Sony SZ1 - anyone installed Windows 7?

I have Windows 7 at the office and it's great OS. I'm looking into options of installing it on my wife's SZ1 XP/C.

Anyone installed this, on any SZ..?

 

I'm going to try soon, but before I do I will replace the HDD with a 320gb one, better and also means if i mess it all up i can go back.. Let me know how you get on if you go for it.

The good WD HDDs are out of stock so I'll probs try mid Jan once I get one.

 

Yes, I have it in my SZ1 HP/B (lower specs than yours)

You will need the latest BIOS to enable brightness controls, and latest drivers & utilities (use the SZ3 versions and the SZ1 webcam driver from the sony.eu site)

If you have any problem with the power management software just ask, there is only one or two versions that work with the SZ1.

 

It's my wife's laptop now, so need to wait until she gets all the data out of it (it currently runs Server 2003). In the meantime, I'm collecting drivers utilities.

When you say use SZ3 versions, you mean this:
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/preinstalled/index.aspx?l=en_GB&m=VGN-SZ3XP_C or something else?

I have used this place as well: ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/VAIO/ORIGINAL/ and a step up to parent directory reveals a Win7Upgrade folder. Not sure is anything from there usable.

I'm just hoping that things would workout at least on basic OS level (so that machine is usable) and then I can pick up various specific drivers and utils (of which wireless is the most important) along the way.

And the current BIOS is R0083 (if I recall correctly), the last for XP. I know there was a newer one for Vista (92 or something). I might have the numbers wrong, it was a long time ago. What is latest?

 

The BIOS you need is R0112N0.

Also, download the Windows Vista drivers & utilities for SZ3, not the XP original versions.
You will need however the SZ1 Webcam Vista driver, as SZ3 uses a different model.

- After unpacking all the drivers in a folder on a fresh installed Win7, go to Device Manager (Right-click on Computer > Manage > Device Manager)
- Right click on unknown devices > Update driver software... and tell the installer to search for the proper driver in the folder where you extracted all of them. This should work for all unknown devices.
(NOTE: you can also do that in all devices whose names end in a dash followed by a number. I don't know if that is really necessary to make it work, however. Personally I did it.)

After all drivers are installed, reboot and install the utilities, in the following order:

1. Sony Utils DLL
2. Sony Shared Library
3. VAIO Event Service
4. Setting Utility Series
5. All the rest.

Everything should work after that

 

Was thinking of putting W7 on my SZ160P... I just tried to install that BIOS on my SZ1 and it claims its "not intended for use with your computer model". I do have another SZ3 BIOS installed from a while back, R0094N0, so I can use 3gb RAM vs 2gb.

 

Hm, I was looking now into that and my SZ1HP has BIOS ver. R0112N0, which is the version needed for Win7 (so everything works without disabling UAC)

 

Dang it, and just after I found a R0096N0 update that worked.

 

Try with your current BIOS version. Everything will work except brightness hotkeys & autodimming. You can even make the brightness keys work by disabling UAC.

And if you REALLY need it, you can flash a newer BIOS afterwards (and everything will work without reinstalling Win7!).

 

Well, I found 112 and flashed it... seems to work fine in XP so far. But I need to buy a new Z before I can wipe my SZ.

 

I am trying to update my SZ1XP/C to Windows 7. I amstruggling with the web cam. I note that Endeavour1934 said "Also, download the Windows Vista drivers & utilities for SZ3, not the XP original versions. You will need however the SZ1 Webcam Vista driver, as SZ3 uses a different model."

As suggested, I looked for the SZ1 Webcam Vista driver on http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/updates/index.aspx?l=en_GB&m=VGN-SZ1XP_C&os=7 but there doesn't seem to be one there. Can anyone point me at the right page and file?

 

Finally found the webcam driver in SODCAM-01074405-US.EXE on the Sony site and it works.

 

@Endeavour1934

Thankyou for that post, It gave me the courage to flash my bios to R0112N0

Have you gotten your brightness control funciton keys and your HDD protection to work?

Now having reinstalled everything from scratch in the order you proposed I have the sound FN keys working however I still cannot get the F5/F6 brightness controll keys to work no matter what I do.

I have an SZ1XP which is basically the same model as yours, I have installed Windows 7 Ultimate and all the SZ3 drivers and utilities.

I'd appreciate if you could tell me which versions of relevant utilities and drivers you may have installed and in what order.

In addition I have been unable to get the HDD Protection to function, the application seems to install fine however when I go into "VAIO Control Center" there is no sign of HDD Protection.


Any assistance is much appreciated.

Thank you

Jed

 

Step by Step guide to installing Windows 7 on a Sony Vaio SZ1

Having spent an unreasonable amount of time piecing together various suggestions and tutorials to get my Vaio SZ1XP fully functional in Windows7 I want to share my experience in the hopes others will find it a little less strenuous.

I ran into problems several times so I am listing the order that worked for me after trying other suggested combinations that failed. Another order might or might not work, since this worked why do it differently.



1. Update/Flash your bios to revision R0112N0

I downloaded this here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/747181/Sony VAIO VGN-SZ18GP R0112N0 Sony Vaio 2.1 SLIC By 1234s282.zip

Install Windows 7 (I set the graphics mode to Stamina)

2. Install the Intel Vista graphics driver supplied by Sony for SZ3(INDVID-01346821-UN.exe)
Note I had to run this driver in Vista \Compatibility mode to get it to install (right click file, click properties and select compatibility, Vista SP2 )

3. Install the SigmaTel High Def Audio Codec Vista driver supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (STDAUD-01291504-UN.exe)

Install the SigmaTel Audio Vista driver supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (EP0000157222.exe)

4. Go into Device manager and install any missing drivers ( in my experience there were These can be found by letting Windows 7 look for the driver in the original Windows XP drivers folder)

5. Reboot with the graphics mode toggle set to speed mode.

6. Install the Nvidia graphics Vista driver supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (NVDVID-014220002-UN.exe)

7. Reboot with graphics toggle set to Stamina

8. Install VAIO Event Service for Vista supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (SOAVES-01302701-UN.exe)

9. Reboot

10. Install Sony Utils DLL Vista Utility supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (SOASNU-01298604-UN.exe)

11. Reboot

12. Install Sony Shared Library utility for Vista supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (SOASSL-01298203-UN.exe)

13. Reboot (at this point F2-F6 Function Keys should be working in Stamina mode for both sound and brightness control)

14. Reboot with graphics toggle set to speed mode

15. Install Windows 7 Nvidia graphics driver supplied by Sony for SZ7 laptops ( I downloaded this here http://www.mediafire.com/?qymjbtfnpd0

16. Reboot (Brightness control should now be functional for the Nvidia graphics card )

17. Install Sony HDD Protection Driver (SODOTH-01368000-UN.exe)

Install Sony HDD Protection Software

Install Setting Utility Series for Vista supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (SOASUS01306401-UN.exe)

18 Reboot

19 Install VAIO Control Center utility for Vista supplied by Sony for the SZ3 (SOAVCC-01304902)

Reboot (HDD protection and the S1 S2 function keys should be active in VAIO Control Center)

Note the above steps may seem a little long winded but I would nevertheless recommend rebooting when it is suggested.







Other suggestions

If you find the function key beep annoying simply rename the following file C:\Program Files\Sony\VAIO Event Service\PI.wav

When unplugging the mains ac adapter in Speed mode I had an annoying green Icon in the middle of my screen for 2 minutes that said "Save power" -> "Increased performance" stays for some time on top of other windows. I renamed the file C:\Windows\System32\nvvsvc.exe This however unelegant appears to have eliminated the annoying popup, if anyone has a better solution for this do let me know.

I installed neither the Sony utility for the Bluetooth nor the Sony Power Management which seemed to have issues, Windows 7 seems to support both functions well enough natively

For those interested in installing multiple OS I set up my Vaio with triple boot Windows XP Pro/Windows 7 Ultimate & Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)
I decided to share program installations between XP and Windows 7. To do this I divided my 320Gb disk into 4 partitions: The wisdom in this is when in Windows XP my first partition is C: and the second D:, in Windows 7 the second partition in which I installed W.7 becomes C: and relegates the 1st XP partition to D:. By creating a 3rd and 4th partition for Program Files & Data the drive letter assignments for E: and F: always stay the same allowing me to share them)

1. 40GB Windows XP

2. 40 GB Windows 7

3. 30 GB Shared partition for programs

4. 160 GB Shared for Data (documents, music photo's videos etc)

5. The rest I left unallocated for Ubuntu (Ubuntu will also reassign space for itself if needed)

I install Windows XP along with drivers & Utilities, since most users would have already mastered this I shouldn't need to say more.

I installed programs to E:\Program Files

I moved the My Documents Folder to F:\My Documents

I then installed Windows 7 onto the second partition along with drivers and utilities as outlined above.

I reinstalled the programs to the same location as for windows XP E:\Program Files

I moved My Documents Folder to F:\My Documents


If you have any questions feel free to contact me at jedstern at gmail dot com

I would appreciate hearing from users if this worked for you or if you find suggestions for improvement.

Good luck