Well, I’ve just installed Vista Build 5472 on my TX770P/B. I’ll spend the next couple of days going through it and seeing how well I can get configured.

Here are a couple of initial findings:

- The CPU stays spiked at around 80-100%. It won’t ever return to a near idle level when no activity is present

- IE crashes when viewing every other page. I know the sensitivity level of the software is higher than normal for debugging, but this is absurd.

- Sony Download Taxi would not work on the PC indicating that my account wasn’t an administrator. The account has full admin rights.

- Firefox 1.5.0.6 installed and is working well

- Items I will attempt to install+configure: Bluetooth, Sony Power Config, Hotkeys, Media playback buttons, MS and SD drives

Incidentally, the TX770P/B received a whopping 1 from the Windows Experience Index. The graphics card (Intel 915) received the lowest rating. The overall ratings were as follows:

Processor: 2.4
RAM: 3.0
Graphics: 1.0
Gaming Graphics: 1.0
Primary HD: 2.7

Most people agree that these ratings are very inaccurate, anyway.

Has anyone else made headway with Vista and the TX770P/B?

Hi,
I have just finished installing a clean Vista RC1 onto my TX3 and it’s pretty smooth. Aero is fully enabled, although I have chosen to turn it off as I don’t really feel it offers any benefit to me.

Usual suspects don’t work - i.e much of the Sony software - hotkeys, biometric scanner, av buttons, and I’d really like to know if anyone has had any success getting these working.

My performance index is 2.0, held down by the video card, but as I’m not too bothered with Aero it doesn’t affect me. Software is running very smoothly, and I’m using a 2gb memory stick pro duo as a ReadyBoost device which appears to speed up performance even more.

User Access Control is much less intrusive this time around, and my cpu resources are fine, no resource overload here. Also, no crashes yet - the OS appears to be pretty stable, and there are no unidentified devices.

So, the hardware appears to be fully compatible, all we need now is for Sony to offer some Vista capable utilities..

I’ll be keeping Vista on this unit for a while as I continue to add programs and monitor its performance, so I’ll offer updates as and when I can.

If you have any specific questions please feel free to ask.

That is great news! I’m kicking off a download of Vista RC1 right now, and I’ll give i a go. I can live without the Sony buttons for the time being. I also have a 1GB MS I can use as a RedyBoost device.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve got RC1 installed and rolling on the TX770P/B. Here’s some initial feedback:

- ReadyBoost with a 1GB Memory Stick has made an incredible improvement in the system’s performance.

- I can’t get the CPU to steadily sit below 20-30%, so the fan runs constantly, and the battery takes a much larger hit. Sometimes, it’ll sit between 40-60% for a few minutes. I’ve turned off the Sidebar which accounted for a large portion of that. Vista may be providing more accurate reporting of the CPU in smaller intervals, so it may be a perception thing.

- The SD card slot is not accessible. Device Manager does not show any troubled or disabled devices

- The Realtek HD Audio startup app hangs up each time the system logs in to Windows.

- I haven’t tried any of the Sony Utilities. I noticed that Windows Update pulled down Sony Notebook Utilities and another driver. Perhaps we’ll see more Vista versions soon.

I’ve installed Office 2007 Beta 2, and it works wonderfully.

I’ll post more details on the progress a little later on.

Hey guys,

Noticed that the two of you are using flash memory as a “ready boost” device.  I am really curious about using a Memstick or SD card this way and would love some more info on the specifics like:

How to set it up?
Does extended use of the flash Media cause damage to said media?
Are the results better with high speed memory like the high end MemSticks?
Have either one of you ever played with booting off of a flash stick?
 
Thanks for the low down,
Fandarel

This article will guide you through the process of setting up a readyboost device:

I am not sure about the effects of Readyboost against the life expectancy of flash media. Since it creates a static-sized file on the flash device, my understanding is that it will be like any other operation. If it were a dynamically-sized file, there would be a lot more read+write operations which would shorten the life expectancy. Just my $.02 based upon the little I know thus far:)

Higher speed flash media is definitely better. I think that Vista will do sample read+write tests to confirm that your flash media meets the speed criteria.

I have not booted from a flash media device, yet. I would like trying the XP-on-a-stick technique one day.

Very Interesting???

I was going to hold off on installing Vista untill some of the bugs were worked out.  I need my computer fully functional because I spend a lot of time on the road.  But reading that link you sent has got me thinking that it might be worth it to go for it.

Are there any XP gurus out there that have figured out a hack that allows XP to do something similiar, like maybe reassigning the paging files from the hard drive to a flash memory device ???

Just a thought

Thanks for the info,
Fandarel