Refurbing a Sony Slimtop from 1999

I had a chance to pick up this Sony Vaio Slimtop from 1999 and absolutely could not pass it up after I've been looking for one for a few years. I needed a little work, and then a bit more work than I thought. But it wasn't too bad to get it back up and running.
I really didn't plan on making a separate refurb video for this system, I wanted to get into what is so cool about it right away. But this took a lot more time to get done than I anticipated so my choices were to throw all this footage out and skip to using the computer, or make a two videos one on the refurb and a followup on what's so special about it. People seem to enjoy videos about getting old things back into good condition so this felt like the best move. The next video is already filmed, so it will be coming up soon.
Drive Backup: archive.org/de...
Playlists of more stuff like this:
Computers: • Computers
1990s: • 1990s
Other Links
KZbin: / akbkuku
Github: github.com/AkB...
Thingiverse: www.thingivers...
Patreon: / akbkuku
Discord: / discord

[@user-yr1uq1qe6y]

10 years ago if someone asked me if I’d like to spend some of my day off watching dudes clean old computers, I’d look at them like they were crazy. But here I am....!

[@cbw56]

exactly same here lol

[@doodles113]

Welcome aboard!

[@BilisNegra]

While you love the stuff onscreen but almost despise, or at least don't care much about the much more capable, however humble, computer you're watching this on (a nearly 8 yr old beaten-up laptop I got for 70 bucks a couple of years ago in my case).

[@milklordnomadic]

10 years ago people were looking at me crazy for watching dudes mess with old computers on the internet 😅

[@dbozan99]

At 14:38 you mention using ddrescue for failing drives in the future but IMO when doing preservation you should always assume that the drive is failing and just start with ddrescue. You never know when the drive might fail and you might only have one shot! Booting the drive was also really risky and put a bunch of wear on the drive. Loving the videos, keep it up!

[@Ptero4]

Came here exactly to mention ddrescue.

[@confusedkemono]

Gotta love how 75% of the comments are about Shelby's cat (completely understandable!)

[@Ozfrank]

Какой толстый шикарный котэ! What a fat, adorable cat!

[@JS_i4u_support]

And yes! The cat is adorable ;)

[@BilisNegra]

It does very much live the typical home cat life, without absolutely any care in the world.

[@AmstradExin]

You have one lick, cat. Make it count!

[@gilah6565]

Еще бы не лез куда не просят)

The hardest part: do not allow myself to be distracted by the cat-business happenings so being able to focus on the computer ;)

[@TommyAgramonSeth]

I have to agree. "Wow, this computer is rea- KITTY!"

[@TheSulross]

or just decide that this is really more so a cat video than a vintage computer video

[@BertGrink]

If you can pull that off, you have stronger willpower than me.

[@allentoyokawa9068]

My cat died today..

[@j81851]

Love your kitty reminds me of my Prince who was one of the sweetest cuddliest baby of all my babies over the years. I lost him several years ago but to see your baby reminds me fondly of my sweet baby boy bringing back pleasant memories. Love your channel!

[@brianmarshall6746]

This is really great. Sony VAIOs, both desktops and especially laptops, stood out in the late '90s and early 2000s. In an era of generic beige boxes, Sony's design team was just on fire. Those systems were so pretty. They charged you about a $1000 premium versus what everyone else was charging for the same components, too. As a result, it never really made sense to plunk down the extra money (at least not for me as a young adult gamer, as money was tight). Yet the design aesthetics that Sony had going for its VAIO line were incredible. This video really brings the nostalgia, and isn't that the point of this hobby? Great video.

[@Afsafs123]

Petition to start a Cat Tangents channel. I need more cat in my life.

[@ps5hasnogames55]

get a girlfriend then

[@jaywing9764]

@@ps5hasnogames55 Giggity

[@rommix0]

@@ps5hasnogames55 Ba-dum-tsssssh

[@patricktrakzel9657]

@@ps5hasnogames55 And her name should be Catherine.

[@jondough76]

I thought you'd missed some spots while you were cleaning the case. Turns out I just really need to clean my monitor.

[@prismstudios001]

The cat’s tail startled me good st the start of this!

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

That vocal protest from the kitty

[@victorvangrimgamming6784]

Am I the only one who noticed that cats are often in computer videos. LGR, David does tech, Craft Computing, and a few outgers I can't remember. I'm not saying it's bad, but its funny

[@ptzzzs]

Did you mean Dawid Does Tech Stuff? I agree with the cats being around on the vids are kinda funny.

[@iYonga]

the 8 bit guy too

[@Okurka.]

That's why they have to clean out their computers so often.

[@iYonga]

@@Okurka. No. Dust always collects too fast. No matter how many pets you have.

[@schmatzler]

Cathode Ray Dude also features his cat quite often. :D

[@ironhead2008]

Kitteh be like: No, dammit, I AM THE STAR HERE!!! Fetch me a Mahi Mahi steak human!!! By the by, about the only thing that system needs is a PCI Voodoo 3 and you'd have an awesome little glide pc.

[@DarkVeilGaming]

So THAT'S what that keyboard is!! I saw a keyboard that was incredibly similar (has the palmrest flap thing) at a thrift store and I almost grabbed it, but figured I didn't need anymore keyboards. Definitely gonna snag it if it's still there! Edit: Oops forgot to update! Sadly the keyboard was gone :( (along with the CRT that was next to it, hopefully someone bought it to build a cool retro setup!)

[@ptzzzs]

I share the feeling of not needing any more keyboards. At some point I had like 8, some PS2 and some USB. Now down to 6 and maybe 5 after I give another one away to a buddy who needs a keyboard.

[@DerekWitt]

"Ah, a keyboard. How quaint!"

[@alexisnik19911]

So good to see these retro (now) VAIO machines with the original software! Thanks for the video!

[@timothyverbist5795]

That VAIO monitor seems to be one of the first flat panel monitors!

[@SylviaBun]

Thank goodness you made videos on this computer! I just acquired one myself and it is near complete but in major need of cleaning and potential upgrades!

[@humidbeing]

I replaced a lot of those Seagate drives in the early 2000s.. We called them condom drives because of the rubbers.

[@Leahi84]

I loved Sony Vaios so much. I never had a Vaio desktop, though always wanted one. But I had a Vaio laptop in the mid to late 2000s.

[@nickwallette6201]

Half the laptops I’ve ever owned were VAIOs. Small, light, good screens and track pads... I’ve moved to the MacBook Pro now, which was inspired by VAIO. Apparently I have a type.

[@thelastNokiauser]

Same here!

[@DanSaundersYT]

the PS4 took inspiration from this design 😂

[@StrawberryServal]

Well they're both a Sony! Quite a time gap though...

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

I'd say more the PSX dvr, but I can see where you're coming from though

[@genzo53]

You meant *PS5

[@MuscarV2]

Wow, a box standing... It's as "similar" to a white Xbox as what you "think". It doesn't even work as a joke because it's so dumb. And as said, it's PS5, how the fuck do you get that wrong? That only puts another nail in the coffin of evidence that you're immensely stupid.

[@spungbob_spare_pant]

​@@MuscarV2 Anger nerd

[@ianphilip6281]

Shelby, I prefer ddrescue/gddrescue, dcfldd or dcfldd over vanilla dd for any work especially imaging. Ddrescue in particular is fast and fairly safe thanks to its configurability, syntax is very similar as you'd expect. Perhaps give them a try if you get the time to take a look. Also, it supports using a map file so it can pick up where it/you left off if interrupted.

[@themadoneplays7842]

AWW love your cat, especially when it tried licking your thumb (my cat does that too!)

[@subtledemisefox]

My orange cat will gently nibble on my hand if I don't pet him when he's feeling needy lol

[@larrywilliams8010]

And did you also notice how he held his thumb out for the cat? That's what Cat Lovers do. :)

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

That is a really cool setup, Vaio systems always have interesting designs!

[@draggonhedd]

Hey Shelby i have the enitre theme and cursor pack for this if you need it, with all those wallpapers too. They are some of the best windows themes and cursors and i use them on all my pre-vista systems

[@itsGeorgeAgain]

The mouse reminds me of the PlayStation mouse, and the rest of the thing has PS2 dev unit vibes ...

[@codenamegamma]

For the feet, since the shape is just a Pyramid with the top cut off, it shouldn't be very hard to model replacements and 3D Print them. just get some smaller rubber feet to go on the top and it should be basically good as new. matching the color would be hard but a normal grey PLA probably won't be too far off.

[@ThatBulgarian]

what is this video about? i was just looking at the cat

[@Fuzy2K]

My dad had a Sony VAIO desktop back in 1999. It wasn't a slimtop, but it was still pretty cool. It came with a few Star Wars games because Episode I was coming out in the theaters at the time. It had a DVD ROM drive, so my dad got a 21" Sony Trinitron monitor, which was, at the time, the second largest monitor I'd ever seen (the largest being my brother's Gateway Destination monitor which was BLOODY HUGE). I miss that computer.

[@patricktrakzel9657]

Huge and heavy.

[@Fuzy2K]

@@patricktrakzel9657 I remember the box it came in had these plastic handles that held it together, and to unbox the monitor, you'd unhook and remove them, then pick up almost the whole box, leaving the monitor and the bottom of the box on the floor. :P

[@valerieeslick6324]

I love the aesthetic of the mid to late 90's

[@TonyBMan]

Thank you for uploading all your notes and software to the Grand Archives. You're doing the lord's work!

[@1980sGamer]

I believe that mouse was actually made by Logitech. They made a lot of mice for OEMs. That scroll wheel design looks very similar to a mouse I opened up a long time ago that I do recall being made by Logitech. Try sourcing a Logitech mouse from around the same time frame and i bet it would have a scroll wheel that you could use.

[@PhillyMJS]

Except for the two buttons and scroll wheel, that mouse looks absolutely identical to the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse 2 from 1993. In 1999 it was a new era for them and I doubt they’d care that anyone copied a 6 year old mouse design. Of course, in 1999 Apple was shipping that awful hockey puck mouse, a step backward in mouse design for them.

[@TheClau809]

> This is a prebuilt. This isn't really supposed to be opened up and modified > The case opens up with two plastic clips, not even one single screw PLEASE take me back to when all devices were this repairable

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

Always liked that Sony bucked the trend of the boring beige box with the lovely purple-ish & blue-ish gray color scheme (though IIRC I think IBM was trying a black color scheme on some of their machines around this time which was pretty sharp too).

[@dormcat]

3:29 "This thing is like, purrrfect."

[@Danny-wv8ec]

That monitor has that weird hinge because some models came with a touchscreen and stylus. No wonder Steve Jobs' favorite computers were the Sony VAIOs, I can't think of any other computer that had these features back in 1999.

[@jvcox9665]

Love how he pays attention to detail, great job keep up the great work. Glad I came across your videos, I'm now a sub!!!

[@DavidWonn]

I don’t know which I liked more, the PC or your cat! Anyway since this is Windows 98, before Microsoft broke the internal search feature, it’ll be a breeze to find the location of the wallpaper, among other things.

[@HeyImGaminOverHere]

That rubber sleeve is stock for those drives. I have a few in storage and all of that series came with those sleeves.

[@_marlene]

Sony (and particularly the Vaio) design language is some of my favorite of all time. Just beautiful

[@mrmobodies4879]

I see there is an Asus branded chip and fonts "KAIBA" near the cmos battery holder. I wonder if they manufacturered the board or designed it for sony?

[@beatadalhagen]

I'm wondering if you could get the mouse wheel printed in some sort of semi-flex.

[@RuruFIN]

Gotta love the cat. :3

[@naikjoy]

I really like this whole form factor... and of course how compact it all is.

[@sprybug]

Oh wow! I worked on one of these back in the day when I was a computer repairman. It was around '99 too if I remember it right.

[@CptJistuce]

Man, I had forgotten how lovely Sony's computers were at the turn of the century. I've never owned a prebuilt, and learned a mild disdain for them early on, but... damned if I didn't want a Vaio anyways.

[@TheXarus]

Never even had a laptop?

[@CptJistuce]

@@TheXarus Well, never a new one. I've picked a few elderly ones up from folks who consider a decade-old computer useless.

[@TheXarus]

@@CptJistuce Me too, me too haha

[@itscarve]

IIRC any of the Sony Vaio ball mouse specific have scroll wheels that will work / replace the trashed one (I prefered the dark variants for their longevity compared to the grey variants).

[@Rubycon99]

That company from Poland you mentioned does really good work. Their case badges look 100% professional.

[@eformance]

The Seagate condom drives were terrible, they overheated because of that stupid thing!

[@duotronicnone4572]

I wonder how practical it would be to mold/cast or machine new rubber feet to match the stock ones.

[@olik136]

For the mouse wheel you may be able to use that SUGRU stuff Ben Heck sometimes uses for modified controllers

[@RetroGadgetMan]

I have the Sony PCV-LX1 windows me version of this machine, which I did a video about. Your example is in much better condition than mine. Such an unusual machine and a great find.

[@darthrevan1344]

Outstanding video and many thanks for the Internet Archive upload!!!…These Sony machines are beautiful

[@daw7563]

Those rubbery seagate drives really sucks, happy to see it was still working for you. EDIT: spoke to soon...

[@Alexis_du_60]

Ech I've got a Maxtor DiamondMax in my iMac G3 that makes similar worrying noises, I keep hearing a lot of horror stories about DiamondMax HDDs but mine's still kicking since 1999... lol

[@tweakpc]

It looks like the CCFL in the monitor is failing, you can replace it or even convert it to LED. The second requires knowledge of electronics as the control board must be wired correctly.

[@nathantron]

TIL that soft rubber eventually becomes conductive?

[@tjmichael]

14:08 Glad you found an accredited IT professional and power linux user to help you image the disk.

[@TJDunaway]

It's recommended to have a second keyboard for these purrfessionals to relax on as well.

[@Eppopower]

Hey @Tech Tangents, I love your content. I listen to these video's during work or to go to sleep, and watch them during my free time, but I do have some pointers if you'll accept 'em. I recommend you to compare your build & refurbish video's to LGR's. I think for example, that when you input some soft background music, and remove the sound when fast-forwarding, it could increase the overall viewing/listening pleasure of those parts! Keep going strong!

[@chopinhoven]

thank you so much , how to use the backup hdd ,?i have the same model but someone put win XP on it , i want to back to win98 but he sound and gpu driver not working , i need your backup please but i don't know how to use it sir

[@Dioxaz]

It looks like, according to the service manual, the LCD connector is in fact an LVDS connection with audio. It might be possible to use it as a standalone monitor, but with help of a VGA controller board that interfaces with LVDS.

[@TechTangents]

I haven't found a full service manual instead of user manuals for this system yet, could you link me to that? (you should probably a space in the URL so it doesn't get filtered) The onboard graphics card is a standard part for an AGP add in card that has a DVI port and I'm currently using a driver intended for the standalone card on the system. So I'm inclined to think it is DVI/PanelLink but would be interested in any other info on it.

[@Dioxaz]

@@TechTangents This is where I found the manual: https : / / manualzz . com / doc / 19693684 / pcv-l400-l600-service-manual-personal-computer-vaio-us-model Alternatively, you can look for PCV-L400 on your search engine of choice. The pinout can be seen at page 6-5. Although this is labelled LVDS, this doesn't seem to match the pinout we're currently used to see on most laptop panels.

[@TechTangents]

Interesting, that does seem to be LVDS there. I have seen in a few of the manuals though that the displays are not cross compatible. So you got me to look it up a bit, and it turns out this is a bit of a nightmare. Here's a page where someone got a bunch of info on these monitors: translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fniga2.sytes.net%2Fat%2Fvaio_dvi.html Turns out, there are a ton of different versions. Mine is TDMS(DVI/PanelLink) but the earlier ones are LVDS. So it would probably be good to mention that in the followup that these monitors cannot be mix and matched. They must be exactly what the computer was meant to use.

[@yourproblemthesolution]

Great video, love the old pc rebuilds. However, why were you so worries about the drive and the software though? I'd bet a W98SE install would take care of most drivers and I just looked the system up, though Sony doesn't have any drivers for it, I readily found some by a google search. Anyway, love the vids, they got me back into vintage pc's after being a computer nerd back in the nineties.

[@anancient24]

What a comfy episode.

[@darkwinter6028]

I suspect that the scroll wheel can be replaced with one from another non-Sony mouse; but you might have to find a surplus store that has a big bin of them to find the right one. Alternatively, you could 3D print one with a resin printer... won’t be rubbery, but you could texture the surface for traction.

[@BilisNegra]

Hey Shelby, with so much populating the desk it isn't clear what's the main subject of the shoot in the first clip, the computer or the Meow Cattop. :D

[@MrHamof]

For the feet, there's a process to make rubber parts using 3d printing. Maybe something to look into? I don't know the details but Robert Finger used it to make some parts for his bike restoration project and it seemed to work really well.

[@TyTytheCat2004]

I need to buy one of these for old DOS experimentation.

[@Halterung01]

I really loved the depth you went in to demonstrate imaging a failing IDE drive on linux. Also that diff command. I learned a lot today :D

[@naikjoy]

I wonder if you could swap out the motherboard for AMD APUs and still keep the DVD/RW. ..it would just need cutouts for SD cards reader

[@LouisCYUL]

For keycaps a good tool is an ultrasonic cleaner. My guess is the mouse wheel hydrolyzed, old polyurethane soles also do that.

[@computercloset6165]

Dude I saw this exact setup for sale on OfferUp too! Do you live in AZ?!

[@osgeld]

I worked for a refurb house in 2000 did a ton of that family of systems, always liked the form and style but just like now I was into hot rod gaming PC's and it wasnt going to cut my needs... ever since I kind of wish I bought one (cause they were grade B+ refurb's and cheap, and always liked them)

[@SKY11211213]

I cant wait for the next video!!!

[@joedixon5153]

The rubber sleeve will become conductive? Since when is rubber a conductor

[@thedungeondelver]

From a design point of view, this thing is kind of Amiga like. Low profile, PCMCIA card slot on a desktop, etc.

[@jay3fox]

I have fallen in love with your cat!! - I have to say he stole the show! lol

[@m3gAnac0nda]

I believe it's a she. I had the exact same. Crazy...

[@BCProgramming]

My old Toshiba Satellite 440CDX had a similar effect with the display. I didn't get it new, but I got it in 2001 when it was about 5 years old, and it always had that effect. So it's possible it was just how the LCD tech of that time period looked. (And explains why we didn't flock to LCD screens as soon as they were available!)

[@jessejones1783]

hi what keyboard do you use with your Linux computer because i am wondering please

[@art2k179]

The computer looks so clean I wished more computers looked like this!

[@senkak3370]

you can recycle the old feet and leave them at the front area, them only add a new pair in the back area, it will look somewhat sloping but it will not affect the door 17:00

[@DavidWonn]

That’s an unusual location for the Num Lock key, even on a truncated keyboard such as yours. Ordinarily I’d see it combined with Scroll Lock in such scenarios, though that’s more common on laptops.

[@misterhoudi2824]

9:58 I have a question, why did he booted to Linux? And what Linux OS is he running?

[@NelsonBigGunP200Fan]

that rubber around the drive is to protect the PCB from shorts. its called a "seashield" seagates barracuda and U series had it to protect the PCB from shorts and static shock that can make it lose data or die.

[@WuschelWolf]

I'm glad the cat is back too!

[@bruwin]

Isn't the mouse just a logitech oem mouse rebadged? Chances are you can go to a thrift shop and find any number of mice with a compatible scroll wheel mechanism. Just pick one with the rubber that's close to that color and you should be good.

[@danagoyette7932]

Is that a 16-bit PCMCIA slot, or a 32-bit Cardbus slot?

[@xan1242]

Wait the board says Kaiba on it? Did KaibaCorp have a hand in making this computer?

[@altmindo]

when doing dd, dont forget to specify the (larger) block size, this can speed up the copying by TIMES

[@mcamp39004]

I had a Vaio mini tower circa 2002 paired with flat screen trinitron crt. It was my first windows PC. Up until then I’d only had a Mac IIsi and a first gen iMac. I still use the powered speakers that came with it.

SOny made some really interesting desktop's, shame they offloaded their Vaio division a while back. Did you know the Vaio logo is supposed to emulate a analogue wave (VA) and a digital one (io)

[@BertGrink]

Yeah I have heard that before, and don't disagree, but apparently it also stands for "Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer". It sounds a bit like a retronym if you ask me.

[@polaroidesilva9037]

does this pc look like a ps4 fat or am i crazy? 0:00

[@m1geo]

There are specialist tools for recovering broken harddisks. I'd use those to grab a disk image. They prioritise ordering to get the highest recovery rate, and will retry failing reads at different seek and access approaches.

[@willouboy]

Beautiful vintage computer

[@AmstradExin]

I have a Sony Vaio computer with a P4. I need to get into the advanced BIOS setting. I have not found anything on the Internet...Does anyone how to get in there? I just wanna change some CPU settings.

[@dave4shmups]

Great video on this Sony Vaio! I love the cat, too! Did you ever do a video on that PC that's running Kubuntu?

[@robinsonsoto8471]

Is there any way to install pentium ht. Make modifications and make it more powerful.

[@WolfireGaming]

The cat is clearly the star of this video

[@DerekWitt]

Kitty's infatuated with the keyboard. "I wants. I sits!"

[@FennecTECH]

Oh god. Those missing feet :(

[@AB-Prince]

what's that high pitch sound in the background?

[@Okurka.]

This is the first time I got an allergic reaction by watching a video featuring a cat.

[@KingGameReview]

I'm glad I'm not crazy with those SD card readers not showing up. I have never once gotten them to work on any motherboard of ever tried.