Handheld VAIO Retro Modded with XP Tablet Edition 

Hey thanks, I'll keep making good videos and we'll see what happens.

That's not enough, he deserves x10,000,000 subs.

more like a million more subs

​@@Unicorn7_ damn, youre right

@@tredecim881you do understand how math works, correct?

True

Uncle Billy is a thief... Geo Works would have been the software but they wouldn't let anyone develop anything for the program. Trillion $ mistake.

its Microsoft

it was like that with fresh paint on windows 8

Yeah because its a bad thing that Microsoft do. They see somebody elses software that works really well and they go off and pay the guys who made it and bundle it into an OS that will sell millions of copies. Meaning the creators get paid much much more money than they ever would have if they had just tried to sell it on their own because they are little nobodies after all.

I have one😢

I agree, that's why I'm trying to run Game & Watch games on it.

I'll just quietly say thanks :)

XP on SSD :)

As long as I make video that you enjoy, I'm sure things will work out in the long run. Thanks!

Thank you, and hopefully these videos are also getting better over time.

For real a upgrade makes it feel fresh and new

I would like to learn more about plop. Some of these early machines are a real struggle to externally boot.

@@JanusCycle plop is really awesome. I Can't count the times it helped me boot stubborn laptops

Thank you, the experience pack looks interesting. I really like XP Tablet and I'm keen to get back into it sometime.

I kinda wish modern UMPCs existed, like lower-end AMD APU in a tiny computer, I would probably use something like that since I can't carry a laptop with me everywhere but a smartphone is a bit too limiting for me. EDIT: I think I just described the Steam Deck...

@@RowanBird779 And while I love the concept too, but I can't really find a good reason too when we could probably get by with a 7 ish inch Android with a built in keyboard. Android is pretty mature now so the only other issues I see is from niche software and IO ports.

@@jackkraken3888 That's fair, to me though having x86 support is kind of important since I use virtual machines and video editing software pretty often

@@RowanBird779 or GPD Pocket/GPD MicroPC.

Nice, I hope it goes well, these are great.

@@JanusCycle it should come tomorrow.

@@JanusCyclewhich one is the mouse joystick? I know where it is on my VAIO UX, but not on this!

Apple is sadly leading the future with their "innovative" vision and the "confident" designs, every company wants a piece of that Apple Pie, even they had more unusual stuff back in the day in likeliness of other companies, those were so cool

Oh I forgot. Dell still sometimes shares the HP plug. But they still have that third wire in it to wear if you use an HP on a Dell it throws a error message and doesn't charge the battery. But if you use a Dell charger on an HP laptop it works just fine.

Thanks for watching me mess about with retro gear :)

I didn't get the extra buttons working. I have a huge archive of VAIO drivers and might have the correct application. But they are not named or sorted well. Definitely back up that hard drive. The critical software such as the Special Button Utility should be able to be extracted from Japanese Windows and installed on another Windows install. If you extract the drivers and application, I could try them on mine.

@@JanusCycle i'm sorry for asking a stupid question but how do I extract such things? I will gladly do that and send you the files if you tell me how. Regards

There are no stupid questions when learning. You can use software such as Double Driver to backup drivers. m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/double_driver.html The Sony applications are in the C:/Program Files folder. You might be able to copy these folders and get them to work on another install. There is some software than might help, but I’ll need to find the name for you. Let me know if you need more help.

Great score, well done. I hope you enjoy it. Were you able to get all the special buttons working?

Yeah, I have also though the same thing. One day I'm going to run some Game and Watch simulators on this and make a huge Game and Watch.

awesome!

Unfortunately Plop doesn't support booting from secondary USB CD/DVD drives, only IDE. I have found the 'correct' way to boot this recently, new video coming shortly.

You could be right. There seems to be a majority opinion that the SD card to IDE adapter is slower than the drive it replaced in a different video. Giving some disadvantage to the benefits of an SD and CF SSDs. This will make a good video segment comparing HD, SD and CF speeds next time I do a drive replacement in a vintage machine.

The utility we need is called 'Special Button Utility'. I have asked someone for a copy and I will let you know when that happens.

@@JanusCycle Hello Janus, do you were able to make it work? I am in the same boat with my Vaio U50. Thanks!

@@luisalbertovalleramirez9577 I did get some new driver packs a few months ago. But I haven't tried them. Because I've been working on other projects. Here they are if you want to try and let me know drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qcs0f63zPy5c3MjZ4_VQr5JDjj_s0lo-

There is a backup of the iso on archive.org archive.org/details/all_windows_dvd The trick is to use your Tablet XP serial key. If you use a standard XP key then the Tablet components will not install from the ISO and it will be standard XP.

I'm not sure how to do that. Windows XP can be picky about where it's installed from.

@@JanusCycle Is it possible to use an adapter and cable... The hard disk interface is IDE so should support 2 drives on it. Did you try that?

@@JanusCycle There is another tool called SaPrep that removes the HID portions to make servers headless, but it can be used for other things to do with what you want to do too if you want.

@@JanusCycle Did you get hold of a Windows XP OPK CD? You will need SysPrep from that to install XP just like Sony did to get the OS on the machine when they built it. Or did you think Sony installed Windows onto every machine they build :)

Apart from watching eBay for months, searching the different model numbers u50, u70, u71p, u8p until something good appears. You could try searching Yahoo Japan Auctions. Or outside Japan a proxy service for Yahoo Japan Auctions. Mine was cheap because it didn't come with recovery discs, the extra front buttons still don't work without the right software. I still have not found Sony's 'Special Button Utility' for any of these models online. I still love owning this thing :)

@@JanusCycle I’ve searched Yahoo Japan auctions, and for some reason, nothing came up. I’ve also tried eBay, but the prices are way too much for me to afford. I wish there was some sort of vintage tech site that sells them for a more reasonable price. I get it that those things are rare to find, but there should at least be a site that sells them for a more reasonable price. I too am a big fan of old tech, so I’m trying to find one that’s not so big and bulky… like a Toshiba libretto.

@@JanusCycle I have all the drivers, if you need. I have 4 U. One U50 totally new and fully factory packaged for about 1000 bucks, U50 used, U70 used and U71p used (with full box).

@@kudryavchik Yes please! I would love a proper set of drivers and applications/install CDs for the u71p. Your collection sounds impressive. I'm completely intrigued and would love to know more. I would also like to make another U video soon.

@@JanusCycle My collection is: 1. Sony VAiO U. 4 units. One U50 completely new in factory package (never used after production, was stored in warehouse in Japan). One more U50, U70 and U71p (full box) 2. Sony VAIO UX. 4 units. 2 UX1XRN (one almost new), 1 UX280p with modification (64 GB SLC SSD), 1 UX91NS - japanese blue model 3. Sony VAIO C1MHP 4. Sony CLiE NZ-90. Bought new in 2003. Heavily used)) 5. Toshiba Libretto 50CT (with PATA enterprise SSD) 6. IBM Thinkpad 560Z. Modified with P2 400 MHZ, Pata enterprise SSD and 192MB RAM 7. HP Jornada 720 8. Nokia N-GAGE. bought new in 2003 9. Casio Cassiopeia FIVA MPC-501. Totally new, old stock 10. etc

I asked the Microsoft support virtual assistant which said it's not possible, then directed me to the support forums where I found a post from last week indicating that the XP activation servers are still online in 2019. answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/why-is-there-so-much-confusion-about-the-current/439e2764-81fb-40d2-9e6a-f9e8ddbd4116 This requires Service Pack 3 and I'm running XP Tablet SP2 though which makes this method a deal breaker for me. I have two weeks to go and I may end up editing the registry entry to bypass the WPAEvents timer in the name of retro history preservation.

I had a look at doing this. Windows 8 requires CPUs with PAE and No eXecution features that this VAIOs CPU doesn't have. There is a way to bypass this and get Windows 8 running on this CPU though. It's worth trying sometime.

@@JanusCycle if you force pae and bypass noexecute it should work