SZ4 Drivers

[gavin.orlicki@bamford.co.uk]

Hi have purchased a Sony Vaio laptop SZ4 pre-built with Windows Vista. What is Sony's commitment to supplying alternative operating system drivers? reason i ask is that i have a corporate policy that stipulates windows xp pro. I dont think this is an issue for me and actually i would prefer to run this OS for security and stability reasons. I have re-built my laptop to run windows XP pro and have access to some of the older SZ1,SZ2 and SZ3 laptops which i can gain 80% functionality. I have a working video driver, chipsets, wireless, wired LAN. only things that currently dont work are is the Sound card, Modem and hotkeys above the keyboard. I want to get this sorted and Sony support seem to be blind to this and currently believe the MS Vista rules the world of PC's and is stable and secure enough to support corporates which goes completely against past experiences with MS OS's.

Anyone else run into similar problems or have a solutions for drivers for the above things?

[Blencogo]

Hi Gavin and welcome to Club Vaio.

Like it or not, Sony will not support your Vaio if you change from the originally installed operating system (with the exception of the Vista Express Upgrade Scheme) - it may even invalidate your warranty and you will need to make sure you have made Recovery Discs to reinastall the original OS if you need a warranty repair.

For your soundcard, have you installed the Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for high Definition Audio (KB888111) first? This allows the sound chip to be recognised and the drivers to be installed. XP does not support HiFi generically.

For the hotkeys you need to install the XP Sony Utilities in the correct order

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

You may have to do this more than once - Download the XP Utilities for the SZ3 Vaio.