Sony VGN-UX50 from JP to EN

[Mini_B]

I have a Sony VGN-UX50 that I'd like to change from Japanese to English. I've been told that the process isn't easy so I'm hesitant to try it myself. Does anyone know of a company in Japan that would be willing to take on this task?

[6810]

learn japanese...

[FG Lurker]

I have a Sony VGN-UX50 that I'd like to change from Japanese to English.

Seriously, my condolences.

You may be able to get English Windows installed but you will have a nightmare with drivers for any of Sony's proprietary buttons/wheels/cameras/memory slots/whatever.

Your best bet by far is to keep the Japanese Windows and just install things like English Office (2000 or later) and English Firefox and Thunderbird.

Sony is a horrible company that refuses to follow industry standards. Don't buy their crappy products.

[American Oyaji]

:rofl:
Sony is a horrible company that refuses to follow industry standards.

You mean the way Apple USED to be?

[FG Lurker]

You mean the way Apple USED to be?

In many ways the two companies have similar business plans -- to lock their customers into as much of their own hardware as possible through industrial design and/or technology. In recent times Apple has done less to lock people in with technology than Sony.

iTunes DRM is one example of Apple trying to lock users (iPod owners) in via technology. Personally I don't care though cause I'm not stupid enough to buy DRM'd music.

[Kuang_Grade]

After little poking around, I found these guys in Osaka.... they say can do it for $200 US(but it looks like the mean to do it more for new units than necessairly used)...no idea if they are any good.

http://www.mcljapan.com/exportspec.htm

Or you could cash it in at sofmap and go for one of the upgraded models they are about to released for the US
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product-detail.do?&prodId=38131&catId=36415;
http://www.dynamism.com/ux/pricing.shtml

[AlbertSiegel]

Copy the drivers from the C drive. There is a drivers folder full of driver installers. They will work in English. Google (yes, it's a verb now) either the VGN-UX50 or VGN-UX90 for English conversion. You will find info on how to do it. I have the UX90 and it works in English. You can use the same activation key on the pc as long as you have a similar version of Windows (ie. JPN XP Home key works with ENG XP install).

[IkemenTommy]

Just to let you guys all know, Sony is a piece of crap. I've had the VGN-T90PS which is similar to the UX50 MiniB has, and the screen just cracked for the second time I had it. It has already costed me 70,000 yen to fix the first time and it will certainly cost me that much to fix again. I will not bother fixing it this time and get something else instead.. like a Mac.

[cstaylor]

Sony is a horrible company that refuses to follow industry standards. Don't buy their crappy products.

I agree. Their televisions and other consumer equipment are fine, but stay clear of their PC products... non-existent support, flimsy construction, crap software.

If you're not going the build-it-yourself route (I think FGL recently upgraded his AMD box with a dual-core processor, and I built myself a dual-CPU Opteron workstation for software development and testing), Dell's support is pretty good, and the support works worldwide (so if you buy a laptop in Japan and it breaks in the U.S., they'll fix it under warranty). The Inspiron laptop line is inexpensive (crappy construction IMHO), but it it lightyears better than whatever Sony produces.