Help, has anyone upgrade a Sony VAIO F-160/180 to Windows ..

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

"William Cheng @work" <wm_cheng_NOSPAM_@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:cy9bd.32101$3C6.1253434@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Hi all,
>
> Dug out my old laptop and was thinking about connecting it up to my
> stereo
> and using it as a wireless network device to read MP3 files off my
> server
> upstairs. I was thinking about upgrading this old clunker to WinXP
> (although it was designed for Win98). It has a PII 300 Mhz with 128Mb
> ram,
> would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent MP3
> player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? - dedicated
> machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows 2000
> for
> this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well - is
> this
> true? Has anyone tried it? My only concern is the Neomagic 256AV
> video/audio card. Will XP boot up faster? Any one already tried this
> before? Or any site that may help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> P.S. also any suggestions on good MP3 software to control this baby or
> a
> screen saver that shows the current song title and info would be nice.
>
> Thanks,
> Wm
>

I've tested XP on two PII 266Mhz MMX with 128MB and 192MB RAM and 8MB
VRAM video adapters. Both were extreme disappointments. XP was
excruciatingly slow, although I achieved some improvement by stripping
options to remove anything I could to reduce RAM requirements. In both
I had to give up audio and hardware video/DVD decoders due to drivers.
About the only thing I could use the first one for with confidence was
as a print server. The second proved to be mechanically incapable -
more due to age than to XP. I subsequently used the first for a Linux
test bed where it performed very well (Mandrake 9.2). Linux might be an
option for what you want to do since it is has generally far less OS
overhead and preserves what little CPU/RAM there is in older laptops.

Q

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

"William Cheng @work" <wm_cheng_NOSPAM_@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:cy9bd.32101$3C6.1253434@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Hi all,
>
> Dug out my old laptop and was thinking about connecting it up to my
> stereo
> and using it as a wireless network device to read MP3 files off my
> server
> upstairs. I was thinking about upgrading this old clunker to WinXP
> (although it was designed for Win98). It has a PII 300 Mhz with 128Mb
> ram,
> would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent MP3
> player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? - dedicated
> machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows 2000
> for
> this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well - is
> this
> true? Has anyone tried it? My only concern is the Neomagic 256AV
> video/audio card. Will XP boot up faster? Any one already tried this
> before? Or any site that may help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> P.S. also any suggestions on good MP3 software to control this baby or
> a
> screen saver that shows the current song title and info would be nice.
>
> Thanks,
> Wm
>
>

You might also take this to the unofficial Sony forum:
http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony

Q

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

Thanks for the tip about the VAIO users group - I will also try there.
Would Win2000 drivers work in WinXP?


"Quaoar" <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
news:QO6dncBg18u1s_DcRVn-iw@comcast.com...
>
> "William Cheng @work" <wm_cheng_NOSPAM_@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:cy9bd.32101$3C6.1253434@news20.bellglobal.com...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Dug out my old laptop and was thinking about connecting it up to my
> > stereo
> > and using it as a wireless network device to read MP3 files off my
> > server
> > upstairs. I was thinking about upgrading this old clunker to WinXP
> > (although it was designed for Win98). It has a PII 300 Mhz with 128Mb
> > ram,
> > would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent MP3
> > player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? - dedicated
> > machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows 2000
> > for
> > this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well - is
> > this
> > true? Has anyone tried it? My only concern is the Neomagic 256AV
> > video/audio card. Will XP boot up faster? Any one already tried this
> > before? Or any site that may help would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > P.S. also any suggestions on good MP3 software to control this baby or
> > a
> > screen saver that shows the current song title and info would be nice.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Wm
> >
> >
>
> You might also take this to the unofficial Sony forum:
> http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony
>
> Q
>
>

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

"William Cheng @work" <wm_cheng_NOSPAM_@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>Would Win2000 drivers work in WinXP?

Generally not, why not upgrade to Win2K?

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

"William Cheng @work" <wm_cheng_NOSPAM_@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:_jabd.32120$3C6.1266236@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Thanks for the tip about the VAIO users group - I will also try there.
> Would Win2000 drivers work in WinXP?
>
>
> "Quaoar" <quaoar@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
> news:QO6dncBg18u1s_DcRVn-iw@comcast.com...
>>
>> "William Cheng @work" <wm_cheng_NOSPAM_@sympatico.ca> wrote in
>> message
>> news:cy9bd.32101$3C6.1253434@news20.bellglobal.com...
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > Dug out my old laptop and was thinking about connecting it up to my
>> > stereo
>> > and using it as a wireless network device to read MP3 files off my
>> > server
>> > upstairs. I was thinking about upgrading this old clunker to WinXP
>> > (although it was designed for Win98). It has a PII 300 Mhz with
>> > 128Mb
>> > ram,
>> > would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent
>> > MP3
>> > player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? -
>> > dedicated
>> > machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows
>> > 2000
>> > for
>> > this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well -
>> > is
>> > this
>> > true? Has anyone tried it? My only concern is the Neomagic 256AV
>> > video/audio card. Will XP boot up faster? Any one already tried
>> > this
>> > before? Or any site that may help would be greatly appreciated.
>> >
>> > P.S. also any suggestions on good MP3 software to control this baby
>> > or
>> > a
>> > screen saver that shows the current song title and info would be
>> > nice.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Wm
>> >
>> >
>>
>> You might also take this to the unofficial Sony forum:
>> http://pub173.ezboard.com/bunofficialsony
>>
>> Q
>>
>>
>
>

You can try but will have to disable the windows logo testing alert to
install, if the driver will in fact install. Since there is probability
of a disaster, always set a restore point as a fallback.

Q

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

Someone told you that XP wouldn't work very well, why not use win98
which has much less overhead, plus that would solve your driver issue.
I have run Win2k on a PII266 with 96MB of RAM ok, but boot and load
times are slower than under Win98 on the same machine.

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

William Cheng @work wrote:
<...>
> It has a PII 300 Mhz with 128Mb
> ram, would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent MP3
> player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? - dedicated
> machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows 2000 for
> this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well - is
> this
> true?

If you ditch XP, I think this laptop would be perfect for the task.

I think your best bet would be to download a linux-on-cd OS like Knoppix
<http://www.knoppix.de&gt;, and see if it works with your wlan card.
AFAIK, it has builtin support both for connecting to your windows file
shares and XMMS, the WinAmp equivalent for GNU/Linux.

As an added bonus, since it runs off the cd alone, it won't spin up your
harddisk and thus run far more quiet (and with lower power usage). Which is
very nice if you intend to keep this machine in your living room.

If that doesn't work, just stick with windows 2000 and use suspend to
memory/disk to avoid the insanely long bootup time you are going to
experience...

Regards,
Kristian

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

>Hi all,
>
>Dug out my old laptop and was thinking about connecting it up to my stereo
>and using it as a wireless network device to read MP3 files off my server
>upstairs. I was thinking about upgrading this old clunker to WinXP
>(although it was designed for Win98). It has a PII 300 Mhz with 128Mb ram,
>would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent MP3
>player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? - dedicated
>machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows 2000 for
>this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well - is this
>true? Has anyone tried it? My only concern is the Neomagic 256AV
>video/audio card. Will XP boot up faster? Any one already tried this
>before? Or any site that may help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>P.S. also any suggestions on good MP3 software to control this baby or a
>screen saver that shows the current song title and info would be nice.
>
>Thanks,
>Wm
>
It will run one app at a time perfectly. It's when you start
multi-tasking that it will let you down. XPlite has a footprint as
small as 600MB and will let you do several things at once.
http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html

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

I have "upgraded" an F-160 to Win2000. It "worked."

You can get XP notebooks pretty cheap now.



"William Cheng @work" <wm_cheng_NOSPAM_@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:cy9bd.32101$3C6.1253434@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Hi all,
>
> Dug out my old laptop and was thinking about connecting it up to my stereo
> and using it as a wireless network device to read MP3 files off my server
> upstairs. I was thinking about upgrading this old clunker to WinXP
> (although it was designed for Win98). It has a PII 300 Mhz with 128Mb
ram,
> would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent MP3
> player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? - dedicated
> machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows 2000 for
> this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well - is
this
> true? Has anyone tried it? My only concern is the Neomagic 256AV
> video/audio card. Will XP boot up faster? Any one already tried this
> before? Or any site that may help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> P.S. also any suggestions on good MP3 software to control this baby or a
> screen saver that shows the current song title and info would be nice.
>
> Thanks,
> Wm
>
>

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

Haven't checked this out yet but maybe its an alternative solution for you:
http://www.widio.com/




William Cheng @work wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Dug out my old laptop and was thinking about connecting it up to my stereo
> and using it as a wireless network device to read MP3 files off my server
> upstairs. I was thinking about upgrading this old clunker to WinXP
> (although it was designed for Win98). It has a PII 300 Mhz with 128Mb ram,
> would that be ok if it was to only run WinAmp (or some equivalent MP3
> player) and the software drivers for a wireless LAN card? - dedicated
> machine. Unfortunately, Sony only provides drivers up to Windows 2000 for
> this laptop - but I was hoping that they would work in XP as well - is this
> true? Has anyone tried it? My only concern is the Neomagic 256AV
> video/audio card. Will XP boot up faster? Any one already tried this
> before? Or any site that may help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> P.S. also any suggestions on good MP3 software to control this baby or a
> screen saver that shows the current song title and info would be nice.
>
> Thanks,
> Wm
>
>