Vaio FZ Owners Official Owners Thread

[en_ome1]

Hello

New member here and I have a couple of questions.
I'm interested in buying the FZ11e Vaio and replacing the hdd so I was wondering is the HDD 2.5" or 1.8" ?
Also, how bad is the failure rate of the nVidia 8400gt?

Thanks in advance.

[JesterX]

Hello

New member here and I have a couple of questions.
I'm interested in buying the FZ11e Vaio and replacing the hdd so I was wondering is the HDD 2.5" or 1.8" ?
Also, how bad is the failure rate of the nVidia 8400gt?

Thanks in advance.

The hard drive is a 2.5" SATA drive.

I believe the failure of the 8400GT is heat related. I game quite a bit on my laptop but I use a notebook cooler to help reduce the temperature. I think if you do play games on it, keep it on a decent cooler (recommend the Zalman NC1000) and it should do just fine.

[ScuderiaConchiglia]

The hard drive is a 2.5" SATA drive.

I believe the failure of the 8400GT is heat related. I game quite a bit on my laptop but I use a notebook cooler to help reduce the temperature. I think if you do play games on it, keep it on a decent cooler (recommend the Zalman NC1000) and it should do just fine.

It is heat related but not in the way you think. The problem is with the chip substrate separating from the rest of the chip due to heating and cooling cycles not by overheating. Now, keeping it cooler so that the cycles are not as extreme is a good think it is not a solution to the problem. At best it will buy you some time, but if your chip is one prone to failure, it will still fail. The rate at which these are failing SEEMS to be higher in Dell and HP machines. That may be attributed to one of two scenarios. Scenario one, the Dell and HP machines don't have as good a cooling architecture as the Sony machines. Scenario 2 there are more HP and Dells in the field.

Bottom line no one knows for sure the extend of this problem. Sony has clammed up and is refusing to say anything (unlike Dell or HP.) Nvidia is being very cryptic in telling the specifics of the problem.

Gary

[JesterX]

At best it will buy you some time, but if your chip is one prone to failure, it will still fail.

Definitely, Dell increased fan speeds with BIOS updates so the failures are postponed by sometime (or as people have said, its just enough so it fails outside the warranty period).

I'm hoping Sony extends our warranties on account of this or at least offers free repairs on a case by case situation.

[mrmadcat]

Was wondering does anyone have any experience in doing a clean install with Vista x64 on the FZ series - or even more specifically - the FZ21M (UK - Europe)?

If so - any problems? And where did you get any drivers etc from as Sony don't support them from what they're telling me :S

[JesterX]

Was wondering does anyone have any experience in doing a clean install with Vista x64 on the FZ series - or even more specifically - the FZ21M (UK - Europe)?

If so - any problems? And where did you get any drivers etc from as Sony don't support them from what they're telling me :S

I've considered it, but 32bit drivers DO NOT work in 64bit Vista, and thats a fact. Drivers must be written for the 64bit OS. So you will definitely lose a bunch of the hotkey functionality.

-----------

About the nVidia chip heat thing, I highly recommend anyone who games to let their laptop cool down (powered on - fans running) for 10 minutes before turning the computer off after long periods of gaming.

[grm0331]

Wow, this sucks... HDMI can output Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 from regular DVD's, On Blu Ray it appears that DTS MA can be down converted to DTS 5.1, but Dolby Digital TrueHD is downcoverted to two channel stereo. Most Blu Rays will now sound like crap on any decent Home theater.

Anybody have any ideas????

[slackfaster]

I'm hoping Sony extends our warranties on account of this or at least offers free repairs on a case by case situation.

My fz180e had a 8400gt failure -- Sony told me that to their knowledge there is NO PROBLEM w/ the 8400gt --- I tried arguing but they just said I was one month out of warranty and tough luck...

any one know a good place to get a new mother board?

[CatalinH]

hello
does any one know how can i make FN+F5 and FN+F6 work in vista 64 on a VGN-FZ21M
is there a driver for the keyboard?
another question: can someone provide a driver for the ALPS touchpad (for vista 64 bit and to be other that the one from dell)
if someone wants, i will attach some drivers for vista 64 (for VGN-FZ21M)

ow, the last question: this model supports EAX ?
in everest i have no EAX supported ...

[mrmadcat]

hello
does any one know how can i make FN+F5 and FN+F6 work in vista 64 on a VGN-FZ21M
is there a driver for the keyboard?
another question: can someone provide a driver for the ALPS touchpad (for vista 64 bit and to be other that the one from dell)
if someone wants, i will attach some drivers for vista 64 (for VGN-FZ21M)

ow, the last question: this model supports EAX ?
in everest i have no EAX supported ...

I have exactly the same model as you and had no success in finding any 64bit drivers - have you found some already? Even for the GFX card? If so - wer did u find them as I would appreciate any you could link me to or send me.

When I used Vista x64 I could not use Aero as I did not have the GFX card drivers. Have you overcome this?

Thanks
Simon Hunter