Downgrade Vista to XP on AR61M

[vijsingh]

Hi, Is it possible to downgrade the AR61M fully so everything would work properly with XP? Webcam, card readers, eject button etc.

I see they are no XP drivers for this model on the drivers section so would I have to find drivers from a similar model that has XP?

Will the Blu-Ray drive still work with XP?

thanks

[Blencogo]

Hi vaioAR61M and welcome to Club Vaio.

It is possible but any advantages are getting less as time passes. You will lose all the preinstalled software and it cannot be downloaded for XP.

Have a look at this similar thread: -

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/gb/en/forum/viewthread?thread=56314

[vijsingh]

hi,

Cant the preinstalled software on Vaio's that origionally have XP be downloaded to work if I downgraded?

[Blencogo]

The Utilities and Drivers can be downloaded but you will lose ALL the software listed below. For copyright reasons this is not downloadable for either Vista or XP and you will have to buy XP versions with the exception of WMP11.

[vijsingh]

Where do you buy them from?

Can you confirm if blu-ray will work with XP

[Blencogo]

I have not tried the downgrade - I am quite happy with Vista on my AR31S and see no reason to join the other dinosaurs - so you will have to wait until a Luddite who has comes along and confirms it.

I think it should be OK but you will need to buy a BD Player. Something like:

PowerDVD 8 Ultra

Available for £50 from many sources like Amazon.

Most of the other software can also be bought at Amazon - except any Vaio or Sonic stuff which is not available.

[vijsingh]

Will Windows/Vaio update still work?

[Blencogo]

Windows Update should work as that software is part of XP and/or downloadable from Microsoft.

Vaio Update and Vaio Recovery Utility will not work if you change from the originally installed system. Any updates will have to be downloaded and installed manually but there will not be many Vaio updates for XP Drivers and Utilities anyway.

[vijsingh]

thanks.

finally can you confirm if there is something that will not work if XP is installed because of driver availability eg. card reader, av/eject/volume buttons etc

[Blencogo]

Sorry, you will have to wait until someone who has tried it can reply.

I have not done the downgrade. Everything worked OK on earlier ARs 31 and 41 but I am not sure about the newer models as they are going to have more components that were made for use with Vista.