Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

Thanks, do you perchance know if deleting them went smoothly, or if they leave junk in the windows registry?
The Antivirus Trial, have you tried getting rid of it as well? Norton Antivirus is one of the things that bringing down my current system and other Antivirus Products should do the same job without hogging resources.
I think it'd also be a good time to collect various strategies of backing up the system before anything goes haywire.

By the way, they process orders for FZ190 CTOs surprisingly fast these days. I ordered mine on Tuesday 6/19 and received the shipping confirmation today.

 

sorry , this is just from my test in best buy to check it out. I'm still deciding on whether im gonna buy the thing or not. The battery life of 1 hour 40 minutes is really scaring me, even my fe gets more than that, my macbook gets like 3 hours, and my thinkpad gets 4. So yeah, anybody have any reports on battery life with the standard battery and hicolor screen and nvidia? I'm talking like max battery life, c4 sleep in bios, min brightness, just surfing the web, bluetooth off, vista endurance. Like the maximum that u can squeeze out with feasible web surfing.

 

Nice question. I am currently doing for myself.

 

Just found out the latest updates of Vista also screwed up Fn key function. It does not work anymore Hope sony will fix these issues quickly. (yeah, unable to use CDs and Fn are annoying)

Edit : hmm... at least screen can be dimmed using power option.

 

what exactly did you do? Just update Windows or reinstall the entire system?

 

Windows Vista simply updated itself, advised me to reboot, then boom! CD drive and Fn key do not work!

 

hm, does anyone else have that problem? A brand new computer only half working doesn't seem attractive. Any solutions yet?

 

AV MODE!!!!!!! I've been strugglin with this for days, I hit the AV mode button and my laptop boots up, does anyone know how to correct this? I heard on here that it's not suppose to work on the laptops with blue ray? I haven't seen this anywhere, does anyone know if this is true? Sony support has been no help with this, I call them and it seems like first they have to look up what the feature is and then start googling possible solutions on line and then read them to me.....

 

i remember reading on the Sony website that AV instant on mode is not available on any blu ray models, which is one reason why i went with the non-blu ray model.

on another note, has anyone had any luck with upgrading to DDR2 800 yet? i just ordered 2GB, and curious about any success.

 

Not sure why but similar issue here. My brightness Fn keys stopped responding for some reason. Everything else still worked and I could get to my DVD drive fine. To fix the Fn Keys I just reinstalled the Sony Notebook utils from the site for my machine and they started working, no reboot even needed. For the DVD drive you might want to re-run the chipset installation utility that is also up on the support downloads site.

HTH

 

Footnote 15 on the second page says Instant On is not available with the BluRay option.
http://www.sonystyle.com/wcsstore/SonyStyleStorefrontAssetStore/pdf/VGNFZ190CTO_SpecSheet.pdf
For those who do have InstantOn, this document might be handy:
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/VGNFZ100_InstantMode.pdf

 

Hmm... that's only for your model (FZ-160) but not mine (FZ-180) but I may assume that there would be no problem, right?

 

which sony utility you download for the fn key? which web site the update site or the support site?
anyone know how to make the instanton work?

 

Suddenly my Fn key functions are back.... without any notice... weird....

I did chipset re-installation, but still no luck. Kinda depressing since the CD drive of mine is Blu-ray one.

 

Thanks, I've wasted many hours trying to get it to work, the sony support guys didn't know why it wasn't working, and my laptop came with the "Insant Mode" manual, so I figured I had it..... I should've looked at footnote 15 of that brochure first....

 

i got my fn working yeah!!! but my instanon still dont work, it just boot up

 

ok it seems as if the issues are starting to be solved. So, I have more question. When I looked at in bestbuy, the notebook was locked in, so I couldn't test the closing mechanism of the lid. Can any one tell me how well the lid closes? I understand that there is no latch on this model unlike the fe, so does it stay shut? Is there a gap where stray papers in bookbag can get in a scratch the screen? How well is it closing basically... Is there a spring mechanism that clicks it shut?

 

DUAL BOOT XP/VISTA Hi, I noticed a couple of people talking on here on how to create a dual boot on an FZ180, I'm in the middle of trying to do that right now, so far I've extracted the drivers from the Intel Matrix Storage manager... I ended up with 2 files, one called Driver and one called Driver64, I pointed nLite at Driver, but now it says "Regular PNP driver" or Textmode Driver... I'm thinking I should choose regular PNP, but I'm not sure, does anyone know which is the right choice? Thanks in advance!

 

DUAL BOOT XP/VISTA Well, it didn't work, I loaded the driver folder I extracted as a "Regular PNP driver", created the new XP disc, loaded it up... "Setup did not find any hard disk drives....etc" anybody know what I may be doing wrong?

 

I'm anxiously waiting for my FZ190. I am wondering how the battery life is on this notebook with and without battery savings (with 8400GT) and the performance (benchmarks, games, etc). Is there a panel for the hard drive at the bottom of the notebook?

 

ATTENTION ALL FZ OWNERS!

Those who are having trouble with there Pioneer DVD-RW, I have found a way to fix it!

http://129.33.22.16/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=35,E=0000000000821835739,K=7531,Sxi=1,KB=CISCV3,VARSET_OBJ=312183,VARSET_L2=R510814,t=case.tem

Follow those steps and you will be good to go!

BTW, I love my FZ190! Just got it in today!

 

Is there any reviews on the Vaio FZ190 yet?

 

well, the cnet reviews aren't exactly credible. we still dont have one on a cto fz. so nope note yet... SOMEBODY WRITE A G-DDAMN REVIEW. Its been a month since release people. I really need some benchmarks and heat opinions as well. And again, how does the lid close, there is no latch, does it stay shut? Honestly, somebody, write a review about this notebook (2 hours tops of your time will save alot of people alot of time).

 

DUAL BOOT XP/VISTA Please disregard my previous posts, I got it working, dual booting XP and Vista on a FZ180, ahhhhhhhhhhh..... Oh what a feeling, TOYOTA

 

I have a FZ-190 CTO, if you guys want, I can run some benchmarks. What benchmarks would you guys like to see?

 

crisismgmt: i was wondering when you say "i would recommend wiping the Vista install" do you mean, uninstalling all the programs and everything I can through the control panel uninstall program thing, or is there more to wiping the vista install? I was also wondering, if you wipe the vista install do you lose your camera and speaker drivers and the ability to ever use... say for example the DVD burning software it comes with? thank you

 

I sent a mail to Notebookreview that I'd like to review my laptop, but I had not received any answer.

Btw, these are some benchmarks I've done for the review. Btw I upgraded the ram to 4gb (so 3gb in Vista)
3Dmark 05 : 4249
3Dmark 06 : 2510
PCmark 05 : 4551.

I highly recommend to update the video driver (stock driver only gave 1710 on 3Dmark 05)

Thanks Kevotc, my CD drive is working again! That method on the link also works for blu-ray drive.

 

wow those are some pretty good benchmarks, you have just restored my faith in this laptop btw, where did you download the video drivers from, laptopvideo2go?

 

GF 8400M GT??

 

Here's what I'm getting with a fresh-out-of-the-box FZ190 CTO with BluRay.

 

Close to a Geforce 7700. Nice!

 

looks like your week points are only the HDD and the only 2Gb of DDR ! lol

 

Has anyone been able to find drivers to get the speakes on an FZ working with XP, I installed XP on mine, but am having a heck of a time trying to get the speakers to work

 

FZ is not meant to run xp natively.
So no wonder you are having a heck of a time.

 

I'm having a wierd keyboard issue. Would any VGN-FZ190 user with full updates from Sony and Vista, running stock, hit the following combos in notepad;

W and SHIFT+1
S and SHIFT+1
F and SHIFT+5

Given a simulteaneous keypress, I'm not getting the second keypresses at all. Only for some combos this does not work. For instance E and SHIFT+1 gives me "e!" like it should. I found this out gaming on the laptop right away, can't move forward and active shift1 at the same time.

 

I was surprised and a little worried by this too when I first pulled mine out of the box and realized there was no lock, but it seems to be secure. I would not put it in with a bunch of papers though; I can see them slipping between the keyboard and the screen. I would recommend a neoprene case especially since one review said the top can scratch easily.

 

1.can anyone tell me all the differences between the VGN-FZ190 CTO with Blu-ray AND VGN-FZ190 CTO (including Display Resolution (HD) and the HDMI™ output).

2.is there a BIG difference between the resolution of this Sony (FZ) and the HD,if yes is there any notebook 15.4" with a HD display you recommended.

thanks

 

Mine is a lemon, but I did write a review on my 190 here: http://vaio-g.blogspot.com/. Sorry, I have not looked at how to post it on notebookreview directly.

 

where can you find the update driver???

 

laptopvideo2go.

 

Heh, I just wrote that the FZ cannot be used for gaming, and no one even flinched.

 

I played CS, Fear, CnC3 and other graphic intense games, 8400 handles fairly well (played fear with a higher resolution and AAx2 from auto detect, and it was good. I also played CS with max setting possible, and found no lag whatsoever.)

 

Has anyone installed the Seagate Momentus 7200 hard drive in their FZ and noticed any change in battery performance or had any heat issues or other problems?

 

does anyone know if games like halo or flight simulator can be played using the integrated graphics card? cause from my understanding if you purchase the laptop with that card you cannot upgrade to a better one

 

WooooooooW
gr8 review over there.....THANKS

 

Confirmed the FZ (actually the AR's too) keyboard issue at a Best Buy down the street. The keyboard does not support all WASD and SHIFT combinations. Makes it pretty much useless for a serious gamer who needs to map keyboard combo's.

This FZ is going back.

 

well, flight simulator 2004 can run on an integrated albeit with low settings. If u want to run fsx, no way, get the 8400 gt... Also, halo 2 for vista will need a 8400 gt as well. So, unless if batt life is an absolute must, I think it is worth it to get a dedicated...

 

I am currently testing Blu-ray writing.

It is nice to put 19gb of data into one disk. I use Express Burn and it seems ok.

For a 'serious' gamer, I think M8600GT is more suitable anyway. I think you bought a wrong laptop at the first time. You may try upcoming Dells which are equipped with 8600GT or Compal ones.

 

I intentionally sacrificed a bit of FPS for portability and [Sony] style. I think ultimately, I'm just going to give up on the whole laptop gaming thing. No matter how much laptops improve, they still fall short.

 

Yeah, that's true. No way laptops can win over my 8800GTS (No, those 12lbs+ SLI laptops are not laptops, but movable desktops.)

By the way, Windows Vista continuously fails to detect data Blu-ray disk (BD-R) even though the burning software recognizes. Probably driver issue again I guess. I am not sure it would detect Blu-ray movie titles. Well, I am not interested in buying 30 bucks for testing this........


*Edit : Extreme high-pitch noise is heard when I use flash card slot! Very annoying!