Every hardware enthusiast has heard about the VAIO line of Sony computers, and some of those machines have even passed through our hands. But where exactly does it come from? Colin from the YouTube channel This Does Not Compute managed to obtain a Sony VAIO PCG-505G, the first laptop from that family to hit the international market, and decided to restore it to its original factory state, but with more than 25 years on its shoulders, that's easier said than done.
The Sony VAIO series has had everything: desktop systems, tablet PCs, all-in-ones, HTPCs, strange machines that look like prototypes, and every laptop variant you can imagine. On the desktop side, the PCV-90 model used a classic 'tower + monitor' design. However, the first VAIO laptop reminds us that the idea of ultra-thin computers is nothing new: besides offering a good price-to-performance ratio, the Sony VAIO PCG-505G SuperSlim was no more than 24 millimeters thick and weighed less than 1.5 kilograms. Colin from the channel This Does Not Compute got one and shared his restoration process:
PCG-505G SuperSlim: The First VAIO Laptop in the West
This particular model has an Intel Mobile Pentium MMX processor at 233 MHz, 32 megabytes of RAM, and a 2.1-gigabyte hard drive. Despite its compact size, the PCG-505G doesn't sacrifice expandability, with a PC Card slot, infrared port, port replicator (which adds PS/2 keyboard and mouse, VGA, LPT, and serial), a connector for an external floppy drive, USB, Firewire, and audio input and output. In fact, the screen includes contact points for the stereo speakers that Sony offered as an optional accessory, and a hidden stylus.
As expected, time did its work: The battery was exhausted (which also prevented the machine from turning on), the screen suffered damage, and the hard drive was out of action. Colin managed to find a replacement LCD panel online (and at a good price), but when installing a new hard drive he discovered the classic 8.4-gigabyte limit in old BIOSes. At the same time, VAIO machines are extraordinarily picky about their recovery discs, and the PCG-505G was no exception. Colin had to use a modified version to copy the files (long live the Internet Archive)… and try a couple of times (courtesy of three incompatible optical drives, and a problem with the partitions).
Honestly, these are the things we don't miss about VAIO computers: On one hand, Sony published excellent maintenance information for its machines, and on the other, it turned the search for drivers and restoration images into a nightmare. Even so, Colin did an excellent job, and the PCG-505G SuperSlim came back to life. The dead battery and the original version of Windows 98 are thorns in its side, but we've seen worse.
Editor's note: Technically, the first VAIO laptop in history was the standard PCG-505, which never left Japan.
