Sony Vaio PCG-Z505/Z600

Sony Vaio PCG-Z505/Z600

I bought a pair of two old Sony Vaio laptops; a PCG-Z600RE and a ~~PCG-Z600TEK~~ in February 2025 as more candidates for a top-end DOS gaming laptop.

Actually, on delivery and closer examination, the PCG-Z600TEK turned out to be a PCG-Z600HEK - The difference being it had the better Pentium III 800MHz, rather than the 700MHz.

The PCG-Z600xxx models are the UK/European version of the PCG-ZR505, and hence not really mentioned much. There are a lot of variations of these machines.

	Z505HE	Z505HS	Z505LE	Z505LS	Z600RE	Z600NE	Z600LE	Z600TE	Z600HE
Processor	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III	Intel Pentium III
Processor Speed	450MHz	500MHz	650MHz	750MHz	500MHz	650MHz	700MHz	700MHz	800MHz
Graphics Type	NeoMagic	NeoMagic	ATI	ATI	NeoMagic	NeoMagic	ATI	ATI	ATI
Graphics Model	MagicMedia 256AV	MagicMedia 256AV	Rage Mobility M1	Rage Mobility M1	MagicMedia 256AV	MagicGraph 256XL+	Rage Mobility M1	Rage Mobility M1	Rage Mobility M1
Graphics Bus	AGP	AGP	AGP	AGP	AGP	AGP	AGP	AGP	AGP
Graphics RAM	2.5MB	2.5MB	8MB	8MB	2.5MB	6MB	8MB	8MB	8MB
Screen Size	12“	12”	12“	12”	12“	12”	12“	12”	12“
Screen Resolution	1024×768	1024×768	1024×768	1024×768	1024×768	1024×768	1024×768	1024×768	1024×768
Audio Type	Yamaha	Yamaha	Yamaha	Yamaha	Yamaha	Yamaha	Yamaha	Yamaha	Yamaha
Audio Model

That is not all of them!

They share a common (slim) chassis, with a 12” 1024×768 screen, the same battery and no internal FDD/CD/DVD capability (they were modelled as an ultra portable). The main differences are the use of the NeoMagic graphics versus ATI Rage Mobility. The ATI option is much, much better with the typical smooth scaling of non-native screen modes to the LCD panel.

PCG-Z600RE

PCG-Z600TEK

Port Replicator

Condition Summary

PCG-Z600RE

Missing speaker covers
Missing both hinge covers
Missing hard drive caddy/cable
General scratches and wear

PCG-Z600TEK

Missing one hinge cover
Missing keyboard/trackpad cover
Missing hard drive caddy (but not cable)
General scratches and wear
Snapped trackpad cable
Very worn keyboard cover/wrist rest

In addition, only one battery is present.

Hardware Inventory

Ricoh RL5c475 Cardbus Controller
Intel 82557/8/9 EtherExpress Pro/100B Ethernet
Conexant HSF 56K Data/Fax Modem
Yamaha YMF744B DS-1S Audio
Sony CXD3222 i.LINK FireWire Controller
PIIX4/E/M Power Management Controller
PIIX4/E/M USB Controller
PIIX4/E/M IDE Controller
PIIX4/E/M ISA Bridge
440BX/ZX PCI to AGP Bridge
440BX/ZX CPU to PCI Bridge
ATI Rage P/M Mobility AGP 2X

Documentation

Software

DOS
- PCMCIA
  - Cardsoft - This works, but only with the generic SS365SL.EXE driver. This means 32bit Cardbus cards won't work. Neither of the Ricoh drivers (SSCBRI.EXE or SSRICOH.SYS) work.
- Yamaha Audio
- Intel Pro/100 LAN
  - e100pkt.zip E100PKT.COM - Detects card, but is unable to configure it correctly (shows error “Error! PORT self-test failed”)
  - ibm10_100.zip E10PPKT.COM - Does not work, unable to detect PCI card
  - ibm10_100.zip E100BPKT.COM - Does not work, unable to detect PCI card

Windows 98
- PCMCIA
- Yamaha Audio
- ATI Rage Mobility VGA
- Firewire
- Intel Pro/100 LAN
  - pro98.zip - Intel Pro/100 driver suite for Windows 95/98

Since there wasn't enough parts to make two good, working systems, I decided to pull the better parts from the PCG-Z600RE (the NeoMagic VGA model) and fit them to the PCG-Z600HE (ATI VGA model). This included:

Internal trackpad flex cable
Mini-USB plastic surround trim
Keyboard/wrist rest panel
Hinge covers
Keyboard

This leaves me with one missing screen hinge cover, the audio/iLINK trim piece, and the volume/USB trim piece to find.

After spending some time de-gunking the case, removing stickers and polishing up the general grime, the PCG-Z600HE came up looking quite nice:

Sony Vaio PCG-Z600HE on the left. IBM Thinkpad 240/240X on the right.

Considering the Sony has a 12“ screen compared to the 10” on the IBM, there's really not a lot in it.

Both laptops, when tested, had cpu fans running almost constantly, and when I investigated by taking apart the heatsink/fan from the PCG-Z600RE (both machines have identical cooling solutions) I found the thermal interface material had degraded to the point of going rock hard and extremely brittle. Clearly not conducting much heat at all!