sony laptop downgrade

[davey6]

I have just finished downgrading a sony vaio laptop VGN-FE41S
from windows vista to windows xp pro.

all drivers i used can be found at a link at the bottom of this post
please note this is a big zip file as it holds all drivers i used.
these are a mix of old drivers from sony and new drivers from the install package

i found some drivers such as the sound ( sigmatel hd audio ) installed direct from the setup as i used a driver from a older model.
other such as the nvidia 7600 needed to be installed from device manager.
if you find that a driver will not load for you fully unpack it to a folder on your desktop then try the update driver from device manager.
please follow my advise here about installing drivers with no setup exe
http://www.davesdrivers.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=14

please note the following.
install the intel chipset driver first.
then the sata driver.
then use windows update over and over till your windows is fully up to date as that will install the driver for the built in webcam ( VGP-VCC4 )

then follow on with the nvidia driver, now i found i could force the standard forceware driver at nvidia for the " 7 " series on this laptop and it works 100%
to do that please follow this.
download the driver from nvidia.
make a new folder on your desktop name it nvidia
now double click the nvidia setup program and let it run to the point where it ask's where to install the files.
now browse to the folder you just made and select it.
continue with the unpacking and install .
it will fail to install with a warning no supported hardware.

restart the laptop.
now go into device manager and use the update driver.
browse to the folder with all the nvidia files in it and you now find it will pick the correct files and install the driver.
after checking the size of the zipfile it was a massive 140meg this might be a bit much for people on dail up trying to get the network lan card working on one of these sony's
so i have split the files down, you can now download what your looking for.


sony drivers Download

[coded]

I would like to know if it's possible to compress to a zip/rar the content of: http://www.davesdrivers.com/sonydrivers and give the link so i can download the full package of the drivers.
I also want to know if all the hardware of the Sony Vaio FE41S will work with the downgrade on Windows XP, including the special buttons on the laptop or the MMS Pro Reader.

Thanks.

[davey6]

sorry the main zip file i deleted from site for being to big, all drivers i used are listed in that folder.

I managed to get that laptop fully working all hot keys the lot.
its a mix and match of old and new drivers.
now i found you can install some vista drivers ( sounds crazy ) on xp if you use device manager , hotkey was like that so was bluetooh and card reader.
download both sets of drivers from sony.
http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/downloads...-FE&m=2550

plus the drivers i have listed and clear yourself a good four to five hours to work on the laptop.
xp loads a default driver for the built in cam the error that drives you mad in device manager is not the cam like most people think on these laptops its in fact the bluetooh, load the driver from device manager and the error clears.

[coded]

I really want to have all the drivers you used (reported here: http://www.davesdrivers.com/sonydrivers) in a folder on my machine instead of have to download file-by-file from your website as you imagine that will be stressfull... As i told you before i couldn't find any alternative method to download all folders...

So if you you can zip it again, host it, and give me the link so i can download it will be great! If you have hosting-bandwith problems with that please send me the link by email and then (when i finished download) i tell you and you can clean it from your hosting.

Thanks.

[davey6]

ok done i have re-zipped the drivers and uploaded them.

ZIP FILE DOWNLOAD

please note that as your from Portugal ( as per your email ) some of the hardware may differ from the uk version that i done.
if you find something will not work take a look at sony in Portugal for other drivers.
http://support.vaio.sony.pt/downloads/up...-FE&m=2550

[coded]

Soon i'm gonna downgrade that machine to XP since i need my computer to work, i think Vista is still very "buggy" and has some compatibility issues to be solved.

Just want to say :thankyou: .

[coded]

I did the downgrade. It's OK. Smooth with your help, but i have a problem with the webcam...
I did what you said about updating-over-and-over windows xp and it worked it install me a driver for the webcam. The problem is i can't use the webcam either with MSN or Vaio Camera Util or the Windows Explorer.

I'm with no errors on device-manager. But when i try to use the camera on Windows Explorer it says something like "Check if the device is connected or if it's in use by another user". On Vaio Camera Capture Util 2.1 the Camera is not listed and appears "no camera" on the Cam/Mic Selection...

I tried everything but i don't know what to do more... can you help?

[davey6]

when your on msn messenger open up its main page.
click tools, audio and video wizard.

run that wizard, it should pick up on the cam and use it.
if it finds the cam which it should it will then tell .net how to use it and you can then use it with explorer.

if that don't work let me know i will take a look at sony in Portugal and see if the cam differs from the uk version.
i may not be able to read the site but i should be able to work out what cam is in your laptop.

[coded]

It does not work. The only Device that appears is "Dispositivo de Video USB" (USB video device), but it does not work.

I posted a printscreen here, it's in portuguese but says something like: "Windows cannot established connection with this Web camera. Close any programs that might be using this camera and start the assistant again". But i am not using any programs that use this camera...

[davey6]

ok i will see what i can find out i know the cam was working on the one i done as i tested it in messenger,
i will have to look at sony in Portugal

[coded]

SOLVED with this drivers: http://www.geocities.com/coolvicky21/vgp-vcc4.zip .

But please if you are in the same situation read carefuly the instructions on the Readme.txt in the driver package or you will not be able to install the driver.

I'm now a happy guy on XP.

Thank you for all davey6.

[davey6]

i can see one problem with that driver someone has ripped out the 64bit files so the one listed at geocities is for 32bit windows only.
I have just gone one better then that and ripped out the full driver from the Original Drivers Package, this one will support both 64bit and 32bit windows.

please note these drivers must be installed from device manager and not the self install which is for vista.
if in doubt how to do that please read this link.
http://www.davesdrivers.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=14

by the way that driver is part of the Original Drivers Package listed at sony.

to save time i will upload the ripped driver i just done myself.
this driver will support xp 32/64 bit vista 32/64 bit

[evanmg7]

yay i got every driver i need xp is like a dream come true compared to vista! no joke!

[freeloader]

i still havent been able to get the webcam to work. i installed your 32 & 64 bit driver. the yellow exclamation mark isnt there but when i double click the webcam, it says its in use. and its not working with windows messenger.

now i cant manually install the op's 32bit driver.

---

how do i delete a driver permanently so that when i scan for hardware changes, windows doesnt automatically choose the driver i uninstalled?

i dont know why microsoft does this stuff.

[davey6]

did you do the downgrade on this laptop ?
if so windows update may have picked up on the cam and loaded a microsoft driver which has now overwriten the sony one.
if you go in to device manager, right click on the cam, select update driver then browse back to the unpacked cam files see if it will update its self once more.

you can always roll back the driver as well just in case windows loaded a life view cam driver which sometimes it does for some reason

you can always use system restore and roll back the laptop to a day before you installed the cam driver.
then reload it. but disable windows auto update in control panel.

[mdd66]

thank you