SZ780 CTO in Canada - few questions

Well thats GAYY. that means I gotta ship it out to San Diego where I got it and wait a week or two to change the HD!!!??

 

haha good one

you can... it's better if you use the same name brand for all your RAMs... it's just "recommended" not mandatory of course...

have you received your unit yet?

 

thanks for taking the time and updating us...

i'm just relived to hear it's a quiet machine! that's my main concern...

 

Im actually pretty freakin pisseed with Sony as of right now. I mean their telling me its gonna take 2 weeks before I get my unit which I purchased on the 22th. Thats ridiclulas! It should be 1 week at most for everything in total to be done like building the unit and shipping and what not unless its coming from God damn Japan, or Africa or something, this is U.S only, my next door friggen neighbour!

Which is why I ask others how long it took them to get their unit from the date of purchase???

 

My SZ780 arrived yesterday after around 10 days of placing the order.
2.4ghz,160Gb hybrid drive,2gig ( will install 1gb more myself - much cheaper) and the extended battery pack.
Great light laptop and extended battery adds 1.5 hours to life at full max performance setting - so 5 hours of power.Additional weight of extended battery is only around 300grams.
Not as much bloatware - but did a semi clean install as mentioned in forums and made a huge difference...feels like a t9300 processor performance....RAM obviously helping VISTA....using a memory stick card for readyboost to speed up booting...slight difference.
Noticed however to great relief no external antenna on right side of laptop screen for Bell/Sprint wireless networking surfing on the go.....must be integrated...Im happy.
Overall looking forward to another 3 years with a top notch computer - and 3 yr warranty in case

 

Do u reside in Canada? If so, where in Canada?

 

To Adsam again, forgot to ask though, how did it take 10 days only!? For me its about 7-10 days after 7 days. I assume ur in U.S then?

 

I ordered on March 15th- Estimated ship date 19th....delivered on 25th.
Im in Canada actually.
I think you may be part of the rush for this computer which is why its taking you longer ! This CTO was just a couple of weeks into effect for the SZ780

 

I actually ordered mine in the 17th, predicted ship date was 25th, but was bumped up to 20th and received on the 25th.

 

can we get a link to the specific version of the semi-clean install you used? there are quite a few posted on this board.

 

that's weird... i guess it depends on the specs... coz mine was supposed to be shipped out on 31st and they shipped it out today (27th)... i'm guessing they already have the notebook in stock pre-configured to my specification (maybe even a returned one) and that's why it was quick...

but give 'em a hard time maybe they'll give you a discount if you tell 'em you threaten them with a cancelation or something...

 

loll, u wont believe this man!, I just got an email saying its on shipment, so I guess its actually shipping now eh? Lets hope it actually comes on the 31st or sooner. But why would a few ppl at Sony tell me it takes 7-10 days after the 31st?....

 

Sorry I also have to mention, I tracked my order on Fedex.com and it says estimated ship delivery for Mar 28 by 12pm!! Man oh man I hope it comes!

 

My Fedex estimated time of delivery was spot on, looks like you'll be getting it by Mar. 28

 

same here! mar 28th 12pm and it's already in Manitoba... this was much faster than i'd anticipated...

let's hope the machine will match our expectations

 

Ya dudee!, Yea mines in transit right now in Winnipeg Manitoba aswell. Ours hass to be on the same fllight for sure!! I hope urs falls off the plane in the snow and mine arrirves safely to my door.

 

Yes yes. Here tommorrow before noon!! Now im just hoping theres nothing wrong with the unit itsselffff. D50, sry buddy, they said urs fell off the plane like I predicted. This thing came at a perffectt timing to the fact that my 2 additonal gigs of ram just came in aswell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

lol

mine has extended battery so i'll survive longer out there in the wild...

i'm sending my m1330 back now... this was probably one of the best laptops dell ever made, but the whinning noise drives me crazy... i hope we don't get problems like that with the SZ...

 

Oh u had a m1330 before eh? I was lookin at that at first but I dont trust Dell to much which is why I went with Sony. Did u kniow though with IBM and Dell u can get double the performance for almost half price as this SZ!? So I guess we'll both be getting ours at around Noon. Lemme know how it goes. Cheers buuuuudyy!

 

Oh guys listen. I had asked if the Vista it comes with has a cd-key, the guy at Sony said no, hows that possible though? I mean it has to have a cd-key otherwise Sony would get their ass sued for making a million copies. Am I not correct? If it does have a key, where do I find it?

 

The key is underneath the laptop.

 

ACtually just confirmed that it doesnt come with a Key cuz OEM does not require a Key is what Sony tells me Well that sucks. Is there anyway of creating a Recovery cd without Bloatware?

 

Remove the bloatware, then make the backup discs... and it does come w/ a CD key, look at the bottom of your machine.

 

yea... Nick's right... it has to come with a key and definitely get a DVD and make a backup... it's really retarded for them not to include the installation dvd i think almost every other company does nowadays...

will do a quick review as soon as i get the machine...

 

Yea honestly eh, stupid ppl!..D50 I see ur up waiting for ur delivery aswell lol, Mines almostttt heree. I dunno why a few guys at Sony told me theres no keys. Anyways.

 

They don't include a disk, because there's already a recovery partition. It does make sense, the DVD might get lost or damaged and you've got the recovery partition to fall back on.

 

Yea but Sony guy told me when burning the Recovery you also get junkkware with it, but then again Nick says u can remove the junkwware and then burn the Recovery for a nice clean burn install. Hows that possible if someone would be kind enough to explain?

 

i got mine actually now... it's as good as i expected it to be... the extended battery makes it just a bit heavier than my M1330... and the battery doesn't last as long neither... the design is very nice and simple... the screen is amazingly better than the dell (which has LED light)...

funny thing is that the recovery partition is not showing... i can see it's there coz the hard size is showing as 139G

more review later... gotta study now

 

dude... just uninstal things you don't need, then follow the instructions here:

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

cheers

 

Nice man!!, Im still awaiting, they should be here anytime now. Dude, did urself check the bottom of the laptop for the key? Lemme know. and Yea thats the reason I didnt get the extended battary cuz of the weight and what not.

 

yea.. there's a product key for vista

i'm surprised it's made in USA... i can't remember when was the last time i bought something made in usa... lol

 

To create a DVD backup of VISTA:

go to Windows Help and Support
click on Back and Recovery
click on Vaio Recovery Center

then you u need 2 blank dvd's to create your back dvd


MAKE sure you have removed all the programs that you don't need first...

I will post later as to how you can do a clean instal to get your full hard-drive size back.

 

Ok great thanks a lot D50, I got mine about an hour ago but I cant open it cuz I had told my extremely tech savvy uncle I'd open it wth him ..Anyhow, yea keep us posteddd. Did it take long to remove all the crap, and was there a lot? Oh and what came with the laptop? Cheers man!

 

so you finally got i!

there's quite a lot of stuff to be removed (depending on what you see as garbage)... but i'm re-installing Vista so i can use the whole 150GB of the hard drive (ie. removing the hidden drive etc.)

i think it's been over 2 hours from the time i started removing stuff then creating the dvd's and now installing... and it's at 63% installation... so i think another 1.5 2 hours to go...

4 hours in total roughly

 

Wow yea thats pretty intense. I recieved mine at 11.30 man! not to far apart from urs. Hey listen, I noticed in ur old posting u got Video Plus, I got that to, what the hell is that? and I guess I should keep that with the recovery eh?

 

If you're not too tech savvy, I would recommend backing up without removing the bloatware first, that way you wouldn't risk removing crucial/system software by accident.

 

Video Plus? i don't recall dude... all i know is that i had to uninstall 15-20 programs... and install a few others... it was really a pain!!!!! other than that, i'm impressed with the screen, performance, quietness, overall design (keyboard clicks but it's very smooth) and the speakers are extremely loud...

i made a mistake, the extended battery does last a long time in fact even though i was constantly using the wifi and bluetooth (mouse) and un/installing stuff (screen dimmed to above half)... it still gave me a good 5 hours (or maybe a bit more) i think the software is not measuring the battery right coz it says 2:40 remaining for like 10 minutes... lol

 

Bro what about driver and all? Oh and also im thinking of either downgrading to XP X64 or Vista Ultimate X64. What u think?

 

Ive gotta say, ****in American's! well firstly I cant adjust the dmn brightness!! Secondly, theres screen leakage all through the bottom and u can see a little of the non-light screen, like a parrt of the LED frame thing. Lets see whta next

 

Oh yea, and I dont know why everyones saying its really bright, I have to put it on Full brightness in order to get a bright screen. If I put it on even middle its too dim. I tihkn this units goin back

 

loll, I take that back for now, theres brightness settings, oh sh i t I just looked like an idiot

 

yea there's brightness settings of course... also if the beeping bugs you (when u use the Fn key), someone in another thread mentioned that you can go to C:\Program Files\Sony\VAIO Event Service and change the file named "pi" to something else and the beeping will be gone!

i don't think i'm sending this back... not yet at least! i can't find anything wrong with it

 

What I find annoying now though even though its a smalll thing, the stupid Vaio Logo on the back is in black, like **** man their supposed or at least should make it in Silver, the most logical thing to do!! ****!!

 

Ohh ****t man, u know what I just noticed, our laptops should be Vpro shouldnt they? CUz ours says just Centrino

 

Why me man why, apparently the bottom of the screen should not be like the way it is, so now I gotta get the screen replaced or somethng. Computer already crashed once while uninstalling Adobe Acrobat. Very likely ill be returning this crap sry to sayyy.

 

If you switch to decaf, you might look at the laptop in a different light...

I don't get what you're complaining about. There's bound to be some light leakage w/ the LED backscreen, which really isn't a big problem at all.

 

No im complaining cuz u see its hard to describe, but its not just screen leakage, yea ok screen leakage big deal right. But at the bottom screen plastic part was cut too short so it shows the actual board of the screen. Now im finding this unit way to heavy for a 13.3 inch, the battery is what kills it. without the battery is what u call an Ultraportable lite laptop. Anyway I think I might jsut wait for Montevina which they are making the laptops smaller and lighter and faster by June around. Any other suggestions lol? Ill give this guy a few more days than decide for sure.

 

i have that screen edge problem too, that it "looks" like its cut too short. I'm pretty sure its meant to be like that.

 

Same on my SZ650, it annoyed me at first but I haven't looked into whether or not they'll replace my screen because of it.

 

Yea its really annoyong I find, its showing too much and that aint accepatable for a 2 grand notebook. If it was some cheeap $899 laptop yea ok go figure but not at that price no way. On top of it, its wayy to heavy, heavier than my old 14.1 inch Thinkpad!