Missing drivers, very frustrated

[Mustey]

Hello, I have an SVE1511B1EW.

I remember my previous laptop. It came with a "drivers" disk and all I had to do is install an OS and then the drivers and it would work perfectly.

This one comes with the silly recovery partition which installs an image including the OS and drivers and millions of other useless programs.

Unfortunately, I am a systems developer and I need to install a specific configuration on my laptop. It is impossible to get to my required configuration from the available image.

The Sony support page includes a fraction of the drivers I need. Right now, my laptop has no f-keys, no hdd protection, no smart recharger and it's slower and more unstable than a cleaned up recovery image (if I invested 4-5 hours of cleaning and optimizing it).

I was wondering if there's a way I could install the Sony drivers and control applications perfectly outside of the poor recovery image installer.

If Sony provided all the drivers and utility programs (as nice direct links, not "go get that thing if you can find it" AND a good list that describes which does what and in what order they should go) - it would have been a really nice computer.

[rich912]

Hi Mustey and welcome,

Assuming that you are using the Win 7 pre-installed OS then the drivers and utilities you need are all there on the Support site. Unfortunately Sony provides scant details or instructions as to what is needed for any particular problem – preferring to charge the customer via their repair network.

You need to install the following drivers and utilities in the order listed followed by a reboot after each install. These are available on the support site but should also be available via Vaio Care – Recovery > Restore and Recovery > Reinstall Applications and Drivers (this reinstalls from the recovery partition).

• If the is a Yellow bang in Device Manager against Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device you will need to install the SFEP driver (from within Device Manage using the ‘Have Disk’ method. http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-comp/Sony_SFEP_Driver_6435/SVE1511B1E

• Install Sony Shared Library. http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-comp/SOASSL-00264711-0042_6233/SVE1511B1E

• Install Sony Notebook Utilities. http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-comp/sony_notebook_utilities_6371/SVE1511B1E

• Install Vaio Control Center. http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-comp/EP0000315986_9292/SVE1511B1E

Once installed the Fn keys should work but you may need to check in Vaio Control Center that Battery Care function is enabled (Power Management > Battery > Enable Battery Care Function > and then Advanced settings if required). Also expand Security and check that hard disk drive protection is enabled.

Rich

[Mustey]

Hi Rich,

1. Thanks for your valuable and prompt response.

2. I am not using the pre-installed windows, I am using a modified win7 supplied by MS for developing applications on that OS.

3. I wouldn't mind paying for a quality maintenance service. I am going to look into that.

4. I was referring to the HDD protection that removes the needle if the laptop is in motion.

I am going to use your instructions to install the vaio care and vaio support apps and see if that brings back up the software infrastructure required to run this machine properly.

I wish that once I was done setting it up, I could take an image of the partition and have something to quickly deploy should I be interested in refreshing the system.

Thanks again!

Tod.

[rich912]

Hi Tod,

Please let us know the result of installing the suggested utilities – hopefully it will reactivate the HDD protection.

With regard to imaging the partition once set up as required I suggest you look at software such as Acronis True Image. There are of course other software imaging solutions out there.

Rich

[Mustey]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for your ongoing support.

I followed the list of suggested downloads and my impressions are as folllows:

1. The first one, the SFEP does not seem to install right. Upon further examination of the supplied install.bat script, I see it looks for a file called DPInst.exe and has some provision of doing something should that file be missing.
Unfortunatelly, I am not entirely certain it does the right thing if the file is missing.

2. The rest was as expected: I downloaded, ran and restarted without failure.
However, the end result seems to be missing - I do not have new shortcuts, new agents or services running. Even the programs and applications list in the control panel does not feature that elusive Sony Vaio Control Center.

Any ideas?

[rich912]

Hi Tod,

Is there a warning symbol against Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device in the Human Interfaces Devices tree in Device Manager? If not this would suggest that the driver is already installed. If there is a warning that the driver is missing then try installing the driver from within Device Manager using the ‘Have Disk’ method…

Extract the files from the installation package to a known location.
Click Start > Control Panel.
Double click Device Manager.
Right click the device and select Properties
Click the Driver tab.
Click Update Driver.
Click Browse my computer for driver software.
Click Let me pick from a list...
Click Have Disk....
Click Browse and navigate to the folder where you placed the extracted files. This should recognise SFEP.inf
Click OK.
Click Next.
Click Finish.
Reboot your system.

With regard to missing Vaio Control Center I am not sure what the problem is but the possibility that your Anti Virus is blocking a complete install comes to mind. Also these original drivers and utilities were designed to work with a standard build of Windows 7 so there is the possibility that your modded version may not be compatible.

Rich