Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

No worries about the question, that's why people join these forums.
In my opinion, I would spend the extra money for the cpu upgrade as the T7300 is not only faster by 200mhz it also has double the L2 cache - 4mb instead of 2 mb on the T7100. Other than the cpu differences, all of the other components are the same.

 

Same experience in terms of shipping here. Mine was suppose to ship on the 22nd of this month but it shipped on the 18th. I'm surprised and pleased with the service so far.

What type of shipping method did everyone go with?

 

Free ground shipping !

 

OK, I'm jealous of you all getting your computers so early. I'm still waiting another week or so for mine.

I'd be curious to hear back from you all about the heat produced by the CPU. Can it really be a laptop or does it get too hot to handle. I have not found this covered any the reviews so far.

 

Hmm, I didn't really get my question answered about CTO VAIOs. The question was, if you CTO a Sony VAIO (Sony VAIO FZ), how does the company ship it to you? I go to Best Buy, Circuit City, Comp USA, etc... and they look all fancy in their boxes. Do you get this same type of box with a CTO Sony VAIO, and is that boxed laptop boxed in a shipping box for shipping protection? Is faster shipping worth paying to prevent any damage in transit that ground shipping could incur?

Also, wanting to go with the Sony VAIO FZ with Blu-ray CTO, what is overkill in the CPU department. Do or should I need their most expensive CPU for the BEST performance? I'm no gamer, but I want a fast, rather a "future proof" machine for the time being for whatever I may plan on getting down the road.

Does Sony include Recovery Disc(s) with the CTO Sony VAIO FZ, and if not, how do I obtain them? If I can't obtain them by purchase or anything, a recovery disc should be made FIRST after complete startup with the internet unplugged?

Help please (pictures welcomed too...)!!!

 

Hi all, thanks for all your info. I just posted my review of my Vaio FZ here:
http://vaio-g.blogspot.com/

I'm new to both posting and blogging, so post if you have any problems linking.

Anyone else experiencing "ocean waves" fan and heat problems?

to the recent post, mine shipped FedEx, box within a box, and it was not fancy (I have pictures in my review). Sony frequently has free shipping (Thursdays through Sundays maybe?). My review also mentions my shipping concerns. No recovery disks - it is on the hard drive and you can make your own when you get it. CPU according to what I have read here on notebookreview - 2GHz at least because it has the L4 rather than the L2 cache, but more is not necessarily needed (?)

 

sorry, that would be the 4MB L2 cache (2.0GHz+) or the 2MB L2 cache (1.8GHz)

 

Couple of my views on my FZ160E experience so far.

First, you will go insane when you experience the bloatware that is installed. It will take days to sort through it and find out what can and can't be ripped out safely. Everything is trialware so has zero value but hogs disk space, memory, swap and proc cycles. If you are at all technically inclined i would recommend wiping the Vista install (don't mess with your recovery partition should you decide to change your mind) and downloading just the needed drivers and utils from the sony support site.

Second once you have it running the way you want, it really is a nice machine. The screen is very bright and clear, its responsive, battery life is workable, media capabilities are very good (with the exception of the rather weak speakers). I have the 200GB drive set into two partitions with one sporting XP and the other the native vista install. Plenty of space but would be nice if it had an empty bay for a second down the line. One other minor issue is the rather iffy touchpad which seems unresponsive at times and the buttons requiring a bit of effort to depress.

Third this box is very nice to relax with. It's whisper quiet most of the time and when the fan spools up to dump some heat out the left rear side you hear it but it doesn't annoy and doesn't last unless doing some hardcore video encoding or gaming and such. On my lappy heat isn't an issue and it's comfortable on my lap for extended periods when doing light stuff like email, word, web surfing, video chat etc. I have the 2.0Ghz model and higher clocked ones will likely get a bit warmer.

Also someone asked about Vista64. Well it's not supported at the moment by Sony with any drivers so don't bother. It's also not supported by many software makers either so you will dig yourself into a hole with it. Vista32 is bad enough with it's shoddy software support (not all MS's fault, many companies outsource driver coding and really dropped the ball when they knew in advance about the huge architecture changes requiring complete recodes in many cases). Not being able to install VPN, Smartcard reader and Palm desktop software was enough of a deal breaker that this rig had to go dual boot (ya not an easy task).

Now I have a question. I bought mine super cheap at Fry's due to a stock mix up (SWEET!) but of course got no config options. The GMA X3100 is pretty damn weak graffix wise (new Intel Pre-Beta supporting T&L and SM 2.0 is out but haven't tried). The only thing I see as needing an upgrade is the graffix card. Does anyone know if you can buy a 8400 or 8600M and drop it in the chassis without much effort?

 

hi guys, just got an FZ in the mail today. Is there any way to install XP on it?
the XP boot disk is not detecting the harddrive. I checked the sony website but they don't seem to have any drivers for it. Thanks

 

Hola, Hola! I have done this and don't recommend it unless you absolutely have to. You will lose some functionality as there aren't drivers available for all the hardware (such as brightness Fn keys, and power management functions and most of the Sony Utilities). I outlined my endeavor earlier in the thread if you want to know more. I actually dual boot so I don't lose my Vista install, but still have XP for work stuff.

 

i was cruising Best Buy today when I saw this and liked it !

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...&id=1177113305036&DCMP=KNC-TLC&ref=25&loc=MSY

its the FZ140 for 1250 plus tax. ITs not for me, but rather a graduation gift for my sister, so i want something pretty (duh) , future-proofish and not outrageously expensive.

Comments? this deal is available until the end of the week BTW. the laptop is really sweet, and even though Vista says the rating is a 3.8 ( thanks to the x3100 graphics, no doubt ) , the machine seems pretty good for a recent graduate with an artistic eye.

So should I consider this, or keep moving on? I just bought a second HP 63xx nicely loaded too, and like it so far...maybe another one of those would be nice, but the sony weighs atleast 1 lb less with the battery in it, and thats big for her, as she takes public transport.

Looking forward to the suggestions/comments from all.

 

Sorry, but in contrast to Desktops, you remain stuck with the graphics option built into the system. If understand it correctly the GPU is actually built into the motherboard. Hence if you want to change the GPU you'd have to change the very heart of your computer, which is not worth it. Perhaps you could sell your current system on eBay at a gain and use the money towards a customized FZ. At least that would not require major hardware acrobatics.

 

Wow, opportunist, I like that. Makes me wish I was in that situation, just because it would make a killer story.

 

i know people are starting to recieve their CTO's, so does anyone have pics of one? especially want to see the large-capacity battery and if it sticks out.

 

sinisterj posted some awesome pictures here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2065041#post2065041

 

Hi friends....

imma kinda new to notebooks and have almost decided FZ CTO to be mine first own purchase. But here are some issues that creep my mind....

1. Is the hard drive easily replaceable? I prefer a 7200rpm. and if yes,
2. How do we set up new vista WITH ALL DRIVERS if we reformat or change hard drive. will FZ come with a geuine vista dvd with drivers preloaded or recovery disk that does the task?
3. And if we select 'none' in the warranty option while customizing, does that mean a Standard One Year warranty?
4. I travel globaly a lot... and mostly remain off country for like 6 months at stretch. So will it be wise to not select any warranty option and get it repair instead? How much does a repair cost on a keyboard malfunction due to a spill OR a screen damage? Just an idea
OR do they provide international warranty?

thanks in advance!

 

I recieved my FZ yesterday and I was wanting to know from any other people who have recieved theirs... Does anyone else have any issues with the Instant On not working correctly?

When I press the AVMode button the computer just boots up into windows it is supposed to be able to go to a DVD/Music/Pictures Menu without booting into the OS I know that the feature is only supposed to apply to The models without BluRay according to to sonys website and mine doesn't have BluRay... the InstantOn is one of the reasons why I opted not to get the BluRay version!

 

Has anyone replace the hard drive in the FZ yet? I have my 7200 rpm drive in hand and waiting for the delivery of my FZ190. If so, any problems with re-installing vista from recovery discs?

I'm not sure about everyone else, but hearing some people having ocean wave/whinning noises from their FZ's are starting to scare me a bit.

One more thing, how's the battery life so far? (standard/large capacity)

 

I have not replaced my drive and have only used in plugged in with the AC adapter so far but I have not noticed any Buzzing or whining noise in mine it actually seems pretty quiet to me

 

I do not have the blu-ray and my instant on does not seem to do anything special either - just seems to boot it up like the power button. I have only tried it once.

 

Dunno about replacing drives, but be sure to back up your recovery partition to DVDs (takes 3-4 I think) before you replace it or erase original because Sony DOES NOT provide recovery or OS disks. Hell they don't even include a proper paper manual. Doubt their warranty would help you in a different country than you purchased it in, just keep your coffee out of the keyboard and don't sit on it while away.

Sony Support site for FZ has an update for Instant On mode. I have it working on mine. It should work from cold or if the machine is hibernating as well.

Not noisy. Fan makes a bit of noise every now and then to dump the hot air out of the chassis but isn't bothersome. Battery life depends entirely on usage and power profile. The Santa Rosa has some pretty extreme options for saving juice and the battery has about a 2-3 hour life when doing light media chores while using the Vaio Optimized power setting.

 

yeah I saw that on page 5, I don't really want to dual XP... I have an XP disk that I tryed to install but I can't seem to figure out how to make to detect the harddrive. How did you make it work? Also, when I find a driver that works, how would I load it seeing as how the computer doesent have a floppy drive?

Thanks

 

Can you please post a link to it? I tried the one for the FZ160E and it didnt fix anything...

 

Got FZ 180..... This refuses Ubuntu install, lol.

Other than that, I think it is a good one so far (besides all crapwares.)

 

The deal is that the XP install disk doesn't have native SATA drivers and XP install only wants them from a floppy. No prob you think, I'll just get a USB floppy and be on my way with a F6 install. No such luck. It will initially accept the drivers off the USB floppy and then when it gets to the stage of actually copying files to the disk, it will drop the USB connection and ask again for a floppy which of course you no longer have access to. The fix? It ain't too tough if you can use nLite and have an original XP SP2 disk around. You just have to have nLite slipstream the driver into a new ISO, cut the iso to CD, boot with it and lo and behold your SATA drive will appear ready to install. You will need to extract the Intel Mobile SATA drivers from the Intel Matrix Storage driver package to do this.

Hmm I just read the release notes and it doesn't mention a fix for it not starting at all. If I remember right the first time I tried mine it didn't start properly either. After a bunch of messing around i tried it again and it worked fine. I think it uses the intervideo DVD software so perhaps try firing that up first, accepting any license agreement, shut the dvd software off, close the lid on your FZ to force hibernation mode, open the lid and hit the AV mode button. If that doesn't work, you always have the option of hitting up Sony support directly as likely something is amiss with your software.

 

Isn't it better to get an xp machine, if you are hell-bent on wanting xp?
You could spare yourself all this trouble of forcing xp down FZ's throat, when it's not designed to run xp natively.

 

Hmm, they still making XP notebooks with C2D and Santa Rosa? If you can find a manufacturer that is and you already know vista isn't for you, I agree. The headaches associated with shoehorning an OS into a Laptop not designed to natively support it will likely not make it worth the effort. Me? I'm stupid and think that I should have a choice of what OS I run, especially when half the software I need won't run in Vista. I'm also a dyed in the wool tech geek so even if I didn't need it, I'd likely have tried anyhow.

 

wow, this is some good info but I'm afriad you lost me here.

OK, so are you saying that I have to make a new XP ISO and insert the proper drivers? It seems like you mean that I put the drivers on a seperate iso disk to boot from, but then how would I boot from the XP disk and be in the instalation at the same time?
Sorry if I sound really dumb but I've never had this problem with XP before. I've put XP on many differant laptops and all of them took it without complaint, i just had a lil trouble with drivers here and there.
Anyways, thanks for trying to help me with this.

And to all the people who think i'm being retarded for wanting to do this: my software is not compatible with vista and sony offered the best graphics in this price range.

 

there's another good review and few pics from www.laptopmag.com :

http://laptopmag.com/Review/Sony-VAIO-FZ-Series-Notebook-PC-VGN-FZ180-E-B.htm
http://laptopmag.com/News/Notebooks...s-to-Its-AR-FZ-SZ-Series-Notebooks.htm?page=2

"Powered by Intel's latest 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 processor (with an 800-MHz front-side bus and 2GB of RAM), the VAIO FZ plowed through our PCMark05 test; its score of 4,626 is as good as what we've seen from many desktop replacement notebooks. This system also has serious graphics chops. The Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT card notched a well-above-average 3DMark03 score of 5,621 and a good 85 frames per second when playing F.E.A.R. in autodetect mode. Hardcore gamers should look elsewhere, but there's certainly enough horsepower here to edit high-definition video and burn it to a Blu-ray disc, albeit at a relatively poky 2X speed. As expected, Intel's new 802.11n connection delivered strong throughput from both 15 (17 Mbps) and 50 (15.2 Mbps) feet."

I wonder how acurate are these 3DMark scores !
Can some of the owners confirm these scores please ?

 

I just ordered my FZ190 CTO today. ETA is the 28th. I got everything basic except upgraded to t7300 with dvd burner. Do you think upgrading the ram is an absolute must. Also, would it be better to get a 2gig stick and keep a 512mb, that way i have 2.5gigs or just get 2x1gig cards?

 

Ive tried everything possible that I can think of and cannot get my Instant On working sony support isnt much help with it either...!

 

This is really frustrating that nobody has bothered to do a full review of this notebook from this site. Come on guys, I scoured the web and forums and submitted all the external reviews. What happened to the community movement?

 

Well, if you spend $20 extra, you can make it one 1GB stick and then add your 2GB from a different source. That gives you 3GB RAM, pretty much the maximum these machines can handle at the moment anyway.

 

One more review:
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39030092,49291007,00.htm
Not exactly enthusiastic...

 

i'm thinking about getting 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC26400 DDR2 800 to take full advantage of the new Santa Rosa chip set. The only ones i have been able to find are Kingston for $118.98 or OCZ for $99.99. my only problem now is finding out if either module is compatible with the FZ. should i just go ahead and order the OCZ or should i maybe expect compatibility issues? is there anyway to find out if it is compatible before i order or should i just stick to 667 for now? has anyone else bought DDR2 800 for their FZ yet? thanks for any help

 

i love the fz but it giving me alot of driver problem... freaking vista today my dvd drive cant even be used and error wit driver and stuff... so i have to do som registry work... and now the fn key doeant even work... how the heck you fix the FN KEYS!!!!

 

I have same problem. After the updates today, it seems Vista cannot use DVD drive driver anymore. You said registry, how could you do that? I need help I guess....

 

Hi Frns,

I'm new to this forum and have some questions regarding FZ140E/B. I just bought this laptop yesterday and got really scared abt what people are saying abt Sony Customer Service. Also many places over the internet, the reviews for sony service is not good . Now I'm in a dilemma whether to keep this laptop or to return it ..

Does sony laptops give any kind of probs for normal use ( like multimedia, gaming and other stuffs ).

Please help me !!

 

exactly my thoughts too !

thanks for finding this review !
again, they post some 3DMark scores here:

"The FZ series offers very similar performance to the Vaio AR11S. Despite having a processor that's 200MHz "slower", it racked up 4,324 in our PCMark 2005 test, compared to the AR11S' 4,320. It should, however, have a bigger edge than this score differential suggests. It has twice as much RAM as the AR11S, so it's more reliable a machine when dealing with photo or video editing applications. It's nowhere near as good as the AR11S for gaming, though. It scored a fairly paltry 1,253 in 3DMark 2006, which is a full 1,606 marks lower. It won't trouble an Alienware, but you'll be pleased to know it will run games at modest settings."

We all know FZ is not comparable with 17" lappies and also that 8400GT is neither 8600GT nor a 7800+ card. Why do every reviewer tend to denigrate the FZ series... well, this is beyond my knowledge and logic capacity !!

 

yeah, it looked like the reviewer wanted to trash the FZ at any cost. 2.8kg weight hardly seems worth complaining. He should try hauling around my current Inspiron 5150 with its massive power supply. Well, I do hope someone who received his order will review the thing in more detail.

 

I think I'm about to lose interest in this lappy, im gonna wait til' the xps 1330 comes out. From the looks of it, in general sony has terrible driver support, dell at least allows you to dual boot ubuntu with no driver issues.

 

ordered an FZ through Portable One. Normally wouldn't have considered Sony..but since P1 tends to throw in free shipping, no sales tax (for those living outside of CA), as well as being authorized to do repairs, thus bypassing the need to deal with Sony.. I thought it was a good deal.

 

The FZ is a pretty attractive notebook with decent specs at a decent price, but after my experiences with Sony's shoddy build quality, pathetic customer support, and incompetent repair center, I think I will stay far far away from Sony.

 

Hola, sorry I guess I did make it confusing. Slipstreaming is adding stuff to an install disc that doesn't come natively and nLite is the best util I know of to do it. I can't really go into detail here on it's use but there is plenty of info out there. You will need the Intel Matrix Storage driver from their site. The SATA driver you need is in that package. nLite will allow you to inject a driver into a new version of the XP installation CD which you will burn and use to boot / install the machine. As I said earlier, it's really a process for a fairly advanced user but I'm sure there are plenty of walkthroughs around should you decide you want to do it. Just be sure you have backed up the contents of your hard drive first. I used a Seagate freeagent USB drive attached with Acronis True Image installed to create a complete image of the drives original contents (Vista/Recovery Partitions) just in case something went wrong with my install.

Don't even think about doing something like this without at least backing up your recovery partition to DVDs.

 

http://www.akihabaranews.com/news-14080-X.html

A bunch of nice pictures. Should be interesting for those longing to see the white keyboard.

 

So, i got tired of waiting for a review and looked an fz at my local bestbuy. I didn't take any pictures but here are my impressions. I have an fe right now as well and can safely say that the fz has bettery build quality. I found there not to be any significant build gaps and the xbrite eco on display was good, better lit than base macbook at least. The most glaring issue that most have noted in reviews is the touchpad. It and the click buttons are uncomfortably small. If you have larger than medium sized hands, your going to find it annoying. The touchpad is along the lines of the size of one in a thinkpad, but the annoying thing here is than in a thinkpad, the touchpad isn't flush against the body, its slightly recessed so you know when you glide off, not so in the fz, so that will take some getting used to. How's the keyboard? I found travel to be on the deep side, and it didn't produce too much noise, kind of a mushy feel. Overall, just an average keyboard. I actually tested the lid for scratches by running my nails across quite roughly and didn't notice any scratches (either that or the lighting didn't permit). As for bloatware, there's tons!!!, literally, the entire desktop save for My Computer and Documents is bloatware, trials, travelocity marketing bs, etc. So yeah, those are my impressions. I still think I'm going to wait for the xps 1330 just to take a look.

 

thanks, I think I got it from here.

On a second note I'm pissed that sony did'nt sent the computer with a recovery/restore disk :-/

 

Hi All,
Can somebody please list down all the unncessary bloatware softwares and trails on VAIO FZ series. So the new FZ owners can uninstall them to improve the startup time.

 

umm here are some I remember.
1. All the aol crap except for instant messenger
2. Travelocity gadget
3. Sony sonicstage, anything sony related
4. The two locked movies sony gives u with the laptop.

 

Other than those who makes slow down the computer speed and trialwares, other things really do not hinder the computer's performance.