CR220E xp downgrade: impossible??

Dear everyone,

Please share your experiences with downgrading to XP on the CR220E. I called customer service who said they will never offer xp drivers. The download pages from the UK and Asia are close but do not specifically support the CR220E model.

Sony Asia seems to have the best potential drivers:

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/do...category/it+personal+computer?site=hp_en_AP_i

Yet it says it's for the CR2-series but does not list the CR220E. Does anyone see ethernet drivers in there? My main problem was not being able to load the ethernet driver after loading XP (I know it's Realtek but I couldn't find the model number), so I'm back to square one with crappy Vista again. I love this computer but I'll have to return it if it's incompatible with XP. Had no idea it would be so difficult... and I would definitely not have bought if it I knew.

Please be as specific as possible about which drivers will work, and which ones will not. Your help is appreciated.

p.s. please email me if anything good comes up.

 

Attention Frustrated Sony Vaio VGN-CD220E Owners:

I too, have looked seemingly hopelessly for the Vaio VGN-CR220E XP drivers. I found them, no thanks to Sony, after 2 days of searching the interwebs. Instead of complaining about how they do not provide for or support Windows XP drivers, I did their job for them. Please help me spread the word in other forums to aid fellow Sony customers who are undergoing this same quest. I never did find the camera driver, primarily due to not knowing the make/model of the camera. If anyone knows it please post or email me.

* Go here for the chipset and graphics drivers.

* Go http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...753&DwnldID=13000&iid=homepage+dc_wireless_xp for Intel Wireless Network drivers.

* Go here for the Network driver.

* Go http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false for the audio driver.

I never found a driver for the camera. Let me know if you have any questions.

Jim in Seattle, WA

 

Thanks Jim,



I believe the camera driver (VGP-VCC6) is here:

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/232001/sectionfirst?site=hp_en_AP_i&subpage=detail

I haven't tested it yet but it's the identical driver module as in vista.

Also, in my case, my ethernet card is the Realtek RTL8101E family PCI-E family. My laptop is the VGN-CR220E/W, perhaps the cards vary by model. The driver can be found here:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...d=7&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

I will post from XP just as soon as I find the time to downgrade.

 

Will you loose functionality of the quick buttons?
ex. AV Mode/Mute/Volume +/-/Capture/Display off/ play/stop/next/prev.?

 

I'm inclined to say NO, since I have done a fresh install of Vista using only the most basic functional drivers listed above, and all of these quick buttons work. My PgUp/PgDn, Home, and End keys work. However, brightness or hibernate do not work. But I think you can grab the sony software as per this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=213580

and get everything working again. For me, if avoiding sony software means losing brightness control, then so be it. I'll report once I've switched.

 

I'm pleased as punch to tell everyone that it's working great. Yes, all the quick buttons work. Brightness still does not.

I had problems with the audio codecs mentioned above (audio was not working). Just pull them off of the Sony Asia site. Also had to go back to the intel site and get some kind of updated thingy (_ _ hub?) for the chipset driver. This is such a fine laptop when it's running a decent OS. Fast!

Dear Sony: Get a clue. It's apparent that you're not in touch with your consumer base. When I looked at the specs to buy this laptop, it said "comes with MS Vista," not "comes with an OS which is painfully hard if not impossible to change." I would call this a malfunctioning product. Why make a move that will only piss off the techies by doing extra work to remove common OS support? We are the types of people that others ask product recommendations from. We are the people that also post recommendations and advice online, and aggravated posts which say things like SONY SUCKS and VAIO SUCKS, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BUY A TOSHIBA OR A DELL.

 

yea yea! what he said...

 

If anyone was trying to adjust their monitor brightness, it can be found in the "Intel Graphics Media Driver for Mobile" package (which pops up w/ Ctrl-Alt-F12 if its installed), under Color. It looks like there's a way to bind it to a hotkey. I also found a good shareware program with tons of other functions too, called powerstrip, that can do the same thing and more.

 

I have cr290
all works except brightness (it's showing on OSD but nothing change)
If u need help write me

 

Ive been lurking here for a few days ever since my wife got this new cr220e (blue). Due to the posts above and the posts regarding the VGN-SZ & AR models, XP Pro is up & running on this thing just fine. The Brightness does not work (the screen shows it going up & down, but nothing happens.)

It worked with a splattering of different drivers from various places but meowmix's and prefabricated posts pretty much sum it up. good stuff.

 

I bought a VGN-NR220E and Ialso got the same response from Sony´s call center - Your Vaio only works with Vista. I have a lot of softwares that only works with XP and willnot expend thousands of dollars to replace them. Do you know if the drivers for CR220E are the same for NR220E ?

Claudio in Brazil

 

Contact me on ICQ - 53686943
i'll help u

 

I do not have ICQ, could be MSN?

 

I too would like to downgrade to Windows XP. I have the VGN-CR220E/R model.

I contacted Sony telling them they I was on the U.K website, and they recently released drivers for XP because of all of the complaints they got about XP.

Sony got back to me and told me that my model cannot be downgraded.

I don't have ICQ, I've tried to install it today, but it told me that the service was temp. unavailable.

Can you help me also to downgrade my computer?

Thanks

 

first and foremost i would like to thank those individuals who posted up those helpful links to drivers.

I do have a question, how are you guys adjusting your brightnesses?
The viao battery manager seems to allow me to adjust the settings in the program but it doesnt seem to change the laptop itself.

 

OH also...is it possible to do a dual boot? because im starting to look into things and its as if the recovery disc will only allow you to create partitions but it will override XP. Ugh why does windows have to be so complicated sometimes?

What i'd ultimately love to be able to do is choose to either run XP or Vista.

 

Hi, I google searched about downgrading to XP for my fire departments CR220E, red, and found this site. The city we are operating out of paid their IT guy 700+ dollars to install XP pro on here and it still isn't complete. But anyway is there anyway I can add back the memory stick readers? I have been able to get most of the rest of the drivers that he lacked in finding and some that were not even close to being right. But thanks for all the helpful information so far, I have really enjoyed it. Later TNMedic

 

hi there, buddy...

same problem ;(

unfortunately I cannot return the laptop.
I´ve got the same computer as you, and we are a good bunch of "unhappy" customers.

Asia has the cr2 series support, but not all of them seem to work
so I am using half the features of my laptop.
I even consider going back to crappy Vista.

did you manage to get any better drivers?
a link will be sufficient
thanks a lot in advance
alvarof

 

I've finally downgraded to XP...Again, I'm running the SONY vaio CR220E.

My only problem right now is that, I don't get any sound from the camera.

Any Ideas? Better driver or something?

Let me know.

Thanks

 

Hey

First, for those of you who can't control brightness, I told you how to do it using the Intel Graphics Media accelerator taskbar utility on the first page of this forum. It's a slight pain but will save your battery if you need it. If you don't have it installed, just go and find it on the intel site.

From Sony-Asia downgrade site:
Intel model:
1. AV Mode Button can not be used.
2. Instant On mode can not be used.
3. Fn+F5 and Fn+F6(Brightness control) can not be used.

I don't know if the memory stick can be used but it is the only thing not showing up in device manager. I tried the "memory stick hotfix" with no luck. I think it should work, probably after installing all of that software listed on the sony-asia site. The card controller is the texas instruments driver as listed, and the $ony stick driver is proprietary so it probably comes bundled w/ other software. I would guess that the SD card reader works without problem. I personally will never have use for those cards (just use USB sticks they're cheap and spacious) but people must need them for camcorders, etc.

I also cannot seem to get my built in microphone to work. Why it's not linked with the realtek audio is beyond me. But, I have not had the patience to install all of the vaio junk that I never did install and test it out... I would bet it works after a sequential install of all that stuff. I would install in the order they have it listed in, it seems to be logical and I know people have problems when not installing in the right order. If anyone has any success (or failure) doing this, please report.

Also if anyone can give me some good reasons to install any of the vaio junk (sonyNC, image conversion, shared library, utilities DLL, setting utility,control center,event scheduler, power management), I'd be curious to know why. My system works well without it. I installed the wireless switch setting utility and it works well.

BTW, it looks like people have had more success installing Ubuntu than XP, i.e. hardware and function keys are working in many cases.

 

Everything seems to be working now for me...Before I was missing the icon for the memory stick under windows explorer, but I was able to fix that.

I haven't tested my built in microphone, would that be the reason why I don't get sound when I use the camera utility?

Has anyone got their built in microphone to work? I'll test it when I get home.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Do you know how you got the memory stick driver? Because I don't have it, and the "memory stick icon hotfix" did nothing for me. Did you install all of the software on that list? Please elaborate for everyone.

 

I have the NR220 and the memory stick hotfix did nothing for me either. However the reader itself does indeed work. My camera & psp use those cards. I figure I should be able to find a work around for the icon.

 

I found this, and this is what I did:

Step seven: the missing memory stick icon
The annoying 'blank' memorystick icon... luckily there are people on the web looking into stuff like this and publishing solutions. It's actually quite simple:
Copy snymsico.dll to your C:\WINDOWS\
Edit registry (run > regedit): HKLM > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > AutoPlayHandlers > DeviceGroups > MemoryStick
Set Icons to %SystemRoot%\snymsico.dll,0
Set NoMediaIcons to %SystemRoot%\snymsico.dll,1

After doing the above, the icon showed up. If you have anymore questions, please ask....

BTW, does your built in mic work? I'm going to test to see if mine works...I know that I don't get sound when using the Camera Utility. I think it says that I have to use an external mic...i'll see what happens

 

okay, built in mic doesn't work...

Anyone have a working driver for this?

Let me know

Thanks

 

Well I guess my question to Osi and Koolcat is, did you install all the vaio software or not? I'm looking in Device Manager and seeing a 'Mass Storage Controller' with no driver assigned to it. Do you see a driver? Can you share it or give us the name?

I have no memory stick to test mine nor any use for it, but I just want to help these unhappy firefighters or whatever who posted before that can't use their memory sticks. Personally I would steer clear of this hardware: SonyMagicGate=painful DRM

Has anyone tested the SD card?

EDIT: I found the card driver here and it works. Memory stick icon hotfix did not work, had to use koolcat's suggestion.

 

Hey my built in mic works. I double clicked the taskbar speaker, properties, mixer device > realtek input, adjust volume for > recording, and make sure mic volume was checked below. I think what might have done it is going to 'advanced' under the mic volume slot in Master Volume and checking Microphone boost. Before, XP was not detecting it. It's still not very sensitive.

 

Hi Masterross. I have recently bought a CR290. And as a good half geek, I have destroyed my recovery partition and have not made recovery disks (reading all posts about the RDs, dont think it wld hv helped anyway). I am downloading the VGN-CR2 drivers from the sony-asia site. It mentions all drivers. But does it work with CR290? If not, what are my options. Is there anyway you can upload the drivers (probable emule,etc)?. Would really apprecaite it. Need all the help I can get.
Thanks

 

hey Meowmix

I did what you said, and now the mic works!!!! YAY!!

Thanks

But yeah, it is very low...oh well, it works.

 

I tested the SD reader and everything is GOOD!!!

Thanks again