Hi All,

Just bought VPCZ115GG, the cheapest Z series. Funny part is.... this model does not come with optical drive duhhhh Maybe they wanted to keep this model to 1.4kg limit and sub 6K notebook. Next model which has it (116) is about 1.7K more which has less storage size but faster (SSD + RAID), extra 2GB RAM and optical drive.

I've been looking for external slim DVDRW. Sony has it but in specification page it requires AC adapter. Anybody can suggest other brand which is USB powered? I still like Sony (coz of matching brand ) but carrying two AC adapters will contribute to overall carrying weight and the hassle to find power point just to use the optical.

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by Bugeca: Mar 30 2010, 12:25 AM

There is nothing there, just an empty space. You can see the metal (some kind of metal chassis) thru the air vent. The slot is covered nicely with a blank plate. Been thinking to find the part and put it inside there but have to wait till the warranty period over and if I could find the original drive.

Hahahahah thanks for the clarification. No wonder I keep thinking how the hell Sony managed to squeeze the hard disk. Ok... last idea scrapped. Now where did I put the price list?

But the price tag double of the Y series.

Anyone here using the Z11* series, I've got one question here, when the keyboard backlit activated, did your letter "A" key is brighter than the rest of the keys?

Thanks

I just bought a DVDRW drive. Sensonic brand (using TEAC drive). There are a lot of brand out there in the market, it's up to you which one do you like most. I bought Sensonic because of it's a slot loading drive and the design and color mostly matched to Z115 color scheme (glossy black on top and silver at the bottom). Performance wise, can't expect much on optical using USB powered.

Basically, all the slim drives are roughly same in dimension and weight. Advantage to a drive which does not required AC adapter. Minus one burden there. Drive with tray loading cannot be the slimmest.

So far, only LiteOn Top Load drive is the slimmest but it's a top loading, not to my liking. LG is the best looking tray loading drive. Sensonic, the one I bought is the only slot loading drive. Asus is bulky. Other brand easily available in market are Samsung, Fujitsu, Buffalo. All these are the external slim drive.

My decision on purchasing Sensonic was not based on proprietary technology advantages one brand has compared with other because basically all drive have the same technology, only the names are different. My purchased was solely based on looks, color and practicality, not the extra goodies (software) bundled and brand influence.

This post has been edited by Bugeca: Apr 4 2010, 07:45 PM

Do you install any device driver (3rd party)? I've got blue screen thrice before I found out the culprit. I'm using Win7 64 bit. The problem was Option Globetrotter 3G express card. Seems the driver is not well polish. Funny part is... they claimed Windows 7 compatible. The blue screen won't appear as long as I do not connect to internet using the card more than couple of hours; more than that even with the notebook idling with no running programs, I'm sure I will be greeted with this infamous blue wallpaper

From the blue screen, can you identify any useful info?

Well I'm not sure on the scratch part. Coz the unit is in the bagpack all the time. I think it can stand the abuse in many years before it looks dated. So far so good, managed to burn the recovery disc set (4 DVDs) without any error. About the weight, it feel almost like other slim drive and maybe a few grams lighter because of the exclusion of the loading tray. FYI, Sensonic does not comes with well known mastering software like Nero, Cyberlink etc. Just a freeware Burnaware which can be downloaded from the net.

Buffalo, looks like other normal slim drive. Not sure bout the performance though. It comes with two colors right? Black and white. The best part is it has two years warranty. Size wise, slimmer than ordinary slim tray loader, maybe you can take a look on LG? But could not find more color choices, only silver available.



This post has been edited by Bugeca: Apr 8 2010, 05:02 PM

The not so nice about Sony slim drive is you need to carry along the adapter. That's turned me off What's the point having a notebook but you still need to find a powerpoint just to use the drive.... Pity Sony

Even from ur picture above u can see two cables at the rear of the drive, one is connected to the netbook, the other ?????

I did not notice it from my unit. So far I set the battery to charge up to 80% only (default VAIO Care setting). I still got the same % on the next day. Maybe a few + & - but not up to 10%. BTW, all the time I only hibernated my notebook.

My last real time battery test was yesterday. Saturday night, full charge it to 80%, on Sunday, hang out at Kopitiam from 11AM till 3PM, running battery, stamina mode with wifi. Put into hibernation when it reached 7% juice left. Mostly I did not pay much attention on the battery percentage, just how long it can be used until the battery depleted.

This post has been edited by Bugeca: Apr 12 2010, 02:18 PM

Let me check mine, all this while, I never check the percentage. If I'm not mistaken, I left my notebook fully charged before put it back into the bag @ 11PM last night.

This post has been edited by Bugeca: Apr 12 2010, 05:00 PM

Yep, it does discharge. Just checked as of writing this reply. 5% gone from lat night.

Well for me I can live with it. Now at 10PM and I still have another 1hr 22min to go (+-35%). Seems that the battery is not giving an accurate reading to windows. The 1 hour reading has been there since 1 hour ago... , by right I should have 30min or so left.

Other notebook also has their own specific problem. Been using Latitude for almost two years till now (company asset), there is one buzzing sound near the notebook ac adapter socket since day one either plugged in or not. All other Latitude in my company has this unpleasant sound.

My ex-Satellite (now with my brother) has optical drive problem just one week after the warranty period. It started to be picky on the media. Funny part is, I seldom use the drive. Only using it during the installation of applications and that was after recovery process.

My company is Dell hardcore fan. Their built quality, I would say different across models. We have all the Dell models except Alienware n Adamo. Latitude is a good notebook but XPS was top of the list for being the worst. Imagine 10 units of our XPS have changed almost every parts from mobo, hard disk, battery, LCD, memory.... all less than a year under moderate usage (only senior management using this model). Their support response is the only reason we stick with em.

Wifey company using HP. The ex unit which is NX6XXX series and the newer unit Elitebook has this same problem. It took nearly 7 - 10 minutes to wake up from 4GB hibernation and the bluetooth stack was not so great.

Hope our problem will be remedied by the next BIOS / drivers update.

Keep us posted on the finding.

Nope. Standard package.

Yep, I did not have that.

The cleaning cloth is use to clean the RAID SSD, too fast till tersumbat ahahahha

If Z115 got cash back RM500, arghhhh.... Sure I'll bang my head to the wall, can get SEW using the discount and yet still paying the retail price

Yup, extend the warranty after 3 days purchased the notebook. Forgot about it when grabbing the notebook. Luckily, Sony CS informed that the SEW can be purchased within 30 days.