Sony Vaio SuperSlim problem

[Bill Park]

Hi guys!

I'm new here, so I want to appologie in advance if I violate any standing rules of conduct. It's not intentional.

I have bought a Sony Vaio, used from an on-line auction. It worked great. My buddy says, "reformat the hard drive." I think this is not a bad idea. This is the second Vaio that I have owned, and the drivers are on the website should something go awry.

I should point out that the seller DID say that the notebook had no recovery disks.

Long story short... it is a prototype. It has the model number of an R-505 JSK (UC) but it's components are those of an R-505 DS(P). Sony will not support it, and they don't want it back.

But they did sell me two sets of disks... those for the JK and those for the D... neither will work to restore the notebook. Both return errors that say the disks are not for the computer.

So I now have a doorstop. It will do video at about half size, in 8 bit only. No modem, no lan, no wireless lan, no real video support.

Anyone got any ideas about how I might get this working properly?

Thanks for your time.

Bill Park

After looking at the sony link

http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/...s/softupdates/

I'm assuming you're installing XP? Did you install the drivers from that page after installing XP? You didn't flash the BIOS did you?

[Bill Park]

Yes, XP... that is also what was on the machine when I got it..... (another issue making it obviously not a JK model, since K stands for Windows 2000 in their codes).

I'm not at all sure about the BIOS flashing thing... we might have. We've been pulling out hair in clumps since April about this box, trying everything that we could think of. But I am honestly not sure.

Bill

[PresterJohn]

>So I now have a doorstop. It will do video at about half size, in 8 bit only. No modem, no lan, no wireless lan, no real video support.

you should be able to load an os on the machine from the cd/floppy.

after that is done, install a pcmcia nic card like the xircom (you might have to disable some of the bios stuff like infrared,onboard modem/ethernet,etc to get it to work). w2k or xp has built in support of the xircoms (something older like win9x need the accompanying CD in the box).

once you have network connectivity, either download the R-505 DS(P). drivers (for video,modem,etc) directly to the laptop or to a shared folder and install the drivers manually.

[Bill Park]

>>you should be able to load an os on the machine from the cd/floppy. <<

Yes, the CD works, so I could load an OS there. I had done so at one point, actually. But I wiped it out when I got the Sony System Recovery Disks.

>>, install a pcmcia nic card like the xircom <<

What is the advantage to using a NIC over a CD?

>>(you might have to disable some of the bios stuff like infrared,onboard modem/ethernet,etc to get it to work).<<


That's part of the problem... none of the hardware works, or is recognised. No drivers. I get the DVD/CDRW to read CDs, and the video to work in a limited fashion, but that seems to be all.

>>once you have network connectivity, either download the R-505 DS(P). drivers (for video,modem,etc) directly to the laptop or to a shared folder and install the drivers manually.<<

I've tried this. Sony must have a header on the driver files, because the JSK files won't work (wrong hardware) but the DSP files don't work either... wrong header, I'm guessing.

Bill

[PresterJohn]

>What is the advantage to using a NIC over a CD

i suggested using a pcmcia nic card insted of the built-in one(if any) because it is easier to install. usually, the built-in nic uses a proprietary driver...something which seems to be verified by all your posts.

reinstall the os using the a micro$oft cd (not recovery) and then install the nic card and then you can try tackling the issue of find drivers for the rest of the stuff.

if the sony site has the drivers available for download, it should not check to see if the firmware is model specific. that is usually only true for using the recovery cds.

How about this -

If you can update the BIOS with the BIOS for the DS(P) the recovery disks should work for the DS(P) since the BIOS will tell the computer that it is a standard, run of the Sony mill, DS(P). I'd give it a try. Are you certain that the hardware in the system is exactly the same as the DS(P) model? If so, there should be no problem.

You may have problems getting the BIOS to flash. If so, try posting in the general tech forum for some help. More eyes get there.

[Bill Park]

>>If you can update the BIOS with the BIOS for the DS(P) the recovery disks should work for the DS(P) <<

I'll try this.

>> Are you certain that the hardware in the system is exactly the same as the DS(P) model? <<

I can't be 100% certain that -all- the parts are the same, but the stuff that's listed seems to be.

Bill

[Tomteriffic]

Bill, wish I could help you with this, and I've been keeping up with your headaches with this thing over at ProRec. Man, I hope some of these wizards can help you out, I know Sony has been no help at all.

Now, for the shameless plug: Anybody who needs to know about serious audio recording on a computer, take a trip over to the best site (IMO) on the web for this sort of stuff:

ProRec

Bill's a resident whiz over there.

Oh, and Bill, when it comes to the actual computer and potential problems, feel free to send the ProRec folks over here, they've done me a world of good

[Bill Park]

Thanks for the plug, and I will recommend this site, no doubt about it.

Bill