VPC-Z11 randomly shutting down and restarting

Well I seem to be having the same problem my VPCZ1155GG is shutting down randomly on boot up but also while playing games. I've tried all the Nvidia drivers from Sony plus the 263.14 (8.17.12.6314) 2281 (8.15.10.2281) drivers and all are giving bad performance in games and often crashing the whole laptop.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/342947-my-discoveries-vaio-z-s-hybrid-graphics.html

I was wondering someone with a good z13 can tell me what their highest temps they see are when under load, these are the temps I'm seeing these were taken in the game Portal 2 and seem pretty high for any computer.



I think these are way way too high and now a game I previously played lots is also having trouble and booting me out even before the game starts.

Before anyone asks yes in the vaio control centre I have the Thermal Control Strategy to Performance Mode. I used to have it on balanced but started playing as this problem came around over the last week or so.

I think I will probably have to re do the thermal paste, is it easier to do it yourself or will Sony do it under warranty?


Edit being that the temps on the cpu are higher than the graphics is this the CPU problem and must be a cleaning of the fan and thermal paste instead of the graphics that I thought at first?

 

The computer shuts down if the CPU reaches 105C. The highest my VPCZ1 with the same CPU gets up to is about 90C.

If you are still under warranty, Sony should be able to do something about it. I believe repasting the CPU in the VPCZ1 will be quite difficult, though I have not personally tried to disassemble the laptop that far.

If you want, for the time being you can try set Thermal Control Strategy in VAIO Control Center to Performance Mode to make the fan run faster, or set it to Silent Mode and let the CPU slow down to try produce less heat.

 

@nicktids that max of 104 is too high, and it's likely shutting down at the 105 temp before cpuid can log it.

Is your fan spinning up proper and noisy? Sounds like it's time to at least clean the vents/heatsink and make sure the fan is operating properly. Thermal paste I'd say is a last resort, most folks here end up seriously screwing up their systems doing that.

 

Thanks for you ultra fast responses guys.

Yep I first thought it was the graphics as they were the drivers I just changed but the temp of the CPU is way off. The fans do speed up a lot on load and I have tried balanced and performance mode in the thermal settings will try silent but don't think it will help but throttle the CPU down.

Yes I will look in the the warranty. I bought it in HK and I'm now back in London.

I will probably open it up first and have a look for dust and clean that out before heading to the sony centre.

Problem is I'm looking for a job at the moment so any time without a laptop is not very helpful.

Thanks again for your help.

 

^Very well could just be dust clogging the heatsink fins. Rip er apart and have a look.

 

Thanks Beaups

Just realised the pic I made I opened CPUID before I switched to speed and the Graphics card reached a max of 92 on its own so it must be dust and the cpu.

edit: No screw driver to hand but I did have a vacuum cleaner so shoved that on the outlet while the laptop was turned on now 100 and 101 core max temps on the CPU and Portal 2 is playing fine on Balanced Mode Thermal settings.

Right as Beaups says I'm going to have to Rip er apart.

Thanks all, I'll post back in a few days hopefully with lower temps :crosses fingers:

 

Ok found a screw driver and opened it up.

I managed to get core 1 under load down to 91 and core 2 to 97 still seems a bit too high.

Can you remove the heat sync/ fan unit it had a lot of wires over it so I left it and just put a vacuum cleaner hose on top and attempted to clean as much caked on dirt off with a tooth pick.

Well games seem to be running better not crashing and the fan is a lot lower RPM. Not having any temps before the fan got clogged up I don't know what I should be aiming for. But I'm happy it works again and not crashing me out of for the last 15 mins at least.

 

I am almost ready to buy a new battery for my Z because the battery doesn't reach one and half hours .....is it normal?
also the cooling fan is always on and I am wondering it put down the battery....

should I buy a new battery?

 

One and a half hours in stamina mode? Try download BatteryBar and check what it reports for battery wear and other things.

 

thank you
I am doing right away and i'll let you know .......

 

here is the test ........

 

Power consumption/battery discharge rate seems pretty high... Is your computer already set to Balanced or Power Saver mode? Have you tried reducing the screen brightness?

 

it is in stamina mode and balance mode and the screen is in full bri.

 

With lower brightness, I get a discharge rate of about 14,000 mW. I'm not sure about with full brightness but i think it should still be less than what you are getting. Are you doing anything on the computer like watching a movie?

 

13.1 and I reduced 3 bars the resolution

 

So 13.1 W off a battery with 51.7Wh: that should give you about 4 hours run-time, which sounds pretty normal.

The screen shows 34 W which would certainly give you only 1h30m if it was continuously taking that power. It looks like you're running some pretty demanding applications to require that much power.

 

Visio and some other

 

I think with low resolution it could run 30 more minutes.......

 

Do you mean just on the Windows desktop? I don't think that lowering the resolution there would make any difference.

 

I mean working with Visio or CAD or editing photos....

 

^Are you suggesting to lower the resolution or the brightness? Resolution is going to help much (any).

 

exactly 2 hours with low resolution ......is it ok or I should buy a new battery and maybe 9cell ?

 

Given the figures in the picture you attached, there's nothing wrong with your battery. It has 51710 of a max of 55030, so it has a wear of 6%. That means a new battery would make very little difference. A 9-cell battery will certainly help, as that'll give you 150% of your current battery. Have both fully charged and that'll give you 2.5 times the duration.

The main problem is that your visio/cad programs seem to be pretty cpu intensive so they're draining the battery pretty quickly.