Trying to find driver for Sony under Windows XP

[Laurel]

I've installed Windows XP Pro on a Sony PCG-R505GL notebook. The picture no
longer fills the physical screen, and the Device Manager shows this:
? Other devices
PCI Modem
Video Controller
Video Controller (VGA Compatible)

My problem is I don't know which of the many downloads on the Sony web site
is/might be applicable. None are specifically for this problem, although
some look general enough to contain this fix. The PC is no longer under
warranty, and I haven't heard back from the e-mail I sent to Sony. I'm
hoping maybe someone in this group has had the same experience and just
happens to remember which download to use. I started out with one that
looked like a possibility, but it was loading at 758 bytes/minute, so I
figured I couldn't afford to experiment.

Someone (Steve, I believe) told me in an earlier thread that XP Pro and XP
ME don't use the same drivers. Are we really sure of that? I still have
home installed on another partition, but the OS has gone flakey and one of
the symptoms is that the device list doesn't stay open. I click "device
manager," and I see the window and list of devices flash very briefly, but
it closes right away. Anyway.... no possibility of finding the driver in
the "Home" area and copying it to the "Pro" area?

TIA
Laurel

 

[R. McCarty]

Download/Install & Run Everest Home Edition. It's an inventory
tool for determining the contents (Hardware/Software) on your
PC. This will give you a list of exactly what hardware is in your
computer.
Once you have that you can find the drivers for your specific PC.
While some vendors have their own "Customized" drivers, most
PCs are built from "Off-the-Shelf" components so for things like
Video you might get drivers directly from the Manufacturer. (Like
ATI, nVidia).
You likely need a Chipset driver before installing the base items.
The Everest report will display the Chipset in use on your PC.
Everest Home Edition download here:
http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=3

 

[Chris Catt]

Hi, according to the specs here
http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Sony VAIO R505GL SuperSlim Pro Laptop Computer:1990924568:page=details
it uses an Intel graphics chips driver for which can be got from Intel or go
here http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-list.pl?template=EN&mdl=PCGR505GL
these should be the drivers you require...
ChrisC

 

[Laurel]

Thanks... getting there. If I went to the Intel site, would it be so simple
as to look for "Intel graphics chip driver?"
The other URL you gave me is the one that sent me to this users group.
There are so many downloads there, and I can't tell which one might contain
the driver that would solve my problem.
Can you tell from that site which download I should use?

TIA
LAS

 

[Nepatsfan]

Your video driver is available here:

http://tinyurl.com/4ygyt

You're also missing the driver for your modem:

http://tinyurl.com/67h5g

 

[Laurel]

Thanks. I did download it, but when I click on Windows Devices, I see the
same "other devices" display that I described in my original posting. When
I look in "Physical Devices", I'm not able to identify what video device
might be relevant. The categories I see there are:
PVI devices, PnP devices, LPT PnP Devices, USB Devices and Ports.

Should I be looking somwhere else?

 

[R. McCarty]

From Everest's Left Panel, Click the [+] beside the top level entry
"Computer", when the indented sub-headings appear, click on the
Summary. It takes Everest a few seconds to compile the listing, but
the details on the hardware in the machine should show in the Right
Pane.

 

[Laurel]

Ah. Well, unfortunately, I followed the advice of another responder to this
thread and now there are no "other" devices, so I can't tell if the
"Computer/Summary" actuall showed something different from "Devices/Windows
Devices" or "Devices/Physical Devices" I would think not???

Thanks anyway.

From Everest's Left Panel, Click the [+] beside the top level entry
"Computer", when the indented sub-headings appear, click on the
Summary. It takes Everest a few seconds to compile the listing, but
the details on the hardware in the machine should show in the Right
Pane.

Thanks. I did download it, but when I click on Windows Devices, I see the
same "other devices" display that I described in my original posting.
When
I look in "Physical Devices", I'm not able to identify what video device
might be relevant. The categories I see there are:
PVI devices, PnP devices, LPT PnP Devices, USB Devices and Ports.

Should I be looking somwhere else?

and
XP one
of briefly,
but driver
in

 

[Laurel]

THANK YOU!!!!!

The screen is now big and beautiful.

May I ask how you knew this/figured this out? Was this somewhere in the big
list of downloads for PCG-R505GL? If so, how did you know which one? Have
you been through this already?

Thanks again!

 

[Nepatsfan]

Laurel,

Call it an educated guess. It was listed on the PCG-R505GL
download page a little more than half way down under Video (with
the Modem driver right underneath it). I've never had to work on
a Sony laptop but I've worked on enough computers to know where
to find the drivers that Windows doesn't install no matter what
the brand.

You might want to burn that Video driver to a CD in case you ever
need it again. Store it with whatever CD's were included with
your laptop. Going back to your original post, this driver works
for both versions of Windows XP. I can't recall ever coming
across a hardware driver that didn't work in both versions.

Glad to hear your laptop's fixed.