Sony SZ750 Win7 64bit clean install (should help on other SZ's)

What SD card you trying with ?

 

The reader did read an older 2gig SD card I used to have.
The system sees the reader, just not the cards.
The current cards all work in a generic memory stick (MS) adapter, in the MS slot.


What I currently have:
8gig PNY SDHC card

As well as:
16gig Sandisk micro SDHC
4gig Sandisk micro SDHC
2 gig Sandisk micro SDHC
2 gig Generic micro SDHC

Mounted in:
Lg adapter
2008 Sandisk adapter
2010 Sandisk Adapter




Edit:
Just realized I have the MCA20, not the MCA20 A.
The non-A model is only SD. The A model problably allows for SDHC.

 

I just happened to see the stats for downloads since I updated this... There are A LOT of lurkers on this thread!

Well over 100 downloads just since the update.

 

leslieann, excellent guide. Everything works great except the Alps Driver (32 bit). The model detection on that isn't removed. I get a message saying that the driver isn't for my model.

 

Either use the one for your model or use Universal extractor to bypass the model check.

 

Hi. I need help.
My biometric scanner is not listed under device manager in Windows 7. After installing protector suite- it tells me to connect Biometric scanner.
I have Vaio SZ680. Everything else is working- what shall I do?

Is anyone having problem with their reader after Windows 7? Or is my reader defective?

Help!

 

Your reader may be dead.

 

Thanks for your reply. Under Vista, the device was recognized but windows 7 no luck. Anyone else have any input?

 

Have you opened up your system since Vista?

If not, I would say image your drive, put Vista back on and just see if it shows up.

---------------------------


By the way, this may be the end of the guide. Seems I killed my SZ the other night while on a job.

Just a warning,
If yours falls and the left side trim comes off, DO NOT push it back in. Take the laptop apart and make sure it goes back together right, this is important on all because of the bluetooth antenna, but even more important if you have an LED backlight. The LED inverter extends into the side plastic, and if it shifts, and you push the plastic back in, you will break the connector on the inverter and on the motherboard, which is what I did. So now I'm looking at a new board and inverter. Or at least those parts to try and solder them in myself. Fun.

 

leslieann, good luck with that.

I offered my SZ up today to my 7 year old nephew but i don't know what i was thinking. I think i will look for a much more robust Panasonic or HP on Ebay and sell this to pay for that later this year when i upgrade to the SA.

About the fingerprint reader. It's quite useless to me at the moment so i removed the software. I have though reinstalled the software and got it working without issues.

This is how you do it-
Download 2.19C driver on this page
Welcome To UPEK - Support - Downloads
Extract the driver and go to the driver folder and select what you need and install it via the device manager.

Then go here and install the protector suite

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computi...009_Upek_5.9A_64_5.9.2.5746.zip&m=VGN-Z51XG_B

 

Yeah, I tried using the fingerpring reader as a scroll, that was about the only time I bothered much with it. It was too fickle and a pain in the neck.


I plan on fixing the SZ as it's still a fantastic system, but I have to have a working system. The Toshiba will be my work system, if it breaks, I can scavenge parts and replace it cheaply and quickly and leave the Sz for home and travel use once fixed. I'll just watch ebay for deals on the parts I need.

I still say the SZ was a tough cookie. I beat it up, it survived months as a demo unit, I dropped it a few times. It was what I did that did it in, it survived the fall with only a broken mount on the touchpad (JB weld). I would have destroyed a lesser system 2 years ago. I'm not sure I would hand it over to a 7 year old though. HAHA

 

Thanks for the guide. Really helped me out a lot. However, the NVIDIA driver in the OP worked but would crash when the computer went to sleep. The solution was to update it to driver 267.76 on my vgn sz670n. Now it works perfect. Only thing not working is the green light on the webcam, and the Fn F1 key, but that one doesn't bother me. Only other question I have about this machine is how to edit the boot order during start up in the Bios.

Thanks

 

Folks,

Since my first trial on Win7 (32 bits or 64bits) my fingerprint reader always worked out of the box, everytime I had problems on the fingerprint reader, it was hw. I believe Sony has a very bad design on the mouse/fingerprint reader hw on the SZ series because in 3.5 years, I had to open my vaio 3 times to "reconnect" the device because some bad contact happened on the mouse/fingerprint reader.

BTW Leslieann and Rachel, I'm also thinking to give alway my SZ780 (4GB ram dd3 + 320GB/7200 rpm HD) and get another notebook. I never had a good experience with HP or Toshiba. Panasonic in Brazil has a poor tec support.

My only good experiences came from Lenovo (Business Line), Sony (Also Business Line, but poor support on the Win 7 case) and Toshiba.

I was thinking in Asus or Dell. Some i5 or i7, usb 3, 8gb ddr3, over 500gb HD, blue ray combo and at max 14' screen. Do you guys have something in mind ? Something to recommend?

Cheers,

Fábio

 

Personally I really only aim for Asus, Toshiba and Sony, the rest are, well for lack of a better word, JUNK.

The blueray is going to limit you severely, but I found these (they meet your requirements except ram), what you see on Newegg is all I know about them.
TOSHIBA Satellite M645-S4118X
ASUS N82JQ-B2
both are 14's, are over 5 pounds, likely have a short battery life and cost about $1100 . Neither is likely on par with your SZ.

 

Very nice Leslieann (tks a lot),

But I'm also thinking to leave the idea of using a nlue-Ray combo drive!
In that case the idea of having new possibilities is much better than having a blue-ray combo. Notebooks will be slimmers and lighters.

If I need a blue-ray drive, I can get a slim one (USB) on ebay for less than US$75 !

I was considering a Alienware 11', and a Thinkpad X series. What about that?
Is there any Asus with that kind of configuration (without any Blue-ray or DVD combo)?

Cheers,

Fábio

 

If you can dump the blueray, the Dell M11x (?) isn't bad, I considered it, but I think for me to use it, I would have to sneak up on it with a blindfold. It's hideous. I just can't imagine carrying that ugly thing with me from job to job. The other problem is that, I am rarely impressed by Dell.

The Thinkpad X series is long known as a good system, but be careful, Lenove has been up and down lately. Sometimes being a decent deal, other times being severely overpriced for what you get. This from a Sony person is not good.

Asus is great for the money, however, they are not high end. Compare something similar to a Sony at half the price and after a while you can tell why it costs half. They are great systems for the money, but they are not great in every way. If you pay $700 you get the same screen as a $700 system, but a nicer system. Sony you would pay $1400, but you get a much nicer screen. Those saving have to come from somewhere.

I know you dilike Toshiba, I did too until the last year or so, but...
If I were to replace an SZ today, and I almost bought a refurb the other day to replace mine, is the Toshiba Portege R700/R7505. I have used it, it's a notch down from the SZ and does not have the dual video, but in almost every other way, it's an update to an SZ.

Toshiba has several lines, the Satelite is consumer level, which is what I had been exposed to mostly, and honestly, I was never impressed. The Portege however is more small business level and it shows in the build. This is the case with most companies. Don't buy consumer level. After owning the SZ, any consumer level system will seem like a toy and junk. You need executive/small business type systems.

Sorry to anyone this offends because they own what I may refer to as "a toy", it may sound snobbish, but I work with computers day in, day out. There really is a difference between consumer level vs. other lines. Consumer level is designed to last 2, maybe 3 years under normal use. The others are designed to last longer, be easier to work on, and tend to be nicer to use. If you are happy with your consumer level stuff, great, but once you go executive or something similar (SZ is an executives computer), it's really difficult to look at a system that twists, bends, squeaks, loud fans, crap touchpad and keyboards and think they are quality. Especially when you see the damage they suffer after a minor fall.

 

I would say wait for the SA that will be released in hopefully June.
It will be made of carbon fibre reinforced plastics and AL palmrests, is 13.3, has a 1600x900 display. Some models will also come with a BD drive. It will also feature switchable graphics.
For me it's the most logical replacement for my SZ that I have seen since the past year.
I'm not sure on its placement but it's also going to serve the business market. The SZ itself was split one being a higher end premium carbon model and one being made of magensium.

Perhaps also look at the last gen VPC-Z if you can get it.

Also, the Lenovo T420s i would say is worth a look.

 

Hi leslieann.
I m having issue with the Nvidia driver on the first page.
Can you tell me the steps to update the driver to the latest version?

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi,

Here is my experience installing Win7 x64 on my VAIO SZ1XP/C upgraded with T7600 and 2x2GB (only 3.1GB usable) with R0112N0 BIOS.

Everything seems to work fine but:

- VCC2 camera (tested every single driver I found, camera never starts)
- Internal microphone (should I install a driver instead of win-update one?)
- S1/S2 not configurable (how to?)
- Brightness doesn't work in NVIDIA mode, just add one level and lock
- There is an extra SD removable drive shown where SZ1 handles MS only

Also, the provided NVIDIA drivers in the first message works but colors are only 16bit on screen where 32bit is selected, so I downgraded to 190.x (the old one previously found on this topic)

EDIT (2011-04-16):
- Windows Sound Recorder wasn't able to identify the internal microphone. I disabled the second so that there is only one showing in sound config. Now I can record sound.
- I installed utilities for my model from the vaio-link.com website and I recover S1/S2 functionnality

 

Follow the guide on getting the latest video driver, that should fix that issue.

Some cameras lack a working 64bit driver. Face it, you are on a computer nearly 5 years old and trying to switch architecture (from 32bit to 64). Early models do not benefit as much from 64bit anyhow.

The internal microphone was addressed on step 1- preliminaries.

S1/S2, go into Sony Control panel.

Brightness issues were addressed in the guide, some models it will simply not work for Nvidia. Use Mobility Center to turn it up or down, that will usually work.

Not sure what you mean by there being an SD drive.

 

I take back what I said earlier. This video driver I am using crashes frequently when trying to watch videos. I have tried 267.31, 267.76, and 267.96 from the laptopvideo2go website. I have been unable to get the latest 270 version driver to install. Please if someone could help find a stable driver for the GeForce 8400M GS it would be great.

Thanks.

 

Hi leslieann,

I used the steps from the first page. Indeed my VCC2 doesn't work at all Win7 notify about unsupported device. I plan to replace my built-in camera with one from an earlier model, but not sure what model have what camera. I found a SZ6 one on eBay. Perhaps I'll try this.

I think the internal microphone is linked to the camera and so, if there is no driver it will not work. The extrernal mic (plugged to the sound card jack connector) should work activating the proper one as explained on the first page of this thread.

I don't see S1/S2 options int Control Center. Iread that it is configurable only by hand. But how?

Info in the guide didn't help for brightness.

About SD, it is an extra disk drive for SD/MMC Card which is not present on my laptop. It has built-in support for MS Duo only. I don't understand why the driver adds this extra disk drive.

 

S1/S2 should be in Sony control center, but yours being an older model it may not. The SZ6 and 7 cameras do work with the hacked drivers (EU 5 models may as well). I'm not 100% familiar with early models.

The internal mic is from the camera however it uses a separate driver. If you don't have the options in Sound, then the entire camera assembly is bad. You can disable the camera in Device Manager and still use the mic, but it does use the same usb port and cabling.

If the SD adapter is inserted, with a card or mot, it may show up. Otherwise, I have no idea.

If you really need this stuff, you could try dropping down to 32bit, which will let you use everything from Vista business. Don't use Sony's Win7 stuff, but honestly it sounds like you are pretty close to being where you are happy with it.

 

Here is the previous driver I used for Win7 64bit.
267.31
Nvidia 267.31 64bit.rar
See if that works.

If not here is an earlier one (266.45)
266.45_win7x64.rar

Both are pre-patched from previous guide revisions (64bit only).

 

I just installed SP1 for Win 7 x64, and the internal mic stopped working (the one that goes with the webcam). In the Sound settings, it shows 2 microphones with 1 of them listed as "Currently Unavailable."

Anyone have any suggestions for getting my mic back? If not, I guess I'll have to rollback SP1 and do without it.

Thanks for the help.

 

Good news. I found a set of audio drivers that seems to fix the issues I had with my mic not working post-SP1 install.

Here's a link to the thread where they're posted.
Michael's NEW IDT/Sigmatel Modded Driver - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

Direct download link is here.
http://files.laptopvideo2go.com/michael/idtdriver/st-idt-6324.0.exe

Hope this helps someone else, too.

 

I'm pretty sure I just had to redo the microphone setting and it worked on mine (step 1 in the current guide.).

 

No matter which version I use, I am experiencing constant kernel problem with the Nvidia 8400GS. Whenever I am watching youtube video/ flash video, the screen would flicker and display an error on the bottom right.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem? How did you manage to fix it?

Edit: Using Sz680 & Windows Ultimate 64bit.

 

That worked fine for me as well when I originally installed Win 7 x64. Something with SP1, however, made the mic unusable even after trying what was outlined in step 1 of the current guide.

 

At that point I would start to think that the Nvidia chip is failing.

Mine is torn apart so I can't double check and I never really used it, so maybe mine didn't either. Hopefully others can chime in.

 

I woud usally think like that too. But under vista I had no problem.
Quick google'ing' tells me that this too common with Windows 7.
Note that when I have aero and all windows 7 features off, the graphic card works without a hitch. At the moment, I have to switch to Intel graphics when watching video as a last resort. If anyone else have a similar experience, please share your thoughts.

 

Strange, never had that issue on mine.

Take a look at the power settings. It may be doing what the Intel card does (trying to change the refresh rate or color depth) and crashing the video driver. Also, try to install as little Nvidia software as possible.

 

I have the same problem as the guy above. In the settings, I see that the Refresh Rate is at 60 Hz and Color Depth is Highest (32-Bit). Are these settings correct? I got them from the NVIDIA Control Panel.

 

Those are right. Does it change when you go from battery to ac and back? That is what crashes the Intel driver.

Beyond that, I can't help much, I never really used the Nvidia much, but when I did it seemed fine.

 

With 32bit there are no problems, with 64 bit the driver seem to crash...

 

I don't use the dedicated card and have never have done largely because of the Nvidia problems. From what i've seen though it seems to be ok but i'm not really stressing it. I did though install the driver that is contained in the SZ6 Vista 100% working thread. If you haven't read this thread you'll find it in the pinned popular and useful thread at the top of this forum. May be have a read of that thread anyway and see if others encountered similar problems.

Sony list a 64bit Nvidia driver for the SZ series.
http://dls.update.sony.net/pub/oth/64/EP0000139786.zip
http://vcl.vaio.sony.co.jp/download/unofficial/64/001.html
I'm not sure if that driver is already linked in this thread or the above thread for that matter.

 

Have you guys ever had an issue where the mouse cursor is stuck and won't move? All keyboard commands work fine, and this only occurs after startup. A reboot fixes it, but it is very annoying as it has happened about 5 times in the past couple weeks.

Also is Fn F10 (zoom) function supposed to work using these drivers?


Edit: Btw, I have had a lot less crashes from watching video lately. It only usually happens when watching HD 720p videos now. I have found that Chrome handles videos better than Firefox and IE.

 

Thanks Vista 64 bit driver solved the problem for me!

 

Disregard my other post. I uninstalled the driver just to try out the one you posted and this one works with hd youtube videos without crashing. I can't thank you enough. it just works now.


edit: somehow now the zoom function works also!

 

Hey there. I have read all 69 pages of this guide and am of course grateful for the time and energy all you guys have put in to this "project".

I have a SZ650N and have today installed Win 7 64bit using the steps on page one of this thread.

It appears to have worked. I haven't tried the camera, but volume, function keys, bluetooth, battery care etc all appear to work. However I have not been able to install the ALPS driver for some reason. I've tried 3 or 4 drivers but after a long time (like 10mins or more) the installation fails and I'm still without scrolling support.

The touchpad is shown in the device manager as a PS/2 Mouse. Does anyone have any ideas? I tried using the universal extractor on the ALPs .exe file but tbh I don't really know what i'm doing there!!

 

Congrats, sounds like you are on the final stretch.
The first time is the most difficult and brain wracking.

For Universal Extractor, right click and extract it to a directory.
In there you should find some Sony stuff. Disregard all of that, it's just the model check system, and look for a sub directory. In that will be a standard Alps driver. You will be able to spot it by the icons for the files and how many there are. The Sony stuff only has a handful of files, the Alps is a directory full.

 

Ahha, success! I didn't have to use the universal extractor in the end.

Just went into device manager, selected the PS/2 Mouse, R-click to update driver then pointed it to the *.inf file in your supplied ALPS driver [optional] unzipped folder.

Thanks again Leslieann, it would appear I have all the functionality I need. Now I just have to wait until my 4gb memory kit arrives! I think I'll probably have to do it all again soom as I'm almost certainly going to get an SSD drive for it.

On that score, how do I enable AHCI on this SZ650N?

 

Congrats!
If you have to do it again, at least you have some idea of what to do now so it will be much easier.

This thread documents how to enable AHCI.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...a-rosa-platform-phoenix-bios-vaio-laptop.html

There is debate about how much benefit there is to it. Doing so makes installing XP more difficult.

 

First of all let me just say THANK YOU so much for writing this, you're a life (and headache) saver.
I decided to upgrade the HD in my SZ360P to an Intel X-25M 80GB G2 in the hopes of more responsiveness, and better battery life
Unfortunately I ran into a few snags despite your great guide:
- Battery Life is now worse, even after fiddling with the power plan settings
- My touchpad is no longer working

I'm assuming that something in the touchpad was damaged during the SSD install but nothing is apparently broken or torn, and I was quite delicate with the panel and connections.
I really don't want to spend another $70 shipped to replace the touchpad panel ( http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/Sony,Laptop,Part,179740191.aspx) if I don't have to.

Any ideas? And rep'd the OP btw

 

Battery life takes some tweaks to really improve, and many have said they got worse life on 7, usually it is found to be how things are setup. Not so much a Win7 issue as much as just needing to optimize power profiles.

As for the touchpad,
It's probably fine. Moving the palmrest around a bit can easily dislodge the connector. It's a common problem for many laptops, particularly Sony. I advocate flipping the pamrest up over onto where the keyboard sits during normal maintenance as opposed to disconnecting it because it's such a pain. Odds are, you just need to go re-seat the cable.

 

So I was bored and decided to experiment with steps 19 and 20. Installation was successful and now Fn F1 works which is helpful to turn bluetooth off. Only thing is GPS is unable to be turned on but I think that is because I don't have a contract with Sprint to turn WWAN on. Glad to finally have every function key working.

Edit: Wow the on screen feedback looks really nice for the wan/lan toggle. Looks like the one you get when you install Sony's official drivers, except then you only get the volume keys functional lol.

 

That's the idea.
Congrats.

I was able to get GPS to give me a signal, about 1 out of 10 tries.
The problem is not that it's not working, actually you shouldn't need a contract, but without service the device turns itself off after a short time. Usually before the GPS can get a lock and send a signal. I ripped it out last time I was working on it.

 

Just wanted to check back in and post another success story. Gave this a go with my SZ750 last year but couldn't get the Fn brightness controls to ever work, much less anything else other than Volume. With the new version of the guide and new drivers it all works the first time! Awesome work, thank you again. May try the Fn F1 optional setup later, but I'm going to make an image first.

Still loving this little laptop, especially with the SSD I put in last year.

One question for you or anyone else reading this: I bought it slightly used and discovered later that the BIOS password had been set. I have been unable to get it from the previous owner or guess it - is there anyway to reset it?

Thanks again,
Chris Silvester

 

I don't think you can clear it. If you hold f2 at the startup screen does it take you to the bios options?

Btw, this doesn't answer your question but just letting others know, I had to go all the way back to XP 32 bit to update the BIOS on my sz670n.

 

Congrats on the system.
While I like my new netbook (less weight, smaller size), there are times I really miss my SZ.


To reset the bios...
Remove the power-cord and battery, then pull the palmrest. Under the touchpad at the leading end of the notebook is a tiny battery. Unhook that for 30 seconds, plug it back in and button it up. All done.