Downgrade Any Sony Vaio To Xp (very Important Thread)

well i still can't get the fn keys to work. But what i noticed id that when i did a clean vista install it didn't work also...weird

 

Hey, Thanks for this guide.
I have just downgraded a Sony Vaio VGN-NR32Z using the drivers and applications packs for FZ3 series. But I had to download audio drivers from Z1 series because FZ3 has Sigmatel audio inside and mine has Realtek as Z1.

Issues I have not been able to solve yet:
1 - S1 and A/V buttons not working
2 - Some functions keys not working (brightness...)
Sony doesn't help --> http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?template=EN&news_id=221

I know some of you have the same problem.

Edit: For people with NR series check Latin America Sony website. They have all XP drivers for NR series. Check hardware for compatibility if your model is not listed. Example: http://esupport.sony.com/LA/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNNR350FE&LOC=3

 

Well for S1 and A/V functions you just have to go to sony control panel and configure tey keys there, abut brightness keys thats an unsolved problem, francis997 and I have been looking for what i think is the cause of the problem, windows XP lcd screen drivers, it is actualy using default monitor because sony doesn't provide the display drivers (i realy don't know if this is intentional or not) i belive that with the right drivers it would work. Unfortunatly i don't remember if factory installed vista had sony drivers for the display or not, if im able to backup my complete HD (in order to go back to xp asap) ill use the system restore disk to reinstall factory defaults and see what it has.

I'm curious about one thing, why did you use FZ drivers? i think that asia site has drivers for NR, couldn't you find a similar model?

 

Because there are no downgrade XP drivers and applications for NR in the list

Good luck with the lcd drivers. It would be good to enable those fn keys I am going to try to do it now using Latin America site applications and a driver I didn't see before: Sony Programmable I/O Control Device Driver Utility (sonypi.inf). Edit: This driver doesn't seem to fit anywhere in my Vaio. I suppose it is not applicable, but I downloaded it as for NR series

 

In vista i got the Fn keys working, with the US utils for another model name with the same specs.
Ill try doing this also for xo, to see if it works, or unpacking these us drivers...seeing if i can get them to work under Xp.

 

grupoapunte,

Thanks man!
I have the VGN-FZ240E, any idea which model I should use on the sony asia pacific site? And, Do I have to F6 my drivers during the XP install? Because so far without your method I have been stuck at the screen that tells you to insert the disk labeled "Intel Matrix Storage Manager" into the A: Drive.

Respect

 

Hi Francis,

Could you post which drivers you used for your FW? I've searched everywhere (including this post and the asia site) and I'm not finding anything. I don't need the FN or S keys, just the basics.

I'm getting an VGN-FW190EDH

thanks, Shnoogie

 

I'm not sure, i never tyed that way but i belive you have to put the drivers in a floppy in order for that to work, i realy suggest you use nLite it will be realy easy.

To find a suitable model i recomend that you enter the asia site shop and look for the models and click compare, this way you will see a table with the specs.

GL!

 

I ran this downgrade and was largely successful and really appreciate all of the time that the forum community has taken to document all of hese steps.

I ran into one problem that I haven't resolved yet. I get a runtime error when I try to run some of the VAIO utilities. If I launch Power Management, I get an Visual C++ error running SPMgr.exe. Likewise, I get a similar error when launching the VAIO Control Center.

Did I miss installing something? I feel like I've almost got everything working, but it looks like the core of these utilities isn't quite right.

Thanks!

(Vaio Z570)

 

Anyone know which "Asian" model I should use if I follow this thread's directions and have a VGN-FW190? It looks like my choices are VGN-FW12G, VGN-FW13GU, VGN-FW15G, and VGN-FW17GU... I wonder what the differences are?

 

Looks like I need help, I guess. I'm at the site that was linked to in the first post. When I punch in VGN-FW, four choices pop up (VGN-FW12G, VGN-FW13GU, VGN-FW15G, and VGN-FW17GU). I have a VGN-FW190. I can't seem to find the page that looks like http://www.sony-asia.com/support/dow...ite=hp_en_AP_i
that grupoapunte got his drivers from. The pages I'm looking at only have four upgrade program version downloads with no mention of drivers or applications. PLEASE HELP!!

 

The theory is that all FW laptops bascially have the same hardware, the only differences being CPU, RAM, HD (none of which are driver related), and the video card (both drivers are available). The rest of the internals would be the same, hence, the drivers should work.

gore.m on another thread was kind enough to put together a FW XP driver pack that seems to be working pretty well, except no Fn keys.

Get it here and it is the 19th post.

Shnoogie out.

 

You probably forgot to install something, re check the order in which you installed the applications after the drivers, there are some sony libraries that you have to install in order to get everything working fine, make sure you have all in the correct order.

Another problem could be the service pack, i belive that you must install windows xp sp2.

I hope that helped you, GL!

 

So, like several other people on this and a few other threads, I'm at the point where I've got my friend's Vaio FW190n with XP installed and running (slipstreamed the SATA drivers with nLite), all drivers operational (seemingly anyway, no missing hardware drivers from Device Manager), Fn keys work except Brightness (Fn+F5 and F6) and Zoom (Fn+F9 and F10), and special buttons work including volume and playback controls. The S1 special button doesn't seem to work but I can't test it because I'm not sure what it's supposed to do. Also, the web-camera seems to run in VGA now instead of 1.2 or 1.3 MP.

Thank you guys so much for your help. This thread saved the day for me. Now I can return the computer to my friend with my head up high instead of sulking and sobbing.

Just as a last ditch effort, has anyone gotten the Brightness keys or Zoom keys to work in XP or gotten the camera to function at full resolution?

 

To set special buttons "S1" and the others you have to configure that in sony control panel.

 

hi
to downgrade from Vista to XP do you need to own an XP disc and license if the TZ does not come with downgrade discs? i have read the threads but without anything with me to relate to, i just have no idea.

i ask as i'm debating buying a slightly older model TZ (26GN) but it has no such discs. i'd try a semi-clean vista install first but would like to know my options here.

thanks

 

Usually theres no downgrade disk, sony doesn't provide that, exept with some models (but i dont know which). To downgrade you must have an XP disk and do all the speciefied things in the tutorial (only in case you don't have one of these misterious downgrade disks, i wonder if sony knows what they are ).

Unfortunatly all the notebooks come with vista now, so if you are not planing on getting a XP disk, then you better keep the factory installed vista else than reinstalling it, and make the recovery disks just in case.

Good Luck!

 

^thanks for the reply, appreciated

just one more query to help clear it all up for me....i do own XP (its on my other pc) - can i use that, and then the license that comes with the laptop and vista...or do i need a new license as well? i don't think i do but i'm not 100% sure.

i know (here in aus at least) that the latest version of the TZ has downgrade discs. but not the older one unfortunately.

 

No, the license for vista wont work on xp, but you can try using the xp license on the notebook (not sure if that will work, but you wont go to jail for trying). Ask in the store if the downgrade disks require a license for xp because maybe you can skip all kinds of problems.

 

^ahh thanks again..
i am getting a rather long list of things to ask sony rep about the TZ now hehe.

 

hi all. i need some help.my english is very bad.

my laptop is sony vaio VGN_NR120E.i want downgrade vista to XP.
i found some driver, SATA , motherboard , modem ..etc..
but i cant use nlite.many time i did it.but "setup did not find hard dics driver" only this error.how i integrate SATA drivers file.
(iaachi.cat
iaachi.inf
iastor.cat
iastor.inf
IaStor.sys)


HELP ME!!!

 

LOL! DON'T PANIC!

Well actualy all you have to do is to download the driver, you can look for it in intel's website, descompress the drivers and then using nLite setup install it... now all that nLite will ask for is an ".inf" file, make sure you select the right one (in case you have 2 folders with x64 and x86 drivers, your computer is X86).

Just use nLite for that single driver, it should work.

Good Luck!

 

I have a VGN-SR190 and pretty much have everything working well. Only thing thats bothering me is motion eye camera. Sony's website has a driver for the camera that I installed but the quality of the image that it captures, specifically for video chatting online, is crap haha.

Is there anything I can do to fix this? I'm assuming a 1.3 megapixel camera is supposed to look better. Any help is appreciated.

 

I have exactly the same problem, in vista and xp, the problem is one of 2, the drivers are crap, or the camera is, for the drivers you could try looking for the camera manufacturer (not sony) drivers, maybe theres some kind of update, if you get to find something ill post it in the tutorial and give you credit for it.

Good luck!

 

Yeah this has really got me stuck. I tried the driver from the sony-asia site but that did nothing. I installed the VCCU from the TZ model with hopes of changing settings in the camera but that did not work well either.

I found this but I don't even know if this is the correct model/driver (especially since I can't get it to install correctly). Just thought I'd show what I've tried.

ftp://file8.mydrivers.com/digital/richo_5u875_115000.zip

Has anyone successfully got their camera to work well on another sony model and if so are the cameras the same??

Also, when I choose to uninstall the camera in the device manager and then restart my computer the camera comes back with the same driver. Is that supposed to happen?

 

yes it does, windows device manager starts with windows and searches for the best drivers for each resource that doesnt have one.

About the camera, i remember that when i bought the computer, before installing xp i checked the camera and the resoulution was prety bad (factory defaults), and its the same resolution that i have with xp (with asia drivers). So im afraid that this is what the computer comes with, unless you have seen the same camera with a good res, the problem aint the drivers, its the camera.

 

Hello, I been playing with the HDMI output with my 1080p tv and i been able to see the computer on the tv using nvidia software (for some reason sony aplications aren't switching screens automaticaly when i close the lid) but I can't gat the audio to work, any idea on how to fix this?

 

Hey guys,

I joined this forum specifically for this thread--thanks everyone!

Okay, so far I have followed the instructions in the tutorial pretty closely and for the most part my vaio (VGN-FE855E) is working well. The drivers I used came from the sony-asia website and like most of you I settled for the drivers that were listed for a similar model to mine (I believe it was the vgn-fe48g).

However, in my toolbar menu where the various icons for utilities such as my wireless settings (enable 2.4ghz or 5 ghz lan) and my power settings (power saver, performance) etc from my previous vista installation are missing....were these specifically for vista? what happened to them?

Also, I have a problem connecting to my schools wireless network, it says no connections found when previously i could sit in class and get a great connection. Funny thing is that my home wireless network works fine.

Any thoughts???

EDIT::: The motion eye camera also does not work/show up what should i do????

 

I have the VGN-FW139E/H with the atheros wireless card, and I have loaded all drivers from the sony website, only problem is that I don't have a driver for the atheros wireless card, or the "Bluetooth Remote under device manager, any help would be greatly appreciated sony just keeps giving me the "This laptop is only designed for Vista Speech"

 

Are you sure you installed all of the software including the aplications? you should have a "VAIO control center" in your control panel in windows, im looking at it as i write and in the second tab of this panel theres a list with tools and one of them controls the wireless settings.

If you don't have it, check the list at sony asia and look for sony software, they are in the same page where you got the drivers.

About the camera I have another tool from sony "VAIO Camera Capture Utility" also downloaded from the same place.

Good luck!

I realy never heard of that card but you can probably find it in the asia site, look for a computer with your system configuration and download the drivers, follow the tutorial in order to install them.

If that doesn't work, i suggest you look for the wireless card manufacturer web site.

Good luck to you too!

 

Im busy trying to downgrade my new VGN- FW190C but having problems.

I slipstreamed the driver files (2) of them that the nLite program would accept in its little browser and when it gives you a choice between 20 or so selections I just selected them all .

Anyways I got it to install XP but it crashes on the restart every time. Anybody know what Im doing wrong ?? Its a XP SP1 home disc that I am using.

 

Probably a bit late, but your Vaio Z-series usually go accompanied by an XP Downgrade Disk. Didn't that work for you? I haven't tried downgrading to XP because I have no reason why. I think the only reason to downgrade is because you do not have a vista capable machine (where I don't mean the sticker, but the fact that your pc is dual core, has 2GB+ ram and a decent hard drive) or you are still using buggy software from the stone-age which needs admin rights to open a document and just quits. Or some ancient hardware that is not supported. Don't listen to the vista bashers and make up your own opinion about vista. Don't let your friends/collegues influence you too much!

Take care

 

Try a SP2 disk, and integrate the Intel HD Audio Hotfix too, that way you won't have trouble installing SP3 (SP3 strangely enough does not include the HD audio patch! It does not normally install a HD Audio device with a SP2-driver).

 

I did a clean install of XP on my FW190, everything is great, but what audio drivers are you guys using? It's the only driver for XP not posted on the official Sony site. I downloaded that driver pack from earlier in the thread, the audio driver in that is "HDMI_R192" is that the correct and current driver that is fully functional with XP?

Thanks.

 

I don't know what you mean, official driver does not support HDMI Audio, video works great but theres no audio output.... If you find a better driver please let me know, I'll post it in the tutorial so everyone knows.

Good Luck!

 

Xp works for me now but how do I make my blue ray to work? I have a vgn-fz31m

 

Got it up and running with XP


For thos looking for drivers , I used all from the sony usa site and the following with success on my FW190


Intel Pro Set Wireless WIFI from Microsofts site
Alps touch pad driver V5.5 XP multilanguage from ALPS site

Still searching for a way to make the function keys work . F2 works but thats it. I need to be able to adjust the brightness of the screen.


Also I need DVD burning software but I think thats it.

 

Anybody get the function keys/brightness to work yet? I have tried everything that I have read but still no luck. I did find an audio driver if anyone needs it though.

 

What did you use for audio?

Also, that sucks that the FN keys don't work ... Sony's official sites has a "Sony Utilities" for XP, I just always assumed that would include something that made the FN keys function. Weak.

 

No luck with the function keys yet here . . .

For the audio drivers I used Realtek high definition audio with the file name 12.1.1.0_Gen_SW.

Hope it helps . =)

 

Also for DVD burning software I downloaded the " Roxio Creator 9 Suite Demo" and if you press to buy it just activates it for you for free because its out of date ( 2006 ) .

It works well for a temporary solution and lets me burn ISO images etc but I would like to upgrade it to something better.

If anyone has any suggestions for better free DVD software please post up .

 

i am almost set to go for Sony Vaio VGN-Z12GN but i would like to know whether there would be any downsides of downgrading it to windows XP i.e. any missing drivers, functions etc.. ?

also, i dont see the the LAN (not wireless) drivers for it in the below link:

sony-mea.com/support/download/271032/product/vgn-z12gn

Thanks

 

I updated the first post with a posible solution for audio driver issues.

 

Much prefer XP.

 

Trying to downgrade to XP on my VGN-NS150J but when running the XP installation cd I get a BSOD. I don't know what driver to slipstream into it so that it will detect the hard drive. I tried using the Vista HD driver on sony's site but that didn't work and I was unable to find any XP drivers on their site so I'm not sure what to use.

 

on WindowsXP, when i connect my sony vaio z1 to a docking station, it asks for a ethernet driver whereas i have already installed it and it works. But when i remove it from docking it dissapears from the device manager.

Any idea why is it asking for a driver ?

Thanks

 

Not sure, try checking if your docking station software is correctly installed

 

docking station software? where can i find it?

 

didn't it came with drivers? ... the docking station of my old notebook came with a drivers cd

 

Hi, I'm trying to downgrade to XP my AW11S... the OS is ok, almost all driver are working, but I have mainly two issues: the wireless lan sometimes doesn't work and I can't get the fn keys working.
Does anyone have tried to downgrade an AW Vaio? Could someone give me the VESConfig.ini (from Vista) for the Vaio Event Server?