Help me with my Vaio TZ!!!

Hi everyone,

I'm a college student living in Seattle, over the summer, a good friend of my dad's gave me a Sony Vaio TZ-13. The exact model number is VGN-TZ13. The notebook was purchased in China, so it came with Windows Vista Home Premium Simplified Chinese Version. One big problem, I can't read a lick of Chinese. So I need to find a way to get an English version of Windows Vista. Yes, contrary to most people, I actually want Vista on my TZ. Here is what I tried so far: I called Sony Direct Accessories and asked them if I could get a recovery disc for my TZ with an English Vista. The lady on the other end told me that the TZ-100 Series DVDs would work for me, so I paid close to $30 bucks for the discs and had them shipped. I got them in the mail, popped them in the computer, tried to restore, and an error came up telling me to check model number. Unfortunately, the discs are not returnable . Well at this point, I was completely frustrated and I decided to install Windows XP Pro (English) just so I can actually use the notebook. I followed the "Definitive" guide on this forum, and I couldn't get the display nor the audio to work properly. At this point, I was beyond frustration. I even thought about selling the darn thing overseas or something. But I kept my cool and restored the computer to the original factory state (Vista Chinese) using the hidden partition. So currently, the computer is in the condition it was in when I received it. Here is my question, what is the best way for me to change my computer to English? I have the resources to purchase a copy of Windows Vista if necessary, so would doing a fresh install of Vista help get what I want? What about the drivers? Does Vista automatically update drivers? I don't want to run into any driver trouble like I did with XP. How about the BIOS? Is there anyway for me to flash the BIOS into English? I don't think my current mental state can get any worse, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

This may do you no good, but a simple first step might be to see if changing your Regional and Language settings in Control Panel makes any difference. I don't have experience with Windows versions created for overseas markets, but it might be worth a shot. If you open Control Panel, you should see an option labeled Regional and Language Settings. Open it up and at the top you should see a drop down with a list of languages. Try switching to English (United States).

At the bottom, where it says location, click the drop down arrow and select United States.

Click the Language tab and then click the Details button. If the Default language isn't English, and it isn't an option in the drop down, click the Add button and choose Language as English (United States) and the keyboard as United States - Dvorak or Qwerty.

I can't say if any of that will help, but it might be worth a try.

As for the BIOS, is it actually written in Chinese? Flashing it with an English version would be the only way to resolve that, unless there is a language choice option in the BIOS, which used to be common on some desktops, but I don't know that I've ever seen it on a laptop.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. Changing it in control panel didn't do me any good. The BIOS is written in Chinese, and I can't tell if there's anywhere where I can change the language. Now, if I get my hands on an English BIOS do you think i can safely flash it? If, say, I flashed my current BIOS into an English BIOS for lets say a TZ130 (US Version) would I be able to use my Recovery Discs? Or would the BIOS not effect the model id?

 

I would do that.

TZ130N support page