VAIO FW Clean Windows 7 64-bit Install Guide

Hello!

Hope this guide will benefit many of you upgrading to Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit RTM. This install was done and tested on a Vaio VGN-FW139E/H.

Hardware

While the VGN-FW line shares many components, many models also differ. So, I will first list the hardware that is on the VGN-FW139E and the install was done on.

Audio: Realtek High Definition
Audio (HDMI): Realtek ATI HDMI Audio
Network: Marvell Yukon 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Wireless: Atheros AR928X
Touchpad: ALPS Pointing Device
SD Memory Card Reader: Ricoh
MS Memory Card Reader: Ricoh
Modem: Conexant CX11270
Video: ATI Mobility Radeon 3400 Series

Drivers

If you have found your way to this thread, chances are you have discovered that Sony has once again told us loyal fans to go screw ourselves by not officially supporting our less than 1 year old notebooks, while many other manufacturers are going as far back as 2-3 years and adding support for Windows 7.

So, if you haven't found Windows 7 drivers under the Sony site for your FW laptop, hope this thread helps.

Many manufacturer's have released official Windows 7 64-bit drivers. Of those that haven't, Windows 7 64-bit drivers were borrowed from other Vaio FW notebooks, which seem to offer 99% functionality.

I have compiled all the drivers in a Zip file (7z to be precise), each driver properly placed in its own folder and labeled. Basically they were downloaded directly from the manufacture's site as official Windows 7 64-bit drivers, or downloaded from Sony's site.

Manufacturer Official Windows 7 64-bit Drivers:
Audio
Audio (HDMI)
Network
Video

Sony Provided Windows 7 64-bit Drivers
Bluetooth
Hard Drive
Memory Reader MS
Memory Reader SD
Modem
Motherboard
Sony Firmware Extension Parser
Sony Shared Library
Sony Notebook Utilities
Touchpad


Drivers Download
Updated: 10/27/2009
Size: 227 MB
Download Here*

*DO NOT download this driver package except from this location for fear that someone might repackage the drivers and include a virus (etc).


Installation Instructions

Once you have downloaded the drivers from the link above, unzip using 7-Zip. You can get it here.

Unless otherwise noted, simply execute the provided EXE file.

The instructions correspond to the correct number next to each folder in the driver package.

1. Install Video driver.
2. Install Audio driver.
   Forced Reboot
3. Install Audio HDMI driver.
   Forced Reboot
4. Under Device Manager, manually update Marvell Yukon driver.
6. Install Modem driver
   Note: Execute Setup64.exe
7. Install Touchpad driver
8. Install Motherboard driver
   Manual Reboot
9. Install Memory Reader SD driver
10. Install Memory Reader MS driver
    Manual Reboot
11. Install Hard Drive driver
    Manual Reboot
12. Install Sony Firmware Extension Parser
    Manual Reboot
13. Install Sony Shared Library
    Manual Reboot
14. Install Sony Notebook Utilities (individually)
    • Install BC
      Note: You can live without installing it, but it doesn't hurt either
      Manual Reboot
    • Install SUS
      Manual Reboot
    • Install VCC
      Manual Reboot
    • Install VES2
      Manual Reboot
    • Installing VPM doesn't do anything, so leave it out. Windows 7 already has profiles for power management.
15. Install Bluetooth
    Manual Reboot

At this point you should have EVERYTHING working perfectly with the exception of the AV MODE button, if your FW notebook has it (mine does). I've tried installing the driver from Vista 64-bit alongside the Notebook Utilities from Windows 7 64-bit, but it doesn't work. Honestly, I COULD CARE LESS, less bloatware to worry about.

Aside from this little minor detail, the FN and OSD work flawlessly for me after reboot, sleep, hibernate, etc with these new updated drivers, so hopefully this will work for you as well.

The updated drivers have a fancier OSD display, finally Sony joined the 21st century

Final Notes

If you have any questions or comments, please leave a post or PM me.

Cheers.

 

thanx,especially for the driver package is great, very helpful.

some questions though:.

what is this atheros driver? in which particular item of the device device manager list do i install it?
alps touch pad driver doesn't seem to be right for my Fw490. could you provide the link for the alps-drivers site?



Does anyone know if
Sony shared library and
Notebook utilities
are really necessary? I mean Do they consume a lot of system sources? if i don't install them do i gain any performance or lose any functionality which cannot be restored with another way?

 

I am install my SR fine too.

Then my laserjet and scanner install fine too, but when I run it, I get app error. So think about this before doing W7 for now.

 

To tell you the truth, all i did was install ATI Catalyst Drivers, the Mobility Modifier, SFEP, SSL, and VES2 in an indiscriminate fashion and everything is working except for the hot spots on the touchpad (which i won't even bother with since i use a tablet). Windows 7 takes care of the rest. I'm fine with my system, and if you want to be thorough, you should probably follow this guide, but don't let any of these clean install threads scare you. Things aren't actually as complicated as they may seem, even if it is windows haha.

 

The procedure should be the same except for 32 bit drivers.

 

Hi
I have a Vaio FW21L. I tried installing the following:
Touchpad driver
Sony Firmware Extension Parser
Sony Shared Library
Sony Notebook Utilities

but the installer stops saying it is not intended for this system. Do you know where I can get those programs for this model?
Thanks

 

Worked great with my VGN-FW180D
with msdn windows 7 rtm 64bit install all I needed was
Touchpad driver
Sony Firmware Extension Parser
Sony Shared Library
Sony Notebook Utilities
from the pack the rest windows 7 already had drivers for.
all the function keys work as well as the special keys about the keyboard
(AV MODE, S1, VOL + -, etc)
Thanks for great guide

Anyone figure out how to get the blueray player to install?

Michael

 

I've been trawling the internet in readyness for upgrading my UK spec Vaio FW11-ZU to Windows 7 64bit RTM.

This guide appears to be a fantastic consolidation of all the guides out there: concise, in one place, with all the drivers ready to download. On top of that, it's been tested, and verified working. You can't ask for much more than that.

That's just fantastic, and so so SO helpful. Mr spielnicht, I thank you.

I'm currently running Win 7 RC version 7100, and it all works ok, but I've also been getting frustrated with the goofy (as you put it!) brightness controls, which do exactly the same thing on my system. I'm so relieved to hear it all works properly in the RTM version.

Once again, thanks.

 

I've just checked that link, and it doesnt work! D'OH!

 

You probably don't need the Notebook Utilities but I can attest that you do need Sony Shared Library (SSL) installed. I followed a post on the FW clean install guide that said you don't need to install the SSL but when I skipped it, my functions keys didn't work as well as the shortcut buttons on top of the keypad. After installing the SSL, those keys worked fine. I'm not sure why it worked after installing it but it works.

For everything else, just follow spielnicht original post, it's pretty much correct. However, I want to add that I didn't have to install anything other than the realtek drivers (which you can get from their website), ATI/Catalyst drivers (also from their website), and the Sony drivers he listed. Oh, I have a FW490 and installed Windows 7 Ultimate RTM.

 

Thanks spielnicht. Had to register just to say thanks to your useful post.

I have an FW465J with Win7RTM. Because every FW may need different drivers, it would behoove people to not blindly follow step-by-step; it can save a lot of time.

For me, I just had to install the Video driver (to get CCC) and Audio driver. Everything else RTM recognized and had the most up to date drivers installed already. After updating all of your drivers, just follow steps 11 to 13 and reboot (Firmware Extension Parser, Shared Library, Notebook Utilities - in that order) and it should work fine.

RTM is so much easier to install on the FW than the RC...

 

thanx trojan wr21

 

No problem, in a different post, someone posted that they also had to update their bluetooth drivers so you might want to do that as well:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=355715&page=11

but it is a simple process overall, it's definitely not like the Beta/RC install.

 

Thanks for the guide! But the link is broken, could anyone help with this? Thanks in advance

 

Great guide. The link is broken, but if you download the drivers for the model VGN-FW170J from the Sony eSupport (these are 64 bit vista drivers), then follow the guide, everything works (I'm guessing these were probably the drivers that were offered in the broken link).

I was suggested these drivers from another post, refer to it for more info - Vaio FW Clean Vista Install Guide.

I have the exact model the original post refers to and everything works great (VGN-FW139e). Thanks again for the guide.

 

Just received my signature edition of Windows 7 Ultimate in the party pack (lucky me!), so this guide will be invaluable. Thanks JPF for providing the compatable model number!

 

I've just updated my UK FW11-ZU with Windows 7 ultimate 64bit RTM, following the above advice and wanted to share my thanks and observations.

As suggested, I only installed the Sony drivers for steps 11 to 13. Everything was working pretty much perfectly! FYI, I downloaded the 64 bit Vista drivers for the FW170J from the Sony support site.

However, I then decided to install the latest Realtek High Definition Audio and Realtek HDMI drivers, and also the Sony FW170J Bluetooth driver, as I encountered an issue with a Sony bluetooth speaker system which didnt work. After the realtek and bluetooth driver, all is working nicely with the speaker system.

My only other issue was that I also had to install the Sony Memory Stick driver (again FE170J), as Device Manager showed a unrecognised base system device.


ALL keys are working - S1, AV mode, brightness FN keys and volume keys!

I have to tell you, updating the RTM was a piece of cake compared to the RC!

Thanks again to everyone who shared information in this thread.

 

I see many people asking for their model's drivers. Please add the following link to your guide so people with other models can find the drivers quickly;

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/select-system.pl?PRODTYPE=24&NAVDISP=pc

All they have to do is type in their model number and download the corresponding drivers.

 

The drive itself works fine. I assume you mean that you would like WinDVD to be installed.

http://anebg.net/2009/09/20/intervideo-windvd-bd-for-vaio/

I used this guy's WinDVD installation file, which was extracted from the recovery partition of a Vaio. I don't know about Sony's updates for WinDVD, but it works like its supposed to, including HDMI out, so I'll probably just leave it alone. If you need to update your key, make sure you right-click and run as administrator. The key update worked after that.

 

Same here on my german FW45V. Just installed the ATI drivers (9.9 mobility modded),SFEP, Shared Library, Notebook utilities and that's it.

Function keys work fine and there are no unknown devices in device manager

 

Just a quick update to my post above, I'm having intermittent issues with the on screen display that come up when the brightness or volume is adjusted.

Sometimes, after the laptop comes out of hibernation or sleep, the on screen display doesnt show. The brightness and volume function still work ok, but the OSD doesnt.

It's no biggie, but I'm a bit OCD so its bugging me. I'll probably have to do a full reinstall once the official Sony Windows 7 drivers come out to determine if it's fixable.

Just out of interest, does anyone know if I can install the latest Sony Windows 7 SFEP, Shared Library, Notebook utilities drivers OVER the top of the current Vista ones that are installed, or do you think a full reinstall of Win 7 is required?

 

The latest version (5.0) of Vaio Event service has problems in my FZ (brightness not adjusting as supposed to). I am using version 4.3 now. You can install the drivers and apps on top of the old ones. But I recommend a clean install of Windows 7.

 

Hey, can anyone email me this archive or give a working link since the link provided doesn't work.

thanks!

 

could you plz reupp the driver package?
Would be very very very nice <3

 

well, this sucks
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/os...3=VGN-FW140E&month=&day=&year=&mdl=VGN-FW140E

They say that FW140E can't run Win7 and i'm running it for a MONTH already.
Looks like the only way to get drivers is to get them here

 

Sorry for the late reply everyone, been away for sometime.

Ok, I will re-upload the drivers this evening, BUT, I may do some testing on newly available drivers now that Windows 7 is officially live.

The bad news that's really ticking me off is that Sony will not provide Win7 drivers for most of the FW models that came with Vista in the past year, including my VGN-FW139E/H. They state the hardware is not compatible. What's not compatible exactly? Most of us have been running Win7 for months now just fine, with the exception of the FN and media buttons. Are you telling me Sony can't provide updated drivers for that? This is no more than Sony wanting to save $$$ on supporting year old models and forcing people into thinking they need to upgrade their laptops to use Win7. This is my 3rd Vaio...and guarantee you it's my last.

Part of the blame falls onto Microsoft as well. Why is it that they don't backward support these drivers, I thought that was the whole idea of Win7? Frustrating!

Anyway, I'm going to test out some Sony official drivers now available for later FW models that support Win7-64bit. I'm looking at VGN-FW520F/H. If anyone has any input to add, please send me a PM before I update the instructions and driver archive.

 

oh is it not possible do get the fn buttons at my nw working?

 

Yes you can get them to work, we just need to to use drivers from other FW models that work with Win7 and 64-bit compatible.

 

OK, so I downloaded the official Windows 7 drivers for the FW-590F, reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows 7.

I installed the ATI drivers, bluetooth, etc, and then the official Win 7 Vaio drivers for the FW590F. They all worked except the Sony Notebook Utilities, which stated it was the wrong model.

So I had to install the Vista 64 bit drivers for the FW170J again.


Everything is still working good, the FN controls for brightness works properly.

However, I'm still having the issue where the OSD for brightness and volume doesnt come up on screen after coming out of hibernation.

I think, and I'll have to test more to make sure, that if the OSD stops working, and then I switch accounts and log into another account, the OSD starts to work again.

It's annoying that the OSD is intermittent, but at least the brightness control actually does work 100% of the time.

Having read the recent posts about no official drivers for the earlier FWs, I'm as aggravated about this as you lot are. It's almost enough for me to dump Sony for my next laptop purchase. Almost.

 

why don't we send use social media to try to show our thoughts about this stuff? I just emailed sony support pointing to this thread here. Also, i'll twitter it and maybe sony will change their mind on this (or at least we will save some people from buying stuff from them ).

 

Urgh! Well that's done it! After my posts saying that the FN F5+F6 brightness controls always worked, I've just discovered that if I close the laptop lid, and then reopen it, the brightness function stops working. I have my laptop set to do nothing when I close the lid. So if it's DOING NOTHING, why the hell is this happening? I'm so annoyed! grrr. I'll say it again... GRRRR.

Does anyone know if there's something that can be checked in device manager, to do with the power settings for closing the lid. There must be something being activated/changed when the lid closes, despite it being set to do nothing.

 

Confirmed. I got same problem after close lid and sleep.

 

driver repost please? megaupload deleted it

 

Can anyone repost the drivers? Also, will all the hard buttons / FN buttons work with this method? I'm currently running a pirated copy for RTM Ultimate, but I have my Professional Retail disk right here waiting to be installed... I don't want to do it if it will make the laptop work worse than the pirated copy, though!

 

I installed driver from FW590 and the problem is fixed.

 

Updated drivers coming up by noon today (EST)...promise.

I've been testing them all weekend to make sure everything works perfectly.

 

Hi spielnicht, it would be useful if you could test the OSD brightness display still works after you close your lid. That is the only thing that's not working correctly on my FW11!

Thanks for all the time and effort you've put in, you have helped me and many others and I for one am very grateful.

 

Instructions on page 1 have been updated.

 

Glad to help.

Were you referring to the drivers I originally published? Or did you try drivers from Sony that were udpated for Windows 7?

 

hey, thanks a lot Spielnicht!
The archive thou seems to be corrupted - it wouldn't open with 7Zip. and the archive is actually 32.6 mb

 

Sorry about that, archive has been re-uploaded (and verified this time). Host Gator is generally very reliable, that was strange.

 

thanks! this post is very helpful

 

Spielnicht... thanks a lot for this super-helpful post... I am sure there are plenty of people out there with an FW dying to clean install win7, and your post takes the stress and complexity out of what is a real headache of a process!!

I installed Win7 x32 Release Candidate over the top of my Vista x32 on my FW21Z when the Beta was released, and found everything worked pretty much perfect anyway.

My only problem came when using my FW as a desktop and hooking up to a 23" screen with HDMI Input... I found that I needed to adjust the scaling options, which you can only do in ATI Catalyst Control Centre (CCC)...CCC didn't work AT ALL after I installed Win 7 RC.

Further more, when I did a clean install of Win7 x64 RETAIL, I couldn't install the ATI 9.10 Catalyst suite at all... it would only install the installation manager and nothing else.

After some hunting around, I discovered that Sony/notebook manufacturers do something or other that basically stop you installing the drivers via ATI, and you have to have their certified version or something (please: don't take that as gospel, all I know is, if you download Catalyst from ATI, it doesn't install).

I had to run the CCC Suite .exe (i.e. the package that contains the drivers AND the Control Centre) and mod the drivers as soon as they were extracted using mobility modder and then continue the Catalyst Software installation.

NOTE: It seems you have to install the Control Centre straight after modding the drivers, you can't do it after for some reason... So don't download and install the Driver package and Control Centre programs seperately and expect to be able to install the latter after modding the drivers...

The only other thing that didn't work off the bat with Win7 I found was the Mem Stick Pro Duo reader... but I installed the drivers that are included in your linked package for that, and they work a treat

In parallel to all this 'system' stuff, I also came across the problem that I had lost all the programs/software that come with the Vaio... most importantly Acrobat Standard 8.0, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Premiere and Nero... I contacted Sony and they told me that the software on my FW21Z is explicitly licenced to the OEM Vista x32 operating system that came with the machine, so it was "tough luck", I would have to buy all the software I wanted from scratch.

Yeah right Sony!!...

I found this thread super-helpful to overcome this problem... basically use mod2wim to mount your recovery partition (you'd better hope you haven't formatted it!), then migrate your .wim files to your C:/ drive, then use something like 7zip to extract them...

I basically ran all the .exe's in the extracted directories until I had found and installed everything I wanted... but equally you can look here and there is a list of what each of the dir's contains.

I now have a PERFECT Sony Vaio with no bloatware, clean install, everything works (fingers crossed!); all thanks to people like you Spielnicht that go the extra mile to help out and share their knowledge with the rest of the internet community... thanks a lot; it's really appreciated!!!

 

@privateryan: I installed CCC downloaded from ATI page and it works without a problem. Make sure you download Beta Win 7 drivers in Mobility Radeon section.

I just wanted to share my experience.

I did a clean install of Win 7 Ultimate last week, I follow the original tutorial in here but It didn't work completly. My S1, AV Mode and Fn keys didn't work and it was very frustating, I tried installing the drivers again without luck, so I gave up But a miracle happen, after trying all possible combinations, today I push my S1 button and a message appeared for configuring it! So I entered Vaio Control Center and realized tehre was an option for configuring my S1 button which wasn't there before.

My guess Windows Update downloaded some driver for my model and now even the Fn and AV Mode keys works too. I'll try a new clean install with Win 7 Home Premium this weekend and will test the correct order of installation again and see if I can make everything works at first shot.

Thanks to spielnicht for this very helpful guide

 

Hi all,

I'm trying to install Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit on my FW140E, but it seems the cpu (upgraded it to a C2D T9600) is not managing it.

Previously i tried to install the Vista 64Bit version wich gave me 100% cpu load all the time.

Any idea what i'm doing wrong, or what i should do differently?

 

Hey guys i just installed windows 7.
-was wondering how u install the Yokon driver..is that for the Ethernet?
-also What driver specifically is for the FN and volume keys.
thnx in advance

 

What model FW is your notebook? Double check that you do indeed have the Marvell Yukon 88E8055 in your notebook and if so, easy, just go to the Device Manager, expand Network adapters, then right click on Marvell Yukon... and update driver, then browse to the driver provided. That's it.

The combination of the Firmware Parser, shared library, and Notebook Control and Utilities get those going.

 

ok thanks i got that down...now...but what drivers specifically is for the FN n volume keys?

 

Hello, I have recently installed 64-bit Windows 7 Professional on my Vaio VGN-FW31M, it went very smoothly and works fine.

I have gotten all the keys and buttons working except the AV Mode one, I have installed the Vaio Launcher software and I can view the settings page for it via Vaio Control Centre, but when I push the button nothing happens.

I've installed:

1. Sony Shared Library
2. Setting Utility Series
3. Vaio Event Service
4. Vaio Control Centre
5. Vaio Power Management

and the Vaio Launcher software.

What else do I need to install?

 

WHOO! the issue of the OSD for brightness and volume not working after the laptop lid is closed is FIXED!

I downloaded the new Sony Notebook Utilities package from spielnicht, and then ran the SUS, VCC, and VES2 components of it. What happened was that it detected the current version and asked if I wanted to uninstall, which I did. Then reran the component to reinstall the new version.

I now get the new style OSD, which appears to be working 100% of the time.

I was just about to format the HDD and reinstall Win 7, but though I give reinstalling the new drivers a try, and I'm sooo glad I did.

Once again, thanks spielnicht for all your time and effort in helping so many people out.