FZ190 upgrade from Vista to Win 7 - an UPGRADE not a clean install

With all the hand wringing folks have been doing about the lack of drivers for a clean install of Win7 I thought I'd jump in to the deep end of the pool with my FZ190 and investigate an alternative. My good friends Rajesh and Dr. Pratik have done clean installs of Win7 on FZ models, but I decided to take a different approach... the "dreaded" OS in place upgrade. Partly out of curiosity, I wanted to see if it would work, but mainly because I have a ton of software that would need to be reinstalled, if I did a clean install. That would mean days or weeks of inventorying every thing I have installed, digging up installation media and then installing all the stuff. I just don't have the spare time. So...

This past weekend I imaged my C: drive (all my data and I mean ALL my data is on D:, I am a fanatic about that). MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR C: DRIVE BEFORE YOU TRY AN UPGRADE! I ran the Windows 7 Update adviser and it said I had some issues:

I didn't really worry about the NVIDIA driver thinking that Win7 would just install it's own. I uninstalled everything else it suggested.

Inserted my Win7 DVD and tried the inplace install aka upgrade. It wanted to install some updates and then reboot BEFORE it would install. But then the DVD drive was not recognized! Turned out to be the classic Upper and Lower Filters issue. (This would come back to bite me latter.) Got that fixed and tried the upgrade again.

Install of Win7 went flawlessly. Took about 2 hours with no notice of any reboots (but I was not in the room the entire time). OSD of brightness and volume work, as do their function keys. The OSD of the touchpad gesture for IE "Back" and "Previous" are staying orphaned on the screen, so I went into the touchpad setup and turned off the OSD for these, no big deal. WinSXS is now 3 gig! I actually have MORE disk space after the install. Before I had 18 gb free now I have 20. (More about that latter) Despite the update adviser complaint about the Nvidia driver, I have 7.15.11.6743 dated 11/7/2007. (Can't remember what one I had prior to the upgrade, but I suspect Win7 rolled me back. But since the OSD brightness controls and FN keys work I am happy.)

Noticed that “Recent Documents” is missing as is the shortcut button for the desktop. (Since I use that a lot, I dug in and found it was just a Start Menu option I needed to turn back on.)

Sysinternals Desktops (virtual desktops) had a conflict with the hot keys it was Alt-Win and 1 thru 4. Changed it to Alt-Ctl-Win. I decided to uninstall it since Stardock's Fences works so much better at what I was using Desktops for in the first place.

My Sidebar gadgets are gone except for Clock, Pictures and Nvidia temp display! That was not good. I could load the ones I used, but after a log off or reboot the were gone again. I found a solution on line:
1. Start "Turn Windows features on or off"
2. Disable "Windows Gadgets Platform" and reset
3. Proceed to "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar"
4. Delete Settings.ini (after making a copy)
5. Start "Turn Windows features on or off"
6. Enable "Windows Gadgets Platform"
7. Re-install the Gadgets

Can’t find the “Show Desktop” button that used to be in Quick Launch, until I found this:

Now here is a BIG surprise: There are two HUGE folders on the C: drive $inPlace.~TR and $Windows.~TR. Both are caches of stuff from the in place install. In disk cleanup there is a “Cleanup System files” button. This exposes a new group of disk cleanup options: “Files discarded by Windows Upgrade” (1.5 gb), “Windows Upgrade Log files” (1.04 gb) and System queued Windows error reports (3kb). This means I will gain another 2.5 gb on top of the 2 gb I noted earlier! I now have 24gb free! Woo hoo! That is 6gb smaller than Vista!

Roxio is not functioning. It won’t start, I don't even see any disk activity. I suspect this is due to the upper/lower filters issues earlier. Tried to reinstall it with Vaio Recovery Launcher. That failed. On a lark, I went to the actual program file and ran it and it ran. Now it works from the start menu too. That's odd. Rebooted and it still works from Start menu. Not sure why that worked, but...

Ready to try to turn on VT in preparation for installing virtual PC functionality. Downloaded a DOS image. Downloaded the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool Version 2.0.6 tool via: http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm and used the tool to create a bootable USB drive. Copied an editor and the sycmos.exe app there plus instructions needed as a text file. It worked great and now VT is enabled. (I haven't tackled the virtual pc install yet. But will report back after I have.)

I needed to mount an ISO during the creation of the bootable USB stick. So I installed the latest version of MagicDisc. It worked just fine.

I am a happy camper. Everything seems to be working (knock on wood). My boot times are slower but I have NOT yet defragged the boot files. (Again I'll report on that latter, too.) The machine seems a bit quicker but that may be a placebo. I have fewer processes running, not sure of the exact count, but I am guessing (from memory since I didn't take a count before) about 15-20 fewer.

So, if you are on the fence about an upgrade to Win7 and, like me, don't want to take the time to reinstall all your software, jump in, the water's fine!!! An in place upgrade worked well and just might be the right solution for you. In the past folks have avoided these because they bloated up the system. Such does not appear to be the case with the Vista to Win7 transition, witnessed by all the disk space it freed up!

My only word of caution, and I cannot stress this highly enough: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR C: DRIVE BEFORE YOU TRY AN UPGRADE!


...stay tuned I'll add to this thread as I uncover new things to share about this excursion....

Gary

 

UPDATE:

Picasa dies as soon as I start it. It pops up some dialog about it created a dump file it wants to send to Goggle. If I click past the dialog Picasa actually appears to run just fine. Uninstalled and reinstalled it. It still dies. Found out it was an issue with not having the most recent install of Quicktime! Uninstalled Quicktime and now Picasa works. Very bizarre. Thank you Apple and Goggle. Do I detect some collusion? Just sayin...

Gary

 

I don't have problems with Picasa and Quicktime in Windows 7 RC 64-bit. Thanks for telling your upgrade story. I will be clean installing Windows 7 64-bit soon.

 

Another Update:

I enabled VT in the BIOS of my machine in prep for installing "Windows Virtual PC" (the Win7 equal of "Virtual PC 2007").

Installed Virtual PC and then Windows XP mode. Windows XP mode works fine but Virtual PC console, which is supposed to be integrated into WinExplorer didn’t work. The integration didn’t show up. There was no button for "Create Virtual Machine" when you start Win VPC and it displays the virtual machines folder. Three possible issues. One, I did it in the wrong order. The instructions say to install Win XP Mode first the VPC. I reversed that. I also didn’t use the default directory. Third I have two tools that are integrated into WinExplorer are 2nd Speech Center and StExBar. I don’t use the first but do use the latter. The check boxes for their toolbar options are acting odd. I uninstalled both, Win VPC and "Windows XP Mode".

I really don't need the Windows XP mode stuff, since I already have three virtual machine files (VHD's) from VPC2007. I found documentation that I don’t need to install WinXP mode at all. So I reinstalled just Win VPC. But still see no button for Creating a Virtual machine. Turns out this is a known issue when upgrading from Vista! The solution for me was to apply this registry patch:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

That got me the "Create Virtual Machine Button" I was looking for in the Virtual Machines folder.

An initial attempt at creating a VM for an old VHD failed. When XP booted, it wanted to install the “Win VPC Integration Components”, which I let it do. That was a mistake. I need to uninstall the VPC 2007 “Additions for VPC 2007” first.

Reverted to a backup of the VHD file and tried it again. When XP booted, I canceled all of the the installation attempts for new hardware and for “WIN VPC Integration Components”. I then used Control Panel and uninstalled “Additions for VPC 2007”.

I rebooted the virtual machine and then installed the “WIN VPC Integration Components” stuff. I also needed my XP install disk for the USB driver that is now supported in Windows Virtual PC.

Now my old VPC 2007 VHD file was working fine under Win VPC. There is a very noticeable improvement in performance. One thing I miss though is watching XP actually boot up in a window. You see that every time you start the virtual machine UNTIL you install the Windows Virtual PC Integration Components. After that the XP bootup is hidden. Silly I know, but there was a certain "wow factor" when folks saw it booting in a window. Now all you see is the desktop.

...more to come as I finish up the upgrade...

Gary

 

Some additional observations.

First my temps are significantly less than they were under Vista. With Vista my FZ190 idled at around 62 degrees Celsius. Now I am at 52! I also noticed that Win7 is much more aggressive about throttling the processor clock rate back. I have a CPU utilization meter running as a gadget and under Win7 I notice that the CPU speed is at .8ghz a LOT more often than it used to be and the periodic blink of the disk activity light is much less frequent than under Vista. I think these are contributors to the lower temps.

Gary

 

I just timed the hibernate function and it only takes 40 seconds to hibernate. (I have 3gb of memory.) It takes 25 seconds to wake from hibernation. I don't have timings for Vista but I know this is significantly faster than it was under Vista.

Gary

 

Great Post, ScuderiaConchiglia. It was very useful! After I read it I went ahead with the update and It came just perfect.

I'll share some of my notes:

Processes running before/After update: 52/53 (just one new, i don't know which one)

Memory utilization in Vista 584MB (after reboot, letting 5 mins iddling the OS). In Win7 575MB (just about the same)

Hibernate and resume from Hibernate, yup, way faster, 40% resuming, 30% going into hiber mode.

What you mention about the nVidia driver, at first i kept the Windows one. But later on, I've tried to install a new one. I've tried the one from nVidia's web site, the laptopvideo2go modded inf one, Omega, and another that I don't remember now. It was frustrating, none of the drivers wated to install.

So I did a driver cleaner, wipe out any nVidia driver on mi Win7 installation and I got an Standard VGA driver installed instead. I went ahead again and started several nvidia installs and NOT a single one worked. I've tried the "update driver" and "Have disk" method, forcing it, and no case.


After about an hour or so of booting safe and normal mode. On Safe mode I accidentally selected from nVidia's 186.81 WHQL driver folder the 8600M GT... And guess what? IT worked! (I have an VGN-FZ290FU with an 8400MGT)

Weird... once i selected the wrong driver, it worked like a charm. The performance gain from Windows driver to this one is quite a lot, from 4,0 to 5,6 @ Windows Experience Index. And almost double frame rate @ rFactor (using CTDP 2006 mod) =)


Anyway, hope this help to anyone who's trying an in-place upgrade. It did went perfect... By the way. I'm enjoying 6GB more of free disk space on my C drive.

 

Mudito,

Thanks for the additional notes. I have not messed with the Nvidia drivers. I have seen a complaint about the newer ones running hotter because apparently the 3d engine is running all the time when Aero is on. There is a separate thread here about that. You might want to check into it and see if you are affected by that.

Did you happen to notice WHERE the additional 6 gb came from. It seems to be WinSXS on my machine.

Gary

 

Yes, Tottally! I did check it before the upgrade (because of your notes) and after. 3,5gigs now. It was about 10GB before.

Actually, after the in-place upgrade it was somewhere near to 2GB, but after applying some Windows updates and re-install some software (such as VMware Workstation and some other minor things), it went to 3,5.


About the video, I'll search around, but it doesn't seems to be hotter than before, at least not that much. But we'll need to have in mind that in Buenos Aires this days is FREAKING HOT

 

Hi!
I successfully (almost) upgraded my SZ4 with Vista to Windows 7.
It only warned me before upgrade that I might have compatability issues with Bluetooth stack by Toshiba. So now i removed it... I think i've read somewhere that there is Bluetooth Stack by Toshiba for Windows 7?

Everything is working, all FN combination buttons, even camera utility etc. But hibernation still takes a while.. And I also can't fine tune some of 'vaio power management' schemes anymore. When i try to open "maximum battery' or 'ultimate battery' it just shuts off... However when I open 'vaio optimised' or 'maximum performance' scheme it lets me do everything.. For some reason battery economy related schemes are no longer adjustable.. And also only two modes at a time are visible, there used to be 3 of them before upgrade.

 

Because of Maradona?

 

Same here. But how are you even seeing "Ultimate battery" to try to adjust it??? I don't see that at all.

Gary

 

Well, i can't give you step by step instructions, since it's in russian on my laptop and they could have translated it in 3 ways...
You have to click on that small battery icon, you will see 2 modes (this is where it was 3 before) click lower text, i have it in russian, it say something like more power properties, then you will see a menu with those two sceems. On lower right there is a button 'show more power scheems' , after you click it it shows 5 more scheems including ultimate battery.
By the way, did you have latest vaio power management installed? I have ver 2.0.0

 

Yes I see now what you mean. I can open ANY of the extra schemes. Which ever one I open, replaces one of the two modes I see on the initital left click.

Not sure which version I had (or have for that matter). How can I tell?

Gary

 

When you edit your schemes (some of them do allow that) in vaio power management, there is a menu called advanced, when you go there you can see which version you use on lower left.

By the way, guess what? I just had a blue screen.... I'm starting to regret that i even bought Win 7, i don't think Sony will release full support for my almost 3 years old SZ4... I think i should have gotten new battery instead..

 

Hi ScuderiaConchiglia,

If we do clean install of 32 bit Windows 7,What are the driver we can use to install ?
1) Does all vista 32 drivers will work ? If not where can we get all Windows 7 32 bit drivers ?
2) If you have links to all the 32 bit Windows 7 drivers for FZ190, could you please post like coolguy posted for 64 bit Windows 7.

Thanks in advance
Raj

 

Since this thread is about an UPGRADE, not a claen install it's not the right place to ask this question. Please ask in a more appropriate thread or start a new one. I want to keep this one focused ONLY on the upgrade path.

And since I did an upgrade, and not a clean install, I have no clue as to what is required. Sorry.

Gary

 

Windows 7 includes Intel 4965 Wifi, Marvell network controller, and Conexant modem drivers out of the box. You can update Intel chipset, Intel SATA AHCI drivers by visiting Intel's support site for your chipset (Ex: Intel 965PM) or use the Vista drivers. You can use the Vista driver for Nvidia 8400M GT or use the one given in my guide. For Sony applications and utilities, use the Vista ones for your model. You can get the SFEP driver update through Windows Update.

 

Thanks Rajesh I appreciate the help, but I would like for this discussion to be in it's own thread. I don't want this one to become the "32 bit clean install" thread.

Gary

 

Hi Scuderia,Coolguy,

Thanks for your inputs on 32 bit windows 7. I will post in new thread if I have any more questions or to share my experience when I do clean install.

Regards
Raj

 

Gary, in your original post, you said that windows update adviser stated that your Nvidia graphics card was not compatible with a windows 7 upgrade and that Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba version 5.00.00 may experience issues. I am receiving these exact two same messages. Now, I have found the driver for the nvidia graphics card for windows 7 but i have had no luck on finding the driver for the bluetooth stack. Before I upgrade, I wanted to see if your bluetooth is working properly, and if so what driver did you use?

 

The BlueTooth warning I got was about "Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba". I uninstalled it. I did NOTHING about the Nvidia driver. I let the Win7 do whatever it wanted in that regard. I don't know for sure, since I forgot to make note of what driver version I originally had, but I believe Win7 installed one itself.

To be honest, until tonight I didn't know if my Bluetooth setup worked or not. But I just tried to connect to my Nokia phone and it worked just fine.
So it appears the Win7 install found what it needed to install its own driver for the Bluetooeh stuff.

Gary

 

Dear Gary
unfortunately because of my poor English and low experience I didn't get what should I do for DVD Drive problem.
Thanks alot

 

http://tinyurl.com/y9wpdph

Gary

 

Wats up man...

Iv got a Fz31z for over a year now.. Its a great machine i love it dearly.. Iv reacently upgraded to Windows 7 32x.. Iv installed all drivers correctly i think as in no reported problems in device manager.. I have the 8600m gs card and got the drivers and modded ini from loptopvideotogo.. the only problem is my Fn or 'Function Keys' are not working and im unshure what kind of drivers i should look for..

Also i have a mata blu-multi uj220s burner that has stoped reading blank dvds.. it reads all orignal discs bit no recordable media.. I think it uses Verbatim but never memorex,sony etc... I reads all cd-r and iv never tried any blu ray.. I have tried to update the firmware but unsuccessfull.. thas has been a problem for a while now and the windows 7 upgrade didnt fix.. its oviously a hardware problem..

Any help would be great..

Thanks for ur help

 

This thread is about an in place upgrade from Vista to Win7, NOT about a clean install which you obviously did.

The forum rules state that you should NOT post the same message in multiple threads. In addition there are several threads here discussing this very issue, complete with the list of files that need to be installed and the SEQUENCE in which they must be done. If you do a search you should be able to find them.

Gary

 

No i didnt... i done an upgrade.. I tot since u put all the effort into this post u actually wanted to help people.. oviously ur an arsehole

 

Wow, who peed in you Wheaties?

If you did an inplace upgrade, then why were you talking about installing drivers, there is no need to insal any drivers after the inplace upgrade? And if you did an inplace upgrade the function keys should have worked right away (provided they worked before you did the upgrade).

So if you DO want some help please explain EXACTLY what you did. I think you'll find I can be quite helpful but only to folks who are a tad more polite and not so thin skinned.

Gary

 

Hello guys,

It seems that I have the same problem as Spungy with the same model after an upgrade from Vista to W7 Ult 32bit. I mean the second problem with the BluRay/CD/DVD drive.

The wonder which W7 is, perhaps due to the existence of its genuine DVD Burner, a tool which nobody needs or has an interest in, doesn't allow me to see (READ) a blank dvd, turns me on every time to the message 'you need to FORMAT the disk, dumb boy!' and gives me nothing but ERROR when I try to BURN with Nero 9 (w7 compatible) or with its marvelous Burner.

Interestingly enough, it allowed me to write a CD with Nero, but after that didn't recognize (read) the CD.

I've spent a lot of time and tried a lot of tricks (including the one with Upper/Lower Filters, didn't find any of these or disabling the Fck w7 burner) and run out of solutions.

So, please guys, don't be reluctant to answer to a simple question - have you managed to burn a DVD after the upgrade?

Help me before throwing out of the window a 500 euro BluRay device only because the MS men did it again.

Thank you very much.

 

iv had the disc drive problem long b4 upgradeing W7..i have burnt cds since but no dvds i think verbatim dvds, dvd-dl work but nothing else prob because der so well made...The only thing iv ever used the drive for was to back up xbox games useing imgburn its great but i dont think this is a software issue its looking like a hardware fault..At first it wouldnt read blank discs, now it wont read discs wit info burnt on another machine.. Sorry gary i dont meen to be arguementive its just i took the time to read tru ur entire post i was aware it was about upgradeing.. I found the orignal 'Fn' key drivers but only the mute 'F2' will work i cannot connect to an external display with 'F7' thats all i was really looking for.. but i can do this with the windows button and p...

Gary just so were on the same page I upgraded from the vista desktop useing a iso and memory stick as my disk drive wouldnt read any discs.. I wanted to do a clean 64bit install so i could use all 4gigs of ram but i couldnt upgrade 32 to 64

After the upgrade i had two errors in my device manager Unknown Device and Base System Device.. the base system was my audio drivers.. the unknown was my memory card ports.. My graphics card was useing a standerd VGA driver,so i donloaded the latest from nvidia and used a modded ini to install.. The fn keys were grand b4 the upgrade but not after. i also done a driver magican backup b4 upgradeing and tried to restore in W7 but no luck..

It will do me as it is.. but i payed 1700 euro 18monts ago and my battery wont last long enough to boot up (i really tried to keep it good, chargeing properly, never leaving it plugged in etc).. i cant burn dvds.. the graphics card is .. im only useing 3 of my 4 gigs of ram.. Saying all that its a great machine the processor is great its never slow it boots up and shuts down in seconds.. I can burn discs on the desktop and play games on the xbox.. it does everything else with perfection..

 

We're good! I have to say your situation is ODD, I don't understand at all why you had the unknown items in device manager or the VGA driver thing. Win7 replaced my video driver with an Nvidia driver it had in it's library.

But at this point I suggest, since you REALLY want to go 64bit any way, you seek out coolguy's (aka Ramesh) instructions for a clean install of Win7 64 bit on an FZ thread here on NBR. He has EVERYTHING working (except for the one of the media buttons if memory serves me.) His instuctions are complete with links to all the drivers, libraries, apps etc. Well worth looking into at this point since you want access to all 4 gb.

Gary

 

No bother... thanks man but im not goin tru it all again im happy as it is..

 

Thanks Gary.

I followed the steps.. upgraded to win pro from vista.
The only problem i have is that the sigmatel digital audio (HDMI) doesn't work. It was perfect in vista.

The HDMI audio is currently set as the default device and windows say the driver is enabled and working -- but it "Failed to play test tone" (with perfect picture on my LCD TV screen via HDMI output) and of course no sound from TV on audio playback -- sound only comes from the computer speakers.

FZ190E, win 7 32-bit
IDT driver version: 6.10.5614.0 , date (13/09/2007)
NVIDIA driver: 7.15.11.6743, date (07/11/2007)

I spent 3 days on it searching with no avail...

Hope you can hlep!!

 

Sorry, but I have ZERO experience with HDMI.

Gary

 

I have the same problem. my vaio is fz348e

when i install this driver happen the same. so i unistalled this driver and stayed with the windows 7 original driver who works with HDMI, but isn´t allow you to put Dolby Digital and DTS spdif Out. I don´t know what to do more. I love use this functions cause i have Home theather. If i don´t find solutions i will buy an usb sound card.