VAIO TZ Owner's Thread

ep brown, be careful what you wish for. if you search around here, you'll find a few good stories about going ssd and one very bad one (e.g. mine)

 

Hi all. Great forum; great thread!

Loads of my questions have been answered, but before I make the deal on a new TZ, can someone be so kind as to confirm a couple of things for me?

1) I am getting the docking station/port replicator. Does the power supply connect into the docking station or do I still have to plug it into the laptop?

2) Dumb question (but need to be sure): If I connect an additional monitor, can I still view on the laptop screen at the same time and can I extend my desktop onto the additional monitor rather than just having it as a duplicate?​

Many thanks in advance.

 

Once the laptop is on, its ok for use. I upgraded to 2GB, it'll make a difference. Do NOT consider this notebook for any 3D games. Its gonna hurt bad. But for watching dvds (I got 3+hours easy) and internet and word and such, it was fine. I wish I could improve the initial startup time, but the 4200rrpm HD slows it to about 2-3minutes to boot. Granted it loads to windows in about 1min, but stable usuability comes in about 3minutes without jamming things up.
Yes, I did a clean install. Yes, I went back to using the system restore and just uninstalling all the junk I dont want. Main thing I have still form sony in startup is the instant play/wifi software/battery power adjustments/on screen display for volume and etc./camera. I think two more stuff but cant remember off hand. Afterwards, I used the diskeeper to clean it up. Fastest I got is about 1minute to windows and about 4-5minutes before the harddrive stopped being accessed. But I COULD use the computer before that time if I wanted to.

 

The power supply conects into the port replicator.

Yes, the driver supports both dual monitor and extended monitor functions.

 

Thank you. Much appreciated.

 

Just a follow-up on this. When in extended mode, you can't watch video on the external monitor, as far as I can see. You can work on the external one and play video on the TZ's monitor, but not vice versa.

 

That's quite normal with a lot of video drivers. It's a pain but it's not a deal breaker.

 

Anyone heard any rumors regarding any upgrades to the TZ series? When will they get Penryn chips?

 

Hi all. I've tried to search the entire posts but I didn't find an answer. I'd like to buy a TZ32 or TZ92 and I'd like to know if there is a way to boot from a USB external cd/dvd drive ? I've searched many websites/forums and I'm still not sure.

Thank you

 

cruchot_: of course it is, that is the way i have installed XP on my TZ it is one option in BIOS - boot device order - hdd, usb etc..

 

Sony upgrade/refresh his models approximately every 4 months. So, we will have to wait at leat untill June for another upgrade of the TZ series. I'm quite sure that Penryn chips will be part of this.

 

Jirka_koffee: thank you, I was wondering and not quite 100% sure.

 

I thought I remember reading this somewhere. I noticed that sometimes when I bootup, my hybernate is gone and sometimes its there. Any ideas?

And also when resuming from standy/sleep.hybernate, my screen brightness defaults to its brightness, even if I had manually dimmed it b4 it went to sleep. Is that normal too? Might be, just asking.

 

That's normal - it returns to the defaul you set in your power management settings.

 

I've finally taken the plunge and ordered a TZ32 (that's a UK/Europe model with the 64GB SSD), which should arrive in a few days. Have been dipping into the thread about semi-clean installs and bloatware. Don't feel confident enough to try a new install, even with all the guidance given there, so I was wondering if anyone could suggest a list of key items of bloatware to uininstall the easy way from control panel, even if that's not the way to free up the max amount of space. That would be things I can safely get rid of to free up as much space as possible without any future complications, given that I'm not remotely tecchie. Also wondering if doing that will make a significant different to performance. Everything I've heard suggests that the SSD models have really quick boot times and it seems a shame to compromise those with too much unnecessary crap.

 

Hey everyone!!! Just got a refurbished TZ180 at a great price (thanks Vaiofreak).. Question though...I transfer movies via ethernet between my computers...My previous computers have all been XP...On those computers it would take aprox 10 minutes to transfer a 5 gig movie. I just tried transfering to the TZ and the same movie takes forever! Well 2 hours anyway... Had the same prblem with the Fujitsu 810 (also vista)... Returned the vista thinking it was a hardware weakness.. Now I'm wondering, is it VISTA? Should I xp downgrade? Has anyone had this problem??? Thanks for any help. Dan

 

My TZ (same TZ180 refurb) goes at ~14MB/s over 802.11n and 25MB/s over gigabit ethernet, running Vista just fine, no problems at all.

 

Is there something special I need to set in Vista? Are you communicating between Vista and XP or Vista and Vista? Trying to pin this one down before I look into downgrading to XP ((headache))... Dan

 

Don't bother downgrading to Vista now. SP1 will be available soon and it addresses slow file transfers. If you think that's slow, you should see us early Time Capsule users struggling with uber-slow file transfers and back-ups!

 

Well I just installed SP1 for vista, and yeah its a marked improvement. But to be honest, the only reason why I am not running xp, is because my portable 1 xp disks havent arrived yet.

I have all the latest drivers, but the update wasn't on windows update. So downloaded the 5 language universal update 434MB and installed that.

Now the Vista default OS is almost as fast as the XP VMware machine installed on it. (yeah thats right I have a XP VMware machine instaled and it works faster than the host OS)

 

Just a heads-up on a great deal. I just snagged a port replicator (VGP-PRTZ1) on eBay for $108 + $9 shipping on eBay. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer. I ordered one last Thursday night and it arrived this afternoon. This is the best price I've seen for these so far.

 

Really pleased with my TZ. Have done a re-install of Vista but have been unable to get a couple of bits working; was wondering if someone in the know could point me in the right direction.

1) For some reason the battery checker utility doesn't appear to be working (I have trid installing the 2.3 software from the Sony website)

2) How do I install the utility to turn off the Bluetooth, WLan and wireless independantly?

3) The eject button (on the side) for the DVD drive isn't working. Anyone know how I can enable it?

Many thanks in advance.

 

Does anyone know where the built-in microphone is located on the Vaio TZ?

 

1/2" to the left of the camera. it's just a little dot.

 

That little dot is the camera light to indicate when it's on. The mic is in the base of the laptop, right under the headphone and mic jacks.

 

ah bummer. my bad.

 

just bought tz270 here
im thinking of reinstalling the vista or just using the semi-clean install from this forum. which one is better?
also, what case is good for this laptop?
thanks

 

I know this is an old post, but does anyone know the answer to this? Lightroom needs a lot of power to quickly sharpen each viewed picture, and I'm not sure if the TZ is quite up to the task.

By the way, my Dell D420 with 1.5GB of RAM is not fast enough for Lightroom (but plenty fast for everything else).

Thanks!

 

I think the semi-clean installation would be perfect. It's easy to do, and accomplishes pretty much the same thing. I actually don't see how a full-installation is any different in the end. Plus, there are plenty of semi-clean installation guides, so you will not get lost.

For the case, it depends on your lifestyle and what you use your TZ for. Do you travel a lot? Are you a student? Etc.

If you travel a lot, you would probably want to travel light. In that case, you should take advantage of the TZ's small size and light weight. Get a leather case from Sony, or something that is thin and light.

If you are a student, and you plan to carry your TZ with you, along with your textbooks and other school supplies, I recommend a more rugged case. The TZ is beautiful, but it's quite a delicate piece of machinery. If you happen to carry your TZ in a book bag with other hardcover textbooks and such, I recommend the Pelican 180 Hardback Case. Check out my thread for pictures on the case.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=239513

There's also another thread by bmoc that has pictures of the case, too. Search it.

 

Hey guys, based on THESE PICS, how far does the screen tilt back on the TZ?

 

I'd say the angle is greater than all of the laptops in that link, except the Dell Latitude.

 

Awesome pics. Thanks!

I was hoping that the screen would push all the way back, like the Dell Latitude (which is what I have now). What I do is push the screen down all the way, then slide the laptop under my external monitor. This allows me to use the laptop's keyboard, while keeping a nice small footprint. I don't think the TZ would fit in this case, unfortunately.

 

thanks for the reply.
i've got the sony's leather case, but i'm thinking of something harder. The pelican case is too bulky. i need something smaller.
any suggestions?
thanks!

 

SD Card removal question. I seem to recall in XP that you had to click an icon in the tray prior to removing a SD card from the reader. I don't see this as an otion on my TZ170 running Vista. So can I just remove when the SD light stops blinking?

 

I don't see why you couldn't. If it isn't being accessed, I see no problem.

 

Do you really mean this, Ubercool?
Sorry to come in six months late on your thread (!) but I am in the exact situation you describe, i.e I have 1 GB RAM and a 4200 HD HDD on a TZ 21MN which I bought recently on a Special Offer.
Thanks to these Forums, I now understand why it was on Special Offer - my "previously sold" machine was probably returned to base by its previous owner!
I don't have any option to return it myself - nor just at present (owing to a ridiculous warranty condition, expounded on a different thread) do I even have an option to upgrade my acquisition to 2GB of RAM but, I must say, I had been hoping to be able to do that at some time.
Are you saying, please, that even with 2GB of RAM this TZ will be useless? Quite a lot of owners do seem to like it.
Thanks anyway to everybody, for much interesting advice on the website! Even in my present state of extreme frustration, I enjoy browsing these forums - Meg.

 

Yes, you can upgrade your TZ to 2gb of ram, all TZ's ram can be upgraded.

I have not used Vista on my TZ, I wiped it off and installed XP when I got it but Vista will be much much much better if you get the 2gb ram upgrade. 1gb is the absolute minimum for Vista really.

Sony was very stupid to have these lower end TZ models with Vista and only 1gb of ram and depending on the region, some TZs had a lot of bloatware on them as well (like ours in North America), making them unusable out of the box! And thus, many have and will still return their TZs due to the poor performance, not knowing the cause. Thankfully, it can be easily fixed by upgrading the ram and/or going to XP.

And even then if the performance is not satisfactory to you, then you can always replace it with XP, I just upgraded mine finally to 2gb of ram but XP for me ran 100% fine with 1gb of ram. : )

 

I think I've said this before, but I have a TZ26 with 2gig ram, and it runs fine. I didn't do a clean vista install or anything, I uninstalled a few of the software trials and that was it. After all the talk I'd heard about poor performance I was all ready to downgrade to XP after I bought it, but when I actually booted it up and started using it it ran fine so I didn't bother.

There's only two explanations:

a) I have lower standards than most people when it comes to performance (I highly doubt this, I can't stand a computer that chugs it drives me crazy)

b) In Australia they don't put anywhere near the amount of bloatware on the TZ as what they do in the US (I have to assume this is the case, but can anyone verify it?)

I seriously can't imagine anyone having any issues with the speed my TZ runs at. Granted, I only use it for internet/email, word processing, and watching movies. But what else would you use a TZ for?

So in my opinion, if set up correctly, a TZ with 2gig of ram can run windows Vista business just fine.

If anyone wants to give me an example of a task that renders the TZ "unusable" I'd be happy to try it out and see how mine holds up.

 

He's full of bologna. I have a TZ with 2gb of ram and Vista Ultimate, and it performs just great. It is not and never will be a super duper gaming machine, but it does exactly what it was designed to do quite well. Upgrade the RAM, you'll be happy you did.

And definitely uninstall all the bloatware and optimize Vista (disable indexing, unnecessary services, and unnecessary startup items).

Also, make sure you upgrade Vista to SP1. It helps a LOT!

 

What sorts of startup items do you recommend disabling?

Also, what are the benefits of upgrading to SP1?

Oh and everyone, I have a question about my TZ. Next to the left mouse clicker, there are three orange LEDs. One is for the memory stick duo slot, the other has a battery symbol, and the third is a cylindrical symbol. I know that the battery LED turns on when the TZ is unplugged and running on battery. However, what is the cylindrical symbol light for? Sometimes, I see it blinking orange rapidly. Other times, I see the light turned on with no blinking at all. And other times, I don't see the light turned on at all. What is it?

 

Pretty sure it's hard drive activity. Most PCs have a hard drive LED.

 

Hello again Gazelle. According to page 20 of the online TZ instruction manual that is the MEDIA ACCESS LIGHT, which illuminates only when you are reading from or writing to an SD or a Memory Stick device.
This tallies with my own observations, during attempts to use Readyboost!
Cheers, Meg.

 

Sorry Gazelle, back again, perhaps I was telling you there about the wrong winking light!
The cylindrical one in that trio is the POWER LIGHT which "illuminates when the power of the computer is on" (bit ambiguous that, I think they must mean when it's actively running) "blinks when the computer is in Sleep Mode, and turns off when the computer is in Hibernate mode or off".
In fact it seems to duplicate the Battery light, but it responds to both mains power and battery (I think).
Meg.

 

Its the hard drive activity light. Open a file from the hard drive and watch it blink.

 

Thanks for the info, everyone!

Does anyone have any recommendations as to which start-up programs I should disable?

 

In Vista, if you run msconfig, the only startup programs I have running are:

Alps Pointing-device Driver
ISB Utility
SmartWi Helper
AVG Anti-Virus System
Intel(R) Common User Interface
Protector Suite QL
Windows Operating System (sidebar)
Bluetooth Stack for Windows by TOSHIBA

 

I have a TZ with 1.2Ghz and 2 gig ram. Its not as speedy as say an SZ but once it boots up it quite zippy when opening word docs and browsing. The startup admittedly is slow but once you get used to it the perfomrance aint that bad.
My i suggest that you load yours with a 4 gig MemStick for readyboost. Dont despair as even with its not so fast processor it has more than enough juice to use MS office, watch DVDs and surf, all at the same time. The small foot ptint and very light weight is tons better than the SZ. The battery life is also quite generous. So dont dread it its not bad.. not bad at all

 

Can someone please tell me what this Magic Gate thing is for? I can stick in memory sticks just fine without this contraption. What is it for?

 

It is just a dummy card, that's all.

 

Does SONY beef-up the default font size on the TZ in XP and/or VISTA to make the default fonts appear larger? Just wondering since 11.1" @ 1366x768 gives 141.2 DPI which is teeny-tiny text. I have seen the TZ's, and since the text is readable, just wondering if SONY did that in its initial setup of the factory load?

Andrew