Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

There's this "microphone level" among the Volume menu items, I'm guessing you've tried that? I hope that'll boost the signal-to-noise ratio.

 

My advice is to order the Z from a bing cashback store such as tigerdirect or compusa. You can get 10-15% off that way. In addition for some Z11 there is the $300 sony tradeup. I was able to get a nice deal on my vpcz114gx/s with 192GB ssd this way, total cost will be around $1,500. Plus much faster delivery than sonystyle!

 

Found it. I had the regular mic enabled at the same time as the bluetooth unit and it was picking up the fan noise.

I don't see any kind of boost control on the BT unit other than just simple volume control. I wonder if this is common to all such units or just this one.

 

I ordered my Z on April 20th and it was initially scheduled/anticipated to ship May 11th. Well, as often is the case when you have too much hope and anticipation for something, my order has been delayed. I called and they responded via email to tell me that due to high demand, they will be out of stock til the 25th. I did some polite whining and told them I may cancel my order and they gave me an additional $115 discount and upgraded to 1-2 day shipping for free.

Besides sharing my plight, I just wanted to say that reading this forum has been very enlightening. I now hope I can use all the information here to get the most out of my Z. Thanks everybody!

 

Are you a student? The SonyStyle Store offers 10% student discount. Give your dad your i.d. card and go from there. If your not a student, I'm assuming your dad is coming to the US for business. Maybe, his colleague, has a son/daughter in school that can get you the Z for 10% off.

SonyStyle Stores are very strict with discounts. I don't think calling the 800 number, will allow you to pay in advance, get a discount, to be later picked up by your dad directly from the store. Maybe, just never heard of that sort of service by Sony.

 

So in term of upgrading the ram any ram will work? i thought it was hard to upgrade the memory on the new vaio z because not all ram was compatible? and only a certain few have been tested and proved stable?

is this a misconception?

 

Do you have more information about the problems ?

Thank you.

 

My cousin has bought Sony's of most Sony flagship models so about 1-2 every year to couple of years and he has an account with sony which already adds his student discount even though its been over 6 years since he has been a student. I was just hoping to get a 15% discount somehow or other, just bring down the price to 2000 or even 2100 would be okay. My dad has a bubbly warm glow kind of charisma so its hard for anyone not to like him, so he can be like buy this as a surprise for my son for his 18th birthday and make it really special i just need to know where and how to get the best deal. Im hoping to update him about how sony refreshes work so maybe he can tell them that Z12 is coming in 2 weeks time or something and get him a better discount. Day and night all im thinking about is 15%, 15%, 15%, 15% + extra , 15%, 15%.......trust me it was really hard to gather this money and my dads not keen on spending that kind of cash cuz he offered to pay around 1000-1300 for a laptop so my laptop is being sold on sat and ill add the money from my SZ (hopefully i get around £500-650($800-1000) out of it.

EDIT: so i went to the Education Centre and it brings it down to $2324 but it was $2349 for regular consumers so i could of gotten a lower discount with student added. I heard that no other discounts can be added w/ student discounts and something other discounts exceed student discounts. if they can maker a further reduction after student what would be like a dream come true.

 

They'll say they can't add any other discount to the student discount, but I don't buy it and you shouldn't buy it either if you want that deal. I wouldn't approach it from the aspect of discount=15%. I would think of it as "I only have $X to spend...Sony, how can you help me?"

My ship date also was pushed back until the 25th. I politely accepted that, as I already demanded free express shipping (plus got a good discount). If they push back the ship date again (which I'm thinking is possible), I'm going to complain and see what they can do for me. Good to know they met you half way.

 

Thanks. I guess they pulled the models from the website? I can't seem to find them and this link returns an error.

 

Very pleasant surprise. I was able to re-jailbreak my iPhone 3gs even though it had firmware 3.1.3 with something that just came out, although I guess I'm not permitted to say what it is on this thread. Now MyWi works great on the 3gs and I'm amazed at the full screen Hulu TV shows I'm able to watch on my Z; I have yet to see any pause/buffering going on. My iPhone is now once again a mobile wifi hotspot. Now if only eyetv can come up with software that will enable me to watch all of my cable channels on the Z anywhere, like it does for my Macbook Pro, using 3g, I won't know what to do with myself...

 

Kiss the battery life good bye though!

After 3 years of using the iPhone and 5 years using a Mac. I'm now using the Z and the Nexus One. God it feels good to be in control! I was feeling like being controlled when I used the Apple stuff.

 

I usually plug the phone into either an AC outlet or the laptop. Besides, I have the Mophie air juice pack which doubles battery life so no biggie.

 

Is anyone's battery loose-fitting? Seems like there's some play in the battery compartment...

 

mine is.
i'm starting to believe that is intentional.
after the z has been under extreme load (high temp),
the battery is not loose anymore.

somebody else observed this?

 

By extreme load you mean software-wise or physically?
If you mean software wise, I cannot imagine the cpu running so hot that it actually changes the dimensions of the laptop case.

 

I wish the battery didn't move (wobble) everytime I grab the laptop by the rear side of the laptop :/

 

i mean software.
under 100% cpu load + using gpu
the cpu got to 95C and the 330m to 88C..

i was thinking more about a small expansion of the battery.
of course is just an hypothesis based on a single experience..

 

expansion requires much more heat than that to actually reshape a battery... does anyone elses battery wobble a bit?

 

i don't know, the volume increase depends on the material,
you could get it also without oven temperatures.
it may also just be an expansion of the contacts..
or just my imagination

if anyone with a wobbling battery wants to do the experiment..

run a stress test of cpu/gpu, followed by a
check of the wobbling.

unchanged/reduced/increased?

 

Hi, sorry if this has already been mentioned.....i've read the majority of the thread but I could have missed this.

To the people who own the Z. What is your average battery life when surfing the we, listening to music, and having several open office docs open?....not exactly but along the guild-lines would be nice. Thank you .......I should order mine from neweeg in june. It will be my college laptop.

 

Plenty of folks in this thread have mentioned wobbling batteries. ZoinksS2k seems to have found a good solution: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6195107-post4182.html

Battery life has been discussed fairly heavily in the thread. Check out posts 4148-4159 for a nice little synopsis of what you can do to increase battery life. Sounds like the standard battery should get you around 5 or 6 hours if you're willing to live with a slightly lower refresh rate and 16-bit color. (Sorry I can't speak from personal experience, but battery life was important to me too prior to my purchase, so I've been watching for posts about that.)

 

I applied same solution suggested by ZoinksS2k and it works fine.

 

That's not double sided sticky foam is it? You'll probably want to leave the backing on so it doesn't turn into a lint magnet.

Glad it worked for you.

The real question is why Sony doesn't put in a $.003 rubber bumper or foam strip as a normal part of their laptops.

 

hey would anyone care to clear up this matter for me? from reading another tread regarding upgrading the ram on the new vaio z apparently there are only some ram that is compatible with the vaio z some other users have reported that using the ram off their older vaio z cause some instablitliy issues.

would appreciate some clarification thanks

 

I've replaced my RAM with afte rmarket SODIMMS. As long as you get the correct specs, it should work fine.

 

How many folks have silver Zs? Any pros/cons compare to carbon finish besides pure aesthetics?

I'm planning on pulling a trigger and getting myself new Z but the only finish with i7 CPU that's available is silver. I currently own TZ with black finish and l like it but I'm thinking trying something new and going with silver with Z.

So far the config for me looks like this:
i-7 CPU (with stupid Verizon CDMA option, oh well...)
256Gb HD (this is plenty for me)
4Gb RAM (I'm planning to buy another 4Gb module myslef)
CD/DVD

I've been reading this post for the past 2 days. Lot's of info! Thanks!

 

I have a silver one... It's pretty awesome... I don't know of any pros/cons other than aesthetics (maybe fingerprints don't really show up on the silver?)

 

@midimaxi I have a silver one as well. I think the benefits of silver are that fingerprints are practically nonexistent and dust particles are less noticeable.

I know that if I had the carbon finish that I would be a lot more paranoid about dust particles. They would seem so obvious and make me sad lol. Also, minor scratches would be a lot less visible.

 

Good points. I would say the advantage of the carbon fiber is maybe that the look is a bit more professional, if you were planning on using the computer in your work place, meetings, etc. Silver seems a bit more casual. But it's really all personal opinion. I prefer black over silver so got the carbon fiber. But honestly, as I've seen more screenshots (and seen my brother-in-law's grey F up close--the keyboard has a similar look to the Z), I think the silver looks pretty nice too.

 

I just found some felt feet in a drawer, which stick on great and look good IMO. The battery stays put. You can buy the feet in hardware or department stores like Kmart or Target probably.






There are probably better feet, like silicon or rubber feet with smaller sizes to choose from which may well work better.

 

This is a double sided sticky foam, like yours, but thinner, in fact I used it twice.

This is a real question, may be Sony will put an inexpensive piece of rubber in the next restyling.

 

I have a silver Z11 (i7, 192 GB, 6 GB ram, 3G modem, HD screen, extended battery) and I am fully satisfied because I love light colours, my Serie 5 BMW is Silver too............

But colour is only subjective matter not based on real measurable facts.

 

I've been accustomed to mainly black notebooks for the past few years. The Z11 is my first silver notebook and I actually think it's a simple but nice color.

 

hi guys,

i am looking for a nice bluetooth keyboard and i found this :
VGP-BKB1 | Bluetooth® Wireless Keyboard | Sony | Sony Style USA

its the sony VGP-BKB1.

i know that this is compatible with my sony z, but is it also compatible with any pc equipped with bluetooth? (i need to buy a regular tower pc in the future so i need to know and im a bluetooth noob)

i am planning on buying this because i save a usb slot on my already full plugged vaio z. at least i hope so. iv never used something with bluetooth in my life, is it wireless start and go without any plugs ?

thanks thanks

 

Absolutely compatible. I'm typing on it now. Of course, if you switch the keyboard to another PC, you'll have to pair it again.

 

Just received a message; "Display driver has stopped responding and has recovered" after the display seemed to blink out for a second. This is also the second time, while watching Fringe on Hulu that there was a hideous buzz and the Z screen went black; had to reboot. not sure what it is. Has anyone experienced this? It only seems to happen while watching Hulu.

 

There is a dedicated thread for the "nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" errors.

 

I've left a similar post in the FAQ thread but it seems that this is probably the more appropriate one. Mine is a VPCZ116G:
Does anyone notice that the bottom and right (~8mm) portion of the VPC-Z11's Touchpad is completely irresponsive to touch or dragging? This is most evident if you launch the "MoodPad" accessory from the "Synaptics Pointing Device" tray -- there is a whole strip at the right and bottom parts of the drawing area that one could never paint onto. The left and top parts are behaving fine.

I could confirm that this is not a hardware problem because if I uninstall the Touchpad driver that comes with the Vaio and install the latest (generic) driver from Synaptics then the right and bottom edges become responsive and usable, in fact a bit TOO responsive, you will have to try it to understand what I meant. But that at least makes the one-touch scrolling much usable. (IMO the synaptics' version is also better in terms of the gestural functions (e.g. 2-finger scroll and 3-finger flicks) than the Sony modified version).

Does anyone know of a way to balance/calibrate the touchpad so that the left/right top/bottom parts behave more symmetrically?

 

Same here. Didn't find any solution, I even tried using the Synaptics registry config from another user, with no luck

 

Can any actual owner please definitively tell what is the heat characteristics of the various models?

Particularly, during normal use (web surfing, docs), is there any noticeable heat on the palm rest area, keyboard and bottom?

Please mention your model and processor.

 

i7, 192 GB, 6GB ram, 3G, extended battery, Stamina working period 4-5 hours:

1) no heat on palm rest, only a slightly warm
2) no heat at all in keyboard area
3) hot or slightly hot in left lateral side where air flows out.

 

Same here.

 

i5-520m, 114gx.

as others already mentioned, no sign of heat on palm rest, keyboard and bottom
(during high load, only slightly warm in the bottom left!).

the fan noise is noticeable when the cpu and/or gpu are working hard, and heat comes out of the left side of the laptop.

during normal use, is as if you take a random piece of furniture in your hands.

i'm very positively surprised by the thermal management of this small wonder,
i sincerely hope that there'll be no pitfalls in the long terms (1+ years).

 

I heard somewhere that Sony Vaio Z's 330m is downclocked? Is this true? And if it is, how much performance loss is there compared to 330m's in other computers?


I was checking out videos of 330m in other computers playing games, and I was wondering how they would run on vaio Z with it's 330m.


thank you.

 

the Z gets about 20% lower performance on ''stock'' clocks. But it can easily run faster (around regular 330M speeds), so performance is roughly the same (when clocked to near gt330m clocks).

 

is the sony z12 or a new model of the z11 coming out in the U.S? I know people have said the sony website has taken down the Z11, but that's not the case in the U.S, and i'm willing to wait a month or so for whatever improvements they make

 

In control panel run Mouse applet, switch to Device settings tab, select touchpad device and click Settings button. In the option tree of the dialog drill-down from Scrolling all the way to Scrolling region. That's what that right and bottom areas are for. You can set area width there by the way. I guess, in generic Synaptics driver scroll region feature is turned off by default.

 

I've also tried to believe (the denial stage )that the right and bottom part are reserved for one-touch scrolling. But that is not the case. Turning one-touch scrolling on or off would not change the responsiveness of the regions. You could verify that through the MoodPad, which uses the touch pressure and the absolute position of the most prominent touch point.

I've also placed two screen shots explaining the problem (after changing to the generic driver) in the "Sony-VPCZ11 FAQ" thread. I have not got screen shots for the more annoying problems with the "hacked" driver that comes with the VPC-Z11.

Well I am relieved that at least Endeavour1934 is withnessing the same issues so it is not only my touchpad that is showing the problem.

Apparently this issue is not unique to Vaio but other notebooks using synaptics touchpad. See: Crazy-Assed Synaptics Touchpad - Technology Questions for example.

 

Well I can play MW2 and L4D2 with all Mediums and no AA and get absolutely fluid frame rates. The graphics still look awesome on medium, haven't really tried any Highs because i'm content with the current settings.

Games such as GTA: San Andreas and Killing Floor can get smooth frame rates on all Highs.