Help: Z11 drivers/sftwe all went nutso

Well, maybe not all, but for no reason i can identify, I am having at least these problems, which I didn't have yesterday, or for the last 6 months!

(BTW, I did a separate post about Bluetooth only, before I realized how wide spread the problems were. I will edit it to link to this thread.

1) My bluetooth radio is undiscoveralbe
2) I can't install BT drivers (many options tried) successfully
3) (obvious: I can't use Bluetooth devices, and 7 have disappeared from my Z's Devices and printers

4) Vaio Control Center will not run - it starts to launch and then a popup says: "Vaio Control Center has stopped working"

5) Vaio Event Service and Vaio Update are non-functional

6) Smart Wi installs and I can toggle Bluetooth and WLAN on/off, but they have no effect

7)Vaio update is not working

I have unintalled/reinstalled many, many things to no avail, but still not sure that critical ORDER of installation was wrong

I have tried going back to several restore points, when I knew all was working fine, and though it restores successfully, it does not "cure" the problems.

Please don't tell me that i don't need all the Sony bloatware because the things I've mentioned are all things I do use and need and/or are the things that would potentially troubleshoot/fix the problems I am having if they were working properly.

I'm hoping someone can save me going through 100s of posts about loading drivers and perhaps suggest a comprehensive way (short of a clean install) to try to get the Sony stuff I really need (especially my Bluetooth!!!) back to normal.

Muchos, muchos gracias!

 

I need to vastly simplify my OP^.

Suddenly today, or late last night perhaps, several important drivers and software associated with my Z11 became corrupt and after all the typical steps, I can't use my Z's BT radio, can't access Sony Control Center, which has the only fan/power control I'm aware of, etc. The post above supplies details, but I'm mainly looking for a good direct link or the words of advice as to how I get the "Vaio ecosysterm" working again, by far and away the most important being bluetooth:

- which drivers to uninstall/reinstall
- which ones to leave out
- which ones to get from hdwe or sftwe co (eg, before this problem, Lenovo's Blue drivers worked far better than what came with the Vaio!

Restore to Restore Point doesn't help at all.


Thanks

 

Was it something i said???!!!

It's an unprecedented experience for me to post a plea for help and get ZERO response from 98 who looked!

Well, it certainly forced me to be resourceful. I treated it pretty much like a clean install, except only for the Sony components, and now everything is pretty much ok - EXCEPT VAIO CONTROL CENTER. It just keeps saying: Vaio Control Center stopped working. I have installed pretty much every version Sony has ever released for a Z1 series and no luck.

Would maybe someone be willing to offer advice on just the VCC issue? Pretty please?

 

Bleh, the only thing I found is this:
VAIO Control Center has stopped working. Oops... ? LiveDeviL's Lab.

Did you already try reinstall that version?

 

Easiest and most reliable fix would be to do a fresh build or restore from recovery. The Control Center has dependencies all over the place and installation order is critical to get everything to work. Same deal with SmartWi

My Z11 is disassembled right now, so I'm doing this from memory and the driver download page.

This is an overly thorough approach to fixing the BT and CC issue, but it should get you back. Once again, rebuilding and following one of the install guides is your best bet.

• Download all the installers from the support site.
  • Sony's file naming convention confuses the hell out of me, so I like to copy the update title and insert it in the filename, removing any "/'s", of course. For example, the Broadcom® Bluetooth® Firmware Update is called BRFOTH-00225490-1040.EXE, so I rename it to BRFOTH-00225490-1040_Broadcom® Bluetooth® Firmware Update.EXE. You can leave the ™ and ® symbols in if you want.
• Download/install CCleaner <-- Great app, BTW
  
• Uninstall Sony applications (you can wait on reboots until you removed everything). Pay special attention to these:
  1. VAIO Event Service update
  2. VAIO Control Center updates
  3. VAIO Care and any updates
  4. VAIO Update
  5. VAIO Location Util
  6. Application update
  7. Messenger Update
  8. Sony Notebook Utilities. I don't recall if these are independent apps or rolled together, but we want to nuke:
     • VAIO Event Service
     • VAIO Control Center
     • Setting Utility Series
     • Battery Checker
     • VAIO Power Management
  9. Sony Shared Library
  10. Sony Firmware Extension Parser
  11. Setting Utility Series
  12. SmartWi
  13. VZAccess Manager Utility
  14. Qualcomm® Gobi™ 2000 Wireless HS-USB Modem 9225 Driver
• Uninstall the Broadcom Bluetooth Driver, reboot.
• Install the Broadcom Bluetooth Driver, reboot.
  • Takes a long time, make sure it finishes before moving on.
• Run the Broadcom® Bluetooth® Firmware Update. If this fails, let me know.
• Open Device Manager, ensure that all devices are found (no Unknown or devices with a yellow exclamation point). If you are missing one, install the driver package for it before proceeding.
• Run a Cleaner and Registry pass with CCleaner. You may need to run multiple registry passes to clear everything. No need to backup, BTW
• Start installing -in this order-, reboot when prompted
  1. Sony Firmware Extension Parser
  2. Sony Shared Library
  3. Sony Notebook Utilities
     • Takes multiple reboots. Reboot one more time after it is finished and test the Control Center function
  4. VAIO® Location Utility
  5. VZAccess Manager Utility
  6. Qualcomm® Gobi™ 2000 Wireless HS-USB Modem 9225 Driver
  7. SmartWi™ Connection Utility for Wireless WAN.
• Test your bluetooth function, ensuring it is enabled within SmartWi
• VAIO Update
• Install updates via VAIO update

 

Yes, I did, thanks. Hey, you were my "hero" with the fried USB port, which I fixed by ordering the part you linked me to and using the Z11 manual you linked me to. Had an excellent DIY experience, all is fine - there at least!

But, still no-go on the VCC - just plain weird.

 

Zoinks: You are beyond amazing! I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I used a somewhat less orthodox version of that approach and got everything working again fine, EXCEPT CC. My brain is just fried on all of the uninstall/installs of all the crap Sony drivers and software - would you mind telling me which portion of the routine I can excise since all I'm lacking now is CC? If I have to do it all to insure I get CC back I will - please tell me I don't!

 

Drop bluetooth and other network steps

 

Control Center is an application that goes deep into the system. Some settings you set there actually get stored in the BIOS memory, so you'll probably need to make sure these are reinstalled:
VAIO Event Service
Setting Utility Series
Sony Shared Library
Sony Firmware Extension Parser
Setting Utility Series

And then reinstall Vaio CC.

 

Thanks, got it. Seems like I did this 4-5 times, but going to use Zoinks' approach to the letter (absent the network stuff: i don't have WWAN and BT is now running like a charm). I just wish I had a reason to believe it would work better this time, though I am grateful for the reminder to use the reg cleaner - completely forgot that step.

EDIT: Got it done! Amazingly, after painstakingly repeating Zoinks' [painstakingly created] list of uninstall/reinstalls, and cleaning my registry for the first time in months (eek!), CC still wouldn't run! So I went back to Google and ran into Namaiki's suggestion:

VAIO Control Center has stopped working. Oops... ? LiveDeviL's Lab.

And this time, it did the trick! I had tried it twice before and it didn't. I'm assuming I corrected a lot of ills following Zoinks' guide and running CC Cleaner, and it made the somewhat counter-intuitive approach work. To save you the trouble of clicking through, that link takes you to a suggestion to uninstall only Setting Utility Services (not all of Notebook Utilities) and then reinstall it using Vaio Care's re-install service. You just do it, restart and, as the post says: "it just works again!"

Thanks again - between the advice and the sense of moral support mean a great deal. Big part of why there is an NBR, I think. You guys are the best.

 

Happy to have wasted your time

 

No, no! It's not like that at all! In fact, I found at least one thing (can't remember which atm), that wasn't working before I ran through your suggested routine but which was working fine afterwards. I may have needed to do one last thing to get CC back, but there is no reason to believe it would've worked had I not done everything else in the order you suggested. Also, I had not been thinking about running CC Cleaner (duh!) and that also probably made a huge difference.

You are the best, Zoinks! I would +1 you, but it is still telling me I have to spread them around more before giving you one again- that's how valuable your help has been to me!

I didn't really hurt your feelings, did I?