Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Or maybe earlier on some guy with the same configuration cancelled his order

You're really lucky to get the 4x SSD, I don't think that's available here in the states...

 

Does anyone have problems with the Fn brightness shortcuts?

Basically what happens is every so often (I think after resuming from sleep mode) the Fn brightness keys stop working. The screen brings up the brightness level and it changes on the screen, but the laptop brightness is not adjusted. To fix it you have to switch gfx modes to the other one, then switch back. This is without auto-brightness, and all the other Fn keys work (sound, etc).

Anyone have ideas? This is on my week-old VPCZ1.

As a side note, this is the lightest and most complete laptop package I have ever owned (I've owned HPs, Acers and Lenovos). Sony have a real hit with this one!

 

Turn off autodimming in the Vaio Control Center.

 

Is there another setting I am missing? The auto-brightness (or whatever variant you choose to call it) is already disabled. I'm kind of thinking it might be an nvidia driver glitch or something.

e: Just tried adjusting brightness with the windows mobility center and moving that bightness slider around didn't change the brightness either. Again fixed by switching gfx modes and then switching back.

 

Not sure what is happening then. My clean install is working perfectly.

You could try uninstalling the current video drivers and reinstall.

 

Just had my first stutter crash with it. Was streaming some music and writing when the screen when to black and required a hard reboot. Not a big deal, but I hope it doesn't become problematic.

On another front, I'm frustrated with not finding a good bag at a really affordable price...I'm now leaning towards sfbags, even though it's pricey. Seems to hit everything for me, and it comes with a good sleeve. So, I think that's where I'm headed, unless anyone else has any good ideas.

 

dola--

I just realized why my laptop crashed. I was streaming audio from my gf's computer (as I haven't put my music on here yet). Her laptop went to sleep, which crashed my laptop because it no longer had access to the music.

I will test that tomorrow...but this seems to be the likely culprit.

 

Premium Carbon, baby! I love mine!

 

I agree with you. I get so frustrated when I am on my work PC that I try to not do anything on it but work stuff. Even if I have both PCs on and have to switch between the two. Because seriously, this Z is so fast and does things with such ease that it is a pain when you are on a PC that struggles to load a website - lol

Amazing how quickly you get used to something. I have no complaints about my Z at all.

 

I've experienced this once. Excactly the symptoms you described. I've had my Z for three weeks now.

 

Silver, Silver, Silver or .....Metal Mosaic design (Signature Collection), but Black has its charm too.

Moral of the story: only your personal taste can help you decide.

 

I find it interesting as a potential buy, but noisy laptops are a no-no for me.

This detailed review of Sony Z i5 version says its a hella noisy at heavy load:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-VPCZ11X9E-B-Notebook.28704.0.html

What is the experience of owners on this? And are there tweaks to reduce the noise? For instance is it any different of you turn the dedicated GPU off? Are there BIOS tweaks? Has anyone tried replacing the fan? etc...

 

You can't expect a notebook with a high-end CPU / GPU at heavy load within a 13' case to be quiet. This is not a question of bad design / bad quality, this is a matter of physics.

 

I didnt say it was "bad design" - I said I dont want noise. I actually dont need an extreme CPU or GPU - I'm not going to be running photoshop 24 hours a day while simultaneously transcoding video or something.

I'm simply looking in a lightweight laptop with high resolution and high quality screen (contrast/colour), which is actually not that easy to find, for some bizarre reason. However, this Sony Z seems to hit those key dimensions. So the question is whether it can be adjusted to be more quiet.

Can it?

 

^ The Z is near silent when idle, and makes a little bit of noise when going full chat... But to be honest, I was so engrossed in the game I was playing I didn't even realise it was making any noise, until I stopped the game and heard the fan wind back down...

 

There is a mode called 'Silent Mode' which could be set under Vaio Control Centre but I have not verified if it is really silent. Other than that my Z is almost always silent, even when I play games at highest settings. Hope this helps.

 

Then Z is definitely overkill for you. Maybe you should check vaio X (if you want Sony machine). It doesn't even have cooling fan and it's ultra light.

 

If you're sensitive to sound, you might find the Vaio a bit noisy. When you're outside, in a cafe, office or anywhere with background noise, you won't hear it, but in a quiet room, I think you would. I've had a few thinkpads, and I've not had a PC as noisy as this when idle. Even so, it's still an excellent little machine so I'm not going to return it!!
And as others have said, you can feel it churning out quite a bit of heat, so I don't think you'd want to stop the fan even if you could.

Separately, if anyone, like me, misses dedicated page-up and page-down keys, you can use the excellent AutoHotKey to map them to other keys - I've used the NumLk and PrtSc buttons (which I rarely use) for that.

 

Is that with the "silent mode" (which was mentioned above by lao3hero) enabled, or without?

 

I would have considered the X but it can't seem to play Hulu clips without stuttering. If I don't game the quietness of the Z is very good IMO, nevertheless there are other cheaper and less powerful options out there if you are willing to settle for that. The Apple Macbook Air was one of my other alternative choices when I was looking.

I am very happy with the Z though, and like an earlier poster stated the noise even under gaming loads doesn't seem to annoy me either, so it depends on the sensitivity of the user.

 

Yes - even when using "silent mode". "Silent mode" is just a predefined power option - they provide a choice of performance, balanced, silent (all of which can be configured) - so it just tweaks the power consumption of the CPU, etc. In any of these modes, fan speed is set by the temperature, and is always running. Crucially, there is no ability that I know of to manually adjust the fan speed or the temperatures at which the fan changes speed.

 

That's not correct, the VAIO X does have a fan.

 

If GPU and CPU are not that important Z is serious waste of money.To tell you the true if I want machine with ordinary performance but with good screen and super quiet fan, for regular use than I will be probably looking for something from Apple.

Even though I don't even have Z yet I am sure he will not be satisfied with fan noise level simple because there is no way to put all that power in such a small chassie and expect fan to be super quiet.

 

I stand corrected, didn't expect it to have one with such a small body .

 

I asked this before but didn't see any response -- does anyone know (I'm looking at you, Zoinks, who has had your machine in 1200 pieces) if the "SIM Card" slot under the battery on USA Z is actually a SIM card slot, or if it is just there because there is a slot on European models? If I shove a SIM in there is it going to just get stuck inside the case or is there a slot installed behind the cover? Thanks

 

As well as what other people here have suggested, I would think that you could go into the power settings applet and limit the max CPU utilization thereby keeping the fan level down.

 

My wife has the pre-unibody 15" MBP and let me tell you, the Z's fan is a lot quieter under moderate to heavy load!

 

With all due respect -I dont need any side-track recommendations. thank you. I do have my wife's Acer 1810 sitting here on the desk. If I wanted a micro size machine, I'd buy that. I'm here looking for a full size machine and want to discuss this machine. Which is why I posted in this thread, not in a general Sony thread or in the TT thread or the X thread.

I dont find the price outlandish. Disregard the GPU and CPU - historically you've always had to pay a premium for hi-res, high quality screens in a small package. Have you tried looking for a standard size laptop with lightweight, high-res, high quality screen? You wont find many.Apple's 13" is low-res. Their 15" is pretty good but at 5.5lbs, its not that small in absolute terms. Lenovo's T410s is good all round, but they botched it with an awful 5-cent screen. There isnt much out there.

So if I can make this one work, it might be worth it.

 

It sounds like you did your homework and therefore I would say buy one from a place with a good return policy and if you don't like the fan return it. The Z was a little overkill for me, but it is hard to find any Lightweight PCs out there, so i hadto go with the Z. I needed a normal processor and not a ULV, so the Z was it for me. So I totally understand your point where the Z may be more than you need, but it is the only one that fits the specs you require. The fan does not bother me and I love my purchase. I don't regret it one bit.

 

You're quite right. There's nothing really like it out there. Every time I pick it up I'm amazed at just how much power they've packed in such a lightweight package.

 

I haven't removed the main board to check, but it doesn't look like it. The slot doesn't appear to go anywhere.

 

I just ordered this Targus Zip-Thru 13" Ultra-Lite Corporate Traveler case through Amazon for about $74. Here are links to the descriptions on the Targus and Amazon websites:

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.aspx?sku=CUCT02UA13
http://www.amazon.com/Targus-CUCT02UA13-Ultra-Lite-Corporate-Traveler/dp/B00193LOFM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I expect to have it early next week and will post my thoughts.

 

just did the SFbags thing

Code:

-----------------Individual Item Breakdown-----------------

Item Ref.   Price ea.   Qty.  Description

G1MDLD      $22.00      1     -Gear Pouch-
                             -Medium-
                             -Lead Indium-
G2MDLD      $22.00      1     -Cableguy-
                             -Medium-
                             -Lead Indium-
MZ13GC      $239.00     1     -Muzetto-
                             -13" Laptop Size-
                             -Green
SJS313      $29.00      1     -Suede Jacket-
                             -Vertical Sleeve-
                             -13" MacBook Pro

They called me about two hours after I placed the order. They are out of green Muzettos, so I chose copper instead. I think they bumped my order to Fedex for the trouble. Great service so far.

 

I'm seeing bags optimized for airport screening, do they work, or would security still make you physically separate the bag from the laptop?

 

Nope, just open them up and send them through.

 

Oh cruel fate. I just can't believe it

After two months of waiting for my Z to be sent from Japan I finally have fedex tracking number but because of eruption of volcano in Island fedex is delaying shipment to Europe. Hope they'll not lose it in confusion made by mad volcano.

God!!! You could at least make the wind blow volcanic dust away from the Europe, not sending it straight over all major airports just in time to delay my shipment.

 

lol, fate is a cruel mistress

 

Hello everybody,

This is my first message in this forum. I am quite interested in the Vaio Z and seems like I am not the only one here

Regarding the fan noise I was wondering if anyone tried to undervolt his Vaio Z?

Thanks!

 

The thing with color is... since there are so many netbooks around, the black vaio z by itself even with or without the premium carbon looks kinda like a $500 netbook from a distance since its in black it looks smaller... but when u get up close to it it looks amazing... where as the silver one makes people take a second look since it looks too elegant to look like a netbook and upon closer inspection it looks just as good as the black one, white/silver gets more attention...

 

Not that think about this much, but I disagree.

The black looks expensive, even more so with the glossy coating. I get comments about mine pretty often.

 

has anyone have this problem, when you right click on desktop. the pop up is not come up instantly unlike my old p4 desktop it just come up without 2second load time.

thx

 

The copper looks nice, but why that and not the 80$ sony one?: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...&langId=-1&productId=11039235&tab=featuresTab

Btw the copper looks nicer.

Do you have this case by any chance: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...productId=8198552921665486585&tab=featuresTab

 

Blue13x, I don't. Check the sleeve thread for info.

Ung_Kung, not often. I think it is more of a Windows thing than a Sony thing. It happens on my desktop and work laptop on occasion. I have several things added to the context options like WinRAR, TreeSize Free, Universal Extractor, Norton Internet Security, etc.

I think it happens most often when one of my persistent network shares are unavailable. You can right click on a file, then "Send To." External drives and network shares are listed.

 

I grew up in the 70/80s when silver was the design trend for electronic devices. So I suppose the silver Z looks a little too "retro" for my tastes -- reminds me of my first computer, the Texas Instruments TI-994/A, or our family stereo receiver. (Design trends come around full circle, though, so I am neither surprised by nor decrying the return of silver electronics.) And I don't want people taking second looks at my Z, I'm paranoid enough as it is carrying a $2500 notebook around.

 

IMO the silver aluminum creates a much nicer contrast look with the black bezel and keyboard than either of the black models... of course the latter looks much more professional.

 

Can someone help with this issue, I'm trying to create a system image using Windows 7 Home Edition.

I go to the option in backup and restore and select " Create a system image"

I have an external hard drive that is completely empty and when I hit refresh to select a drive it gives me an error message. I took a screen shot of the message...any suggestions helpful.

 

I'm likely going the sfbags route too, despite the price. The folks at sfbags recommended the Cozmo for me, which has me curious (I was looking at the Muzetto and the Cargo, though I do not believe the Muzetto will have enough room for my peripherals).

Do you have any idea when you'll receive yours?

 

Regarding my system image question, I just found out that Windows wants an external drive that has 1.15TB of empty space to do an image....1.15TB! Why it asks for so much I don't understand, I assumed it would be much much smaller.

If anyone else has any further info that would be great.

 

Couldn't agree more. My only complaint is that the BIOS takes way too long at boot. Other than it is by far the best/fastest laptop I've used. No regrets this thing rules.

 

I've had my CTO for 2 weeks now and have been meaning to post here ever since I received it, but I never really found what I wanted to say. As with the few others who've replied to this, I have to agree with you on how amazing this machine is.

I bought the Z after following the forums for some time and had some hopes up on the fan noise not being all too loud in reality. Well, as it turns out, it really is that loud. But after a couple of weeks of usage (between school and home), I realized that it doesn't actually bother me. I'd usually have to be in a noise-conscious mood to hear it.

As for all of the other problems, I feel like I'm one of the lucky ones - I have no other problems. My battery snapped right into place and isn't wobbly at all. Nothing on the laptop creaks. My screen does not get pressed into by the bezel (I've tried opening and closing the screen several times to make sure). I have yet to notice any diagonal lines on my screen no matter what angle I'm looking at. I don't know much about the battery drain stuff, but I don't think I've noticed anything weird about that, either. The sound is fine; I don't really put the volume over 50% with/without earphones. No weird/random crashes two weeks in with plenty of web surfing and mild gaming.

All of the good things everyone's talked about here are true, so I don't really have to list anything. At the end of the day, I don't think I could bring myself to say I regret purchasing my Z. I do regret settling for only 128GB of space, on the other hand...

PS: I absolutely love how sexy the Premium Carbon looks.