XP Downgrade for Z series

Has anyone that ordered a Z series with Vista Business been able to get the XP downgrade from Sony??

I am awaiting my Z520N/B (couldn't pass up the $1600 offer from Amazon!) and was wondering how to get the media to downgrade.

TIA

 

I hear it will take some time to ship to those who've requested it. It should be included in the box from the start as it has been for some Vaio TZ models.

Its a shame the XP downgrade only applies to the Vaios with Vista Business.

 

^

Yeah, but all the pre-config models from newegg, amazon, etc all come with Vista Business. I wouldn't buy it straight from sony anyways because they charge full msrp.

Has anyone called sony? Just want to know what kind of response they got from a CSR....

 

I ordered the downgrade CD via the web and it said I would get an email when it ships out. It's been a week and no email or CD. I called Sony to get support on XP drivers and they told me that XP drivers are not yet available and that I should check the web often to see when the drivers are available on the web. Does that mean I wont get the CD until the drivers are available?

 

Is this XP downgrade CD the only way you can get XP installed on the Z? I tried to do a clean install of XP several times but I always come across a BSOD after I hit any key to boot from the installation CD.

 

No, it should work with your own XP cd. Did you check your BIOS settings for the HDD?

I thought there were a bunch of XP drivers on the VAIO support site?

 

The BIOS settings don't have much. I know on my previous laptop I had to change a setting in the drive controller. In the Z, there are really no advanced settings you can change. The CD I have should work. I just cleaned my desktop with it.

 

Maybe the SATA setting on the Z is locked in AHCI. I don't really know as I don't have my Z yet.

 

I believe that's the exact setting I had to change in my other notebook. Unfortunately, the Z has no such option in the BIOS. Again, it's literally a very simple BIOS feature set.

I guess it's not a big deal for me as I can run everything in Vista fine. I already removed the partition I set aside for XP to create additional room for Linux. I'm just curious as to how some users got XP installed. Those who I asked never responded to my msgs but no matter.

 

To Hybr1dz:

I have XP on my Z but it was a simple downgrade with Sony downgrade-CD. But I also wanted 2 working XP-system on my Z - this CD doesnt allow this. So I tried to make a clean install with my own CD just like you. And had the same problem with blue screen. To fool my Z I just made the copy of entire XP-partition with Acronis true image home and put it to the second partition. Here we go: 2 working XP systems.

But later somewhere on this Sony forum I saw a topic where some person had the same Blue screen problem with his VAIO and he suggested that this is connected with the SATA2 drivers for the harddrive which should be integrated somehow on XP cd!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=265992
Look at step 4.


I didnt try this because I`ve got everything working anyway.

 

XP cannot install to the hard drive, since it doesn't have the right driver on the XP CD. As indicated in the link above, you can integrate the SATA driver using nLite or you can put it on a floppy and use F6 during the XP install to supply the drivers. Of course, the Z doesn't have a floppy. A USB external floppy drive should work. Failing that, here's a guide on doing the nLite integration.

 

Found the link for ordering the XP downgrade media:

https://www.qdirect.net/Sony/Terms.aspx

 

Thank you for the responses!

I figured I had to somehow integrate the SATA drivers on to the XP CD. I didn't do this because I had a feeling it still wouldn't work. Why? The BSOD shows up even before the point where I can hit F6 to use a floppy (or an emulated floppy) to load a driver. It happens right after I hit any key to boot from the CD. The error is STOP : 0x00000072 if I remember correctly. It corresponds to a failure to change drive letters.

Anyway, thanks for the input. I apologize to sleey0 for hi-jacking your thread. I didn't order an XP downgrade CD so I can't help you with that. I hope it gets to you soon!

 

No problem - I have hijacked a thread or two in my day

My Z520 will be here on Wed and I'll order the media the same day. Will keep everyone updated....

 

I just got an email today saying the Vista downgrade CD will be sent out today by Fedex. Has anybody else tried the downgrade to XP (using official Sony CDs) and found any problems with installing and compatability with drivers? Or does the downgrade CD install everything flawlessly, and contains all the Vaio tweaks for the varoius hardware installed on the Z?

I am very tempted to downgrade, as I've encountered lot of software compatibility problems with Vista with some older software.

 

I will be getting my CD in an hour or so, I'm trying to decide if I want to keep trying Vista or go back to what I trust. I dont like the fact that I have to reboot to use Speed mode in XP, but can do it on the fly in Vista. I doubt that that issue has been resolved. Since I'm currently having issues with Vista, I'll probably downgrade. I'll let you know what happens and please do the same.

 

I can't speak for the US build (which is likely a bit different I guess), but the UK build of the XP downgrade worked flawlessly for me, following the instructions at www.vaio-link.com.

You basically install XP SP2 and some essential hotfixes by booting from the downgrade disc, then install the drivers from their website in the order listed and finally install the utilities in the order listed. Obviously you don't need to install any utils that you won't find useful but some of the earlier utils are prerequisites for the later ones (hence the order being important).

You might like to save some time by downloading the drivers and utils zip packages in advance from Sony's website (you need to register using your product code and serial number, found on a barcode sticker on the bottom of your machine).

The next thing I did was installing XP SP3 and then Windows Update, etc. I also installed Office 2003 and Adobe CS3 - both of which had several hundred meg of updates to download themselves too.

XP seems to run very smoothly, though. Arguably not as pretty as Vista, but my startup/shutdown/hibernate times are a fraction of what they were under Vista and performance seems snappier overall.

 

Where are you guys seeing the option to order the downgrade disk?

When i go to https://www.qdirect.net/Sony/Terms.aspx all i see is a offer for TZ & SZ models downgrade disks.

 

You choose the model # VGN Z590N (for me) is all way last

Anyway, I think with XP the HDMI is supposed to not work? (Sony site says 'maybe not work')

can anyone who installed XP on their Z please test out the HDMI?

 

So I just got the XP downgrade CDs.
The package contains two "Recovery DVDs" of Windows XP Professional SP3.

Anybody care to put up a link to that official Sony website that contains "advantages and limitations of the Windows XP downgrade scheme"?

The back of the package says I can find this at www.esupport.sony.com, but I couldnt' find it.

 

So here's the link with advantages/disadvantages of the downgrade. It is for SZ660N, but the tech said it applies to the Z500 series as well.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=VGNSZ660N&news_id=221

Frankly, Sony doesn't seem to want to bother with XP much at all, as many of the hardware won't function properly!

However, this post is a year old, and I am reluctant to trust these Tech support guys. Maybe one of you guys can downgrade, and then post your experience. I will hold off on downgrading myself.

 

I'd say that article is irrelevant. Certainly doesn't make my experience with XP on my Z. The fingerprint reader, hotkeys, etc, all work fine...

The only thing of importance that I haven't tested is HDMI, because I don't have a capable device to plug in to.

Most of the Sony utilities work just fine, e.g. the power management, wireless switch setting utility, etc. The UK XP version of WWAN utility is arguably better than the UK Vista version, because it's not locked to T-Mobile.

 

Hi, I apologize upfront for double posting (here and in "clean install.." by PhilFlow) but I just found this thread and I think it might be more appropriated for my questions. My Z570 is arriving tomorrow and I’m planning on installing XP ASAP. I’d like to have a really clean install with only the indispensable Sony utilities. Does anyone know if the XP downgrade disk that comes with the Z 570N bought in USA comes with a lot of blotware? Has anyone tried the PortableOne (P1) downgrade disk for the Z series? For what I learned from their support it is a very lean disk image with only a few indispensable programs.
Any comments will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
R