How-To: Protective Film Application on the Z11

mfpreach

I bought a palm rest (touchpad is not disconnecteble). It was cost 90$.
yous second connector with plate probably about 80-120$.
+100$ if you broke general ribbon cable.
I transfered rubles to $. Costs are identical for EU and Russia.

 

Today I replaced the palm rest. I had no problems being replacing at all. All connectors and ribbons are intact.
Many thanks to ZoinksS2k and mfpreach
My pictures:



Needn't disconnect general ribbon to remove the palm rest.

 

Very nice.

Are you still looking to paint the palm rest?

 

For the present no.
What you think about it?
SGP Laptop Wrist Rest Skin for Sony Vaio Z11 series - eBay (item 110527878728 end time Jun-02-10 01:17:25 PDT)

SGP Laptop Skin Deepblack leather pattern-Sony Vaio Z11 - eBay (item 370373622663 end time May-30-10 13:27:19 PDT)

A seller talks that he has all these items with carbon effect

 

Send another email to Zagg, see what they can do.

 

Both palm rest and laptop cover look very interesting. I'm assuming both will be applied using an adhesive like material?

I also wonder if that leather palmrest will provide a noticeable lift when the laptop is closed. Hm...

 

IMO, the faux leather is tacky. Artificial CF also tends to look, well, artificial.

Any film will get compressed by the two rubber bumpers on the LCD panel. Not a huge deal.

 

So I've discovered a very thin and shallow scratch on the back of my z11. I'm a nut about this machine so I'm considering either getting a scratch remover or buying an InvisibleShield for just the back/screen. Any suggestions? I have the black CF model.

 

Nobody is making precision-cut kits with clear plastic for the Z1x's yet.

Custom cutting is the only option for now.

 

Hi Guys, Sony fixed it for free!!!!

Now i'm debating whether to take it apart again, I probably won't because I believe in Karma.

 

Congratulations!! what the hell!! hahahah they are so nice! Now I'm considering sending mine in for them to replace the palm rest due to discoloration. The thing is... I'm in australia and I bought mine from sonystyle usa. I just had a friend ship it here.

although i gotta say the discoloration doesnt look so bad after I near perfectly applied the invisiskin

 

mfpreach

My congratulation for you . You broke notebook yourself and Sony repair it for free . It is fantasticly for me.

 

I would send it in for that for sure. I actually contacted them about that before I decided to put the invisibleshield on.

As for the repair. The only thing I can think is that they deemed that the connector was defective in that it shouldn't have snapped off. Maybe thats the justification for it? Anyways, I'm back!

 

Zoinks, can you describe how you covered the top of the LCD? I'm looking to protect mine and I'd like to know exactly how you did yours. Photos would be much appreciated :]

 

Also, has anyone here tried the cover skins for SGP?
SGPStore.com | iPhone, iPod Cases, Pouches, Protector Film, Camera, Laptop Skin, Metal Skin
If so, what are your thoughts?

 

Update: After all those problems installing the shield I decided not to open up the laptop after dodging a bullet by breaking it and having it fixed for free.

As a result, I do have wear on my right palm rest. Its not horrible, I don't mind a difference in pigmentation I just don't want it to wear down too much to the point where it looks bad.

I will try to get it replaced near the end of my warranty and let you know how that goes.

ps. (I've only had it for around 2 months).

 

Finally some official support! Wrapsol | strongest, easiest and fastest-to-apply protection for Sony Vaio Z Series

 

Thanks for the link. I just ordered one for the Z and the HTC EVO-4G (which is where I have been spending all my time lately).

 

Just a note for those of you looking at this product - it is designed for the older Z series and is not compatible with the Z11/Z12 series. I recently ordered one and confirmed this fact, both visually and with the company. Unfortunately, they do not offer a set for the Z11 at this time. You can always go with a DIY sheet from bestskinsever.com or get one of the many faux-leather wrist rests offered on ebay.

 

Well, the more you know.

I ordered the kit for the Z1 and noticed that it was for the older Z models. Since I have both, I put it on my Z591. Worked fine.

The kit quality is really good. They give you a towel, a white rubber block to use as a squeegee and two soap solution bottles. The bottles are glass, which is a nice touch.

A word of caution, the film has a matte texture. I don't think it would be a good fit on the glossy carbon fibre Z1x machines.

 

AGabi - Could you tell me which were the connectors you released and how you released them in order to remove the palm rest?

ZoinksS2k's vids were really helpful but there were some parts I needed to be 110% sure about before I go dismantling any parts!

From what I know, only the CPU side of the general ribbon needs to be pried off (along the horizontal axis as suggested by ZoinksS2k) to disconnect the keyboard portion from the main chassis, and then the little blue ribbon cable which connects the palmrest and trackpad to the aluminium keyboard chassis. Specifically, is that a lift up or pull out latch? (this one)

Thanks in advance for the help guys!

 

You described absolutely right disassembling order...
To disconnect little ribbon I slightly raise up the brown part with eagle and at the same time reached out the ribbon with pincer.

 

Alright, thanks! Now I just need to wait for the arrival of my DIY BSE.

 

Be very very carefully when disconnecting ribbons!

What is DIY BSE?

 

Oh that refers to the BestSkinsEver DIY Cut To Fit Blank Skin (12 x 14"). Thanks for the advice, cheers to you mate!

 

Hi gents.
I messed up big time when receiving my new Z12. I removed the stickers on the palmrest but there was some remaining glue which could not be removed with ordinary means...
So I made a brainfart; why don't I use some acetone... gently of course...? Hmmm big mistake!
The acetone started to draw some of the colour from the palmrest. Long story short. I had to wipe the hole palmrest surface with acetone in ordre to minimize the effect of colour difference. It kind of helped but I was not happy. So after some thinking I tried out a sponge with a hard surface normally used for doing the dishes. I moved the hard side of the sponge along the palmrest surface in straight lines. It left very small lines in the surface but these actualle fitted the keyboard carbon look. Afterwards I took a rubber and scrabed the surface. In the end I cleaned it carefully with water and soap. This procedure was done 3 times.
Now it looks quite OK again. About 95% of what it used to be. And I see no symptoms of wear to the palmrest. To me the carbon coloured palmrest seems quite good after that treatment... But NEVER use acetone... Stupid me!

 

Eek. Yeah, no solvents ever

The best method to remove the stickers is to use the stickers themselves.

Pull the sticker up gently and try not to dig into the plastic. When you get it off, dab the sticky side on the remaining schmutz and it will come right off.

 

When I removed my stickers I used a hair-dryer on medium to heat the stickers up a little bit (medium level, about 15cm distance to the stickers). Do not heat up too much, it was OK for me when the area around the stickers I heated was comfortably warm to the touch, not hot. Then I used my thumb's fingernail to gently grab under one corner of the sicker. Once you have the corner lift, try to grab the sticker's corner between both index finger and the thumb going forward. Then just slowly and gently peel off the sticker. The Intel and Nvidia sticker is like thin sheeted metal so those two are a little bit harder to peel off.

After all, almost no goo was left and there are no scratches on the palmrest at all. I cleaned everything with a microfiber towel and LCD cleaning spray and it was perfect. Heating up the stickers a bit made this task very easy since the sticker adhesive gets weak when warm (I realized that with an old laptop where the stickers become movable when tha laptop was running warm for some time).

@ jakmor:
Damn, would you mind posting a picture?

What you guys think of applying clear varnish on the palm rest? Since some people here experience faded palm rests and a new one is kinda pricey, maybe it is also possible to apply clear varnish for protecting the paint underneath.

 

I have pretty significant wear on the right side of my rest. Honestly it doesn't really look bad and I think Sony will replace it if i decide to sent it in as I suppose it could be deemed defective. I wouldn't put anything on it.

 

All of you thx for your input regarding what I shall do the next time I have a new laptop between my hands... (Hmmm will most likely be a couple of years with the cost of this laptop in mind - but no tears... Learning is very rarely without cost )
Anyway, I am actually satisfied with my solution to the problem. Today I applied some nano technology sealer and wiped it with a microfiber cloth in order to make a more resistant and smooth surface. It actually improved the situation to an even better result. Now you cannot see a thing -that is if you do not know about it.

Pyr0: Sorry, the camera is out of the house. But nothing much to see. I think it would be almost impossible to capture the difference from before things got out of hand and after I made the damage control.

 

SITUATION UPDATE:

Tried to apply some protective film. The product was a "no name" but nevertheless it fitted the purpose.
After some initial attempts with fitting the film I actually succeeded in making a rather decent result. That is without disassembly of the laptop, but it took a steady hand and a scalpel.

Of course you can - with a closer look - see that a protective film has been applied to the palmrest but it looks professional so it is not a pain.
(Pyr0, I have attached some pictures as requested)

I think this will be my end to the efforts in correcting my initial bad. I have heavily considered sending the laptop in for a repair/change of palmrest but since it is cosmetic it is NOT covered by the warranty.
I tried to get a price on a repair but SONY Denmark cannot help. I have to send it in, cross my fingers and then just pay the bill afterwards?? So that option is not a real possibility.

I think I will settle with this result and let it be a leason learned.
And then again... a palmrest with some discolourment/scratches it is not the end of the world. I can change the protecive film when it wears down - the important thing here is... The laptop runs rock solid!!

 

Nice work, Jakmor - results are awesome. Where did you get the film? Was it a wet or dry application? I am going to pull the trigger on a black Z13 soon and this is the first thing I will be doing when I take it out of the box. I have no desire to crack open a brand new $2500 laptop, so I'm all about your method.

Any further details on the procedure you followed would be greatly appreciated.

 

GLBL, it was a dry application. But today I tried to replicate the work with a worse result. So two things learned... If you do a custom fitting, you have to have a huge patience... And if it ain't broken, don't fix it!!

Have anyone heard of a protective film or alike which can be sprayed on the palm rest?

 

How about disconnecting the AC, removing the battery, taping off the rest of the notebook except for the palm rest and using Carnauba car wax? I would think that any car wax will put a good layer of protection on the palm rest.

 

Clearcoat paint but it's gonna be even more difficult, you can't just spray it on.

Car wax might melt due to heat and get inside or something. Even if you are just touching it with your hands, it'll still smear and you gonna have lumps of it everywhere.

 

Huh? Car wax on a car doesn't "melt" due to heat--even in Arizona. And I haven't used any car wax that would lump nor smear.

 

Hi can you tell us what was the part number of the palm rest and where did you find it for sale?
I want to ask if you need your old one because I want to try something (100% home made experience) ... I actually want to build a full carbon fibre palm rest if you can send me your old one that don’t work, I hope that the touchpad can come out easily

 

That's because you don't rub against it all the time But whatever, feel free to try it out

 

medwes
The part number is A1769482A
I bought it in Moscow sony service center. But service center ordered it from Europe. Sorry, I can't send old palm rest. The touchpad is not removable. It is glue to the palm rest

 

Zoinks, you seem like the guy to ask about this. I'll excerpt my post from another thread:

My VPCZ1290X has intermittent, erratic touchpad behavior: the pointer sometimes jumps around when I tap, and it seems, again sometimes, to be related to whether any other part of my body is touching the palm rest or laptop body. Another thread refers to this outside tutorial for the SZ series: doube.org::Repairing a Reversed Vaio Touchpad. It says there may be an issue with the body of the laptop conducting electrical charges from your palm or thumb (my thumb is almost always resting on the front of the laptop body when I use the touchpad). I figure this is a possibility with a carbon fiber or aluminum bodied version (I have carbon fiber). The suggestion here is to remove the touchpad and put some insulating tape between the TP and the body or the palm rest (I'm thinking maybe both). I happen to have some very thin electrostatic discharging polyimide (kapton) tape, which I could use for this purpose.

Your video tutorial clearly states that the palm rest is just plastic, but it looks like the touchpad also contacts the body of the laptop in a couple of places. My question is, do you think there's any credence to this theory, or is it probably just a basic hardware/driver issue? Even though you can disassemble your palm rest, after watching your video, I'm not sure I want to try, but I'd also love to make my touchpad work better.

{Edit} I just posted and saw right above my post that you can't remove the touchpad from the palm rest, so I guess my only option would be putting some tape on the bottom of the touchpad, and maybe contact points of the palm rest / touchpad to the laptop body. {Edit}

Thanks. And thanks for all of your excellent posts and tutorials.

 

Rocket, interesting project with the car wax. I considered it myself. But then again... normally you do not have any wear on car wax. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts I tried to apply some nano sealer... which is actually rather easy to apply... but the lifespan is somewhat reduced. To me protective film is the most durable solution... but let us know!

 

Hi i just receaved this e-mail yesterday from ZAGG answering my request for Z series invisible Shild:

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, where we are zealous about great gadgets! My name is Buddy K and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

In regards to your email, I apologize for the inconvenience. At this time, we do not have an invisibleSHIELD for that product. We do release new designs all the time so feel free to check our website or contact us
periodically to check on the status at our web site ZAGG | invisibleSHIELD | iPhone, iPod Cases, Screen Protectors, Covers, Shields, Skins, Invisible Shield

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. Our phone number is 801-263-0699 or toll free at 800-700-9244. Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 8 PM, Mountain Time. Thank you for choosing ZAGG! We appreciate your business.

All the best,

Buddy K

Customer Service Representative
ZAGG Inc.
3855 S 500 W STE C
SLC, UT 84115
801.263.0699 x-(o)
801.281.3458 (f)
Nasdaq Symbol: ZAGG
ZAGG.com

 

is ther any protective matterial in the market that perfectly fit the z1 with out custom cut ?

 

Got my bestskinsever DIY skins today and I am very disappointed since the envelope it got shipped does not provide any protection to the sheets at all and what had to come, came:


Now I can barely use half of the sheets - the sharply bended areas are useless as they will not flatten again I think. Damn &$(!

 

complain to them, they'll send a new set, hopefully.

BTW, could you shrink the pics? they are way too big for a forum thread

 

Pyr0, if you send them an email stating your disappointment, I'm sure they will send you a replacement.

You can also use a majority of it for the palm rest, you don't really need a whole lot for it.

 

Sorry, didn't notice that on my Z

I did, hope the best. On the one hand, it is no surprise that the sheets were damaged since the virtually no protection of the envelope, on the other hand, the envelope has gone a long way here to me and nobody knows where this happened. I am more disappointed by USPS / DHL Germany, that all my orders from the US got damaged somehow in the past.

 

Hi Guys,

I just wondered if anyone here has tried one of these? I might give one a try for the price as it's really not that expensive when compared to a replacement palm rest...

Protector Body Cover Shield Film Skin Sony VAIO VPC Z - eBay (item 160483379238 end time Oct-20-10 00:10:37 PDT)

I've been following this thread a lot so apologies if I've missed it somewhere!

Cheers,
Mark.

 

Mark,

Yes I've tried those before. It's definately not going to offer the same amount of protection as the invisibleshield/diy kits because its essentially a glorified precision cut thick tape. They recommend a dry application so the air bubbles are really hard to get out. I would not recommend it.

 

Thank you for the tip. Got a reply:

So far, I feel very pleased about the service.