Windows 7 Clean Install Instructions for CW Series

Thanks Cboe! From wut i can read seems that the Sony's drivers are messed up! I will try to attempt a clean install tonight. I will see how i will overcome the phone activation since i live outside the US & UK.

On a second note..I know this has been mentioned before but just to confirm. If I wipe out the recovery partition. Do i have the option to get it back with my recovery disks? This was the case with my last laptop, however i had 7 dvds rather then 2 for my sony!

 

Was about to do the install and then read the posts about the driver incompatibilities. How do I check if the list given in dperezo's post covers the same drivers as whats in my CW? Is there any way to check up what versions of the drivers are currently on?

Also, Corel's app is currently installed for the blu ray drive, is there any way to get this back after the clean install?

 

My computer seems to run normal and everything... in spite of these errors I have been getting... I dunno.

Good luck on the clean install.

I second this second question. Really looking for a response to this.



I didn't delete my partition just to be safe. Will probably perform a second clean install as soon as I learn how to resolve the errors I was getting.

 

Go here - http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/select-system.pl?PRODTYPE=24&NAVDISP=pc

Put in your exact model number and it will SUPPOSEDLY give you a list of drivers (for your particular model)

Unfortunately, it seems that Sony has been slacking and some of the drivers may be corrupted, etc.

 

Thanks Cboe, Am finally burning the image, thing that really worries me is phone activation as i bought this laptop in the states but dont live there. If its a 1800 number i wont be able to call it. thats why i was asking about the rcovery option.

 

thanks for your responses cboe!

 

Phone activation? If you have an internet connection it should activate fine that way. As Microsoft doesn't care so much what country it comes from so much as the number is right/legit...

 

Really XGX?? Online activation is what I understood from your post, however from dperezo's post which has an I-core like mine i got the impression that he only got the option to activate via phone.
Anyways trying it is the only way to find out for sure
U guys help makes it easier though

 

Just finished the clean install, activation had to be through the phone as it just came up with a message saying my product key was invalid. Like dperezo said before, phone activations fairly painless.

I also faced the 'this installation did not complete properly' message as someone else, but I just clicked on, nothing untowards happened so far..

Startup and shutdown times are a lot faster, broadcom bluetooth validation didnt happen but the basic drivers working fine.

Thanks very much, dperezo and xgx, my first time was not as painful as I thought

P.S, I installed the scrybe drivers from the synaptics website, nice additional functionality, like three finger swipes and apparently touch based app launches, havent tried it yet but sounds cool

 

ananth, glad it worked out for you!

 

Interesting, I guess I learn something everyday... I'm glad phone activation worked! I just always thought it didn't matter, but I guess it does indeed.

 

I was surprised as well when it didn't offer an online option.

 

Hmmm, phone activation.....

Do we have to deal with people or do you just punch through with numbers?

 

Windows activation on-screen comes up with the phone number to call(toll free and charged numbers). When you call its option 1 to activate usually. Windows activation on screen gives a chain of 6 five character groups. A robot voice tells you to punch them in group-wise, ie group 1, group 2 etc.

It then generates a confirmation code for you to type in which it dictates out to you, you plug it in and basically thats it.

 

Hey dperezo, did you experience any of those "the program may not have installed properly" errors when you performed a clean install with the drivers from sony's support site?

How about you, fuligin?

Glad everyone was able to reach a clean install state....

 

Yeah, it happens more often than you think, especially with drivers from manufacturers that are not WHQL certified by microsoft. You'll be fine.

 

Yup, got it a couple of times when I was doing the clean install too..

 

Ok, just finished my clean install as well!!! no issues, I also got those "program may not have installed properly" it seemed like on every driver that ran off the sony window, i just clicked on "it did install properly" and continued with the drivers and so far anyways it seems everything is working normally.

Also i didnt have to call to activate windows!.... well unless it takes a few hours for windows to realize its not activated. But during the installation i chose activate online, then it had me setup my online connection, it connected to my router then continued installation so maybe it activated it then.

My running processes is at 62 (after installing my antivirus), down from 83 on OEM, but it still uses about 1 gig of ram just to operate.

 

I just finished doing a clean install. Im not exactly sure how it went
I got lots and lots of errors. at times it told me my battery was bad and put me into hybranate mode. for the time being everything seems to be working well.
I really think that this is more a problem with windows 7 even though sony has given us links to bad drivers too. I wil see how this install goes and will attempt it again later once windows 7 and sony have been updated

Phone activation is doable via a free local number to ur local microsoft. In my case it was in my local language so make sure u speak the language or get someone who speaks the language to do it for u!!

 

Thank you Everyone for all ur help and info!! Im sure soon enough we will be able to do this fully error free!

For a bit more help try to copy your drivers folder also it has some exe files that work in ur installation

 

Windows 7 may use more physical RAM than WinXP or Vista, but I have found it to use the RAM a lot more efficiently. Prefetch under Win7 works very well... also 64-bit Windows versions always use more RAM than 32-bit versions.

I love how multicultural the Sony forum is.

 

I just did a clean install again.... and my computer runs even faster... I don't know what it was, but I only saw only 1 error this time... and I restarted the computer (did a warm boot) after installing each driver.

Only got the error ("the program may not have installed correctly") when installing Sony Notebook Utilities. Weird.

Anyways...that made me happy. Just transfered all my music files back on the hard drive from my iPod (used as an external HDD ). Thanks for all your responses, dperezo, fuligin, and the help as well, XGX.

I hope all your CWs are doing fine and performing well like mine.

 

Another happy CW owner!

 

Ive been on the fresh install and did windows updates and it does look like it activated online - atleast if you setup your connection during windows installation. Also i installed the full retail version of WINDVD and blurays actually play louder now! before you could barely hear it, not sure if it was the fresh install or lack of sony extras or just the full version player, but its definatly nice to hear the movies now! yea happy CW owners all around, thanks guys!!!!!

 

Just a tip, but I've read that if you don't install the Realtek sound drivers, and just leave the WHQL HD Audio driver there, that it makes things louder all around. Have you installed the sound drivers from Sony?

 

hm... im runnning a cw16fg, and im wondering if finding drivers for 32bit windows would work. im not exactly a fan of 64bit - especially since i lose sandboxie... it just seems like a

i think finding drivers for most of the hardware would be okay but what about the custom sony drivers? i had a look in task manager and it seems like its a mixed bag... some things like smart network (used for turning bluetooth/wifi on or off) are running natively in 64bit but other things like vaio event service (maybe something to do with the fn shortcuts or the vaio buttons?) are running in 32bit emulation. what about the instant-on web thing that sony has? hm... i swear sony makes it hard for you to clean install... same problem with my last vaio (cs16g) - they offered a windows 7 UPGRADE drivers... presumably building on the ones already present in vista. argh...

anybody tried a 32bit install with full sony whatnot support?

 

I'll update the guide with a 32-bit version of the drivers and Windows 7 Home Premium Disk Image ISO. Although, going to 32-bit, you won't be able to fully use the 4GB of RAM included with the machine.

 

Also, after following this guide, I don't see anyone complaining about the SplashTop Instant-On OS being missing. I guess that tells me just how many people actually use it. But if you are missing it, you can re-install it with this installer from Sony... *here*

 

I would've loved the splashtop thing, but unfortunately for me, by the time I got the CW, they'd replaced it with the assist thing which opens Vaio Recovery. Do you think installing this might reassign the button to splashtop?

Also I'm trying to get BD player software from somewhere as my reinstall has now wiped out the WinDVD that came with the CW. Someone else, I think Kage had pointed out earlier that installing Vaio Care could give me an option to restore any application thats on the recovery disk, has anyone been successfull in doing that? If so, could someone give me a link to the original Vaio Care application? All I can find on the support page is an update to the original software and when I install it, it only gives me an option to restore C drive entirely.

Any help would be muchly appreciated!

 

That's interesting! I had no idea they scrapped the SplashTop OS! I use mine quite frequently. I'm not sure what would happen if you were to install it. With the Vaio Recovery, with the machine off, and the lid open, is it only one button press to get to the recovery? If so it maybe possible to remap that to SpashTop. Also, let me see if I can dig up an installer for the original BD playing software for you.

 

I cant really say that my laptop is now faster.....slower boot times actually I must have really done something wrong with my installation. Maybe its cause 75% of my driver installs failed. even sony ones .....strange..!

Xgx: I didnt have the Splash top option either with my CW. does sound good though. I will give it a try now that you have mentioned it. Actually i was thinking of a Ubuntu installation next

 

They did scrap it and the misleading bit is that its still advertised on the website as a feature! I'll be writing to them to make sure they know am pi**ed off!

And thanks for trying to get the installer!

 

I reinstalled WinDVD using the recovery dvd. Just put it in after windows had started and it gave me an option to reinstall any of the preinstalled programs. It did require me to use VAIO care, but I just uninstalled that afterwards.

 

Can you tell me where you downloaded Vaio Care from. Also is this how I go about doing it?
1) Pop recov disk in
2) start up vaio care and choose the option on the left to reinstall a specific program.

I only ask because the current Vaio Care I have installed doesnt give me the option to reinstall an app, hence the question about where you d/l'ed Vaio Care from too..

Thanks again!

 

Now that you mentioned it I just got mine from the sony downloads.
Then i reinstalled all the drivers from there. Perhaps this would have been easier then installing each driver manually.

 

Could you give me a link for Vaio Care? And do you have a BD drive and did you have to go through it the same way Swaner seems to have? Sorry about the spate of questions but a BD drive I cant use is a shame, especially after I paid for STXI on account of the drive..

 

It was installed from the recovery disk that I created when I first got my CW.

 

As with Swanr's post below I had to use the recovery disk that i created when i first got the machine inorder to pull the drivers and software:

Here is the link and I do hope it helps u

ftp://download.sony.com/US/pc/SOAVCA-00218274-1060.EXE

Im sorry but I dont have a BD drive. But im thinking that it should be in the recovery. It included drives that were not for my pc too. Sony seems to have bundled this job

Let us know how it goes

 

Thanks you guys, installed it by popping in recov disk 1 and following through to launch vaio recovery from dvd[autorun] and selecting the prompt to recover preinstalled programs. This threads really been useful cos otherwise I'd be pulling my hair out!

 

Anytime Ananth!
Glad it worked out
Now for the windows 7 tweaking and breaking phase

 

Glad I've been able to contribute somewhat. I really don't know much about new laptops seeing as my CW was my first in about 19 years. Without this thread there is now way I'd even attempt a clean install. But I got mine working great!

 

I installed it with no luck.
there has to be a way to reconfigure the keys. Ive done this before with linux so it is somewhat posible, i just dont know how

Assist button is used to take u to the recovery process etc. from ur partition.
Vaio key is like power key.

 

Just an update... Ok, I've looked through all the Sony FTP sites and everything and can't find a version of WinDVD that's capable of playing BD-ROM. So other than installing it off of the recovery disks there's no way. I would love to just post up here an extracted installer, but I believe that would be a violation of the TOS of these forums... sorry guys. You can always just try the trial of WinDVD, PowerDVD, or ArcSoft Total Media Theater, as they all support BD-ROM.

 

thanks xgx but I was able to install it off a recovery disk, its all good for now. thanks for trying!

 

i suppose tahts true. i mean i hardly ever use it myself - my rationale is i might as well turn my computer on a wait those extra few seconds. i guess its just for completeness. but thanks ^^

 

bump for someone

 

thanks mate

 

Is anyone who performed a clean install getting a popup, message saying that their Windows 7 Home Premium product key is invalid?

This thing has come out of no where. I don't know why it is invalid. I have typed in exactly the key that is found on the bottom of my laptop.

It's now telling me that I either have to do automated phone system or buy a new key.


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Just for reference --
How do you go about restoring your computer to factory settings using the restore discs? DO you need to reinstall Vaio Care?

 

You should just have to do a phone activation with a Microsoft Support agent. They should be able to activate it for you no problem.

 

This is a matter of personal choice, but you guys can try updating your NVIDIA drivers for a lot better video performance.. I know it worked for me on the G210m.. anyways here's the guide.. *here*