My discoveries on Vaio Z’s Hybrid Graphics

Andrew08,
please update hybrid driver for old VGN-Z (nvidia 9300m gs) with working dual display mode function as soon as possible! I think here many VGN-Z users are waiting for this driver! Thank you.

 

^^Anybody know? Still can't output hdmi..

 

davch ninja52
Guys, just as i said in some of later posts, HDMI issue is still opened with this driver and my solution, even if you manage to get it work at all - you will get very slow video playback / game perfomance under HDMI.
I even had once that the whole driver crashed and i could not get it to work for very long time even without HDMI.

My fix is as mentioned temporary.
After long term testing i've found more bugs, and sideffects to come, hopefully we'll invent something new about it one day.

 

The same HDMI issue is for my VGN-Z on 263.08/2020 driver. I have Advanced Menu activated in BIOS and I wander if I could install the latest nvidia and intel drivers in STATIC mode. Would it be possible to install them separately? Where could I get those drivers and what should be done to install them on VAIO? I saw a few pages back some discussion about changing nvidia inf from dell but the details are not clear for me. I have Win7 x64. In fact, full functionality of hdmi in static mode (if possible, of cause) looks more important than dynamic switching. Sorry if this is off topic

 

I reported in this thread of my successful upgrade of Vaio VGN-Z21wn to W8 (on a new ssd).

After 2 or 3 months I can report that the hybrid stuff mostly works fine.

Occassionally I get an effect where the s1 and s2 buttons no longer work and the stamina / speed switch doesn't work - but this is very rare - after many hibernate cycles.
Occassionally I get the effect that the m/c can't wake from hibernate and reboots. Again rare - haven't spotted a trigger for this.

Nothing I can't live with.

The only thing that doesn't really work is the Alps - Touchpad. It freezes randomly.
Sometines waiting is enough. Pressing fn keys appears to help sometimes - but this could just be an illusion.
Sometimes a hibernate cycle helps.
Sometimes a shutdown helps.
Sometimes a shutdown and removing the battery and pressing the power button for 60s helps.
Sometimes the machine reboots and the mouse is listed with an exclamation mark under "hidden" in the device manager - i.e. device was not found on startup.

After trying many drivers I use POINTING_DRIVER_ALPS_7.102A_64_7.102.505.20 (W7 64bit driver) - recommended somewhere on this thread.
Seems about as reliable as the W8 default driver.

Things I've noticed - a have a very old logitech wireless mouse which I use when the Touchpad freezes - and this freezes occassionally too.
So I wonder if W8 generally has a problem with legacy pointing devices.
I occassionally reboot to the original Vista and haven't had Touchpad issues there so far - not used often though.

Worth noting - the SSD is in the old DVD slot - could the Touchpad problems be related to that?

I'm a little confused, is it a dying Touchpad (hardware) or is it a problem with W8 and the combination of old pointing devices/their drivers.

I wonder if others with a VGN-Z and W8 have seen this issue.

 

Yui
If you got old vgn-z, than it's not much help to try hacked bios with static, i've tried, it got a lot of bad sides also.
I don't clearly remember which ones, but i clearly remember that i've strongly chose to live with hibrid grpahic drivers even in such state...

But you still can try of course, just my thoughts on problem)

 

failure13 is right - at some point we have to accept the fact that the hybrid switching technology we bought was flawed and has been abandoned by all players. Thanks to the awe inspiring efforts of guys like nautis and Andrew08 we have drivers that at least let us use our very expensive laptops. Without their efforts we would have been stuck with the stock pos drivers and been forced to abandon our laptops long ago. Some of us really can't afford to do that.

 

Hello Guys, I Have very Good News! I installed Windows 8.1 Preview on my VAIO Z13 with the original shipped driver for NVIDIA from Sony and... IT WORKS! Yes, even if when I installed Windows 8 I had the same problems with the graphics card, now everything is all right!!! The NVIDIA card is responding without problem (until yet) and the SPEED-STAMINA Button works!!

 

nice to hear it.. i want to download win8.1 preview right now..

 

Hello,

I have a Sony VPC Z13C5E running on the original version of drivers that came shipped with hit.
I experience some weird behavior when working in SPEED mode (which I do most of the time as I use an external display) and now tried several things to update drivers. I also get some open GL warning from time to time which tells me something is not working correctly. Next time I'll take a screenshot
Now what I already did is:
- download latest driver from nvidia -> tells me you alrady have the newest version when trying to install it
- download driver 286.19 from softonic because I read only that it is the last one to support hybrid graphics -> tells me files are missing when I try to install it

Now here in this thread I think the new and the old vaio is kind of mixed up. I read a lot and I do not expect anybody doing the tedious work of digging through the internet for me, but would anybody be able to give me a small hint on where to start for updating my graphics driver?

I would appreciate it very much!

 

You have three options:

1. install the drivers made by Andrew08 (search for posts made by him and the drivers links are in his signature). This retains original functionality. The drivers are not the latest - Nvidia 26314 - Intel 2266 signed - but they are a lot better than the ones Sony made.

2. use Optimus on hybrid graphics. Optimus is the technology that superseded our hybrid graphics; the graphics mode changes automatically when an application needs the additional oomph of the discrete GPU. Our hybrid hardware doesn't fully support this, so there are a few limitations. The advantages are that you can use fairly new drivers; the disadvantages are increased power consumption and no HDMI.

3. you can use a hacked BIOS and do away with automatic graphics switching - you would be able to change graphics mode only by flipping the switch and rebooting. The advantage is that you can use the latest drivers. Disadvantage, besides the BIOS hacking stuff, is having to reboot every time you want to switch the graphics mode - not much fun if you have an HDD instead of an SSD, and if you have several applications open that will get disturbed by a reboot (save your work, close the applications, reboot, reopen the apps, get back to where you were).

 

Hello guys

I have a vaio VPCZ13 and trying to install the 26314 2266 Andrew08 driver. But I'm stuck in an installation error after windows ask if I'm sure to install an unsigned driver. I'm installing it in a windows 8 64b, as administrator, in safe mode and after unstalling the default grafic driver. Am I doing something wrong?

Sorry if this is an old question.. I read like 100 pages of this thread and didnt found the aswer to my problem.

Thank you

 

Yes.

1. disconnect from the internet. Set the graphics mode switch to 'speed'.
2. uninstall the existing drivers. In Windows 8 this means that both entries for graphics adapter in Device Manager must show Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. You will need to do this manually - ie. browse my computer for driver software, then let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
3. disable driver signature enforcement. This is a lengthy procedure. Fortunately, it is well documented on the web.
4. After restarting following step 3 above, check in device manager to see that the two microsoft basic display adapters are still there, one with an exclamation mark.
5. Now install the new driver.

 

Thank you for the fast reply anytimer. I did your steps and it works. My mistake in the previous installation was do not disable driver signature enforcement. Doing that it finish the process.

Tonight I will do some tests with this driver and probably get better results compared with my old driver.

 

Thank you very much.
I opted for option 1 which worked out fine.
Unfortunately it didn't help :-(

My temps are still super high:
http://www.schnaeppchenfuchs.com/screenshots/2013-07-23_00-34-23.png

I feel my laptop is about to melt.
Now I've been roaming through the web and the solution I found is to actually send my vaio in and hope to get it repaired.
As it is out of warranty and has some other nuisances I decided to go for a new Vaio Pro 13.
If anybody has another idea on how to fix my old vaio which has served me very well I would be more than glad to hear it.

 

The single biggest cause of overheating is dust. It gets sucked into the air cooling system through the vents and clogs the air passages. No air flow = no cooling. The laptop needs to be opened and throroughly cleaned (carefully - the blades of the fan a delicate and easily broken).

Dust can also get into the shaft of the fan. This slows down the fan speed drastically; in some cases it can even stop rotating altogether. The fan rotor needs to be lifted off the shaft, the shaft is then cleaned and greased, and the fan reassembled. This procedure involves removing the heatsink from the motherboard, so the thermal paste etc. will need to be changed. If you damage the thick thermal pad on the GPU, you will need to replace it, or put in a copper shim. More information here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/594314-vpc-z-change-thermal-paste.html

 

Hi there,

I have a Sony VPCZ115GG - just came in this week. Sorry to ask (have not read all 387 pages but did have a browse) - do you have a link to the latest graphics drivers for Win 7 64bit? Also, if the graphics needs to be set in 'speed' mode, this will be an issue, as it keeps locking up when you flick the switch to speed mode. Works fine on auto and stamina though.

Any help is gratefully received in advance.

Regards.

 

There is even more hardcore problem about it, be EXTREMELY carefull, when disconnecting keyboard, coz i have cleaned my z11 a lot, and was carefull, but at some reason some buttons was not working after a while, then some more, then all buttons - for no visual reason, so it is very very delicate thing to actually disassemble it safely (i doubt it is possible 100% safe).

P.S. I had to pay for this keyboard like ~200$ in Sony service center (i guess coz keyboard = whole carbon panel, that's this insane price), so it's not dull words

 

VPCZ1: look for posts by the user Andrew08. The links are in his signature.

failure13: OUCH!

 

Hi everyone,

I am a user of a gorgeous vpcz128GG purchased from HK. Overtime i have noticed deterioration in FPS when playing games. Previously handling SC2 medium settings at 900p or 1080p no problems. However, I can no longer play that game unless all settings are low at 768p. Similar deterioration in performance has been noticed playing F1 2012. My drivers are stock - 8.16.11.8880 (driver assembly version)

I have been following this thread and my understanding is that the Nvidia 26314- Intel 2266 signed drivers are the most stable one available at the moment allowing for stamina, speed and auto mode as well as HDMI use.

My question is whether installation of these drivers will result in an improvement in FPS whilst playing those games. My IT skills are very limited and even having read post #2518 by Andrew08, I am still confused as how to install these drivers.

Any help would be much appreciated

 

Degraded gaming performance sounds very strange to me.
My graphic card driver won't increase gaming performance.
Even the latest firefox have issue.
Conclusion: This graphic driver is too old.

 

Check CPU and GPU temperatures for throttling. Disable as many processes running in the background as you can. Basically, everything else that is running is competing with the game for resources. Even turning off the wifi helps a little bit.

If all this does not help, then perhaps it is time for spring cleaning. Save all your personal data and files, then do a complete system restore. This gets rid of all the junk that you've accumulated over the years.

If you can follow the instructions for doing a clean install, that gets rid of the useless software that comes bundled with your system (and which is by now way out of date).

 

Hello, I have a notebook model VGN-Z570AN, and would like to upgrade the video driver of it, because Sony is too outdated. I've read a few pages of the topic and found no driver, just information. I would like your help if possible. thank you

 

Hi, thanks for the replies.

So andrew08, what are the benefits of installing these drivers? Do they make the graphic chips perform better?

Anytimer - idle temps are Core 0 - 34 degrees, Core 2 - 36 degrees. When gaming both over 93 and GPU in the high 80s to low 90s. DTS0, CTMP and GTMP (dont know what these are) also get into the 90s when gaming. Otherwise much like the CPU temps when idle

 

I'm looking for vgn-z21wn x64 hybrid driver. Can anyone help me?

 

better internet explorer support, cuda, physx, etc. also better stability.

For others please check my signature Windows 8 Clean Install VPCZ1 to fix graphic card issue, only if you are updating to windows 8.

For current windows 8 user who can't install my driver I am looking to this issue. we will have to delete "something", some windows file.

 

I'm trying to track down the VGN-Z driver too and have been looking through the thread for an updated link since the Dropbox.txt link no longer works. Anyone have the files, or know where they are now located? Thanks!!!

Micro

 

Hi. What's the latest driver here for Windws 8 64?

I seem to be running 314.x for nvidia GPU using BIOS mod. But um... i think something is wrong. I am seeing alot of system interrupts usage when i'm on nvidia card but not while on intel.......

 

Check the temperatures. Overheating is the number one cause of such problems.

 

Looking for the VGN-Z driver - Nvidia 26308 - Intel 2020 signed. Dropbox link not working. Anyone know where we can find this file?

 

Also looking for a working link, though for the VPC-Z. Less picky about which version as long as it is signed. My Z12 has never had its graphics drivers updated, and it is time I do something about that.

 

I installed the drivers perfectly for windows 8.1. Got the whole computer set up exactly the way I want. Everything works good.

However, When I play a game. Like league of legends. I have horrible graphic lag issues. Is it cause the driver is just too old? Or we need to change some things up.

Thanks!

 

Sorry have toedit. My VPC Z1 works well on everything. Just when I game it has horrible video lag. Was fine on Windows 7. I also have the game set to load in compatibility mode to no avail.

 

Did you upgrade in place or did you do a clean install?

 

+1

But I'm using Windows 8, not 8.1

Must be due to some update in windows because it was ok on Windows 8 a few months ago. Now even on lowest settings with a game like Saints row 4 it's super laggy.

Any ideas what can be done?

 

my mirror for VGN-Z driver (26308/2020)

 

I did a clean install.

 

thanks, links should be fixed within 3 hours time

links updated

 

Andrew08
You have updated only links or also drivers?

 

check pm
10char

 

Damn, can't answer you further, board says your input box is full lol

Please contact me in skype, i need your help urgently.
I've found the solution for flicker, need help with HDMI.

 

fix windows 8 problem installing my hybrid driver.
will post this next week

optimus test didn't work

as for hdmi i am still thinking on how to fix it.

edit: any windows 8 x64 user wanted to test my driver?

 

Hello Andrew08,
I Want to test your new driver. Waiting for your hdmi problem solution also. Where can i download your new driver for VGN-Z with GForce 9300m gs gpu?Thanks.

 

Andrew08: I'm on Windows 8 x64 but I never had any trouble installing your hybrid driver. If I am to test the new one what should I look for?

 

Andrew08
One thing for sure, key to solve HDMI problem is in 187.35x1872.
Once you'll be ready to test your assumptions, please contact me, coz i will be able to test HDMI this week only..

Aand good luck, this is tough stuff.

 

What I don't really know:
are there any sony custom file in 18735? because I can't compare it to anything else
I am searching for older file.

 

Not sure about sony specific either, but there definately should be older file which have a difference, since HDMI is the only properly working thing in that old driver
It probably should be the file connected with nvidia multi-monitor features somehow, since when i use your last 263.08 2020 it says that only one monitor can be used on this desktop.

P.S. If i'm correct than some of Nautis's release had properly working HDMI (but HD movies have lagged in his drivers), maybe he know something?

 

your skype isnt working...
btw check pm

 

Ok we're connected and testing now.

!!! DANGER !!! For all old VGN-Z users (like Z11VRN) ​

Again, my opinion that it is strongly not recommended step to use any advanced bios for this models.
Only stable and fully working bios is R2170M3.
I've found another downside, if you're using ExpressCard devices - they won't work at all on any advanced bios, like i've tried:
R4044M3 Advanced SLIC 2.1
R5031M3 Advanced

I used ECHO Indigo DJx audiocard which use ExpressCard interface, and it haven't work at all on advanced bioses, when i tried to reinstall Win 7x64 few times again, tried different drivers - i have thought of backdrop for R2170M3, which of course totally worked even without driver reinstallation.

And i'm pretty much sure it's not the single issue with advanced bioses, this is just pereferials, but also there could be much more danger effects, so please think twice about using advanced bioses and bioses newer than R2170M3 for old VGN-Z.

 

Windows 8.1 crushed my perfect setup... don't upgrade. Fudging need to go back and do it all again now.