XP Clean Install Question on Old Sony Laptop

I have a 3 year old VGN-FS550 that I thought I would wipe and clean install with XP. I have an original XP Home CD/license that is now not being used and the FS550 came with XP Home. I installed XP and then the Sony drivers. Obviously, since it is original, there are a TON of updates. I got to about #3 or 4 out of the first 15 (a security update) and it got hung - just sat there, no drive activity. Can't even get to SP2. Restarted a couple of times and it keeps sticking on the security updates.

Should I install XP> XP Updates>Sony Drivers - or should I try to install XP>Sony Drivers and then the XP updates?

 

Just download the stand alone SP3, then install that, it will include all other updates.

 

Thomas - BTW, even with SP3 you have to have SP1 (now SP1a) installed. I found a link to it and I am loading it now.

 

Try installing drivers first. Also, you may need to get a list of the _Sony driver updates and correlate the dates of those updates with the XP updates, because some of the _Sony driver updates were made in response to certain XP updates (I've had that issue with my vaio - one of the original Z1s).

The most straight-forward would be updating XP directly to SP3; however, it might be a good insurance policy to make sure that you have a copy of each of the three major XP updates (SP1, SP1a, SP2, SP3) just in case you need to update to a particular point, and then update a particular _Sony driver.

Other than that, don't waste your time doing each XP update chronologically - I've done it (twice ), and it's a waste of time since all of those updates are rolled up into the service packs. So, as I emntioned, it would be best to have the SPs downloaded separately and ready to install by hand should the need arise.

 

Remember with a Sony there is always more than just drivers needed to get everything to work properly. There are always things like the SONY shared library that are technically not drivers, but are needed nonetheless.

And also the order in which you install these other items and the drivers is VERY important.

Gary

 

(Gary - forgot to hit the enter button a while ago - typed this before you replied)

I ended up as follows: Original XP Home > SP1a > SP3 (did it last night Shyster1 b/f I saw your reply) > Sony drivers in the order of this old thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=23073. All seems to be working very well so far - most importantly, all the Sony function keys work!

Man - I wish I had done this years ago!