Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

i will post them here in 1-2 days

i have installed the video card and Aero is working smoothly

ow, a friend of mine had found the driver for the card reader

i will post that one too

 

It looks like the UJ-220 BD in my FZ180E is not working. Tried the registry fixes and still inop. Was wondering if the NEC BC-5500A that is used in the FZ460E/B could be used in the FZ180E?

 

thanks a lot - anything u can post would be greatly appreciated!

 

I just upgraded the HDD from a 160 gb 5400 drive in my FZ348E/B to a Seagate 320 gb 7200 RPM drive(Seagate Momentus 7200.3 ST9320421AS)

WEI index increased from 5.1 to 5.9. Laptop does appear to boot faster, and performance does seem a little better. The fan is blowing more often though. Battery life seems slightly affected but I have been using the 9 cell that I got from the TigerDirect deal ($20), so it's not that big of a deal. All in all a good and valid upgrade.

I do wonder if the increased temp from the seagate will speed up the demise of my Nvidia video card though.

 

I guess that $20. Tiger battery deal is dead?

Anybody want to sell one?

 

I doubt it, they are on opposite sides of the laptop. The GPU and CPU are on the left side of the keyboard (aka close to the vents).

Wow, I should have gotten the 7200rpm drive then, thats a huge boost. Mine is at 5.3 with a 5400rpm WD 3200BEVT.

 

Have anyone change the optic drive into a slot loader before? What should I look for if I want to upgrade it to a slot loader?

 

Any luck with the other drivers on 64bit? It would be great if you could post where to find the drivers. Thanks.

 

Hello all. I was hoping to get some information for those of you who have experienced this, or know enough of the FZ180E system. Basically, my 8400 GT video card died. I can now only boot to windows with the standard VGA driver. If I use any Geforce drivers, the system just hangs. I get different kinds of graphic artifacts right at bootup, from the VAIO logo and into windows. One time, I got it to restore to a date that still had the Geforce drivers (system restore) but it froze as soon as I launched a 3D game.

My question is, will I be able to just replace the video card? Can it even be bought as a separate component? I'm pretty sure my warranty is expired since I bought the laptop more than a year ago (yes, disappointed that its already broken). Any options you guys might know about?

Thanks for your help.

Majleonj

 

Here is the Nvidia GeForce 8400 GT Graphic card Vista x64 Driver
http://easy2download.com/download.php?file=3545176293701-156.66_VISTA64.rar

here is the Texas Card Reader Vista x64 Driver
http://easy2download.com/download.php?file=5302633619867-Card_Reader_-_Texas.zip


i will come back with other drivers

 

I have tried to download four times. NO success.

Not a usefull site perhaps.

SHF

 

i have tried and it worked
try again. maybe was a bug, downtime, do not know

 

I have tried 6 times, the download count is all my failed tries, or most of them.

Unless someone else reports sucess and provides how they did it, I will not be trying again.

SHF

 

Hi guys. Not sure if this is the place to ask this question. If not please direct me to the appropriate forum or thread.

Long story to be told at some later date.

Short story. I am upgrading my VGN-FZ180E/B. I have replace the 4200rpm 200GB drive with a Hitachi 7200. 70% more rotational speed and twice the cache. Nice upgrade. Vista index for the HD went from 4.7 to 5.4

I just installed 4GB of memory, replacing the 2GB that was OEM. (side question, can I over clock the memory and would that real gain anything) Current vista index 4.8 for memory.

Now to the REAL question. I noticed that at least one, if not more, individuals upgraded the CPU from a T7300 to a T9300. Basically a drop in.

I would like to go as far as possible with the CPU. I believe that a T9500 at 2.6GHz would be a drop in, but I would like to go to the T9600 at 2.80GHz.

I know the the FSB speed for the T9600 is 1066MHz and the other CPU's I have memtioned are all 800 MHz.

Will the T9600 throttle back to match the FZ 180 mother board and is the chipset on the FZ 180 compatible with the T9600?????

Thanks in advance for any help.

Bruce

 

I posted in another area and recieved an immediate answer.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=218095&page=2

 

I thought the cpu in the FZ cannot be replaced.

 

Hello Folks

I'm thinking of upgrading the hard disk on my recently purchased FZ31S from 250gb to 500gb (WD5000BEVT). I believe physically changing the disk is a piece of cake but i'm not sure if i can successfully transfer everything onto the new disk like for like. I'm thinking of using one of the free (or free trial) hard disk clone programs below, am i right in thinking that once i have cloned the new disk i just pop it in the notebook and i wouldn't notice any difference (other than the increased space)? Would any of these programs copy also the hidden partition (recovery) on my notebook? On my current disk i'm using about 220GB out of 250GB, so assuming i use the tightest compression, what sort of size will the clone image be?
1) DriveImage XML
2) Acronis Migrate Easy 7.0 (15 day free trial)
3) Drive Backup 9.0 Express

 

grm0331.

Check the tread link listed above. Yes the processor in my FZ190E/B can be upgraded from a T7300 to a T9500 and a few others.

The processor upgrade would be specific to the chipset and a few other factors.

Bruce

 

psychopomp1

I recently upgraded my HD from the 4200 rpm OEM drive to a Hitachi 7200 rpm drive with twice the cache.

I bought a USB "data transfer kit" for about $50 that made the job almost seamless and left me with a nice metal enclosure that my old drive is in for USB extrenal back up.

Try this link and poke around a bit.

http://www.cmsproducts.com/products/data_transfer_solutions.htm

Bruce

 

this thing cost me 12 $
it is very useful for me
the disc is useless, drivers are in all windows versions

 

We have no clue what you are talking about since you didn't bother to include a quote in your reply.

Gary

 

i am talking about the link fastfz posted in the post above my post. daah L-)

 

CatalinH

$12 for the aluminum drive case, HD controller board, USB cable and the software? Sounds like a score. Let the others know where you got it. I am sure many could benefit from that bargain.

So, the BounceBack software was of no use to you?

I found it very convenient and a no brainer for a bootable ghost whether or not the drives are the same size. Realize that there are participants here with wildly differring abilities.

The kit I used only requires the ability to use a screw driver to remove the old drive and insert the new, after the software has done its job.

Bruce

 

hmm
i got no bounceback or other software (or i have something, did not checked the cd, but i think there are some drivers)
and now i see that in what you have, you can put IDE and SATA HDD, mine has just SATA.
and, another bad thing, i am from Romania.

 

CatalinH,

Yes it is better to compare apples to apples.

It may not be the disadvantage of being in Romania, but rather the benefits I enjoy being LA, California. For many, while the internet is a boon, lots of things can be located for the best price and the research abilities are astounding, one still has to wait for the product to arrive and find out if it is what one thought it would be.

Here in LA I can often go to a physical store and look at and handle the product. If I am willing to pay the premium that the store usually gets over an internet supplier, I can have immediate gradification.

 

Hi.

I was wondering, my model was bought on Latin America, it is an FZ250FE
T7250-800mhz FSB - 2.0GHz. 2MB L2 Cache I am interested on upgrading to the T9500 as well.
Have you bought it already?
How much the processor costs?
Thanks, great idea by the way.

 

I just bought VGN-FZ323 and I am worried that they didn't gave me any disk with it!(no Windows Vista, no Drivers, nothing) I heard that I may have partition on my hard disk with the original windows and drivers, but i can't see anything! Please if someone know something about this answer me. Thanks!
P.S. My was bought from Hong Kong

 

If you bought it new, it has a "hidden" recovery partition on it. It also came with instructions for you to immediately make a DVD recovery set. There is an application on the machine that will create a 2 DVD set of disks that contain a copy of that recovery partition. You should do this and save them in a safe place. That way if the hard drive were to ever fail you have a way to restore a running OS on a new drive.

If something were to happen to the OS on the existing drive or you wanted to restore the machine back to its "out of the box" state, all you need to do is power down, power back up and immediately start hitting the F10 key. The machine will then automatically boot from the "hidden" partition and present you a menu with various options for restoring the OS. NOTE: RESTORING THE OS WILL WIPE OUT EVERYTHING ON THE DRIVE. ALL PROGRAMS AND DATA STORED BY YOU WILL BE GONE. HAVE BACKUPS OF THOSE!!!

If you need to use the DVD recovery set, just boot the machine from the first of the DVD's. It will give you the same options as the F10 trick. The same loss of data warning applies here too.

Gary

 

Thanks, Gary you were very helpful!

 

Hey guys, I am owner of FZ31S from January this year. With help of this forum I managed to make it a usable laptop. Last month I'm running a dualboot (XP+Vista), everything is working just fine except something went bad with the bluetooth under Vista.

My device manager is showing 2 exclamations. It would be all right, because BT seems to work normally, I can connect my phone via BT software, send files and everything, problem is just with Sony Ericsson PC suite. Pairing always fails and I think it's because of the drivers. Under XP everything is working well.
I installed the original drivers that came with the laptop with widcom software, tried also to update it with broadcom site, but no succes. I just can't figure out why is this happening. Those exclamations must have come just in last days, I can't remember anything wrong with device manager before. I would be grateful for any advice. Thank you

 

Hey everyone, I have a quick question.

I'm purchasing a larger and faster hard drive for my FZ and wanted to make sure that the created restore DVDs will work fine on a new hard drive. I'm not worried about my own data as I have that backed up, a fresh install is all I'm looking for.

Thanks!

 

If the Recovery DVDs are created successfully, it would work with any new hard drive.

 

It will, but it is going to put you back to the out of the box state with all the bloat ware, no updates, no service pack, none of your applications etc. Why not image the current drive's partition(s) and restore it/them to the new drive? I have done this before, using Ghost 2003. I made a image of the partitions on the old drive. Installed the new drive, created partitions on it the restored the images to the new partitions (which were larger than the originals). I have been told that Acronis can also do this.

Gary

 

no longer a FZ owner..... i had a fz 190 with a nvidia 8400 gt which fried last week. now it doesnt turn on......warrenty endded a little more than a month before it broke.....sad

 

So when I click on the Vaio Recovery center in the Help Support section nothing opens up. Anyone have a clue as to what to do about this?

 

The first thing to do is give us some context. Was this just after a clean install? Did you just run CCcleaner for the firs time? Did you try to install SP1 and had to stop it part way through? Given just the fact that the Recovery Center button is non functional, we don't have enough to go on. Give us a more complete story.

Gary

 

I did a clean install and have not ran CCleaner on it, No SP1 yet either. I was searching around on the recovery drive as well trying to find the app that creates the recovery disks with no luck. If anyone knows where that is I would be good to go.

 

i can't figure out how to pm you lol so. . .

not sure about the details on how your FZ was fried, but my FZ died the other day on me too, I reset the CMOS and everything seems to be fine, maybe you can give it a try?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=234701

 

Hi All,

I am getting flickering on my VGNFZ190 notebook LCD screen. Does anybody have same issue?. Is there any solutions to fix the problem ?

Regards
Raj

 

Hello all .... i'm new in the forum...!
i have a question, i have an FZ-285U/B and i'm having this excessive heat issue, i tried the SpeedFan ... and it give me all readings above 53C... what should i do ??
and another thing, does the fan stay on all the time???

thx...

 

Mine stays at 60-65C at idle. 53C is pretty low. The GPU will have a higher temp than the rest of the components.

 

Try updating the driver. I am using the 167.60 driver from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista/167.60

 

Hi Coolguy,
I updated my nvidia driver with the link you provided for 167.60. Thank you so much for providing this info. After updating the driver, I am not getting flickering on my screen so far.

Thanks
Raj

 

Really, i thought it's a problem, cuz the speedfan put's a check sign when the temp. is below 48C and a "flame" when it's over 53C or 54C ...

i'm relieved it's not a problem ....

but what about the fan, does yours stay on all the time ??

thx again .. lol


technical question ..
if i want to update the RAM, is there any brand name or type it's recommended to use ??
or just match the RAM (DDR2-667MHz) ... ?

 

In my FZ-190, the fan only starts up after some time and stays ON, changing speeds.
Also due to the reduced space in the FZ (slim) , the GPU will have a higher temp.
For RAM it's always good to match the existing type (667 MHz). The chipset in FZ doesn't support 800 MHz RAM.

 

thanx very much Coolguy
you were very helpful ...

 

hi all,
searched other threads and managed to get my fz-240 working for the most part with vista 64. all drivers and utlities work except for the fn keys and av key. i know this is an old problem, but couldnt find a definitive solution anywhere for the fz, only for other models. anyone get these to work on a fz-series with vista 64?

best,
k

 

I had the same flickering screen problem and took your suggestion to update the driver, but I'm still getting the screen going black at start-up. I had to press the start button (on the laptop) to turn the power off and on, after which it'd show me a "user locked" screen. I'd press the tab so that I can get back my screen.

Is there any way I can go about fixing this? I posted about my problem here (please click on my profile to see the thread I started, I can't post urls) and also changed the screen options as another member suggested, but no luck.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

nevermind, perseverance paid off i found the right set of utilites to get these fn and av keys to run on 64 bit vista

 

If you found some source, please do post here.