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Sony Vaio MMX desktop restore ?

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First post, by Intel486dx33

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I plan on restoring this Sony Vaio desktop to original with some upgrades.
It has a Pentium MMX 200mhz CPU with 128mb ram.
And will be running DOS / Win95c

Questions:
What Video cards should I use to keep it original ?
What sound card should I use ?
Should I add a Yamaha XG sound card ? Or other Yamaha sound card ? I also have an Audician 32.
I want to keep this computer all Japanese components I can.
It has ISA and PCI slots available.

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2020-12-02, 15:35. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 31, by spiroyster

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Are you sure thats got 128MB RAM? The auction for the pictures you posted say 32MB? Looks pretty original to me.

That was the first VAIO. Video is onboard so if you want to keep it original, keep a graphics card away from it, but the second VAIO desktop (PCV-T700MR) had a ATi Rage II if you did want to put one in.

https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press_Arch … -056/index.html

Sony made some gorgeous desktops, way ahead of their time in terms of design.

Reply 2 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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Yes, for best performance in Win95c what hardware upgrades do you recommend ?
Maybe a 72,000rpm hard-drive? As this computer is missing the original hard-drive.
I know my Sony Vaio laptops came with really slow toshiba hard-drives.
Which I upgraded with 72,000rpm IBM travelstar hard drives and performance is much better now.
How much ram do you recommend for good gaming performance under win95c ?

Reply 3 of 31, by spiroyster

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If I had a 72,000 RPM drive, I might put it in my current rig as it may give an SSD/NVME a good run for its money 🤣
Personally there are some aspects of 'nostalgia' which should stay in the past. HDD's with moving parts are one of them for me. two eaches their own though...

In terms of the rest, meh don't know. My 'retro' hardware has 512MB and runs Win98 so can't help, but I would have thought 32MB, perhaps even 16MB would be enough for most games and be 'period' correct? Back'int day I had 32MB for win95, and don't remember it ever be a limiting issue tbh.

Reply 4 of 31, by Cobra42898

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I've got a pcv-120 can't read your photo quite clearly if yours is the same model. Mine came with 16mb of fpm ram. Tried my darndest to install win95c but couldn't get the video drivers sorted out. Win98se however just found everything all on it's own. Don't be surprised if you have the same problem. Is that the same db25 connector scsi card just like mine has? Symbios logic, can't recall the model. I pulled it just for freeing resources sake.

I'm running a pci rage pro (not turbo) in it, as I've had a on board display problem with the VGA connection- it required more and more cable wiggling and shenanigans to get it to work each time. Haven't had time to mess with diagnosing it.

Overall it's a great pc - onboard rage ii (drivers say mach64gt) seems to be a decent display for it's time. Enjoy it!

Searching for Epson Actiontower 3000 486 PC.

Reply 5 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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I have not received it yet as I just recently purchased it.
I like this modelbecause it is just basically a bare bones intel motherboard.
I don’t know if this model originally came with a TV capture card like most of them did ?
I want to keep this barebones basic PC and maybe add some Japanese cards.

Reply 6 of 31, by Cobra42898

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Iirc, the chipset was a 430hx, which seems among the better ones of the time.

Searching for Epson Actiontower 3000 486 PC.

Reply 7 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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I am trying to restore a Sony Vaio PCV-90 desktop.
It has a Pentium 200mhz CPU and 32mb ram.
I have Win95c installed.
Audio Yamaha YMF-701s is working fine with Yamaha Audician-32 drivers.

I need to get USB working.

I need USB update driver package for Win95c.
Windows 95c device manager shows that I need "PCI USB driver" ?

And is there a PCI USB adapter with Win95 support ?

And I need a good network adapter 10/100. Does anyone know of a good one that works vanilla with Win95c.

I have 4 PCI slots and 3 ISA slots.

Reply 8 of 31, by andrea

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

I need to get USB working.

I need USB update driver package for Win95c.
Windows 95c device manager shows that I need "PCI USB driver" ?

Have you installed the USB supplement and the supplement to the USB supplement? They should be in OTHER\UPDATES\USB on the Windows 95 C CD. If yours doesn't have them, look on the net for "USBSUPP.EXE" and "USBUPD2.EXE".
You can also try XUSBSUPP. I've never personally used it, but I have heard good things.

Intel486dx33 wrote:

And is there a PCI USB adapter with Win95 support ?

Only for 1.1 cards. The thing is that 95's USB support is surprising that it actually works at all, the less you mess with it the better, if you can get the onboard to work I'd stay with that.
What kind of motherboard does the thing have?

Intel486dx33 wrote:

And I need a good network adapter 10/100. Does anyone know of a good one that works vanilla with Win95c.

If you get a 3com 3C905B or a Intel PRO/100 you can't go wrong. Also RTL8139s can work, but those are rubbish aren't that great, especially on slow machines.

Reply 9 of 31, by brostenen

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Next time.... Do a google search. It was not hard to find something. Though I am in a train right now, so I can not verify if this works.

All I did was to google "usb update for win95 c" and one of the first hits was this below. I am not making fun or anything. Just telling you to google first, before asking.

https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-95/patches

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

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Reply 10 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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Thanks for your comments people. I will try them.

Update:

Thanks those USB updates worked. I have USB working on my Win95c computer now.
Works good for USB 1.1
Using a Patriot USB 2.0 flash drive.

Reply 11 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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Here is a Sony Vaio PCV-90. This is one of the early Sony Vaio Desktops.
It has 4 ISA slots and 3 PCI slots.
Supports up to 128mb ram.
200MHz Intel Pentium MMX, 2.5 GB Hard-drive loaded with Windows 95, Onboard ATI RAGE 3D Graphics Acceleration 2 MB EDO
Onboard Yamaha audio via YMF-7xx driver.
Sold for $2500 in 2007.
I like this computer because it is basic and has ISA slots and NO TV capture stuff like the NEWER Vaio's do.
What I don't like is the Cheap Sony Vaio purple skin they put on this case.
It is cheap and comes apart easy.
I upgraded the ram to 64mb and added a DVD drive because I had one lying around.
It can't play DVD movies but at least I can read DVD data disks.

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2019-01-14, 12:34. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 12 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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More photos

Reply 13 of 31, by d0ugb

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I had a PCV-70 back in the day, i have a physical copy of the sony restore disc, i can image it if needed, works for both pcv-70/90.

Reply 14 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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d0ugb wrote:

I had a PCV-70 back in the day, i have a physical copy of the sony restore disc, i can image it if needed, works for both pcv-70/90.

Yes, that sounds great. I was looking for an original restore disks with win95 but could not find one.
I would very much appreciate an IOS image of it.

Reply 15 of 31, by Stiletto

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Merged threads.

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 16 of 31, by sonypcv90

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So I was throwing out a bunch of old electronics this afternoon and remembered that I had a PCV-90 under my bed. I don't think I was quite a teenager at the time, but I remember the Sony virtual environment for launching applications being amazing. As was 3D Movie Maker. I also thought it would be cool to get it working. That is when I stumbled upon this thread. I'm wondering d0ugb, were you ever able to make an ISO of the restore disks? That would be so awesome. Thanks.

Reply 17 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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No, I don't have the restore disks. One poster said they where going to upload it but they never reply back.
I have it loaded with Win95c and all the drivers worked vanilla. Just audio did not work.
But I used the Yamaha Audition drivers and it worked. So all is working now.
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 482&menustate=0

Reply 18 of 31, by d0ugb

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SO SORRY! I completely forgot about this! I will try and image it today. Also, for some reason I cannot reply to private messages anyone know what thats about?

Reply 19 of 31, by Intel486dx33

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Thanks, Just drop a link to the ISO image.