Windows 7 and Sony Power Management

By Avlor
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Avlor

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Hello there to the forum community

I've been running Windows 7 for a while on my VAIO notebook and for me it's a fantastic system, runs smooth and looks good, a real pleasure to work with. Everythin works pretty stable, even the biometrics work, the only thing that bugs me is Power Management in recent builds. As I'm often on the go, power management is critical for me, as disabling devices and slowing down fan speed extends battery life by quite a margin. Unfortunately I have to stick to build 7022 as in recent builds Power Management crashes. It boots ok, offers to disable devices when I unplug my PC, but when I try to change the settings (Sony Power Management adds a tab in advanced power options), I get a "Shell Common Dll has stopped working" problem. Had to skip 7048 because of that and now 7057 is plauged with that as well. The same issue appeared in 6956 but was somehow fixed (or it's just a coincidence) in 7000 and 7022.

Any ideas of a possible solutions are greatly appreciated. I've tried installing/launching it in compatibility mode with various settings, but to no avail.

Thanks in advance.

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/746282-windows-7-and-sony-power-management/
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isosunrise

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Hello there to the forum community

I've been running Windows 7 for a while on my VAIO notebook and for me it's a fantastic system, runs smooth and looks good, a real pleasure to work with. Everythin works pretty stable, even the biometrics work, the only thing that bugs me is Power Management in recent builds. As I'm often on the go, power management is critical for me, as disabling devices and slowing down fan speed extends battery life by quite a margin. Unfortunately I have to stick to build 7022 as in recent builds Power Management crashes. It boots ok, offers to disable devices when I unplug my PC, but when I try to change the settings (Sony Power Management adds a tab in advanced power options), I get a "Shell Common Dll has stopped working" problem. Had to skip 7048 because of that and now 7057 is plauged with that as well. The same issue appeared in 6956 but was somehow fixed (or it's just a coincidence) in 7000 and 7022.

Any ideas of a possible solutions are greatly appreciated. I've tried installing/launching it in compatibility mode with various settings, but to no avail.

Thanks in advance.

I have no problem using Vaio Power Management on my Vaio G2 with both build 7000 and 7057. All the enable/disable features works great. Did you installed the sony shared libraries and control device drivers?

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Avlor

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It's all original sony software, same stuff which was shipped with the notebook. Yeah, I do have all the shared lirbraries and control center, I'm doing everythin in the order I've seen posted in some Clean Install guide for Vista. The wierd thing is that it does work on 7000 and 7022, but on 7048 and 7057 is a no-go.

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notuptome2004

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why not use the stuff windows 7 offers by default as it is prolly far more and better then that sony software more advanced. Microsofts goal and that it does most of everything your software can do but better. there is some stuff in windows 7 that can save power more then that software will do

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isosunrise

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why not use the stuff windows 7 offers by default as it is prolly far more and better then that sony software more advanced. Microsofts goal and that it does most of everything your software can do but better. there is some stuff in windows 7 that can save power more then that software will do

Windows alone cannot power down devices that you don't need such as optical drive, cardslots, modem, refresh rates, etc. when you switch from power adapter to battery mode.

Avlor, sony power management worked fine for me in 6956 also, fyi. Hope you figure it out.

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notuptome2004

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Windows alone cannot power down devices that you don't need such as optical drive, cardslots, modem, refresh rates, etc. when you switch from power adapter to battery mode.

Avlor, sony power management worked fine for me in 6956 also, fyi. Hope you figure it out.

umm yes you can in windows 7 you can do all of that ad a mater of fact ay can reduce the power to the DVd drive in your laptop alot of things you can do i have seen some users in other forums and this one show screen shots so yes you can . and cardslots and modems only draw power when used and if you laptop still has a modem older anyways laptop then wow. also windows 7 can by default dimm your LCD on a laptop

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isosunrise

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umm yes you can in windows 7 you can do all of that ad a mater of fact ay can reduce the power to the DVd drive in your laptop alot of things you can do i have seen some users in other forums and this one show screen shots so yes you can . and cardslots and modems only draw power when used and if you laptop still has a modem older anyways laptop then wow. also windows 7 can by default dimm your LCD on a laptop

Again, Windows alone cannot. You have to install extra software to control it. Try buying a thinkpad or vaio and you will see how convenient it is (and how you cannot live without it). You can even control how high to charge the baterry (ie 80%) so it doesn't wear down the cells. I can attest that it works because the cell degradation has been minimal (based on RighMark). Windows can dimm but it cannot automatically change the refresh rate and color quality. My 5800 mah battery lasts me 10-11 hours, and its a core2. If you can beat that, I will shut up.

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Avlor

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Alright guys, I got the issue sorted out. Turned out Sony didn't post the new version of Power Management on SZ3 driver page, but had it for the later models. Strange thing, as they seems perfectly backwards compatible. After installing SPM for SZ7 everythin works fine.

As for battery hours, mine lasts only around 4.5 hours (which is still a major boost compared to XP's 3h), but then it has worn down to 4800mah after two years of pretty intensive use and it's an older platform

  • 7 months later...
Neowinian

dmspura

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Alright guys, I got the issue sorted out. Turned out Sony didn't post the new version of Power Management on SZ3 driver page, but had it for the later models. Strange thing, as they seems perfectly backwards compatible. After installing SPM for SZ7 everythin works fine.

As for battery hours, mine lasts only around 4.5 hours (which is still a major boost compared to XP's 3h), but then it has worn down to 4800mah after two years of pretty intensive use and it's an older platform

Avlor,

I have the exact same problem with my sz650n. I recently upgraded to windows 7 professional and receive the same error message when attempting to open the advanced settings in power management. Where did you find the upgraded driver to fix the problem?

Thanks for any help!

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