VGN-FZ180E/B Question

I just got this laptop VGN-FZ180E/B and as I seen in another post here about taking out the bloated software to speed it up i'm not crazy about doing that way!

but I have an option to buy the recovery software for $38.00 shipped or I was thinking about just buying another OS Vista ,OEM or retail

if I bought the vista OS will I be able to load all the drivers for this without a problem

what would you do?

 

I would follow the link in my signature line below, for detailed info on a clean install of Vista on an FZ series machine.

The recovery software has all the bloatware on it too.

Gary

 

Just my personal experience:
I got the exact same laptop and btw it rocks I deided to remove
bloatware and I did it whit the guides that you find here. But don't
go for that. Nothing compares to a clean nice windows install. You
will never want and never use a recovery after that. Just download
a windows vista (as you have your windows key coming with your
laptop you have done nothing bad or illegal. Install it and download
all drivers for it from sony website. After that if you need recovery
simply make a ghost image of the new installed windows and keep
it on a dvd or on your hard disk for later recovery.

 

Justbrake,

Not all of the drivers, well actually not all of the auxillary apps, are on the Sony website. That's why I suggested looking over my clean install guide. The first thing you NEED to do is make the recovery DVD set as Sony suggests. It is your "just in case" plan. And it has the auxillary apps I mentioned above on it.

Gary

 

I'm not sure how to download the vista as you mentioned i'm on this page

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNFZ180EB&LOC=3


I did make the recovery disks but I would like if I could get the vista stand alone OS

has anyone tried ubunta on their vaio ?

 

There is no Vista download there, only the drivers and some of the apps. And what rezpower was suggesting for you to do is both ilegal and dangerous. You need to buy or borrow a copy of Vista and use it to install utilizing the key you have on the bottom of your machine. If I remember correctly that key will only work on OEM versions of Vista.

Gary

 

I only have a full vista ultima and full xp pro and ubunta , I might have to get an OEM then ,

 

Justbrake,

If you have the full Vista Ultimate and you have a key for that just use it. If you have already used the key, try using the disk anyway BUT use the key on the bottom of your machine and make sure you try to install the same version of Vista as the one already on the machine. For example if it is Vista Home, then try installing Vista home. (BTW every Vista DVD has all versions on it.)

Before you try this though, make sure you have your data backed up and you have created the Sony recovery DVD's.

Gary

 

One question in your clean install instructions it says make the recovery dvd's ,I did that but is it possible that my recovery is corrupted ??

 

I have no idea, how could I? Why do you ask? Is there something that makes you think it is bad? I don't understand your question.

Gary

 

It shouldnt be corrupted if you made it through Vaio recovery. Did you do something that makes you think a worm or virus is in your comp?

 

ebay

I bought this notebook off ebay, this is my second day with it and besides it being bloaded with software it was dead slow, so i upgraded the memory to 4gigs and used some software to to remove some junk programs then manually picked some out and still it's slowere then the computer i've ever had and that was the apple 11c , I have another 200gig 7200 rpm harddrive i'm probably going to change out on this also , I can't believe this is all due to software this thing takes 5 min. to boot up fully

 

That is MUCH too slow. My FZ190 boots to a login screen in 40-45 seconds. And to a usable desktop in another minute to a minute and a half.

If I were you I would backup the hard drive with something like Acronis True Image (free version) and then start using my guide and do a clean install.

Gary

 

I did a complete reinstall with the 2 dvd's I made, it was slow as hell but I found out what was the problem was, I removed the harddrive and reinstalled it and that must have been it because it sped up a lot better , but now all that garbage software isback in it, so next week i'll put in my 7200 rpm drive and do a new reinstall with the thread here,