Comments on: Sony Vaio PCG-U3 UMPC

By: George

George — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:00:34 +0000

Can anyone tell me where I can download or get the factory recovery discs for my pcg-u3? I just bought it used, with no discs, and it needs to be recovered to factory. The drivers I got on Sony’s site don’t work on mine. Thanks in advance of any info.

By: Doctor Snuggles

Doctor Snuggles — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:36:10 +0000

You might have to go first into BIOS to change the boot order. Me personally I just had Windows XP on disk and booted from an external drive using the serial key for verification.

By: james

james — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 06:58:45 +0000

I have tried to install an OS by using PXE. There are a lot of ways to do this on the internet but I have quite found the right one. I first tried using PXE to send WinPE and install XP that way but had no such luck. I am trying a different method so hopefully i will have a little more luck. I will update if it works correctly.

By: simon

simon — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:32:12 +0000

Thank you for your reply, I have just bought mine on Ebay but have not got my hands on it yet but it was exactly what I was looking for as I need something very small enabling me to stay in contact 24/7 so I am going to buy extended batteries it already comes with a PCMCIA cellular modem and loads of other goodies, the only disappointment is no internal WIFI card which seems crazy considering the way it was designed being highly mobile, I think I will refrain from pulling it apart and just go the Nano USB WIFI card route although I have installed internal cards before I would rather make sure that there is an actual slot before going through the adventure of pulling one apart.

By: Doctor Snuggles

Doctor Snuggles — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:29:15 +0000

I don’t remember, if there is a port to directly install one nor if there is any connection to solder one onto, but you definately can use one of the USB ports. Be prepared for an adventure to dismantle this beauty. It has plenty of screws hidden under stickers and covers. Took me a while to figure everything out. You may post a comment, if you bump into any problems. I will get a notice email from the-gadgeteer.com and try to guide you through. Other than that, there is plenty off space to put any extras in. Happy that there is someone out there, who has this little computer, too. It is really tough to get hold of one, since it’s only sold through the Japanese market. Always getting the looks, when I use my U3 in public and always respond:”Yes, this is a full laptop and it’s a Sony” .

By: simon

simon — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:51:06 +0000

Hello Everybody
I have one question about the Sony UX U3, I presume that when you wish to connect to the internet through a wireless network you can do it through the wireless PCMCIA card as the unit does not have built in Wireless, if this is true do you know if it is possible to upgrade the unit by installing an internal WIFI card.
Simon

By: Doctor Snuggles

Doctor Snuggles — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:32:36 +0000

hello there, want to upgrade my u3 with a ssd. cannot figure out how to dismantle it. am somehow stuck at the end, where the power adapter input is. please, anybody?

By: bayyagg

bayyagg — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:47:31 +0000

I have this nice U3, but I didn’t use it for a year!
Tried to use it again for my daughter to use, it started up but when the Xp logo came it reboots again?
Wut seems to be the probs?
Do I have to overhaul the hardware and clean everything up?
I’ve lost the driver cd and installation CD!

By: kenneth

kenneth — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:13:58 +0000

Hi i have just purchased mine of ebay in its original box mint condition all the extras including a new battery.I would like to know where i can get that extra 256 memory from in the uk.I would like to remove the 20gb & put in a 500gb hard drive.please let me know.Thankyou.

By: Ernibv

Ernibv — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:41:55 +0000

I have been using a U1 for about 5 years. Great machine. Now I would like to swap out the HD for an SSD. Any ideas?
grtz
ER

By: Jamy

Jamy — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:23:38 +0000

Hi all,

I am looking for the ThumbPhraseSetup application for my VAIO U. It used to be available at
http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Enjoy/Dow…se2/index.html

but Sony is no-longer hosting this file. There is version 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0, I think and any one will do for me. If anybody can give me a lead, I will be immensely grateful.

Cheers, Jamy

By: jhon

jhon — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:54:59 +0000

hola donde consigo los driver para esta pc no los encuentro y los necesito si alguien los tiene le agradeceria me los iciera llegar al correo gracias

By: THT

THT — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:23:54 +0000

Hi Everyone, I recently picked one up and the person loaded it with WIN XP Professional, and now the PCMCIA slot will not see my card and the functions on the keyboard like the volume and LCD brightness control are not working either, will restoring these back ti factory settings take care of this?

By: Soijai

Soijai — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:01:16 +0000

Apparently installing from CD is only possible with a firewire CD, not a USB one. I am not sure if that means only a specific Sony firewire drive will work.

What I have done is install over the network, but this requires a server that can serve network boot images. I used Windows Server 2004 for this. There are probably some other options to enable a PXE boot scenario.

By: rodel

rodel — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:42:43 +0000

hi! I have a sony pcg-u3 and the operating system (windows xp) happened to crash, whe I try to install it again it wont recognise amy external cd/dvd drive what should I do? pls help me on this..

By: mwayi

mwayi — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:38:07 +0000

hie everyone i need help,have sony pcg u3 the system crashed,can’t remember where i reft the recovery disks tried to load xp but it won’t recognise extenal dvd rom what should i do please help am so desparate

By: bryan

bryan — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:02:40 +0000

hi
were can find or download the driver of my PCG-U1 notebook? because i lost it, that why my computer does not work properly, thanks hope u can help me tnx a lot

By: John

John — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:22:30 +0000

Hi, Can anyone e-mail me the correct driver for the memory stick slot of this Sony PCG-U3 running Windows XP. Thanks a lot for ur great help.

By: DJACID

DJACID — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:54:26 +0000

i have been using the u1 for 3yrs at uni,
only recently sold it as my parents gave me there u3,
the only problem i have with the u3 is booting from a external drive,
on the u1 you can boot from usb but the u3 gave me lots of problems when i installed vista basic editions,
if anyone goes down the route of installing vista remeber hard drive will need to be upgraded unless like me i used nlite and stripped out all the useless drivers and programs i didnt need and then installed it,
works a treat,
speed wise probaly 10% slower then xp but programs open quicker…

By: Roger Whitmarsh

Roger Whitmarsh — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:25:12 +0000

OK, I found out how to upgrade the Memory Stick slot to accept MS Pro sticks, if anyone is interested. First you download this utility:
ftp://ftp.vaio.sony.co.jp/pub/vaio/download/SP-005422-01/SOFMSC-00542201-UN.exe
Then you put a stick in the slot (a non PRO stick), and run the program. The program formats the stick and puts the firmware upgrade onto the stick. You power down, power up and the firmware is automagically upgraded from the stick.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:35:06 +0000

Hello,

May somebody is able to contact me recording drivers for english WinXP?
I have all 4 recovery cd’s but I do not know how to get to the drivers…
little boring without the jog dial, screen-brighness-control,…

Thanks,

(-:

By: Roman

Roman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:39:52 +0000

HEllo,
finally i got mine from Australia too, with 512MB ram, but only 20GB HDD, do you have some advices for me how to upgrade my hdd.
Thanks in advance!!
roman

By: Roger Whitmarsh

Roger Whitmarsh — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:56:23 +0000

Hi All. I also have a U3 and love it, but it seems the memory stick port only works with an original plain old memory stick, not the later memory stick Pro or Duo. I wonder if there is a driver to update the port to take the Pro and/or Duo. Anyone know?

[Edited at October 30, 2008 19:14:29 PM.]

By: michelle

michelle — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:23:39 +0000

Hello, thank you for the great review. I’m thinking of purchasing U1 at Direct from Japan and I would like to know if your U3 is still working well without problems. Also, do you think it is safer to order from eBay store (rather than ordering from their direct store)? And how do I use internet wirelessly when using U1? Please let me know soon, thank you!

By: sergio

sergio — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:55:06 +0000

Hi, this is actually not a comment, I need some help, I have a pcg-u3 and I need to replace the hard drive but I do not have a clue how to open the Laptop, so any help will be appreciated.
Also, when I first bought, after a while I had to format the hard drive, and I lost that japanese thumb feature for writing in japanese, I have not found a way to recover that even with the recovery CDs.
I’d appreciate very much your help, mostly in the replacing of the hard drive issue
thanks