Vaio Z2 - Display Freeze and System Lock-Up due to Power Management Settings?

Hi there,

my Vaio Z randomly freezes in various applications. Then the screen may also turn black. In most cases the system reboots itself after black screen, in some cases I even need to hard reboot it manually by pressing and holding the start button.

So far I have no clue what causes those events, nor do I know how to investigate the issue when it shows up again. Ideas are welcome.

To my oppinion it could have something to do with the Power Managemet settings in BIOS and/or Windows not working together as intended. Besides that the Hybrid Graphics System switches modes in order to save energy as well. Checking Vaio Care I found out, that "VAIO Power management has been updated recently - 5.1.1.06180". Another entity?

Maybe there are up to 4 entities that compete with each other. It looks as if they sometimes forget wich one is in charge and finally lose control. Just like in real life. Components are switched off, put on a diet, shut or slowed down. When the CPU for instance needs to be reved up the computer ends up in a bsod.

Can anyone help or share experiences?

 

These type of problems many times can be resolved with Windows updates or VAIO updates? Or restore to factory defaults for a clean fresh start.

 

I had to restore my Vaio more than once. Vaio updates and Windows updates are allways up to date. Did it fix the issues? No.

Has anyone tried to disabled automatic power savings modes and set every possible option to max?

An other story: Like many others I had problems with the WWAN disconnecting during short periods of idle. Then I discovered, that I just had to keep the line busy by constantly clicking new links. Finally I kept the line busy by listening to internet-radio and it worked fine. I shared my discoveries on solving problems by wasting bandwidth with various tech guys. After a couple of weeks the problems disappeared as they came - out of the blue. I think our systems are often secretly anesthetized in order to extend battery life. And sometimes it works that fine, they just won't come back...

Could that be the reason?

 

I have the same issue but only when connected to the PMD (the new Z).
This happens on 2 seperate laptops connected to 2 seperate docks.
Someone else reported they had this problem but fixed it by disabling the power management on the network card - but this hasn't worked for me - still get the random lockups.

The solution I have at the moment is not to use the dock - which is now a very expensive paper weight!

Sony support useless.
All drivers and patches up to date.

These were factory installed builds.

frustrating!

 

Is your Dynamic Hybrid Graphics System usually set to AUTO? What happens, if you connect your Vaio to your Power Media Dock? Does the system change modes and freeze rigt away or does it happen randomly during use? And have you tried to force your graphics controller in STAMINA? Does that fix the issues?

My System works fine since I manually selected STAMINA.

Sony Support? I never ever managed to talk to someone with a technical backgrond.

 

What is your thermal strategy set at in vaio control center?

 

Translated in english it must be something like "Balanced Mode". Its the first option besides "power" and "silent".

Since I have those Problems I have been monitoring system temperatures. I never recognized any problems. But delegating those decisions to the machine? Sounds No-Good. Should I change that setting to Power as well?

 

^balanced should be fine. Silent causes all sorts of issues.

 

^ I always keep my VPC-Z13 in silent mode and never noticed any problems. What issues are you referring to?

 

This question goes to?

 

Causes awful on-off throttling under any sort of load.

 

^ I see. Thanks. I guess I don't really stretch the PC enough to notice it!

 

Maybe there is a transition problem when the computer needs to rev up from ideling. The CPU-Rate was always fairly low (under 5%) when my vaio locked up.

 

@Fergali

I had exactly the same issue as you, having bought the Z2 a couple of days ago. I solved it using the following:

Under LAN controller properties (the PMD one - #2) - go to power management tab and uncheck the power saving option (as previously suggested by someone else).

Now, go to the ADVANCED tab

Set the following to "Disabled"

Energy Efficient Internet
Green Ethernet

I also changed the following to help performance wise:

Jumbo Frame - set to 9KB MTU
Speed & Duplex - set to 1.0 Gbps Full Duplex

If after making these changes, you can't see the network or internet - reverse the two performance ones above.

Good luck and let me know please if this fixes it, I know the frustration these things can cause.

Best, Marc

 

thanks for the suggestions Googaliser. The 2 crashing PMD's are at a client's workplace. I'll try these fixes out when I next visit and I'll report back.

Cheers

 

HI All!
I kinda have the same problem, although I don't think its the power management, since I already done all the suggested thing. And obviously updated all drivers, including reinstallation chipset and grafic drivers. This is the set-up:
Sony Z with Power Media Dock (PMD)
Windows 7 etc..

When i connect the PMD, everything is normal... but in the catalyst settings, it starts with the following set up:
AMD XGP Docking Station:
Choose whether to allow addition displays or accelerate the graphics performance of notebook displays.

It is on Allow additional display.
When I swich to Accelerate notebook displays (hence turn on the proper grafic card), the notebook works for about 2 min. fine and then freezes up... (no matter what i do, even if i let the notebook running doing nothing.

I tried all the ideas and settings that have been suggested here, all with the same outcome.

What strange is, is that i REALLY freezes up. when i hard boot the notebook and the PMD is still connecte it gives me really wierd errors, like, OS not found, or a Bluescreen or things like that...


Does anyone have a clue?? My guess is its the grafics card... or its drives.. but I can't think of anything that i could try to get it fixed...

 

I just did the following:
When I connect the PMD to my TV via HDMI, it also freezes up after 2 min or so. (It doesnt when the TV is connected straigt to the notebook)
Hmmm. Do you guys think this could be a hardware problem from the grafics card?

 

I don't know if this helps... But sometimes when i connect the PMD, the grafics card isn't being recognized at all... although i can access the blu ray player and the blue light is on.
I think i updated all the drivers, any guess guys??

 

Hiya.. just another update.
I installed all possible drivers out there (from sony website; SirRobins Link: http://www.vaio-link.com/cbcdl/VPCZ2_Gfx_driver.zip, and Catalyst 12.1 WQHL UnifL)
All with the following procedure:
"
1. you uninstall drivers regularly (via programs and features in Control Panel),
2. reboot and boot in safe mode (upon restart keep pressing F8 button).
3. Start Driver Sweeper (as administrator!) check Ati Display box and uninstall leftovers.
4. Another reboot, and regular start.
"

Still no luck, it freezes after a couple of minutes at the latest.

Then i can only hard boot, which gives me an error message 'operating system not found' until i unconnect the PMD.

After Windows loads, I get the pop-up, that I may have not unconnected the PMD correctly (pushing the blue unlock button etc)

Any ideas anyone? Really could need some help, this is driving me crazy.
Should I send in the PMD? Could this be a hardware failure?

 

I've been having the same problem. I have a client who purchased two of these in Nov 2011 and they have had constant hard lock issues since but ONLY at their location. I have sent both laptops to Sony and they cleared them of any issues. The differences of the client site being that I am using the PMD NIC and also attaching another display via HDMI. I am at a loss and this has caused a lot of stress for the client, her business and as my customer - I wish she would have never purchased these as this has honestly been a complete waste of $6,000 (for both) up till this point.

I'm literally about to take them from her and ebay them for what I can get since Sony is seemingly useless and unable to do anything.

 

Hey guys. I'm not sure how many times I've visited this thread as a guest, but I've been having these issues for months.

Like many of you I've tried updating drivers, changing settings, cleaning my registry, etc etc etc for months without luck, but today I think I figured out what the issue is.

Took a while to realize but I'll save some time in your lives and cut to the chase. My laptop only locked up when I was connected to the pmd and used an Ethernet cable via the dock. Try unplugging the Ethernet if any of you are experiencing crashes with it in. I hope it works. I honestly love vaios and I own many of them but this issue had me frustrated for months. I will be calling Sony first thing tomorrow to see if I can get this issue resolved, but for right now there's nothing wrong with bearing with wifi for an amazing bulletproof laptop.

 

Same problem. Locks up constantly. Drivers and BIOS are updated. Sony should issue a recall.

 

Hi,

I solved my issue by changing to the PMD dock power cable. I believe you can only use the original PMD charging cable. Other compatible cables such as your old Sony Vaio Computer power cable will power, but will inevitably cause the Z screen to freeze that I have experienced. Now after changing my Z can do pretty much everything with the PMD smoothly with no issues or freezes whatsever. No guarantees but I hope it helps.