No XP, I returned my brand new SZ

Hi,

Sadly, I returned my brand new Sony SZ 420N yesterday at the SonyStore, thanks to the 20 day return Sony policy.

I needed a small and light notebook and it seemed to be the perfect fit. I just loved this machine.

BUT, I still need to run XP for a while while our IT dept debates when to support it. No problem I though, I will install XP as the Microsoft Business licence allows it. However, I quicly realized that the Sony downloadable drivers cannot be installed on a laptop that does not have the exact same model number than the driver file, and none were provided for mine.

I tried hacking my way around but no luck. Doing some research, I was able to get a half decent Dual Boot laptop but, for the price, I would have liked all the features to work on the laptop and none of the Sony specific features could work under XP. So I returned it.

I think not supporting XP on their laptop when Vista is only a few week old is a bad business decision. Locking the driver files is also a bad policy, I noticed the Dell, HP and many others weren't and I would still own that unit if they simply would let us install older drivers, at my own risk.

 

Sorry to hear that... What NB are you going to get now?

 

I've seen plenty of stores still selling SZ3xx models, which are practically identical to the SZ4xx other than having XP instead of Vista. Might be worth looking into if you otherwise liked the machine.

 

That's dumb! I can't believe Sony could make such a stupid move. This is akin to installing a rootkit on a laptop when someone runs one of their CD's. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

After thinking about it, this just knocked Sony out of the game if you were looking for a new Vista laptop, but still need to run XP via Parallels. I would very much be in this situation so Sony is not a contender for my business.

 

I believe there is a workaround for XP installation on SZ4xx series. Someone on the forums has already done that.

You shouldn't have returned your SZ just yet. There is a soulution for sure.

 

You should have just bought a SZ300 series and not bought one of the SZ400's. Easy as pie, and then you'd have a nice SZ to play with.

 

you can customize your own sz by using the sonystyle website.

get one with the xp OS then dual boot it with vista on a different partition

 

Not sure yet...The Sony was really my first choice. I could go Dell with the Latitude ATG. Rugged, removable drive, could buy a spare with alt OS, same security feature. Suggestions are welcome.

 

Why go through all of the trouble? If you like the SZ, get a now cheaper SZ3XX series which comes with XP. Most of us here are on them I would bet.

 

CompUSA Business still has the SZ340P9 on their website... Here is the link:

http://www.compusabusiness.com/prod...roduct_code=52439230&Pn=VAIO_SZ340P9_Notebook

Maybe this gives you an option if you are willing and able to deal with them...

Don