Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

I get 6 cursor blinks, new Z1290 received last week.

 

1) Easy, just call into Sony and say you want to return your warranty.
2)b) if yours is configured with 8gb... try it, no use losing $100, if they dont offer to price match, send in your current z and order a new one at the new price... although more manufacturers should price match to prevent losses for both parties...

 

Hey Guys,

I'm thinking of picking up a new Vaio Z, but before I do I have some questions.

1. What's the make/model of the included SSDs so I can check out the specs.
2. Are the SSDs upgradeable? I have a 128gb SSD at home, and was wondering if I should just get the 2x64gb config. Sell those and pick up another 128gb SSD.
3. Can the memory be upgraded?

Thanks,
Nate

 

Can someone please tell me what the max temp on the i7 620m is before it down clocks the CPU to avoid damage and if this has ever happened to you, I'm in between a rock and a hard place with the decision of either the i5 or the i7. I know the i7 is faster but if its being down clocked due to reaching higher temps, depending on how often and under what circumstances I'd rather go with the i5. if it does happen rarely; at what temperature does it occur? and after how long a period? e.g. after playing a game for two hours or more? after a stress test for two hours or more?, etc. Thanks in advance, your answers will be greatly appreciated and rep will be given

 

My blinks have now dropped progressivly from 24,to 18, 17, 15. Im now down to 11. Boot time has improved a lot, no clean install, nothing.

 

I live in a tropical climate, and in speed mode when I have a lot of decoding and virus scanning at the same time it seems to go all the way up to 3.4Ghz. So fan is really keeping thing cool enough that there is no down clocking. Im using the Intel turbo boost widget to see this.

 

Anyone benchmarked their vaio yet? Specifically I was looking for the read/write speed of the dual SSDs in the Z12.

 

No. nothing like that. You slap it on and then fiddle with it to get the little ears in the tabs. Sometimes 3 go in without even a thought and then getting the 4th one in causes all the others to pop out...

In any case, within 5 minutes it's ready to go.

 

Here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6408951-post399.html

 

Can anyone with an i7 tell me what their max temps were after using their Z with a game or cpu and gpu intensive program such as prime for an extended time period using a temperature monitoring program. and can anyone else with and i5 tell me what there max temps where under load for an extended time also positive rep will be given.

 

I've been searching for info regarding make/model of the display on the FullHD models. I've searched the forums with no definitive conclusion

One guy claims that the display uses '8 bit drivers' which doesn't tell me if it's an 8 bit display. I've also read conflicting reports on if it's an IPS panel or not.

Is there a utility that reveals the manufacturer of LCD panels?

 

Have you tried Everest?

 

I played GTA IV with at 1600x900 for about three hours on Saturday. I have the i5. I had the GPU core overclocked to 622 and the memory at 822. Fan was working real hard. GPU core temp hovered around 86-89.

I did not measure other internal temps. I stopped using HWMonitor because it jacks up the ability to use the Fn keys to change volume and brightness and also disables the backlight keyboard. I got sick of that, so I don't use it as much anymore. Back when I first got the Z though I monitored the temps using HWmonitor. The highest temp registered was on the ACPI, just over 90. I have never seen the other components surpass 90, including the processor cores.

I should add too that my ambient temps are relatively cool. Probably about 22 degrees Celcius.

 

Temps can get pretty high. Both max temps from a warm day (about 30C outside, like 35C inside house). While playing Unreal Tournament 3.
CPU: ~92C
GPU: ~90C

So not too bad if you ask me ^_^.

 

I played Tropico 3 yesterday for like 3 hours and i got my i7 to 99 degrees Celsius(210 degrees Fahrenheit) and GPU hit 93 degrees Celsius, but my ambient temperature was about 30 degrees Celsius(85 degrees Fahrenheit) but the bottom of the chassis stayed fairly cool to the touch

 

Just got my Z1290X, and thank God the screen is flawless this time
And as for the POST blinks, I only get 1 blink, its actually less than one :laugh:

PS: Does anyone know if the recovery DVD's are unique to each notebook? or are they same? The reason I am asking is, I made the recovery DVD's on my last Z1290X. Do I need to make the DVD's again? or would those also work with this one? Thanks

 

Not sure about the recovery DVD's since i usually keep everything backed up and do a fresh install if necessary, but it wouldn't hurt to make them again just to be safe and Congrats on the flawless screen, we were in the same boat not long ago and I'm still waiting for my credit to be applied to go ahead and pick up another Z12. Any reason why you went with the i5 instead of the i7 besides price?

 

The recovery DVD's include an activation/serial. So you have 2 windows serials now actually. Although the disks/serials probably only work on Sony notebooks, but oh well.

 

I see, no worries I will make another set of DVD's just to be on the safe side.

@ TigerBone: Yeah, flawless screen! feels nice :laugh:

I thought u were getting the screen replaced through the in-home service? But it will be good that you will get a new one now .

Well as for the i7 and i5, price was not an issue to be honest. The increase in performance was very little in my opinion and I wanted better battery life so I selected i5. I am very happy with the performance. Very snappy and fast .

And for all my i7 power hunger needs are handled by my desktop (i7-930 quad) or M15x i7 quad .

 

Just got my Z today. It is amazing.

I'm wondering, however, if the power adapter supposed to be a bit loose/jiggly at the connection with the computer.

Thanks.

 

Couldn't find any info on this.

 

Congrats!

yes, the power adapter connection is supposed to be a little loose/jiggly. Nothing to worry about

 

Ahhh it must be a great feeling to not be the one in a million like you were before as for the in home service i should of known better that the screen would have been on back order, so i decided to return it instead and pickup a new one and to be honest the timing couldn't have been better because Sony is offering up to $500 savings on upgrades, so this time around I'll be 8 gig for pretty much $30 more than i paid before Just got off the phone with Sony they said the promotion is good until Sunday the 25th! So my credit should reflect before it over

 

Dang !! I wish I could have got this deal :laugh: On my new order I saved only $60 or so I believe than my original order.

But, Congratz! Thats a great deal and 8GB Ram to play with

 

Tell me about it!, even if they honored the free 1080p upgrade, I would have paid $250 more! But even without the savings I think I would have been just as happy if i got a flawless screen like you so I'm hoping for the best

 

I have a question. When I connect my External HDD to my notebook or even my Blackberry why does windows show them as "PENDRIVE" ? It doesn't display the original name of the HDD, like: Seagate 1TB(Documents backup) etc

 

That's very unusual have you gone to windows update to make sure all drivers are up to date?

 

I love my Z11 but the screen concerns me, I'm hoping someone can help me determine if my screen is defective or if it's just me.

I'm coming from a 13" MBP, one thing I did like about it was the screen.

With the Z screen I find it's not as good a previous Z's I've owned, this one seems more Anti-glare. I'm satisfied with the screen outdoors, or in office lighting conditions.

The problem is using it in the evening, the viewing angle is real bad, you have to tilt your screen a certain way, not move your head too much or it seems like there's dark area's, it's distracting. Also under indoor lighting you can notice the AG coating somewhat, kind of grainy, dull yet with a sheen to it.

It's the only thing that's bothering me about this super notebook, but the display is a big factor ... I fear that this is just the way Z screens are now, I hope that if I bought the new Z12 the screen would be noticeably better?

I calibrated the monitor, adjusted clear type, contrast, gama etc and it's better but still dull with a sheen and with dark spots which for sure is just poor viewing angle problem... which makes me thing Sony could of done better on the screen.

Running at 125% DPI makes the fonts look a little odd too it's either deal with that or run at 100% DPI and strain your eyes...

I think they over did the resolution and under did the quality of the panels.

Any suggestions that may help please let me know.

 

Yes, everything is up to date

I don't know whats wrong. I mean, If I go into properties of the External HDD it will show the real name there but on the My Computer is shows as "PEN DRIVE" with a yellow folder next to it

 

I contacted Sony about this but was told it does not apply to CTO purchases.

 

This question may be odd but.....
How do I reduce the number of blinks during boot up because I want the Z to start up less then 40 seconds like it did during factory reset?
My boot up is gone slow by 25 seconds.

Also, Hollywood, did you ever experience the Black screen issue again after installing the wifi driver update because I just got the black screen of death, (3 times while watching flash videos) in fullscreen. I guess this problem will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER go away. I'm stuck with this for a long time......

 

If i had my Z i would be better able to recreate it or trouble shoot it but i would google it or call tech support even though 9 out of 10 we know more than them. But I'm pretty sure its something minor or software related. as long as your hardware is good then your good, I wouldn't lose any sleep on it

 

I have already lost sleep on that :laugh: Restoring it to factory (53% done) :sad:

Not sure, what the issue is.. but I also suspect something software related.. I tried the HDD on macbook and desktop and it shows the name fine..

*Back to installing all the softwares* :laugh:

 

Cool bud hope everything works out!

 

I have a video problem with my Z.

Every now and then, when I open a video or move a playing video, the screen (HDMI output) goes black. I believe the laptop has frozen up. I have to hard reboot to get out.

Anyone else having this problem?

I tried just now to install the latest NVIDIA driver, from NVIDIA, thinking this might fix the problem.

I observed two interesting things;

1. uninstalling the driver for the 330M causes the HDMI screen instantly to go black - you can hear the uninstall proceeding (various system beeps from Windows) - but you're stuck. I waited for a bit then did a hard reboot.

2. installing the latest NVIDIA driver does not work - the driver ONLY INSTALLS THE HD AUDIO DRIVER. It will not install the video driver.

As such, I had to revert to the Sony supplied driver, which appears to be identical to the NVIDIA driver, except that it does install the video driver.

 

Have you tried disabling the auto brightness feature? I don't know if that will ultimately help with what you are describing, but it's worth a try.

 

Okay, so I did a factory restore but no avail

ScreenShot:



why is it saying PENDRIVE rather than the HDD name I have put in ?

 

I haven't done a whole lot of HDMI, but I haven't had any freezes when plugged into my TV. But unfortunately, NVIDIA drivers will probably not be the answer. The Sony drivers are needed because of the hybrid system. Downloading drivers from NVIDIA usually will not work. And Sony doesn't make updating video drivers a priority by any means.

I don't know if this is the best idea, but when you freeze up on HDMI, have you tried unplugging the cable and see if the computer recovers?

 

Can anyone explain to me the point of having fingerprint logon if you can just press "esc" at logon screen and use your normal windows passwords ? I don't really get it.

 

In the drive directory, there is the hidden file 'autorun.inf'. Open that with Notepad, look for the line that begins with 'label='. Change accordingly, I think that should work...

 

Ah, so hybrid SLI is on? I read about it, but I didn't know it was active in the normal Sony driver install.

Yes, I tried it. Did nothing.

It's a fairly rare failure - about once or twice a week - and I suspect it tends to happen with certain codecs rather than others - but it's sure a PITA.

 

I would try right clicking the drive and going into the properties tag maybe even the customize tag under properties and see if anything in there needs to be changed like the template i have mine set to all.. normally when i connect an external drive it says local drive and letter even though, you should be able to rename it.

 

@TofuTurkey: Yep that was the problem. I installed Microsoft Security Essential and it said there was some torjan/virus(?) in that autorun file. After removing it everything seems to be fine.. Strange though....

 

uhh I dont know about you, but when i log into windows, i get the password input and i can either type it in, or just scan my finger

 

It sort of feels like it's a bug in Win7: when I rename the external drive, the autorun.inf should have been updated automatically, but it's not...

 

I keep getting WiFi connection errors. Once in a while my connection just drops and when I go check it, it gives me this error that says my wifi is turned off. It says either check the switch or the device manager. Since I know the switch is on, I went into device manager, disabled and reenabled the device and it finally worked. I'm on the most updated driver I believe: 13.1.1.1 Has anyone else been getting this problem? And is there a permanent solution?

EDIT: It seems the update on the Sony site may have worked.

 

Since the VPC-Z doesn't come with dedicated media playback keys, it would be nice to be able to assign shortcuts to Play/Pause, Stop, Rewind, etc. Anyone know of a way of doing this?

I tend to like to listen to podcasts on my Vaio, but since I have the security logon screen pop up after a few minutes, when I want to stop playback, I've got to log back in.

Any ideas? Thanks

 

You have a choice. You can log in via fingerprints or password.
Why would you ever want to remove the password option?

 

I see you fixed it; but if you read the topic you could see this is a ''known'' problem and is fixed. see original my post -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/6480967-post6340.html

 

Doubt if this helps you, but have you tried turning off the auto-dimming feature in the Vaio Control Center?

Auto-dimming works pretty during the day, however in dark situations (candlelight or no light) it dims the screen of my Z12 too much to my likings.
Before I'd learnt about manually turning off the auto-dimming, I was affraid the screen wasn't able to produce more backlight.

Does anybody by chance know if there's a registry edit/ini file edit which controls the minimum screen backlight value for the auto-dimming feature?