XP Media Edition & Sony Vaio

Mutiple questions.

With all the computer manufacturers today putting the operating system on a seperate partition on your hard drive and not providing you with restoration cds, when is MS going to fix the problem of running programs that will require you to insert the cd? When are they going to auto-detect the operating system on your partition or allow you to select where the file is located (not sure that would work either since that partition is hidden)?

I just bought a Sony Vaio with XP Media Edition and as instructed made the recovery cds that are suppose to be exactly what the recovery disks are from the manufacturer. So I just did a test run and of course it was missing some .dlls files and it asked for the "Windows XP Professional Disk 2" CD. I tried both of the recovery cds that I had made from the Vaio recovery tools and neither of them worked, I also tried a XP PRO disk that I have but it still said it it needed disk 2, also tried a copy of a Dell media edition cd. So what do you do? Sony has no answer and actually was very rude when I requested the original recovery disks telling me that the disks they provide are exactly the same disks that you make from the recovery disk console. And that they support their systems and if you have a problem with the OS then you need to contact MS. I also ask them about all the extra software that came with their system and they advised me that if I had to reinstall it that I would have to purchase the software (Roxio, Quicken, Adobe Photoshop Elements, MS Works just to name a few). HUMMMMMM thought I did that when I purchased my computer with the included software, (some of these I already own). For instance (which I know is a free program download) Adobe needed to update, so it downloads the updates, then wants to be directed to the source of the original installation, I tell it the "C" drive but it cannot access the file on the partition where the windows installtion is stored. Is there someway you can make this partition show in My Computer?

Another question...... I just bought this computer and set it up 4 days ago. I thought System Restore was suppose to create a System Checkpoint restore point every 24 hours when the computer was idle. The only restore point listed in my restore window is from when I 1st turned on my computer 4 days ago. So why is it not creating System Check point restore information? It's set to use 12% of the drive.

1 other question, when I click a link from the desktop for an IE shortcut, such as in the all programs list, you click to check for updates of a program, even clicking on the Sony support link listed in Vaio support central, or clicking a link in an IM, it opens up a blank IE page and will not load the link. In other words, when I click a link ouside of internet explorer to an IE webpage, it opens a blank window and will not load the site, I have to go back to the link, select properties and copy and paste the web address into the IE address bar.

Any comments on Sony Vaio while I still have time to return it? I purchased a R210G which is suppose to be the higher end of Sony..... Pentium D processor, 320g hard drive 2g RAM TV tuner card etc. with all the bells and whistles.

This may be titled wrong or in the wrong forum so feel free to move it. I know I combined a lot of different sernarios into this one post, hope it was okay.

Any comments and/or experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

That's dead wrong. If you call MS they'll just tell you that it's an OEM computer and that Sony has to supply the support for it. Sony is responsible for supporting the OS. I don't think the person you talked to was the most knowledgeable person in the house at the time. My guess is that he/she is wrong about the software that came with the computer too. Although, it's probably on the recovery cds you made if you can get them to work.

For the problem of it asking for disk 2 when you try to use the cds you've made, see this. I've got a friend who had the same problem trying to install Windows Media Center with disks he had purchased. Turned out he was misunderstanding the message and once he figured it out, it worked for him. Your circumstances sound the same.

For your links problem, click start>run and type regsvr32 urlmon.dll. Then try one and see if it works. It's odd that they wouldn't work right out of the box.

For your system restore problem, check to see if the system restore service is started (start>run>services.msc) and under startup type, set to automatic. If it's set to manual or disabled double click on it and where it says startup type, choose automatic. Then, if it says it's not started, either start the service manually or reboot the computer.

If you end up calling Sony again perhaps you'll have better luck next time. I've never had any dealings with them so I don't know if this is common or you just happened to get lucky and get somebody that it would seem doesn't know what they're talking about. As I said before, if you purchased the computer from them, with the OS on it, they are responsible for the support of the OS. I've run into similar problems with other companies in the past. I either insist on talking to somebody at the next level up or hang up and call back. Not likely you'll get the same person the second time.

 

Thanks Zander, I did the regsvr32 urlmon.dll and now the links work. OOPS I was wrong, it worked on some links but does not work clicking a link from an IM message. Update again, it works in MSN but not in Yahoo. Never had this problem before.
And I agree, I have never had anyone tell me that they did not support the OS preinstalled on a computer. This is exactly why I NEVER call tech support and post all my questions here. But I had never dealt with Sony before so thought I would give it a try.

I'm not sure I am exactly understanding setting the services.msc (nevermind reread and realized you were telling me to access adminstrative tools from the run command), but I did check in adminstrative tools>services and system restore was set to automatic. But it still is not creating system checkpoint restore point. Trust me my computer is not being used 24 hours a day and there are plenty of idle times that it could create a restore point.

I read the information on the link regarding the insert disks. Next time I will just insert both restore disks and see what happens. However, like I said Sony says they don't support this that it is an OS function and I have to call MS. Like you said I don't think I spoke to someone who knew what they were talking about or else was just too darn lazy to help me. Maybe I'll try again later.

 

Well I guess that didn't fix the regsvr. When I go to add/remove programs and click on an item then click here for more information, it gives you a pop up window that has the link. When I click that link I get a blank IE page.

????????????

 

It's me again. After serveral times at attempting to access links I am thinking it has something to do with "referer ". I use NIS 2006 and Trend Micro Anti Spyware. I turned off NIS but that did not solve the issue. I was trying to download from Softpedia and according to their FAQ not beinging about to d/l could be your system does not allow referers. So how do I fix that? I have always used Norton's but 2006 is a lot different and this is my 1st time with Trend Micro.