Please share your clean installation experience with Z

Hi guys,

I tried clean installing Ultimate 32bit on my Z-series.

First, I tried installing drivers from the website. The result was not good. A lot of the function keys wouldn't work and stamina and speed bar wouldn't work either.

Then, I reinstalled Ultimate 32bit again and installed drivers and applications from the recovery disks. Everything looked fine except the function keys still don't work as well and whenever I switch to SPEED mode, some warning pops up with the battery problem and computer turns off.

Now, I'm following the semi-clean installation for FZ in this forum (giving up my ultimate arggg I need my Korean Windows). I hope this works.

I just wanted to know if anyone has succeeded in clean installing with Ultimate 32bit.

 

Hmm sounds like my experience lol. The function keys didn't work and neither did the stamina/speed switch. I think the installation order of some of the drivers matters...

 

On my Z, this is what I've done. I too made a slipstreamed version of Ultimate (I would also agree, that perhaps this will save some headache too...)

I never used any external drivers that didn't already come on the recovery disc except for the Nvidia video drivers from laptop2go (but the one on the recovery disc is fine)

I formatted and installed Vista Ultimate SP1 (32bit).

Next popped in the recovery DVD I made (Dual Layer) and went into the reinstall programs and drivers. Under the drivers tab, I only selected the Chipset Driver (Intel) that was at the very top. When the Intel installer popped up, I went to the temp directory in windows directory (c:\windows\temp) and inside you'll find a directory called APPS. This has all the drivers you need for the Z unpacked and ready to install yourself.

I copied that somewhere (about 500megs) and then continued with JUST the Intel driver. I rebooted and was left with 5 devices with no drivers and the function buttons not fully working.

I then went into each device that didn't have a driver and updated by having windows search that APPS directory for the driver it needed. It found them with no issues. (LAN, WLAN, Memory Stick card, etc...) After all devices were found, I then UPDATED the drivers for the intel video card (again choosing the already found device and then update and search in the APPS directory) and then installed the Nvidia card (your choice from recovery DVD or from online). You need both drivers for the switching to work.

I then installed Sony Shared Library, Sony Utility Service and VAIO Event Service from the programs tab on the recovery DVD.

That was it and my Z is fully functioning with all buttons working.

If you want the battery care and programming the s1 and s2 buttons, you need to select additional apps to install, again from the recovery DVD as you see fit.

**Optional**
You can then go and update your other drivers to use them from the recovery/sony DVD, example the track pad or SD card reader. Just click update and search through the APPS directory and it will install the new driver. The updated drivers will show the full name, example Alps Pointing device (for the trackpad) or Ricoh SD Bus (for the SD card reader...)

This worked for me in the order as above. (I'm not saying that other methods don't work.) I only have a Z and haven't tried the other guides that are non Z (ex. the FZ or SR...)

I've got a bigger post on it here... (perhaps not the most readable...) http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=272690&page=189

Hope that can help you.