# Sony Vista to XP missing PCI Device driver



## garydan (May 11, 2008)

Friend bought a Sony VGN-C250N with Vista. Software won't run his programs so buys a copy of XP Pro and has one of his employees wipe HD and install XP. Employee fails to install any computer specific drivers. Calls me because it won't get to the internet. I find 14 various driver files at sony.com and install. Clears much of the problem but seems to lack sound and still no network connectivity. Only problem in device manager list is PCI Device. Apparently an unknown device. Deleted and returned upon reboot. Went back and double checked all downloads from Sony for any extra items I might have overlooked. Reinstalled all 14 other items. Any ideas other than scolding him. He doesn't even have a copy of Vista to install now.....


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

hi,

if you need to reinstall Vista, may be Sony Vaio has a recovery partition. May be the person who wiped the HDD could have wiped the C: drive or partition only and not the recovery partition. to access recovery partition, try the method for Sony Vaio here:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f108/laptop-recovery-instructions-162525.html

that would at least give you some time to look for XP drivers needed for your model.

EDIT:
this page shows 13 files http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNC250NB&UpdateType=Original

have you tried installing them all? if you just lack sound and network, try reinstalling chipset drivers, audio and network drivers again.

also you can try this http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html to identify the unknown device (although i am not quite familiar with this utility yet).


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## tech-installers (May 11, 2008)

garydan said:


> Friend bought a Sony VGN-C250N with Vista. Software won't run his programs so buys a copy of XP Pro and has one of his employees wipe HD and install XP. Employee fails to install any computer specific drivers. Calls me because it won't get to the internet. I find 14 various driver files at sony.com and install. Clears much of the problem but seems to lack sound and still no network connectivity. Only problem in device manager list is PCI Device. Apparently an unknown device. Deleted and returned upon reboot. Went back and double checked all downloads from Sony for any extra items I might have overlooked. Reinstalled all 14 other items. Any ideas other than scolding him. He doesn't even have a copy of Vista to install now.....



Hey Gary, did you install the drivers with a card in the pcmcia slot? If you did, yank out the conflicting drivers, removed the card and allow the system to install the pcmcia cage first and then the driver for the device in the slot. That should resolve the issue with particular device


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## garydan (May 11, 2008)

He does not want to use Vista. He has some specific government-related software that needs to run and it only works properly with XP.

I checked and there was no pcmcia device plugged in. Just an empty slot, so that isn't the problem. From Sony I found a total of 14 items from their several lists, specific to this model and XP and installed them all. When the PCI Device error continued to be displayed I deleted the offender from the device manager list, restarted the computer, say it reappear with the appropriate messages, reinstalled all 14 driver files again, restarted and found the problem unchanged. I'm also quite certain of the model number so that isn't an issue. I'm wondering if there are other models whose drivers might suffice?


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

have you tried the utility to identify the unknown device?

about the 14 drivers, check the link i posted earlier (13 drivers only). use the drivers there first. from what i saw, they seem already complete. i suggest have XP installed fresh and use the drivers from the link i provided. install the chipset driver first.


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## garydan (May 11, 2008)

I'm looking at this list and I see 13 now. I thought there was another. It was a security update of some sort.

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNC250N&os_id=&UpdateType=Everything

Anyway I don't have the computer right now. It's at the owner's home. I have the utility here now and will run it when I next see the laptop. 

I can reinstall xp and the drivers again as well, but unless I find something else that isn't there now, I suspect it will be a futile effort. This is bothering me now, and these things rarely do!


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

hopefully the utility will identify what driver you need and by chance fix the audio and the network problem so there will be no need for a reinstall of XP.

please let us know what you find out.


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## garydan (May 11, 2008)

Solution:
I ran the unknown device program and found it totally useless. It gave me a long list of all the drivers on the computer but failed to note any discrepancies. Either I didn't use it correctly or it couldn't find the problem. Then reinstalled WXP SP2. Still no joy. Called Sony and found a guy who listened to the details of the problem and eventually came back to explain that they did not have a full set of drivers--that I needed to Google for Realtech drivers on the web. Beyond that, if it didn't fix the problem, they couldn't help much. I found the file, a huge one, and installed it. Upon restart it made real Windows sounds. Checked the device manager and found no errors. Set TCP/IP to a static address which matched a computer here in the office, swapped out the cable between the two and vuola, it had connectivity. All is well. Note that it took a Realtech HD audio driver to fix both the audio problems and the connectivity issues. Yes, I saved a copy on CD for the computer's owner!! Many thanks for the assistance and thoughtful aiming.


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## TriggerFinger (Jan 30, 2008)

there is only one Realtek driver in the website. and my guess is that one did not work either.

it is kinda strange for Sony to put up the list of Drivers for XP for their laptops in their website and yet they do not work. add to that, their technical people know about another driver that would work but unfortunately not on their website.

anyhow... glad to know you got it fixed. thanks for sharing the solution.


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## garydan (May 11, 2008)

I'm guessing that there might be some sort of copyright infringement involved here. Perhaps the Realtek folks were paid to sell components and Vista drivers to Sony, not drivers for XP, and Sony not wanting to pay, aren't permitted to post them? Just guessing, but the driver was easy to find using Google, and my friend now has a copy of it for future needs.


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## The_Beast20 (Mar 7, 2009)

i FIXED PCI DEVICE driver in Device Manager after hours and hours of pain  OK here it is the solution put your motherboard cd in cd-rom and instal all drivers found there esspecialy the chipset drivers mine has 4 chipset drivers and i didn't pay attention to the last one called High Definition Realtek Sound driver or somethnig becouse I have an sound driver CD to and instaled that one and tryed all posibilityes and found this one..... and that couse my device manager to found an PCI DEVICE missing and non-updating device. By the way i'm using WinXP SP2 and now I'm extremly happy that my sound works !!! ray:


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