Sony Vaio blu ray drive not working since upgrade to Windows 8

[liltman79]

Anyone have any simple, free ideas? This is proving to be a massive pain. Why did I pay extra for a blu ray drive, only for it to not work following the 'upgrade'?

[Blencogo]

Hi robbarker1979.

You don't give us much information.  Your Vaio model would help and also the method you used to upgrade to Windows 8.

The big and inexplicable shortfall of Windows 8 is that it does not natively support Blu-Ray playback.  Unless you followed the Sony Vaio Upgrade Kit instructions to the letter, you will have lost the preinstalled Vaio BD Playback software.

Depending on your Vaio you have two choices: -

1.  If you want everything to work as it did with Windows 7, you will have to revert to Windows 7 and upgrade following all the Sony instructions.

2.  Try installing a free Blu-Ray player which should solve your immediate problem: -

http://www.digiarty.com/

This one has several benefits - it's free and supports multi-regional playback.

[liltman79]

Thanks for the quick response - model number is VPCEJ3C5E. I upgraded by registering and paying online, then using the link provided. I was not aware of any compatibility issues, if I had have been I would have followed any instructions given. I've already tried DA Player tonight and I just get error code 400. If I revert back to Windows 7, will I lose any files etc downloaded since I went on to Windows 8?

Cheers

[Blencogo]

Yes, I'm afraid you will start with a blank canvas.

This is a big decision for you but Sony do support the upgrade for your model fully.  This means the VUforWin8Upg.exe uninstalls incompatible software while Windows 7 is still installed and reinstalls all necessary software/drivers/apps after Windows 8 has been installed by download or from the Recovery Partition.

The upgrade instructions are here: -

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/files/vaio/EU1/Windows_8_Upgrade_Guide_EU1.pdf

You can download the Automatic upgrade kit - VUforWin8Upg.exe - for qualifying models here: -

https://ebiz3.mentormediacorp.com/sony/windows8/EU/index.aspx

For the upgrade kit to work, you must have a Recovery Partition and be running Windows 7.

It is up to you if you decide to wait for individual Windows 8 drivers to appear - you probably need to install the chipset drivers and any BIOS update as a minimum.  However, at the present time there are no individual driver installers as those provided by sony are mainly upgrades which require the original driver to be already installed or available from the Recovery Partition.

There is still a lot we do not know about the upgrade process.

[alyealye]

I have had similar problems. I have a VPCL22V1E. After I performed the upgrade according to all the instructions the Sony software worked fine, but Windows 8 did not - the new metro apps wouldn't work properly. A little surfing on the net uncovered that this was a known Windows 8 problem, and I was far from alone. The solution - do not perform an upgrade, as they don't work on all computers.

So I performed a new installation of Windows 8 (and lost everything I had setup on the upgraded system). And now Windows 8 works as it should, but the Sony software is gone. Not just the Blu-ray software, but all the other goodies such as VAIO Gate, VAIO Care, etc.

When I purchased my VAIO in september this year the salesman assured me that it was already prepared for Windows 8, and it was just a case of installing it when it was released. Yeah, right.

So if neither the upgrade nor the new installation of Windows 8 works on VAIO, what do we do now?

[liltman79]

Well, between Sony and Microsoft, they'vre made a real mess haven't they? Great.

[liltman79]

Well, are we not going to get a decent answer to this? Sony need to sort this. My machine was only bought in the summer so the software should have been made compatible for Windows 8 if people were being reassured it would work. I had no info prior to the release of Windows 8 from Sony of their instructions on downloading the upgrade. So we should receive some sort of solution, otherwise we've been taken for a ride and I for one will be taking this further.

PS Sony admins, I've sent you info on what I wanted to change my username to after you PMed me, it has been ignored and I was PMed again!

[saikamma]

Well I have a VGN-FZ21M bought in 2008. I've used VISTA till last year and upgraded to Win 8 Consumer Preview and now to Windows 8 Pro and obviously I have the same problem of Matshita Blu Ray DVD player not working. I did donwload the DA player, however it's also stuck.. Now what to do?? Do I have to forever forget about this compatibility? Kindly respond. Thank you

SKKN

India.