Are you having these problems with your VAIO Z under Windows 7?

Well after owning the VAIO Z (VPCZ1390X) for 6 months, I still have some problems which I thought was fixed, but occurs frequently.

I just don't have the slighest clue why it is happening.

1) Even though Brightness is set to manual in the VAIO Control center, the display will sometime automatically dim itself, and while that is happening, the colours seem to get messed up such that they appear 8-bit or lacking gradient (hardly any colours), then it will automatically brighten back up again and fix itself.

2) Sometimes, the Fn key features like sound volume and brightness will have a significant delay or not work at all until I reboot. I could press the volume up key, or brightness down and nothing will happen until about 1 to 3 minutes or more after, then I hear the beep and the setting applies. Sometimes it will even stick and I can't downscale the brightness.


Well certainly I think this is some kind of driver related problem. I think I once read on this forum that the majority if not all of the software was written for XP and wasn't designed specifically for windows 7 certification.


This is kind of a really frustrating bug for me. Anybody else have this issue?
Please state if you don't have the problem also, if you installed custom, or what your machine model is. thanks.

 

I have a VPCZ115GG with Windows 7 Professionl x64. No such problems after 1 year (touch wood), although I have a standard HDD, not the SDD RAID. I used it for several months with stock drivers, then started playing with modded display drivers.

Can you run Task Manager in the background to monitor if something is using excessive CPU resources. Minimize it to system tray and you'll be able to see CPU usage. Then you can look in the processes tab and hunt down the culprit.

 

Go into your intel graphics control panel >> Power then for Power Source, select On Battery and uncheck the Display Power Saving Technology. As for your Fn keys... I'm not sure.

I used VPCZ11 drivers, then the updated official drivers (Z13), then Nautius' unsigned drivers and then Andrew's signed drivers... and have never experienced any of the Fn key problems (I have noticed that my temps have gone up crazy since i used Andrew's signed drivers... from 92C on CPU to 99C CPU :/ <-- that only happened with Natius' drivers when I let my CPU turbo-ed)

 

For the FN shortcuts you should look in to windows services and search the appropriate service for that i don't know exactly which one is it and set it form manual to automatic that should work!

 

Sounds to me like a nice clean install would do wonders for you.