Sony Vaio Fn key problem - Page 3

[large-marge]

One more step to make sure that you have closed all of the doors. Run MSCONFIG, select the Services Tab and make sure that the VAIO Event Service box is checked.

[jhonnyas]

Hi everyone!

I recently bought a Sony VAIO VGN-C2ZR notebook. It came with Vista. The speed was competely ridiculous, so i got rid of the OS. Now i am Running Windows XP Ultimate. It is a kind of "Hand made" OS, and it has huge advantages. It recognized nearly all VAIO hardware except the touchpad, card reader and modem. The rest functions perfectly. I found a touchpad driver on the internet, it was no big deal, just had to search for ALPS pointing device. After 15 mins of sarching i found it so touchpad functions corretly as it should. I still have problems though:

1 And most importantly: I cant get the SD card reader to work. I installed the Driver, which is a Texas Instruments Card Reader driver and i got 3 removable storages. Kinda strange, because if i remove the cartride, the SD,MMC,XD reader there are two removable drives. One is for Memory Stick Reader, which is ok, because i have a physical memory stick reader. I tried it, and when i put the Memorystick card, it recognized it. So memorystick reader works. The SD card reader which is removable however does not.

2: The Lightness/Darkness function keys do not work.
I read that you have to install it in the following order.
1: SonyUtils DLL
2: Sony Shared Library
3: Vaio Event Service
4: Vaio Control center

First 2 are not a problem.
However when i try to install Vaio Event Service i get a lot of errors an example:

The following files did not self-register or unregister.

VesVideo.dll
VesSuEvent.dll
VessempiPNP.dll

and a lot of others
all have the same error.

14001: The application has failed to start, because the application configuration is incorrect.
Reinstalling the application might fix this problem

However it does not.

And function keys still do not work.

I also tried Sony VAIO s downgrade page but it does not let me in.
I typed my serial and identification number on my notebook located on the back of the panel but it does not accept it.

IT IS A REAL SONY VAIO and not a fake so i do not know what could be the problem.

If any1 could give me links to Setup Utilities for XP for VGN-C2ZR model that would be really appreciated.

I am urgently waiting your reply

Best regards

jhonnyas

[large-marge]

I downloaded SOASSL-00598801-US.exe from the Sony website and this reinstalled all of the utilities that came loaded on my Vaio. I have a different model than you do so I don't know if this would help or not.

Good luck ....

You can Google the file name and it will take you to the proper download page. Plus, make sure that you follow all of the steps I described in a previous post.

[arunr99]

Hello,

Thank you very much for this post. I followed your instructions to the letter and my laptop is working perfectly again.

Regards,
Arun

:)

Ooh, you're all very silly. You silly, silly people.

Just kidding. It just so happens that I have the knowledge you desire. So here we go, kids.

THE NOT-SO-OFFICIAL OVERLY LONG POST ON GETTING YOUR KEYBOARD TO WORK ON A SONY VAIO LAPTOP.

To begin with, on more recent sony laptops (such as the VGN FS line), the service is called 'hkcmd' or something to that effect. So if you are using a sony-made computer, and your hotkeys (like 'Fn' or the 'S1' and 'S2' keys) are working, and you go into the 'Processes' section of the Windows task manager, and you see 'hkserv' or 'hksrv' or 'hkcmd' or any of those in uppercase, it means your hot keys are functioning well and good and fine and everything will be okay, and you can sit back and enjoy a chocolate milkshake at your kitchen table while sifting through your mail or reading the newspaper and everything will be alright.

But there can be problems. Yes indeed. And if you are having problems, read on.

There are two kinds of problems which crop up on Sony Vaio Laptops, one where your computer's hotkeys simply aren't working. Another, which I discovered while visiting a friend's house, is that they have the tendency to make it so occasionally when you type some letters, they come out like numbers, or numbers come out the wrong way, and all that such. Both of these problems are covered in this post.

POSSIBLE PROBLEM #1- I'm using a Sony Computer, and for some reason, my hot keys aren't working, or I don't have the driver for them installed. How do I fix that? (A driver is the software necessary for your computer to be able to 'understand' or 'communicate' with the hardware attached to it.)

LONG, LONG, ANSWER.
If at any point in this answer, you feel that you can 'take it from here' than by all means do so. A lot of this guide is just walking through the process step-by-step and explaining stuff along the way.

You can get the driver for making your hotkeys work by going to
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/select-system.pl?PRODTYPE=24&NAVDISP=pc and entering in your model number, so you can access sony driver downloads, user guides, Frequently asked questions, technical specs, product alerts, and other stuff about your laptop.

Most of you people already seem to have cleverly decided to figure out your series and model number before asking for help, so you probably won't need to download the 'detect my model' thing, and you can skip the rest of this paragraph. If you don't know your model number, you can find it out by downloading their program, or, if you still have your 'vaio control center' on your computer (which is, don't worry, a helpful thing), you can just go to that. Now I'm not sure how older versions of this were designed, but in mine, you can just click the 'system information' category, and click the little gear icon with 'system information' next to it. And under 'Product information' and 'Model' will be your series and model. Select that on the esupport.sony.com website using their dropdown menus or such.

Anyway, to get the sony-specific drivers for your computer, or for your hotkeys in general, click the 'Drivers/Software' tab on their page. From there you can get the drivers which came with your computer, drivers which are updates for the ones you already had, or get all the drivers ever for that computer in one 'everything' list page.

Windows can typically use your laptop fine without your manufacturers drivers on it, but it greatly helps to have the actual drivers and hardware management programs which came with the computer, as that usually allows you much greater control and ease-of-use when it comes to using your computer, and much less bugs and errors. So if you erased your computer and reinstalled windows or something, or if you updated to XP from an earlier version (such as with the PCG-FX case listed in this thread) now would be a good opportunity to download all of the drivers. Sony will have a guide on doing that, and plaease do so.

Specifically, if your computer came with something earlier than windows xp, Sony will have a specific page on there for drivers for people who upgraded to windows xp. Sony will have a guide to help you along with this, I don't need to tell you about it, the instructions exist, follow them as if they were the bible, the Qu'ran, and the sacred scrolls of Boshmop the great all put together. In other words, if you updated to, or reinstalled windows, stop reading this post, go to Sony's page for downloading drivers for your computer, and read sony's instructions for 'Windows XP Clean Install' and listen to them.

If you've gotten to this point, it means that:
-You are still using your computer with the Operating System it came with. You did not update to windows, nor did you reformat your computer and reinstall windows via a Windows XP install disk. You're using the computer the way it came.
-Yet for some your hotkeys are NOT working.
If either of these are not true, reread the above half of this post, because you must have missed something.

Anyway, here's how to get the driver for your hotkeys: Now, remember, if you upgraded to windows xp, go to the 'OS migration' page, if not, go to the 'everything' page, and find the ORIGINAL driver that came with the computer for hotkeys, and then the UPDATED version if there is one. The drivers will normally not be specifically called 'Sony Hotkeys' but rather, they will be under a more general, wider-ranging driver, such as 'Sony Shared Library'. If there is a 'Notebook Control Device Driver', than get that instead, because we are assuming that you already have the sony shared library, because we are assuming you did not install windows from scratch or pointlessly delete a bunch of your files. If you are pretty sure that for one of these reasons you do not have the sony shared library, get that first and install that first, and then install any 'Notebook Control' drivers.

After you're done with all of this, restart your computer (if you haven't already) and try your hotkeys out.

Alright??? Are we good? Are we good? We're good? Good!

POSSIBLE PROBLEM #2- I'm using the normal keyboard that's part of my laptop, but whenever I try to type on the right side of my keyboard, (or sometimes) the letter that should come out on the screen (such as 'm') is not there, and instead there's something different! (Like 0 for 'm', or 2 for 'k', or 3 for 'j') I've tried installing new drivers and other stuff, and it's still not working! WHAT'S GOING ON???

ANSWER!
Here's yer problem, buddy. Your computer thinks you have the 'Fn' key (otherwise known as the function key) held down right now, even though you don't! You can tell that this is the problem if the letters/numbers which come out on the screen are the ones which are noted on the lower part of the keys you're pressing. And you'll notice that if you actually hold down the 'Fn' key, your computer's keyboard acts as it normally does.

So why does the computer think the 'Fn' key is being held down, even when it's not? Because you have 'Num Lock' on! When you have the 'Num Lock' key on, your computer perpetually thinks that the Fn key is held down.

Here's how to turn 'Num Lk' off if you want your keyboard acting normal again: hold 'Fn' and hit the 'Num Lk' button. (You have to hold Fn while doing this, because otherwise, the computer would think you were trying to press 'Scr Lk', or scroll lock. I don't know the layout of every keyboard of every computer sony has ever made, so it might be different for you.), after that, everything should work normal again. For some reason, Sony Vaio laptops, on the rare occasion turn their 'num lock' on by themselves. It's easy as it can be to turn it back off, it's just that it can be very confusing for someone who doesn't understand the problem.

Alright! We all good? Thanks. Awesome. I gotta fly.

*Vartotojas jumps into a small electric-blue-colored skycar. He flips the top over his head and onto the front, and presses the big green 'AGOGO!' button in the center of the dashboard, which then results in a large "ding dong!" sound. His ship lifts up for a second, hovers, and then vanishes into the endless intracacies of time and space. Left behind is but a vapor trail of light-gray fog, which soon dissapates.*

[Mimi2three]

Hi I just bought a second hand Vaio PCG-8E2L or PCG-GRS150 for my son........but..

The people I bought it from said it was having intermittent touch pad problems, but when I tried it out, it was FINE. I don't remember if I tried the keyboard, but they didn't mention a problem. It is clean, has what appears a fresh install of xp - I assume they did that to remove all their old info. I did a genuine windows verification before I handed over the cash, and it passed. I put it under the tree, and BAM! My son couldn't do anything on it. It froze for him, and every time I used it, it worked, when HE used it, it wouldn't. I typed a web page on the keyboard, and it went to it. Then within moments, the touchpad and keyboard failed and have not come back. At one point it would not shut down, and I had to remove the battery to reboot it.

I don't know anything about Sony laptops, I have a toshiba. I ended up giving my son a compaq presario, and pray it holds up. But I have some money into this sony, and want to save it. Can anyone help me trouble shoot it? I am willing to carefully take it apart and replace the keyboard/touch pad if that is what is wrong. Or is it?
Thanks
Suzi
mimi2three

[nghearch]

Hello,
I have Sony VGN-FS740/W with OS. My Hotkey worked very well before 2 days ago. I deleted something in my C driver. I really don't know what did i deleted :((. Hix hix... Now it doesn't work anymore the Fn key. I checked already in Ctrl Alt Del, the processes with hkcmd.exe, there is. I downloaded also the Bios, and Ultility. It doesn't work anyway. Then i checked Vaio Event Service, don't have...in processes, in mgconfig and also in C driver with Sony folder.
Please help me to solve this problem.
Thanks thanks

[nghearch]

Haha,
I downloaded the Vaio Event service. And it works again the Fn button. It means Vaio Event Service must be installed in your laptop to support the Hotkey funtion.
Thanks all

[horia]

Hi, I have a VGN-NR21S/S, I installed win xp but can't get the right drivers for my vaio website so my soundcard won't work, neither the FN keys. I installed some sony utilities from the SZ4 XP driver disk in the indicated order instruction from the cd and I can manage my FN volume work but brightness no! Do you have any idea of what driver should I download from what model and install it in the right order ?

[dodolom]

Hey guys,

I am new to the forum and I tried to look for an answer to my problem but I couldn't find anything so I wanted to ask here to see if anyone has a solution for me.

I have recently bought a Sony Vaio VGN-NR220E laptop and came with Vista. I downgraded to XP and got all my drivers so all is fine but today I wanted to connect my laptop to my new LCD TV but the FN keys don't function, the only thing that functions with the FN is the volume and that is it, when I click on the AV Mode or S1 , they don't work as well. I am not sure what S1 is for to begin with actually but I just wanted to mention it.

Anyone has a solution or suggestion for me?

All the best from Cleveland,

THanks in advance,
Dogan

[barron50]

where did you find the xp drivers for your model I have the same and can not find the drivers. Did that solution for the fn key work?

Anyone - please send me the site to download drivers to [e-mail]

thank you

Hey guys,

I am new to the forum and I tried to look for an answer to my problem but I couldn't find anything so I wanted to ask here to see if anyone has a solution for me.

I have recently bought a Sony Vaio VGN-NR220E laptop and came with Vista. I downgraded to XP and got all my drivers so all is fine but today I wanted to connect my laptop to my new LCD TV but the FN keys don't function, the only thing that functions with the FN is the volume and that is it, when I click on the AV Mode or S1 , they don't work as well. I am not sure what S1 is for to begin with actually but I just wanted to mention it.

Anyone has a solution or suggestion for me?

All the best from Cleveland,

THanks in advance,
Dogan

[NR220E]

If someone happen to have all NR220E/s drivers for windows xp, I need 1 too

thank u

[e-mail]

[ca_nr220e]

Hi,

if you got all the drivers for you NR220E when downgraded to WinXP, can you please email me the links to them or all the drivers to [e-mail]

even better, posting them here will help thousands of others out there who are searching for the drivers.

thanks.

Hey guys,

I am new to the forum and I tried to look for an answer to my problem but I couldn't find anything so I wanted to ask here to see if anyone has a solution for me.

I have recently bought a Sony Vaio VGN-NR220E laptop and came with Vista. I downgraded to XP and got all my drivers so all is fine but today I wanted to connect my laptop to my new LCD TV but the FN keys don't function, the only thing that functions with the FN is the volume and that is it, when I click on the AV Mode or S1 , they don't work as well. I am not sure what S1 is for to begin with actually but I just wanted to mention it.

Anyone has a solution or suggestion for me?

All the best from Cleveland,

THanks in advance,
Dogan

[shiggins21]

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-S560P. My hard drive crashed last week and I had to restore my computer from scratch. I installed a new hard drive, Windows XP, etc. I went to Sony's website and downloaded and installed all the drivers specific for my model #. However, my hot keys are still not working. I made sure I installed the Notebook keys driver, and the shared library driver. Even after re-booting, my Function keys are not working at all. Do you have any recommendations that I may not have tried yet?

Thanks,
Sheri

[teaberrybee]

My model is an older one. PCG-K27 (an older version of Vaio running on XP and not Vista) and it crashed. I had to reinstall all the drivers. I'm also getting the same problem. The Fn key is not working. I can no longer adjust toe volume, brightness, etc. If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.

[gbuhl]

If someone happen to have all NR220E/s drivers for windows xp, I need 1 too

thank u

[e-mail]

Any chance you were able to get all of the drivers? I am beginning the painful process of downgrading the same model right now and would really appreciate the help.

If you want you can email me at [e-mail]

Thanks

[waldo1987]

OK guys. I was fighting with all these stupid drivers all day long. Now i have almost all of them. The only problem i have is with fn key. I managed to make work only mute, increase and decrease volume. I still don't have S1 and AV MODE working. Maybe some1 did it properly?
I don't how can I send you these files. Any ideas? Just one thing. Let me know if you figure out somthing with fn keys please.

waldo

[waldo1987]

http://rapidshare.com/files/101357994/VAIO_VGN-NR220E_drivers.rar.html

Drivers i wrote about.

[howieLondon]

please please please im beggin someone for help!

sony tech support is crap! their site is horrible and they dont respond.

i have a pcg-grx516md that i just installed XP performace version on. (could that be a prob?)
ive downloaded the sony utlities and drivers, unzipped and setup or installed infs
ive rebooted
i get nada
cannot whatsoever get my FN keys nor jog dial to work :(

please someone tell me what the @#$%@#%@# is going on?!
ive spent days reading forums, trying to email sony, etc...
all i freakin wanna do is control my volume and brightness via Fn keys... and switch displays.

why is this so hard?!

[fnkeys]

Hi,

I have been having the same problem over the past few days with my Sony Vaio VGN SZ71WN/C. I now seem to have come to the bottom of the issue - for me atleast! Hopefully this will help you also.

I had to play around alittle (reformatted several times) but I was determined to distinguish which software/driver is responsible for the volume and brightness keys. Having a browse on the web I was not able to idenitfy this.

Well, from a little hard grafting I was able to identify the culprit - sofwtare VAIO Event Service. When i unistalled Vaio Event Sevrice I was no longer able to use my volume/brightness keys - plus or minus. Re-installing the software allowed me to use the functions perfectly.

It seems several of you have tried installing every software and driver avaible for your model. Well try installing/uninstalling Vaio Event Service and see whether that helps.

It helped me!

Regards,

fnkeys

[howieLondon]

how? i dont see it in add/remove programs?

[waldo1987]

For me it still doesn't work. My laptop is VGN-NR220E. What else do you have installed? Sony Shared Library or sth like that? Can you post a list here, please?

[fnkeys]

how? i dont see it in add/remove programs?

If it does not appear in add/remove programs then do the following:

Go to C:\Windows\sonysys\vaio recovery or C:\Program Files\Sony\Vaio Recovery, depening on your model. From here run the vaio recovery program by opening LAUNCH.EXE. Once open, on the left hand side select Reinstall Programs or Drivers. Go through the necessary procedures on the right of the screen andthen you will come to a selection of software and drivers you can install. Under the software tab locate VAIO Event Servie, tick the box and install. Once installed reboot your machine and see whether your volume/brightness keys work.

These are the steps I would take. It may vary for each model and it may not necessarily be the VAIO Event Service which is responsible for the volume and brightness functions.

Let me know if you have any success.

Regards,

fnkeys

[howieLondon]

would love to, but I got my laptop off a friend, its 4 years old, dont have any disks, and have installed XP performance edition on it....
:(

am i screwed?

[howieLondon]

Anywhere I can download the Sony Recovery Disk for my PCG-GRX516MD?

Would that help?!

[gnzraul]

hi i have VAIO VGN-NR150FE this laptop came with Vista, i made a clean install of windows XP (Vista sucks!!) i'm not able to use FN Key, S1 or AV Mode key, please anybody helpme with this problem, i can`t find the correct program in the sony webpage because spony only provides Vista drivers for this laptop.

[xtc1964]

For key problem I have some files that works in my old vaio (I have a new toshiba rigth now) but I can't put them in here. Let me know an email and I will send the files and the procedure.

bye.

[rellyc]

I have just fixed the Vaio FS51b problem. I have never reinstalled Windows until today. I managed to download a BIOS update from the japanese site:
http://vcl.vaio.sony.co.jp/support/note/vgn-fs51b.html#download
Afterwards, install event service and sony utility (all the drivers can be found on the japanese site). Volume and brightness work perfect now. Good luck and hope my answer is not too late (I accidentally deleted the folder containing the original drivers).

[jasebond007]

I have found this on ebay, followed and solved my problem!!! hope this will help you also

Sony Vaio Hotkeys, Screen Brightness & PowerPanel
by: choppershaw( 2683)
23 out of 23 people found this guide helpful.
Guide viewed: 2434 times Tags: Sony | Vaio | Hotkeys | Brightness | Powerpanel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SONY VAIO LAPTOP 'HOTKEYS'
WHY AM I WRITING THIS GUIDE?
I am writing this guide to help people looking for information on setting up the 'Hotkeys' on various Sony Vaio laptops. The 'Hotkeys' are secondary functions that are symbolised in blue on your laptop keyboard across various F-keys. The 'Hotkeys' are accessed in conjunction with the FN key. These functions control basic but essential settings such as screen brightness, volume levels, monitor out etc etc.

I recently needed to setup the hotkeys on a Sony Vaio Z505AP laptop following a fresh install. I spent quite a time searching for information & drivers across various websites & forums. It quickly became apparent that a lot of people were having problems with the same task so I felt writing this guide would be helpful to others & save them alot of time.

The process will vary from each Vaio model but this should hopefully save you a lot of time and make the task easier. For the two Vaio models (Z505AP & Z600LEK) I recently set the Hotkeys up on, the process is similar and the theory the same.

WHAT TO INSTALL?
To get the Hotkeys working your Vaio laptop requires THREE different components/sets of software installed, these are:

'Hotkey drivers'
'Sony Shared Library'
'Sony Utils'

Once you install these three components & restart your Vaio laptop your Hotkeys should be working. These are all unobtrusive files that will only enhance your Vaio machine however alternatively you can install Sony's Powerpanel or Batteryscope programs to perform the similar features.

Most these files are written for specific Vaio models however there is some overlapping and files from similar Vaio models may work with your own laptop.

WHERE TO FIND THESE FILES?
There are various online resources relating to this topic however the best place to find these files is the one below.

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/VAIO/ORIGINAL

Using that site, find your model number & download the relevant 'Utilities' file. You might also find useful the link below, which may help with this task and/or others (including RAM upgrade advice etc)

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk

It took many reinstalls to work out the order and what programmes needed to be installed to get the hotkeys working & I purposefully took hours doing so, noting each step I made so this guide could be written and save time for others.

[marcoferretti]

hello everybody,
I have the same vista-to-XP downgrade problem with Fn keys on
VAIO VGN-FZ31E. SOny european web site only offers original vista
drivers.
Anybody'got a quick hint on where to find appropriate drivers and libraries?
thanks !!

[whereisgabriel]

I had installed Vista on my Vaio, but had a problem with FN-key. While installing setup files of vaio software I had realized that something was not going OK.
To install all setup files correctly, you should first right click then options>compatibility and choose windows xp. This is the only way to install some of the setup files correctly.
Now my fn-key works.