Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

After making a recovery disc, I recently formatted my Vaio PCG-GRT100P
with XP Pro.

Now that it's formatted, the volume bar on the console does not work.

I emailed Sony. Their reply was to let the system recovery disc
install a partition.

I tried the system recovery disc that I let the computer create, but
it claims it "will not work with this model". (What model will it work
with, if not the one it's supposed to recover, eh??)

The other option they prescribed was to purchase a recovery kit from
them.

Is there another option? I do not want the pre-installed Sony
software, just my hardware to work.

(If this has been covered before, could you please send the URL for
me? I would greatly appreciate it.)

Thanks in advance.

Peter

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"PJC" <petercullen@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:46f0bffe.0405140715.3f76b1e8@posting.google.com...
| After making a recovery disc, I recently formatted my Vaio PCG-GRT100P
| with XP Pro.
|
| Now that it's formatted, the volume bar on the console does not work.
|
| I emailed Sony. Their reply was to let the system recovery disc
| install a partition.
|
| I tried the system recovery disc that I let the computer create, but
| it claims it "will not work with this model". (What model will it work
| with, if not the one it's supposed to recover, eh??)
|
| The other option they prescribed was to purchase a recovery kit from
| them.
|
| Is there another option? I do not want the pre-installed Sony
| software, just my hardware to work.
|
| (If this has been covered before, could you please send the URL for
| me? I would greatly appreciate it.)
|
| Thanks in advance.
|
| Peter


Hi Peter -

After clean-install upgrading most recent Vaio's from Windows XP Home to
Windows XP Pro, you'll have to jump through hoops in order to reinstall
Sony's proprietary drivers and utilities. You'll probably find many of the
drivers available as stand-alone setup files on Sony's support website (and
this would be a good place to go looking after performing the following, as
drivers do frequently get updated after a model is released).

You'll find that the 3rd party applications (such as Word Processing, DVD,
etc.) applications will not reinstall in this manner, but Sony's proprietary
stuff, as well as the "free from their original developers" utilities (Adobe
Reader, Real Player, etc.) will.

To restore the proprietary drivers, Hotkey Utility, Sony Notebook Setup
Utility and PowerPanel Utility from your recovery CD's on newer Sony
installations, you'll need to download a small utility called KCAP.EXE - you
can pick it up (zipped) here: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jefn/kcap.zip

You'll then need to work through your Restore CD's one-by-one, looking for
the following items:

Sony Drivers installer
Sony Utilities Library installer *
Sony Utilities DLL installer *
Hotkey Utility installer
Sony Notebook Setup Utility installer
Power Panel Utility installer

* One or both of these items may be found. If you find both, you'll need to
install both. If you find only one, you'll need only one.


All of the above are stored in proprietary archive files that need to be
unpacked to your hard disk.

Begin by creating a folder on your hard disk (suggest D:\Sony) and then
unpack KCAP.EXE from the above download into that folder.

Then, working one-by-one with your Restore CD's:

1. Insert each restore CD in your computer.

2. You'll get a warning that the CD was not designed to be run on your
computer or from within Windows - click the OK button.

3. Look for a file called SONYxxxxxxxxx.PAC - be sure to look through any
sub-folders on the CD before giving up on it - if you find one, continue
below - if you don't, start this process with the next CD.

4. Copy SONYxxxxxxxx.PAC to D:\Sony. Be patient - this will take some time.

5. From a command prompt, navigate to D:\Sony and type the command:

KCAP SONYxxxxxxxx.PAC D:\Sony

6. KCAP will unpack a bunch of sub-folders to D:\Sony, each containing a
different application - be patient - this will take some time. The
sub-folders will appear to have gibberish names - don't worry - we'll get to
deciphering all the gibberish once all the SONYxxxxxxxx.PAC files are
decompressed.

7. Delete SONYxxxxxxxx.PAC from D:\Sony.

8. Repeat steps 1 - 7 for each of your Restore CD's.

9. In Windows Explorer, step through each of the sub-folders, viewing each
xxxxxxxx.INF file (right-click and then select OPEN) to determine what the
installer in the folder installs. If you don't see a xxxxxxxx.INF file, look
at the other items in the sub-folder (and any sub-folders below it) to
determine what the folder contains. Clues can be icon files (xxxxxxxx.ICO),
readme.txt files, or even the name of the installer itself.

10. If you find an application you want in a sub-folder, rename the
sub-folder to something more appropriate (like D:\Sony\Hotkey) to avoid
confusion.

11. Delete sub-folders for applications you don't want.

12. When finished with steps 9 - 11, click on Start | Run and navigate to
each of the applications you wish to install, keeping in mind that you want
to preserve the following order of execution:

.. Sony Drivers installer
.. Sony Utilities Library installer (if found)
.. Sony Utilities DLL installer (if found)
.. Hotkey Utility installer
.. Sony Notebook Setup Utility installer
.. Power Panel Utility installer
.. any other Sony proprietary utilities you wish to install

13. When finished, you can burn D:\Sony to a CD and you'll have a backup of
your installers for future restore, if needed.


The above worked with my V505DC2 and I've heard reports from other users
that the approach works with many other more recent models. Earlier models,
such as my R505EL allowed me to run the Application Recovery CD's after
clean-installing Windows XP.

Jef

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Quaoar" <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
news:0pGdneZCDZommTjdRVn-tA@comcast.com...

<snip>
| One of the essential parts is a small file in system32 that is
| the identifier used by the system and software recovery CDs to
| identify the laptop.
|
| Q
|
|

Hi Quaoar -

Just out of curiosity, what is the name of the file from ..Windows\System32?
I've made "some" progress in making the 3rd party applications install from
the Recovery Set... only to fail when the individual installer begins
running with various error messages (such as "this application is not
intended for your computer"... which leads me to believe that I still have a
missing 'flag' file to locate on the original installation -- which is what
you allude to).

My entire purpose here is to be able to selectively install some of the
original 3rd party applications from the Recovery CD's after a clean install
of Windows XP Professional on a system originally shipping with Sony's
highly bloated Windows XP Home. From my last post in this thread, you can
see I've untangled (at least for me) the ability to install Sony's
proprietary utilities and programs from the SONYxxxxxxxx.PAC files on the
Recovery CD's (and have shared this information numerous times and found it
to be successful on many of the more recent VAIO models).

Thanks in advance for helping provide another piece of the puzzle.

Jef

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Quaoar" <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
news:l-mdnbzVMrFb9DfdRVn-sA@comcast.com...
|
| snyinst.oem has two lines for my PCG-GRV670:
|
| UCG181XEUM
| Build03S
|
| These numbers do not correlate with either the above model, or the s/n
| model number PCG-8J1L. AFICS, there is nothing else I have been able to
| identify in either hardware or software that is the recognition key for
| using the installation and recovery CD set. If there is, it is well
| hidden since I have pored over everything in the Windows directory
| identifying many Sony dlls, but they are associated with other
| Sony-supplied applications.
|
| If you have a list of what you have found, I am interested also. I've
| recovered a lot of drivers and other miscellaneous stuff on CD, but have
| not had the need to do an install of XP Pro to test what I have. I'll
| try renaming this file and see if the CD sets are acessible. Should
| have done that earlier.
|
| Q
|
|

Hi Quaoar -

Thanks for the information. I'm guessing here... but the contents of
snyinst.oem sure looks like a Recovery Set part number. I'd have to create
an image of my own current installation and restore the Recovery Set again
to verify my own snyinst.oem file with the Recovery Set part number at
Sony's Parts Ordering page to confirm this theory.

The recovery of the Sony proprietary applications is covered in my first
post further up this thread (my original response to Peter who, by the way,
has succeeded at installing his Sony Utilities DLL and Hotkey Utility
program).

My own Recovery Set will start (booting from the first CD), giving me only
the ability to restore the C:\ or C:\ and D:\ partitions to factory
defaults. The Application Recovery option is grayed out. I would assume
because I have neglected to back up snyinst.oem before wiping my drive.

I've been playing with the Recovery Set I created when I first got my
V505DC2 (prior to wiping the hard disk and clean installing XP Pro) and have
been able to get the Application Recovery menu program to start up. To do
this, I copied the ART folder from the 1st Recovery CD to my C:\ partition.
I then copied appinfo.ini, bitindex.ini, blds.ini, DFVer.txt, hdriver.txt,
module.ini, PIVer.txt and snyhdrcv.ini from the same CD to the root
directory of my C:\ drive. Finally, I ran C:\ART\Art.exe. This gave me the
Application Recovery menu. From there, for example, I selected the WinDVD
application and clicked on Restore. I was told to insert Recovery CD 7 and
press OK. Afterward I received a message "Performing System Check" followed
by "This program is not designed to run on this computer" with OK and Cancel
being my options. Pressing OK gives me the option to return to the
Application Recovery menu or press Finished to exit the menu.

I have found that the "freebie" programs that Sony installs on the computer,
such as Real Player, do not perform the "System Check" (in fact, the
programs are not even contained in the proprietary SONYxxxxxx.PAC files and
are actually stand-alone .EXE's on the various Recovery CD's).

In any event, I'll continue playing and post back my results. I'm tempted
to go look at Sony's parts site and pick up the part number for the Restore
Set for my own computer and create a snyinst.oem file in ..\Windows\System32
and see what it will do. Worst case Sony will pump 10,000 volts through my
keyboard until my respiration ceases...

Again, thanks for the information.

Jef

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Quaoar" <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
news:X5-dnd26r69hJTfdRVn-vA@comcast.com...
|
| Thanks for the info. If you haven't already, try the unofficial Sony
| forum FAQs, there is a wealth of information there (I have yet to go
| through all of it myself):
| http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony
|
| Q
|
|

Hi Quaoar -

Been there. Posted there. Helped people get their Hotkey Utility (etc.)
working there.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. Haven't, of course, been through
everything there. You can now post http://www.vaiovillage.com as a
redirect, which is easier to remember.

I've made a discovery since I last posted (thanks to your information
regarding the contents of the snyinst.oem file). The contents of the first
line of snyinst.oem are contained in the first Recovery CD, in the root
directory, in the file blids.ini. The file contains the following
information:

[blids]
blid0=UCGxxxXEUM

Where "xxx" is the Recovery ID number (in my case 221 and, in yours, 181).

Next I need to zero in on where it's verifying the Build number from the
second line.

So snyinst.oem contains:
UCGxxxXEUM
Buildnnn

I've got "xxx"... now to work on "nnn".

To further refine where I'm currently at, the Application Recovery Program
(ART.EXE) requires that the ART folder from the first Recovery CD be copied
to the hard disk and the following files be copied from the root of the
first Recovery CD to the C:\ root directory: appinfo.ini, blids.ini,
btindex.ini, module,ini and snyhdrcv.ini. I'm still getting the message
"This program is not designed to run on this computer" which, perhaps, is
due to the lack of Buildnnn being verifiable from the second line of
snyinst.oem.

I'm waiting for the Sony Police to come knock down my door and take my
precious VAIO away for reverse engineering their tricks to keep us from
upgrading our operating system to XP Pro.

Jef