I have done a clean full reformat install of XP pro on my FS215Z (it came
preloaded with XP home and masses of other rubbish), but as I sort of
guessed, it is now lacking the drivers for things like display adaptors etc. I
used my retail XP pro upgrade CD, but it's the original version a couple of years
old.

What I want to avoid at all costs is ending up with loads of useless unwanted
applications that the laptop came loaded with when when I purchased it, as I just
want the drivers necessary to get it fully functioning again.

Perhaps I should just go to the component manufacturers own sites and download
each driver eg Nvidia for display adaptor, Intel for the lan driver etc, or am i
better downloading something from sony?

Adrian Boliston wrote:
Go here, read the notebook FAQs:
http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony

You purchased a Sony product and it is likely that you will have to play
Sony's game if you want a fully-functional laptop. The Sony Vaio laptop
support site is http://ciscdb.sel.sony.com/perl/select-p-n.pl

Q

Adrian Boliston <adrian@boliston.co.uk> wrote:
: I have done a clean full reformat install of XP pro on my FS215Z (it came
: preloaded with XP home and masses of other rubbish), but as I sort of
: guessed, it is now lacking the drivers for things like display
: adaptors etc. I used my retail XP pro upgrade CD, but it's the
: original version a couple of years old.

OK - make sure you do all the Windows Updates and the age of your CD
shouldn't matter.

: What I want to avoid at all costs is ending up with loads of useless unwanted
: applications that the laptop came loaded with when when I purchased
: it, as I just want the drivers necessary to get it fully functioning
: again.

: Perhaps I should just go to the component manufacturers own sites
: and download each driver eg Nvidia for display adaptor, Intel for
: the lan driver etc, or am i better downloading something from sony?

You may not have a choice. I recently tried to download a Sony video
driver for a laptop, and on the manufacturer's website it said I
needed to get it from Sony. Still, I don't think you have to worry.
If you download just the drivers from the support site, you'll avoid
the bloat. I put XP on someone's Sony laptop a couple of weeks ago
(XP Pro actually) and did exactly that, getting all the drivers I
needed from Sony, and it wound up being a very clean install, no bloat.

Andrew
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"Andrew" <usenetMYSHOES@bizaveMYSHOES.com> wrote:

Thanks, I got the drivers from sony's support site. Now I just need to figure out
how to get rid of the startup screen asking me if i want to boot to xp pro or xp
home. As I have deleted XP home it seems a bit silly having this startup screen!