Downgrading to XP and brightness settings for newer models

The last few days I've been busy downgrading my FW31ZJ (european model) to windows XP SP3.

I have found and installed the drivers for all components and things went smoothly, up until the point where I wanted to get my Fn-keys working.

This is where I got stuck initially and after much forum lurking I found the right Sony utilities to install, the order to install them in and so on (it is all on this forum).

Basicly you need the following components for your machine.

- Sony Firmware Extension Parser driver
- Sony Programmable I/O Controller driver
- Sony Shared Library
- Sony Utility DLL
- Sony Utility Settings
- Vaio Event Service

You also might have to copy the VESConfig.ini from the original Vista install.


I read here that for most this has worked well and offered full fn-keys functionality under XP. Unfortunately I'm not of you...


As for some others, most fn-keys are working, big exception being the Brightness-adjustment keys. For me the OSD is comming up but nothing really changes when the keys are pressed.


Not one to give up easily, I spend the next two days, searching, lurking and strolling on the net to find out what might cause this and while doing that something started to occur..


It seems that only specific Vaio-models have the this problem with the brightness-settings not functioning under XP.

So far I have identified:

- FW3?? series
- FZ3?? series
- AR6?? series

At least, I could not find a succes-story from a user having a model from those series, only reports that it aint working.

I would appreciate if others could confirm or deny this finding. Are there people owning a model in the above series that have the Fn-brightness keys working under XP and if so, which model is it?



I have the impression that something has changed at one point with controlling the brightness, a new (maybe even Vista-only) mechanism that is used in specific models. One change I have found myself is with the Sony Programmable I/O Controller.

It seems that my model does not have this controller anymore or it is not recognized as such. I have tried to install different versions of the sonyPI driver but to no avail. It keeps reporting that I have no hardware for this driver.

I wonder why this controller has suddenly vanished from the hardware. Maybe it was only needed for XP and not for Vista. Hence the Vaio-models that are destined to use Vista do not have a use for it anymore.

 

I have FW190 and my FN Brightness Keys don't work with XP either. In fact, you can't even change the brightness from VAIO Power Management. Some of the entries look odd because they are listed twice. And VAIO Control Center for XP is useless because some of the options do not apply to FW models and the other options that apply can be accessed from the Control Panel.

It looks like that Sony just slapped Notebook Utilities just to make it looks like that they provide the utilities for XP.

 

hey TheMoonMan

How did you manage to install xp? Do you have a guide I can follow.

I have the fw31zj aswell but have tried a few time to install xp. I just get the blue screen of death and have to recover the original system.

Whats you secret? thanks for any help.

John

 

Hey MoonMan, I too have been trying to install XP Pro on my FW31ZJ, but it ALWAYS blue screens on Setup
What version of XP did you use? I've tried SP1, SP2 and SP3.
I've also tried OEM and Retail, but they all do the same.
Is it something to do with the lack of BIOS options in the VAIO that means we can't enable AHCI? I read up on the Stop Error that it gives (0x7B) which states something to do with the drive.
God damn Sony...they remind me every day why I haven't bothered with a laptop for years!

EDIT: Found out how to do it! Go here for more info http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=395096