VAIO TZ Owner's Thread

Ubercool, question regarding the usb ports powered. You mentioned that you need both usb ports to use your ext-hd, can you elaborate on that. I thinking of a similar setup as you have, but need to know if you can attach ext-hd on one usb and my ipod on the other, both of which will need power. If I only hook up the ipod, will the usb charge the ipod?

 

I know that the BlackBerry won't charge on the port, so I'm guessing no. You need both ports, unfortunately to power the FreeAgent Go. I will try today to see if perhaps one of the cables will work alone on either port and report back.

 

Not yet. I have a small notebook case by Acme designed for the white iBook and I use that to carry my small lappys in. I use a big bag to travel, but I'm about to get myself a nice new bag from WaterField, but haven't decided which one yet.

The WaterField Mambo bundle comes with a slipcase that should fit it nice 'n tight.

 

Rahul, any chance you can delete those pics, resize them or repost them with thumbnails? They are seriously screwing up this thread and make posting to it unfriendly. Thanks!

 

Many external hard drives need two USB ports to be powered. One is power, one is the connection. They come with a special "Y" type USB cable.

So if you only have two ports, only the external HD could be used unless you get something like an expresscard USB interface to add ports.

 

I'm sorry, I changed them just into links now.

 

Do you know if Western Digital Passport WDXMS1600 160 GB need also two USB ports?

 

Rahu i think the premium fiber is more nice than classic black. What do you think? Are you gonna purchase TZ from Dynamism? Maybe in US will arrive after September

 

Thanks, much appreciated!

Good news guys!!! I used the FreeAgent with just one port and it worked! One cable is thicker than the other, so I used just the thick cable and it worked fine! So, hooking up an iPod to the other port is no problem either.

 

Outrigger the pricejapan.com what warranty offers?

 

Here is my question to those who have a SSD plus a HDD or DVD.

When you are not using the HDD or DVD, can you shut it down do that it does not consume power? The Panasonic Toughbook supposingly has a switch that let you turn off the DVD drive.

If it doesn't, I am actually thinking of just getting the SDD without any other drive. I want to maximize battery running time. I thin the 64GB 2.5" SDD will come down in price pretty quick, and I'll install one into the 2nd bay when it becomes affordable. In the meanwhile, if I need more space I can always use my network or USB drive. Or even my 8GB CF cards.

Does that make sense?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

 

I've asked same Q few times about stopping HDD (in SSD+HDD).
From the answers I understand there is no "switch" functionality, but I'm hoping to be able to find some way to stop/start HD (maybe stopping the device or configure sleep timeout)...

 

On the TX, Sony has an option in the battery profile to turn off the dvd drive when on battery. I'm sure the TZ has a similar option.

That won't be possible since the dvd drive isn't modular (at least for the consumer).

 

I have it on my old 505 as well
But I'd like to do it with HDD in SSD+HDD config

 

Has anybody noticed that installing programs on the SSD drive is slightly irritating because the progress indicator will not move so that one does not know whether anything is being installed or not - except for the CPU activity - and suddenly it is completed? No problem, just takes getting used to....

 

I can tell you that on the SZ and the G you have the option to turn off the DVD drive in the Sony-specific power management settings. The G is different from the SZ, and the G will automatically power down the DVD drive unless it's in use. It's much nicer than the SZ implementation. I'm guessing the TZ is closer to the G ...

 

I'm confused Uber! So your blackberry would not charge off of just a single usb? But now that your using FreeAgent (your ext-HD now works and is powered of a single USB?) What is FreeAgent anyway? Are each of the usb's on the TZ powered? Sorry, guys/gals, I'm confused now. I always thought that each usb is powered. I'm just trying to figure out if I hook up an ipod, will it charge; if I hook up a blackberry and ipod, will both charge and send/receive data?

 

I had the same problem with S660 and before with F505. Some peripherals Had to have external power. My TX770 has enough juice to power 20GB USB hard drive, but not enough to power a hub.
Rob

 

warranty isn't great. its 1 yr of sony japan warranty. you're responsible for shipping to japan.

 

Are you sure, Outrigger?
I did see the sign at pricejapan.com, but sonystyle jp still says they provide 3 year warranty for basic option.
I think what pricejapan says is for their typical products.

At sonystyle jp's TZ webpage, you can find this sentence,

＜ベーシック＞　標準付属（無償）
メーカー保証書の修理規定に準ずる範囲の故障に対応した３年間の保証サービスです。

I understand that those words mean 3 year warranty for free within their criteria.
Therefore, if you can handle shipping to Japan, you can get 3 yr warranty, I think.

 

This is a corresponding email of them replying back to a question I had

This was me asking specifically on the TZ, so unfortunately, the warranty kinda sucks, thus the lower price.

 

it appears that my tz came with a hidden partition with windows drivers, but its taking 7.4GB of space! even when I do a fresh install of windows, it does not show up. it only shows that I have a total of 23GB of space altogether. What can I do to delete this hidden partition and reclaim the space? anyone know?

EDIT: I deleted the hidden partition, nevermind.

 

I finally understand what's going on.

First of all, a vaio user who wanna get customer service from sonystyle jp needs valid address in Japan which is required for service. It's just like Dell's service. You send it to sonystyle jp customer center, they fix it, and send it back to you.

Second, pricejapan.com offers that valid address for 1 yr. After that period, you cannot get the service from pricejapan. However, your warranty of sonystyle jp will be still valid after that period if you can get other valid address in Japan to send your vaio and receive it from sonystyle jp.

In addition, as I mentioned before, don't forget VOS.

Did you check partition set up when you fresh install your windows at first blue screen(in case of xp)?
Or, just try partition-modifying software like Partition Magic.

 

For those of you that already have your TZ's (mine on order from Japan) how are you finding the LCD build quality in respect to dead/hot pixels? Finding any?

Thanks!

Stefan

 

Anyone on the pixel question??

 

mine is great quality and zero dead pixels. unfortunately, this will vary on how the package is handled and a little bit of luck.

 

is the battery on the back loose?

 

They wrote this on Cnet, but actually the battery is nice and firm, tighter than in most other Sony notebooks I have had. I once returned an SZ because the battery was so loose....

 

I can confirm that the battery is not loose at all. it is not so tight that you can't take it off, but when you shake it, it doesn't not make a clanking sound.

seperate issue.

Does anyone know what type of wlan card this laptop uses? more specifically, connector wise.

I know it uses the standard intel 3945ABG, but is it the mini pci-express?

I'm interested in swapping an IBM wireless adapter because my previous experience leads me to believe it is way better.

But I wonder if it would be compatible.

 

First of all, sorry for my english, it isn't my mother tongue

I would like to know if the DVD drive is loud or quiet, more precisely when reading movies, compared to the fan noise of the TZ. I used to have an iBook which was a very quiet device but the DVD drive was just a pain, as loud as thousand stormstroopers.

And it would be great to get other opinions concerning the loose battery, several ones are better than one, because it could concerns only a part of the TZ produced.

Thank you very much !

 

Probably pci-express, since the TX850 already uses pci-express.

 

None here, screen is great.

 

Solid as a rock. And it lasts 6 hours (standard) at 60% brightness.

 

tried to open the laptop to take a look at the type of wireless adapter, but couldn't. Even after I unscrewed all the screws which there are a lot, I couldn't even pry the bottom cover or the keyboard area open to expose the innards. Best thing I can do is open the ram cover which takes less than 15 seconds.

 

Im just wondering will there be a performance gain by using ReadyBoost, if already using SSD.

 

may i ask what did you do to make it run for 6 hours? Did you lower the processor speed, screen off etc.? assuming u are using a ssd, i wonder how much battery time is lost with a hd. thx

 

not sure about ubercool, but I think we have the same specs.

I'm running on the max battery mode after editing it to my own liking. screen at 40% which is still really bright, max cpu at 50% and wifi and bluetooth both on. I get around 6 hrs+.

 

Has anybody had any success at running XP on the TZ90? We got ours, but there are still several pieces (display, webcam, suspend/hibernate) that are not working.

 

Has anyone been able to install Windows XP on their TZ?

The reason I ask is because my Sony TZ Bluetooth stack stopped working. I’ve tried everything, resetting the mouse numerous times, I even reinstalled your Bluetooth stack software, but it just refuses to go beyond seeing my Logitech mouse, giving me a message “bluetooth dectection of service failed.” I googled the topic but found nothing useful.

FYI, the mouse works fine on my other computer, so I know it’s not Logitech.

I also rolled back the system, to no avail.

 

the bluetooth issue is due to Vista's crippling of its bluetooth stack for "security" reasons.

I googled this, and apparently its a known issue with Vista. There's modifications you can do, it was a tad long for me, but it might work for you.

Try googling Vista bluetooth stack and see what you get.

 

I'm hoping that one of you who already have a TZ in hand also can test external display resolution capabilities of the unit on a larger LCD monitor. I'm hoping it can drive a 1900x1200 resoultion. I know the spec sheet says max is 1600x1200 but that is the same for many laptops that actually will drive 1900x1200 just fine (ie, the spec sheets are rarely correct on that particular item).

Anyone with a TZ that can/has test(ed) this?

Thanks.

 

Is 32GB enough with Windows Vista? Microsoft says you need a minimum of 40gb to run with 15gb free.

I really want the speed of SSD but fear that I need it to be 64GB on a vista-based machine.

I'm torn between the tz and the toshiba r500 - so any feedback is helpful.

 

The requirement for 15GB free is primarily for the install. Once the OS is installed you don't need to leave that much free space. I just installed Vista on my TZ (got it today ). I have just over 20GB free of the 30 total. I'm also going to remove the hibernation file since I only use suspend. That will free up another 2GB.

Stefan

 

I have not heard of any laptops with the intel 950 graphics driving 1900 x 1200 on external, and not sure why you would want to.

 

how do you delete hibernation files?

 

You should be able to turn hibernation off, that will do the job, at least in win xp. If it doesn't help you can do it manually, take a look at these files: pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, those are the huge files where the system stores all the data necessary for hibernation.

 

You can also do a disk clean up which will let you delete hibernation files.

 

Does that 20gb free include the sony-installed programs or did you remove those?