HomeUsing the following instructions you will be able to upgrade the hard drive and the memory module in a Sony Vaio Z505 laptop.
The first guide explains how to access the memory slot witch is located under the keyboard.
The stock Vaio came with 128MB memory and can take up to 256MB by adding a 128MB PC100 SODIMM. There have been tales of people both succeeding and failing at adding more memory with various operating systems, but Sony only promises up to 256MB for this model.
The second guide explains how to access and upgrade the hard drive witch is located under the laptop top cover.
The stock Vaio came with an IBM Travelstar 12GB drive. Theoretically, you can replace it with any other 2.5 inch notebook drive
The third guide also explains how to take apart the laptop and remove or upgrade the hard drive, but this guide has more pictures and detailed instructions.
The pictures on this page should apply to most Sony VAIO Z505 laptop / notebook computers, as well as to the Z600 laptops since they’re the same (just renumbered for the European market).
May 13th, 2009 at 7:27 am
The link for the Third Guide works, but is not guaranteed to work in the future. The recommended link is to go to fencepost.net or directly to the article.
The guide has just been updated as well, with quite a bit more explanatory text.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Thank you Alan,
I updated the link. It points directly to the article now.
June 12th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Thank you Alan. This is good information.
A little bit to add, I recently upgraded my Sony Z505R to 320MB ram. I purchased a 256M DIMM just to give it a try. After a little effort it works great. The BIOS recognized the ram and so did Xubunto.
The only problem was that the RAM didn’t physically fit. The memory chip is a very tiny bit too wide to sit flat due to some chips on the motherboard. A very little bit of filing of the edges of the chips on the DIMM fixed that. It’s just a faction of a MM.
I’m sure that other memory chips could work, but I went with:
http://www.memorystock.com/orderitem.asp?it=360ms-077-M
which is a Micron mt16lsdf3264hg-10eb2 DIMM. I suspect (but don’t know) that the memory must be:
- 16 Chip
- PC100
- CL2
Regarding the details on the Z505R
BIOS: W2K04Z0
Memory: 128 + 256 MB = 320 MB
Disk: 320 GB
OS: Xubuntu 10.04
BTW, to install Xubuntu I couldn’t use the Sony CD. Instead I connected the HD to another computer and installed from there.
September 15th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
I’ve tried to upgrade the Sony Z505R from 128+256M to 128+512M. It partially worked. I found a 512M DIMM that was PC100, 16 Chip and CL2. The laptop boots without issue, but only 256M of the DIMM is found.
http://www.oempcworld.com/OEMPCworld-com/512M-SO100.html
Regarding the details on the Z505R
BIOS: W2K04Z0
Memory: 128 + 256 MB = 320 MB
Disk: 320 GB
OS: Xubuntu 10.04