topic Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?) in PCs & Accessories

Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

ChrisOfTheOT — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:54:01 GMT

I need to get something to boot our R600 so we can sell it. I was wondering which port replicators/docking stations would work. These are the official ones:

PCGA-DSD5
PCGA-DSM5
PCGA-DSM51

But would the US version R505 chaps work - and what are the part numbers? I've seen:

PCGA-PR5 (and -UPR5)
PCGA-PRF1A

From what I can tell, all the plugs look "similar" (!) but I've no idea if they are... Can anyone help, please?

Cheers,

Chris

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

kee-lo_ — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:56:23 GMT

According to eBay the first one would work

eBay

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

ChrisOfTheOT — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:09:42 GMT

Hi Kee-Lo - you've got a real eBay thing going on there, haven't you!

I did a search but there all in the US - and shed-loads of dosh. What I want is a perfect one, for free. Would you have a link...?

If not, I was wondering if I got the wrong one deliberately, would the plug fit? As I said, they SEEM to be the same...

We'll have to wait and see.

Cheers,

Chris

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

kee-lo_ — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:16:49 GMT

Hard to say Chris.

Yes, I'm afraid I have the eBay bug, as I am moving soon, I need to sell off old cassettes and CDs etc to buy new things for my place.

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

ChrisOfTheOT — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:27:12 GMT

Best of luck with your new eBay venture, Kee-Lo. We've certainly raised some good cash with them. (With packaging & PayPal - which I regard as essential - I reckon it costs about 20% of everything sold but it's worth every penny! I recommend eBay to anyone.)

As for the docking station - it's become redundant as I've got the USB drivers working in DOS now. (I just need to figure out how to do a System Restore from DOS, via a USB drive, but as I said in 'Alternate Boot Options' - that's another thread.)

For anyone interested, the first three docking stations/port reps. l listed are are the Sony recommended ones. The second two are for the N505 series (If memory serves) and after scrutinizing the plug on the port rep. I think the actual data transfer pins etc. are the same, but the shape of the outer plug-to-socket is not: The male data transfering part (for want of a more acurate descripton!) of the plug looks like it would fit into the female data tranfering part of the R600 laptop, but you'd probably have to physically hold it in with you hand. Not an option for an hour-long Restore, then!

(And the difference between the PR- & the UPR-5 is the latter has i-Link and USB etc. The former has just PS/2, Serial etc.)

Cheers ,

Chris

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

kee-lo_ — Sat, 20 Nov 2004 15:17:14 GMT

Yeah they really get you on the old Paypal don't they????
I paid 42p for someone to send me £6.50!
Wonder if it would be cheaper if they loaded the cash into their account then paid by sending money?

Thanks for the info on the DS' - I hate the way Sony make sneaky changes to fool people.

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

ChrisOfTheOT — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:12:26 GMT

It don't matter squat now - look what I did find:

"To perform a system recovery, your docking station should be disconnected"

How about that!? Imagine spending all that money on a docking station only to find you 'ain't spent enough! Madness. It seems that Sony laptops will ONLY boot externally from iLink (I'm not sure about FireWire, even) or PCMCIA - though whether they need to be pukka Sony products, I don't know. (Mandy, in another thread, said her GRX booted from a Sony floppy drive but our local computer shop couldn't boot our R600 from a Sony USB floppy.)

Anyway - DO NOT buy a docking station for booting! (I only just found out in time. )

Cheers,

Chris

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

kee-lo_ — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:17:59 GMT

Damn thats a pain.

On The GRX it boots from the CD, iLink and USB floppy, but it has to be a Sony.

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

Mr.Butler — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 20:06:03 GMT

I bought a PCG-R600HFPD with a banjaxed hard drive. I replaced the HD with a new one, powered up on the PCGA-DSM5 dock and set the BIOS to boot from floppy for the disk partition software on diskette. No problems. I then set it to boot from CD for XP install. Again no problem.

I am having trouble with CD-RW on the DVD/CD-RW combo drive. See http://www.club-vaio.sony-europe.com/clubvaio/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=13329&lastpage=yes

Q: Where is the forum 'search' feature? There must be one ... mustn't there?

Re: Port Replicators/Docking Stations for R600 Series (& R505s?)

kee-lo_ — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 20:20:04 GMT

Q: Where is the forum 'search' feature? There must be one ... mustn't there?

Alas, nope, still no news of it either.