Sony Vaio SZ1XP performance problems

[warble]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new Sony laptop owner and I've just discovered this very informative forum so I thought I'd join in!

I bought a Sony Vaio SZ1XP last week and whilst I'm pleased with the build quality, the general performance seems to be a bit lacking when running demanding software, eg Cubase Sl, with performance not much better than my old 1.8 GHz desktop (with only 512 MB of memory!).

I downloaded and ran CPUZ, which reported that the RAM (1GB) is running at 266MHz, rather than the 533MHz it's supposed to be.

I wonder if anyone else has the same problem; I'd be grateful for any feedback.

All the best

warble

[tonybeard]

Welcome to the forum Warbles
Defragment over and over till the system defrags in 30 seconds using either the MS Defrag or Perfect Disk. Also use Tune Up Utilities 2006 from Tune Up trial and do all it reccommends especially the system advisor scan. This can determine if your memory is working properly or not but above all check for spyware using adaware or spybot.

[jimhudson]

I get exactley the same problem with the memory - I will be interested to hear what you discover about this

The FSB also reports as running at 167 Mhz with a bus speed of 667 - is everyone else getting thsi - maybe the software is at fault not the hardware, or my interpretation of the results.

The only other complaint I have is a minor degree of flex around the D key on the keyboard - anyone else getting this ?

Otherwise - fantastic product

[warble]

Thanks for the welcome, TonyBeard!

I've tried your helpful suggestions, but no real improvement. I should add that this is a very new machine, and it isn't connected to the net, so spyware is not an issue. I'm going to download (on another machine) the free trial version of the Tune Up program you mentioned, and I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks a lot for your help, it's much appreciated.

All the best

Warble

[rraguram]

I've recently bought the Sony VAIO SZ1XP laptop and so far it seems good for the bucks. But, recently after installing few apps, I'm seeing a slight performance delay with some cracking noise ... (which ususally happens with low memory).

BTW, I have installed Google System Monitor plugin and most of the time, it shows the memory is 50-70% full.

Anyone real performance measuring tool to capture the internal process and monitor the performace? Also let us know abt your system performance.

Cheers

[warble]

Hi all

haven't managed to solve the peformance issues at all, and there is another problem-the optical drive isn't working properly-CD write speed should be 24x, but it's only ~4x.

Anyone else had this problem? I'm going to return it to Sony Centre where I bought it and see what they say.

Cheers, Warble

[tonybeard]

the write speed is either 4x or 8x with some of the destops sporting 16x you have confused the read speed. If tune-up hasn't improved thing you have some serious problems . Try CHKDSK/F in the command prompt and restart. You defragmented yeah as that is the best way to get performance

[warble]

Hi Tonybeard, I haven't confused the write speed , the sony tech guys confirmed that the CD-R write speed IS 24X.

Perhaps I'm revealing my ignorance here, but what is this CHKDSK/F command and what does it do?

warble

[kee-lo_]

CD-R writing speed of 24x is pretty acceptable, and is good for a portable drive.

CHKDSK /F checks the disk and fixes errors

[warble]

Actual writing speed is 16 x maximum, and according to Sony tech (who are absolutely useless and clueless, and took 5 days to check with the engineers in Belgium) this is within spec. It means that the copy process takes more than twice the time it takes using a desktop CD writer. Is it normal for a laptop CD writer to be this slow?

Is it related to the slower hard disc drive (5400) compared to Desktop (7200)?

As for general sluggishness of the machine, I seem to have improved this (at least for Cubase performance) by firstly uninstalling all the Norton software and the "Free Trial" software, and then serially defragmenting as suggested by TonyBeard.

Does anyone know of any benchmarking/testing software that can give me a quantitative assessment of the laptop performance?

warble