It's coming tomorrow!!

Hello everyone

First, I would like to say I'm a newbie so please be understading.

After months of reviewing and wanting a Sony Vaio SZ680N03, I finally made a purchase from Techonweb.com for $1,572.36 last Thursday(10/25/07) and it's coming tomorrow afternoon!! I also ordered(received all of them today) two Crucial 2GB PC2-5300 laptop memory from Buy.com for $175.98, a Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 200GB from Zipzoomfly.com for $189.99 and the PortableOne's optimized recovery DVDs.

What is my next step?

I think I could handle installing RAMs myself. But installing a new hard drive is a different story for me. Should I run the P1's optimized recovery dvds first and then change my hard drive or should I just install the Hitachi Travelstar7k200 first? Do I need to transfer anything from the hard drive that came with to a new one? If yes, how do i transfer files to a new hard dirve?

Is there anything I should update right away?

My friend told me to update the Nvidia driver v163.67 from laptopvideo2go.com. I'm just confused about this. Is this the best Nvidia driver for SZ680 right now? And do I need to uninstall my old drive first and then install the new one?

What about updating Bios? Anything else?

Thanx all!!!

PS: I went to the Sony store last weekend and checked out a few cases/sleeves for Vaio SZ. I really liked the VGP-CKSZ1 but i felt it was too overpriced. So I did some research and got the same case(BRAND NEW) for $12 from Ebay. It's in the original box and never been opened before. Great case IMO. Got it in 2 business days!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140170953895

 

nice, take a pic when it comes and tell us how you like it

 

Put the hdd in first, then boot up with the recovery disc, and install windows.

If you want, you can buy a external hdd enclosure and put you old hdd in, either as a beck up drive or just for storage.

 

very good idea

thanx Johnny T

 

One small problem with that. None of the Sony machines come with recovery disks. They come with a recovery partition and an application that will allow you to burn a set of recovery DVD's. So THAT would be step numero uno.

Gary

 

Read again

 

Oops! Went right past that one! Mea culpa!

Gary

 

It is still best to burn a set of Vaio recovery DVD. They are bootable and will be needed to install certain apps missing from P1 DVDs such as WinDVD. Also, some small apps like "battery care" which I like but is available no where can be taken from the programs folder in your new Vaio.

I like that notebook case but I already bought the BUILT NY one so oh well.

 

What is the spec on your SZ6...1500 is pretty cheap.

 

Thanks for the ZipZoomFly tip about the Hitachi 7K200. I was about to order it from somewhere else when I saw your post, saved $30! Thanks again.

 

Sony Vaio SZ680N03
2.2GHz T7500 4MB Cache, 1GB (512MBx2) PC2-5300, 120GB 5400rpm

http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/VGN-SZ680N03

It's even cheaper today. $1,573.95
It wasn't the cheapest($1,563) I could find but Techonweb has a very good seller rating and good reviews compare to those unknown companies with cheaper price.

 

Do i need to burn a set of Vaio recovery DVDs when I never used the laptop before? I'm just gonna swap the HDD right away as soon as i get my laptop today.

What is WinDVD and how does battery care work? Do I really need them?

For $12, you can't beat that!

Thanx

 

Glad it helped!

 

Win DVD is a program you use to watch DVD on and its pretty good

Well you can still burn it form the external enclosure Just something to do later.

 

Are you sure about that? I have not tried it, but as picky as many of the Sony supplied apps are, I would suggest the OP go ahead burn the recovery DVD's right away. It will take 1/2 hour or so and save a LOT of hassle if the recovery dvd creation app complains when run from the external enclosure.

Gary

 

True, i suppose so...

 

Yes you really ought to do this. It just creates a 2 DVD set that serves two purposes. One is they are bootable to allow you to return the machine to its original out of the box state. Second they are usable within Vista to allow you to restore individual drivers and Sony supplied applications. You might not ever need them, but if you ever decide to sell the machine you might want to restore the machine to out of the box status and provide them to the new owner. They are really an "insurance policy" of sorts.

Apparently the recovery DVD you bought does not include everything contained on the Sony recovery DVD, so there may be some usefulness to you as well.

Gary

 

Johnny T and Gary thank you so much for helping me out.
I'll burn a set of Vaio recovery DVDs as soon as I get my laptop today.

Thanx for the info guys!

 

Plus the WinDVD license is locked to the computer brand, if not model, so if you don't burn that on a DVD to install later you would have to buy it again!

 

Battery Care is an app to increase battery longevity. If you use your notebook more at home than away, you can make the Vaio charge the battery to only 50% or whatever percentage you want.

Supposedly, this will increase your battery lifespan.

 

First of all I wanna thank everyone who wrote back for helping me out.
After few days of delay(had to go away n I was dying playing with them while I was away ) I finally played with them for the first time this morning.

I just wanna say I LOVE IT!!!!

I already made a set of recovery discs(2 DVDs) and I'm about to install my new Hitachi HDD and Crucial Rams. So do I just install those two items and rum the P1's recovery discs? When do I put the disc in after installing a new HDD?


Sony Vaio SZ680N03 from Techonweb.com




Crucial 2GB PC-5300




Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 200GB





Sony Vaio VGP-CKSZ1 I got it for $12!! I love it!!










Portableone's Recovery disc set





Logitech VX Nano

 

The ram can just be put in. Then just ''put in '' lol the hdd as well, and then turn it on (obviously it won't boot the windows ) then put the recovery disc in and it should boot from it . and then just follow the instructions

I love my 80GB 7200rpm Travelstar

 

thanx again Johnny T!!

Everytime I turn on or restart my notebook in stamina mode, the display resolution goes to the lowest setting.... how do I fix that?

Is there any updates I should get?

Thanx

 

I would like to know a fix to this as well. I know it was discussed in a older thread, but no firm resolution was given.

BTW, congrats on on your new SZ

 

more pics!!

 

I'll put up more pics tomorrow when I get my new digital camera. I have two 2GB Crucial RAMs but my computer tells me I only have 3070MB. I know 32bit Windows don't support full 4GB RAMs but only 3.25GB. Is there something wrong with my SZ?

Thanx

 

For some reason I can't get the Adobe Flash Player to work on my new laptop.

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

I have installed it from site above but everytime I go on to websites that uses flash player, it'll ask me to download/install the flash player and won't play anything.

 

How is SZ docking station?

 

32bit os's cant see all 4gigs. theres nothing wrong. i think if you go to the bios it should show 4

 

i have the dock. its nice to be able to go somewhere and just press a button and take your sz and go because you dont have to spend 5min unplugging everything. and then when you come back all u gotta do is set it in the dock and you're ready to go, no need to have to plug everything back in. it makes everything simpler

 

This is a P1 Clean Install problem. I am having the same problem when trying to install flash on IE. I am still working on the solution.

A quick work around will be to use firefox. Flash installs just fine and continues to work.

 

No flash on IE? that is really weird.... no flash on IE with P1 clean install problem... do you think they'll update this problem anytime soon? I can't believe people aren't saying much about this.....

 

A lot of people don't even use IE any more. I'm not surprised.

 

so the firefox is way to go huh?

 

I use Firefox and Flash works. I didn't realize that there would be an issue with IE until I saw this. I can confirm that Flash does not work with the P1 optimization.

Also, I cannot download Java runtime extension on Firefox. I'm not sure if this is caused by the P1 optimization.

 

Not necessarily. Firefox is probably the most popular alternative, but Opera is also good. Internet Explorer 6 received a lot of bad press for not being very secure.

 

I just downloaded firefox and I'm loving it! man it's way faster than IE

thanx shalimal & ken wind

 

If you don't know how to use tabbed browsing, you should try that out too. It will change your life.

 

I am glad you found firefox. Now try switcher: http://insentient.net/

and objectdock: http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/

Finally deskspace: http://www.otakusoftware.com/deskspace/

 

Just sent Ivan a PM. Hopefully he can fix the problem with IE & Flash.

 

Ivan responded with a quick generic fix. I need to contact P1 Support for something more indepth. Can somebody try this and see if this fixes the IE & Flash problem?

--------------------
Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer:

Before installing Flash Player, please check the following browser settings:

Internet Explorer ActiveX settings
Browser security settings should be chosen by you or by your system administrator. For single users who do not have an administrator, the Medium: Default Level allows you to view Flash content. For any Custom Level, ensure that both the "Download Signed ActiveX controls" and "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins" options are set to "Prompt".

To change your security level:

Open Internet Explorer.
Choose Tools > Internet Options.
Select the Security tab.
Choose Internet.
Click Custom Level.
Ensure that the Download Signed ActiveX Controls option is set to Prompt.
Ensure that the Run ActiveX Controls And Plug-ins option is set to Prompt.
If you are having trouble installing, make sure that your Internet Explorer security level is not set to High or to a custom level that does not allow viewing of ActiveX controls.

 

thanx for the info shalimar!

I got some new pics for everyone... enjoy!!

 

Thanks for the pictures. Those are great.

 

What kind of mouse is that? I was going to get the Sony Vaio bluetooth one, but this one seems to match the SZ perfectly.

 

Nice pictures! But I thought the SZ680N03 would have the silver keyboard? Also how's the flex on the SZ's keyboard?

 

That is a small dongle for that mouse. I always hated the idea of using a dongle because it sticks out but if it is that small, forget the bluetooth mouse and their high price.

 

Logitech VX Nano

 

from what i understand all the Sony business SZ models(VGN-SZ680N01~07) only come with black keyboard and they're different than the Sony VGN-SZ680CTO. I didn't really like the flex on the keyboad first but I'm used to it now and i feel like it grew on me a lot

 

I think this is the best mouse i ever owned period.
I didn't wanna get the bluetooth mouse because it drains the battery a lot

more pics of Logitech VX Nano











For desktops

 

Looks great, how much was it? I see Logitech lists 69.99.