~Sony SZ Owners Lounge~

[leslieann]

Sounds like the port has been damaged, they are only rated for 1500 insertions, but can be damaged sooner than that.
Inside it is a separate board that you can get off Ebay. Here you can get them for $5 with free shipping (search "Sony SZ USB").

There is a slight difference between a USB 1.1 and a USB 2.0 socket, though minor, they do make a difference, that may be damaged, or the controller chip for the two may have been damaged on one side.

Either way it is clearly a hardware issue, with luck a cheap Ebay part will fix it. Unfortunately getting to that board requires quite a lot of work and dismantling, but it's nothing difficult. Dig up a service manual, order the part, then have at it. Try and organize your screws as there will be A LOT of them. Other than battery, HD, and DVD, I swear the screws make up the bulk of the remaining weight on this laptop. Sony really worked to fit everything in and create a sturdy chassis.

If you aren't using it, I would take that time to remove the extra mini pci-e port and WWAN card while there. Might give you a little extra battery life.

[DetlevCM]

Sounds like the port has been damaged, they are only rated for 1500 insertions, but can be damaged sooner than that.
Inside it is a separate board that you can get off Ebay. Here you can get them for $5 with free shipping (search "Sony SZ USB").

There is a slight difference between a USB 1.1 and a USB 2.0 socket, though minor, they do make a difference, that may be damaged, or the controller chip for the two may have been damaged on one side.

Either way it is clearly a hardware issue, with luck a cheap Ebay part will fix it. Unfortunately getting to that board requires quite a lot of work and dismantling, but it's nothing difficult. Dig up a service manual, order the part, then have at it. Try and organize your screws as there will be A LOT of them. Other than battery, HD, and DVD, I swear the screws make up the bulk of the remaining weight on this laptop. Sony really worked to fit everything in and create a sturdy chassis.

If you aren't using it, I would take that time to remove the extra mini pci-e port and WWAN card while there. Might give you a little extra battery life.

You can switch the WWAN card off via the Vaio Smart Network Utility...

[leslieann]

You can switch the WWAN card off via the Vaio Smart Network Utility...

Not on Windows 7 64bit.

Smart Utility crashes 64bit Win7, though I found a replacement, "off" isn't the same as using no power.

[DetlevCM]

Not on Windows 7 64bit.

Smart Utility crashes 64bit Win7, though I found a replacement, "off" isn't the same as using no power.

Did you check recently? About 2-3 months ago I found that Sony provides 64Bit drivers for the SZ too.

[caurusapulus]

Sounds like the port has been damaged, they are only rated for 1500 insertions, but can be damaged sooner than that.
Inside it is a separate board that you can get off Ebay. Here you can get them for $5 with free shipping (search "Sony SZ USB").

There is a slight difference between a USB 1.1 and a USB 2.0 socket, though minor, they do make a difference, that may be damaged, or the controller chip for the two may have been damaged on one side.

Either way it is clearly a hardware issue, with luck a cheap Ebay part will fix it. Unfortunately getting to that board requires quite a lot of work and dismantling, but it's nothing difficult. Dig up a service manual, order the part, then have at it. Try and organize your screws as there will be A LOT of them. Other than battery, HD, and DVD, I swear the screws make up the bulk of the remaining weight on this laptop. Sony really worked to fit everything in and create a sturdy chassis.

If you aren't using it, I would take that time to remove the extra mini pci-e port and WWAN card while there. Might give you a little extra battery life.

Thought it was an hardware trouble...
I'll search for a new USB board, hoping it is 5$

[leslieann]

Did you check recently? About 2-3 months ago I found that Sony provides 64Bit drivers for the SZ too.

Seriously, their Windows 7 64bit support is a joke.
They only put those there to make it look like they did something and calm the people who were raging over their current support policy for it.

Don't even bother with the stuff on their site. If you want a fully working SZ, or as close as possible, try the link in my sig. On the SZ750, I have it working 100% as if it came from the factory. Everything works, as much as I can test. I can confirm turning on the WWAN, but not conform it connecting, as I don't use it. Everything else works 100%. Other models have varying results, but most are quite happy with what they ended up with.

If you need full 100%, on some models I recommend 32bit as you can use the Vista drivers and such, but most will do fine with 64bit. The Camera, WWAN, and brightness adjustment are the most common problems in 64bit, everything else seems to work on all SZ's.

[leslieann]

Update, I just looked at the Sony page, it seems they have uploaded a lot more than before.

Expect a guide update soon.
Unfortunately I still do not see a webcam driver. They may have uploaded one to Microsoft though.

[DetlevCM]

Seriously, their Windows 7 64bit support is a joke.
They only put those there to make it look like they did something and calm the people who were raging over their current support policy for it.

Don't even bother with the stuff on their site. If you want a fully working SZ, or as close as possible, try the link in my sig. On the SZ750, I have it working 100% as if it came from the factory. Everything works, as much as I can test. I can confirm turning on the WWAN, but not conform it connecting, as I don't use it. Everything else works 100%. Other models have varying results, but most are quite happy with what they ended up with.

If you need full 100%, on some models I recommend 32bit as you can use the Vista drivers and such, but most will do fine with 64bit. The Camera, WWAN, and brightness adjustment are the most common problems in 64bit, everything else seems to work on all SZ's.

Update, I just looked at the Sony page, it seems they have uploaded a lot more than before.

Expect a guide update soon.
Unfortunately I still do not see a webcam driver. They may have uploaded one to Microsoft though.

I'm sticking with using recovery discs and cleaning them up
On my old laptop with that horror called XP my experience was that my clean instal was always slower than a recovery...

And Sony doesn't officially support WIn7 on the SZ why should they to be honest - I suppose one could argue they should support their proprietary stuff...
Its nice that they put of 64 But drivers though - not something they need to do.

You buy a laptop as an "as is product" with no guarantee of support beyond the original platform - however it does reflect positively on the company if they offer support beyond that.

[leslieann]

I'm sticking with using recovery discs and cleaning them up
On my old laptop with that horror called XP my experience was that my clean instal was always slower than a recovery...

And Sony doesn't officially support WIn7 on the SZ why should they to be honest - I suppose one could argue they should support their proprietary stuff...
Its nice that they put of 64 But drivers though - not something they need to do.

You buy a laptop as an "as is product" with no guarantee of support beyond the original platform - however it does reflect positively on the company if they offer support beyond that.

Rarely is a recovery actually faster, so long as you can put everything back that is needed. Desktops are always better with a clean install, notebooks it usually is, but there are exception.

The problem with Sony not providing drivers is that some of their stuff is EXTREMELY difficult to find drivers for. Like the T.I. memory stick driver and the webcam. Not to mention the WWAN and dual graphics cards both being almost entirely custom built.


Which brings me to the update on the new stuff.
Sony did it again.

There is still no wwan support, they still have not included a webcam driver that works, they haven't put up the drive parking, battery care, and still no 64bit memory stick driver, which is a Sony proprietary format. They could at least support their own formats. Worse though, they pretty much posted a bunch of junk, that doesn't offer any more functionality than they did 3 months ago, brightness still won't work. That is, IF you can get the software to install. VERY fickle software.

If they don't want to support the SZ, which for some of us was only a year old when Win7 came out and was the most expensive model they offered, fine. Just say so. All they have done is give people false hope that they can get a decent working laptop, which means they go out and buy Windows 7, wipe out their drive only to find a crippled machine.

Don't bother with the crap Sony has posted. It's useless.

[drummo]

Hi Leslieann,

I am about to try to upgrade my 32 bit Vista SZ79GN (from Asia/Pacific region)(4gig ram) with a new HDD and windows 7 to use, to some extent, as a back-up for my z which runs the 64 bit version of Win 7.
Your really helpful posts seem to suggest that the 32 bit upgrade, using Vista drivers will be simpler and probably more successful than trying to upgrade to 64 bit. However, do you think it would be worth persevering and trying to get a 64 bit install working i.e. are the benefits of having a 64 bit system on an SZ with 4 gig of ram worth the additional effort?

Thanks,

John