Installing Vista Clean on a SZ330P/B - My experience

I got a wireless signal meter issue. It show only 3 bars even I sitting next by the router.After upgrade to latest driver still the same ( Driver ver#10.6.0.46/9.1.0.115 1/24/2007 )
Any body here got the same problem? Give me a ideal how to fix it.
Thanks
Briant

 

Latest Intel Drivers

 

Thanks.. our Driver is the Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection, correct?

 

I don't like this vista. I think this upgrade is the worst one from Microsoft. I upgraded from windows 3.1 to windows 98 to windows xp. Never have so many issues.

1. Sony's upgrade is bad. Fn+brightness key not work, this is not good to my eyes.
2. Disabled that safety thing, so don't pop out so many "confirm" windows.
3. The weather gadget can't work, even already set the location as united states.
4. A lot of software can't run, include powertoy calculator, cgywin, xwindows ...
5. Need to set user permissions for some software to run. How Microsoft expect a normal user know this?
6. The compatible mode doesn't really compatible with xp, that is really let software run under xp mode
7. Can't automatically find a lot of drivers. The driver's support is really bad.

Good point:
1. A little beautiful compared to xp, but this is useless.

The upgrade can't be reversed. If don't need to install all the applications, I prefer to go back to xp.

 

That's correct.

 

Yup. I've got the same. I figure it's just Intel being wierd. Bandwidth tests show that everything is peachy.

 

Does anyone know how to get Cingular's EDGE WWAN to work on the SZ in vista yet? i signed up for the 30 day trial and upgraded to vista. now i can't get smartwi-fi to work. any suggestions?

tried
Sony Ericsson Wireless Manager, Version 3.4.1.1518
Cingular Communication Manager Connectivity Software

both don't work.

 

I haven't tried this yet but I have a theory that you could test (I'm at work so can't test and I also didn't sign up for the EDGE trial)...

I think the reason the SonyEricsson software doesn't detect the EDGE modem is because Sony's utility to turn it off/on is SmartWi - which at this point doesn't look like it works in Vista (at least no version I can find that's downloadable).

The best bet is to find a SZ-4 series owner and try to get the SmartWi install from their recovery CD since those SZs are preinstalled with Vista. Once you turn on your EDGE modem using SmartWi the SonyEricsson/Cingular software should work fine.

As far as I know, SmartWi is the only software I know that can enable the EDGE modem and if it's not enabled it won't be detected by Windows.

 

Please help; trying to install VAIO Event Services Update
it give me this error message; Vaio event service could not be closed.
close this program manually and set it up again.
what do i have to close to run it?

 

My experience was similar to yours on the SZ. As for the workstation, S3 sleep does not work right. The battery life issue is a show stopper for me.

 

Go to the Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, and find "VAIO Event Service". Right-click > "Stop".

Now the installation will go smooth. Thank you sony.

 

Those of you experiencing long boot times, shortend stamina, high-speed fans or hot systems, take a look at task manager's CPU bar. I bet SmartWi or the SmartMonitor service is going wild. I've removed SmartWi from my startup, and killed the SmartMonitor service (disabled). Now my system runs GREAT. I get 3:15 on the regular battery, and 4:30-5 on the large battery.

Unfortunately, I can't switch between wi-fi and 3G, but the wireless switch still works (turns on/off BT and Wi-Fi).

 

Odd, I'm running SmartWi and everything else and I don't have the same issues you are...get 3:30hrs of battery life on Stamina.

I would advise against getting rid of SmartWi because it's the best way to control the WWAN, WLAN and BT.

What version of SmartWi are you using? I'm using the one from the TX series - works great. It even adds a Sidebar gadget if you want to use it.

 

I installed the 100.40 driver. Looks like it increases the display shared memory to 512Mb, but still can't use Fn+brightness.

 

First install the Sony NVIDIA drivers and make sure the Fn+brightness works with those which it should. Then upgrade from those drivers to the 100.40 ones. That's what I did and my brightness works fine.

 

You Fn+brigheness works with the Sony NVIDIA driver? My problem is my 270p/c doesn't work with the sony one. I just upgrade it to 100.40 and hope it works.

 

Thanks to Mobilehavoc i have most of my functions back on my upgrade to Vista Ultimate on my SZ330P. I still cannot get my brightness to work with th FN keys. I have the volume working and all other FN functions.

I loaded the latest Nvida drives and everything else but still no luck, anyone have any ideas???

And thanks to all who took their time to post the fixes here....

 

Steve, what happens when you try adjusting the brightness? Does it show anything at all?

Describe the problem in detail. What drivers are you using.

 

I have same problem as Steve. Press Fn+brightness key. The just stay at the second highest level. Can't go lower, can go to the highest level, but nothing changed. To use intel display card with my sz270p/c. All works fine. I think the problem is Navidia's vista drive can't support sony's Fn+bright key.

Mobilehavoc: don't know why your's can work, but looks like all other sony sz can't change brightness by Fn key.

 

Mobilehavoc:

Can you use Fn+brightness key just after installed the sony nivida driver? It's 97.54.

 

I installed Vista Home Premium as a clean install as this thread describes. After I booted into it, Windows had already installed Nvidia WDDM drivers (Microsoft's Nvidia drivers) for the Go7400. It worked great but I had the same problem you are all having in that the brightness would not do anything, it only went down one notch and that was it.

I then installed the Sony Drivers. After I installed these Sony Drivers my brightness control worked perfectly and it even allowed me to set brightness in the power settings.

I didn't change or install anything else, I just installed Sony's Nvidia drivers from the SZ330P/B site and my brightness controls started working.

To further prove this is a drivers thing, I tried installing Nvidia's 100.64 drivers from laptopvideo2go.com and my brightness stopped working. I went back to Sony's Nvidia drivers and it started working again.

So again, make sure you are using the Sony Nvidia drivers that are linked in this post and in the first post of this thread.

Apart from that, not sure why it wouldn't work for everyone.

FYI they are 97.46 version drivers.

 

do you think you can compile this into a single instructional guide? its so long at 8 pages and its kinda hard trying to follow everything you guys are talking about

 

rfii...if you go to the first post in this thread, it has links to all the software and I've been updating this as things progress. Not sure if that's what you're asking.

 

I have the latest Nvida driver from the sony site and when i press Fn+brightness key the brightness bars open but just stay at the second highest level they will not move in either direction.

It is a real puzzler, and when using the S2 button set to full bright it does nothing either. I have deleted the Nvida driver prior to installation also and it was no help at all. Maybe one day I will figure it out....

 

Steve51: Did you read my post? Use the Nvidia driver I linked to in my post and in the first post of the thread. It has to be the Nvidia driver posted by Sony. Version is 97.46. That's the one that works with brightness.

 

Mobilehavic, the driver i used is the one you posted i get the Nvida control panel and that works great just the FN does not. I just noticed when i unplug the power cable and go to battery my display goes to full bright? I have to guess the video driver is not the cause maybe power management is at fault.

My quest to fix it continues...

And thanks for your help

 

I just did some playing and found that when i move my power switch from speed to stamina the FN brightness works to control brightness. When i go back to speed it does not! Anyone ever see this?

 

Same here.

 

Mobilehavoc did you install the 32 or 64 bit version. I use the 32 and maybe that is the problem?

 

I installed the 32-bit drivers because I'm using 32-bit Vista. I'm not sure why it isn't working for you folks. I actually found out about using Sony's Nvidia drivers for brightness control from someone else that posted it. So it's definitely working for other people.

 

hi there
in just wanted to post this link, may be it will be of any help to you guys
http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/downloads/os/vista/upgrade.html
i got most of what i need from this topic's first thread..and i thought i should contribute as well
thanks all

 

Be careful, EU SZ's are not the same as US SZs in all aspects. For example for SZ3 in EU it lists Atheros for WLAN when in US it's Intel 3945ABG.

So be careful. The links on the first page of this topic should work for US and possibly EU but can't be sure.

Also for some strange reason none of the ALPS touchpad drivers seem to work with my SZ except the original XP version. The others all install fine and say it's working properly but the touchpad doesn't move the mouse.

Not sure why but I'm happy using the XP version for now.

 

So....

Does anyone know whether the drivers listed on the page would work with an S460?

 

Hi,
Sony released Alps Touchpad Vista drivers:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNSZ330PB&upd_id=2574&os_id=29
Regards,
LucM

 

Also available now:

Infineon Trusted Platform
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNSZ330PB&upd_id=2569&os_id=29

Official release of the UPEK Protector Suite (fingerprint software)
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNSZ330PB&upd_id=2561&os_id=29

LucM

 

What is the Infineon Trusted Platform?

 

For some bizzarre reason those have the same problem!! They install fine and in Device Manager it says the device is working properly but the touchpad doesn't move the mouse. It's like it's installed but the touchpad is turned off for some reason.

I can't find a way to turn it on...maybe it's something in the registry? It's not a big deal because so far the XP version seems to work perfectly fine except for warnings in the event logs that it's meant for XP.

Oh well.

 

It is the software/driver for the TPM chip.
You can actually just use the one that Windows installs as there does not appear to be any difference in functionality.

 

Thanks for the post! I've been struggling through the clean install procedure myself...mine is SZ330P with two partitions, XP Pro on the first and Vista Ultimate on the second (dual boot).

I pretty much got everything working, except for a couple of nagging problems. One is that Vista recognizes the Intel Core 2 Duo as a single core processor (both in System Information and Task Manager). I've tried uninstalling the processor driver, mucking around with HAL.DLL & HALMACPI.DLL (as suggested in some other forums), and poked around in the registry, but to no avail. Does Vista recognize the dual core processor in your SZ330? Anyone else having this problem?

Second problem is the touchpad keeps getting its coordinates reversed...that is, move my finger up, the cursor goes down; left goes right, etc. It's inconsistent - sometimes I can shut down and restart a few times and it'll correct itself, but it keeps re-occuring, and is a pain in the butt, needless to say. I've installed the latest Alps driver from Sony's site. This happens under XP too, by the way.

Other than this, I also see the problem where the brightness of the Intel video adapter can't be controlled from Power Management or Mobility Center. I tried both Sony's latest drivers and those from Intel's site. Guess we just have to wait for them to fix it.

Appreciate if anyone has any tips on the single vs. dual core processor problem - that's my biggest complaint right now that's keeping me from running under Vista all the time...I can live with the touchpad weirdness because I use a Bluetooth mouse most of the time.

Thanks!

 

Mine shows up fine as dual core CPU. Did you try installing the latest Intel chipset INF from their site?

Also, I failed to mention although I doubt it'll make a difference...I flashed the BIOS on my SZ330P/B with one that's on the EU FTP site. It worked fine and I believe it was specifically to help with Vista compatibility.

 

Yes, I downloaded infinst_autol.exe from Intel's site and installed that, but it didn't make any difference. Also tried checking the "Detect HAL" advanced boot option (from MSCONFIG), as suggested in other forums. Haven't done any BIOS updates, but the BIOS does report it as a dual core CPU, according to the diagnostics displayed before entering BIOS setup.

Thanks...will keep trying!

 

I have SZ120P, I have installed all listed driver, I have everything working except the camera. Messenger tells me i don't have a camera installed.
Also there are two unrecognized devices are in the picture?
Mass Storage Controller - is this the memory stick reader? DVD drive??
Unknown Device - When I look at the properties, it says something like VID_xx_xxx, can this be the (Video, hence the VID) camera?

TIA

 

Dual core CPU problem solved

I applied the latest BIOS update from Sony and that fixed it. Thanks Mobilehavoc for posting the link!

 

Yes the VID_xxx device is your webcam. Follow the instructions in the first post to get it working.
And the mass media controller is almost definitely the built-in MS Pro Duo reader. Instructions for that are in the first post too.

 

Congrats! Glad to hear it's working for you. I didn't know that was the solution because I applied the BIOS update before I even installed Vista.

 

STICKY! This please.

 

Anybody who appreciates this thread, since I'm new to the forums, would be great if you could give me some rep points to get me started...

Thanks a bunch.

 

It's all working now.
For the MS Reader I have to install the driver for my specific model SZ12p in order for vista to recognize it. Also I applied the registry patch to make the drive icon display correctly in my computer.

For the Vaio power management, I can't seem to find one of the features. Back in WIN XP you can specify what level of brightness of the LCD when plugged in or on battery. This option is now no where to be found. Any got any ideas??

 

That option will only work with the Nvidia Go7400 (Speed mode). It's found in Vista's Power Options. You usually get two basic settings for each plan in each Vista.

Turn off the display..
Put computer to sleep..

Then there should be a THIRD one that has brightness control which you can set for battery and plugged in.

Again this only works in Speed mode using Sony's Nvidia drivers as far as I know.

 

Sony disabled the brightness adjuster in Vaio Power Management because it's not functioning yet. Hopefully they'll get it to work soon because that's the only possible way to adaptively adjust the brightness while using the integrated Intel GMA 950.

If you'd like that option to appear, open the data.ini file located in %programfiles%\Sony\VAIO Power Management\data and change "Enable=0" to "Enable=1" in the following section:

Code:

[Function0]
;LCD Brightness
Enable=1
Name=FunctionName0
...

If you do the same thing to the 0d.ini file located in %programfiles%\Sony\VAIO Power Management\ini and replace the .\data\data.ini file with that, every available option will appear.