Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

I think it has 25 screws.

 

Mine I took 21 screws out - 15 long/short ones, 4 tiny ones and 2 RAM cover ones.

OzB

 

like it matters but I counted 21, including memory module cover. You dont need to unscrew 3 found under battery

btw I removed loseness from battery simply by attaching about 1/2 inch wide strip of duck tape in to the battery. I placed it in the gutter created by battery packs. It still click in to its place without any excessive force and stays still even if I try to wiggle it.

 

Users be warned, you need to keep track of where the long and short screws go. Some holes will take either, so you could do damage if you install a long screw where the shorter one is supposed to go.

I print out a pic of the base and put each screw on it to keep track where they go.

If you get lost, you can see the proper placement here:



Also note, you do NOT need to remove the three small screws on the grey plastic bar in the battery bay, just the two on the black portion (closest to the main chassis).

 

Can someone with working GPS post their bios version? And how does it appear in device manager?

I cant find the GPS module from dev manager.

My bios with not working GPS is version R1180C3. You can check it from VAIO control center / System information

 

Thanks, ZoinksS2k. Very helpful.

 

For me, I ran prime95 and rthdribl for 20 mins with performance mode fan. Temps got to 70 degrees on the cores and 85 on the gpu. Of course, it depends what the ambient temp is where you are. For me, it's about 22-24°C. The cooling must be quite good as the temps dropped very fast when I stopped the tests.

 

No problem.

Since some of the new folks haven't seen this, I've pulled apart two different Z1's and took tons of photos.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=466881

 

The lower the resolution, the less work GPU has to do, so the less power consumption assuming all other conditions are the same.

If you have to pinch zoom, why use high resolution? I don't really see significant blurry in lower resolution.

 

Yeah, thanks to Zoinks and all of you helping out! I will conduct the operation soon, hope the patient survives in good health with all the screws at the right place!

 

There is a point whoever said that it needs to be scaled in screen if you are not using native resolution. Other ways it would not fill the whole screen.

How ever I have no clue witch one consumes more power.

 

This seems to get asked often on this thread, but Sony's own case (VGP-CKZ2) rarely gets mentioned. Since it's designed for the Z, it fits perfectly and works with both the regular and extended battery (there are two fastener positions). I've been using mine since I bought it for the previous Z, and now use it with the VPCZ1.

 

From my kill-A-Watt, it seems like the power consumption is much controlled under 20W when switched to lower resolution. However, the wattage keeps fluctuating, it is very hard to have any scientific answer to the question. From my personal experience, it does extend my battery life a little bit.

I also turned off all the unnecessary services in Services to keep the OS run as less background tasks as possible, I think this extends the battery life more.

That said, if you don't care about the battery life, don't lower the resolution.

 

Folks, lowering the resolution helped joseph_lin, but isn't necessary.

I'm getting 4+ hours at FHD. Just change your color depth, switch to 40Hz and be mindful of what apps you have running in the background, like Sidebar Gadgets.

 

I am interested in the GPS too. I show the same R1180C3. I have not read much about the GPS. I do have the Verizon card, (have not activated) and the Location Services turned on. Is there so kind of turn by turn voice like a regular GPS? Or am I missing something?

 

And my opinion is that widgets eat more battery that what you gain with lower res. Like original poster mentioned he had these rolling. Also if you can live with lower res, why not adjust it if it aint against your principles.

I would also like to know what services can be turned off. I know only few services what they are for.

Also I am using portable progs for those I am not using frequently.

Edit: I like the tri-way switch, and the fact that it changes also between different power schemes. Changing couldnt be easier.

 

Didn't you use to have a cool avator, a multi-colored heart with colored pencils on the right?

There should be three parts to this:
1. the GPS chip, via the driver supplies coordinates for its location.
2. an application, possibly an intermediate one, picks up the coordinates and passes it to the map application.
3. the map application displays the location, and may provide turn-by-turn instructions.

So (1) should be handled already, if (3) is Google Earth, there are plugins (i.e. 2) that pull the info from (1) and gives it to Google Earth. How (2) is configured, I do not know (usually GPS data gets transmitted from a serial port). Also, (2) and (3) may reside in the same application, which I'm not sure is provided by default from Sony...

 

Yes, that is me with the colored pencils avatar - made some changes while working on the corporate pc and now that pc is down.

Anyway thanks for the heads-up on the GPS but I'm still confused by your response. If Sony advertised this with included GPS then shouldn't all of that be installed on my new Z already? Has anyone actually used the GPS outside or in the car?

 

Big ditto over here. The case is perfect, if not a bit expensive.

I actually put it inside of my laptop bag's slot for double protection. I think this is why I never had the screen scratching issue.

 

Since "GPS" may mean the receiver chip itself (which Sony provided) and/or the application (?), it's not false advertising if Sony believes it provided 'GPS' by having just the chip. It's just that, from the consumer's point of view, the term 'GPS' should also include the mapping software in addition to the chip.

I'm thinking the question is: is there some application Sony provided that can make use of the chip? And my answer is: if there is some such application, either it's freeware (unlikely), or it's some trial version. Because usually such navigation capability (consumer's interpretation of 'GPS') comes with a price tag, and I'm not aware of Sony producing such applications.

I should keep quiet now, since I haven't even yet received my Z

Edit: I'm looking at SonyStyle, and from the description it says "via Google Maps". Have you tried opening that and seeing if it can detect your location? It sounds like the mapping software is intended to be Google Maps...

Edit: In Google Maps, there's this button above the "Zoom-in-out" slider that says, "Show my location". I think it works by checking IP, not sure if it'll actually try to retrieve coordinates from the chip...

Nth edit: The only time I've seen turn-by-turn from Google is on its Andriod platform. I hope Sony didn't assume that it'll work on normal PC's Google Maps...

 

Quick question for you guys...

Do you have the TPM Module showing up in the devices? What about options for it in the BIOS?

For some reason I don't. Makes using BitLocker impossible.

.dj

 

You have to initialize the TPM to use it. Check in the start menu, I don't recall the app name off the top of my head.

 

The Infineon TPM Software?

That's the thing... Or maybe I am losing my mind..

On every laptop I have seen TPM "options" are always in the BIOS.... To turn it on.. off.. clear it... etc.

I don't even see it in the BIOS. Don't even have the normal "Security Devices" with the TPM module 1.2 showing up in Device Manager.

Is there anything in your BIOS for it? Is it showing up in Device Manager?

Very weird...

Appreciate your input.

.dj

 

Thanks for the very informative info. When do you receive your new Z?

This baby is very fast - amazingly fast. I use ccleaner and before I can move to the run cleaner after analyze it is done.

I was messing around with the GPS and it does go to Google maps and it found me. My location was highlighted in a blue square in the lower right corner. Maybe this is designed for the LoJack device rather than a turn-by-turn feature.

 

(Preface: Okay it's approaching the maximum depths of lameness to quote my own posts but this is the InterWebz and I'm just an anonymous turkey so... I don't care. So there )

I chatted with the online rep at SonyStyle, this is what he says:

So there we have it, MS Streets and Trips is supposed to come bundled. Is it?

@ Inkie: My Z gets built in mid-April. Shipping from Japan probably takes another week, maybe

 

No.


(here are some additional words so that it allows me to post this answer)

 

I second that. It may be working out for him but, imho it would be very lame to get a 900 or 1080 line screen and then set the resolution to 768 and I don't recommend that to anyone. I also seriously doubt that it really saves much (or any) actual power.

For myself, running balanced mode with the 40Hz refresh rate, my time yesterday was 5 1/2 hr. Programming, web surfing, listening to music etc..
Configuration: standard battery, 900 line screen, i5-540.

 

That kind of case only holds the laptop tho right? Does it have provisions for the power cord?

 

I can't find MS Streets and Trips on the Z. I ordered Fresh Start, so maybe I need to go find the S&T download over at the Sony Website.

Can anyone point the way?

Mid-April is just around the corner. It is worth the wait...

 

It doesn't

 

If I may ask, do you have Bluetooth on?

Anyone care to compare battery life with Bluetooth on/off?

I still do not know when my new Z is coming: Sony changed shipping date from 3/23 to 3/31 to 4/7 to 3/16 (currently showing )

 

yes, I use a wireless BT mouse

 

Hi Joseph,

I am a Taiwanese. I read all of your post for this thread. I tried to ask my friend to order the HHD version of Z from SonyStyle Taiwan website. They sold out. Now I am in choosing to either order Lenovo x201s with upgrading Crucial C300 SSD 256GB (total price for x201s+256GB+3 year warranty + no sales Tax= $2100) or CTO Z1190G/S with 256GB SSD+i7 620m+9 cell battery. As your situation, I want a whole day battery life notebook with light weight, because I travel a lot. Do you think that paying the extra money for the sony really worth?

You were mentioning the Asus has new notebook with almost same features as Sony. What is the Asus model number? Is the Asus model light weight and long battery life?

Currently, I own a 17" MacBook Pro with 1080P resolution, but it is heavy and terrible battery life (less than 3 hours). I am sick of the heavy and short battery life notebook. The MPB is useless during travel.

 

BT and wired (USB) mouse are very close in power consumption.

On the other hand, if you use BT mouse it makes sense to turn off touchpad and save a bit more on power. Unfortunately, Z does not appear to have hotkey for that. Fingerprint power should be managed by USB selective power-down but touchpad is PS/2 AFAIK.

 

Where the best place to buy a second a/c adaptor for my future Z notebook ? I found very some cheap on ebay 12-24$ but maybe too cheap, I don't want to see fire in my laptop ! hehe!

 

I am one who really likes my Z, but if what you want is a notebook that gives you all day battery life, there is no reason you should even be considering the Z. There are many notebooks far more suited to your needs. Look at anything with a 1.3GHz processor, ssd and a 13" or less screen and you will see that most every manufacturer has something good to offer. The Z is not very suitable for that particular purpose.

 

European version of Z doesn't have MS Streets and Trips on the Z. However you can still use Gogle Earth.

In order to use Google Earth and you GPS you need Earth Bridge.

 

Sorry but if you use pinch to zoom, the system will scale up using the full resolution, creating highly defined fonts for instance (and will also do some traditional bitmap scaling for images which are a bit blurry or blocky). Whereas if you just change the screen resolution, the actual (physical) resolution of the screen stays the same but the system scales at a bitmap level which does not map 1:1 unless you're doing a scalling at a mutiplier of the orginal resolution (for instance, if you went to say 960x540, each pixel would use 4 true pixels on the screen.)

In your case, you're down to 1366x768 which is almost exactly 16:9 ratio but your scaling ratio compared to the original panel is actually 1.40 which is not an integer. Since you're looking at a digital flat panel (not an old raster screen where you can modulate), the system has to figure out how to map your bitmap matrix of 1366x768 to a physical matrix of 1920x1080. So, in some case, some dots are one pixel wide, some are two for instance. To make this scaling effect less visible, the system then interpolates dots in between the true 1366x768 pixels to create more pleasing transitions (an anti-aliasing variation) which creates some blur... does that make sense?

Now, I'm not saying the image doesn't look good to you: it is your choice, your taste and it works for you. Kudos. I'm just saying that there's no magic and pure resolution scaling will do this.

On the other hand, pinch to zoom will increase the size of fonts (for instance) which are for the most part True Type or other vector graphic based and are thus computed within whatever size (and bitmap matrix) you need... You can size them almost infinitely and they will always bring additional details (kind of like a Mandelbrot set, but that's different.)

Want to test it out? Zoom this page as much as you can in 1920x1080 resolution and look at the Capital 'O' in Owners for this thread name. The bigger it gets, the better defined the curve in the letter is. Now at that same zoom level, look at the 'o' in the NotebookReviewForum bitmap in the top left corner, you can clearly see (when zoomed) the "stairway effect" with some anti-aliasing (creating some blur) in the inside of the 'o'.

... and scaling is more work done by the GPU. And at the end, it still needs to compose an image at full scale for the LCD panel (unless the panel does that itself, which I doubt but don't know...)

Anyway, very interested in all the battery measurement, thanks for that !

 

+1
All this definitely worked for me too, especially the 40hz, and I'm getting close to 5 hours at FHD browsing and doing work related stuff. Interestingly, installing a couple of plug-ins in Firefox to prevent flash animation helped my battery too !

 

Yes, weird. It was in the Z last year...

 

I like the Kensington travel adapter. They are really small and have proven good to me. Expensive though...

 

Earth Bridge needs a GPS connected over serial device which is not existing in the Z.

 

That's not true. Look in your device manager, you will see which serial port it is. Also you can see the NMEA output of the Gobi using any terminal emulator by simply setting it to that serial port.

 

I was using Ericons F3507g WWAN on my Portage R600 without any problems. All I need to do is to set GPS COM port used by WWAN. I am not sure how GOBI's 2000 GPS works but I suppose it should not be that much different.

 

Sorry I've checked it twice, I'm not spotting a single COM port. If you don't believe I can make a screenshot for you

 

It's possible that drivers you installed for your GOBI 2000 didn't have GPS part included. Otherwise you would be able to find GPS COM port since GOBI 2000 definitely has GPS.

Problem is, you can't just go to US site and use drivers they have since they use different set of firmware images used by US provider.

Interesting . As you can expect from Sony, they just decided you guys from Europe don't need GPS .

I ordered unlocked GOBI card for my Z from eBay and I will get drivers and images for everything this modem has to offer.

 

Then it's probably just not on. If I turn it off in SmartWi it won't show up on mine as well.

Here is a screenshot of my Device Manager showing the Gobi NMEA on com5:

 

Mine shows up in Device Manager. I am not seeing the MS Streets and Trips software on my z however. Folks are saying it should be loaded. Has anybody tried Earth Bridge? Is it a turn-by-turn voice assisted feature?

 

Your right, I was using the Z without batterie which seems to deactivate wireless wan and GPS.

 

I don't think any of the 'folks' have said that. Just that one Sony rep that didn't actually know anything.