topic Installing XP on N21E/W in PCs & Accessories

Installing XP on N21E/W

spwyatt — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:38:47 GMT

Hi - I'm having great trouble finding the right drivers for Win XP on a VGN-N21E/w

It came with Vista Home Premium, but as I don't like Vista and need to join a domain, I installed XP on it. OS runs fine, but I'm missing drivers for Sound, Video, Ethernet, Wirelss, chipset and power managemnent. Some of the Vista drivers seem to install OK and then it says "the device has a problem" and I get the little yellow exclamation mark next to the device.

I've searched the web fruitlessly for XP drivers for this laptop. Do any exist?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

Blencogo — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:22:05 GMT

Hi spwyatt and welcome.

They don't exist and Sony will not support XP on Vista preinstalled laptops. Make sure you create Recovery Discs because you will have to return the Vaio to it's Vista configuration if you ever have to make a warranty claim.

In theory your VGN-N21E/W looks identical in specification to the VGN-N11H/W except for the installed Operating System - so the XP Preinstalled Drivers and Preinstalled Utilities for that model will be the best you can get.

You can download these from Sony Vaio-Link N11H Downloads

I undertand this has worked OK for most Vaio models. However, I have heard of one or two problems with getting the N21-Series Vaios to work successfully with XP.

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

spwyatt — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:49:37 GMT

Many thanks for that. I'll give it a go. Just another quick question - I've put XP on an FE41Z for a mate... most drivers all work fine (some are FE31Z drivers), except hotkeys. Any ideas?

I thought this would be useful: http://www.djvagon.co.uk/sonyhotkeyutility.html

Sadly... it doesn't work 😞

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

Blencogo — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:04:32 GMT

Download the XP Preinstalled Utilities for the FE31Z from SONY VAIO-LINK DOWNLOADS. Again the FE31Z is identical to the FE41Z except for the OS so all the downloaded drivers and utilities should work.

Expand the download into a temporary file - something like C:\Utilities

You need to install the following Utilities - they MUST be installed in order: -

1. Sony Utilities (Folder 1)
2. Sony Shared Library (Folder 2)
3. Vaio Event Service (Folder ?)

You may have to install them in order more than once - sometimes takes a few goes!!

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

spwyatt — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:13:38 GMT

Download the XP Preinstalled Utilities for the FE31Z from SONY VAIO-LINK DOWNLOADS. Again the FE31Z is identical to the FE41Z except for the OS so all the downloaded drivers and utilities should work.

Forgive my stupidity.... but those folders don't have an EXE file in them, or an INF, or indeed anything that can be run and installed! This is what I have:

Directory of D:\FE3_Utilities\Utils\Utils Installer 1 SonyUtils DLL

17/05/2007 02:12 .
17/05/2007 02:12 ..
12/10/2005 17:10 535,931 data1.cab
12/10/2005 17:10 12,174 data1.hdr
12/10/2005 17:10 224,592 data2.cab
26/07/2002 03:07 346,602 ikernel.ex_
12/10/2005 17:10 452 layout.bin
12/10/2005 17:10 147,569 setup.inx
05/10/2005 13:09 48 vssver.scc
8 File(s) 1,267,368 bytes
2 Dir(s) 9,805,111,296 bytes free

... and the same extensions in the other folders too. Heeelppp!!

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

Blencogo — Fri, 18 May 2007 22:06:33 GMT

Hi spwyatt,

How are you unpacking the zip file? If you extract the files from the zipped download using Windows or something like WinRAR you will see an executable Setup.exe

Thank youi Rich912 for the info and the screenshot.

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

spwyatt — Mon, 21 May 2007 13:55:10 GMT

That directory lsiting IS from the unpackaed ZIP file. All the Utils folders have similar files, none of them have a setup.exe in them. Any ideas anyone?!?

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

Blencogo — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:00:49 GMT

Hi spwyatt - I don't know what you are doing but I have just downloaded the whole FE3_Utilities file and everything looks normal to me with EVERY folder containing a Setup.exe file.

Are you sure you are following the usual instructions?

Download FE3_Utilities
Right-Click on the downloaded FE3_Utilities file and choose "Extract All.."
Select a directory for the extracted files (here I have just selected the default directory C:\Users\Public\Downloads)
When extracted, ALL the folders have a Setup.exe

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

spwyatt — Tue, 22 May 2007 19:53:56 GMT

That's so weird. Downloaded it again and it's all extracted OK this time, with the EXEs included. Very strange!

Thanks for you help. Will report back on my installation attempts!!

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

Blencogo — Tue, 22 May 2007 20:01:04 GMT

That's good news spwyatt - could be a glitch in the download.

Good Luck - hope it works OK.

Re: Installing XP on N21E/W

spwyatt — Thu, 24 May 2007 15:39:49 GMT

YES! All works nicely. Many thanks for your help.

What are all the other bits and pieces in the Utils folder? Do I need any of them? Vista had a nice little power management icon in the system tray, not sure how to get that back, if indeed its available in XP. But certainly the machine it a lot more sprightly with XP!

I'll maybe go back to Vista after SP1 comes out.....!