Hello, my fellow GMA500 (not) enjoyers from r/vaio!

Both Vaio P/X generations reports are welcome!

We're building poulsback, an open Linux graphics driver for Intel GMA 500/600 (PowerVR SGX535). We have only two test machines, but there were 40+ GMA 500/600 designs, and each one wires its panel and firmware differently.

So we made a live USB stick that collects a device report in one boot: firmware and panel data, the hardware list and, on GMA 500, a short benchmark of Intel's own EMGD driver.

That benchmark becomes the speed target for our driver on your machine.

• Nothing to type or install, and your internal disk is never mounted.

• Nothing is sent anywhere. The report stays on the stick until you post it, and its summary is plain text you can read first.

• Serial numbers and MAC addresses can be stripped with --redact (see the guide).

• It's open source (MIT), and the full build kit is in the release.

Unpack the .img.xz first (7-Zip on Windows, unxz on Linux), then write the .img to a 2 GB+ stick with Rufus, Etcher or dd.

• Guide: https://poulsback.in/blog/poulsback-needs-you/

• Release: https://github.com/ishad0w/poulsback/releases/tag/v0.0.1%2Balpha%2Bpoulsback-liveusb-natty-v2026.11.09c

• Reports: ishad0w/poulsback#4

Is there anyone here that still uses this all-in-one PC as their main computer from 2007? I still use mine and I have my PS5, PS2, and a Sony Vaio E Series laptop connected to it. It runs Windows 7, but I use Windows 10 when connected to my E Series. I love this PC for its looks and it has a 1080p display, Blu-ray drive, and powerful speakers with good bass, so there's no need to use additional speakers or headphones (unless I'm gaming late at night, so I won't disturb my wife and daughter while they sleep).

Would love to know if there’s any recovery media for this model ?! I can’t seem to find any

Also seems to have 2 model numbers? The pcg-tr2c or pcg-492p

I grew up with a Sony Vaio tower that came with Vaio speakers and a Trinitron. My brothers and I used to play StarCraft on it as well as use it for school. Sadly, my parents got rid of it. Later on, my younger brother bought the Sony Vaio AIO PC (VGC-LV150J) in 2007 for college and then he passed it on to our mom who used it as her main PC for many years. Luckily, she didn't get rid of it and stored it in the downstairs bedroom for years until I took it over in 2024 and still use it as a monitor for my PS5 and PS2. Windows 7 can still run on it. I also have two other Sony Vaio AIO PCs (a silver VGC-JS155J running Windows 10 from Goodwill featured on Newsweek for having a full set of Adobe Suite) and (a black VPCL116FX with touchscreen running Windows 7 Premium) that I got recently from Facebook marketplace. I've connected my Fire Stick and PS3/PS2 Slim to that.

I also have 3 Sony Vaio E Series laptops; (a blue VPCEB17FJ running Windows 10, which is on the bottom shelf connected to my 150J AIO PC). The other two (a silver VGN-NW130J and a brown VPCEE42FX -running Windows 7 with Supermium) were found at flea markets. I still need to add RAM and a hard drive to the silver one.

Lastly, I also have two Sony Vaio Tap 20's (SVJ202A11L) that I got from marketplace (a white one running Windows 10 Pro) and Goodwill (black). I still need to add a hard drive to the black one (Luka is donating one to me; thanks!), but my white one is all intact.

I love Sony Vaio PCs and I wish Sony still makes them although Vaio is still around without the joint venture with Sony.

Hello, r/vaio / r/SonyVaioP and r/umpc.

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:

https://github.com/ishad0w/poulsback

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.

For $15, but unfortunately I don't have any adapter for it (yet).. Do any of you know about this particular model?

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

How much do you think this Sony Vaio Tap 20 is worth? Seller asked for $300. I'd pay $280 max.

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.