Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Actually, believe it or not, my postings are coming from the 21st century. Even now 100,000 writes is the commonly accepted conservative estimate for flash. Back in the 20th century it was typically 10,000 writes. While there is flash memory that does 1M, one should not assume that is what one has. A conservative estimate is 1.3 years under those conditions. An optimistic estimate is 14 years, unless you have evidence as to the actual longevity of the Samsung drive.

 

Are you talking about per cell or the entire SSD as a whole with write leveling? I'm considering it at the SSD level.

"2 million cycles. (The typical range today for flash SSDs is from 1 to 5 million."

SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance" article in STORAGE search .com

"Flash-memory drives have limited lifetimes and will often wear out after 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 P/E cycles (1,000 to 10,000 per cell) for MLC, and up to 5,000,000 P/E cycles (100,000 per cell) for SLC."

Solid-state drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I took the Z apart again to check a few things:

1. Power light. It looks like there are two LEDs, pointed to by the green arrow. I think they'll need to be covered with some sort of filter if the light is to be changed. The red arrow points to the on-off switch:



2. Speakers. The speaker cables are routed from near the hinge to the base where the palm rest is (from green, to red, to blue arrow):



Here's the connector at the base, any idea what it is?

 

just posting to say my new vaio is running beautifully

was pleasantly surprised to find it prettier in real life. love the sleek carbon look. very pretty

some questions though

sometimes on a site like facebook, when im scrolling up and down, the screen seems to kind of flash. its not a smooth scroll. this seems to be the case regardless of whether im in 'power' or 'balanced' modes and also speed or stamina. this also happens in ads on the side of other sites. it is not always the case however. any ideas??

also re battery life discussion, and turning off auto-brightness, how do you do this? i figure with uni around the corner soon ill want to implement these changes..

edit: thanks by the way for everyone being so helpful to less experienced sony users! great forum

 

Use: Vaio Control Center

 

Just ordered my new VAIO Z 12 (i7, 8GB/256GB, 1080p, Carbon). I expect the first order of business will be replacing the cheapest/bloatiest included Windows 7 option with my own copy of Ultimate.

At 6,050+ posts it's going to be a little tough digging the info I need out of this thread, so any quick pointers to best re-install practices would be handy

 

well, there's always the FAQ: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/477806-sony-vpc-z11-frequently-asked-questions.html

and if you fresh install you've got to install drivers in a specific order... try searching this thread somewhere.

here I found it:

And things to do when you get ur Vaio Z...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vaio Z User
• Increase screen brightness to 100% (is that too bright?)
• Change display to 125%? (needed or personal taste?)
• Run Vaio Care? (I read it was worthwhile - is it? How do I do it?)
• Figure out where to increase battery charge from 80 to 100% so I'm fully charged when I leave the house with laptop)
• Delete unnecessary programs
• Install updates (for all software?)
• Create Recovery disk (necessary? or can I rely on partitioned?)
[end quote]

- the brightness you can change at anytime(it's a fn+F5 or fn+F6 command)
- the display is default at 125%, I got the 1600x900 screen and didnt even realize it was default at 125%, i thought it was at 100%, when i changed it... wow things were very small. I cant imagine the 1080p screen(although i really want one =p)
- RE: running vaio care. it's a program you just run, i dont exactly remember what it did...
- Changing the charge maximum of the battery: Vaio Control Center > Power Management > Battery > Advanced Settings, then you'll see 80% charge, 50% charge and then custom(where you set to 100%)
- Yeah delete them >.< like the norton trial, etc.
- Yeah, if you want, you can run vaio update(also a program, although this might give you a unable to find configuration, then you have to go to sony's site, but i'm pretty sure everything's already updated)
- I'd create a recovery just in case. You never know... although some people have called Sony and had themselves sent some "Official" recovery disks when theirs failed to write properly.

Things to add:
- Turn off Window 7's monthly defrag... for some reason it has it on
- Some people advise turning on Intel Rapid Storage Technology(RST)

^ I did those two... but i forgot how to do them >.<. I'm sure the defrag schedule is in windows somewhere, it's posted in this thread somewhere how to do those two things...

 

I tried this over the weekend.

I bought a 6250, opened up my Vaio (again - did it before to fit an SSD), had hell to pay to unscrew the single screw holding down the 6200, finally did it, put the 6250 in, reattached the aeriels and...found that I couldn't detect any networks.

Put the 6200 back in (and did all the necessary driver reinstallation to make Windows happy). Right as rain.

Either my 6250 is defective (Intel Manual Diagnostics work up to scan-for-networks, where they find nothing, and the WiMAX scan also fails) or it doesn't work.

I emailed the supplier, indicating I thought the unit defective. He wrote back and said the 6250 WiMAX would only work if the card was inserted into a "WWAN slot", not a "WLAN slot" (!)

I think he's talking rubbish, since they're both simply PCI-E slots. (He's accepted the return as well, though, I'm not having trouble in that regard).

 

I'm not sure if this has been noticed before, but there's a new BIOS update to the Z11, version R2074C3, on the Sony's (Finland) support site.

I got the update through VAIO Update. According to the change log, the only change was that "the processing of the BIOS password is changed". I let the VAIO Update install the new BIOS though I don't even use a password on BIOS. Well... it works still

 

Okay, I've got a bit more explanation from him, but I need some clarification here.

He says WLAN is PCI-e and WWAN is on a USB bus. This implies that in my Vaio, the 6200 is plugged into a PCI-e socket (which I think it is) and the Gobi 2000 is plugged into a USB socket, where that USB socket is an edge connector, obviously.

Looking at the Gobi 2000, it looks physically like a PCI-e. Is a USB edge connector physically the same as a PCI-e socket?

But the thing which really doesn't make sense to me is that this would mean the 6250 can do WiFi *OR* WiMAX but not both, since it would need to be a different socket, and what's more, that the PCI-E edge connector it has is electrically and physically compatable with both a PCI-E socket and a USB edge connector!

 

Bit more info. I've discovered from the Wiki page that a miniPCI Express slot in fact is a superset of USB 2.0. So you can indeed have a USB card in the miniPCI Express form factor, with that 52 pin edge connector.

This still leaves me puzzled in some other ways. Firstly, if the 6250 has to use WiFi, does it need to use PCI-E, rather than USB? and needs to use USB when it's using WiMAX? seems odd. I would have thought the card would just use one or the other (and so would use PCI-E, since the greater bandwidth is useful for WiFi).

Secondly, is the PCI-E socket used for the 6200 in the Vaio supporting the USB 2.0 functionality? is it possible not to?

 

I just ordered the z 1290 and it seems that they changed the picture from last time. Last time I looked, the HDMI port was on the left side and it looked much thinner than the one on the website. In short, the laptop on the Z specification page look different than in the gallery. I wonder which model I am going to get?

 

The pictures on the specifications page are of the older gen z (check out the old style palmrest), so I suspect your z will look like it is depicted in the gallery. They really should update it.

 

thank you for confirming that.. (sighs in relief) anyway it will be in my hands in a couple of days.. can't wait.

 

Does anyone know if the Sony dock that connects directly to the port under the laptop, work with the large capacity battery due to the size will the battery block any of the ports? And secondly is there a kensington lock that fits perfectly on the Z? because of the design around the edges, the one that i own has a lot of slop and doesn't fit flush with the frame. Anyone else notice this?

 

Hmm even though it doesnt fit flush, it still works right? I got the Kensington ComboSaver lock from SonyStyle as one of my 2 accessories and it moves just a bit, but it still works, the mechanism works fine with the slot and the rubber around the end of it prevents it from scratching my frame. For reference, I got this lock:

K64560US | Kensington® ComboSaver® Notebook Lock | Sony | Sony Style USA

 

/* Wrong thread - reposted in F Series thread */

I just opened the box for my new VPC-F12YFX/B and I am also having the Vaio Update 5 issue where I continually get the following error message: "A new version of VAIO Update is available. VAIO Update cannot be used unless it is updated. Update now?"

Clicking "Yes" briefly brings up the extractor and setup wizard, but no installation of a new version actually occurs. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Update 5 a number of times and gone through two separate support agents who could not help me. I even recovered the system to the factory condition (removing avast that I had installed) and continue to get this.

This seems different from the problem most people seem to be getting (the configuration issue), but I've seen it in a few places. Has anyone figured this one out? I know the general consensus is to forget about Vaio Update and rely on manual updates, but I can still return this machine and I'm finding it extremely hard to convince myself its a good product when this is going on.

It does seem to work in safe mode, so I've got hope that something can be done.

 

Wow! It's interesting to watch what Fed-ex is doing with my Z. Japan to Anchorage to Memphis to Oakland and now back to Anchorage. My little Z is creating an unecessarily large carbon footprint as a result of the ineffeciencies of Fed-ex.

 

yup mine has been in anchorage for 3 days. i hope my estimated delivery date of the 8th doesn't change

Also I would recommend complaining to Sony. When I made my order I was told it included free expedited shipping so I sent an very polite email to sony customer service and they gave me a 120$ credit.

 

I guess i would say its a thin line between working and being effective, since it doesn't sit flat against the side of the laptop. But i guess these aren't made to be bullet proof but a simple deterrent.

 

Very nice. Well played.

 

What part of the website/dept did you send it to? I did much the same thing but i wasn't so lucky as you.

Nice dude!

 

Thanks man.

 

I sent it to [email protected]

 

Overall, i'm happy with the machine, but 2 HUGE bugs that seem more like pre-production issues.I randomly checked the RAM to see who manufactured it (Samsung) and noticed one of the chips wasn't seated properly. i re-seated it.

All drivers are up to date via Sony download taxi.

1. Screen flickers randomly at an unbearable hz. I noticed that ths screen is set to 59hz by default.

2. Wi-Fi connection drops randomly with my Airport Extreme (dual band model). Have to disable and enable wireless adapter to get it back.


I'll compllain gently about these two issues and see if it's worth $120 to Sony.

 

I had this problem and I have a Netgear WNDR3700. It went away when I changed over to the latest Wi-Fi driver from Intel.

 

Sorry for my delay. I've been very busy lately. Hopefully this translation (from top to bottom) will help, if you haven't been already to Sony:

• Thank you for contacting us, etc.
• The date of delivery depends on your configuration
• The date can change from our estimated delivery date, therefore we can't promise that it will be completed by the time you leave Japan
• You can place VAIO orders at the Ginza store (Sony Building); however, as with online orders, the PC will be shipped to an address in Japan. Therefore, you cannot pick it up in the store.
• Please understand the info written above, etc.
• Thank you for contacting us, etc.

This mail is written in formal Japanese, so there's a whole lot of fluff. Basically, they are saying that you cannot pick it up in the store, and can't guarantee that it will be built before you leave. You might want to see if a hotel will be fine as a delivery address. As for WiMax, that should work anywhere in the world. However, the WWAN in Japan is locked, and as far as I'm aware, cannot be unlocked currently. Aside from that, the hardware is pretty much identical to the other Z models (with some markets having different availability, such as TPM in US).

 

Last night, I sent a very nice and polite email to cc@sony and got a fast reply telling me my Bravia TV was set to be shipped in 2 days. When I pointed out that I never ordered a Bravia TV and was inquiring about the Z and the shipping snafu, the email exchanges stopped.

 

You made a mistake, the conversation should have gone like so:

Rep: Ok you're getting your Bravia TV soon, we apologize for the delay.

You: Er, yes, that's right I did order a TV from Sony. Say, I think I used the wrong shipping address, this is meant as a present for <insert favorite person>, would you mind shipping it to <insert your address> please?

Rep: Sure we can do that. Is there anything else we can do for you?

You: Yeah, hey, I'm a big fan of Sony's, I bought your top-of-the-line TV, and your best laptop Vaio Z as well. Because of my TV's delayed delivery, I'm not feeling so much love for Sony right now. How about a discount for a loyal customer?



I'm going to hell aren't I

 

Hey guys, believe it or not I'd prefer to have a LOWER resolution than 1600x900 on a 13" screen.

Anyone know if the older 1366x768 resolution Zs are still available anywhere?

 

Not disrespecting your desire, but why do you want a lower resolution? I'm sure you could find some older Zs on ebay.

 

Eyesight. I already have 1600x900 on a 16.4" laptop and I know I wouldn't want text to be any smaller. So I would not be able to handle 1600x900 on a 13" screen.

And before anyone tells me to just use a higher DPI, I have a 24" external monitor with 1920x1200 resolution. Bumping up the laptop's DPI would make things too BIG on the external monitor, and it's inconvenient to always switch back and forth (especially since I go from laptop screen to external monitor several times per day).

 

Gotcha. Solid.

There's plenty of 768 13 inchers out there it seems, as I'm sure you already know. Few though will pack the Z's punch, as I'm also sure you know.

You've been to the Official Arrandale Timeline Thread right? The 3820tg might be a better fit for you. That is if it's available in your country. Still waiting for it here in the U.S. it seems.

 

lol. I'll see you there. (I figure that's where the people with interesting stories go anyways. What are they gonna talk about in Heaven? "Oh I fed the hungry." )

The thought crossed my mind but I know Sony would never allow that to happen and I would eventually see a charge on my bill.

 

Sure. Actually I'm likin' the new Toshiba R700. I might even snag one of those.

Yeah, you're right -- on both counts.

U.S. based myself.

 

This may be the fault of the router itself. That particular model of router got slammed in a review on SmallNetBuilder.com for that very reason (unstable signal compared to other routers). It's an Apple product but that dont mean its perfect.

 

There is a new Update out. Vaio Update just prompted me to install the VAIO® Power Management Update for my Z11

Info:

"This utility updates the VAIO Power Management software to version 5.1.1.06180 to resolve an issue where the display colors setting may change from 32-bit to 16-bit without user prompting."

Filename : SOAVPM-00226432-1040.EXE
Version : 5.1.1.06180
Last Modified : 06/30/2010

I installed it and it works fine.
Maybe the update fixes the occasional screen black-outs?

 

^Sort of along these lines...

I am kind of suspecting that my display colors are NOT changing from 32 to 16 bit, even when I have set them to. In my power profile, I set the option so that when I unplug and go to battery, the color automatically switches from 32 to 16 bit. When I first set this, I noticed that unplugging caused the screen to go black for a second. I assumed that this was because of the color switch (or perhaps because the change from a 60Hz to 40Hz refresh rate). Now when I switch to battery, the screen is just dimming, it is not blacking out for a second. This makes me suspect that the color isn't really changing or that the refresh rate isn't really changing. All the settings in my power plan are still in place though.

Anyone know how I might check this? Should I just go to Display Settings in Control Panel when I'm on battery to check the display color settings? What about refresh rate?

 

In the meantime, anyone knows good solution for this? I'm going to use external monitor for vaio z with 1920x1080 resolution, and that would be 22 or 24 inches. Of course I don't want to have large DPI for picture on external monitor.

No need for two displays at the same time, some "switch" would be perfect. Googling for vista some time ago (year+) they said reboot is required. Is it still the same for Windows 7?

 

Check out the new Y series. It is probably the same as buying an older z, but in a more sturdy body. Also has an SSD option.

 

Just noticed some keyboard marks on the screen of my Z. Since I don't have a decent sleeve for it yet, I've been just carrying it loose in a Kensington laptop bag. It hasn't had the tiniest bit of pressure placed on the lid. That LCD is superflexy. I'm not to worried. All my laptops, including the super sturdy Thinkpad, gets these marks. They just wipe right off. I don't want to use a cloth between the keyboard and the screen since if the cloth get's any dirt on it at all, it'll be seriously grinding up the screen with pressure applied from the keyboard.

 

I have mine set to go to 16 color, 40Hz when operating on battery. I notice that when I unplug, after the screen goes away for a sec' and then comes back, I see a message in the lower right that indicates the new settings.

You can, of course, also check and see if the change actually ocurred by going to display settings.

 

I did, actually, but I wanna be able to do some AVCHD video editing, and the ULV processor isn't so great for that. Thanks, though.

The new Toshiba R700 is lighter than the Y and uses a regular processor, so that might be an option.

 

Can anyone confirm if the palm rest on the new Z12 is aluminum or has the option to buy an aluminum palm rest.

The palm rest on my Z11 is discoloring and turning dark gray/black in spots and only after less than two months of minimal use. Others have experienced the same issue.

Cheers.

 

Or a Lenovo X201.

Hollywood, the palm rest on Z12 is identical to that of Z11. No, there is no option to make it aluminum.

 

I unboxed my new VAIO Z about an hour ago. So far I'm not entirely impressed. I've owned a Dell XPS M1330 for the last 3 years and around 5 months ago I had an HP Envy 13 that I ended up returning.
Having experienced the 1600x900 screen resolution on the Envy, I knew my next laptop had to have a resolution higher than ~720p. In fact, it was kinda hard going back to the Dell after I used the Envy for a few weeks.
Thus I had great expectations for the VAIO's screen. I got the full HD screen.
So far I can tell that the colors on the VAIO look better than on my Dell machine. As with the Envy, the colors are a lot more saturated, the difference is quite remarkable. However, I also remember the screen on the Envy being a lot brighter too. I remember I was blown away by its screen when I had it side to side with the Dell. The screen and the colors were a lot more brilliant. So I'm a bit disappointed to see that with the VAIO, the screen appears dimmer than on my Dell. Even though the colors are more saturated (and I assume more accurate) the screen is less brilliant. The white on the Dell looks whiter than on the VAIO. The Dell seems to have better viewing angles too. Any one has any comments on this regard?

Apart from that, I have not done much with it.
I'm really enjoying the keyboard, although its back-lit function does not seem to kick-in as I would prefer. If I turn off a light, it will light-up immediately but a seconds later it will shut off entirely, when to me it seems like the ambient light is low enough to warrant it staying on. Update: I knew I was doing something wrong when I took it to a dark room and it also shut off, I thought it would just be on. It turns on if you type. I hope there's a setting to control how fast it will shut off.
Performance wise it doesn't feel as fast as I would like right now, I blame it on all the crapware that came installed. For example, if I right-lick on the desktop I get the wait mouse cursor for like 2 seconds and then the menu appears, while on my Dell the menu appears instantly.
I also have that issue with the VAIO update thing that after updating itself now crashes every time Windows starts up. I'll be performing a clean install so I don't care to much about that yet.
The VAIO seems to run hotter than my old laptop while just sitting there doing nothing. Have not tested anything intensive yet.
It came with 198GB free out of 225GB
One thing though, System Information says that Installed Memory (RAM) is 4.00 GB (3.68 GB usable). What does that mean? My Dell does not say anything about usable with its 4 gigs.

 

Are you sure the auto-dim feature of the screen is not set to ON?
Not fast? seriously, doubt any of those machines you mentioned can beat it.

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's probably because of the integrated graphics card - try switching to the dedicated graphics (speed mode) and see if it changes

btw my Z is supposed to come in tomorrow - I'm dying here waiting for it (first laptop ever!)

 

Wow im getting my Z tomorrow, but your impressions of the machine make me really nervous. I got the 1080p display as well. Can you notice any annoying fan noise on your z12. People with the z11 were complaining about a winning noise coming from the fan. At least there is a 30 day return policy if I get the same impression as you.

 

Ok, I'm happy to say I was completely wrong about the screen. I got suspicious when I went to my room in almost complete darkness and the screen would not stop incrementing and decrementing its brightness. I had forgotten about that feature till that moment, and I had not used the VAIO Care tool yet. I disabled the auto-dimming as it was very annoying and wow, full brightness now! The auto-dimming feature was limiting the maximum brightness all along just as blue13x suggested, what I thought was the maximum, was not the maximum.
I also found there the option to control how fast the keyboard's backlight turns off, or to leave it on.

To be honest, I did not hear the fan at all until I got to my room, which was more silent. And still, it was very quiet. However, it does get louder as heat builds up. It has a distintive sound to, not just the sound of air blowing out. I don't know if I would call it a winning noise. I also don't think that this is any different than other laptops. My brother's MacBook Pro is probably louder than this. This is one of those things that you will have to try yourself and see if it's annoying for you or not, also according to the level of ambient noise you may have.

I'm enjoying that there's no sound from a hard drive to be heard, the activity light is all I have now. Just pure personal choice, I would have placed those on top of the keyboard instead.

The laptop feels light, which is good, but I thought it would feel a bit more solid. It has some of that plastic feeling to it, specially when holding it from the bottom. One of the screen hinges on mine is making a noise when you open and close the lid, it's minimal, but I'll see if it goes away.

I usually use the trackpad buttons instead of tapping on it, and they are a bit small here, and just right on the edge. When I'm in bed using a laptop I tend to have it on my lap or chest. With the buttons right on the edge it becomes very difficult to use them. I guess this is just one of those things you just have to get used to when changing computers.

As you said, there is a 30-day return policy, after using it for a few you would know whether it is a keeper. The Envy 13, I decided to return it within the first 30 days as I could not come to terms with its trackpad, plus it was lacking performance with its slow processor and a hard drive that was not easy to replace.

I do have a real problem right now with the VAIO, and it has to do with the WiFi. The WiFi radio is getting turned off by itself, the other utility that is included there even shows it OFF when this happens. But even after turning it back ON on that tool, the Intel diagnostics keep saying that the hardware radio is OFF. This is without messing with the hardware switch. Turning it OFF and ON with the hardware switch makes no difference apart from the other wireless utility saying it has been turned OFF. It is happening way too often now, after about 10-15 mins of being online. And the only solution I've found to it is restarting Windows, is this a known issue?