Aspire 8930G - Hardware-Assisted Virtualization?

Hi all,

Question for the floor:

I'm running the Windows 7 RTM on my Acer. One of the main things I was excited about in this build was the Windows XP Mode, which requires the use of the Virtual PC 2007 Beta in conjunction with a specialized add-on (both are available for download here).

Well, long story short, the Virtual PC installed with no problems. The Windows XP Mode module also installed, but when it tried to run I got the following error:

"Virtual Windows XP could not be started because hardware-assisted virtualization is disabled. Please enable hardware virtualization in the BIOS settings and try again."

I got on the phone with Acer Tech Support--yes, the guys who charge money for their services--and although they tried their best, the only solution they really gave me was to update my BIOS from version 1.00 to version 1.13. To no one's surprise, that didn't help.

My processor is an Intel Quad-Core Q9000, which according to both the Intel test utility I got through Microsoft and Securable, my processor supports this function. Securable even wanted to run a deep-level check and see what was preventing it from running, but for some reason it said it couldn't function properly in a 64-bit environment, so I'm still in the dark.

In my BIOS there appear the following options at the top of the screen: Information, Security, Boot, and Exit. That's it! No Advanced tab, and no options even remotely pertaining to the processor.

Is there any way to make what I hope are simply hidden Advanced BIOS options visible?

 

Intel VT is disabled on many computers.
If you really need it you can
1)mod the BIOS and risk killing your machine
2)mod the nvram
3)Get a AMD Machine all AMD Machine that is non Sempron comes with AMD V Enabled.

 

weinter, those sound like good options all--but I have no idea how to do the first two. Can you provide some steps on how to do it?

 

I can't different BIOS different modding method even if I wanted to help dissembly is very difficult.
Moreover 8930G seems to use Insyde BIOS which is new and untested.

 

Strange - virtualization works perfectly on my 6920G, and that's older tech.
Try calling up Acer and getting their response.

 

It is disabled on the 8930G and bios 1.13 is no different. There is a post on 8930G owners lounge about enabling through linux but have no experience of this.

 

To Enable VT on your 8930G you need to modify one of the bios variables.

You can follow the following guide.

http://marcansoft.com/blog/2009/06/enabling-intel-vt-on-the-aspire-8930g/

 

Thats if you know linux if somebody could post a modded 8930G bios who knows how to do the proceedure.

 

The only problem with posting a modified bios is that you may loose any of your pre set variables. Lets say for example you use a certain drive to boot from and this is set in the bios if you put on a modified bios with VT enabled then went back in to reset the boot drive it would delete the VT variable setting.
That is why you must modify your own bios dump.

The next thing I am going to play with is following
http://feature-enable.blogspot.com/2009/07/enable-vt-on-insydeh2o-based-sony-vaio.html

It's for use on Vaios with h2o bios but just finding the right offset and all should be good.

 

Let me know how you get on

 

Hi,

Thanks all for the info everyone.

I've managed to enable VT on the 8930G using BIOS 1.14 -

For BIOS 1.14 you need to use the Insyde flash that comes with BIOS 1.13 to dump the original BIOS and to flash the modified (vtenable.py) BIOS. The Insyde flash utility that comes with BIOS 1.14 doesnt dump the variables (hence vtenable.py gives var not found) and doesnt flash the variables (so it doesnt help your system).

Hope this helps,

Andrew

 

I enbled vt slic2.1 to my version of Bios 1.20

could send my fils if somebody requstiong