Windows 7 Clean install Guide for Vaio FZ

Check if Firmware parser is installed and you have no "unknown" devices in device manager.

 

Wireless Switch Setting Utility Update for 64-bit: The WSSU shows all the wifi and bluetooth options, but doesn't detect the switch setting (ON/OFF). It doesn't control the wifi band setting and the Bluetooth. This test was based upon the patched switcher.exe by Gary (SnyUtils by Vadja73).

The unpatched switcher.exe controls the wifi bands properly, but still doesn't detect the switch setting (ON/OFF), and there is no Bluetooth option.

I guess that this is the limitation in 64-bit. I will do more research on this later.

Congratulations for Vadja73 and Gary for making the WSSU work perfectly in 32-bit Windows 7.

 

Was the BT working properly in Vista? Make sure you have the wireless swtich ON, restart, and scan for hardware changes from device manager.

The WSSU will not control the Bluetooth in 64-bit, and doesn't work as expected.

You can also try this Broadcom driver in Sony FTP : ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/VAIO/ORIGINAL/BROADCOM_BLUETOOTH_DRIVER_6.3.0.3950.ZIP

 

Does anyone know what could be causing this? When I'm on the battery the laptop will sometimes completely shut down even with around 80% batt life. It wont boot back up until I hook up power, but the batt says its at 80%. After this happens, all of my logins get erased as well. Any ideas?

 

Yes was working in Vista with no problems

Wireless switch is on, been using wifi no problem

Scanned for changes and no joy

I'll give that driver a shot, thanks

 

Updated Nvidia driver to version 258.96.

 

Any significant differences with this newer Nvidia driver 258.96?

Gary

 

This driver is very similar to the previous 257.21 driver. I just updated the driver as Nvidia released an updated driver. There wouldn't be any significant differences in performance between these drivers.

Update: The flash content (Flash player 10.1) seem to use the GPU acceleration better with the 258.96 driver. The CPU load is significantly reduced.

 

I had to revise the Nvidia driver modded inf to change the section numbers for certain GPU's. The revision affects only the hardware ID's mentioned below. If you anyone had installed the Nvidia 258.96 driver for these GPU's, using the original modded inf, you need to reinstall the driver with the revised modded inf.

Code:

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_902D104D 
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9030104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_9040104D 
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_9042104D 
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_9043104D

 

I already jumped the guy and updated for my 32-bit installation. Reinstalling now. Everything seemed fine though, no damage.

 

The Nvidia modded inf supports the following Vaio FZ, AR, and AW GPU hardware ID's.

Code:

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0407                
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0407&SUBSYS_9005104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0407&SUBSYS_9016104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0407&SUBSYS_9018104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0425                
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0425&SUBSYS_9005104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9005104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9016104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9017104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9018104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_902D104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0426&SUBSYS_9030104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0637
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0647                
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0648                
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649               
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_9040104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_9042104D
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0649&SUBSYS_9043104D

 

Updated Nvidia MS Update driver to 257.41. This driver supports almost all existing Notebook GPU's.

 

Coolguy, do you still recommend 258.96 with your modified inf and PVSonydll or this new WHQL 257.41 for someone without a blu-ray drive.

Even though 257.41 has the PVSonydll file inside of it, I can't seem to find any reference to it inside its inf files. Does it install it automatically or do I have to install afterwards? Inside your modified inf for 258.96, I see references to that extension:

HKR,,PureVideoExtensionName,%REG_SZ%,"PVSonyDll.dll"

I'm asking because your modified 258.96 looks a little better in terms of color saturation than previous drivers and I was wondering if 257.41 looks the same. I'm about to do a reformat and I want to pick one or the other without reinstalling to test. Just want your input. Thank You.

 

no1uknow, you can try the MS Update driver if you want. I haven't tried it yet. If you game, the MS Update driver might be a better choice, that's what I have heard in the discussion threads of the previous MS update drivers.

You don't need the PVSonyDll.exe. It's just an Nvidia PureVideo extension for some Sony specific applications. Once you have it installed, it will be there in the System32 folder, even after you uninstall the Nvidia driver. You can install the exe manually too.

You are right. The Sony inf has better color saturation. I had noticed it too, but the overall brightness of the LCD is a bit less. The Sony inf has LCD specific EDID override data, unlike the other drivers, which dynamically get the display information. If you open the monitor properties from the device manager, you will notice that the Sony inf gives the hardware ID as MS_0040, whereas the other drivers specify NVD\0500.

 

I am going to continue using 258.96 for now.

By the way, my monitor Hardware ID is NVD0300 and this is while I am running 258.96. I have the Sony XBRITE HI-Color (Dual backlights, I think. Not the ECO one)

 

Added full functional latest Toshiba Bluetooth Stack. The Broadcom stack is also added for FZ-2xx and later models.

 

Dear all,

My PC is new, the glossy VPC-F11E4E (european model). If I install 258.96 driver, I have to install the Modified inf & instructions (32/64-bit) : Nvidia inf.zip?

thanks in advance.

 

This thread is for the FZ series. You can directly install the official Nvidia driver, no need for modded inf for the F series.

 

hey thanks for making Sony Craptop not an orphan.. (really)
it was dumped on me because they could not get 7 fully on it.
but now its useable, packing tape and all

 

Can someone help me?

I followed the instructions everything is good except for the BD Drive
It does not recognize any blueray disc but dvd is okay.

what should I do?

 

Have you installed all the available firmware updates for the BD drive? What Nvidia driver are you using?

 

Updated SFEP driver. Resolves random BSOD issue in windows 7 as described here Sony eSupport - VGN-FZ290 - Software Updates & Drivers

 

I assume you are saying this applies to ALL the FZ models, but just happens to be under the FZ2 series on Sony's website? Wish they would indicate a stop code and module associated with the BSOD so folks would know if it applied to them. Have you heard any such detail?

Thanks Rajesh,

Gary

 

The update does apply to all the FZ models. I have been getting random BSOD's (I had told you before), but I am not sure if SFEP is the culprit. I will install the update and see if I get a BSOD again. I have most of the BSOD's error codes in my FZ's Windows reliability history.

 

I am in the process of installing Windows 7 on my FZ180E/B. I got part way but had to restart again due to some problems (my fault!) I am writing up some additional notes on my install process and hope to share them with all when I am done.

I have a couple issues which I have some questions on and suggestions:

a. First I have noticed that you are moving some steps around... old step 4 is now step 10. Is this correct?

b. New Step 9's instructions refers to itself... Also I had problems with trying to run the install batch file directly (after doing a double uniextract of the file). I was able to install this file by just directly running the program that you download

c. I used the standard WHQL 257.41 driver since I have a Bluray drive. However I noticed the colors seem washed out and the Nvidia Control Panel is not as easy to use as the old one on Vista. Are the WHQL 257.96 driver with modded inf any better in color representation?

d. The standard audio driver installed via Windows 7 does not act the same way when plugging in a HDMI device as it did in Vista.

In Vista, if you have the default playback device set as HDMI, normally the audio will still come out via the internal speakers but will automatically switch to HDMI audio out when a HDMI TV is plugged in. It will automatically switch back to internal speakers when the HDMI device is unplugged. The default audio driver doesn't work this way in Windows 7. Anyone know if the Sigmatel Audio driver does this?

Thanks for making up this guide!

 

elmerb, I had moved the Sony Shared library from step 4 to step 10 to be consistent with the Sony software, but forgot to change the step # referenced in other steps, thanks for pointing it out.

You can try the Nvidia 258.96 driver with my modded inf. Let me know if works well for you.

I don't have any idea on the automatic HDMI audio switching, since I don't use it. With the default Windows 7 audio driver, don't change anything in the default playback devices (speakers should be set as default), and see if automatically detects the HDMI out.

The latest IDT/ Sigmatel Vista audio driver works fine in Windows 7, but has a lesser volume ramp/ overall volume then the default Windows 7 audio driver. I find the default Win7 driver to be too loud for the external speakers.

 

Update on the sound driver. I am at the new Step 7 in instructions. I set a restore point here. The Microsoft sound driver installed allows me to switch the default device between the internal speakers and HDMI port and also to a separate Headphone device listed manually. Sound via HDMI worked... however there was no automatic switching as I described before as in Vista.

I then tried the sound driver in step 7. This driver showed only a combined Internal Speaker/Headphone port and a HDMI port. However it showed the HDMI port as disconnected and the Internal Speakers/Headphone port as default. Plugging in the HDMI TV was acknowledged by the plug in tones and the picture appeared on the TV. However in the sound driver, it still indicated that the HDMI port was not plugged in. Because of this I could not switch the default port to the HDMI port (button is grayed out probably because it doesn't see that it is plugged in) I had no sound via the HDMI port. Also looking at the properties, there were no sound enhancements with this driver. Unless something else tells the sound driver that the HDMI port is plugged in, this sound driver doesn't seem to be useable.

I also installed the original sound driver from Vista... same thing. I also installed the update to this original Vista driver.... same thing... no sound via HDMI possible. This is kind of strange in that it did work in Vista.

So for now, my only option is the original sound driver, unless someone has another idea?

 

elmerb, thanks for letting us know that the Sigmatel driver doesn't output audio through the HDMI port. But I remember seeing the HDMI device as "ready" in the playback device properties with the latest IDT Vista driver.

I am going to make a modded inf for the latest non-Sony IDT driver. I will let you know if it works properly.

How did you install the IDT driver? From the device manager or ran the setup.exe in the driver pack?

 

coolguy,

From what I remember (I may be wrong), when in Vista with the updated latest Sony Vista audio driver, it actually showed three devices, Speakers, Headphones, and Digital Audio HDMI ports.

With the Microsoft Window 7 installed driver I also see 3 devices: Speakers, Headphones and Digital Audio (HDMI) port. The automatic switching doesn't work like in Vista but at least I can set the default device to be the Digital Audio Device. Note also that my Headphone port is show as not plugged in and I cannot make it the default device. The Digital Audo (HDMI) port is listed as ready and I can make it the default device.

I made a restore point here.

I then installed the Sound Driver from Step 7. I had unzipped the driver as directed and ran the setup within the unzipped files. Upon rebooting I found only two playback devices: a combined Speaker/Headphone device and the Digital Audio HDMI device. The Digital Audio Device also indicated that the port was not plugged in. Because of this I could not make it the default device as the button to do this was grayed out. Right clicking on the device also has the option for making that device the default device, but is also greyed out.

At this point I tried plugging my HDMI TV and found that Windows 7 recognized that I had plugged it in (via the sounds generated indicating a plug insertion) but the Sound Playback tab still indicated that the device was not plugged in. I could not make the HDMI port the default device as the device control was grayed out. I had no audio via the HDMI port.

At that point I returned back to my restore point.

I then installed the original Sony Vista audio driver. I installed this by executing the file directly without unzipping. Same results as above.

I then installed the updated Sony Vista audio driver update. I installed this also b directly executing the file without unzipping. Same results as above.

Maybe I should have unzipped these files but I know that is how I had installed them in Vista so I didn't think it would be a problem.

So again I went back to my restore point.

Without the digital audio device not being shown as plugged in, the driver doesn't allow you to change to the device and make it the default device.

I did some research about this one the internet today and I am going to do some more testing. Here is one interesting link:

No HDMI audio out with Windows 7 - Page 3 - Windows 7 Forums

This may not apply to our situation. Maybe I should hav unzipped and installed the original files. There are several other interesting comments in the above link.

I will do some more tests to see if I can get it working.

Thanks for your help
elmerb

 

elmerb, the Vista Sigmatel/ IDT driver also had a single entry combined into "Speakers/ headphones" under playback devices.

Don't revert back to a old audio driver using system restore. Uninstall the driver from the control panel or from the device manager (delete driver software cheacked) and restart, before attempting to install another audio driver.

 

Hi ,

I own a Vaio FZ 440 E .
My Problem is after installing windows 7 32 bit with al the drivers , my brightness controls do not work after i close the lid for the 1st time , i.e until i close the lid for the first time ( after a boot ) everything is fine and brightness controls work .But the moment i close the lid for the first time and reopen it , the brightness controls don't work and even the brightness control sliders in control panel also disappear .
The only option is to restart the system .
This is been huge pain in .

So kindly resolve my problem ....

 

Did you install all the Sony drivers and utilities as mentioned in this guide? What setting do you have for "lid close settings" in the power option?

 

coolguy,

Some more info on the sound drivers.

Playback:
I restored back to my original point (MS audio driver) and tried the latest driver from step 7. No detection of the HDMI port being plugged in, in the Playback tab... so no chance of changing it to the default device to get audio out via the HDMI port.

I restored back again to my original point, uninstalled the MS audio driver, and installed the uniextracted original Vista driver and ran setup to install. Again the port labeled HDMI is shown as not plugged in so no way to make it the default device to get HDMI audio out through it.
I did'nt try the latest Sony Vista upgrade.

So far no chance of audio via HDMI with the latest driver or with the old Vista driver which did work....

I am using the 258.91 Nvidia driver due to poor color in the 257.41 driver... is there something about this driver which is not passing on the status of the HDMI port back to audio driver? Maybe we need to revert to old Vista video driver???

The link I put up I think applies to ATI video cards with sound hardware built in.... A lot of people have had problems but not any solutions other than better drivers.

Recording:
Using the MS audio driver both the internal and external mic inputs show up as separate devices but named the same. You can determine which one is internal vs external by looking at the properties and it shows the internal as analog jack and the external as 3.5mm right panel jack. The mic boost must be set at max for the internal mic to show any bars in its level meter. My external mike needs no mic boost.

However, if you try to use the Sound Recorder you get an error that it cannot find a recording device.... which prevents you from recording.

However when you go to use the original Sony Vista driver, it just shows up as one device.... both jacks show up in the one device.... and with only 1 device, you only get one mic boost setting for both jacks... not nice. But here you can record to the Sound Recorder from either mic.

Summary:
So no audio via HDMI using the Sony drivers (new or old), and no recording using the Microsoft driver (maybe it works with other programs?) .... I am not happy

Any other ideas?

elmberb

 

Elmerb, as pointed out in the forum you had linked, did you try switching the display before setting HDMI as the default audio device?

As far as I know, there is no OEM specific setting in the Nvidia display driver for audio through HDMI.

There is no need to increase the internal microphone boost setting. It shows the level bars without doing this. Microphone works fine for me with the default MS driver. What sound recorder are you using? Are you using it with the external mic? The MS driver defaults to the external mic in the recording devices.

Edit: There is one OEM Nvidia setting that didn't appear in the newer driver inf. I will add this to the inf and let you know.

 

coolguy,

Yes I played with turning off the TV and waiting and turning it on after the computer was powered up; also plugging in the cable after the computer was powered up, and so far nothing is changing the status of the device from not plugged in. I do get video to change automatically, but as far as audio is concerned, the HDMI port is not connected... always.... with the Sony drivers. The MS driver shows it ready I think all the time and I can make it the default device even without it plugged in and I do lose audio.

Using the internal mic, in order to see any activity on the level bars under the record tab with the device set as the default, output from the internal mic is very low.... I had to increase the mic post in the Properties ... Level tab in order to get anything to show up on the level bars.

I used the Win 7 built in Sound Recorder app to try recording from both mics. With the MS sound driver I get the error from the Sound Recorder app and I can't record any sounds. With the Sony sound drivers, I can record sound from both mics... and when I record using the internal mic, even with the mic boost turned up I only get a low sound level recording (maybe I am too quiet!).

I haven't moved beyond step 7.... do you think some other Sony software is needed?

For now I guess I am going to stick with the MS audio driver, even if I can't record.....

elmerb

 

Coolguy ,

I installed all the drivers Sony released for my system for windows 7 ultimate ( downloaded from http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNFZ440E&SelectOS=48) .
And I've set " Do Nothing " under closing the lid option .

And for your info . the brightness controls work after a sleep / wake also .

It is just this closing the lid that it doesn't work with ....

BTW , is this problem normal ?
Does anybody incl. you have a FZ and is using win 7 perfectly normal , with the brightness controls working all the time ??

 

Brightness Fn key control works fine in my FZ-190E. It doesn't sound like a normal problem.

Are you using any external monitor? Why do you want to close the lid doing nothing in the power setting?

 

Nope , i'm using the laptop lcd .
And i frequently close the lcd but doesn't want it to sleep b'coz earlier i was using vista and there the sleep didn't work probably b'coz of conflict with nvidia driver , so i set the close lcd function to do nothing .

Now , do i need to install all the drivers stated in this thread in the same order ? ( does order matter ?) .

I installed the drivers form the official sony support for my system .
Should i reformat and install the drivers from this thread instead ?

Plz suggest a solution and it's been a pain in the , restarting every time ....

And the drivers kept in this thread , are they the latest ones available respectively ??

 

Shashank_Best, I have an FZ290 with Win7 32-bit. I have no problems with my brightness controls not working after lid close/open. I even tried enabling "do nothing" and brightness controls still work fine.

Your Laptop came with Vista. When you installed Win7, did you do a Clean Install or did you do an Upgrade. And how many times have you "upgraded" or "reinstalled" the Nvidia drivers? If yes, did you use DriverSweeper?

I think that if you Upgraded Win7 and/or reinstalled Nvidia drivers several times, you might have conflicting data that is causing your problem. Try clean installing Win7 on your system if you can, or at least use DriverSweeper to clear all Nvidia driver files, then reinstall with one of the new drivers and see if your problem persists.

I have version 258.96 installed with coolguy's modified inf. I do not have a Blu-Ray Disc Drive. I also DO NOT have any of the Sony utilities installed (e.g. Sony Shared Library, Event Service, Power Management, etc). I am able to adjust brightness in Power management, but I can't with FN keys which is fine for me.

The drivers in this thread are the recommended and/or the most current drivers available for most FZ models and the install order is recommended. If you want full functionality, install all of them, or pick the ones you absolutely need.

 

Hi no1uknow ,

I did a clean install of win 7 32 bit .
But at the time i did a clean install , sony didn't released the win 7 drivers for my model , so i used the vista drivers only .
And yes i've installed several versions of Nvidia drivers ( as and when the new ones are available ) from laptopvideo2go.com with modded inf .
But , didn't used driversweeper ...

Never heard of it actually .
I just installed the new driver over the old one .

Is it not the best way to install nvidia drivers ?
Is driver sweeper recommended ?

and i want the brightness controls frm the fn keys working .

Will it work in Win 7 ?

 

Shashank Best, the Vista Sony software doesn't work properly with Windows 7. You can uninstall all the Sony software, Nvidia driver, restart as required, and install the relevant ones in my guide.

 

Whenever you uninstall or reinstall an Nvidia graphics driver, there are usually files left over that can interfere with performance or proper operation of whatever Nvidia driver you install, like the problem that you are having. It is always highly recommended that you first uninstall the driver, restart the computer in Safe Mode, run DriverSweeper to clean any leftover files, restart back to normal mode, then install the newer driver.

I actually decided to just stick with one nvidia driver (right now 258.96) and not update until I reinstall Win7, which I usually do every six months to a year.

And yeah, those "Official Sony Windows 7 Drivers", most of them are actually Vista drivers that work ok in Win7. They don't get updated often, always check back on this thread made by coolguy.

 

Hate to stick a newbie question in with all this great info BUT, what are the benefits of 64bit vs 32? It just looks tempting to go with the 32 upgrade instead of jumping into an install that takes much longer, could result in problems and causes you to lose all your programs and apps. Also some of the posts here and other advice I've been given talks about some actual benefits of the upgrade. With the risk of asking this in the wrong thread, are the benefits of the 64bit worth the trouble? And many thanks to Rajesh for a great guide!

 

It is the wrong thread. Go to the Windows software forum here and look. There are already threads about this. Much better info there as this is not really a Sony specific question and certainly not a FZ specific one. You will get a much wider audience in the other forum.

Gary

 

A 64-bit OS can access more than 4 GB of RAM, utilizes the full potential of your 64-bit CPU, and might be more responsive when running multiple programs simultaneously. Also 64-bit programs run faster than their 32-bit counterparts.

You cannot upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit. You must do a clean install, which requires reinstalling all your programs back (some 32-bit programs might not work properly in 64-bit).

 

Thanks for the reply. I don't have many programs to worry about but I'm concerned about driver problems. Has anyone done this on a 210C (or CE) and could they post their problems and solutions?

 

Hi all ,

After seeing the discussion here , i reinstalled win 7 and installed all d drivers frm here in d same order and voila , my brightness problem solved .
Everything is working perfectly including av mode and s button .
But i have a few problems :

1. how to bring webcam companion camera utility in av-mode.
2. under the special button tab in vaio control centre , i tried to access vaio
launcher setting by clicking advanced , but the interface that comes has and absurd language ( sort. of chinese ) , so i can't understand anything , and thus can't add any prog to av mode. How to correct it ?

3. Smart wi isn't woking on my system , everytime it says that the switch is turned off while it is on .How to correct it ?

4. what is wireless setting utility meant for ?

5.does instant mode work for fz on win 7 ?

6. what are the follwing meant for ( they are in the official 7 drivers for my model )
Intel® SATA Non-RAID Driver
Click to Disc Editor Software
VAIO® DVD Menu Data
Sony® PxEngine Driver
VAIO® Content Metadata Intelligent Analyzing Manager
VAIO® Original Function Settings Software
VAIO® Media plus Extension



Kindly reply answers to all my questions.

Waiting .....

 

All FZ's have similar hardware, so this guide should work with your FZ.

 

1. Open the VL_Setting.exe file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\VAIO Launcher. Click the middle tab to change the application path, and arrows to change the order.

2. Vaio launcher interface is in Chinese, no possible solution to change the language.

3. SmartWi doesn't work in the FZ series.

4. Wireless switch utility works in 32-bit only and can be used to turn off the Wifi/ Bluetooth (including the blue light) independently.

5. Instant mode might work, you need to download it from your model's support page.

6. The SATA driver is already included in my guide. You don't need any other software that you listed.

 

Some status info on sound drivers.

If you don't need HDMI audio ouput, then use the Sony Audio Driver

If you need HDMI audio output, use the default Windows driver. However you may have problems with microphone outputs. Volume is too loud as it seems to clip at higher volume settings.

I installed several Sony and Sigmatel audio drivers and many modifed ones. I was only successful with one moddified Sigmatel driver to get HDMI audio output, however there were several other issues with this driver (microphones, stability, etc) which prevented me from using it. This modified driver actually said that HDCP was not available, probably because it was using a modified INF file and was unsigned but it did work in playing back a BluRay Disk.

The Windows drivers MAY be a problem if you want to record sound. At least the default Windows 7 Sound Recorder doesn't like the microphone inputs. Also I don't think you will be able to do line input (not sure if you could anyway?)

I did confirm that the Windows Audio driver HDMI output works with BluRay disks. I installed a 30 day trial BluRay player and played Planet Earth which seemed to work.

OK some new questions:

1. Anyone have success installing the old WinDVD BluRay player from the original install? Using what procedure? I had seen a link about installing it on Club Vaio (user: Thalamus) but don't know if thats whats required Forum & Discussions: WIN DVD BD not working

2. What about other Sony applications that were included with the computer?

3. I have the Sony Recovery Disks ... I need to run the Launcher.exe file to be able to recover the applications... . you mentioned that the interface is in Chinese... with what package is Launcher installed?... could we use the old Launcher.exe from Vista?