Did I mess up?

I know that for the most part, the answer to that question is almost always Yes when you get to the point of asking it here! Here is my current prediciment. I posted a few days ago about wanting to get rid of the AOL garbage on my new FZ440N. I was talking about it at work the following night and one of the IT guys said he could do it in an hour or so, so I sent my brand new computer home with him. I got it back today with No software on it at all! All he could do was appologize and say there was a problem and he screwed up. He offered to get me a full copy of Vista Business at his expense and help me install it, but he was not sure if all the drivers needed to make everything functional were available. My question is if there Are drivers available for everything and are the things like the A/V buttons, etc ever going work again? Help!!

Thanks,
TommyC

 

Sony.com, drivers. As long is it's the same version of Vista your laptop shipped with, shouldn't be any problems.

 

Did you make the System Restore DVD set that Sony instructs you to do when you first bought the machine? If so that is one possible way to restore your machine. Just pop in DVD #1 and reboot the machine. The other way is to power off, and back on. As soon as you power on hit the F10 key. This will start the process of reloading the system to it's out of the box state from a hidden recovery partition on the hard drive. (Unless of course the IDIOT from IT wiped that out too.)

When he said he "screwed up", did he tell you EXACTLY what he did? You really should ask and then cut off his ...


Gary

P.S. Sony will also sell you a set of System Restore DVD's which will do the same thing as either of the two options above.

 

Execpt it takes more than just drivers to get it back to normal. There are auxilary apps required as well. And Sony does not offer all of those for download for every model.

Gary

 

One final thing since this is an FZ model, you might want to try a clean install. I am pretty sure that my clean install guide for the FZ will work for you. See the link in my signature below for details. You should search that specific thread though to see if there are replies from other FZ440 models. I don't recall if there are or not.

Gary

 

Tommy, what version of vista came with the laptop? I would ask that guy for that version.

Then you can download and use the sony drivers without issue. Make sure you get the same version your laptop shipped with though!

If all else fails, I would contact Sony and have them do it...then charge the IT guy the expenses

 

If it's a brand new laptop, Sony tech support will be glad to send you a set of DVDs to recover your HD. Just give them a call. I kinda had a similar situation where I made copies of the recovery disks only to find out that they were bad, I called tech support -888 476-6972; new Disks in five days.

 

did they give you recovery DVDs or actual Vista DVDs?

 

Which do you think??? Sony has never provided anyone with anything other than recovery DVD's. The seas will part, and hell will freeze over the day they do otherwise.

Gary

 

Hi there,

I just purchase a Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E.
I could not get any fullscreen view from youtube, veoh and etc.
Could you help me to figure it out?
I would really appreciate it.

 

DO NOT HIJACK THREADS. If you can't find another thread about your specific problem, create a new one. But do not jump into the middle of a thread on another topic and ask a totally unrelated question.

Gary

 

Thanks for the help guys. The F10 option worked for me and I am now in the process of doing the system backup that I should have done before I did anything else! I think I will wait a few days and let my heart rate get back to normal before I mess with it any more! Then I will attempt a clean install as per the instructions you recommended.

 

Haha, glad to hear you got your machine back in order! But I second the motion to ask that guy what exactly he did. I'd be interested in knowing how an "Add/Remove program" click turns into a wiped disk, :laugh:

 

That only applies to the basic installation, right? I ordered Office 07 home/student, photoshop elements, and Vegas Pro 8 with my new FW. Am I incorrectly assuming they'll also send me the disks?

 

All he told me was that he was attempting to do a "semi-clean install" (?) and something caused it to freeze up. when he tried to start over he couldn't get it to do anything. Something necessary had been deleted or corrupted. I don't know enough about it to know what happened from that description. I do know that he will not get a second chance!

 

Looks like your IT guy does not know about sony's hidden partition, nor does he know about making a recovery disc before doing anything. I think you should educate him, for his sake.

 

Hurrah!!! Glad to hear you are breathing again!

Gary

 

No, you are not. Sony will send you NO disks at all. The unpacking instructions will tell you how to create a DVD recovery set. This set will allow you to restore the machine to its original "out of the box" state. (As will the hidden restore partition.)

Gary

 

"Ha! Instructions, I don't need no stinkin' instructions. I am an IT god, bow down at my feet..."

Sound familiar?

Gary

(An IT geek for 39 years!)

 

Great to hear you're back in sync.

Sony will send you the recovery DVDs, not VISTA. It is the same as if you were to make the recovery disks yourself.

 

Yes correct. sony will only send recovery dvd if there is problem with the hidden partition.

 

Will the standard recovery DVD restore my non-standard (additional $) software in addition to the OS and all the bloatware?

 

Yes, at least that is how it has been handled in the past. I am certain there will be SOME provision for restoring everything. But if you want specifics of how this particular case is handled you'll have to ask SonyStyle.

Gary