Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Hello everyone, im on my way back from naples to paris, using three different trains because of the volcano dust (i should be happy though, at least i dont need to get to the us or asia !)

i was checking on my order status for the z while away, and i got the last email from them saying that the z was eing sent to teir logistic center, and that itwould be shipped via ups on the 20th (today). Not getting a confirmed shipment email today, i emailed them and they replied saying that my z was. Uilt, but because of the air trafic problems, it would have to sit in japan for one more week at least . And of course im leaving this friday for a month so i wont be seeing my z till end of may !!!

Of all the things i thought could happen to stop the z from reacging me, i never for one second thought that a volcano would erupt !

What i found odd though, is that i thought european Zs were made in a german factory, are they all being assembled in japan then ?

 

Yes as far as i know they are all made in japan and then shipped to ''wherever you may be''.

 

As for the USB 3.0, same thing with the MBPs. The Intel just decided not to support USB 3 on the chipsets, untill 2011 by the time light peak might be more interesting.
Desktops or laptops that do have are using thrid party chips

 

Did it come with the US Win 7?

 

It came with Japanese Win7 Professional. If you had an extra copy of Win7, I'm sure you can just reinstall. Alternatively, if you opt for Win7 Ultimate, you could just change the OS language to English as Ultimate includes access to all language packs.

You can choose US keyboard layout if you wish. I'm more used to the Japanese layout due to having a Let's Note as my previous laptop, so I just stuck with the standard JP layout. Backlit is not standard on the JP model and you must select it as an option.

 

On top of the great points posted by ZoinksS2k and zendar, I would say another point against the Z is the factory-underclocked GT 330M GPU. That is a concern for those of us who don't have experience with overclocking (like me) and are worried about heat.

 

My Z shiphed by Conics on April 16 manage to get to the FEDEX PARIS hub on the Charl De Gaulle airport. I don't see any flights from CDG to Belgrade Serbia by FeDex (I am using http://www.flightstats.com/ to track Fedex filghts). Serbian airspace is opened (not affected by volcano dust). Newer used FeDex for shipment before so I don't have clue how FedEx delivers shipment from main European hub in Paris to other European countries.

After two month of waiting every new day of waiting is painful. I was checking FX 6 flight from NJ to FR whole day today until it arrived to CDG .

 

Well my guess would be truck or train for EU europe. Plane costs them more i believe and is not really justifiable for short to medium distances (thats just my opinion though, Im no expert here !)

 

I can't find any tracking example from Serbia since not that many people use Fedex here because expensive customs procedure. If package is sent by DHL,Fedex or UPS. You will not only pay +30% (customs tax+VAT) on price+shipment expenses base but also you will have some additional cost for customs procedure on Belgrade airport (around 100 euros). So unless you are ordering something very expensive (like Z) nobody will ship using DHL,Fedex or UPS in Serbia.

I know it will come by airplane since all shipments from Fedex always end up on Belgrade airport, but I am not sure if it will be flight from Paris directly or rout will have some more stops in between.

 

Thanks for the info. Yeah I wanted to check how much the true price it was in Japan first I will be in some parts of asia in 2 weeks (Singapore and Malaysia) and trying to compare to them... though someone told me the high end model is sold out in Malaysia :*(

 

I'm having an ongoing issue with the black screen with a rapid beeping noise after it goes full black. I only get this so far when I'm watching a video in full screen mode from the internet such as youtube.

The computer completely freezes with a black screen and I have to manually hit the power button to shut down and restart.

When I do restart the windows screen comes up up then it suddenly goes into hibernation mode (power button blinks orange) until I hit the enter button for the screen to become active again. When I do log into windows the taskbar tells me that Nvidia HD Audio has been reinstalled....so I'm guessing it could be an issue with the audio driver and not the video driver.

Is this happening to anyone else or are others black screen issues different from mine. Any info greatly appreciated as I don't know what to do.

Thanks.....

 

Hello,

did anybody use the Vaio Z outdoors for a longer time, i.e. an hour or so, both in the sun and in the shadows? Please state if you used the 1900x1080 or the 1600x900 display.

I am interested in the Vaio Z, but had no opportunity yet to test it outdoors.
I would use it often outdoors.

(The question was already raised by somebody in this long thread, but I could not find an answer with the search function.)

Thanks

hackinger

 

Looking for the smallest wall/air/auto charger I can find: Does anyone know what the wattage draws are on the various units?

 

Hi,

I've been following this board for quite some time now as I'm in the market for a new notebook. Having read many of the threads related to the new Vaio Z series there's a good chance I will be getting one soon.

Since many of you already got their new Z I would be happy to read if you're still happy with your decision to buy one. Would you buy again after you had the chance to work with it for some time?

Maybe you even have some experience with the previous generation Z and can tell me something about the reliability of these machines...

I'm pretty sure I would want a Core i7 CTO with 512 GB SDD (quad, hopefully), but I've not yet decided if it's wise to pick the Full HD display. Seems like a lot of pixels for such a tiny display although when I had a chance to play with one I was pleasently surprised how readable even the small characters on the screen were.

Even the color choice is a bit difficult this time... I like the carbon styling very much (unfortunately, I could only get the non-glossy one here in Germany), but the Metal Shield also seems nice. What's the material on the outside of the lid? Is it just sort of "printed on" or real aluminum as on the keyboard panel. Does anybody have some close-up images that could help me make my decision?

Thanks,
Peter

 

My Vaio Z reaches around 90*Celcius when playing extreme games such as Crysis. Does anyone know if this is normal?
Thanks.

 

This is the smallest adapter I'm aware of. Reviews on it are marginal, but it works.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834996403&Tpk=AC19V30

EDIT: You need a 19V adapter. I tried using an older adapter from a TT, no workie.

 

Oy, the palmrest area where my palm rests (lol) is starting to change color. I wish they would sell paint for laptops.

 

Aware of this one but I'm looking for a combo AC/Car/Airplane adapter. I want an all-in-one. I currently have an iGo unit, but that's on the bigger side.

I ask about the wattage because I'd like to know if I can get by with a 70 watt unit or if I need to go with 90. I don't see the wattage anywhere on the Z. (I thought they had to show wattage and/or amperage by law!)

At 90 watts the Targus APM69US looks as small as I've seen. I'm just looking around for alternatives. (Note that the smallest Kensington unit will not do autos!)

Thx.

 

Hey Fellas,

I just reformatted my Z and for some reason I've been getting a lot of stuttering while browsing (using Chrome) on Power Saver battery settings since I'm in class. Any ideas as to why that may be? Could I be missing a driver?

 

Already....on the new Sony Z!!? That would be only about a month of use...

 

SurferJon, can you post some pics showing the discoloration?

To avoid this kind of thing, I covered the entire palmrest and touch pad in 3M protective film. This should address any wear.

 

Hi there,

I just got my Z, and really like it (besides the dead pixel that it came with, but Sony says that's just the luck of the draw).

Question for anyone: do you know how to reset the ASSIST, and VAIO buttons on the computer to do something else?? The VAIO button is actually a "mute" for the volume, and I want it to do something other than that. And I'd like to reprogram the ASSIST button to go to the action center instead of VAIO care.

Thanks

 

I was afraid the plastic palm rest meant trouble.

Would the protective film cause any discoloration itself? by trapping heat like those windows stickers? i thought about doing this for my tz as well.

 

This looks good too

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1271822650&sr=8-1-fkmr3

 

$3,000 plus laptop and the palm rest is wearing out already.....that is seriously ridiculous. Can you say class action lawsuit.

What color is the palmrest?

 

Nope. I've been putting the stuff on my gizmos for years. It also comes off cleanly, no residual adhesive.

As for the palmrest becoming discolored, I'm not sure how that happens. The plastic is the same color all the way through. You can't rub the color off.

Perhaps it just has a layer of junk on it. I could see this happening on the light grey models.

Please do post photos, I'm interested in how it looks.

 

Ouch, discoloration on the palm rest of a $2000 laptop is a big NO!

I was gonna buy the silver Z but now I may spring for the carbon fiber black instead. Maybe the black will do a better job of concealing the discoloration.

 

Yes, it does look good. But again, looking for car and airplane as well as wall.

Thx.

 

I finally drove to Sony Styles to check out the Sony Z...

I was impressed, and damn it was sexy!

The screen is great, BUT I could see the diagonal lines. This might be a deal breaker for me especially since its such an expensive laptop.

Are the diagonal lines an inherent property or is there a way to get rid of it?

 

Zoinks, which place did you pick up the 3M film from? Do you have a package code that would help me track it down.

If you could post a picture of your palmrest that would be great.

Thanks for the great suggestion.

Cheers.

 

I think he has the prem. carb. black.

 

Wohoo I've ordered and paid my Z a few minutes ago.

Cofiguration:
- Core i5 540m
- 4 GB Ram
- 192GB SSD
- Premium Carbon
- Win 7 Prof with XP Downgrade
- FHD Screen
- Fingerprint Sensor
- WWAN
- normal Battery

Including Taxes I had to pay 2179€ and shipping is estimated in 3-4 weeks. Concrete shipping date will be created when they have my money (paid via online bank transfer...no CC).

I've read all Threads in this Board since Febuary and finally decided to order...can't await to get it!

 

*swallows hard* OMG mine's premium carbon too...

 

In reality this sort of this has been pretty common on ultraportables, going way back. If it isnt the palmrest, it'll be the plastic on the mouse buttons. It's generally inevitable.

As far as I can is the grease from your hands. "Grease" here means not gunk but natural oils from your skin. If you use lotion, it discolours even faster.

I know that the manufactuers are aware of this because once I sent a Panasonic Y5 toughbook in for a warranty repair and when it came back they also had replaced the worn portion of the mouse - unasked.

But for it to happen within weeks is pretty bad. You can probably send it in. That said, my experience is that Panasonic customer service is a hellalot better than Sony's.

 

Here's a pic. Maybe when something breaks, when I send it in, I'll demand they replace it. The photo doesn't show how bad it is, but yeah, it'll definitely get worse. The keyboard is a little greasy because I haven't cleaned it in a few days, but the gunk usually comes off. The palmrest discoloration doesn't, though.

 

Quick question. Does anyone know how to access the Vaio "Setting Utility Series" or has that been superceded by the Vaio Control Center?

Also, have you seen the English text in the Document Zoom window in the Control Center - it is embarrassingly bad: "Some softwares are able to use Zoom button, if you check out. ..." - you'd think Sony would employ someone who speaks English to write their English text !

 

Just thought I would share in case anyone else runs into this -- I fixed the problem with my backspace key "scraping" against the aluminum body by removing the key, and then removing the "metal support bar" (looks like a bent paper clip) and bending the ends inward so it had a much tighter fit. After I put it back on and replaced the key it is held securely and no longer scrapes.

 

GOT MY Z !!!!. It arrived today and it is my turn to be f#@#ing annoying.

I got Win7 Pro with XP but how do I find the fresh start option? I put the dvd's in and did a clean install, but didn't see fresh start anywhere?

What things should I be doing first? I know there is a list somewhere, but this thread is now 384 pages, and it is just easier to ask (maybe add it to front page?).

 

The "Fresh start" option is NOT available in Australia. It's done via CTO. Your best bet is to install a fresh copy of Windows 7... not from Sony.

 

I brought the Z from US (portableone). I read somewhere that all the US Win7 Pro models have it? Maybe I will just mod the CD to remove the crapware....

 

It should come up with no bloatware from the start if you went for the Fresh Start option.

 

That definitely looks like hand oil to me. Much like that on the keys...

Hahaha!

I thought fresh start means it should already come without bloatware installed. I read before that for Win 7 Pro, when you burn the recovery disks, there is the option to burn just the necessary drivers, excluding bloatware as well.

 

Hi everyone,
Just a quick question for any UK posters. I've been waiting on my CTO Z doing the expectant checking of email to see when it will arrive (will book the day off work so that I'm available for delivery and so that I can play with it ). I received an email notifying me of my Z's production with a (albeit estimated) shipping date between the 13th and 18th April, with another on the 15th stating that it was on it's way to the logistics centre (Netherlands), updating the shipping date to the 16th. As of then I've received no further updates. I've called Sony several times but have received nothing more than a vague affirmation that it will be delivered shortly.

Obviously the Icelandic volcano has put a major crimp in delivery dates across Europe but flights we're cancelled from the 15th onwards and it seems others have been distributed whilst mine shuffles it feet mournfully awaiting a boarding pass. I myself managed to get from the UK to Ireland on friday the 16th and back again by the Monday. Surely Sony can do better than this.

Is anyone else waiting on a Z order in the UK, how's it going for you? Should I start to kick up a fuss now?

Many thanks, in advance.

 

Portable One will sell you a fresh start version of their own for around USD35.

 

Yep, got mine from sonystyle.co.uk - except I ordered mine on the 12th.

It's been almost 10 days and I've not yet got further than "in production". Out of interest, when did you order yours?

I rang Sony to ask about the volcano and how it might affect things; they told me they don't think the laptops come in from the Netherlands to the UK on a flight, so it should be fine. We'll wait and see... I want my laptop!

 

(Not from UK but it's not stopping me from replying )

If you have the shipping company's info, maybe they have a better idea what's going on. I'm guessing Sony will have to contact them too...

 

I purchased some blank sheets of the protective film from BestSkinsEver. I removed the palmrest and applied it then cut to size.

I've been promising a how-to on this for a while, just been lazy. I'll make another attempt this weekend.

That's wear. If it isn't too shiny, you should be able to clean most of it off. Get a microfiber towel, spray a few pumps of Windex on it and wipe down the palmrest.

Hate to say it, but this kind of thing will only get worse over time. I'm not terribly happy Sony opted for plastic in this Z series release, but the issue isn't Sony's alone. Take a look at any ThinkPad ever made. They all have this problem.

Good news is that the palmrest isn't *too* hard to pull off, although I wouldn't recommend doing it until somebody makes a how-to.

 

I have done some CrystalDiskMarks of various SSDs on my Z.

1. SONY QUAD SSD RAID (cache on)
2. SONY QUAD SSD RAID (cache off)
3. SONY SSD AHCI
4. OCZ Summit SSD AHCI (same SDD controller as the SONY SSD)
5. INTEL X25-M SSD AHCI

Enjoy

 

That would be really helpful. Thanks

 

Rang sony again today. It's still languishing at Sony's European logistic centre (Netherlands) although the sony rep couldn't tell me if it was with the dispatch company yet. Apparently there's a backlog (realy???) and the shipping company use air freight from there to UK. Seems like someone is sitting on it till all services are back to normal (today), sony don't seem interested in contacting them although I've been told to expect delivery some time early next week. No tracking number as yet.

Ordered it on the 30th March, payment confirmed on the 1st April. What makes me laugh (or cringe) the most is that everytime I call sony they have an automated offer off "Free next day delivery for all web and phone orders made before the 25th of April". I might quote 'em that next time.