VAIO TZ Owner's Thread

Some months ago I made a clean install of Windows 7 and thought that I had followed procedures outlined on this thread. I do not, however, seem to have any software for the fingerprint security. I have seen references to Infineon TPM and Upek software elsewhere but can't seem to locate the Sony software that originally installed with Vista. The driver itself is installed and the biometric device is in Device manager. I see that there is an application in the XP download apps but nothing in the Vista. Is it within one of the other Sony services and I have missed installing something somewhere?

I have never tried using the fingerprint facility and thought that I would have a try. Do other users find this useful?

 

I have never used the fingerprint reader either on Vista or W7.
When my wife got her ASUS she tried to use the reader and most of the times would get a wrong reading.Hope somebody else here may help you.Good luck.

 

go to UPEK's site directly and download their free version.

 

i have a tz (dvd model with 100GB hdd), on offer. i was looking at a netbook to replace my dead eeepc (i will miss u), when a friend said I could have this for the same price $450. its nearly brand new condition, all packaging etc looks new, battery is still good. but no warranty.

should i go for it?

i have so had GAS for a sony 11" since, forever. i really want it, would likely install an SSD, it has vista so i would prob get rid of that and upgrade to 7 (dont have a license so thats more cost, but do have xp licesnse)

 

so nobody has owned a tz in a long time?

i guess an atom based netbook does make more sense than this outdated hardware.

 

What were the specs of your Eee pc? What do you need it to do?
The dual core atom processor is about the same level as the U7XX ULV processors. The integrated card is outdated but some eee pc netbooks also use the same card.
I think that price is a good deal.
Right now i have a laptop here with the same specs as the TZ U7600 GMS945and 2GB but it has an SSD and handles W7 32bit fine.

 

thanks rachel.

wow i thought the dual core would have been well ahead of the n550 for processing power.

my main concerns are the 4200rpm HDD and the old integrated gpu (although i dont watch HD videos and have no plans to play games with it).

 

According to passmark the N550 gets about 560 passmark points. Intel atom 330 gets about 650 pretty much the same as the U7600. Now passmark scores can be a little out due to OS variations.

Some Asus eee 12.1 laptops do come with the 330 dual core atom.
..
I just ran a test on the U7600 laptop i have here now and performance scores are roughly the same 668 so not much in it according to the passmark scores, no.

 

i looked at the cpubenchmark site and the u7700 was about 750 passmark vs 550ish for the n550

also comparing the notebookcheck cinebench scores for both single and multi the u7700 was miles ahead, like double from memory.

synthetics are so hard to gauge by hey.

all i know is my n270 atom struggles, big time.

 

You should also look at the Acer 11.6 dual core/i Core laptops because they are priced around the same and well performance is overall much better. Of course the TZ is leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to the display and design and so you would need to compromise on this.
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-1830-TimelineX-Laptop/dp/tech-data/B003RC0AYO/ref=de_a_smtd

 

yeah i did consider an acer 1830, but where i am they are not available, and import tax is absurd here. the used vaio tz works out half the price of the 1830 imported.

 

See this thread as well.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/539408-worth-buying-used-vaio-tt-tz-tx.html

 

Can I replace the internal DVD-ROM drive in my TZ340 with a blu-ray reader? What type of optical drive is in this that I can replace?

 

My TZ21NM has got a cracked screen, its three years old now and I'm trying to find a replacement panel, Anyone know a good source? All the ones I've so far are from China, and I'm not to happy getting it from there. Last time I bought the high capacity battery for my TZ and it turned out to be a fake. If I can't get a replacement screen then I'll just scap it for parts and get a Z13 i5.

 

Check Sony Vaio VGN VGN-TZ Series LCD Screens

 

Cheers Zimbros12, checked them out but I'm going to get a VPCZ13M9E/B instead of making the repair on the TZ. Breaking it down for spares for other TZ owners will make an impact in the cost of the V13.

 

Does anyone know if I can use a Wintec Filemate 96G Ultra Expresscard SSD in my VGN-TZ47CN running Vista Business? Is the Ultra another Expresscard standard or just the Wintec marketing name? I just want additional hard drive capacity beyond the internal 100G (magnetic) HDD. An increase in performance would be nice too but I'm not sure I'm going to get that. Should I expect any performance improvment by moving program files or other files to the Expresscard SSD? Will this be running at USB2 speeds or faster or slower? It's not clear to me what the interface is for the Expresscard.

Thanks, ..Roger

 

rcolbeck, just get a SSD to replace the hard drive in the TZ. The performance boost on my old TZ21 was amazing. Then you can use any expresscard for extra storage

 

Carlos:

I was mainly interested in getting more space as opposed to higher performance but higher performance would be nice as it is pretty sluggish right now. However, isn't an SSD replacement a bit complicated? The drive replacement procedure that I found on the web wasn't impossible but it didn't look as simple as some laptops where you just unscrew a few screws on the bottom and swap the drive. Is it something that you did yourself or you took it somewhere?

..Roger

 

Not that bad..just follow the guide and u are done...

 

It was pretty easy for me, and only took about 30 mins. I did it myself as there are some very good guides on this forum on how to do it.

I miss my TZ with SSD, it was the 2nd best laptop I ever owned. Its been replaced with my new best ever laptop. Z13 i5, 4GB Ram / 2x64Gb SSD RAID.

 

Hi all, my TZ-150 cannot power on recently. When I push the power button, it lights up in green for a second, the yellow HD indicator and the blue bluetooth indicator also flash once and nothing more happens. If I keep pushing down, it will keep on and off.
This happened after I upgrade to windows 7 ultimate. The 1st thing I noticed after upgrade is that the battery drained away even when the computer was turned off. Then this power on problem came in. But with charging overnight or close/open the screen for a couple of times I usually was able to power on. It should't be the battery problem, since when I took the battery out with only the charger in, the power button can also flash. Since this problem comes and goes, may be a contact problem? Or anything to do with windows 7? Thanks for any suggestion!

 

That's weird....since u said things started happening after the upgrade why don't u roll back to VISTA and see what happens...

 

hi there!

i purchased a used tz without any stickers (on the buttom of the laptop), harddrive and the original packaging. is there any way i can get the windows vista license "back" and working which was "attached" to this machine before?

 

no idea anybody? it's probably not possible, but i did want to ask you guys at least.

 

Just wondering if anyone has sent in their TZ's recently back to sony for the overheating problem that occured and models such as what I own a Sony TZ150. I've owned it since launch and its been offline for about a year+ and also just recently got it back up and running. (Bad Ram) Will the recall still apply? I do notice after installing Win7 it does run pretty hot. about 70 degrees according to Coretemp. I also have other issues like 4-5 "bright spots" on the LCD. I doubt that could be fixed for free. But getting back to the point, will sony still honor the recall after probably 2-3 years? any help on this will be appreciated! thanks!

 

this recall dates back from 2008.Give them a call.they may still honor

 

They do. Sent mine in December 2010.

 

Hello everyone, I recently joined to thank the members here for their excellent guides on upgrading a TZ series hard disk.

I swapped the 100GB Toshiba hard disk in my ageing TZ150N for a RENICE K3VLAR K3E 64GB model, and the process went very smoothly.

Unfortunately though my TZ150N is still suffering from an issue which prompted me to swap the drive: random lockups.

These started about a year ago and are truly random. Sometimes the unit can go weeks without problems, even running for hours at a time. Then it'll hang / freeze / lockup, often so badly I need to actually disconnect the battery to shut it down.

At first I suspected the OS, so tried reinstalling it clean, but I've had XP, Vista and 7 on it with the same issues. Then some lockups actually started immediately after the BIOS screen, which made me think it had to be hardware related.

Having experienced similar problems with a desktop, I suspected dodgy RAM first, but I've tried new modules with no success.

I then thought it might be the hard disk approaching the end of its life, so took the opportunity to swap it for an SSD. All was fine for two days of heavy use (running Windows 7), but then today the lockups returned and I can barely get to the login screen or past the repair page.

Could this be due to the overheating / recall issue? Mine has not been back to Sony yet, but never feels that hot and surely if there was an overheating issue, it'd be more consistent. As I mentioned earlier, it can go for hours or even weeks without locking up.

Has anyone else experienced something similar - and better still, managed to resolve it?

I'd love to get my TZ150N back on its feet as it was a lovely laptop with a hard disk and an even better one with its new SSD...

Gordon

 

Hey All,

I'm soon going to be an owner of a TZ-298. I have a couple questions:

Besides the Primary ZIF SSD...

- 1st Question - Regarding the Sata Drive: Does anyone have a link or instructions on how to Boot from the Sata Drive

- 2nd Question - Will any SATA SSD(upgrade) 2.5" interface work in the Tz?

- 3rd Question - is 667mhz the fastest memory you can install or are there known tested modules out there that will increase performance (better CAS timings?

Thanks in advance!
Jon

 

#1 Download EasyBCD 2.0.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

this is from a japanese site
???????????:?EasyBCD??????typeT(TZ????)??????????????

#2 specs for the HDD that came with the TZ298
#3 yes

 

Hi all not sure if there are still active users on this thread but just wanted to let ppl know I finally got hold of an 1.8 zif SSD and with the help of this guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/208981-my-tz-story-dissecting-tz.html I installed it, loaded windows, and it's great! The one bad thing is somewhere during the install I managed to nick the cable connecting the top panel to the MB....grr... Shelled out 50 bucks on ebay and it should get to me next week. But besides that, the boot-up times are incredibly fast compared to the slowwww 4200rpm stock drive and also heat doesn't seem to be an issue yet. I did manage to get some sample windows movie files to play and it seemed good! When I get the replacement part I'll install some programs and basically test it out. It's my first SSD and I am impressed the laptop even with it being part broken!

 

could you tell me how long it took? And it looks like they are not responding to emails as suggested on the webpage regarding the recall. I'll probably try to ring in as soon as I can get it back up and running.

 

Can anyone tell me how to completely uninstall every piece of Sony driver software from a TZ and start from scratch, preferably without reformatting. I have a TZ-31MN and after installing Windows 7 Pro I went and installed all the usual drivers from the Sony US website for a 398 model, the 31 not certified for Win7. As usual with me I jumped in ahead without checking 1st and installed all the drivers but not in the 'special' Sony right order as per others have discovered and covered in this thread (for Sony's next trick you will only be able to update drivers when the sun and moon are aligned and the Dali Lama has come to you in the night disguised as a dancing chicken). Any ideas appreciated before I start using it as a foot warmer.

 

hi there. anyone here has recovery disk for vgn-tz27gn/n? thank you

 

Have you tried portable one.?

 

Hi.first time post here,i'm kind of a dump bloke,i don't know much about computer,i just seeking help from you're Gentlemens.this is my question:i had a VAIO VGN-TZ17GN with Vista business 32 bit,can i do a complete clean install Win7 pro 64 bit ? if not ,what wrong with Bios ?
thanks a lots Gents ! Kind regard.

 

64 bit windows on a vaio tz doesn't make much sense as the chipset in the tz does not support more than 2gb. I tested a 4gb ram but it won't boot. So you wouldn't gain anything of using 64bit version. Stick with 32bit.

 

Thanks 4 your quick advice Numer0bis,i think i get the picture now,because i seen lots of people upgrade the TZ 32 bit windows to 64 bit,so i thoughts it'll get benefit from 64 bit windows.but now can i asking,can i install 64 bit on 32 bit machine with 2 GB of ram? appreciate to you all Gentlemen !
Best regard !

 

well sure you can install a 64 bit windows on a vaio tz even with 2gb of ram as the cpu is a core2duo (64bit cpu). Problem will be the missing 64bit drivers which you probably won't find for the vaio tz (like vaio notebook utilities and all that crap it needs)so I would recommend sticking with 32bit. I've installed Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit on my Vaio TZ and with 2gigs of ram it runs more or less, sometimes it's a little bit sluggish but i am not sure if thats due to the slow samsung pata ssd or the 2gb of ram. I really would wish that this thing supported more than 2gb. It's just the stupid intel 945gms chipset has a 32bit memory controller and won't address anything above 4gb in total (so no more than 2gb for each module which is kind of a bummer)

 

Small questions about upgrade else


www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-2nd-Hard-Disk...C_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item25630bcdc3

It is correct to vgn-tz21wn/b ?

Or if not where to find correct

I need secound hard drive.

 

Yes a 2.5" will work

 

I tried upgrading the 4965agn wireless card in my tz340 with a 5300agn which is recognized and drivers properly installed, but vista keeps giving me a "Code 10" error that the device is not functioning in device manager.

Is there any reason why this newer intel mini pci express won't work in this model laptop when the older one does?

 

Hello everyone

was wondering if anyone can assist with this http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/635514-vgn-tz17on-upgrade-mb-cpu.html

Also by reading this thread i see that installing Win 7 and a SSD might actually help ALOT! I will try to do the Win 7 install this weekend. 32bit or 64bit? and the SSD maybe later on when i have $$

 

^ You gotta go with 32Vista..you see a night and day change by adding an SSD..

 

The last updated driver is 13.4.0.139 3/29/11..Perhaps by rolling back to an older version it may work..

 

It turns out there are two 4965agn models. One "all purpose" and one "Lenovo", I of course had the wrong one and it won't work. Got the right one and no issues at all.

Still wondering if a blu-ray reader can be put in a tz340?

 

So the 5300agn didn't work...
The only time a read about retrofitting the TZ with a blu-ray was somewhere buried on the TT thread where someone confirmed it works..

 

I have read many pages, but I do not understand. Can I use the Disk Drive HDD caddy from Ebay in conjunction with modern 2.5" SSD?
Will not fall speed? After all, this option is cheaper and quicker than replacing PATA HDD

 

You can check [??]VAIO TZ?SATA 2.5???,??TZ???? - Mobile01 to have an idea how to proceed to the swap..