Installing Windows XP on the Vaio SZ6xx

Does switching the graphics processors still work in XP?

 

yes

Same as Vista.

Flip the switch, reboot the other device is active.

When you install drivers, you must activate the appropriate device for the driver you are installing.

 

I am wondering have you guys ever tried the software "double Driver" to pull out the original driver from the laptop, so that it makes the work easier when you do the "CLEAN installation for VISTA"
then probabily we will not have the problems for the VAIO drivers for "VISTA"

hope could give u guys a way to solve the problem.....I am not sure if it works cuz i haven't tried it before, heard about it could draw "ALL" drivers out from your computer.

Or maybe something like driver MAX...

 

That would be insanely useful not only for the SZ but my FZ!

 

So the FN brightness key still isn't working on both XP or a clean install of Vista, correct?

Maxx, could you please post a guide to doing a clean install of Vista?

 

i finally did a clean installation of VISTA ULTIMATE. the brightness Fn key is the toughest one to get work. even it is working now on my computer, I am still not sure if the sony library, video library, programmable I/O are the only necessary packages you need to install.

my suggestion is that you install all the drivers and libraries and utility and reboot frequently. It will work eventually. Now I have no "?" in my device manager.

i have two questions though. What is Fn 1 for? Where to get the protector QL suite? I did install the UPEK package.

 

that driver max program sounds super useful, but does it work???? has anyonte tried it?

 

great work with the xp stuff

would you be able to update your first post so that way we can see where your progress is at

also if you have links to the drivers that would be awesome

planning on ordering an sz680 and would like to start off on the right foot (i.e. with XP)

 

Have you tried to find the drivers on www.opendrivers.com ???
And there are many other driver sites too?

http://tinyurl.com/2eh48b ---- Sony VGN-SZ Notebook SigmaTel High Definition Audio Driver 5.10.4825.0 Windows 2000/XP

http://tinyurl.com/2krdz6 ----Sony VGN-SZ Notebook Hard Disk Drive Protection Driver 1.0.00.11210 Windows 2000/XP

BTW, I used to use windriver backup, and it is very good.
Takes all the driver and put em all into 1 folder.
Very handy for reinstalling windows and stuff.

Hope this helps!!

Will Sony really have XP driver at the end of OCT??!!

 

Alright, I've updated the first post. But need a place to store a 440MB (XP) and a 355MB (Vista) file?

They are so big because there are several different video drivers to choose from. XP has more choices

 

Use http://www.mediafire.com/ to upload your file
(no need to sign up for account, 100MB/file tho, you will need to split it up and zip it), it can be your online back up and help for others. Please post your link to share


unless someone else can find a larger size/file site....

Is everything working well with SZ6xx + XP now?

Thanks for all your hard work.

Go here http://lists.econsultant.com/top-10-online-file-storage-transfer-services-file-size.html for a list of online storage. Seem #2 is best http://www.megashares.com/

Hope this helps!!

 

well done..keep it up..

I will try to install xp..only xp I dont like vista but...

I used norton ghost for back up vista..

please upload xp drivers..after that I will dosnload it and I will try xp

thankss

 

still waitin'

or could you give us links for xp drivers..

 

This megashares thing is so loaded with ads I can't seem to get the job done, also keeps asking to install something (not happening.) The other one didn't work.

 

did u check http://www.rapidshare.com/ ?

 

Did you try http://www.mediafire.com/ ?
I have been using that one and it works fine.

 

100mb file limits

 

Try yousendit.com

or

driveway.com

they may require you to put an e-mail address to send the link to -- you can send it yourself (use an expendable acct or something) and then just post the link in the forum?

instead of uploading a 400+mb file, could you just post links to the driver sites?

 

Use http://www.mediafire.com/ to upload your file
(no need to sign up for account, 100MB/file tho, you will need to split it up and zip it)
That site does not need an account, you can just upload right away.

 

I have my 680 maxxed out and am waiting to hit "submit order" hinging on whether people in this thread are successful in a clean xp install. I cannot use vista with my critical business apps but am ready to pull the trigger on this computer otherwise =/

hang in there dudes

 

The "Infineon Trusted Platform Module" is an encryption chip built the mobo that allows hardware-based encryption and decryption of files. On my vaio it was disabled in the BIOS when I got it, but it still shows up under the device manager in XP in an errored state. To make the error go away I replaced the MS TPM driver with the sony vista driver, which surprisingly worked.

Speaking of sony drivers, which audio driver are you guys using for the sigmatel HD audio device? I used the one from the SZ4-5 downgrade directory on the sony ftp site, and it worked fine. That is, until I plugged my headphones in and noticed that sound was still coming out of the speakers! Aiieeee...

I did some digging around for people having the same problem, and it looks like some macbook users trying to run bootcamp are running into similar issues with their sigmatels (see http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=1268 ). I did a little bit of registry editing to fiddle with the gpio settings for the sigmatel driver, but the best I have been able to get thus far is disabling the internal speaker all together while leaving a tiny bit of sound coming out of the headphones (using gpio value 83). Anybody got any ideas?

 

Ahhh. found a fix:

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvai...685E4975D079E0D45239D191C9AEBE26?thread=44938

The driver that they mention is the one that I was using, the one from the SZ4-5 downgrade directory on the sony ftp site. Download the pin.reg file in the above link, edit it if necessary (I had to change the key from 0015 to 0000), merge it, and boom, audio works. Yay!

 

Hey MonsterMax,

First thank you for the great thread. It has been a great resource in installing Win XP Pro.

I have just about completed and completed my installing from the ground up, but I am having difficulty finding and installing the right modem drivers.

Where did you find the modem drivers and do you have a link? Any guidance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Additionally, I, like you, am having errors on the Secondary IDE Channel and I am not having much success with the fingerprint Sensor even with the Windows Vista Drivers. Did you get either of these items resolved?

Sincerely,

David

 

has anyone put together a catch-all guide for the sz 6xx downgrade to xp yet?

 

So, in summary, are any of you using 100% full functionality of all accessories and system tasks on windows xp with an SZ6xx?

 

looks like this project lost some of its initial steam

as much as i want to install xp on my new sz650 -- i have not found vista to be slow enough to warrant the hassle of formatting my system, yet.

i just did a manual uninstall of all the bloatware and ran ccleaner a couple times and smooth sailing since

 

And some of us more tech-timid types are just waiting for Sony to post the factory-approved how-to in downgraded from Vista to XP (step by step process; most recent patches; correct drivers; etc.)

I think I heard that they are going to do this in October (if not before). Anyone with news from Sony, please post.

 

I have read through the thread, but it doesn't seem anyone is "flawlessly" running xp

 

may be mtorrent ? i have 1mb channel alwayas online!

 

Just bought the sz670 and am looking through this thread. I also talked to Sony today and they confirmed they are getting a LOT of requests about this and are planning to release a downgrade sometime in the future (Didn't give a date).

1 tech gave me a URL for the Sony UK site that has published XP downgrades. I was excited to get that far, but I couldn't get past the form with my sz670 serial number.

The URL he gave me was

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/downloads/updates/updates.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=0&s=VGN-SZ&m2663

Upon closer inspection, this was to a sz5 series, which wouldn't give me everything. But, the UK also has a sz6 series as well, and perhaps they might be more timeline in getting the XP downgrade posted to their site.

At any rate, imo, the pain of downgrading to XP is worth the trouble. Vista is REALLY that bad, imo. Honestly, if it doesn't improve in the next 2-3 years, I'm going to find myself switching to OS X.

 

Did MonsterMaxx ever post the driver Zip file?

 

I don't think so. Actually, it seems he was banned (at least it's what it's said under his nick).

 

Someone may also want to try the TZ1-TZ2 drivers and applications on their SZ. They won't all carry over, but some of them should work:

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/TZ1-TZ2/

 

Nanaki,

Great call on using these drivers.

I have everything working now except I still get an error on a secondary IDE device, but seems to have not effect on the overall performance of the system.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread.

 

Brett over at Conics was the one who said they should carry over to the SZ, so thanks should go to him.

Do you know what the secondary IDE device is?

 

hi guys, I'm new to the SZ6 club. I use to have a TZ90 and it was fairly easy to install XP, just following others instructions.

The installation routine of XP on my SZ680 just finished and it's already faster and the display looks better than with Vista! no kidding.

Now I am about to start the installation of drivers and utils.

Is this thread the best resource on installing XP on SZ6?

Or are there any other resources I should look at?

Thanks in advance

I'll be testing this right now. I'll update later.

Drivers:
Fingerprint security: succes
Intel Pro wireless: succes
Ethernet: succes
Audio: failure
Pointing device: succes
Modem: succes

 

Today I tried installing Xp on Sz650

I noticed that:

secondary ide device is clashing with tpm
webcam didnt work
audio is had some problem but it is still working

on the other hand other devices is working properly.

do you have any solution about that?

 

I was never able to get the secondary IDE to work, though since there is no such device I didn't worry about it - didn't seem to cause any grief.
Most of the drivers came from the SZ4/5 ftp site. The rest I got from a variety of sources.


Your modem is in the audio device and should be installed with the Sigmatel Audio drivers. If I recall correctly I got these directly from Sigmatel, though by the file name it looks like I used Sony's Vista driver. I just don't remember. The file name I used is: STDAUD-01108002-US.EXE, hope that helps.
Under XP the external speaker did not work. Worked fine under Vista so I assume this was a XP driver problem.

I never got the webcam working either...the driver installed, device manager didn't report errors, but the utility didn't work and webcam's aren't my thing so I didn't push it.

I'd say I got it about 95% running XP. Most everything I needed functioned except the Fn Brightness control. I was never able to gain access to brightness under XP.

Vista was similar, the drivers Sony put on their site did not all work. TPM and the touchpad as I recall were the main ones, but the battery utility wasn't there either. This may have been resolved by now because I reported these problems to Sony way back when. I used 'other' drivers (some XP, some Dell, some 'other'.)

As for XP downgrade, I was told October by the L2 tech. I assume that Sony just needs to get the right Vista drivers on their site.

XP ran MUCH faster than Vista both in 'feel' and on every benchmark I ran. Clean installs on both.

At this point I have to bow out of this. I've returned the machine due to light leakage and 6 hr battery charge time and have moved on.

I liked the Sony. It was a nice little machine, though due to it's size I'd not say it's an ultraportable. Nor was it truely a powerhouse, seemingly because of the graphics implementation (it scored well elsewhere.) This was evident in a Flight Simulator I use that just couldn't keep up. By the specs it should have done better, but something in the way Sony implemented it has crippled the graphics side. I'm guessing it's the way they did the VRAM.
I also felt like the machine was a bit flimsy on the design side and wouldn't stand up to years of use - though if you were careful with it, it's probably be fine.

Overall, it's a nice little machine with a fair bit of punch. Just didn't fit any nitch I had (ultraport or powerhouse.) Sony was much better to deal with than Lenovo has been (a nightmare story.) The trick to dealing with Sony seemed to be get elevated to a Level 2 support tech.





Good luck.

 

Could anyone post the links to the drivers for:

chipset
nvidia

My understanding is that the sz670 has the 965gm chipset, but the only thing I could find on the Intel site was 965g..is that the same?

And, are you saying the network drivers (for all wireless, sprint, and ethernet) came over clean from the tz1 drivers?

 

See first page of this thread. link to laptopvideo2go.com

 

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/TZ1-TZ2/

and there sz4-5 dowgrade drivers are enough for lots of driver need..
but for nvidia you should search in laptopvideo2go.com

for the latest intel drivers go to intel.com

 

So this is starting to get a long thread, and i was thinking of it anyone can post a list of the best working drivers they use and a link?

I have now by myself experienced with installing xp, and so far i think it is going pretty well.

What I miss and would like some links to is:

FN brightness?
LCD / Monitor shift?
Hibernate?

And then i have a question about the sony notebook utility (event service and so on) and the shared library... are they neccesary when running xp? And where to download the best, because i think that i might be able to get more of my hotkeys working if i install another driver..

Best regards

 

Vista is very pretty but too slow! It does hard drive thrashing on my 7200RPM HDD and this is five minutes after i booted and did nothing! Just Win XP with repaint and flashy graphics. I install Windows Xp and all is good except for the mentioned problems in this thread and some battery driver problems.

I am still trying to figure out the Fn Brightness. What i have found when trying different drivers in my older SZ model is that it relates to the driver you use and fields in the driver .inf.

Some drivers i used work with Fn brightness and some didn`t. All drivers i tried where from laptopvideo2go.com with custom .inf) I tried randomly from 80.40 all the way to 165.15

Specifically NVSZ.inf found in offical drivers for XP have some interesting fields but probably nothing:

AddReg = PanelBrightnessLimits_AddReg

[nv4_FAEIDS_A]
HKR,, EnableBrightnessControl, %REG_DWORD%, 1
HKR,, Panel00, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,0003"
HKR,, Panel01, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,0003"
HKR,, Panel02, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,0005"
HKR,, Panel03, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,001C"
HKR,, Panel08, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,0040"
HKR,, Panel09, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,004A"
HKR,, Panel0A, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,0040"
HKR,, Panel0B, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,001C"
HKR,, Panel0C, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,0006"
HKR,, Panel0D, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,0040"
HKR,, Panel0E, %REG_SZ%, ",MS_,,004A"

 

okay we're approaching mid october finally... let's hope in the next few weeks they make good on their statement

 

You can make it stop. Just disable either ReadyBoost, Superfetch, or both in services.msc.

Yep... but watch nothing happen.

 

How about these drivers:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNSZ691N&region_id=1


These are the XP drivers for the SZ691N which is a 100% copy from the SZ61N for the US market. Only the WWAN options differ.

Click on "Install another Operation System" and then click choose Windows XP from the top drop down box.

 

Yeah, the same thing for the SZ650N:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNSZ650N

Actually, I don't think it's different from the N/C. Did anybody already try it (or is thinking about trying it)?

EDIT: Also for the SZ650N/C (shouldn't make any difference, though):

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNSZ650NC

 

hmmm, sony does keep their promise this time!

 

OT: Someone here stated that his SZ61 has got 4965 a/b/g/n. I also found numerous references stating the same. My (german) SZ61VNX top of the line model only came with 3945 a/b/g

Should it come with 4965 or is the german model different?

Can I exchange it with a 4965 card? Are there 3 antennas for N draft in all versions?

 

BTW i installed a fresh XP SP2 copy today and tried the SZ691NX drivers. Most of them do work but you have to install them in a special order / reinstall some of them multiple times. Especially the big notebook tools package which inclued the wireless switcher, power management etc.

So far the following works:

- both nvidia+intel graphics
- bluetooh / wlan / wwan (not tested the tmobile software yet but tmobile has got downloads for it on their buisness page)
- power management
- wireless switching
- the FN keys (brightness, sound does not work yet)

Errors:

- sound (same errors as in earlier posts)
- second sata channel (same errors as in earlier posts)
- lan although that shouldn't be a problem to get working

The speed is like 1000x vista... Incredible.