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    SZ780 XP downgrade?

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by sardonicbryan, Feb 29, 2008.

  1. sardonicbryan

    sardonicbryan Newbie

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    Hi everyone.

    I just got my P1 SZ 780NW and I'm really excited about it! I figured out exactly what I wanted from these forums, but I have a question now. I thought I asked for XP downgrade, but it came with Vista. I'm wondering if anyone could point me to a set of instructions for how to get XP installed and get my drivers and everything set up. I've done an OS reinstall before but it really screwed up my drivers last time and I don't want to repeat that experience on my new carbon fiber encased baby. I have an XP Pro disc already. I just want to make sure things like the camera, fingerprint reader, battery management, etc. are all working on the other side.

    I tried using the search function but couldn't find anything for the SZ -- I apologize if this has been discussed before.
     
    sardonicbryan, Feb 29, 2008
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  2. mothman

    mothman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello,

    First burn a set of Recovery DVD's and then go to Sony USA Support and select Drivers and Software.Type in VGN-SZ780 and a list of drivers will come up for your model.
    Select the XP operating system and you will see the drivers.Also notice that there's a guide for 'Installing a Non-Sony' operating system thats invaluable!
    I've done this 'XP Clean Install' on my SZ650 and new SZ750.You may run into a snag or two with the Sigmatel Audio Driver, but I can tell you the work around.
    Also my SZ750 came with a Sony XP downgrade disk and I'm surprised that yours didn't.Anyway the 'Clean Install ' is much better as the downgrade disk just leaves you with a Sony Bloated XP installation.
     
    mothman, Mar 1, 2008
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  3. leadweight

    leadweight Notebook Consultant

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    After many clean XP installs on my SZ330 I started to get the best results using SP3 beta builds. Running build 3311 right now.
     
    leadweight, Mar 1, 2008
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  4. conmee

    conmee Newbie

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    Mothman,

    I have a brand new SZ750N and Acronis Disk Director doesn't see the hard drive when I boot to a USB Key, and when I try to do a clean install of retail Vista Ultimate the install fails when trying to write files to the hard drive, even though Vista Ultimate sees the drive when I configure the partitions from the Vista Ultimate setup. Any ideas?

    I'll probably also post this as a separate topic as I can't find anything on this board or via Google that talks about not being able to clean install Ultimate on a SZ750.

    Thanks!
     
    conmee, Mar 2, 2008
    #4