vaio fresh setup help please

[dogtired]

As I seem to have been given the job of sorting out a mate of a mates new laptop.....He bought it while on holiday in spain, (stupidly in my opinion), so there are a couple of problems he didnt think about......

Firstly, The power adapter... it has a two pinned plug, (as you would expect). Is there a simple way of converting this? (i.e. shaver plug or travel adapter), or will he have to buy a uk adapter. (vgp-ac19v20, 19.5v, 100-240v~1.3a 50-60hz, 19.5v 3.9a)

The laptop is installed with Windows Media Edition, (the spanish version, of course!!!) so he has bought Windows Xp home to install in its place......To be honest I think I could use windows in spanish, (or atleast learn to live with it), but likely this blokes girlfriend is a bit of a novice, so she would be struggling......

Would I be able to perform a simple clean installation of windows home and get the vaio up and running smoothly? I dont want to leave them with a completely useless machine.

To be honest Im almost ready to tell them to find someone else to sort it, (My life is far to busy to be helping out eedjits who dont think about things before they do them). If its gonna be too much hassle I may tell them to get a professional to do it...(someone who gets paid for his time!!)...

anyhoo thanks for your help....

[Blencogo]

Hi dogtired and welcome to Club Vaio.

The power adapter is the same as the English version as it covers 100 to 240 volts. You just need an adapter for the plug, or on some models there is a seperate lead from the plug to the adapter which you could replace. I probably shouldn't say this but you could just chop the plug off and fit a 13A English plug.

It is not an easy job to change from the installed OEM Operating System as you will have to load all the divers and utilities seperately and you will lose all the prinstalled Applications. It is quite a big job - particularly if the model has a SATA hard drive that will not be supported by XP Home.

What model VAIO is it? If you let us know, we can give further instructions and advice.

[dogtired]

For the life of me I cant remember exact model [:">]

Doesnt matter anymore I explained the situation and he is going to try someone else, (and get charged big time, probably).... I have hardly any time to prod about into my own pc's; nevermind folk that start off by causing themselves problems!!

I hadnt realised about xp home not working with SATA drives, but Ive been more of a user for a while now, so some stuff has been kinda missed. (I just suggested getting the cheapest windows he could! The receipt is still there and its unopened, so i suppose its only a little time thats been wasted [:">] ).

If nothing else, Ive learned a couple of things. So thanks for the info, you basically confirmed what I had been thinking.......

Also, I have learned that the next time someone says, "I have just got a new computer.......I dont even know how to turn it on", Im gonna do a runner.....

[dogtired]

Just noticed your username, BLENCOGO. Im in SIlloth! If I had known I coulda thrown the laptop in your direction, you could of had the headache.... :smileygrin:

Anyway its gone now, and I can begin my New Year in peace.

[Blencogo]

Hi dogtired - small world !!

It's not just XP Home that needs additional SATA drivers - it's every version of XP. (Pro, MCE and Home).

Have a Happy (and peaceful) New Year.