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

How can i do?
Is there a instructional video?

 

Help!
I am having a horrible time getting my wireless to stay on in my Z.
I just got it and it keeps kicking me off.

What am I doing wrong?

 

Intel has a newer driver, 13.2.1.5 I believe, that seems to solve that issue for multiple folks here. You can search for the Centrino 6200 driver on Intel's support site, that will bring you to the driver download page.

 

Check out This Youtube Clip for how to get the keyboard off. Then once you have done that, tighten the two silver screws facing out at you next to the hinge.

Please note that opening up your laptop will invalidate your warranty (if they find out).

 

Yes, it was in Stamina. I almost always keep the computer in Stamina.

 

Thanks...
i've another problem...
when i restart from standby smart network put wifi off...
i've to reactivate manually...
anyone have the same problem?

 

The model number is MMDPE56G8DXP-0VBL7 , it is a Lenovo branded Samsung SSD which means even that the ebay seller advertises it has TRIM it does not have it. The firmware which is on there does not support it and Lenovo won't release the firmware to enable TRIM.
Still $400 for a 256GB SSD is a good deal and it is faster at random writes than 2 Toshiba SSD's in RAID 0. I wanted to use it as storage device anyway. For Windows and applications I have the RealSSD C300.

 

i've uninstalled and reinstalled smart network and... maybe I resolved the problem!

 

I thought of a strange and drastic solution to solve the fading problem of the palmrest ... simply wear out the entire palmrest to make uniform the color of the entire surface!
What do you think about?
How can we do it?

 

You could use sand paper to speed up the process

 

... Mine was not a joke ... I said really ...
I'm looking for a way not too cruel to make uniform the color of my palmrest!

 

Pulling the trigger on a Z12. I prefer black, but will silver eliminate the wearing problem? (without having to worry about putting a film on)

Thanks!

 

You can use this, with a lot of elbow grease:

If you have a Porter Cable, it would speed things up. But you'll probably have to remove the palmrest before you start...

 

I was almost sold on this.......

I think I am definitely going to try this later!!

 

I saw a video on the palmrest removing and.... it's so hard...
so... i'm looking for an alternative metod!
I think that if it was so easy to ruin a part of it with the palm of your hand ... why not continue throughout the rest...

 

1. About this hinge click. Is it very noticable or ever so slight?

2. Also, do any of you guys have problems with the hinge alignment with the aluminum chasis. My left hinge on the left side looks like its slightly under flush from the chasis, any of you guys have the same problem?

 

the plastic part that holds the LCD is just a cover. that plastic cover can be adjusted a little as it is fixed with one little screw.

 

Excellent, and I can adjust this little screw once i remove the keyboard?

 

I hear a very soft click or two when I open the display past 90 degrees - though I'm quite gentle when I open it.

My left hinge is also slightly under flush but not enough to bother me. After watching the disassembly video on YouTube, the "hinge fix" seems really straightforward. I'd probably use some Loctite on the screws if I ever have to go through this process.

 

Ah, Yes, I've been hearing that click every once in a while too. Do we have to look out for any special warranty tape or stickers that warn Sony that the laptops have been tampered with inside?

If not, I will have to try this hinge fix soon.

 

It'll be getting worse soon. - The clicking will get stronger because the screws will come out more and more causing a steadily growing gap.
Afaik, no selfdestruction mechanisms or Sony traps in my Z11.

Sorry, but Loctite fixation of the screws is not very wise.
Think about an exchange of the display or the wireless cables and the like.

Checklist for you:

- Take care that the 2 screws sitting in the RAM cage under the RAM cage lid has also been removed because they are tighten the keyboard in the center (I did miss them first.).
- To protect the RAM close the RAM cage again after this step.
- After removing all the screws from the bottom open the lid with care as far as it can be done.
IMPORTANT: remember the position of every screw well, because they are of different lengths.
- You may want to protect the display with a soft paper or something similar fixed with tape to avoid damage.
- Only then remove the keyboard.
- Let the hinges sit in their places in the base unit.
- The only reason to open the unit and to remove the keyboard is that you only can thighten the screws (sitting on the bezel of the lid) after this step due to space for the screwdriver.
- Tighten each screw which is loose (first check screws of the right hinge, then also for the left hinge to be sure to have only one trip in disassembling/reassembling)
- Tip: Since you are here, you could carefully clean the fan and other parts from dust, if necessary.
- Check if all wires are sitting correct in the area of the right hinge
- Put the keyboard back in its place
- Close the lid slowly
- Check if the lid closed properly and sitting parallel to the edges of the keyboard
- Finally put all screws in the bottom and finish reassembling
- Test the unit

 

This hinges on the Vio's are a constant problem, I have read 2 or three posts on the poor quality of Sony Hinges..nobody wants to admit it?

 

Power Plan might be the key here. What are your settings?

 

Damn...got to check mine on Stamina mode when I get home. I haven't used it much on battery since the update, but if the battery life has increased I'll be really happy. Beforehand, switching from speed (balanced default) to stamina (balanced modified with wifi off and dvd drive off, and the second lowest brightness) made very little difference in battery life, around an additional 15-20 minutes at 100% battery life with word and powerpoint open, which I thought was odd. Maybe that has been rectified?

 

When you open your notebook and work on it please use the proper screw drivers, not too big and not too small. I used PH.1 and PH.00 . Don't use too much force when you tighten the screws. Using an improper screw driver size could leave traces on the screws which would show that you have opened the notebook.
I opened my notebook more than 6 times (because of testing and replacing drives) and I still don't see any trace that the notebook had been opened.

 

@JP$
to what brightness is your display set? I have at the moment 6h runtime at 90% battery and 64% brightness.

 

Today I started to stress the palmrest to make everything a little fade (and so uniform) ... will update my results ...

Changing the subject ... nobody has ever complained that at resolutions lower than native mode NVIDIA (not intel) screen is blurry!
It 's a problem only mine?

 

Good thought, but it's very unlikely to be the power plan. I have used this same power plan from the get go, and only recently have been experiencing different behavior.

Keep in mind that I didn't (knowingly) install any updates. This change just appeared to coincide with a system restore I did.

I keep my brightness at 30% when on battery. So judging by your numbers, maybe my battery life isn't that much improved after all. Besides, I kind of think the Windows prediction regarding how much battery time you have is somewhat variable. The other day I unplugged and my battery life was reading just below 4 hours on an 80% charge. Obviously that's a lot different than the 6.5 hour reading I got just a few days before. Granted, the battery life was steadily rising from 4 hours (and I plugged in before long so I didn't see how high it would climb). But maybe I overreacted when I saw 6.5 hours. Perhaps it's really not as different as my battery life before if Windows is all over the map with the battery life prediction anyway.

 

I was wondering, I'm showing some wear on my Palm Rest on the Z -- and possibly looking to replace it in the future, is there any place that I can purchase the palm rest for the Z?

 

Does the Vaio come with any software for watching blu-ray movies (the "Z" with the blu-ray and HD screen)?
Or if I have to buy my own, any recommendations?
Thanks

 

It comes with a basic version of Win DVD. I like it better than the pay for version of PowerDVD because it is simple and not full of crap. I have never used the pay for version of WinDVD though so I don't know how that compares.

I managed to rip the install files for WinDVD and the rest of the very limited selection of useful programs from the restore DVDs. Anyway, I have WinDVD as a stand alone installer which is great because I like my clean install of Win7Ultimate much better than Sony's install of Win7Home.

 

I think that's the expected result when the LCD's native resolution isn't used. I suspect folks usually change the font size (dpi scaling) rather than the screen resolution, so it doesn't blur.

 

OK... it's normal that when you don't use the native resolution the screen look blur... but with the Intel it doesn't happen (or better ... is not so noticeable)...
I don't use the dpi scaling because it upsets the skin of the applications (included windows)...
PS. the problem with smartnetwork still resists... when i put my vaio in stanby it close the wifi switch... is something boring!

 

I'm using Total Media Theatre 3 Platinum from ArcSoft. It works very well, I'm using it for over a year now.

 

I noticed the same problem after updating usually when coming out of sleep in speed mode with the lid closed usually. I've seen post in the past where user's have stated that they would get the black screen after long periods of sleep mode so I'm assuming this is what they were referring to. what I'd like to know is, if updating can change he bios as well, because I've never noticed this problem until after the vaio care update and if its possible can a factory restore fix this problem? anyone else have this issue? or can try replicating it to see if its something we've just overlooked and may need Sony's attention.

 

usually you have to hit a key to wake up the computer from sleep mode (not hibernation). Opening the laptop doesn't do it.

 

Enny02, are you serious? That's like telling me i have to hit the power switch to turn on the laptop, smh! Is their anyone who has had this problem and can possibly answer the questions in my previous post?, thanks!

 

I just bought the custom configured z. I has a "fresh start". (My previous Z has too much cr*p). Does WinDVD come with the computer in this case?

 

I looked at this for the first time today. Seems quite nice, with none of the annoying messages about upgrades and registration as with power dvd.
I might go this way if the windvd (does it play blu-rays?) doesn't work.

WOW!!! I get my Z on Monday, and as a "portable dvd player" it's not much bigger, and it plays blu-rays in highdef!!!
Man, what a laptop.

 

Sorry I didn't get what you meant when you were talking about sleep mode.

What is the problem here? Black Screen, Updating?? I have installed updates and had no black screen issue. I have disabled the automatic updates for the Vaio Updater. I check once or twice a month for updates. My computer never updates/installs automatically, all updaters give my a notice that there is something to update then I select what I want to install. Updates don't take that long on my computer that it would go to sleep.

 

@Tigerbone : this is not a bios related problem, I didn't had one since a while and I don't remember if switching was the solution or the cause, but to me it looks more like a freeze when the screen is black than a black screen.

Did you changed the switch during sleep ? (ie put it asleep in speed (auto) and remove power before wake it up, which will switch to stamina (auto)) I remember something like this.

 

Gang, You know that I love you all

Since I got my damn Z, I'm -on hourly basis- checking some threads at NBR, not to mention that before I decided to buy it, I went through like 1000+ pages reading what you all say/suggest.

Now I have Firefox opened with like 23 tabs, and I use session save feature to restore all 23 tabs after booting.

I keep checking and checking, and anticipating good news about upgrades, and also I do my best to help others asking questions.

BUT:

I'm Bored to Death....

lol

Any one in the same boat?

I want to stop reading but I just CAN'T!

I'm so sorry in advance if I hijacked the thread with rubbish...

But you are all my friends, that's what friends are for!

EDIT: just a thought, let's try everynow and then to come up with interesting Articles, I'll start by the one that Enny posted, its really interesting, don't miss it.

(((Summer Guide: 17 SSDs Rounded Up)))

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-ssd-trim,2705.html

Will

 

LOL, your not the only one I feel the same way and have about 4 tabs in firefox for NBR It can get very addictive but i guess in a couple of months we'll be on less and less as the owners before us! right now we're just enjoying the moments that will carry us on our own here after. and no problem Enny02 I guess it was a little frustrating on my end to figure out what was causing this, So i did a restore and haven't recreated the black screen yet. I do remember installing a windows media player codec pack and a couple other programs, so I have a feeling its something in there that might be causing this issue. It appears the 330m crashes only i don't get any msg's indicating the crash but my resolution to goes back to native every time i restart the computer which is why i'm assuming that. So i'm gonna go slow this time around trying to recreate the black screen after every program install to see if i can find the culprit. thanks Crus-T and If i find anything everyone here will be the first to know

 

My black screens came while I was randomly working. Admittedly with a lot of stuff open, but no more than I had before I updated. It hasn't happened again so I think it was just coincidence

 

As I previously posted some concerns about battery drain, today I decided to take a real draintest while watching TV.

Directly upon AC/DC disconnection I saw 80% with an estimated 4h, 57 minutes.

I am running LCD brightness at 2 nothces, keyboard backlight fully on and in Stamina mode. WiFi on, 3 Putty windows opened, 2x10Tab Chrome windows, 1x2Tab Firefox. All on standard Z12 battery, DVD drive is OFF.

This was after a complete clean install with almost all Sony drivers installed leaving out any kind of bloatware.

After some 30 minutes I see 70% but with an estimated 3h,52min.

 

Does anyone know how to fix the NVIDIA High Definition Audio device not showing up in the Sound control panel -> Playback tab?

 

For me, it only shows up when the HDMI is connected. If it doesn't for you, I can only suggest reinstalling Sony's nvidia display drivers.

 

I'm currently reading articles about SATA revision 2, and 3, I understand that SATA 2 is 3Gbps, while SATA 3 is 6 Gbps.

So, if SATA 2 is limited to roughly 260 MB/s, then I presume that our VPC-Z has the SATA 3, which is 6Gbps.

Am I right? or wrong about that?

I tried Everest Ultimate and it says under STORAGE | ATA , that my Toshiba is SATA-II, which is confusing, because my SSD throughput reaches 360 MB/s which is MORE than SATA-II (if its the same as SATA 2.0)

Please correct me if I'm wrong about my math.

Will

 

Currently all laptops Sata 2. Sata 3 will be available in laptops next year with Intel's new Sandy Bridge and AMD's Llano processor's.

 

Thanks Jaya for your fast reply, but how come I have read / write speeds above the Sata 2 limits?

maybe because of the RAID-0, does this mean that each RAID-0 channel, uses one SATA 2 interface/port? I have 2x 64GB in RAID-0