VGN-Z issue with Sony-related software controls

Ok - it's been a while and I've been playing around with my Z.

Long story short; my S2 button is set to toggle between THERMAL STRATEGIES, that is, between the SILENT, BALANCED, and PERFORMANCE. Completely unrelated, but my Z makes a real-high pitched sound when the fan automatically decides to go from a stopped state (CPU / GPU temps <37'C) to a moving state.

If I FORCE the fan to move from a stopped state (so by toggling to the PERFORMANCE mode), the sound doesn't occur. If the sound is heard (when the machine 'automatically' tries to start the fan) and I quickly press the S2 button to change to PERFORMANCE to get the fan forcibly moving, then the high-pitched sound stops immediately and without complaint, the fan goes to high speed. If I let it be, the fan area makes the sound as if it's barely chugging along and eventually, the sound stops and the fan starts up.

...background story...
Sony replaced the fan for me a few months back to pacify my demands (even after their engineers saying that the sound was 'normal', though I can bet left one that they had no idea what I was on about). I asked for a motherboard replacement, as the sounds resemble bad capacitors, but the mobo was replaced at an earlier warranty service when all I needed then was a replacement DVD drive... They said because of that, I didn't need a new board, so I reluctantly told them to go for the fan replacement only. And needless to say, the sound still exists after that 'repair', so it is not the fan that's the issue. I removed my keyboard to see how and where the sound was coming from, and saw that when the sound is heard, the fan very slowly tries to move, and when it starts moving / accelerating at a normal pace, the sound stops.

Anyways, the reason why I'm posting this thread here today.
The other day I RAPIDLY toggled (faster than I usually used to do) between the thermal modes and it seems I have broken something on a software level. Before the issue occured, I was able to scroll through the thermal modes without lags or any other visual delays. Now, if I press S2 in say, Internet Explorer, there is a delay of a second, and the IE window de-focuses and re-focuses on itself, before the confirmation box stating the strategy setting pops up; it wasn't like this before, and before the problem surfaced, all that happened after pressing S2 was an immediate confirmation that the thermal strategy had changed; no de-focusing windows or lags whatsoever.

In addition, various settings related to the VAIO CONTROL CENTRE seem to have gone belly up:
1. Resume when the lid is flipped OPEN.
Basically, when I put my machine to sleep I close the lid. When I come back, I flip open the screen and the machine turns on by itself. Now, that doesn't happen, despite it being set correctly in VAIO CONTROL CENTRE. I'll admit now, I did a close the lid in a forceful manner a few days back. BUT there is no sign of hardware damage; the screen still knows when the lid is flipped down or not (the sensor magnets are working). The only way to wake up as a result is to press a key on the keyboard or the power button on the side (when the lid is flipped open; power and keyboard buttons are 'locked' with the lid flipped down, another indication the magnet sensors are still working / undamaged).

2. BATTERY CARE FUNCTION HAS BEGUN BEHAVING ERRACTICALLY.
My VGN-Z isn't too mobile these days so I use it with the battery disconnected (at a setting of 50%). I connected the battery again yesterday as I needed the machine out and about.

...some background info regarding BATTERY CARE functionality...
When one detaches and reattaches his/her battery to an applicable VAIO machine (one which supports said function), the BATTERY CARE function is disabled UNTIL you re-enter the OS (where a process tells the battery that BATTERY CARE settings must apply when charging). So, for example, if you have a limit of 50% and you reattach your previously detached battery and AC adapter, the battery will actually CHARGE until you enter the OS (where it will stop charing at 51%). And from then on, the battery knows when to stop charging even in an off state. Until you detach and reattach the battery that is.

Anyways, my issue with the BATTERY CARE now is that when I booted into Windows, the battery CONTINUED charging, despite the setting telling it to stop at 50%. So I decide to go to VAIO CONTROL CENTRE, and the MOMENT I enter the page where I can turn on the setting, the battery STOPS charging (it was charged to 63% by the time I went into VAIO CONTROL CENTRE). The same occurs when I wake the machine from sleep; the battery begins charging upon waking when there is no need, and again immediately stops when I open up to the relevant VAIO CONTROL CENTRE settings page.

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Whew...
If you're still reading, I must sincerely thank you and take awe at your patience (my writing style has become 'annoying' after a year of final-year highschool English).

Ok. I'm posting this to ask fellow experienced users for possible causes. And what I can to do rectify.
My hunch is that VAIO CONTROL CENTRE has broken itself when I toggled the silly life out of the thermal strategy settings. If that is the case, I was wondering if people here know what version number is the very latest (for the VGN-Z), and where I could go about DLing it? Preferabbly from an official Sony site though. I've tried searching for the ftp site back when W7 upgrading the VGN-Z was 'hip' but cannot find the said link anymore...

I also noticed that VAIO Oceania has newer releases of pretty much every driver for the VGN-Z than the ones I have (I mixed and matched my collection from around the world back when W7 was being rolled out for the VGN-Z, from Sony EU, US and Oceania). Hence my confusion and my asking here.

Worse comes to worse and a newer CONTROL CENTRE is not recommended / doesn't fix the problem (and my only option is a OS clean-install, which is NOT favourable at the moment), anyone able to offer a possible theory as to what's wrong?

Cheers in advance for the help, and my goodness... Apologies for the long post.