XP Pro and VGN - FS115B

[peter.andaluz]

Could someone tell me if its true that this machine will not take an installation of xp pro due to its internal architecture?

we bought one tried to upgrade it to pro to connect it to our servers and some hardware doesnt work.

regards in advance
Peter

[hldomster]

All VAIOs should be upgradable to XP Pro, but you lose all initial programs installed buy sony. You can download drivers and utlities packages from VAIO-Link for your laptop. You should've bought a VAIO with XP Pro presinstalled, like the FS195B. By downloading the drivers and utilities packs your hardware should work, I think.

good luck!

[peter.andaluz]

Our company that does the upgrade tell us that sony themselves have said that the machine is not upgradeable to pro which seems so bazaar.

[kee-lo_]

LOL Sony really have supassed themselves this time.
It can work, but some things won't work.
The only reason they don't want you to do it is because they don't support OS changes

[TygerTyger]

Just to clarify: When KL says that don't support it, he doesn't mean they just aren't in favour of it. They will not lend technical support to any OS other than XP home. IIRC from what others have said, if you ring them up asking for support with XP Pro they ask you to do a system restore and put the original XP Home OS back, although since they generally ask you to do that anyway it doesn't make too much difference I suppose.

[kee-lo_]

Yeah thats right, they just don't give help with it.
If you want to use XP Pro, they don't mind, they just can't help

[Stephanius]

What you can do is upgrade to XP pro instead of doing a 'clean' install.

That means you use a retail XP pro CD to add the XP pro features to your XP home installation. This means that you will also keep all drivers and applications that are preinstalled.

For this to work, you require an XP pro version that matches your XP home version in language and service pack. You can not use an XP pro disc with another language or without Service Pack 2, since that is preinstalled.

To perform this procedure, just insert the XP pro disc, then select update and follow the on screen instructions.

[kee-lo_]

You can also slipstream it to suit your requirements if SP2 is not on the CD and you have it installed.

[peter.andaluz]

I must admit having looked at the laptop yesterday its the chipset drivers that are causing the problem. What appears on the intel website for the 915 express chipset doesnt help. if you run the chipset driver on drive d that sony supply it doesnt complete the chipset installation it gives the message microsoft bus driver needs to be installed. I couldnt find anything to install on that only kb articles and white papers that dont give a meaningful solution.(not to me anyway).

any ideas on what I do next?

regards in advance.
peter:smileycry:

[Akita]

Hi there,
This is most disturbing news, when i bought my notebook i informed the saleman that i would wanting to upgrade and why. i asked what the difference was between the FS11B and the next one up, and apart from three hundred quid he said it had window Xp pro but i wouldn't realy need that as it wasn't a full version and i'd have to upgrade it anyway.
no where was i told that when you upgrade to pro on any model would you have problems. have i been missled? need to know asap so i can return this for a model with xp Pro installed.
tell me if i have got it right, i really need to have a laptop with xp pro installed if i want it to work right.
regards Akita