Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

You cannot do a clean install using the recovery DVD's. They can only be used to return the machine to its "out of the box" state. (See my signature for a link to instructions on doing a clean install.)

What was the error message you got?

Finally, no you cannot recreate the recovery partition using the method you suggested.

Gary

 

Oh sorry, I meant the "out of the box" option. That's fine by me, as I will remove all unnecessary apps later on.

I can't remember the error message. I know, that doesn't really help much. I only know that after inserting the 3rd disk, and install continuing after a couple of minutes the error message was displayed.

Too bad I cannot re-create the recovery partition with the recovery disks. I will have to try the "out-of-the-box" install once again and see if it works, if not...note the error message. I'm a bit hesitant though as the last time I tried, when using the image-file (acronis true image) to restore the partition, I had to do a bootrec.exe action first. Is this normal procedure as far as anyone knows ?

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

 

A couple of questions.

1. If the recovery failed, what state is the machine in right now? Are you using it to respond here or are you using a different machine.

2. You keep mentioning THREE dvds. The recovery set for an FZ series machine is just two DVD's. Do you have an FZ or an FZ2 series machine. I thought the FZ2 series machines ALSO had just two dvds in the recovery set.

3. How does acronis play into all of this? Did you use it to create a backup image of your machine at some point? Did you restore THAT image after the "out of the box" recovery failed?

Gary

 

Funny, this must mean there are two types of recovery disk. Or did you use dl-dvd's Gary? I also have 3 recovery dvd's: System Recovery disk 1&2, and another one called Application Recovery disk. The Vaio Recovery program told me before hand that i would be needing 3 dvd's or 2 dl-dvd's when i started the application to create the disk's.

 

Anyone see the new FZ's?
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/...aio-fz-shows-you-love-mother-earth-320318.php

 

I prefer the original clean finish on the lid . Saying that, those limited version FZ's they do look very eye-catching.

Btw, owners of the FZ, when you lower screen brightness can you hear a quite buzz/whine? If you can, is this normal on all FZ's or even all laptops? (this my first 'proper' laptop)

 

Thanks again Gary.

1. I used image file from Acronis True Image to restore the system to before trying a "clean install". So my Vaio is running ok. But I would like to be able to do an "out of the box" install somewhere in the future.

2. As Storm pointed out in his reply...2 system recovery discs and 1 app recovery disc. I have the FZ11E Vaio.

3. See point 1

 

Yuck Not my taste at all. I like the clean business look of my Vaio.

 

Daffie and Storm,

On the FZ 190 CTO machines the recovery set is only two DVD's (not dual layer ones). If you BOOT from disk one it will startup the recovery process. If you have Vista running and insert disk one it gives you an option to bring up the drivers and applications recovery application.

So it looks like they separated those two functions on the FZ11E (a european model if memory serves me).

Storm what model do YOU have? Oops, nevermind I see you ALSO have an FZ11 series.

Daffie, if you use my "clean install" instructions, you will need to modify them SLIGHTLY. I assume in the instructions that you have the 2 dvd style recovery set. Where I call for you to use disk one, when it is time to install certain apps you will need to most likely use your 3rd disk.

Would one of the two of you do me a favor. Go to the clean install thread and upload some screen shots of the look of the application that runs when you insert the 3rd disk in your machine while running Vista. If it requires scrolling to see the list of apps and/or drivers give me separate screent shots. Likewise, if there are multiple tabs shoot each tab. I want to update my instructions for a clean install to include the steps for folks with the 3 disk restore sets.


Gary

 

Jam12; nope, i've heard of that problem with some screens on FZ's as well on other brands, but mine is not doing that fortunatlly... I'm not sure if it is a hardware problem or that a bios upgrade might fix it, but i'm afraid you have to get it mend by Sony if no one else know's a solution.

Gary; a FZ11E is a European model indeed, just like my FZ11S (it's also in my sig along with some spec's, the FZ11E originally comes with 1Gb ram, a 8400GT with 64Mb GDDR3, a 120Gb hdd and the Eco Bright screen).

Really strange that you have another recovery tool then we do in Europe, hardware like they seem the same except for the fact that we only get to choose between a number of type's of pre-configer FZ's and no CTO model unfortunately.

Do you know of many problems that come with doing an original recovery with those disks? Here in Europe there are many reports of problems with the 3 recovery disks, it seems really hard doing a recovery with those disks without installation braking down or ending up with a nr. of drivers that simply won't install. I'm still not sure if it's a problem with the person who's using them or with the disks them self.

The FZ's are only available since the end of June 2007 in most of Europe, i believe they were for sale in the USA, Canada and Azië way before that; do you know if the early models of the FZ's from before it came on the market in Europe also had a 3 disks recovery system perhaps?

 

Ah right, I see.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? I need to know if there is a solution otherwise I'm gonna contact Sonycenter (where I bought it) and ask for another FZ.

 

I'll try to do the screenshots somewhere this weekend.

Btw your manual...is this used to do a real clean install of vista on the FZ, or merely a manual on how to do the out-of-the-box recovery with additional drivers...?

 

It's a how to do a real deal clean install.

Gary

 

Great, thanks! I will try that as soon as I have more free time available.

 

Dear Owners of Vaio FZ,

excuse me that Im interrupting your discussion.

Im going to buy a FZ laptop but still have one question:

How it looks with noise of fan & temperature of whole laptop (after long usage)

(Id like to now for both bundlings) - I mean with shared graphics & with Ge Force 8400M.

Note: I dont play games at all, but now having an ability to buy FZ with 8400M cheaper as with shared video.

Though a noise of fan & temperature of whole laptop is very important for me!

I would appreciate your answers.

 

Hi there guys,

Here's a question from a newbie FZ11S owner, hopefully one of you will
be able to help me.

I really wanted to know how to remove the DVDRW drive and possibly replace with a bluray, a friend of mine has a FZ11Z and is willing to sell me the bluray drive as he already has a bluray player.

If anyone could send me the schematics of the FZ11S & FZ11Z, I would be very grateful or if anyone could give me a guide on to where I start, also if I wanted to upgrade the hard drive and GPU is this possible?.

Thanks kindly for your help in advance

FZowner

 

I don't know how, still if you do replace it, you'll probably loose the warranty in the laptop.

 

Hi and welcome,

I find the noise levels and heat of my FZ11E (C2D 1.8, 8400GT) very acceptable. In fact both are very good compared to other laptops. The fan occasionally turns on but even then it's a nice sounding whoosh Heat I find is neglitable as I often have the notebook sitting on my lap for 1-2 hours on end.

 

Sorry Gary, i'd love to do some screenshots for you to help you help out others, but i think it requires doing a complete system recovery and i can't afford to do that i'm afraid. I need my FZ on a daily bases and it would take me days to get it back in the same configuration and move all the data back and forth. I could provide you with a list of the applications and files on disk nr 3 or a screenshot of the containment of the disk, would that be sufficient?

Otherwise i'm gonna have to pass this one on to Daffy since he's already in the middle of the proces, sort of.

 

Storm,

I think Gary was merely asking for one of us to slide in recovery disk3 when in Vista and see what happens :

"the look of the application that runs when you insert the 3rd disk in your machine while running Vista"

So no need to do a complete reinstall I'm not planning to do so anyway on short term.

 

It isn't that hard to do, atleast not for people who already have experience building computers or have some technical background. But i'm afraid there are no schematics available of these machines yet, and as pointed out to you already you both will loose your warranty unless you can get Sony to do the job for you.

Why don't you and your friend just trade notebooks? You could both just keep your own hdd if you want to, those are really easy to switch through a lid on the bottom of the machine. The 'Z' does have twice as much video memory as your 'S' btw, it would be fair to inform your friend of that if he isn't aware of that already if you want to suggest a trade.

If you really want to go through with switching the optical drives i could give you some pointers on how to go about it, but you'd have to be comfortable with the fact that it would be somewhat of a discovery since i've never done this on a FZ either. I did replace the optical drive on a HP notebook once and that went well, but that's my only experience with it.

I think you can, but i don't know for a fact if you can upgrade the CPU. Anyone knows if it's soldered to the motherboard or that it's placed in a normal socked?

I do plan on opening up my FZ and post some pic's of it's intestine's as soon as i can find the time btw, if you're not in any rush it might be a good idea to wait until i've done that as it would give me some more insight on how to go about it.

 

Aah, well, i've just done that and no application starts at all, lol

I can open the disk with explorer to see what's on it though.

But to me it sounds like he wants to know what happens when you are doing a recovery at the time you insert the 3th disk. Could you enlighten us Gary?

 

There's enough info in this thread about heat and noise already, so i'm not gonna get into that. There are however a few other points to consider when choosing between those FZ's.

Does either of the models of your choice has the HiColor screen? To me that seems the best reason to base your choice on. The CPU and RAM can also vary on those models, two other things to consider.
Another point is battery life; the X3100 would last a little longer on the same charge then the 8400GT when all other components would be the same.
Last but not least we have the OS; the model with the X3100 comes with Vista Business while the machine with the 8400GT probably comes with Vista Home Premium. You didn't state what kind of user you are, but i think it's safe to say that Vista Home Premium is more useful for most consumers.
I assume that you're not looking at models that have the blu-ray drive as they probably are in a higher price range so i guess it's save to leave that one out of it.

 

Thanks for useful information, Im a student, probably X3100 und Vista Home Premium will be for me better choice. I dont give here any models because Im in Europe and we have quite other models as in USA.

 

Well, gimme some models then, i'm from Europe (Holland) myself


You're from Germany..?

 

Daffie was correct.

I wanted to know if there was some application on that third DVD that would auto run when you popped it in the drive while Vista was running.

On the two DVD set, if you pop in disk one WHILE you are running Vista it starts up an application that gives you (among other things) a chance to individually install drivers and apps. (See attachments below.) I was ASSUMING the third disc you guys have did something similar.

Do any of the three DVD's autostart an application when you insert them WHILE VISTA IS RUNNING?

Gary

 

Ive thought only americans are here .

Im really from Germany. So now I could afford two models:

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18E (C2D 1.8, 8400 GM, however 1 GB RAM, 160 GB) - 950 Euro

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ19VN (C2D 1.8, Intel 3100, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB) - 1000 Euro.


The difference in prices is ridiculous. That why I asked about noise of fan and heat by 2 bundles. I think Ill take the second one.

Why Im so worried about, because I own now BENQ S73 (T5500 & ATI Mobile 1600, after few hours of usage it sounds like Boeng 737 & and it has a bad looking 14" Widescreen, that why I decided with sony, as I had seen one by my friend, thin, super LCD, and was only wondering about heat by new Sony C2D Models.

 

Gary;


I've tried them but non off them started any application, but thats probably because i've got autorun disabled. I did see a autorun.exe file on all three of the disks though, would you like to send me a list of all files on the three disks?

 

No, that won't do me any good at all. I want to see which of the three disks will allow for a display similar to what I posted in message # 1426 above.

Would you be able to insert the disks and run the autorun.exe applications and see if any of them give you similar results to my screenshots I uploaded?

Gary

 

Sure, no problem.
I'm a bit rushed right now but i'll try it tonight or tomorrow and let you know the results.

 

lol, no, we're from all over the world here at notebookreview.com

Ah, i know those models, they sell them over here in Holland too.
So you thinking about going with the 19VN? It probably is a good choice for your kind of use. It'll probably be a bit cooler and a little bit more power efficient, and you won't have to bother with upgrading the RAM yourself. Do keep in mind that it comes with Vista business though.

That ATI 1600 gets a lot hotter then a Intel X3100, so that's probably the reason for the heat and noise. But then again, you won't know for sure until you try it; what's quite for some people can still be noisy to others. Personally the FZ is the quietest notebook i've owned so far.

 

iv finally ordered my fz21s should be here next week!

CAn anyone forward me a link to where i can start reading up about:

removing bloatware- installing vista ultimate?

thanks

 

No hurry! I just want to update the Vista FZ Clean Install document. In fact when you DO get to this, would you mind posting the results in that thread. (See my signature line below for a link.)

Thanks,
Gary

 

See my signature line. There is a link there to the thread containing the FZ clean install instructions. Bear in mind this was written using an FZ190 CTO, the process MAY be just a little bit different for your FZ2 series machine. If you have questions about the process, post them in that thread. Also if you do find any differences, post a note in that thread and I'll update the document to reflect those differences.

Gary

 

thanks gary!

Is it true that if you do an upgrade of vista instead of a clean install, you wont have to download all the drivers? Will this remove the bloatware?

 

Can anyone tell me what difference there is between the "Blu-ray drive" offered with, say, the FZ21Z and the "Blu-ray combo drive" on, say, the FZ21S?

Also, as far as heat, sound and battery life go, I don't suppose there would be any noticeable difference between the 21S and the 21M?

 

Upgrading will indeed NOT require reinstall of the drivers. But it will NOT remove the bloatware. To get rid of the bloatware you have three options:

1. Uninstall each piece of bloatware individually. Slow and laborious and even then not ALL of the bloatware is fully removed. For example the Norton Antivirus stuff often requires running a separate "remover" program be run to REALLY get rid of everything. Pluses: none Minuses: a pain in the butt.

2. Semi clean install. This is a good way if you don't have access to a Vista installation DVD. It involves interrupting the "Out of the box" restore process at a certain point before it has had a chance to begin installing the bloatware. Pluses: No Vista install disk required. Minuses: you have to stop it at just the right point and you might still be left with some bloatware or POSSIBLY a missing driver (easily remedied)

3. Clean install. If you have access to a Vista installation DVD this is the way to go. You are certain to have no bloatware when you are done and to have all the necessary driver. Pluses: You KNOW what you have when you are done. Minuses: requires a Vista Install DVD, and that you download some items from the Sony support site. My instructions detail all of this with links to where to find EVERYTHING you need before you start.

If you have further questions about the clean install process, please take them to the thread via the link in my signature below.

Gary

 

cool thanks alot gary, iv got a vista ultimate disk. soo looks like il be following your guide soon as my laptop arrives.

 

Great! Let's take all further conversations to the other thread. Go there now I am going to post a message for you there.

Gary

 

(preparing for new laptop question)

whats the best way to transfer gigabytes of data from a pc to a laptop?
im guessing a cross over cable, would i need software or am i able to do this from an xp box to a vista laptop via the explorer?

 

You MIGHT be able to. It depends on the versions of XP and Vista. You will need versions that support network file sharing. (I don't remember if XP home did this or not.)

But if you have a DVD burner on the PC, it might be easier to just burn 'em to disk. If you use DVD-RW you don't even have to waste any media!

Gary

 

yehr, I thought about DVDs but that would take ages to move 50GIGS of data.. how would you go about moving stuff via the cross over cable (ftp?) is this even the quickest way to do it?

 

The optical drive in the FZ21Z is able to read AND write blu-ray's and dl-blu-ray's while the one in the FZ21S reads all but only is able to write anything BUT blu-ray's.

As far as heat, sound, nor battery life concerned there won't be any noticeable difference between those two indeed.

 

I tried all 3 disks, but got a totally different result then what i've saw in the screenshots you've posted. I do think this information -or what sharing it could lead to- concerns all FZ users, but for now lets move it your tread and see what we come up with. More details over there.

 

quick question-- is there really a huge difference between the Hi-Color screen and the ECO???

thanks!

 

I have the ECO and it's wonderful...for me at least. I think if the screen's any brighter, I would end up turning it darker anyway

 

apparently the difference is in color saturation... hmm.. cuz i have a dell xps m1330, and apparently the screen is as good as it gets..
but is the fz screen, comparable to the SZ6 screens?

any other comparisons between the Hi-Color and ECO?

 

I have recently bought a FZ21E, really nice laptop. But I installed PowerDVD and when playing dvd vob files in fullscreen the movement is really choppy. How can I resolve this problem?
Mdamstel

 

You sure it's not a resolution issue? Try setting the resolution to 1024x768 and see how it works.

 

I dont think so, I set is to 1024 x 768 and no difference. The desktop looks really awfull this way, blurry, btw.