Windows 7 Clean Install Instructions for CW Series

Which CW model do you have?

 

Sorry, 27FX

 

thanks for your last reply xgx!

Has anyone successfully done a complete clean install on the core i3/i5's?
My CW's getting delivered today by the looks of it..

 

That's an interesting problem. While it's plugged in turn it on with no battery in it. Then when you get to your desktop, re-insert your battery, and what does it say then? Also, with the keyboard, the Firmware Parser Device Driver is critical here, because Windows has to have a way to communicate with the UEFI for specialized hardware control such as the FN keys.

 

Great! Another CW owner! I'm not sure, ps2cho seems to be having driver difficulties.

 

well... i'm one that has done a clean install and running great, which is why i posted the installation process

Make sure you download the correct drivers. There is a reason I provided the driver version next to the driver type.

It really isn't that hard. Just like XGX2007, I always do a clean install on any laptops I get. I even have Windows 7 running on my Asus n10J and EEE 1000H.

 

btw, Sony doesn't provide a downloadable copy of WinDVD so you'll have to provide your own software. I'm running Cyberlink PowerDVD 9.

My wife's previous VAIO, an old z1, actually included an Application Recovery CD in addition to the System Recovery CD. The Application Recovery CD allowed you to choose which software to include after a clean install was done. Too bad Sony has cheapened out with the newer laptops by not including any CDs.

 

So does this mean if I do a clean install I'll have to purchase PowerDVD or WinDVD in order to watch BD's?

 

i'm afraid so, unless someone is able to view the software from disc 2 of the recovery discs. I didn't even bother checking. If you still have VAIO Care installed on your computer, check to see if you can explore disc 2 of the recovery discs (if you created them).

I was annoyed at all the processes running in the background that I wiped the computer right after I first turned on the computer

I also have my own software (office, powerdvd, photoshop) so i wasn't worry about any of the sony-installed software.

 

You can keep your recovery partition while doing a clean install. Download and install Vaio Care so that you can have access to the applications that come with the CW in the recovery partition.

 

you just answered my question above....cool, i figured as much.

 

Thanks Kage. That's a relief.

 

"IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE VAIO BIOS SCREEN IT WILL ASK YOU TO "Press any key to boot from DVD". Hit any key and wait for the installer to show up. When it comes up click "Install Now" to begin installation. It's going to ask you to agree to the EULA then it'll ask you if you want to upgrade or "Custom". Go ahead and click "Custom". Now you'll see a screen with your HDD partitions on it. **WARNING** DOING THIS WILL ERASE THE SONY OEM BACKUP PARTITIONS**. If you're comfortable with that, click "Drive Options (advanced)" and highlight both partitions and delete them. Then click "New" and make sure it'll be taking up the maximum formatted capacity then click "Apply" and next. Now it will begin installation. You'll see it.."

So when I do the above how do I keep the vaio recovery partition?

 

When you click on Custom, it will show two partitions. The recovery partition and the main partition.

Since it was a 500gb hard drive, I didn't care much for deleting the recovery partition and left it alone. You can always delete it later if you want.

However, I did delete the main partition to create a smaller 50gb "system" partition and the rest went to another partition. This way, it is much easier to use Acronis to just back up the system drive.

So basically, I ended up with:
C: Drive = System partition (50gb)
D: Drive - Data partition (>400gb).

You can change the location of any of the special folders, like "my documents", "my videos", "my pictures", my etc....

All you need to to is to right click on those special folders, click on "Locations", and click on "move".

This way, I can always re-install the system drive without affecting the data drive.

 

I have the Firmware Parser driver installed, but no FN keys functional...

I am cool leaving the Sony power saver and all that junk out if I can just get the FN keys working! Thats my only problem right now.

I am using Windows 7 Professional...I wonder if that has any affect? It shouldn't though..

 

I dont know why your FN keys are not working. I just verified that the FN keys on my wife's CW are working. The only button that is not working is the "ASSIST" since I didn't install VAIO Care.

Did you install all three Sony files I have listed, which is now on the second post of this thread?

I dont see how Win 7 Pro would affect this setting... but who knows?

 

Thanks again! Must say you're being really patient with a noob, my CW's just arrived, I'll get the recovery disks done and try the clean install over the weekend.

 

no problem dude... just send an IM if you need further help.

 

When you installed the drivers, did you make sure to put the "Shared Library" pretty much before all the other Sony apps in the install list?

 

I honestly don't remember. I think I did it towards the end...

 

Personally AFAIK your FN keys should work fine. In theory at least. But the Shared Library is recommended to be installed before any other Sony apps are installed, because apparently the other Sony apps such as the notebook utilities, etc, have dependencies on this software. When others are installed without the Shared Library the dependencies are all out of whack.

But I also have to say as LeslieAnn so nicely put in the SZ clean install thread... No two Windows installations are ever the same. You can install Windows to the same computer 3 different times and each time something will be different. All I can recommend if you can't get the FN keys to work or the battery problem persists.. is to re-install Windows. On these reasonably fast machines it's just a matter of 30 minutes or less, with more of the hassle being driver installation. I actually have a 4GB USB drive dedicated to driver files for all my notebooks...lol This is one reason why I like Mac. Not to bash Windows, but this problem just doesn't happen with Macs..lol. Just post back if you have anymore qts!

 

I agree... I would just re-install everything again.

 

Ah that did it. I guess the Sony Library is what I was missing! Everything is working great!

Benchmarking time

Even though the Sony Utilities is installed, I am not getting of that Battery error message sending me into Hibernate...Well I better not speak too soon. I think its all good though now.

 

Great! Windows tip! Another power issue you can fix really easily, is when you put it to sleep, after a preset amout of time the machine enters Hibernation mode.. You can disable that in the Power Management under advanced power settings, branch out the sleep menu, and set it to hibernate after... some huge number.. I set mine at 6000 minutes, which is around 4 days.

 

hey im running into a problem when i try to do the clean install. I click install and it says it can't find the device drivers or something like that and wants me to find them. i used the image from the link posted on the first page> any ideas?

 

Is this during Windows installation or driver installation? And what device is it referring to?

 

its the first screen after you click install now. I have no idea what driver its talking about but im going to redownload and reburn the iso

 

That's what I was thinking you should do, as Windows 7 shouldn't have any issues whatsoever with drivers during install.

 

Any progress miked? I'll be doing this over the weekend, everyones experience helps

 

The links for
08 - Realtek High Definition Audio Driver v6.0.1.5964 and
09 - Synaptics Touchpad Driver v2199CC21

end up going to the same place - I think just the audio driver is linked, since the file name is REDAUD-00213319-0042.EXE
(guessing based on AUD in name, that it's audio).

 

Hey guys,was downloading the drivers and like prophet above found that the synaptics links not working,google comes up with the scrybe driver from the synaptics website is it alright to get those instead?

 

Sorry guys, I wasn't the one that embedded the driver links to my post. Maybe XGX2007 just accidentally copied and past the same driver.

Anyways, just go to Sony's website here and type in your model number. Then you can download the drivers from the list.

ananth, you can definitely use the latest driver from Synaptics website.

 

Thanks again!

 

As am a super Newbie on MS7....I feel like a grandma who doesnt know how to work a PC!
However whenever I used to do a clean install on my past laptop. I had a folder that contained all the drivers dll. I would just search for new hardware upon first boot and it would automatically install them all for me in xp.
Does this apply for MS7 too?

 

yep got it working must have been a bad download or bad burn

 

Sorry, guys, my apologies.. Fixed!

 

Not really. To cut down on the installation size and System folder size, only the most basic drivers are included. Most hardware these days like HD Audio and Wireless Cards, work on a unified driver platform so windows can support at least basic functionality on these devices out of the box. The drivers that the user installs, replaces the Microsoft provided drivers with a lot more detailed features.

 

Hi guys,

I have a VPCCW21fx. I'm somewhat confused as to the order I'm supposed to install drivers. I have a Core i3 (2.1 ghz) model.

The first post has the drivers listed in a particular order.

The second post (quoted) has the drivers listed in a similar order, but its different (i.e. install Sony drivers first after Intel instead of the OPs way). Anyways, does it really matter which drivers you install first? Can you help me formulate a list for my model? ( sony site).

Should you restart your computer after every successful install as someone mentioned?

Thanks anyways. I'm glad to have found a clean install help thread on the net.

cboe.

 

The order is different for the two models... My original was for the Core 2 Duo models, and the second is for the i3/i5 models. You might want to read this post though... *here*

It's recommended, though not necessary.

 

Thanks XGX2007 ur feedback is much apprichated
Anyone know about the driver for Nvidia 310M? I have this graphics card on my Vaio CW, but when i put in my model number details it only shows me the driver for Nvidia 330M. Is it the same driver for both?
My model number is VPCCW21FX

 

Thanks. I'm just looking as to how you determine which drivers to install first before others. I realize I have a different model, configuration than the second post you quoted for the i3/i5 models. Just not sure how to determine the order of drivers to install.

 

Oh, ok. Well, the two lists have pretty much the order you want to follow. Both lists should bring you to a fully functional fresh Windows 7 installation. But, the general rule of thumb is... chipset drivers, then for the turbo-boost driver in your case, then the Sony Shared Library, Sony Extension Firmware Parser Device Driver, then the other apps/drivers. After you install those, I'd go ahead and install the NVIDIA driver, and the sound driver. Leave the peripherials for last, as they'll function fine until later..

 

I see this too. But I think this will do; I guess that is just a mistake on Sony's part.

Use this -- http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VPCF11MFXB&upd_id=5367&os_id=45


EDIT- FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE-- I don't think it matters. Both of them are of the same size (MB wise). They're probably the same file just titled different. ANyways, I installed my video driver using that link... and it was a succesful install.

I have the same model as you. Tell me how your experience goes.

 

Alright...

Backing up my files right now and going to try this thing.

 

Ok, so I've been doing the clean install. Followed everyone's directions... and been installing drivers from a flash drive.

However, I've been getting this message for a few of them (including Intel Chipset driver, marvel atheros, etc).

Here's a screenshot -- attached. What should I do to verify the success of the install? Or what should I do to limit the occurrence of this error? -- I have been clicking "the program installed correctly" btw.

Help is appreciated and thanks for everything.

 

That's interesting. That shouldn't be doing that. Try the chipset drivers from here.. *here* These are directly from Intel, and possibly newer than Sony's drivers. I need to look at the drivers for the i3/i5 models from the Sony Page. Seems a few people are having trouble with them, including dperezo saying that the SATA driver software is corrupted or not working right, hence the redirection to the Dell page.

 

I'll check out that now.

Also, I've been checking out my device manager and ones that I am aware of are listed there (i.e., the Marvell and Atheros drivers even though I got the this error with both of them. Not sure if that's an indication that they were successful installs in spite of the message... I hope so for now.


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As for doing a clean install, I'm really happy with this. I would recommend everyone do a clean install. My cw is definitely much faster. Hopefully the problems I'm experiencing will be worked out soon.

 

The Marvel Gig-E ethernet and Atheros AR9285 should be a driver provided by Windows 7 to provide basic functionality OOB. Personally I wish I could just extract the INF's from the Sony Drivers and just use those instead of having the Sony installer install them. Have you installed the Vaio Shared Lib and other Vaio apps yet?

 

Oh... gotcha

Yes, well, the only Sony things I (attempted to) install were Sony Shared Library, Firmware extension parser, and the Sony notebook utilities. I had a problem with one of these, though I cannot recall which one (I got that same error again).

My fn keys are working properly upon initial observation.

 

Great! If your FN keys are working, then you probably got all the Sony Apps installed perfectly.