Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

I'm having a very interesting problem no one else seems to have mentioned.

I've been clearing up the junk on my fz-190 CTO all day but the more I remove the less space i have on my harddrive.

In addition to that my av mode also isn't functioning properly. I have the most recent update and i don't have blue ray. also did what the manual mentions about uncompressing the launcher folder....

 

Well, there is some strange manufacturer that aims at cramming desktop hardware into laptop space. This seems to result in a sizeable brick and a gaping hole in one's checking account.
http://www.laptopfly.com/page/6/

 

anyhow, I hear a good number of people complaining about a high pitched noise coming from their FZ190s. Could anyone describe it in more detail? (eg. volume, comes in waves, can be triggered by something etc.) Also it'd be interesting if it occurs with all hardware optionw or only on T 7700 CPUs or machines with blueray. If someone owns the same hardware but his/her machine keeps quiet, we'd know if this a general problem or only that of a few lemons.

 

Mine is the 7300 (2GHz) no blu-ray. I hear a high pitched beeping particularly right after start-up. I think following start-up it tends to come and go but have not noticed any correlation with certain activities. It is VERY high pitched and not terribly loud (my mother for e.g. would never be able to hear it). Volume of the beeping is pretty consistent.

 

My old K17 just started making such a noise. Something like an old CRT going bad - an extremely high pitched whistle. But my FZ 190 CTO T7700 w/ Blu is dead quiet. If it's been working a while and gets hot, the fan ramps up and can't seem to decide on a speed. It constantly fluctuates up and down, which I guess is what some people describe as the ocean waves. But there's nothing really high pitched at all.

 

That's 12lbs. Do you really want to carry that thing around? (some people even complain about the weight of their notebooks which are only 6lbs)

 

I fixed my first problem with harddrive space continuously decreasing. It was a vista problem with creating many many restore points after I was deleting all those files.

Anyways has anyone managed to get their FZ from a non-functioning AV mode to a working one? It still only boots up the launcher through windows.

 

Me? No, I am not that insane. If the FZ I ordered works and doesn't force me to send it back to Sony because of failing DVD drives, crashing wave noise or going up in flames I am happy. I only occasionally do some flight simulator for relaxation...

 

Hey guys, I just picked up the fz140 today and for some reason, everytime I start it up just after vista loads, an error message shortly appears saying "entice - array index error". Does anyone know what it means and how i can fix it; i didnt alter the laptop in any way, just installed the basic programs that most comps would have. Thanks

 

OK, finally Blu-ray is working again.

Kinda surprise that chat with Sony support reps actually helped me.... did not expect such success. I just needed to reinstall that damn WinDVD again and upgrade it.

 

i think your problem most likely is program incompatibility issue with vista.

 

Here's my FZ-190 compared with HP dv6000T LCD WXGA brightview (I guess not so bright anymore) Sony HC WXGA LCD rocks.....3dmark2006 score , Nvidia version 10128. No whining noise by the way.

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/...iew&current=HPDV6000TWXGABRIGHTVIEWSCREEN.jpg

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x203/vince22_photo/?action=view&current=3dmark06_clean_Vista.jpg

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x203/vince22_photo/?action=view&current=PCMark05.jpg

 

hi vince the 3dmark score is overclocking? at which resolution?
Another question the 8400mgt use gddr2 or gddr3 memory? 128mb or 256mb of dedicated ram?
thank you.

 

Is there anybody that use the fz with xp instead of vista?

 

If you want an xp laptop better wait for the new Dell Inspiron 1520 which is about to release. There you can have the machine configured with xp.

 

Thanks for the pics Vince.
If possible please write a review of your FZ.

 

Just went to a Sony Style outlet yesterday to look at one of these. Someone had a question about the lid closing--there is no latch, but I think it would stay shut pretty well. Your concern about papers wasn't unfounded, though--a single paper would easily slide through the 'closed' lid from the right angle. Not sure how much of an issue this is, though.

Mine is expected for delivery on the 28th and I can't wait to get it. I just hope that I don't have all the issues that people are talking about, because:

High pitched beeping noise
Confused Fan accelerating/decellerating randomly
Keyboard uncompatable with certain key combinations
Fn key/cd drive not working after vista updates
instant on not working
did I forget anything?

seems like a lot to deal with. Also--the guy at Sony Style said that he had an FZ and he got close to 6 hours with light use with the extended battery. How much of this to discount because he is paid by Sony, I'm not sure, but that's a pretty interesting contrast to the reviewer that got 80 minutes.

 

Yea Vince, please tell us about the test circumstances because this score is close to 8600 !

 

Overclocking? yes (500/600 core/mem settings). It does use DDR3.I will do a fresh vista install today without Sony's bloatware. I will post 3dmark2006 score for default clock speed and max speed without errors and artifacts (atitool will be use).
I'm not so sure if HDD will be a factor?
System:

T7300
2gb (1g x2)
80 HDD

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x203/vince22_photo/?action=view&current=geforce8400mGT.jpg

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x203/vince22_photo/?action=view&current=ATITool.jpg

 

Are there any pictures available for Vaio FZ series, with Large Capacity Battery. Was wondering if (or how far) the battery sticks out.

 

I think that the pictures you are looking for on the extended battery size can be found in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=132510

 

It does stick out...there's a picture in this thread somewhere...

 

i saw the pic somewhere too it sticks out quite a bit. anyways fn key issue can be fixed. the clicking sounds are barely noticable. overall its a great laptop, after removing all the junk and reconfiguring vista its much more operational now.

 

okay, so it seems you can transform a 8400M Gt into a 8600M GS, but what is the risk of frying a brand new computer?

 

Is that at native resolution? What was the result without overclocking?

 

Yeah may be I was the first to post this prob here. I sent my notebook to sony for a repair and got it back.

Sony said that it is an inherent problem/issue in the FZ series and engineers are working on it solve the issue. I think it is related the core 2 duo power saving state. Hp had addressed the problem with a solution. I hope sony does it soon.

The noise increases when I particularly load web pages in ie7 with flash player movies. Otherwise there is no noise.

 

How do you change the color of the laptop? I see someone are saying they got Silver or White, when I try to customize it on Sony Style website, it only gives me the choice of changing the color of the keyboard (black or white).

This is the Sony Vaio FZ190C I'm customizing btw.

 

Finally found a solution for installing Ubuntu. Why I could not think about video problem is beyond myself.

Currently downloading ones for text-installation...

 

Panfilero, check my posts back in 5 and 6 of this thread. You need drivers from another model that supports XP (the one I listed should work for you). You then need the installer hack I mention a couple pages later that allows you to install software intended for a different model vaio. I have sound but the one rather lame problem is that the speakers don't cut off when you plug in headphones. You get sound out of both with no way to turn off the built-ins. You will also need to install the notebook utils from there so your hotkeys /Fn keys work. XP on my FZ is about as functional as I need it to be for work. For play I just boot into Vista.

You also mentioned where I said to "wipe Vista". Yes it is very nice to be able to do that but not easy. You need to extract your OEM key from the original install, have a copy of OEM Vista Home Premium DVD, all of the Vista programs, drivers and utils from the sony website and possibly others, a free weekend and a whole lot of patience. All you get in return is a pristine copy of Vista, devoid of bloat and "value added" BS. You will have to want it pretty bad to go through all that.

 

hello,

may i ask where you got the file to install the fn keys? were you able to solve the hibernation problem also? is the hack you are talking about changing the model in /windows/model.txt?

thank you.

 

Sorry, only the keyboard gives you a choice between black or white. The rest of the computer will stay silver. (unless you use a spraycan )
Other Vaios such as the CR allow a choice of different colors for the whole computer.

 

Does anyone have pictures of the laptop with a black keyboard? Other than the one on Sony Style's website.

EDIT: Nevermind, I found some on the Japanese Sony Vaio site. I think the White keyboard looks better than the Black one, although the white is probably more prone to dirt in the long run.

 

It looks good and is actually quite comfortable to type on.

 

I have noticed on my FZ190 (with NVIDIA GeoForce 8400M GT) that the desktop display has a slight yellow hue to it. I'm comparring this to my old laptop that has much crisper whites, where the white areas on this screen are slightly yellowed. I've tried adjusting the colors using the slider bars on the NVIDIA control panel but it still just doesn't look right. I am wondering if anyone else has noticed this on their FZ. Do you think this is a driver issue or perhaps a screen issue?

 

probably a driver issue. or you're just a lucky one.

comparing to my sharp widescreen display i use for my main pc, nothing wrong with my fz display.

 

Does anyone know where to obtain the Vista drivers for the Nvidia video card. I have an FZ190 on order with the Nvidia option and the very first thing I want to do is create a ghost image of the machine as it is and then attempt to do a clean install of Vista. I see that the Sony site appears to have everything online that I need to do that EXCEPT for the Nvidia driver.

Gary

 

Probin, Check my post here:
http://forums.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2045930#post2045930
for the model you want to use on the Sony page, grab it's notebook utilities and sound driver and use the hack also mentioned in order to install to a FZ. It fixes the Fn keys except for brightness (not sure why yet) and there is no problem with hibernation. It works fine but the special power saving utility from sony does not work as it's not designed for the Santa Rosa chipset. I'm hoping an XP version does show up at some point though as running full tilt on batteries does eat into your work time.

 

To continue or data collection on high pitched noises:
So far my FZ has remained quite and well behaved. No crashing waves so far. Specs: T7500 2.2GHz, 160GB 5400rpm harddrive, DVD burner but no blueray, 3GB RAM (1GB from sony, 2 from Patriot via newegg)
Speaking of the latter, after adding the RAM, Windows found the extra space without problem, but the Experience index only improved from 4.5 to 4.8. I had expected something well past 5. The RAM is clocked at 667Mhz. Strange.

 

Are both sticks 667 MHZ? If not, the machine will throttle them both to the slower of the two.

Gary

 

According to the box they both should be 667MHz. I haven't figured out how test it on the computer itself.

 

Assuming both of the rams are 667 mhz, It could also because that you are not running dual channel with the 1 + 2 gb of ram configuration.

 

Would you know how I could test that? I am new to Vista, which looks like XP on steroids to me. It'll take some time before I find my way around. Thanks.

 

You can download cpu-z (freeware) to show your cpu and ram specs.

 

Thanks, I'll try that. After a few websearches it seems other people with similar amounts of memory don't score much higher. It'll take a me a few days of backing up and getting rid of bloatware before I'll be able to really see how fast this thing can go.
Seems like everyone else in this forum is doing the same as entries have slowed to a trickle.

 

I am no more a owner of Vaio FZ. I sent my notebook to sony for a repair (because of a high pitch noise issue). They told me that no solution has been found for that issue. When I got the notebook back, I found several visible scratches on the front side of the lid. I thought of having my FZ before, but now I returned it back.

Sony is absolutely sick in customer service. You have to talk to three different people if you want to return your notebook.

 

It's too bad to hear about your poor experience with the new notebook. Sony customer service is not as bad as some other manufacturers including Dell. At least you were able to have some effective communication with them in the english language.

Good luck on your next purchase.

 

after using cpu-z, i get this results:

Memory SPD
Module 1 DDR2, PC2-6400 (400 MHz), 1024 MBytes, OCZ
Module 2 DDR2, PC2-6400 (400 MHz), 1024 MBytes, OCZ

mind you, this is the first time I've used cpu-z and I'm not extremely familiar with ram specifications, but shouldn't it be 667mhz and not 400mhz?

 

You got pc 6400 ram from sony?

DDR2-800 memory really runs internally at 200 MHz. But since it is DDR2, the memory bus runs at twice the speed of the cells, at 400 MHz. Then because of it being double data rate, it transmits data on the rising and falling edge of the clock signal, which results in an 800speed rating (i.e., DDR2-800 runs at 400 MHz, DDR-400 runs at 200 MHz, etc).

 

well the ram i didn't get from sony, installed it afterwards,
but thanks for clearing up the specifics for me!

so on the memory page in the timings section of cpu-z
i see the frequency at around 332mhz, which after reading your
reply I'm guessing it means a rating of 667mhz? if that's the case,
then i think I've got the concept down, thanks again for the reply

 

Hi FZ Owners....

I am expecting my FZ to arrive Friday.... decked out with 4 GB RAM, 250 MB HD, 7700 Processor..... But as I posted on other threads, after seeing the specs on the Dell Inspirion 1420, I was considering sending it back..

BUT I would love to hear some real comments and opinions from those who have the machine (and are typing on it now)....

Do you like it.. alot? Is it lightweight...? Is it not too big or heavy for travel? Does EVERYONE have these high pitched noise issues, or are they some people? I saw earlie rin the thread the fn keys do not work with Blu Ray.. is this really the case? Is it sturdy? Is it hard to get rid of this infamous bloatware that people talk about? Does it default to Windows Media Player or this other Sony player people talk about?

Any intelligent input from real owners would be so appreciated...

If you really love it let me know.. if you dont like it, returned it, or wouldnt buy it again let me know also.. and why...

Your input is much appreciated from actual owners...

Thank you!