Audio drivers for downgrading to xp on AR51M

[evilenglishman]

Hi
today I got my new laptop and my first job is to get XP on it.
I have managed to get practically everything working in XP except for the audio. I've been looking all over to try and sort this out but no matter what I try I cant get it working.

Ive tried the vista drivers and drivers from various places.

I currently have 2 problems.

1. Pop up on windows start:

Rthdcpl - EAccessViolation

2. SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC - yellow ! in device manager with error 10 - device cant start.

Can anyone point me to some drivers that will work?

[sy2j]

Excellent news there, mate.

I'll definitely try this out, thanks for the info.

Just a point about the Eject buttons etc.

I followed the steps shown in the "Washes whiter" tutorial. Here's what happened before I moved back to more pressing matters:

Attempt 1: Mute button started working. (I hadn't tried it previously though, so I can't say for definite that it wasn't working before the fix?)

Attempt 2: I used the Start>Run>services.msg (off the top of my head, this might be slightly off but you know what I'm on about...) method off enabling rather than a reboot and I got the mute and volume +/- keys working with the display as it was under Vista. Then I thought I'd reboot before getting too excited and sure enough, when complete I was back to just the mute key working.

The point is, I'm confident that the tutorial works, but as a couple of people said it can take a few goes to get right.

I presume you got nowhere at all when you tried the tutorial?

Cheers,

Sy

[synthman]

Hi

I followed the new version to the letter checking the versions of every required file and copying them in order to a specific directory and still only have the volume and mute buttons working, I'm sure that with mine it is something in the registry. Anyway I've got the camera back I just ran the DPInst32.exe from the original vista directory C:\Windows\Drivers\Camera Driver (Ricoh) 6..209G - 6.1005.209.0_logo. Still working on the rest but things will have to slow now as the Vaio is functional and I need to do stacks of video editing. I will post every time I find a fix or can help.

Long live XP

[sy2j]

@synthman:
I've determined that the problem launching the Vaio Control Centre seemed to be related to the Vaio eject/s1 button fix. My VCC was working until I tried the fix, which didn't work again and also killed my VCC. I'm not really sure what to do with this, whether to just leave it or whether I should persevere with it.

Your point about BluRay software was helpful, I hadn't even thought of this. I'd be very grateful if you keep the thread up to date on this when you get a chance. I'll do likewise if I get there before you as I appreciate you (like me) now have work to do on our Vaio's instead of just butchering them!

Status Report:
Today I restarted my downgrade to XP with a clean install, and I'm miles further than I was as a result. All of the messing around trying different drivers obviously cluttered the registry or something along those lines, as everything just seemed to work this time around, given what I learned during the first attempt and being more selective over the order in which I attacked things.

My internet connection came straight on after installing the wifi driver, which helped because I let Windows Update handle some of the easier driver installations.

As mentioned, I made sure not to get ahead of myself like I had previously, so didn't install any of the Utils until I'd sorted all of the (!) in Device Manager. They're now all gone. Halle-freakin-lulah!

The things which don't work yet are the Vaio buttons (Eject, vol, s1&2 - mute works though?), the AV buttons, I assume the Fn keys don't although I haven't tested them yet, and the camera.

The thing with the camera is that when I try and open it (so far just through My Computer) I get the following message:

"Creation of the video preview failed.

Please check the device connection and make sure that the device is not being used by another application or user."

As you can see, none of the outstanding things are major ones, so for all intents and purposes, I think I now have my XP AR51M. It was quite an ordeal, but it's worth it. The difference is amazing. Why Sony would produce such a good machine and then suffocate it with Vista is pretty baffling.

If anyone has solid solutions to my outstanding issues, I'd be grateful, but regardless, thanks again to everyone who has contributed information and advice to this cause.

Regards,

Sy

[paul_123]

Hello All,

I have just managed to get everything working on my ar51m including the eject, mute, volume, s1, s2, av, and the fn to a extent.

However I am having problems with the fn keys, when I click the decrease brightness via fn it only goes down one notch, the increase will bring it back up again, but it won't go any lower than one notch.

If any knows please let me know. If anybody needs details on how to get the buttons working, reply back and i will post the instructions...

[Nipper99]

Hello All, 

I have just managed to get everything working on my ar51m including the eject, mute, volume, s1, s2, av, and the fn to a extent. 

However I am having problems with the fn keys, when I click the decrease brightness via fn it only goes down one notch, the increase will bring it back up again, but it won't go any lower than one notch. 

If any knows please let me know. If anybody needs details on how to get the buttons working, reply back and i will post the instructions...

I have managed to get two AR51M's running on XP BUT
I can not get the camera working (Have you checked your camera ?)
if it is working could you tell us your secret.
As well as my own I have also amaged to help others via email, but we all end up with same result as you have

"Click the decrease brightness via fn it only goes down one notch, the increase will bring it back up again, but it won't go any lower than one notch. "
Best Regards

Tony
Tony Arnold (Director)
www.helios-electronics.com

[Nipper99]

I had to purchase two AR51M’s one for the Office and one for the Studio.
I had no problems downgrading either of the AR51M’s to XP-Pro
Everything worked fine except the Camera.

Because I have received mail from several asking me for advice, the latest being
A guy called “Muks”.
Most of these are now up and running, some had less problems and others had more.

This in mind, and knowing how frustrating these things can be, I have decided to
turn one of my AR51M Laptops back to “Vista”, as it is quite a simple task having
used “Acronis True Image” to make an image of Vista before downgrading.
I have now made a “True Image” of XP-Pro before I change back to Vista.

The first thing I notice is that depending on the order you install your drivers
The more or less success one obtains, I am experimenting a lot and find that
getting the Audio to work is the most awkward, the most complicated is getting the
FN-Volume, the S1 & S2, the DVD Eject etc, to work.
The impossible for me has been the Camera.

The one thing for sure is, only the Free “CD Burner XP” makes a decent SATA XP Installation Disk.
I tried Nero and the other recommended burning software, but found that “CD Burner XP” gave the least problems

When I am satisfied, as to the best way to downgrade to XP, I will send it complete with all drivers and software to any one requiring this information.
Because of the size of this information with drivers and software, I can not post it here, but by using an email assistant software called “PANDA” this enables one to email an attachment up to 2GB.
I hope that you will all understand, that I do not do this professionally, in fact I am not that good with sorting out PC problems, all I can say is:
I have not had to call a help line in years, not because I am clever, only because I am observant, tenacious and brave.


Best Regards

Tony
Tony Arnold (Director)
www.helios-electronics.com

[synthman]

Hi all

My camera started working after I installed the DPInst32.exe file in the (Vista) Windows\Drivers\Camera Driver (Ricoh) 6..209G - 6.1005.209.0_logo directory. I also had to tell the DEP to ignore the camera program. By the way I don't know what I did but I was trying out the various vista directories I had copied trying all the .exe files looking for the DVD/Blueray software without success but something I clicked on has made my eject button work and I get the button graphics on the screen I just don't know what it was but it was probably in the \Program files\Sony Directory.

[sy2j]

Similar here actually...

My Eject & Volume buttons started working out of the blue after I'd given up on them, so that was a bonus! I get the on-screen display too.

I have the same Fn brightness issue as Paul_123, one notch each way.

My camera doesn't work either. It's recognised, but it seems as though the system thinks it's occupied by another program, but I'm stumped as to what else to try.

I don't think I've got it perfect yet, but even the slightly imperfect XP is miles ahead of perfect Vista.

Cheers,

Sy

[Bartes]

Just a quick question:

I'll be attempting to install WinXp on AR51M. For that i about to prepare XP cd with integrated sata drivers by using nLite. The question is... which drivers to use? I noticed that everybody passes that stage not even mentioning any troubles, so i hope you'll point the correct drivers easily. Thanks in advance

[Blencogo]

Hi Bartes,

Intel Non-RAID SATA Driver is attached to this post: -