Got My Z - No XP Downgrade included/available

I ordered a Z570N/B from Amazon with Vista Business and advertised XP Downgrade and received it today (8/25). No XP Downgrade Disc in box, but instead a paper telling me to call Sony or to visit a webiste. I went to the website, ordered, and received a confirmation indicating the downgrade would ship in November(!), so I called Tech support. Didn't get much further - I was told that my case would be referred to a special group who would contact me back in 3-5 business days telling me how I can get the Downgrade. What gives? I was expecting to be able to downgrade directly out of the box! Instead, I spent 2 hours calling different departments in Sony only to hear that the Downgrade was either not yet available, or that they did not know. I bought an SZ770 for another employee just 2 weeks ago and the disc was in the box.

I realize that I may be able to figure this out on my own to get the downgrade and drivers, however I paid full pop to get this notebook shipped overnight, only to find that I can't do anything with it...and no hint on when I can get a Sony sanctioned Disc with the XP Downgrade.

Buyers beware...

 

This sort of situation is similar to when the SZ600 series were released. Back then, Sony didn't have the XP downgrade on DVDs & it took some time before SZ600 series' owners received them although they had placed their orders for the XP downgrade discs through a website a few months prior.

 

There was an error made by Sony's contractor for the disks, that prevented the initial batch of some SR and some Z series notebooks from going out with the downgrade disk in the box. It's only a temporary thing, and in the future it won't be an issue, just the first few.

The disks should come quicker than November for sure.

This should be only a US issue that I know of.

 

i just got the Z11VN/B from London 3 days ago and it had the XP Downgrade disk inside. So its so weird that u didnt get one too

 

i got the sr with no downgrade disk. but i got the utilites/drivers from the sony website.

dows the downgrade cd include the XP OS?

 

Only the Z's or SR's with Vista Business will have a downgrade disk in the box. If it's a Vista Ultimate, or Vista Home model it won't have the disk.

 

I'm in the U.S., and it seems that this varies depending on your country. My machine came with Vista Business and I fully expected a CD/DVD in the box as I just got an SZ for an employee 2 weeks ago which had one included. I just got a piece of paper indicating that I could order the XP Downgrade, and upon calling Sony was told that it was not presently available. Somebody @ Sony goofed on this one -- either mis-info or bad planning. Either way, for a Business user, we don't have time to order a computer and then sit on it to wait for the software that should have been inside of the box.

 

Like I said above: it was an error made by Sony's disk supplier on the order that had them miss the first batch of SR and Z's shipped out. They'll take care of you.

 

as i said i got the Z from UK with vista business and win xp downgrade disk. does anybody know if i can install both operating systems on the machine so that i can chose in the startup which os to login with?

 

Typically, you have to have XP installed FIRST, and then when you go to install Vista you can choose to setup a dual-boot setup. It won't work the other way around, so you'll need to do your downgrade first. I also recommend partitioning your drive into two, as you will keep things better organized if you place the OS onto two separate drrives. Frankly, it probably doesn't matter, but there are lots of hidden files running around, and if you designate one drive as boot for XP and the other for Vista, you may be able to keep things more clear/organized.

 

I am pretty sure that is NOT true. If you install XP after Vista it will inded screw things up, but not anything that can't readily be fixed. There are some threads here about that. Basically what happens is the boot loader gets confused, but can be fixed with a simple repair process.

Not only should you, you absolutely, positively MUST do this. Any thing else is the equivalent of walking around with a "kiek me hard" poster on your back.

Gary

 

Hello

For newer model like VGNSZ7,VGNSZ6,VGNTZ1,VGNTZ2,VGNZ5,VGNSR,VGNBZ5 SERIES MODELS some of them didnt come with Downgrade disk they may get or order there downgrade disk on this website https://www.qdirect.net/Sony/Terms.aspx or on this website https://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/lpage.do?page=/Support/vaio_support.html&name=VAIO Support .

 

Yup. The new Vista Business Z, SR and BZ's too I just found out. It's only a temporary thing, and their is a sheet of paper in the box that guides you to the qdirect site above to get your disk. It's quick, and once you order it it should be there within a week or less.

I know when I had to do it for the TZ170 it came within two days of ordering.

 

This would be the case is the downgrade disc already existed and just needed to be sent. However, I just received a call back from Level 2 support indicating that it is now currently set to *become* available at or after the end of September. The support rep had no more specificity than that.