Sony Vaio Score

[ratdude747]

My buddy's work (purdue university) unloaded two Sony Vaios of 2006 vintage:

-VGN-TXN17P: Core solo ultra-ultraportable (netbook size, but has a DVD drive). 2GB RAM, not webcam... but does have a celluar modem.

-PCG-6L1L: Core Duo 14",1GB RAM, Has Nvidia Graphics (7400Go) which do still work... surprisingly this wasn't on sony's "affected" list in regards to bumpgate. Also has a celluar modem

Both are in like-new condition, barely used, with power bricks... Tossed because they were not university owned and as such, could not be sent to university surplus.... and he wasn't in a position to keep them (if I didn't take em they'd be parted).

They Run OK... but I haven't been able to SLIC the BIOS in a way the flasher likes (some sort of checksum ???)... and since they're sony, at least for the big one, Nvidia's drivers are no good (minus a sorta old one from windows update)... so I plan to straight linux them, with some upgrades:

-Ultraportable: SSD, as the 80GB 4200RPM 1.8" ZIF drive is slow as dog poo... The cpu is soldered and I don't see a point in running 3GB of RAM (If it would even work on the i945, as the Soldered 1GB and the slotted 1GB are on the same channel)

-14": 2GB/4GB RAM, C2D (to get 64 Bit capabilities)...

Not bad for free?

edit- I see the 14" has some weird hybrid graphics system... maybe that's what the speed/stamina switch is for... may be no good for linux then (unless I use nouvea, as the nvidia blob doesn't play well with the intel driver (or any other driver for that matter).

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

edit- I see the 14" has some weird hybrid graphics system... maybe that's what the speed/stamina switch is for...

Yes, it is. Also if the nvidia graphics fails you can keep it on "stamina" and still be able to use it, because the switching is done in hardware on the main board. With the disadvantage obviously being that it requires a reboot to switch between modes.

I've recently (few months ago) seen a good Go7400, on a DV6000 nonetheless. Laptop came in for cleaning and repaste, and i was very surprised that it did not have other issues. So it seems like it has done better than other nvidia GPUs of that period.

Nice score.

[ratdude747]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

^yup, I figured...

this puts me at 7 running laptops... HOARDER!!!

[ratdude747]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

yay, no Wireless Whitelist... I swapped in an old Intel 5100 AGN card which the tiny one has no issue with...

I'd rather not get a card with BT built in (as these already have BT) but what's the best intel 2-antenna PCIe card? The 5100? I'd go for another AC card but at 30 a pop and with bt 4.0 built in it's no good.

They both came with full height 3945 cards... which I hear are problematic (failure prone).

[ratdude747]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

Edit: The big unit is actually a VGN-SZ270P... the other model is not listed and not reported by the BIOS.

[ratdude747]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

I'll probably have to revert to installing XP on these two pieces of shit... as nothing else is really supported. I sorta got linux to run on each... same for 7. But sony bricked everything so genric OEM drivers from the chip companies do not work (touchstrip, webcam, and nvidia gpu). Up yours Sony!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

7 should work. I know Sonys are a pain in the butt when it comes to drivers but there are workarounds for most of them.

[diif]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

Last Sony i did i used the Vista drivers with Win7
http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-...d#/downloadTab

[ratdude747]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

7 should work. I know Sonys are a pain in the butt when it comes to drivers but there are workarounds for most of them.

The biggest issue I'm finding is half the drivers are XP only and the other half Vista/7 only... fucking hell!

I may shelf these two after all this and some $$ invested... fucking sony!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

Why shelf them when you can sell them?

[Compgeke]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

I hang onto Core 2 laptops on shelves simply because I loan them out\give them away. I know some people who can't afford a new laptop if something happens to theirs and I just loan them one.

If you're an idiot you'll get something like the beat up Pentium Dual-Core Inspiron. If you're someone I know respects stuff you'll get the pristine D630 nVidia.

Also never know when you need a linux laptop.

[ratdude747]

Re: Sony Vaio Score

Why shelf them when you can sell them?

In case I think of a better use. I'd be selling at a loss at this point on at least one of them (ssd mainly). Or maybe I think they're cool even if I can't get them to work the way I want to.