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

I try installing the webcam (ricoh) on my SZ1 with win 7 ultimate 32bit.. however it does the vaio system check and states that it's not intended for use with your computer model.

Is there any other driver.. or a way to override this error msg and install anyway?

 

Win7 32bit can use the original 32bit Vista business driver from from Sony. In fact you can use all of the original 32bit Vista Business stuff and get an entirely functional system.

 

on the europe vaio-link site.. when i enter my model (SZ1HP/B) I don't get the camera driver as an option under the Vista tab. So probly really stupid question, where do I find the vista business stuff.. american site?

 

and one more thing.. I've followed all the steps in this guide.. and the function keys are working.. however the shortcut S1 and S2 buttons are not working?

Have I missed some step?

 

Re-install some of the utilities, you may have missed one (watch though, as one will uninstall when you try and install a second time".

Try an American SZ1 model, it's probably there.

 

Just a thought.. the white ribbon cable we discussed in the SZ lounge thread, what's its function? It did get a little bent before I figured out how it was supposed to be placed, could this be the reason why the S1 and S2 buttons aren't working? Ghx and wifi switch works though.

Gonna start trying to reinstalling the utilities. I had to find the drivers for sny5001 and 6001 from the http://www.vaio-link.com/os/vista/64bit site. The guide in here didn't include these as I found them as "unknown devices" the first time around the fn key wasn't working Don't know if these were supposed to get installed automatically or i missed some step.. figured i'd mention it atleast so you're aware

Got the webcam working! Dunno with what driver haha.. all of a sudden it was working after a reboot (prior to reboot it installed but with a yellow exclamation mark saying it was some error..)

Okay back from reinstalling all the utilities. I uninstalled everything and then installed step-by-step from your "essential folder". I made sure to reboot between every install. Yet the S1 and S2 buttons are not working, but the FN-key is. Could this have to do with the drivers being for SZ7? Or could it be like I said above that the ribbon cable damaged the function of just those two keys (sounds unlikely, shouldn't the ghx and wifi switch get affected as well?).

 

D-mn it. I reinstalled win7.. and tried using the vista 32 drivers that are on the european download page for my specific model.. installed all the utilities in ur order exactly.. still doesn't work. fn key work.. but not s1 s2.. any more suggestions? I'm more and more thinking that i might have ruined one of the cables? but shouldn't the whole board then not work?

UPDATE: I don't know what I did now.. but now S buttons are working. I think I uninstalled and reinstalled "setting utility service" (SOASUS-01306401-UN.exe) when everythin else already was installed. Note that I've used older drivers that were out on european site for SZ1HP/B. I figure I should be able to get it to work with your drivers as well. Is there a point trying? Are the drivers/utilities better? Otherwise I might as well just keep this as it already is working.

Sorry Leslieann for all the questions.. I truly appreciate your help

 

No worries Olo.

If what you are using works, my advice, is don't mess with it. My experience is that the software can be very fickle. Look at how I have to use the SZ6 battery care. I tried other utilities from before and after this model and they wouldn't work. These are the ones most compatible with 64bit, which is why I use them. It's not even a matter of model, certain ones wouldn't even run in 64it. Like I said, fickle. Leave it to Sony.

Glad you got things going. Make notes and assemble a small driver pack similar to what you downloaded from the guide. It will make it easier next time.

 

It's ALIVE!!!

Sorta...
I got a motherboard and side trim in today (wow is it more solid along that edge).
I managed to salvage my old inverter (but I may swap the new one in later) and the screen is coming on. However.... the bios is only showing 3gigs of ram (but says SZ750), and I think Windows is looking for AHCI, which I had enabled before. I suspect the bios may be the original as well. The reason think this is because I got a bluescreen on first boot.

Also, my battery went dead while it was sitting. I think I'll cry if it's been damaged. It was wonderful. At any rate the fact that it is up and running is good though and the battery appears to be taking a charge.

I just need to update the bios enable ahci and see if things run right. If so, I'll be swapping in the ssd and seeing if I want to put in the more efficient, but slower wireless card. I may just buy another as my mom wants my netbook and it looses a lot of battery life with my 5300 in it.



Edit, the bios are definitely not current at least for the 750, I just want to be sure it's a true sz750 board before I try flashing it.

 

The only thing not working was the power management. So I uninstalled that and replaced it with the one from your guide. Now the management doesn't appear in the Vaio Control Center but I can find some Vaio plan under the Windows own power tab in the control panel.

Well I kind of forgot what the final step was to solving my S1/S2 problem. Now I know that it works atleast so I'll know not to give up. I'll make a backup with both ur guide and files + the files for my specific model.

Big thanks for all the help! I got the 6300 wifi card, intel x25-m g2 120 gb and new fan setup and working with the win 7 -32. Couldn't have done it without the great DIY guides on here! It's like a brand new computer. Even though the limit by SATA1, the ssd is a million times better than the old 5400rpm drive that I replaced.

Now I've ordered a new battery as well as I didn't dare do that before in case I didn't get it running again Also thinking of getting a t7200 cpu. Then I won't need a new laptop for another couple of years and I can stop having regrets about not getting z13

 

Good job How are you gonna be able to make sure its the sz750 board?

Hmm.. i just remembered one thing.. I din't change ahci/raid thingie in bios before installing my ssd.. what is standard? Doesn't it have to be in one setting for trim to work? Damn it if I gotta reformat everythin

 

Arghh.. thought I was done but apparently not. Noticed now that in "speed" mode the function keys aren't working flawlessly.. the volume buttons and S1 (mute) works... but the brightness controll doesn't work nor the S2 (max brightness). It comes up on the screen saying brightness but nothing happens. Which utility could it be?

 

Congrats!

I keep telling people that these are far from outdated systems. The C2D was such a step ahead, and the SZ was such a step ahead that companies are just now catching up really to the higher end models. Which is frankly, amazing considering the age. Don't miss-understand, I know a I7 will tear these apart, but in reality, the cpu is more than enough (at least in mine, t8100), and with 4gigs ram, for a notebook, the performance is still fine and it's a great notebook.

So yeah, there's not a lot of reason to replace them. I started looking at broken ones to replace my moms V505.

Trim likely nbeeds AHCI, but I could be wrong. Default is non-AHCI and it requires a pain in teh neck tweak to make it work. Which is why I have to update the bios on mine so I can do it.

I figured out that the bios on SZ6-SZ7 (and late SZ5) series are the same, but more than that, the bios actually says SZ750n, so... If it blows up, I'll send it back.

That has always been a problem on these with Win7, but usually with 64bit. Just keep plugging away, you are on the home stretch, but more than that, I typically recommend staying in Stamina as much as possible (I have the 8400, so all the more reason), but if you leave the Nvidia for performance, just get it on bright and leave it.

 

I wish I had known about this thread a week ago...

Unwittingly, I tried to "update" some of the Sony utilities and saw my system (SZ740) develop one problem after another. Thanks to Leslie and everyone else who put in significant time to try to get Win7 functioning.

I followed the guide and now my laptop works better than ever. Some of the improvements:

• Brightness controls work
• Better brightness in Stamina mode
• I love the "Resume on Lid Opening"
• Vaio Control Center is now useful

The only downside is the loss of Smart Network but the only time I used it was for turning bluetooth on/off

Thanks again for the great work.

 

I got everything in, AHCI on, and Widnows re-installed, anyone care to guess what happened when I booted into Speed Mode?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
My old board ran PERFECT!

Also, my battery may be toast.
The seller is going to want to replace the board and while they claim they test them, they obviously are not testing the Nvidia chip. I'm not happy at the moment because now I'm going to be down AGAIN, and I just know I'm going to put the new board in and again have the same issue.

The seller has tons of these boards, how much do you want to bet where they came from.

 

Argh.. I've tried lotsa but never getting it to work.. :/ The sony utility that you supply in first post doesn't seem to work at all for my model. When I install it, I don't have any "S-button" submenu in Vaio Control Center. With my version of it, the "S-button" appears in VCC however the brightness doesn't function. Is there any driver in between that can be tried?

 

Try models in between, also at the end of the guide is a list of links to various Sony ftp sites and things, you may find something there that will work.

 

One questions.. what is the sony utils dll? It's not in your guide but is often on the download page of the SZ models on european site?! Is it supposed to be installed? Read somewhere that it's the same thing as sony notebook utilities but this is not in ur guide either.

Also.. googling the problem some ppl seem to have gotten brightness keys to function again after bios update. I got the R0096NO installed, but its like 4-5 yrs old? Is there any newer that will work with my SZ? I see that the SZ4 has BIOS Update R0112N0 available.. shouldn't that work on SZ1? Same chipset and board?!

 

You definitely need the update to have any chance.
Yes, that bios should work.

Sony combines files together and renames them, depending on the model. That is either part of Notebook Utilities or System Settings Utilities. Though on some models it is also battery care.

From the guide..

I need to add Bios update to the guide I guess, which by the way, you will need YOUR software installed in order to flash, you may even need Vista.

 

I followed everythin you wrote until this last part. Why do I need Vista to flash?! And why does the SW need to be installed?

 

The bios flash program needs Sony Shared utilities to verify what laptop and bios version you have.

That means you need the original shared utilities. The original may not work on Win7, and even less likely under 64bit. Then you have the bios utility itself, it too may not run on Win7 or Win7 64bit.

When I changed my board I had to update the bios.
It wouldn't work, but I had nothing installed. So I put Vista in, and it failed again, but got further. I then put in the Sony stuff and it worked. It's possible it woudl have worked in Win7, but maybe not.

 

I updated to the 112 bios.. still haven't gotten brightness to work in speed mode though.. gonna try uninstalling all utils and reinstalling (in ur order) everythin from SZ4 vista drivers. This is same chipset and bios as mine, so if it works in vista for that one it should work in win7 for me?!

Some quick thoughts:

- The FEPD driver, could the newer driver be messing things up?
- Could me using the latest Nvidia driver have anything to do with it? I used 270.73 as opposed to the 267.31 in your first post. (Did the copy of the .inf file though)
- Is the order of install absolutely certain? I found this on another site while searching for solutions:

I got it working now
Install exactly in this order:
Download all sony drivers for Vista
Instal Vaio event service
Reboot
Install Sony DLL Utils
Reboot
Install Sony shared Library
Reboot and it should work

Which is reversed order. Gahh going crazy

 

OMG!!!! It's working finally!

All credits go to Jedstern for this post that I stumbled upon when I more or less already had given up: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/447970-sony-sz1-anyone-installed-windows-7-a-2.html#post6629615

Made some personal changes though:

step 2: I went via windows update and found update for latest intel display driver.

step 3: I skipped, let win7 built-in drivers do the work.

step 17: I skipped hdd protection for my ssd


Gosh, I'm so happy! Interesting though how the nvidia regedit has not been needed?! Could this have been the reason why I didn't get it to work before?

The only thing not installed right now is battery checker/control and powermanagement. The question is do I dare try installing the latest drivers for these (sz6/7) or should I try with older drivers? Someone said powermanagement is picky so for that one it might be smarter sticking with the original drivers? But what about the battery control?

And with the followed guide I got nvidia 190.4 driver installed.. do I dare update it to latest?


Gahhh spoke too soon After closing the lid, the brightness control stops working.. well this is one step closer.. now I know it IS possible controlling brightnes in speed mode on SZ1 as well atleast...

I've seen others posting something about this so I bet it's back to google

 

Image the drive and give it a shot.
Note that a few people have had trouble with the Nvidia driver linked, but using the latest from laptopVideo2go seems to work fine.


I don't think following that guide is what did it, I think you just got something running that wasn't running or wasn't installed properly. I have found that event services is sketchy to install at times and it a major factor in getting things going.

As for the not working after standby, many have tried to fix it without luck. After reading what I stated above though, makes me wonder if the event service s failing to restart. You may want to check the service properties and set it to always automatically restart. Normally after the 3rd (?) try it gives up.

 

Hey leslieann!

Well.. I've ruled out that it's the files that do it.. cuz now I reformatted and used all your files (except sony utils dll) and it still works.. however the "closed lid" problem still occurs... and I think you might be very correct about it being the eventmanager failing to restart in someway.

Hmm however manually restarting the eventmanager has no effect.. only rebooting seems to solve the problem. What I don't understand is that even having selected "do nothing" in power options for closing the lid.. the same problem occurs.. even tho the screen and computer stays on when closing the lid.. the brightness hotkeys are lost.. that seems really weird

Back again. I reformatted and tried your order once more with the addition of installing sony utils dll first of the utilities. However your way refuses to work.. the brightness doesn't work at all in speed mode with your way. Hmm I wonder what is causing this.

Your order:

1 Sony shared library
2 Sony Control center
3 Sony battery control
4 Vaio settings utilities
5 Vaio event services
6 Vaio powermanagement
7 nvidia driver update

his:

5 vaio event services
* sony utils dll (not incl in urs)
1 sony shared library
7 nvidia driver update (already at this step, fn sound and brightness works)
4 vaio settings utilities
2 sony control center
3
6

So the order is quiet diffent. If that gives any clue to what the problem could be. I also noticed that your version of event + settings utilities doesn't seem to work on my SZ1. so I have to use the SZ3 vista drivers to get S button to function for example

 

Quick question - anyone having issues with hibernate with Win7 on the SZ? The screen goes black, then the desktop reappears. Nothing in any logs that I checked, and I have disabled the WLAN wake up option.

 

Go into control panel, then administrative tools, then services, find the event service, right click and hit properties, go to the recovery tab, On the third dropdown box (subsequent failures), change it to "restart the service".

However, if restarting it doesn't help then it's something else. Maybe make a note of what files are running in Task Manager before and after will tell you. Otherwise you will need to see what service it is.

You have something not allowing the system to sleep. Hard to say what it is though.

 

Yup i found those options but didn't work.. so gotta reformat again so I get back the functionality:

I've noticed these things though for my SZ1:

using the event service (3.3.00.11020) and vaio settings utilities services (3.1.00.09240) from your guide. I can get functions keys to work in both speed and stamina, however not after lid has been closed in speed mode. But the S buttons don't work.

Using your event manager and the SZ3 vista vaio settings utilities series (SOASUS01306401-UN.exe), the S buttons work b ut not brightness at all in speed mode.

Using the SZ3 vista event manager (SOAVES-01302701-UN.exe) and the S3 vista settings utilities series (SOASUS01306401-UN.exe) both S and FN keys work. Brightness keys stop working after lid is closed though.

My conclusion is that your settings utility doesn't work with the SZ1 to give the S button function for some reason. And somehow the setting utility and event manager gotta match for the brightness to work.

Hmm.. feels like there are a million of combos of event managers and setting utils though..


Still interesting as well how I can't get it to work with ur order of install but that this order works:

5 vaio event services
* sony utils dll (not incl in urs)
1 sony shared library
7 nvidia driver update (already at this step, fn sound and brightness works)
4 vaio settings utilities
2 sony control center

Feels like it should be the same...

Anyways gonna reformat once again with what's been working best so far so I can start investigating if there's any process/service that stops working before and after lid close

 

Just changed these settings in services and now Brightness controls function after Sleep and Restart. Before the on screen feedback would show but the brightness would not change. Thanks.

EDIT: I spoke too soon unfortunately. If the computer sleeps then wakes up, brightness works fine. If I close the lid and then wake the computer up, brightness does not function.

 

Welcome to my world.

 

Okay... using SZ3 drivers.. ur installation order works as well. So regardless of the order I get to the same place. everything works except when closing the lid which is really annoying problem.

Why only in speed mode? Feels like something to do with ghx card, but what exactly?

I looked in the processes and services before and after closing the lid.. nothing evident popped out at me, didn't find anything. Even tried ending the VES processes and starting them again and allso restarting the service.. still same problem.. what i really can not understand is why this happens even when "do nothing" option is set. The screen and everythin stays on, so what's signalling for the fn brightness to stop working?

Is there any point in trying SZ4-5 utils? Or getting the sony utils dll for SZ7. How come that util is not incl in your guide?

What I dont get is why the lid problem doesn't occur for you. Could it be a bios problem? Surely someone must have a working SZ1-3 on vista 32bit without this problem.

 

Okay I found a "solution", but I don't know if it will come back and haunt me:

I updated the ACPI Lid driver with the "volume manager" driver. Thus the VAIO doesn't realize when the lid is closed anymore and thus no problem.

For me, who don't want auto sleep on closed lid, it's not a hassle. I want the computer to remain on even if I close the lid. But will this have a downside effect on something else?

I feel like I can't keep on reformatting and trying different combos forever.

 

Leslieann are you still reformating and trying out your new gear?

If so could you do me a favor, just to narrow things down. If so, I would like you to reformat and start in speed mode, installing all unknowns in device manager and the NVIDIA driver from ur guide. Then just install the sony library and eventmanager and see if the function keys are working (they should). And then see if they work after closing and opening the lid back up.

If this works for you (which it doesn't for me with the lid closed), then I know that it's not software.. that would mean it's either BIOS or the actual ghx card itself making it not work.

Is it possible to flash with the SZ6/7 bios in some way? Thats my best guess of why it's not working...

 

After following the reinstall guide my machine has been running great. However, today I was at a site that utilized flash to play video the screen would go dark and I would get an error indicating something to the effect that the video card stopped responding and has now recovered.

Any help on this issue would be appreciated.

 

It appears that this is an Adobe problem. The suggestion is to turn off hardware acceleration (or use a browser other than IE9) until Adobe figures out the problem

 

What model do you have of the SZ?

 

I was getting that error using the driver from this guide. You have to try different ones to find a stable version.

This one posted here works for me:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...all-should-help-other-szs-69.html#post7404894

 

I have the SZ740E

 

Thx.. newer models don't have the "acpi lid" problem.

So it's either mobo, ghx card or bios.

What would happen if I flash my SZ1 with the latest bios for SZ6/7 (R0122S5)? Do you think it would work? Or is that a ridiculously stupid thing to try?

 

To be clear, I am running Win7 32-bit. I also have an issue when I close the lid, upon reopening, the brightness has decreased and I cannot increase the brightness w/o a reboot.

Shutting off hardware acceleration solved the flash problem. I will turn hardware acceleration back on when Adobe has issued a fix.

 

The nvidia drivers in the guide have been shown to be unstable.
Follow the guide to get newer ones from laptopviodeo2go or use an older one.


Olo, the newer ones may not have the issue because we are using the newer drivers and software.

I suspect the problem is a compatibility with Win7. MS changed the way drivers are handled, which is why you can't always use Xp drivers in 32bit and sometimes not even vista 64bit drivers on 7 64bit.

Remember, as good as Win7 runs on these, they weren't designed for it.

 

hey leslieann!

Well I'm using the new drivers (from ur guide). And the problem is still there. are you sure you don't have this problem in speed mode?

And do you think I can flash bios with the R0112S5 ? What happens if it doesn't work?

 

The drivers in the guide work fione for some, and crash like crazy for others. In the guide it tells how to get the newest ones.


There are only two sets of updated bios for the Sz series, one for earlier models and one for later models.They are not interchangeable. Odds are you will brick your system.

 

Yes I know how to get the newest ones. I was mostly curious bout the bios.. I don't think it's possible to get SZ1-4 to work with win7 without the lid problem. I haven't seen any person at all who has gotten it to work as of yet.

But I'm all good, the fix with updating "acpi lid" with the volume manager/master works. This is not a good solution for those who want the computer to go to sleep/hibernate upon closed lid though. I have it on autosleep after 15 min instead.

Thx for the great guide leslieann! It has helped lots. Too bad the earlier models don't seem 100% compatible.

 

I wish it would go perfect, but chances are it never will.
However, it's a small price to pay for more or less getting an almost new, high end laptop.

 

Hi there, I'm new here. I have a vgn sz28gp (an asian model) and I was wondering if it was safe to update my bios to the R0112NO version? I read that it was compatible with the SZ 1-4 but just wanted to make sure.

As a side note, I've gotten pretty much everything to work on my laptop except the brightness function keys running in speed mode. They work fine in stamina mode. Anybody know how I can get those keys to work in speed mode too? I'm running 32 bit Windows 7 sp1. Thanks in advance!

 

Hi! I'll make a new post tomorrow of how to get everything working with your model. I've got an exam tomorrow so don't have time right now. But to answer your question, the R0112NO works very well with your model. I've got it running on my SZ1 right now.

The only problem I have left with win 7 and SZ1-4 models is what happens after you close the lid in speed mode. There are two options, either you disable closing the lid (both for speed and stamina mode). This works for ppl like me who wants "do nothing" on close lid, if you want the computer to go to sleep you'll have to settle with options two which is that in speed mode, Fn keys (volume & brightness) and S1 and S2 work fine until lid has been closed. After that brightness function is lost. This only occurs in speed mode though. Only way to get it back is by rebooting.

Tomorrow I'll post the step by step.

 

Thanks! I flashed my bios to the 0112 version with no problems. Amazingly, I did it in windows 7 without a hitch. I was going to reinstall my system again and try using the sz 4 drivers.

For the graphics card, I downloaded the latest driver for the 7400 go from nvidia and modified the inf file myself so that it would install on my laptop. So I was wondering if that was why my brightness keys don't work in speed mode? But it works great with my system.

 

Another side note, do you know what's a good bluetooth utility to use? The default windows 7 bluetooth driver/utility doesn't work really well with my phone.

 

Hmmm just noticed that battery care function doesn't seem to function. I can open it up, but I'm unable to enable it.. everythin is just greyed out so I can't click anything except ok/cancel. Is this not supposed to work with SZ1 model? Having hard time googling it