Sony Vaio Z21 - Disappointing!!!

So, I've finally got my CTO Z21 - which looks lovely...

But, after transferring all my docs and installing the software (office, itunes, avgfree, sibelius, rapport, endnote, GIMP), and doing the windows updates, it no longer works.

There is an issue whereby it boots and a blue circle hangs over the network icon for ages, then it hangs completely, for 5-10mins.

A search suggested running services at startup and showed that Windows Search was endlessly 'starting'. Disabling this fixed the problem.

Then there were two more windows updates to the .NET and security, and now it's broken again.

Basically rubbish for a 3K laptop.

Anyone else similarly affected, or know the solution?

 

Maybe you could try uninstalling your anti virus software, maybe after a factory restore...

 

Sony bundles a lot of bloatware with their VAIOs. Look at the numerous threads about making a clean install of Windows, wherein you can choose to keep only the stuff that you are interested in.

 

Not necessarily a problem with the Z2, per-se, but probably with Windows. Either perform a clean install as suggested, or restore the system and run Windows update first before installing all your programs.

It would be a problem with the Z2 (hardware) if, for example, it was stuck on BIOS check and refused to boot any further than that.

 

Exactly!
Be it a 500$ laptop or a 3k one, there is no difference to the software. And there is no way Sony could "magically" make Windows 7 work *perfect*.

 

Doing anything funky with proxy servers?

 

Did you uninstall norton before installing AVG? That would certainly break your system.

 

right, absolutely, a software not hardware problem... and I remain quite impressed with how nice the z2 is.

So, the problem turned out to be a piece of software called trusteer rapport.

I wasn't sure what part of my install sequence was at fault so I did a semi-clean install, just using the factory restore facility and then installed everything (including windows updates) one by one.

when I got to trusteer rapport (which i have used for a long time as a security feature of my bank) the hanging at startup problems started. system restored to a point before that and all fixed.

avoid rapport and windows 7!!!

 

Try the usual stuff - updated version, compatibility mode, yada, yada, yada...

 

I understand your frustration but to go straight for the jugular and say the laptop itself is crap, is ridiculous...

 

Sony really does bundle a lot of bloatware, and I believe they used to be worse. My VGN Z had a lot of crap on it that I was glad to be rid off - fast forward 2 years, and my girlfriend's new VAIO Y seems to have the same stuff on it too.

Truth be told, does anyone really utilize the pre-installed VAIO programs?

 

people who are tech savvy enough to get on this forum probably don't use those software to begin with anyway, so you'll likely get skewed responses.

I think however crappy those software are, there are still lots of people out there who just don't know enough to not to use them

 

I get your point, some of the programs offered are actually desirable, but I wish the installer would simply link to new versions (perhaps on a Sony hosted repository), rather than the old versions that formed part of the original bundle. I also have an old VGN (several years old) and the bloatware that came with that is more trouble than its worth.

And why install a trial version of MS Office 2007 when I have the full version of MS Office 2010 which I install immediately after complete system recovery? Cleaning your system of MS Office 2007 trial is nearly impossible; despite my best efforts Windows Update still downloads updates for it.
<sorry for the rant>

 

Same goes for HP crapware. Clean install is your best friend.

Have you used registry cleaners like Ccleaner?

 

The last time I tried something like that it removed too much. IMHO the best approach for stuff you don't want is to not install it in the first place.

I'm sure somewhere in the recovery partition/recovery disks there is an action list (or to do list) for the recover.exe or VAIORecv.exe or recovery.exe that installs all this crap. If we could just edit that to our liking, that would be great.

(I can dream, can't I?)

 

How much was too much?

 

Its been a while, but from memory, I started getting a whole bunch of errors like 'the xxxxx.xxx is not registered properly' etc. I fixed a few manually, then repaired Office 2010, then reinstalled Office 2010 and eventually managed to fix it, but then similar errors were discovered in Visual Studio. I suppose I could have fixed that as well, but programming in a suspect environment is not conducive to good mental health, so I gave up and did a complete system recovery.

 

I've been running CCleaner for a long time. The registry cleaner has never caused me problems. Totally safe in my experience

 

^
Same here.

 

Lets not expect too much from a factory install, the last two VIAOs I got I formatted without even running through the initial setup process.

 

even with the fresh start option there is still bloatware? If this is the case, fresh install it is for me, I won't even bother booting up...

 

the only reason to do a boot into the pre-installed sony crap is to make recovery dvds so that you can later rip them apart and get the goodies off of them. For example, I ripped WinDVD BD out of the recovery disks for my Z1.

 

Got my Z w/fresh start and only removed Vaio Care...don't see how you can justify removing anything else? How can you claim Vaio Control Center is bloat if it's necessary for S buttons, keyboard lighting and battery care function? I don't recall there being any other software on it...

The rest is necessary drivers...

 

Tell us more. Maybe they have changed their ploicy. Mine came with trial versions of McAfee AV, Webroot SpySweeper, Norton Backup, several Adobe programs, a 60 day trial of MSOffice 2007 and other stuff like some DVD player.

 

did you choose "fresh start" when you configured your laptop?

 

Mine is store bought, and anyway it was bought last year - I don't think they had the fresh start option then. Sorry, I'm a bit behind the times.

 

Off the top of my head the only useful Sony software I found was VAIO Care, VAIO Update and VAIO Event Service (a necessary evil). Possibly VAIO Control Centre. Some people like VAIO Gate but I uninstalled it.

Then theres the really opaque stuff with dubious benefit to the end user like:

VAIO Premium Partners,
VAIO Marketing Tools,
VAIO Survey,
Vaio Content Metadata Manager (or whatever its called) etc.

 

The only thing I know about fresh start is that there is now way I am going to pay extra for it when I can install Windows 7 Ultimate myself.

Fresh start may be great, but it is not for me.

 

It's not an extra ($), just an option.

 

All the above are relevant to me, but I think we are dealing with two different populations of users here:

1) the very tech savvy, who seem to be the majority on Z threads and from whom I have learned a great deal and to whom I feel very grateful for the knowledge you share as well as your patience with us techno-klutzes!

2) the people who own a Z because it is the most elegant, practical, powerful (for its size and weight) and wonderful notebook ever, but who value it for it's use rather than the cool things you can do to tweak it (guess which group I belong to? ), yet still want to get the best they can from this great machine.

As to the subject at hand, I have a few threshold questions:

1) What is the harm done if Sony bloatware (as opposed to the obviously useless "trials," etc) is left as-is, especially if you are lucky enough to have 256GB or more SSD capacity? (on a fairly recent restore to factory settings, there was only about 10GB worth of crapware, at most). I do remove the useless trial crap and prevent everything I can from launching via msconfig; is that sufficient?

2) I too have had the experience of removing things that turn out to be necessary to make other things work - and no, I don't recall which they were. But I have also found among even the most savvy users that close to 50% say it's better to leave the bloatware there rather than trying to "guess" what you really need and what you don't - using the basic logic I have here. Bad advice?

3) Is there a reliable way to get the latest drivers for an older model, eg, Z11, other than Vaio Update? I have found many times that the Sony drivers for Z12 and Z13 models are far better than the Z11 ones, even the ones updated via Update. I've also found going to the vendor sites often gives the best result eg, Intel RST, Synaptics, others. Anyone have a "blueprint" for at least having the latest Sony sanctioned drivers when your vintage of Z1 has mostly drivers from early 2010?

Sorry this ran so long. And this probably isn't the right thread for it, but I see that this is where this discussion has gone and I see that the "Z braintrust" is weighing in here.

Thanks, always.

 

1. I'm not convinced msconfig catches everything - there's a utility Autoruns that will be more through - as there is stuff that gets installed as services that's even scarier to remove/disable.

2. If you don't know what something is doing, and how removing it might affect other things, leave them be. Nowadays a lot of information and advice is available on the internet, thank your stars. Many years ago I tried to optimise Windows XP by removing unneeded services and disabled the RPC service - caused me unbelievable grief when I later tried to install a printer.

3. The most important drivers, as far as updates are concerned, are the graphics. Fortunately, we have Nautis, et. al. who help to keep us up to date (more or less) in threads like these:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/342947-my-discoveries-vaio-z-s-hybrid-graphics.html

 

Thank you for that wealth of information. I downloaded autoruns and I have to say it is amazingly complete, but also has a lot one has to learn about it to avoid making the wrong choices,though i guess you can prevent damage by setting restore points before removing things. I tried removing one thing - the bluetooth tray, because I don't use it very often, and it gave me an error message that it couldn't find the path. I'm thinking I may not have bluetooth installed because I recently did a restore to factory settings. Anyway, thanks for turning me on to this powerful tool.

I have seen Nautis's great graphics drivers, but have been reluctant to use them simply because I'm pretty satisfied with whatever I'm running (don't recall the version) and it seems that several of the community drivers have created problems with HDMI output audio and/or flickering. I am not much of a gamer, so I don't really need more powerful graphic drivers (nor a desire for Optimus) so is there another reason to upgrade?

I agree that the Internet is replete with information about this, but it's kind of "TMI" for me at times. I guess there are no magic bullets or "master lists" of safe driver updates and where to get them.

Well, I guess if you truly want to optimize your machine you have to invest the time to gain the knowledge to do so. Sometimes there just aren't canned solutions.

What about Vaio updates? Are they worth doing unless they are effective downgrades from drivers you've found on your own from either community drivers or vendor drivers such as from Syanptics or Intel?

Again, many thanks.

 

With due apologies for hijacking this thread...

The Sony Smart Network is good for just one thing - turning the Bluetooth ON or OFF. If you do that often, keep it. Otherwise, use it once to set as per your preference, then get rid of it.

I'm sure you've heard of the adage - if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Me, and several other here (I'm looking at you, ComputerCowboy!) like to tinker.
I've used Andrew08's Nvidia 26314 - Intel 2266 signed for months without problems, but then I needed newer drivers for their enhanced functionality. If you don't - might as well leave well enough alone.

VAIO updates are good. Set it to manual update to let you choose what to update. Personally, I got rid of the PMB and all the other media stuff very early on - I have many Gigs of media files and the interminable scanning irked me, besides slowing down my system.

 

I also think the z21 series 2011 is a good piece of hardware, but without newer intel/ATI drivers we are lost in space. I couldn´t bei the solution for sony to say things like photshop or gaming *must* be done with PMD connected. The Intel HD 3000 is powerful enough to do some things while on the road...but not on our machine with old stock driver!

The other things installed are fine, i´m using VAIO smart network without problems, since yesterday VAIO update is working fine (but no updates *gg) and on my europe machine isn´t to much bloatware installed...

 

I also like to tinker but prefer to have a clean system. First thing I do when I receive a new computer: clean install. Before this however, I download all the drivers for my particular components/notebook and store them on a flash drive.

Clean install, install drivers, look up any "necessary" bloatware for my computer. Install those.

Good to go.

 

At the risk of going OT, it's worth noting that non-tweakers, such as myself, benefit hugely from the tweaking community. Besides, one way or another, we all tweak at least a little.

 

Well put Louche! I admit to my share of tweaking - late at night, when no one can see me, lol. In fact, last time I did, I decided it was high time I took my computer apart and got to know it from the inside out. That part worked out pretty well. It was the reverse-engineering of the process that didn't go quite as smoothly. It took me about 15 tries to re-attach the damn ribbon cable onto the keyboard (most people said they had trouble connecting it to the mobo, but my downfall was the other end; at least 5 times I was sure I had it, powered up, and had no keyboard and/or touchpad use. Also I, er, have about 4 screws left over. All kidding aside, it was a kick to do and I do feel a bit triumphal over it - other than the 4 screws.

Thank you too, Anytimer, for your comments: that PMB stuff has had a bullseye on it for me from the start. By "other media stuff," can you be specific, or am I safe to get rid of anything that has either "Sony" or "Vaio" and the word "media" in its name. Also, would you kindly tell me what specific benefits you get from using Andrew08's nVidia drivers? Is it for gaming (which I don't do, but I didn't think CC did either) or other uses? We're talking about drivers that require the BIOS hack, yes?

V Chip: just so you know, I too like a clean computer; I rub it down with a microfiber cloth and denatured alcohol almost daily.

 

Basically, the new nVidia drivers give me better CUDA support (which I need for tasks as mundane as password cracking to as esoteric as SPICE based electronic circuit simulation). I have noticed better HDMI/multiple display functionality and game and application compatibility- although I wouldn't swear to that as I've never gone back to the stock drivers.

The drivers I mentioned - Andrew08's Nvidia 26314 - Intel 2266 - are for standard hybrid graphics mode. Everything works exactly the same way as before, only a little bit better. No BIOS hack is needed for these. These were pioneered by Nautis, with several other notable contributors.

The BIOS hack lets you select static graphics mode in the BIOS by enabling the advanced menu. Only one graphics adapter is in use at any given time. To change the graphics adapter that is in use, move the selector switch to speed or stamina as desired, and reboot. The advantage is that the two adapters don't interfere with each other, allowing standard single GPU drivers to be installed so you can always have the very latest. ComputerCowboy is our resident expert on that, always willing to provide assistance and advice.

Another option (this too doesn't need the BIOS hack) is to force the laptop to run on Optimus drivers. Optimus dispenses with the graphics mode switch and automatically turns on the appropriate adapter for you depending on the application that you running at the time. This, too, lets you run the very latest drivers. However, since the actual hardware doesn't fully support Optimus, there are some known issues, the most serious of which are lack of HDMI support and increased power consumption. This, too, owes a great deal to Nautis.

 

Lol.

As do I.

 

LOL. I could have gone with an HP TouchSmart laptop, but I didn't want anyone to touch the screen with their fingers, even me.

 

That's a little... much

Haha I tend to be a neat freak as well. I almost purchased an HP tm2t over my dm3t but decided against it because of the possibility of finger prints.

I wish my notebook had a matte screen.

 

I got mine last week, and have been very happy with it.

Sony seems to have learnt a lesson about bloatware, as this one only had a couple of programs that I needed to uninstall.

So far it has been working great. I have Office 2010, both Adobe Premier pro and Photoshop installed. Plus itunes and ACDSee.

No issues at all.

The Full HD screen is beautiful, and processing AVCHD processing in Premier Pro is very fast.

I downloaded a few movies from itunes, and watched some on a long flight. I have the additional battery installed. And by the looks of things it would go for at least 6 hours playing.

Not too sure about Sony's claim about the battery life. There is NO WAY in normal use one can get the claimed time.

 

Thanks. I could've sworn there was either a BIOS hack or another (for us lily livered types) complicated procedure to use those drivers. I frankly have never been impressed with Optimus, and actually prefer the manual system on the Z, but if they deliver better overall performance...well, that's worth considering. I do often hook my Z up to a monitor or HDTV via HDMI, and I definitely don't want problems with that.

I'm sure you're joking, but I can tell you that the TM2 screen is among the worst ever made in modern times - about 5 degrees of viewing angle.

 

Not sure using alcohol on carbon fiber is advisable. The Z1 had a gloss coat, but the Z2 is nude. The primary bonding agent for CF is resin, which is water insoluble, but alcohol will break it down.

I don't know what Sony used for the bonding material, but alcohol is risky. I'm using water and a microfiber towel on mine.

I'd say go to town on the keyboard and palm rest, those should be OK.

 

Me too.

Stay with hybrid drivers then. 263.14/2266 in the post I linked earlier has worked flawlessly for my VPCZ115GG.

I'm on the fence about the small viewing angle. For a TV or desktop monitor, wide viewing angles are desirable and essential. With a laptop, however, the restriction works - the guy in the seat next to you can't see a thing.

What I didn't like was the soft coating on the old TX2's screen that actually got dented by the stylus. LOL Looked like a lunar landscape after a while.

 

Point taken. Tested it on a small area first, but it is a Z1. Water for me from now on