VPC-SZ2: Vista or 7?

So a friend of mine brought back one of my relics that I'd given him due to a HDD failure.

So far I've replaced the HDD. He was clearly hoping I'd give him something more recent in return - but no, not doing that anymore for a while.

The SZ2 has a Yonah at 2.16Ghz, 2Gb of RAM.

The Sony site has support for Vista drivers, but nothing for W7, which is to be expected. If I wanted the least hassle and everythign working, which is the better OS to stick on the machine?

 

Most Vista's drivers work with Windows 7. I think Win7 is better and faster. You can give it a try.

 

Between Vista and 7, the answer is very clear: always go for 7. It is like win 98 to 95.

 

Vista 32bit drivers work fine in Win7 32bit, it's pretty much a straighforard install.

It's 64bit that becomes more tricky.

 

OK - Vaio Control Centre crashes with a Visual C++ Runtime Library failure.
TPM drivers seem to be disliked by Windows.
So none of the function keys work, GPU switching doesn't work.

 

You need Infineon TPM 3.6 for Windows 7
I have tried installing Windows 7 x64 in SZ6 and it worked very well (function keys + GPU switching). Although SZ6 is different, I don't see why SZ2 doesn't work with Windows 7.

 

So have I (SZ7 to Win7).

Perhaps some drivers are too old on the SZ2? The machine is kinda useless without a working VAIO control panel. Anyone know? Thanks

 

Which version of Control Center do you install? It must be older than the one in SZ7

 

Sony doesn't make 500 versions of Control Center and Notebook Utilities.
So all you need is one that works.

On my model, the Control Center that came with it worked on 64bit, so long as I installed using admin mode and Vista compatibility for the RC Win7, however retail this problem had been fixed. I tried newer versions, none offered full compatibility, I lost functions.

On the other, Notebook utilities presented a challenge. Battery care is part of notebook utilities and would crash every time I tried to run it (it didn't like 64bit). I tried newer versions and older versions of Notebook utilities and found older versions lacked features (like battery care), if they ran on Win7 64 at all and newer versions lacked features. What did work however was the original Notebook Utilities with one version older Battery Care. That was the ONLY combination that worked together on my model.

Experiment, and expect to do some reloading. I have so many hours invested in this your head would spin. Either try the 750 versions, or check the thread in my signature, others with similar models may have your solution. We have the SZ line pretty well figured out at this point for 32 and 64.

Also, check the threads in here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/169759-sony-sz-owners-lounge.html

 

Thanks for the answer. If it was my machine I'd probably make the effort...

But since it isn't anymore, I'm going to say:

"**** that"

And reload XP