Share your experience!
I recently had to reinstall XP on the system and like a fool completly forgot about the pre installed software & device drivers required once the setup was complete. I have been searching the web for 3 days now trying to find the software but with no luck.
Sony no longer support this model but surely there is somewhere on the net I can find them and get the system back to it's normal state? any help would be greatly appreciated
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Hi Dreamweaver74 and welcome.
The reason you cannot find any support is that you are using the wrong model number. You are using the chassis model which is shared by several Vaio models of the same shape.
You probably have something like a VGC-V3S and you will be able to find the preinstalled drivers/utilities and any updates from here: -
http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGC-V3S/updates
However, please check for the correct model on your Vaio it may not be the exact model I have given.
You cannot download some of the preinstalled applications if they are not on that download page. Your Vaio was produced with a hidden section of your hard drive which contains all software to return your Vaio to factory condition. From this partition you can make a set of recovery discs.
To recover to factory settings, including all preinstlled software, applications, drivers, utilities try tapping F10 when starting up and before the first Vaio Logo screen disappears. If your hidden hard drive partition is intact, this will start the recovery process.
If the hidden partition has been corrupted or erased, the only way to get the software back would be to purchase a set of recovery discs from Vaio Support.
Come back if you have any questions.
Hi Dreamweaver74 and welcome.
The reason you cannot find any support is that you are using the wrong model number. You are using the chassis model which is shared by several Vaio models of the same shape.
You probably have something like a VGC-V3S and you will be able to find the preinstalled drivers/utilities and any updates from here: -
http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGC-V3S/updates
However, please check for the correct model on your Vaio it may not be the exact model I have given.
You cannot download some of the preinstalled applications if they are not on that download page. Your Vaio was produced with a hidden section of your hard drive which contains all software to return your Vaio to factory condition. From this partition you can make a set of recovery discs.
To recover to factory settings, including all preinstlled software, applications, drivers, utilities try tapping F10 when starting up and before the first Vaio Logo screen disappears. If your hidden hard drive partition is intact, this will start the recovery process.
If the hidden partition has been corrupted or erased, the only way to get the software back would be to purchase a set of recovery discs from Vaio Support.
Come back if you have any questions.
You can also do an automatic update if either your wireless or etherent is working and connected to the internet. Just right click on the device at device manager with a yellow question mark and hit update.
If still having issue, I would call the support team to check for other options.
Thanks for the information, the model number is on the back of the PC and shows PCV-F31M iv'e had it from new a good 6+ years. I will try the options sudgested fingers crossed it works
As I said that is not the correct model number. Download this manual which will show you have a VGC-V3 Series Vaio: -
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/manuals/Desktops/V3/V3_H_EN.pdf
The model you are quoting is the chassis model and is not recognised by the support pages.
Blencogo is right, the model number is located on the top right corner and is VGC-V3M I've just had one in and went through this. The number is very faint but its there, hopefully this might help somebody else searching for this model.
good luck