VAIO Z serious lagging stutter performance issues

Specs: Core i5 540, 4gb ram, freshly formatted and windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.

Running apps: Firefox, msn, skype, foobar, microsoft security essentials.

This is seriously becoming a real nuisance! Website pages are suffering real laggy scrolling and loading things up. Even pages without images are just as bad and much worse performance scrolling than my desktop e4300. Scrolling this page alone is treated like i have completly maxed out my ram (4gb) when i'm only on 1.7gb by having firefox and 4 forum tabs opened. My old core2duo could handle way more than this and run smooth on 2gb of ram. My friend said it could be the nvidia drivers, but i downloaded all the latest drivers from sony site.

I can't believe that an i5 could perform so badly for simple web browsing with no apps installed and the latest driver. I even switched the AC powered Z to speed mode with no help whatsoever.

I'm just wondering if anyone is getting any stutter, jitter, laggy issues browsing with their i5? It just doesn't make sense after a clean format to get such shoddy performance.

What's going on?

 

Do you have Sony's SSDs? Did you benchmark them? I've not actually encountered such stuttering before so this is a guess...

 

Yea i have 384gb and put them in JBOD... not sure why ssd performance benchmarks would have to interfere with web browsing experience?

 

Because the browser caches web objects on disk, which means it accesses the disk. I'm guessing your disk is not that full. Strange...

 

Try restoring things to factory defaults....you change things,you do it on your own risk.

 

I don't have this problem at all.

I second blue13x's recommendation. Try a restore from your recovery disks.

 

I'll 3rd the recommendations.

Daily tasks are silky smooth on my Z.

Couple of things as well:

- I understand the theory behind why people use JBOD but I feel that the negatives outweigh the positives.

- While you can install and use the latest Nvidia drivers I think you are going to have issues using the Intel HD card and who knows what else at this point. ---> Ignore.

Zoinks reminded me that you are using Sony drivers. Sorry about that. Too much Red Bull today

These notebooks are so new and have some interesting tech in them. There really isn't a lot of information about some of these things. We don't have a good understanding of how the P800 works, nor how or what Sony is using to switch graphics, fingerprint at power-on is missing from the BIOS.. the list goes on. I am sure in a few months, given the appeal of this notebook, you will be flashing custom ROMS and running Optimus.

 

I think Movendi downloaded the video drivers from Sony

 

Yeap, all drivers were downloaded from sony 64 bit for my model VPCZ1190X.. nothing modified. Just a format, jbod, install win 7 ultimate 64bit, install all sony drivers, done.

 

Still, I would try the factory image. Every time I've seen a post describing bizarre issues that no one else has, it's always been on a clean installation... which tells me something wasn't done right.

 

You could try to disable the firefox disk caching function before you do a full factory restore.
This way firefox won't access the hd when loading a website.
Just give it a try and see if it makes a difference.
Enter about:config in the browser address bar to access the settings menu and then search for browser.cache

 

I had a similar experience with extremely bad browser performance in the beginning when I was testing SSDs, not sure which config I had them in when it happened though. I tried both JBOD and 2 raided, so JBOD *could* have something to do with it.

I was using IE when that happened, and when I installed Firefox it was much better, so I thought it was IE's fault. However, it got much better when I changed Windows' DPI setting from 125% to 100% and I haven't seen it since. So you might check that too.

 

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip



I wrote a program called ThrottleStop that has really helped Acer, Asus and Dell owners, with many different models, finally come up with the real reason their laptops lag so badly during some situations.

When you first start ThrottleStop, it is in monitoring mode only so don't be too afraid by the initial warning message. You can run a log file with this program while you are using your laptop and it will keep track of any issues that might be slowing your computer down.

The wide spread use of clock modulation is causing some real problems. Intel CPUs have this feature to cool their CPUs off by killing performance but this should only be used during a serious over heating emergency. Some laptops can randomly turn this feature on and then forget to turn it off.

ThrottleStop reports the two main types of clock modulation and these values should be steady at 100.0% when your computer is fully loaded. Run a stress testing program like Prime95 and use the Small FFTs test to load up your CPU and see how it performs.

If you don't understand what this program is telling you then send me a log file or upload it somewhere like www.sendspace.com and post a link here so I can have a look. ThrottleStop is designed for most Core 2 and Core i processors and works in Windows 7 x86 or x64.

 

So luckily, I have never met the same problem.

__________________
Death at a Funeral
The Joneses

 

I am running a bone stock i5-540 using most of the apps you name plus quite a few more. But not foobar and not msn.
On a 128GBx2, I do not have the problem you describe, at all.

 

It's a glitch within Firefox itself. I had this problem too where only Firefox, skype, itunes were running and the computer started stuttering like mad.

Ditch firefox for something like Chrome which uses multithreads... I haven't had the problem since.

 

No way. I use Firefox with skype, itunes and other stuff running. I don't get that effect

 

I formatted it 3 times already and i guess it's a firefox problem. Does anyone here use smoothwheel?

 

Does this happen on Speed or Stamina mode only? Or both?

 

Any mode... it looks like scrolling is fine on internet explorer but not on firefox, which is a shame since i never use ie. I use smoothwheel on firefox which is meant to make it smooth and almost does but there's hiccups from slow smooth scrolling and jitters. I'm surprised that not many people notice this.

 

Well, I have a Microsoft mouse with the smooth-scrolling feature (it has no detents, I assume this is what you mean when you say smooth wheel)
So just now I am scrolling this notebookreview page up and down, in firefox, but I am not seeing any non-smoothness.

I compared it to IE and it felt pretty similar to firefox.

 

Does the disk light blink (or light up) while this happens?

Unlike IE, Firefox saves cached data in a revolving store, and updates an index hash table file. And the history is written to an SQL(ite) database file. What this means is fewer open filehandles and less resources, but it really hurts if an SSD drive becomes saturated, and random writes experience high latency. Bugs have been filed against Firefox for this, but it's really not Firefox' fault. It only happens with SSDs, and SSDs without TRIM, at that.
If this is indeed the problem, there are a few remedies:
1: Enable TRIM on the drive. Which won't work with RAID.
2: Wipe the drive with a Secure Erase (which isn't the same as a format).
3: Replace the drive.
4: Prevent the apps that trigger this from doing a high amount of random writes. For Firefox, you can turn off history and disk cache.

 

Strange. Is there some combination of apps required for this? Because by itself I'm not getting any issues in Firefox.

 

I'm using the track pad for scrolling and using an extension called "Smooth Wheel" to make scrolling smoother, which hasn't been doing a good job in this case.

If someone could test the extension on a forum with lots of images posted and tell me how the results go, i'd like to know what specs and settings you have.

Cheers

EDIT:

So here is my benchmark for C:.. I put the hdd's in JBOD mode but not sure if it's still under this non-trim raid system?


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 214.630 MB/s
Sequential Write : 145.676 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 164.516 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 103.888 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 14.576 MB/s [ 3558.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 8.975 MB/s [ 2191.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 23.751 MB/s [ 5798.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 14.546 MB/s [ 3551.2 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: 20.5% (24.4/119.1 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/04/18 10:47:45
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

I just noticed similar problems on my Z.... in normal windows applications it works fine, however when I'm playing the starcraft 2 beta - what was once silky smooth, now starts and stops... I installed a windows 7 counter type gadget which I've since uninstalled...

I'm also having issues with vaio update giving me the error "cannot acquire configuration settings for vaio update"

... again, windows stuff is silky smooth, somehow I wonder if when the game starts up now, it's transitioning to the intel video card instead?

 

It even happens using chrome/ie or when scrolling pdf files using foxit... i think it's the graphic drivers that aren't running smooth. So everyone else can scroll websites with high res photos smoothly? Seems like i got a lemon of some sort.

 

No problems like this running either GPU.

Your issue sounds like a software problem. Seeing that you've had this problem for months, have you done a clean install or restored with the Sony utility? If not, it is probably a good time to do so.

If there were a hardware problem, I'm sure we would hear more reports of the issue you are having.

It would be easier to confirm if you start fresh and slowly reintroduce the apps you use.

 

Here's my hypothesis: certain websites can cause excessive load on the CPU. There are two ways the Z deals with the load: increase the fan speed to cool the CPU, or throttle the CPU to minimize heat generation.

The actions taken by the Z is governed by the thermal control strategy. If in silent mode, it will throttle the CPU, rather than spin up the fan. Unfortunately, the Z's throttling isn't perfect, resulting in the stuttering.

To check, just change the profile to Performance.

 

I have absolutely no issue with my Z. Scrolling through long complex (as in lot of animated graphics) web pages is extremely fast and smooth, and this is with the stamina mode which I use almost exclusively. The OP's issue has to be software related - virus, spyware, corrupted Firefox profile, other OS issue, etc etc. Try this, create a new user account in Windows 7 and see if the new account performs better.

 

That's a great idea, andye39s

 

What's your thermal profile? For a day my kids had this problem with gaming and websites on my Z...reminded me of a 5 year old machine. noticed the thermal profile (vaio control center) was set to silent. This was causing the machine to constantly throttle as opposed to spinning the fans up when needed.

Also, check to make sure your power profile is set to balanced or if plugged in "high performance"

 

Well at the start of this thread i did about 4-5 format fresh start attempts and each time yields the same laggy result. Performance mode is on. I'm guessing it's a graphics driver issue and firefox issue but not sure how you guys seem to achieve smoothness with firefox. Example go to couchsurfing.org and search couches with a lot of results, usualliy that will lag big time for me when there's 25 results per page.

But yea i tried making a new account and didn't see a big difference. Im gonna try uninstalling firefox and not import anything and see what that does.

 

Does the same happen when you use arrow keys to scroll, or just the keypad? And have you tried setting general.smoothScroll to true in about:config?

 

I think it might be nVidia's Powermizer playing up there, but I can't fully make sure from your description. Windows 7 drivers ain't really user friendly, though they were in Vista.

Have you tried the Powermizer tool? You can find it from Nautis' thread somewhere here...

Have a VGN-Z and suffered exact issues you are describing on my clean-installed W7. Used the powermizer tool and GPU is not down-throttled when connected AC. For some reason, it throttles down on default despite being on AC (and on battery too, though that's more understandable since it saves power), causing the lags... But then, my factory Vista OS didn't have this issue.

Two things though. Is this happening only on your nVidia GPU or on the Intel as well?
And update firefox. Looking at your time of writing the OP message, Firefox had some issues with rendered engines or something then which was fixed with a few updates.

 

Just got my Z back up, whacked the recovery partition and loaded my own MSDN WinU X64. Nothing much loaded so far, FF 3.5.10, AVG, and restored my very bloated FF profile from probably a year ago (yeah a year's worth of crap and history that I don't want to let go). Smooth and fast, did a USA search on that couchsurfing site you mentioned.

WAIT A MINUTE, are you using FF 3.6.x??? 3.6.x seriously lags when scrolling, this is on all five of my computers I've tried, including my powerhouse OC'ed i7 920 with ATI5850 rig. I've tried all the tips and tricks I've found online to no avail with 3.6.x. I'm sticking with 3.5.10, the very last 3.5 version released.

 

I'm having the same exact problems as the original poster on my out-of-the-box VPCZ1290X w/ i5, 128 GB, 7 Pro w/ Fresh Start. It's really annoying that my 15 year old P200 can browse websites without any lag, but this $2k Z can't. I just got this thing and am already thinking about returning it. I can't deal with this. I need crisp scrolling. I noticed that the lag/shutter only happens at the top of internet pages...naturally because most of the banner and clutter is at the top of each page... so it's like the video card isn't able to handle it. Once I get towards the bottom of the page where all that's really seen on screen is text, the scrolling returns to the normal crispness that i would expect.

 

I just tested this again with Google Chrome, and that browser doesn't lag at all. I get crisp scrolling like I would expect. Seems to be an IE issue for me.

 

Idz21, what websites are you hitting? Do they have flash elements like ads or videos? Since you have the fresh start option, I'm assuming all the browser add-on and security apps aren't loaded. If not kill them off.

Also update Flash or uninstall it and try again.

I'm about done with Adobe. Acrobat is far too big for a document viewer and Flash is waaaay too buggy. I, for one, am looking forward to HTML 5 to kill off Flash for videos.

 

Make sure cooling is set to active and not passive (in Sony power application if there is one and in windows power options) or it will throttle. Mind, I haven't read the entire thread.

 

The website I was testing on was Mafia Wars on Facebook which is pretty much all flash based. You're right, there are no browser add-ons. I even disabled some other "let us get you the answer to this and that" type add-ons that are built into IE that I usually disable.

I think I came to the conclusion that this is a Win 7 issue.
* When using the latest IE on my Win XP Acer netbook (aka weak processor & vid card) everything runs crisp and smooth (on Google Chrome as well).
* When using the latest IE on my Win 7 Pro i5 Z 1290X scrolling is annoyingly laggy on the same exact website.
* When using the latest Google Chrome browser on the Win 7 Pro i5 Z 1290X scrolling is crisp as I'd expect it to be.

I haven't tried re-installing the Flash drivers, but I'll give that a shot when I get home today. My laptop was built & software installed on 7/7/10, so you'd think everything was up to date and cleanly installed.

I have been using Fox Reader instead of Acrobat on my other laptops, but haven't made the switch on the Z just yet.

 

It will not be the i5. The atom can handle web browsing easily.

Maybe recover from the recovery partition or the recovery disks?

 

It isn't an issue on all Z1x's either. Seems to impact specific systems and the latest report is from a user that just unpackaged the laptop.

 

I wonder if this has something to do with that Zoom feature in Win 7. The default is set at 125% for the 1080p screen. I'm running mine at a custom 135%. I can't imagine that Flash likes being zoomed.

 

I know that Firefox had bugs reported against it for being severely slow on certain configurations, but those turned out to be SSDs with extremely high worst-case write times (which for otherwise lightning fast SSDs can be a second or more). This penalises database write activity, and Firefox uses sqlite extensively. If turning off history and local file cache improves the speed, or installing on an USB HDD helps, then it's the SSD that's the culprit.

 

I uninstalled all Adobe products as well as Java. The website lagging is still there in IE, so it's definitely not that. Need to come up with something else.

 

Each time I move to a different laptop, I kept my very bloated FF profile. It absolutely zips on my Z, the most responsive laptop I've owned yet. I'm staying with 3.5.10. 3.6.x is very laggy when scrolling on every computer I've tried.

 

I don't normally use IE. In IE smooth scrolling must be disabled or it'll lag. That said, even with smooth scroll on it's smooth on my Z, though it lags when I do a fast chiral scroll. This is with the Z on stamina mode.

Firefox 3.5.10 absolute zips on this thing.

 

I just don't understand why a lot of us would need to compromise in order to get this $2k powerhouse to function correctly. I just find it unacceptable that what my 20 year old P200 w/ 64MB RAM (yep that's MB not GB) can handle flawlessly, the Z just can't match.

Something's gotto give.

 

The minimum requirement for both Firefox 3.6 and IE8 is P233, and 64 MB will only work if you run XP with nothing else in the background.
How will your P200 handle running Aero with Firefox or IE8 on top? Or scrolling a 1920x1080 display, for that matter?

Anyhow, while a new computer is better than an old one, it's not guaranteed to better for everything. Take SSDs, for example -- in order to get much higher average and typical speeds, you accept the trade-off of worst-case speeds being far worse than a HD (HDs don't need to do a copy-erase-write operation). Or consider USB -- it is far faster than serial and PS/2, but the latency is far worse. Or the LCD display? It can't do 85 full frames per second like old CRTs can, and they may not be able to display a Pantone Red, but you pay that price to get a much sharper and steadier image. Network speeds? Again, we've traded the worst case speed for a higher average and max speeds. But an old T1 (or even ISDN) line will easily win over new VDSL/cable lines if what you measure is worst case speeds.
Yes, there are going to be trade-offs, and specific situations where new will lose to old. But overall, new machines and technologies are better.

 

I really don't know how to respond to this outrageous claim - the Z can't match a 200MHz Pentium

What compromise? IE sucks. I install Firefox. Been doing that for years.

You want fast and smooth OOB experience? The Macbook is it, that touchpad feels so connected compared to even the Z's excellent Synaptics pad.