VGN-FE790P --- Windows 7 Clean Install

Hey All, Hopefully someone can help me with this.

So I have a VGN-790P notebook, currently with Windows Vista Business installed; 2GB RAM; 2.16 GHz centrino duo. However, through my school I can download Windows 7 for free!

I really want to upgrade my OS to Windows 7, but Sony is not providing drivers for my model. Is there any way that I can still install it and get the drivers from somewhere? I really dont want to do it if it's going to cause a bunch of functionality issues.

Also, I think that a clean install would be best, just to clear out my computer and possibly make it a bit more responsive. Is it possible to do this if I will be downloading Windows 7 and not have a physical disk for the install?

Any help/info is much appreciated! Thanks!

 

I'm running Windows 7 on a FE690P, using the Vista drivers for the FE890. It seems like Sony decided not to support the FE series on Windows 7, but the Vista drivers work just fine, except for two bugs: the S1 and S2 keys don't work, and if you close the lid and open it again, the brightness control stops working.

I installed these things in this order (all from FE890 support page, though I'm guessing FE790 will also work).
Sony Shared Libraries
Sony Utilities DLL
Vaio Event Service
Firmware Extension Parser (use Device Manager)
Setting Utility Series

And then stuff like Memory Card drivers and Touchpad.

If anyone knows how to get the newer drivers (e.g. FW, FZ series) working on the FE, I'd also like to know.

 

I also have an FE790p. Do you have BIOS issues? I often need to reset the BIOS in order to boot up the computer.

 

Hi,

Tried looking for the FE890 page where you downloaded the drivers however have been unable to find it. Any chance you could point me in the right direction?

Cheers!

 

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGN-FE890&region_id=1

I have the FE890 bios (use Universal Extractor to extract it and bypass the model check), and it works fine, it's dual boot with Xp and 7 right now.

 

So, my clean Windows 7 install was successful. I haven't had any problems, except initially i couldnt get the brightness control Fn buttons to work properly. I installed the old Vista driver for the Video card and now all works fine!

One question: If there are any others out there running windows 7 on an FE790, what drivers and bios have you found to be the best in terms of functionality as well as battery life? Sometimes I feel that my video card is a bit sluggish and that the fan in my computer is always on high. I have a feeling that this stuff might just be due to non-optimal drivers.

Thanks for the help.