
From here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/561458-sony-vaio-vpcz1-lcd-replacement-disassembly-guide.html

Or otherwise, could it be from the caddy itself? Maybe a screw from the wireless card?

 

No, the hinge screws are covered up with tape and intact though the loose screw does look a lot like them. If the wireless card is the green thing in the middle of the notebook then there is a hole opposite from a screw that fits, but nothing to screw into. Difficult to explain without pictures, I'll upload an image when the notebook's next disassembled. It's not from the caddy or mounting rails either. Notebook hasn't blown up or fallen to bits yet so it can't be anything important

By the way, has anyone experienced the cursor freezing momentarily for 1-3 seconds? Right now I have 4 Word documents running and it happens every now and then upon Aero preview. PS: this is in stamina mode with the Intel graphics, not sure if it happens with the Nvidia GPU

 

There should be a plastic peg that fits there. It's a push pin on one side that is fixed in place by a couple lose wedges, kind of like in old CPU heat-sink assemblies.

Edit: maybe I'm thinking of a different model though. I would not worry about it: a single screw should hold it in place very well.

 

I recall hearing about it from someone, but not experiencing it myself.

 

Here are two pictures, if you zoom on the green card in the middle you can see an empty hole at the bottom across from the black screw near the two wires. Second picture shows the gap: Vaio Z11 opened up - Imgur It's not worth me getting worried about in all honesty.

I installed a Western Digital Scorpio Black 750gb 7200rpm HDD today and was not expecting it to vibrate this much. Set down on a desk or other hard surface the notebook sounds like it has a CD/DVD spinning inside. The performance is much better than my billion year-old 160GB 5400rpm Seagate, but still far behind SSD as expected. If other 7200rpm HDDs perform similar this then I can't recommend them because it appears the vibration is too much for the Z1's small chassis to disperse. I should have gone just stuck with 5400rpm -_-

 

All I can say is that you take some nice pictures.. and I have no idea where that screw came from.

 

I have a little question, have a Dell U2412M now, temporarily connected to my Z13 over VGA while I wait for a HDMI>DVI cable to arrive.

Problem seems to be that when my laptop is plugged in to power I seem to get a lot of interference on my monitor, something like flickering horizontal bands.

I've seen another topic from someone with a Z but it was closed and didn't really have anything conclusive. Has anyone else experienced this? Does it go away if you use HDMI? Is it a monitor issue?

Thanks!
Ambroos

 

Try run your laptop on battery and see if the interference goes away. If so the interference should go away with HDMI.

 

Try a different vga cable. Oftentimes its the shielding and/or grounding on vga cables that causes that type of interference (it doesn't help at all that Z's lack the screw connections that help to provide a good ground connection to the vga connector).

 

Hi, has anyone tried to take apart their vaio Z? Or know where to find any good guides to do so?

I have some dirt behind the screen and wanna take it apart and clean it.

I had had the coumptuter in a very damp enviroment and apperantly the dirt got there with the moisture. And warranty wont cover it.

Thanks for any help.

 

What do you mean by "behind the screen"? Could you post a photo?

We have this guide here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/561458-sony-vaio-vpcz1-lcd-replacement-disassembly-guide.html

However, the LCD only comes out as one whole piece... Try to dismantle the LCD panel itself and you might damage/break it.

 

It does indeed go away completely if I run the laptop on battery power! Thanks for the advice, I'll just wait for my HDMI > DVI to arrive!

 

Thank you. I should have said that i have a Z21.

Yes, i think it's best to hand it in and pay for the service.

 

Hi all, I posted on the Z2 forum about my idea of upgrading. My old Z1 starts freezing pretty often, is becoming slower and the size of SSD is restricting me. I think also that it has become hotter (57C with Firefox and several tabs open in Stamina). A felllow member replied to me that I don't need a new laptop, I just have to restore to its factory settings. But then I would like to do an image restore to recover my files, settings and programs. Will I have any gain doing that, or do I have to install everything again in order to avoid any resource hogs that might be bothering my system?
I was thinking that if I have to reinstall everything, I might as well dive for the nice offer of the Z2 I found (and do some shopping therapy on the way )

 

I say get a new one and sell me your old one.

 

Well I failed to mention it is the French version (keyboard and Windows) and has been working for more than 10 hours every day for the last 2 years. And the aluminium next to the on/off switch is a bit dented after a fall from the desk (someone stumbled on the cord)

Still interested?