topic Re: Disappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista in PCs & Accessories

Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:27:42 GMT

The unit itself is fantastic, but with Vista, the ZR61ZU is a complete dog to use. Crashes often, hardware items don't work properly due to drivers (which Sony deny), it's sluggish (slower than my old 3GHz Sempron) and eats battery like they were going out of style.

I *DESPERATLY* want to go back to XP. Found some of the drivers and managed to get a dual-boot setup going with some bodged nVidia & Sound drivers but it's not good enough. Spending this amount of money on a unit which is not fully usable is a disgrace.

Sony support replied to my case with a very nasty reply stating if I put anything other then Vista on it will damage it beyond repair! They really should grow up. I've witness Sony support before (or lack of it) so I knew I would be pretty much on my own when I bought this unit.

So, has anyone any luck getting Vista useable or a decent XP on the AR61ZU? I'm putting a collection of working drivers together so maybe we could all combine forces! I believe the AR51ZU is the same machine?

Other current Vista problems include the hardware tv encoder showing OK in Media Centre but nowhere else. A reinstall of the driver helped, but the input has corruption in ANY application (Sony's reply was to reinstall my applications! - Don't know why I bother emailing them!). So, I can't import video for editing. The unit, when on standby, wakes itself up between 3 and 7am for no reason (checked and disabled lots in Task Scheduler). When it does, Vista locks and will no longer boot up (until you do a known-good boot).

On the flip-side, I've tried Linux Mint and Ubuntu and they are quite simply awesome on this machine so I know it's down to Vista (XP is pretty damn quick as well!). GRUB unfortunately won't boot off a RAID 0. Has anyone done a setup so it will boot GRUB off a USB pen drive, then transfer to the RAID0 to continue booting?

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:49:46 GMT

Just to add more wores, in just a week, with very little additional software, Vista has decided it won't sleep properly, or hibinate (won't start up from either) and sometimes it won't boot from cold either.

Vista is the worst operating system I've used (worse than Windoze ME!). Looks like I might have to reimage (groan) but it won't fix the underlying problem of Vista being unstable and the AR61ZU only having Vista drivers / software (which is also unstable).

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

AntonisCy — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:41:03 GMT

im sad to say that i have regreted buying this specific model. I expected much more..

If the day comes that there is a 100% working solution for an XP convertion i wont think twice.

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:23:47 GMT

I have to agree and I've read other posts saying the same. For the price, you *should* expect much more. I guess that's the Sony way!

I've been putting some serious effort in to this and if I get chance, I'll put a guide up somewhere to get it upgraded from Vista to XP. I've been using Google heavily along with this forum (for the AR41 and AR51 models).

So far I have, volume, eject, mute and brightness buttons working.
Wireless driver installed, bluetooth, graphics (it still plays Blu-Ray discs - only problem is it reports it has no overlay available for apps that require it. It hibernates OK, but remains black when brought out of standby). Ethernet driver in, audio in, PCMCIA & card readers in.

For me, XP is approaching very useful and I'm almost fully moved over to XP now. Still have problems with the TV in/out not working properly in either XP or Vista but that's just bad drivers. It's been reported on this forum for a year but Sony have failed to fix it.

XP (and Linux Mint & Ubuntu) really fly on this notebook and is the way it *SHOULD* of been. Why Sony don't offer an XP upgrade from Vista like they do on their business machines is beyond me. If Vista doesn't improve a VERY long way, I will either remain on XP or move completely to Linux.

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

AntonisCy — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:21:27 GMT

Please let me know when you have XP working perfect on the 61ZU

Does device manager say that you are missing any drivers? or have you got everything but still things dont function good?

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:56:29 GMT

Two items left - "ehome Infrared Transceiver" and "SM Bus Controller" (whatever that is).

Obviously XP doesn't have Media Centre installed so that won't work, but I'm hoping to use other apps to drive the TV tuner. It can't be worse than Vista which doesn't drive it properly anyway. Even on a brand-new Vista image install, it's still got corruption etc. Sony just say "reinstall" which is their standard reply it seems.

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

AntonisCy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:33:16 GMT

keep us posted

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:51:44 GMT

Upgrade to XP!

I'm pleased to say, I'm now using XP exclusively on this machine and extremely happy. I've not had chance to test every single item, but I can say that the only device which I've been unable to fudge a driver for is the ehome IR sensor (as the drivers are part of Windows Media Center) but it may be possible to rip them from an XP-MCE2005 installation.

The S1/S2 buttons don't control the display, but they work and can be assigned.
FN & F6/F7 control the brightness so no huge problem.
Volume buttons and eject button works along with the media buttons.
It sleeps, hibernates and wakes up with no problems.
I can use the AverMedia TV Tuner which didn't work under Vista (DVBT untested)
You now get decent battery life!

The only thing I can't control is the Sony Vaio Logo Lamp yet so it's on when you first power up and remains off of you sleep/hibernate. I can't control it properly in Vista either so not a massive problem (it only dims for 3 set programs - can't find location to add more such as VLC player yet).

I can't confess to having done the bulk of the work - others had already done the donkey-work, but I've had to make some registry changes & other items.

When I get a chance, I will put a complete guide up somewhere so everything is in one place and include any files for convenience.

This laptop is now the machine it should of been before Vista came along an screwed it up.
Linux Mint (the latest V4) works brilliantly on this unit as well. Far better than Vista. Just a little more awkward to install due to the RAID0 arrangement (GRUB won't boot off RAID-0) so you have to use an external USB drive for GRUB, then transfer control back to the RAID-0.

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

AntonisCy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:55:20 GMT

is the tutorial ready? i want to convert to xp

i also sent you a pm

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:03:47 GMT

Sorry, not had a chance to sort it out as yet. Getting it working took quite a while, so I'm having to catch up on other things. I'll try to get on that and put it up somewhere as soon as I'm able.

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

AntonisCy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:29:40 GMT

thanks i will be waiting

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

xdesign — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:57:45 GMT

Damn, thank God I research upon this model!

I was ready to order this model, but my worries had to do about Vista since I'm using Solid Edge which runs on XP.

I think I'll stick to my XP Vaio for a few more months and see what happens.

It's too bad one cannot order it with XP instead of Vista...

ANYONE FROM SONY SEES THIS? WE WANT XP!

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

chaslie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:41:15 GMT

any news yet? I have the display working and sound card, but i cannot get the head phone socket working. Any advice?

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:08:43 GMT

Still ironing out a few "niggles". For anyone thinking of buying any laptop, make sure it has XP drivers!! When devices no longer have XP drivers, we're all going to hell (or Apple or Linux, I've not decided yet).

Anyway, one of my 4 Hibernation problems (basically, where it wouldn't at all).
Have 3 things left...

* Coming out of hibernation/standby, the keyboard sometimes gets stuck in a state where the shift key is permanently down and a reboot is required to fix it, so not much use.

* The Marvell Yukon driver is total crap. When you awake from hibernation/sleep, it sometimes errors, disappears or won't connect.

* Sometimes, it won't let you hibernate unless the Marvell Yukon driver sees a network cable connected.

I'm still working on it. I'll hopefully write it all down when it's sorted.

Re: Disappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Cybercell — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:44:02 GMT

I feel i must come to the rescue of AR61ZU running vista, i have nothing but praise for this Model.

This is my first taste of Vista, and i like the look a feel of it, i haven't experienced any haradware issues, crashes, or any problems with software I've loaded.

I for one am happy with Vista and intend to stay with it.

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

micdonal — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:29:47 GMT

I bought a Sony AR51SU which came with Vista Ultimate. It crashes, some pre-installed programmes don't always work or crash. Although it has a 25% faster processor than my Philips MT1800 desktop (which runs Vista Home Premium without any problems at all) it performs woefully slower. It really is a poor show for a £2000 laptop. The only benefit I have got from it is that it will (sometimes) play Blu Ray discs. All in all I'm not a happy bunny and I spend most of my time on my desktop.
I strongly suspect that these are Sony problems and not Vista problems as my Philips works fine.

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:16:21 GMT

Yes, the Sony machine has a few design issues (like why is the headphone socket not on the front, but right next to the Blu-Ray drive so the plug & cable get caught when you open the draw?) (and why is the keyboard not backlit?)

BUT, since I've been running XP on this for well over a month, the machine has become very useable and stable and I've not put my desktop on for weeks. I only ever hibernate and sleep the machine and it does fine. Admittedly, I have to reboot it after a few weeks whereas my old Acer would go for months, but this seems to be just down to the Marvell Yukon driver which is VERY buggy. Everything else is fine. I've dealt with other peoples notebooks and many (including Packard Bell and Toshiba) are terrible machines with Vista on and I've helped those users upgrade to XP and are now very happy. At the end of the day, if you don't use Vista for much (some email & surfing) you'll be fine. If you really want to *USE* a computer, you have to move to XP. I get a much longer battery life since moving to XP as well !!!

Sorry, not had chance to finish the guide. I have a LOT of files and I went through a lot of different drivers and registrys so it's all a bit messy to put together. It's a powerful machine and has not failed to perform any tasks from playing 3D games, blu-rays, DVDs, movies, compiling DVDs, transcoding video for various devices.

If only Sony (who, as usual have their head in the sand and terrible after-sales support) would listen and put together an XP pack. Don't forget, Windows isn't the only option. Linux Mint runs rather nice on this 😉

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

eriganke — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 07:41:44 GMT

does anyone have a list of drivers and their locations for VGN-AR61ZU?

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

vijsingh — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:55:13 GMT

Anyone know if the same route can be used on the AR61M?

Re: Dissappointed with the AR61ZU with Vista

Xyleon — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:47:31 GMT

Hi. HUGE apologies for not getting back with this a lot sooner. I spent SOOOOOOO much time trying to fix the mess that *&^%ing Sony made with this Vista install when I went to XP that I completely lost which of the hundreds of megabytes of drivers I'd used etc. I also had to hack the registry with some of the vista stuff to get working.
(Those links can be found on various threads on this forum. Sorry, I can't give you a copy of my registry!!!)

Anyway, since I've found a tool which can export and import sets of running drivers, so I've exported all my drivers from my almost-fully working system (except the camera which still only works under Vista, along with the DVB Tuner and infra-red sensor) to Rapid Share.
It uses DriverBackUp!2 from SourceForge and is included in the package.

Even though it's late, hopefully someone will find this useful as the notebook CAN be a decent product (when the paint stops chipping off - been back to Sony for repair already for that!).
I'll avoid Sony products from now on as they seem to have lost their way, but I can recommend their repair service (very fast). Should of got a Mac or another Acer, but hey, it's done now.

I expect this to work with the other variants of this machine.

Download Here