New SZ670, and I've already broken something!

First, this thing is terrific! There is nothing about it that I don't like and admire...

However, in flushing the Sony toilet I dumped a ton of demoware, nagware, time-limited-ware, adware, etc. and somehow seem to have killed the fingerprint reader. Going to an earlier restore point would lose hours of work (and I don't know if it would work).

I went to the device manager, which says it's working, driver is current, etc. The icon has disappeared from the notification tray, and I get a weird alert on startup - but it's password only to log on.

Can any guru out there give me some help? I do not know how to reinstall, repair, etc. but with some guidance can do almost anything, as I have a set of chisels and a really good table saw.

Thanks!

 

I've never owned a Sony before, but my question may help others more knowledgeable than myself; did you uninstall any Sony software?

 

Good question. I didn't think so. The UPEK Touchchip Fingerprint Sensor seems to be there - it's not really a Sony item - and the Device Manager reports that it's "working properly", with the most current driver. I think there's something else that's missing, but don't know what.

I deleted a lot of registry items that seemed at the time to be clearly linked to the games and junk (QuickBooks, Norton/Symantec, iTunes, etc.) that came preloaded on the machine.

 

Makse sure you have the Protector Suite QL installed.

 

Excellent! I tried to use that software, and it won't load properly. Here's what I got:

rnpipe: svr(00000001fusserver) not found

It doesn't look like something I'd delete while flushing the toilet. How can I re-install the Protection Suite QL?

THANKS!!! This is an important clue.

 

Click on the link provided: http://www.4shared.com/file/35410038/e4a1a66/Protector_Suite_QL_560.html and wait a couple moments and you'll see a download link when you scroll down a little bit.

 

That did it, and thanks!! The fingerprint reader works perfectly, but the process seems to have toppled some other domino. When it rebooted rundll32 was missing...

 

do a fresh install. this way you will know that everything is optimized

 

I dunno why you're having such weird problems.

I recommend doing a restore to the factory programs and settings and getting to know your laptop better before uninstalling anything blidnly just coz you think it isn't needed

 

do a fresh install

 

I suggest that the OP do some more troubleshooting before following this advice; it is the equivalent of blowing up something in your way instead of figuring out a smarter and more efficient way of removing it. Don't waste your time by doing this right away.

Try reinstalling the UPEK Touchchip Fingerprint Sensor by downloading the installer from the Sony website. In fact, they should have all the drivers and stock software for your model.

 

I re-installed the UPEK software and now the fingerprint reader works perfectly.

With a Sony, will a FRESH INSTALL also include all the crapware (demos, gameware, etc.)? It took a lot of work to get rid of it all.

And I'm sorry to admit that I don't know how to do the install. All my data is saved on an external 4GB flash drive that I used for the transfer. In the past I would load a bootable floppy, f-disk the hard drive, and then load the OS.

Presumably there's now an easier way.

 

reformat all the computer and then reinstall everything

 

Doing a fresh install with a manufacturer's recovery DVD brings the system back to exactly the state that you bought it in; with all the bloatware and everything.

 

Aaargh! My son, who is still young enough to know everything, spent a lot of time removing the junk. I added perhaps 2-3 hours. And then, it took a long time to set up the apps...

I HATE THAT!

 

So you used the recovery disk? But, did you not mention earlier that reinstalling the UPEK Touchchip Fingerprint Sensor fixed the problem?

In any case, my recommendation is after removing all the junk and getting Vista/XP the way you want it that you use a disk image backup solution such as Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost to simplify things ALOT for future reinstalls. I would personally recommend using Acronis as it has worked best in my experiences. These programs basically compress the entire contents of a disk into one file; restoring involves booting from a CD where you can tell the program where the archive is and where you want it restored.

 

I did not use the recovery disk, and will try to avoid that. In fact, I don't have one - presumably one must make such a disk...

Yes, you're not the first to suggest Acronis. Thanks.

 

Interestingly, I'm no longer seeing the "rundll32" problem, and this thing is singing like Pavarotti (did).

It's set to sleep when the lid closes, and regardless of what's running I can close the lid and the lights will be off (except for the blinker) in SEVEN SECONDS. I'm getting a stable boot in 90 seconds, with time out for a fingerprint swipe.

What a great computer!!