SZ120 importing CD noise

hey folks, i searched around the forums but i didn't see anyone else having this problem...1.)when importing a CD today into itunes, my cd drive started groaning, loud enough to hear from two rooms away. It growled like this for a few minutes, and than the importing (and the sound) slowed down to a crawl and than a dead stop. they hovered for nearly five minutes, as if the machine was trying to rest or figure out what to do. sure enough, it slowly picked up again, importing and groaning until the cd was fully imported.
The next CD i imported sounded normal, no issues.
any thoughts? has this happened to anyone?

other SZ questions, while i'm here..
2.) there was talk about a BIOS update to increase touchpad responsiveness....ummmm, sorry, but what is a BIOS update and where might i find one?
3.) does anybody else find the carbon fiber casing on this notebook to be a fingerprint MAGNET? design is so pretty but i feel like i need to wear gloves to prevent leaving marks all over the top! any recommendations for safe products to clean it with?

thanks for your help!

 

Probably a damaged, imbalanced or warped CD that was wobbling and making it difficult for the drive to read.

 

thats what i'm hoping...strange, tho, it was a new disc(yes, a burned copy, but fresh and never used). i hope you're right! thanks for responding...

 

It's also possible you didn't quite have it placed on the "hub" perfectly. At any rate, I wouldn't worry unless it happens again.

BIOS updates can be found on Sony's support website for the SZ, and fortunantly these days updating a motherboard's BIOS is quite easy - just run the Windows program.

My SZ160 already came with the latest BIOS version and the touchpad's performance is absolutely perfect (notably better than my previous Fujitsu, which was pretty good to start with but would start to get erratic when the PC was warm, and **way** better than my old Acer which was just painful to use).

I'm pretty sure SZ120 isn't actually carbon fiber, it's just the color that's called that. Thought it was magnesium? At any rate, not much you can do about fingerprints except live with them.

 

How did you find out what BIOS you have and what is the latest?

You are right again. The SZ120 is a standard line SZ and is made of magnesium. There is no carbon fiber on the standard line. Only the premium line which is currently only being sold as the SZ160 in the US.

 

To find out the latest of anything just visit Sony's support site ( http://esupport.sony.com), click on Drivers, enter your model, click on Updates, and there you go. I discovered I had the latest by actually running the BIOS upgrade program - it said there was no need to update.

 

You can also check when you enter setup by pressing F10, F12, or ESC when the computer is rebooting .