I’ve just spent the last 4 hours trying to install Windows 2000 Server on a Sony Vaio PCG-R505DCP laptop.

People… do yourself a favor… if you’re shopping for a laptop of any kind… skip on the Sony Vaio line.

Sure… they’re pretty, but if you’re looking to do anything other than keep it like it came out of the box, then this is probably not the machine for you. The Sony website is poor at best: No search function to find drivers or anything else for that matter, an unbelievably limited “common problems” section, and zero support for anything outside the worlds of Windows XP or 2000.

Their documentation and driver selection for the two OS’s they do support is horrible at best.

Ugh.

After several hours of pain, I’m down to three issues: one unknown device in the device mangler, no drivers for the memory stick slot (at least none that Windows 2000 Server can use), and an annoying error with the DMICALL not loading on boot (the .sys file that goes with the .inf and .vxd is missing and generating an error). Of course, it’s a Sony file… but where the hell do I find it on their website (and more specifically… get it installed)?

Unfortunately, this laptop is being shipped to a customer to use, and problems like that just can’t be.

I think I might “accidentally” drop it and convince my boss to ship them a ThinkPad instead.