SZ71 XP downgrade problems

So - I needed to downgrade one of my SZ's to XP, and all went fine until the network driver install - but the automated driver install for the rest of the components seems not to have 'taken'. I followed the instructions to the letter and every time I boot Windows it asks me for the drivers fo the video, fingerprint reader, sound, etc etc.

What did I do wrong, and how do I get around it? It was for a piece of software which is XP only that I'm required to run, but if I can't solve this easily I'm just going to say to the guy I only run Vista and let him worry about it.

Thanks

 

I read what you posted and my first thought is where did you get your drivers from? Were they included on the downgrade disc? Did you download them elsewhere?

(other thoughts)
Driver installations were done under an Administrator account, correct?
Was the notebook connected to a network while you were trying to install the drivers? Fresh install? You're not installing XP over an existing OS are you?

Some (XP) installs (on Vaios) are a pain to get all of the hardware running correctly. However, XP on a SZ7x is not one of them. It's straight forward; each driver is even numbered in the order they should be applied:

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/SZ6/

I'd reinstall windows and first thing (before doing anything like patches & updates & connecting to the internet) install the drivers from the ftp. Post back if it fails again - it might be helpful (then) if you also included the version numbers for each driver.

 

Sorry about the delay - I lost patience and took the latter route in the end, and he's still not got the software working under Vista. It's been 2 years, so I've told him to make himself scarce until it works.

The SZ came with downgrade discs and full documentation on how to do so. The downgrade discs wipe the disc including the Vista recovery partition, Installs an XP recovery partition and XP. It's just the automated driver installs seemed to fail.