Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

Hi, I tryed this and everytime I entered: Model = "VGN-SZ230P_B" into the model.txt file it changes back to the Model = "VGN-FZ190E" after trying to run the installer, there is another model.txt file in the same foder that always ands up black after running the installer. I can't get your hack to work :-/ do you have any more ideas of what I could try or what i'm doing wrong? Thanks for your explintaion of the SATA drivers instalation, I finally got the correct drivers on there and XP installed, now i've got the WIFI card to work and thats about it. I just downloaded the intel wireless software off the intel website.

 

I installed a fresh version of vista on my fz 190 cto and I can't find the drivers for the 8400 GT. The ones off nvidia's website don't work, and it isn't on sony's website either. I know they are on my restore partition, but that seems to be hidden and I can't get to it. Does anyone know where I could download the driver, or at least gain access to my hidden restore partition. Thanks.

 

I purchased my FZ over a month ago and I am extremely aggravated with Sony in general. Their customer service has been horrible, and they have very little communication with any other departments. I was told that my computer would be shipped on June 19, and I called on June 15 to make sure everything was going smoothly. They told me it was done being built on the 13th and that it was just waiting for a carrier. Well on the 19th I called to make sure it had been shipped and serious problems started. They told me they didn't know why but it hadn't been shipped, they told me they didn't know where my computer was. Then they sent me an e-mail stating there was a problem with the parts and they had to order new ones which would be in on the 21st. On the 22nd I called back and customer service had no idea about these new ordered parts and blamed the delay on the engraving. They also said they were waiting for approval on my credit which was entirely incorrect. Then they told me they didn't even start building the computer until the 19th, which doesn't make any sense because I have it on paper work that this was the original ship date (not to mention I was already told that my computer had been built before). No one in customer care has been able to help me. I have wrote several letters of complaints and made numerous phone calls. For the most part the only thing I have been told is, "sir, I can't help you." Thats promising from a customer care representative! The last lady I spoke with flat out told me they don't have good communication with their other departments. My computer was finally shipped yesterday and it's going to be another 5-7 business days before I get it. Now I'm just worried that once I finally get it, there will be something wrong and I will have to deal with customer care again.

 

So far so good. I got mine Tuesday and since I only have a few hours in the evening to set it up, I have only backed up files and made recovery disks. I have no issues with strange noises, actually my machine runs very quietly. (T7500, 3GB RAM, 160GB harddrive, 8400M GT) The screen is very nice and bright (compared to my old Dell Inspiron 5150, I almost have to wear sunglasses). I am a bit concerned that the extra RAM, doesn't help the system run faster, at least not according to the Vista Experience index. I will look more into that issue, once I am through throwing all the junk programs off the harddrive. I have some faint hope that I'll get around the fresh Vista install. Once I have anti-virus software and firewall set up, I can update drivers and then see what the thing can do.

 

Mine comes today at around 3:00 EST. I'll post some impressions once I have it up and running!

 

Now you can imagine how much time would I have spent for returning my fz back. For transferring a call they will take more than 15 mins on the phone.

 

I just purchased a VAIO FZ140E and received an error message "entice array index error" upon start up of windows. I called Sony Tech support and was instructed to to the recovery process which took a few hours. Just before rebooting, I noted another error and then the same error message appeared. I have now decided to return the laptop for a full refund and buy an alternative make.

 

Just wondered if anyone knew the return policy for the VGN-FZ190... I am finding it doesnt quite fit my needs, I didnt think the lower resolution would bother me.. but I really need more. I am gutted because I love everything else about the Vaio

Do they accept returns? I couldnt find anything about it in the documentation.

Thanks..

 

I think you have 30 days after placing the order to send the thing back. You will likely have to call them but as far as I know they are required by law to accept the return for full refund as long as you didn't damage the item. You will have to pay for shipping though.

 

I'm looking to upgrade my Fz 190CTO to a 7200rpm hard drive. I have my eyes on two different ones. I know one uses sata 300 and the other uses Ultra ATA/100 (ATA-6). will they both fit in my laptop? thanks.

Here are the links to them.

http://www.provantage.com/seagate-st9160823as~7SEGH01T.htm

http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=ST910021A&src=F

 

yeah, I installed xp on my FX 190 with the 8400 GT graphics card... I can't get any of the drivers from the nvidia site to work eather.

 

I found the nvidia 8400m GT graphics card driver install files. Is there anyway I can post them online so people can download them?

 

Maytrevor:

Do you not have a link for the nvidia drivers, from the site you got them from? I don't know anywhere you could upload them to for everyone else to go get hold of them!

 

This one works very well with 8400m GT nVIDIA ForceWare X 101.28 for Windows Vista 32bit...

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13441

 

The info on that site says the INF file works for the 8400m GS, but makes no mention of the GT. Did you have to modify the INF file?

Gary

 

For Vista or WinXP? There are two conversations on this thread about 8400m GT drivers. Some of us are looking for the Vista ones. A few others are seking the WinXP ones.

Gary

 

That is so funny. yhis sounds exactly like what happened to my first order... It is STILL sitting there since May saying Order Received by OMS.. I call and they say it is ont he way (even though it never went to prodution mode). I call to cancel and they say they cant. I finally got them to but its stillt here and all I have is a reference number.... I hoper it doesnt ship because I reordered with beter specs and it did ship and is arriving tomomorrow.

However After reading everything here, I may save the 400 dollars and go with the Dell 1420.. It just seems there is way too much drama with this machine...

Why does everyone want to reload vista and why is everyone havingtrouble finding drivers for the NVIDIA card.. doesnt all this come preloaded?

I should have took the hint fromt he bad service from the start.. like a bad restaurant.. the service sucks at 1st you know it wont get any better.

 

I reinstalled vista from an upgade cd because I wanted a clean install and not all of the unnecesarry vaio and sony files. When I reformatted and installed vista I couldn't find the driver for the 8400m GT anywhere on the net and nvidia said sony would have it, but sony doesn't have it. So I had to restore the hard drive to factory settings and files. I then had to grab the driver and then reformat with vista. I wanted to be able to put it up on the web so people who have reformatted and are looking for the driver have it without having to go through the trouble I did to find it.

 

I just got my FZ190 CTO Today.

2.2ghz processor, 2 gigs ram, 120 gb hdd, etc etc. With the white keyboard (which is great, by the way).

I feel like my heart has been ripped out, however. It has the high pitched noise and the fan-throttling issue that have been discussed. I have to send it back and get a replacement.

I'm so depressed+pissed off about it.

 

I got my FS11S (T7100, 2gb (667mhz)ram,8400GT with 256mb dedicated memory, 160gb 5.400rpm hd, no blue ray) 4 days ago, and i'm so happy with it!! It took me a day or so to get used to the size (my former notebook was HP pavilion zd7000, 17"), but i really love this machine already.

I don't have any of the problems that i've read about here. It's quite, cool, fast, solid and beautiful (i have the black keyboard version . Every button does what it's suppose to do with a very nice feel and feedback to it. I just got rid of all the excessive Sony software, Norton and some other stuff i didn't need, installed my 'own' program's and it goes like the wind! Gaming, decoding movies, photoshopping, multi-media tasks, or everything at once, it's no problem for this very slim Vaio. The only remark i have is the sound quality of the speakers -it's adequate i guess, but it really could be better- and the fact that i can't get it with any other cpu in Holland like a T7300 or higher. In Holland we only get to choose between 4 models, the one with the low end Intel graphics card(the fz19c..?), the FZ11e, the FZ11s and the FZ11z with blue ray, they all have the T7100cpu(not that it's a bad one, i just would like to have a choice). I got it 2 days after it was released in Holland and i payed 1230 euro's for it, a real bargain if you ask me.

Thanks everyone for sharing your information, and especially miss Geekgirl for writing such a detailed, useful and fun to read review.

 

Hmmm, I tryed to install that on XP and it did'nt work :-/ Where did you get that driver from? maybe they have an XP version as well?

 

Why does sony want to slow down the FZ notebook by installing so many junk software and making them load at start up?.

 

I just found the stock ones that came on the laptop in the drivers directory

 

Storm3016, how much time does your FZ take to boot? Thanks.

 

Here's a new review for FZ140

http://www.reviewpub.net/2007/06/sony-vaio-fz-re.html

 

After throwing most startup programs (except Adobe Acrobat), I am down to 1min 15 sec. I am trying to tweak it a little more.

 

Hi All,

I got my FZ190 (Without Blue-Ray) with XBright-HI Color,2GB RAM,160GB hard disk, NVIDIA 8400M GT,Intel T7300 / 2.0 GHz.
It was very good and it is fast. I started deleting all unwanted softwares. The Hi Color screen is amazing. So far everything looks fine for me except one small issue.I am getting more heat when I am working on this notebook. I am not sure whether it is common for all the FZ laptops are not. Sometimes when I am typing in word document, I can feel the heat for my hands.

Can somebody please tell me whether anybody also getting more heat on this notebook. I am note sure whether the heat is because of Faster Processor (7300) and NVIDIA graphics card .
I just would like to know other people opinions on this. Other than this problem everything is good in this FZ notebook.

Thanks
Raj

 

Raj,

Any NOISE issues like reported elsewhere?

Gary

 

Isn't 1m and 15s a bit too much? :|

 

Hi Gary,

Sometimes I am hearing noise when I am working on this FZ notebook. I think it comes when we are using some applications. But this noise is common to any brand notebook. I don't see this as a problem to me.

Raj

 

Does your fan change speeds every second?

 

But none of the high pitched noise some folks are reporting, or the fan "crashing waves" thing?

Gary

 

I am still working on it, but it's down from about two minutes.

 

Yes, I also find that the keyboard gets quite warm after a while (T7500 2.2GHz, 3GB RAM and 8400M GT) But the fan seems to be working and very quietly at that. The heat is similar to what my old Inspiron 5150 emits, except there you'd have to put your hand under the computer. I would assume that the FZ's slim design (almost half the thickness of aforementioned Inspiron) makes the heat felt more easily.
I agree, the screen is worth its money. Watching a DVD really is a treat.

 

I sent you a PM but wanted to post for all in case others were having the same trouble. When installing a Sony driver for a machine that it's not intended for, but you know that works for your hardware do this:

Start the Sony Driver / Utility Installer and get to the screen where it says "next". Stop there, don't click next yet. Open the Model.txt file in your
\windows directory and fix the entry to be the model that the installer is looking for. In my case I changed it to read Model = "VGN-SZ230P_B" as the machine the installer was intended for was a VGN-SZ230P/B (slash turned into a underscore). After fixing the file save it and go back to the installer and click "next". It should now install without issue.

 

It certainly seems like the fan noise and squealing issue is only a problem on the FZ190s. My 160 is like a church mouse when just typing/web surfing/office chores. The fan doesn't ever even spool up. If I run a game or dvd encoding or something then it does spool up for a few moments and goes silent again. it will cycle like this until the strenuous operation is completed then goes back to dead silent. It seems much like my old gateway laptop and is never annoying. I'm guessing the 190's higher clocked processors are generating more heat and needing more active cooling.

Dunno about the whine/squeal though as I've never heard it. Anyone want to post an audio file of it?

If you want silent operation I recommend the FZ160E over the 180/190 as you won't notice a big difference in performance with those but I guess you do have to put up with all the extra heat generated.

 

But which FZ190? From what I was told by a Sony technician last weekend there are two versions of the FZ190. The one with intel graphics is a FZ160 and the one with Nvidia is an FZ180. There seems to be a bit of confusion as to which ones are actually experiencing the noise issue?

Gary

 

Still unable to install Ubuntu on my FZ... Now battery meter does not work now... great.

 

The fan issue isn't just that it's running because the processors generate more heat. It's not just an issue of better specs causing more need for the fan, because someone with an FZ190 with the T7700 processor has no problem whatsoever while my t7500 had the problem.

For those of you who don't have firsthand experience with the fan issue, it comes on shortly after powering on, hardly shuts off at all, and keeps changing speeds every second, whining and carrying on. It's very annoying, and sounds like 'crashing ocean waves.' Someone else wrote a review with the same problem and that's how they described it, which I think is pretty accurate. It wouldn't be so bad if it were just running all the time, but the changing speeds+whining makes me think that it's not cooling the laptop effectively. I sent it back and ordered another one with identical specs due to arrive on the 11th. We'll see if this one has the same problem.

 

Well, technically there are even more versions than that. (besides the strange habit of Sony giving the computer different names and specs in different countries) The main distinction for the US FZ models seems to be blueray or no blueray. Blueray necessitates a dedicated graphics card, so all blueray FZ come with the Nvidia 8400M GT. The non-blueray is also available with the Intel intergrated graphics chip, but that somewhat defeats the purpose. One could simply get an FZ140 or 160 from the next electronics outlet without having to wait for Sony putting the thing together.
I am not convinced that it is a problem with all high-powered FZs with dedicated graphics. My T7500 with Nvidia is quiet and well-behaved (so far, knock on silicon) while Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) seemed to have the high-pitched noise issue with similar specs.

 

Interesting. I guess I have had a similar experience, but not from the laptop. I have a high end C2D desktop machine with an 8800GTX and when benchmarking I get an ungodly squeal that at first I was attributing to my TEC cooler, but when I listened more closely it seemed to be coming from the vid card. Funny thing was it wasn't graffix benching I was doing, it was an orthos stability run. I do hear it faintly when placing a graphic load on the card such as a high end game but not like when benching. I'm not quite sure it was the card though as the north bridge was in the same vicinity and could also be making the racket (it's an nVidia 680i SLi board so not an intel part in that one). I have a feeling you are right though that the common denominator seems to be graphic subsystem used. My GMA X3100 sure aint a powerful beast but at least it's silent and keeps it's cool.

 

Hey buesrio,

i timed it today for you; 56 seconds until everything was completely booted, but after 42 seconds you can already open applications (i'm kind off impatient and always open firefox as soon as see the icon). It could be a little faster i think, you don't really need things like the windows sidebar, but i like the gadgets , and under a minute is good enough for me.

 

thanks crisis, I got a few drivers to install now..... but most of the SZ drivers are not compatible with the FZ hardware and none of the FZ's came with windows xp :-/ If only there was a was to force vista drivers on XP...
And thanks for clarifying your hack on the 5th page, I did'nt realize you had to pause and change the model file at the next botton.

Crisis: What drivers did you use on your XP install to get the sound and graphics card? I'm assumeing you have the Nvidia card right?

 

HEY! Finally after much serching I have something to contribute.

Ok for those of you installing XP on your FZ with the 8400m GT graohics card, this driver http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13246 works, you MUST download the "Modded INF" file and replace it with the INF in the folder that you extract the 15822 file to. PM me if anyone it still confused.

 

side-question. anyone have a good slipcase recommendation for the FZ? I want to get a slipcase since it's going to be in my backpack anyways, but I want to keep it from getting scratches while inside it.

 

Received my FZ140 today.
Possible review (a while) later.

 

Hi,

Thanks. It's a bit though. I've been thinking about the FZ as alternative to my recent LG E500 (not happy with the keyboard). And though so far I only have BitDefender thrown in it takes 14s to boot and shut down. And it has the same exact specs as the FZ140: T7100, 2GB RAM, X3100, 120GB HD. From what I recall the only difference with your FZ is the dedicated GPU and 160GB HD.

I wonder what makes the FZ so slow?

 

Are you having heat issues with yours? (Love your name, btw)

 

Hey guys

Just bought my VAIO FZ11M (european market) laptop yesterday, and it seems i've been screwed. I got it with the GeForce 8400M GT GPU, which is supposed to be quite good! But, when i try playing FarCry on anything higher than "Low" settings, the world becomes ****ed up (textures not shown, etc) and I'm really worried about this. Haven't had time to try any other games yet though. And also, it says in the NVIDIA control panel that the card only has 64 MB dedicated memory, and in total 831 MB memory. Is this shared memory any good for gaming? (Or could my problems with the game be a driver issue?)

Tanks!

 

A new FZ owner here. I'm a bit annoyed by the high pitch noise, but this notebook is beautiful.

I have a question though.

When I start up the laptop, I get this long bar with three options above the start menu bar. (Vaio Security, Productivity, and Entertainment Center)

How do I get rid of this?