So today I was able to successfully upgrade my laptop computer to Windows 7. It was mostly good, but it was frustrating in a few ways. Props to Sony for updating their website to cover Windows 7 support!
However, they provided a link to Windows 7 drivers that had no content! There was a nice large droplist with all the versions of Windows 7. This was exciting at first because I thought I would be able to upgrade without issue.
But then I clicked on the links, got all ready to download the drivers and then I got this long list:
No matter what you pick, no drivers are available.
Every option got this result
OK guys at Sony, what’s up with this? I went through the process of choosing every version of Windows 7 only to see the message that nothing is available. Why even bother to put all this up there if nothing is available! That’s insane.
I decided to proceed anyway. Here’s how it went.
- 12:15p Uninstalled incompatible programs, DeActivate iTunes
- 01:27p The Upgrade begins
- 01:44p Copying of files completed
- 02:15p Gathering Settings, files, and programs (more than 500K files!)
- 02:22p Reboot, then Expanding (2,224 MB)
- 03:01p Transferring fils, settings an program (552,396) 42% complete
- 03:43p Starting Windows again (72% complete)
- 04:02p Preparing for first use
- 04:03p Enter the Product Key
- 04:10 Done – first Windows desktop appears.
So after almost 4 hours, I was in Windows 7. I don’t know why mine took so long. I had read that most people completed it in 1-2 hour. Before I went through the pain of installing all my drivers for my Vaio laptop, I thought I would just explore a little.
Here I discovered a most pleasant surprise. Everything worked! All my special keys, peripherals, everything! I tried my various programs and they were all happy. Even my wifi was fine and I didn’t have to reinsall the Intel ProSet Wireless software that Sony has warned me about.
So there was a happy ending. After being somewhat annoyed by the lack of drivers and the reports of things that wouldn’t work, it all worked! I can only assume that the team at Microsoft went to great lengths to be sure that my upgrade from Vista 32 Business to Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit went as smooth as possible. Great job!
Now you boys at Sony need to improve the experience a bit….
I had such a terrible experience with my Sony SZ and upgrading to vista from XP.
Nothing worked on my Sony after the upgrade when you refer to the
special Sony keys, etc. It was a nightmare. So I ended up having to
bring that hard drive back to the way I bought it out of the box. Luckily
I was able to sell it. It does sound like Microsoft had to do Sony’s job.
Scary when I read that were no drivers available in any selection. There
is no Sony support for Windows 7 for the SZ. So I think I will try and
sell this machine, perfect condition, and then purchase a new Sony.
The Z series :-). Although it is pricey as you said. Typical Sony. ARGH!
Glad everything is workng for you!! 🙂
Well, coming up to 24 hours and I am still happy as can be. Everything works for me. About the only annoying thing I can detect is that coming out of a screen saver is really sluggish. Seems to take a good 8-10 seconds. Not sure why, It comes out of sleep mode really fast (under 5 seconds).