Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

Well... I just tested running a couple of DVD's in my fz21E using WinDVD for Vaio that comes with Vista Home Premium, altough it takes like 1 minute to start... no problems in image nor sound... seems fine to me.

 

Witch version of Power dvd are you using? If you have Power dvd ultra just download the ultra patch for it and it should work fine. Apparently it fixes a few bugs that occur in combination with the Intel 965 chipset.

 

Thanks for the response.

One further question before I finally get down to buying, does anyone know whether an adaptor/charger is included when purchasing from SonyStyle or whether I'd have to add that on myself as an accessory?

And while I'm on the topic, I've heard quite a few different takes on the battery life of the FZ. I'll need the laptop for a couple of lectures every day -- will the battery suffice, or should I buy and extra (or extended) battery pack?

 

No, you don't have to order a seperate adapter yourself, unless you need an extra one of course. There's one included with the notebook.

How many hours do you need? The standard battery can reach a maximum of around 3 hours with all settings on low and bluetooth and w-lan off, the extended version should go up to 5 hours or so. This one will stick out of the back and raise the backside opf the notebook a little though.

 

i think i was in the same situation as you Ebics-idn.
Im first year at uni and i just bought the FZ21S after alot of contemplation. i managed to get it for £800 on ebay brand new. Should be coming some time next week. + i bought a nice sleeve of ebay for £7

p.s i bloody well hope it comes with a charger adaptor.. its a £1000 laptop!!!

 

Simple question for all, well, hopefully...

Is there really a huge difference between the ECO and the Hi-Color screen????

The Hi-Color screen seems to be only available on the most expensive model..

 

how much dedicated memory do you guys have for your 8400m GT? I went to fry's and checked one out there and it said it has 256 dedicated but for some reason i didn't believe it.

 

Hi,

I'm considering buying a new Laptop Sony VAIO VGN FZ21E.
I want to install an Ubuntu desktop distribution on it (Feisty Fawn 7.04).
Does anyone have some experience with this ?
Can I expect a lot of difficulties or should it install without problems ?

Thanks in advance !

 

It's true.

 

There are 3 different versions of the 8400GT; with 64, 128 and 256Mb. The one with 256Mb only comes in the models that have a blu-ray drive.

If you're shopping in Europe; the cheaper models ending on a 'E' (FZ11E/FZ21E) have the 64Mb version.

 

Yes, there is. Besides the fact that the HiColor screen is a lot brighter, the colors or also more true (70% for theEco screen against 90% for the HiColor one) and the viewing angels on the HiColor screen are a lot better too.

I don't know where you're from there are some more affordable models with a HiColor screen to if you want one, like mine for instance (see my sig).

 

So do anyone have a solution about the fan going on continuous when using vista?

 

Does anyone know about the FZ being possibly discontinued?

 

Why should it? It went for production lesser than 5 month ago. But if U meant the fz11 version , then I don´t know but I´m doubtful.

 

I have a FZ21E (bought in Portugal) and I ran 3 different system information programs, and all said videocard memory is 256MB for my 8400M GT (I dont have blu-ray drive).

 

The massive price drop on it makes people jump to comclusions that it willl be discontinued.
Could sony need the money? Or are they dropping the price for the holiday season? that doesn't quite make sense...

 

With the introduction of the FZ2 seires, I would not be surprised to see the FZ1 series disappear.

Gary

 

So you don't think there will be a fz3 series, considering they just came out? Me too.

 

Run 3dmark06 and see what score you get. This should definetly give you an indication of how dedicated memory your card has.

 

I hope this maasive price drop is just temporary. Already processors are in backorder.

 

I am about to buy one of these.
Could someone tell me how noisy are they ?
Could someone compare with LG P1 or TOSHIBA A200 models ?

 

Hmmm, that is very interesting; could you run 3DMark06 like Jam12 suggests? I suspect that those programs are confused by the shared ram available, but if you actually have an 'E' type (now that sounds familiar, lol) with 256Mb of dedicated memory i'd really like to know about it.

And could you also post some other specs of you machine, like cpu, ram, screen type, wifi card etc. svp? I'd like to compare it to the FZ21E specifications i know.

 

Sony has actually done quite well this year, especially in the Vaio department, so i doubt they need the money. Although like ever other commercial organization they always wan't more money but that's another thing..

I think it has more to do with marketing strategies.

Everyone is just getting used to having the new FZ2 series around, i'll doubt there be an FZ3 series out soon. But you never know with Sony.... i said the same thing when everyone was talking about the rumors of the upcoming FZ2 series, and i was wrong then......

The FZ11 series will disappear though. Sonystyle stopped selling them over here just before the new FZ2's came out a month or so ago, they stated that they weren't available anymore. You can only get them through webshops and other resellers that still have them in store since then. That's just for Holland though (and probably most European countries), maybe the are flowing a different strategy in the USA, Canada, or Azië.

 

Thanks I will try that. I know discovered it only happens when I play dvd files on hard disk with Powerdvd, dvd playback with Powerdvd with a real dvd is no problem, and dvd files on hd with Nero Showtime are also no problem. So it is a software problem with powerdvd.

 

Sony updates the models every 3-4 months or so....so I think the FZ3 series will be out very soon. They always drop prices on current model before new one comes out with the new "goodies" in it.

 

o gr8, i should be getting my fz tommorow! now the fz3 is comin!!

 

Well I installed 3dmark06 basic, it didn't allow any changes, so it ran under 1280x800 on winXP. I had 1595 3dmarks.
My FZ21E on 3Dmark webpage showed these components: Intel Core 2 2.0 GHz / 2032 MB (RAM) / NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT With 256 MB Memory / 152.63 GB Capacity

Here's the link to this laptop I have: http://vaio.sony.pt/view/ShowProduc...21E&site=voe_pt_PT_cons&category=VN+FZ+Series

Although on the link says 64 MB dedicated graphic card, extended to 831 MB. I don't understand why shows 256 MB on software tests!?

 

The card installed in your laptop is definetly not the 256mb dedicated one since that 3dmark is far too low - it should be around 2400. It's either the 128mb or 64mb.

 

To all FZ users <---lol
Prefebly users of the Europe FZ series -
on lower screen brightness levels, does a quiet buzz appear from the screen? When the brightness level is set on full, is there any buzz then?

I need to know as soon as possible because I contacted sony support about this issue and they said there 'might' be a hardware fault. They said a quiet buzz is normal on lower screen brightness levels however advised me to compare it with other similiar models. I was just wondering, is a quiet buzz normal on lower levels. There is no noise when the brightness is set to full.

Thanks, Jam.

ALSO,
on my FZ, the battery is slighly moveable (very slightly) i.e. it is not 100% secure. Is this also normal?

 

Thanks for running some benchmarks. That's around the same score as an FZ11E with a 64Mb 8400GT scores under XP (around 1100 with Vista), so you probably have 64Mb v-ram. What program(s) did you check it with? If i open up Riva Tuner it identifies my 8400GT normally in the 'main' tab.

 

I can't move my battery to left or right, but if i try to move it from front to back it moves about 0.5 mm or so. It's hardly noticeable though.

My screen stays quite when i move down the brightness though, completely silent. I have read and heard about this problem though, it seems more FZ's as well as a lot of other notebooks have this problem. You might wanna get it replaced....

 

No worries mate, you can't wait forever with buying a new notebook

I'm still so happy i didn't, I'm enjoyed using mine way to much

 

Ah right, thanks.
Can anyone else give some feedback about whether they hear any quiet buzz from the screen when you turn the brightness level down?

It seems my battery is fine. It's when a push it directly down, there is bit of movement and I presume this isn't a 'proper' fault. However, the buzzing sound is. I can easily hear it over the fan noise and imo, it shouldn't be there.

 

Jam12,

If you are hearing it over the fan sound, you are right: it should not be there.

I have a US model and there is ZERO noise difference between full bright and full dim. I don't think there is any substantial difference in the US versus European models to account for such noise. Take it back ASAP.

Gary

 

Yeh, I think I will. I payed £1000 for this laptop and for that price, a product should be 'perfect'. I should be getting a call from sony support tommorrow in which I hope it will be easy to get a replacement.

Thanks guys.

 

Hi!

I've been following this line since a time and I find all that work you do very useful, thanks a lot.

I own an european FZ-19VN machine, (low-end one, X3100). I just write to tell you that this fantastic AV button up there is totally unuseful for anyone, not only for Nvidia users. It just boots Vista and the multimedia bar at the top of the screen on my laptop, and it is the same problem I've heard from other FZ-X3100 users in different forums.

It has probably no solution and proves to be a great failure in Sony's behaviour. I though about upgrading BIOS to solve this, but AFAIK Sony doesn't provide BIOS upgrades. I entered Phoenix page and with their BIOS update utility they kindly offered me a nice upgrade for my system. They don't tell what's new (for example, if it solves the AV issue), but they ask for money in exchange. I bought the laptop a month ago. Has somebody though about BIOS upgrades?

I'd love to have the computer all time upgraded, but I'm not going to pay every some months for it. What do you think?

Thanks a lot


By the way, I don't get any sound from the screen or battery.

 

I should be getting mine tommoow (fz21s) same model from UK, soo il let you know if its dodgy.
*preys it will be fine*

 

no bizzare sounds here also,whatsoever!take it back asap

 

I heard the exact similar buzzing in my dell vostro, which I returned.

 

Same here with FZ21E.

About the programs for detecting the videocard memory. I used the 3dmark06 webpage, showed 256 mbs. Also run http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest Again 256 mbs. And a program not web based (siw - http://www.gtopala.com/ ) also showing 256 mbs!! I can't tell why it says 256 mbs!! :X

You suggest any other software to test this?

 

Finally I isolated the problem to detect the correct video memory size. My 8400M GT has indeed 64 Mbs (FZ21E). I was checking the specs under windows XP, the driver for 8400m GT for XP is only for the 256MB version. I ran the checks on Vista and indeed showed up 64 Mbytes.

Does anyone knows if this model (FZ21E) has mxm support for a future videocard upgrade?

 

wooot! finnally got my FZ21S!! nice machine! now to install vista ultimate!

 

Congrats Singh100, don't forget to burn those recovery dvd's before you do anything



Centaurius: well, thats cleared up
As far as i know the videocard in the FZ can't be upgraded though, unfortunately...

 

That is interesting....

I've never had to pay for a bios upgrade before and i'm certainly not gonna start with that now, but it is nice to know that there are some options. Did they give you a serial nr. of the bios they suggested to you perhaps?

Maybe it's hack-able....

To me personally the AV mode isn't a big deal, but it is strange that Sony advertises with it and gets there machine ready for it but doesn't provide it. Even more so now that it's clear that it is possible to offer it if they just went with another bios version....

Anyway, the standard bios is quite limited so maybe this is an option for some people that do require to have a few more options.

 

Welcome to the club man. 'tis definetly an absolute 'sick' (english slang) machine in my opinion.

 

I'm a little confused about the video card memory people are talking about...do they ship different versions of the video card (different memory) based on the model or based on how much RAM you get with the machine?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking of ordering the FZ 290 with only 1 stick of 1 gig ram and adding my own 2 gig stick after.

What kind of warranty did you all decide to get, if any?

 

Hi!

First of all, Storm3016, related to BIOS upgrading, they wanted me to pay before downloading, it is why I decided to write a comment here. As you did, I upgraded some BIOS before and no company ever took money for it, they usually just arrange some problems, it is not like when you buy a new product.

But just to be sure, i will do all the proceeding again, because it was a month ago when I did it. Sony should allow us to upgrade for free, I wonder if we are going to find BIOS upgrades on VAIOUpdate...

Thanks for your answer


VNG-FZ19VN

 

Whoa! Hold on a second. You are mixing info from two sites into this thread. First, Sony has offered BIOS updates for machines before. They have never charged for them. The site you went to that was charging for a BIOS update was Phoenix not Sony. They manufacture and sell the BIOS to Sony, but it is made to Sony's spec. I am surprised that they even offered to sell one since the are an OEM to Sony and selling a BIOS would most likely be counter to the OEM agreement they have with Sony.

But I don't think we have to worry about Sony ever charging for a BIOS upgrade should one be released.

I just went to the Phoenix site. They don't even offer BIOS upgrades. They have a link to a third party that offers them but have a clear disclaimer that they not responsible for the third party upgrades and go on to say you need to contact your manufacturer for BIOS updates. Link

Gary

 

I think it's based on model, you have to look at the specs really.

Well, take some attention to that, since normally when a laptop comes with 1 GB (and only has 2 slots for RAM) comes with 512mbx2. If you buy a 2GB laptop comes 1gbx2, and so forth. Meaning that if you want to install another 1GB, the other slot will have 512mb, and you get an extra 512mb stick...

About warranty, didn't have any choice... bought in the store they told me I had 2 years warranty, if i don't make any hardware changes during that time.

 

well,finally i got my hands on a hitachi travelstar 200gb 7200rpm.in order to swap disks will any of these programmes do the job?
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/migrateeasy/

i want to make an exact image of the existing disk so i wont have to reinstall vista.also,will any of the above mentioned recreate also the hidden backup partition(f10 stuff...)?
i am open to alternate options....