No help from Sony on TX...

Greetings, I'm looking for help on a new TXN25N that was purchased for the big boss here. It comes preinstalled with Vista, and while we have 11,000 computers with XP, we have none with Vista. Although the hardware is identical is almost every way, the TX17 and TX19 software (shipped with XP)will not install on the TX25. Sony support says many customers have asked for the same thing, but too bad.

Has anyone figured out what the Sony installer is looking for when it checks for the model before installing the Sony packages? Is it a registry key? Or is it looking at the BIOS or ???

Right now I have a $2,000 paperweight and an impatient CEO...

Please help!

 

So the CEO gets a cool computer while everyone else in the company has boring Dells.

 

..that are apparently working.

 

You know how it goes when the CEO asks for something that is not on the standards list. Is the version of XP an off the shelf retail version?

 

you need a tool called hwun to extract the xp driver install (.exe). http://www.angelfire.com/ego/jmeister/hwun/hwun011b.zip
Unzip hwun011b at (c: drive). rename the folder hwun011b to hwun, so you have a file call (hwun) in this folder.
in vista, go to start menu, type CMD in the start search space at the bottom of the start menu, CMD kit will show up on the top after searching, right click CMD, then go to Run As Administrator. a DOS windows will show up, type following command:
cd\
c:\
cd hwun

stop here, read below first.
hwun A B
A: the xp driver install exe file( example: the driver called REDAUD-01291602-US.exe)
B: the folder name that all the files will extract in this folder, in this case we name it (xpAudio).
run this command:
hwun REDAUD-01291602-US.exe xpAudio
this will extract all the install file into the xpAudio folder.
when it's done, you can find this folder in C:\hwun\
all your install file will be in C:\hwun\xpAudio\TEMPEXEFOLDER\
run setup, then it will not check for the model of your vaio.
hope that help.

 

Well, one of our brightest minds figured out a way to trick the Sony installer package, so yes, the boss will get her slick new TX.... and my hide is saved....

 

I had not seen your reply when I just posted. In your method, do I have to be running Vista first? I already have an XP image running on the unit... A genius here found a file that contained the model number, but replacing that was not so simple, as it kept getting dynamically replaced. He wrote a .bat file that continuously replaced the updated file with one that contains the value we needed for the install. I would like to try your idea though, as it will provide me with files I can use without having to gimmick things... Thank you for your suggestion!!!

 

The XP version is based on an image we have built inhouse, essentially a reasonable tightened-up XP Pro with SP2 and our own software....

 

you can done same thing in xp too, i done it many time, just run the cmd kit from (start menu- run), and type cmd, enter. if you need help for converting those xp drivers into non-checking model version, add my msn if you want , i can do it for you.

 

Thanks for the assistance! In the end, we find a file called "Model.txt", and by using a .bat file to constantly refresh it with the model designation of the the version that shipped with XP (the TX 19P/L), we were able to install the XP drivers from Sony. Everything seems to be working ok except the Bluetooth, for which I found some other suggestions sch as not using a Toshiba driver. That did not work, but it was ok in the end as the user does not need Bluetooth....

 

The TXN15 and TXN17's are still available out there, and would have made a much easier purchase for you and your boss.

I've heard Sony's looking into providing more support for Vista -> XP Pro downgrades here in the future on their VAIO Professional models (TX, SZ, BX and UX)

 

Sony Package reads the model name in the DMI and write it to c:\windows\model.txt, the contain of txt file will be like this

Model = "VGN-TXN25N"

if you want TXN19P's packages run on TXN25N, just change the "VGN-TXN25N" to "VGN-TXN19P", then make this file hidden, and readonly. Now you can run TXN19P's packages on TXN25N computer with no problem.

Or download the Driver magician http://www.drivermagician.com/download.htm
to backup all the drivers on TXN19P to Inf file. then use these files to install the driver for TXN25N.

Hope it help.