topic Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues in PCs & Accessories

RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:10:04 GMT

Hey all,

I've 'accidenatally' wiped both HDD on my Vaio RC202 (8including the hidden restore partition) and am now trying to do a fresh XP Media install. Sadly I don't think XP has the drivers for the RAID controller included... I've heard I can make a floppy with these drivers on which I can use during the install. Could anyone please help me identify which drivers I need?

Oh, I've also lost the restore discs I made... yes I know I'm a plum 😞

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

Blencogo — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:46:46 GMT

That's a bit of a silly thing to do!

You can get the RAID drivers from the Preinstalled Drivers Download for your Vaio. Expand the download into a directory C:\Drivers and copy all the files in C:\Drivers\RAID to a floppy disc. Files start with file name iastor.* but copy the lot including readme files.

Get the Preinstalled Drivers and Preinstalled Utilities from - Sony Vaio-Link Downloads

Or You can download just the RAID Driver from SONY DOWNLOADS RC US

Your original installation will have included the Intel Matrix Storage Manager software for configuring RAID. I'm not sure if you actually need it - it may just be a 'nice to have'. If you need it you can download it from INTEL DOWNLOAD CENTRE - I see they do a downloadable floppy disc configuration utility.

Good Luck!!

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:53:39 GMT

Wow thanks for the quick reply... I'll give this all a go and let you know how I fare.

Ta again,
Mrs H

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:01:51 GMT

Just a quick update... I've got the floppy disc made with just the RAID drivers and I managed to get hold of a parallel port floppy drive too. Sadly the floppy drive was not recognised during install either 😞

I'm gonna see if I can either create a slipstream disc (with Nlite I think) or see if I can get hold of a usb floppy drive (I saw that the USB drivers were loaded during the bit of install that did happen) tomorrow and then try these possibe solutions out.

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

Blencogo — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:34:05 GMT

It has to be a USB connected floppy drive.

It is always useful to have one of these if you have a Sony computer because this is the ONLY external device you can boot from.

£13.72 from PCWorld!! - won't break the bank.

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Fri, 18 May 2007 17:48:59 GMT

Right... bought myself a floppy drive and now have XP installed. Thanks again for your help.

It's still got no internet connection, crap display settings etc... so I'm off to download some more drivers which I hope will sort this out. Once that's done I'll see if I can get the Media bits and bobs working again.

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Sat, 19 May 2007 13:35:50 GMT

Oh dear... I'm stuck again unfortunately 😞
I've got to a point where I have an install of XP (though during the install it asked for an SP2 disc... the only one I have has a single .exe file on and the Install didn't like it).

I still have no network connection sadly... the Network adapter for the Intel PRO/1000 PM says it's working correctly but cannot acquire an IP (I also don't see any listings in the network connections page unless I start the wondows firewall service). The port has a static green light showing, and ipconfig gives me the following...

Dhcp Enabled. . . . Yes
Autoconfig Enabled .Yes
IP Address . . .  0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask . . . 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway . 
DHCP Server . . . 0.0.0.0

One thing that I think it may be is this... I have - listed in the device manager - a PCI device which has a question mark for an icon and has no driver... could this be the ethernet controller? If so does anyone know how I can please set it so that it works?

Thanks again for all the help so far!

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

rich912 — Sat, 19 May 2007 15:16:45 GMT

Hi MrsHarris,

In Device Manager, under Network Adaptors, do you have the Intel Pro/100 VE Network Connection (or similar) listed? If not then your assumption is possibly correct.

In which case download the pre-installed drivers from Vaio-Link and extract the folder to a know location. Then, in Device manager, right click the unknown device and select ‘Update Driver’ and point the wizard in the direction of the extracted folder.

Also you can download SP2 via the Microsoft web site

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Sat, 19 May 2007 15:33:51 GMT

Thanks for the post and ideas Rich.

I do have a Intel(R) PRO/1000 PM Network Connection entry in the Network Adapters section so I'm not sure that's it. I've also downloaded the Drivers from the Vaio link and pointed to this folder when trying to update the driver for the unknown PCI device... unfortunately no progress.

I have downloaded the SP2 from MS but as I said this is a single .exe file and isn't any good during the install process

I'm slowly running out of possible solutions... and sanity

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

rich912 — Sat, 19 May 2007 15:55:54 GMT

Can you provide a few more details on your network connection?

1 Are you using broadband or dialup (modem).
2 If broadband are you connected via Wireless (via Router), Ethernet (via Router) or USB.
3 Any other information that you think is relevant.

I have downloaded the SP2 from MS but as I said this is a single .exe file and isn't any good during the install process

I am a tad confused here as, if you have successfully installed XP (SP1), the MS SP2 download will upgrade your system to SP2 - just double click the .exe file...

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Sat, 19 May 2007 16:24:42 GMT

Sorry about the vagueness (is that a real word?).

1) Broadband
2) Wired connection to a router
3) Um... the cables, hardware, internet connection all definitely work as I can connect via this when running an Ubuntu live CD

The SP2 thing is a little foreign to me so I'll try my hardest to explain (thanks for the patience)... I have downloaded SP2 from the MS site and burnt this to a CD (using another PC). This download was a single .exe file. When installing XP it asks for the SP2 CD to be inserted... I do this but it seems to be looking for iexporer and doesn't continue. I then clicked cancel and the install continued. Once up and running I insert the SP2 CD I burnt and run the .exe. This all seems to be hunky dory (except for it not liking the CD during the install).

Where I am at the moment is;
I have XP installed but I can't connect it to my LAN (and hence the Internet).
If I open the network connections I see no entries unless I start the windows firewall service. Once I've done this I can see the 1934 connection and LAN connection entries. The 1934 one says it's connected (I've no idea what this is) and the LAN one says it's acquring an IP address... it is like this constantly and the port on the back of the PC has a constant Green light on.
If I run an IPCONFIG I see the output in my previous post.
I have an unknown PCI device in the Device Manager list which doesn't seem to recognised and doesn't seem to like any of the drivers I downloaded from Vaio link. My thinking was that perhaps the PRO/1000 PM network adapter needed some sort of Ethernet controller to help it (just guessing as this is all way beyond the edge of my knowledge boundaries) and that this PCI device was it.

I suppose I could try installing a USB wireless card or something to see if that helps but I really don't want to spend more money as I've already bought an extra USB floppy drive and a set of XP MCE discs.

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

rich912 — Sat, 19 May 2007 17:57:44 GMT

Thanks for the further information MrsHarris.

Can you check a couple of things?

First, in Network Connections, right click the LAN (Local Area Connection and select properties. On the General tab what do you see under “This connection uses the following items” – in particular is Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) listed?
If it is click on this and then click “Properties”. Make sure that both “Obtain an IP address automatically” and “Obtain DNS Server address automatically” are selected.

If the above has no effect on the problem the try this:

From a command prompt type “ipconfig /release” > enter

Once executed then type “ipconfig /renew” > enter

Close the cmd window and try to establish connection.

Both commands should exclude the quotes of course. I doubt that this will solve the problem but it is one question eliminated…

The 1934 one says it's connected (I've no idea what this is)

This is the firewire controller.

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

Blencogo — Sat, 19 May 2007 18:15:05 GMT

Is your router configured as a DHCP server?
Or is it configured for allocating a manual IP?
Have you run the XP Network Wizard?

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Sun, 20 May 2007 20:24:00 GMT

Rich said...

Thanks for the reply Rich.
I see that tcp/ip is listed and that it does have the option Obtain an IP address automatically selected.

When I ran ipconfig /release I get the following;

Windows IP Configuration
IP Address for adapter Local Area Connection has already been released

... and then for the ipconfig /renew i get the following response

An error ocurred while renewing interface Local Area 
Connection : The RPC server is unavailable

Blencogo said...

Cheers for the reply too.
Yes it is a dhcp server... we have 4 other PCs/laptops connected to it.
I've tried running the wizard but this seems to change nothing

I'm off now to google for that error to see if I can get futher info on what it really means.

Re: RC-202 Fresh XP Install Issues

MrsHarris — Sun, 20 May 2007 20:34:32 GMT

WOOOHOOoooo... got it working!!!
Thanks so much for al all the help, tips and advice.
I found another forum in which some other folks had a similar error command (linky) and I ended up looking in My Computer -> Right Click to Manage -> Services and Applications and then starting the DHCP client, DNS Client and the RPC service.

I've no idea why these weren't starting as they were listed to start automatically.

Thanks again ever so much.. I'm sure all be back here with more queries in the future and if I can I'll hopefully post some answers to questions where I can.

Mrs H