Well the backlight is going dim on the 15" LCD screen on our Sony Vaio PCG-FXA32. I have been using a 17" CRT as a 2nd monitor on it in dual screen mode for a year or so. Decided to try to clean up desk space and only run a 17" Samsung 172N LCD on it and disable the built in screen. But with that Samsung 172N, I have had to install it with the CD in all my workstations (we have a bunch of them). SO I tried to install the Monitor .inf files in safe mode and normal mode . But the machine will not install the CD, tells me there is an error. The Laptop has been cleaned out of all the Sony garbage, and reformatted and XP Pro installed, with just the Sony drivers needed to operate it, like the ATI Rage Mobility drivers, etc. It runs great xcept for this issue. I will get the 15" screen fixed soon but still intend to run a 2nd monitor on it, guess I have become spoiled with multimonitors forver now.

I can't just hook up the Monitor and let Win try to find drivers for it because it will be a blank screen and can't see in the built in screen to navigate menus.

Anyone have any ideas how to get this accomplished?

a friend of mine had a sony vaio desktop and the standard copy of windows xp pro just wouldn't work right, he had usb problems as well as video problems. sony can make good stereos and tv's but thier computers leave a lot to be desired. a standard copy of windows will usually work on a dell, HP, or IBM though.