HOWTO downgrade Sony VGN-FW21E to Windows XP XP2/SP3

Hi all,

This is a short instruction how to downgrade a Sony Vaio VGN-FW21E from Vista to Windows XP. Please add/comment if anything is missing!

--- Build a Windows XP installation CD
You need to build a new Windows XP installation CD with SATA drivers. Use a English Windows XP CD with sp1 as base. Download the drivers and use nLite to build and burn a new Windows XP installation CD. (Select all drivers in the list to the new XP installation CD)
SATA drivers download:
http://www.sony-driver.com/VGN-FW190/Sony_VAIO_VGN_FW190_FW190E_Notebook_Intel_SATA_Driver_for_Windows_XP.htm

nLite download:
http://www.nliteos.com/


--- Install all drivers

Install Windows XP servicepack 3 befor installing any drivers.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en

1. Chipset drivers (Intel PM45 / GM45 chipset driver)
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16026/a08/infinst_autol.zip

2. Video drivers(ATI HD 3470). Download the driver from Toshiba and install only the driver. Then download and install Crystal Control Centre from ATI. (I haven't found any XP 32-bit ATI HD 3470 drivers on the Sony Site )
2.1 Toshiba driver for ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470. Install driver direct from “...\Driver\XP_INF” with Windows XP - Device Manager. Select the driver called “ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470” from the list.
http://es.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/download_driver_details.jsp?service=ES&selCategory=2&selFamily=2&selSeries=153&selProduct=781&selShortMod=null&language=38&selOS=10&selType=all&yearupload=&monthupload=&dayupload=&useDate=null&mode=allMachines&search=&action=search&macId=&country=35&selectedLanguage=38&type=all&page=1&ID=63481&OSID=10&driverLanguage=42
2.2 ATI Crystal Control Centre. Install only the CCC software, not the drivers. “...\CCC\setup.exe”
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/aiwradeonx-xp

3. Bluetooth. Install first the driver (BCM2046) and then the Widcomm5 software
3.1 BCM2046 driver, install from Device Manager
http://digiex.net/drivers/505-bluetooth-adaptor-bcm2046-driver-windows-xp-sp2-sp3.html
3.2 Widcomm 5 download and instructions
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9F8N0MNS
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=43865&highlight=widcomm+bluetooth

4 Sound drivers (Realtek)
http://www.notebook.gen.tr/notebook_driver/7/Realtek-ses-karti-surucusu-Realtek-audio-sound-driver.html

5. ATI HDMI drivers
http://www.notebook.gen.tr/notebook_driver/28/Ati-hdmi-ses-surucusu-ati-hdmi-audio-driver.html

6 Card reader
http://www.notebook.gen.tr/notebook_driver/5/Ricoh-kart-okuyucu-surucusu-Ricoh-card-reader-driver.html

7 Intel Wireless driver
http://www.notebook.gen.tr/notebook_driver/4/intel-kablosuz-ethernet-suruculeri-intel-wireless-ethernet-drivers.html

8 Modem driver
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/FZ19/DRIVERS/4_MODEM.ZIP

9 Ethernet driver (Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet)
http://www.marvell.com/drivers/driverDisplay.do?driverId=175

Good Luck!

 

What about the brightness buttons?

 

I haven't had time to try them yet. But the there is a package with Sony utilities for FW-XXX series here:
http://www.notebookdriverdownload.net/files/sony_vaio_vgn_fw_series_xp_utility.rar

 

Hi there, antepante, have you got the xp fully working on fw21e ?

I burned a xp sp3 version on cd witch i have use nlite to ONLY ADD the sata driver and burned it.. when i try to install i get blue screen...

am i suppose to add all of the drivers youve linked to, to nlite xp blaha ?

If youre from sweden please write to me in swedish =)

Greets Tommy

 

Hi Tommy,

I got the same problem if I build the boot CD with Swedish XP SP2 (I'm also from Sweden ). So I used a English XP with SP1, then it worked. I read somewhere that there have been problems with pre-patched SP2/SP3 XP installations, so I used an ENG Windows XP CD with only SP1.

Windows XP ENG CD with SP1, add all SATA drivers, save to a ISO file. Burned with Nero... worked for me.

Greats Andreas

 

Okey, thank you alot for the fast answer, ill try that.. but is there anyway to
get swe language into an english os ?
When you say "add all SATA drivers" what do you mean ?
I downloaded from the link you said in the guide and there is only one driver
correct me if im wrong ? There is two .inf files to add but i am only able to add one.

Thanks alot again.

Greets Tommy

 

Hi again Tommy,

You are right. There is two .inf-files. But these inf-files includes allot if drivers.

nLite:
1. Select the Windows XP source (with i386 directory)
2. Select "Drivers" in Integrate area and "Bootable ISO" in Create area
3. Click on "Insert - Single driver", select iaStor.inf, then mark all drivers
4. Follow nLite to create a ISO-file or burn a CD direct

If it works with Swedish Windows XP?:
If you got it right with the drivers first. Then you can test with a Swedish XP CD. I may work if you use a SWE XP with only sp1(My is already prepatched with sp2 and that don't work )

Regards/A

 

Okey, ill give it i try. thanks again.

 

Hi there, i finally got the Win xp sp3 swe to work properly and all of the drivers
installed, exept two so i hope youll help me with that.

Video drivers and Bluetooth drivers.

When i right-click in device manager on the "videostyrenhet" and
take update driver it wont work even though i pointed it to the folder where
XP_INF is.

And the bluetooth hardware doesnt even show up in the device manager
as an "other device" :S so i dont know how to install the driver for that one.

But i am very glad if you like to help me the best you know/can.

Greets Tommy

 

tomkar ihave the same problem on the VGN-FW21E
with the blue screen can give a solution??

thanks

 

sorry for doble posting im ok i found a solution!! get any version of xo (mce 2005 with sp3) in my case and add with n lite the satta driver as explain above but for the blue screen you must add tha chipset driver...

infinst_autol\All\pm45gm45.inf

AND ITS OK!!

 

Greate work!

1.
"Videostyrenhet" must be the driver for the Video-card (ATI HD 3470) build in card. I clicked "Update driver" - "Install from list..... (Advanced)" - "Don't Search...". Then I pointed to the XP_INF\ directory in the Toshiba driver. The you will have select "ATI Radeon HD 3470" in that long long long list. After the driver is installed, you can install CCC from ATI.

2.
My bletooth was found as BCM2046 without a driver. I did the installation as described in my first post. I got the same problem once. I had to install a HP driver first. Then I change to the right driver and uninstall HP software installed the Widcomm 5 software

 

And the touchpad drivers??

 

Hi there, yeah the only thing i did diffrent was that the first time when i got the bluescreen i just selected the wrong file in nLite... choose the file antepanet said "iaStor.inf" and select all of the drivers in the list that are loaded from "iaStor.inf" .. and then it worked..
I used win xp sp3 swe. And did like i just described above. try it thats the only thing i did.

Good Luck

 

The bluetooth BCM2046 was found now, but i have the same problem installing that as i have with the video card, it yous say " this hardware cannot be installed" even though i pointed it to tha "bluetoothxp" folder.

Am i doing wrong couse i dont get the "list" with alots of videocards.

Pasted som picts here. Its on swedish though.

First:

Second:

Third:

Fourth:

Fifth:


Greets T

 

Hi tomkar789,

In the Fourth step (4) in your screen shots. Select "Sök inte, jag väljer själv vilket drivrutin som ska installeras". Then you point to the drivers and select te correct drivers in the list of drivers. This you will have to do both for video and bluetooth.

It took me 1 day to get this right

/Andreas

 

Hi there !
thanks alot for all the help, i finally got everything to work, i solved the problem
before i saw your reply =).

I did my way as in the photos, i edited the .inf files for both bluetooth and video
and finally it worked, i inserted my "hardware-id" into the .inf files.

Like i said, im running Win xp sp3 swe now on my vista laptop =) not bad at all


Have a nice evening and thanks for all the help.


Peace Tommy

 

Hi again

I got an little problem, i just discovered it.

After the install of all things with bluetooth, then you get an desktop
icon "Bluetooth devices", when i dubble click that one i get an message.
"The bluetooth device could not be found. Check that the bluetooth-device
is properly connected and running"

And when i rightclick the bluetooth-icon in the tray and click the "Connect to a private network" and i search for devices i dont find any, it says something
about "check that the bluetooth radio is connected to the computer and
activated."

Someone who knows what the problem might be ?

I Should add that i can transfer files the simple way with bluetooth its
just this which doesnt work, and its annoying, couse if i want transfer files
it'll take a year to transfer 1 file at a time. i want to be able to explore my
memory stick and such.

Greets Tommy

 

Thank you very much
you are professional

 

Hi antepante,

thanks for the drivers and the description, I too am in the process of downgrading a FW21E to XP 64-bit. I still have trouble getting bluetooth to work, but even more so, the cardreader won't accept Sony Memorysticks (haven't tried SD as of yet) How did you install the card reader?

Also, I have 4 devices still unable to find drivers:

- Base system device
- Modem on Hhigh Definition Audio Bus
- Unknown device
- USB device

This is of course with no other devices plugged in at the time. Any idea which devices these entail? Sound and video are working perfectly, as well as ethernet and wifi.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi,

Shall the same solutions will work on FW31 series? Like FW31ZJ machine?

 

hi there...
first of all THX for this introduction.

i tried it with a brand new bought WindowsXP x64 version ... creating and burnin the image worked fine..but i couldnt boot the installation from that created cd incl. that iaStor.inf file on it.

there was an error which said that the 64x version wouldnt work with that iaStor.inf driver. installation canceled.

any help ? i have no xp pro 32bit version :-\

 

These touchpad drivers work for it: http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=46513

 

A tip is to use the FW190 drivers that are available for XP. You just have to extract all the files from the .exe archives first (i used a program called universalextractor i think). I have the FW21E and i downgraded pretty much this way and it has worked perfect. All FW-models have the same hardware so this is applicable to all of them!

 

hi all
i have a probleme in driver fn+f5 and f6 brightness.
plz help me.
that all driver worked perfect.
plz any help for brightness bouton fn.
thanks.

 

this link doen't seem to work anymore! someone help please

 

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&OSFullName=Windows* XP Professional&lang=eng

 

thanks!

installing...

 

No one mention about the Brightness issue and FN key
Does it work?

 

guys i really can't find solution for Brightness issue and FN key......
can anyone help plz ?
it's really an issue espacially in the night....

 

And all the buttons of VGN-FW21E work now normally? Everything?
Because I read that Sony USA have XP drivers available for the FW190 but as Utilities do not exist, function keys for screen brightness etc. will not work properly.
Can you please explain?

 

Hi guys

i manage to use a swedish clean xp disc with sp2 and sata drivers that i found by myself. (can post them later)
sata drivers that i used:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VFBGEI3Y
it worked smoothless!

okej my problem is that i couldn't install the graphic driver or the bluetooth drivers with your instructions antepante. not even the realtek HDMI drivers but the standars worked so i have sound .

i searched the internet and found a way to install real ati drivers from amd.com.

Here is the link to the program and a tutorial how to use it:
http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

Here is the original ati drivers:
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/gamesite/9-4_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu.exe


Or you can just use my pre-modded drivers that i used for my VGN-FW21E:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PBCUPCKW


The only backside effect is that when i check in "enhetshanteraren/manage devices" i says i have a ati radeon hd3450 insted of hd3470... but everyting else work

try it if antepante's graphic drivers didn't worked!

Thanx antepante for a great tutorial!!

 

Hi again!

I tested to play Battlefield 2 with antepantes hd3470 drivers (I managed it to work) and I got an error about my graphic drivers all the time. i thought maybe it was just that game so I installed Left 4 Dead but when the games startscreen appers it just hangs, every time.
Have i done something wrong or can't I play games on xp?

anyway I thinking to return to a "vlite" modified clean vista installation. so i can play games

I really appreciate this tut and hop that others have been satisfied

SeeYa!!

 

would this work with the fw390? I would try it out first but I'm pretty sure someone will have an answer for me.

 

yes i got ALL the fn and media keys to work!!!! i am however going to change back to windows 7 since i simply can't get windows to install the ati drivers....i suspects its cuz i cant find the proper intel chipset drivers, which are required to detect devices on the pci-e slot - i tried all sorts of ati and intel drivers but no luck so if anyone has a solution please help!! pk so this is how i got the fn/media keys to work:
- i first installed a slipstreamed windows xp sp3 home edition [added sata drivers with nlite]

- then, before installing any other drivers i first installed sony shared library

-then, installed sony notebook utilities [BC, SUS, THEN VCC]

-then the chipset [installation finished 2 seconds after starting so thats why i suspect this has something to do with my grafix not working, even though only the grafix card has the yellow traingle next to it in devmgmt, well there's also another unknown device but i will get to that later]

then i updated the IDE controllers with ICH9-E/M SATA AHCI

then tried installing ati drivers, lots of them, though everytime always the same thing, no ati devices detected

then realtek audio drivers

then ethernet [manually through devmgmt]

then intel wireless

then the modem, bluetooth, touchpad, memstik [all in this order]
then finally vaio event service, and then i updated the last unknown device with firmware extension parser, and finally vaio power manager. then the first restart after installing the OS, and VOILA! everything works, except the av mode key but that requires installing some other software which guzzles ram so i left it out

BTW if anyone can link to good xp 32 bit intel chipset drivers i would appreciate it!

 

Hi! I tried several times this little tric and it didn't work: i still got the blue screen of dead. I still dont know why it doesn't work because I did everything step by step! I've got the same computer (Sony VGN-FW21E) so it's pretty disturbing! Can someone PLEEEEASE help me?

 

OK it worked now thanx to 8TTi for the right sata-files!

 

I have a Sony VGN-FW21E and it crashed while I was trying to recover it to Factory State. I didn't make Recovery Discs and hence now i'm stuck. Whenever I run recovery it freezes - I desperately need the Recovery Discs for this model. If anyone has them, please contact me. Thanks a lot! My email address is [email protected]

 

Hi,

instructions from antepante works for me without graphics, bluetooth and fn buttons.

Better driver for video card is from 8tti's post (Mobility Radeon HD 3450), screen sending to external device (lcd or tv via HDMI) works properly.

For bluetooth (BCM2046) i used drivers, from
Samsung (driivers for NP-NC10-KA04PL netbook)
and its working good (tested with nokia 6300).

For fn buttons i have no idea...

 

Hi guys
ii bought my sony vgn fw21e from uk but accidently lost my recovery discs and upgraded it to windows 7. i want to roll back to vista again. please please help me.. its a humble request to all you guys.

 

Hi...Now is work FN tabs? You can adjust brightnees?