Official Sony VAIO P-series Owners thread

All the P series released so far have had 8" displays and very small overall size.

Sony's advertisements for the P series showed picture of someone with P in their pants pocket...

11" and 13" displays won't fit in your pocket....these are other series...

 

I have upgraded my SSD P with a 128GB Samsung SSD a year ago and it is running out of space. Just wondering if anyone has upgraded their P with a 256GB SSD, what type and what is your experience?

 

Do you have Gen I or II p?

Opening up Gen II is a real pain and easy to break off casing tabs..

But a 256GB SSD should work fine as Sony sold some that way...

 

Previous post was over 5 months ago....anyone still using their P besides me?.....

Anyone put Win8 on theirs and if so, how do you like it?

 

I still use my Vaio P. While I have not yet tried Windows 8 on it, I did install an nlited version of Windows 7 that I downloaded from torrent. It works like a charm, and all drivers work.

My Vaio P is the base model with Atom Z520, 60GB hard disk (not SSD), 2GB RAM, so I have to be very choosy on what apps I run on it. It can get frustantingly slow sometimes, so I only take to meetings to do some show-off.

Vaio P is still the most good-looking and bizarre computer out there. It turns heads and ignites curiosity.

 

Glad it works well for you.....

Will try Win8.1 when I have some time to install it.....

Understand....fortunately, I have the high spec model with faster CPU and large SSD....

Understand....although not sure that it's the most bizarre....although maybe it is....hmmm.....

FWIW, I am dual booting the P with Win7HP and LinuxMint 15....works great that way....

 

I still use mine. Black Vaio P 2nd gen, 1.87ghz, with the 128gb ssd from my previous black Vaio P 2nd gen I drowned in a bottle of beer (for over an hour). I was running Windows 8 which was nice but now on 8.1 and its even more responsive.

Anywhere you go online the Vaio P is ridiculed. This idiot places it No 3 of the all-time worst laptops ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTEK63PjPZM yet has clearly never used one in his life. Anyone I give it to find the keyboard fantastic and some legal types I handed it to, who originally were turned off my the screen res and size of text suddenly became very interested when I mentioned the fanless design and the fact nobody could see what your typing in court. For the professional looking to keep their work private its the perfect machine.

To anyone still using theirs try using Kingsoft Office. Its free and I've found it much more frugal on CPU and Ram than MS Office.

 

Good to hear....did you have any issues with:

a) Installing Win8 and

b) Upgrading from 8 to 8.1

Yeah, I know......sigh............

Thanks for the suggestion...haven't heard of this one....been using LibreOffice when running linux.....which works great....and free too...

 

No issues installing 8 although it was a bare install rather than an upgrade and I didnt load the vaio software onto it. I'll try that tomorrow. The upgrade from 8 to 8.1 was the smoothest of any OS upgrade I've ever had. Thats across 3 machines now. An iMac with bootcamp, this P and a Vaio Duo 11. That encompasses OSX, Windows, Blackberry, IOS, Android, WHS. MS deserve credit for it.

Sadly I just remembered why the P has been relegated to a sub for the Duo. I have major pointer drift. I've tried to use cellotape (or a 'harness' as Sony's secret technicians repair manual calls it) but I cant seem to cure it. I wouldnt mind if I could just disable the trachpad and use the touchhpad instead but I can't seem to find that option. If I found the Sony engineer who screwed this up I'd drift over him, repeatedly with a truck.

Kingsoft is excellent. Get it before MS destroy them. Its Chinese and its basically an MS Office 2011 knockoff but its par for the course at this stage.

 

Thanks for all the additional info.....so, you downloaded 8.1 and then installed it I assume.....

Yeah, pointer drift is a drag....
Wasn't there a driver update for this?....or maybe I'm thinking of another laptop......

If you have any comments after installing Vaio software, please let us know.....

Will check out Kingsoft....

Thanks!....

 

It's good to hear people are still enjoying their Ps. I would love to be using mine but I bust the screen and couldn't find a sensibly priced replacement part. So my P has been sitting in a drawer for over a year. I still agree that there is nothing to beat it. It really did go in my pocket! And with an Alfa wifi booster in the other pocket I got a signal in lots of places where nobody else could...it was a great conversation starter.

 

Yes, I also really hope that Sony will make a new P model, and it would be OK with a touchscreen, as Win 8.1 will be the OS.

What I really wish Sony will change in a possible new iteration, is the keyboard layout: The right shift key should be bigger and much better located, not be like the present one: a far too small key squeezed in between other keys, and therefore making the risk of mistyping so high (often the arrow up key is hit by mistake).

 

I still have my LCD from the 2nd gen I spilled beer on. Will have to try test it tomorrow to make sure its working though. I've been using the 128gb SSD from the dead P in the replacement P I bought for over a year so I reckon the only component that died was the logicbord.

I have the 64gb SSD from the replacement P doing nothing and was looking to get it running. Does anyone know of an adapter I could use to convert it to a 1.8" or 2.5" standard drive. I've included a couple of pics below (in pic 2 its the drive on the right versus a 1.8").

 

Hello everyone on this forum. I am a senior in highschool and have wanted a vaio P for about 2 years. I want it for college. I have looked across the internet and have found no where to purchase one. I am thoroughly upset. Please help. I just want the P series. It is by far the best laptop I have found and I want it so badly. If anyone knows where I could buy one or if anyone has one for sale, please let me know. Thanks so much.

 

hi guys, bought the 2gn vaio, however it is with the stick keyboard wandering issue...

can anybody give me the download of the service manual?? cant find it , or old link broken...

anybody can explain in wich the fix consist?

thanks

 

The fix was basically to stick down the flexible pcb from the touch pointer just before it entered the connector on the main board.

However, the keyboard plastic puts pressure on the connector and pressing in the area to the left of the spacebar will slightly shift the pcb and the cursor will drift to the upper right OR the lower left.

I just disconnected the touch pointer. The connector can be exposed by:
1. Undoing the screws at the rear of the battery compartment and under the front feet.
2. Sliding the keyboard forward 1 to 1.5mm (not mentioned in the manual or any instructions).
3. Lifting up the keyboard.

The connector is VERY FRAGILE and consists of a hinged flap that is pushed down on the flexible pcb plug. Use a fine screwdriver to lift the centre of the flap on the side away from the front. The hinge is at the front. USE VERY LITTLE FORCE AND ONLY MOVE IT UP SLOWLY. If you break the flap, you will probably NEVER be able to fix the touch pointer.


I can't find my copy of the repair manual PDFs.

We are trying to sell our 2nd gen 116, and just decided to let it go for AU$200 as is.

 

thank you very much

i cant find this "M990 TAPE HARNESS P/N: 4-185-602-01 "

can i use other kid of tape??

thanks

 

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