Installation of Vista on Sony Laptops (TX17GP)

[mlai]

Hello,
I have been using Vista x64 on my desktop and the installation and setup
was relatively painless. Now I am going to put Vista x86 on my Sony VAIO
(TX17GP) which is a one-year-old machine..... Does any gurus here have any
experience or pointers for me? I am concerned mainly about the multimedia
keys and hotkeys on the laptop. Will they work? Any procedures that I
should follow (I already made an image of my XP via Acronis.....)

Many thanks in advance

Marshall

 

[Jeff Schafer]

I tried on a Sony VAIO PCG-GRT360ZG which is a little older then your model.
Vista installed fine but soundcard didn't work, network card either.
Hotkeys and volume didn't work as well. Other then that everything worked
great I'm waiting before I install on that machine again. Luckily I
made an image with Livestate Recovery Workstation prior to loading with
Vista.

I have Vista installed on a Dell Inspiron 6400 (what I'm on right now) and
I have 0 issues. Everything is 100% functional.

Jeff Schafer

 

[mlai]

Thanks. I am putting Vista on my TX17GP right now will will post on my
experiences. Hopefully shed some light on people wanting to install on the
VAIOs......

 

[Jeff Schafer]

Looking forward to your posts. I think it's really just a matter of waiting
for drivers, hopefully in January. I've seen most vendors state that their
new drivers supporting Vista (fully functional ones) won't be released until
mid Jan to Feb 2007 timeframe. It's fustrating because it's hard to test
systems when functional drivers aren't even available to make a system
testable. At the same time, I'm glad I've been exposed to Vista earlier
than most of the public simply because I need to get used to all the new
ways of doing things...I can live without a fully functional sound card or
hotkey for a few months


Jeff

 

[Joe Zapert]

I have a Sony VGN-FX180P, which is a year old now. I took the plunge and
installed Vista x86; everything actually worked out great. The only three
features that aren't working for me are: hotkeys, sony custom power
management including laptop lid-open (lid-close works and so does all of
Vista power management), and the Memory Stick adapter.

I was really surprised to see that even the (incredibly overpriced) Somy
bluetooth USB adapter works!

(My laptop experience was MUCH smoother than the Vista install on my
home-built desktop which has SATA drives. Oh, what a nightmare!)

 

[mlai]

Yes installation wasn't that bad. However, I have since moved back to my XP
as:
1) The 915GMS is just too slow for Vista.
2) Hotkeys are very import on my TX17GP as the machine is so small that
even the physical button to eject the dvd is hard to press.....
3) Having problems playing DVD with Windows Media Player even with Nero
installed. Nero Showtime can play the DVD just fine, however.
4) Sound is stuttering during startup.
5) Playing DVD (with Nero showtime) is jerky even with Hardware
acceleration enabled. Playing the same DVD on XP (either WMP11 or
intervideo 5) was smooth as silk......
6) The native Vista BT stack is BT1.2 at best and I need BT2.0 features
and A2DP........