Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

In my opinion 2Gb should be more then enough for most users, no idea why you'd need more to be honest.

 

I was thinking along the following lines. As all available RAM is used by superfetch at the moment (Cached : 1600MB), it seems logical that when adding more RAM, even more can be superfetched. Thus the system can perform better, with additional programs/dll's cached.

 

What kind of range are all you FZ owners getting on your bluetooth? I just got my FZ and I'm having serious issues with the built in BT. Ranges are under 10 feet

 

The sony FZ21 I have does have a 8600 nividia card i find it brill for gameing. as for sleaves sony have there own wich are nice the vgp-cp10 and vgp-c16 both fit the FZ.

 

The FZ comes with a 8400, how did you get a 8600?

 

He's lives in the UK, so it's probably a European model.

 

I can't wait to get mine. At last us europeans have a better laptop from the same manufacturer than the US . Sony + Nvidia Geforce 8600m GPU = Heaven!!

And btw, the FZ11 series can only register 2GB RAM meaning what ever bit OS you have, the laptop will only recognise 2GB's of it. That's one of the reasons I didn't go for the FZ11 series and thank god the FZ21's can register a maximum of 4GB's.

 

It could be a type-0, but i don´t think so!
It´s the only thing that´s keeping me from buying it! Damn slow hard drive!
Here in Sweden the Z-model has the following differences from it´s "little brother" M-model. A 8600 GPU, Blu ray, dual lamp screen and bigger hard drive.
I think tge 8600GPU, dual lamp screen and Blu ray are worth the extra money!

 

where did you buy the 8600 one from, how much does it cost?

 

I guess you didn't do your research mate, all FZ's go up to 4Gb with a 64bit OS.

 

Hi

yeah I do live in the UK and the FZ21S FZ21M FZ21Z do come with a nvidea 8600 graphics....it was £999 on 12 months buy now pay later from the sony centre

 

Hi Aibo82

I also have an FZ21s but I cannot run the 'Organise' section in Adobe Elements. It just causes the machine to go into an endless loop. Just wondering if it works properly on your machine or if only I have a fault.

Many thanks

 

its 900 on laptopsdirect (FZ21s). i might get it but not sure about that flat keyboard looks weird need to try one. does it heat up a lot, can i use it on my lap while watching videos and for general tasks?. are there any hardware problems? i dont want to read 132 pages to find out :|. thanks.

 

Hi!

I'm considering getting one of these FZ notebooks and having the following options (all EU models):

FZ11E 1.327 EUR

FZ19VN 1.565 EUR
FZ21E 1.327 EUR
FZ21M 1.565 EUR
FZ21S N/A
FZ21Z 2.159 EUR
FZ29VN 1.387 EUR

I’d like to have a dual lamp screen (as I understand it’s much better – is it?); could live without blu ray; anything over 100 Gb of disk size will be ok; wlan and BT are a must.

Unfortunately the 21S is unavailable on our market, so I guess the Z model is the only option with dual lamp.

I’m somehow concerned about the disk speed – only 4.200 on the Z model. Does anyone have any idea why Sony put a slower disk on the top model … The heat/noise problem maybe? Where would this limited disk speed become a problem, video editing maybe?

Now I’m wondering if it is worth to pay this extra for the dual lamp (and 8600GPU, CPU 7500, BR writer) or should a cheaper model (21E or 21M) be the best choice? Also: Are there any differences in terms of heat and noise between this FZ models?

TIA for all advises and suggestions. Hope to read from some 21Z model owners too.

And BTW: Does anyone know what the exact WLAN chip on this model is?

 

Help.. I have got sony vaio FZ series for several months ago.. but, todays i face a trouble with SD/MMC device that unable to detect every memory card.. what's wrong with this device? I try to disable and then enable again until restart but it seems no effect.. any clue?

thx b4..

 

there was an update for it a few months ago, you can find it at sonystyle.com Customer Care.

 

There has been a driver update for the cardreader a while ago, perhaps it isn't installed on yours yet. You can find it at the support page for this machine on the Sony website.

edit: Nevermind, too late....

 

I wouldn't worry about that disk speed, the larger the disk the faster it is. It will certainly be speedy enough for all your tasks, and you can always upgrade it later if it doesn't satisfy you.

The dual lamp screen is definitely worth the extra money, it's just brilliant. The other higher graded components are nice extra's
The machine is very quite but can get warm on your lap after a while, i'm not sure if you can comfortably use it on your lap for a long time without something like a book underneath it.

The wireless card in the 'M','S' and 'Z' model is the Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN, in the cheaper models you get the 3945ABG variant.

 

I think that sony have already installed it.. I will try..

btw, have anyone already experienced to downgrade the Vaio FZ series become windows XP? today, Sony have released the drivers and applications for windows XP..

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/225477/product/vgn-fz15g?site=hp_en_AP_i

thx alot..

 

Great news!

Anyone tested with the us models? (fz140 and etc)

Thanks!

 

Currently they are only selling Z's with 8600's in them in Europe. You can easily pick one up from sonystyle. However I'm sure you'll find cheaper deals than there - use google search!!

Don't you get an 'S' model? Not being biased or anything but thats the best one to go for - dual lamp screen, 8600 GPU, Blu ray and 5400RPM HD. Only thing the Z offers more is a 300GB HD but only at 4200RPM and a write as well as read blu ray drive.

Not according to here. I may be wrong however it states under MEMORY, the max memory is 2GB. I've also contacted laptopdirect about this issue and they said the system can only register 2GB memory. Then again, laptopsdirect are a internet shop and may be following manufacturer's tech specs.
Whereas on the FZ21 data sheets, sony's website shows the max memory is 4GB. Also newer CR's also have max memory shown as 4GB's with the older ones only 2GB's.

 

most support 4, doesnt mean they can use it all

 

Yeah, Sony does say 2Gb on their website, but they don't always seem to know everything about there products... The motherboard was made by Intel, according to their specifications it supports 3Gb with a 32bit OS and 4Gb with a 64bit OS. This was confirmed on this forum soon after the first FZ's came out.

 

Storm3016, I suspect you are right but the OP is talking about a FZ 2 series machine I believe. I doubt there is any difference between the original FZ and the new ones in this regard but...

Gary

 

hi to all!my first post here and hopefully not the last!i own an fz11z with a matchita blue ray drive.i can only get cd write speed of 8x both with roxio and nero 8.does anyone else have the same problem?is it a firmware issue,settings or something?by the way,the system runs on vista home premium.
thanks in advance!

 

I'm not sure witch post you are revering to Gary (i kinda made a lot the last few days ), but the '2X' series is just an updated version of the first FZ's. Sony just upgraded some components and added a new configuration with the 'M' model, but overall it's still the same machine.

 

A very quick question to anyone who might know the answer...does the FZ160 have bluetooth? I frequently see the green LAN icon in the system tray and see its options to enable 2.4GHz and/or 5GHz, but am not very familiar with bluetooth. Do I have bluetooth in my laptop or not, and if I do how do I use it....if not, is there any way to get it?

Thank you in advance.

 

The 2.4/5Ghz wireless device settings are for wifi, but if your FZ had bluetooth i'd assume it would have another option in that same menu window to turn it off or on because mine does. You'd have to find a Toshiba bluetooth module or one that's compatible with the FZ and install it if you want to get internal bluetooth, but the easiest way would be to just get a usb bluetooth dongle.

 

Thanks, thats what I figured...5GHz is like for connecting to N-networks...I'll look for bluetooth but I dont think I have it. Right now I dont have a need for bluetooth since my cell phone doesnt have bluetooth capability...but for future I'll know a USB bluetooth flash drive will have to suffice.

 

Your welcome, i checked and your model (it's called the FZ19VN in Europe/Holland) doesn't have bluetooth so no need looking.

The 5Ghz frequency has nothing to do with the speedier 'N' wifi variant btw, it's just another wifi frequency thats all.

 

Hi guys, maybe this is a stupid question I am asking! but I do not know how to search inside a thread?!!! is it possible to do so? in search options there is not such thing and this thread has become so big that I can't read it all!

So is there a way to search inside this thread?

 

Ok I ask 3 important questions I have:
1-has anyone been able to use zonealarm firewall with your vista?
I have the fz180e and as soon as I install zone alarm my computer
restarts and gives me blue screen!


2-Is there anyway to turn off the LCD monitor on both xp and vista
while you download (still ofcours talking about the fz180e)


3-its now long that I gave up vista and just using XP when at home
and using the computer connected to power. I use vista with battery.
My XP installation was very successful and only thing I need to make
it perfect is the power managment to work! Anyone can help me with
this?

 

Seems that Sony's done me again....tossers. I remember just last year when I bought a sony ericsson k610i and on the sony website, it said that it included a photo light - however it DIDN'T!!
Anyway I'm to bothered tbh, if I would known it support upto 4GB's then I would've bought an FZ a long time ago. On the other hand, I would've been far too angry with myself knowing that the new FZ21's offer much more value for money - in the UK anyway.

Btw, seems like HP has done this '2GB max memory' annoyance on some of their laptops as well - CLICK.

 

Oh well, too bad for the wait, but atleast you get the latest model now

I don't know why it seems so hard for them at Sony to know what's inside their notebook's, they even told some costumors here in Holland that the FZ11E model has 128Mb of v-ram but it has only 64, just like the FZ21E.

Hope you'll enjoy your FZ soon!

 

1-Sorry, haven't tried it.

2-Sure, atleast in Vista...... Just go to power management and set the time for turning off the screen to one minute. Windows will shut down the screen after the machine is untouched for one minute.

3-I'm not sure if they included power management, but Sony has just released XP driver support for there FZ models officially. If i were you i'd check if the XP support includes the power management utility.

 

There is: the Advanced search option, it's almost on the top of the screen. If you scroll up to the top you see the white search bar, a little lower is a dark blue bar, look for 'Search' in this blue bar, pull open the menu and choose 'advanced search'.

 

so,any comments on the cd write speed of 8x?on fz11z running vista home ultimate.....anyone?????????

 

Yes, there are three search locations on every page. The one at the very top of the page is a Google driven search of just this site. It is the best of the three as it allows two character searches so things like "FZ and XP" work. The other two options do NOT allow this.

The second search is a drop down box. (See capture1.jpg below.) It searches a specific forum. The third is also a drop down for seraching a particular thread. (See capture2.jpg below.)

Gary

 

Can someone post a pic of the FZ keybord with UK layout? The pics on sony.co.uk shows FZs with german keyborads

 

Thanks to all you guys for answers
ScuderiaConchiglia special thanks man Now I can search

 

You should get a real look at FZ imo - Sony centre, Comet, John lewis and some other reputable store's should have a FZ on display.

 

anybody?come on you guys show some team spirit please...........

 

Nowadays lightscribe dvd drives are getting popular.

A lightscribe enabled dvd rom can print labels on dvds usingbuilt-in laser.

I want to know if our FZ models (specially blu-ray models) have this capability because blu-ray drives have dual lens inside.


for details see www.lightscribe.com

 

is there anyway to have the touchpad of my fz180e work the way it dose under vista when using xp?
In vista on the extream right side of touchpad you can scroll. I would love to have same thing on xp if there is a driver or file to use please let me know!

 

Guess there aren't that many blu-ray drive owners

If you'd checked the specs for your burner on the Sony website you would have found the answer yourself though, 8x is the maximum burn-speed for cd's for your burner.

Here are all the maximum burning speeds for that drive:

CD-R x8, CD-RW x8, DVD-R DL x2, DVD-R x8, DVD-RW x2,4, DVD+R DL x4, DVD+R x8, DVD+RW x4, DVD-RAM x5, BD-R x2, BD-RE x2, BD-R DL x1, BD-RE DL x1

 

Jam12, unfortunately I'm not in UK. The pic of the FZ keyboard layout will be very useful to me in arranging the keyboard personalization, which our local dealer is offering, free of charge

 

you are right....sorry about that!
thanks mate!

 

I wonder if anyone can help me with two problems on my new FZ21S, which as yet has no software loaded other than the Sony preloaded stuff.


1. I keep getting an error normally when I try to start a program - for example selecting the word processor button in Works:

The Window info is as follows:
Windows - No Disc
Exception Processing Message
0xc0000013 Parameters 0x75E3023C
0x84A3E90C 0x75E3023C 0x75E3023C

If I elect to dismiss this error then the application starts and appears to work normally.

2. I would actually like to use Photoshop Elements as provided but when i select the organise button from anywhere in the program the program loops, manually interrupting this gives the message that the program is not responding. I have reloaded this from the restore discs with the same result. The other functions of Elements appear to work without a problem.

Many thanks

 

Thanks for the drivers. P.S. Sony UK has them too but you need a product code to get them Anyone know how to talk to someone outside of SonyUSA to get these drivers?

Oh ya...has anyone else tried to download the drivers from sony asia because I can't get passed agreeing to the download. If anyone could help it'd be great.

Thx

 

Try this link instead: ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/FZ19