Instructions for a Vista clean install on an FZ190

In the Start | Programs menu you should have VAIO AV Mode Launcher folder. In that is a setting utility. See the attached screen shot.

Gary

 

Thank you very much Gary, It seemed that the naming convention for the UK spec FZ21S differs slightly, I managed to find the software in as a standalone app on the recovery CD entiteled "Vaio Launcher"

Kind Regards

 

Glad you found it. Would you be able to detail the differences you found regarding the following quote:

I'd like to update the document with the details of what you found. I know of a few other folks about to do a clean install on a FZ2 series machines and your insights would be most helpful!

Gary

 

Sure no problem:-

1 - The order of installation is more or less the same as already pointed out in your document.

2 - Although It worked fine without the driver, I did install the Broadcom Bluetooth driver simply so that there would be no compatibility issues with the wirless switch setting utility

3 - There was no file entitled "Sony Image Filter" I did however manage to find a file called "Windows Image Filter" which after research is the same thing. However this would'nt install, even when "run as administrate" was selected. I managed now managed to find a version of this file from the sony US driver page but the camera is working exactly the same as it did prior to installing the file.

4 - There is no file on the recovery disk or on viao-link support entitled "Sony Utilities DLL" hower the programs that are included in this (Camera Capture Utility, Event Service, Sony Video Shared Library, Vaio Power Management ect) Can all be installed idividually from the Recovery Disk. I tended to stick to the recovery disk as I did sometimes get errors from the downloaded drivers in early attempts to do a clean install but be warned it takes a while to install from recovery disk, the process is slow and often involves swapping DVD's when prompted on screen to do so!!!!

5 - "AV Button" utility is known as Vaio Launcher on the Recovery Disk

6 - There is no install file for PX-Engine in the recovery disck and I have no recollection of it being installed in the factory buuld, but I have not experianced any problems and can write DVD's and CD's fine.

I up to now not installed anything further than "Vaio Controll Center" so I will update the thread if I find any more differences.

A problem I did encounter was being unable to install the WIN DVD for BD that comes pre-installed. There is no option to install this from the recovery disk unfortunately ! It did not bother me too much as I have a copy of Power DVD that happily plays Blue-Ray Disks but for those that dont have this software, this a major problem. I was unable to find a version of this software anywhere!!!! if anyone can advise on this please post but otherwise Power DVD 7.3 will be more than an adequate replacement. (it works with the skip forward and backword function keys too!)

 

Sony vaio FZ users, you can do a clean install of vista if you have the following folder in your laptop.
c:\windows\sonysys\WAU(hidden) with 2.52 Gb of data. Go vlite.com to download the software and then you can burn a bootable dvd which will contain the iso image of the WAU folder (thanks to orev, seven11). It works, I tested this.

 

Oh wow! VERY VERY COOL!!!!!!!

When I have the time I will add this info to the document itself. This would allow folks who don't have a Vista DVD to do a clean install.

Could I get you to post ther instructions for using vlite to create the bootable DVD from the WAU directory?

Gary

 

Click here http://www.vlite.net/download.html to download vlite software.

Open vlite.

1. Browse and select the folder WAU (c:\windows\sonysys\WAU)

2. Select your version of vista. (existing version of vista)

3. Click the ISO tab on the left pane.

3. In the proceeding screen, under the general option, select the mode direct burn. You can also select create image and save the iso image file. Insert a blank dvd.

4. Click burn to start burning the iso image in the dvd. It will take a while for the whole process to complete. Your vista install disk/upgrade disk is ready to use.

5. Exit the program.

 

Thank you so much. Sometime latter this week I will update the notes and let folks know that they can use this valuable tip to do a clean install even without a retail DVD! This will open the door to a LOT more folks to be able to clean install!

I'll be sure to give you credit for this too. Do you want me to use your screen name, your real name or both?

Gary

 

Gary I just completed the clean install in my vaio FZ. It rocks. I also used your instructions for the driver installation order. I used orev's method (in hp section) to activate windows. It's one heck of a program (you don't even need to enter the product key). Thanks folks.

The whole installation took less than 20 minutes.

 

I was glad that I did a clean install. But now the boot time is much slower than before. The LAN connection and AVG antivirus take forever to load. Any clues?

 

How long does it take from cold start till the login password prompt appears? Are you talking about LAN or did you mean WAN connection? How long is it taking? And how long is AVG taking to load? How are you judging how long it takes?

My clean install takes 35-40 seconds to get to the password prompt.

Gary

 

I don't have a password. It takes more than 1 minute 20 secs for the LAN (wired) to get connected, then the wireless switching utility icon loads and finally AVG antivirus. I have only the weather sidebar gadget running.

Before the clean install I used to have symantec corporate AV and it didn't take this long. I will repost the exact time for each process starting from the bios soon.

 

Do you have any mapped drives to shared folders on the LAN? A minute to connect to the LAN is much much too long. It is usually an indication of the system trying to reconnect to shared folders or devices on the LAN and it can't find them. Once the LAN connects how long is it taking for the wireless icon and AVG to load?

Gary

 

i don't have any mapped drives. But now the time for a fully loaded desktop is 1 minute. It's weird. Sometimes it takes more than 1min 30 secs for everyhting to load.

Gary can you tell me how much time does your notebook take for a fully loaded desktop ( i.e. time for all the icons in the system tray to load up) from powering on.

 

It's about 35-40 seconds to the password prompt and then another 15-20 seconds or so to a loaded desk top.

Have you allowed Vista to defrag and reorder the boot files? Most laptop users never get a chance for this to be done, because they don't leave their machines idle long enough for the automatic process to kick in. There is a whole series of messages about this in the "top tweaks" thread. The tweak recommended is to use an app called TuneXP, which was designed for XP and use it to do some "magical" trick to defrag and reorder the bootfiles. I did a complete expose' of exactly what it does and it comes down to two simple commands.

Open notepad and paste these two lines in it:

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
defrag -b %SystemDrive%

Next save the file on your desktop with an extention of .BAT. (DO NOT NAME THE FILE DEFRAG.BAT) Or better yet I'll include an attachment right here!

It is a zip file but just open it and move the file to your desktop. Close ALL running applications.

Then right click on it and select run as administrator. The first line just tells Vista that all applications are idle and it can start a background task that is just sitting there waiting for this event to occur. That task analyzes the bootfile history that Vista maintains and creates a file with the optimum order for these files. The second line starts a specialized defrag process that uses that ordering information and puts these bootfiles into the proper sequence!

It will popup a command window and look like it is just sitting there hung on the first line. It's not, trust me. If you open Task Manager and view all running processes you will see Defrag and DfrgNtfs running. When they are done the command window will disappear. Be patient give it some time. It can take anywhere from a few seconds to an hour even. Just depends on how fragmented your files are. I just ran it and it took about seven minutes. Your disk drive light will show LOTS of activity.

Sit back, have a cup of coffee or whatever. Just wait until the command window disappears. That cannot be stressed highly enough! DO NOT CLOSE THE WINDOW! BE PATIENT! LET IT FINISH! Now reboot and see if it made any difference in boot time.


Gary

 

Gary, thanks for this long guide. I will try this when I reach home.

 

I tried your defrag apps and now the boot time improved much, starting from powering ON to the initial desktop takes 45 secs. Then it takes some 20-30 secs to load all the programs. I think it's normal.

Will the vista disk defrag tool defrag boot files? I used to a disk defragmentation atleast once a week.

Thanks for your help again.

 

What I had you run IS the Vista defrag tool! There is a task in the event manager that when it finds the system idle, it will trigger the bootfile analysis, and then run the Vista defrag tool. The steps you executed with my batch file are exactly the same processes just invoke manually rather than through task manager.

Running the Vista defrag tool in the "normal" fashion does not reorder the bootfiles. (The -b option is what does that.) But unless you add a driver or change some file that is used during the boot process, you won't need to re-order the bootfiles. But you can use the batch file again whenever you want, it won't hurt anything.

Gary

 

Gary, when I started the clean install process of vista, the installer didn't even show up the recovery partition in the disk list. Is there anyway to make it appear. Also I forgot to delete the existing partition in the excitement of doing a clean install. I just formatted the existing partition and started the install process. So is this a 100% clean install?

 

That is still a clean install yes, as long as you formated the existing partition first. When you ask is there any way to make it appear, what do you mean? Make it appear in what? Disk management? Windows Explorer? Where?

Gary

 

I was talking about the windows install process where you select the available disk partitions to install vista.
The installer displayed only one disk partition on C drive and not the recovery partition.

 

Oh, no the installer WON'T see it. It's called a hidden partiton for a reason... big ol' grin...

Gary

 

Folks,

I updated the first message in this thread with some additional info and links to messages about the FZ180 install, using WAU to create am install disk and some notes on an FZ2 series clean install.

Gary

 

Gary one more thing, When I installed the drivers one by one, for some devices (as you had mentioned), vista said to install the driver with the recommended settings. After I selected that option, sony setup said that "this update will run only in vista", weird. So windows tries to install the most recent version of the drivers for the ethernet adapter, sony camera driver by Ricoh, etc.

 

The boot time for my FZ improved considerably after the clean install. Now it takes only 45-50 secs. for a fully loaded desktop.

 

Hi Gary/Coolguy,

Could you tell me if I do clean install and don't want to disturb hidden recovery partion what is the procedure. I don't want to create any new partions.
I know while doing clean install we will reach the below what to do next ?

In your notes you told we have to click on 'Load Driver' option and point to SATA drivers from C:\Windows\DriverBackup.
But could you please tell me what to do when we click on 'Drive Options(Advanced)'. Because I am seeing from other people note saying that we have to click format from that option.
My question is if I select the format option then will it affect 'Load Driver' option because we are formating whole C: drive and the SATA driver are also loading from C: drive.

Thanks
Raj

 

Raj,

Go back and look at my instructions again. I said in step 6 to burn a CD with these drivers. Then in step 7 I said:

Note in step 7, I said to point the installer to the CD! Not to the C: drive location. And besides that you do the "Load Driver" step BEFORE you format the existing C: partition.

Gary

 

Hi Gary,
I checked your notes and you are right ,it says load from CD. I over looked it. I have one more question regarding the "Load Drivers" option.
The "Load Drivers" option will come while we are installing Vista using AnytimeUpgrade DVD. As the Vista DVD is alredy in the notebook drive, how we can point the SATA drivers from the Backup CD?. Do we need to remove Vista DVD and put our backup CD to load SATA drivers and after that again put back the Vista DVD?.
I am a bit confused

In your notes you mentioned that delete the existing partition. If I format the C: drive partition do I still need to delete this partition ?

Thanks
Raj

 

That is EXACTLY what you will do. Swap out the Vista DVD, insert the CD with the SATA driver, after it loads you will be prompted to reinsert the Vista DVD.

No... if you format it, you can even use the quick format, there will be no need to delete the partition. I just choose to delete it and create a new one. The net effect is the same either way.

Gary

 

I woul dlove to try this but on my FZ18L i have no sonysys folder in my windows folder. can i clean install using any of the recovery discs in anyway?

 

Will I gain performance from clean installing over the standard sony install? I have removed every single peice of bundled bloatware. So it is as if it were a clean install. I have also disabled any services from starting that were not essential so i hope that took care of anything left behind

 

can you down load an iso image of vista?

 

I loaded the SATA driver from c:\windows\drivers\intel. I formatted the C drive after loading the driver. There is no need to do this, as vista loads the deafault SATA driver during the install process.

 

Don't worry about a clean install if your notebook's performance is good at present. By doing a clean install you will all the sony installed bloatware removed even from the registry. I had the near same performance before the clean install.

 

Simple answer... no.

Gary

 

No. Unless you have an MSDN subscription from Microsoft. Any other source is risky and may be full of trojans or worse.


Gary

 

Yes, however the "default" SATA driver is NOT optimized like the intel one is. It's better to use my process, because it speeds up the process a bit and insures you have an optimized driver for the hardware.

Gary

 

I have gone through and removed all the bloatware leaving only windows vista. I have then used msconfig and msservices to stop anything but the essentials from running.

Performance seems OK... However I have been experimenting with installing XP on this machine and I have to say it feels a lot faster. But I haven't done any actually performance tests. This is just based on my own impression.

The other day I had to convert a load of MP3s in to AIFs using Cubase 4 running under vista and it just flew them... maybe I should try this with XP to see if its faster still.

I have to admit in the past i have always done clean installs to ensure I get the PC exactly how I like it... but If I'm not going to get any perforce gain maybe its not worth the effort.

I have just received a Microsoft Windows Vista Anytime Media Pack so i can now perform the clean install maybe if I get some time over xmas...

 

Just worked on my FZ 290 with no probs! Thanks for the great instructions!

 

You are most welcome! Glad it worked for you.

Gary

 

i would like to thank gary for his awesome tutorial! everything is working smoothly! props! (uk FZ21S)

However, i thought i backed up winDVD BD..but it turned out it didnt burn, iv tried installing it from the sony update site, and FTP site and it asks for a previous version to be installed. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this working?

 

It was on MY recovery DVD as one of the applications that could be installed.

Gary

 

mmmh. it wasnt on mine

 

Hei, Thanks. This is the bees knees!! Thanks to Gary too, you are Superman.

 

Nice guide...looks like it would take time to do.. but in all seriousness..sony is just stupid when it comes to giving us the right to a clean laptop. this is my first sony laptop, and while i lurve most of it..this pisses me off. we shouldnt have to spend hours of our time on a 2K $ machine just to have a clean install and properly working drivers...stupid..

 

Thnx Gary .. I did a clean install. But I noticed a difference. The time to boot has gone up. The time till the password box opens has increased a lot. Any suggestions?

 

Yes, you need to defrag and organize the bootfiles.

Go to this page Defrag Boot files and scroll down to message #165.

Gary

 

Thanks

 

Happy new year everyone

After some serious registry problems i was forced to do a clean install or recovery on my FZ two days ago. I decided to do a clean install using a Anytime Upgrade dvd, and the drivers and utilities that i downloaded from Sony support like you (Gary) mentioned in a conversation we had here earlier one page back in this thread.

Installation went without problems at all, just let Windows do it's thing and add what's missing after that.

Everything is working and updated again, but somehow i don't have the Vaio Recovery tool installed anymore, and i either can't find the installation file anywhere, or i don't recognize it. Anyone know what to look for or where to find it..? I'd like to try if i can use it to re-install my free Adobe Elements, Roxio, and WinDvd for Vaio. If anyone know's another way of getting those applications back i'd also like to hear it. I've already running the setup file on my third recovery disk, but nothing happens when i do this.

This is a Dutch FZ, i'm looking for the Vaio Recovery Tool (exact name), not the Recovery center or centre (although if any of those would work i wouldn't mind).

 

You can install the recovery center from the recovery dvd.