The Quickguide on installing XP on Sony Vaio TZ

alambie: uninstall all of the three monitors, and (dont reboot yet) ADD MANUALLY, any plug&play monitor would do. After that, re-start, it should be fine. That is, you should be able to keep 1366x768 setting.

Rocho, I have not tried the Official TZ, but I am not sure what sort of error you are having with Power. I firstly recommend you to fully uninstall what you have. That is, remove Every Vaio power management in the Power-setting under Control.

btw, I'm having problem with Microphone too, but I think installing the latest Realtek audio driver should solve the problem.

 

What about battery life with Vista? I read here somewhere, that you get worse batt life, because there was no power management in XP. What about now? Power management is designed for XP on vaio-link. Did anyone tested his batt life now?

 

Thanks for the quick reply. However where do I find the drivers for a Generic Plug and Play Monitor. I am having a tough time finding it. Thanks for all your help to date.

Aaron.

 

Jirka Koffee: I use RMClock to throttle. It seemed to work out well.

Alambie: you need to go manually search for Driver, under the Device Manager,
You can do this by not selecting the first option (where the MS Windows will say it will do automatically for you). Select the second option, where you can manually select component. It should be under the Monitor (not graphics adaptor)

 

Hi everyone, new here. I have managed to downgrade from Vista to xp with all the useful information on here but have come unstuck with the webcam on the sony TZ. I have installed the drivers but still would not work! Please point me in the right direction.

 

Like in the startpost described:

Camera
Go to Device manager , manually select Imaging devices, choose USB Video device, choose Update driver, choose Install from a list or ..., choose Don't search. I will choose.. - Have a disk - R5U870FL.inf

This worked for me. I remember you have to do exactly like desribed, otherwise it did not work.

Ofcourse you have to have the R5U870FL.inf driver. I forgot where i got it.

 

Hey, im trying to downgrade my TZ to Xp from Vista business.

It goes Ok until i install "9_Wireless_switch_Settings_Utility" when i install that, i loose my wireless network.

If i tjeck the hardware settings of the netcard, its disabled, and if i switch it on, and restart, it still not working.

If i try to restore the computer to before i installed the "9" utility, it still not connect ?

Any clues ?


Best Regards

Kim

 

Seems ppl still have problems with Mic not working under XP.
I have to "re-choose" it every time I resintall XP.
But some XP users have the mic working from scractch after XP install.

Here is a way to enable the mic. From this thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143899

Go to >> master volume > Options > Properties > & change mixer device to Realtek HD Audio Input. Check the "Front MIC" increase the volume.
Test recording yourself in XP´s sound-recorder...
Should solve your mic-problems...

 

unfortunately this doesnt solve the problem, atleast not in my TZ170

 

Hi all. I was able to downgrade and install all the proper drivers. However, I am having problems with hibernation, standby and shutdown of the PC. Every time I try one of those three, the computer just stays in the splash window that says it's preparing to hibernate, standby or shutdown.

I suppose this has to be a driver thing also. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

i have the same problem with shut down can anyone find a fix for this its very annoying

 

also can anyone get the mic to work?

 

I'll third the hanging at shutdown... I also had the Felcia Port driver bomb out on me at around 20% saying the directory or file path was off.

 

I was also having the hanging-at-shutdown problem, and going one driver at a time managed to narrow the problem down to the camera driver. If you uninstall the camera driver, shutdown and everything else should work normally. Since I don't currently need the camera, it's not a problem for me, but those needing the camera could try leaving the driver installed and disabling the device when they don't need it (though I haven't tested to see if this works).

DanyBui81: do you mean the built-in microphone, or the microphone jack? Built-in mic works fine for me, but I haven't tested the microphone jack. To use the built-in mic you'll need to switch the input source (double click the speaker icon in the system tray to open up the volume settings, go to Options->Properties, select Recording, and select the appropriate input source.)

Upgreyedd: to install the Felica port driver, you need to have your default language set to Japanese. Go into regional settings in the control panel, then under "Languages" check "Install files for East Asian languages". Hit Apply, then on the Advanced tab change the "Language for non-Unicode programs" to Japanese. Once you've installed the driver you can change it back to English. (This doesn't change the language of Windows, it just changes the default system encoding so that non-Unicode Japanese software works. Only noticeable difference will be that backslashes will be yen signs in some applications until you switch it back to English).

One problem I'm having is with the fan -- it changes speeds more than I'd like. I have a hard-drive-only model, which I realize will run hotter than an SSD model, but is there any way to change the fan scheme so that it's more constant? In power save mode the fan cycles from low to high (?) every 15-30 seconds, which is quite distracting. I'd much rather have it remain constant, even if it has to be on 'high', since constant noise bothers me much less than changing noise. Any suggestions?

 

thanks for the mic fix can we install the latest intel graphic drivers for the 945? or do we have to stick with sonys?

 

question Im having trouble picking up voice from my mic through aim the mic works but the people cant hear me because its too soft I did mic boost through windows and adjust the volume and it is still too soft anyone got any solutions?

 

Phillflow, the remote directory on the FTP sites you mention in the first post have changed:
/PUB/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/TZ1-TZ2/

They've combined TZ1 and TZ2 directories.

 

i just disable the camera and shutdown doesn't hang no more and when i need the camera i just re enable it thanks for the tip polarstream

 

Due to popular demand Sony is offering Microsoft® Windows® XP® compatible drivers and utilities for VAIO® computers that originally shipped with the Windows Vista® operating system. These files are intended to provide basic system functionality under Windows XP operating system.

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?template=EN&news_id=221

 

is the link to the VGA, Audio, Bluetooth, Modem, Wireless LAN, LAN not working for anyone else? says no directory found

 

go to the sony ftp for that

xp downgrade

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/TZ1-TZ2

 

thanks wookie those camera drivers on the sony website solved my shutdown and standby problems no more have to disable and reenable the camera when i shutdown or go into standby

 

hi
i want to remove vista installed on my TZ-17GN and then install XP
but i have a problem, my cd-rom doesnt boot the XP disk, how to boot my XP install disk ?

and another question is how to eject my cd drive, is there any key or button?

my friend told me press F12 after restarting to change first boot and second boot, but it doesnt work !!!

i want select cd-rom to boot xp disk.

 

You need to press the function key that opens the BIOS setup. It could be F2, F3, F4, F11, F12, or any specific ones. Once you found it, there is a section for boot order. Just place the CD-ROM as the boot device before the hard drive.

 

thanks but there isnt like pc bios to select first boot & second boot device.
my friends told me u can not change OS

is that true ?

plz help me

 

press f3 pr f4 i forgot to change boot select or you can do it through vaio control center when you os loads and the just restart and put the cd in

 

is there anyway we can use our tz webcam as a screensaver like the trs???

 

If anyone is having TZ91, there no longer works Bluetooth driver from Vaio link FTP.. If TZ90 has Toshiba bluetooth, TZ91 has Widcomm device.. A driver is avaiable here for download - http://www.broadcom.com/products/bluetooth_update.php just click Download now, and run the app youve downloaded.. Everything else is automatic (web update)

I am having shut-down difficulties because of Camera driver from FTP - any solution?


Can you write what Sony Apps you have? (In vista, I had really nice app for A/V, nothing in XP, I dont know where I can change memory speed, In batt life care I dont have any option when to start or stop charging battery...)

 

dl the drivers off the sony website for the camera that help me out on my shut down problems

 

i don't see any drivers for widcomm on the tz191 because I've been wanting to upgrade from the toshiba stack because widcomm has more options

 

Thanks for advice, camera is working now and turning off too.. But Hibernation is not working It just says - preparing to hibernate (blue screen) then LCD switch off and nothing. I have to turn laptop off by power on button..

 

weird my hibernation works i dunno maybe its another device thats causing the problem???

 

Could someone point me in the right direction with regards to gettingthe webcam working on the vaio TZ11VN. I formatted hardive and got rid of Vista (so slow) and installed win xp pro. Installed all the vaio drivers and the only thing not working is webcam. Anyone any ideas?

 

dl the camera drivers for whatever tz on the sony website extract using universal extractor install and your done

 

done that, but the damn thing still doesn't work.

 

you must have done something wrong becaue it should work try unistalling it and reinstalling it

 

any luck making mic work?n i have vgn tz 170 is almost the same of you, and i still cant make the mic to work.. any idea, solutions. much thanks.

 

Hey there, omg thanks a lot for sharing this with us, just one question, how did you manage to put XP on your TZ90 when it does not have a CD Drive? Did you boot it up from a usb stick? if so is there a special way that you must put the Xp on the usb stick?

Thanks

 

Well, if you dont have optical drive built in, consider buying one..

Yes, TZ can boot from USB drives - flash or optical.. I was thinking about the same and found only preparing USB flash drive for Vista install.. But I think, that it should work just with copying install files onto USB Flash Drive with FAT32 format..

Or look here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/233189-35-install-flash-drive (1st link at google "install xp from flash drive" - nothing special )

 

Problem: Wireless netcard will not start.

I have a VGN-TZ16SN i have buyed in Thailand, where i try to downgrade to XP.

I have downloadet all the files from Sony.com to the similar version of my VGN.

Everything is running smooth, the only thing theres not working is my wireless, i install the Intel drivers, my caard is found, i have the software running, the catch is, it says that my radio is not turned on, and the switch is on.

Anyone with wireless problems who may have a hint ?

Best regards

Kim

 

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but repetition is good anyway. Here are the XP drivers for the TZ150, but I'm sure you can navigate to your own model's page and download the ones for your particular U.S. version:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNTZ150NB
(choose "Install Another Operating System" tab)

 

Hey Ubercool, thats exactly the drivers i have tried to install, and everything except for my wireless is OK, actually, i tried several times to install, and one time the wireless worked, until i install some of the other drivers, there's maybe some conflict.

Any advice in what way to install, is it beteer to install some drivers before others ?

I cant find my model on the US site, since it an Asian model, and if i try to look at the asian, i just see asian types, a problem to read ;o)

But im sure the model i similar to mine, the have the same specifications.

Best regards

Kim

 

Kim, I'm sorry I'm not able to help you, I did not do an XP install on my two TZs, only Vista pre-installed, so never had any worries. But now that I'm going to buy a U.S. model, I need to remove bloatware and was trying to figure out how people were faring with their XP downgrade.

Can anyone post their results with XP now? Is it working completely or not? Maybe I should do a poll?

 

Status on my downgrade project.

I started to install XP clean, then i made a image with Acronis, so i could roll back, if there would be problems.

And yes, i still have problems....

It seems like when i install some of the drivers problably powermanagement, it kills my wireless network.

So i have to choose between no wireless, or no FN+Brightness key to work....

Anyone have luck to install and downgrade a TZ model ?


// Kim

 

For those who have installed XP on your TZ's, a question:

The resolution of the TZ screen is 1366x768, on an 11" screen. This results in microscopically small dot pitch, perhaps too small for those who have older eyes or less than eagle-like vision.

However, in playing with some TZs in stores, it appears that Vista has better font scaling capabilities in its UI than XP does... thus allowing for more readable text on the screen.

I was wondering what experiences you all have had being able to effectively use the TZ screen with XP? I have experienced with one of my Dells the inconsistencies of trying to use larger fonts in Windows XP to improve readability -- not all programs show bigger fonts, when I print from IE it comes out with super big fonts on the printed page, it is annoying switching from screen to external monitor (which doesn't need the larger fonts), etc etc.

Thanks!

 

Well, from what I've seen going through the threads is more problems than solutions. I guess I better pass on trying to get XP to work on my new TZ.

 

i dont know why people are having soo much trouble I thought it was pretty simple and straight forward installing xpp

 

Well, now that I discovered Portable One's Recovery DVD for XP Pro, I think it will be "simple and straightforward."

 

Tell me more about that DVD ???


// Kim

 

It's a two-set DVD that will both install Vista or XP Pro with all the right drivers and without the bloatware. Users report that a few small utilities are missing, so make sure you have burned your Sony recovery DVDs before you proceed to wipe your hard disk with these. Here's a link to the XP Pro version:

http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=P1SZ6XP&Category_Code=

The reason it didn't show up on our radarscreen like two weeks before is because the early reviewers were all too critical about it, it's an outstanding time-saver from what I can tell. I ordered both versions last night!