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My results have been mixed.  The very first attempt at installing on my S260P went pretty well.  I installed as an upgrade on C, so it created the whole Windows.old directory, but that’s still basically a clean install, when it was done, all that was there was Vista.  I just removed the Windows.old directory.

As far as how it went, it went w/o a hitch installing Vista itself.  After it was done, I was prompted to install (via Windows update) some upgrades to the Sony shared lib stuff, which I did.  I believe there was a WDDM update for the mobility 9200 video (from Microsoft) as well.  After that, I tried the esupport stuff from Sony that was designed for XP, I had almost complete success when all was said and done.  The only two things that were non-functional were audio (SoundMax) and I had some flakey problems when hooking up to a external projector.  The video kept cutting out periodically and then it’d come back, so definitely a big issue if you use w/ a projector or external video at all.  But, Brightness worked fine.

As for the audio, I found some newer SoundMax software somewhere, which I can’t seem to find now, and it worked great w/ the exception of the FN keys for vol up/down and mute.  I had audio, which you don’t get w/ the Sony SoundMax audio drivers for XP, I just couldn’t get the FN keys to work.

Sony notebook setup worked, but not from the main EXE, you had to run the PBMsg.exe file that opens up on another tab and then config everything, the main SNS tab errors out, which is just a display of system properties.

Now…all that being said, my second attempt has been horrible.  Because I used a projector alot w/ work stuff, and the audio just annoyed me, I decided to blow it away, setup 2 partitions, put XP back on C and then Vista on D.  WAAAAAAY more problems.  Can’t get the LCD toggle to work at all, Brightness works still, Audio totally dead as before, SNS will not run from either EXE.  I really think there are some hardcoded paths with Sony stuff to the C drive, which in theory should still work given that my Vista install can see the C drive where XP is installed…but there are definitely issues I cannot seem to resolve at this point.

If you are installing on C, I’d say you won’t have a problem…unless my probslems on D stem from a clean install (as stated, I had done the upgrade install on my first attempt).

Good luck, it’s definitely a nice looking OS, but I’m back to square 1 again…I’m thinking about just staying w/ XP and buying a new laptop at this point.

I’m pretty ANNOYED that Sony isn’t releasing the drivers all because of the video memory limitation on these units.  Evidently, there is something out there for the S3XX models, which are exactly the same accept for the video chipset.  So, everything else would work great if they’d just give you access to it.

Chris

I wonder if you’d be able to avoid all these problems if you were to just do a completely clean install of Vista.  clean as in formatting your drive then running setup.  Remember, even if you have the upgrade version of Vista, you can still do a clean setup.  There seems to be a lot of advantages by doing this.  Granted, it would have been a lot easier if Sony just gave support for this OS upgrade to begin with.

I’ve found drivers for SoundMAX at Driverguide.com.  This is the direct link..  

I’ve gotten 2 files named a3d.zip and soundmax.exe.  I haven’t tried either one since I’m still waiting for my Vista copy.  They may help people already on Vista.

The FN keys still seem to be a problem… wonder if we could use the S6XX’s drivers.

EDIT-  On the same website, I’ve found a setup file for FN Key.  search for it and try it out.. hope it works.

I actually had all the FN keys working just fine, including the audio function keys…all on my original install attempt, on C.

Vista is a ‘clean install’ by default if you tell it to do a new installation, it still picks up the keys and stuff to allow the ‘upgrade’, but the final product is a true clean install when you choose that option, no drivers come over or anything.  Yes, there are the work arounds to do a true clean install, but it’s the same thing after you delete the Windows.old directory.  My second attempt WAS a clean install, only on the D drive, which again, I suspect causes problems w/ some of the sony apps.

Anyway…it all works when installed on C, w/ the exception of the FN keys for audio…again, they work, the icons show up on the LCD indicating that they are muting and changing the vol, but they don’t do anything b/c there are no SoundMax drivers for this laptop…the aftermarket ones you linked to may be the ones i used, dunno, but if they do work, they still won’t (likely) hook into the FN keys.  When I was done, I had full audio control from the systray, using SoundMax software, but nothing from the FN keys like you do in XP.

Good luck…

Chris

Are you planning to start over with vista on C drive instead?  Seems like you’ve got most of the things worked out compared to other users.

I can’t wait to get my copy, should be here in a couple more days!  I’ll report my results after that.

Whatever happened to Groovy, he’s usually good with figuring out this stuff

starting over on C?, probably not immediately, I’m back up and running on XP again and my laptop is pretty critical to me right now for work.  I had planned on getting Vista on D as a secondary OS to play with, but at this point, I’m just too busy to start over.  I may try to reinstall Vista and then change it’s boot configuration to dual boot w/ XP on partition 2 (D), but I haven’t learned my way around the new boot.ini replacement stuff in Vista yet, I understand it’s not as easy to setup, requires command line stuff that I need to read-up on before I try it.

Plus, I forgot to backup the audio drivers I had found (for SoundMax).  I have been searching for them for a few days so that I’d have them, but I have no idea which one I really ended up using.

Chris

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]I was able to get brightness working but not volume which is indeed more useful. I’ll be happy to at least get that…back to testing so I can share my findings.

Any news on your progress?  I’m on Vista now and trying to see what i should in which order so i dont screw things up.

i’m getting mine near-new (2nd hand) S260 real soon and was wondering if there is any point upgrading to vista…

The s260 has ram limitations and 1gb isn’t sufficient to enjoy vista properly. However it will be good to know that the S-series is capable of installing vista without all the glitches listed so far…

[quote author=“avexdevil”]i’m getting mine near-new (2nd hand) S260 real soon and was wondering if there is any point upgrading to vista…

The s260 has ram limitations and 1gb isn’t sufficient to enjoy vista properly. However it will be good to know that the S-series is capable of installing vista without all the glitches listed so far…

Limitations? The S-series of notebooks will take 2GB of RAM. My S170 is happily running XP with 2GB (although hibernate doesn’t work because of the XP glitch).

At any rate, I haven’t had time to mess around with my S170 as I’ve had to use it for work and school. I’ll be ready to test this stuff again in about two weeks and will report my findings.

oh really? I thought most specs say the S series have a max capacity of 1gb of ram! Although I’m aware of the fact this 172pin microdimms are amazingly rare and expensive to get my dirty paws on. I’m also guessing they haf come up with 1gb microdimms? If so, how much did you pay for them?

I just got my s260 today and I thoroughly enjoy its company, except maybe for that backlight bleeding/brightness problem at the bottom of the lcd that I hear is a fault with the S-series.

Also, hibernation seems to work on mine? What’s the go with that?

Never believe manufacturer specs…especially Sony’s.

If you read the Intel technical specifications for the 855GM/PM chipset, you will see that it supports up to 2GB of memory.

Given the time frame when the early S-series notebooks came out, 1GB MicroDIMMs were not readily available and were prohibitively expensive. Because of this, almost no notebook manufacturer offered it as an option. Notebook manufacturers will only offer options when they can readily source parts.

Two years ago, I spent nearly $800 alone to secure 2 x 1GB SwissBit MicroDIMMs. It’s probably cheaper now. I got mine at Portable One .

You will not see hibernation problems with only 1GB of memory. There is a known bug in Windows XP when your system has EXCESS of 1GB of memory. Typically, 1.5-2GB of memory are typical configurations where the problem exists.

the price still is pretty steep. looks like i’ll be sticking to my 1gb config…

Ah, glad to see Groovy is back on the job   :D

As most have said, the volume control is the only issue.  It’s a bit of a pain to change the volume control since I’m so used to the old way.

As a minor issue, VAIO Power Management program didn’t work for me.  Though, Vista has various advanced settings for power profiles, I miss the fan speed control from the VAIO PM.  Even under low power now, the fan still sounds like its on full speed.

Damn Sony for not supporting this model for Vista… having said that, I’m happy my 2 year old S-model can run a brand new OS just like a new lappy!

i did pick a vaio over a thinkpad anyday after my experience with the S-series. It’s nothing short of amazing (even at its age). The vaio trademark is just the tip of the iceberg.

@spartanman…

regarding the fan noise, dunno if you’ve tried this or ever used it…but i run RMClock, and it keeps the temp down pretty well if you undervolt.  it runs under vista and seems to behave as well as it did under XP…

anyway, just a thought if you want to give it a shot.

NHC would also be an option, but i’ve had problems w/ the later releases of this and causing my notebook to take FOREVER to finish booting and startup apps load up…RMClock is much lighter and does the same thing.

Thanks for that.  Though it doesn’t allow me to alter the fan speed, I can at least see more info about my CPU.