Downgrading from vista to xp Sony Vaio
Discussion
This is NOT a downgrade. It is an UPGRADE.
You will need drivers though. You should be able to download the UPGRADE disc image including the drivers from the Sony website by giving it the serial number of the machine. I think this is how I did it. It might have been part of the Vista installation - I can't remember.
Please do it though as Vista is a big pile of steaming horse manure.
You will need drivers though. You should be able to download the UPGRADE disc image including the drivers from the Sony website by giving it the serial number of the machine. I think this is how I did it. It might have been part of the Vista installation - I can't remember.
Please do it though as Vista is a big pile of steaming horse manure.
cyberface said:
You'll probably have all sorts of problems because of Sony proprietary hardware needing 'special' drivers that Sony don't support on anything other than the OS the machine was shipped with. If you want to upgrade your OS, Sony expect you to buy another computer. Good luck.
Sony offer the "downgrade" service, so all is good. Well was with mine.....Eggle said:
Looking on the Sony site, they say my laptop was originally installed with XP. Mine wasn't! I can't see a downgrade option.
If they say that, then the drivers for XP should be available. I would download them all and put them on an external/flash drive before starting. Most important would be any network drivers, second would be video. With those two you should be able to limp back onto the Sony site to download any drivers for the invariable yellow caution triangles in hardware manager.ErnestM said:
Eggle said:
Looking on the Sony site, they say my laptop was originally installed with XP. Mine wasn't! I can't see a downgrade option.
If they say that, then the drivers for XP should be available. I would download them all and put them on an external/flash drive before starting. Most important would be any network drivers, second would be video. With those two you should be able to limp back onto the Sony site to download any drivers for the invariable yellow caution triangles in hardware manager.Get the drivers first, and bung them all on a plain-vanilla USB flash stick. If Sony support XP (and it sounds like they do) then drivers will be available, but they're usually a nightmare to find and you will need drivers for *everything*. Download *anything* on the Sony website for XP for your model, regardless of whether it looks like you need it or not. Sometimes Sony put the drivers in applications that you don't want or need.
I've personally done this with two Sony laptops before I smashed them to pieces with my fists, and incurred loads of damage as a result... Don't even think of installing a different OS onto the Sony laptop without a network driver, and ideally use wired Ethernet rather than hope the wireless driver works from the XP install disc you have. As long as you can install the OS, then install a wired Ethernet driver, and then plug it into the internet, you should be able to start downloading drivers. If your XP install disc is early, and your internet connection isn't firewalled off to buggery, then be *very* careful plugging a fresh unprotected old-XP box into a raw internet connection... you'll be owned in minutes.
However, a lot of MS users are saying that Windows 7 is really good. Maybe try that?
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