Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Enny02

You are just AWESOME!

 

vpmlm.exe keeps taking over my cpu with like 25% usage and pumping my temps up to 75C. It seems not to change anything after I terminate it. It's some sony personalization software. Do I need it? Is there a way to block it?

 

Nice work!

 

Best one I can think of would be this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...g-term-ssd-performance-post-your-results.html. There's a bunch of crystalmark scores throughout this thread. On the first page, there is a nice side by side comparison of a few (posted as an image).

 

Just to be completely sure, are there any tradeoffs regarding ordering the i7 CPU for the Z (specifically, the ability to switch GPUs)?

Might be a dead simple question but better to be safe than sorry I guess.
EDIT: Also, is there a significant battery life decrease when using the i7 compared to the i5? Significant as in 45mins+

 

Yep it sure did thanks Its a 9.5mm drive the largest I've seen in 9.5mm is a 750GB WD I had the 640GB from a previous laptop so decided to save the cash and reuse it, instead I'll put the money to an external usb slim dvd drive. there's a 1TB 12.5mm drive out there but I didn't want to take any chances since the top of the 9.5mm drive fits flush with the top of the caddy, any higher and I'm pretty sure it would hit against the keyboard. Here are some pics showing aesthetics and under the hood. Going internal has also doubled my speed to about 45mbs to and 75mbs from the hard drive i guess due to it being connected to the SATA port. A 2.5 SSD can also be installed in this caddy but wanted storage over speed. If prices on Larger SSD's come down in the future, that will be a sure option.

 

The i7 versus the i5 will not make any difference with the hybrid graphics system. Both processors are dual core and are capable of integrated graphics processing.

I still haven't seen a well-crafted analysis of i5 versus i7 battery life in the Z. The GeekMontage Z review was widely condemned as being suspicious, as was the NotebookCheck comparison of the i5 and i7 processors. The NotebookCheck article specifically indicated that the i7 guzzles much more power than the i5 and will therefore have significantly shorter battery life. But in practice, Z owners of both processors don't seem to indicate large differences in battery life. I think your power settings and brightness level are going to play a much larger role in the ultimate battery life. If you know you need the extra processing power of the i7, I wouldn't hesitate because of battery considerations. You'll be able to tweak to get good battery life if you need it. But the i5 is a powerful processor, and is probably adequate for most users.

 

Hello all,

My laptop started showing some weirdness on the right-side screen hinge about a month ago. It seemed slightly out of place, and was making noise every time I opened or closed it. About two weeks ago, it cracked, and the two screws to the right of the hinge fell off.

About at the same time, two spots appeared in the LCD screen, at the bottom, one to the left and one to the right of the Sony logo. At first I thought it was a cracked LCD, that I had hit it without noticing while carrying it in my backpack. But the spots gradually reduced until they vanished, after a week or so. Then, one day later, some spots, now more like small stripes, appeared in the top of the screen, running along its length. They decrease over the day until they almost disappear, but when I close the laptop at night and reopen it the morning after, they're back.

Anyone has ideas of what might be happening? This now looks much more like a problem in the LCD (such as dead pixels) rather than a physically broken display. My guess is that the cracked hinge is somehow pressing the flat cable that connects to the display, and causing this. Does this sound reasonable?

Also, any suggestions of what I should do to the hinge? I don't think I'm capable of fixing it myself. I think I should send it for repairs, but I haven't contacted Sony yet because I bought my laptop in Spain but live in Brazil. Even if they say it's not covered by warranty and I have to pay to get it fixed, I will, but considering I've heard many complaints here of the wobbling hinge (thankfully few of them have actually broken), I think this sounds more like a manufacturing fault of Sony's...


[edit]
I've attached a few pictures of the hinge and the screen. The arrows point to the stripes. Keep in mind they shift from one day to another, and they're also not at their fullest right now... they're bigger right after I open the lid.

 

I just found the pictures you promised. It seems to be a well done job for me

You are right: The side cover is as if it's an original part - very nice.

Thus I'll make my decision and order the caddy at NewmodeUS hoping they will deliver me a part without faults (target location is Germany, so weeks of hazzle if there was an issue with it).

I have 3 questions left:

1. On the pictures of the harddrive already set into the bay of the caddy, I could see that you were using a transparent tape stripe. What is the purpose of this? - Isolation because of the keyboard sitting on top of the caddy or getting the drive fixed in place?

2. What about the temperaures in the region where the new caddy sits. - Is there a significant warming?

3. Maybe you don't know it by now, but can you make a statement about the battery life using your harddisk?

Thank you for your answers!

 

1. the ear buds are actually designed that way. The left one goes into your left ear and the right goes behind your neck into your right ear the wire with the jack extends down your left side.

2. As for photoshop elements i know exactly what you're referring to, I had the same problem with my last Z12 before i returned it however i notice the Z12 that i recently received was updated with all the latest tool and driver fixes such as vaio care 6.0 and no more black screen of death, so I'm assuming it was a software update that was need for the fix, whether it was through Sony or Adobe I'm not sure. However i haven't had the cursor problem anymore either in speed or stamina mode.

On a side note: I do notice though in Adobe premier when using speed mode I get a msg when starting up saying "GPU playback will be disabled because your current graphics card driver is not compatible with the the application" It also shows the GT330M in that same box. So I'm pretty sure its due to the outdated Nvidia drivers. I never get that msg in stamina mode so I'm okay with using stamina for GPU playback until we can get some updated Nvidia drivers, smh!

 

Okay, here is my opinion:

Sorry, I don't mean to pray, but when I saw your pictures, I couldn't help: Supposed, this has been a new laptop, you didn't handle it very well in the meanwhile. - And why did you wait such a long time?
Okay, it's your laptop, money, decision.

This won't be covered by any warranty.

First of all you have a damage to the bezel. As you can see there is a slim vertical crack in the area of the right hinge. This is probably a result of opening/closing the lid often with no care. The pixel bar distortion is a result of the loose hinge physically pushing/squeezing the cable and the high pressure on the display when opening and closing the lid.

I would first re-fix the hinge with the hopefully existing screws felt off the device and see what this can do to terminate the issue. (Honestly, I see only little chance for you to get this working because the crack is on the left side of the left screw and there is an angle in the horizontal bar, but you will see.)

For this operation please take a look here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-official-owners-thread-687.html#post6576637

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-official-owners-thread-693.html#post6587098​

If the screen's distortion won't disappear, you will need a repair (exchange of the complete lid of your laptop) which will cost you.

Good luck to you.

 

Yo i own a Sony Vaio laptop..Its the VGN-CR231E.....I ned to reformat it but i cant find recovery if it even came with a recovery disc......also i tryed f10 and it opened the wizarded but there is nothing in the wizard....so i am lost can some1 help me..............

 

This is the owner's thread for Sony Vaio VPC Z11 and Z12s. Maybe try a different thread to get more information on your VGN-CR.

 

Hi all,

it has been almost 3 months now that I have bought my VPCZ11 in a French retail store, an equivalent of Best Buy. It was the cheapest version available with 2X64 Samsung SSD, 4GB, the 900P screen (which I prefer) and the I5 M520 processor. For those who were wondering in this forum, I discovered after the purchase that this version didn't have the backlit keyboard, so yes, it is possible to have it without backlit keyboard. It doesn't also have the 3G slot, but I don't mind because I use my smartphone as a modem.

And now lets get to my problem. Since the beginning I had a light black spot in the upper middle part of the screen that I can see while booting and under certain lighting conditions. I didn't mind, but I would certainly ask at some point the warranty to take care of it.

Then I got the faded palm rest (didn't mind either), I am still crazy about this laptop, never been so satisfied with one before.

And now I started having the loose right hinge. I use this laptop for my work, so I cannot get separated from it for very long. On the other hand, I don’t want to void my warranty by opening it up to repair the hinge.
The good news is that I bought a 3 year additional warranty that allows me to get a brand new one at its place. But my worry is the following: I read that the Z12 SSDs are Toshiba ones which are pretty lousy. Then I don’t know how long I can stay without a laptop and if I will be able to find another Z with a similar price.
Is it possible to repair the hinge without opening the laptop? Will it automatically cancel my warranty?
Thanks in advance for your reply, this is a great forum, I find amazing information in it.

 

1. No

2. Yes (Do you really want to tell Sony about opening the machine, don't you?)

To fix the hinge yourself take a look here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-official-owners-thread-687.html#post6576637

and here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-official-owners-thread-693.html#post6587098

If you have got the time use your warranty option.
Maybe it isn't covering the hinge issue.

 

If i unscrew the machine, I guess they can verify that the seals on the screws were broken, no?

If Sony covers it in warranty, as I understood from other forum contributors (they certainly cannot claim that it was my fault) they are obliged to change me the laptop with a new one, the idea behind this warranty being to avoid reparations and get a new one.
So here we come to my next question about the differences between the VPCZ11 and 12 and the possible loss in SSD performance.

 

I have the VPCZ1290 with the 256GB drive option and Intel RST reports two physical 128GB Toshiba drives. I don't know that I'd call them lousy...

I checked the FAQ and much of this thread but couldn't find exactly what SSDs are being installed by Sony in the USA CTO options. Are all Z12s ordered in the USA being assembled with Toshiba SSDs, or are any of the configurations coming with the slightly faster Samsungs? When I owned an older Z last year, it came with two 128GB Samsungs and they were really fast.

 

Exactly I love this notebook for the speed of its SSD, I would hate to loose this by getting a new one just for cosmetic issues. Do you feel the Toshibas are slower tha the Samsung?

 

I only have my hands on a Z11. I opened the device and none of the screws had a seal or something similar.

(Btw: The only thing I could see was, that the quality of the screws is a bad one due to the fact that they are slightly rusty. - I didn't expose the device to any kind of (salty) water or steam.)

At least one forum member told us, that Sony argued about his loose hinge that it was not a warranty case due to the fact that it has been caused by handling and the day-by-day use of it. So they billed him "kindly" for their production fault despite he had a warranty when it came to a repair.

For the ssd chips: Samsung may be better than Toshiba, but you won't feel it under real life conditions.

If you neither want to lose your Samsungs and nor your warranty, maybe there is a kind Sony Shop in your region which is willed to tighten the screws for free or little money just within minutes?

 

Thank you very much for this advice. I will check when I get back, travelling right now. But since I will contact them anyway, I will see also about the dark spot on the screen and the palm rest fade.
I also conclude that no big deal if I get a new one with Toshiba SSDs.

Thank you all for the advice.

 

I would rather have Toshiba than Samsung. I had a Samsung SSD go bad on my in my old UX390N. I have had numerous Samsung and LG products that were just absolute garbage. My solution is just not to buy any products from Korea at all, Japanese made products are higher quality. I pick Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Panasonic etc. before Samsung or LG every time.

I also won't support companies like Samsung and LG because the drive quality down by flooding the market with cheap electronics. Innovation suffers when the competition is all about price point and not about quality. Take computer monitors for example, it is nearly impossible to find a nice computer monitor these days because of all the cheap ones out there. There is no room for a company to come in and produce a high quality product because it won't sell. My solution for that is I bought a BRAVIA HDTV to use as my computer monitor.

I fear that products like the model Z notebook are in danger because if all the cheap junk netbooks out there. Perhaps there will always be a market for these high end laptops, I really hope so.

*END RANT*

 

I see lots of users bashing the Toshiba SSD, w/o an even proof to those claims that the Samsung is faster, I actually sees otherwise, my Samsung benches in read/write were : 330/290 while to prove that these info is somehow incorrect, I attach the same test from the Toshiba.

See for yourself...

old Benches were from my Z1, Photo is from my Z1290X.

Just a thought!

 

Please bash me for the following ( especially the ladies ):

Your argumentation is close to mine, I agree. -
But I go one step further. - It's not the guilt of the company or the man like you and me. The true trigger is the woman in respect to her psychological attitude. If I found a high quality product which has a high price tag on it, I was enjoyed to buy it and have it in a good shape for years and years. The lady would probably get bored after a short time, wishing for something new/newer/better/cheaper or just something *other* with no reason at all, but competition. Don't get me wrong, this behaviour also exists among men, okay? As money is tight or only at a specific amount, products have to be cheaper and cheaper causing the loss in quality while prices remain constant or (even worse) decrease.

Ladies, I love you anyway

 

It's unfair to compare LG with Sony or Fujitsu quality. They are aimed at different consumers and at different price points. It has little to do with a product coming from South Korea itself, which makes some excellent electronics, and more to do with the brands you've mentioned. It's kind of like judging Australian beer based on Fosters. We have some fantastic beer in Australia, but Fosters happens to be the biggest export - it would be a pity to never try any Australian beer based on the track record of one or two brands.

I agree about flooding the market with cheap electronics; you only have to scroll through a few pages of threads here and see how many people are after ways to get their laptop cheaper, sometimes due to their budget constraints, and see the reason 'cheapo' companies exist is because of consumer demands.

There will always be a market for high end laptops. However, the majority of (non business) consumers these days don't use their laptops for much more than watching Netflix, surfing the net, checking email, editing photos, word processing, and playing Farmville on Facebook. They have far different expectations in terms of build quality, parts, price and appearance. As Stonehinge mentioned, this may be to do with more women buying laptops and stuff, although I think it is more general than that. The market has expanded beyond nerds, business people and education.

 

Aw... I had hope I might be able to solve it without spending even more money than I already have (on buying it).

Thanks for your opinion anyway.

To not leave you without answers:
- I didn't try to solve it earlier because mainly of laziness: sending it for repairs involves effort. Also because my laptop is my only computer (I stopped using desktops two years ago), and I was hoping I could solve it by myself without having to leave it at a repair store.

- This laptop is 4 months old. I admit I'm a rather heavy user and not the most careful person, but still, I have a feeling this laptop should be more resistant than it is. My previous laptop was a HP tx2510us tablet; I had it for two years, treated it as well (or maybe even slightly rougher) than this one, and nothing like this happened, it only had scratches in the external surfaces and such.

Yes, I do have the screws. I tried to re-screw them in place, but they fell off again. Actually, I don't really know how to screw them... I can't find an angle that will let me hold the screwdriver straight on the hole -- the laptop body is in the way. Is there a way?

 

With benchmarks it is almost like with statistics, don't trust them except you have manipulated them yourself.
Write speeds of 100MB/s (25600IOps) with 4Kb blocks seems wrong especially when the read speed is only 20MB/s. The indicates that write cache was active (probably RAID write-back).

In general the Intel SSD's are so far the most reliable SSD's and with consistent performance (even Gen1). They maybe don't have an insane sequential write performance of 260MB/s but 70 or 100Mb/s should be enough on a laptop. You won't be able to write to the disk faster than 100MB/s anyway, except from a 2nd internal disk drive.
I have in my home computer an Intel SSD for more than a year without issues and also in my work latop for a year and that are Gen1 SSD's. Both disks I had almost maxed out (was maybe 1GB disk space available) and then freed up disk space and didn't notice any performance loss.

 

If you remove the screws from the bottom (numerous pix of how to on this forum) the top will lift off and you can attach those, tighten your hinge, etc.

 

Oh no you didaanhh....

(sorry, couldn't resist)

 

Can anyone post up pictures of their Premium Carbon Fiber Z11/Z12's? Thanks

 

Hey guys, tried to find info via this thread but no luck. Has anyone updated their BIOS to RC2074C3? What are the performance enhancements or fixes?

I am always scared of updating my BIOS - can seriously brick your laptop, right?

 

Oh yes, I did! (And did beg for it.)

Another thought (slightly off topic):
Don't let us fool ourselves: Buying power is - directly (decider) or indirectly (influencer) - widely under control of women (more than 50 % of this planet's population) and this might be very healthy for our economy, but regarding average jane's buying behaviour (shopping as an expression of lifestyle, high buying frequency, searching for hot deals) not necessarily for the quality of goods, no?

And yes, I did it again!

 

No issues for me updating the BIOS to RC2074C3 (I did it with "VAIO Updater" when it offered me the BIOS).

Fixes would be

1. No more "black screen of death" while playing Flash movies in speed mode (Nvidia card) and with full screen

2. Correct BIOS password handling when coming back from suspend

 

Thanks Stonehinge. I have the file downloaded from the Sony site. Is there anything I should do prior to installing the new BIOS? I know you must plug in the power, but anything else? (Read: paranoid )

 

Terminate all programs running
Switch off anti virus software
Start BIOS update exe (as administrator)

That's all about

 

Thanks for that.

Damn, makes my decision a whole lot harder haha. Because in Australia, there are only two models available, one with i5, 1600 by 900 screen, 6GB RAM and 128GB SSD while the the more expensive one has i7, 1920 by 1080, 8GB RAM and importantly a 256GB SSD. I don't really need the processing power and I don't actually want the high resolution (my eyes are pretty crap), the RAM isn't completely necessary either but the SSD is. And the improved specs would definitely make it a lot more futureproof but at the cost of roughly $700 more.

Now the question is, how hard would it be for a mildly competent computer user (changed RAM at most) to swap out the SSD's for higher capacities in the future?

 

I'm getting a pretty solid 4hrs on battery with my Z12, while using it for Visual Studio and browsing. I tend to run the 1080p screen at level-3 brightness when on battery. I really don't think the i7 is using that much more power than the i5 under these conditions.

The 1080p screen is fantastic. I've actually started using it with the DPI set to the "Smaller (100%)" option and my eyes aren't that awesome either - and I'm using an old pair of glasses while typing this. With my contacts in, the text is easily readable. Yes, the text is small but perfectly readable and you get SO much screen real estate it's amazing. You'll be fine. I found the 900p screen to be harder to read for some reason at 100%.

Viewing angles on the 1080p screen aren't quite as good as the 900p, but that didn't matter to me.

 

What do you think about the following solution?

2nd hard drive or SSD caddy for Sony VAIO Z, Z11, Z12 series,VPC [SONY-2BAY-Z11] - $43.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

TigerBone did it with a HD, but you also can use a SSD:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-official-owners-thread-715.html#post6617813

Some pictures by TigerBone:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-official-owners-thread-716.html#post6622156

You would save some money with this while gaining disk space and data security, but would lose your built in DVD.

 

Well, That Sony Sale on upgrades came and went. Right when I decided to place my CTO order, it ended today.

By the way, is anyone experiencing wear on their chicklet keys due to use or cleaning due to greasy finger marks? Also, I haven't tried the SD and Pro Duo Slots, but do you need that adapter that comes with the memory pro duo stick? Just afraid if I inserted it in without the adapter, I might not be able to get the stick out. Thanks.

 

Hello everyone,

I am about to buy a new z12, so I'd be grateful if:
1) Could anyone post some pics of premium carbon and/or glossy premium carbon for comparison?
2) Could you also upload pics of Full-HD and non-Full-HD screens at 100% font scaling? I was thinking of going with the 1600X900, but posts like the one from Digitalfiend above, make me have second thoughts.
3) Reading through the thread, I realize that SONY should update the Z in September. Anyone knows what the upcoming changes would be? What's your opinion? Should I wait?
Thanks

 

I've pulled the trigger on a more or less minimum spec Z12: lowest processor, 500Gb HDD, 4Gb RAM, Black. I was tempted by Silver but for some reason went Black - I hope it is matte finish.

I would have liked to have gone with the 256Gb SSD and kept the integral DVD drive (for the odd game I have that requires one, although I do have a decent USB one), but the bathroom fund had to come first. I'll look to swap out the 500Gb for a large and fast third party SSD in a year's time.

I'd like to grab an OEM second battery, but it looks like Sony has sucessfully blocked that option but I am checking with the Powergorilla folks to see if that option works as it would be more versatile.

 

Geeee that sucks! they ran that promotion for about a month when I was told it would only last a week, But hey there's always 15% off A great way to prevent wear or ever having to clean your key's is to use a keyboard skin. I bought one off ebay here's the link http://cgi.ebay.com/TPU-Keyboard-Cover-Skin-Sony-VAIO-Z-VPC-Z1190-VPCZ1190-/160427988127?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs Unfortunately that link is only for the US models not sure if the same seller might have them for my EU brother and sister models. It ships from China but only took about 12 days including weekend to get to me : )

 

Hey, thanks to you, Zendar, and Oscar2 for explaining to an old man how a modern pair of earbuds work - damn, I'm an idiot.

As for Adobe Photoshop Elements - I'd really like to hear if anyone else is having the cursor issue??? I'll check later if everything's updated, but I thought I had done all the updates I needed, and the cursor in Photoshop is still a problem.

 

Anytime! and don't feel bad technological concepts are always changing, some for the better and some for the worse

 

I think I would be a lot more interested in this soulution if I didn't go for the built in Blu-ray burner on my 1290X. Is the caddy removeable? Could the Blu-ray burner be modded to be a swap out part? No that would get interesting.

 

Someone posted this Vaio Z showroom floor video in March which is about as good as it gets (versus comparing in person). Best viewed in HD.

 

I'll try and post up a pic and maybe a short HD vid after my meeting.

 

I haven't had my Z very long so I can't comment on wear but the keys do attract oil very easily and I don't really have sweaty or greasy fingers. I just use a microfibre cloth to remove any slight marks to avoid any accumulation. I would not recommend eating and then typing.

So far so good but I'm a fanatic when it comes to keeping my laptops clean.

 

I agree with you that it wouldn't be logical to replace the $500 blu-ray drive with this caddy infact thats one of the reason's i didn't go with the blu-ray besides price as i intended to do this swap before purchase. you can check for a solution to mount the blu-ray drive in and external enclosure but because its an uncommon form factor, one might be difficult to find. The caddy isn't able to be removed because it's mounted by screws internally, and the SATA connection is a ribbon cable that connects to the back of the caddy. If you really would like to add the caddy for additional space I'm sure you can probably get a sale for your blu-ray drive for $100 less than you paid which will cover the cost for the caddy $48, a 750GB WD hdd $110, and an external slim blu-ray drive $150, with change left over to buy me a beverage of your choice

 

With regards to the question about power consumption, I expect that the 1920 display will be a larger contributor to power consumption than would be the i7.

The reasons are two-fold: 1) The 1920 display is inherently dimmer so the same user perceived brightness has the backlight set to a slightly higher level. 2) More pixels to update == more cpu loading == higher power consumption.

On the other hand, the anecdotal evidence is that the i7 gives about about a 10% speed boost and consumes about 10% more power (a fair trade-off no?)

I fell your pain on the ssd because the cost of adding an ssd or replacing it with an intel later, will render the savings of initially not going with the higher model close to moot.

 

I wouldn't put in a hard drive, ewww! I would put in another SSD... but then again, I could just replace my SSD raid with larger drives and keep the Blu-ray drive. I paid the premium for Blu-ray because I rather like watching the movies on the 1080P screen or with the HDMI output when I'm in a hotel or something. I also plan to burn backups of large stuff onto Blu-ray discs.


EDIT: So... Caddy is kind of a misnomer, to me a caddy means a holder of something capable of being swapped for something else