Vaio Z21 + Windows 8 RTM - Whats working

So I installed Windows 8 RTM onto my Z2 and most of the things seem to be working.

I got the PMD working as well as brightness control.

To get the PMD working, all you have to do is install the Jun. 12 driver using leshcat's installer. This will install dse first, then you can do the express install, which will install catalyst control center. Next, restart your computer. Open device manager and right click on the 6700m and update the driver, going into the folder where the drivers are extracted, then packages/drivers/display/w86a_inf and select the driver. It should install and both graphics cards should be working.

For the brightness control with the Fn keys, you have to extract the vaio event service package from the sony utilities .exe and install the package from the VES2 folder separately in compatibility mode for Windows 7. Don't run the normal .exe, just install the things separately and don't install the battery checker utility.

The other drivers all seemed to install fine in compatibility mode.

The Sony trackpad driver is a bit useless though. Get a newer driver here: Synaptics drivers
The W8 synaptics driver allows for some very useful gestures on the trackpad that make navigation the interface a lot easier like swiping from the left side to bring up the charms bar and from the right to switch apps. It also fixes the pinch to zoom.

All in all, Windows 8 seems to be pretty useable now and the necessary drivers seem to be working. I think its good enough to be a daily driver, but I haven't done much further testing though.

 

Good to know we won't need to wait for Sony for a special driver, thanks cherry

 

Does is work alright without activation though?

 

There's a watermark and you can't "personalize" windows e.g. change the look of the metro interface after you choose in the beginning. But otherwise, it doesn't expire or anything/there's no trial period.

 

What about the Battery Care function in Vaio Control Center?

 

Battery care works too.

 

Hmm interesting. I'm using VAIO SA here and I tried installing notebook utilities, but my Vaio Control Center only shows "System Information". I'll go try more stuff out

 

So we can say that there is a big chance for good windows 8 usage after release?

 

Have been running Windows 8 for a week now on my Z21 without any issues. All functions keys work and using the Leshcat graphics drivers works perfect.

 

Any chance you guys who got everything working can do an ordered list of what you installed and with what compat settings?

eg :

1) Sony Firmware Parser (Windows 7 Compat, As Administrator)
2) etc....

I can't seem to get brightness keys working, and catalyst control center wont start

 

Yes, it would be wonderful to have a fresh install tutorial for W8, especially since the MSDN distributives are available now. I'm itching to try it on the SVZ, but possible driver issues are not very inviting.

 

I did a fresh install of 8 and installed the Lescat drivers. For some reason, IE desktop keep crashing. Any thoughts?

 

Which version of the Leshcat drivers did you install?

I'm using these Catalyst 12.x Jun12 UnifL (Rel/UP1) for Hybrid Graphics

I've had a couple of browser crashes - it seems to mainly be around the flash plugin

 

I'm using the most recent ones on the thread. Also, I just installed Vaio Control Center and it does not have any selectable options. However, I do get the dock/undock message now and when I tell it to use the internal display, everything in the Metro App area is blacked out. Weird...

I will try this set and check back with you. Are there any Sony specific drivers that should be installed first to make the PMD and Catalyst CC work?

UPDATE:

I used the driver liked above and they worked fine. Thank you for the link!

The only issue I am having now is with Vaio Control Center and the Hot Keys. VCC keeps forcing the dreaded battery error telling me my battery is not compatible. The hot keys are not working so I can not change the volume or adjust the brightness.

 

Anyone got brightness keys or sony control center etc working? I've had zero luck so far

 

You need to extract Sony Notebook Utilities SOAOTH-55900000-0042 and then install VES2 using Windows 7 compatability mode. All function keys will then work.

You can do the same for the other packages inside the EXE after you have extracted it. Installing using the EXE itself will not work properly.

 

Yep this is how I did it. And don't install the vaio battery checker. I used uniextract to extract the packages.

 

You guys are heroes! All working now, thanks for the help!

 

I used the Control Centre app for the latest SVZ1311 ... extracted it from the Hotkey Utility exe:
Sony : SVZ1311C5E updates | Download updates for SVZ1311C5E - installed in win 7 compatibility mode
it seems to include the event service, so I didn't need to install that separately.
I also installed the firmware parser driver from here: Sony : SVZ1311C5E updates | Download updates for SVZ1311C5E
The latest authentec true suite: Sony : SVZ1311C5E updates | Download updates for SVZ1311C5E
I tried installing the sony shared library and location service too, the install appeared to complete but i couldn't see if they actually installed anything or not.
According to the sony website, this model will be supported under windows 8, so hopefully the updated win 8 drivers will also work for some of the z21 components.
I also installed the win8 realtek audio driver from the realtek website, and the latest Intel raid (11.x) and wifi (15.2) drivers from the Intel website. There's also a win 8 driver for the fingerprint reader on the authentec website: AuthenTec Customer Support > Downloads > Windows > Drivers

 

Only two things left for me.

How do I get the fastboot option back in the Control Center?

Overclocking is not working with the driver. I installed the driver, MSI Afterburner, and tried to activate the OverDrive Enabler without luck. (I don't receive the system reboot prompt) Saphire Trixx at first glance appears that it will work correctly, but once applying settings it make the performance terrible.

 

Easiest way I found was to flash the updated/hacked BIOS and enable it from there instead.

 

Use Afterburner v. 2.2.1, then enable Overdrive. Once you've made sure it's working, you can then install 2.2.3.

 

Don't your Win 8 RTM versions stop working after 7 days without activation?

 

That did the trick! Hopefully we will get more drivers shortly.

 

MS now has a 90 trial you can download.

 

Have got legit keys via MSDN

 

How about battery life?.... mine has decreased with W8 :/

 

Haven't done any scientific testing, but it seems slightly less with W8 compared to W7. More than likely related to unoptimised drivers.

 

Man. I am getting so many errors with ie and chrome. :/

 

I've found most the errors to be related to Flash and Video acceleration. Once Leshcat has the 12.8 drivers out which are native Windows 8 compatible, I'm hoping a lot of the issues will be resolved.

 

Does anyone know when we can expect official Windows 8 drivers or at least some beta releases from Sony? It looks like everything works under Windows 8 RTM, but if someone could chime in with a final confirmation I would appreciate it. I tried upgrading from my Windows 7 install using my TechNet ISO and it all turned out horribly wrong after the display drivers got fubar'd.

Edit: I did a complete recovery of my Windows 7 installation, installed all the Windows/Vaio updates and then proceeded to install Windows 8. The PMD has an issue on the last restart when Windows 8 is configuring devices so I ended up re-doing the upgrade install with another external DVD drive I had and it worked without a hitch. I had to re-install my Sierra LTE card drivers and the memory card drivers in compatibility mode but so far so good. Intel has released HD 3000 drivers for Windows 8 x64 so I installed those and completely removed the ATI drivers using Driver Fusion since the ATI uninstaller fails. I don't use the PMD at the moment, so I figure I can wait until Sony releases proper drivers.

Does anyone else have an issue with large Firefox tabs due to the fact that Windows 8 insists that the Z2 has a touch device somewhere? If I disable and restart, the tabs are normal. As soon as the touch keyboard service starts up the tabs become huge again.

 

It seems they are working on it for the Oct 26 release. There's a $15 upgrade plan available, and since Microsoft and Sony have a partnership (as far as PCs are concerned), it's safe to assume Sony will want the transition to a new OS to go as smoothly as possible.

You can check this page for more.

 

Can anybody tell me how to extract an EXE file?
It seems to work with 7Zip, but I don't get an VES2 folder.

Thanks!
Thomas

 

Did anyone an direct upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8? I´m not sure about trying this..

 

I used UniExtract 1.61.

 

I installed the Leshcat drivers 12.8 (the newest with support for win 8) and I cannot connect my external TFT with the PMD.

In the Catalyst control center i can only enable the Vaio screen
Someone have a fix?

 

"Did anyone an direct upgrade from windows 7 to windows 8? I´m not sure about trying this.. "

Didn't work for me. Hung about half-way through the process. OTOH, it's very, very good about rolling back to Windows 7. So from my experience, I'd say go for it.

(I did a clean install saving my working files.)

 

Okay update:

With the latest lescat driver you have to install the INTEL 8.XXX NOT THE 9.XXX ones! They crash!
With the Intel 8.XXX I got my external TFT connected to the PMD to work. But even when the Vaio is connected to the PMD the Intel HD seems to be active. Catalyst Control Center is not running and when started manually it crashs

 

I have to say, that I had the best experience with upgrading from installed Win7 with all drivers to Win8.
I started with my productive system (Win7Pro) and upgraded to Win8Pro, but soon I ran into some problems, Metro Apps didn't open anymore.
So I formatted everything and installed a fresh Win8, but the whole driver things didn't work really good. So I decided to do a recovery.
After that upgraded from a fresh recovery to Win8Pro, installed leshcat's 12.8 with the Intel 9.XXX drivers, the new synaptics ant the new fingerprint driver.
That gives me a fully working Win8Pro experience with every function of the laptop working flawlessly and no hassle with installing the right drivers.
For the leshcat driver, it is inportant to follow every step in the cleaning procedure! If you do else, you end up in errors and not functional displays and stuff.
And don't install the new Intel driver via Windows Update, breaks everything.

Edit: I own a Z21M9E

 

My VPCSA run great with Windows 8, but the fn Keys and switchable graphics don't works...

 

Anyone know what the new BIOS for W8 affects?

Sony eSupport - SVZ13114GXX - Drivers & Software


(for the SVZ)

 

OK I finally got a satisfactory Win8 setup for me Z21. I don't use a PMD so I didn't have that difficulty.

I initially started out by installing the Win7 utilities from Sony Support and everything worked (Brightness, VAIO Care, Control Centre, Fast Bootup etc). However, the trackpad driver was absolutely awful; gestures and tracking seemed to overlap constantly and would cause immense frustration. I ended up reverting to older non-gesture drivers. The speed of the cursor was also quite slow.

Now that the official drivers are out, though, things have improved considerably.

(1) Sony now provide a Bluetooth driver for the Z21 for Windows 8 - when installed, this lets you turn on / off Bluetooth from the PC Settings dialogue.
(2) The new VAIO Control Centre looks optimised for touch, but it seems to have all the same settings (brightness control, keyboard backlighting settings, Fast Boot settings etc)
(3) The new VAIO Power Management just works - don't see any differences.
(4) The new VAIO Smart Network seems to install fine, but doesn't have a taskbar app anymore. There is an app link, but it does nothing. I'm pretty sure I have something broken here and will need to look into it.
(5) The new authentic driver for the fingerprint reader works fine and replaces a beta driver I got from the authentic website a while back
(6) I found no need to install any Wifi drivers
(7) I downloaded the latest Intel 4000 display driver from Intel, and this may have allowed the brightness controls to start working with the new drivers.
(8) Most importantly, Sony neglected to provide a new and USEFUL touchpad driver with proper support for the type of trackpad on the Z21 / Z22. So I had to grab the touchpad driver from one of the new SVT Windows 8 machines - you can download the driver from here: Sony eSupport - SVT131290X - Drivers & Software It has important and relevant settings for starting zone etc which is needed for this touchpad to make sure that gestures and tracking don't get mixed up. They work perfectly for me.

As I said, it's not perfect yet and I'll know more when I finally do a proper clean install on my machine in a few weeks. But I get the feeling that for the Fn keys to work properly I'll still need to use some of the old Win7 utilities - firmware parser, etc. I don't think Sony have covered everything with their official Win8 utilities for the Z21 (the touchpad being a perfect example of this).

I really like Win8 - I've been messing with it for the last few weeks (enterprise eval copy) as a dual boot on my Z21. Initially I felt I was missing out by not having a touchscreen, but once I got the hang of the gestures on the touchpad it all started coming together. Now that I have a proper touchpad driver it's even more natural. Whenever I boot back into Win7 for my usual stuff (Lightroom, Expressions Web etc) I feel like I'm missing something. So I think I'll be happy using Win8 in future. The enhancements to the desktop alone are worth the upgrade.

 

The OP has a link to even more updated touchpad drivers in case you're interested, they currently have up to version 16.2.16.2 as opposed to 16.2.10.5 that you got from Sony.

 

So you´ve not encountered any PMD Problems with this method?

 

Yes but you see it's not just about which driver is the newest! I tried OP's, and those are generic ones without customisations for starting zone etc for the touchpad on the Z21. The Lenovo ones refused to install. However the Sony ones are for a laptop with a similar touchpad (that is, where the physcial left and right click buttons are part of the trackpad surface itself), so they are genuinely optimised for the Z21. I'm keeping away from the generic drivers.

 

So whats new to say in this thread with Windows 8 on your Z21 machines? If i´m right sony will not provide us an official windows 8 PMD driver, this is bad

 

So what order of driver installation did you use, in order to get a satisfactory Win8 setup with your Z21?
Would be really great to see some kind of windows 8 installation guide.for Z21.
Thanks a lot!

 

I´ve installed Windows 8 over my current Windows 7 installation with the sony installation steps. But my problem is the smart connect software isn´t working, so i´m not able to active bluetooth or 3G and can´t install software or drivers. This is a main disadvantage for me, i think i´m going back to windows 7

 

Could you post your experience you made sofar in this thread, special designed for such issues?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...4552-vaio-z2-owners-windows-8-experience.html

Thanks

 

Interesting... I followed the same steps, with exception of not doing the factory recovery. Instead, I just ran the Windows 8 upgrade and it works fine. Installed all the drivers listed on the Sony site, but one I had to remove (the older version of Wireless LAN driver) since it caused my cpu to run 100% constantly. Every functions works great. Ah, one item initially I ran the upgrade using the Windows 8 DVD via the Power Dock, but it would freeze at "Getting Devices Ready 47%". I figured maybe the graphics driver of the Power Dock was the problem so I used a different portable DVD player to upgrade and it worked fine. After the install I reconnected the Power Dock and it works great.

Still getting used to Windows 8, but liking how all functions are working great on my Z2.