Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

my brand new vaio Z blinks 6 times before start up. i have the 256GB SSD.

 

Okay, dumb question :laugh:, these "blinks" we are talking about are of the HDD activity light?

I am going to get my replacement Z1290x on 07/20, and will see how it goes. My previous Z1290x was fast on boot.

 

No, we are talking about cursor blinks between the 'BIOS logo' and the windows boot screen.

 

Here is the behavior. If you got it, you'd know it.

YouTube - Sony Z VPCZ11FHX/XQ - Slow POST

 

Got it! Thanks , will check how much time mine will take when I get it

 

There's a way to get rid of the blinks: start in JBOD, then use RST app to stripe the data on the first drive across to the rest. This however would require imaging (if you're not clean installing), and that the data is small enough to reside on one physical drive. Here's a link to the RST app process: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...ption-custom-raid-thoughts-8.html#post6253708

 

the major cons are: no usb 3.0 (yah this a huge disappointment, you expect a flagship device to push the envelope, right??), glossy screen, and short battery life.

 

A few thoughts for you.

There is an expresscard slot that could be used to house USB 3.0 slots. I found the following on Google:
F4U024 Belkin SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard™
ExpressCard USB 3.0 Card - 2 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard - StarTech.com
Buffalo outs USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter, we see a trend coming -- Engadget

I expect (and have seen) smaller form factors than those above (but couldn't find the link for the smallest at this time). In short, if you don't use the Expresscard 34 slot then a small invesment gets you USB 3.0. It's not perfect, but it gets you 2 more USB slots at 10x the speed. However, design choices are always balancing act and no laptop has everything. The question for the manufacturer is; how much of a priority is USB 3.0 against the other elements I can throw in, and which ones have to be sacrificed?

Glossy screen? My z555 was matte and the z1290 I've ordered is matte as well. I thought the z series had glossy as an option in some some regions?

Battery life is poor? Compared to a netbook, or a less powerful machine with more weight to handle the extra cells? We can agree to disagree. Relatively speaking the battery life on the z series is balanced given the power and weight IMHO.

 

hey everyone,
i'll try to keep it short here.
it's my first post in this great forum.
i'm about to order a z12 as a desktop replacement and my budget is around €2k. what would you guys recommend:
i7, 8gig ram
a) no optical drive, 500gig hdd, full hd display
b) dvd drive, 128gig ssd, 1600x900 display

don't have any problems with my eyesight so far, but then again i'm not bionic or something so, how hard to read is it in 100% dpi for a normal-sighted person in your opinion?
also, i tend to think, the SSD is more likely to improve the everyday usability speedwise than the FHD would do in terms of screen real estate, and additional space could be acheived by an external drive or an optical-relacement. how would you guys weight? (i would also have a 24" full HD on my desk where i would use it 70% of the time anyway)
also: is there a decent comparison of the colors? i would be mostly interested in glossy vs. non glossy carbon. i think it's near impossible to get "glossy carbon" pictures off google.

thanks for your opinions

 

Anyone else have an aviable ram set to 3,68? See picture.

And btw, new Vaio owner here. Got the i5 and love it. It is official quicker in boot up than a new macbook.

 

this is totally normal. it is caused by how vendors use the term gigabyte
basically windows assumes 1GB is 1024MB, whereas vendors calculate with 1000MB per GB - marketing...
see Gigabyte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I did realize that it was that way in the harddrives (or in this case SSD), but I wasn't aware they used the same type of number-cheating in RAM. I found it strange as I didn't see it the first times I saw through that page.

Anyone else has a problem with the Wlan falling out now and then? I think this is a software problem as the same was happening with the computers in store, where we thought the router was the source of the problem, but when it still goes on at home on a new Z then its probably something doggy with the norwegian vaio-lineup.

 

Any suggestions would be great, thanks

 

Not sure what the pricing is in your region but I would get the 1600x900 display. I had the FHD and found the fonts were too small and it was an inconvenience to constantly adjust web pages. The real estate isn't much less on the 900p either. 6gigs should be fine if you chose the i7 but if you get the i5 go with 8 gigs. Or you can get an i5 with 4 gigs and put the diff into the 256ssd. everything else is whatever you can afford.

 

Why would you need a cooler? The Z doesn't get hot mate.

 

Maybe try this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/291748-vaio-z-sleeves-bags-cases-thread.html

 

I've got some thoughts which will take time, and I need to search for that video of the covers...

Steve just said he'll give away iPhone 4 bumpers for free. I also think there's a lot of significance to this statement: don't deal with technology which you don't have control over (the core). I have to say he really knows how to run a business.

If you open Resource Monitor, under Memory you'll see the memory reserved for hardware (drivers). What's left appears in the WEI.

I think he meant 'cool' as in he wants to be seen using it, not the 'hot' / 'cool' meaning

 

Any cool 3rd party or Sony A/C adapters besides the std AC19V32? The AC19V30 stick model is out of the question as I HATE that style with a passion.

What's a good place to buy a new genuine Sony A/C adapter?

 

I've read somewhere that heat can cause turbo boost to deactivate as a protection from over heating. considering the review that was done at notebookcheck.net Notebookcheck: Review Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Processors ?Arrandale? is the i5 a better choice which runs about 15w less than the i7-620m? at what heat range does turbo boost shut down and is the i7 going into that range more often than the i5 making it slower overall?

 

Do you think the stickers on the palm rest on the Vaio will prevent the rest from 'fading'? I mean they cover quite a bit of the palm rest.

 

Any reviews/comments on the privacy screen for the Z12? How's the fit? Does it dim the screen or make the text look fuzzy/weird?

 

I bought a VPC-Z12Z9E yesterday (the "full" option mass-produced model).

I was about to order one at SonyStyle, however it was €300 more expensive as the Z12Z9E was, which also was in stock at a local store, so this wasn't a very hard choice and I eventually bought the mass production model for €2696.

Only reason I would prefer ordering from SonyStyle would be a Metal Mosaic finish instead of the Premium Carbon, however I do not clearly favor a particular finish over others (don't like the Metal Shield that much), so that really wasn't a biggy.

Gotta say... this machine is AWESOME

This is the first machine I decided NOT to install a fresh OS on and actually I'm glad I didn't. There isn't that much bloatware (as compared to Acer) and I have to say, the Vaio tools actually work. I usually don't use manufacturer tools that often since they tend to be awful, however the Smart Network, Vaio Care and Protection Suite software etc. actually is pretty good.
Kinda reminds me of my first iPhone. I used to be a symbian geek who loved to configure/manage everything manually, so the iPhone was a bit of a shock to me, however, it works! And when I finally gave in to the fact that I don't exactly know how it works, but do know THAT it works, I really enjoyed the iPhone. And heck...it saves me a TON of time downloading/transferring/installing/configuring applications. I kinda have the same feeling with the Vaio OS install.

Furthermore it would have been a real pain to install all the drivers etc. Usually I install MSDN's beefiest OS version (Win7 Ultimate x64 in this particular case), I actually don't know the differences between Ultimate and Professional, so that kind of indicates that I'm fine using professional

Same thing regarding the recovery partition. After I created the recovery disks, I wanted to remove the recovery partition to claim it's 10GB, however I figured, I still have 180GB left before I run out of space, so why not leave the recovery partition in place till I really need it's space (which hasn't happened before with other notebooks).



First impressions after OS configuration and 30 minutes of work

- SSD is FAST! (I have the quad-raid 256Gb).
I haven't got any hands-on SSD experience, however my desktop run's in a 4x RAID0 WD Raptor 10.000rpm HD setup, so that shouldn't be the slowest configuration. This quad-raid SSD setup is insane however.

- Screen is DARK. Even on max brightness.
I did read that the higher pixel density made the screen less luminous as it's 1600x900 counterpart, however what I experienced was kind of insanely dark. At that time I wasn't aware of the auto dimming feature, which is configurable from the Vaio Controlcenter.
At this point I've turned of the Auto Dimming feature, solely because the screen is way too dark at night. I really like the Auto Dimming feature at daytime and it actually works really well, however at night, it dims the screen way too much.
I couldn't find an option to adjust this. Anybody knows of a configuration/registry modification which sets the auto dimming brightness to a "max minimum"?

- 1920 screen looks ok.[/]
Text is small however I'm able to read it. CTRL+mousewheel is my new friend!

- Keyboard keys feel great.
They feel funny in a good way; I really like the "rubberish" feel. Tactile feedback and keyboard sound are great too.

- Backlit keyboard is nice!
Should I have ordered at SonyStyle, there would be a possiblity I wouldn't have ordered the backlit keyboard. I'm glad it came with the version I bought though. It does ease some strain on the eyes in a dark setting. I didn't think I would need it, since I type blind, but I actually wouldn't have found the volume+brightness FN keys as easy as I did without the backlit keyboard. They are a bit less intuitively placed as they were on the Acer (volume+brightness on the arrow keys).

- Battery life isn't great.
I had a Acer 1810T before this one, which easily got 5 hours of battery life. Batterybar (awesome util) says I've got 3 hours Full Lifetime on the Vaio. This is kinda dissappointing. I haven't done any power tweaking yet, however I read a couple of times, there isn't that much to tweak.
Furthermore the "full" option configuration doesn't help much either with power consumption, since the extra components (extra 2x64GB SSD unit, probably an extra DDR3 unit) ofcourse consume extra power. I also own two Dell PowerEdge r200 servers for which I ran a "datacenter power consumption simulation" and I actually was surprised at the extra power that was calculated for two PCI expension cards, 2x extra DDR2 slots filled and SAS harddisks, so these extra components in the Vaio are not beneficial to battery life.
I'll probably end up buying another battery (probably the extended one) and ofcourse I understand this monster obviously consumes power. However it is hard to see an discharge rate of +/- 20mW as opposed to the 8mW my 1810T would consume.



After about 10 hours of work..

- 1920 Screen is awesome!!!
Yes, text is small (I haven't changed anything like DPI; everything's default), however the real estate is just such a relief.
I booted my Acer 1810T for some files I forgot to copy and I was actually amazed at how I could have worked productively on 1366x768 for a year. And this is after 10 hours of Vaio Z useage! The realestate is great and everything looks so much more crisp on the Vaio.
This reminds me of the HTC Desire AMOLED screen. I used to love my iPhone 3GS, however I had the option to buy a Desire for a good price. I never had a problem with the iPhone's screen, however after having used the Desire for a day, I couldn't believe how washed out the iPhone's screen looked.
Same thing with the Vaio Z. After just having worked 10 hours with the machine, I can't imagine having used the 1810T for a year. And this actually brings me to my next point.

-The screen's "matte" finish is great.
Sunny day today and I had the Vaio-Z an Acer 1810T and an Acer 4810T lined up next to eachother (in the house), the sun entering the room from "behind" the laptops. The Vaio's screen was visible pretty well. The 1810T's and 4810T's screens were simple not visible due to the glare from their glossy screens.

-I really like the TPM/fingerprintreader/Protection Suite software.
I haven't looked into the actual security it offers, however if it is a secure solution, it's really handy. Being able to login to windows using your finger. I also like the option of the "Personal Safe" which is an encrypted folder (I guess), which is only accessible after fingerprint authentication.
Last but not least, it allows you to create site-registrations, which allow you to auto login to websites using your finger, which I think is pretty awesome! Un-friggin-fortunately this only works with IE or FF and not with Chrome (which is the default browser in the Sony OS config and which is my browser of choice)!!!

- "Hibernate" and "Sleep" aren't as swift as I expected them to be.
Don't get me wrong; it doesn't take long for the system to hibernate/sleep, however I expected it to be quicker.

- 7Zip performance isn't as great as expected.[/Qb]
I had to archive my VMWare Windows 7 Virtual Machine, which I use as a sandbox and I figured I'd do this on the Vaio-Z, since I figured the Core i7 and Quad RAID0 SSD would make the archive process (5,5GB file) less painless as opposed to my Q6600 desktop. This was't really the case however. Creating the archive ("ultra" compression) took about 45 minutes! Don't know what the bottleneck is. CPU was 40% busy. Memory was 30% utilized, so why it wasn't blazingly fast? I don't know.

- I think this is how a computer experience is supposed to be.
It's just when I use the Acer 1810T or my desktop when I notice how darn quick the Vaio Z is. And let's be honest, this is how it's supposed to be. I can't imagine how much time I've wasted waiting for things to load. This sounds kinda stupid, however I do think it's true. Waiting for a virtual machine to be powered on... Waiting for photoshop to load... Installing a program... Add up the time you wait for tasks like these to complete.


My negative points
- Expensive.
- Battery life isn't stellar.
- I would have loved the CPU to be quadcore.
- Sound quality is bad. (Tinny/No-Bass sound)
- I'm not in love with the laptop's design in "opened" state (so the keyboard and palmrest) from an esthetic point of view.
- The bottom-shell, which is plastic is really flexible and feels really cheap.
- The battery-LED isn't visible when you close the lid and look from above.
- The dockingstation/portreplicator is supposed to be a joke.
- I would have liked the USB ports to be a bit more in the middle.


All and all I'm really loving this Vaio-Z and do not regret spending a fortune on it.

 

Case wear is going to be a problem. I've only had my Z for about a month. I transport it once a day in a soft lined laptop bag. Those sharp edges on the case aren't sharp anymore. They're rounded now like they've been filed down. It's going to look like a mess in a couple of years.

 

Here's the YouTube video showing the glossy versus non-glossy carbon fiber:
YouTube - VAIO Z???? New Model ????????????????

FHD vs. HD
I thought about it this way: if I'm buying a laptop for someone I'm responsible for (e.g. for kid or student), then I would get them to either use 125% font size for FHD or get them HD. Personally, I don't think changing the font size is that big a deal, and if I really need the screen estate on a portable laptop, then FHD is the way to go. It really is about choice: FHD gives me more choices than HD.

Optical drive + Sony SSD vs. HDD
I break this down into (a) do I really need an optical drive (no) and (b) how important is it for me to be able to upgrade my drives in the future (very). Hence for me, it's very easy to pick the HDD option, especially since I consider my Z a sort of investment and I hope to use it for a number of years. Also, I replaced my HDD with an off-the-shelf SSD so I don't lose out that much in terms of speed.

 

I don't really recommend using the privacy screen only.

using with another screen protector that goes between the privacy screen and lcd will work.

Last time I paid, about 60~70 dollars for the privacy screen for older gen VAIO z. some dust got into between the privacy screen and LCD and got some scratches... so.. I can't recommend it at all...

 

That is not the case with memory. If you purchase 1GB of RAM, you actually get 1GB. Note that your system detects there are 4GB of RAM, but only 3.68GB are available to the OS. This is because the rest is being reserved for the on-board Intel video unit. That was something I did not expect either.

 

I'm going to get the newmodeus 2nd hard drive caddy... they said that the new faceplate would be shipped to me in a couple weeks, and that the current one can be shaved down a little bit until then. I was wondering - does anyone have suggestions on 2.5" sata hard drives. I'd like to get something that's 250gb+, but important aspect is that it is both quiet and runs cool, hopefully not a power hog either. Does that take out the 7200 rpm drives from consideration? Given that the 120gb ssd is the main drive, I'm not super concerned with speed, but it's nice.

 

So I just bought a Z series from Best Buy today. $1790 for just the basics...

Win 7 Professional
i5-430M
128GB SSD
4GB Memory
13.1" 1600x900
NVidia GT330m
etc...

Is this a fair deal? Or should I try to return it under Best Buy's 14 day policy and opt for another model/reseller?

I don't care about processor speed so saving money by getting the 2.26Ghz was fine with me... Official Model # is VPCZ12LGX (or VPCZ12LGX/B). I know it's a cheaper model, but really, its FAR better than so many other laptops out there I think.

Anyone have comments/thoughts about this model?
Sony - VAIO Laptop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 13.1" Display / 4GB Memory / 128GB Hard Drive - Black - VPCZ12LGX/B

 

Wow...just wow. I just popped into the Sony Store to take a quick look at the new z (my first visit in ages). They only had a z11 but I took a look anyway since the models are so close. What blew me away? Many things, but the 1-2 second switch between speed and stamina after 2 years of the 10+ second switch on the z555. It may not seem like much, but I was just wowed by the improvement over the old model. Omg I'm getting happier and happier at this upgrade.

 

There are better speced models going for cheaper.

Micro Center - Sony VAIO VPCZ122GX/B Laptop Computer - Black VPCZ122GX/B

 

Thanks for the response. I'd be using it as intended. Worried that it would dim the screen too much or blur out letters and stuff. What was your experience with the optical quality of the privacy screen?

 

Today, I did a clean install of Windows 7. I installed all drivers and everything was working as expected. Everything seemed faster.
It got rid of the 2-second lag when right-clicking on the desktop.

Now, all I was missing was the functionality to adjust the brightness and switch graphics.

This is when things went bad. I went an installed the Sony Notebook Utilities piece. Immediately after it was installed, the 2-second lag was back. And this error message was popping up every 3 seconds stealing focus from any other window.



I went ahead and uninstalled all these: Setting Utility Series, VAIO Control Center, VAIO Power Management & VAIO Event Service.
But, the problem would not go away. I could not find a way to uninstall that Battery Checker, or what service it was running on.

I then figured out that I did not install Sony Shared Library. I did, and after a restart, the battery issue went away.

Seems like the 2-second delay is here to stay, as it did not went away after uninstalling the utilities.

I am now in the process of re-installing the Sony Notebook Utilities to see how it goes now. The first time, I still had no way to adjust brightness, nor the volume/brightness adjustment overlays were showing up. Event Services and Power Management were running.

 

I finally found the culprit for the 2-second delay.
Deleting this registry key fixes it:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\igfxcui

 

Hi,

I could not locate a source for a privacy screen for my Z12 but did have one from my old Z11 so fitted that.

I like the privacy screen as positives are :
a) stops on-lookers peeping when using laptop in public (as viewing angle is narrow)
b) protects screen & keeps screen (behind filter) clean

Negatives are:
a) Brightness through filter is reduced by about 5%
b) The sharpness is reduced - (like looking through a mesh)

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
T

 

Nice! how does the privacy screen clip on? Is it easily removable and does it stay on?

 

To those who choose to use this hack please note that you would lose the intel graphics control panel option in you desktop context menu.

But you can of course access the control panel in your control panel or Start-Intel-Intel Control Center.

 

Does anyone here know anything of the problem where the WIFI turn itself off in what seemes like a totally random timelapse? Picture describing the problem is attached.

Its status is set to on, the flip on the front of the computer is on. But still it won't work?? And I have to RS the computer to get back online. Really annoying when I want to let it be on during the night to finish my torrents.

One way to solve this is to enter the Aviable wireless function button on the taskbar, then settings and then simply change the ghz settings for the wlan. As I press apply the net turn itself on again.

 

Its simple to fit.

Its a very thin sheet with 4 elbows top & bottom that neatly slip into the screen suround. The screen edge has gaps designed for this to fit.

However, I dont think its intended to be taken off & on frequently, as removal is fiddly.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

 

Install the latest wlan driver (13.​​2.​​1.​​5) from intel, you probably have 13.1.1.1 which has major drop out issues, these eare solved with 13.2.1.5. Download from here ->  Intel® PRO/Wireless and WiFi Link Drivers-Only for Windows 7*

 

unfortunately, it dim the screen to the point where you can notice it. it is almost as the same as dimming the brightness by 1~2 (FN + F5) out of 8 in the brightness setting.
however, the brightness did not corrupt optical clarity.

 

Can you take a picture?

 

Thanks mate! that fixed it!

 

I had the privacy screen on the 1600x900 Z for about a week. I returned it.
I noticed that I couldn't comfortably use it at 100% dpi with the privacy screen on, I always had to bump up the dpi (maybe to 108% or so) so that I could read text clearly.

Also, mine did not appear to be absolutely uniform. so unlike the lcd screen itself, which appears flat, the privacy filter gave one a disconcerting feeling that the screen was not quite flat.

Third. It was not a quick and easy thing to install and remove. My idea had been that I would figure out a good way to carry it in my laptop case and then throw it on when needed. I found that it always took a bit of futzing (technical term) such that, to install it without putting fingerprints on the lcd and on the privacy filter, required use of external equipment, something to allow the futzing without getting finger oils on the screen (e.g. microfiber cloths, finger cots, latex gloves...)

Overall, it was not so useful for me. However it did attenuate at an angle so I guess, in that sense, it definitely does the job.

 

Was it difficult like DIY tinted windows?

 

First off, may I say a big thank you for the many contributors to this forum.

I did initially post a query on the difference between Z11 & Z12, but later found all these postings - which I have answered this, and given me a needed lot of extra info.

I just nearly bought a Z12 from Vizik, who advertised impressive prices, only to find that there are quite a few negative reviews on that company - and so backed-out before committing any money (whew!).

I'm in the UK, so will now need to source differently - perhaps via Amazon.

If anyone does know of any good prices from a reliable retailer shipping to the UK, I'd appreciate it.

 

UK gets a bum deal all round, as per usual. Sony Style are as good (aka bad) as any of the others...

 

ZoinksS2k: Did yours have a TPM module, if so, do you remember seeing it in your teardown (or an interface for it). If only there was a way to figure out the part number...

 

Got my Z12 last week. So far it's very good. Honestly, I was expecting more after reading this thread and some Internet reviews. In reality, I wasn't shocked by the laptop - it's just very good. I didn't have Wow like when I took iPad in hands. Will post more details later. FHD screen has no stuck pixels - at least I haven't noticed on after about 6 hours of usage. Lucky I am

So far couple of quick questions:
1) Returning extended warranty (bought to get 15% discount) - how I can do that?
2) a) Just checked sonystyle site - they have serious discount on Z12 update options (e.g. 200$ instead of $300 for 8GB RAM; blue-ray still costs $500). Good time for everyone who wanted to acquire fully-equipped item.
b) Can I have a price-match for my configuration ordered at sony style? Booklet says I have 30 days for that, not sure if upgrade discount works here. Anyone already tried?

Thanks!

 

I get 22 blinks too.

 

I dunno, 1 or 2 blinks here? My total cold boot time is like 30 seconds (from cold off, to an opened internet page). Z122GX.