Installing Vista Clean on a SZ330P/B - My experience

So you're saying the options will appear but they won't do anything right? Then what is the real point of enabling them???

 

As far as the brightness option is concerned, yes, that doesn't do anything right now, which is why they removed it from the list. But some of the hidden options in 0d.ini work perfectly fine.

 

Interesting. Can you share what some of the hidden options in 0d.ini work and what they do? This way people can decide whether they should go ahead and make the edits or not.

Thanks a bunch.

 

The audio and modem hidden options are the only ones which appear to work. Normally they're combined but now you have an option to power them separately. The other more important hidden options such as fan control, usb power, thermal control strategy, are not working.

 

I am crazy trying to remember what i have installed and what I am missing, or even if the version I have is the latest. This guide has been really a big help.
Yesterday there was an update released:

Is this supposed to uninstall the xp versions of those software, or bogus ones they have released for vista and I already might have installed?????

Also Isn't there like a vaio update utility that to see if you have the latest working drivers for each thing? I can't believe they dont have something likethat.

 

I saw that too...I think it's supposed to uninstall XP versions since they assume you are upgrading from XP to Vista not doing a clean install.

Btw, does anybody have a clue what LAN-Express AS IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN driver is?? They also released that as a Vista driver but I have no clue what it is for since my WWAN, WLAN and BT work perfectly...is there another Wireless LAN Sony didn't tell us about

 

Also, if i enable the fingerprint software to run with the TPM chip, every time I want to log on the computer I have to wait a lot!!! before i can use my finger to enter the computer. There is a message saying that the tpm chip is being read, so i simply write my password wich is faster . Is it supposed to be that slow? (about 40 seconds) was it like that on xp?

Also I couldn't select the auto logon feature wich is supposed to ask for the fingerprint at bios level and then enter to your user automatically. the option was not available.

 

Ok, 11+ pages made my eyes go bad. So am I better waiting till sony releases the companion dvd for my sz160p then upgrade? Damn... I have the vista ultimate staring at me on my desk, but just dont want to go through all the hassles.

 

same here. it's very slow. But I don't know if auto login usefur? Does this same as no password?

 

mobilehavoc- Youre running dualboot? and what if my computer is a 160p. there is no updated bios. do you think i'll run into any issues?

 

Yeah I'm running XP/Vista dualboot...safest way to go because if Vista isn't ready for you you can go back to XP with no issue.

There is a BIOS update for the SZ1 series.

Good luck. I wouldn't worry about getting Vista to at least work since most of the basic drivers will be installed by Windows automatically...it's the Sony SZ specific stuff (fingerprint reader, webcam, function keys,etc) that require the additional work.

 

thanks for the bio info. I'll see if its something I didnt install yet.

update: ok I did install it. it was something newer. Dunno what it did. Nothing in my bios changed. No optiont to adjust video memory.

Only thing I need from sony to work are the following:
Fingerprint reader,
the stam/power setting to change video modes
and the vaio powersaving features.

Camera can fail for now since I dont use it.

 

oh btw, should I be dloading everything from:
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/OS/VistaUpgrade
?

 

Oh I didn't install Vista yet, but for those complaining about how hard this is to install, some things to consider:
1) XP and Vista, while may look close to each other, most of the codes are totally rewritten. Compatability issues will be as bad as 98 to XP.
2) Sony hasn't really officially released vista for units like mine (SZ160p) so I don't fully hold it to them YET that this isn't the smoothest upgrade.

 

Oh if youre using the dualboot option, be careful with that partitioner. I'm pretty sure there is a right way and a wrong way of making the partition. I dragged my partition size from left to right. So the new partition ended up on the left side. While now its gonna take 8 HOURS to partition. It took 8minutes to make it, and 7+hours to COPY the data from the left side over to the RIGHT side. AUGH. I think if I dragged it from right to left, it would've partitioned the open space and that would've been that.

 

What is the diference between the Click-to-Dvd Basic and advanced menu software??? I am supposed to download only one of those right?
The advanced one is 330MB!!
Those who have used is, what is the difference?

Then there is roxio media creator also.
Dvgate plus(what is that?)

 

Ok this is screwed...
I installed vista all ok so far except for the brightness being stuck. I restart. It asks if I want to restart in a older windows. I click on it. it loads to my harddrive, then nothing happens. black screen. when I force a shutdown and restart in vista, it says I didn restart properly. I tell it to restart normally, everything in vista is ok.. I just cant get back to my XP.
PLEASE HELP

 

mobilehavoc- btw, the dualboot screen is the B&W screen that asks if you want to run the older version of windows or vista, and something about a memory test on the bottem?

 

Yes that's the Vista bootloader screen...I don't understand the problem you're having. If it's giving you the option for "An earlier version of Windows" then that means it found your XP install.

Try this, at the menu select "Earlier version of Windows" and then IMMEDIATELY hit F-8, this should bring up your XP boot menu. There you can try safe mode or other ways to start.

If that doesn't work let me know, there is probably a way to get your XP install back but then you won't have the option of going into Vista until you reinstall Vista.

Let me know.

 

Mobilehavoc,
hi there, just some basic questions for you.
1. using Vista is faster than XP ? say running graphics apps ? did you tested ?
2. using 64Bit OS is faster than 32bit Vista ? (assume the app is 64bit also) ?
3. how much you buy the Visat ? where ? using Upgrade promo ? how ?
4. do you recomend using upgrading that SZ 330P to Vista ? why ?

regards
cal

 

cool, tried safeboot. it gets about a second or so into loading the drivers. crcdisk.sys is the last thing I see it load before nothing. it just freezes there. I would try use windowsxp repair but this sony never came with a full version of windows, just a restore cd. any other ideas?

One more thing, when windows vista loads, I get the scrolling bar as a movement indicator. is there anything that says vista? mine doesnt

 

1. Vista is slower than XP. Every test so far gets this result. A few DX9 games run slightly faster. Anything that is Open GL runs a lot slower.
2. There is no driver support from Sony for 64 bit Vista on the SZ. There are very few 64-bit apps available.
3. Personally I think Vista is so bad it is not worth stealing, let alone paying for it.
4. No way, but that's my opinion.

 

for games yeah Vista is slower but i still wouldnt use XP if you paid me

 

Actually I believe it was figured out that the 7400 has 128mb ram. But windows will read it wrong as 64mb. It seems windows is still reading it wrong in Vista.
Its the Intel video that has 64mb ram.

 

ok heres the new deal,which is better than before.
I formatted and did a restore. I have XP again. From XP I installed Vista. I can now dual boot. yay!
Now a new issue. My LAN switcher won't stay loaded. I see it install, then I see the little green LAN box. When I reboot, the LAN box is gone. if I find the program I can run it and it'll appear again, but dissaper once I reboot. Any ideas?

update: I threw the program into "startup". Now it loads when windows vista does. I dont remember needing to do that before.

 

Yet another post by me. Just letting you know, after hours of getting my Vista up and running on my 160P, Sony now has vista drivers on its home page. Augh. I could've sworn I checked before I started all of this.
only thing which I havn't gotten to work yet is auto loading of the wan switcher. I still need it in starup, when before I did not.
I did get the brightness slider to work.
And not sure if it was said in another post, but theres a fix for the fan issue in a patch.

Anybody else besides me think its strange that starting Vista, the only thing you see is a scrolling animation? Not even the name Vista? Looks have baked compaired to the previous versions of windows that way.

 

Glad to hear you got it up. They got rid of any image/logo except the scrolling animation since it turns out that having a boot logo slows down the boot. Not sure if that's true or not but Vista definitely boots faster than XP for me so I can't complain.

Hope you enjoy Vista. I did some comparisons with XP this past weekend (booting in XP and doing stuff and then booting into Vista and doing stuff). Happy to report I'm staying with Vista permanently now and at some point when I have time I'll probably delete XP to free up space on the other partition.

Best of luck to all.

 

I also have this question. In my 270p only Basic menu software can work. The advanced menu can't work, I even tried to uninstall the basic and only install advanced menu.

Also does that sonicstage 4.3 work? It can start up but can't go to the main manu.

 

For what it's worth, here are my answers.

1. Yes it is faster than XP. As someone who installed Vista on Feb 9th 2007 on my Sony SZ and has been switching between XP and Vista regularly to test it out...I can honestly say Vista is faster for many reasons you can read into. Currently the graphic drivers in Vista are SLIGHTLY slower than those in XP and depdending the type of games you play, you may not even notice it...this will improve over time. Keep in mind XP has been around for 5 years so you're comparing a 5 year old OS with a 1 month old OS...not really apples to apples.
2. You should read into 64-bit to understand that 99% of people out there don't clearly get what it means. There's absolutely no reason you should consider installing any 64-bit OS unless you are going to use more than 4GB of RAM which the SZ doesn't even support. 64-bit DOES NOT mean it's faster than 32-bit at all...it basically means it can use more RAM...32-bit is limited to 4GB.
3. Newegg.com. You can get Home Premium for $120 and Ultimate for $199. Both good prices and they are legit versions. The DVD package is very nice too...best price I found. Just like XP, VIsta will be around for a while so think about spending $120 - $199 over 5 years...that works out to like $25 - $40 A YEAR
4. I would not recommend UPGRADING XP to Vista yet in case you have some problems with it and some apps you are using. What I DO recommend is setting up another partition and dual-booting Vista with XP. This way you get the best of both worlds...
Vista installs clean which is best for Vista and you leave you XP install intact if you need to back to XP for whatever reason. This means you have to buy one from Newegg.com or wherever but to me its worth not having the headache. Remember if you upgrade XP to Vista you can't go back to XP.

Hope this helps you and others.

 

have you installed adobe reader? I just dload version 8 from adobe. it uncompresses and asks me if I want to run it. I tell it yes, then it tells me my temp folder is full or locked.

update: its adobe. you need to turn on the windows user account control to install it. go figure.

 

How the dualboot work? Does vista support duoboot or I need to install other software?

 

When you install Vista on a separate partition from XP, it automatically creates a boot menu that lets you select between XP and Vista at startup.

 

Whats weird about dual boot is windows will show BOTH partitions. It wont hide the other. Have to remember which drive I want to be and and DON'T touch the other or you'll screw up windows for the other boot.

 

Another clean install problem/solution...Playing DRM music files.

After getting my BIOS update and fixing the dual core problem, I've been using Vista regularly, and that led to the discovery of another issue: none of my DRM protected WMA files (downloaded from URGE) would play in Media Player. Attempting to play protected content resulted in the (not very helpful) error code C00D11B1. After digging around on the 'net, I learned that the problem is that the SigmaTel audio driver installation sets the DisableProtectedAudioDG value to 1 in the registry, which prevents the validation of the audio drivers and disallows playing of protected content. The solution is to just change this value to 0. The key is found here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Audio

I had to reboot first before the change took effect. Now all DRM media plays just fine.

Cheers!

 

Hey,

I found this thread from Google after clean installing VISTA on my SZ1HP/B.

This thread helped immensley. It is great. I thought I had everything working perfectly, but I do have 1 problem:

It invloves the use of a secondary monitor via the VGA OUT.

When I connect my VGA cable in Vista, Vista promptly detects the connection and asks me what I would like displayed on my secondary display.

However, after a few seconds, my Vaio screen flashes on and off and so does my seconday monitor screen. This repeats continuously untilI unplug VGA cable.

If I got to VISTA mobility centre, I can see that the secondary monitor is switching between 'connected' and 'not connected' - on/off etc.

I have dual boot on my laptop and the problem does not occur in XP - I can enable my secondary display via the NVIDA Control Center - it works perfect.

Can anyone suggest a fix here? What about the NVIDIA control center in VISTA - is that possible? I'd prefer to keep it through Windows, but as long as I get it working.

Thanks, and nice job on the thread.

 

Welcome! What Nvidia drivers are you using? That's a good place to start.

 

Do you mean you can't do some operations in xp partition when you boot in vista?

 

No this is not 100% true. You can access the files on your XP partition from your Vista partition and vice versa without a major issue.

There may be some files, especially those in your \Documents and Settings\<username> in XP and \Users\<username> in Vista that may not be accessible from the other OS. This is because these are locked to your username.

There are easy ways to override this so they are accessible but don't want to go into that in this thread.

For what it's worth...in Vista I use the same My Documents folder as XP. My iTunes folder is in My Documents\My Music. SOOO when I use iTunes in Vista or in XP it uses the same music library etc. I do this with other things as well.

But you use your XP partition in Vista fine as long as you don't touch the Windows directory.

 

Because some application software can't run on vista. I think the duoboot may be the right solution for it. Just wast some hard driver space for xp.

 

I think another problem I found is waking from sleep/hibernation. The wan will sometimes be turned off, although its on in the try. if I turn the wan switch on/off/on I get my connection

 

Hi,

I'm using: Sony Drivers: NVIDIA_video_97.46_logo_Notebook

I have found the NVIDIA Control Centre, but suffer same problem in that as well.

 

^^ I have a similar doubt, but it is that sometimes when i go to sleep mode, the wlan is left on, wasting more battery life, but sometimes it turns off. Don't know why and couldn't find info about that in the windows help files. Anyone noticed this? or know why is this happening? I just have to make shure that i turn off the wlan before i go to sleep, but I think it shouldn't be that way
That sleep thing is great because my computer is always ready to use, but it is using a lot of battery for the time it is at normal sleep.(about 7% per hour!! when is supposed to be between 1 or 2%)

 

With the newest Vista Nvidia drivers I ran 3dmark 05 and 06. I'm about 1635pts in 05 and about 752pts in 06 with the Vista drivers. Doesn't seem bad, but some of my games went from semi smooth to jerky when it comes to movement on the screen. I wonder why unless I was just on the threshold of "semismooth".

I ran the Vista intel. I hit 554pts with 05 and 220pts in 06. Big jump.Still nowhere near as good as the 7400, but as others have said, the intel Drivers hold up much better in Vista than the Nvidia.

Oh those score are with Vista ultimate running Aero on the nvidia and no aero on the intel (windows will NOT allow aero to run with intel) and the dashboard thing running calender/weather/cpu%. If I turned all that off, the intel score improved by 6pts in 05 and 223 in 06. So just a minor improvement. No need to shut everything down,just for faster speed. Weird is I ran it this on the nvidia side (turned off aero to be fair) and my scores were 1617pts in 05 and 220pts in 06. it went down.

 

Im kinda puzzled here. What kinda SZ is that???

My SZ offers a completely different picture. The Intel GMA950 scores a 3.1 and 3.1 in the Vista performance index and runs Aero exaptionally well. The drivers seem very solid. The NVidia 7400 scores a 3.2 and 3.6 in the performance index (runs Aero just as well) but the drivers seem very beta. Everything lacks the "smoothness" of the GMA (I hope you know what you mean). I'd also expect the NV7400 to score around 1800 3d05-Marks, not 1600. Around 1800 would be the normal score, seems the drivers are really lacking atm. And why can't you run Aero with the GMA when I can perfectly???

I must admit though that even with those alpha drivers (where are all the options gone???) I see no visible difference in games. I've played GTR2, C&C3 demo and Company Of Heroes and all are about as fast as under vista. No real drop here, maybe very slight here and there but that may also come from 30% fragmentation. I need to defrag my HDD...

I've not benched 3d-Mark05 yet but I remeber I got close to 2000 under XP. I'm still using the late 9x from Sony, because the 100series kills the brightness control.

One completely different question: I've installed the touchpad drivers and the touchpad works flawlessly (with srolling etc) but when I plug in a mouse somethin weird happens. The wheel of the mouse only scrolls down, even if you scroll the wheel upwards. That does not happen right away but at some point the drivers think "hey lets only scroll down". I need to unplug the mouse and plug her back in to fix it - till the next time this happens. Anyone ever seen that?

 

You can tell by my signature I have a SZ160p. I stand mistaken. I can run aero with the Intel. But for some reason, I couldn't get it to load. Now I can.
I'm rerunning the intel tests with aero turned on to see if there is any difference. But the nvidia scores seem right. My "stock" score with XP was 1887pts. With the Vista it was around 1635pts. It did go down.
You need to update your vid drivers for the nvidia. I had the same issues you did. Goto Sony's website and dload the vista nvidia drivers. Once you do that (options still missing) you will get brightness control. Then dload the vista 100+ drivers from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ and install that one and you will get most options back. Some still missing but most will come back..
Only loaded two games. Wolrd of warcraft and Supreme Commander. WITH THE NVIDIA, Wow plays fine but with the fps counter running, you can see it slows down just a hair, but plays fine. In Supreme Commander, zooming seems bad and vehicle movements seem really jerky when compairing the Vista side to the XP side of the game. The XP is playable..not great but playable. Vista side is very jerky in the game. Not fun. Also, while running the game, vista will report the video drivers crashed but recovered. Game was still running when that happened. just that the screen blanked out for about 2seconds. But came back.
With the Intel, S.Commander fails to load. Says it doesnt meet minimum requirements. And WOW works, but at 5-10fps vs Nvidias of 30-50fps its unplayable. Which is on par if I was to run these games under windows XP.

Update: Intel with aero turned on is 554pts. So my previous score stands. Not gonna run the 06 benchmark. 10+ times is enough for me.

If this was a bit hard to understand, I don't blame you. I rewritten what I said here in a seperate post for benchmarking.

 

Anybody installing these Sony Nvidia drivers from the EU FTP site?

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/Vist....10.9754/NVIDIA_video_97.54_logo_Notebook.zip

 

How on earth do I get the Function keys and S1/S2 Buttons to work? I've installed all the drivers that I know of and they do nothing...

 

when you say first do you mean before i do the vista install, or the first thing to install after the vista install?


additionally - i already have a partition on my hardrive (sony did it) do i need another one?

if not do i install vista on Drive C or Drive D?

 

I mean first as in, first after you install Vista.

The partition you want to install Vista on needs to be of a decent size and a Primary partition. There are 2 types of partitions (primary and extended).

I'm assuming your XP is on C: so you'd want to install Vista on D:.

 

i want vista to replace xp, will that be achieved?

i want to get rid of any trace of XP, and install vista from scratch.