Sony Vaio C series- C22GH review- And why I'll never buy a Vaio again!

For those who want a quick answer to the latter part of the title, scroll down to the last few paragraphs in the review.
Else you can read on throught the full review


Quick background:
I was looking for a laptop to gift to a lady in the family and decided to order the Inspiron 640m because the requirements I thought she had was for a medium sized laptop which is not too heavy and powerful enough to run XP , firefox and office.
Unfortunately, what I did not know was that the most important parameter for her were great looks, and the 640m, even though quite elegant looking is not really a stunner.


To cut a long story short, I sold the Dell to Mohit (TE) (who BTW would be receiving it today ) and picked a Sony Vaio C22GH (White) as it definitley is one of the best looking machines at a reasonable price in the market currently.

There's a nother model in the same series called C25GH which comes with a Go7400 card, but since this machine is (not at all) meant to be used for gaming, i decided to choose the GMA950 version since the 950 handles Aero admirably, and more importnantly, yields better battery life than the Go7400

Quick Specs

- Screen: 13.3-inch screen WXGA (1280 x 800) with XBRITE-ECO (glossy finish)
- Color: Seashell White which is essentially glittery white on the top , and white on the inside
- Processor: Core 2 Duo T5500
- Hard Drive: 80 GB hard drive (SATA, 5400RPM)
- Memory: 1 GB RAM (PC4200, 533 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM, 2 x 512 MB)
- Optical Drive: multi-format/dual-layer DVD/CD burner
- Ports and Slots: Two USB 2.0, one FireWire 400 port, one ExpressCard 34, one S-Video, memory card reader adapter, headphone / line-out, microphone-in, modem, 10/100 Ethernet
- Wireless: Tri-mode Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g)
- Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (128 MB of shared RAM)
- Operating System: Windows Vista Home
- Dimensions: 9.28 inches, 12.98 inches, 1.47 inches (depth, width, thickness)
- Weight: 2.25 kgs

Build quality, Design and looks

For the design & looks, All I'll say is Sony definitley picks up the best designers in the business, and the pix don't do it any justice



The build quality is pretty good.
The lid and screen bezel are made of Mg-alloy and there is zero flex on the lid, while the lower body is made of rigid plastic, which also shows no flex anywhere.

The system doesn't feel anywhere as flimsy as the Sony Vaio SZ or most other thin & light machines on the market, and is almost equal to the Xps m1210 IN terms of feeling solidly built.

Next to the XPS M1210
​

As you can see, the system is marginally bigger than the M1210
It is however a mucho slicker looking machine, (At the risk of repeating) the pix really don't do it any justice.

Screen Quality

Like most Sony LCD screens, the 13.3" X-Brite 1280X768 LCD is also a vibrant looking display with fairly vivid color reproduction.

There is minimal zero light bleed from the bottom and the contrast ratio is excellent.

The hoizontal viewing angles are again very good, which unfortunately is not true for the vertical viewing angles.
The screen gets washed out from the top and gets too dark when viewed from below.

​

Connectivity options

Not much to complain.
The standard triband wireless card (3945 abg), bluetooth, firewire, RJ11/RJ45/ Memory card (Sony Pro/duo) reader
There's an additional express card based card reader that can be fitted into the expess card slot that supports other card formats (SD/xD.)
Though why Sony decided to implement it this way is beyond me. They could have simply saved some cost by using a single unified card reader while leaving the express card slot free for other uses

Audio

Two speakers on the sides, with surprisingly good audio quality.
Obviously no bass, but the clarity is good, and gets the job done for movies

Keyboard
They keyboard is quite different from most other keybaords I have used. The keys have surprisingly short play even for a laptop keyboard, but the tactile response is quite good.
I like the KB, some may not though.


Heat and Noise
CPU idles at 36 Cand the system remains cool to the touch at all times.
However, the right-centre lower side gets a little warm as that's where the heat sink is.
I haven't heard the fan come on as yet, which means either the system stays cool, or the fan is really sillent.
Any which way, I don't mind hyeah:

Benchmarks

Super Pi 2 M- 1 min 23 seconds

HDTune Average Tfr rate: 31.9 MB/sec, burst rate 77MB/Sec, Access time of 18.5 ms

So as you can see, the system performance obviously wouldn't blow any charts, but for average daily use, it is more than sufficient by all means

Battery Life
no Complaints..Battery life is better than expected at around 4 hours with medium brighness and low processor load (browsing with wireless on)

Other Pics

Thinkpad R (15" office machine) next to Compaq V2000 (14.1") next to Vaio (13.3") next to XPS M1210 (12.1")







YET WHY I WOULD NEVER BUY A VAIO AGAIN!!​

Now from all of the above, I guess you would be wondering why the title reads so, here is the reason why....

Like most other manufacturers (Dell, Fujitsu, Compaq, actually pretty much everyone but the erstwhile IBM) Sony also loads up their systems with a lot of bloatware in the form of free trials, silly proprietary software and what not....

Which is why the first thing I do when I get a new machine is do a clean format, create fresh partitions, install the OS, install the drivers, and any specific utilities (like hotkeys etc.) and it's all set.

Since this system was literally crawling when out of the box, it decided to get on with the fresh install without any delay.

However, Sony does not ship any DVDs/CDs with their machines (that's right, not one single media!)

No sweat, the program menu showed a sony recovery tool which would allow me to burn my own recovery dvd's from the data stored on a hidden parition on the machine
20 mins, and armed with the recovery DVDs, i start the process. (8:00PM)

Before reading further, to give a quick background, that in the last 10 yrs or so, I must have done over 70-100 windows installs (desktop spring cleaning/new HDD/fresh install on laptops/for friends etc.) with and without chipset/driver CDs , have hunted for all sorts of new/old drivers...the whole 9 yards basically!

Anyway, 8:15 PM, i realize there are no customization options on the recovery DVDs, i.e. it's an all or none restore...WTH moment #1!!!

Not giving up, I decided to use my (already in use on my desktop) retail XP Home CD for the OS install, as I still prefer XP over Vista anyway (Talk of curbing piracy...LOL..I had to install an semi-illegit XP home despite having paid for the Vista OEM license)

9:00 PM, and we are set with XP Pro, or are we?

Since the drivers on the recovery DVD were Vista drivers, I decided to download the drivers from the Sony support site...
Here's when i have my WTH moment #2 (of the many more to come )

Not one to give up easily, I decided to hit the Sony USA support site where to my joy, I found the XP drivers for the Vaio C series finally...Or Did I?
After downloading some 100 MB of drivers and utilities (1:00 AM),
I decided to start with the Intel chipset drivers first...

When I dbl clicked the installer, I get a Vaio splash logo, (why should a driver install use Vaio splash logos, i think to myself ) anyway, so far so good, as I sit back and light up a smoke...

And that's when i get my WTF moment #3 :O

Message pop-up-> "This install is not meant for your machine"

Turns out that Sony releases its drivers in the form of exe bundles (only) which runs a machine ID check against the BIOS.


And even though the Vaio C22 (Asia Pacific model with Vista), Vaio C240 (N. America model with Vista) and Vaio C140 (IIRC) (N. AMerican model with XP ) are exactly the same hardware, the machine IDs obviously aren't the same, and Sony driver installer exe's will run a machine ID check first before starting the install.


Finally at 2:00 AM, I decided to use a Vista ISO off a torrent, performed a clean install, and left it as-is for the night.

Next day being Sunday, I called up the Microsoft Support center, told them I am trying to finish a clean Vista install on a new Vaio and quoted my Vista product key, obtained the activation code, entered it manually and activated Vista
( I am not sure if this install falls is a gray area in terms of whether or not it is a perfectly legit install, but if the MS guys were willing to provide me the activation key, why should I)

Then I hunted for drivers on the recovery DVDs, found some, but not all on a folder called \Vaio\Drivers on the 2nd recovery disk, and managed to remove alll ! marks on the device manager

Next I installed the Sony utilities dll and some of the utility software off the folder \Vaio\Applications

So after spending over 12 hours just on a Windows install, this is where I stand...some of the functionality is still not working as expected...e.g.

- The Fn-f5/f6 screen brighness controls don't work

- The battery meter shows the % remaining only and does not show the time remaining (which apparently is due to the fact that Sony BIOSes apparently set a wrapper layer around the Windows API for the battery so that non Sony batteries will not work on VAIO machines...Until I get this driver, the battery will not report the charge rate/discharge rate as the battery feedback sensors cannot connect to the Windows API without this wrapper layer)

- Cannot switch Bluetoooth/Wireless on/off separately, as I need a utility called Wireless switching utility for this

Oh, and By the way I called up the Sony India support number, and even though the person who attended the call was surprisingly knowledgeable (he knew about the \Vaio\Applications and \Vaio\Drivers folders too which I frankly didn't expect from him) , it was as expected, an effort in vain.

His final recommendation was that I bookmark the driver download page and check back frequently.
He also recommended that I send a mail to The Sony APAC support team, which I certainly will..

In the end though, the question still remains:

a) Why can't I install XP on a laptop that I have paid a premium price for...Had it been a Dell or a HP or a Compaq or hell, even Acer, this would not have been a problem at all...Giving an excuse like this system came with Vista and we cannot provide backward support is simply lame..Esp. because the exact same machine (C13) used to come preloaded with XP.
All Sony needs to do is remove that stupid machine ID check, and that's all it'll take

b) Why can't I get driver downloads even for Vista???

So despite Sony having built a nice, sweet, great looking and capable machine at a (by Sony standards) reasonable price, whic I really loved at first glance, and I know the person I have bought it for is also going to totally love it....I know that I am never ever going to buy a Vaio again, nor would recommend a Vaio to any friend!

 

Great review, abhi.

Any complaints about the Dell M1210 that you can detail? I'm considering that one myself.

 

Hmm..I have been using the m1210 extensively for the last 8 months without any complaints....one of the best technology buys I have ever made...

Here is my review from soon after i got it
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=69232

the only complaint I have is that the silver paint has started wearing off from the palm rest area a little too soon..and apparently i's a common complaint

 

Perfect... thanks!!

 

just a note.....the battery life left in time just cannot be displayed in vista regardless of model. it is a fault with vista not sony.

 

^^ of course not..
My Dell XPS M1210 running Vista does display the battery remaining time ...

 

Wow, that is bad. Sony definitely needs to step up their act, although I doubt anything will happen.

So where you're at now, with the clean Vista install...are those three issues the only things that are keeping it from what you'd call a successful clean install?

 

yeah..these are the only three issues .. though I haven't checked the battery life as yet after the install..
Another thing I stumbled upon is that Sony's model check can be bypassed..When you start up the driver installer, it creates a file called C:\Windows\model.txt
If I edit this file and change the model number (In my case, C22GH_W) to the model number that the driver installer is intended for, the installation proceeds as expected.
Am planning to clone the current install as a backup, then do a fresh XP install, and subsequently install the XP drivers for the Vaio C12 which are available on the Sony Asia Pacific suport site (which is the same hardware , but used to come pre-installed with XP)

 

really? what settings do you have? i know of at least two other brands that can't seem to display the friggin remaining time, no matter what i do...

 

Hmm....My VAIO FJ270 displayed the time remaining (Althouggh, once I saw the number, I got really angry, as the number was about half of what I got under XP), and that was with Release Candidate 1! The only extra driver that I had to get was the sound driver, which I got off the Sony website...I did a clean install on a second partition on my hard drive. None of the fn keys worked though, so no adjusting brightness. But that was a problem with the release candidates in general, I think.

I'm having plenty of problems with my VAIO as well, though. LCD inverter is messed up, the DVDRW drive doesnt function properly, the screen makes the most annoying noise, the CPU fan is broken, and the one of the memory slots on the motherboard is not working. And thats after about 7 months of student use. Its going to Sony's repair center tomorrow...
Not buying another Sony, I should have gotten an Asus.

Oh yea, and no offense, but your problems seem a little bit nitpicky. But I agree that simple things become a lot harder with Sony. I just don't see it as a reason to never buy Sony again.

And that Seashell white looks a lot like Silver with a white keyboard and accents. That may be the photographs though...

 

LOL..yeah, might sound nitpicky, but even to get the system to the current state, I had to spend over 10 hours while it would have taken me an hours or (at max 2) to get a perfect clean install with all drivers and functionality up & running on a Compaq or a Dell...
Which is the reason I am all the more pi$$ed off at Sony...

Oh..and BTW I also sent a mail to their customer care :

Guess what response I got:

BLOODY AWESOME...Innit?

 

Nothing..As in I didnt make any changes to the settings...I just installed Vista and loaded up all the drivers provide by Dell on their website

 

I finally have been able to get everything up now....

I wanted XP, that is done...

I wanted XP drivers...that is done (by downloading Vaio c150 drivers from Sony US and editing the c:\windows\model.txt file each time i installed a set of drivers)...

I wanted the fn hotkeys to work (For display brighness and volume), which works after installing the Vaio utilities dll, Vaio event services abd Vaio utilities services for the Vaio C13 from the Sony Apac website

And last, I wanted their Wireless switch utility (to toggle between wireless, bluetooth and both enabled) which is done , again by installing the wireless switching utility for the SZ series from the sony Europe ftp site

Needless to say, it was an extremely painful and long drawn process and I ended up wasting my entire Saturday night, Sunday and over 8-10 hrs on Monday and Tuesday nights repectively to get this done....

I have also imaged the install on a DVD (which is something i never ever felt the need for before...Data backup..yes, but a OS install backup..LOL, never)

Anyway, the end-user is going to be happy with this machine, which is why I did all of this in the first place...but doesn't change the fact that no more Vaio for me...

 

Unbelievable.

 

Online tech support sucks.... I didn't even bother with them. I just called the tech support line, and waited to be transferred to someone competent.

When I moved my XP Sony VAIO to Vista, it took me about 45 minutes, pls about 10 to figure out how to get the sound to work, so under an hour including install time.

 

Dear Abhi..
I too bought a C22 last week and felt so bad with vista as it is taking about 80% of the memory and the machine works very slow. So I too decided to go back to XP and installed it, but couldn't find drivers for xp. I too contacted the customer care and they said, it is built for vista and not for xp, I needed to upgrade my RAM it seems, after buying such a brand system-who likes to open the machine and do some upgradation..?
When I wrote to sony I got the same reply as you got with a wishes from Sony..I was laughing when I read the reply u got as it is the same wording as I got from them.
Any way am fed up with this vista and need only xp in my machine as we are comfortable with this. I understood that u could fix your problem by changing the machine code - as u r an expert in this field (what I understood)
But I still don't know how to do this and make my system work with xp. Can u pls help me to do so.
If you can share your contact details, I can speak with you and fix this at the earliest.
Awaiting for a early reply
Thanks and Best regards
Ratheesh R Nath
[email protected]
+91 9986568925

 

I finally have been able to get everything up now....

I wanted XP, that is done...

I wanted XP drivers...that is done (by downloading Vaio c150 drivers from Sony US and editing the c:\windows\model.txt file to read as "C150P" instead of "C22GH_W" each time i installed a set of drivers)...

I wanted the fn hotkeys to work (For display brighness and volume), which works after installing the Vaio utilities dll, Vaio event services and Vaio utilities services for the Vaio C13 from the Sony Asia Pacific support website

And last, I wanted their Wireless switch utility (to toggle between wireless, bluetooth and both enabled) which is done , again by installing the wireless switching utility for the SZ series from the sony Europe ftp site

Needless to say, it was an extremely painful and long drawn process and I ended up wasting my entire Saturday night, Sunday and over 8-10 hrs on Monday and Tuesday nights repectively to get this done....

I have also imaged the install on a DVD (which is something i never ever felt the need for before...Data backup..yes, but a OS install backup..LOL, never)

Anyway, the end-user is going to be happy with this machine, which is why I did all of this in the first place...but doesn't change the fact that no more Vaios for me...

On a side note, I jyust realized that the hunt for Sony drivers took me on a trip across the globe

 

I don't think they seem like nitpicky problems at all. If you are buying a laptop you are usually spending over $1000 US. It isn't too much to ask that they ship the machine with cd's or dvd's containing all of the backup data. It also isn't too much to ask that they offer options that let you wipe the system and do a "clean" install without an extra software.

I get that they get lots of money from the companies whose products they bundle, and I get that that reduces the cost of the systems. But it isn't unreasonable to expect that I can control what does and doesn't go on my system, or that I should be able to override the manufacturer's choice, particularly with things like AV software that are commonly bundled and a pain to uninstall.

Oh, and you can add LG to the list of companies that sell wit minimum bloatware- all I've got is norton and a few small utilities with my S1.

 

Well, it probably would have been simpler just to delete the bloatware manually...Annoying, but not nearly as horrible as what Abhi went through.

 

hey guys, i am planning to buy VGN-C25G, go 7400 with windows vista. i don't plan to run windows xp but want to play doom3, hlf2 and fear games. Will this laptop with vista be able to play these 3 games?

i am also planning to upgrade from 1gb to 2gb.

 

is this just a problem with you model. Im going to be buying the C-240, when i went to the sony store i told them about ur store and they sent me to this site. http://esupport.sony.com/CA/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNC240EB&UpdateType=Everything and it looks like it has all the drivers? Does this mean a clean install for the C-240 will be fine?

 

ok, i have decided not to buy VAIO because their support site have no windows xp drivers. that ridiculous considering vista is not yet stable. i am going for Compaq pavilion.

 

Hi all, I am a complete newbie to the lappie world. AS per the post Sony aint worth buying? I was plannin to buy Sony VGN FE41 (VGN-FE41S) from UK. Ay idea how the support wil be in India ?
And do you guys think Toshiba (A100 2014 DE - the looks aint that good) is preferrable over this any model of Sony?
The Toshiba model is available in India but I am not sure if the sony model is available in India. What's the tech cupport site for sony in India?

Many Thanks,
Dinesh

 

The Go7400 is good enough to play these games at 1280X800 but at medium-high settings and without AA....

I assume you are from India...
Most laptops tend to be cheaper in India than UK, so If you have the option of buying it locally in India, you should do that for the lower price and local support and warranty...
From what I have seen so far though, Dell is the best amongst the lot in India because of their one day Onsite support policy, solid returns policy and the lack of reluctance in replacing parts or even the entire machine if any problem arises during the warranty period

Hehe, I eventually used most of the drivers off the US support site, I just had to edit the model.txt file, you won't even have to do that...
The Vaio C is not a bad machine per-se, it just turned out to be a bad experience because of the stupidity of Sony support...

Nevertheless, if you plan to install XP on it any time, it won;t be an easy task as compared to say a Dell or a COmpaq machine

 

thats the thing, i wont be installing XP, i should be fine When i do a clean install on Vista everything's there for me, Your right tho they should have the same thing for xp

 

I have installed all drivers in Win XP but am unable to install Bluetooth Driver.

The setup starts to install bluetooth but inbetween gives message "Please insert Bluetooth device". Wireless button is on. Still it does not able to find bluetooth.

There is one more issue. In device manager it shows a device for which the driver is not installed but I am unable to know which device it is. It shows in Device manager as "UGX"

I want to thank all of you for the support.

Nishant

 

you haven't installed the correct chipset drivers...
Check in the device manager, and you'll see an exclamation mark next to the USB root hub..

The Sony official driver doesn't work for the chipset on the C22 and I had to install the drivers from the Intel site

Since the USB root hub isn't active, the BT device also doesn;t get identified...You can easily check this by connecting say a portable drive on any of the USB ports and see if it works


"UGX" IIRC is the integrated card reader

 

there is no eclamation mark next to the USB root hub.

All usb ports are working fine.

"UGX" IIRC the integrated card reader how do i make it work?

where can i get the bluetooth drivers?
as per your advise I tried to install c150P Drivers but it say no bluetooth device found.

Nishant

 

I installed the XP drivers for the 150P/B and they worked for the memory card...
similarly, the BT drivers worked fine for me

Of coyrse bot the drivers required editing the model.txt file

 

I also have bad experience with C series, after reading your review I'm relieved for not choosing the C series!
Few months back I was struggling to decide between the Sony C and DELL M1210 (both were similarly priced/configured, but DELL giving a slightly better configuration for the price). I am in Japan and wanted to use English XP or Vista with my notebook, even though I knew that the chances of ordering with an english OS is very slim, I asked them anyways. As I expected they said no, but to my surprise they also told me that if I install the English edition on my own, that will void the warranty ! What the ***** ? How can installing an operating system void warranty ? same about upgrading RAM! .

Despite the warnings I almost bought the Sony thinking that installing Eng OS and finding drivers wont be a problem since the same model is sold in US/europe. But at the last moment I changed my mind after seeing the notebook in person. Screen was very poor and the Japanese keyboard was horrible, a huge Enter (return key) with screwed up layout. I am very glad I chose the M1210 over the C series. I was considering the black C edition (because that was the only color which had Go7400) but personally I think M1210 looks better than the black Sony C (at least when the lid is closed).

 

I already have a 1210 so thought would choose a Vaio for a change
In retrospect, should have ordered another 1210 or maybe the compaq TX1000

 

The bloat wear is incredible on the sony's. It seems it is to the manufacture's advantage, they get money and create systems that need to be upgrades sooner.

I have done the same scenario as described about a dozen times. It is indeed a pain. But if you start with all the drivers and a Windows disk it is not that bad. I mean why would you expect not to have to install drivers after installing the OS. Just hope they exist!

Couple of notes for those that are doing it.

If you can't find the driver for a model, look at the generic version. I.e. if you have a xxx-yyyP then look at the XXX-yyy model for drivers.

Don't start until you have all the drivers on a USB drive or something easy to access. Don't put it on the network and not have a network driver yet, for instance.

The claim the order of install in important. Could be, I would guess the testing is pretty narrow and they know that a particular sequence will work. I deviated by skipping items and it worked.

To get the Fn buttons etc to work you do need the Sony libraries.

The last Sony I bought has me looking at ASUS. It simply can't be much worse and still be a mainstream company.

 

Hello abhi182,

I got a Sony VAIO VGN-C22GH/B..

Iam also dreading this slow performance of Vista, and want to downgrade to Windows XP. I was so happy to see your post that you made it to Windows XP. I'm also so eager to downgrade.

However, according to your post, I downloaded all the drivers from the C150 page at Sony US Support, but Iam unable to find the Vaio utilities dll, Vaio event services and Vaio utilities services for the C13 in the Sony APAC site as well as the Wireless Switch Utility from the Sony Europe FTP site.

I would be deeply grateful if you would help me in this, in acquiring these required drivers.

-Absar

Update:
Now, my Sony VAIO VGN-C22GH/B is running Windows XP Professional Edition with SP2. I'm so happy! Most grateful to you, abhi182 for your help!

No issues, apart from not having the driver for:
-Modem Device on High Definition Audio Bus.

If you know the driver for this, kindly let me know!

Thank You abhi182!!!

-Absar

 

Very nice job Abhi..... i was also trying to install a fresh XP on my new Vaio C-25 as my fav game fifa 06 was lagging on vista, also the usb drive was way too slow.......

XP installed fine....... on HP dv6226, the pain starts even on installing XP, one has to disable SATA support from the bios before doing an installation..... so one up to Vaio for that.......

Ya driver installation was a pain as even i wasted a lot of time, but then ur post came to rescue..... i'm done wid drivers, downloading the utilities..... the file from uk server is abt 80mb.... didnt found anything on asia pacific one.......

I'll be needing nvidia 7400's drivers too....... so its still a long job for me.....

 

Well Abhi !!

Sony has got higher end models with Vista home premium as well as business editions also. If you wanted vista home premium then u must haven't opted 4 vista basic(C-22). Thats ur fault not Sony's..rite.

World is moving to Vista now but people like u still want to stick to XP...

 

Ah,
Brings back old memories.

I love the Viao designs, they rock.
After the Macbooks the Viao is the best designed laptop out there.
But it is a Sony computer.
And I will never buy one again as well.

I had a desktop Viao, not a laptop.
But years back when I decided to buy a CDRW drive and install it, to my surprise I found out that the Optical Drive Bays in the viao desktop were coverd with a thick metal without any screws.
Called the tech support, and they said no upgrades are allowed to the case.
A big WTH moment!

I had to cut through the metal with a garden scissors and install the drive, and meanwhile literally shattering all the metal, and the front plastic cover etc.

That was the last time I thought of purchasing a viao.

Now they have the new FZ (the light 15.4 with 256mb 8400gs graphics) line, looks good and all, but I try to steer away.

I wonder if I should buy a macbookpro, install the vista and run the damn thing on windows only

 

I am left speechless !!!

 

Well well;;; Good thing world is moving to VISTA .... as it is things need to slow down a bit ... life is just too fast.... bring on VISTA and lets freeze in time..

Speaking of which, I realised what a friend from US told me abt 6 months ago when WOW ads just started appearing... "He said it is 2 years 2 early" now I know what it means..... He happens to be involved in the mktg and supply chain of VISTA..!

 

@ ABHI and those with VGN-C22Gh or similar...
Thanks for excellent insight into the notebooks and more imp the backend support or rather the lack of it..
I wonder y the discussion on config/specs omitted one thing.... the motherboard FSB - 667 Mhz where as the RAM on board clocks 533 MHz. Does it mean that this is an 'old' notebook, launched prior to the release of 667 MHz DDRII RAM ?

The shop I bought this piece from happily gave me an upgrade on RAM - another 512 MB for an all inclusive price of 55 K. The older RAM was 533 MHz and so he installed another one similar...

Ofcrse, I am getting rid of VISTA . UR experience and tips as mentioned earlier are going to be invaluable.. Many thanks

 

There really isn't much of a discernible difference between 533 and 667 mhz RAM for most general and office apps.

It would lead to a few fps extra on games though(assuming you bough the model with the Go7400)

On a side note, I am still at Siya's post

 

ahhh! i hope this thread is not dead!

i have run into this whole downgrade to XP problem just last night after purchasing a VGN-C220E/H. if i only knew the warnings...

anyways i've went through the process of downloading the C150P drivers and installing them by renaming the model.txt and up to there everything is functional. however i can't seem to find the vaio c13 drivers for the utilities.dll and the same with the wireless switch utility. i saw that you helped absar with his findings, if all possible could you help me as well?

well apart from not being able to find the c13 and utilities files i got the wireless to work, but there's a problem. it only works when i have the laptop plugged in with the power cord. when i unplug the laptop i only get intermittent connection i.e. i can go to google.com, but only for a second as the page loads, but when i try to use it, it times out and error page opens saying my connection is out. i remember i had this problem with vista as when i figured out keeping the computer performance on power saver would cause me to lose wireless in the same fashion with intermittent connection that wouldn't let me browse. however when i plugged it in or changed my power settings to balanced/max performance the connection would be fine. so if you know the problem to this i would greatly appreciate it as well.

i really hope this thread isn't dead...

 

just get the XP drivers for any of the C series (C150/C13/15) or whichever C series model drivers and edit the model.txt file when starting the install

The basic hardware is the same on all the C series machines

as for the intermittent probles with ur wireless connection, I guess you are sitting a little far away from your router and the power save mode on your wireless card is dropping the connection

You can edit the power save option on your wireless card individually through the device manager>network cards>wireless card properties page..just set it to zero power savings on battery and that should most likely resolve your issue

 

i guess i don't need the SZ wireless driver because i have no real use for bluetooth. as long as wireless works i suppose i'm fine, and it works now after changing the power management. thanks abhi! you work miracles haha.

 

Hi Abhi,
After browsing for several days, atlast i found ur article which exactly am looking for. Recently purchased VGN-c220GH/B vaio notebook( in India) and I have to have XP instead of Vista since some of my VPN applications doesnt work on Vista.
I need your help in getting this done. Please let me know the detailed procedure for doing this righ from the disk partition. I have got only one drive. I am not so well versed with installing OS and other drivers. Hence looking forward for detailed info.
Would be grateful to you.

Pls help me out in this.
Thanks,
vaiovictim

 

Vaiovictim...
If you haven't done any normal/straightforward OS installs in the past, I wouldn't recommend doing this by yourself..
try getting a geeky friend /acquaintance to help you out coz I am not sure how to give any detailed instructions on this

 

hi superczar & every1 else..this is anubhav & is my 1st post.i am from india & i think u guys can solve my problem.i am a mba student & i with my frds need to purchase laptops.we decided sony as its THE quality product as we ppl think here...but there are a no. of problems & no one to gude us (i found this forum after searching 1 whole day..so plz help us).

my frd purchase vgn c25g/l .model with vista preloaded.other one has ordered for the same & i am planning for c-31.The problem with our college is that though it provides wi-fi but it works only with windows XP.

during the 1st purchase we asked the dealer to install xp in it...but now we can see a no. of flaws in it like ...screen flicker,graphic card not detected,a no. of QUESTION MARKS in the HARDWARE PROFILE window...i.e its not detecting those components.....WHAT TO DO !!!!

today i had a chat with SONY INDIA US SUPPORT ..but he said that components supports only vista & what all he suggested is get the names of all the orignal drivers (vista version) & search their xp version on the net..or contact microsoft.

u guys tel me now wht we can do.....as sony is such a beauty & high definition display that we simply dont want to leave it.

c25 is of Rs.64500 (core2 duo + nvidia graphic card)
c 31 of Rs.44500 (available in white only..core duo)

ANY SUGGESTIONS...ANY REMEDY...ANYTHING...but plz reply fast.

shld we go for dual boot system ..i.e xp for wi fi & vista for normal working (that us support said no to me for this).

moreover how can we get the factory settings back ??

some1 said me once that if they dont provide the OS cd u can make it from the hard disk...can sanytell me how??

when the laptop was running on vista it had a no. of SONY'S software running on it...but its not there now in XP.....how can i get back them?

as i said we will purchase few more laptops within a week would u like to suggest us somethin to ..like asking some kind of recovery CD or SW from the dealer.

 

though i dont think i can leave sony but......can u guys suggest a gud deal one around of 45000 RS & other around 60000 RS.
right now i am thinking about c31 & c25

 

Hi Superczar,
I own a VGN-C25G notebook. And like most of you here, I am dying to make this box into XP O/S. So I go ahead and install windows XP with SP2.
I also followed your instruction to download XP drivers from Vaio C150 Sony website. But each time after I edit the c:\windows\model.txt file to read as "C150P" instead of "C25G_P" and run the driver; it will pop up a screen saying "this upate is not intended for use with your computer model."
And upon checking the model.txt file, it's content has changed it back to "C25G_P". How could this happen?
Please help me or has anyone encounter the similiar situation?
How to proceed from here?

please help...

many thanks guys..

Dan

 

hey i have the Windows XP drivers for sony C22 Get Back To me gagan.mobguru@ gmail.com

 

I have sound and Wifi Drivers of Vaio C22GH/B For Windows XP mail: gagan@mobguru .com http://www.mobguru.com