Early 2000's Sony Vaio systems! Teardown and test.

If you'd like to support the channel and help me to produce more videos like this, you can find me on Patreon: / miketech
Thank you so much!
Time to get fancy with some Sony Vaio systems. These were considered premium pre-built systems at the time (by me at least). As such, these are the first Vaio systems I've actually worked on. Were they worth the premium they commanded?
0:00 Intro
0:17 System 1 Tour - Sony Vaio PCV-RX463DS
2:39 S1 Teardown and inspection
9:01 S1 Refresh
12:29 S1 Drives
15:02 S1 PSU go-through
16:33 S1 Testing and OS exploration
26:26 S1 Verdict
27:19 System 2 Tour - Sony Vaio PCV-7762
28:23 S2 Teardown and inspection
32:37 S2 Refresh
35:36 S2 Drives
37:58 S2 PSU go-through
38:25 S2 Testing
43:28 S2 Clean-up and verdict
44:11 Outro

[@ericsills6484]

"We've got a pully thing." Between you and LGR, I'm still learning the technical terms

[@aminorityofone]

next i expect a MikeTechBirds with a bird cam featuring a Robin with baby birds and occasional deer!

[@user-tk2hl4fz2l]

@@aminorityofonetaking a 💩

[@ericsills6484]

@@aminorityofone he looks like a wrestling coach. I doubt he's into those sweet little birds 😄

[@HamburgerAmy]

i'm just appreciating that a basically quarter century old machine is still working.

[@nyccollin]

I have half century machines that work. Higher quality hardware back then.

[@jlc2415]

I feel like I'm part of the cool kids club here 😎 I have weird feelings when I see VAIO desktops. A friend of mine who passed away had one, and they make me think of him.

[@rubeusvombatus]

Your videos fill that void that Druaga1 has left behind just fine, the many weeds are missing though...

[@SonicBoone56]

My headcanon is that Michael MJD is Druaga1.

[@yuuji_]

man i can still hear him "hey smokers, druaga1 here" 😥

[@soundguydon]

It makes me grin every time you put thermal paste on -- you cut it RIGHT before the KZbin trolls could have anything to argue about LOL -- Love it! I loved the Viao line (both laptops and desktops) and always wanted one.. I wasn't able to afford one either -- but I wanted one so bad.. Loved the whole look, the colors and (of course) it was Sony, so I knew they were well built.

[@alexandersheldon8016]

The D: drive looks like part of the stuff from American Airlines Timetable program. A319, A320, B737300, etc are Airbus & Boing. The web documents likely contain fleet information on those planes.

[@miketech1024]

Now THAT'S interesting! Don't know why that didn't catch my eye, was moving too fast I guess. Aviation is one of my most-loved subjects so I'll have to go back and take a look!

[@alexandersheldon8016]

@@miketech1024 I fly airplanes as a hobby when I'm not building server systems. Hence why I picked that up quickly. Let me know if that ends up being the case with those files. Keep up the great work!

[@andrew3139]

@@miketech1024 Let us know what you find.

[@Leahi84]

I wanted a Vaio so bad as a kid. My brother in law had a gorgeous desktop back in 99 that I was so jealous of. It was the first computer I had seen that wasn't a basic beige or grey color, and it was sleek looking. It was a PCV-70. Blew my mind at the time as a 15 year old.

[@neilh990]

Looking handsome as always - almost as much as a Vaio ;)

[@davinp]

Sony built these systems really well. They weren't being cheap as other PC manufactures were doing

[@miketech1024]

These were easily the highest-quality power supplies I've ever seen in a pre-built system.

[@creativestudios3d]

So happy to see some Vaio desktops! As a funny story: In 2003, I had ordered a cheap, used desktop from an online store (I think Eggheads or something) and what I received was a Vaio desktop with Media Center, TV card, amazing video card etc. I was blown away.

[@keithbrown7685]

I'd be, too!

[@richjamjam]

Did anyone else laugh when he mentioned his "two hander"?

[@stonent]

NMB was/is a well known keyboard maker and fan maker. They made the NMB Space Invaders switches. They are cool looking if you look them up and you'll know right away why they called them Space Invaders.

[@SonicBoone56]

Yep

[@LifeSizeTeddyBear]

The Image Transfer thing was the software that came with the Sony Mavica digital cameras. It would detect when a memory stick was inserted and automatically copy images off onto a location on the hard drive.

[@david5562]

I am wachting youre channel for about a year now. I enjoy every video! Thanks for making them❤

[@branscombe_]

YES, Friday AND Mike Tech AND Sony Vaio!

[@westtell4]

Rubicon caps are pretty good... also I'm so GLAD we are done with damned Molex connectors for the most part

[@keithbrown7685]

The Rubicon was a big deal for Caesar as well. So clearly you don't want to crosse those caps, lest there be no turning back. : )

[@marktubeie07]

Mike's back, yeah! The thumbnail is great btw :)

[@dant5464]

I use needle nose pliers for really stuck 4-pin molex power connectors. Grab either side and gently wiggle it out. I still have a standard Pioneer DVR104 from back in the day, the springy faceplate was standard.

[@keithbrown7685]

...Grab either side and gently wiggle it out.... That's what she said.

[@SonicBoone56]

"Rubber baby buggy bumper Seagate" lmfao.

[@keithbrown7685]

I've been trying to say that really fast, and ****ing up every time. : )

[@branhicks]

I'm so happy someone's finally showing a p4 system some love 😍 ❤

[@SUPERBOBESPONJA1000]

The cpu fan is meant to be facing the psu to get rid out of the heat, as its intake its the holes on the dvd bay, mine works this way, flip it to the right way

[@FrenziedManbeast]

My brother was serving in the Navy back in the early 2000s. He bought one of these VAIOS from a later WinXP era with newer hardware, but it still had RDRAM. That was my first encounter with it - the stuff was mega expensive (more than triple the price of SDRAM as I recall), and impossible to source locally. I think we hit every electronics store in Jacksonville, FL trying to hunt that stuff down before giving up and ordering online once I got back home to my computer. It's crazy to think how much time we wasted on something my cell phone could solve today. Thanks for the trip down memory lane Mike.

[@Luke-rr9po]

Awesome vid Mike, as always! 😊

[@TheSkyeLord]

Yay new video! Happy to see ya back man

[@Cyba_IT]

Awesome content man. Well paced, covering all the interesting stuff and the dry humour is too good. There's still quite a few Vaio laptops kicking around here in New Zealand on local auction sites but Vaio desktops are as rare as hens nuts. It's a shame Sony has moved away from that segment as they made some good gear. These cases are pretty stylish and would make awesome sleepers, if only you could track down an elusive bottom door. 😁

[@xaviSF]

Thanks for showing these. Cool seeing the insides of these particular computer. Great vid!

[@allentoyokawa9068]

Sony makes TVs, cameras and other AV equipment and very well known for quality to this day. They are also known for their entertainment divisions such as music and TV shows/movies .

[@arnlol]

That first pentium 4 looks so bizarre like they soldered a regular P4 onto a PCB with pins… Maybe it was a normal thing they did at that time but idk it looks weird to me. Didn’t think the front of that second system would clean so easily and so well, it looked really nice afterwards!

[@feieralarm]

It was normal for Willamette P4. Socket 423 was weird...

[@SenileOtaku]

5:06 I find a pair of needle nose pliers (the angled tips are the best) works, with the jaws on either side of the drive Molex connector.

[@dazl7954]

Such a pleasure to watch, love these kind of old tech vids, brings back memories.. keep em cumin mate :P

[@DannyTan6675]

The problem is that the Sony Vaios often came with accessories that are now pretty rare or difficult to find. (Including accessory cards and special drivers). Good luck trying to get a complete system if the listing doesn't feature the matching accessories. You're probably missing half the experience without the proprietary accessories or drivers/software.

[@johnmay4803]

missed ya pal good 2 see you back

[@wazzysgarage5623]

Finally! worth the wait

[@ennexthefox]

I had a Pentium III Vaio of this vintage when I was in college. If it makes you feel any better, those tabs on the top panel were probably broken decades ago - I know mine did.

[@pizzaluvah]

I always learn something unexpected when I watch your videos. Today it was the proc directory and | more command. Rewound and followed along on my Pi-hole. Thanks.

[@tookeydookey]

I also never owned a Sony Vaio. Only experience I've ever got was videos like this!😉👌

[@branscombe_]

12:50, I love that ROM tray. Nice : )

[@blackheart58]

Another Friday with another great MikeTech video! No Friday is complete without one! I remember Vaio systems. Knew a few teachers who had them at home. I can’t believe the dust storm the first system was. There was more dust than the desert in that system. I always have to wonder why people don’t wipe their systems before getting rid of it. It’s a dangerous for people to do.

[@charonunderground8596]

As usual, great video. That first VAIO much more interesting. It is both the first Pentium 4 and a unique board with Rambus. Greetings from Poland :)

[@keithbrown7685]

Greetings from Canada. I would have wanted to see some of that Sonic Foundry software in action, like Sound Forge, for example.

[@lukedavis436]

Fun fact, look for a setting in the BIOS called "Logo Motion" it gives the Vaio a cool boot chime and animation on boot...all vaios up until the late vista era had it

[@yatapaws]

Neat systems! :3

[@rrcoster]

Really like that design

[@ZeroWalker26]

As always wonderful awesome video. Man I always have soft spot for Vaio because my very first Laptop I ever bought was a Sony Vaio and it was a beast back in 2005 costing 2400 bucks but well it was a Gaming laptop. But yeah my favorite brands for desktop and laptop is Fujitsu and Vaio.

[@iSamYTBackup]

yoooooo uploaded on a good time for me about 2:45 pm

[@euclideszoto997]

That Geforce2 card was a top notch card in those days.

[@adinnugroho6544]

Sony was owner of VAIO, before become independent company. The last time seeing them, when they announced Laptop using 11th Gen Intel 🐯 Lake

[@markpirateuk]

I have a very similar Vaio from 2002, used to be owned by Sony UK & running XP pro, all working perfectly after 22 years use!

[@Tikka65]

Shocked!! That everything still works also. AAA video.

[@TonyAtkinspdx]

Soooo happy you're back!!!!

[@PC4USE1]

Used to buy pcs at thrift stores refurbed and sold(mostly donated back LOL). Had a few Vaios,the look was great and if the parts fit would also make a great 'sleeper pc'. Was not into that in the day but might be interesting now. It's always a treat to see one of your videos and once again see if the 'sacrificial hard drives' would keep clickety clacking to live another day.

[@mike_pena]

Heeeey! I finally found a serial for my Millenium copy!!

[@bigdiggle5036]

back in my aol days we was punting all the noobs with our laggerz n progz boiii

[@branscombe_]

8:00 come back rambus! we need you!

[@keithbrown7685]

But why??

[@thelettuceclub]

Didn't expect to learn about linux in a miketech episode, nice!

[@maynardcrow6447]

When I was a kid. The family computer in the living room was a sony vaio. I think it had a Celeron at 800mhz. I upgraded the GPU I believe to a pny nvidia mx 400. It was my first PC gaming experience. Haven't looked back since. I want to get a vaio for nostalgia.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

I remember seeing these in a Sony store in Japan right after they came out.

[@nushnume]

Yeah Asus is the one behind Sony's motherboards and video cards. Kind of unique because all Sony boards are green instead of the traditional Asus yellow pcb that could be found in HPs and other OEMs. Asus was used by Sony,Gigabyte by IBM,Asus and MSI by HP,ECS and Intel for Acer,Intel by eMachines. Some of them could use other manufacturers but the ones i mentioned were the most used by them at the time

[@orionfl79]

My guess on the black schmutz: Printer ink.

[@keithbrown7685]

I would have guessed, the leavings from a laser toner cartridge.

[@westtell4]

yay ur back...

[@arutezza]

oh hey i have the keyboard for one of these, it was a 1800 layout rubber dome keyboard but it still felt really nice compared to other dome boards, love to see funky keyboard layouts

[@jjohnson71958]

love the sony vio pc design

[@Stefan_Payne]

NMB aka Minebea made pretty nice PSU at the time, but more known for their industrial grade fans...

[@3dburger]

I have an old 99' VAIO system myself. I found 3:58 really funny because my system's power supply has this exact same issue.

[@dezhocob]

Vaio will hold a special place in my heart as the most bougie systems ever created besides Apple. Their laptops and all-in-ones were so pretty and they all suck now adays because all their drivers are gone so better hope you also got the recovery disk or they were graciously uploaded to a driver repository! Great video!

[@branscombe_]

18:30, took words out of my mouth : )

[@LabCat]

Had a VAIO back in the very early 2000s. It had RDRAM just like this one. When you wiped off the heatsink on System #1, I could still see the imprint left by the P4 heatsink etching. LOL! Those Willamette P4s were hilariously bad.

[@PatientXero607]

Non- standard motherboards and power supplies caused so many of these to be tossed. I tried to service one back in 2007 for a defective motherboard or power supply. Neither could be replaced.

[@thegaybear]

nice arms and chest not just computers you're working out. Ha Ha Ha

[@jjb8171]

Hardware is the basis

[@Cyba_IT]

Woah, looks like he has a big gay following! 😁

[@thegaybear]

He is gay as well, he has the rainbow flag on his apple watch. Next time he does a close up in his video have a look. Also, I am a huge nerd, I have 20 computers in my house from apple g4s, to dual Xeons from back in the day. However, he out nerds me, he can change capacitors on motherboards. I would throw it in the trash. @@Cyba_IT

[@gabcedo]

he is very handsome, and loves hardware too... i cant 🥴🥴

[@thegaybear]

@@gabcedo he is very handsome yes but you are also very handsome too Gabriel. 😉

[@keithbrown7685]

Hey Mike, did you say "unobtainium" at one point. Whether you did or not, I like the word!

[@jonrutherford6852]

Thanks!

[@miketech1024]

Thank you so much!

[@manamoth]

My father-in-law got one of these. It cost him a fortune! We eventually inherited it and it was a good machine for its age. Wonder where it went...

[@adeptpeasant6161]

Thanks for the flashbacks. This was my 1st computer. Too bad windows Me was so buggy that made it seem like it was having hardware problems.

[@darthrevan1344]

love Sony Vaio

[@swahkennison7116]

The Willamette pentium 4's always reminded me of the Northwood Core Pentium 4's slapped onto an interposer. You can perfectly fit a Northwood Pentium 4 right on top of that heatspreader on the Willamette. Also NMB Technologies Corporation is a MinebeaMitsumi Group company makes mostly computer components fans,power supplies etc. as well as industrial electronics.

[@MendenLama]

I had one of these in the XP era, it came with a Sony branded keyboard in the same style and a mouse. After I resold it I really missed the keyboard it was the perfect fit to my fingers. Never got one later that I liked that much. The hardware was fine, although I do not remember any particulars of it.

[@jpupz]

I "played" WoW in 2004 on one of these babies before I ended up building my first PC (mine is the PCV-RX550 model). Still have it, along with the original desktop speakers and keyboard! It's all stock, with the exception of the dial-up modem being swapped out for a NIC (though I probably have the modem somewhere). It doesn't surprise me that the port covers are missing from these, as it falls off of mine a lot too.

[@VenomTNT64]

My family had a PCV-RX551 Vaio with that case style when I was a small child… I now have a PCV-RX550 that’s basically identical, and basically the awkward middle child between the early Pentium III, Athlon K7, and Socket 423 PCV-RX Vaios (up to RX400 series) and the later DDR Pentium 4 and Athlon XP PCV-RX Vaios (RX600 through RX800 series), as the P4-based RX500 series were early Socket 478 systems that used PC-133 SDRAM on the original i845 chipset… and most of them came with an Nvidia TNT64 for the GPU. Both my (sadly now nonexistent) childhood original and current Vaios were upgraded from their original 1.5GHz Willamette P4, 256MB RAM, and 60GB hard drives to a 2.6GHz Northwood P4 (400MHz FSB), 512MB RAM, 250GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon 9600 Pro GPU. Objectively speaking, the earliest Socket 478 systems using PC-133 SDRAM are some of the slowest Pentium 4 systems out there - but I like these Vaios and they remind me of a bygone era. And as for the second board having no blown caps… I cannot say that was the case for my current PCV-RX550 (uses the Asus P4B-LX motherboard), as that had at least eight blown caps - all of which I replaced as my first motherboard recapping project. You just got lucky with your two Vaios not having any blown caps, either that or I got unlucky.

[@jonrutherford6852]

Three-quarters of an hour of enjoyment. Thanks -- you're one of the very best. I wonder if you'd consider using a mask when cleaning out a system as dusty as the first one? There's bound to be substances in that contamination that are not good to inhale.

[@Mange070]

Good to see matx-systems from these years with dedicated agp-slot on the motherboard. Many others just had very "questionable" ( some times it was just terrible bad ) on board graphics and pci-slots.

[@johnstancliff7328]

On all my rebuilds, I always set the Primary IDE to the CD/DVD Drives and the secondary IDE port for the hard drives... keeping everything in order....

[@ypoora1]

I'm pretty sure both of these towers had the blueish accents, the first one seems quite yellowed. When you have the sides off you can see the blue still ;) It's amazing how well-made Sony stuff was! All my Sony drives work like new and so does my Mavica, while all of my Samsung floppy drives are various degrees of dead.

[@star_man]

Sony Vaio laptops were sexy beasts, I always lusted after one in the early 2000’s but could never afford one. 😢

[@SGTMacBC]

Makes me wonder if they just removed the door on both systems. They did tend to be a pain in the butt when using the front USB ports. Sony were pricey back in the day. The PC counterpart of Apple. Great to see you back in action.

[@i80386sx]

I picked one a Pentium III version of this from a recycling center in 2005. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

[@vinylcabasse]

19:25 frutiger aero - man it's all the rage now. going to go watch the music video again for anatole muster's 'wonderful now'

[@willdickey5212]

The Avi Geek in me being like "PLEASE click the AA timetable icon."

[@stonent]

The Pentium and Pentium II era Sony's used Intel motherboards. They were good quality and when I worked at a computer store in the service department I used to recommend the Vaios because they used Intel boards. I figured, if the company that invented the CPU also made the board for it, it's certainly going to work well together.

[@succulent951]

The 'drive' LED blinks for the optical drives too, which don't have their own status light!

[@elit3darkness]

My sister had one of those back in the day. I remember it being obnoxiously expensive. I think she is still paying it off.

[@keithbrown7685]

Battery dead?..... Battery dead. That's what Mike asked. That's what Mike said.

[@johnhudson7055]

I was still a PC tech back when the first P4 came out, I was so excited until I finally got to use one. It wasn't until the Northwood p4 that I started to love the p4 then intel ruined it with the Prescott. I'm recreating my favorite computer I ever owned, a 3.06 Northwood p4. It was the first hyperthreaded cpu.

[@patrickfournier777]

Oh Sierra Card Studio /Event planner are totally legit! My name's in the credits for Card Studio 3. I think 2004 is Card Studio 4 tho, this was part of Sierra Home before everything got rolled into Sierra Online.

[@ultrametric9317]

I have never set hand nor tool on a RAMBUS computer. This is the first time I've ever SEEN it :)

[@Michael_Livingstone]

Love your cute expressions!

[@stevisf]

Dell was on the RAMBUS train at this point too. They made these truly awful, ugly, slow, and obnoxious to work on, clam shell design Optiplex systems during this period.

[@miketech1024]

I have a few of those!

[@hi-friaudioman]

I liked the clamshell Dell's. I thought they were novel and super easy to work on with their tool-less design.

[@redleader6442]

The early RAMBUS Dells used the older OptiPlex case designs and they were far better to work on. Decent performance, too, and more aesthetically pleasing. GX200/300/400 and Dimension 8100 (same as GX400). A bunch of Precision workstations as well.

[@cwcole]

I still have my 1996 Sony Vaio PCV-70 with the 15" Trinitron monitor, mouse and keyboard. 128MB of 72-pin SIMMS (came with 32MB), 166MHz Socket-7 Pentium. I believe it was the first Vaio model released. I think it was about $2500 + another $400 or so for the CRT monitor. Mine has the 16-bit ISA slot. That's where the 14.4 modem went. It hasn't been powered up in probably 20 years.

[@ouch1011]

I never owned one of these either since this would have been during the time that I was just getting started with my career and couldn’t afford a multi thousand dollar PC. That said, I did always like the unique blurple color they used.

[@zacmitchell_1984]

Oh I got one of these I saved from scrap. I've never tried it yet though

[@cyberbasty8028]

to test memory stick you can buy a memory stick to micro sd adapter

[@chloeprice8]

those memory cards were an sony only thing. i got a few of them lying around from my old phones. thats a pro duo card. was also used in a few cameras but also in the PsP. phones used m2 cards(nothing to do with nowdays m.2 ssds) but you got an adaptor that made the m2 into a pro duo that would then go into that card reader