How to Enable Intel VT and AHCI on a Napa/Santa Rosa platform Phoenix BIOS Vaio laptop

I just successfully enabled VT on my TZ180, using the register value above.

If you have Nero Burning ROM, it's really really really easy and fast!

To make a boot CD, I used Nero BurningROM. In the wizard, there is an option to make a boot CD. Then onto a plain USB drive I copied symcmos.exe. I booted from the CD with the USB drive plugged in, and the USB drive shows up in DOS as Drive C. Then I ran symcmos.exe from the USB drive, edited the txt file on my desktop, rebooted the notebook with the boot CD, and followed the rest of the instructions on post #1.

 

I have a TZ17GN from Asia, and I was able to enable VT with the mentioned register mod:

VGN-TZ130N R0052N7 reg 0363

I used the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to make a bootable USB flash drive.

 

I notice that the CPU fan in my SZ491N kicks on when the CPU temp goes pass 40C. Using Sisoft's Sandra to check Mainboard information, it shows that "Thermal state" is set to "safe" (so are boot-up state and power state). My speculation here is if we can change the "Thermal state" to something different than safe, we may stop the fan from turning on too early. I read that a lot of people complaining that their fans are always on and noisy. If we can do this, then it equals less noise and more battery life.

Now, the real question is: what register control the fan

Thanks guys.

 

At the risk of overheating the processor??? No, thanks.

Gary

 

I am not saying that we completely shut off the fan. Just make it so that it only turn on when CPU temp reaches 60C+. According to Intel spec, core 2 duo max temp is 100C, so I think 60C+ is a pretty safe temp. I read somewhere that on some laptops with Core 2, the fans do not turn on until it reach 60C. Certainly, tinkering with the BIOS is not for the faint-hearted, so yeah, there will always be risk involve. nontheless, this one is pretty safe. worst case scenario, most laptop has a sensor that will shut the laptop down when it's overheated.

>> Updated:

After hours of reading and searching, I think I finally found the solution:

1. Extract the R0112N0.WPH from the bios .exe file
2. Using Phoenix Bios editor to open it

The Bios set the active strip point to be 55C, which explains why the fan turns on at 40C (40+15 off-set = 55). THe bios editor allow changes to what ever temp you like.

Also, it allows the change for VT and more.

I will be up all night and play with this

 

Unfortunately, you won't be able to write the modified BIOS image to the notebook with WinPhlash or any other utility without causing any ACPI errors.

 

Why not??? Since that is the case, then what tool SHOULD be used?

Gary

 

There are some compatibility issues with VAIO BIOS images and publicly available Phoenix BIOS editors in that not all of the BIOS modules are interpreted and loaded correctly, so the image that's saved will somewhat be corrupt. Right now I'm not aware of any tool that can be used to write BIOS images modified with Phoenix BIOS Editor. All the versions of WinPhlash I tried weren't able to do it.

 

Here is how I do it:

1. Download the R0112N0 bios
2. Right click on it, and choose extract to a folder (using PowerArchiver)
3. Use Phoenix BIOS editor to edit the BIOS inside that folder, rebuild BIOS, save BIOS
4. And now here is the kicker for you, Bogart: inside the extracted folder, there is a WBFlash.exe (I guess it stands for Winbond flash; winbond is the maker of most BIOS chips). This WBFlash.exe will flash whatever modified BIOS that you have (I have been flashing 20+ times with different versions of the SZ BIOS)

There you have it, now come out and play

 

What version of Phoenix BIOS Editor did you use? I tried that method a few months ago with a BIOS modified with PBE 2.0 and after it was flashed, my notebook got past POST, however I immediately received a STOP 0x000000A5 BSOD and had to re-install XP in a HAL mode without ACPI temporarily just to reflash the BIOS with an unmodified image. When I have time I'll give your version a try and let you know if I have any success.

Since we're able to modify the BIOS with PBE, we can finally figure out what tokens in the NVRAM are affected and hopefully have them all mapped out. Did you notice any significant change in the fan speed when you modified the active trip point?

 

I got the PBE Pro 2.1.0.0, build: 3605, from intel website. Funny, Intel's intention was just allowing user to change to change the bootimage. But this PBE Pro is fully functional!

Alas, changing the active strip point does not change the fan's behavior. It stills kicks in at 41, 42C.

But there are many other optiops in there: TM1, TM2, PROCHOT#, EC senssore, DST, that I really don't know much about. I've been trying with enabling and disabling them, but no sucess so far.

Maybe with your expertise, you will figure it out

 

Hi,

Managed to crash my BIOS with one of the updates.

Desperately in need of re-setting the BIOS.

Have opened the keyboard, but can't see anything obvious. Manual for my machine does also not come with a detailed layout of the motherboard

Help appreciated,

K


***

Update: So the CMOS battery exists on the bottom side of the laptop. It required just about every single screw to be undone before I have access to this.

The battery is attached firmly to the motherboard, however it has a tiny cable connected which I can unplug.

*** Note for users as stupid or even more stupid that me (Sony employees), do not try to modify any of the configuration settings in Windows, not ever usuing notepad. Use the DOS editor for 'everything'. Please look out for my upcoming blog 'how I broke my bios'...

The key needing modification is 02C0 for the FZ31Z, set to 0001 !
* Perform a 'cold' boot to enable the changes to register.
* Run securable to check whether hardware virtualization is enabled... a green 'ON' is good.

-- Hopefully this is the last major flaw I come across with my VAIO! Sexy machine and all but enough to put me off buying anything SONY related ever again...

Many thanks all for the help... been a laptop saver !

FZ

FZ31Z
________

bios : R2110J7
Key : 02C0

 

How do I check whether VT and AHCI is enabled without running the program that could mess up with the BIOS? I heard that if you install XP SP2 CD in a system that has AHCI enabled, it will tell you that hard drive is not found. You would have to load the driver from a floppy. This is the case with my FZ4000 CTO. Does it mean that my FZ is AHCI enabled from the factory?

 

I'm glad you were able to recover your FZ. Would you mind posting your BIOS version so that other FZ owners can check whether 02C0 would work for them as well?

AHCI is enabled by default on the FZ models, and VT can be checked with vt.iso or Securable, as explained in the first post. None of these tools will mess up your BIOS.

 

I have an SZ750n and both settings work. However, with AHCI enabled, I get a "System Disabled" message on restart. I basically have to do a power down and restart, software restart doesn't work. I also noticed that the buffered read speeds are a good 20% faster in SiSoft benchmarks, other than that no speed changes. Also, Virtual PC 2007 now shows hardware virtualization as enabled.

 

How much performance difference do folks see in Virtual PC 2007 with hardware virtualization enabled over not having it. And are there particular sorts of apps that exhibit the improvment more than others?

Gary

 

The following worked for me.

VGN-AR51M R1050J8 reg 027F

Thanks to the person who found this solution.

 

I noticed a performance difference when booting my virtual pc ... booting withi full-screen mode in xp was much faster than with VT disabled.

 

I have successfully patch Sony Vaio Bios Version: R0122S5.
Instead of trial and error with symcmos ( not productive ), i patched the BIOS directly.
now the BIOS comes in default with VT-enabled.

I'm using the new BIOS myself for my Sony Vaio SZ7.

I have attached the BIOS for your download.
http://rapidshare.com/files/108809122/R0122S5_PATCH_BIOS.rar.html

Double Click WinPhlash.exe and load the R0122S5_VT_PATCHED.WPH BIOS.
now, sit back and wait..

after it completes, it will restart & shutdown.
Power up, Go to CMOS, Remember to "Restore all settings to default" in the cmos.
it will clear the old NVRAM Settings and use the new VT-enabled option.

thanks.

 

Killerzac,

Any possibility for the AHCI support in the patched R0122S5?

Thanks

 

The tokens for both the VT and AHCI support in the new R0122S5 bios is the same as the ones listed for R0101S5. I was able to use the modified BIOS from Killerzac to find the VT token. It was the same as R0101S5 so I tried using the same AHCI token and it worked!

For Santa Rosa SZs - R0122S5

AHCI: (0189) [0000] ---> (0189) [0001]

VT-x: (02F1) [0000] ---> (02F1) [0001]

 

Thanks for that information. I've updated the first post.

 

Thanks Killerzac

I tried your modified BIOS on my SZ650N and it worked fine, fantastic to have VT activated for Xen! I'd tried extracting then patching my own BIOS but PBE Pro kept complaining that it had an invalid length. I have the same problem as others though post modding, the fan runs continuously even below 60°C.

P.S. PBE Pro doesn't run in Vista for me, only in XP

 

Hey guys. I am not interested in AHCI, however I am very much interested in running VT-x. I have a VGN-FZ190U (Bios Version - R0050J7). I am going to try and follow what people have done so far, but I am a photographer/designer, and a horrid programmer (I know xhtml/css/js/php4 and php5 but failed horribly at learning ASM and TCL... to be fair tcl is a very messy language =p), so if anyone has any advice or has worked with my computer version or bios version I would be grateful for your guidance.

- Tony R./DBG

P.S. - If any of you hang out on an irc server/channel let me know. I like getting to know people over irc.

 

Hey guys, I am setting up a bootable USB stick (sadly some of the links on the first post don't work anymore), but I wanted to bring you're attention to this project - https://launchpad.net/vt-enable. It looks to be very promising, sadly there doesn't appear to be a public release yet.

 

The links are fixed now. Thanks for letting me know.

BTW if you still need help with enabling VT-x on your FZ, refer to this table and use the correct register according to your BIOS version.

 

Thanks very much bogart. Sadly I am still having trouble running symcmos in a pure DOS mode (but I will submit it to that person when I have it working, so far my version is not on their list). When I went to make a bootable usb stick with the instructions you linked to (on the LJ site), I kept getting command.com errors on boot. Sadly I don't have a external floppy drive (and really would like to avoid buying one just for this purpose).

The last method I am having trouble with because I don't know what kind of program/method can inject symcmos and a blank DEFAULT.TXT file. If you have any suggestions or more input on the cd-r method, I'd love to hear it. For now I am going to plus away with FreeDOS on a USB stick (it doesn't seem to like my 2GB drive).

Thanks everyone that came before me and provided information to make me think this is very possible.

Edit: BTW, I can run symcmos in a Windows Vista DOS Prompt, but that file is probably not usable, right? I assume everyone would just do it this way if it was.

 

Thanks! I was thinking Network Boot but didn't know how to do it exactly. I am going to try this with a LiveCD on my Desktop and my FZ laptop to get the symcmos I need. I have a feeling I need to change "reg 02D3" since this seems to be the edit needed for all people with FZ-1xxx Vaio's with the R0050J7 BIOS. I would like to be sure through that this is not already enabled.

 

Many Thanks Killerzac, the patch works great for my SZ660N. The VT-x is now enabled. However, SecurAble reports that the hardware support for virtualization is now "locked on" to prevent VM penetration compromise! What does that "locked on" status mean?

 

Thank you for Good information. I also use SZ79 with mtron SSD 32G.
(R0122S5 bios and windows vista with sp1)
I just patched the bios in my SZ79. It seems works very well yet.

Anyone knows how to stop or disable hdd protection on default Vista which is installed by recorvery CD?

 

Hi Killerzac,

I read your post some time ago and would like to know if there is a Bios patch available for my SZ90. This is the SZ that was first sold in Japan with the Premium Carbon casing that was not sold in the US.

Perhaps, your link will work?

i) How does one install the patch
ii) How does one recover from it going wrong?

Regards, z.

 

I looked in the my SZ bios and noted these data:

BIOS VERSION: R0073N0
EC BIOS VERSION: RK073N0
MACHINE NAME: VGN-SZ90PS

As far as I know this is the latest version for an SZ90.

Any clues on how I ought to proceed?

Regards, z.

PS. I run Ubuntu 8.04, although I have Xp installed in a small partition somewhere that has not been booted for quite some time. Its a clean install and not the original factory installation. There is no 'hidden' partition - it was blown away years ago.

PS. I have a copy of BIOS version R0083N0 for the Sz90PS and could load this if someone can tell me where the register lies for BIOS R0083N0.

 

You have a Napa SZ.

 

Thank-you. How did you know this?

The original post states that one should use the latest Bios version:
R0112N0 for Napa SZs.

I cannot use this version because I think that it is for the US versions. Any clues how to locate the correct register?

 

It's not only for US versions. In fact, the download is from Sony's Japanese FTP server, so I don't know how you came to that conclusion. The correct tokens for that version are already provided for you in the first post, and if you want to know how I located them, I explained it somewhere in this thread.

 

I remember trying to use similar versions a year ago and these failed because my machine name was unrecognised. I will try again.

 

I have checked. The readme.txt states that the bios works only on these of which none is mine

・VGN-SZ93NS・SZ93S・SZ93HS・SZ83NS・SZ83S・SZ83HS・SZ73B/B・SZ53B/B

 

Contrary to what the readme says, it's compatible with any Napa SZ. But I know it's hard to trust complete strangers on the internet, so you can update your notebook to R0083N0 and use the method that I described in one of the replies to find the VT-x token for that version.

 

Great. I will try this. I did not see a method for R0083N0 but only for R0112N0.

Can I use the method for the R0112N0 with the BIOS for the R0083N0?

 

The tokens for R0112N0 are not compatible with R0083N0, but the method to find the tokens should work regardless of the BIOS version.

 

For Napa SZs - R0112N0

AHCI: (015C) [0000] ---> (015C) [0001]

VT-x: (0354) [0000] ---> (0354) [0001]

Therefore these tokens won't work for my BIOS. I looked at the first page and it does not (unless inferred) explain how I ought to locate the correct token. I am certain that there are many tokens set to 0000 in the BIOS and changing one of these might well result in the open laptop and unplug battery procedure.

Is there some method to locate the tokens?

 

Other than reply #9, you can try to enable VT-x using Phoenix BIOS Editor and write the modified BIOS to your notebook, which someone in this thread had successfully attempted. If all goes well, finding the tokens aren't necessary since VT-x is already enabled, but if you'd wanted to find them anyway, you could create a table from that modified BIOS using symcmos and do a file diff with that and a table from an unmodified BIOS to see what tokens have changed. That should be quicker than finding it by trial and error.

 

Is there an official Phoenix site I could d/l the Phoenix BIOS Editor from? I did not see any links to this in my search in this thread.

 

I believe information about where to download PBE is located somewhere in this thread. Did you read the whole thread yet?

Would you mind providing a screenshot of the failure while updating to R0112N0 so I could revise my first post if what you are saying is indeed true? As it says in the first post, make sure you have all the proper Sony drivers and utilities installed in XP before attempting to update. Information about how to do a clean XP install on an SZ can be found here.

 

I will let you know when I install the new bios version.

"make sure you have all the proper Sony drivers and utilities installed in XP before attempting to update."
I doubt I do. I only use WinXP for one computer game and this is seldom.

Is there a way of doing this from Linux (debian in my case)?

 

Ahh. Found a few links. https://launchpad.net/vt-enable
Does not look like it has been finished yet, but I shall contact the author.

 

hi anyone knows how to enable this in FE series? Thank you.

 

How lucky was I? First attempt!

VGN-AR41S BIOS R0030J8 reg 027F

 

I have a Sony VAIO VGN-AR61S. Its BIOS is Phoenix TrustedCore R2080J8.
Does anybody know how to enable VT on this notebook ? Thanks.

 

Anyone have a solution for a Sony VGN-BX41VN I have tired change the bios binary from line 399 from 0000 to 0001 but after a reboot it resets it's self.....

The BIOS Version is R0190X9

Can anyone help?