I would totally watch a whole episode of you just going through talking about all the weird and interesting variations of Sony Vaios. Theres so many of them it would be an awesome run down.
❤YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEAR DEATH IF YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, AND TRUST IN HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART, BECAUSE HE ATONED FOR YOU FOR ALL YOUR INSULTS, THAT YOU WOULD OBTAIN PEACE WITH ALMIGHTY GOD, AND GO TO HEAVEN BY HIS GRACE!!!❤❤❤
I loved this model of Sony Vaio, had a friend who had one and I was so jealous. Honestly, was in awe how much Sony was able to pack in such a small space, which at the time was sorta unique. Plus , love case color palette .
Honestly, there is nothing even remotely special about this machine. It really doesn't deserve a spot in anyone's collection, except if the collection is entirely made up of Sony PCs.
Sony were masters at fitting as much as they can into as small a space as they can. Look at their Walkman models that were barely bigger than a cassette. The downside is they are hard to repair and service.
❤YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEAR DEATH IF YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, AND TRUST IN HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART, BECAUSE HE ATONED FOR YOU FOR ALL YOUR INSULTS, THAT YOU WOULD OBTAIN PEACE WITH ALMIGHTY GOD, AND GO TO HEAVEN BY HIS GRACE!!!❤❤❤
Sony’s industrial design of this era was on point. They really excelled at this post-modern aesthetic. It fits right in with Michael Graves etc. It’s a shame they quit making computers.
3:51 i love when laptops used to have the small "sleep" batteries in them so you could put the laptop to sleep and change out the external battery for a fresh one.
Or where it would allow contents of the RAM to be stored in case the main battery ran out. Plug it back in and resume on working. That was much before hibernating became a thing on Windows
I have a 505 as well. Yours won't boot with the battery installed because your internal 7.2V NiMH pack has gone bad/flat. You can find replacement packs, and solder them in (the connector will probably be corroded on the motherboard). Once you do that, it will always boot OK with the "dead" battery pack installed. Also, I've been able to rebuild those PCGA-BP51 batteries, without ANY cosmetic damage! Further, I've reverse engineered the BMS EEPROM inside them and installed higher-capacity 18650 cells and the laptop will happily charge and use the larger capacity. It is quite tricky to take them apart though.
Just a quick note, this isn't actually the first vaio laptop. The first of the 505 series was the Japan only pcg-505. Before that though, the first laptop from Sony was the pcg-707 and pcg-705, a much more standard sized laptop. In addition, make sure you remove that cmos battery! 2 out of my 3 vaios from the late 90s have experienced battery leak damage from a similar battery, and 2 Toshiba laptops have experienced battery damage from the exact same type of battery.
Das ist richtig der Pcg-705 und 707 waren die ersten Vaio Laptops die 1997 auf den Markt kamen, ich besitze das Vaio Pcg-707 und es funktioniert heute immer noch.
You got lucky you were able to restore that needle in the haystack Sony VIAO computer! Despite Sony’s efforts with proprietary components that make it hard to find replacement parts, it’s working!
Pretty much all laptops are almost entirely proprietary components. Maybe standard HDD and RAM, but otherwise, it's all custom to fit the shell it's in.
@@nickwallette6201 not really the processors and the other important components, it’s mostly the design aspects that try to go sleek with these Sony VIAO laptops. Because Sony mostly goes with their own components, same with Apple which also uses a stupid non-x86 processor and their RAM cards.
@@Markimark151 Huh? What "other important components?" If you pull apart any given generic x86 laptop made since the Pentium, you can usually remove the HDD and RAM, and probably replace them with something off-the-shelf. On later stuff, also probably a WiFi/BT module. But that's about it. The CPU is _probably_ fixed to the motherboard, as is the GPU, and everything else. Unless you're working on a chonky laptop that is _designed_ to be modular, everything is bespoke to fit, and to work within the power and thermal envelope the machine was designed for. Even the optical drive, if it has one, is often at least customized with a bezel that only fits that model. Perfectly fine if you don't like Apple's M1 series, but I've been waiting years for a full desktop-class ARM platform, and that thing _delivers._ Couldn't be happier with my MBP. I don't want to see the end of x64 entirely, because there's room for everyone here and I benefit from both. But I think it's fantastic that there's actually a feasible alternative out there to the WinTel cartel... and even better that I can literally run the thing off a USB 5V phone charger almost indefinitely. At any rate, the days of modularity are quickly coming to an end. As interconnects between subsystems like CPU cores, GPU cores, memory, and storage continue to get faster and faster, things like multiple-centimeters of PCB tracks, and particularly connectors, are going to present real-world challenges, and ultimately an upper ceiling to how fast things can go. So they will be jettisoned sooner or later in favor of on-die consolidation like Apple is already doing, and Intel and AMD have done for years with what used to be the memory and bus controllers in the Northbridge chipset. The fact that that integration makes systems increasingly disposable is merely a side benefit for the manufacturers. Physics can be a real jerk like that.
@@nickwallette6201 the proprietary processors and electrical components are the biggest problem, like the power supply which I hate searching online! There’s a reason why I don’t keep old Apple PowerPC based laptops, because there’s too much incompatibility with off the shelf components. I can’t even repair them, there’s no one in my local county hundreds of miles away that even repairs PowerPC based laptops, Apple designs computers with planned obsolescence, which is why tech support people hate repairing them! If Apple opens up and allows right to repair to their products, they would be easier to fix their computers! I’ve had broken Apple Powerbooks that wasn’t fixable, basically get rid off and get some money selling it for parts!
@@nickwallette6201 its a well know fact that sony products are frustrating to restore. every sony ps has more quircks compared to their counterpart brands. and on consoles. open a ps2 , damage the ribon cable and you have to order another one. open the original xbox, damage the ide cable, no biggie, you probably have 1000 of them.... the same can be said about the , PS3, PS4 PS5..... compared to the xbox 360, one, series S-X
It may (as the replies have said, it depends on the case) actually be possible to refurbish the original LCD by taking a Q-tip or a spudger wrapped in a microfiber to apply pressure to the dead pixels, and make them work again. This problem is actually pretty common with older LCDs (namely the DS and the iPod). Note that sometimes this leads to glitchy pixels, so YMMV.
I've had computer LCD's with that "ink spot" before and massaging them didn't do anything, it may have spread it if I remember. But I know what you mean, i have fixed a couple stuck pixels in the past by doing that. I think the computer I had with the "ink spot" took an impact, but the glass didn't actually crack. Been a while though.
This machine's LCD was likely damaged from being in a laptop sandwich when I moved. Those spots may have been from the feet of the laptop above it during the move. Glad a replacement panel was affordable and available though
First of all, huge thanks to all archivers that uploads things generously. You guys are such a hero, and I hope myself and everyone could be like you. The 390e can actually be without the disk/disc drivers by simply swapping that ultrabay fx into a plastic frame that weighs nothing.. well it's still a thickpad even so. i wonder if ThinkPad 240 is thicker than the sony or not.
Sony's ability to pack in such extensive I/O in cramped spaces was remarkable throughout their entire scope of products, I absolutely love it. Not to mention their visual consistency is some of the strongest in the business.
Oh yes baby, I was the proud owner of the PCG-N505X which we could purchase while working at Sony Netherlands... This was MAD! A real headturner, supernice gadget.
I have a Vaio PCG-FX210, I picked up at a thrift store in excelent condition for $20 It has a mobile duron 800mhz cpu, 256MB ram, dvd rom and floppy 2 pc card slots, firewire s400, Radeon xpert 98 agp x2 graohics with A/V out. USB, all the legacy ports you need, with networking and modem. Running win 98 sp2 on it. Makes a fantastic mobile retro machine.
My memory of Sony Vaio computers in 1997 was that they were the only computer sold that never came in for repair or upgrade since they were fully loaded although they had the price tag to match.
I just picked up this exact model laptop from the thrift store for $3 and was shocked to see that you had a video on it! Finding documentation of it online hasn't been the easiest. Couldn't even find it on eBay. One thing that I thought was interesting was that despite my laptop being the same model (PCG-505G) and looking otherwise identical, it doesn't have a firewire port. It does, however, have the stylus, which I never would've found out about if this video didn't exist! I had the exact same issue with the battery when I tried booting it up for the first time, and did the exact same solution: took the battery out, and it booted fine. I'm actually currently trying to charge it, but I'm not too optimistic. The battery light occasionally flashes orange, then disappears. No explosions yet, lol. Also, it's quite simple to take the outer hinge covers off without removing the display. It's a bit of a tight squeeze, but they do come off! Just have to pry around the edges a bit. I did it with the laptop closed. The original drive on mine does work, surprisingly. 2GB of loud, 4200RPM glory. Booted right up into Windows 98 when I turned it on. The trackpad, unfortunately, appears to be busted, as I can hardly control the mouse without it jumping all over the screen. Because of my lack of drivers, I've been unable to get a USB mouse to work thus far, but I plan to keep trying. Unfortunately, I don't own any PC card CD drives (looked online earlier, they're kinda steep! And with no guarantee of it working, I'm probably better off without) or other IDE capable computers to put the drive in, so I'm sort of at an impasse. I also don't have the external adapter with the PS/2 ports, but I might go back to the thrift store to see if any Vaio accessories are there, by any stroke of luck.🤞 I'll probably tinker with it a bit more, but in its current state, it's still pretty cool! I was surprised to learn just how old it was once I took it home. Due to the size, I thought it would at least be an XP era laptop at first glance. Nope! Just freakishly small for its time, lmao. Mine has the Pentium sticker, but the Windows 98 sticker was removed, so I didn't know what OS it would have until doing a bit more research once I got home. I was also surprised to learn that it was the first laptop in the Vaio lineup. I'd heard of the brand before, but didn't realize I'd managed to grab the first. All in all, it's a neat device, and I'm grateful that you've made a video on it! It definitely helped me learn more about the thing since info seems to be a bit scarce on it. Thank you for that!
I picked up a PCG-Z600NE a few years ago. Very similiar to yours--beautiful purple laptop, but no floppy, 98SE, and more stress to get into and getting everything setup (in German). I also had a rough time with drivers and OS install. I ended up installing DOS in VirtualBox directly to the IDE SSD, got Win98 installed (dos needed to partition first, in order to work with 98 for some reason). There was an archive site I used to download and install all the drivers individually. It was nothing but stress, but in the end I got everything except sound (not even recognised in bios) and the "jog dial" working. Eventually I'll come back to the Sony Vaio. Some day ... "or maybe never" :)
With a Z600 you're probably fine using one of the CD51 drives to boot from - and they're generally a pretty damn good thing to pick up as a retro laptop enthusiast, since they require no external power and work with either generation of PCMCIA. But drivers for the more niche features of a Vaio are indeed often the bain of anyone's existence!
11:43 I don't think that's an error. That looks like the kind of message you get when you try to boot a floppy disk you're not supposed to - which is in fact, not an error message built into your system, but a message created BY THE DISK. When you format a floppy disk in MS-DOS, it places a program in the disk's bootsector to display a message like that. So in fact, most floppy disks in the wild (that were used in PCs) are in fact bootable. :)
I remember these lovely machines. I was in the market for my first laptop in late 2000. The Sony 505 was a contender, but I ended up in 2001 with one of the white iBook G3.
Oh man. Sony was definitely pushing the envelope with these! I had a later VAIO in the same series - a PCG-R505. Almost the exact same design, but upgraded. The included floppy drive was USB, the CD-ROM drive was the one you showed with the attached card. It had a Memory Stick slot and an Ethernet port. It also came with Window ME - but because Sony put in all the right drivers, I never had a problem with it being Windows ME. I used it for years until I upgraded to something faster.
Struggling to find it but I really loved the Sony Vaio laptops from around 2008ish. They used clarksdale processors (core i5-8xx). I think it was the C series (CA appears online but they use sandy ridge processors). What made them standout was the awesome colours kinda indicative of that era of computing. The lime green looked awesome in person. The orange and blue didn't look bad either
I bought a Vaio around 2010 and I think it is one of the best laptops I ever had. It was a complete package, not missing out on anything (except the horrible Windows 8 it came with, but being a touch screen, made navigation easier).
Oh boy, so many little "gotchas" on the software side! Thanks for the ride :) But the hardware... LOVE this "90s Utilitarian Tech" aesthetic! That recessed PC Card holder in the CD drive is so... of that time. This VAIO has such a cool design - nice work getting it going again!
I had a 2010 17” Sony Vaio laptop and it was just no end of problems. Lots of multimedia features and things like optical audio output but collected a lot of dust in the fan.
I had a neon red VAIO C series laptop, which if you haven't seen one is one of the weirdest laptop designs a major manufacturer has ever produced. It looked like a big Jolly Rancher. But it was a surprisingly good deal at the time, with dedicated ATI graphics, a Blu-Ray drive and some other uncommon features for under $1,000. And I quickly grew to love how goofy it looked - it was just so different from everything else out there. Unfortunately one day while traveling I dropped it when going through security (this was pre-TSA Precheck), and it landed on the corner of the chassis. This series was unabashedly plastic - it almost celebrated that fact in its design - so not the most durable of laptops. That corner bent inward and upward, and while it seemed to still work ok afterwards, it pretty quickly developed an issue where it would just spontaneously reboot at random times, regardless of what you were in the middle of doing. I did a complete restore/refresh and it didn't help. I think something happened to the motherboard or one or more chips on it when I dropped it. I ended up selling it for parts, but I miss that laptop. I couldn't have fixed it regardless. I'd love to have another one someday but they're not particularly common and usually not cheap when good ones do come up. (When they do, they're usually Japanese models.)
I've the exact model, bought it only because I came across of the Sanitarium game and my modern PC wouldn't run it, so I've decided to buy some retro laptop just to play it and get rid of it. Wasn't looking for this specific model but stumbled upon it and it was about £15 for all the accessories possible except for the speakers you could attach. So I had fully working laptop with extension ports, CD drive, floppy drive, network card, CF reader, pen, full paper documentation, all original software on disc and three original batteries including one with higher capacity. Loved that thing, obviously I didn't get rid of it for years, I've sold it recently for a few hundreds. It ran XP no problem, used it for my music machine after I finished with all the retro games I wanted to play. What a great machine.
When I saw the thumbnail, I went like the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme. I actually got a PCG-505 complete in box with a whole bunch of accessories a bit over a year ago! Previous owner had used it up until 2005 and installed Windows XP on it. I had a hell of a time restoring it to factory original settings with Windows 98 😂 So cool to see it here! And I feel your pain
I remember that my company purchased one of these for evaluation to see if it'd work well for our accounts team. In the end we went with another brand, but we kept this laptop around. The battery didn't hold the charge for very long, but the machine was unlike anything else on the market.
Plop Boot Manager was the solution I found to boot pretty much anything from USB on my slightly more recent Sony Vaio PCG-R600HEP whose BIOS won't let you boot from USB. Ventoy and similar tools then open up many possibilities that could have helped you and maybe saved you some time in your endeavours.
In fact, you needed to have used the Ontrack utility to install an emulated BIOS in the first sector of the hard drive, this will make the HD recognized as the correct size, and will also allow you to boot from a floppy disk and CD. Next, you need to install regular Windows 95, and after installation, overwrite the system with the restoration files (you need to restore to another hard drive, and then copy these files). It's hard work but it's the right way. I've been doing this for 16 years. Edit: Some older computers "talk" to the drive differently, so installing bootable windows on one computer may not work on another (especially early IBM Thinkpads), so you would have to get another laptop that "talks" to the drive. hd in exactly the same way, to make sure the system will be bootable. This only happens on VERY old equipment, from 1998 onwards. A tip for everyone: This laptop is not of much use if you intend to play games on it. It has a terrible video chip, and a reasonable sound card. The first Laptops did not have good graphics chips, and were basically made to run just a single resolution (for example, 800x600) using any other resolution would warp the pixels if it was full screen, or you would be forced to view the image in a small window with black borders on all sides. This was only "corrected" with the arrival of ATI Rage chips to laptops, which featured a smoothed (bilinear) image scaling algorithm. Cool sound cards were not common in laptops because initially they were "business men's computers" but in the late 90s that started to change, and that era of multimedia came to laptops, they started being able to play DVD, play CDs even when turned off, and have really cool speakers like Compaq's JBL (which were no longer seen after the 2000s). If you are looking for a laptop for old games, you should mainly look for Compaq Armada and Presario (be careful with the Presario 1200, they could come with the horrible dual scan screen) Presario 1400 looks really cool. If you are looking for OPL audio fidelity, look for a Toshiba (those gray and thick ones) they usually have a Yamaha sound card with OPL, USB 1.1, TFT screen, processors with MMX, and S3 graphics card (which despite not having the algorithm resolution smoothing, it is extremely compatible with ms-dos).
I once bought one of these used back in the early 2000s. It wouldn't set the world on fire, but it was always reliable and very practical. And for these reasons I loved it to pieces. It even ran XP quite well.
i had a vaio (ofcourse much later model, one of the last ones) and their service ability was great. some parts, the ones that require warranty are not easily accessed but not extremely hard either, and replace able. (something laptops nowadays lack). the easier to replace components (ram/harddrive (ssd in my case) optical and even cpu) were super easy to access. and no hardware lock outs either, could upgrade the cpu just fine (went from i3 to i7)
Finally got around to picking one of these up… I totally got around needing a cd drive by using a cf card with a pcmcia adapter… if you install the pcg-505g cracked disk using a diff vaio and then write the win 98 se upgrade using poweriso as a cf-hdd and you can just upgrade to latest software etc… I’m pretty sure I can get xp running on it as well btw
I still use my Sony VAIO Z 13 inch (8GB RAM, 128 GB storage, W10) when teaching at the university. Thin, very light and still holds like 4 hours of battery and has an HDMI port. Every port I need is there (even a micro SD slot for backups). I picked this one up and a VAIO Duo 13 at SAMs when they went for clearance (around 250 USD each) after Sony quit the PC business. Mind you these are like almost 10 year old laptops that work just fine (they have their days numbered since there's no W11 here) for MS Office use.
I used to have the 17 inch version of that crazy purple VAIO desktop monitor in that Sony advertisement in the beginning of the video. It was a beautiful Trinitron display with built in speakers and a "subwoofer" in the base. Damn thing was almost $700.00 when it was new. Looking back I can't believe I paid that much for it regardless of how nice it was. Had it for close to 10 years but it died on me one day. Turned it on, it went pop and I threw it out. If I knew then what I know now I could have attempted a repair but I had neither the patients or skills back then.
I still have my PCG-FX101 came with a celeron 600MHz I upgraded it to a 750MHz PIII but it still runs at 600MHz, it still works and was a great little machine for the time.
I remember the ads for this machine. They spanned two pages and had a side profile of the laptop that was actual size. It looked simply unbelievable compared to most laptops of the day.
Loved this video. I bought a 505 in 2002 off eBay (fortunately I had the port replicator, cd and floppy). Quality machine. Running windows 2000 it was a great machine - so portable. I had a 3rd party extended battery as well which gave it a nice notch to rest on. I’ve looked at picking another for nostalgia, but they aren’t cheap these days.
I LOVE Sony VAIO. I miss my old VAIO PC. Wish i brought it with me when I moved out. It had XP on it and I used it up to my graduation in 2015. I miss it so much. :(
What a gorgeous slim laptop for the time! I have a Vaio PCG-FX150 (actually a Frankenstein of a FX150 and a FX340) which I've also found a nice design, but it's a lot thicker than this one. Granted, at least the memory is standard, and I didn't have to struggle to install Windows back onto it!
Something to look into would be a CF Card reader PC Card. They’re very cheap on eBay and come in handy in situations like this. I’ve even used one as a boot drive in an old PowerBook!
Those VAIOs were beautiful devices. One of my work colleagues was using one while I was lugging around a Toshiba Satellite, and I lusted in my heart for that Sony.
I wouldn't have had your dedication. That said, I miss VAIO, despite it's price. My experience was that sound output was usually cleaner and the screens were a higher baseline of quality if not really good.
On old machines with no optical or floppy drives (Lifebook B series, old Portege etc) I boot from the Win98se OEM CD (which doesn't need floppy boot) in a different laptop with a CD drive, get as far as when the installer needs to reboot then switch the machine off and reinsert the hard drive into the target laptop. Carry on the install from there and you have a Win98se on your vintage ultraportable without the need for a boot floppy or any external drives.
It was a very premium device on its time, my dad bought one on a travel to the USA when found a great deal on Best Buy, and it was really thin and lightweight (compared from portable pc’s 20 years ago), but even brand new had all those nightmare software issues. The problem was not a big deal, it didn’t have the letter “ñ” and it could set manually y ASCII just like any special symbol, but his office developed its custom internal software for accounting and it didn’t recognized ASCII at all, the solution was change the OS for the Spanish version but for any reason the partition needed for the recovery wasn’t recognized by the BIOS because something related on a regional lock, and SONY’s technically support can’t installed either. The problem was solved when he came back to the store and they made a physical change for a new one pc speciphic made for the LA region. Also couple years ago a friend had an issue with SONY technical support when they can’t fixed an Experia brought from Thailand, and asked him to go back there and went to the store asking for the warranty.
Those Sony CD51 optical drives are absolutely bomb-proof - I've seen probably half a dozen of them and they've always worked no matter how beaten up they are. But they were designed for later models like the SR series, so I'm not entirely surprised the 505 didn't like it - I think my later N505 was fine with them though.
Glad you were able to get it running again! What a pain though, at least it wasn't too hard to take apart. It's hard to describe how thin it is though! The base of it is thinner than my modern laptop, which is extremely impressive given the age.
The Early Start of Sony Vaio. However, Sony has been around for a Long Time. Vaio is what I remembered that the name really stands out, and still around today without Sony as thanks to VAIO Corporation in Japan.
Early in my career as an IT Engineer, the company I was working at in the mid 90's and early 00's had me buy hundreds of these laptops, as they were incredibly popular with all our sales teams due to the height/weight/speed combo. I ordered so many that the vendor actually started sending me free Sony Minidisc players when I placed an order.
Using PLoP Boot Manager might have saved you some grief trying to get one of the external CD drive options to work, granted you'd need a floppy drive or something to get that booted in the first place. PLoP can also boot USB drives, even if the BIOS doesn't support it. A third party driver like Ontrack Disk Manager can also override BIOS restrictions on hard drive sizes.
OMG this was the first machine I bought myself! I was at NATTC in Pensacola in training at Aviation Electronics Technician A school. I remember shopping around at the time and looking at other ultraportables at the time which were like "netbooks" that came later. They all were limited and ran WinCE. This machine was the same size, but it was a full blown PC! I remember downloading NES emulators and playing tons of games on it, which was wild because that kind of thing was new at the time.
Have you considered using a boot CD that reads USB sticks in pure DOS? It takes a bit of trial and error in choosing driver options, and it might only work with some sticks, but it's quite handy when it does work! Personally I've had luck when the USB sticks are around 32 MB to 2 GB in capacity. Another option I do with old devices is using null modem cables via the serial port and/or parallel port to do transfers this way. It's slow but sometimes it's the most feasible option.
Flashbacks to a Vaio laptop that my parents inherited from a friend. They wanted me to install windows xp or 7 onto it (it came with 7 originally, but wasn't really powerful enough). Previous owner for same reasons had installed ubuntu onto it. I suggested leaving as is but my mom wanted a "laptop, not a google tablet" (sigh... and no, arguing wasn't going to get anywhere). I was never able to get windows on it, I could find restore disks for several models of the same vintage (2009-ish) but not the exact one. So it is currently either in my storage somewhere or was sent to a recycler. Vaios were nice concepts, but IMHO were the closest to macs that a windows PC got (for all the wrong reasons).
A little off topic, but that PCMCIA CD51A works with Amiga1200 and Amiga 600. A guy wrote a driver for it last year. I got one from Japan and it works perfectly.
I had a Fujitsu Lifebook DX in 1997.. my first laptop actually. Was like $2,000. My grandpa bought it for me to learn Basic. I remember downloading my first mp3. Took like four hours. Had a hot swappable Zip drive extra battery combo. I loved having THREE mouse input methods. I had a pcmcia v.90 modem to I believe.
You know... I think I know exactly how those spots showed up. During my latest move, it was a mad scramble to get all my stuff packed into a truck, and that laptop unfortunately ended up in a 10 laptop sandwich with huge machines such as that dell XPS monster with an OLED above the keyboard. It's amazing it survived at all
I remember seeing those new laptops back in the day at exclusive "Sony Center" store in my hometown. Being a poor teenager in the late 90's/early 00's it was a dream to have one of those. 30 years later i living the dream buying old Thinkpads 😂
For better or for worse Vaio did certainly stand out. Unfortunately for us techies when your workplace exec decided your SOE had to support some obscure Vaio hardware they found in Japan and it had an awful 1.8” hard disk which you have to not only image, find drivers and encrypt.. it was a bad day lol Still, i have some love for the Vaio ❤ even if it involves rocking back and forth in a straightjacket while recalling traumatic support memories
If you can get your hands on a sony VAIO quad core touchscreen all in one desktop, those are nice even for today. It has a 24" screen and is 1080p. You can use it as a tv, monitor or just use the built in pc with a gt 330m if you get lucky. It cost like $1800 new around 2011.
I would totally watch a whole episode of you just going through talking about all the weird and interesting variations of Sony Vaios. Theres so many of them it would be an awesome run down.
Fully agree!!! 👌
❤YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEAR DEATH IF YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, AND TRUST IN HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART, BECAUSE HE ATONED FOR YOU FOR ALL YOUR INSULTS, THAT YOU WOULD OBTAIN PEACE WITH ALMIGHTY GOD, AND GO TO HEAVEN BY HIS GRACE!!!❤❤❤
@@josepoika5388 I believe in minidisc 🙏
@@josepoika5388I will pray for you to the one and only satan ❤❤❤
I totally agree
I loved this model of Sony Vaio, had a friend who had one and I was so jealous. Honestly, was in awe how much Sony was able to pack in such a small space, which at the time was sorta unique. Plus , love case color palette .
Honestly, there is nothing even remotely special about this machine. It really doesn't deserve a spot in anyone's collection, except if the collection is entirely made up of Sony PCs.
ok
Sony were masters at fitting as much as they can into as small a space as they can. Look at their Walkman models that were barely bigger than a cassette. The downside is they are hard to repair and service.
❤YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEAR DEATH IF YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, AND TRUST IN HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART, BECAUSE HE ATONED FOR YOU FOR ALL YOUR INSULTS, THAT YOU WOULD OBTAIN PEACE WITH ALMIGHTY GOD, AND GO TO HEAVEN BY HIS GRACE!!!❤❤❤
@@josepoika5388 Guess what? Yeah, Jesus doesn't like you either.
Even today the Sony design is still modern more than 20 years after their introduction.
Sony’s industrial design of this era was on point. They really excelled at this post-modern aesthetic. It fits right in with Michael Graves etc. It’s a shame they quit making computers.
3:51 i love when laptops used to have the small "sleep" batteries in them so you could put the laptop to sleep and change out the external battery for a fresh one.
Or where it would allow contents of the RAM to be stored in case the main battery ran out.
Plug it back in and resume on working.
That was much before hibernating became a thing on Windows
I have a 505 as well.
Yours won't boot with the battery installed because your internal 7.2V NiMH pack has gone bad/flat. You can find replacement packs, and solder them in (the connector will probably be corroded on the motherboard). Once you do that, it will always boot OK with the "dead" battery pack installed.
Also, I've been able to rebuild those PCGA-BP51 batteries, without ANY cosmetic damage! Further, I've reverse engineered the BMS EEPROM inside them and installed higher-capacity 18650 cells and the laptop will happily charge and use the larger capacity. It is quite tricky to take them apart though.
@marshallgs - I would be interested in finding out more on how to rebuild the PCGA-BP51 batteries. Any pointers?
Watching this is like being 18 again. All the support I used to do back in the day right here. This is tech ASMR man. Such good stuff.
Truly a ridiculous process- classic vintage computer tinkering. Excellent work as always.
Just a quick note, this isn't actually the first vaio laptop. The first of the 505 series was the Japan only pcg-505. Before that though, the first laptop from Sony was the pcg-707 and pcg-705, a much more standard sized laptop.
In addition, make sure you remove that cmos battery! 2 out of my 3 vaios from the late 90s have experienced battery leak damage from a similar battery, and 2 Toshiba laptops have experienced battery damage from the exact same type of battery.
Das ist richtig der Pcg-705 und 707 waren die ersten Vaio Laptops die 1997 auf den Markt kamen, ich besitze das Vaio Pcg-707 und es funktioniert heute immer noch.
You got lucky you were able to restore that needle in the haystack Sony VIAO computer! Despite Sony’s efforts with proprietary components that make it hard to find replacement parts, it’s working!
Pretty much all laptops are almost entirely proprietary components. Maybe standard HDD and RAM, but otherwise, it's all custom to fit the shell it's in.
@@nickwallette6201 not really the processors and the other important components, it’s mostly the design aspects that try to go sleek with these Sony VIAO laptops. Because Sony mostly goes with their own components, same with Apple which also uses a stupid non-x86 processor and their RAM cards.
@@Markimark151 Huh? What "other important components?" If you pull apart any given generic x86 laptop made since the Pentium, you can usually remove the HDD and RAM, and probably replace them with something off-the-shelf. On later stuff, also probably a WiFi/BT module. But that's about it. The CPU is _probably_ fixed to the motherboard, as is the GPU, and everything else.
Unless you're working on a chonky laptop that is _designed_ to be modular, everything is bespoke to fit, and to work within the power and thermal envelope the machine was designed for. Even the optical drive, if it has one, is often at least customized with a bezel that only fits that model.
Perfectly fine if you don't like Apple's M1 series, but I've been waiting years for a full desktop-class ARM platform, and that thing _delivers._ Couldn't be happier with my MBP. I don't want to see the end of x64 entirely, because there's room for everyone here and I benefit from both. But I think it's fantastic that there's actually a feasible alternative out there to the WinTel cartel... and even better that I can literally run the thing off a USB 5V phone charger almost indefinitely.
At any rate, the days of modularity are quickly coming to an end. As interconnects between subsystems like CPU cores, GPU cores, memory, and storage continue to get faster and faster, things like multiple-centimeters of PCB tracks, and particularly connectors, are going to present real-world challenges, and ultimately an upper ceiling to how fast things can go. So they will be jettisoned sooner or later in favor of on-die consolidation like Apple is already doing, and Intel and AMD have done for years with what used to be the memory and bus controllers in the Northbridge chipset. The fact that that integration makes systems increasingly disposable is merely a side benefit for the manufacturers. Physics can be a real jerk like that.
@@nickwallette6201 the proprietary processors and electrical components are the biggest problem, like the power supply which I hate searching online! There’s a reason why I don’t keep old Apple PowerPC based laptops, because there’s too much incompatibility with off the shelf components. I can’t even repair them, there’s no one in my local county hundreds of miles away that even repairs PowerPC based laptops, Apple designs computers with planned obsolescence, which is why tech support people hate repairing them! If Apple opens up and allows right to repair to their products, they would be easier to fix their computers! I’ve had broken Apple Powerbooks that wasn’t fixable, basically get rid off and get some money selling it for parts!
@@nickwallette6201 its a well know fact that sony products are frustrating to restore.
every sony ps has more quircks compared to their counterpart brands.
and on consoles.
open a ps2 , damage the ribon cable and you have to order another one.
open the original xbox, damage the ide cable, no biggie, you probably have 1000 of them....
the same can be said about the , PS3, PS4 PS5..... compared to the xbox 360, one, series S-X
It may (as the replies have said, it depends on the case) actually be possible to refurbish the original LCD by taking a Q-tip or a spudger wrapped in a microfiber to apply pressure to the dead pixels, and make them work again. This problem is actually pretty common with older LCDs (namely the DS and the iPod). Note that sometimes this leads to glitchy pixels, so YMMV.
I've had computer LCD's with that "ink spot" before and massaging them didn't do anything, it may have spread it if I remember.
But I know what you mean, i have fixed a couple stuck pixels in the past by doing that.
I think the computer I had with the "ink spot" took an impact, but the glass didn't actually crack. Been a while though.
if the pixel is stuck then the massage will work. if the screen is cracked and the pixel is leaking then it will make it leak more.
This machine's LCD was likely damaged from being in a laptop sandwich when I moved. Those spots may have been from the feet of the laptop above it during the move. Glad a replacement panel was affordable and available though
Your tenacity is very impressive. I miss Sony’s signature Vaio designs and purple color. 😊
First of all, huge thanks to all archivers that uploads things generously. You guys are such a hero, and I hope myself and everyone could be like you.
The 390e can actually be without the disk/disc drivers by simply swapping that ultrabay fx into a plastic frame that weighs nothing..
well it's still a thickpad even so.
i wonder if ThinkPad 240 is thicker than the sony or not.
Sony's ability to pack in such extensive I/O in cramped spaces was remarkable throughout their entire scope of products, I absolutely love it. Not to mention their visual consistency is some of the strongest in the business.
Yeah Sony was a marvel of engineering. They were so good at making things compact.
@@volvo09 IS***** not was
Yeah the 80s, 90s, and early 00s Sony design language is still my favourite
Sony’s industrial design has always been top notch
I’d agree with you but this case is a terrible example lmao
Oh yes baby, I was the proud owner of the PCG-N505X which we could purchase while working at Sony Netherlands... This was MAD! A real headturner, supernice gadget.
Loved this era of VAIO laptop! up thru/including the PIIIs.
I'm glad I don't have retro PC/laptop nostalgia, because that process you underwent to get that VAIO working was ridiculous. Great video!
I have a Vaio PCG-FX210, I picked up at a thrift store in excelent condition for $20
It has a mobile duron 800mhz cpu, 256MB ram, dvd rom and floppy 2 pc card slots, firewire s400, Radeon xpert 98 agp x2 graohics with A/V out. USB, all the legacy ports you need, with networking and modem. Running win 98 sp2 on it. Makes a fantastic mobile retro machine.
Your videos give me that warm fall cozy feels.
My memory of Sony Vaio computers in 1997 was that they were the only computer sold that never came in for repair or upgrade since they were fully loaded although they had the price tag to match.
I just picked up this exact model laptop from the thrift store for $3 and was shocked to see that you had a video on it! Finding documentation of it online hasn't been the easiest. Couldn't even find it on eBay.
One thing that I thought was interesting was that despite my laptop being the same model (PCG-505G) and looking otherwise identical, it doesn't have a firewire port. It does, however, have the stylus, which I never would've found out about if this video didn't exist!
I had the exact same issue with the battery when I tried booting it up for the first time, and did the exact same solution: took the battery out, and it booted fine. I'm actually currently trying to charge it, but I'm not too optimistic. The battery light occasionally flashes orange, then disappears. No explosions yet, lol. Also, it's quite simple to take the outer hinge covers off without removing the display. It's a bit of a tight squeeze, but they do come off! Just have to pry around the edges a bit. I did it with the laptop closed.
The original drive on mine does work, surprisingly. 2GB of loud, 4200RPM glory. Booted right up into Windows 98 when I turned it on. The trackpad, unfortunately, appears to be busted, as I can hardly control the mouse without it jumping all over the screen. Because of my lack of drivers, I've been unable to get a USB mouse to work thus far, but I plan to keep trying. Unfortunately, I don't own any PC card CD drives (looked online earlier, they're kinda steep! And with no guarantee of it working, I'm probably better off without) or other IDE capable computers to put the drive in, so I'm sort of at an impasse. I also don't have the external adapter with the PS/2 ports, but I might go back to the thrift store to see if any Vaio accessories are there, by any stroke of luck.🤞
I'll probably tinker with it a bit more, but in its current state, it's still pretty cool! I was surprised to learn just how old it was once I took it home. Due to the size, I thought it would at least be an XP era laptop at first glance. Nope! Just freakishly small for its time, lmao. Mine has the Pentium sticker, but the Windows 98 sticker was removed, so I didn't know what OS it would have until doing a bit more research once I got home. I was also surprised to learn that it was the first laptop in the Vaio lineup. I'd heard of the brand before, but didn't realize I'd managed to grab the first.
All in all, it's a neat device, and I'm grateful that you've made a video on it! It definitely helped me learn more about the thing since info seems to be a bit scarce on it. Thank you for that!
Had one loved it same Era had the desktop tower as well
I applaud the battling with the harddrive, drivers and Windows installation. Great dedication.
I picked up a PCG-Z600NE a few years ago. Very similiar to yours--beautiful purple laptop, but no floppy, 98SE, and more stress to get into and getting everything setup (in German).
I also had a rough time with drivers and OS install. I ended up installing DOS in VirtualBox directly to the IDE SSD, got Win98 installed (dos needed to partition first, in order to work with 98 for some reason). There was an archive site I used to download and install all the drivers individually. It was nothing but stress, but in the end I got everything except sound (not even recognised in bios) and the "jog dial" working. Eventually I'll come back to the Sony Vaio. Some day ... "or maybe never" :)
With a Z600 you're probably fine using one of the CD51 drives to boot from - and they're generally a pretty damn good thing to pick up as a retro laptop enthusiast, since they require no external power and work with either generation of PCMCIA. But drivers for the more niche features of a Vaio are indeed often the bain of anyone's existence!
11:43 I don't think that's an error. That looks like the kind of message you get when you try to boot a floppy disk you're not supposed to - which is in fact, not an error message built into your system, but a message created BY THE DISK.
When you format a floppy disk in MS-DOS, it places a program in the disk's bootsector to display a message like that. So in fact, most floppy disks in the wild (that were used in PCs) are in fact bootable.
:)
I remember these lovely machines. I was in the market for my first laptop in late 2000. The Sony 505 was a contender, but I ended up in 2001 with one of the white iBook G3.
The assembly instructions overlay at 5:00 was a nice touch.
I'm noticing more and more American TH-camrs using metric. Thank you for that.
Oh man. Sony was definitely pushing the envelope with these! I had a later VAIO in the same series - a PCG-R505. Almost the exact same design, but upgraded. The included floppy drive was USB, the CD-ROM drive was the one you showed with the attached card. It had a Memory Stick slot and an Ethernet port. It also came with Window ME - but because Sony put in all the right drivers, I never had a problem with it being Windows ME.
I used it for years until I upgraded to something faster.
Struggling to find it but I really loved the Sony Vaio laptops from around 2008ish. They used clarksdale processors (core i5-8xx). I think it was the C series (CA appears online but they use sandy ridge processors).
What made them standout was the awesome colours kinda indicative of that era of computing. The lime green looked awesome in person. The orange and blue didn't look bad either
I bought a Vaio around 2010 and I think it is one of the best laptops I ever had. It was a complete package, not missing out on anything (except the horrible Windows 8 it came with, but being a touch screen, made navigation easier).
Oh boy, so many little "gotchas" on the software side! Thanks for the ride :) But the hardware... LOVE this "90s Utilitarian Tech" aesthetic! That recessed PC Card holder in the CD drive is so... of that time. This VAIO has such a cool design - nice work getting it going again!
I had a 2010 17” Sony Vaio laptop and it was just no end of problems. Lots of multimedia features and things like optical audio output but collected a lot of dust in the fan.
I had a neon red VAIO C series laptop, which if you haven't seen one is one of the weirdest laptop designs a major manufacturer has ever produced. It looked like a big Jolly Rancher. But it was a surprisingly good deal at the time, with dedicated ATI graphics, a Blu-Ray drive and some other uncommon features for under $1,000. And I quickly grew to love how goofy it looked - it was just so different from everything else out there.
Unfortunately one day while traveling I dropped it when going through security (this was pre-TSA Precheck), and it landed on the corner of the chassis. This series was unabashedly plastic - it almost celebrated that fact in its design - so not the most durable of laptops. That corner bent inward and upward, and while it seemed to still work ok afterwards, it pretty quickly developed an issue where it would just spontaneously reboot at random times, regardless of what you were in the middle of doing. I did a complete restore/refresh and it didn't help. I think something happened to the motherboard or one or more chips on it when I dropped it. I ended up selling it for parts, but I miss that laptop. I couldn't have fixed it regardless. I'd love to have another one someday but they're not particularly common and usually not cheap when good ones do come up. (When they do, they're usually Japanese models.)
I've the exact model, bought it only because I came across of the Sanitarium game and my modern PC wouldn't run it, so I've decided to buy some retro laptop just to play it and get rid of it. Wasn't looking for this specific model but stumbled upon it and it was about £15 for all the accessories possible except for the speakers you could attach. So I had fully working laptop with extension ports, CD drive, floppy drive, network card, CF reader, pen, full paper documentation, all original software on disc and three original batteries including one with higher capacity. Loved that thing, obviously I didn't get rid of it for years, I've sold it recently for a few hundreds. It ran XP no problem, used it for my music machine after I finished with all the retro games I wanted to play. What a great machine.
You’re doing great work repairing these old machines!
When I saw the thumbnail, I went like the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme. I actually got a PCG-505 complete in box with a whole bunch of accessories a bit over a year ago!
Previous owner had used it up until 2005 and installed Windows XP on it. I had a hell of a time restoring it to factory original settings with Windows 98 😂
So cool to see it here! And I feel your pain
I remember that my company purchased one of these for evaluation to see if it'd work well for our accounts team. In the end we went with another brand, but we kept this laptop around. The battery didn't hold the charge for very long, but the machine was unlike anything else on the market.
Internet Archive, be praised! What a wonderful, useful resource we have!
Plop Boot Manager was the solution I found to boot pretty much anything from USB on my slightly more recent Sony Vaio PCG-R600HEP whose BIOS won't let you boot from USB.
Ventoy and similar tools then open up many possibilities that could have helped you and maybe saved you some time in your endeavours.
In fact, you needed to have used the Ontrack utility to install an emulated BIOS in the first sector of the hard drive, this will make the HD recognized as the correct size, and will also allow you to boot from a floppy disk and CD. Next, you need to install regular Windows 95, and after installation, overwrite the system with the restoration files (you need to restore to another hard drive, and then copy these files). It's hard work but it's the right way. I've been doing this for 16 years.
Edit: Some older computers "talk" to the drive differently, so installing bootable windows on one computer may not work on another (especially early IBM Thinkpads), so you would have to get another laptop that "talks" to the drive. hd in exactly the same way, to make sure the system will be bootable. This only happens on VERY old equipment, from 1998 onwards.
A tip for everyone: This laptop is not of much use if you intend to play games on it. It has a terrible video chip, and a reasonable sound card. The first Laptops did not have good graphics chips, and were basically made to run just a single resolution (for example, 800x600) using any other resolution would warp the pixels if it was full screen, or you would be forced to view the image in a small window with black borders on all sides. This was only "corrected" with the arrival of ATI Rage chips to laptops, which featured a smoothed (bilinear) image scaling algorithm. Cool sound cards were not common in laptops because initially they were "business men's computers" but in the late 90s that started to change, and that era of multimedia came to laptops, they started being able to play DVD, play CDs even when turned off, and have really cool speakers like Compaq's JBL (which were no longer seen after the 2000s).
If you are looking for a laptop for old games, you should mainly look for Compaq Armada and Presario (be careful with the Presario 1200, they could come with the horrible dual scan screen) Presario 1400 looks really cool. If you are looking for OPL audio fidelity, look for a Toshiba (those gray and thick ones) they usually have a Yamaha sound card with OPL, USB 1.1, TFT screen, processors with MMX, and S3 graphics card (which despite not having the algorithm resolution smoothing, it is extremely compatible with ms-dos).
I once bought one of these used back in the early 2000s. It wouldn't set the world on fire, but it was always reliable and very practical. And for these reasons I loved it to pieces. It even ran XP quite well.
i had a vaio (ofcourse much later model, one of the last ones) and their service ability was great. some parts, the ones that require warranty are not easily accessed but not extremely hard either, and replace able. (something laptops nowadays lack). the easier to replace components (ram/harddrive (ssd in my case) optical and even cpu) were super easy to access. and no hardware lock outs either, could upgrade the cpu just fine (went from i3 to i7)
I remember this era well! It was some of the thinest and best specs ever. I had a bunch of them, long gone now..
Awesome video! PC world hasn't changed much, incompatibility reigns supreme!
I still have mine sitting in my garage, I remember it being an absolute pain to upgrade and was very happy to shelf it after a few years
VAIO products always had such a marvelous design 😍
Finally got around to picking one of these up… I totally got around needing a cd drive by using a cf card with a pcmcia adapter… if you install the pcg-505g cracked disk using a diff vaio and then write the win 98 se upgrade using poweriso as a cf-hdd and you can just upgrade to latest software etc… I’m pretty sure I can get xp running on it as well btw
Fantastic video like always. Please keep up the good work Colin 👍
So many memories of reloading Sony laptops decades ago.
I still use my Sony VAIO Z 13 inch (8GB RAM, 128 GB storage, W10) when teaching at the university. Thin, very light and still holds like 4 hours of battery and has an HDMI port. Every port I need is there (even a micro SD slot for backups). I picked this one up and a VAIO Duo 13 at SAMs when they went for clearance (around 250 USD each) after Sony quit the PC business. Mind you these are like almost 10 year old laptops that work just fine (they have their days numbered since there's no W11 here) for MS Office use.
That thing is so beautiful.
I used to have the 17 inch version of that crazy purple VAIO desktop monitor in that Sony advertisement in the beginning of the video. It was a beautiful Trinitron display with built in speakers and a "subwoofer" in the base. Damn thing was almost $700.00 when it was new. Looking back I can't believe I paid that much for it regardless of how nice it was. Had it for close to 10 years but it died on me one day. Turned it on, it went pop and I threw it out. If I knew then what I know now I could have attempted a repair but I had neither the patients or skills back then.
I still have my PCG-FX101 came with a celeron 600MHz I upgraded it to a 750MHz PIII but it still runs at 600MHz, it still works and was a great little machine for the time.
I remember the ads for this machine. They spanned two pages and had a side profile of the laptop that was actual size. It looked simply unbelievable compared to most laptops of the day.
Loved this video. I bought a 505 in 2002 off eBay (fortunately I had the port replicator, cd and floppy). Quality machine. Running windows 2000 it was a great machine - so portable. I had a 3rd party extended battery as well which gave it a nice notch to rest on. I’ve looked at picking another for nostalgia, but they aren’t cheap these days.
Thanks such enjoyable and interesting content mate
I like these relaxing tech history type of videos
You know it's gonna be a good Friday when TDNC uploads.
I LOVE Sony VAIO. I miss my old VAIO PC. Wish i brought it with me when I moved out. It had XP on it and I used it up to my graduation in 2015. I miss it so much. :(
Always loved thr vaio line
What a gorgeous slim laptop for the time! I have a Vaio PCG-FX150 (actually a Frankenstein of a FX150 and a FX340) which I've also found a nice design, but it's a lot thicker than this one. Granted, at least the memory is standard, and I didn't have to struggle to install Windows back onto it!
As always, fascinating.
Something to look into would be a CF Card reader PC Card. They’re very cheap on eBay and come in handy in situations like this. I’ve even used one as a boot drive in an old PowerBook!
What a wonderful piece of hardware !!! I love this machine
Those VAIOs were beautiful devices. One of my work colleagues was using one while I was lugging around a Toshiba Satellite, and I lusted in my heart for that Sony.
Toshiba made some beautiful high end laptops too, but a lot of the the best ones were Japan only sadly
@@frostedbutts4340 They did, but my budget dictated getting one of the lower end models. I will say it held up well, it was just gawdawful slow.
12:50 i felt that "or maybe never" in my bones lol
I wouldn't have had your dedication. That said, I miss VAIO, despite it's price. My experience was that sound output was usually cleaner and the screens were a higher baseline of quality if not really good.
thanks colin love your videos! please release update on your personal custom built PC with the lit up blue front bezel!!!
On old machines with no optical or floppy drives (Lifebook B series, old Portege etc) I boot from the Win98se OEM CD (which doesn't need floppy boot) in a different laptop with a CD drive, get as far as when the installer needs to reboot then switch the machine off and reinsert the hard drive into the target laptop. Carry on the install from there and you have a Win98se on your vintage ultraportable without the need for a boot floppy or any external drives.
It was a very premium device on its time, my dad bought one on a travel to the USA when found a great deal on Best Buy, and it was really thin and lightweight (compared from portable pc’s 20 years ago), but even brand new had all those nightmare software issues. The problem was not a big deal, it didn’t have the letter “ñ” and it could set manually y ASCII just like any special symbol, but his office developed its custom internal software for accounting and it didn’t recognized ASCII at all, the solution was change the OS for the Spanish version but for any reason the partition needed for the recovery wasn’t recognized by the BIOS because something related on a regional lock, and SONY’s technically support can’t installed either. The problem was solved when he came back to the store and they made a physical change for a new one pc speciphic made for the LA region. Also couple years ago a friend had an issue with SONY technical support when they can’t fixed an Experia brought from Thailand, and asked him to go back there and went to the store asking for the warranty.
1:15 nice ruler, i have one from eevblog
I'm a generic windows+drivers fan.
I despise bloat
I owned 2 VAIO desktops & a slim laptop. Loved those machines.
Those Sony CD51 optical drives are absolutely bomb-proof - I've seen probably half a dozen of them and they've always worked no matter how beaten up they are. But they were designed for later models like the SR series, so I'm not entirely surprised the 505 didn't like it - I think my later N505 was fine with them though.
Glad you were able to get it running again! What a pain though, at least it wasn't too hard to take apart. It's hard to describe how thin it is though! The base of it is thinner than my modern laptop, which is extremely impressive given the age.
I had this machine since decades…. I just discovered the pen because of this video 😳😁
My first laptop was a Vaio, 2006. Got it mostly for the aesthetics but it was a pretty good machine.
As an OG Blocksworld player, the number 505 brings back some harsh memories.
The Early Start of Sony Vaio. However, Sony has been around for a Long Time. Vaio is what I remembered that the name really stands out, and still around today without Sony as thanks to VAIO Corporation in Japan.
I still have an SR21k Vaio with PIII 600, love its modular design
Was an awesome computer!
Early in my career as an IT Engineer, the company I was working at in the mid 90's and early 00's had me buy hundreds of these laptops, as they were incredibly popular with all our sales teams due to the height/weight/speed combo. I ordered so many that the vendor actually started sending me free Sony Minidisc players when I placed an order.
Those were the days
Using PLoP Boot Manager might have saved you some grief trying to get one of the external CD drive options to work, granted you'd need a floppy drive or something to get that booted in the first place. PLoP can also boot USB drives, even if the BIOS doesn't support it. A third party driver like Ontrack Disk Manager can also override BIOS restrictions on hard drive sizes.
I miss Vaio computers. They were always so sleek and feature packed
Just bought a PCG-505EL with all it's original accessories just after seeing this :)
"I'll deal with that another day. Or maybe never" is such a vibe
I had a similar machine with Pentium2 CPU, these machines are awesome.
That thing looks way ahead of its time
OMG this was the first machine I bought myself! I was at NATTC in Pensacola in training at Aviation Electronics Technician A school. I remember shopping around at the time and looking at other ultraportables at the time which were like "netbooks" that came later. They all were limited and ran WinCE. This machine was the same size, but it was a full blown PC! I remember downloading NES emulators and playing tons of games on it, which was wild because that kind of thing was new at the time.
These computer restorations are like watching a thriller movie, you never know if something is going to work or when some error will pop up
Have you considered using a boot CD that reads USB sticks in pure DOS? It takes a bit of trial and error in choosing driver options, and it might only work with some sticks, but it's quite handy when it does work! Personally I've had luck when the USB sticks are around 32 MB to 2 GB in capacity.
Another option I do with old devices is using null modem cables via the serial port and/or parallel port to do transfers this way. It's slow but sometimes it's the most feasible option.
Flashbacks to a Vaio laptop that my parents inherited from a friend. They wanted me to install windows xp or 7 onto it (it came with 7 originally, but wasn't really powerful enough). Previous owner for same reasons had installed ubuntu onto it. I suggested leaving as is but my mom wanted a "laptop, not a google tablet" (sigh... and no, arguing wasn't going to get anywhere). I was never able to get windows on it, I could find restore disks for several models of the same vintage (2009-ish) but not the exact one. So it is currently either in my storage somewhere or was sent to a recycler.
Vaios were nice concepts, but IMHO were the closest to macs that a windows PC got (for all the wrong reasons).
2:17 Ok. That looks adorable. ❤
I still remember drooling over the Vaio laptops (and other devices) back then... They always looked so cool to me. (I know better now, lol)
A little off topic, but that PCMCIA CD51A works with Amiga1200 and Amiga 600. A guy wrote a driver for it last year. I got one from Japan and it works perfectly.
I had a Fujitsu Lifebook DX in 1997.. my first laptop actually. Was like $2,000. My grandpa bought it for me to learn Basic.
I remember downloading my first mp3. Took like four hours.
Had a hot swappable Zip drive extra battery combo. I loved having THREE mouse input methods.
I had a pcmcia v.90 modem to I believe.
You know... I think I know exactly how those spots showed up. During my latest move, it was a mad scramble to get all my stuff packed into a truck, and that laptop unfortunately ended up in a 10 laptop sandwich with huge machines such as that dell XPS monster with an OLED above the keyboard. It's amazing it survived at all
I am so happy that i have this Notebook with all papers, Drices (CD and Flopy) and Replicatror and Powersiply, it runs Windows XP jsut fine.
I remember seeing those new laptops back in the day at exclusive "Sony Center" store in my hometown. Being a poor teenager in the late 90's/early 00's it was a dream to have one of those. 30 years later i living the dream buying old Thinkpads 😂
For better or for worse Vaio did certainly stand out.
Unfortunately for us techies when your workplace exec decided your SOE had to support some obscure Vaio hardware they found in Japan and it had an awful 1.8” hard disk which you have to not only image, find drivers and encrypt.. it was a bad day lol
Still, i have some love for the Vaio ❤ even if it involves rocking back and forth in a straightjacket while recalling traumatic support memories
If you can get your hands on a sony VAIO quad core touchscreen all in one desktop, those are nice even for today. It has a 24" screen and is 1080p. You can use it as a tv, monitor or just use the built in pc with a gt 330m if you get lucky. It cost like $1800 new around 2011.