Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 (VPCZ1) Official Owners Thread Part 2

[sgreg]

Speaking of the finger print reader, has anyone gotten that thing to work. I was trying to calibrate it for fun and it could not read a finger print, from any finger. I don't really care, but I'm curious if I'm the only one. Maybe I have a good chance of being a spy...

It took me ages to registered my fingerprint. However, using the fingerprint reader afterward gives me no problem - you don't need to go as slow or as straight or complete as registration (which was an exercise in patience).

[TofuTurkey]

Does anyone know how to check if their BIOS us updated? ...

The BIOS version should be shown in the BIOS setup, you know, the one you can go to just after you press the power switch.

[odysseas]

Hello everyone,

Took the plunge and bought a z12, with an i5 and 128Gb SSD and non-FHD.
I was very excited till I came home and started playing. I'm an IT pro and after 15 years of messing around with pc's, I have never ever got that many Blue Screens of Death!!! I would appreciate any help and wisdom offered.
I've managed to reproduce the problem which often occurs when changing the font dpi scaling, during the logoff cycle - however not always, but very very often. I reinstalled the system software from the recovery partition twice, but this didn't cure it. Uninstalled many useless programs etc, but no cure. Let me note that if my observations are correct it mostly occurs when in stamina mode. Actually only then! I'll try to reproduce the BSOD in speed mode as well, but not happened yet.
When first booted it, it happened after a while, and then I couldn't even install any programs at all, 'cause it was giving me BSOD every few minutes!
Please help!

LAST FINDINGS: Checked it again and again. BSOD occur only in stamina mode. Video drivers are all up to date. Now installing unofficial latest driver, hoping this might fix things.

[ianmsmith]

As an IT Pro, but in a completely different and unhelpful area, I have no specialist knowledge. However, the combination of stamin mode (Nvidia card "on") and DPI adjustments would (probably stating the obvious here) point the finger at video drivers or something closely linked. I know we're not supposed to use NVidia drivers, but is it worth checking that all the drivers are as up to date as they should be (I presume there is a Sony update app)

[ianmsmith]

I'd also do a full memory check, including on the NVidia chip if you can, as I've been hit by that one before.

[odysseas]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.
To ianmsmithL: Ian, how could I run an NVIDIA memory check. Have you got any utilities to suggest, if it's not too much trouble (I'll also google it)?

Latest unofficial drivers did NOT work!
Definitely happens in stamina mode only (or in Auto - apparently when it switches to stamina)!

[TigerBone]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.
To ianmsmithL: Ian, how could I run an NVIDIA memory check. Have you got any utilities to suggest, if it's not too much trouble (I'll also google it)?

Latest unofficial drivers did NOT work!
Definitely happens in stamina mode only (or in Auto - apparently when it switches to stamina)!

I would link it to a hardware fault. The drivers should be up to date can you list the driver version your running so other member and myself on this forum can compare to the drivers we're running. If anyone else is running the same drivers less the BSOD it can simply be a bad video card or something else possibly hardware related. And i wouldn't hesitate to send it back ASAP.

[odysseas]

Drivers version is the latest 8.16.11.8880.
I agree TigerBone, it's a Sony visit time I suppose!

[TigerBone]

Drivers version is the latest 8.16.11.8880.
I agree TigerBone, it's a Sony visit time I suppose!

Yep I'm running the exact same drivers and never BSOD from day one. I wouldn't settle, in fact this is my third Z first one was a Z11 changed my mind to get windows 7 Pro. In between the return was a Z12 refresh in which the first one rec'd had a dead pixel on the FHD screen, and then finally the one I have now. In the end I gained the Z12 refresh with the i7, 8GB of Ram(Orig 6GB) GPS (Orig None),256SSD, Adobe bundle which i use and love, Office 2010 Home and business (Orig 2007 no outlook) for $250 less. Who knows they may refresh during your return

[motomeup]

I've been having this restarting problem with my Z12 that I just picked up a month ago. So I turned off sleep and hibernate and left my laptop on with only google chrome opened. If I leave my computer on overnight, it will always, without fail, have crashed and rebooted itself. Then in the bottom left I get a message saying Intel Rapid Storage Technology failed.

This shows up when I open the thing


I already took it into Sony for repairs and they gave me an entirely new SSD (I have 2x128GB).

Anybody else have this and/or knows how to solve it?