Thanks guys! amazing help! 
The SATA thing was my main hesitation. So now I can get the install done and figure everything out from XP.
I'll keep you posted on my progress as I'm sure there will be plenty more people in the same situation as me.
This laptop is a great deal after all, and most people don't want Vista.
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Good Luck phalaris!!!!
I think you are right - hopefully others will find the info in this thread very useful.
An update on my progress:
The XP installation went smooth. SATA drive was recognized perfectly (a lesson HP need to learn from Sony).
Usually then the most difficult leap is getting online. I went through all the yellow exclamation marks and chose Update Driver -> Manually Locate Driver. Then it was just a case of picking and matching the right folder in the N1/Drivers folder with the right exlamation mark. This all went smooth, except Realtek Audio Drivers.
As soon as I set up my ethernet adapter I installed NOD32 and did a full 5 or 6 cycles of Windows Update. After this, I managed to get the sound working (it hinged on some Microsoft update package). After this I got a relocated DLL error which I traced back to the freshly installed Realtek drivers. This was fixed with yet another Microsoft update package.
Blancenogo,
sorry for bothering you again.
In the driver folder are three folders named "FlashMediaSetting", "SonyNC" and "USBMouse"
Since there are no unrecognized (yellow exclamation mark) devices left in the device manager I wonder what these drivers are for.
@phalaris
Yes, I've never seen an more appealing notebook so far. In my opinion in looks even nicer than Apples iBooks
Regards
Tom
Basically this is where I am at the moment.
Right now I have no yellow exclamation marks and everything seems to be working fine.
But now I am not sure what to install. There are some folders in the drivers section that I didn't use. Likewise, I have not installed any utilities.
Some things that are bothering me at the moment (wechselbass, I am curious if it's the same for you):
-- The memory card slots are annoyingly coming up as drives in My Computer. One of them doesn't have an icon as well... I doubt this is supposed to be like that.
-- The scroller on the touchpad doesn't work. i.e. when you move your finger up and down the very right part of the touch pad it's supposed to be the same as the mouse wheel. I am not sure what controls this. There is supposed to be a touchpad control panel of some kind, right?
-- The brightness FN keys don't work.
-- The volume FN keys don't work.
-- The battery management tool isn't installed.
I know it's nitpicking at this point. I'm not a baby and of-course I can just install everything from every folder!
But I have read articles about Vaio's features (such as auto-update) being a total nuisance and bloating people's computers with crap like Google desktop. I am extra-cautious about installing stuff that I DO NOT need.But I definitely would like to have all my hardware working the way it would have on the VGN-N11Z, and this includes touchpad, sound, VGA controller (for multiple displays with monitor/laptop screen).
wechselbass I'm looking forward to hearing your experiences with these things, and I will try out some of the utilities when I get home and post my findings. Hopefully by the end of this thread there will be a nearly full set of instructions for people to perform the downgrade without trial and error.
Hi phalaris,
for touchpad-support you have to update the ps/2 mouse driver with the drivers in folder "mouse".
Hey Tom,
Not sure what you mean. I am in Device Manager -> Update Driver -> Locate Manually.
Where is the folder called "mouse" ? In my N1/Drivers there is no folder like this.
Yes, the icon for the Memory-Stick is missing. And also the same problems with the Realtek drivers.
For battery management etc. just install all the utils from N1_Utilities.zip
The zip-File seems to contain only the real necessery utils. There is no update utility included for example.
So everything is very fine, expect that i don't no what the driver in the "FlashMediaSetting", "SonyNC" and "USBMouse" are for.
Regards
Tom
I think the USB Mouse drivers are for the Sony Mouse, which you can get at sonystyle.com. I'm pretty sure it's no harm to install them, but completely unnecesary..
FlashMediaSetting and SonyNC remain a mystery..
I installed all the utils for the sake of consistency, and most of them didn't seem to do anything, which is a bit unsettling. But all the FN keys work now, as well as the power management..
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Hi phalaris, Hi Tom,
You both seem to be getting on fairly well!!
For Touchpad support you need to install the Alps Pointing Device for Vaio - you will find it in the drivers download = N1_Drivers\Pointing.
The USBMouse seems likely to install the drivers for a generic USB Mouse.
Sony NC is 'Sony Notebook Control' but I'm not exactly sure what it does!
FlashMediaSetting has got to be something to do with the SD Card and the Memory Stick Duo slots.
Got the touchpad working, so everything totally works now
Still having some problems where windows doesn't boot up properly like once every 5 attempts, but this is nothing to do with Vaio. Microsoft will sort this out for me I hope..
Thanks for all your help Blencogo!
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