VGN-SZ160P and Windows 7

So, has anyone here tried installing Windows 7 onto an SZ160P?

 

Bueller? Bueller?

 

I tried upgrading my Sony VAIO VGN-SZ160P over Thanksgiving from Windows XP Professional to Windows 7 Professional based on the reports of many bloggers that the Sony Vista drivers for the SZ series would work and on the reports from Microsoft's Windows Upgrade Advisor software that my SZ160 is buff enough to handle the upgrade.

I was even reassured that Win7 included a "Windows XP Mode" leading me to think that I would be able to run my legacy software in that mode if it did not operate correctly under Win 7. My first moment of concern, though, came when I found out that, although even my "ancient" SZ 100 series model is "wired" to support the virtualization technology that is required for Windows XP Mode under Windows 7, Sony has never seen fit to do a BIOS upgrade that would allow the power of the machine's virtualization technology to be harnassed. Basically, this means that I would not be able to utilize Windows XP Mode under Win7 with my SZ160P!

I'm also annoyed that Sony wouldn't provide Win 7 drivers and they came out last month with a strong statement against even trying the upgrade. But in recent weeks they actually provided step-by-step instructions on their website on how to do a clean install for those models where they are supporting that type of upgrade. So, armed with that and with the November 2009 issue of PC World, which also has a step-by-step guide to upgrading Win XP to Win7, I thought that I would give it a shot.

I did a lot of prep work in the days prior to the actual install: all of the requisite file organization, uninstalling little used software, disk cleanup, defragmentation, drive imaging and an extra backup just to provide a margin of safety. The actual clean install of the Windows 7 upgrade itself was uneventful, taking less than an hour. Connection with the Internet was automatic. I then installed, in the order that Sony had suggested, the Vista drivers I had downloaded from their website. Before installing the Vista drivers I did not have any working function keys, touchpad "scrolling", camera or "Speed" graphics mode. Disappointingly, after installing the Vista drivers, none of these items became functional.

I did like the appearance of Vista on my Sony SZ-160 and many of the features of the new operating system for the few hours that I had Windows 7installed. Win 7 seemed a bit faster than my Win XP OS although, admittedly, it did not contain any of the Sony "bloatware" or other software that tends to slow down computers as they age.

During my brief enounter with Win 7, I was able to successfully "discover" and install two networked printers in my office. However, I'm not willing to give up my function keys, camera and the ability to watch Internet TV on my HDTV with my Sony in "speed" graphics mode that I am able to achieve through a DVI connection on the SZ docking port to an HDMI port on the HDTV. So I decided to do a restore of Windows XP from the original "rescue" disks I had made in March 2006 shortly after I purchased my VGN-SZ 160P. The reinstallation of XP and all of my necessary software has been a very tedious process for me since I have had to do clean installs and updates for both the Win XP Sony drivers and for all of my software.

Although I like tinkering with computers, I guess that I'm not technically savvy enough to have made everything work, although I see that other folks with SZ models in the upper hundreds have been able to figure it out. If someone comes up with the right drivers and a better plan of how to make the upgrade to Win 7 work on the Sony SZ series, I might give it another go.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has attempted an upgrade of a VAIO VGN-SZ160P/C or similar model from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Bill

 

So far Bill I have been able to get the ALPS Touch Pad, the Memory Stick slot and the Express slot working but have had no success with the S1, S2, or ANY of the function options to work. The graphics switcher software is really no big deal since switching simply pops up the reboot message and then you reboot to run that card. I found that simply switching and rebooting runs the Nvidia card. One thing I noticed is a very long boot time in 7 on my SZ160. Did you experience this as well?

 

Hey mute1,

It's good to hear that at least some other brave soul has attempted the Windows 7 upgrade for the SZ160! It sounds like you have had a lot more success than I had over Thanksgiving weekend. It's helpful to hear that you got the Nvidia "speed" mode working because a defective speed mode strongly influenced my decision to reinstall Windows XP.

Did you use the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ160P Vista drivers that you downloaded from the Sony website? Did you use any of the original SZ160 drivers for Windows XP? Did you follow a certain order in your installation of the drivers?

Actually, in contrast to your experience, I found that boot time during the few hours I had Windows 7 running seemed to be quicker than under Windows XP. But my explanation for this is that, with the clean installation of Windows 7, I had removed a lot of the Sony "bloatware" along with other programs I never use. In fact, before I even started the Windows 7 installation, I spent many hours removing infrequently used programs and using the Fix-It utility program to clean up the registry and files and defragment the hard disk. So it seems that my SZ160P was booting more quickly under Win XP even before I started the installation of Win 7. And the SZ continues to boot more quickly following reinstallation of Windows XP.

Bill