topic Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare in PCs & Accessories

VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

robinnavamanie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:11:44 GMT

I tried to install Windows 7 Ultimate on my VGN-AR71S Vaio which is running Vista Home Premium. It was a total nightmare.

When I didn't here any sound during starting up after the upgrade, I knew something was wrong. The audio was not working. Then during start-up, it started crashing and dumping with the blue screen. After some investigation I found it is reporting a fault on video. This was strange. The eject button was not also working. It was a disaster.

I started the upgrade at 10am and it took 5 hours to complete the upgrade and I was fire-fighting for another 10 hours without any luck throught the night. This morning I have restored it back to factory settings and it is working wihout any problems. Has anyone else experienced similar problems? Have I done anything wrong?

Thanks,

Robin

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

Blencogo — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:10:12 GMT

Hi Robin and welcome.

Did you make a clean install or did you do a 'In-Place Upgrade'?

If you did a clean install did you download and install all the Vista Utilities and some of the drivers for devices that Windows 7 does not support (like the Video driver)?

If you give us more information someone may be able to help.

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

robinnavamanie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:08:50 GMT

Hi Robin and welcome.

Did you make a clean install or did you do a 'In-Place Upgrade'?

If you did a clean install did you download and install all the Vista Utilities and some of the drivers for devices that Windows 7 does not support (like the Video driver)?

If you give us more information someone may be able to help.

Hi Blencogo,

I tried an 'In-Place Upgrade'. Then all hell broke lose and the start-up went into a loop with blue screen dumps. This morning I reset the laptop to factory defaults which erased everything on the laptop and re-installed Vista. Then I downloaded and applied all the Microsoft patches and then did the Windows 7 upgrade. This time it worked and everything is running smoothly now.

Robin

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

Blencogo — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:38:02 GMT

Pleased to hear that Robin. You must be happy to have fixed it.

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

jolambe13 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:54:19 GMT

Hi Robin and welcome.

Did you make a clean install or did you do a 'In-Place Upgrade'?

If you did a clean install did you download and install all the Vista Utilities and some of the drivers for devices that Windows 7 does not support (like the Video driver)?

If you give us more information someone may be able to help. 

 


Hi Blencogo,

I tried an 'In-Place Upgrade'. Then all hell broke lose and the start-up went into a loop with blue screen dumps. This morning I reset the laptop to factory defaults which erased everything on the laptop and re-installed Vista. Then I downloaded and applied all the Microsoft patches and then did the Windows 7 upgrade. This time it worked and everything is running smoothly now.

Robin

Hi Mate

i was planning on doing this to to the same laptop but what version of Windows 7 did you use?

32Bit or 64Bit?

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

Blencogo — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:13:21 GMT

Hi jonacho26.

Welcome to Club Vaio.

You can only run an 'In-Place' Upgrade going from 32-bit to 32-bit so both of us used the 32-bit Home Premium Upgrade.

If you want to go to 64-bit you will have to do a clean install and manually reinstall all the drivers and utilities - a much bigger and riskier job.

If you don't do an In-Place Upgrade you will also lose all your data, settings and preinstalled software and you will have to buy replacement blu-ray software etc.

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

jolambe13 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:31:44 GMT

Hi Thanks

If you buy Windows 7 you can install 32bit or 64bit so i guess 32 bit will be easia.

i hope it improve the laptops performance.

have you noticed a improvment?

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

robinnavamanie — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:42:32 GMT

Hi Thanks

If you buy Windows 7 you can install 32bit or 64bit so i guess 32 bit will be easia.

i hope it improve the laptops performance.

have you noticed a improvment?

Hi,

I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate. Yes, if you buy Windows 7, you will get both 32 bit and 64 bit. But I don't think every computer supports 64 bit. I can see a difference in performance but difficulty to quantify. The startup is definitely faster. I noticed an improvement in browsing as well.

Robin

Re: VGN-AR71S - Windows 7 Upgrade Nightmare

remczar1982 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:30:04 GMT

Hi,

I have a questuion regarding the Windows 7 Vaio Upgrade Kit. I got it yesterday but I want to do the clean install by booting the laptop from win7 disk. Is it possible or I have to do the installation from Vista? My Laptop is VGN-FW41J/H.
Is the Upgrade Kit only an Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 or it can also be used as Full version Win7 which doesn't need the Vista to be installed before?

Thanks