I have my SZ3 on Vista now

[maishan]

***UPDATE: The new Protector Suit for Vista also allows you to have a safe bigger then 2Gb! (woho - not possible with the previous XP version) and allows you to have multiple safes. You can literally encrypt any file or folder with a finger print!!***

Just to let you know I got my SZ3 fully Vista-fied now, with minimal problems. A few notes for those of you that are considering the upgrade.

-Despite what the Sony Vista Drivers site says, Vista out of the box installs ALL drivers straight off other then the TPM, Camera, Memory Card Adapter Slot and Fingerprint reader. (this obviously excludes the Sony Shared DLL LIbraries)

-To install the camera and the Memory card Adapter Slot simply use the XP drivers which you can download from the Sony support site.

-The TPM Drivers and Fingerprint drivers can be obtained from the Sony Vista Update site.

Inorder to Initialize the TPM (needed to get the finger print reader working) you must first update the motherboards BIOS (Available from the update site) then enter the BIOS set up and manually enable the TPM from the BIOS menu. Then you can proceed to install the TPM, followed by the Fingerprint reader and set them up.

An interesting point - the inbox Nvidea driver for the 7400Go gives a Vista experience rating of 3.3 - however when you either run windows update, or load the driver supplied by Sony, it goes down to 3.2!

Things I havnt got working yet are being able to modify Protector Suits System Settings - they all seem to be greyed out at the moment which is a mystery. Also the Hard Disk 'Jog' protection dosent work.

Also the proposed Sony Vista Camera Application Utility does not work. Vista even tells you that the software does not work on its OS after you install it.

All in all this laptop couldnt be more suited for Vista!

The Sony Vista Driver site is (note the tab at the bottom of the page to switch between Drivers and Utilities): http://support.vaio.sony.ie/downloads/os/vista/upgrade.html

[wheresmybeaver]

Cool beans! I have the SZ3VP and I have everything pretty much working apart from the TPM stuff. I installed the BIOS update too. Could you tell me how do you enter the BIOS at startup? And what option should I be changing in there?

I don't have the Camera Utility installed but the camera still works fine in Skype, MSN etc.

I also get the Vista graphics rating of 3.2. Everything else scores great though.

There is still a niggling problem with the WLAN switcher however in that every time that I put the SZ3 into standby, the WLAN light stays lit. Then sometimes when I resume from sleep, the WLAN will actually go off, even though the WLAN switcher utilitysays its on. I have to turn it off then on again to fix this. But I've now got into the habit of turning off WLAN before going into standby, so its not much of an onconvenience. I'm sure the final drivers will fix this anyway.

I agree, the SZ3 is perfect for Vista, it works very well.

[jarcogna]

Press the F2 key when the logo displays at startup. :smileygrin:

[maishan]

Awesome work beaver!

Yea When the Vaio logo appears on power on hit the Esc key followed by the F2 key. Your now in the BIOS. Push the right arrow a few times till you see 'TPM [diabled]' on the screen - then arrow down to the text and hit enter changing it to TPM [enabled]. Save then exit the BIOS.

Note you must also add a BIOS password too - otherwise anyone can come along and hit Esc, F2 on power up and clear your TPM/Finger Sensor which would mean you loose all your encrypted data.

Once you've done the above, install the TPM driver in Vista, restart then initialize it thought the icon in the systemtray. Then restart and install the ProtectorSuit Software.

Hey Bever can you let me know if you were able to a) Save FingerPrints to the Finger Sensor rather then the Harddrive, and b) If you are able to use/enable the finger print sensor as a page scroller. Both of these options were/are shadded grey during my install/settings screen.

Cheers!

[OzBoz]

The Sony Vista Driver site is (note the tab at the bottom of the page to switch between Drivers and Utilities): http://support.vaio.sony.ie/downloads/os/vista/upgrade.html

Hey you're great! I didn't notice that tab before. Getting my laptop out of my bag again. Hope I get it all working now

[maishan]

No worries - I almost missed that one myself so thought it best to point it out!

Re the SZ3 with Vista: I have just found out that the headphone out socket does not work if you use the Vista Inbox drivers (these drivers only operate the laptops spekers). After installing the drivers from the Sony site all works fine!

[wheresmybeaver]

Cheers for the info lydecker and jarcogna. Got into the BIOS alright and enabled the TPM thing again. Followed your instructions on installing the TPM software, but oddly enough having TPM enabled caused Vista to never boot up after the TPM software restarted the laptop. I would get error messages on a blank screen every 3 minutes or so saying something about not being able to open a security dialogue?? So, had to go back to BIOS and disable the TPM. Now I've uninstalled the TPM software too. I'll just wait for an official drivers / utilities release for TPM befo I try that again! Had me a bit worried.

And Re lydecker's questions: (A) I also only have the choice to save FingerPrints to the finger sensor rather then the hard disc and (B) I never knew you could use the sensor as a scroller?? I use the right edge of the trackpd myself, works well for me.

By the way, I just noticed that the SD Expresscard has its own entry in My Computer as "SD /MMC (G:)" when it is not plugged in. Whenever I do plug it in though, drive G doesn't actally do anything, and the SD adapter shows up as drive H. Odd. It works perfectly, but its a nuisance having this extra (and useless) drive letter. This the same for everyone??

So, Vista on SZ is not quite perfect just yet... Functionally, its almost there... almost :smileygrin:

[maishan]

Hey Beaver

Did you use this as the installation/drivers for your TPM -ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/VistaUpgrade/Drivers/TPM/Infineon_TPM_3.0.1135.0/Infineon_TPM_3.0.113...

They work 100% perfect for me given they are the official Vista release drivers from Infineon. That makes no sence why they'd work on my SZ3 and not yours.

As for the Fingerprint reader - I could only get it to store fingerprints on my harddrive and NOT my sensor (you said yours does the oposite?).

Okay that's wierd - all my menu options are no longer greyed out for the finger print reader softare...

If you right click on the 'Protector Suite QL' icon in the system tray then select 'Start Contol Panel' followed by 'Settings' followed by 'System Settings' you get the options such as using your sensor as a scroller etc (these were greyed out for me yesterday.. Although - I did do a windows update today...) are they accessable to you?

As for the express card - I have the same issue, but I never considered this an 'issue' as I got the exactly the same result when my SZ3 was running on XP.

[wheresmybeaver]

As for the Fingerprint reader - I could only get it to store fingerprints on my harddrive and NOT my sensor (you said yours does the oposite?).

My bad, I actually meant I can only save to the hard disc and NOT to the fingerprint reader itself... [:">]

As for the TPM, well I put a bit more work into it, and the issue that arises now when I install the TPM software (same as the link you provided, thanks) is that it says the TPM chip is temporarily disabled, just all the time (no matter how many rebot), and its definitely enabled in the BIOS. I also tried "clearing" the TPM chip in the BIOS. Attempting to Initialise or Enable the chip using the TPM software just won't work. It's weird. The TPM chip shows up in the Device Maager ok. Hmmm.

At some point in the future, when Vaio release the full Vista software package, I'll do a clean install of Vista. My Vista installation at the moment is only an upgrade, so I'm sure that there's tonnes of junk there (which may even be preventing the TPM from working, who knows).

Cheers for your help anyway!

Dave