SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 I have just installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my Sony Vaio FZ31S, which is fine, however it has wiped all my Vaio stuff, for the CD drive, Keyboard, Camera etc etc, so I am desperate to install Office again and I can't as my CD drive doesn't work yet, so even if I had the Vaio CD (which I can't find) I wouldn't be able to install everything back on as it won't play CD's yet!! I've been on the Sony Vaio Support site and installed some drivers which don't seem to work anyway.. There is nothing listed for a CD drive! Can I not download everything at once? I've come across a few sites which say I can, however I am slightly worried what I download as I have no virus protection on it yet. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 Does anyone know which one of these will be for the CD drive?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martini Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 I hate windows. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 You shouldn't need a driver for the CD drive, sounds very strange. Right click on "my computer" then click "properties" then go into the "Device Manager". Have a look for CD/DVD and see if it lists a drive. If it does then its just not populated, can message if its not and i'll take you through that. If it doesn't show there, is it showing in the bios during bootup? If you have installed windows 7 then i'm guessing that you used the DVD drive to install it? Something else is wrong here, it's not the lack of driver... it is possibly corrupt though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 You shouldn't need a driver for the CD drive, sounds very strange. I agree. In addition to what Scott said, I would check that the BIOS recognises that there's a CD drive in your computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smallshinyant Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 get yourself some anti virus. then start downloading required drivers. I doubt the CD isnot working due to driver issues though. stay away from websites that say they will fix your computer with magic software for $39.99. Microsofts new free A/V is pretty good and light weight and free http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 You shouldn't need a driver for the CD drive, sounds very strange. Right click on "my computer" then click "properties" then go into the "Device Manager". Have a look for CD/DVD and see if it lists a drive. If it does then its just not populated, can message if its not and i'll take you through that. If it doesn't show there, is it showing in the bios during bootup? If you have installed windows 7 then i'm guessing that you used the DVD drive to install it? Something else is wrong here, it's not the lack of driver... it is possibly corrupt though. I agree. In addition to what Scott said, I would check that the BIOS recognises that there's a CD drive in your computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 I'll award myself a Fail for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Looks like you have your answers, in addition to what Scott said, I would check the BIOS recognises that there's a CD Drive in your computer. Also install AntiVirus first, try to download as sugguested by smallshinyant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edd_t Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Does anyone know which one of these will be for the CD drive?! the chipset and SATA drivers would be a good place to start. they are the internals that look after most other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 Have installed the BD-Optical driver off the Sony website and it still doesn't want to work. I'll check the BIOS now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 All fixed after having manually installed the drivers downloaded from Sony's site. Disabled and enabled the device in device manager and hey presto. Thanks for everyone's help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 All fixed after having manually installed the drivers downloaded from Sony's site. Disabled and enabled the device in device manager and hey presto. Thanks for everyone's help. It just hadn't populated. I've noticed that happening with a few secondary hard drives & Win7. First time with an optical drive though. You can either populate it by doing what you did, or you can do so through control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management. I use the latter so that I can sort all the letters out Glad its sorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 One thing I am still having trouble with, is in my Control Panel > Display, I have no option to change the brightness or contrast! Other win7 laptops here have it, yet I don't. I have downloaded all the drivers too. Very annoying as it's currently on max brightness (the FN key doesn't work either) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Display You should see "Adjust Brightness" in the left hand column. If you have installed the graphics card drivers then you should be able to do it with its control panel, be it Nvidia/ATI etc. The buttons not working are down to the hotkeys not being installed. You need to download the launchmanager application (not sure what this will be called on a vaio) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Display You should see "Adjust Brightness" in the left hand column. If you have installed the graphics card drivers then you should be able to do it with its control panel, be it Nvidia/ATI etc. The buttons not working are down to the hotkeys not being installed. You need to download the launchmanager application (not sure what this will be called on a vaio) Well I have installed all the available drivers from the Sony Vaio site, although some haven't worked like the battery one (I just kept getting an error message which wouldn't go so had to do a system restore) I know exactly where you mean in the display as there is another laptop here with Win7, I don't have the Adjust Brightness / Contrast option like they do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Well I have installed all the available drivers from the Sony Vaio site, although some haven't worked like the battery one (I just kept getting an error message which wouldn't go so had to do a system restore) I know exactly where you mean in the display as there is another laptop here with Win7, I don't have the Adjust Brightness / Contrast option like they do! What is the brand of the graphics card? I would suggest having a little look on the manufacturers website, they often have better drivers available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Out of interest did you get your win7 copy from Sony? As part of their free upgrade program? Only ask as I'm still waiting for my copy and have no idea when I can expect it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaireRZ-S Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Hey Supragirlie i use to work in sony vaio call centre and when people upgraded to Vista it was a nightmare. To get the function keys working make sure you install all the utilities again each one by one and they will work. Also just to let you know Sony wont ever support that operating system as you bought Windows 7 Ultimate and they wont support it. Did you create your recovery discs before you installed 7 on your computer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 What is the brand of the graphics card? I would suggest having a little look on the manufacturers website, they often have better drivers available. It's an NVIDIA Geforce 8600M, I just went in to screen resolution, and it was showing I had the standard graphics card! Just on NVIDIA site now downloading the driver Out of interest did you get your win7 copy from Sony? As part of their free upgrade program? Only ask as I'm still waiting for my copy and have no idea when I can expect it... Nope I didn't, nor did I know I could get a free upgrade? Hey Supragirlie i use to work in sony vaio call centre and when people upgraded to Vista it was a nightmare. To get the function keys working make sure you install all the utilities again each one by one and they will work. Also just to let you know Sony wont ever support that operating system as you bought Windows 7 Ultimate and they wont support it. Did you create your recovery discs before you installed 7 on your computer? Thanks Claire, I shall try downloading the utility drivers separately. I noticed there was a Vaio package for Win7 on their website, but I didn't investigate as it wasn't free May buy it if I can't sort it soon though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaireRZ-S Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Your not egilible for a upgrade im afraid i just checked your model Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraGirlie Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 Your not egilible for a upgrade im afraid i just checked your model Oh Scott - I have just downloaded the NVIDIA driver, and it works!! I can finally look at the screen without squinting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaireRZ-S Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Ah good well you got most things sorted so your lucky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Oh Scott - I have just downloaded the NVIDIA driver, and it works!! I can finally look at the screen without squinting Good stuff. When I do re-formats for people I always partition the Hard Drive for them so that they have what appears to be 2 HDD's. I then make a folder called "Drivers" and copy all of the drivers into that folder that Windows didn't install automatically. This might be a good idea for you to do if you haven't already? Have a backup of the drivers on a CD or something like that? Means that if you fancy re-formatting again you wont have to go through the same hassle Did you get your keys working yet? When i re-format I try to install as little branded crap as I can onto my PC's. I just find all the apps annoying as hell and I hate to see my system tray full of sheeite. Its up to you obviously, but I would recommend finding out which apps are necessary to run and leave the ones that aren't well alone. Same goes with drivers, always go to the manufacturers site for the drivers you need as they are far more up to date than the laptop brand's site. Glad you got it sorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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