Installing Windows XP on vgn-n250e

hello every body,

I bought a new vgn-n250e/w and unfortunatley it was did not perform as expected. Like many of Vista users, I wanted to down grade to XP. Sony folks told me on the phone not to do that, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Here is how I dealt with the drivers problem:

1) for the wireless network, I downloaded the Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG driver from Intel website:
http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro3945abg/index.htm

2) for sound, I downloaded the Realtek ALC260 High Definition Audio driver:
http://support.packardbell.com/es/item/index.php?i=7406100000&psn=654100590239

3) the flash media driver:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?lc=en&cc=us&softwareitem=ob-32945-1

4) Intel Chipset:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...XP+Professional&lang=eng&strOSs=44&submit=Go!

5) DVD driver: I could not find any driver that will make my laptop view movies and kept getting the "no DVD player is supported" message. To get around that, I download and installed the "InterVideo WinDVD 8" software and it took care of the problem and defined the software:
http://www.intervideo.com/WinDVD/WinDVD_Download.jsp
note that this is a trial version but tht's ok since all we need id to get the driver and then we can use the windows media player to play movies.



However, I was unable to find the driver for:
1 - HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with Smart PC
2 - 10/100 Fast Ethernet PCMCIA adapter

and my feeling is that both will be fixed by the same driver. Please help me if you have any idea about these two drivers. Also, would be great if you can comment on the drivers i used in 1-5.

Thanks

 

yes i got everthing to be working fine .. i will collect all the drivers i used i a zip file and post soon

 

Hi ghada,

I have the same sony notebook and I also want to go back and get xp. Please can you post the zip file so I can start working in it.
And please tell me how does it work after it.

Thank you very much
martin

 

does any one a NIC driver for xp for this model

 

does any one have a NIC driver for xp for this model

 

Hi Martin, it's working great!!! I really love it now (I hated it when it had vista i used to get the blue screen of death ever day!!) .. now it's been working flawless and everything appears excellent even the monitor resolution.
However, it was not easy finding all the right drivers to make the different devices work nicely. I will hoever create a zip file with all the drivers i used and I will post them soon.
Just one thing before you start your down grade, remember to make a copy of your vista software as sony will charge if you ever decide to get a copy in the future. So you might as well create back up CDs just in case. I did not do that so the only option for me now would be to buy a copy of the recovery CD from sony which costs $20. So,please remember to make a recovery CD before doing anything on ur machine.

 

jccmp, are you asking about Network Card? if yes, I have found the right for this model.

 

thank you ghada,
I'm not going to be able to buy the copy of the recovery because I live in Argentina. To get things here is prety dificult. I'll start my buck un CD and I'll wait for your driver.
Thank you very much
Martin

 

ghada

Yes I'm looking for the network card driver. do know where i can get it?

 

yah i have a copy i will post it soon, i forgot which site i got it from, but i will post it along with the others on Monday night

 

I have the same problem trying to downgrade from Vista to Windows XP,but I have the recovery discs.I just don't like Vista because of its incompatibility issues,and it is causing problems with my assignments I have to do for college.I know you can get all the drivers off of this site for USA users http://esupport.sony.com/EN/VAIO ,but they only supply Vista drivers which sucks.I will try to help out as much as I can also,because I'm trying to do the same thing.I wish there was an easier way,because it is bugging the hell out of me also.

 

FYI:
The ethernet card is PCI-EXPRESS Marvell/88E8036
Use Google search for phrase: 88E8036 driver

I saw a lot, but I still have no time to try it yet.

 

I'm gonna try this out later on today which is selecting a different model from the Sony support site.I think you can use the drivers for XP as long as the model is in the VGN-N series range.When you go to select your model it should be something like this in Option 3 off the http://esupport.sony.com/EN/VAIO site:

Product:Computer-Notebook
Country:select your region you live in
Series:VGN-N
Model:Try out lower models like VGN-N130P/B

After you have selected the model go to the Original driver section,and select the drivers you need.It has the ethernet card driver:88E8036 on there and a bunch of others as well.I will try this out real soon and post my results later on today.

 

I tried choosing a different model and trying to install the drivers that way,but the Sony driver install checks the system so they don't work.I started to get the drivers by downloading them one at a time also,and I'm only missing a couple of them now.The drivers I have that work at the moment are about 80MB in size without including the other drivers I need to find.I'm not sure how long it will take to find them either,but I'm making some progress everytime I mess with it.

 

I finally got all the drivers and everything works perfect now,and I had to extract drivers from the VGN-N130 model driver installers on the Sony support site to get everything.I'm pretty confident I can get the VAIO Entertainment pack also,but maybe later.The drivers came up to a total size of 125.3MB if anyone wants me to upload them let me know.

 

I have the same problem with this laptop. I have some software which run very well on XP but they cannot run on Vista. I install Windows XP for the laptop once. However I didn't have driver, I asked Sony and I got the same answer that they don't have driver for another OS which is different with the supplied. Now I really need these driver. lburna95, if you have driver of this laptop, please upload it as soon as possible. Thank you very very much.

 

I uploaded all the drivers on some free file hosting sites,because they are over the limit for uploading them here.The size of the package is 90.27MB compressed in a WinRar archive.In order to extract the drivers you will need to use an archive extracting utility such as WinZip,WinRar, or something similar.If you would like for me to upload them one at a time so you don't have to download the whole archive let me know.From my experience I can report that a couple of the drivers need to be installed manually.Please leave feedback and post your results,if you experience any problems let me know and I might be able to help out.Do not modify the archive in anyway unless you know what you are doing.I'm not responsible for any problems that could occur from these drivers,so do not blame me if your system fails in anyway.I only tested my system,and would like others to test it out and report their experience.I will supply the drivers on a couple free file hosting sites or until I can find a reliable host,so don't worry about the link ending up dead.

Here are some mirrors for the drivers
http://download.yousendit.com/A5EC3148279FEFFC
http://www.sendspace.com/file/51keic
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P22ONQ7Y
http://www.filefactory.com/file/201bb5/

Peace
L-Burna

 

Thank you very much for your sharing, Lburna. I am downloading the drivers and I will let you know the result after I install Windows XP. Oh, and I have one more question: "Are these all the drivers that the Sony Vaio N250E need?".

I intend to let the laptop have 2 OS, one is Vista, and one is XP. And I would like to install Deep Freeze in each OS, that mean I will install DF on Windows XP drive in XP OS, and install DF on Vista drive on Vista OS. Do you think it OK. Does anyone has experienced this?

 

Yeah these are all the drivers that you will need for the VGN-N250E notebook.The only thing I'm missing is the VAIO Entertainment Pack,which really isn't needed but would be nice to have.I got everything extracted from the VAIO Entertainment Pack,but I haven't tested it yet.I haven't messed with Deep Freeze so I can't really give you an answer,but it sounds cool.I will check it out later on when I get the chance.

 

hi , did you guys find the driver for the modem!?

 

Yes get the package I uploaded ghada it has all the drivers.

 

I was wondering anyone have any success with the drivers I uploaded?

 

Hi, lburna95, unfortunately, the drivers you gave were not working. have no idea why is that.

Does anyone have other drivers? i really need them asap. thanks in advance!

 

Go into your device manager and tell me which drivers you need.I'm looking for anything that displays a yellow question mark.

 

hi Iburna,
thanks for all the help, but no, the drivers from the sony website said that they were not made for this model, and when I tried to download the driver you had attached in one of your replies, the linke just did not work i guess. here is what i still need -- all the yellow signs

1) Modem on device high definition audio buss
2) SM bus controller
3) Universal serial buss (USB) controller

any help would be greatly appreciated

 

i still need the audio and video drivers.

plz upload them asap, thx!

 

My cousin has the same model and he wants to put XP on it as well. Glad to see there are others who think the same. Thanks for posting links to the drivers! I hope someone can find the remaining fax/ethernet drivers.

 

Hi Lburna95! Sorry for my late reply, because I'm so busy these days. Thanks a lot for your drivers, I think it works; however, some of the drivers cannot be installed properly so there are still some unknown devices.
After install your drivers, I use Driver Magician program to restore the Drivers of N250E which I have backed up in Vista. Fortunately, all unknown devices are solved, except Graphic device. After that, I go to Intel website to download chipset 945GM Driver. Now my computer works very well with Windows XP (it much faster compare with Vista).
I would like to use two OS (Vista and XP); after I have Duo Boot, everything work perfect. However, I still have problem because when I shut down Windows XP, the blue screen appeare and the machine cannot turn the power off (I have to press power button to shut it down). Does anybody have solved this problem?

 

the blue screen is cozed by vista.. it used to appear EVERY single time when i ever i did a shut down (back in vista days), it didn't occur once since I have installed XP.
I think that it used to appear not only during shut down, but even when i ever i closed the cover of my laptop!!

 

I hate to resurrect an old dead topic. But I've just recently tried to downgrade and I'm in search of that Marvell driver. All the links are dead! Did any of you ever compile a working package to upload?

And also, has anyone found drivers for the graphics?

 

hi, sorry i did not find this forum until today...would you be so kindly as to upload the drivers again for me? the links are dead

thanks alot

 

Go to:
http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/216766
They will work with your VGN-N250E.

 

Hi,

I am also facing the same isse with this laptop (Sony VIAo VGN N250E). I wanna change it to Windows XP.

Please can I have the drives for XP ?

Regards,
Bhat

 

If anyone has the complete package of drivers that i can download please let me know. [email protected] is my email address. Please save me from Vista!!!

 

You can get them here http://www.filefactory.com/file/ff821a/ let me know if you are having trouble getting them and I will see what I can do.

 

Another driver link which may be faster - and it is from Sony - don't know why their US branch is so reluctant to help, given the prevailing opinion of Vista:

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/216766

Be sure to download not only the drivers but also the apps (such things as battery check etc,). And also the pdf text file with instructions, the order in which the drivers and apps are loaded is important.

I am trying this downgrade now on a client's VGN-N250E, and have encountered one problem. Using the RJ45 ethernet, I am getting the "limited or no connection" response when trying to go on the internet. Has anyone else run into this? Any ideas? I have tried many things to fix it already. Everything else is working fabulously. What crawls with Vista flies with XP SP2!

 

Addendum to my last post: The RJ45 ethernet problem has gone away after several reboots and on/off cycling of the hub/cable-modem. Everything is working well with the drivers and apps supplied by Sony-asia.

 

The last download link "3.To install install order" is broken in the asia website. Does this have anything important.

 

Funny, it was OK Saturday. The order may be important. Stripped of excess verbiage, here it is:

(drivers)
ChipSet.EXE
Video.EXE

kb835221.exe (MS hotfix)

Audio.EXE
Modem.EXE
FlashMedia.EXE
Pointing.EXE

Wireless: Please double check the built-in Wireless LAN Device’s type. If Intel Wireless LAN device, execute \Drivers\WirelessLAN2.exe; If Atheros Wireless LAN Device, execute \Drivers\WirelessLAN1.exe

Network.EXE
SonyNC.EXE
Memory_Stick_Icon.EXE

(applications)
Sony_Shared_Library.EXE
Sony_Utilities_DLL.EXE
Setting_Utility_Series.EXE
VAIO_Control_Center.EXE
Wireless_LAN_Starter.EXE
Battery_Checker.EXE

Gook luck. As I wrote, everything seems to work, but if I get relevant negative reports from my client, I will post here.

 

I did the same for one of my clients, however I cant seem to get the wireless working.
I even installed the latest intel drivers and still no luck any ideas?

 

Hi everyone,
I had the same problem as you guys do here, but the VAIO I am using is vgn-nr220e. I badly need to remove Vista and install Win XP, unfortunately, I have no idea where to start. Please help, help..Many thanks for any suggestions.
Jolie

 

This is in reply to niss_nut's recent message...

Unfortunately, I did not have wireless available to test this, and the client doesn't use it. Note that there are two drivers in the package, one is non-Intel. Have you tried both?

Otherwise, client reports excellent results on everything else.