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

What is the part number of the Full HD screen you bought on ebay?

 

The 1920x1080 screen has the part no. B131HW02

This thread has additional details:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-lcd-replacement-disassembly-guide-print.html

 

Where did you buy it? I'm having trouble finding a genuine one, last time I ordered from china it was a used one with keyboard marks

 

Sony Vaio VPCZ1 Series Laptop LCD Screen 13 1 Matte Full HD LED B131HW02 V 0 | eBay

That's the original listing I purchased from. They aren't common from US sellers....but they do pop up fro time to time. I was lucky to find one when I needed it.

 

Hey guys, long time lurker first time poster here. I was wondering if anyone could help me with a disassembling mistake I made when I was replacing the thermal paste on my VPCZ1. I accidentally broke off the plastic clip that connects the wifi card and the sound card to the mother board as I thought you can remove the clip and pop it back on rather than just only lifting it up and since then the connection to that specific hardware is spotty at best. Right now it's frustrating as it's one of those 'minor' mistakes that practically ruin one of the main functionality's of the laptop for me (wifi) as I now have to use an Ethernet cable to use internet.

The plastic clip that secures the ribbon cable for the wifi / sound card can is referenced at 7:07 in the following video below. Does anyone have any advice as to how I can secure it again? I'm willing to use hot glue but I wanted to get the insight of the thread before I do anything again dumb. Thanks in advance everyone!

Vaio Z11 Dismantle on Vimeo

 

I have done this exact same thing to two different Z's! The plastic "clip" is actually hinged at one end so that it flips up to release the cable. If you examine the clip carefully you will see that one side has a plastic ridge that clamps the cable in place when the clip is flat in it's secured (as opposed to flipped up) position. This ridged side goes DOWN when you try to reinstall the clip. The HINGE end had to be CAREFULLY fitted so that the series of tiny bumps (or knobs) at the hinge end fit BETWEEN the series of copper colored retainers that attach to the motherboard connector. You may need a magnifier to see what I am talking about here....depending on how good (or not) your eyes are.

So what worked for me was to slide & simultaneously press the clip into the connector from the side (like it was in the closed/clamped position as opposed to the flipped up position) until the bumps slid between the retainers and the clip would once again hinge up and down clamping the ribbon cable in place. THERE IS A LOT OF TRIAL AND ERROR HERE and I can't tell you exactly why one trial worked and many others did not....but I can tell you that after a LOT of trials I was able to get the clip back in place and the associated peripheral (in my case the optical drive and sound board) working again!! I can also tell you that the plastic of the clip is slippery and that if you have pressure on it and it doesn't slip in properly it will likely launch itself across the room or into the recesses of the case! Take precautions not to lose it.

WHEN I DISSAMBLE THE Z NOW I TAPE ALL THESE CLIPS DOWN/CLOSED/CLAMPED after removing the ribbon cable(s) to prevent this problem! Hope this helps...it CAN be fixed but it is time consuming and frustrating.

Your other choice is to buy a new motherboard on Ebay...not too expensive if you have the I5 processor but quite pricey if you have the I7.

 

Looking for a vpcz1 port replicator/docking station VGP-PRZ10, anyone looking to sell? Please PM.

 

Hey guys I installed the HDD caddy where the optical drive would be and put a 1TB SSD drive in my VAIO z. Now the computer always has the fan on really loud. My ssd configuration when I bought the laptop was 64GBx4 Any idea why? I also did the bios hack and have the latest nvidia drivers.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4

 

First question that pops into my mind is: did you try disconnecting the 1TB drive to verify that it was the cause of the problem? Second: is the 256GB HD from Sony still connected? Wondering if having over 1TB of drive might be a problem here. Third: Did you try resetting BIOS options to defaults? (this ones a REALLY long shot) I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having OVER 1TB of drive space in one of these...who knows what that could do to the BIOS....hacked or not!

 

Sounds like this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/478621-fix-new-z-quadssd-extra-ssd-cpu-bug.html

 

Thanks for the detailed response Orionz, this was really helpful for my friend who also has the same laptop. Unfortunately for me, I think I lost my brown plastic clip. I went on Ebay to check out some motherboards and saw that some of them were pretty cheap as you said. I'm going to buy one soon once I get over the shellshock that that little plastic clip is going to cost me over $100 though (can't seem to find one that's only the mobo, all of them seem to have the i5 and 330M already included), it's almost like the buying the screen all over again.

A friend recommended trying to use a hot glue gun and a lot of pressure to get the connections to stay put, any insight on this?

 

anyone know anyone who may be interested in a mint z13. pls PM me if so.

 

First, the CPU and GPU(330M) are welded to the motherboard on this VAIO so you will always get the chips with a new mobo.

I have not tried the hot glue gun method...but it sounds messy...and messy is bad on a motherboard. Also I HAVE tried inserting the end of the ribbon cable along with a thin piece of plastic of an appropriate width to provide the required pressure to make the contacts function. Other manufacturers use this method to connect their cables. Even Sony does it in certain instances. But then the plastic insert is bonded to the ribbon cable AND is EXACLY the right thickness. I could never get all the contacts to function and the pressure required to insert the cable securely can damage the cable! IMHO you are probably stuck with getting new mobo if you have lost the hinged plastic locking tab.

 

Anyone have a link or reference to a post with the best synaptics touchpad driver to install? I recently had to go through a complete recovery and lost the driver I had previously installed back when I purchased my Z11. I have downloaded a synaptics driver that gives me the two finger scroll, but I thought my previous driver allowed the two finger scroll as well as the scroll option along the side and bottom of the touchpad. I don't seem to have that now. Appreciate if you have a recommendation for best version to use and a link to download if you have it handy.

 

You can definitely download Synaptics generic drivers from its Web site and even the more recent drivers provide for both one finger and two finger scrolling. I'm away from home but PM me if you can't find ones that do so and I will check exactly what version of Synaptics driver I'm using successfully in my Z13.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

EDIT: The Synaptics driver version I have in my Sony VPC-Z13 is 16.2.21.0 These are older than the most current Synaptics drivers in its web site (newest ones begin with 17.xxxxxx) but it is definitely newer than the last ones Sony provided for this model. I'm fairly certain you can search for specific versions on the Synaptics.com site. As I have experimented with many over the years and these have served me well for over a year, I recommend you use these if you can find them. Good luck.

 

This is a list of issues I've had with my Sony Vaio Z1, the VPCZ13M9E/B.

- Fan noise: after some months of usage, the z1 fan started to make a lot of noise. Contacted tech support and replaced it at no cost. No more issues with that matter.
Vaio VPCZ13M9E/B very high fan noise, almost out of warranty makes me angry
Sony VPCZ1 fan problems thread

- USB ports started to fail, specifically the two ones in the left side. If you slightly touch the usb cable while connected it will disconnect randomly. Sony refused to repair it, just said all tests worked properly.

- Graphic drivers extremely outdated, since they use the optimus technology to pack in a binary file the drivers for the intel hd 3000 and nvidia geforce gt 330m. Sony refused to update the driver.

- The dvd drive is ejected randomly and sometimes has issues to work. You have to extract and insert again the disc until it works.

- BIOS advanced configuration is completely hidden by default. You have to flash a modified bios to show all the great hidden parameters.
New Vaio Z - Advanced menu in BIOS

 

My thoughts on the number of "cursor blinks" during the POST cycle (and how to deal with them) as detailed in this closed thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/484384-sony-vpc-z11-slow-post.html

I have two Z's. A VGN-Z and a Z1. During startup the VGN-Z's (with 2x128GB RAID 0 ssd's) cursor blinks TWICE between the Sony logo BIOS screen (or the RAID configuration screen if you have it enabled) and the appearance of the Windows startup screen. My Z1 (with 4x128GB RAID 0 ssd's) has never blinked fewer than 5 times and sometimes as many as 27 times during this same part of the startup cycle. This can add up to 20 seconds to the start cycle. As mentioned in the thread above by arth1 this seems to be due to the initialization of the array itself and MAY be specifically due to the search for and reading of RAID markers on each of the drives.

WORSE....the number of blinks seems to INCREASE over time so the boot cycle slows down and in some of the worst cases I have observed the BIOS setup screen remains displayed for up to 3 extra seconds before the blinks begin and there is a 3-4 second delay between the end of the blinks and the display of the windows startup screen. Boot times of up to 70 seconds have been observed. My best boot times have been 27-28 seconds (with a fresh MINIMAL windows 7 install) and average is about 40 seconds with a fully configured software package.

Not everyone seems to have this problem....but if you do...here are some thoughts on how to fix it.

-image your ENTIRE drive array (in my case it's configured as C and D drives) with the imaging tool of your choice. I use True Image.
-be sure to check the image integrity so you know you will be able to reimage the drive.
-use a drive erasing tool to initiate the Internal Secure Erase function of the ssd's. I use Parted Magic. THIS WILL REMOVE ALL DATA FROM ALL YOUR DRIVES including those pesky RAID markers! And NO just rebuilding the RAID array doesn't seem to have the desired effect on boot speed....only secure erasing does.
-reassemble your RAID array using the built-in RAID utility. This will require entering BIOS (F2 @ Sony logo) and making the RAID setup screen visible from the advanced tab and then using CNTRL-I when the RAID configuration screen appears and then assembling your ssd's into a RAID 0 array. A stripe size of 64mb seems to work best for me based on trail & error experimentation. You will now have an uninitialized RAID 0 drive equal in size to the sum of your SSD's.
-finally....reimage this drive using your imaging software.

This process has always reduced my number of blinks and other delays in startup. I attribute it to eliminating excess RAID markers. My theory is that as the data size on the drive expands more and more markers are created and none are removed so the intel RAID software has to count more and more markers (on each drive) before telling windows it can start. That's a guess. But it does seem that when I expand the size of the data on the drive (by copying a large media file onto it for instance) I often notice an immediate increase in cursor blinks.

This is all a product of a LOT of time and experimentation. It annoys me to have a quad-raid machine with up to 500mb/second transfer rates that take 70 seconds or more to boot! I currently have 12 blinks and a forty second boot time with my (rather extensive) software package installed.

These are STILL some of the best ultrabooks around...with my three year old Z1 I can kick the a$$ of almost any (with a bow to you current generation Clevo or Dellienware owners) notebook out there in gaming, photo editing or transcoding!

 

Since it's already sommer time in germany, then I decided to make a little VPCZ1 Fan mod Cooling Project

Bring down the cpu from 94 celcius while gaming to 78 celcius and gpu 80 celcius to 71 celcius

Idle temperatur 43 celcius cpu and 44 celcius gpu

All result in high performance modus ( 3458 GHz ) with nvidia active ( overclocked to 630 MHz )






Attached : ram chip heatsink + fan grill + additional heat pipe bonded with artic silver thermal adeshive

Update : The newest foto was my crazy stuff while waiting the artic silver thermal adesive to dry out since it's need a hours until the artic silver bonded perfectly. Surprisingly, there is no much temperatur difference beetween open chassis and inside chassis. If I remember correctly the idle temperatur just 38 celcius in open chassis with hig performance modus + nvidia being active

 

Hey I'm interested but I can't pm you for some reason. Is it still available?

 

Hallo people

Btw, it's may be a right time to add a ssd caddy from newmodus for my vaio Z11

But, my Z configuration is with the quad ssd ( 4x64Gb )

Is there any problem if I add additional ssd with the caddy. That mean I have 5 ssd on 1 laptop

I ask this since there is just 4 ssd setup I can see from bios. May be the ssd limit just 4 for the Z series

thanks for reply

 

This SHOULD work. You will be using he SATA port usually reserved for the optical drive so there should be no conflict. I know for a fact that the quad raid config works fine in conjunction with an optical drive since that is what I have. What will NOT work...I'm reasonable sure anyway...is to try to add the additional SSD to the array...not that you would want to anyway.

 

Hi Thanks

The only problem I know is there would be a problem with ACPI CPU power management as I read from this thread :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/478621-fix-new-z-quadssd-extra-ssd-cpu-bug.html

The Battery will drain faster, and P state will be messy

But that is for the old bios problem. I don't know if it will become a problem too for bios R3031C3 ( the latest bios )

 

I have a Sony VPCZ-11Z9E.
And two months ago I replaced the fan.

When I mounted everything, part of the keyboard stopped working.
The keys that no longer work (keyboard line, keys) are:
1: 2, 4, 6, 0
2: q, e, r, t, y, u, i, o. enter
3: caps-lock, a, s, g, k
4: c, b

The key to open the DVD does not work.

I think it's some flex cable or maybe the keyboard.
How do I know what I need to replace?

 

Hallo NBR Member

I want to ask for someone who have a vaio VPCZ with WWAN module.

Since I'm didn't use the WWAN module so much, I got some idea to replace the gobi card ( not the WWAN Board ) and use the WWAN board with the broadcom crystal HD decoder.

I read from some people, that broadcom crystal HD is a decoder for some HD content. And it make the cpu more usefull for another process while watching HD content. And since it use a mpcie connector. And since the WWAN card have a mpcie connector, is that possible to replace the WWAN card with the broadcom crystal HD.?

thanks for help

 

I had one of those cards floating around here a couple of months back which I put into my laptop with a Core 2 Duo CPU. Not really any use in that laptop, and wouldn't be much use in this one. More suited for older netbooks, unless you feel your VPCZ1 has been having trouble multitasking or playing videos? (which it really shouldn't since our Intel and Nvidia GPUs both have a similar video decoding chip built-in)

 

Hi there

I'm another VPCZ1 user who tried to fix his beloved computer and seems to have made things worse

Last week end I dismantled my Z1 to replace the CPU & Nvidia GPU cooling block (copper radiator + fan) and repaste the CPU/GPU.
The fan was really noisy and prone to have issues starting up, and the laptop rebooted quite often when putting too much load on the CPU.
I had bought a replacement cooling block from China a few months ago (seems to be genuine, Toshiba fan and all), and I had a small tube of Arctic Silver V paste that I got 7 or 8 years ago, that I use sometimes between voltage regulators and their radiators.

I watched this video to get some tips to dismantle the laptop and got to work
Vaio Z11 Dismantle on Vimeo

When I finally was able to access the bottom side of the motherboard and remove the radiator, I noticed 2 things :
The paste on the CPU was completely dry
The Nvidia GPU didn't have any paste, but some kind of sticker between it and the radiator. It seemed to me it was left there by mistake, as I've seen a picture of the GPU of a Z1 with paste on it and no sticker.

So I removed the sticker on the GPU, removed the dried paste from a CPU with the edge of a plastic card, and cleaned everything with alcool until they were shiny like a mirror.
Then I put some Arctic Silver paste that I spread quite thinly with the same plastic card, put in place the new cooling block, and re-assembled everything (I just forgot to put a back a small rubber piece under the motherboard in the process).

Now, when I boot the laptop at first everything is fine, the fan seems to spin with the noise of a well working fan.
But then the fan seems to spin at maximum speed, and before I can boot anything (withing 30s-1min of post) the laptop shuts down.
I'm puzzled that I made it worse than before, given how the CPU & GPU were cooled before.

Before I start to dismantle it again, any advice on what is the most likely ?
- My Arctic Silver paste is crap/too old
- I put too much of it
- Contact is not good between the radiator and CPU/GPU
- I plugged the fan power connector the wrong way (not sure it can be done)
- the rubber thing I forgot to put back has actually a very important role
- a temperature captor is wrong
- anything else ?

Cheers
Julien

 

Hallo

You can try read this thread about VPCZ1 cooling. It need a copper shim between the GPU and heat sink : http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/594314-vpc-z-change-thermal-paste.html

It may you should use the IC diamond, since it's better for laptop with at least above 80 celcius

Or you may make a modified VPCZ1 like I did on previous site ( see page 347 )

With that I got extimated 40 celcius in power saving mode, and 55 in high performance modus ( both with Nvidia GPU active )

 

Cheers ! Got a lot of useful info from that other thread. I didn't know about the thermal pad. I will try to find some copper shims locally (I live in Hong Kong) and maybe another cooling paste this afternoon. Otherwise I'll buy the stuff online.

 

VPCZ1290x owner here.

I searched for 16gb upgrade on the forum but found zilch. I bought some 16gb SODIMMs from Newegg, GSkill. Dropped em in, and Vaio fails to boot - BIOS doesnt see the memory. I read somewhere that Sony locked the memory amount in the BIOS - this possible? The GSkill memory has faster timings than the stock memory.

Anyone else here try to upgrade Z to 16gb?

 

There is a limit 8GB ram total

 

Hallo NBR Member

Since I already upgraded my VPCZ1 with 2,5" samsung 840 pro, May be someone here interested to upgrade your VPCZ1 with 256GB ( 4x64GB ) Quad ssd..?

Let me know if someone Interested with my quad ssd. You can make your best offer

Item location is in germany

Thanks

 

Your problems are almost assuredly caused by removal of the thermal pad over the GPU. You can buy new thermal pad or try the shim method. Either one should work. Overheating of the CPU due to dry, useless thermal paste or GPU due to shrunken thermal pad is VERY common in the Z1's. Once you fix that problem though it will perform really well for a laptop of it's age!! Where did Sony get such crappy thermal paste from?? I've never seen anyting like it!

 

Yep thanks, I ordered some 0.5 mm copper shims, just waiting for them to arrive and I will cleanup and repaste again with new thermal paste and 1 shim on the GPU.

 

Writing this from my repaired Z1. IC Diamond + 0.5mm copper shim did the trick. Everything's working fine.
Replaced at the same time the original quad-SSD (which had 2 disk failures out of 4, probably due to overheaating ?) with a single Samsung EVO mSATA 250GB drive.

 

My Sony Vaio SVZ1311C5E has died. The laptop is under warranty but Sony have said that all data on the drives will be lost after repair. Is it possible to extract the data from the drive(s) in this unit? From my research it appears that the SSD(s) installed in this unit are manufactured with a proprietary connector.

 

Can you boot from usb? If so, you can run linux into a pendrive.

 

Note that you're posting this in the wrong thread - this is for the much older VPC-Z1. I recommend you post in the "Official NEW SVZ Z series Owners Lounge" thread which is for your machine.

 

Ashers is right about this being the wrong thread...I posted a few ideas in response to your post over there!

 

Hi folks, my Vaio VPC-Z1190X's hard drive is becoming unreliable.
I have abandoned the default hard drive(2x64GB Samsung SSD) all together, by disconnecting the ribbon.

I have purchased a caddy from Newmodeus, and installed a SATA-HD into the optical DVD bay.

However, upon booting, even though the SATA-HD is recognized by Intel Raid Rapid Storage Technology, the Sony's SBIOS does not see this SATA-HD.
Thus, the system would boot with message "No OS Found".

Has anyone been able to get SATA-HD(in optimal DVD bay) to boot as primary hard disk with OS/Win7?

If not, has anyone been able to confirm this is not possible?

Thanks, and hopefully I'm not asking a question which has already been asked a million times.

 

I'm curious how this worked since the old SATA plugs and drives are microSATA instead of mSATA which is what the new drive is. Did you use an adapter? Thanks.

 

I have an i5 Sony vpcz114gx and have done lots of upgrades: Gobi 2000 wwan, blu ray, 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM, intel 450Mbps WLAN with 3rd antenna. Would it make sense to upgrade the screen to full HD? I read somewhere the color saturation is better on the 1600x900. The screen cost is about $100 on Ebay.

 

Same here; I'm thinking of upgrading my vpcz1 display; 100 $ seems cheap (is it genuine?)

 

My Z1 is 1600x900 and for me the best for movies, even more than Apple notebooks. It's just a matter of personal taste.

 

Notebookcheck has reviews of the VPC with the 1600x900 screen and with 1920x1080 screen, so you can compare the two screens. I think the brightness and contrast is better on the 1600x900 screen but the colour gamet is better on the 1920x1080 screen:

1600x900:
Review Sony Vaio VPC-Z13B7E subnotebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

1920x1080:
Review Sony Vaio VPC-Z13Z9E (i7, FHD, Quad-SSD) subnotebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

I did the screen upgrade this weekend. I did notice the loss of some brightness and contrast but overall it is still a step up. I also experimented with wwan, and can confirm that the z1 can accept other wwan modules besides the gobi 2000. I put in a gobi 3000 and it works! Next step will be a 4G LTE module once it arrives. Now I have some spare parts for sale: a like-new 1600x900 genuine led lcd panel, a DVD drive and a Sony gobi 2000 wwan. If anyone needs these parts, please PM me.

 

Hey guys, any experience with one of these cheaper batteries for our laptop? Im looking for a new 9cell one (VGP-BPL20) and it definitely seems like anything original have pretty darn high prices. So I'm wonderig if any of you got experience with some of the 'fake' ones... or just... any input / recommendations?

Thanks!

 

Sorry. Duplicate post.

 

Hey all,
I've had my vpcz1290x for about 5 years now and haven't had any real issues until a couple days ago when it decided to stop powering up completely. I was using the computer on my desk and put it into hibernation (it was running off the battery, so there was definitely no electrical surge). Next thing I know, I go back to turn it on about 20 minutes later and nothing happens. I plug it in and the battery charging indicator goes on, but it won't power up, no green light at all. Is it possible the motherboard just randomly decided to burn out? The power button seems to be clicking properly, but could there be something internally wrong with the power button? I always press the power button to put the computer in hibernation, so I suppose it's possible something broke when I pressed it. I did open up the computer to check for any loose cables, however everything seemed fine (I've replaced parts on the computer before, so I knew what to look for). Weirdly enough I found a couple other cases of people putting there's Z's to hibernation and not being able to turn it back on, but no one's posted a solution or diagnosis of any kind. I'd greatly appreciate your feedback!!

 

@guho, What 4G module did you order? I want to swap th 3g module also but I'm having trouble finding a 4g onde

 

@mobytoby, I got an MC7355 for my vpcz1 from Ebay for $169. It supports AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile 4G LTE. If you are outside of North America get the model appropriate for 4G LTE in your region. There is no BIOS whitelist to contend with. Protip: make sure you get a genuine Sierra Wireless one, not the Dell version DW5808 as the Windows drivers only allow use on a Dell computer. GPS is great too after proper configuration of 2ndary antenna as GPS antenna.