installing XP Pro on AR31M

[carter040]

I'm trying to install XP Pro on my vaio ar31m (because of the issues mentioned in my previous thread)

I read the other threads on this issue on the site, read other postings on the web and tried the following

- slipstream the Si3132 drivers onto the XP installation CD
- load the Si3132 drivers from floppy (both vista ready drivers and older ones

The result i get is that the driver seems to load without error, but when i try to run the installation, win xp pro setup reports that it did not find any harddisks, and thus can't continue...


Anyone share the same experiences?

Yours sincerely,

[carter040]

Ok, have to appologise

My Bad, because of the SATA mentioned in Device Manager, I assumed the driver folder named SATA (and Si3132 controller to be the hardware) on my C drive preinstalled....

After having a good look in the driver folder, I found a RAID driver, and checked the Device Manager, and found that this was the driver to use..

Small note, the list of available drivers is longer than the 4 that are initially shown, this put me off to choose the wrong one initially :smileyblush:

Now doing the XP install and loading the drivers from floppy pressing F6 to load SCSI/RAID drivers works like a charm

dont know if i'll have lots of issues for other hardware and drivers, but I will update this thread if major ones come along

[jumpsuit]

Thanks for the info!

[carter040]

Ok, got XP on the system as mentioned...

now having issues finding XP drivers for the AR31M

Got the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 Go working, but seems not to have installed completely correct..

Any one know where to get a XP Driver set for the AR31M or a special XP Pro installation image that supports the devices properly?

Cheers,

[Blencogo]

I think your best bet is to download the Preinstalled XP Drivers and the Preinstalled XP Utilities for the VAIO VGC-AR21M - looks very similar in specification apart from Vista.

Has the same nVidia 7600 Go etc. Your only known problem is the WebCam which has been updated on the Vista models but as far as I know there are no known XP drivers.

[carter040]

Hi Blencogo,

Your bet (using the ar21m drivers from XP), was one of the first things I tried, all drivers supplied with my ar31m, not compatible with XP, I try to use them from the ar21m, but allas, not sure if i'm getting there....

Webcam indeed not working yet,

Lots of issues with the video drivers (the preinstalled drivers from sony for the ar21m dont come with an installer, and it crashes my pc, so i have to uninstall using safemode..

Also the sound driver I have not been able to get working, it complains it cant find the device or so....

If I contact Sony, would they be able to supply me with any additional drivers / installation CD, or so...

The way I feel right now, is that this kinda takes the fun out of my VAIO, and renders it useless... (in the sense, cant count on it to function how i need it, when i need it) unless i keep it running all the time

[Blencogo]

I doubt if Sony will support XP on this machine. The BIOS is different for Vista and it would be my guess that Sony will not support anything but Vista on new machines and will therefore not release XP Drivers. If it were my machine I would expect Sony to resolve the faults within Vista. In fact, I see there is a Vista BIOS update to Version R0200J6 at Vaio-Link for your AR31M which addresses some of the problems with shutting the lid and standby.

If they ever do release XP drivers it will be (in my view quite rightly) after Vista drivers have been produced for all modern Vaio XP machines.

On the sound card not being recognised - remember XP does not support High Definition audio. You will have to install Hotfix KB888111 so that XP can recognise your sound chip and then it can install the drivers.

[kee-lo_]

I agree with Blencogo, they'll probably never release them.

[carter040]

Thanks for the info on the high definition audio issue with XP, I was not aware of this :smileygrin:

I've done some more attempts on installing drivers, and gradually (using the drivers for the AR21M, drivers that came with the AR31M (some are xp compatible), and downloading some) I got my AR31M working.

So now:
- Video -> OK
- Sound -> OK
- Wifi -> OK
- Lan -> OK
- Webcam -> OK (had some issues here )
- Bluetooth -> OK
- CardReader -> OK
- TV Tuner -> OK
- IR keyboard something for the remote -> OK (but no software that uses it :S haha)

Only thing missing now is that I cant control the brightness of my display using the [Fn]-key in combination with the keys on top of my keyboard 😞 any ideas on how to fix that? Do I need to install some tools or something?

Note that the XP installation does not seem to have the issues I have under Vista when recovering from sleep mode, my bluetooth mouse reconnects perfectly, and the cam also seems to function, also the wireless network reconnects quickly!!!

Yours sincerely,

[Blencogo]

You will need to download the Preinstalled Utilities for the AR21M and install these - they MUST be installed in this order to get the Fn Keys to work (and sometimes more than once!!):

1. Sony Utilities
2. Sony Shared Library
3. Vaio Event Service