Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

HI,
Was just informed by Sony shop in London that there are no more Zs for at least 5 weeks...
/c

 

Did anyone manage to activate the built-in GPS. I installed smartwi and gobi driver but I dont see any gps icons.I am using win 7 x64 and I bought the notebook from sonystyle usa. Any ideas?

 

Thank you so much for the clear answer. Anyone elese severly displeased with there Z and want to try to convince me that it has major flaws. lol

 

I turned it on using the quicklink (i.e. lower right) that lets you turn on/off: Wifi, BlueTooth etc.

 

Yes, I'm using the GPS in USA with Windows 7 x64. Try to uninstall the gobi drivers, reboot and Install the drivers from sony website.

In SmartWi turn the location services on, and make sure in the device manager these ports are visible.



In addtion of that, I had to buy Microsoft Streets and Trips 2010 (it's no too expensive). If you buy it:

1. install it and reboot.
2. Open SmartWi, and click on "Launch Navigation"
3. Click on GPS task Panel
4. Click on Configure GPS
5. Scan Ports, when you find it, just Click on OK
6. After that just press Start/Stop GPS tracking.
7. Also check if the are any satellites, usually the software is pretty fast to find it.





I hope this information en useful for you!

 

@elrana: thanks for the tip, but do you mind telling me the different between the fatal1ty and the arena? I did my own research and I found out that the arena came out on top.

Also, to have gps module in my laptop I must have ordered the one with gsm module right? Or can i have it in a non-gsm option ?

 

volcano crunch ripoff britains got no super talent ssd trim pre-election raid fan noise manifesto ash cloud delays possible on the m25

 

MMMMM I just can tell you that check the specs in the headsets, mine works pretty good, but I think the arena are better, but those (arena) are USB.

If you get the VAIO VPCZ11 with Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband Built-In, just buy software (in this case i'm using Microsoft Streets and Trips 2010 $39.95)

 

Use, in-ear monitors......you wont be able to hear NOT A SINGLE external sound and without the hiss of , highly recommend Shure: http://store.shure.com/store/shure/en_US/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.12165500

I have the SE530, let me tell you WOW, not even speakers sound that good

 

Elrana, does the Verizon Broadband have to be activated with Verizon in order for GPS to work?

 

I have the 310s and love them. I have wanted the 530s for a *long* time, though. Amazon has them at half price...I am so tempted (though I have no need for them currently).

 

I'm not Elrana but I can just tell you that No, it does not have to be activated for the GPS to work.

 

@elrana: no I didnt order my Z11 with the Verizon Wireless Broadband. Can I still activate the GPS chip? good point, I totally missed the fact that fatal1ty used 3.5mm and Arena used USB. that makes a hell lot of difference. I can take fatal1ty and use it with my mp3 players.

 

Hi. I installed the drivers from sony's website. The problem is I dont see any entries in device drivers menu. In smartwi,I also dont see any gps icons. Is it normal? What else should I install?

 

Hi. I installed the drivers from sony's website. The problem is I dont see any entries in device drivers menu. In smartwi,I also dont see any gps icons. Is it normal? What else should I install?

 

Hey guys,

I was just going through the Vaio Z config page and I noticed a discrepancy between the sonystyle and intel website.

Sony claims that the i7-620m support 8 hyper threads, whereas Intel only claims 4. I thought the 620m has 2 cores= 4 thread, and only above 720m you get 4 cores= 8 threads.

Anyone care to elaborate on this? I am completely puzzled...

 

The "Location Services" (GPS) also works with Google Earth (earth.google.com) which is free.

 

i think that's more to do with different people's perception of the fan noise, rather than there being different fans.

 

No Gobi WWAN module (aka Verizon Wireless option in the US) = No GPS. The GPS receiver is part of the WWAN module.

 

But why do they say there is a built in gps. That means it should have that wwan module

 

Intel's right. I also tried to check other SonyStyle sites, but most EU sites are unavailable right now (refresh?). Closest I can find are the VPCEB190 CTO and VPC-CW290 CTO pages on SS Canada, which says the i7-620M supports "4-way multi-task processing".

CTO | Customize
CTO | Customize

 

This is ridiculous. Specs say gps option is available if I select Wireless WANN option only.

 

The above is true. To use GPS in the VAIO Z notebook, one will have to buy the VAIO Z notebook that comes with the Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband card built-in.

For people buying the VAIO Z notebook & doing a CTO at Sony Style USA online store, this option is found on the 2nd page of the configuration pages that is an extra $100 option listed under "Wireless Wide Area Network."

Note that the following pre-config models for the USA market do not come with built-in Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband card:

VPCZ112GX/S
VPCZ114GX/S
VPCZ116GX/S
VPCZ118GX/S

Please kindly correct me if I'm wrong, I think you're confusing W WAN with W LAN. In the case of the VAIO Z notebooks, the WWAN module is referring to the Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband card while WLAN (or Wi-Fi) is referring to the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (802.11a/b/g/n) wireless card.

By the way, is your VAIO Z notebook a CTO or one of the models that I've just listed above?

 

The 620M/540M are dual core with hyperthreading (4 threads). I just did a quick scan, where does Sony say 8?

I think you are on to something. People are likely confusing WWAN with WAN.

Exact location services are only available with the GOBI WWAN adapter in the Z. WiFi can give some level of accuracy with map sites like Gmaps or Bing, but they are usually only accurate to 500/1000 feet. GPS is accurate within several feet.

 

I think Jparity meant this...



Source: VPCZ1190X | VAIO® Z1190X Configure-to-Order | Sony | Sony Style USA

 

ARRR PortableOne has an error on their website. I got the 114, and it says it comes with it, but you are correct. It doesn't matter as I am in Australia and couldn't use it anyway... Is there a card I can get that will fit inside?

 

I know what wlan is What I am saying is why is that available with WWAN option. They can just put a single gps module.It shouldnt be available with WWAN module.

 

So if the Samsung drives do support TRIM, would it be possible to utilize TRIM if the SSDs were arranged as JBODs?

What sort of garbage collecting does Samsung implement in these drives? How does it differ from TRIM?

 

Yes. But again, there is currently no benefit in using JBOD as the GC works pretty good.

Nobody knows.

 

Nop, I don't have any plan with verizon or other company. We don't need it.

 

MMM that is a bad point my friend, if you didn't get the Verizon Card, I'm pretty sure you can't have the GPS system in your laptop. I think your going to need to buy a External GPS, sorry!

Talking about the Headset, I use the headset for gaming, listening music in my laptop, and also I listen music in my ipod touch, and it is pretty nice sound.

 

+1000000000000000000000

 

I'm absolute agree with you, but the only problem is the Google Maps you must to be online (internet), and The Microsoft Streets has the maps installed.

 

In Europe WWAN module Gobi 2000 (we call it 3G module or 3G modem) is not tied to any carrier operator, you can use it with any mobile phone operator.

In european models with 3G option is it possible to use/activate GPS module ?
If the answer is yes in which way can we activate it ?


P.S. End of April is coming...........too impatient.

 

In case some one is still contemplating over a suitable backup software for the SSD-equipped Z, I can now testify after my weekend tests, that Acronis True Image Home 2010 (I've also got the Plus Pack, I don't know if it makes a difference in this case) at least was able to see the RAID array when I booted from the Acronis Rescue Media, and offered to recover my image backup to that drive. However, I did not go on with the recovery, as I've got absolutely nothing wrong with my Z and don't want to mess anything up

 

Thx for the info

 

My Z CTO is en-route!!

Does anyone know of a suitable slim (ideally neopreme or something similar) carry case? I've been following this thread (mostly) closely; must've read a few hundred pages, but I can't remember hearing anyone successfully finding a suitable case.

For other people's info, the guy at Sony Style UK said "You're not the only one to ask about this, I expect we'll have something in a few weeks", which is all very well and good but I need to protect the thing over the next few weeks too.

 

10-character-limit.

 

Thanks! Didn't spot that.

 

Well I got it! The same as Lao3hero, in Hong Kong

SONY VAIO Z - VPCZ117GG (Premium Carbon)
Intel® Core™ i7-620M processor 2.66GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz
8GB DDR3 SDRAM
256GB (64GB x 4, Serial ATA, RAID 0 support)
13.1" wide (Full HD: 1920 x 1080) TFT colour display

I know someone asked me to PM them when I got it but I've forgotten who it was, sorry

Here's a quick version of the story. They are sold out and have a huge back order queue (call the number on the HK website and give them your phone number and email address to get on the list).

However, if you keep an eye on the website you will occasionally it change from 'out of stock', but you can still not order. That's because they are working through the phone numbers to see who wants one. And they told me they are getting stock at like, 10 at a time.

Annyhooo, I noticed the 'out of stock' had changed so I called, not expecting to get lucky, they checked my name was on the list and then asked me to hold. A different guy came on and told me they had ONE in stock and did I want it?

"(insert expletive here) YEAH I DO!", I remarked, and promptly booked a flight to HK to collect it.

I've had it a few days now and LOVE IT, as for the worries some have had, let me give you my take.

Full HD, tiny but gorgeous! I mean unbelievable. I am coming from a HP Pavilion which had very high resolution so I was worried this would be too small, but no! Its perfect, so crisp.

Sound - yep, craptastic, some movies are ok if i'm quiet at home but outside it's useless. but i can live with the free headphones, which are great

fan, wouldnt have noticed it if i hadnt been reading about it here. now i do occasionally notice it when its going hard, if i'm doing heavy work, but most of the time its fine. dont mind it at all.

keyboard is great, trackpad takes a while to get used to, inverted home/end keys are still catching me out as i automatically go to hit them ...

got the stickers and goo off by following Zoinks' advice about using a piece of sticky tape to 'blot' off the goo, thank you kind sir

now i've made my recovery disks and on thursday i will format and re-install.

so, to my question, which has been repeated ad infinitum here (i've read the woole thread, actually started on the previous thread and came here when it was first opened) .. what steps do i need to take. It would be great if they could posted at the start of the thread. IIRC ...

remove recovery partition
install latest SSD firmware (?)
enable write back cache
watch the thread on optimus to see if/when its going to work

anything else I should do to get full enjoyment out of this marvelous wee machine?

and thank u all for sharing, this thread is all that kept me sane during my wait. to those of you still waiting - keep the faith ... totally worth it!

/long winded monologue ...

EDIT: If you're interested, it cost USD $2570.00

 

gratz, karlopolo

 

Has anybody an idea?

 

Thanks. It seems to work fine with Microsoft Streets and Trips.

 

So - I've had the Z for a week now. Some comments...

I have the base model - which I got from best buy delivered in 2 days after ordering at $1730.

The fan isn't loud enough to be worrisome... even when you are gaming. Don't worry about it... my dell M2300 workstation laptop's fan is much louder and I barely noticed it. You can hear the fan - so if you are looking for absolute Zen like silence, I guess get a ipad

The Screen 1600x900, brightness, outside etc:

You can read the screen outside in full day with the sun shining at 12 noon. It's not perfect, but again - the dell I have wouldn't allow that, and so, although this isn't an outdoor screen, I'll be sitting on the hub lawn at Penn State studying outside (WITH) my laptop .

It gets bright, if the room is dark, you can turn it to the lowest setting and it will seem bright. In a sunny room, if you turn it up all the way (which I haven't needed to do (usually on 2 tics to the highest when I'm staring at super small text in a bright area or something...

The resolution is (IMO) superfine for a 13" screen. For all the 1080p guys out there, seriously, I can't see (and haven't seen them both side to side) how you would be able to reduce the size of the onscreen elements more than what you get at this resolution without developing an aneurysm. When watching video - it looks as if you are looking through a window at something that is actually there, so for any videobox lover, no worries .

I've had the same problem with coming out of sleep where you need to reset to get the laptop to perform properly. It happened once.

It feels not sturdy, which is a trade-off for lightness, but I'm concerned a bit by how flimsy the plastic on the right hand side underneath the cd player feels, I'm concerned that there is no docking solution and that I'll be wearing out the hdmi, power, speaker and usb ports before I'm ready to upgrade to the next machine. I feel like I have to treat it as a fragile object, maybe I'm wrong, but none of the previous machines I've owned which were dell made me feel this way, latitude, inspiron, and thinkpad (IBM) - I just didn't naturally feel like, omg I'm going to break this before the year is out.

GET the bigger hard-drive, I'm already wishing I did.

Speakers, aren't the best, and initially when I was in the sony store - I thought they were a deal breaker, but at home - when the laptop is on my desk, it's plugged into a speaker system. When it's on your lap - I have not needed to turn them even close to all the way up to hear video/audio.

Does anyone have any news on the docking station - are they doing a redesign cause it is no longer being sold by Sony. I hope they realize that for their fighter jet machine, users need a full, reliable docking station solution / with ALL i/o ports (speaker in/out, hdmi, power, replicated and several additional usb ports as well as a DVI port) Ship the replicator with a power cord!

We need an option to swap the DVD for a hard drive at home, so depending upon what my plans are for use scenarios I can change it on the fly - not only that, but many will need additional storage at some point - what's the option here? Can you return your laptop to sony to get a bigger drive?

Stickers come off easy with fingers only - no visible residue on the handrest

GAMING - it is pretty sweet. I played starcraft for about 6 hours straight, no hangeups and super smooth through the hdmi port to a bigger monitor. The settings were all medium to high. When I turned it up to ultra, it handled it, however there was significant screen stepping as you scroll around the map. A significant concern of mine was to get a laptop that could play diablo 3 when it comes out, I'm good

keys do get oily.

The battery does rattle - what gives with that, why doesn't sony do something about this... I had a sony vaio 10+ years ago and they still have the same problem?

I'd buy it again in a heartbeat - I love it.

 

Thanks for the mini-review.

It's 1600x900, btw.

Check here for DVD swaps. I put two pieces of foam tape in the battery compartment, no more giggles.

 

wow... I guess I won't be swapping out my disc drive anytime soon!

 

This Power settings breakdown post will be updated to reflect the latest tweaks from members which help other members achieve the best battery performance and eventually will include other power scenarios. Any good member suggestions - I'll add to this post. This post will provide details describing the different methods of changing and saving settings, as well as drawbacks/comments from other members. (Thanks to all!)

General Facts:

The Z can do 6+ hours with the basic battery
The Z can do <insert hours here> with the extended battery

There multiple ways to adjust and save power settings:

1. Vaio control center: Some members recommend not using this and using windows 7 settings... <question to members - why, what in general can you not do or does not work with this?>
2. Intel <insert info here>
3. Windows <insert info here>


Scenarios:

Scenario 1: Member Recommended Settings to achieve the best blend of battery life and usability >> Usage time > 6hrs

Using the exact setting below, Vaio Z users have consistently gotten 6 or more hours from the standard battery.

<incomplete - in the process of being edited>

Vaio Control Center:

Battery: ​

Enable/Disable Battery Care function​

Advanced Settings
Battery Care function (80%): X
Battery Care function 50%:
Custom Setting: ​

Power Options​

Low Batt Action - Auto enter hibernate: x​

Thermal Control Strategy
Balanced Mode:
Performance Mode:
Silent Mode: x​

Power Options Advanced: ​

Vaio Power Management Viewer:​

Power plan: unknown
Advanced:​

Desktop Background settings:
Wireless Adaptor Settings:
Sleep:
USB Settings:
Intel(R) Graphics Settings:
Power buttons and lid:
Processor power management:
Display:

Display Brightness:?%​

Multimedia Settings:
Battery:​

VAIO Power Management (TAB):

LCD(Video): Medium (16 bit)

Color Quality:​

Other Devices:

CD/DVD: Auto Off​

Display

Automatic Brightness Settings:​

Adjust brightness automatically: uncheck this box​

I can update this particular post with the most up to date scenarios and then we can point to it...

THANKS for all suggestions contributed by: quelle, skull333 <edit later>

 

This was mentioned earlier in the thread a couple of time. Under Power Options >> VAIO Power Management tab >> Colour Quality (from 32 bit to 16 bit) and Refresh Rate (from 60Hz to 40Hz)

The change in the colour quality is pretty obvious in some pictures i.e. banding in gradients but I haven't experienced any negative side effects from dropping the refresh rate.

From my own tests, I've not been able to get 6 hours from the regular battery but changing those 2 settings really helped with the battery time.

 

The times where I can attain +6 hours are as mentioned above.
- Change refresh rate from 60Hz to 40 Hz
- Change from 32bit to 16bit color
- Lower brightness to 3 bars or lower
- Turn off Auto brightness adjust (In Vaio Control Center under Display options)
- Turn off Wifi (I've gotten roughly +7 hours with wifi off and the above settings)

The change in refresh rate does not noticeably impact video play. A big indicator from changing from 32bit to 16bit is the Windows taskbar is no longer semi-transparent, rather it turns opaque in 16bit mode. Just serves as quick reminder as to when you have changed to 16 bit.

 

There are also some advanced power management options under the WiFi adapter in device manager and in the Intel Graphics and Media Control Center (whew, IGMCC for short).