Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

You can change that in the power settings.

 

Oh good. So you can't modify drivers to exclude GPS from drivers installation, otherwise Sony would probably do it

 

If you have Z from Europe then you will not have navigation Software pre-installed, if you are from US than in might be because of the fresh start.

 

I have been on chat with Sony regarding the apparent lack of the TPM 1.2 module which basically renders BitLocker completely useless (forget using a USB key to boot).

I have performed 2 full system recoveries with default settings to no avail.

There is no "Security Devices" in the Device Manager. Running "tpm.msc" validates there is no TPM 1.2 module. There are no options for TPM in the BIOS as there are in other notebooks.

I am not sure if this is just my notebook (VPCZ11FHX/XQ) that has this issue or everyone's.

In addition Sony's site lists the Infineon TPM module online for download however it won't install either.

Can you guys check yours out?

I am on the phone with Sony now trying to figure this out.

.dj

 

GPS and software I installed - Im using the GPS now. I turned it on using the smartwi connection utility. I added Microsoft Mappoint and it could not see the GPS. I went to the utility and turned on location services and it went to Google maps and mappoint could the see the GPS and I had turn by turn directions up and running. I am going to play with it in Google Maps now. I got my Z yesterday about 5 pm and I am loving it. I could not be more pleased with the screen. It is really breathtaking. Im watching The Boondock Saints on blueray right now with my headphones on and I like it better than my Sony 46" XBR4 LCD TV.

 

GPS and installed software - I have six satellites and I am inside. My Garmin cant even get a lock inside. It finds your location on google maps and you have instant access to POI via the smart wi utility. It is much like my Iphone in that regard. Works great.

 

I just got my Z (Z116GX/S) today and so far its awesome. However, when using the recommended battery life settings (40HZ, 16bit colors) the taskbar becomes light blue and opaque. Has anyone encountered this problem or found a way around it?

 

Okay, I've been resetting my iTunes and fiddling with the sound. All I can say is the sound is horrible. I have the volume very low and the music still sounds like crap! I have played around with a bunch of the settings to see if anything would help but nothing seems to do the trick.
Has anybody out there figured out the best speaker settings for music playback? Or better yet, can someone recommend a nice compact Bluetooth speaker? Thanks

 

I think you will always have some color issues when you go to 16 bit. I saw a good increase in battery life by going to 40Hz but 16 bit made videos not look as good and screen colors were affected.

I am one who doesn't feel that one is worth the potential power savings. Has anyone measured whether 16 bit color has more than a theoretical effect on power saving?

 

The best speaker setting is any setting that does not involve use of the internal speakers (I don't think there is much you can do about those)

The BT speaker does sound like a good idea though. For myself I plug it into a receiver when I'm at my desk and into headphones (noise canceling ones! ) when I'm on the road.

 

Ok, I am not recommending lowering resolution to everyone, only if you think you need it. From what you are saying, I really want to return this machine as it only lasts 4.5 hours on me with "Large" battery.

Edit: Ooops, I missed the not, please forgive me.

 

When I turn my Gobi on from Smart network, I can only see this diagnostics com port 4.

Any ideas why I dont see GPS output (com 5)?

Also there is nothing in location and other sensors section in win7 control panel.

 

Just wondering...what kind of tasks are you doing? My computer has been on since 6:30pm and it is now 10:30pm and there is still 52% left in my standard battery. This is with web browsing (no youtube), msn and listening to music. Here are the things I've done to try extend the battery life,

- lower refresh rate to 40hz
- disable side bar gadgets
- disable aero
- auto dim disabled (brightness manually set to 2 bars)
- power plan set to power saver
- cooling plan set to silent mode in vaio control panel

I tried switching to 16bit color and everything just looked horrible so I switched it back to 32bit.

 

Got it working by uninstalling and installing WWAN driver that I got from sony support page.
Now I see also COM 5 in dev manager.

 

Just bought the high end Signature Z through Sony Chat in the US. I had to have the 1080P resolution for my purposes.

The going discount seems to be 15% if you buy 2 accessories and any service plan. If you don't buy any extras they will give you a $100 discount. They also threw in Express Shipping for free (claimed $94 value).

 

Nice to see my people here!

Well, I have a Lenovo X200 Tablet, it was said it weighted around 3.5lb, but with extended battery, it weights 4lb. It is kind of heavy to me. People told me I can use it for whole day computing, in reality, I never able to use it for more than 5.5 hours and it only consumes 12Wh on average. However, I like it very much, it is just like a big iPhone with multitouch, pinch zoom...but heavy and no whole day computing. It is, with Sony's standard, dead silent even under load. The keyboard is the best I ever seen, very comfortable, very enjoyable. Now I use it to read thesis, articles...no ear plugs needed

When Z announced, I gave it a lot of hope. I got it last week, it weights a lot less. With extended battery it weights only 3.5lb. Again, "to me" no whole day computing. For regular work, you won't notice if it is any faster than X200. I have yet to use it for serious work as every time I tried to watch a movie or compile a file, the fan will start to blow with high pitch sound, it is driving me crazy. I like the ear plugs came with the notebook, I think Sony did it on purpose. The sound quality is really good to me, the bass is strong, the high is ok, not better than my Sennheiser, but it is free so no complain.

About Asus's computers, I think it is Acer not Asus. Check this picture:

http://attach.mobile01.com/attach/201004/mobile01-7f9f2a467a0eb51d013f2ed4499ce557.jpg

The weight(4lb) and screen(1366x768) is not the same class as Z, but hey, you pay half of the price. The graphics card is Ati 5650.

To me, if money is not an issue, go for Z and get Tekkeon MP3450 with extended battery, then you are safe for traveling around the world(Total will be 50Wh+50Wh+What ever battery you order from Sony). If you want to save money, get a HyperMac(The largest is 222Wh) and it will last you days, no kidding!

 

Great! That's strange tho that you had to re-install the driver and all.

 

Where are you located?

 

Are you using a standard battery? If so, 5 hours translates to 60Wh/5=12Wh , my CULV Lenovo consumes 12Wh at idle, does Core i7 series have the same power consumption as CULV? Not to mention X200 is a 12" and only 1280x768? I am really curious if my system is a defected one!

 

The Tekkeon looks very good. Are you saying the Hypermac has an adapter that can work on the Sony? (It seems to be made for Macs)

 

joseph: download the program called batterybar. It shows a lot of information about the battery such as battery wear, discharge rate, battery capacity, and it's much better at estimating the battery life. After you install it, check what the discharge rate and battery wear is. For me, the discharge rate is around ~7000-8500mW and battery wear is 0%

 

To save your effort, go to Amazon and search for Altec Lansing iM207 for $14, then you will have a wonderful sound.

 

I am in Basking Ridge, New Jersey

 

Sorry, I meant to say "not" recommending...

I think the major power hog in my system are gadgets, especially the CPU, memory and network monitoring.

I set the brightness to 3 bars, rest of the settings are just like yours. My extended battery works just like everyone's standard battery, it is very sad...

 

I finally got my vaio z!!!

Specs:
Intel core i7 processor
192 GB Ultra SATA Flash SSD
6 GB memory
33.3cm, 1920x1080, webcam
Wireless WAN
fingerprint and TPM
3 USB Ports

 

Sorry I mean keeps using his MAC with HyperMac. Yes, they are specifically for MAC, the voltage is for MAC, if you use it on other products, it may damage the product. Tekkeon has adjustable voltage outputs, and it comes with Sony notebook's plug in MP3700 model(not the MP3450 model, but you can order one from them), plus it will charge your 5volt device at the same time. So when I travel, I use it to extend my tablet, and to power my RAID-0 2.5" external drive.

I am a researcher, every time I get a new gadget I do experiments on it. Their claim of battery wattage is correct, at least the one they shipped to me is spot on -- 50Wh.

I have no experience on HyperMac, but Engadget editors use it, so I think it should be good.

 

Ok, brightness is 3 bars. Here's the screen capture.

http://mvtdxg.bay.livefilestore.com...ZXwS6b9Z2/Power Usage - Brightness 3 bars.jpg

Notice, this is when I am doing nothing except FireFox. Can everybody post your screen shots?

 

When set to 0 bar, turn off all gadgets.

http://mvtdxg.bay.livefilestore.com...5UzHBKQ3n/Power Usage - Brightness 0 bars.jpg

 

OMG now that's delicious

 

Congrats. SandyRavage.

 

Yes, I'm using the standard battery.

Ok, I'll try to clock my real usage with a fully loaded standard battery in Stamina mode when I get to the office so I can give an exact duration (not the fluctuating number in my taskbar )

 

per your request, just installed Battery bar and this is what I see right now:



This is with the standard battery, I'm already 12% down and it says ~4:50 left. So I'm in the ballpark of the close to 5 hours that I had mentioned. Granted, this is NOT a definitive answer. I'll actually clock it on Monday to give you my final (actual) survival time.

FYI, beyond Firefox (12 tabs open), I have Outlook and Messenger open right now and a few others.

Hope this helps

 

Hey guys, how often are Zs refreshed? Twice a year, is that right? I am wondering whether to buy now or wait until the second generation.

 

It is not necessary to really "Time" your usage . I guess the battery life depends on a user's usage.

 

well, I will anyway

FYI, the battery bar jumps up and down every now and then (down to some low 2:50 minutes and up to 7:15 minutes) but seems to stabilize back in the same range after a few seconds... Not sure what triggers it...

Just for kicks, since it's been about 40 minutes, I went and did another capture (just the battery bar this time, everything else is still running). In those 40 minutes, I worked on a few emails, installed some software (FoxIt PDF, SnagIt, ...) and Firefox add-ins.

Here's the result:



Not that my discharge in stamina is consistently BELOW 12mW as reported by Battery bar. Again, I don't know how accurate this is but compare it to the value on your screenshots and somethings seems to be amiss...

 

Well I finally completed my battery "test". Ran the battery down to 1% remaining before plugging in the charger. The laptop remained on since 6:30pm to 2:00am (so a good 7 and a half hours) and I did nothing but browse the web (reading and posting on forums), maybe 20mins of youtube, chatting on msn, and on and off music listening. There were times where I left the computer on idle but it never went to standby or hibernate mode.

Settings:

refresh rate: 40hz
lcd res: 1600x900 (auto brightness off, brightness level manually set to 2 bars)
color mode: 32bit
power plan: power saver + stamina mode
thermal plan: silent
programs open: media player, msn, google chrome (4-5 tabs open)
wifi on / bluetooth off
windows aero off
sidebar gadgets off
standard capacity battery

 

Great ! Which battery are we talking about, standard or large? with 7.5hrs, I'm assuming you have the extended battery but just wanted to confirm it!

 

Surprisingly this is with the standard battery.

 

Joseph, some web pages can be pretty power hungry. I actually saw (on April 1st ) that a new green TCO standard was under development to encourage web pages to avoid power consuming stuff like flash animations, videos, etc. Even if it was an April fool's joke, which it probably was, it's a great idea. I mean, it *can* mean the difference for you to get 10h or 4 from your large battery.

I see you covered a Firefox tab with the battery meter, if that tab contains one of those power hungry pages, that may be your problem.

Also, the calculated value of total battery time on the screenshot without Firefox looks wrong. 89260/9712 ~= 9h11m, not 6h25m as suggested. Perhaps if you let it be for a while, it should recalculate with a higher value.

It's also a good idea to show the task manager (and sort it on the CPU column), so you see which processes are using the CPU. You might not see many %, but since the CPU is pretty powerful, every % can consume more battery than you might think.

 

Based on the following, are these 2 different ways of disabling defrag.? Or are both required and are independent of each other? I did no#2, but couldn't find no# 1.
These were both posted and were advised as some of the things "To Do" when you get your Z. Thanks.

1.Open regedit, and go to
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

Double-click "Enable" and change "Y' to "N".

or

2. Disable the Disk defragmenter in services

In Control Panel, go to Administrative tools then Services. Find the'Disk Defragmenter Service' and set the Startup Type to 'Disabled'.
__________________________________

 

How did you do this, excactly?

I'm also in Finland, and I can't see the NMEA in device manager. I downloaded the WWAN driver from sony.fi website, extracted and ran the WWAN_setup.bat and GobiInstaller.msi. However, I still don't see the NMEA in device manager. Did you additionally UNinstall some drivers?

Also, what software are you using with the GPS?

Thanks!

 

Finaly I bought the right screwdriver, opened up my Z placing the screws on printed out photo (thanks to Zoinks) and carefully lifted the keyboard/palmerst piece - really big thanks to Dimension here - the ribbon cable connecting keyboard seems fragile. But then - I dont know how to disconnect the ribbon cable from keyboard!!! I have never dealt with much hardware in my life, so I am cautious (better than sorry). So please, can anyone explain to me>

1- how to disconnect the ribon cable from keyboard?
2- how to disconnect the ribon cable from HDD?

Thanks plenty! I am waiting eagerly so that I can plug in my Intel X25.

 

Now suddenly, SonyStyle.se lists it as "in stock" again. Pretty annoying that you can never trust sales reps, even in non-tech matters. I even heard the price from certain retailers went up 4000 SEK (~$600) after it got withdrawn.

 

Can somebody in here help me with my new Z??

I made a clean install of W7 ultimate with my purhcased copy and all drivers are installed perfectly. But I have a problem with the graphics, I can't seem to switch to stamina mode!! It was working perfectly with the factory config but now it doesn't and also my FN Keys don't seem to work.

What sony utility is related to the FN keys??

Thanks guys.

 

Hello,

I want to buy new vaio z from uk sonystyle, but i have few questions

1.Is resolution of this screen not to big for 13" screen??? 33.3 cm (13.1") VAIO Display Premium HD1080 (1920 x 1080 pixels) (16:9) with LED backlight + built-in "Motion Eye" digital camera (0.3 Mega Pixels)

2.What is better 3usb ports or 2 usb and 1 ilink port?

3. Waht is Trusted Platform Module (TPM)?

thanks

 

Hi,

1. The text is tiny...is 1600x900 too small for you?

2. I would go for the 3 USB...do you have any devices that use ilink?

3. related to fingerprint scanner

 

I have the 1920x1080 and set the fonts to medium and it's pretty comfortable for me.

 

I recall that there is black part in flat cable in main frame end. It is just connector, and it should lift off if you just lift it.

in this thread Zoinks posted pics. I think you can find the connector and get the idea how to unplug it.

 

My Z is from germany, so I am not sure if everything is perfectly same...

This is what I did to make it to show up in my dev manager:
1. Uninstalled Gobi driver pack for sony from control panel / uninstall program.
2. Boot
3. Installed WWAN driver I got from sony europe support site. There is setup.exe inside, thats what I used. Note that I may have different model since they have only one model available in Finland. Tho I dont think driver differs since chip is same.

I havent tested it yet but I can see it in dev manager, so I think it will work as someone described here before. Just use Earth bridge and Google earth. Make sure that you have chip turned on from smart network.

I have also one question. What program (connection manager)there is in Finnish model to make 3G connection. I have mine in german and I like to have english version. If I recall correctly it is called one click internet or some similar. I tried one from Sony site (orange branded for UK) but it doesnt work for me. somehow it cant find my chip.

 

A bit misleading... and actually very little to do with the fingerprint sensor at all.

TPM is a chip (very common now) and tt allows you to use Windows BitLocker (full disk encryption) among other things to keep your data safe. This goes beyond your simple "user / password" arena.

I am a bit surprised that more people on this board are not really concerned about it. Laptop theft is a reality now and the last thing I need is any information stored on my laptop in another persons hands and be potential subject to identity theft, blackmail or extortion. Imagine every email or document being posted. Imagine writing your term paper ending up on a downloadable site and then trying to explain to a professor that you "didn't cheat".

Anyone that is using their notebook for work and keep any of your client data on it, even if temporary(emails, pictures, documents, etc.) can definitely be held liable should your notebook end up being stolen or lost. Not to mention keeping your data safe when you send it in for repair. You would be surprised what happens to notebooks and laptop drives when you send it in for repair. You think "Geek Squad" are the only ones that do that?

It's a notebook and therefore easily portable not only by you but also by would be thieves.

But I digress...

I did get to speak to Sony Level 3 support last night and the gentleman was a bit surprised as I was. Unfortunately it being very late on a Friday there was little he could do until Monday. His initial belief is that it might be a problem with the BIOS but it could also be a model specific issue. So I will hopefully have more information on Monday.

His information is starting to paint a picture which is supporting the research on this issue. European and Asia models do have this function as I have read through the VPCZ11 manuals for several countries and they do make specific reference to it being in the BIOS under "Security" where it would normally be found on any laptop.

However USA manuals seem to be much more generic with regards to this and call nothing specific out. Even going to the Sony USA website now does not expressly state TPM 1.2 is present where previously it did (I would not have ordered it if it did not).

There is software on the Sony Support Website called Infineon TPM for our models that you will not be able to install due to a lack of TPM module. The documentation for the software on the site calls out dozens of notebooks and it does support every VPCZ11. BTW that software is not on any recovery CD and was not part of the initial installation.

I have looked at some of the shots that I could find of posted Device Manager shots and the TPM module is not there leading me to believe that none of you have it nor is it present or enabled on ANY US model VPCZ11 when we are suppose to.

So either Sony is pulling another "Intel VT" fiasco, forgot to "enable" it in the BIOS or it will not be available on any USA models due do license / region issues or we are just getting "leftover" motherboards that don't have this feature and that is what Sony is going to market with here as every other region does have it.

I just have a really hard time swallowing that this technical flagship of $4500 lacks this most basic function that almost every other VAIO has had in the past (including the last generation Z) not to mention any notebook over $1000, that is in the same model in other regions and is present $500 notebook from Dell (no offence).

.dj