Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Dude, that was the classic way to squeeze 10% out of Lenovo. After you got it, call up Lenovo and say you want to return it. They would always offer a 10% refund if you kept it. Worked every time. Now Lenovo charges a restocking fee to disuade returns.

 

No worries, it may have been in another thread. :laugh:

 

Just as a warning based on what others in this forum have reported...

2. Some folks have experienced the black screen of death when trying to play full HD videos on YouTube. There are other threads in this forum dedicated to issues like this. I have the 1600x900 screen and I have not experienced this yet.

3. It has also been noted in the forum that clean installs might be contributing to longer boot up times. I don't think anyone has complained though about a clean install screwing up the RAID array. Just something to think about.

 

yeah i know about this issue. I'm hoping sony might come out with an updated driver at some point. is that also a problem with the integrated Intel graphics card? can it play full hd using the intel graphics card? My only real concern about the computer is the whining noise that some people are complaining about. I can handle fan noise, but can't handle a high pitches whining noise.

 

I think you should be fine on the integrated card for full HD on the laptop. I think that changes if you're broadcasting via HDMI Out. I thought the Intel could handle HDMI Out, but the Z always tells me I need to switch to Speed mode when I plug in the cable.

Oh, and not to rain on your parade or anything, but I wouldn't be anticipating that driver update too highly. Sony is notoriously bad about providing updated drivers.

For the high pitched whining noise, I am in the camp of people where it is a non issue. Most of the time I find the Z very quiet. When it is under heavy load, you definitely hear the fan rev up and run hard. The whoosh of air is there, but there also is a "whine" behind that whoosh. When I have the Z in my basement with the AC unit running about 8 yards away, I can't hear the fan or the whine very well, even under load. But if you are in a completely silent room, you will definitely hear it. But for me at least, it doesn't bother me. It will never run that loud if I have it at work or am sitting in a grad class.

 

hey dudes!
very soon to join the club hopefully! apparently set to arrive within the week...
couple of questions to summarise the past 100 pages ive gone through;
1. whats the best couple of ways to conserve the battery life?
2. can someone explain to me exactly what recovery disks are for? do i have to make them?
3. heard about 'updates'. are these necessary?

thanks a lot guys!
super super excited!!!

 

Does anyone know that max. nit brightness of the 1600x900 screen on the Z12?

 

1. Personally I would customize a power plan so that when you're plugged in the Z behaves one way and when you're on battery it behaves another way. For example, when I'm on battery, I have it set to automatically change to 30% brightness, turn off the DVD drive, set the refresh rate to 40Hz, change the colors to 16 bit versus 32 bit, and turn off the display after five minutes of idle time. You can customize these options fairlly easily by clicking something like Advanced Power Options after you open the Power Plan screen from the battery icon in teh tray.

2. Of course you don't have to make them, but probably not a bad idea to just do it. I made the Vaio Recovery CDs and also a Windows 7 recovery CD (separate applications prompted me to do this). I just did them so I have them on hand. Though I've heard of people saying they don't work anyway when the time comes to use them.

3. Not sure what you mean. There is a Vaio Update program that you can run, and then of course the regular Windows updates. The computer should prompt you to allow these updates automatically. As long as you do that, I think you should be fine.

My personal two cents for what a new user should do as well:

1. Disable wake timers in the Advanced Power Settings. You don't want the Z waking up and burning in a bag like happened to some folks (SurferJon).

2. Kill the defrag schedule. Defrag is not an SSD's friend.

3. Disable any automatic hibernation, except when on critical battery (this is also in the Advanced Power Settings I believe). Some people may disagree, but I don't want the Z to ever hibernate unless the battery is going to die, as it causes unnecessary writes to the SSD.

4. Install RST 9.6. The Z comes with 9.5, but Intel's initial comments about 9.6 was that it supported TRIM for SSDs in RAID. Now that has been proven incorrect, but I think it's a good idea to keep up-to-date with RST, as it sounds like Intel is working on making TRIM work with the RAID. ​

Those are a few important ones (for me anyway) off the top of my head.

 

It's a common misconception that people have to worry about wearing out a SSD due to writes. The MTBF for a SSD is equal to or better than a HD. Said in a different way, if you wrote to a SSD and a HD constantly, chances are the SSD would outlive the HD. With the 1000000-2000000 write cycle ratings of current SSD and write leveling, you would have to write to a SSD every second of every day for decades to wear it out. How many people plan on keeping there Z for 20 or 30 years?

If the reason to limit writes is due to the eventual slow down, then that's a different story. But I'm pretty sure the Z has GC. I think I saw that option somewhere in the Sony utilities.

So defrag isn't a friend of SSDs, but it's not an enemy either. It's just pointless. Hibernation is a good idea if you plan on not using your Z for a while and there's no handy plug about.

 

Look at: Power Options | Advanced | Processor power management
You can set Maximum processor state for battery vs. plugged in. Just set it to a lower value than 100%
Also, in the same power options dialog there are the Intel Graphics Power Plan settings. Set the battery mode to "Max Battery Life"

 

I dunno about that - I think if you made a list of countries that are solely (or pretty much soley) GSM vs ones that have GSM and CDMA the GSM only list would be much much longer. I stand corrected on the sim card thing. When I lived in S Korea we didn't have them, and I was informed that on the whole CDMA phones didn't utilize sims, but that was a good four years ago now. The only CDMA phones I've had while in the US that have sim slots were CDMA/GSM capable worldphones, CDMA only phones have not had sim slots.

 

If anybody is running XP on your Z have you figured out why the backlight always comes on when a key is pressed? Is there any way to stop this (during daylight) other than disabling the backlight during times when I would not need it? Seems like the light sensor does not work in XP.

Any other issues that I should look out for?

 

Yes, I'm far more worried about the eventual slowdown than the drive wearing out. I agree with your comment about SSD vs. HDD longevity 100%.

And yes, it does seem there is some kind of GC going on in the Z's SSD, but I haven't seen anything official that talks about it. I've only seen the results from ZoinksS2k's much appreciated thread testing the Z's SSDs. (If you have something from Sony talking about SSD maintenance, I'd be interested, but it seems to me information about the SSDs in these models has been incredibly hush hush.) But regardless of garbage collection, why keep defragging active if it is pointless? I'd prefer to limit unnecessary wear on the SSD if I can. But maybe I'm just anal.

And again, I have the Z set to hibernate if I'm at critical battery levels. But otherwise I don't want it hibernating since it causes unnecessary writes. And the Z boots up and shuts down so quick that it isn't a pain to use that instead.

 

Half a million CMDA users worldwide, most in Asia. Unless you're in Greenland or Australia, you have CDMA coverage. My Sprint CDMA phone works in 150 countries.

CDG : Worldwide : Worldwide

Also towards the future... 3GSM aka UMTS aka W-CDMA. That's why there is so much CDMA coverage in the world. New versions of "GSM" run over CDMA.

 

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Z12. I have an F11 1080p. The font size seems to fatigue my eyes after a while but I'm not sure if its because I have a 16.4" screen blasting at me. I guess I'm curious as to whether the fonts would be the same size on Z as they would be on the F. Anybody have any experience there. Alsom even though I've been following this thread from the beginning I'm still unclear as to whether the performance gains of the i7 nerit the $150 for a guy like me who does no gaming at all. Your help in helping me to pick the right Z for me is appreciated.

 

Thanks Oscar2.

 

If I had a job I would get the i7 even though performance gain is small. If I pay 2k+ for a computer might as well get the best parts. But, how I convinced myself to get the i5 was that I kept saying the performance upgrade is tiny, the heat generated hurts the laptop and the battery is lowered by a few minutes on the i7. With that being said, I still wish I could have the i7

 

That's priceless. Thanks for the honesty and the laugh.

 

:laugh: nicely said . That's exactly what I did, even though I had no problem paying $ 150 extra for i7 but then again, the gain ain't much

 

I still don't understand. Why is it a bad thing when you are using the Vaio Z whilst its plugged in for a long time?
I mostly consider the Z to me more like a Desktop computer because i got so many things connected to it including the power adapter. Last time I removed the power adapter from my Z was probably a month ago.
How will this affect my Z?

Thanks.

 

Nothing is wrong with it. Just set the battery saver or pull your battery. Having your battery charged at 100% all the time is a good way to kill it. If you go a month at a time without pulling the plug, discharge it to between 40-70% and then stick it in the fridge, not the freezer.

 

Stick the battery in fridge, for exactly how long?

 

For as long as required - I don't think there is a min or max time limit. Take it out when you need to use it.

Now... here's one I prepared earlier... (sorry, couldn't resist! )

My question would be, how do store it - as in, sealed in a plastic bag? Worried about condensation etc.

 

Hi! I'm new to this forum but I've read this thread extensively, since the beginning. I'm willing to become a proud Vaio Z owner like you but still have a doubt about including or not the blu ray drive. I can afford it... with huge sacrifice, but where I live (in Africa) my connection speed is around twice that of dial-up so the only way for me to watch HD content in the laptop is using a blu ray.

This one's very expensive (+/- 800 USD if you order from UK) but I like how practical it coud be to have it in such a powerful and ultraportable machine, specially being a burner. Besides, I like how resistant BDs are, being even safer for long time storage than DVDs, HDDs and SSDs.

My questions for those more experimented are:

1- Am I going to really experience the HD benefits in a 13'' screen?

2- Is there a significant difference between DVD quality and Blu ray quality in a 13''- 1600x900 screen like this?

3- Is it a waste to have a screen with that quality and not being able to watch HD content?

4- Is the Blu ray HD reproduction going to work with the i5 as well as with the i7? I mean, no frame rate problems, etc.

This is my pick:
- 128GB SSD
- Core i5-540m
- 1600x900 HD
- 8GB RAM
- Blu ray (not decided yet)
- Premium Carbon


I have no chance to check this laptop in any store (there are not many stores around) so I will appreciate your comments very much.

 

Hey i just posted a video of the HDMI noise issue.

YouTube - Cenkaetaya Reviews: Sony Vaio Z - VPCZ112GX/S HDMI Interference / Annoying Noise

This is how bad it sounds... does anyone know how to fix this... cuz honestly if this is how my 1650 dollar laptop is gona work... then im gona sell it. I use HDMI all the time and this is BS.

 

Thanks for the compliment

 

That's BAD ! I use HDMI too, though I am still waiting to get my Vaio Z. Hope there is a fix for it!

 

I understand what you're arguing about the number of CDMA users. However, you might also want to take note that there are 1 billion GSM subscribers in the Asia Pacific region...

GSM Asia Pacific Region

 

lol Dude is that a little bit of mood altering stuff there in the background?

 

uhm can anyone help me

I'm trying to disable boot time re-arranger, but i can't seem to find it under the defrag folder.

How do i turn on virtualization as well?

Oh and is there any way to stop the battery from charging to 100% when plugged in so i don't kill it.

I just got this laptop lol, trying to get all the settings right. Anything else i should do?

Thanks!

 

I can't answer all of your questions, but I can give you my opinion on a few.

1 and 2: I think that yes, HD media should look great on the 13" 1600x900 screen, assuming your vision is good enough (i.e. as long as you can use 1600x900 in Windows, you'll be fine). But you probably won't be able to sit very far away from the Laptop, and thus you can't easily have more than 1 person watch a movie at the same time. But Blu-ray and HD stuff should look much nicer than a DVD-quality movie.

Another benefit is that you could of course hook up your Z via HDMI to a large HDTV and enjoy the movie on a bigger screen.

3: It's up to you. If you want to watch HD movies, then yeah, it'd be a shame not being able to. If it's not your thing, then there's no loss. Personally, I wouldn't get a Blu-ray because I don't watch movies much and I don't wanna deal with optical media when there are downloads out there.

4: I can't say for sure, but my best guess would be, yes, with such a powerful Core i5/i7 proc _and_ a dedicated Nvidia card, Blu-rays should work extremely well, assuming the software/drivers/settings is correctly setup.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

1. No. Plug in an external monitor to get the full benefit of HD.

2. Yes. you will see a difference between those two (recall that DVD is 480 lines and that its color is a big compromise at something like 1/4 the rate of the luminance)

3. You can get an external USB blu-ray for less than $200. Another thing you can do is rip HD content and play it directly.

4. Oh god yes. We long ago far surpassed the point where these computers could play video, even HD. It's a walk in the park for either processor. Even easier when the Nvidia is enabled.

 

I have not experienced any problems with battery left in & laptop plugged into mains for a long period. My laptop remains plugged in most of the time and the 18 month old battery is still fine.
I would be suprised if you have any problem.

Furthermore, by removing the battery or setting to 80% max charge & placing in fridge etc - is all an inconvenience & for what benefit, as this may prolong the battery life but its not clear by how much,

Cheers,
T

 

That is very strange. I use HDMI and don't experience that noise. Do you have another monitor or TV you could plug into to test if it's the device receiving the input rather than the Z?

 

I believe the default should already be set to 80%. I know I found the way to change this somewhere in the power options (you can choose 50%, 80%, or 100%), but I can't remember exactly where and I'm stuck with my Latitude only at the moment, so I can't check.

 

This is a well informed forum, and what is great as well is to see that many of the same people from the SZ and the older Z have moved along here too.

I just ran into something that did not come up in my searches and I do not remember having read about it before. I got my Z11 a couple months ago in silver, since with my old black one I noticed direct sunlight would really make parts like the back of the screen VERY hot (which is normal with dark colors). The silver new Z besides cooling internally very nicely in a hot summer day, also keeps most parts somewhat cooler because of the lighter color.
That being said, I just tried to buy the large capacity battery, but it is not available in silver on line or over the phone in the US. I tried the French and Canadian sites, and I could not find it either.
I have an assumption and a question.

Assumption: As long as the part number is the same, it should not matter for operation and functionality if I buy the battery for the new Z in any other country Sony store, right?
Some Sony representatives warned me otherwise, but it did not really make sense to me.

Question: Does anyone know where I can find the the VGP-BPL20 (in silver should be called VGP-BPL20/S)???

Thanks in advance.

 

Folks with 256GB (US version) of SSD what is the actual capacity you're seeing?
For some reason i have 238.48Gb after clean install with no system partitions.
when you advertise 256 shouldn't it be 256?

 

lol... welll i just tried it on my Family SONY HDTV and it had NO problems.

this is very strang.... The thing is i have been using the HDTV at my friends with my old z for like a year, and ive NEVER had a problem. I will test on some other ones.

but somehow why does it not surprise me that it work great with a SONY tv.. but not another one.

 

Seems about right .. I get the same thing. You lose a gig or 5 from the recovery partition. And next to that you get the bit / byte stuff.

''In the computer world 1KB normally means 1024 bytes. The hard drive manufacturers are the main people causing the confusion by using 1KB=1000 bytes. That way their drives look like they have larger capacity then they really have.''

 

When you say your battery is "fine", what do you mean? Even under the most ideal conditions, a li-ion battery after 18 months will have degraded. Li-ion batteries are perishable items. They degrade even without use. The amount of degradation is governed by time, temperature and state of charge. These are all well known relationships. Check the link below. Given the state of charge and the storage temperature, you can calculate how much your battery has degraded. Of course, charge cycles effect it as well. But here we are discussing leaving your battery plugged in long term.

As for the "incovenience" of setting the battery saver on the Z, you set it once and then ignore it. Where's the "inconvenience"?

The follow quote sums up the somewhat lengthy page linked below.

"The worst condition is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures, which is the case with running laptop batteries. If used on main power, the battery inside a laptop will only last for 12-18 months. I must hasten to explain that the pack does not die suddenly but begins with reduced run-times."

How to prolong lithium-based batteries

 

Maybe, but my TV is a Panasonic and it works fine with the Z.

 

Not sure if this question was answered before but does anyone with the FullHD screen know if it's possible to lower your resolution to 1600x900 without a problem? i know that i can change the dpi instead of doing so and that it will look better in native 1600x900 but I'm not very picky and can probably work with the non native resolution if it isn't horrible. If possible can someone upload pics showing what the quality difference will look like between 1920x1080 and non native 1600x900? i know i can wait for delivery to find out on my own but I've been wanting to know this for a while, thanks in advance!

 

Man, I'd like to know this as well as I'm ready to buy but can't decide between the 1080 and 900. I'm inmy fifties, wear glasses, so I'm thinkin' the 900p would be the safest bet. However I don't want any regrets. Any help? Thx.

 

Hi,
I accept like anything, there is an element of normal wear and given time the battery capacity will lesson.

I was just suggesting that my 18 month laptop battery still gives approx 3hr & I have not noticed any lessor performance (althoug, I accept there is).

Also, I am not convinced that setting the battery to 80% is really a benefit, as when I want to use the laptop, I want it fully charged to get maxium run time. If charging to 100% reduces the life then I will buy a new one,

Cheers,
T

 

Yep, their 256 GB = 256'000'000'000 bytes, which in reality is 256'000'000'000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 238.419 GB.

This is goes for all hard-drives, not just SSDs.

 

Dude, I have the 900 and it makes me have to break out my reading glasses. I can read it without, but it's a strain.

 

lol You just confirmed my research is showing. There's an interesting thread in Macrumors about the Z and the 1080p and the reasons why 1080p isn't a viable solution even with dpi increases unless one is into video/photo editing. They go into what it does to the OS GUI, etc. A good read that helped to set mny mind right about my choice. Thanks.

 

Quick and definite answer:

Yes, if you're not too picky, you can definitely use 1600x900 resolution on a 1920x1080 screen on the Z and you will have no problems.

A better solution would be to use 1920x1080 and set the DPI scaling to 125% or 126% or whatever number works best for you.

This assuming you're using Windows 7 (or Vista, but not XP), which I think is the most common case.

 

It's funny it should be a Mac article. I checked out the newly released iPhone 4 yesterday, the Retina display is really very impressive.

What does this have to do with the Z? I believe the technological trend will go towards smaller pixels and adjustable DPIs. Just like the iPhone 4 with its easily-zoomable browser screens. Words should appear the same size regardless of the underlying screen properties.

To that end, I've set up my mouse + Wacom pad to enable zooming. There's really no difference now, even when I use Firefox which, unlike IE8, doesn't follow the OS' DPI settings. I can adjust the font sizes easily. Just like on the iPhone

 

Here are some pics.

Windows XP at 1600x900 resolution, on a 1600x900 display
Windows XP at 1600x900 resolution, on a 1920x1080 display

As you can see, things become more blurry, so it is better to use native resolution and adjust DPI scaling.

The bottom line is that:
The picture quality, text readability, sharpness and definition will be BETTER on a 1920x1080 screen with 120% scaling than on a 1600x900 one with 100% scaling. Yet the size of everything will be identical.