S460 Setup For Clean Minimal Installation of Windows XP

These are my notes from doing my fresh install.

Sony Vaio VGN-S460 Setup For Clean Minimal Installation of Windows XP
Install in the following order:

01.BIOS Updates
02.Intel Chipset Driver Utility
03.Sony Notebook Control Device Driver
04.Sony Programmable IO Control Device Driver Utility
05.Sony Utilities Library (Sony Shared Library if you don't have recovery cd)
06.Nvidia Driver
07.Realtek High Definition Audio Device Driver
08.Conexant AC97 SoftV92 Data Fax Modem Driver
09.Intel Pro 100 VE Network Device Driver
10.Intel PROWireless 2200BG Network Connection Driver
11.Texas Instruments Driver for Memory Stick Controller
12.Touchpad Driver and Control Utility
13.VAIO Event Service (Installs hotkeys and S keys)
14.VAIO Control Center (Functionality dependent on 05,13,15)
15.Setting Utility Series (Installs S key assignment & powerup preferences to VAIO Control Center)

IMPORTANT: For those that do not have the recovery cd and cannot perform steps 13-15 then just install the Sony Notebook Utilities but this installs 16 & 17 by default i think!

Optional:

16.Power Management (Allows for manual fan adjustment and various power profiles, integrates into Vaio Control Center)
17.Wireless Switch (Sony Wireless Control, optional as the native Windows one is just as good)

Utilities:

01.Coolbits 2.0 (Unlocks native goodies from Nvidia that were hidden from the Nvidia video setup menu)
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815

02.Rivatuner (Utility for tweaking Nvidia settings)
http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/

03.NVTweak (Utility for tweaking Nvidia settings)
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=911

04.NiBiTor (Nvida BIOS Editor)
http://www.dvhardware.net/software/675

05.NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder (DVD Decoder from Nvidia)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/decoder_faq.html

06.CHC (Supported Features in the S460: CPU speed/voltage control,cpu/hdd temperature monitoring,battery monitoring)
http://www.pbus-167.com/chc_main.htm

07.Rightmark RMClock (Supported Features in the S460: cpu speed/voltage control,cpu load monitoring)
http://www.rightmark.org/

08.MobileMeter (Supported Features in the S460: cpu/hdd temperature monitoring,battery monitoring)
http://dssc3031.ece.cmu.edu/~tamaru/...erreadme-e.htm

09.CPU-Z (Displays information on some of the main devices of your system)
http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php

10.Nero Info Tool (DVD drive info)
http://www.nero.com/eng/Info_Tool.html

11.Sandra (Information & diagnostic utility)
http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html...me&langx=en&a=

12.Futuremark (3DMark, PCMark, MobileMark, SysMark) (Benchmarking utility)
http://www.futuremark.com/products/

13.Aquamark (Benchmarking utility)
http://www.aquamark3.com/

14.Codecreatures (Benchmarking utility)
http://www.codecult.com/main.asp?page=4

15.Everest (Benchmarking utility)
http://www.lavalys.com/

16.XSmark (Benchmarking utility)
http://www.glexcess.com/xsmark/

17.Prime 95 (Stability Testing)
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

18.Rthdribl (Benchmarking utility)
http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/

19.SuperPi (Benchmarking utility)
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=36

Perhaps the title is a little misleading, my notes were not intended to be a guide for a barebones setup that would just function. When i was setting up my notebook i wanted to setup my notebook in a way that i could get a minimal of excess but not at the expense of optimal functionality. For any given device there is usually more than one driver that can get the job done, but i didn't just want any driver i wanted the best one. Many of the drivers that are supplied by XP may not be the latest driver or even the exact one designed for my particular devices so i opted to get the best and most up to date ones. For me personally, I wasn't willing to rely on the yellow exclaimation marks that appear in the device manager.


1. The Intel inf update...function as updates for intel components that may or may not not be supported by XP so i installed them. If you can find out whether your version of windows has support for the mother board or the 915 chipset then maybe you can do without, you should see a yellow exclaimation if there is something wrong with any hardware device controller. I installed these because they should be installed first to facilitate the setup but not sure if these are essential for your copy of windows. But again, why not use the latest drivers, things like the usb device controller or hdd controller are important.

2. Sony Notebook Control Device Driver...no info, but i would love to know.

3. Sony Programmable IO Control Device Driver Utility...I don't know what this does for certain, but i am guessing it may be the drivers for any interface devices relating to the hdd and the cpu/memory that is why i installed these.

4. Sony utilities Library...holds data that is required by many of the other utilities, i don't think that the VAIO Control Center will function with all the options available without this.

5. Intel Pro 100 VE Network Device Driver
Intel PROWireless 2200BG Network Connection Driver
...basically self explainitory, so i installed the latest drivers.

6. Touchpad Driver and Control Utility...also self explainitory, and i too seldomly use mice but if i needed to i would like the have full functionality of this, i think only through the supplied application can shortcuts assignment, gesturing, and scrolling be fully functional for the touchpad.

7. VAIO Event Service...S1 and S2 keys and the blue keys...sorry used the term hotkeys for lack of better description. I think you would agree that these are essential.

8. VAIO Control Center...this is basically the hub for all the sony utilities although most of them can be controlled independently without this application. The only thing i can think of that can't is the power up options. Not sure thought. This is actually the only Sony app that i have in my start menu, for simplicity.

9. Setting Utility Series...without this the S1 and S2 keys still work but are severely crippled since they cannot be assigned. I also like not having to go into BIOS to adjust startup preferences.

10. The latest Forceware drivers can be installed without an inf file by doing a driver update in device manager, then manually browsing for the downloaded Forceware driver.

You can install all of the above but then turn of some of the Services and Startup items manually and turn them on only when you need them, that's what i do. Hope this helps

Sorry but i don't know where the VAIO Control can be downloaded. I had similar issues with the brightness adjustment when i was experimenting and it had something to do with the Forceware Driver. Not sure if this is the best method but try experimenting by doing the following.

1) reinstall the original video driver from the Sony site...see if this works first
2) reinstall Sony Shared Library
2) then reinstall Sony Notebook Utilities

If it works then, reinstall the latest Forceware driver.

The notes that i posted from my install is based on the same thing you are trying to do right now. I wiped my hdd which deleted even the recovery partition, re-formatted, then installed a copy of windows xp pro that i had lying around. Did you install the intel inf drivers first?

I can also say that i did experiment with reinstalling a few times with the audio driver at different points of the installation, but never experienced any issues like the ones that you have mentioned. I did however always do step 1 to 4 like i listed in the other post. The only notes that i have pertaining to the audio driver is that the modem driver is dependent on it.

The one that i used was downloaded here:

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-li...ype=Everything

In fact you'll find all current S460 drivers here, if you didn't make a backup disk then you'll not be able to install the Vaio Control Center...which is nice but not essential to the functioning of the notebook. I have been meaning to see if i could somehow extract that particular utility from my recovery disk to share with those that don't have the disk but haven't had any luck yet.

Gluck