VAIO TZ Owner's Thread

Would a SanDisk 16GB Ultra II SDHC work on a TZ150? Book says up to 4GB has been proven to work.. anyone use the 16GB Ultra II? and if it does work is this a good SDHC card? I tried asking Sony Support but they just read the manual to me which I already read

 

Want do you want to use it for? Because the SD cardreader is anoyingly slow. Max reading and writing speeds of +/-3 MB/sec so the UltraII cards wont do you any good. My TZ31XN can read 16GB cards without a problem so i guess the TZ150 should work the same.

 

Hay, anyone using a TZ ever consider the new cool SSD's? like plugging a 2.5" Samsung SSD in?

As far as I know, TZ's 1.8" drive are really a connector to mainboard. but the 2nd hdd configuration (if you pick a hdd over cd-rom), is basically a USB port/adapter to the 2.5" SSD. In that case.. then not only I'm wasting the SSD, i might not even able to boot out of it (not sure but.. jus thinking).

So anyone replaced their 2.5" drive with the amazing SSD and hav it working flawlessly without any performance compromise?

 

Did anyone ever figure out the Bluetooth issue with when it goes to sleep turning off the bluetooth then u have 2 manualy turn it off then on again for it to work again?

 

Wow, how'd you get such a good deal? I got a carbon fiber TZ2500 for $1100 with the dual drives, but it didn't come with downgrade discs or optical drive.

 

It was one of the regular clearance configs for a while there; appears to be gone now.

I just got done replacing the 250GB SATA HDD with a 64GB Samsung SSD, so it's now a dual-SSD notebook.... doing a fresh install on the SATA drive now.

 

Hmm.. I was thinking about yanking the internal HDD altogether, in order to save battery life and weight. I don't really need all the extra space since it's mainly a schoolwork laptop. Was it difficult to get inside the TZ?

Mine didn't come with any crapware Booted right up, and the only icons on the desktop were the Sprint EV-DO and the recycle bin.

 

It's not for the faint of heart. It's about the least-accessible laptop I've encountered, and the diminuitive size makes it that much tougher.

The second post in this thread gives you pictures and step by step. Be careful when removing the keyboard to not just yank it off, as there is a ribbon cable between the keyboard and motherboard that is hard wired on the keyboard end that needs to be popped out on the motherboard end.

Once you get past that, you then have to unscrew about 6-8 screws and move several ribbon connectors and PC boards to remove the SATA drive cage.

The thing that's eerie about the TZ with 2 SSDs is that it's now completely silent and there is absolutely zero vibrations whatsoever. With no optical drive and no HDD, there's nothing to move...

 

General question here: why is it that sometimes when I flip the computer open, I have to wait for Windows to "resume", and sometimes it turns on instantly? I've been a Mac user for my whole notebook-using life, so I'm unfamiliar with Windows sleep/resume behavior. Is there a way to get the TZ to always instantly turn on?

It doesn't seem to be dependent on how long the computer is closed for. I just went to the bathroom at a cafe and flipped the lid shut. When I came back, I had to wait about a half a minute for Windows to resume again, even though it was in sleep for just a few minutes.

 

I think you are seeing the difference between "sleep" (computer shuts down screen, drives, radio, etc., but keeps power to RAM so that things can restart immediately) and "hibernate" (everything in RAM is written to hard drive and then the whole thing shuts down so NO power is used).

When resuming from hibernate, the computer has to read the information from the HDD back into RAM before continuing, hence the longer delay (the computer is reading an amount of data equivalent to the amount of RAM in your computer; with computers now having 2-4GB in order to run Vista, coming out of hibernation takes longer than it did with XP machines that usually only had 512MB or 1 GB of RAM).

Sleep is good if you're going to be away from the computer for a few hours, but the trickle of power to RAM will run the battery down over the course of a few days. Hibernate is indefinite as no power is used, but is longer to resume.

I usually set my computer to go into sleep after 10 minutes of no use, and then into hibernate after 2 hours, so I get the best of both.

 

You can change the function of the "hinge switch" .. i have it so that when the lid is closed:

- on AC power, the PC stays on 100% of the time and backlight goes off.

- on battery power, it goes into sleep mode after 30 minutes in addition to shutting down backlight. If youre just using Word or Internet.. its VERY frugal with power when you have the backlight off and just idling. Im not using hibernate because it consumes a TON of drive space.

.. there are settings to do whatever you want basically.

 

My settings are to sleep if I close the lid, but it still goes into hibernate... ?????

[edit] nevermind, I found the setting. Turns out, it's under the "sleep" heading rather than the "lid" heading in power options. Go figure.

 

I have a small problem with the InstantOn feature on my TZ190. When I finish playing a DVD using InstantOn, if I choose the option to turn off the system (from the main menu), the screen shuts off, but the green power light on the hinge still remains on. I've tried pressing any/all buttons but nothing happens. I have to push and hold the power button for a few seconds in order for the system to shut off. Is there a fix for this? Thanks in advance.

 

I downloaded all of the TZ-290 Windows XP Pro drivers and utilities from Sony's U.S. web site, but none of the Function key combinations work (screen brightness, bluetooth/Wifi on/off, etc.). What software or drivers do I have to install to get that working?

There's a TZ XP thread here on the board, but it's for Asian models and uses drivers and software files on the Sony-Asia web site. Unfortunately all of those files do model-checks when you attempt to run them, will not install on U.S. TZ models.

The list of XP drivers and software that Sony-USA provides for the TZ is absolutely TINY compared to all of the files that Sony-Asia provides.

Is there a Japanese model that is identical to the 290 whose Asian drivers would run on my U.S. 290?

Thanks.

 

What is ur vaio tz vista boot time?....Any1 got a heat problem at the bottom? Is it possible that the fan is blocked by dust so it is hot?The fan is spinning very fast but there is only a little air coming out...

How did u make ur boot so fast?....What is the spec on ur computer?...

 

Anyone else getting keyboard imprints on the screen? I got a line on mine due to the spacebar... hope it washes off!! If not, I better get a screen protector.

 

Gah! No lolspeak, please. Makes my teeth hurt.

After many trials and tribulations, I finally have my TZ290 booting from the SATA SSD, with the system recognizing it as "C:\" and using the PATA SSD as "D:\" for storage. The old Vista install is still on D:\ since I cannot delete or take ownership of the files, but I've hidden them so they're not inconvenient other than losing about 6GB of capacity. I can live with that.

The SATA SSD is considerably faster than the PATA SSD on booting. Vista Ultimate boots in 20-30 seconds from power off to desktop and wifi loaded.

I have not done any tweaking yet.

Specs:

Core 2 Duo U7700
2GB RAM
64GB PATA SSD (Data)
64GB SATA SSD (System)

Photoshop CS3 launches and is ready in 3-4 seconds. Firefox launch and homepage load (assuming wifi active) in 4-5 seconds.

Dual-SSD TZ is as silent as the grave...

 

Any1 got a heat problem at the bottom? Is it possible that the fan is blocked by dust so it is hot?The fan is spinning very fast but there is only a little air coming out...
Can u change vaio tz processor?...do u know where to buy one?....My processor now only 1.06GHZ i want to change to 1.33GHZ processor...

 

This was fixed with an update.

I now have a pretty weird problem on my TZ190. After updating/installing Vista SP1, my volume down and mute buttons/hot keys act weird. Fn+F3 decreases the volume by 2 notches and Fn+F3 doesn't mute/unmute. However, when I look at the speaker icon on the taskbar, it quickly flashes the mute sign (red circle with diagonal bar). But all other Fn+hotkey combos work fine. So it seems like the F2 and F3 keys are executing twice per keypress... Is there a fix for this? I just did a system restore to before the SP1 update and won't be updating if there's no fix...

 

Can anyone recommend a good value 64 GB 1.8" SSD?

 

PATA? Good luck. They're as scarce as hen's teeth.

SATA? Try this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147056

 

Thanks! So I just buy this and swap out my 1.8" and that's that? Any connectors needed? Additional hardware?

 

The TZ WILL NOT TAKE THAT DRIVE! You need a 1.8 drive with "ZIF" connector NOT "SATA" connector.

Something like this:
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=210536101&listingid=35706096&dcaid=17902

If you want something > 32gb be prepared to pay b/c they currently very expensive!

 

Correct, the 1.8" drives in the TZ are PATA, not SATA (I wasn't sure if he was asking a general question or not).

In my TZ290N the 1.8" SSD is PATA and the 2.5" HDD is SATA.

 

Ah, yikes, I was hoping to spend under $200. Maybe I'll check back again in a couple of months

Thanks!

 

Sounds like you have a problem. When mine is spinning fast, it moves a fair bit of air.

Not sure about the CPU upgrade; i doubt it would be worth it.

 

My son is overseas on deployment and the TZ170 he brought with him had a catastrophic failure of the 100gb harddrive.
He has the notebook disassembled, but is having a difficult time identifying what kind of harddrive is installed. He believes it to be a 1.8".....
Can anyone ID what kind of 100gb harddrive comes with this notebook so I can purchase one and ship it overseas.....

Thankyou,

Charles

 

The tz170 comes with a toshiba mk1011gah zif pata hard drive .

http://shop.ebay.com/items/?_nkw=to...86.m270.l1313&_odkw=toshiba+1011gah&_osacat=0

 

I have been reading the posts in this thread that apply to the harddrive information and have found it to be a 1.8" 100Gb 4200 RPM, but was still trying to figure out what type...

Thanks for the information....

 

32Gb SSDs are too small for me and 64Gb/120Gbs are too pricey...

so I'm thinking about getting HDD but with faster speed than 4200.
Any advice on HDDs?
thanks!

 

My sentiments as well.. I was an early adopter of the TZ191-
I check in here every once in a while-
I have never achieved any good usage of this little machine because of the way it is configured from the factory and always am trying to see what I can do about it . I did get the disc from "portable one" to reformat and partition. I still would love to have a larger SSD - but alas the prices are still too high.
I am still considring te latest incarnation from SONY but hesitate for now for practical reasons..

wondering how much the 64gb SSD is going for now?

-A

 

I was wondering that as well. I did buy the TZ92NS with the Samsung 64 GB SSD but I am running out of space and would like to upgrade maybe to a 128 or 256 gb ssd but they are still quite expensive and finding a harddrive with that zif type PATA connecter really gives me a headache

 

Hi everyone -

Can someone point me to the Intel page for the SATA drivers for this model?

On Sonystyle there are absolutely no SATA drivers for the Vaio TZ model. They have one executable file labeled "Intel Chipset" under the "Motherboard" category but it does not extract individual driver files.

I am doing a downgrade to XP and am going to slipstream these driver files onto a win XP installation CD using NLite.

I am told they're somewhere on the Intel site in their download database, but I don't know what to search.

I would greatly appreciate the actual INF files for this model.

I have a VGN-TZ2000

Thanks.

 

There is no SATA driver, so I'm assuming that you mean Intel Matrix Manager driver, which you can find here:
Linky

 

Get the kit that transform your optical drive to a normal SATA HDD. Then you don't have to give up your SSD. Check out the link in my sig.

 

Alright guys, since nobody else took the time to do this, I will do it.

DEALING WITH AND GETTING AROUND THE SATA DRIVER ISSUE WHEN TRYING TO INSTALL WINDOWS XP ON YOUR VAIO TZ MODEL - OR ANY OTHER MODEL FOR THAT MATTER

So here goes: Yes - the proper suggestion is to "Slipstream WinXP Service Pack 3".

But how does one do that?

1) Download and install NLite from here: http://www.nliteos.com/download.html
2) Download Windows Service Pack 3: http://www.microsoft.com/DownLoads/...a8-5e76-401f-be08-1e1555d4f3d4&displaylang=en (just click the download button - make sure you save it to your desktop)
3) Get a blank DVD-R or CD-R

Load up NLite

1) First screen with Language showing on it, click next
2) "Locating Windows Installation" screen, click browse to your CD drive where you've put your Windows XP disk.
3) Popup will appear: "Select where to save the CD installation files..." Browse to a newly created folder on your hard drive and select it. (This is where it will put the entire WinXP + SP3 combo, which you'll later burn to a blank DVD)
4) It will then copy the contents of your WinXP disk to that directory.
5) When it finishes, just click "Next".
6) Ignore the "Available presets" page and click next
7) On the next screen click the "Service Pack" button and the "Bootable ISO" button. Click Next.
8) Next screen you can identify the location of the service pack 3 file, which is on your desktop. Click "Select" and browse to it. It will combine the SP3 and WinXP on your hard drive, in the directory you created.
9) Put your blank DVD R or CD R in the drive.
10) Go to the next NLite screen. Under "mode" click "Direct Burn". Then click "Make ISO" button. It will burn Windows XP + SP 3 onto the disk.

Use that disk when you boot up your machine, boot from the disk, and it will completely load WinXP for you.

Problem solved. Someone post this all over the web please. im too lazy after 3 days of trying to find someone else who wrote it.

 

I have a question to you TZ owners.

At home I want to use my Hyundai W241D 24" Tft Monitor.
Does the TZ31VN/X will support the resolution 1920*1200 on VGA?

Is the Perfomance very bad at this resolution? Internet surfing+office.

many thanks,
Daniel

 

I also have a question, little bit more for the man, to answer;

I want to buy the vaio TZ. I have seen it in Platinum Sand. I loved it, but is that colour more for woman? Or do man, who own a vaio TZ, also have it in platinum sand?

 

I don't see Sand as all that feminine a color; I'd use one that shade (though mine's black). The pink ones, not so much.

 

New TZ owner here. nice to meet everyone. just a slight question.

I have uninstalled all the junk etc and fully updated my laptop. However has anyone encountered where your mouse pointer goes crazy when start up or shutdown?

 

Mine goes crazy as u say on shutdown only

 

It looks like on the Z series there is a feature where u can control when the fan kicks in > Does anyone know if this feature is possible on the TZ.

Everytime I am on SKYPE the fan kicks in and you can hear whizzzzing noise

 

Yes , it is located in advanced power options menu .

 

Thanks a lot for the info.>

 

What setting would u suggest ??

 

I have set it to level 3 both on battery/AC
Will check later on on SKYPE >

 

:smile: Used SKYPE and fan noise went away.
Appreciated your info VAIO TZ

 

Anybody out there using the memory BUS at 533MHZ

 

Clean installed windows 7 on my TZ best thing Ive done for it bought new in Nov 2007 TZ28GN 48GB SSD and 2 gig of ram its much better on Windows 7 and no sony software. Boot time to finger print log in is less the 14 seconds. With full wireless access and all logged on 5 or so seconds later. Logging on or switching wireless networks is almost instant with 7 so much quicker then vista.

Window 7 found nearly all the drivers including running the finger print reader directly through windows. Only thing I havnt sorted out yet is the FN key volume and brightness controls and the volume controls on the front above the wireless on off switch but I havnt bothered to search for them yet either.

I use XP on the work PC and in my opinion windows 7 is heaps better and XP is just stuck in the stone age and slower. 7 is a big improvement over Vista.

 

I am planning to do same on mine next couple of weeks.>
If you find solution for FN keys please don't forget to post it>