Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

Your FZ would have heated up very much, and then shut down by itself to prevent damage. Don't place your laptop on beds or other surfaces that block the vents in the bottom.

 

ISB.exe is Sony restrictive software app that CORNERS YOU into buying OEM SONY batteries only. Delete this executable and suddenly any aftermarket FZ battery becomes useable.

However, removing the app still never resolved my sudden battery degradation after Windows 7. Would a full upgrade be a more appropriate solution?

Battery design capacity: 53280(OEM BPS8 battery)
Current capacity at last full charge: 52460

According to that power config report...that less than 2% reduction!

 

It's most likely a faulty 8600. All of the 8600m cards were deemed faulty last year due to heating issues and instability issues. This affected not just Sony, but ASUS, Apple, Dell, etc. I sent my old ASUS notebook in for repair during that time while it was still under warranty and they replaced the motherboard which had a 9500m GS. If your laptop is still under warranty I recommend you tell them your GPU has problems and let them know it's the 8600 that has to be replaced. They'll have to replace your motherboard.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/all-nvidia-8400m-8600m-chips-faulty/
July 10, 2008:

 

Actually, that is NOT one of the typical indications of a failed GPU. The typical failure mode is random characters on the screem or lines over the entire screen, but not a freeze and then a black screen on restart. This sounds to me more like an overheating issue like Rajeesh suggested.

Gary

 

Hey guys, i know i've posted this question before, but i can't find the driver for my shortcut button. i took it to a local store, that does all my computer cleaning, and had them do a clean install of vista b/c of a virus, but when i got it back, no shortcut (s1) button.

can someone please help me find this elusive driver?

 

Gary's guide : Instructions for a Vista clean install on an FZ190

 

Make sure that you note that it is not JUST a driver. There is a combination of libraries AND drivers and the sequence you install them in is VERY important.

Gary

 

This issue is still giving me problems, I even downloaded battery bar and it say I only have 7.3% battery wear.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? When I'm on the battery the laptop will sometimes completely shut down even with around 80% batt life. It wont boot back up until I hook up power, but the batt says its at 80%. After this happens, all of my logins get erased as well. Any ideas?

 

Did Windows report any error after starting up? Did you get any BSOD? I think that the issue is something else, not the battery.
Are you sure your system didn't hibernate? Because Windows automatically hibernates (of enabled) a system if the battery level is critically low.

 

This sentence is the key to this issue. No problem with the battery is going to cause this result. Something else is causing this problem. I would think a through examination of the system logs is in order.

Gary

 

There are no error reports after I boot the system back up. It doesn't hibernate the laptop just shuts down without any warning.

Its really strange, all of my different web page setting and preferences get erased and I have to re enter all of my logins. Let me mention that I have win 7 64 pro as my OS and it was installed per coolguys instruction. This didn't always happen, more or Less started within the last couple months. Ive read that Win 7 was causing issues with battery's and such but Ive only read about on other person who had a similar problem to mine.

 

Wait a second, are we talking about the WINDOWS logins or web site logins? I thought you were talking about the Windows ones. Losing the ones for websites is a matter of losing cookies, which is common if the IE shuts down unexpectedly.

Gary

 

Hi all,

I did the procedure to clean the fan in the Sony FZ ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/209268-vaio-fz-unscrewed-how-tutorial.html). Everything seemed to go according to plan. But now that I've reassembled it its telling me that No operating system can be found (Vista32bt). I've checked the hard drive and it seems to be in place correctly. What could be wrong? I was careful while disassembling it and am not aware of chipping or scratching anything.

Help is much appreciated.

 

web site logins, sorry.

 

Please don't double post. Pick one thread and keep the conversation there.

Obviously, SOMETHING was dislodged or scratched during the process. Remove the covers again and trace the connection from the hard drive back to the motherboard, although if memory serves me it is a direct connection to the motherboard with no cable of any sort.

Try booting from a CD with some hard drive utility. See if the utility can see the hard drive.

Gary

 

Ok. I opened the whole thing up. Blew a little on the motherboard etc. Then screwed it back up. Nothing seemed to be wrong. Turned it on. It's still saying no operating system found.

I keep checking that the hard drive is fit in snugly as that's the only thing I can imagine that i so much as moved/touched that could have this effect. But it looks as new.

I don't have a boot CD or anything like that. I do have an external hard drive. I'm not sure what you mean by Hard Drive Utility.

Thanks

 

Hmm. So I just checked my hard drive in another computer using an external hard drive connection and it works perfectly. All my information is there and all is in order. So why wont my VAIO pick it up?! In the VAIO bios screen it says 'Hard drive - None'.

This is really starting to annoy me. All I wanted to do was clean the fan and now I've spent nearly an entire day faffing around with it.

 

If there is an issue with the battery, Windows will report it from the taskbar power icon. To make sure, open cmd as adminnistrator, type "powercfg -energy" without the quotes (there is a space after powercfg), it will run for a minute, and open the report file after it completes the run.

What are your CPU, GPU, and HD temps after some usage? You can use HWmonitor for this.

 

Regarding my problem with the Hard disk: It's solved. The hard Disk has to slot in in a very specific way. It just wasn't in right.

Many thanks to the Vaio FZ Unscrewed thread starter. An excellent page. My computer's A LOT cooler now. I got a load of dust out. Thanks also the poster about half way through that thread who advised that it's not necessary to take out all three hinge screws as only the two side ones go right through.

Thanks.

 

I ran powercfg, Im not sure what all that means, am I supposed to try to change the settings?

as for temps they are, CPU 38*, GPU 54*, HD 42*.

 

About 5 months ago my Vaio FZ shut down as I was playing a game. I was unable to restart it or indeed get any power at all to it until yesterday. Prior to yesterday, I hadn't tried to turn it on in about 2 months. At one stage I had been trying it at regular 2 week intervals or so but to no avail.

Anyway, yesterday I thought I`d give it a shot, I'd bought a new laptop in the meantime but I plugged it in and voila, it worked!! It appears to be working perfectly now.

So my intention is to use the Vaio, which at this stage lets face it, is a little old, as a machine purely used to run Cubase and associated programs. I've formatted it and tweeked the operating system and now installed cubase.

My concern however is that something similar might happen again unexpectedly and if this was the case, I might stand to loose rather valuable work. It's a niggling feeling I can't get rid of. I do back up my data but I don't do it every day.

Does anyone who has had this experience know if once it's happened its likely to happen again?

 

I crossed over to a Lenovo W510, I should receive it within the next couple days. You guys have been great but I need something a little more reliable and updated. Does anyone want to buy a used FZ 180-EB?

 

Hello All,

I have a Vaio FZ210CE with an Intel T5250 processor(2M Cache, 1.50 GHz, 667 MHz FSB), and I'm looking to drop in a faster processor. I've been looking at these:

Intel T7800(4M Cache, 2.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
Intel T8300(3M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)

I'm pretty sure they would work just fine, but the only thing that worries me is BIOS support. How would I know if they would be compatible with my current BIOS?

 

I tried to PM but but you dont have permission I guess. I have a T9300 that Ill sell you, it works fine in my FZ-180, no bios updates

 

I appreciate the offer, but I want a new one. Of course, I'm assuming that the one you have is the one you've been using in your PC. If I'm mistaken and you have an extra one, let me know. Good to know it works without an update though.

 

My FZ-430E/B internal mic is not working. The webcam works...but zero audio. Where is the condenser mic located? TIA

 

Just to the right of the web cam.

Gary

 

What driver is required under Windows 7? Or, will Vista drivers work?

 

The MS default audio driver works fine. You need to change the default recording device by right clicking the speaker icon in the taskbar.

 

i have a vaio fz-323 that was diagnosed to be needing a hard disk replacement by sony service center in singapore. i would like to know what type of hard disk does a vaio fz-323 has since it's not with me right now (the laptop, still unrepaired, was bought and is still in singapore while right now while im in the philippines). i'm hoping to have my sister buy the hard disk in singapore (parts are cheaper there than here in philippines) and afterwards have it repaired here in the philippines cause labor costs for the repair is far too expensive in singapore.

if im not mistaken, my laptop had a fujitsu 160 GB hard disk. Can i replace it with another brand if i am looking for cheaper alternatives? Could anyone please give suggestions as to what brands of hard disks will fit into my laptop?

also, i have not made recovery discs for the windows vista OS that came with the laptop when i bought it, and since the hard drive is now destroyed, will that mean i also need to buy new OS for the new hard disk i am planning to buy?

i have very little knowledge of laptops and any help would be appreciated. thank you so much!

 

Hi, i have the same problem like u using my vgn-fz11z with windows 7 and when i use the battery the laptop always shut down without warning. Any ideas??

Thanks

 

I found this regarding to another Laptop. It may help. If someone could try it with FZ laptop

"You are trying to install a 32 bit program while running windows 7/ 64 ..... I purchased a new battery for my laptop and also received an update disk that gave the same errors. I happened to have my old disk drive with my old 32 bit OS.... Swapped the drive, install went fine, changed back to my win 7 OS and the batteries work now. GOOD LUCK."

 

Hi all just installed win 7 ultimate on my Sony VGN-FZ25M, but got 2 problems
1-I installed the Nvidi driver from vista and its working but after trying a while i got that message ((display DRIVER NVIDI compatible windows vista kernel mode driver, version 167.60 stopped responding and has successfully recovered))
Then was trying to install the one posted here but it could not detect the chipset and it makes no different i still got that error.

2-My Bluetooth is not detected at all and its built in, i dont know what to do

Any Help
Thanks to U all

Also posted this in win 7 clean install guide think its the right place

 

I Tried the procedure and it works. So dont need to wait for a driver that runs won WInx64.

Good Luck

 

The problem Is that the Installation software does not run on Windows 7 X64, It Does RUn on Win7x32. So just install a 32 Image of Windows 7 Or Another windows and run the Firmware Update. Then Revert to your normal Win 7 and enjoy your new battery

 

Hi everyone,

I'm currently trying to get my brightness controls (FN keys) work on my FZ18M on Windows 7 x64, but I can't make it. I've already installed tons of drivers, search on the board and stuff, but nothing works.

Does anyone would have the solution ?

Thanks.

 

But you haven't looked at a thread in the first page of the Sony forum. Click the link in my signature.

 

Yes I did but I guess I haven't choosed the right drivers. What drivers do I need exactly for that function (brightness). It's not indicated in the thread.


Edit: That's fixed, I haven't installed the ones with the Uniexctract thing and now everything works. That's great, thanks

 

How much? Is is more advanced than my 430E/B?

 

I'm a Fz21s owner, I would like to know user's experience about cpu upgrading. i've found spare parts from a fw21z semidrowned, such as cpu, mobo and bd writer... Do you think that FW's t9400 cpu could fit into fz21s motherboard? And what about bd drive?
Thanks in advance.

 

Does anybody know what the changes in the new F13S and F13Z are?
Did they fixed the fan loudness issue?
Thanks!

 

New to the forums, booted up this morning and had a "missing operating system" error message. I can boot into F10 and am running some hardware diagnostics with the vail recovery center. What can I do about this "missing operating system"error?

Scott

 

Wow, I had that issue several times just after updating some of my drivers.
But it just disappeared the next reboot.

Try a System Restore before the issue if you're able to.
You also might check everything is correctly plugged (HDD, battery supply...).

Sorry, I've got no magic trick.

 

I can boot into the bios, and into F10 the vaio recovery tools. When I run diagnostics on the cpu and hard drive everything checks out ok. I cannot do a windows system restore because it can't find windows on the HDD. So now I am trying to use the rescue data option to recover some data on the HDD thinking I have a bad HDD. When I specify where to save the data, I click on my external USB which the recovery center sees, and there is also the HDD which shows a total size of 55GB and 0GB free. THe HDD is a 160GB disk, that's the kicker. I think my HDD is shot. Is all of my data on my HDD toast? All I want to recover is my 15gb or so song collection. I could care less about everything else.

Scott

 

guys,
i am using vaio fz 140.i was wondering whether it supports ahci mode for ssd?
i was wondering whether ssd upgrade is worth?

 

Hello good Doctor!

Several folks have made the observation that SSD is really fast, but I am not sure about the ahci mode bit. I think I remember seeing a conversation that it is on by default. But Rajesh (aka coolguy) may know more about that.

Gary

 

I booted into Parted Magic to use GParted, and reformated the 2nd partition (1st is the recovery partition that seems to be ok) to NTFS. Now when I boot using a Windows 7 Home Premium disk, I get this error code: 0x80070017 which from Microsoft by way of Google, states "Windows cannot copy files required for installation. The files may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation." So when I try to boot into F10, and recover from factory settings, it says it cannot find drive letter c:

Would appreciate some help here, as I seem to be stuck.

Thanks

Scott

 

hi Gary,

how you doing?

ummm,
i think i will pass on for ssd for our vaio fz.
next laptop , we will get with ssd.

my next laptop must have intel sandy bridge or better(quad core)
4gb ram and ati graphics card for some gaming and nice bright screen.

any vaio's coming out with sandy bridge?

 

Don't know, there may have been some announcments at the recent CES. But I don't follow them too closely, I'll just get CPU envy.

Gary

 

Hi Scott
I had a similar issue in November and it was a bad hard drive. I took mine out and hooked up to another computer with a hard drive enclosure and I was able to get the data off. If you don't hear any weird sounds from the HDD it probably is not a mechanical failure and most times you can get data off of it. I was under extended warranty so I sent it in and they replaced my 160gb hybrid HDD with a 160gb regular 5400 rpm Toshiba. I had another problem within 2 weeks of repair. Flickering screen, lines on screen and finally it wouldn't boot. Nvidia issue. I sent in again and they replaced the motherboard. Just got it back a week ago and screen is still flickering. I think it is the LCD. Also, HDD's are cheap. I just bought a 320 gb 720 rpm 16 mb Samsung for 50.00 at Microcenter. Let me know what you find out.

Chris