Vaio FE21S XP Professional Installation

[MED1975]

Hi guys,

First post and first Vaio.

Whilst I am liking my laptop to bits I can't help but want to install XP Pro on it instead of MCE.

I wrongly assumed that this would be very easy -

• Create restore disks - just in case
  
• Format the HDD including the recovery partition
  
• Install XP Pro
  
• Use the drivers on the restore disk and run MS updates
  

But as I found out this did not work. I could not get many of the drivers to work, such as the modem and audio. This has left me pulling my hair out (and I dont have much of that left) with frustration. And finally when I go to shut the PC down it just hangs and does not turn off properly.

I have therefore had to recover the PC with the recovery disk I made (phew) and am living with all the additional software Sony assume I need (No thanks I'll choose what I want to install myself)

Anyway - has anyone got this laptop and has anyone managed to get XP Pro installed so that it runs the same as it does when it came out of the box but without all the additional crud that comes preinstalled?

Thanks in advance

TB

[electrolyte]

Hi TB. I did just what you did and tried to install XP Pro on my FE21H and boy was it difficult! Some of the drivers wouldn't work for me either. The way I got round this problem was to go to Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager. Look for anything under Other Devices. They should all have a yellow question mark and say things like "Unknown Audio" or something similar. Double click on each one and then there should be a button that says Install or troubleshoot (I forget which one). Press it and XP Pro will launch the found new hardware wizard and if you get the computer to search for a driver it will find one. At least it did for me. Good luck!

[William]

Windows MCE is XP Pro with extra bits, so why even try?

It will probably end in tears

BTW I use Vista :smileygrin: