How to Optimize Any Sony VAIO With a Semi-Clean Install

Sony really needs to stop force-feeding all this crap to their customers.

 

Hello. I'm having a problem when I did a clean install on my SONY TZ 190N/B Laptop.

What I did: I installed An original Vista Business CD and used the vista password under my TZ 190 Laptop. Everything installed smoothly. Then, I uploaded all the drivers and applications... However, My hotkeys are NOT working!!! (ie: Volume display, Adjusting screen brightness display, zooming in, etc!!)

Here's what happens. I install the "SONY UTILITIES" driver that controls the hotkeys... after it is finished installing... The KEYS WORK!!!!! BUT......... The second I RESTART windows and go back to the startup screen... The HOTKEYS NO LONGER WORK!!! So then.. I tried to install the drivers again... and once it is finished BEFORE Restarting.. it works.... BUT AGAIN... the minute I restart and go back... it doesnt work!!!

AHHHH!!1 Someone please help me!!!!! The drivers I used are the ones downloaded off the website. Not the ones from my recovery cd.

IN ADDITION... I have been getting real word caution windows.. such as :

(not word for word)

1) CAUTION: Seems like your battery is not the correct model.. or it is not installed correctly... press ok to put the computer in hibernate mode.. then remove the battery and reinstall it.

2) Microsoft.NET Framework... C: unable to load C:etc../etc./// SONY UTILITIES/etc../etc... (<-- something like that)

Can some please help me answer these quesitons/problems????

1) How can I fix the hotkey malfunctioning I'm having. All I wanted was a clean instlal of vista business so I can take out all the sony bloatware.. and this is what happens... ?

2) Are the drivers on the website the same as the recovery disc drivers ( a Rep at sonystyle store said the recovery drivers are different from the websites)

3) How do i fix my above explained battery issue?

4) How do I fix my issue regarding Microsoft.NET Framework?? Do i really need that in my computer??

I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP PLEASE!!!

 

This is a thread for folks doing the SEMI CLEAN install. There is another thread for folks doing a full clean install on a TZ. You will have better luck asking these questions there.

Gary

 

Thanks, Gary. I was going to say the same.

 

I still have around 70 processes running after the semi clean install. Here's the list on my taskbar.

Activation manager
apmsgfwd.exe
apntex.exe
apoint.exe
ccp.exe
csrss.exe
dwm.exe
explorer.exe
ISBMgf.exe
jusched.exe
mobsync.exe
MSASCui.exe
Powermanagement.exe
psqltray.exe
reader_sl.exe
rundll32.exe
rundll32.exe
sidebar.exe
sidebar.exe
SmartWiToggle.exe
SmartWiToggletproxy.exe
SPMgr.exe
taskengr.exe
taskeng.exe
taskmgr.exe
ThirdPartAppMGr.exe
TosA2dp.exe
TosBtHid.exe
TosBtHSP.exe
TosBtMng.exe
UIManager.exe
upeksvr.exe
VAIOUpdt.exe
VESMgrSub.exe
winlogon.exe

Anything idea why I have 70 processes still?

 

Kaze, how many did you start with, and what model do you have?

 

I did this on my new Sony SZ650 and it runs well. I installed only the "needed" Sony utilities after the semi-clean install and everything (Bluetooth, Camera, Wifi, etc) are working well, knock on wood.

I even have a decent picture on my Dell 2407 widescreen from the VGA port...waiting for my port replicator with DVI to arrive.

I somehow have to get a modded Nvidia driver on here, the standard Sony/Nvidia one just isn't that great (lots of "flickering" which is common to Vista...and stuttering during movie playback).

M

 

Didn't follow the semi-clean install process but when I did a clean install using my Vista Business cd, after installing a few drivers I also got the

"1) CAUTION: Seems like your battery is not the correct model.. or it is not installed correctly... press ok to put the computer in hibernate mode.. then remove the battery and reinstall it."

Obviously taking the battery in and out didn't fix anything. Anyone know how to fix this problem? I just reformated again so I'll see how it goes..

 

THIS THREAD IS NOT FOR CLEAN INSTALL SUPPORT. There are plenty of threads on this forum that have what you need. This is about a SEMI-CLEAN install. It's totally different.

 

I wasn't going to do semi/ clean install until I saw the topic of someone saying his device manager only see T7500 instead of T7700 CPU....

now I am going have to do a semi clean install. and this guide is helps a lot . thanks

do you know any uninstalling program that will even remove registry?

 

The semi clean install will not correct the device manager seeing a T7500 instead of a T7700. But to be honest with you I am pretty sure there is really no issue with this at all in the first place I think it is merely cosmetic. There appears to be no difference in the drivers between the two different speeds of processor. That's why Sony uses the same image for all the different speeds.

Gary

 

I think the Created Recovery Discs option in Vaio Recovery/Launcher.exe no longer works after using this method. It crashes for me, can anyone else confirm this?

 

At what point does it crash for you? I'm able to get to the "insert disk" stage, but I'd rather not waste a DVD. Does it allow you to start burning?

 

I have the SZ 691 n/x. I believe it had around 90 to begin with if not mistaken lol.

 

Well, that list you provided only had 35. I'm confused.

 

no idea.. not all programs are listed ? i typed all of them down though..

 

do you guys have the vaio recovery folder in the start menu ? Mine seems to be missing but I can find it in C drive though.

 

I don't have it in the Start Menu. You can always make a shortcut there if you want. I figured it's better when it's hidden because of the ability it has to reformat my hard drive.

 

i can't find a way to install Adobe photoshop and SmartWI back in my FZ after a semi-clean install. i did look for it in lancher.exe but i can't find it.

Anyone can help me?

 

Just figured I'd go ahead and post my specs before and after doing this. Keep in mind that I did this after I have already spent the last two days deleting all the crap that I could using CCleaner and Add or remove programs.

Before:
HD Space: 130 GB Free
Processes: 66-70
Memory Usage: @40%

After:
HD Space: 162 GB Free
Processes: 54-58
Memory Usage: @28-30%

Not bad at all, for something that only took me an hour. I definitely recommend this procedure for anyone with a new notebook. As I said before, I did this AFTER I went through and deleted all the bloatware I could possibly find and killed some startup tasks. The results speak for themselves.

 

I didn't do all this. I optmized my vaio manually.

uninstall crap (to mention a few - norton, adobe pro 8 trial, ms office trial, napster, aol, spysweeper, vaio productivity, security, etc > registry clean > change unnecessary services to manual start up > defrag ur hard drive. This should cut down ur start up time, improve system responsivenes considerably.

 

about step 5 of the guide, does killing it later allow some files to be installed? do you have to kill the process as fast as possible or will no files be installed as long as you kill the process?

also I noticed another weird thing... the more programs i uninstall the more processes I get.... what's up with that?? I started off with 61 running and now i'm at 66..

 

At the start of the psot it says it works on Vaio CR, but have anyone tried? 'cause I read the whole topic and couldn't find any opinions about it..., maybe the author of this topic had a CR or something but anyways.. you get the point =P

 

I own a CR, yes. Kaze, to my understanding you can kill the process within a time frame before installation files are moved from a temp folder to their proper locations.

 

Hmm, i just tried it on my SZ61XN/C (Europe Premium model) and it doesn't seem to work. I push F10, then the recovery stuff runs (format hard drive, then install windows, restart and it goes to the screen where you put the username, pass, etc.). After that I can just login Windows Vista and another progrum runs to "check the applications, or otherwise the system might run unstable" or something in that directions. I break that process (VARU.exe, same as in the recovery folder), but I still have 66 processes running and all the stuff is installed (Norton, google crap, tons of VAIO programs). Am I doing anything wrong or did I do it right? Without anything running I now use 30% of the Physical memory and CPU goes between 10-20%. Doesnt seem that bad, just want to make sure I did it right?

 

The VAIO programs stayed on my CR, but they're really just free trial offers, so they're incredibly easy to remove.

 

hmm, mine also had norton still on it. Well, I just uninstalled everything I didnt want and it works just fine.

 

If you still had Norton then you probably made a mistake somewhere.

 

fablex

I ordered that exact same model but I have no idea how it'll turn out.. You dont happen to have pics of it (no the fin sony site doesnt have pics). You mentioned its the premium model, same as the us premium model with the carbon fibre showing through?

 

Haha, I just replied in the other thread to you. But since you're asking here also, yes, it's the premium with carbon fibre (i think). The total black one. You don't have the antenna on the right.
It looks real great, I'll see if I can put up some picks in an hour or so.

 

Ill take that as a promise D /waiting for pics

 

I'm still waiting for a report on the TZ, so if somebody has used this on one, please let me know.

 

This worked very well for me on a humble Vaio VGNN385EB. I cleaned it after receiving it using control panel, selective start, etc. These resources and processes running numbers move around a bit but:
After cleaning ended up with 30G used, 69% resources used and 59 processes running.
After a clean install only 10G used!!, 52% resources used, and 55 processes running.
Excellent!
Boot time was significantly faster, but that was hard for me to quantify with vista due to the apparent (useable mouse) completion vs real completion.
Thanks!!!

 

fablex,

Wow, first post on here, having lurked for ages keeping an eye on the SZ6 I've been after for so long.

Finally sat down and tried the semi clean install on my SZ61WN/C and I think I'm running into the same thing as you are. Ran through the guide once and waited for any sign of the part where it copies all the bloat onto the system, but even killing the VARU.exe process I still ended up with Norton, Office and so on. Looked exactly the same as my first boot.

Tried again with various CTRL-ALT-DEL along the install process and the system doesn't seem to respond to it at all. Goes straight through to the Vista setup screen (Country, Currency, Keyboard settings).

Going to see what I can do with the clean install DVDs I made this morning, will report back if I get any success!

Justin.

 

gorecki, what I did was just uninstall everything from the control panel (couple of reboots in between). Then run ccleaner to clean the stuff up, check the pogram files folder and remove any left folders there. Then I went into the regedit and removed the left keys of the uninstalled programs.

I was left with 31% memory usage afterwards, and about 60 processes (but the list itself shows way less then that number...)

Then onto installing verious programs (Nod32 virus scanner, msn, live mail, office 2007, different browsers). While typing this I run at 40% memory usage (with dreamweaver and IE7 open). Fine by me

 

fablex

Think I'm going to go the clean install route to be honest - just ordered a Vista Anytime Upgrade DVD. Having yet another go at the semi clean install but it seems the recovery process is slightly different for our EU models. Was already a little concerned when the recovery process goes under a different name.

Ah well, guess my need to have things clean is going to mean having to wait a little bit longer before I can get off this 5 year old Dell onto that sexy carbon fibre beast...

 

gorecki

Care to report back or even send a pm to me regarding what you ended up doing and how? Would spare me alot of trouble when i actually get my hands on this beast

 

I'll add that bit about the EU models to the OP. Thanks.

 

Hunningolla, don't know if it'll be useful but I'll try and share the whole process here:

Followed NinjaNoodles' guide, made my recovery DVDs, backed up the recovery centre (which is in C:\Program Files\sony), also got the recovery centre to create a load of recovery data which included apps, drivers and hotfixes as well, but noticed that there wasn't an exe called Launch.exe/Launcher.exe.l Stuck all of this on a DVD just in case.

It seems on the EU systems, VARU.exe is the equiv. - double clicking this opens the Recovery Centre

So reboot, hit F10, go for the C: recovery, follow the instructions and let it reboot after the first stage - system recovery (before the windows setup stage).

It's between this point and the Vista settings screen (where you config the locale, keyboard, language and so on) that I was expecting a window to flash up with some message along the lines of 'Copying files to C:' but nothing happens.

I'm doing another first boot now so I'll write as I go along.

Black screen...'Please wait a moment while Windows prepared to start for the first time...'

2-3 mins later... Vista background with the mouse pointer indicating it's busy, and 'Please Wait...' at the bottom. Lots of HD activity, one black flash, nothing else of interest to report.

5 minutes later...Popup titled 'Windows VISTA setup' The initial setup may take up to 15 mins, Do not unplug or turn off the computer, Click OK to continue, and wait until the 'Set Up Windows' screen appears. Clicking OK sends the screen black for a minute or so before the machine reboots.

After reboot...Screen looping progress bar, like the XP startup screen but with no text other than 'Microsoft Corporation', then straight into the 'Set Up Windows' screen. Fill in the forms, after about 2 mins Windows starts doing a check of the system's performance.

After the performance check there's a black screen with the Vista logo, and then a login prompt. It's only after logging in that there's a dialog 'Click OK to start the Application Recovery. If you do not perform the application recovery, your computer may become unstable.' Killing VARU.exe avoids this, but then I get to my desktop and find Norton, Office, Picasa, Google stuff, and so on.

So there you go.

Footnote - NinjaNoodles - can I just clarify what sort of period in the installation process should the 'Copying files' prompt come up? Just curious to see if there's any other time I could have interrupted the installation. Was doing a CTRL-ALT-DEL every step of the install but it kept getting ignored.

 

It's a pre-Windows step. When do you see it? After logging in?

 

Yep, the EU equivalent comes up after login and appears as the desktop does. By that point you can already see that there's a load of bloat.

(Cheers for the Semi-Clean Install btw, shame it doesn't appear to work with the EU machines but hopefully I'm just being stupid and someone else will make it work!)

 

Also, if you kill that install ("If you dont do this system becomes unstable" crap), it will pop up every time you start up your PC! Very annoying, so I ended up doing it anyway.

 

You can probably disable it from msconfig.

 

I did the semi clean install on my vgn-n365 e/b and it works great as far as I can tell! Boot time started at 3:49. I checked all the times until the cpu light went out for the most part. I turned off UAC after the semi-clean restart time was 1:40 shutdown was :30. after another couple restarts it leveled off at 1:26. I disabled TMM did disk cleanup and defrag and it went to 1:11 and shutdown was :16.

Started with 70 processes running and that went to 56. Computer is a 120 gig HD had 82 at the start and 96 after. Not too bad for an hours work or so!! Thanks everyone!

 

NN, I just performed the Vista semi-clean on my out of the box TZ150. Processes dropped from 92 to 64. The startup time is still close to 3mins though it started as 3:40. This system is at 1gig RAM and it's at least usable now, however I plan on upgrading to 2gigs soon. Thanks to all for the tips.

 

Firstly great tips, the process kind of worked on the European model of FZ11S, only thing is like the like NinjaNoodles said the Euorpean recovery tool is slightly different.

Managed to install as clean as possible, Norton etc was still on it but luckily no SONY software like SonicStage etc was installed. The main point is that on the Euro version you get the second part, the 'Application' recovery (the screen with a blue background) after Windows has installed and a restart and you keep getting this even when you hit the cancel button and everytime you restart.

Drove me mad this did, you'd think you would be able to stop it via MSCONFIG but no sony has put it in the Task Scheduler. Go to start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler, then in the window that says 'Active Task' find the VAIO application recovery then delete the entry, restart and there you have it no more annoying popup after every restart. Start removing the rest of the crapware then!

 

Thanks for the news on the TZ, and thanks to bobsmells for finding a fix on European models.

 

Hi everyone, first I'd like to say a big thank you for creating this thread!

I've just received my CR21S/W, and am planning to carry out a semi/clean install. But I'm a real noob when it comes to this and have a query so thought i'd post here and hope someone could help me out;

1, At step 2, 'copy Vaio Recovery' where should i copy it to?

2, At step 5, it was asked by a member but i did not fully understood the answer so here it is again. Is there a specific time i should hit Ctrl+Alt+Del? too early will cause any harm?

really hope i could get some help here,
thank you in advance (hope i could get this semi clean install done asap! )

Edit:
Oh i also want to add that, i opened 'launcher' to check the potential list of programs that i would be re-installing, but i couldnt find the InstantON one.. anyone know where it is or maybe the name is different? (checked both programs + drivers list).

Thanks again
BoN

 

When Ctrl+Alt+Del works, you know you're in the right spot. Also, copy the folder to an external hard drive or some other medium.

What model do you have?

 

Thanks for the fast reply NinjaNoodles, I've got the VGN-CR21S/W, is it ok with this semi clean install?

You say when C+A+D works im at right spot, so do you mean i should just press the 3 buttons a few times until the box to select task manager opens?

Also about the 'InstantON' installation.. do you have any idea what the name is, because i cant seem to find it when i checked the list in Reinstall programs (at the vaio recovery centre). Sorry if i repeated myself again here.