Minimal installs to get Sony-buttons working on Vaio VGN Z?

I just did a clean Win7 x64 install on my Vaio Z (VGN-Z790DLX) and I don't care about any of the Sony programs, but it would be nice to e.g. have the eject-button working.

I can see a lot of drivers etc on the Sony VGN-Z790DLX Win 7 download page here:
Sony eSupport - VGN-Z790DLX - Software Updates & Drivers

Since I am the type of guy that doesn't want anything unnecessary installed I'm not tempted to start experimenting by installing all drivers/programs on that download page and thought I might ask instead. I've also searched on this forum about getting the eject, S1, S2 and Function keys working and while there are some answers it usually lists a whole bunch of drivers/programs to install and in what order to install them.

As I don't want to install everything my question is instead which are the driver(s) I MUST install to get the Eject-button working?
I assume all other special buttons will also get hooked up at the same time, but I don't care about any of the other Sony functionality and monitoring services.


If this has been answered before I'm sorry that I missed it. I noticed some of the related threads were really long and I probably didn't read every single post in all of the 50+ page threads.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/427883-vaio-z-windows-7-bios-driver.html#post5435779

 

Thanks. I however did look at that thread before, but I don't get what to install to get just those extra button(s) to work. I've searched that thread specifically but haven't found an answer.

If I should guess (from the list of drivers grouped in that thread) I would say either these:

Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device driver
Sony Programmable IO Control Device driver

or these:

10a Sony Shared Library
10b Setting Utility Series
10c VAIO Event Service
10d VAIO Control Center
10e VAIO Power Management

but that is just a wild guess and I've really no clue and that's obviously why I'm asking. I also don't hope I would need to install e.g. "10e VAIO Power Management" as that just don't make sense.

 

I had to instal the FESP, Sony Shared Library, Sony Shared Video Library and the Vaio Event Service for all my buttons to work.

 

These are all you'll need for the Fn buttons - installed in that order

 

Thanks a lot to both of you. I installed the 4 files suggested by Mythdat and it worked perfect. The buttons work and I even see the "screen notification".



btw. Anyone know of a place where you can see a decent description of all the Sony files?

E.g. "Sony Shared Library" doesn't tell me much about the actual "content" or about what it does and there isn't a single word of description on the Sony site besides the file title:
Sony eSupport - VGN-Z790DLX - Software Updates & Drivers

 

i would actually recommend installing 10d and 10e as well

the power management allows you to shutdown devices like
- dvd drive
- sd / ms card slot
- expresscard
- modem

to enable more battery life



***********
Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device driver
Sony Programmable IO Control Device driver

-> program for the hybrid switch etc

or these:

10a Sony Shared Library --> required to install VAIO applications
10b Setting Utility Series --> s1 / s2 / eject button etc
10c VAIO Event Service --> Fn buttons, e.g. brightness, volume etc

not sure whether they are any other "hidden" abilites

 

oops, I forgot about the Setting Utilities bit

 

Thank you for your suggestion Firestone. I haven't yet, but I will probably try installing the additional drivers/programs as well (10d & 10e).

However, won't Windows 7's "standard" power saving take care of "powering down" the unneeded devices?

 

The "in that order" (or, presumably, a kitten will die horribly) advice is overrated. There's no way that those giving that advice have tried all other orders, and my guess is that they can't even mention another order that doesn't work.

For what it's worth, I did my installs in alphabetical order based on the name Sony gave the section, without any problems at all. If a package says it can't install, it's because it needs another package, so simply wait and do it again after the other packages.
(Oh, and don't install the power manager package linked to in the Win7 install thread. It's for VPC-Z, not VGN-Z. And a few of the other links only apply to specific configurations too, like the Adobe/Office stuff, country/model specific versions of SmartWi)

 

Yeah, but too bad that the link for it is for VPC-Z, not the VGN-Z. Which means you have to mess around with 7-zip and universal extractor to get it to install, and then it breaks Vaio Update (not that Vaio Update worked that well anyhow).

 

Actually the order of installation can matter. In fact, it is sometimes necessary to install one or more of the programmes more than once. As alluded to on the Vaio Link Forum many times.

 

nope. everything will run as per normal

uhm no... i gave him the link for VGN, which has alrdy been extracted by universal extractor.

he doesn't want any unnecessary programs as well. so Vaio Update is not needed.
but if he ever install that as well (need update 5.0), it still won't break it. I tested that repeatedly

 

It's really not, mine wouldn't work unless I installed the shared library first. Your experience is obviously different to others, but it doesn't mean it'll be the same for everyone else. I'd rather tell people a method that guarantees it'll work than one that will maybe work and maybe won't.