Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

oh sweet i been using 179.48 for the last few weeks, yeah obvious performance improvements?

 

Well i tried the 179.67 but bluray wasnt working with it, so I re-installed 179.28 and it works fine. I can never tell what video driver to use, I tried to use the 185.20 and everything worked except my bluray again, but its not whql. Any recomendations out there?

 

I am not an avid gamer, so can't tell about performance gains more.

 

I don't have blue ray drive. Video drivers are very picky with blue ray.

 

Thought I give the 179.67 a try but theres no external monitor support just like the LV2GO drivers. Anyway to get this feature back?

 

Have you tried connecting the external monitor and detecting it through the Nvidia control panel? My Nvidia 179.67 control panel seems to have the external monitor detection.

 

Yes and Yes for some unknown reason it doesn't find any display while the default 167.43 drivers finds it as soon as the VGA is connected.

 

Vaio FZ, what's happening when you press Fn+F7.

 

Since were still talking about video stuff I jsut hooked mine up to watch a movie and the computer froze with a blank screen when I opened up the lid. It acts strange and locks up sometimes if I disconnect it from the HDMI. I wish Sony would step up and support us with real drivers.

 

It just shows LCD & Options, no external monitor.

 

Hi everyone, I'm a student here looking to purchase a Sony Vaio FZ.

First, off, I was reading the Amazon reviews for this product and heard a lot of negative stuff about it not being very dependable for over 1 year. That being said, should I refrain from purchasing an online refurbished model Sony Vaio VGN-FZ145E, 2GB Ram, 1.8 Ghz, 160GB?

Thanks!

 

Any FZ without the Nvidia card (defective) should be fine. I would get newer models. FZ was released 2 yrs back!

 

Yeah, but I'm mostly going to use this for web browsing, documents, and music/video and I'm getting it for around $420. Newer Vaios are expensive for a poor college student

 

Just stay away from an Nvidia model then. You don't need the extra graphics horse power OR the fear hanging over your head that at anytime the graphic chip might fail making your $420 machine into a $420 door stop. I just helped my Dad by a refurb FZ190 via OverStock.com but I made sure his had the Intel graphics chip in it. He is 75 and uses his just for email, internet and some light recordkeeping (he is a district supervisor for Knothole Baseball).

Gary

 

Hy, im having trouble reeinstaling Vista, i can't have my fn+f5/f6 to ajust brightness.

Can anyone tell me what is the order to install sony utilities?

Regards

 

Refer to Gary's Clean install guide here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=145748

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3037306&postcount=4

That specific info got the F5/F6-functions to work on my FZ21Z. The files are available from Sony's Vaio-link support FTP

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/VAIO/ORIGINAL/

 

so i updated all my drivers with the driver max program and I think something got messed up becasue My computer only reads one of my cores for my processor. Im not sure what happened but I just noticed it tonight. Any one know how I can get all the original drivers installed to fix this problem?

 

Roll back to a system restore point prior to your using driver max.

Gary

 

I've been lurkin this thread for a long time, but I still haven't find what I was looking for.
I've bought a Samsung 26a33s hd-ready display: the video is ok, but I haven't been able to get audio output to work via HDMI.
The only thing I see on audio properties is:



and there is no way to make the grey "set as default device" option available (I don't know the real expression in English, sorry).

System Specs

Vaio fz21s (european model)

OS: clean install vista ultimate 64-bit
with this drivers (in this pack you will find also my homemade guide to clean install - only in Italian, sorry) http://rapidshare.com/files/216634988/Driver_64_e_guida.zip

Video driver: 179.63 - vista 64 from laptopvideo2go (I've tried also 156.55 provided by vaio unofficial 64 bit support, but the thing remains the same)

Audio driver: x64SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC 6.10.5614.0 from ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/Downloads/ST/D/AUD/STDAUD-01487701-UN.exe

Installed Sony utilities:

Shared Library x64 5.2.0.08220
Vaio event service x64 4.2.0.11060
Vaio power management 3.2.0.10310
Wireless switch setting utility x86 3.6.00.16230
Vaio Control Center x86 2.1.00.09190
Vaio Launcher x64 2.2.0.09090

Do I need to install more sony crap?
Of course, sony phone support has said that they do not support 64 bit OS...

Thanks for any hint and sorry for my English...

 

Well it seems that the last restore point I have is right after I "updated" all of my drivers. I guess I must have erased them when I was cleaning up the computer. It runs fine, but its one of those things that bugs me sometimes. Oh well I guess Ill be doing another clean install of Vista, again!

 

So what do you mean, "My computer only reads one of my cores"? What does task manager show, one or two cores?

Gary

 

Task manager only shows one core, along with the side bar CPU monitor I have. I know its a dual core, but this all happened after I updated my drivers. I was able to get on driver max and get my original drivers, so they are installing right now. Ill see if that fixes it hopefully. Now that this has happened, do you recomend using a program like that to update drivers? When I ran the program is showed that almost all of my drivers were outdated, so I changed them all to what they recomemded then the problem came up.

 

Nope. I do not trust those sorts of programs at all (except for them to show what ones it thinks might be out of date. I would then seek out my own source for the proper ones to install). They are much to generic in the way they determine the need for new drivers. For example they only bother to look at the video chip to tell you what driver to download. And with a Sony machine you NEVER want to install a video driver from anyplace other than Sony, because they modify the drivers to incorporate their function keys and on screen display. (Actually there are other places you can get properly modified drivers that work on a Sony, but Driver Max and it's ilk, never take this into account.)

If task manager sees only one core the OS is only seeing one because DriverMax has hosed your drives. You are not getting the benefits of both cores. Only one is being used right now. Hope the reinstall helps. If not you might want to consider reloading the drivers from you recovery DVD's. (You did make a set, right?) This does not mean you have to restore the entire machine, ONLY the chipset driver. But let's wait about that until your reinstall you are trying now.

Gary

Gary

 

looks like its still not working, I even checkd with CPU Z and its showing I have a T9300 but something seems to be slowing it down and its only running one core. Wow what did I do

 

You might try this:
Fix for Dual Core showing as One


Do you have the2 DVD system recovery set that you made when you first got the machine? (No, I am not going to suggest you use it to return the machine to its "out of the box" state.)

Gary

 

It worked! thanks for helping out. Im still not sure how this could have happened but Im not messing around with driver max or anyhting else like it. Comp runs way better now.

 

Hi,

Im not much into notebooks so my question might be silly, but I'll try. Im just curious if this deflexion shown on pictures is normal or that's something with my unit? Left side seems to be normal when I look at right side.

Thanks in advance for reply.

Regards

 

No it is not normal. My FZ-190 will be two years old in July and looks nothing like that.

Gary

 

I think that I also have that. FZ's hinge is not that great anyway. If you turn ur notebook upside down, the LCD comes down a little.

 

Is that the graphics card or the processor itself?

I have only heard of Nvidia GE Force which i believe is a video card.

 

What are the specs on Sony Vaio VGN-FZ240E?

 

Nvidia is the video chip. There are models of the FZ series that have this chip or an Intel video chip. The Intel version is not as powerful, but it doesn't have the failure issues either.

Gary

 

HI,

A number of you have mentioned about avoiding the Nvidia video card (in Fz model) and I was wonder what kind of problem does it have? My Fz has been acting weird since last week, would occasionally get those green/pink/white lines on the monitor and the computer would lock up. Have done research and figured it's probably a video card problem. Called Sony and they told me it'd cost 700 dollars to replace the video card and motherboard. Is this a common problem for Fz? Any suggestion on what I should do? I know the video card is on the motherboard but is it possible to just replace it without having to replace the motherboard? I've also read about this reflowing trick that is supposed to revive dead video card, anyone know if it actually works?

 

Yep, you have the dreaded dead video chip. Well not technically dead, just "broken" because it has the possibility to be fixed, at least temporarily, by the reflow trick. You really need to understand that process and should try to enlist the help of someone versed in that form of soldering. No the is no way to replace the video module.

Gary

 

Thanks Gary,

I found this place close to where I live that'd reflow my video card for 35 bucks, guess I'll give it a shot before I drop a fews hundreds dollars trying to replace the motherboard.
Do you know where I can find a brand new motherboard? I searched around a little but most places are either selling used or refurblished motherboards. Also, I'm a web designer so I kind of need a decent video card, do you know which one of the Nvidia cards is more reliable?

 

Sony, period. No one else will have NEW ones.

As for the video card as a web designer you don't need the Nvidia card at all. It's only real claim to fame over the Intel version was in movies or gaming. For static display of images and to be honest even with movies you will be hard pressed to see a difference. I bought my 78 year old father an FZ with the Intel chip. My FZ has the Nvidia. Side by side you can't tell the difference. Gaming is another story, of course.

There is at least one guy here trying to find out if it is possible to drop an Intel based motherboard into a chassis that had an Nvidia install originally. The question is one of the cooling system. Will the heat pipe and fans line up correctly. It looks as if they will. But then the question remains what of the blank section on the Intel board where the Nvidia chip was. Will having nothing there interfere with the proper operation of the cooling system?

If the $35 fix doesn't pan out, you should follow the discussions about this possible swap. (BTW I'd be sure to have them COMPLETELY remove the mother board from the laptop. You don't want the case fried from the heat if you plan on replacing the motherboard if this dosen't work.)

Gary

 

SigmaTel works with 64 bit, the originaal drivers for 32 bit.

 

Sorry, I installed audio driver for vista ultimate 32 bit for fz4000, and it works great with 64 bit vista.

 

does anyone know where to get a new battery for a FZ at a decent price? I thought about jsut rebuilding my own but I dont even know where to get the replacement cells.

 

anyone have an idea?

 

Just incase anyone still reads this, Sony just uploaded new drivers on the support website. There is a new video driver and some others.

 

Has anyone here tried the new video driver yet?

Gary

 

Could anyone provide a link?

 

I am using 182.67 driver with Vista and 185.85 driver with Windows 7, both work flawless. I downloaded them from Microsoft Update.
Vista 182.67 driver link http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=nvidia+vista (works only with IE)

The 32-bit driver is 67.1 MB and the 64-bit driver is 85.2 MB. You can install any driver because they are all generic and support virtually all laptop and desktop GPU's.

 

This 167.60 driver is ancient and was available from Sony FTP long time back. This driver gave me problems resuming from hibernation (display won't turn ON) and the brightness controls won't work.

 

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNFZ190&upd_id=4725&os_id=29

This driver was posted on 6/17/2009 on the FZ support page. I don't know how old it REALLY is though. From what Rajesh is saying it is not really a new driver at all.

Rajesh, you said

But isn't it true that if you don't use the ones from Sony (or properly modified) then the brightness and on screen control displays won't necessarily function correctly? I remember folks trying to use ones directly from Nvidia without much success in this area.

Gary

 

No Gary, I am using those drivers now and everything works perfectly. But I don't have Blue Ray, so I can't comment on that. Sone folks reported the loss of Blue Ray playback.
I had even tried installing the official Nvidia drivers (modifying the inf myself) and it worked perfectly.

 

So the ones from Windows update, worked WITHOUT modifying the INF file. But the ones from Nvidia requred you to modify the INI file. Correct?

Gary

 

Exactly Gary. The WEI scores seem to drop with the MS Update drivers as well as the official Nvidia drivers. But I don't notice any change in performance.