How to get Vista working on your Sony SZ

Technology | Thursday 15 February 2007 1:37 pm

Even though I got Vista to work with my Sony SZ notebook (VGN-SZ381p), my machine has still unstable due to the beta drivers I was using. 

Thankfully, Sony finally released non-beta versions of all their utilities and drivers.  Since some of the Sony utilities depend on others to be install beforehand, the install order is critical.  I just wish sony would include a setup wrapper to do the installation in the correct order. 

But since we don’t have that list, I thought it was worth giving the installation order that worked for me and direct links to all the installers.

  1. Sony Utilities DLL Update
  2. Sony Shared Library Update
  3. REBOOT
  4. VAIO Event Services Update
  5. SigmaTel High Def Audio Codec Update
  6. VAIO Camera & Camera Utility Update
    1. I’ve been told that this driver is only for the US models. For non-US models, go to the Sony support site and specifically search for your model to make sure you’re getting the right driver.
  7. VAIO Control Center
  8. Sony Utility Series
  9. VAIO Power Management
  10. Wireless Switching Utility
  11. Texas Instruments® PCI7411 Integrated FlashMedia Controller Driver (Sony support told me this is the XP driver but works for Vista)
  12. Sony® Visual Communication Camera VGP-VCC2 Driver (XP driver)
  13. ALPS Pointing Device (Touchpad) Driver and and Control Utility (Updated 3/2. Previously had the XP version, which worked, but this is the ‘official’ Vista version)
  14. UPek TouchStrip Driver (for your fingerprint reader)
  15. GeForce Go7400 Drivers
    1. Optionally you can use the updated driver direct from NVidia which is version 100.40.  You can snag it from our friends at LaptopVideo2Go.com from this link.
  16. Intel GMA950 driver
  17. REBOOT
  18. Sony Utility Series update (updated 3/14)
  19. REBOOT
  20. Power Management v2.0 update patch (Added 2/21)
  21. REBOOT
  22. Infineon Trusted Platform Module (TPM) driver+software (Added 3/1)

Other:

  • Intel Pro Wireless Drivers
  • Bluetooth
    • Don’t need any special drivers since the Microosft Bluetooth stack works so well. 

Notes:

  • I still can’t get the FN+brightness keys to work. I’m continuing to work on this to see why this is the case.  When I was at CES, I saw SZ series notebooks at the Sony Booth where this did work so clearly I’m missing something.
    • However, the brightness can still be controlled via the Vista Mobility Center.

Hope this helps someone! 

Tags: , , , ,

1 response

  1. shahine.com/omar/
    February 15, 2007 at 2:06 pm

7 comments »

  1. Franky — March 3, 2007 @ 8:11 am

    Hi

    I had the problems with the FN-Keys, too. Solution: After the install of the Vaio Power Management, change the energy type from vista energy mode to Vaio Power Management Mode e.g. VAIO optimized. (I have only the german version of the SZ, so I don`t know exactly the english term). After switching the energy mode, press the FN-Keys. Now, it should work…

  2. Trevin — March 3, 2007 @ 11:30 am

    Franky, thanks for the tip. For some reason, the “VAOI Optimized” power mode doesn’t always show in the battery/power options. 99% of the time, I only have 3 options shown:

    1. Balanced
    2. Power Saver
    3. Performance

    When “VAIO Optimized” mode is shown, “Balanced” is replaced by it. No idea why it’s sporadically being shown.

  3. EDUARDO — March 15, 2007 @ 8:59 am

    Please,
    I bought the VAIO VGN SZ491N/X, but I think my bluetooth doens’t work properly. I had a microsoft bluetooth but it doesn’t work with this machine. Could you help me ?

  4. Trevin — March 15, 2007 @ 9:20 am

    Eduardo: Make sure you are downloading drivers from the Sony page specific to your model:

    http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNSZ491N&UpdateType=Everything

    Specifically, it looks like you should use this for Bluetooth:

    http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNSZ491N&upd_id=2396&os_id=29

  5. shane — October 19, 2007 @ 2:15 pm

    I never posted this here back in feb2007, THANK YOU. Sony was totally flat when it came to getting this running and you saved me ALOT of headache. thanks!

  6. David — April 9, 2008 @ 2:27 pm

    Any updates a year later? I have a Sony VGN-SZ1XRP. Installed Vista Ultimate and all your files and still, the FN doesn’t function.

    Sony support is completely useless. They first tried to tell me to install XP drivers until I pointed out that they were for XP and then they told me that its “third party software”.

  7. Peter — May 8, 2008 @ 1:23 pm

    Excellent blog - what a help this was! The only issue that I am having is that I cannot seem to be able to install the Harddrive protection. Any suggestions?

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment