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Foreign computer support (drivers and software)

NeXT

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Oct 22, 2008
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Kamloops, BC, Canada
I find it slightly ironic that I'm going to Japan for two weeks yet I know barely any of the language. :p
Anyways, I came across a Sony Vaio PCG-CX1V Picturebook with a blank drive and after searching the North American Sony site and getting nothing I finally got a hit over at sony.co.jp/support.
*Link to spec page*
It looks like it's a Windows 98-only unit so I want to try and reinstall 98se on it (2000 would be nice but read below regarding drivers and support) however getting access to the drivers is becoming a chore. My inability to translate more than 99% of all japanese on top of the fact that all I have found so far are updates has not been helpful.
What should I do in this situation?
 
While not always accurate (as some folks show in their signature here) have you tried babelfish? It's not 100% with some words but certainly better than someone like me who knows none of the written language, just takes a small amount of guessing with some phrases but generally it's readable.
 
Text on Sony website according to babelfish said:
[kisohuse], [neseumu], [nunihoma], [ki], [ni] and [tsu],
[kisohuse], [hono] and [nu], 篋. [ko], [nu], [yu] and ゙
eng99.gif


That didn't make things much better.
 
Here's the drivers, towards the bottom of the page, under the section "アップデートプログラム一覧 (更新のあったソフトウェア、ドライバー、BIOSなど)" Translation: "Programs update listing (Software updates, drivers, BIOS)" It shouldn't be too hard to figure out what's what from that list... there's at least some English in the descriptions.

Oh, and BTW, being able to read Japanese didn't help me a whole lot... their site is so terribly designed that I pretty much had to resort to random clicking and only by dumb luck did I find the downloads page.
 
That's the page I already looked though and it seems a lot of that is updaters, not actual software installers or driver. Regardless, I downloaded them and I hope I can at least get most of the hardware working.
 
That's the page I already looked though and it seems a lot of that is updaters, not actual software installers or driver.

A lot of what Sony calls "updaters" are actually the full driver/software install packs. I guess it's just because they're updated from the ones that come preinstalled on the machine.
 
Yuo know, I actually ahve no checked that.
I'll give everything a go once a spare motherboard for a PCG-C1VN comes in. Then I can sort out which systems get what size hard drives and start installing some OS's.
 
Are you mass-buying Picturebook parts or something? I was considering buying one at one point, so if you get more than one and are selling I'd consider buying one.
 
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