topic installing XP Pro on AR31M in PCs & Accessories

installing XP Pro on AR31M

carter040 — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:25:22 GMT

I'm trying to install XP Pro on my vaio ar31m (because of the issues mentioned in my previous thread)

I read the other threads on this issue on the site, read other postings on the web and tried the following

- slipstream the Si3132 drivers onto the XP installation CD
- load the Si3132 drivers from floppy (both vista ready drivers and older ones

The result i get is that the driver seems to load without error, but when i try to run the installation, win xp pro setup reports that it did not find any harddisks, and thus can't continue...

Anyone share the same experiences?

Yours sincerely,

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

carter040 — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:20:27 GMT

Ok, have to appologise

My Bad, because of the SATA mentioned in Device Manager, I assumed the driver folder named SATA (and Si3132 controller to be the hardware) on my C drive preinstalled....

After having a good look in the driver folder, I found a RAID driver, and checked the Device Manager, and found that this was the driver to use..

Small note, the list of available drivers is longer than the 4 that are initially shown, this put me off to choose the wrong one initially :smileyblush:

Now doing the XP install and loading the drivers from floppy pressing F6 to load SCSI/RAID drivers works like a charm

dont know if i'll have lots of issues for other hardware and drivers, but I will update this thread if major ones come along

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

jumpsuit — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:40:15 GMT

Thanks for the info!

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

carter040 — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:33:11 GMT

Ok, got XP on the system as mentioned...

now having issues finding XP drivers for the AR31M

Got the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 Go working, but seems not to have installed completely correct..

Any one know where to get a XP Driver set for the AR31M or a special XP Pro installation image that supports the devices properly?

Cheers,

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

Blencogo — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:56:34 GMT

I think your best bet is to download the Preinstalled XP Drivers and the Preinstalled XP Utilities for the VAIO VGC-AR21M - looks very similar in specification apart from Vista.

Has the same nVidia 7600 Go etc. Your only known problem is the WebCam which has been updated on the Vista models but as far as I know there are no known XP drivers.

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

carter040 — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:58:39 GMT

Hi Blencogo,

Your bet (using the ar21m drivers from XP), was one of the first things I tried, all drivers supplied with my ar31m, not compatible with XP, I try to use them from the ar21m, but allas, not sure if i'm getting there....

Webcam indeed not working yet,

Lots of issues with the video drivers (the preinstalled drivers from sony for the ar21m dont come with an installer, and it crashes my pc, so i have to uninstall using safemode..

Also the sound driver I have not been able to get working, it complains it cant find the device or so....

If I contact Sony, would they be able to supply me with any additional drivers / installation CD, or so...

The way I feel right now, is that this kinda takes the fun out of my VAIO, and renders it useless... (in the sense, cant count on it to function how i need it, when i need it) unless i keep it running all the time

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

Blencogo — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:31:28 GMT

I doubt if Sony will support XP on this machine. The BIOS is different for Vista and it would be my guess that Sony will not support anything but Vista on new machines and will therefore not release XP Drivers. If it were my machine I would expect Sony to resolve the faults within Vista. In fact, I see there is a Vista BIOS update to Version R0200J6 at Vaio-Link for your AR31M which addresses some of the problems with shutting the lid and standby.

If they ever do release XP drivers it will be (in my view quite rightly) after Vista drivers have been produced for all modern Vaio XP machines.

On the sound card not being recognised - remember XP does not support High Definition audio. You will have to install Hotfix KB888111 so that XP can recognise your sound chip and then it can install the drivers.

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

kee-lo_ — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:32:47 GMT

I agree with Blencogo, they'll probably never release them.

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

carter040 — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:07:49 GMT

Thanks for the info on the high definition audio issue with XP, I was not aware of this :smileygrin:

I've done some more attempts on installing drivers, and gradually (using the drivers for the AR21M, drivers that came with the AR31M (some are xp compatible), and downloading some) I got my AR31M working.

So now:
- Video -> OK
- Sound -> OK
- Wifi -> OK
- Lan -> OK
- Webcam -> OK (had some issues here )
- Bluetooth -> OK
- CardReader -> OK
- TV Tuner -> OK
- IR keyboard something for the remote -> OK (but no software that uses it :S haha)

Only thing missing now is that I cant control the brightness of my display using the [Fn]-key in combination with the keys on top of my keyboard 😞 any ideas on how to fix that? Do I need to install some tools or something?

Note that the XP installation does not seem to have the issues I have under Vista when recovering from sleep mode, my bluetooth mouse reconnects perfectly, and the cam also seems to function, also the wireless network reconnects quickly!!!

Yours sincerely,

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

Blencogo — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:54:53 GMT

You will need to download the Preinstalled Utilities for the AR21M and install these - they MUST be installed in this order to get the Fn Keys to work (and sometimes more than once!!):

1. Sony Utilities
2. Sony Shared Library
3. Vaio Event Service

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

M1000 — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:04:29 GMT

Hello everybody!

Also trying to install xp on my ar31m. Issues with thw drivers. Could anybody tell where can I find proper video drivers and how to install them?
Thank you very much!!
I have some more issues but for a start any help on this would be really appreciated.

regards :smileygrin:

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

costasp — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 06:51:23 GMT

Hi M1000,

I resolved this through this excellent site: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com although I see it's temporarily down at the moment. They post inf files that allow the unified NVidia Go drivers to recognize 'older models' like the AR31M's 7600 model. Here's the inf file I used: nv4_disp.inf. Just paste it into the root of the (unpacked) NVidia driver setup directory and the installer should recognize your video card.

It worked excellently for me. Good luck!

Costas

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

M1000 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:17:31 GMT

Hi costasp
Thanks for your help.
I have not tried very much yet, but for the moment this does not work for me. I downloaded those generic drivers. Inserted the inf you linked in the root directory and installed via device manager.
1.-During the installation process i am asked for some missing files
2.-Even if I find those files in some other version of nvidia drivers for 7600 go, the install process hungs, and i can be waiting for minutes while my computer does nothing but showing me that little folder flying from side to side........but actually my hdd is not working....

As I told you I have to continue trying but for the moment thats all i get......

Regards

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

costasp — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 05:53:36 GMT

Hello again M1000,

Don't install via the device manager. Remove/uninstall any old video drivers still in there and then simply use setup.exe in the NVidia driver install directory where you placed the inf file.

Once again, good luck!

Costas

Re: installing XP Pro on AR31M

M1000 — Tue, 08 May 2007 10:49:01 GMT

I have been away for a few days. Sorry for not answering before. Thanks again costasp for your reply. I finally got it working and just in case anyone is interested this is what I did.

1-I used the drives for the display that are under C:\Drivers . They are Vista drivers so...

2-I copied al the files that were included in the generic drivers costasp mentioned, and that were NOT included in the vista drivers, in that folder.

3-I copied costasp´s ini in that folder too.

4-Executed setup.exe in that folder and..............for the moment working great!!

I am not an expert in the drivers world so I do not know why this worked while other methods did not.
Just for your information....good luck!!
Regards

M1000