I reformatted my roommate's vaio with XP Pro and the drivers from the sony
website. Everything seems kosher except the FN+X keyboard controls.
Brightness, volume, mute, sleep, hibernate -- none of them do anything.
Even the FN+SHIFT+F5 combo that's supposed to dim the screen without using
an OSD does nothing.

I take it there are some drivers out there that aren't on the website. Does
anyone know where I can find them?

Thanks hopefully,
Jake

"JBW" <look@inside.forit> wrote in message
news:FRFlb.22792$pT1.19608@twister.nyc.rr.com...
| I reformatted my roommate's vaio with XP Pro and the drivers from the sony
| website. Everything seems kosher except the FN+X keyboard controls.
| Brightness, volume, mute, sleep, hibernate -- none of them do anything.
| Even the FN+SHIFT+F5 combo that's supposed to dim the screen without using
| an OSD does nothing.
|
| I take it there are some drivers out there that aren't on the website.
Does
| anyone know where I can find them?
|
| Thanks hopefully,
| Jake
|
|

Hi Jake -

You need to install the Sony Utilities DLL and Hotkey Utility from your
Application Recovery CD(s). You may also want to install the Sony Notebook
Setup utility so that you'll have access to the setup program for ports,
Boot Sequence, Printer, Touchpad/optional mouse, etc.

Jef

i don't have the recovery cd's; my roommate isn't the type who bothers to
take that sort of thing with him when he moves. :-\

"Jef Norton" <jefnNOSPAM@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:bn7c8r$tidi0$1@ID-103754.news.uni-berlin.de...

"JBW" <look@inside.forit> wrote in message
news:sQIlb.4701$Gq.1936132@twister.nyc.rr.com...
| i don't have the recovery cd's; my roommate isn't the type who bothers to
| take that sort of thing with him when he moves. :-\
|

Hi Jake -

If there's no recovery CD's available, I guess you'll have to go on a
fishing expedition.

Try searching at:

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

Look for models that are similar to your roommate's which originally shipped
with Windows ME installed and have posted upgrade instructions for Windows
XP. Just before Windows XP shipped, Sony was offering a nearly free upgrade
path to XP Home for it's customers, as soon as XP was released, and they
posted numerous driver and application updates to their support site,
including the applications I mentioned. I've found that the Sony Utilities
DLL and Hotkey program that was intended as an XP upgrade for the PCG-R505TL
will work on a vast number of different models (these programs don't appear
to be totally model-specific, though they are hard-coded to work only on
those models that they support -- the information pages following the links
for each item list the models supported). The Sony Notebook Setup utility
is a little bit more model-specific -- but I've also been able to locate
versions which will work on a number of Sony laptops I've come across.

Good luck and happy fishing expedition.

Jef