Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

I wish there was a way to externally charge the z battery like the lenovo dock does

 

Hmmmm, there maybe a third-party software interference with your windows 7. Start your windows in Safe Mode and then see if the screen still shakes. If it does, try installing a fresh clean of copy of windows or recover your Vaio to factory. If it doesn't, remove the third-party software thats causing the disruption. I blame Nvidia. Nvidia is the culprit.

Also make sure your windows is kept up-to-date with the latest updates.

 

Windows Update is on and hits all the updates. This has been going on since the machine was gotten, if I remember correctly. I haven't added anything that would disrupt the screen.

I never did a fresh install, because frankly, I a) don't mind the Sony software too much (I actually use one or two of them), and b) it ends up being a bigger headache than leaving it be (at least for me...something always ends up going screwy). So, I'm unsure as to what third-party software it could be. My drivers are correct and up-to-date.

I will look at it, Sandy, regarding safe mode. May not get to it until the weekend, but I will. Thank you.

 

I experienced this one time, so I think I know what you are talking about.

I reinstalled the SONY Nvidia driver package and haven't seen it since.

 

Hi guys,

Glad to have found this forum. I bought VPC-Z1 last month and had a couple problems already.

The first one involved the battery which seems to be charging. It suddenly got stucked at 74% and no going up. It stayed at that number. When I unplugged the AC power, my laptop went dead suddenly. Luckily, Sony support helped me with this and the problem has been resolved.

The second problem is very annoying. It involves the Synaptic Touch Pad. When I unplug the AC power (meaning I am on battery), the synaptic pad does not work. I sent it back to Sony to have it checked out. I got it back 2 days ago and it seemed everything is fine.
I tried to run it on battery and my touch pad ran fine.

However, when I adjusted the screen brightness and ran it on battery, the problem returned. The synaptic touch pad won't run.

Does anyone experience the same problem?

Before sending it back, I tried re-installing the driver, etc with no cure.

I sent an email to Sonystyle Canada in facebook. I hope they will pay for my shipping fee back this time as the problem is NOT resolved.

 

I thought about some black hockey tape I have which I could put a small piece over the sensor but it hasn't gotten too annoying as yet for that but I may have to resort to it. Hopefully, there will be a fix for this in a new Sony Control Center but for right now my main problem is the black screen with the video (full screen) at any resolution.

Cheers.

 

We don't even know if there will be an update released ever. The best thing is to keep pressure on Sony by writing mails and contacting support - irrespective of you encounter any problems or not. Everyone will benefit from new drivers - be it solved problems or added featuers (like flash acceleration, extended CUDA support and so on).

And I think a lot of problems in form of crashes or quriks are caused by the graphics driver. Having updated drivers might bring us also a step closer to a working Optimus set, so if you have time feel free to annoy Sony a little bit.

 

How was the problem solved?

 

Try this : go into the intel graphics settings, then the Power tab - Power Features - On battery (dropdown menu) - and slide the slider to maximum quality.

 

Does anyone know the FCC ID for the current Z series for the US? I bought one from overseas and need it for the form

 

(Nvidia driver)

Correct. Keep in mind that for the old Z series, no updated nVidia driver was released, and customers who wanted e.g. CUDA would have to run in debug mode with hacked drivers, or forgo the Intel/nVidia switching.

Sony treats releasing a model as the end of a development cycle, and only provides updates or back-ports when absolutely critical. In Sony's point of view, if you need a newer driver, wait for a refresh to come out with new drivers, and buy that.

 

You could test whether this was a hardware or software issue by imaging your system as it currently stands and going back to the factory pre-load.

 

Believe me, I already set the Vaio to its factory pre-load 2 times and I even re-installed the Nvidia driver again and again. This should be definately a graphics issue because when I play full screen videos on Safe mode, BLACK SCREEN doesn't occur.

Nvidia is the culprit

 

AK8PCG31111L

 

I can't just annoy them by my own, I need the peoples help to annoy Sony Support. It would much appreciated If the people who are experiencing a total BLACKOUT ON THEIR SCREENS to contact Sony Support. This way they will definately release a new Nvidia driver, I think

UK Support link: Main Page |  Sony Support Europe

USA Support link: Sony eSupport - Electronics - Select Your Model

 

Sorry but I must have missed your previous posts. Could you tell me what applications you were using, and under what circumstances, in which the black screen occured? I want to try it out myself.

Thanks.

 

I would recommend opening a dedicated thread if you want the community to participate.

Since this issue seems to only affect certain people, you should also start dumping your DXDIAG and the Nvidia System Info (Help, System info from the nvidia control panel).

 

Okay, I went to the intel graphics setting and under the power features --> on battery, there are only 3 options:
-Maximum battery performance
-Balance
-Maximum performance

There is no slider. Am I missing something? What's the logic behind doing this? When on battery, we need to safe as much power anyway?

This is what I found myself last night after reading that some people get annoyed with the light sensor.

1>. My desk lamp has 4 switches. Switch 1=off; 2=super bright; 3=medium; 4=low. When the lamp is on either switch 1 or 2, my synaptic touch pad works fine while on battery.
However, when the lamp is on switch 3 or 4, the touch pad freezes after the screen does automatic brightness adjustment.

2>. Then, I found this round thing on the keyboard (on the top part). I thought that was the light sensor anyway. I covered it with my finger and sure enough, the screen brightness changed and became dimmer.
Suddenly, my touch pad is fine again.

This seems that the light sensor can't pick up certain intensity of light and when it does, it messes up with the touch pad.

 

Well, I called Sony support and it was the on-call customer support from Manila. We did everything. Reinstalling the driver, removing the battery. They even sent a new replacement battery just in case.

I was very nervous because it is brand new afterall and I spent almost $4K for this high end laptop.

I never doubted Sony for the quality up until now. My old PS3 has just got its diode/laser burnt out after playing Final Fantasy XIII.

Argh!

The first one involved the battery which seems to be charging. It suddenly got stucked at 74% and no going up. It stayed at that number. When I unplugged the AC power, my laptop went dead suddenly. Luckily, Sony support helped me with this and the problem has been resolved.

How was the problem solved?

 

It usually happens to every video aplication I use such as Youtube, Windows Media player, Apple player etc. Could You please test this video in full screen and play it many times, see if you get black screen. (make sure your Vaio is on speed mode)

Link: YouTube - Dan Balan - Chica Bomb Official Music Video 1080p HD

I'm sure this is not the only 1080p video thats causing the black screen, there are many others on youtube.

Thanks

 

Sure, do you know what I should call the thread because I am not sure if it is Nvidia releated. I just found out It could be either windows 7 or Nvidia releated.
Check this link out Black Screen of Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

i dont have guts to try it ;( im too scared.. coz im assuming that my vaio z is the worlds best laptop without bugs / error / crash! i cant tolerate if it exists..

 

Well if you think your Vaio Z is the worlds best laptop, you should be able to play any 1080p videos over and over again without the black screen appearing.

 

Hmmm.. played the one you mentioned above (nice vid, btw ) and a few more in 1080p. No problem at all.

What sort of applications have you installed in your Z?

 

Woah, that's slightly NWS

I also think it's an issue with applications, somehow they corrupted something...

Here's an idiotic thought: the base OS and drivers are quite stable, how feasible is it to run potentially harmful apps on a separate VM? You can store the state and rollback when the VM OS / drivers start getting funky...

 

By applications, do you mean these applications:
[/URL][/IMG] [/URL][/IMG] [/URL][/IMG] [/URL][/IMG]

Which one of them is causing the black screen?

 

wow that's quite a list

I really don't know which one might have caused the issue. Anyone has any idea?

 

Here's one thing I noticed: I ran your video a few times in full screen, speedy mode (I agree with ozbimmer by the way, nice video)

No problems. Then I tried it while hooked to an external 1920x1200 (vga) monitor. Again, no problems whether run full screen on the laptop screen or on the vga monitor.

The external monitor is set as the main screen, the laptop as the extended. When the video runs on the laptop monitor, the task bar (on the main screen) shows a new application running: "Adobe Flash player"

As soon as you hit a key and leave full screen mode, the Adobe Flash player icon goes away.

So, maybe try uninstalling that and re-installing it.

 

Thanks for taking the time testing this issue.
What about when watching full screen videos with Windows media player? Does that application use Adobe flash player?

Black screen doesn't just occur when watching just youtube full screen videos, its also with windows media player. Anyhow I'll re-install Adobe flash player and lets see if the bug still exist

 

Ok I just got the Black screen even after re-installing Adobe flash player , but wasn't viewing a youtube video this time. This time it was on Windows Media player. Once again, could anyone take the time to try this link MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Windows media file size 78mb. Please keep on running this trailer at least 10 times on full screen.
If black screen does occur, switch your vaio off by pressing the power button for 5-10 seconds and restart it.

 

Coincidentally, I just received an Activity Record from FedEx for the delivery. Conics filled out the FCC Form 740.

 

hi guys,

so since today i am a proud owner of the new Z11 too and i already got a question fo you folks.

I want to set uo my user login to need fingerprint AND password. Unfortunately im only able to set it to password OR fingerprint.

I havnt found a solution for this yet and appreciate any useful awnsers.
its really important for me since there is a lot of sensible and valueable data stored.

thanks in advance

 

Hi guys,

I'm the happy owner of an all new Z since 10 days now, very happy with it.
I've been reading this thread for the past month and just wanted to thank you all for the great job you're doing here.


@maxxxL : IMO if someone succeed in getting your fingerprint, you might have told them your password (before or after your finger was cut, depends on you...)

 

How about: Z11 - Blackscreen system lockup

Welcome aboard

 

Wow, major major problem....

An hour ago I put my laptop into Stand By and went to one of my school clubs. I just pulled the laptop out (an hour later) and it was BURNIN HOT!! I tried to get it out of its case and it literally burned the palm of my hand. I opened up the screen and the lower left corner was COMPLETELY BLACK, like someone put a torch to it. The blackness slowly faded away until it appeared to be all gone, but now I can tell the lower left corner is not as bright as the rest of the screen (it's blackish). It almost looks like the discoloration on my palm rest, but on the screen itself. Eye yi yi... good thing I have the extended warranty. I'm going to demand they replace the palm rest AND the screen if the blackness doesn't go away. I hope none of the internal components were damaged from this.

 

Could you please post a picture of the burn't screen and palm rest.

 

The blackness is gone as I said - it's only faintly dark now, and I know the camera won't pick it up. I posted my palm rest picture a few pages back. Just imagine it worst now and that's how it is.

 

Do you know what temperature your Vaio got up to? This is a very odd issue.

 

I had the same experience. This is what I have done

Advanced Power Settings - Sleep - Allow Wake timers - Disable

 

Because my laptop sleeve is so tight, I take the extended battery out before I put the laptop in the sleeve. I don't remember the last time I put the battery back in . Now that I think about it, that's not that bad an idea because I can never have a wake-up and burn issue... Plus perhaps my battery life can be lengthened too.

 

That happened long ago with a Powerbook I had. Since then I always turn my laptops completely off before putting them in a case. This is the second post about such an occurrance on this thread I think. I just don't think Windows 7 is as error free as it would seem. I left my Sony Z running and upon returning to my room it was completely shut down. I'm talking about a 3 minute interval I was out of the room. Never happened before and has not happened since. Upon reboot it reported some error, but I was not running any programs except maybe Firefox. I just don't trust any OS after my Powerbook experience. It takes only about 30-45 seconds to boot up so yeah; I shut it down.

 

I got my new Z11 few days ago and let me tell ya, this notebook kicks some major a$$. Everything from build quality to performance... it's just amazing. I did a lot of research and comparison shopping (looked at MBP, Envy, Alienware, HP Elitebooks, and bunch of others) before purchasing the Z11 and, so far, I have no buyer's remorse what-so-ever. Sure, the price is a bit on the high side but there's no notebook out there right now that can compete with this beast, imo.

Is it perfect? Well, no, the price is bit on the high side (I paid $2500 for mine) and it could use an e-sata port and it would have been nice if it came with usb 3.0, but even without these features, it is one helluva notebook.

Best feature? The display. I have the 1920x1080 screen and I have never seen anything like this display on a notebook. Images on webpages come alive and viewing movies, especially HD, on this display is simply breathtaking. I thought the displays on MBPs were good. Z11 ups the ante on how a display should be, especially for a 13.1 incher.

Text on the 1920x1080 display is a bit ridiculous to see but setting the font at 125% with clear font fixed that. As others have noted, Win7 does a pretty good job at enlarging font sizes without any negative side effects. Web browsing at this res is a non issue as well since I use Firefox (about:config - layout.css.devPixelsPerPx - changed value from -1 to 1.35).

So far, I performed one major modification and that was installing an OCZ Vertex SSD. Once I got the Vertex up and running, I reinstalled all the drivers and pertinent software while leaving all the Sony bloatware out. Runs and performs like a champ so far.

I really love this machine.

Some spec info:
Z11 CTO
Black Carbon fiber lid with Silver body
Core i7 620m
1980x1080 Display
8 GB RAM
OCZ Vertex 120 SSD
Filemate 24GB expresscard SSD

Oh, did I mention that it only weighs in at 3 lbs (lol, I know you guys know)? I still can't believe this thing only weighs 3 lbs and packs so much power.

Btw, anyone know of a good icon docking program besides objectdock and rocketdock?

 

Damn I'm in love with this thing, I have always been a sucker for sony's laptops
I have only one main concern before i pull the trigger on it, how hot does this thing run?
With an i7 and a 330m i immagine it must get really HOT in there?

Also would love for Sony to give US CANADIANS the option of an i7 and the higher resolutuon screen................thank you very much.

 

Seems to be working perfectly on mine. I installed the drivers from Intel's site without any of the netgear software. Performance seems to be very good.

 

Actually, the Z runs VERY COOL... I've been playing BF:BC2 on this thing with my GPU overclocked to 550 mhz(forget the mem/shader clocks) from the stock 475 mhz and even after two hours of constant gameplay, the bottom of it is just barely warm. However, anything in the path of the fan's output(the left side) will be hot and the fan will be pretty loud, but with the noise-cancelling headphones you won't even hear it =).

I'd have to say, this has one of the BEST heat management systems on a 13", the bottom was just warm even though my diagnostic software showed my gpu hitting 90 degrees Celsius. Try that on a MBP (They did, and they heated it up to 100 degrees Celsius and the bottom was too hot to touch)

 

I'm with Achusaysblessyou on the cooling part.

The cooling of this thing is really amazing, it's always cool to the touch (palm rest etc.) and the bottom gets a little bit warm (you almost don't feel it). all the hot air seems to be at the vent output. Although it can be quite loud during the hardcore gaming session, but hey what did you expect. 15 inch specs in a 13inch package.

 

mhh, but is it normaly to be able to log in by just switching user to avoid the fingerprint confirmation?!
I dont think so

i fail to set it up properly.
any help on that?

 

While it's great to hear that it's generally cool to the touch, personally I wouldn't consider 90 degrees very cool. That seems a bit high and has been my major worry with this system from the beginning. Though it is good to hear that overclocking doesn't seem to bump up that temperature much, if any. And though I don't have my Z (yet ), reviews and comments do indeed make it sound like the cooling system is excellent.

 

The Spec for the GT330m are below.... The 330m were designed to run at 575mhz from Nvidia, Sony underclocks the GPU.

I played BFBC2 for hours on this notebook and never had an issue the thermals for this small package is incredible relative to the heat produced by similiar or larger notebooks.

Notebookcheck: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M


Manufacturer NVIDIA
Series GeForce GT 200M
Codename N11P-GE1
Pipelines 48 - unified
Core Speed * 575 MHz
Shader Speed * 1265 MHz
Memory Speed * 1066 MHz
Memory Bus Width 128 Bit
Memory Type GDDR2, GDDR3, DDR3
Max. Amount of Memory 1024 MB
Shared Memory no

DirectX DirectX 10.1, Shader 4.1
technology 40 nm
Features DirectX Compute Support (Windows 7), CUDA, OpenCL, HybridPower, PhysX
Notebook Size medium sized
Date of Announcement 10.01.2010
Information 182 Gigaflops calculation power

Link to Manufacturer Page http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_gef...

 

Was the question whether we can log in using either fingerprint or password? I found a setting for that: Protector Suite > Settings > Windows Logon, check "Use advanced fingerprint logon features" and "Allow to bypass logon using Windows password". Is this what you're looking for?