Installing Windows XP drivers on Sony Vaio FE-48E

How to install Windows XP drivers on Sony Vaio FE-48E.

Drivers
Vista is very annoying for an XP fan. But installing XP drivers on notebooks that come with pre-installed Vista is a real challenge. Sony does not provide support for Windows XP and the information on the net is very scarce and unclear.

What did I do? I went to the Sony support center site http://support.vaio.sony.ro/ and looked for older notebooks from FE series that came with XP preinstalled. I noticed that all notebooks from FE-1XX, FE-2XX and FE-3XX have pre-installed XP. Actually only FE-4XX has pre-installed Vista. Then I looked for a similar hardware configuration with my notebook. There are similar configurations in all series FE1, FE2, FE3 so I assume they have to use the same drivers. Pretty slick ha?

Ok then I downloaded all drivers and utilities for the FE1, FE2,FE3 which of course are for Windows XP. From here on is a matter of luck.You take every driver and try it. Of course you'll keep the ones that seems to work. For my case most of the drivers for FE-3XX worked.

I recommend downloading XP drivers for the latest series which came with pre-installed XP and have similar configuration. But for chipset drivers go to Intel.com and take them from there.

If you want the latest drivers you can go to Intel.com. There you'll find drivers for chipset, wireless, and ethernet.

Some drivers dont have setup.exe so you'll have to install them manually (Right click My Computer/Go to Device Manager./Select the hardware/Click Update Driver/ Install from a specific location/Enter path to driver files/ Ok)
Utilities

On XP you wont have those cute and cudly sony utlities that were on Vista. Instead you'll have to settle for what XP offers. I recommend installing these utilities exactly in this order:
Utils Installer 1 SonyUtils DLL
Utils Installer 2 Sony Shared Library
Utils Installer VAIO Power Management
Utils Installer Battery Checker
Utils Installer VAIO Control Center

You'll have a good control over power management (processor, display light level) and that's enough.


Other thoughs:
1.Be sure to read how to install the audio driver. First you'll have to install a windows update which is located in the same folder with the driver, and then install the driver.
2.FE-48E has a a different webcam from the rest of the serie VCC4. Do a search on google and you'll find a driver for it or PM me to send it to you.
3.I still have a problem with the driver for Mass Storage Controller. Maybe some of you know how to install it.

If some of you have a similar experience maybe you can share it here to help others that deal with these kind of problems.

 

sorry i don't understand. where to get the proper audio driver? using fe3x one?

 

"I still have a problem with the driver for Mass Storage Controller. Maybe some of you know how to install it".

The mass storage controller is the memory stick device. I used the driver for FE31M available in the UK sony site. Here is the link http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/downloads/updates/updates.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons

Did you manage to get the camera capture utility- I could not find it anywhere.

 

You can use the audio driver for FE3X. But you will need to install the windows patch kb835221 first. It is in a sub-folder called UAA High Definition Audio Class driver in the audio folder.

 

hey

i got a vaio VGN-FE48M

cannot find XP driver for videocard (Nvidia GO 7400). i managed to install chipset driver, sound and wi-fi. i tryed what u said and no one worked for the videocard. any suggestions &/or help ?

thanks

 

You can try this site:
http://notebook.free-driver-downloa...-Graphics-Driver-8.4.0.5-Windows-2000-XP.html

This is for the SZ series but may work for a FE as well.

 

I successfully installed a driver for the Nvidia 7400 in my SZ5 by installing the XP driver package for the SZ3 on the Sony website.

 

Sony have released 'downgrade' XP drivers for the BX4 model. These drivers seem to work pretty well for an SZ5. Please see ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/.

 

Anyone with XP drivers for built-in webcam on the Sony Vaio FE-48E - please send link or PM me....thanks to this thread I've got everything else running but stuck on that one as FE3 drivers are different.

Thanks!

 

You can find it here here:

http://www.geocities.com/coolvicky21/vgp-vcc4.zip

 

Dear, Thanks a lot for your precious help. I've been installed XP drivers+tools. With this new wabcam drivers, it's just perfect.

Just 2 stuffs to be fixed, could you help me ?

1. I can't see the Audio "Volume Control" in the sidebar. Did i installed well?
2. The "Volume" functions works but i don't see the info on LCD screen (as i saw on Vista), neighter the S1/S2 "function buttons" work (even i saw the shortcut to do...)

Thanks a lot. Regards. Pierre (Belgium)

 

Dear, Thanks a lot for your precious help. I've been installed XP drivers+tools. With this new wabcam drivers, it's just perfect.

Just 2 stuffs to be fixed, could you help me ?

1. I can't see the Audio "Volume Control" in the sidebar. Did i installed well?
2. The "Volume" functions works but i don't see the info on LCD screen (as i saw on Vista), neighter the S1/S2 "function buttons" work (even i saw the shortcut to do...)

Thanks a lot. Regards. Pierre (Belgium)

 

Has anybody been able to get the CD/DVD (Mat****a UJ-850S) drive to function fully in XP? I have everything else working properly, but the CD/DVD drive will not write to a CD or DVD. It reads both formats with no problem. I have searched high and low for an XP driver or firmware update, but I have yet to find anything that works.

 

download drivers from:

http://rapidshare.com/files/96043670/VGN-C2_C3-drivers.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/96025731/VGN-C2_C3-applications.zip