Windows 7 on Vaio Z - Procedure

1 - Download original drivers and utilities from VAIO support and unpack everything in your USB key
2 - Install Windows 7 from DVD
3 - Create on your desktop a directory called "All drivers" and copy usbpen content inside
4 - Goto Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update and select Check for updates (install everything except Nvidia)
5 - Goto Control Panel\System and Security\System and select device manager
6 - For each harware component (discovered or undiscovered) right click and select "Update driver software", choose "Browse my computer for driver software" and choose above created directory "All drivers". Let Windows scan alone the subdirectories and install the drivers. Except Nvidia video card !
7 - Don't update component inside "System devices" tree
8 - Install Nvidia drivers using original setup. It may crash at the end, but everytinig is installed
9 - Reboot
10 - Respecting the following order:

1-Sony Programmable IO Control ​

2-Sony Firmware Extension Parser ​

3-Sony Shared Library ​

4-Sony Setting Utility ​

5-Sony VAIO Event Service ​

6-VAIO Control Center ​

7-VAIO Power Management ​

8-Sony ISB Utility ​

9-Sony HDD Protection Filter Driver ​

10-VAIO CAMERA CAPTURE UTILITY ​

11-VAIO SMART NETWORK 2.1_ 2.1.00.07300 ​

12-PROTECTOR_SUITE_QL_5.6.2.4286 ​

13-WWAN_CONNECTION_MANAGER_2.3.0.630 ​

open each directory and only if it contains a setup file, like setup.exe or install.exe execute it.

11 - Goto Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update and select Check for updates (install everything, never update Nvidia driver, Windows update have a newone but not work)
11 - Reboot the system
12 - Open Vaio Network Utility and turn on WWAN
13 - Windows ask for drivers: as above select "All drivers" directory
14 - Reboot the system

Everything should work, including special keys, stamina swithc and Fn Keys
Tested on 3 VGN-Z21VN without problems.



Sorry for bad english..
Enjoy.
Carip.

 

My order was similar but slightly different (see the existing Win 7 on Z thread). My Z doesn't have the fingerprint swipe or camera. You are also missing the bluetooth stuff as well as the RAID stuff; with Windows 7 detected it, I still installed the Widcomm stuff.

Does your Fn + brightness work with the NVidia? It's the only thing those of us who have done it can't seem to get working.

 

how do you unpack all the drivers? all I get is .exe files... and using 7zip to extarct them doesn't give anything useful...

 

you can just double click and let them install; however the intel chipset driver you will have to install via compatibility mode (vista)

 

also, my Control Center freezes up whenever launched.. I didn't follow any specific order when I first installed 7... should I reinstall and follow the order above?

 

Hi, sorry for late response:
- I didnt install anything in compatibility mode
- Fn work in stamina and speed also
- I download the drivers from vaiolink website (Italy) some are with installer and some not (sometimes you have the installer and also the directory with the .inf and .sys)
- All application work correctly

I'm trying to create some videos...

Carip.

 

Awesome... I'll try to do it your way later tonight and report back with my findings... I think you're the first person to have EVERYTHING functioning correctly.

 

how about the link to drivers and utilities you used ! thank you

 

hey guys i have a guestion, i thought windows 7 doesnt support crossfire and sli gpu. what about this?
thnx for your response!

Zhihong

 

I didn't bother with the sony utilities. I don't use the brightness fn keys and the sound ones work just fine. Less processes for me

 

it would be really nice if you could create one zip package of all the drivers you downloaded and place them here for download.... will save a lot of people the time and confusion AND they will be grateful for your kindness

 

I'm in the process of trying what he did... although I didn't use the Italian site (used UK). If it works I'll zip everything and host it

 

thanks for that

 

Tried... I don't think I have all the stuff that he mentioned... my Fn key's don't work at all :\

 

i dont think italy drivers would be different do you ?

 

No, but I think I was missing some packages... or maybe I misinterpreted his directions :\

 

what we should be trying to get is the z 610yb drivers and utilities . 64 bit there selling computer at best buy but sony hasent posted driver or utilities yet .

 

probably this will be settled in a couple of days... I can change my brightness and volume via windows until then

 

I've just hit the same problem, installing Windows 7 on a UK Z11WN. I downloaded all the original drivers from this page:

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/down...ed.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=0&s=VGN-Z&m=3390

But it doesn't have the Sony Firmware Extension Parser or Sony Setting Utility (and possibly other stuff, I think that's all, but I haven't got any further yet). I also tried looking in C:\Drivers in my original Vista install, as the Sony site says they should all be in there already, but that directory doesn't even exist on mine. It also says they should be on the recovery disc, so I've just rebooted back into Vista and created a recovery DVD, but there's nothing on there either (or if there is, I can't find it). I also still have an Unknown Device in Device Manager, I have no idea what it is, and Windows can't find the driver for it in any of the files that I downloaded or on the recovery DVD. I guess the next thing will be to try other Sony sites for other countries etc, to see if the downloads exist there... unless anyone has any better ideas?

Edit: Just had a look at the downloads for the Z21WN instead, and that has a few more things:

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/down...lled.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=-1&s=-1&m=4502

Haven't got time to try it out right now, but I'm assuming that "SFEP Driver Sony" is the Sony Firmware Extension Parser. Could this be something that only exists on the Z21 series and not the Z11 though?

I still can't see anything that looks like it could be the Sony Setting Utility on there though.

Edit 2: OK just tried it, and the Unknown Device was the Sony Firmware Extension Parser. It installed with SFEP Driver from the second link above.

 

Eddy: Were you able to go through the OP's steps and get all the Fn keys to work in both Stamina/Speed settings? I haven't had time again to tinker around, but might this weekend...

 

No, I can't get the Fn keys to work properly either (or even brightness changing in Windows for that matter), and I'm still missing the Sony Setting Utility.

I just posted about both of these things in the other Windows 7 on VAIO Z thread, have a look here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4429210#post4429210

 

disable user account control slide the bar down to the minimum. then the fn keys work

 

I disable UAC but still no brightness key in speed mode !
But more important, half time I can't access internet or local machine through IE or Firefox (but ping is OK..very strange !)

 

Another one you can search for is the VGN-Z540 from esupport.sony.com. This includes all drivers (it is the CTO version of the Z). I got everything to work (only with UAC off), except for the brightness in the speed mode. Anyone come up with anything about this one?

 

Any comments on battery life with Windows 7? On my Latitude e4300 i noticed a good extra 1/2 hour.

 

So far really good. I'm still installing stuff though, so I'm not 100% sure how battery is.

 

Do vista drivers work with windows 7 or do u need 7 specific drivers? I dont see Windows 7 Drivers on SONY website.
thanks

 

Does anyone have trouble with Windows 7 and their wifi?

 

Where can I get the latest nvidia drivers that are going to work with windows 7? When on nvidia, I find that the fan kicks in alot and the video play is choppy and cpu usage is much higher. Doing identical tasks in Vista using the NVIDIA chip did not seem to cause this.

 

Oh no. I was thinking of installing Win 7 64-bit to hopefully solve wifi issues on my 64-bit Vista OS. Are you saying your having trouble or just asking?

 

has anyone got this sucessfuly working on win7 x64??? if so where did you get your drivers from?? cause if i try and download the VGNZ690 drivers it says these drivers were not meant for your system on my VGNZ540.

Thanks

 

You can use "universal extractor" to extract just the driver from the official sony x64 drivers and thus avoid the model check. Manually install those drivers.

 

Guys

I am attempting to install Windows 7 (7048 and 7057) onto two SOny Vaios, a TT11 VN-X and a Z21 WNB. In both instances the DVD runs and gets so far into the install and then asks for device drivers for the CD / DVD drive, I have searched far and wide and got nowhere I wondered if anyone had solved this problem?

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Kerry

 

installed win7 build7000 on my Z16 fine,
however 7057 seems to not allow it to install critical files such as

powermanagement
original function setting
setting utility series
vaio control center




ooh, used universal extractor, and then running the installers in compat mode works

 

god, its so sad sony makes it so complicated for users to make a clean install

 

Windows 7 64 bit on vaio Z working fine.

Ok guys, after formating my Z 5 times i have finally got windows 7 64 bit build 7057 to work perfectly with no problems, except for the usual brightness display not working on speed mode with the fn keys which you all know doesnt work yet.

The procedure is pretty strange, what i did was burn the win 7 onto a dvd and then instaid of pressing any key when it asks to boot from dvd, before the vaio image dissapears y holded down F11 and it seems to install any version of windows discarding the possible remains of software left from other versions.

After that i just looked for the 64 bit drivers, if anyone whants them ill post the download sight i found.

And thats it, works fine.

Let me know, regards, Jake

By the way, works great, photoshop opens in about 1 second!!! cs3

 

any idea when our window 7 going to "expire" ?

 

From the windows 7 Beta FAQ page:

"How long can I use the Beta?

The Windows 7 Beta will stop working on August 1, 2009.

To continue using your PC, please be prepared to reinstall a prior version of Windows or a subsequent release of Windows 7 before the expiration date."

 

Has anyone been able to dual boot vista and windows 7?

I have a z690, and I'm trying to keep my stable factory setting vista 64 bit, while adding windows 7 on another partition.

My 320 gb is already half full. So it took me a while to figure out how to defrag all the files (including system filing and MFT) to the outer rim of the HDD, and successfully shrink my current C:\ partition and create a new one with the freed up storage. (You really need some luck for this to really work)

However, since all the Z's (as far as I know) have EFI+MBR instead of BIOS+MBR, or EIF+GPT, which is required to have in order to install Windows 7 64 bit.

Since I would have to reformat the whole disk to GPT filing system if I want to install the 64 bit version of Windows 7, I decided to go with windows 7 32 bit, so I can keep my main stable vista partition intact.

However, my problem is, when I'm installing windows 7 32 bit, the installation would always get stuck at "expanding 0%", and I would get a error note saying something like file cannot be found or corrupted...

Has anyone else encountered this problem?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

 

Yes

It was easy for me when I used Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

Both Windows 7 32bit(7000) and 64bit(7057) installed fine for me on my Z590 by just creating space and making the secondary partition. Then installing W7 on the secondary partition.

I had a similar issue. Sounds like you got a bad ISO, there was one drifting around if I remember correctly. Or it could be a bad burn.

 

You can force the Z to boot the Windows 7 setup disc in BIOS mode, versus EFI mode. Just hit ESC when booting up to take you into the EFI boot manager and select the DVD-DRIVE, versus the ACPI(....) string.

I'm running Win7 7057 x64 no problems.

 

you didnt get any notification saying that you need a GPT filing system disk? Or you already formatted your disk in GPT?

hum...im gonna try that later. Will post if I encounter more problems...

This was supposed to be my off time fun project... now it's just turning into a nightmare where something goes wrong EVERY step along the way.

Thanks a lot for the tip.

btw, did you format your new partition with computer manager or with the Windows 7 installation dics? In other words, should I install that on a formatted partition (MBR) or a just a unformatted logic partition?

Thanks.

 

Exactly when do you hit ESC during boot up? I didn't see the EFI boot manager, and it just takes me straight to Windows 7 installation as before.

 

i usually just keep tapping it once the VAIO logo comes up. I think you can just hit ESC when the "press any key..." prompt comes up, then once again.

 

Yeah I don't know why.. mine worked without needing to do that. Maybe because I am using the (R3052M3) bios from the Z6**.

 

Sweet! After close to 16 hours of trial and error (yea I'm a bit slow...), I finally got a full working version of Windows 7 on my Z690.

Everthing works: card reader, Vaio control panel including all the fan settings, HDD protection, stamina/speed switch.

The only thing that doesnt work is the brightness shortcuts when I have UAC on, but when I turn off UAC, I don't get the awesome desktop gadets.... Oh, I also can't adjust brightness in speed mode...

Despite the minor glich, this is totally serves my purpose of having a barebone system for quickboot up while leaving my main Vista partiton intact, so I can dual boot depends on the situation. I can use Windows 7 on the go with the fast boot time and ability to set the fan to silent with Vaio battery max settings. And use my vista OS when I'm at the dorm.

Overall, I'm really pleased with Windows 7

 

Good job Jparity, agreed Windows 7 is fantastic.

You should be able to get sidebar and gadgets working with UAC disabled by downloading this reg file and applying it to your registry.

 

Awesome, thanks a lot!

Edit:

I just installed it. Works beatifully. Thank you Nautis!

 

Can I ask you a HUGEEE favor?

Could you please tell me what you did to install Windows 7 on z690 by creating a partition and keeping vista.

I would appreciate it a lot.

Also did you put Windows 7 32 o 64bit?

I'm downloading the 7068 version.
Anyone try it yet?

 

This may have already been stated within this thread and if it has i apologize. But what i found was an easy way to get around the GPT disc problem when i was upgrading my HDD/installing the 7000 beta was to use the sony recovery disc to get back to factory on the new drive (or using a legit vista install disc to install windows.) Don't even bother booting up into your new installation, reboot and perform a fresh install of 7; though instead of choosing a new partition or free space to create a partition choose the partition with the previously recovered/installed version of windows on it. Don't erase this partition just choose it when it asks "where would you like to install windows" and hit "next." It doesn't perform an upgrade, but it does move the existing windows folder and renames it "windows.old" which you then have to delete. For whatever reason it doesn't protest about the EFI/GPT when i go about it this way. Also, this whole process is sped up a ton if you're using usb keys instead of dvd media.