I got the registry value for ahci on VAIO VGN-FE Series

Guys with VAIO FE series,

With 3 hours hard work, i found the registry value for ahci on FE. Haplessly i wasted 2.75 hours because i tested the value after vt-point (0195) first. Ahci value is 00F6. Bios version is R0200J3.

My laptop is FE-48c, a viao model in China.But the bios can be used in all fe series.


Enjoy it.

 

Thank you so much for finding this out. I own a Viao FE-31M which although it is from 2005 still works perfectly fine and I have no intention of replacing just yet..

I am hoping to update it to AHCI mode so I can use TRIM with the new SSD drive I bought for the old girl. I've been searching the net for a few days now and have come down a long and winding road to finally get to the stage where I have updated my BIOS to a version which has AHCI and can turn it on!

Of course there is no menu option in the BIOS for this, that would be FAR TOO EASY WOULDNT IT SONY!?!?!?

I will list out the steps I have taken so far to hopefully help other fellow Vaio FE series owners reach this almost dream-like state of nirvana:

#1 Downloaded the R0200J3 BIOS Update from Sony support pages
(Although there is nothing listed for my specific machine, The BIOS updater for the FE41 worked fine, any FE series BIOS updater should work with any other FE model...)

#2 Installed Windows XP (BIOS Updater does not work in Win7)

#3 Installed "Sony Shared Library" downloaded from Sony support pages on XP (BIOS Updater does not work without this)

#4 Ran BIOS updater, updated BIOS - FINALLY

(Incidentally this BIOS update fixed an extremely annoying bug on the FE series when you have "Close Lid" set to "Do nothing" it turns off the screen when you close the lid but does not turn it back on again when you open it.. )

Next steps:
(Trying when I get home tonight)

#5 Create DOS Boot USB drive with Symcmos and a text editor on it.

#6 Boot into the USB and use Syncmos to change the following BIOS setting:

(00F6) [0000] to: (00F6) [0001]

#7 Reinstall Windows 7 to enable AHCI (?)

Not really sure if I will need to reinstall Win 7, it might just detect AHCI and start working, either way I just installed it so no big deal.

Will post my results here...

 

SUCCESS

Omg what a hero.

So I followed the steps above exactly and when I rebooted, Windows 7 found the AHCI compliant controller and installed the driver. Amazing, thanks so much

Now I can enjoy full speed from my SSD.

 

Further updates:

My "Windows Experience Index" score for the drive went up from 6.8 to 7.2 after installing the AHCI driver, and the ATTO benchmark reports much healthier numbers.

It is possible to attain a 7.9 on this drive (OCZ Vertex 2E) on a fast SATA controller, but the SATA controller on the Vaio FE maxes out at 138mb/sec, quite a bit less than the drive is capable of. However the important numbers, random 4k writes and small-medium reads, are as fast as anyone else's and I can tell you that the old girl has never run smoother or faster.

TRIM now reports as working correctly, although on further investigation TRIM might now be pretty much irrelevant. The FE series has an Intel chipset and the general consensus is that the new Intel "Mass Storage Controller" drivers (version 10) do a better job of SSD garbage collection and management than the TRIM command in the Microsoft driver, so I have installed that instead. I trust Intel's SSD expertise a lot more than I trust MS!

Installing the Intel driver has had no effect on my benchmarks, so it hasn't made things worse anyway...

I still needed the laptop in AHCI mode to use the Intel driver, so I am ever more grateful for this nugget of information

Enabling AHCI has had some other pleasant effects. Windows 7 now recognises the laptop properly as an ACPI machine and has given me a few more options for screen brightness and CPU underclocking when on battery power