Sony VPC Z11: crashes on YouTube 1080p vids !!!

Hi there...

does anyone experience the same: My new VAIO Z crashes on Youtube vids that are 1080p...
When I first got the Z and tried some vids on YT it crashed right away (leaving me with a blank screen and awkward noise).
I then did a clean install of windows 7, but no luck, still crashes on youtube 1080p vids.
I really dont understand it, but e.g. Avatar in BD quality (14 gigs) doesnt crash whatsoever.
Should I contact Sony???

Thx
AO

 

You are not alone. Many have already confirmed on this forum that they are getting this problem as well. But are you getting it EVERY TIME you play a 1080p video on Youtube? If so that is a much more severe case than the rest of us.

I have only experience the blank screen crash while playing a Youtube video (1080p, 720p, and 480p) less than 10 times over the last month. Its completely random for me. Most of the time nothing ever happens but once in a while it would just crash my entire system and force me to cold boot it.

People have limited the source of the problem to either the graphics card drivers or the Wireless drivers. However, some say they are able to get around this problem by disabling hardware acceleration in their flash (Right-click->Settings on any flash videos).

I think we are all screwed until Sony get off it's lazy and fix it with new drivers.

 

got the same problem

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/473103-strange-crash-z1190.html

Here's a link to a thread that relates to your issue. Read through it and it may enlighten you somewhat. I have also suffered this crash multiple times.

 

man thats a bummer...
But I feel a little more comfortable know that I know of more people having the same issue.
Ill sit and wait for remedy.

thx
AO

 

This is Sony. The remedy will be buying their next model (which may, of course, have different problems).

Don't believe me? Guess how many graphics driver updates the old Z got since it was released until now?

 

None ? :O That really sucks if its really true. We really have to fix this problem Start a petition or whatever...

 

my vpcz is running on clean installed os with original drivers. I have watched tons of hd youtube videos and never had a crash.

I know the fact that I don't have such problems is no remedy for you but I do think there is hope and a clean install might solve your problems..

 

My VPCZ11 is running on original installed OS Win 7 with original drivers and all programs factory default for European model. I have watched tons of 1080 youtube videos and never had a crash, I will cross fingers for future.
This means that something is wrong in your installation

 

I have yet to have this issue. I have the Signature Z; after seeing this thread, I played a few, and didn't have an issue.

I have had the laptop crash twice with the odd sound (like a loud buzzing), but I can't replicate it, and consider it a fluke occurrence for now.

 

I just got a crash during youtube watching (Flash 10.1)

I guess this is something DXVA2 / NVidia related.

 

hi,

actually I got the error ten minutes from unpacking my new z. Therefore I doubt it beeing an installation prob...

 

In this other thread somebody mentioned it was the wired Intel driver that causes problems. Also, I'm wondering if this is the reason why Sony down-clocked the Nvidia chip: because of stability reasons. If someone with HD crashing issues can further downclock the chip, that might shed some light...

 

I don't see where sony downclocked the Nvidia chip. If you look at the specific version of the 330m in the z it is running at the spec'd speed. This has been covered in other threads.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...7-official-owners-thread-354.html#post6141623

 

yep, updated the wired networking drivers to the new intel ones : youtube wouldn't play 10 seconds of fullscreen HD. Downgraded back to sony drivers, no problems since !! im using sony underclocked nvidia clocks by the way
Hope taht helps

 

I'm thinking the maximum clock rate of components within a system varies from one board to another, kind of like CPU chips: some can be overclocked, some can't. Sony must have discovered the variation in stable GPU clock rates during mass production and testing, and rather than customize each Z's GPU clock, they underclock all to a generally-acceptable rate.

This means that some Z's GPUs can be overclocked without stability reasons. This also means that because of the variations and because Sony cannot underclock too much, some Zs will still suffer under the factory-default rate. This explains why my Z is fine playing 1080HD, while others have issues.

This can also mean that the upcoming Z12 may differ in terms of the default GPU clock rate, Sony may have fixed the issues on the motherboard then. To check, we need to compare the part number of a Z11 and a Z12 motherboard. Again, such information will not be explicitly acknowledged by Sony.

 

@Tofu. No. The variant of 330M in the Z is running at stock speeds. There is no "issue on the motherboard". The speed it's running at is the speed is was designed for. Period.

Most likely the youtube issue is a driver issue, and you (and I) are just lucky enough to not have experienced it. 1080P video via youtube isn't hardware accelerated (unless you've installed flash beta)...and the GPU runs quite cool playing back youtube @ 1080P so the likely that it's a hardware issue w/the GPU or a thermal problem are slim to none.

Nobody has shown any evidence that the graphics in the Z isn't stable under load.

 

just got mine a few days ago, didn't crash watching 1080p youtube vids yet

 

If by "stock" you mean "factory default" then I agree. If you look at the link I posted, it talks about how that factory default, or stock, is less than what the chip is made to run at (in general, not within the Z).

In any case, it will be interesting to see if underclocking further can help resolve the issue...


Edit: another post
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6136659-post3440.html

 

As far as i researched the issue (see other topic about strange crashes) it all seems to be the network (ethernet) driver, install the original one from the sony site and all should be Ok (it was for me).

See my other post -> http://forum.notebookreview.com/6256004-post67.html

 

Are you talking about this network driver?

Sony eSupport - VPCZ114GX/S - Software Updates & Drivers

I have had this driver installed ever since my laptop came to me and the crashes still occur. I guess the crashes are variable for each laptop.

 

I have never updated my Ethernet driver, ie. I have been using the stock Intel 82577LC 11.5.4.0 drivers.

I have actually gotten the crash both on Ethernet and on Wifi. However, I have never gotten a crash while not streaming or downloading from the internet. So I had a hunch that it had something to do with my Network.

I was using D-Link's DIR-655 wireless N router on firmware 1.30 firmware which had a DNS Relay bug that ended up slowing down the router and causing it to malfunction over time. I found out they had patched this problem in their newest firmware: 1.33NA. After upgrading my firmware to 1.33NA I have not had a single crash on my Z yet (approximately 2 weeks now). I just did a test by opening six different 1080p youtube videos all at once in Google Chrome. I am not using Flash 10.1 so my CPU was at 100% and my operating system was laggy and my fans were going at max speed. I left it in this state for around 10 minutes and there was no crash.

PS.
The interesting thing is, my old laptop (Pre-unibody MacBook Pro), my brother's Uni-body MacBook Pro, and my father's Asus UL30Vt never crashed from the DIR-655 DNS relay bug. However, they all did experienced the slowdown from the router and etc. I guess the Z's network card is less robust in dealing with malfunctioning routers? Hopefully a driver update can fix this.

If I get a crash again meaning that this was all a coincident I will let you guys know, and I hope this may help a few of you out there.

 

Tofu, the specific part # of the G330M inside our Vaio Z is running at the speed Nvidia rates it at. It is not running slower. People are confused in the links you posted.....

That said, downlocking is VERY unlikely to fix anything. 1.) Flash isn't hardware accelerated and thus isn't working the GPU much at all. 2.) My 330M ends up running at the slow default (175?) 2D clock speed when playing this content anyhow. If the chip can't maintain reliability at that speed then there would be BIG consequences.

Considering we can trash the GPU with furmark and not crash, I think it's pretty safe to say it isn't a hardware/thermal/clock flaw. Some other issue is at play, likely a driver.

 

Ok this is my last response...

Do you have anything to support your theory? The folks I referred to in the posts have looked at the clock settings and confirmed that the chip is underclocked, can you support your theory that they are wrong?

As for Flash not using hardware acceleration, here's Zoink's suggestion on disabling the hardware acceleration in Flash (it comes with pictures too )
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6227885-post45.html

 

I'm glad it's your last response

The 330M in our Vaio's is the 330M N11P-LP. It's a lower powered part and a few other OEM's use it as well. The other 330M part out there is the N11P-GE...we don't have that one and that is the one people seem to derive their base specs from.

The hardware acceleration check box (unless you are on flash 10.1) does very little considering it can not accelerate any modern video codecs. It "may" accelerate some basic screen drawing functions but it certainly does not mean hardware acceleration as most reasonable people would expect it to. The new 10.1 beta does offer actual hardware acceleration.

 

ouch. i just got this crash today. screen went blank while watching a starcraft replay vid in 1080p via youtube. i restarted the machine and watched the same video again just fine. sony?

 

.............

 

Has anyone gotten any updates concerning this issue?

 

i have never face any issue about youtube video playback on my sony vpcz1 before, as we know that youtube is using flash player why not reinstall the flash player? and don't forget to check for virus... happened to my friend's windows vista before...

 

My Dad's Toshiba Qosmio X505 had this problem. His laptop has a 360M processor. The only way around it was to disable the hardware acceleration setting in the Flash Player. I believe this is a problem with nVidia's driver, Flash, and or combination.

So far I haven't encountered the issue BUT I tend to use the integrated video more often than not, so perhaps that is why.

 

Unfortunately I think this has nothing to do with the flash player, nor the virus - this crashing problem manifests itself not just in form of crashing during 1080p playback, but sometimes with other DirectX applications, too. There are at least 3 threads on this forum which I suspect are related to the exactly the same issue.

Something is wrong - either it is a hardware issue, or a driver issue - but it certainly has nothing to do with applications, as they should not bring the system down (if they do, this is usually a blocker/prio 1 issue for the driver developers)

I know, for a fact, that ACPI tables do get corrupted on VPC-Z in certain cases, even if user did not perform any kind of internal hardware upgrade (those are the reasons why the special keys stop working)... Now, whether this is related to the freeze/crash, I am not sure. Depending on your driver versions you might either get a crash, or a freeze (I know, I've been through both - fortunately I get no freezes now - but here and there I do get a video driver crash).

I have my VPC-Z11 since February this year (I pre-ordered it) and, to be honest, I am not very happy with the bugs the system has.

Starting from the ACPI/BIOS issues that drive me nuts (special keys stop working after staring of a system-level application, additional HDD/SSD issue I covered in great detail, sometimes USB devices stop working, etc..) and then going all the way to this graphics instability issue.

It is a great notebook, hardware-wise - but these issues just do not belong to this class of a notebook.

And, yes, I did complain to Sony... heck, I've even written a workaround for that BIOS issue when it comes to the drive extension

 

So which driver update should I have installed?