Windows 7 and Sony laptop

[flapeyre]

Nearly two years ago, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop (VGN-CR220E), with Vista on it. I suffered through all of the Vista quirks and service pack upgrades. Finally, with SP2, it's reasonably stable, but it could be better.

I pre-ordered Windows 7 from the Microsoft Store, after finding only one incompatibility using Microsoft's Windows 7 Upgrade advisor. That was the TI PCIxx12 driver (for the card reader, which I don't use anyway).

The laptop came with 2GB of RAM (I have since upgraded it to 4GB).

So, this morning, I checked my MS account and the download link and product key for Windows 7 are indeed there. However, the Windows 7 upgrade page on Sony's website, which for months has had the message, "Please check back when Windows 7 is available", now says:

The hardware configuration of this model does not meet the minimum system requirements needed to run and provide the full experience of the Windows® 7 operating system.

Windows® 7 installation is not recommended and Sony will not be providing Windows® 7 drivers for this model.

Have another question? (with a hyperlink)

Yeah, I have one: Hey, Sony, why couldn't you tell me this before I shelled out the bucks to M$??

Okay, rant over. My real question is: can I back out the W7 installation if things go haywire? Or, ideally, does anybody know where I can find the PCIxx12 driver? (Google has not been helpful with that. I tried Sony.com, ti.com, without success. Maybe someone knows where a driver is available).

I do have the Vista recovery disks, just in case, and all of my data is backed up online.

-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.

 

[Nelviticus]

You should be able to use the Vista driver - see this thread on 'sevenforums':
where to download Texas Instruments™ PCIxx12
However I'd be very careful about downloading files from forums or places I'm not 100% sure about.

I believe you can roll back an upgrade install but you definitely can't roll back a clean, wipe-first install. If all your data is backed up I'd do a clean install.

Even if the Vista driver doesn't work then as long as you don't want to use the card reader it'll be fine, you'll just periodically get a warning that the device doesn't work properly. You can set it to ignore future warnings about that device so it won't keep bugging you.

You may even find that Win 7 will be able to automatically find a driver for you, despite what Sony say.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[flapeyre]

Nelveticus:

Thanks. I'm all backed up data-wise with Carbonite, and I have (or can download) all of the programs that I need to reinstall my applications. I have a very large external HD connected to my home network that I will back up to as "belt-and-suspenders" insurance.

If all else works as planned, I'll see if I can get the driver somewhere. Who knows, maybe Win7 will find it? Worth a try.

(PS: This is the first, and last, Sony PC I'll buy.)

-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.

 

[flapeyre]

Nelviticus:

I upgraded to Windows 7 last night. So far, it has not suggested a new driver for the PCIxx12 card reader, but when I get home this evening I'll see if the version(s) on the links you provided are more recent than the one I have installed.

For the most part, the upgrade was painless. I had to leave for work just as everything finished; it has already applied some updates, including a new printer driver (HP psc2170). Just a few minor IE8 settings didn't come over. After the upgrade started, it wanted me to uninstall iTunes, but by then, it was too late. I'll see if iTunes works with the iPhone tonight; if not, I'll zap that and re-install.

I'll post back when I see what happens with the card reader.

Thanks.



-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.

 

[flapeyre]

Another update: iTunes works without a reinstall. And the card reader seems to work fine.

-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.

 

[flapeyre]

Another (and, hopefully the last) update: iTunes stopped working for some reason. So I uninstalled, cleaned the registry, and reinstalled. Now (so far), everything is peachy-keen.

(I found that I had to save the iTunes installation .EXE to disk and run it from there, rather than running it from IE itself).

-- Francis
I'd like to change the world, but I can't find the source code.