Stay Away From TZ Series!!

I initially gave it a good review but returned it a week later. Performance was WAY too slow. It was a nice looking computer but ran like crap.

 

SSD version?

 

Mine is flying

 

Seems plenty fast here too. Using the SSD version with vista Basic.

 

not the ssd version, the other one.

 

the 4200rpm disk shure does not help.

did you do a clean install?

 

One, yours had a 4200rpm hard drive, not good for Vista. Did it have 1 or 2gb of ram? 1gb ram also not good for Vista. Finally, Sony installed a TON of crapware on this poor machine, did you do a clean install? All of these caused it to run very slow on first bootup.

If you upgrade to 2gb of ram, use a 5400rpm or faster HDD or SSD and "upgrade" to XP, then the TZ would fly.

 

Its possible to change the HDD 4200 with 5400 or with SSD on TZ Series????

 

SSD is propably your best bet, because it's 1,8 inch, just like the 4200 rpm disk.

As far as i know.

 

From where i can order SSD Drive?

 

Here's one http://cgi.ebay.nl/Samsung-16GB-SSD...ryZ78965QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

The TZ flys with XP. I have the 4200rpm drive and have no issues in xp. I can now play 1080P video with no stuttering.

 

So you knock the entire series becuase the lower priced, lower spec'd version was too slow for you?

 

To be fair to the OP he has a point in so far as. As it ships from Sony it's horribly crippled, we can't assume the vast majority of those who buy reinstall the OS ort spend the hours required to clean the crap off it.

I love my TZ, but even having owned other Sony's I've never seen a machine as crippled by crapware out of the box.

 

Now they're two threads from newbies bashing the TZ because they neglected to read all our posts warning them to stay away from the 4200rpm version!

So let me spell it our for you who might spend five seconds reading this:

*** DON'T BUY THE SONY TZ 4200RPM EDITION UNLESS YOU PLAN TO INSTALL XP TO MAKE IT RUN ACCEPTABLY!!! ***

 

...or don't care about poor performance

 

You ordered with the 1.8" 4200rpm hdd and you complaint about the hdd speed.
Idiot...

 

I don't know. So far (and this may change as I keep testing my TZ), I'm fine with how TZ performs once on. When it's on, its performance has been acceptable for my use so far. Civ 4 warlords ran like a breeze, has had on and off performance with ripped dvd playbacks, my songs play back fine, internet browsing has been fine, etc., etc.

The only real problem (and it is a big one) has been its sloooooowpoke 5 min bootup. Now that sucks. But other than this, I'm pretty happy with its performance.

Ok, you said it sucks with powerpoint. I hope not. I do use powerpoint a lot, and if powerpoint crawls, I'm gonna have to return it, even if I think it's so damn purty.

 

Why don't you do a clean install? it's not that hard.

 

I've read that, while not hard, you can fubar it and then you're just totally screwed.

More importantly, I like vista better than xp. If I have to switch to xp to make a computer functional, I'd rather get a laptop that runs vista better than be stuck with a dead end OS. I mean, Microsuck is really not not gonna be supporting xp, and I want my new laptop to last at least until I graduate, which's in 2 yrs.

 

I personally don't believe this. I don't believe installing Vista will be that hard.

I've installed XP so succesfully and I think that's harder.

I think you are misinformed. XP will be supported for years.

 

You can't brick a laptop by trying to install XP. It was not that hard at all.

Also, by the time MS stops supporting XP we will be at SP2 for Vista and performance should be fine.

This laptop will certainly last 2 years.

 

XP is still being supported and developed for. Microsoft are planning to release SP1 for Vista and SP3 for XP, both of which have a beta leaked on the net.

 

I'm a professional presenter and PowerPoint 2007 is much slower than the 2003 version. But my experience may be skewed: prior to getting this SSD TZ, I was running it on a powerful 2.2Ghz ASUS VX2 that was hobbled by McAfee.

Ever since I uninstalled that POS my TZ has been working far faster. So, give PowerPoint a try, it may be acceptable to you.

In terms of start-up, just don't do it! Put it to sleep and you won't have to deal with it until you need to.

 

If you really don't have the money for the SSD version (although its only a couple of hundreds more going import, not the U.S. version) I would suggest getting another laptop. It may not be as pretty as the TZ but at the end of the day, you're using it, not staring at it. I would not even want to think about a 4200rpm drive and vista combo.

 

not everyone is as technically inclined as you are philflow..

tz tx t models are geared towards business users...

now you expect these men to be as computer literate as you are?

you are asking too much..

 

PhilFlow is computer literate?

XP takes time to install, even for those users who have an idea of what they are doing. It is possible for anyone to do it, but it will generally take longer if you are not that familiar with doing similar things.

You could always make it a weekend project or pay someone to do it?

 

most of the reviews i've read out there didn't mention incredibly slow performance even with 4200 rpm 1.06ghz. I'm surprised about your experience. Probably different people have different threshold for what is fast/slow. This is afterall a ultraportable, and no one can expect it to be as fast as fully equiped desktop power hungry pcs

 

I am really amazed that people who own a TZ with SSD or no TZ at all can make statements how incredibly slow a TZ using the 4200 rpm HDD will be under Vista. Just like this horror story I have read in this forum (written by a SSD owner) that the ultra-slow 4200 rpm HDD will never stop working under Vista... pure nonsense!

Yes, I wouldn't call my TZ (with 100GB 4200 rpm HDD, 2GB RAM and Vista Business) very fast (compared to my Desktop PC)... but incredibly unbearable insufferably slow is nonsense as well. Working under Vista is not fast but definitely fast enough - even "smooth".

For me the TZ isn't a fast computer at all... 800 to 1200 Mhz CPU clock, GMA950, 533Mhz bus speed, 400 to 533 Mhz memory speed, ... not the specs of a "dream machine" that will break speed records. Even the 32GB SSD from Samsung with an average speed of 35 MB/s isn't fast. There are SSD on the market which have at least 50MB transfer rate.

The main advantage of the TZ (as an Ultra-Portable) is the low weight and the long battery time (and perhaps the image)... in combination with a fast enough working speed for the most "office applications".


@antisocrates:

Your boot-up time of 5 minutes is definitely due to the huge amount of crapware provided by Sony. I don't have a boot-up time of 5 minutes. Even after I have installed some Microsoft applications like Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise. But I have done a clean install of Vista before... with no crapware left on my TZ.

If you like it or not:

1. You will have to do a clean install (of Vista or XP)
2. You should increase the RAM from 1GB to 2GB (especially if using Vista)

 

hmm... I have no idea what your talking about this is the most bad ass little laptop i've ever owned and I dont even have the ssd drive and only have the 5400rpm and its fasttt i'm even considering selling my main laptop a 2.4ghz santa rosa macbook pro to just keep the tz as my main laptop now.

 

Actually, it's more than that, I believe. I checked dynamism and all their models come with only 1 gb memory. 32 hd is too small, while I like having an internal dvd drive, so getting a 32 ssd hd and then a secondary hd isn't all that appealing to me. 64 hd isn't bad, but iirc, it's more than a couple hundred dollars compared to my tz 150.

Plus, from sony styles, i also get the trash-it-we-fix (sometimes) warranty, while dynamism only offers 1 hr of sony's standard warranty, extendable to 3.

 

Mr. Bonk,

Check out my other thread. My tz is the same as yours. And I did already remove a lot of crapwares. I did reduce the boot time further when I took off the wifi smart thingie, but I liked that feature...

pc83,

I'm used to slow laptops. My toshiba was outdated when I bought it then and is really outdated now. I'm just peeved that my tz isn't any faster than my ancient toshi.

ubercool,

Were you joking about never turning off a computer? I mean, isn't that bad for your comp?

Phil,

I like vista so far. Besides, I don't have either a vista or a xp cd. uknow, the standard "we don't offer u full OS" bit from both sony and toshiba.

 

I never turn off or restart my desktop and nothing has ever gone wrong. However, I would not do the same with a notebook.

 

afaik Ubercool was talking about hybernating instead of switching it off.

i do the same with my laptop. always hybernate.

 

the only laptops and desktop I can think about not putting it to sleep and always on and its actually good for it is a macbook pro or macbook or mac pro with osx.

 

lol, that's funny!

 

When you guys put the TZ on sleep or hibernation, how long does it usually take for it to return? On my tz180 with Vista business, it takes more 10 seconds to come back... weird..

 

?? what so funny about that? Thats the one good thing about unix system they never need to be restarted or to sleep. Its actually better for the harddrive to never sleep or off because it has a higher percentage when it wakes or platters rev back up of crashing. I had my mac pro desktop with osx for 1 and a half years now and last time I restarted was about 6 months ago and never left it sleeping. My cousin runs his own server with his powermac and he's probably restarted his powermac once in 2 years and never left it sleeping or off for 4+ years, that's what I miss about osx on the vaio tz.. wish it could run osx... I hate defragmenting and with osx it never slows down and never clutters and dont need to defragment. This is the #1 reason I want an ssd drive so I never have to defragment on windows.

 

you could run hackintosh right? I don't know much about it, just read it somewhere.

 

You are aware that the TZ's aren't meant to be super fast right, people wanting mobility with class is their target market.

 

There should be no reason why you cannot run OSX on a TZ. I had it running on my Asus R1f for a short while. I had to run a restore of the original Vista Premium OS as quite honestly I had made a mess of the OSX install and didnt follow the instructions correctly. Entirely my fault. When it was running the performance made Vista look like a joke. Vista SP1 may change this for the better.

The TZ runs an SSE3 instruction set and if you have a twin HDD configuration your in dualboot (OSX + Vista) heaven. Any virus attack which may effect the Vista or OSX install is essentially blunted by the other OS. It cannot transfer itself to the other OS. Your data integrity will be improved immensely. Even with only 1 HDD or SSD you could partition the drive to run the 2 OS'es.

The only real issue I had was that my wireless card, intel 3945abg, had no drivers but new drivers have since been launched and are reporting good results.

Its not an easy task and you should back up your data 1st. Do not skip this step. Even CNET have posted a video of what you need to do

http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-28784.html?tag=bubbl_2

For a full blow-by-blow install please review the following guide.
http://www.profit42.com/index.php/2007/04/07/osx-1049-vista-dual-boot-on-your-windows-machine/

As for the slow TZ speed please bear in mind that a 4200rpm drive will never be able to compete with a 5400rpm at the same capacity. However if you increase the capacity you should see a performance boost due to the greater areal density of the bigger drive. This mean the drive heads will have to move a lesser distance to get to the data they want. Samsung have just announced a 160gb drive which may help.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/21/samsung-shows-off-worlds-biggest-1-8-inch-drive-160gb/

 

Hey I you have osx running on your vaio tz??!! so I would need to download the x86 version of 10.4.8 then update to the 10.4.9?? Also my cousin's friend said he iinstalled osx on the tz and said the intel gma 950 is in software mode which is very slow and that the driver is different than the macbook which is the same chip though... so wireless and the intel graphics runs fine on osx??

 

Hi jjahshik32, I had it on my Asus R1f, ordering my TZ hopefully this thursday (payday). When it was on the R1f the graphics never felt slow. Cant confirm whether the GMA 950 was in hardware or software mode but its my day off so reckon you've inspired me to give it another go and test out the newer drivers. The intel 3945abg drivers have been ported over from linux. The osx86 jas image was the one I was using. Will try and find the 10.9 upgrade and slipstream it. In terms of core components and instruction sets the TZ and R1F are very close.

Its not hard to see why OSX runs so well on this kind of hardware. Apple basically live in a happy little wonderland populated by only a few chipsets on a few varieties of mac which they control entirely. The move to intel was basically fatal for the walled garden approach they adopt, and thank god they did. Laptops like the R1F and the vaio tz are perfect as they basically mirror the chipsets used in macbooks but have OMG.....2 mouse buttons. Although im no microsoft fan the fact is OSX in better optimised for its purpose as Apple dont need to battletest 21,600 drivers to get the os out the door as was the case in vista. Easier job=better optimization.

This is a Sony forum so out of respect for the rules I may have to post the results of the install on the Asus R1F in the software forum instead.

 

I like the title of this topic.

For me it should be: "Can't stay away from TZ series!!"

I feel like I am in love!!!

 

I have the 4200rpm drive and 1.2 ghz processor with 2gb RAM. It works fine. I don't expect it to outperform a 10 pound Alienware with desktop components.