Windows XP on TZ90

It looks like there are a few of us who are trying to run Windows XP on the Vaio TZ90. Figured it would be a good idea to dedicate a thread to it.

So what have people gotten/not gotten working? We had originally had problems getting the 945GM video driver working, but now with the <a href = "http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=130621&page=16&highlight=tz90">tip from opus9[/URL] (Display property - Setting - Advanced - Monitor - Uncheck Hide modes that this monitor cannot display) we have full 1366x768 resolution.

Also, what experience have people had getting the TX drivers working? We downloaded the drivers for one TX model or another (don't remember which one) but failed to get any of the drivers to install using the model.txt hack or by extracting them with universal extractor and then trying to install them directly. Which specific drivers and installation methods have people had success with?

Finally, has anyone gotten suspend/hibernate working? What did you have to do for that?

 

You can use TX3 drivers for TZ as well like what you did exactly for your TX series.
To use them, I recommend to install at device manger directly rather than fake model.txt or using universal extractor. I don't remember exactly but you can use TX3 drivers for.. TPM, fingerprint, bluetooth, sound hotfix, touchpad.

Currently, I postponed to install XP perfectly because of my job but I don't have much trouble with current use of XP. Oh, I got one. Hibernation and standby do not work after I installed Sony Utilities. And maybe it's because Sony Powermanagement do not work properly.

In short, what I couldn't install or installed but doesn't work are
Hibernation
Standby
Some Fn-keys

 

Does anyone have an update on this? Has anyone gotten XP to run? If so what is missing and what did you do?

 

Guess what everyone I have installed XP on my TZ90, everything works except the power management which I don't miss because of some third party apps that will do the speedstepping and what not.
I even got the camera working. It is very easy to do, the drivers that sony released on their website for VGN-TZ160C are made for both XP and Vista. All you have to do is set the models.txt file to the VGN-TZ160C and have fun!

 

do the hotkeys work in xp as well?

like switch the switching resolution hotkey, external display and the volume keys?

 

Volume and mute work no issues. I set the hot keys in the intel display adapter to do the switching of the display from lcd to crt. Those keys do not work in xp with he sony software. The dim display does not work either.

 

Is more responsive the TZ with XP?
Can you guys compare the two OS in this lappy?

 

Hands down XP is much faster, total boot time from sony bios to xp desktop with apps loaded is 20 seconds on my ssd. VIsta was more like a minute. The actual os is much faster doing day to day tasks less load on the CPU and memory usage.

 

thats great to hear. wonder why your startup time took so long on vista. mine is 40 to 45sec. on home premium.

I actually haven't had any problems with vista so far and I like the system a lot and its visual and it runs butter smooth and no lags at all to my surprise, the speed is even a bit faster than my thinkpad running xp pro.

however, its good to know that if I need to, I can go back to xp since I have MCE2005 on hand with working drivers from TZ160C, good tip.

I'm sure another benefit to using xp is perhaps a bit longer in battery life.

One thing I do NOT like about vista is the wireless manager interface. Are there any programs out there that can manage your wifi like the one found in the thinkvantage suite? (sorry a bit off topic)

 

How is battery life in XP compared to Vista? Thanks

 

XP should give you about 10~20% increase in battery life

 

It would be awesome if it did. Can anyone who actually has XP installed on the TZ give any more info?

 

I finally got around to installing the sony power management tools in xp last night. I have been doing some testing and with the smallest battery I am getting around 2:50 on the vaio ultimate battery setting using Wifi and I have the second HD instead of the cdrom and I upgraded the HD to a 7200 rpm one so there is a little more draw on the battery from there.

 

Thanks for the info! How does this compare to the battery life you were getting on Vista?

 

anyone get the bluetooth working in xp ? i installed the original toshiba bluetooth stack but still couldn't find the bluetooth.

 

Works fine here. Had issues with BT you need to use the vista drive from the sony esupport site for the tz190 (or whatever the us model is) you need to do the model.txt trick, run the installer and it works fine.

 

Huh. Ok, we managed to get the camera working by installing the TX160C Vista driver directly from the driver manager. Haven't had as much luck so far with Suspend/Hibernate, though. Any ideas on those? Which set of drivers to install, best method (does the model.txt method work on XP? It keeps overwriting the file on us.) for install, etc?

Thanks.

 

on my vaio tz, xp actually recognized the camera without additional drivers.

I only have problems on the TPM drivers right now. and I didn't use the model.txt method.

 

Windows XP on TZ - just bought the TZ (actually Celeron version -PCG4L3N). No function keys or fingerprint work. Does anybody know which drivers I can use to get this puppy purring?

 

Hi guys,
I just got my TZ90, and since im hunting for XP drivers, i was wondering: Where is the model.txt should be located and what is the correct syntax? (I don't have it so i might as well create it...)

 

for xp drivesr, try to download the tx3 drivers online from sony's uk site.

anyone know how to adjust the screen brightness under xp?

 

I couldn't get the screen brightnesses to work, I have up on it. I just set the brightness in the sony power management profiles and switched between them when I wanted to dim the screen.

 

To update: standby and hibernate still crash my machine with the TXN XP drivers, the TX3 drivers from the UK, the UX180 drivers, and the TZ160C drivers.

 

I also have the confusion on installation of xp,does the driver for the old tx really work well and stable?

 

sony is so annoying,why don't they offer the xp driver? (even the capable driver at least)

 

How about using the drivers from the SZ?

 

Here's a japanese site that details the installation of xp on the tz. I've run it through babelfish and looks like he got everything working.

http://tinyurl.com/36gtqa

While I'm fairly happy with vista, I still find certain things like java, flash, and dual screen output slower than xp. So I may give xp a try.

Edit: here's another xp conversion from japan:

http://tinyurl.com/2k4g6a

 

I also managed to get all things working. Including brightness controls, wireless switcher, resolved problems with hibernate and suspend.

See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=143899