Problem regarding the SZ and CR

I recently had the fortunate opportunity to spend 5 hours uninstalling the seemingly unending amount of crap that Sony has preinstalled on two of my friend's laptops.

The two laptops are:
Sony VAIO SZ VGNSZ420NB: http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...d=1003610&navigationPath=n32009n100299n100306
Sony VAIO CR: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3807

Now after spending 5 grueling hours, I was able to remove 90% of the crap that Sony installed. I only left things that seemed important like Power Management, etc. Now after I had removed most of the pre-installed bloatware, I noticed that the DVD drive had disappeared from My Computer. I checked in device manager and it showed that the device cannot be started due to drivers, or something like that. I tried to reinstall the applications but that did not work, nor did uninstalling the device. I have resorted to doing a system recovery in a few days when my friend's are available, but I would like to know if a certain program is required to keep the DVD recognized in Windows. Also the CR wireless tends to fail a lot and not detect networks. Only after a restart the problem seems to go away, then comes back again. That too might be caused by the deletion of one program.

 

For the optical drive, same thing happened to me. I got this from the support site.

Follow this procedure to resolve the error if the optical drive is missing from Computer in the Microsoft® Windows Vista™ operating system.

WARNING: There is a risk of data loss. This procedure involves editing the Registry. Using the Registry editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require the operating system to be reinstalled and can result in the potential loss of data.

NOTE: A backup of the registry can be created.

1. Click the Start button, and then in the search box, type regedit.
2. Press the Enter key.

NOTE: If prompted for an administrator password or a User Account Control prompt is displayed, type the appropriate password or click Continue.
3. In the Registry Editor window, in the left pane, double-click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder.
4. In the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder, double-click the System folder.
5. In the System folder, double-click the CurrentControlSet folder.
6. In the CurrentControlSet folder, double-click the Control folder.
7. In the Control folder, double-click the Class folder.
8. In the Class folder, click to select the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} folder.
9. In the right pane, click to select the UpperFilters registry value.
10. On the menu bar, click Edit.
11. In the Edit menu, click Delete.
12. In the Confirm Value Delete dialog box, click the Yes button.
13. In the right pane, click to select the LowerFilters registry value.
14. On the menu bar, click Edit.
15. In the Edit menu, click Delete.
16. In the Confirm Value Delete dialog box, click the Yes button.

NOTE: Do not delete the UpperFiltersBak or LowerFiltersBak registry values.
17. Close the Registry Editor window.
18. Restart the computer.




Your CR problem though... I have no idea.

 

Try my signature on both models.

 

Is there any way to automate the deletion of UpperFilters and LowerFilters? My friend isn't too comfortable messing around with the registry and would prefer to have the fix work automatically.

 

Not that I know of... Sorry. If you follow those instructions EXACTLY as they say, there shouldn't be any problem. If he's really paranoid just create a system restore point before he does this.