SZ - a few complaints... and a question

I got the Vaio SZ 140 two days ago, and I found a few reasons to complain. Mostly it seems to be a very good laptop, but definitely not perfect.

- Cr@ppy drive. I had absolutely no time for customization, so I had to take a "shelf" model, meaning that it came with the combo drive... which proved to be really lousy. TERRIBLY slow, finicky about disk positions, not recognized by some burning software. The first thing I did was looking for RPC1 firmware for it... and, of course, there was none. Well... at least those drives are named appropriately... Mat s|hita. Yeah, so it's just a clipped Matsus|hita, but still... sh... there is.

- NO VOLUME WHEEL! This is inexcusable. Instead of the external volume control, volume is controlled with F3 and F4. AND... it only works by decreasing Windows' own volume settings. What is that even supposed to be? What if I wanted another OS?

- No OS install CD, and no recovery CD, either. Obviously I don't really need an installer of the OS, but it wouldn't hurt... and there was no mention of this being an OEM version.

- No manual. There's just a generic idiotenkarte (for a different model, too...), with drawings gigantic enough to be fitting for cretins, but without any information of any use. It actually took me a minute of probing to find some things.

- Battery holds about as well as paper pants in a rainstorm. Once I moved the laptop on a flat surface, maybe half a centimeter to the left, and suddenly... poof! it went off. Fortunately, I had a fresh restore point. What the hell is Sony's quality controller (if they have one...) expecting me to do, glue the battery to the laptop?

- Horrible NVidia drivers; instead of the normal tray-accessible settings, this is one giant "integrated" settings screen of nothing. Since I haven't used anything other than Omegas on my desktop NVidia, I don't know if this abomination is NVidia's own monstrosity, or something created for Sony... and hence the question: has anyone tried removing these monstrous drivers from the SZ an installing Omegas instead? And did it work?

And that's all so far. I heard others' complaints about keyboard (flawless here) and a lot of cr@ppy software being preinstalled (an hour with uninstallers, cleaners, XPAS and a decent reg optimizer gets rid of that), but the above complaints are the only ones.

 

The drive is a compromise in size to get a dvd-r into this small package. I haven't had any trouble with speed, or recognition, but it sure is noisy when it spins up high to read data.

I have never owned a laptop with a volume wheel, and actually only think I've seen one.

You may not have locked the battery latch. one side is spring loaded, the other side is a latch. The battery DOES have a loose fit, which I gather is normal, albeit a little shoddy. Most are using tape or felt to take up the slack and provide a proper fit.

I installed drivers from laptopvideotogo (or something or other), and they work fine. Haven't tried omega. I really didn't have a problem with the nvidia drivers though. You can also acces the driver settings from the rt-click context menu.

How is your space bar?

 

My first unit had a dvd drive that wouldn't read did. The second computer drive works but its not the fastest. But it works for me.

Battery holding issue is ok for me. Dont forget the latch. Its not one of the best holding clips but I never had the battery fall out yet.

Battery time is my gripe right now.

 

ok...
****py Drive?
Well, having no RPC1 doesnt mean its a ****py drive and im pretty sure your burning software are just busted or needs an updating. Mat****a drivers are panasonic and I recon they are pretty good.
No volume wheel?
Hell, laptops dont carry em, headphones do. The Fn keys work within other OSes as well. Its ACPI thing and should be partly controled by BIOS. I had the Fn keys work in Linux on my old notebook.
No OS Install disk and no recovery disk?
You burn your own mate.... Sony stopped shipping them since last year. Usually notebooks dont come with OS disks cuz they want to prevent you from installing it on other machines cuz it is usually OEM.
No Manual?
Check your launcher panel dood.
Battery issue?
Wanna check your lock? You oughta get it exchanged cuz its probably faulty.
Horrible nvidia drivers?
This isnt stand alone graphics card mate. Its also a GeforceGo for your information. This is a mobile card thus i doubt desktop drivers work for it. If you want a high performance graphics card, go buy a desktop replacement.

 

Which programs did you use (cleaners and reg optimsers) and which programs did you remove from your system?

 

Kyoshiro, this needs to be clarified "The Fn keys work within other OSes as well. Its ACPI thing and should be partly controled by BIOS. I had the Fn keys work in Linux on my old notebook."

Sony has never (AFIK) had a BIOS-controlled function key set (brightness, volume, etc). Sony has historically used its own, proprietary, function key applications coupled with its own, proprietary, set of driver libraries. Function keys, jog dials, cameras do not work with Sony notebooks on Linux without jumping through hoops with special fixes specific to Sony notebooks (some distros install the fixes automatically).

You need the restore CD/DVD set to archive these libraries and applications whether or not you use the set for restoration). Check the Sony site for instructions on doing a clean OS install for which libraries, etc., you'll need. See if Sony has made these available on the support site. Some notebooks have complete resources, others do not, and recovering the specific libraries, etc., from the restore CD/DVD set is, for some models, the only way to acquire these proprietary items.

Q

 

I have only seen one laptop with a volume wheel, and I find it **** as I can't control the volume using my external keyboard with dedicate volumes button.

JY

 

Quaoar: Intresting, I guess its different from my ASUS notebook's Fn keys then. It worked under SUSE, thats all I know. Never was a hardcore linux user to check the libraries and such, was just using it to have a stabler time.