Guys I had this exact problem as well, and just like you I asked Sony support for assistance, but they were totally useless.
I did manage to fix it however!
As it turns out the error message is totally erroneous - the fault has nothing to do with the player not being recognised.
Unless the VAIO is authorised with the online store (which you can only do if you're in the U.S.), you have to initialize the Pocket on the computer you'll be using to do the transfer. This kinda sux because it means that unless you're able to use the online store you can only use one computer to transfer tracks to the VAIO.
Unfortunately the initialisation process will delete the existing contents of the VAIO (I don't know whether this will erase pics and skins, but it definetly deletes any music currently onthe player). Once this has been done, SonicStage will recognise the player.
If you're in the United States, you can simply authorize your player with the connect online store and it will work on any PC with Sonic Stage on it.
For the rest of the world:
To perform the intialization:
1. Connect the player to the computer as normal.
2. Load SonicStage
3. From the Menu sellect "Controls" -> "Device/Media" -> "Initialize..."
It'll give you a couple of warnings before performing the initialzation.
If anyone is able to suggest how to use the player with several different PCs I'd be much apreciative!
Hope this helps and good luck!!! Let me know how this goes for you!
