Clean install Windows 7 - FN Keys (Touch/slider) not working

Hello hello,

After having a problem with my cd/dvd drive, I rebooted my computer and did a clean install of Windows 7 from my Vista. So right now, I'm running Windows 7. I have a VAIO - VGN-CS320J.

Windows 7 looks and feels great so far. The only problem is, my little sliding touch pad at the top doesn't work. I don't know if it's FN keys, but on top of my keyboard, there's a little sliding touch pad for volume along with a fast forward/rewind key. I used to be able to slide the volume up from there, but now it's not working.

I looked it up and I know this has to do with my clean install of windows 7. I tried installing a bunch of drivers like everyone said online:

Sony Shared Libraries
Vaio Event
Notebook Control Device

And a bunch of other drivers that people talked about. I don't know what's wrong but it's still not working so I did a system restore to before I installed everything (so that I can have a clean slate).
Can someone please help me fix my volume control slider please??

Thank you so much!
 
Laptops have extras over and above Windows and if you reinstall the OS or upgrade it you lose these. I've been there and done that with the FZ. It was broken when I bought it and the hard drive had been removed. Fixing the computer was very hard, installing Windows 7 was easy. Afterwards, like yourself I found that the function keys didn't work. Trawling forums and looking for drivers then sorting it out took ages and that was the most challenging part of the whole exercise. Everything necessary was on the Sony support sites but these were not user friendly and I needed to use several Sony sites. Needless to say Sony support were clueless. In the end I got everything functioning but if you can manage with things as they are I'd not bother. One tip, although it might not work with your particular Vaio model is that stuff has to be installed in a particular order otherwise some keys don't work.

That'll teach you to mess with Windows when a cd/dvd plays up. :)
 
Laptops have extras over and above Windows and if you reinstall the OS or upgrade it you lose these. I've been there and done that with the FZ. It was broken when I bought it and the hard drive had been removed. Fixing the computer was very hard, installing Windows 7 was easy. Afterwards, like yourself I found that the function keys didn't work. Trawling forums and looking for drivers then sorting it out took ages and that was the most challenging part of the whole exercise. Everything necessary was on the Sony support sites but these were not user friendly and I needed to use several Sony sites. Needless to say Sony support were clueless. In the end I got everything functioning but if you can manage with things as they are I'd not bother. One tip, although it might not work with your particular Vaio model is that stuff has to be installed in a particular order otherwise some keys don't work.

That'll teach you to mess with Windows when a cd/dvd plays up. :)

Do you happen to remember how you fixed it? I'm determined to somehow make this work if possible! When I used to upgrade to windows 7, my cd/DVD had problems but now clean install is giving me this slider problem. I guess Im just not supposed to use windows 7...
 
The FZ series also came with Vista and after I had installed Windows 7 the same drivers worked for both OS's so that's likely to be your situation too. Had you reinstalled Vista I think that the function controls wouldn't be working either. Your model doesn't have the nVidia 8400 graphics chip which is really good news for you. There is a mountain of info on Vaio FZs because they cost a fortune and didn't last long largely due to dodgy graphics chips. With your model it may be a lot harder to find out what you need. I'd try looking on forums and the Sony support sites. It may be easier to get everything working with models that came after the FZ. Maybe someone on Techspot with the same model Vaio may be able to help you out. I'd collect together all the relevant drivers from Sony and research for any info about whether you need to install things in a particular order.

Beware of sellers of CDs that supposedly find all your missing laptop drivers. I got caught out with one that was advertised as being for my Vaio but it was simply a generic find your missing driver utility. It was expensive, useless and I had to push for a refund.
 
I've looked it up for you and the solution is as I suggested. Have a look through the thread below and try what Alexandro80 has posted for the installation order.

http://forums.techarena.in/portable-devices/1410121.htm

Thank you. I ended up fixing it by downloading the sony extension parser device driver. I ran into some other problems but I downloaded the rest of the drivers and used the companion DVD that came with the windows 7 upgrade and was super happy...

And now suddenly I ran into the SAME problem that led me to do this whole reformat/clean install in the first place. My DVD/CD player won't read DVD-Rs AGAIN. I ran into this problem in the beginning, and couldn't figure it out... so I reformatted and it worked fine, but now suddenly it's not working again and it's driving me insane.

Does anyone know anything about that? It won't read any of my DVD-Rs... I tried the deleting upper/lower filters (there were none)... It just won't open, and the dvds come up as blank dvds.

Help please??
 
That Sony extension parser was the one that gave me the biggest problem too. It was very hard to track it down on the Sony sites.

When hardware doesn't work properly it's often down to a problem with the hardware. I remember reinstalling Windows when the problem was actually a temperamental stick of ram. I wasted a couple of days chasing down the wrong road. Look into replacing the drive. There are also inexpensive usb external drives that you could buy.
 
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