Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

Hello all,

I'm french, so sorry for my bad english !
I have a sony VGN-FZ11M with a nVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT, running on XP 32 bits.

But i can't install the graphic driver (266.58 find on nvidia website)

Somebody can help me ?

Thx

 

Good luck. I doubt if you are going to find anyone here running XP on an FZ model. Or for that matter a XP compatible driver. You'd be better off running Win7 and WinXP mode for the things that absolutely have to run under XP.

Gary

 

Bad news ... Unfortunately I can't reinstall Vista ... damned !

 

Sure you can. You might have to buy the disks from sony. (That is only if you blew away the builtin restore partition. If that is still on the hard drive you can easily get back Vista.)

Gary

 

Wow wow ScuderiaConchiglia you always here to help everybody, I really appreciated it and your advice is always the best (remember several years ago you rescued my dead laptop http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/421982-fz-150e-suddenly-die-last-night.html what a memorial story, it still running good now.
I am about to buying new laptop soon maybe in next month (of course a Sony one ), definitely will need some advices from you guys here. But I still want to use this FZ150, I will upgrade RAM and SSD for it too.

You guy know where can I buy this part (in the picture below), this little thing on the bottom cover of every laptop (it may keeps you laptop stand by not slipping on table) Mine on Fz150 was falloff I dont know when but now laptop is not look balanced =))



Thank you and good luck to everybody here!

 

I don't know anywhere to buy those except maybe Sony. But you can get a subsitiute. Go to a hardware store and look for the department a card of small rubber feet. My local hardare store has several sizes, in clear and black. You get get some small ones and put two in the slot where the old one was. Or buy some bigger ones and cut them down to fit the slot. You might have to remove the one you have and replace both to get it to sit perfectly level.

Just looked on Digi-Key's website and found TONS of options.

Hardware, Fasteners, Accessories | Bumpers, Feet, Pads, Grips | DigiKey

Scroll down to see pictures of them.

Gary

 

My Vaio FZ31Z is still blazing fast after 4 years. Did a ssd upgrade a month ago (128 GB samsung 830 series) and its even faster now. There arent any AHCI settings in bios, but luckily it recognized and put the ssd automatically into AHCI mode.
Today I put in PC-6400 DDR2 memory in, hoping that it would work and also go 800mhz instead of the original PC-5300 667MHZ.
But unfortunately its still on 667MHZ Upgrade failed
I have a t8300 processor and trying to find a cheap T9500 or T9300 processor. Will be the final upgrade. Nothing else is possible unfortunately

Anyone know if its possible to hack bios or overclock so that it recognizes the 800mhz DDR2 memory?

 

Apologies - I feel sure this must be a FAQ but can't find an answer.

How on earth do you use the recovery disks to get back to the factory install state on a blank harddrive?

I had to wipe my drive, and when I boot off the recovery disks I get "System Recovery Options" with a blank list of OS's to repair.
I have the options to "Load Drivers" or "Next>"
If I click next I get an option for "Windows Complete PC Restore" but it seems to want me to supply a backup.

How do I get it back to factory install state using the recovery disks?
(This is a FZ31S which had Vista on it)

 

Is it fairly simple to replace the hard drive? I've never done anything like that before. I was also looking at the 830, but the 256gb version. Is anything special needed, or can I just buy the drive and put it in? Also is there a way to transfer the data from the old drive to the new one, or will I have to start from scratch?

 

Hello guys.I have sony vaio fz440e.I've installed windows 7.Its battery life is 1 year After one year I replaced with a new battery and again after 1 year battery life went down.Now it lasts for less than 5 minutes.Any ideas?

 

great to see people still getting great use out of these laptops. Mine went through the GT 8400M problems and got that replaced, otherwise still running good except batteries are no longer good and it runs a lot hotter than I'd like it to be even on idle (perhaps needs a good clean?). Maybe it's needs some of that gel stuff hey? I don't know what you call it but you can probably tell, I have no idea how to do it.


@sonyfz440e. That's pretty bad luck about the battery dying out after 1 year on the second one. Was it a genuine sony battery? I know I got a good 3 years out it before it has to stay on the AC.

I'm looking to buy a after market one just so I can keep this running vista as a back up to my new windows 8 laptop. I really wanted to stay with Sony but unfortunately there wasn't anything in my budget that was suitable for my needs. I don't know about you guys but this FZ still has one of the better looking screens I've seen on a laptop (the resolution ain't that grand anymore) but connecting via hdmi to a FULL HDTV solves any HD problems I have .

I do find on some of the cheaper sony vaios that they've gone backwards unless you look toward a vaio z or something...

 

Hi,

What does the notebook not do when the GPU becomes unstuck?

I can still run mine but only in SAFE mode.

SONY VAIO VGN NR21Z - N VIDIA 8400M GT DEFECT - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVIH3IaSyvY

SHF

 

I got my FZ-190 in May 2009. It had early GPU issues.. got it cheap! After a month or two, the GPU totally died, then another month or so and Sony FINALLY did the free repairs for GPU issues. I've had it repaired twice, for free. The last time was November 2011.

Early GPU Issues: Uninstall the nVidia drivers! The stock/generic Win 7 driver will work for a while. Keep the graphics simple..without the "official drivers". If not, you'll be stuck in SAFE MODE. Contact Sony and get it replaced/fixed for free.

 

I got an Intel x25 120gb SSD drive for mine. Blazing fast! I installed Windows 7 x64 on it. Never bothered with Vista, although I have the official restore discs. (If anyone wants restore disc ISO info, PM me)

I would imagine that you need another computer to do the "copy hard drive to new SSD" feature. The FZ only has that one SATA port for 1 hard drive.

When installing, remember, you need specific nVidia drivers for it. NOT from nVidia's website.

 

Question about CD/DVD/BR - Drive Bezel.

If I got a UJ-120, or other BR drive, without the specific Sony Vaio FZ bezel.. would I be able to use my current bezel (dvd/cdrw) with it? Or be stuck with the black/ugly/non-fitting one?

Does anyone know about this?

 

Hi,

I got mine back from Mexico ~ 3 weeks ago.

ONLY ~ $475.00

Extended warranty 4 years, mine died after ~ 5.5 years.

The person who took my debit card number knew the date the Laptop must have been purchased after.

SHF

 

Whats the fastest cpu i can install in my FZ21S?

 

I could be doing with this ISO as I cannot create recovery discs for my FZ31Z anymore. My original discs that I made years ago are hiding at the moment!
(If anyone wants restore disc ISO info, PM me)
I wish I knew how to PM you bud!

 

Just click on his user name in his original post and then click Private Message.

Here is the original post #2317:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...s-official-owners-thread-272.html#post9109192

His last post was "4th March 2013, 09:31 PM" so he might still be around and "may" have his profile set up to receive a message when you send a PM.

SHF

 

what is your current cpu? I assume you have T7500 then the fastest CPU you can put on is T9500 (or lower one is T9300)

I understand you want use Windows Vista since you probably have the key at bottom of your laptop (phone activation may be required), follow this link to download and burn Windows vista to dvd and install it, after that go to Sonny and get latest drivers: downloads'n'fix: Microsoft Windows Vista Official .iso Download Links (Digital River)