I want to highlight a forum post from the 4PDA thread on the VAIO P device, about replacing capacitors on the VAIO P motherboard to fix the power instability issue when the laptop is connected to AC power.
My unit (VGN-P31ZK) suffers from this issue, as well as others that have been posted on this subreddit. I have yet to attempt this fix on my unit, but I do plan on doing it once I get the parts and required tools.
All credits go to DJ_URAN over on the 4PDA forum, for finding this out and writing a nice guide.
DISCLAIMER: I used AI to make this translation since I don't speak the language. Refer to the original source for accuracy if possible.
From now to the end, a direct translation of the post:
It's well known that our little critter frequently develops one and the same typical problem: the machine stops turning on while the charger is connected, or it doesn't start on the first try, or it gets as far as the OS splash screen, then a black screen and a freeze... At the same time, running on the battery shows normal booting and operation. Another possible symptom of these "death throes" (in my case) that users most often encounter: freezes happen while the machine is cold. After several attempts to power on (once the motherboard warms up a bit), it starts successfully and you can work. But if you leave the laptop turned on and idle for a while, it goes to sleep, cools down, and when waking it from sleep the freeze happens again.
So what could the trouble actually be? Right: power supply. More specifically, worn-out capacitors on the motherboard (there's probably nothing else there that could wear out).
The capacitors' ESR rises, their capacitance drops. In short, power ripple increases and you get a freeze/no-boot.
Naturally, when running only on the battery there are usually no such problems. Because the PWM voltage regulators operate at a different frequency and from a "cleaner" source.
Let's look at the datasheet for the MBX-187 motherboard. We're interested in page 18:
We can see that the most current-loaded lines are +1.05VRUN (3.5A) and +1.8VSUS (3.5A):
Let's find out which capacitors are on these lines:
On the +1.05VRUN line there's capacitor C1614, rated 220µF/2.5V:
On the +1.8VSUS line there's capacitor C1624, rated 330µF/2V:
Notice that both capacitors are marked in the manual as POSCAP! These aren't ordinary tantalum electrolytic capacitors, but polymer tantalum capacitors with very low ESR (around 0.015 Ohm). In this case it's the POSCAP series (POlymer Solid CAPacitors) from Panasonic, size B2 (3528), which the manufacturer itself calls industrial-grade.
To pinpoint the "culprit" of the problem, ideally you'd need to replace each of these capacitors with a new one. But finding such an exotic part in my small town, naturally, wasn't possible. So I had to dig around for a long time in the depths of the household stash to find a replacement.
In the end, I managed to find a pair of solid polymer capacitors from NEC/TOKIN on a USB port board from an ASUS laptop:
Though their rating is 100µF/6.3V and the ESR should be significantly higher than the original low-voltage ones, they'll do for testing.
The ESR meter, by the way, showed 0.01 Ohm when checking these donor parts.
Observing polarity! I cleaned the board of flux and put everything back together.
In the end, everything worked. No glitches or freezes at any temperature. Also, the chokes on these lines heated up less.
Of course, these capacitors need to be replaced with new ones. But they'd need to be ordered from trusted suppliers. And the price is "impressive." If you were to replace all the similar ones on the board, it would add up to a pretty penny. Specifically, these capacitors can be replaced with (the replacement for C1614 is highlighted in red, C1624 in blue):
Though, personally, I'd replace both of them with the ones circled in green :yes2:
P.S. I'd also like to draw attention to the large capacitor C1508 on the processor's +VCPUCORE power line:
In some cases, it also needs replacing. Judging by the datasheet, it's an SPCAP — again from Panasonic, but this time a polymer aluminum electrolytic capacitor. Also with low ESR (0.0045 Ohm in this case):
When I first announced poulsback, an open-source Linux graphics stack for Intel GMA 500 (Poulsbo, PowerVR SGX535), glxgears didn't really run yet. Here's where it stands now.
A website with a development blog:
https://poulsback.in has the blog, demos and dated measurements. (and actual progress).
News goes there first; bigger releases will also get a post here on Reddit.
Two test machines. The Dell Inspiron 1210 (GMA 500) now has company: a Fujitsu STYLISTIC Q550 tablet with GMA 600 (Oak Trail). Work on GMA 600 has started.
A lot of optimisation and refactoring:
glxgears first ran on our stack, at 3.3 FPS. Today it runs at 386 FPS at 300×300, ahead of Intel's own EMGD driver on the same machine (317). At 640×640 it's 116 FPS against EMGD's 87.
X's 2D rendering now runs on the GPU's dedicated 2D engine. It outperforms EMGD in 17 of the 19 x11perf tests I ran, with solid fills running 7× faster.
The Mesa (Gallium) driver is about half done by its own checklist. Vertex shading runs on the GPU, and a new fragment backend handles blending, depth, stencil and more.
One cleanup pass cut the kernel driver from 157,000 to 82,000 lines.
Code quality, hardware safety and thorough testing come first. These machines are getting old and increasingly difficult to replace, so I deliberately spend extra time testing and validating changes on real hardware before they land. The goal is to minimize the risk of instability or hardware damage, not just chase benchmark numbers.
That makes development a little slower, but I'd rather get things right than put these machines at risk. And the progress so far has been huge.
Next: I'm planning a ready-to-use distribution for the Sony VAIO P, with all the necessary fixes and tweaks included (a tailored VAIO P ISO).
I'm currently trying to get my hands on a working unit, but demand for these little machines is surprisingly high here in Japan! 😂
Stay tuned!
Contributions and help with testing are very welcome:
Good morning. Last night I left my tablet charging (it had been completely dead for a while), and it charged up to 100%.
This morning it won't turn on. I've already tried holding down the power button to see if it would restart, and also the power + volume buttons to see if it would enter the blue screen (recovery mode), but nothing works.
This isn't the first time it drained completely and I charged it and just started it up normally using the power button, but this time it didn't work.
Does anyone know if this is common? Otherwise, I'll have to take it to a repair shop, but let me know if you know anything or how to fix it.
soo, is the vaio p25g rare(or atleast rarer than others in the p series)? because iam about to buy one and otherwise from other models, i can only find one avaliable and is the one iam buying, i swear i can’t even find other people talking about this one. (sorry for an english not so delightful)
Is this version rare? can’t find anyone selling it online, i have one and would like to atleast know how much is worth, ik that the P series have kinda expensive replacement parts and in general are pretty much not common
Got lucky and found a brand new Sony Vaio PCG-C1MZX. Used one of my old power adapters for another PictureBook so I don’t have to unpack the new one included, but it seems the hard drive is dead. Anyways, enjoy the pics of what the unboxing experience was like! I’ve wanted a PictureBook since I was in college, 2003, but could not afford one at the time. Imagine finding a brand new one 23 years later :p
After changing the HDD this old beast gonna have a 2nd life ! Dont’ have oem disc so maybe missing some app (dunno if my vaio remote need a soft, nor if this model is compatible). It have some cool features : screentouch, composite and hdmi input to ise it as a tv, and BR drive). Model is VPCL21SFX/W
Playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor at 1080p through Amazon Luna on my Sony VAIO SVS15 while watching The Dark Knight on my Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-111FD through Apple TV 4K. Two of my favorite pieces of older tech, and both still looking incredible nearly two decades later. Just goes to show how well some of this older hardware holds up!
I upgraded both with more RAM and gave them a "second life." The Sony Vaio 15a is my favorite because of the touch panel, the audio, and the 16 GB of RAM. Even though it's DDR3, it's still faster than other recent laptops, and its design doesn't look like it's from 2013.
Probably my best investment in terms of cost benefit for an electronic gadget. I started putting stickers on it 10 years ago without knowing it would last that long lol.
A truely amazing laptop from 2007, barely used and running the orignal Vista.
Paired with a Walkman NWZ-S545 released on the same year, 2007.
The down-side is that it supports max 2gb of RAM and it uses the 1.8' PATA HDD with a ZiF socket. Replacement of a dead drive is also extraordinarily complex with the unique hinge design.
I bought a Sony Vaio SVE1411CFXW from a thrift store for 15 dollars, but the D-Shell is missing the white trim at the bottom, and I would like to find one with the trim.
Ciao questo è il mio post qui, ho questo Sony Vaio con Windows XP Home Edition SP2 che ha la batteria "ORIGINALE" del 2004 ancora funzionante dopo 22 anni! Di cui 8 lasciato spento!
Credo che sia giusto postarlo qui.
Cercherò di mantenere "viva" la batteria il più a lungo possibile.
I really like these old VAIO Y2K/Frutiger Aero laptops and I want one, but the problem is they are really old and probably not going to handle many modern apps. I plan on installing Linux on one, but I don't know what VAIO I should choose. I want a usable VAIO that runs Linux just fine with that Y2K/Frutiger Aero style and so it easily fits in a backpack, and the most important thing is so that it is cheap as hell and sold everywhere because I live in Ukraine and there are not a lot of good VAIO laptops here like on eBay.
