Windows 7 on Sony Z

Hi guys,
the hard disk of my laptop died this morning, tomorrow I will have it back from Sony fixed.
I am the proud owner of a vgn-z27gn (I think it is the z21vn outside Asia, it is the predecessor of the z36gd).
Since I am fed up of Vista I would like to install Windows7 RC1 64bit

Do the 64bit drivers for the z36gd work properly? Do I need to install them or it is better I trust the Windows7 drivers?
Where do I download them? I bought my machine in Malaysia.
Do I have to do something particular to install Windows7?
Do I need to remove all the partitions and create them from the setup of Windows7 or can I just overwrite the C: partition with the new OS?
Does the switch stamina/speed work?

Thank you in advance for your help.
Marco

 

Hello

I'm having problem trying to install Windows 7 RC 64bit on my Vaio Z VGN-Z555DN. I successfully installed all drivers as indicated here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3995328&postcount=45
And I followed the precedure as written here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4404091&postcount=1

Everything seems working okay except the Stamina/Speed button. It looks like it is always working in Stamina mode because it is using the Intel graphics all the time. Can anyone help me resolve this issue?

I tried by downloading the Geforce driver from NVidia website, however, when the installation starts it keeps telling me that it cannot detect a nvidia graphic card and quitting the installation.

Thank you.

 

hi guys. I put win7 RC x64 and everything is working except for the brightness settings in Speed mode.

But just now it will not wake up from sleep anymore. When i put it to sleep it goes to sleep. but when i try to wake it up, the green light goes on but thats it. I dont see the screen and it doesnt look like the HD is doing anything

does anyone else have this problem? it worked before and it worked fine in vista... let me know thanks

 

also.. ive been playing with x64 win7 which is great except for the brightness and sleep problems. is there anyone using x32 win7 that can share their experience? sleep and brightness works in speed?

 

How in the hell can I get the fan to slow down on my z540 within Windows 7? I can't seem to find the problem / software on Sony.com that might apply.

Maybe I'm overlooking something obvious.

 

Ok, I went through this thread. Can someone answer this for me. I have a z590, US model. I want to Install Windows 7, the 64 bit version. Where do I get 64bit drivers for my Z. The esupport site does not list 64bit drivers for the z590.

 

I got the 32bit version of Windows 7 working with the exception of the brightness control and....the fingerprint module. It gives me an error that says the biometric fingerprint sensor is not connected. I tried to reinstall the drivers but it didnt help.

 

For me fingerprint module was automatically installed by Windows 7. It just worked out of the box. I didn't even have to install additional software.

--------------------

With Windows 7 on the horizon, do you guys think Sony will release a BIOS update that enables VT?

We paid big money for a business grade laptop, we are entitled to this standard CPU functionality.

With VT disabled:
1: You can't run the new XP mode feature.
2: You can't install 64 bit operating systems using VMware Workstation or similar products.

 

I think sony will give new models with vt enabled in future, but NO bios update for older machines.

 

Can anyone tell me if there's ANY advantage at all to run an x64 OS on this laptop? So far from what I hear things seem to work less well and slower, nobody has reported of anything actually running better or faster.

Or am I wrong?

 

naujoks,
try win7 (final 13/07) x64 - it's faster than x86 in case of switching between running apps, if you have many of them running simultaneously. Smartftp, iTunes, Promt, Autocad, Photoshop cs4 and some other x64 apps starts visually faster on my own experience. The x64 systems can address all accessible RAM (4 Gb or more) if you have such a configuration. Future for x64 systems only, so there will be x64 version of office 2010 also. Now i have no problems with availability of x64 versions of apps i use and drivers for my external devices.

 

can anyone confirm if the WWAN/gobi card under verizon is working under W7?

 

seems like a no go for the gobi card

running win 7229 - everything else is working 100% with dox nvidia drivers. lcd dim/brightness etc all fine.

 

I hope that we get an bios with virtualisation enabled! This would be so fine sony!

 

Brody, how did you get the video drivers to work?
I downloaded the latest Dox drivers.
Drivers are not digitally signed, so pressed the F8 key and disable digitial driver signing, but when loading Windows was done, the screen remained black, both on the Intel and NVidia chipset. I installed the hybrid driver.
How did you do it?

 

follow dox's instructions and pull down the driver signing tool. It will force your machine into test mode (same as pressing f8 every boot) so it will open up a slight risk on to your machine, but still, malware has to execute first for it to be a problem.

As for the drivers themselves, im seeing lower battery time, but aside from that everything is working perfect - all FN keys, temps etc.

 

Are you saying that your brightness works in Speed also? I am using 7229 with an SSD and i am getting intermittent power man issues with sleep and hibernate. It seems to hibernate or sleep when I do it manually, but when i just leave it, sometimes I'll come back to a rebooted system or a Blue screen ><

 

My bad - brightness is not working at under under speed, not even via soft controls. As for bsods etc, my power mode seems to be running well, but i don't have any automatic sleep/hibernate enabled. Sleep/resume manually seems to be working fine.

 

Brody, presumably when I start Windows with F8 and select 'ignore driver signing' it should work, shouldn't it? I'm only getting a black screen...

 

yes...if the drivers dont load, it should load a generic driver. did you install under the speed mode? did you use the 190.x drivers with updated inf?

 

honestly, whats the point of installing the beta, other than debugging it?

It would be fine if people just virtualized it to see what the hype is all about, but to use the beta for daily use is just insane. If I am correct, the beta has an expiration date (August-something).

 

The RC of win7 is out already and besides some translation issues, I did not have any problems nor chrashes nor bugs so far. Even the beta was that stable already. And I know from a lot of posts and other reports on the internet that state the same. There is pretty much no doubt that win7 is going to be a success (even if you call it vista2.0). Look at the pre-sales...

 

i use it for daily use on all my computers now (RC). I think it's great and has ZERO issues such as crashing or bugs at all that I've run into.

 

so power usage....using the intel card, wireless off, all drivers loaded apart from gobi, all settings to power off the modem/dvd etc, and brightness on full, my battery (extra life/large) is suppose to get 5h. Under vista it hit more around 8h. Wonder if the drivers are still yet to mature under w7.

build 7229.

 

Guys I still can't find a working drivers for the Vaio Z555DN. The only problem is that the hybraid graphic switch is not working in Win 7. I've followed every guide and installed every drivers I found... no luck yet.

Anyone successfully installed Win 7 with all drivers for VGN Z555DN ?

 

Brody_, could you tell us how you did it?
I started out with a clean install of W7 x64, 7229 Build.
It installs the Intel graphics chipset alright, and via Windows Update it locates the NVidia 9300M GS and installs it, but with a yellow exclamation mark.
I continued to install drivers in the prescribed order, and function buttons all work (sound, brightness (this is all under Stamina)), but the Stamina/Speed switch itself is NOT illuminated and does not do anything.
I tried Dox drivers (this time the latest version; didn't see that the main page doesn't list the latest under the section that it calls 'latest drivers'), but still the same, NVidia chipset doesn't get recognised (error 43, reports a problem), neither with F8 driver signing dis- or enabled.

 

I just installed Win 7 x64 and the power management software is not correctly. The vaio power plans have a bunch of scrambled letters and numbers. Has anyone else had this issue of know how to resolve it?

 

Sony's Graphics driver should enable the SPEED/STAMINA switch

 

Sony's driver enbles the STAMINA/SPEED switch. Only problem is brightness in SPEED mode

 

You have to install the software/Drivers in Vista Compatible mode. The easiest way to try win7 is just upgrade the Vista with all the necessary drivers.

 

wth are dox drivers. where is the thread on this?

 

But one can't use the Sony drivers on x64!

 

www.laptopvideo2go.com

 

Here is the Sony's driver works perfectly on x64 (except as usual brightness in SPEED mode)

 

Sadly, this appears to be for the US versions only, and therefore doesn't let me install it as I've got a European model.
Did you download this from a different Vaio's driver page? If so, which one was it? I might be able to locate it in the European section.

EDIT: Found out it's for a Z Series Vaio. Went through all drivers available for the Z Series in Europe, but there isn't any one that gets delivered with a 64bit Vista!

Still stuck! Brody to the rescue!

 

Oh and does anyone know where to get the x64 version of the Alps Pointing Device Driver?

 

Most model specific restrictions on Sony drivers can be bypassed by using a tool like Universal Extractor to extract the files from the exe before installing.

Also if you would like to be a tester, updated video drivers for the Vaio Z (190.15/1808) can be found here. Which is latter in the Vaio Z discoveries thread. Brightness control issues still persist though. And just to note 190.15/1808 are both Win7 WDDM 1.1 drivers.

 

How wonderful, Nautis, I installed your drivers and followed your instructions and had no problems. Everything is working fine so far.
Thanks a lot!

 

Missing x64 Alps drivers are I all need know to reach Nirvana!

 

Can someone please list the drivers they needed to get manually (outside of Windows Update) for both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7?

Is it only video and Alps/touchpad drivers that are needed? And are the "190.15/1808" drivers in testing the best ones to use for both versions?

Thanks!

 

Alps driver x64:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGN-Z691Y&region_id=1

Also works for the European version.

Apart from this and Nautis's gfx drivers, I didn't need anything else. The Vista drivers would work for everthing else.
So right now I've got everything working 100%, except brightness in Speed. But you can simply switch back to Stamina, change brightness and got back to Speed. Not a big deal. Hopefully it won't take Sony all THAT long to issue proper drivers once Win 7 is out offically.

 

Maybe someone can help me here. I went to the intel site to download the driver and they would download; But when I try to install I get an error saying my device is not support, and I should use the manufacture drivers or something weired like that. I have windows 7 build 7200 on my TT, so any ideas? Thanks

 

This thread is for the Sony Z series.

 

Yes but they are both sony device that use the same intel gpu(granted the Z has also a nvida gpu also) so I just wanted to see if anyone had face the same thing installing drivers.

 

Just try installing the drivers then!

 

That is the problem it won't let me saying I have to use the manufacture drivers(Sony in this case) and sony has yet to bring out windows 7 driver beta or not(at least I haven't seen it). My question was has anyone else gotten the a similar message when trying to install the intel or nvidia drivers?

 

I thought the TT has only one gfx chipset, Intel. That should work ouf the box, no?

 

It does but the intel drivers for windows 7 are not working for me saying I need to install the Sony ones. I was seeing if the same thing was happening with Z owners who tried either the intel or nvidia drivers, and what they may have done to resolve the issue.

 

One thing seems certain: You will not be able to install NVidia drivers on a machine without an NVidia chip!

 

Are Nautis' nVidia drivers still the best ones to use? Other than those, will Sony's Vista x64 drivers work for everything else?

What about software? Will all the apps on esupport.sony.com work? What app is essential for the fn and hotkeys to work?

Thanks!