My TZ-Story -dissecting the TZ

[johannes-77]

Originally Posted by |SONY|

I am looking for the service manual myself. If you find it, please share it with the poor

BTW, where are you Hannover, Bremen or Hamburg?

Hi SONY!
Of course I will.
BTW: In Dortmund, but I might move to Hamburg in some month (or go back to Japan... not only for buying another Sony^^ depends on if they reissue my project... of course they will, but maybe they will think that I might be useful to this...)

Originally Posted by outie

Hi johannes-77, nice guide. Any idea if it's possible/easy to replace the LCD lid? I want to swap to a premium carbon fiber one. Thanks.

Hi Outie!
Thanx for your laud, mate.
I haven't looked into the lid-frame so far, as it looks really tight made and I had no reason for risking anything.
I will lookup my photos taken and maybe post them here into this thread. So just subscribe to it.

It really is a shame that Sony does not offer all mods they have in their "owners'-made"-product-line all over the world. I don't know why...
When I bought mine, I really thought about that some minutes:
a: buy the cheaper "black-plastic-finish" and do a carbon-mod myself?
b: buy the more expensive vaio-premium-carbon?

I chose the premium-carbon, because "Miste' Kohno" said that it is tougher as its not only faked carbonfibre but real carbon armed resin. It's true. You will find the same plating in the lower chassis of your case protecting the bottom-surface of your laptop from getting pierced.

If you do the mod, please post photos!
J.

[bladebeam1]

Fabulous guide. Thanks for sharing!

Speaking of the TX/TXN keyboard being the most durable, were the keys on those ever metal? I seem to remember checking out a metal-keyboarded TXN a year ago at Compusa, but my girlfriend just got one on eBay, and the keys are plastic.

[johannes-77]

Thanx mate!

Speaking about durability:
1. even worn off, the keyboard of the TZ looks nice. I'm not going to replace it, a l a I can read the letters ^^
2. it has already been said here in the forum: all surfaces of the TZ are reinforced with carbonfibre-sheets, no matter what finish or design-mod they have. That protects the guts of the notebook well against piercing injury.

But what about the scratchproofness of the surface?
Using a magnifier on my lid, I can clearly say: the premium-carbon plating is very tough and totaly scratchproof. The frame (normal glass-fibre-enforced resin) shows small scratches, but the nearby located carbon does not. I wonder why they did not build the whole lid in carbonfibre...

Comparing it to my girlfriend's Asus U1F the TZ looks a little oldfashioned and cheap. THe U1F is so shiny, so flat, so round-cornered! BUT:
1. the U1F has no optical drive
2. the U1F has the same weight
3. the U1F has 1 month after delivery already small scratches in the "piano-black"-finish.

Rock on!
Johannes

[agathos]

Thanks!!!! it was a great step-by-step, thorough and detailed description of opening up the vaio. I have finally installed a 3G HSDPA Mini PCI on my TZ 298 N/XC today, couldn't done it without your description there mate

Thanks Again

Cheers

[Jonasolof]

It should be possible to glue a sheet of carbon to the lid to make it more stable. Guess 2- 3 mm would be enough for it not to flex. And it wouldn't add wheight. But only if this still allows for removing the LCD screen. I need to replace mine 'cause it's cracked.

[meansizzler]

Note to OP the TV tuner is Mini PCI-Express, you can actually buy PAL DVB-T Tuners in that form factor..

[dekerna]

I owned the TZ18 model which has the 32GB SSD, 160GB Hard Disk and without DVD-ROM.

My model doesn't have the WWAN and TV tuner, and the Wifi is still based on Intel ABG 54mbps. I was looking for the following upgrades:

- European DVB Tuner
- Intel 496 ABGN Wifi
- perhaps 500GB Hard Disk (replaces the 160GB HD).

I have doubts in these upgrades because

- My model was shipped without WWAN and TV tuner, so I doubted the antenna is not built-in. Is it true? How do I find out the antenna is already built-in? Installing TV tuner without antenna is useless. That's why I need to be certain here.

- The Intel 496 Wifi has 3 antenna hooks whereas the original Intel ABG Wifi has only 2 hooks. Can it be upgraded at all?

- The 500GB capacity is probably more straightforward, but I won't do it unless one of the two upgrades above is feasible.

Please help if you have similar experiences.

-

[jl2424]

I need to exchange my HDD of my Vaio TZ. I already removed everything but now I don't know how to remove the cable from the HDD (please see the image attached). Do I have to remove the screws from the HDD box?

[Vaio TZ]

Originally Posted by jl2424

I need to exchange my HDD of my Vaio TZ. I already removed everything but now I don't know how to remove the cable from the HDD (please see the image attached). Do I have to remove the screws from the HDD box?

You need to remove the metal "cage" , 1 screw on the wireless card & usb ports . Its alot easier than it sounds .

This will give you enough room to flip the drive over & you will see a ZIF connector on the drive . You will need to use your fingernail to lift the black tab up , this will release the cable . The cable is very fragile so be very careful not to break it .

Heres a good tutorial on removing a zif drive .

http://www.digitalintelligence.com/s...ive_enclosure/

[jl2424]

Thank you for your reply and providing me the link. Anyways I still feel not able how to disconnect the cable from the HDD. I can flip around the HDD, even though I did not remove the screw on wireless card and USB ports. Could you please have a look at the attached image and tell me if that is the correct connector which I have to remove? And how I can remove it?