Vaio AR Clean Install Problems

Hello, I recently purchased an AR270G and did a clean install of Windows XP on it. Everything seems to work perfectly, except for two things:

1. The built-in volume control buttons don't work like they used to. The sound is barely audible when the on-screen display shows 75%, but at 100% it's very loud. Comparing the OSD with the volume slider in the Control Panel shows that the volume doesn't adjust linearly; it decreases quickly from 100% such that anything below 75% on the OSD shows that the volume is zero in the control panel.

2. The computer no longer shuts down properly. The screen will just hang at the "Windows is shutting down..." message. There's no activity from the hard drive either, so I don't think it's waiting for a program to end or anything like that. I suspected a driver problem, but I've reinstalled all the drivers several times without any luck.

Anyone with either a new AR or clean install experience have any ideas on how to fix these problems? Thanks in advance.

 

Installing the original drivers for missing /unknown hardware (seen in Control Panel > System > Device Manager) and installing original power management programs should do the trick.

 

I managed to fix the shutdown problem with a Windows XP patch from Microsoft, but the volume issue is still there.

All the regular drivers are installed and everything works (including the shortcut and media buttons), but I haven't tried installing the power management software. Would that affect the sound at all?

Thanks for the reply.

 

Hi,

Would you be able to post the exact patch (e.g. KB number and link) that you used to fix the Shutdown problem, as I am planning on trying again a clean-reboot on my AR21S in the future, as the software Sony puts on it is crashing and slowing down the computer.

If you've got time, would you also let me know step-by-step how you installed the drivers as the way I originally did it took ages, and produced quite a few problems along the way.

Also, I posted a few fixes I found in another thread, which may help.

Thanks


Seb


P.S. I'll keep looking for information about the remote but I've been searching for months and haven't found anything as of yet.

 

I found this link afterwards, but this Sony article basically summarizes how I did my clean install:

http://esupport.sony.com/EN/osmig/xpclean.html

The article also give you the Microsoft knowledge base article number (KB909667) for the shutdown problem, but there is no patch for you to download from them. I just found it on the Sony website for an older A-series model and it worked fine.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I'm still having problems with my volume control buttons, but it's not that big of a deal and everything else seems to be working fine.