Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

I was under the impression that the 8400 GT in the FZs had 256mb of dedicated memory.

 

When I flip the screen down on my FZ-145, does it go into sleep or hybernation mode?

 

To r!vaL;

You can select what you want to happen when you close the screen yourself through the power control menu(not sure if that's the correct menu name, i've got a dutch version of Vista on my FZ).

To Briliantsky&ATP;

there are different versions of the 8400GT used for different FZ's, unfortunately Sony doesn't make it very easy to find out witch one they use in witch machine, i don't know why.
I did some inquiry myself before i chose witch one to get, but i only know the models that are soled in Holland i'm afraid. Yours isn't among them.

However, these are the versions of the Gforce 8400GT that i know have been used for the Vaio FZ series;

-64 mb dedicated and 256 mb shared
-128 mb dedicated and 895 shared
-256 mb dedicated and 256 shared

yours seems to be yet another version.
I find the values a bit strange, but thats what i've found so far.

The shared memory isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does it take up your ram under heavy graphic tasks (shared memory or turbo cache means nothing else then the ability to use your RAM memory when there's not enough dedicated video memory for the task thats performed).
If you only have 1Gb of ram it might help to install some more memory to speed things up, since almost that entire amount of memory is used for graphics during -for instance- heavy gameplay. This would also be a good explanation for the problems you are having btw. You could try fondling a little with the graphic settings through you nvidia control panel, but my experience is that it does speed things up a little, but not much.

 

I discovered today that i have some problems when i watch movies on YouTube, i tried Internet explorer7 to (normally i use Firefox), but after every 2 or 3 vid's i watch the browser totally freezes and i have to close it down the hard way using the task command/control. I've tried turning of my firewall as well as my anti virus program (i use avg), but the problem remains. When i watch vid's from other websites i don't have this problem. Anyone knows what causes this? Might there still be some problems with Java or other programs like that running under Vista, or am i simply overlooking something? it does look lie some kind of software conflict to me.
It isn't really important, but i do find it kinda annoying that something on my computer isn't working like it should, so if anyone has any ideas they would be appreciated.

 

Can I get some help here?

 

Just open the program/software menu in your configuration management and delete the Vaio software you don't need.

But maybe you should your FZ back to the dealer first...it isn't suppose to make that high pitch sound.....

 

Ah, looks like a fellow biochemist. =)
Well, my T7500 remains pretty quiet. When I sit right in front of it, I can hear the fan throttle up and down a bit. In contrast, I can hear my old laptop (Inspiron 5150) across the room, sometimes wondering if it tries to lift off.
I'll see what my FZ does once I install more system taxing software. Other than that the machine runs pretty smoothly and I remain blown away by the display.

 

What does the notebook feel like heatwise? Is it abnormally hot? And I take it that your fan 'throttling up and down' isn't like the 'crashing ocean waves,' right? Like, when it turns on, does it constantly change speeds? Or does it run for a while on one speed and/or change speeds only once or twice and then turn off?

 

I've noticed mine gets pretty hot pretty fast when I'm doing anything other than web browsing, but I can also hear my fan change speed in an attempt to counteract the heat, but it doesn't seem to help too much. Overall this laptop runs MUCH hotter than the toshiba i upgraded from with integrated ATi graph card

I was having troubles with the SD card slot, I could never get it to read any of my SD cards, but the MS PRO slot worked just fine. I noticed on the vaio update page there is a new driver for it, so i installed and had to restart, but everything seems to be working fine now.

So at the moment i've got all the updates and all the FN keys and bells and whistles working except that AV Mode Instant On!
anyone have any luck getting that thing going from a powered off or hibernating system!?

 

well firstly greetings
secondly i cant wait to receive my fz, just cant wait. (one week. so long please dont die. i ll be good. forever)
i had several vaio u s for many years (by the way small but very durable) but my requirements have changed. i have had lot of communication over the years with sony and sometimes i have been very pleased with their service and on other occasions felt it was inadequate. the point is they are no better than any other company. overall though good.

the big problem was bloatware, after uninstalling roxio and/or sonic, etc, etc major problems, in the end decided to live with them or fresh install xp. either way was not ideal "driver problems you know the drill. A combination of vista and sony, boot up time. f....! boot up in time for christmas.

questions

1.a list of programs that are safe to uninstall it may seem trivial. but if someone puts a list up it will save ours of pain for many.

2.okay i want 4gb of ram now i heard all this talk about 667 ram being fast. is 800 htz faster and compatible or only the 667 thing ees. any advise at all is needed.

3. harddrive. want to put a fast one in. okay i think the 7200 is the fastest compatible one. but then it says sata and other abbreviations. are these abbreviations important. what is this ncis.

4. any ideas on some good cases i noticed for the t series sony sell some nice leather dubies. nice. what about me and my baby fz. all advise welcome.

 

Hey I was listening to my fan on my fz. I can hear it throttling up and down pretty quickly and not having a constant speed at all. It isn't very loud, but I can still tell that it is not a constant speed. Is this the wave crashing that everyone is refering to? I figured it it was it would be a lot louder... If this is the wave crashing problem, should I return it for another? Has anyone returned theirs for this problem and then received a functioning one in return?

 

Hi all,

I am having a small issue using my FZ notebook. I want to disable some of the startup programs so that my notebook starts fast.

I went to Control Panel -> Windows Defender -> Tools -> Software Explorer.
I should be able to disable startup programs from here.
But whenever I select most of the programs (Example Adobe acrobat), I cannot able to click "disable" button. All the buttons are in disable state.
I am not sure why I cannot disable startup program in this notebook.

In my previous XP laptop I used disable most of the programs using Software Explorer.

Can some body pls check your FZ notebook and let me know any solutions to this problem.

Thanks in advance.
Raj

 

I called sony and after talking to their tech support for a while they determined that the problem couldn't be fixed and told me to send it back.

When you return a notebook to them, they don't just send you a new one, though. You have to order it yourself, which is a problem unless you can either afford to have the balance for two orders on your credit card until they refund you, or wait for them to refund you before placing the new order. Both are undesirable in my opinion, as right now my credit card has $3800. My new laptop is due to arrive the 11th. I'll let you know if this one has the same problems.

 

if you're using vista, hold down the windows button and push R. The run program will come up. type in msconfig go to the startup tab and start unselecting. If you're in XP click on start then run and type in msconfig go over to the startup tab and start deselecting. Hope this helps!

 

I returned my FZ190 after 10 days for a full refund. The screen started flickering the next day. I called the tech support and I was first told that is has a bad LCD and the next tech told me that has a bad mother board. I bought the Onsite tech suport for $199.00. They could not locate the mother board in their warehouse for 4 days, so after that I finally returned my notebook. I'm disappointed with sony.

 

Hi,

how do you do that?

thanks

 

Alright so I'm pretty sure I have the crashing waves problem. I have the fz 190 CTO. As I understand the thing, it comes with a 1 year warranty. Since I don't mind the fan issue so much could I simply use my fz for up to a year and then simply call them and report the issue for a refund?

 

I wouldn't. They'll find a way to screw you somehow.

 

Yeah, i second that, no way Sony gives a full refund after a year.

I've listened a little closer to the fan of my FZ11s, and it isn't really constant too. I think that's how it's suppose to work tho, it isn't noisy or getting hot, and the difference in rpm's is minor when it doesn't have to perform to much.

 

If you click the button for all users, then you should have no problem disabling acrobat and the other memory eaters.

 

Okay, I have pretty good hearing. If I put my ear right on the keyboard, yes there is a high note some of the time. When the fan goes into high gear it throttles up and down, again very quietly. After a while it settles down and steady. Compared to all computers I ever owned both desktop and laptop this is the quietest I ever had. I suspect that other people have worse luck, because I cannot see much of a nuisance in it. When running more demanding programs (I installed Flight Simulator X, which runs pretty well btw), the keyboard warms up a bit, but it reaches a steady level and it's not like you could fry an egg on it anyway.
Now I wonder if the people complaining, had just ears like bats or if their FZ's noise was really loud. (Eg. can you hear it from 20 ft away?)

 

I see you're an admirer of the old guard, much like I am.

I suppose that you may have received help with your issue already, but here it is: Go to "Start"/"Run", type "msconfig", then select "startup" tab, and deselect all entries that you don't want to load up.
I believe the one that you're referring to is named: "VAIO Center Access Bar".
You'll be amazed at the vast number of crap that appears there.

 

alright so I'm kinda wondering if mine is as hot as everyone else's. After playing battlefield 2 and command and conquer 3 and letting it sit for about 5 minutes mine was running at:

HD0:99F
Temp1:102F
Temp2:102F
Core0:93F
Core1:99F

I have the 2.0Ghz with the 8400m GT and 2 gigs of ram.
I'm using speedfan I got from http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

What is everyone else's temps?

 

the link is not working !!

 

As if we would all know which of the hundreds of links in this thread you are referring to.

Gary

 

^Lol .

I believe you're the first person to post actual temps.

When I get mine on the 11th, I can post some.

 

I was looking forward on getting some temperatures of my FZ, but i'm afraid i can't get speedfan installed. I keep getting an Ms-Dos Subsystem message saying: The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction.

And then i get the option to close the screen or ignore, but hitting ignore only re-opens the same screen. Any idea what's blocking my installation anyone? I've never seen this message before myself.

 

I just got my FZ190 CTO !

Just finished removing all of the bloatware and installed the 8400M GT driver version 101.28. I was wondering what 3dmark05, 3dmark06, and pcmark05 scores are expected from the fz190 with 8400M GT (non overclocked)? I saw someone post some scores but I believe they were from overclocking the gpu.

I haven't noticed any high pitched noises nor odd fan ocean waves. I do hear the fan from the gpu if I put my ear close to the unit, however this should be normal.. I would be more concerned if I didn't hear anything...

I will install my seagate 7200.2 momentus tomorrow. How come there isn't a user review of the FZ on this forum?

 

1.a list of programs that are safe to uninstall it may seem trivial. but if someone puts a list up it will save ours of pain for many.

2.okay i want 4gb of ram now i heard all this talk about 667 ram being fast. is 800 htz faster and compatible or only the 667 thing ees. any advise at all is needed.

3. harddrive. want to put a fast one in. okay i think the 7200 is the fastest compatible one. but then it says sata and other abbreviations. are these abbreviations important. what is this ncis.

4. any ideas on some good cases i noticed for the t series sony sell some nice leather dubies. nice. what about me and my baby fz. all advise welcome.

 

using speedfan my fz190 is running at:
Core 0: 86 F
Core 1: 86 F

This does fluctuate up into the nineties often also.

A question to anyone who knows: How much noise is normal from a laptop such as this. In the week or so that I've had this computer my fan has never actually turned off. It's never extremely loud or anything but it's always there and can be annoying in a quiet room. Is this something I should be talking to sony about to get fixed because it seems strange that the fan would be running at all much less all the time when the temperatures are fine. Also the fan starts within seconds of turning the computer on which also doesnt seem right.

 

I am also not hearing much noise from my FZ notebook.Most of the time my FZ is low noise.
I am just having only heat issue.

How you guys are getting heat ?. Do you feel the heat when you are tying on keyboard or using touch pad?.
I am getting heat on touch pad also some times. How much heat is normal in this FZ notebook ?

Cheers
Raj

 

I just finished installing the 160gb Seagate momentus 7200.2 dirve. The installation was pretty easy. Only involved removing the cover (1 screw), removing the hard drive cage (3 screws), sliding out the old hard drive, sliding in new hard drive (no wires to connect/disconnect), and placing the cover back on. I am using the recovery discs to re-install on vista ultimate on the new drive. Note: the 80gb 5400 rpm hard drive that sony gave me was a toshiba and based on the performance charts found on tomshardware page the seagate momentus should be a significant improvment. http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25.html?modelx=33&model1=772&model2=405&chart=144

 

I'll be interested to see if any of the FZ190's that are coming recently are better then the ones ordered right when the product was released. I just read the thread from start to finish and it's funny how as I got towards the end the support for the FZ190 started deteriorating. When I first started reading this thread I was hot to buy, now I'm second guessing.

 

I got my FZ190CTO up and running. i just finished installing the seagate momentus 7200.2 hard drive. The hard drive is awesome: fast, quiet, and runs cool. Re-installing the the o/s from the recovery discs wasn't difficult - just had to remove all of the unnecessary software. Here are my benchmarks without overclocking with gpu drivers 101.28:
3dmark05: 4261
3dmark06: 2636
pcmark05: 5613

I haven't experienced any high pitched noises nor extremely odd fan noises. The machine gets warm (but not extremely uncomfortable) on the bottom of the unit, I'm guessing where the 8400M GT is stored. I believe the fan is constantly running to cool the gpu (similar to desktop gpus).

 

I also noticed that the laptop gets warm. But according to the speedfan utility, the CPU is at about 33C, which is actually cooler than my desktop CPU (37C).

I haven't noticed any fan noises though -things seem remarkably quiet actually.

 

How easy is it to replace the hard drive? Do you have to open the computer up like the macs?

 

It is very easy to replace the hard drive. There is a cover on the bottom of the unit.

 

Will the onsite warranty still work if you replace the hard drive with another one? I'm thinking about the Sony vs the macbook pro. Since I'm mainly a windows guy.

But the extra res on the macbook pro is a plus. I think they both run about the same heat wise.

 

got my comp up and running and loving it so far. barely any noise, a little heat but not bad. thinking about upgrading to a bigger better hard drive because after 2 days of use and converting my files onto this computer, im already down to 30 some odd gigs. either way im very satisfied. one question hoping someone can help me. cant figure out how to use the built-in camera. in accesories, i found a tool i can use to record sound but i cant find one for video. also, when i use a messenger with video conference such as AIM, nothing shows up.

 

Hit "Start">All Programs>VAIO Camera Utility.....Took me a while to find it myself!

 

Anybody else have a "loose" left mouse button? I just picked up a FZ140 from Frys and had to go back and get another because of a spongy button (right button was fine). However, to my surprise, the second one has the same problem, just not as bad. I just chaulked it up to manufacturing error, but I'm just curious if others have had the same problem

 

Great benchmarks! Thanks for posting them, could you tell me witch program you used to measure them please?

The NVIDIA GPU has a passive heatsink, and no fan at all. The only fan you should be hearing is the one cooling your CPU.

 

Now that you mention it; my left mouse button is crooked too....
It looks like it's sinked a little deeper into the chassis on the left side of the button. It does work and feel good tho.

 

That's because of all the system restore points that were created when you installed stuff. Don't panic about the disk space, they'll go away eventually. If you're satisfied with the state of your machine, you can get rid of all those restore points by turning off system restore and then turning it back on again.

Yes. It's bugging me a little bit because for the money I paid for this machine it should be "perfect." But it does work ok.

 

I use the tapping on the touchpad usually anyway, but I feel the same way you do. It just makes you a little nervous.

 

I've had my fz190 cto for five days. No noise, heat is not too bad. I'm adjusting to vista even though I would have been happy with xp. I've not had any real problems with it. I updated and have yet to try Av mode again and I have not tried burning anything yet. It does seem sluggish to me but I only have 1gig RAM and for my adobe elements I should have 2 with Vista. I have uninstalled several programs and have a few more to do. And I trimed down the start menu. I've been really enjoying it so far. I get about an hour of battery time with light use. I also dim the light when I'm on battery as it's really bright. Which I love that!! The pictures on this are beautiful! This isn't much of a review but my 2cents. I like mine so far.

 

I downloaded pcmark05, 3dmark05, and 3dmark06 from the futuremark website.

 

did anyone else notice the nvidia driver available for download from sony now?

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNFZ190E&upd_id=2822&os_id=28

 

Ok I like to think that I know a little something about computers, but… truth be told I know very little. I bought my fz many moons ago and I finally received it two days ago. I hope that I would be able to go to college for four years and use this computer with no issues. Not to mention I planned on playing a little counterstrike source every once in a while. So far everything is running great, even source is running without a hitch. My specs are 2.0GHz processor, 2gigs RAM, 8400 nvidia graphics, and an 80 gig hard drive. Well my problem right now lies within the hard drive. As I mentioned before im already down to 35gigs and that’s after turning my system restore off and back on. So here is where my questions begin.

1. I understand there is a lot of “bloatware” on these computers. What programs/files are we exactly talking about? I already deleted napster, and some spiderman thing I had, but what else is on there that I can trash right from the get go to save me some space?

2. Are there any other suggestions for clearing up my hard drive. I have about 2 gigs of music, AIM, Microsoft office student teacher edition, counterstrike source (and steam), and all of the programs that came with the computer. To me that doesn’t seem like I should be down to 35 gigs.

3. Lets say everything you guys can do to help me only clears me to about 40 gigs. Well now im realizing if this things going to last me 4 years (possibly more) I’m going to need a bigger hard drive. How do I know exactly what kind of hard drive to look for? How do I know whatever I buy will fit in this computer? And same goes with ram. Right now im very satisfied but for whatever reason sometime in the future I may want to upgrade my ram. How do I know what to choose from?

I know some of my questions may be detailed and/or complex but if any of you gurus out there could spare the time to answer them I would greatly appreciate it.

 

It says: This utility installs the originally shipped version of the nVIDIA® Display Drivers.
I would speculate that these drivers are not included in the recovery partition.