Thanks Sony ...
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Thanks Sony ...
With the long-awaited arrival of W7 I checked with the Sony Support site to see what they have to say. The response left me quite ... let's say... surprised:
Model VGNSZ780N: The hardware configuration of this model does not meet the minimum system requirements needed to run and provide the full experience of the Windows® 7 operating system.
Windows® 7 installation is not recommended and Sony will not be providing Windows® 7 drivers for this model.
What minimum system requirements? I have:
Intel Core Duo T8300 @2.4 Ghz
4 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
What the
is this?
(let's not mention the rather high price tag of this machine)
Model VGNSZ780N: The hardware configuration of this model does not meet the minimum system requirements needed to run and provide the full experience of the Windows® 7 operating system.
Windows® 7 installation is not recommended and Sony will not be providing Windows® 7 drivers for this model.
What minimum system requirements? I have:
Intel Core Duo T8300 @2.4 Ghz
4 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
What the
is this?(let's not mention the rather high price tag of this machine)
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Niiiiiice.
Have you tried the beta to see if the Sony line is just a load of BS and Microsoft have drivers of their own?
I installed a Beta on a Vaio and it worked with no recourse to drivers at all.
Have you tried the beta to see if the Sony line is just a load of BS and Microsoft have drivers of their own?
I installed a Beta on a Vaio and it worked with no recourse to drivers at all.
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Well that's a load of rubbish as your machine far exceeds the minimum specs. The fact it's also available with Vista installed makes a mockery of that claim.
It's possible that Windows 7 would have most of the needed drivers included anyway. If there's any that it doesn't cover, then the Vista drivers would probably suffice.
You have 4gb of ram so ideally you would want Win7 x64, but if Sony didn't provide 64bit drivers for Vista then you'll be stuck*, and running a 32bit version of Win7 would be you're only option.
* (If Win7 required drivers to be installed for certain hardware to work that is.)
It's possible that Windows 7 would have most of the needed drivers included anyway. If there's any that it doesn't cover, then the Vista drivers would probably suffice.
You have 4gb of ram so ideally you would want Win7 x64, but if Sony didn't provide 64bit drivers for Vista then you'll be stuck*, and running a 32bit version of Win7 would be you're only option.
* (If Win7 required drivers to be installed for certain hardware to work that is.)
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There's a difference between what Sony supports, and what works. For example, if one of the mess of preinstalled mickey-mouse apps won't work on the new OS, or was only licensed by Sony for the original OS, then the machine will be tagged as "unsupported", even if all the important stuff is fine. So as others have said, go for it: Sony internals are all generic hardware.
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That's just lazy. Win7's hardware requirements aren't that onerous, not if it's going to run on Netbooks. If Sony won't be supporting the hardware, it's fairly standard hardware anyway (Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom, so I think it's likely that drivers are included in Win7.
edit: for video, Nvidia already supports the video chip under Win7 64-bit.
edit: for video, Nvidia already supports the video chip under Win7 64-bit.
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Microsoft provide the following tool to check compatibility:
Download details: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
I have just loaded W7 on a MSI Wind, Dell Latitude and an elderly HP Pavilion desk top with only a few problems, all with the HP Pavilion, needed to find drivers - the Vista ones will suffice.
Download details: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
I have just loaded W7 on a MSI Wind, Dell Latitude and an elderly HP Pavilion desk top with only a few problems, all with the HP Pavilion, needed to find drivers - the Vista ones will suffice.
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"Microsoft provide the following tool to check compatibility:"
Thanks for the link Goldfrog.
I ran it for my four year old Sony Vaio VGN740/w and not surprisingly, there were 11 significant disconnects to making this thing Windows 7 compatible; so when it craps out - it goes out.
Thanks for the link Goldfrog.
I ran it for my four year old Sony Vaio VGN740/w and not surprisingly, there were 11 significant disconnects to making this thing Windows 7 compatible; so when it craps out - it goes out.
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[quote ]Bushfiva
Sony internals are all generic hardware[/quote]
Just as an aside, I had an old Vaio which the cpu fan packed up on. Sony wanted £150 to just look at it.
They would not sell me the fan themselves, (I was, at the time, a hardware engineer trained by Toshiba and Compaq, so knew my way around the insides of laptops) I sourced the exact same fan, by examining the part number.
What did it cost me to repair ?
£6.50 delivered, and ten minutes of my time
Sony internals are all generic hardware[/quote]
Just as an aside, I had an old Vaio which the cpu fan packed up on. Sony wanted £150 to just look at it.
They would not sell me the fan themselves, (I was, at the time, a hardware engineer trained by Toshiba and Compaq, so knew my way around the insides of laptops) I sourced the exact same fan, by examining the part number. What did it cost me to repair ?
£6.50 delivered, and ten minutes of my time
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There's a sequel to that...
A friend of mine bought a very nifty little Sony laptop (cost her a lot of money). It worked superbly for a few minutes, then gradually slowed to a crawl. She put up with this for a year or more, then finally asked me to take a look at it.
The CPU was getting to max temp, then switching into "low speed" to protect itself. Some very simple diagnosis proved that the fan wasn't running. I assumed this was due to fluff etc, and from experience decided that if we were opening up the laptop, we'd replace rather than clean the fan.
A new fan was bought off the web, £10 or thereabouts including delivery. On the appointed day, we operated on the patient. It took a lot of dismantling, but happily the complete instructions for replacing the fan were available on the web.
When at last we got down to the fan, we found ... it wasn't plugged into the power connector on the motherboard. No new fan was needed, and her fine Sony laptop is now performing like a good 'un. She has a spare fan, against the day cat fur and cobwebs bung up this one.
A friend of mine bought a very nifty little Sony laptop (cost her a lot of money). It worked superbly for a few minutes, then gradually slowed to a crawl. She put up with this for a year or more, then finally asked me to take a look at it.
The CPU was getting to max temp, then switching into "low speed" to protect itself. Some very simple diagnosis proved that the fan wasn't running. I assumed this was due to fluff etc, and from experience decided that if we were opening up the laptop, we'd replace rather than clean the fan.
A new fan was bought off the web, £10 or thereabouts including delivery. On the appointed day, we operated on the patient. It took a lot of dismantling, but happily the complete instructions for replacing the fan were available on the web.
When at last we got down to the fan, we found ... it wasn't plugged into the power connector on the motherboard. No new fan was needed, and her fine Sony laptop is now performing like a good 'un. She has a spare fan, against the day cat fur and cobwebs bung up this one.
