laptop problem

[kaboom]

I have a Sony Vaio PCG-FX290K. Its first operating system was Win2000 Pro. I upgraded it to WinXP Pro but there are some problems.

There are a lot of devices connected to PCI 9 (IRQ assignment). Whenever I use at least two devices at the same time something goes wrong.

I'm connected to the net using the modem right now, if I try to play some music, the audio is really garbled.

Help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

And this didn't happen in 2000? (Someday people will realise that 2000 is superior. )

If I were you, I would download all the XP drivers for all your hardware, then using the Device Manager "remove" all the hardware. Then reboot, and as the laptop finds each device, you'll have the drivers ready. In this way, the operating system should be able to manage the installation of all the hardware.

You shouldn't necessarily fear multiple assignments of a single IRQ. NT4 was fully able to share IRQs, an ability that was carried forward into NT5.0 (2000) and NT5.1 (XP).

You may also want to check the Windows Update site. There are a couple of non-critical updates for 2000 pertaining to GDI Hook sharing and WM_TIMER issues, either of which may be at the root of your problem.

So there are a couple of suggestions for you. Let us know how you get on.

 

[kaboom]

I've already done your first suggestion when I upgraded to XP. I followed the instructions (how to upgrade from 2000 to XP) at Sony's support site.

However, I made a mistake by installing WinXP before flashing the BIOS. Do you think this could be the reason?

 

[rjensen11]

Why would you have to update the BIOS if all you're doing is installing a new OS?

 

[kaboom]

With what I read on Sony's support center, I think the pre-installed BIOS was only meant for Win2000. Not with WinXP

 

[rjensen11]

The only real concern for the BIOS is for hardware, mostly hard drives and cd-roms. You don't even really need to mess with the bios for pci or isa cards...

I don't think that the BIOS has any of the problems with XP, unless it's something with power management, such as auto-sleep or stuff like that...

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Well if the Sony site recommends a BIOS upgrade, then you should try it. There is evidence to suggest that, with laptops in particular, the BIOS is 'tuned' to the OS that's preinstalled.

One of the things that a new BIOS could change is the IRQ preference of the internal hardware.