Insyde hacking - New Vaio Z - Advanced menu in BIOS

Would buying this BIOS CHIP SONY VAIO VPCZ12C7E, VPCZ13B7E, VPCZ12H7E, VPCZ13C5E, VPCZ12I7E | eBay

and soldering it in place of the existing work?

Be easy to do? Any help much appreciated.

 

Sorry to hear your BIOS is bricked Paul.

There are a number of places that will ship pre-programmed BIOS chips, some will program the BIOS version of your choice or if you have a full working backup that might be better still. I have never used them myself so can not offer any particular recommendation. Do you know what the chip number is?

How good are you with a soldering iron? The hardest part will be removing the old chip. Try not to overheat the tracks and pads as they may be damaged. Low temperature solder would help here. The trick is to apply heat to all 8 legs at the same time. If you don't want to keep the chip then the legs could be carefully cut and remaining legs removed one at a time. If you are not confident doing this then perhaps there is a electronics repair shop with the right tools that can do it for you.

Another option would be to buy a cheap SPI programmer and reprogram the removed chip yourself.


When you power on does the laptop try to read from the optical drive? What about a FAT formatted USB drive, does it try to read that? Does the laptop turn off after a minute or two and restart? Some Insyde Laptops have a recovery mechanism, sometimes needs to be invoked by holding certain keys when powering on but Sony Laptops may not have this feature. Here's an example http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Recovering-From-A-Bad-Insyde-Bios-Flash

 

Have you tried the usual stuff? Disconnect from the mains (unplug the adapter), remove the battery, wait 10 minutes, put in the battery and try to boot. Sometimes the hardware gets stuck in a non-working state.

 

No luck with this.

 

No luck here either. The laptop turns off after a minute or two but stays off, no re-start.

I am going to order 1 of these BIOS CHIP SONY VAIO VPCZ12C7E, VPCZ13B7E, VPCZ12H7E, VPCZ13C5E, VPCZ12I7E | eBay

Anyone any knowledge of them? Does it sound feasable? Will this chip with the stock bios work in my laptop with the later Nvidia drivers I now have (from my hacked bios days) ?

 

Paul, if you just buy the pre-programmed flash it should work but you will not have your asset tags, the SNo. of your laptop for instance. This may or may not be important. If you have made your back up with the Insyde flash program and know 100% it is works then this IMO would be the better choice.

You could try Programmed Sony Laptop BIOS Chips and email them with any questions you have. You could also try asking Sony, there have been times where they have been "sympathetic" and fixed for free.

As a long shot you could also try placing the BIOS file R3030C3.ROM on a CD and copies such as R3030C3 R3030C3.BIN R3030C3.FD as a long shot or on a USB FAT32 flash if it appears to be accessed.

 

Update:
CD never worked.
I ordered a replacement chip with them putting my backup of my original bios as came with laptop when new. I hope this will work with the Latest nVidia and intel drivers I have on laptop ie the laptop does not have the original sony supplied nVidia or intel drivers on it at the moment. Any advice would be gratefully received

I am wondering why your modded bios (of my one from link I gave) did not work. I hope I gave you my correct .ROM

Perhaps you might look at this bios new.ROM of mine (link sent to you in private message, in the subject line, cannot type in the message area, something wrong??), it should be the same as the other one I sent you, if not might help explain why mod failed.

 

Unfortunately, BIOS recovery options were removed by sony, so I can confirm that the only way is to reflash/replace the SPI flash chip on the board. For soldering, it is a very small 8-pin SMT chip and you should have it done by professionals with a rework station. An easier way would be to reflash it, you only need to solder a pin header and use an SPI flasher. Can be a modded $15 router, raspberry pi, selfmade programmer via paralell port etc.
After all, forget TRIM it won't give you that much of a performance improvement. Trust me I'm an engineer.

 

May be the reason for us to enable trim isn't for a performance, since performance already improved with raid 0 array.

But in my opinioun, that isn't wrong to try enabling trim on raid 0, especially for people like me, who did save and delete large files everyday

May be someday there is someone, who will give us a guide, how to make it happend

 

Please tell me which pin and other advice ie which SPI flasher ie a guide. With your help I am sure I could do it. I have taken my motherboard out ready for a new chip but would prefer to do as you suggest. Here in Sydney they want AUD 200 just to solder a new chip in. Sony want AUD600. Also please confirm where the chip is on the motherboard, I have an idea it is one of these TPC8112 0.27 chip or 4830A AG WO 4K chip or 25X32 VSIG W1016 chip. My model VPCZ13C5E. I have backup .ROM file.

 

^ It's the last one. Winbond 25X32 SPI Flash chip. Datasheet here: W25X32BVSSIG pdf, W25X32BVSSIG description, W25X32BVSSIG datasheets, W25X32BVSSIG view ::: ALLDATASHEET :::
See Page 5, Item 3. Pin Configuration. Look up a 3.3V SPI flasher and connect to the given pins respectively. There are push headers that piggyback on the chip, you can also solder wires to the chip. Have it done by someone experienced in soldering or you will damage even more.

 

can you do this with the vaio duo 13?

 

While there are some differences these seem to be in the NV area so might not make a difference. It possibly might that the Sony BIOS does not like the way EzH2O changes file state from F8 to 07 for replaced modules. I don't know, perhaps pyr0 might though since he has done BIOS modification on Sony.

 

Any news for Sony Vaio VPCZ1390X bios reprogram or replace ?

GT-I9505 Tapatalk

 

Well I got my Vaio Z13 working again, bought the bios chip from here http://www.bios-service-center.com/ however they failed to inform me that they would not write in the ME section and therefor it would not fix the problem, very misleading and expensive exercise for me. Same for their eBay site. I then took my vaio apart to save costs and got a pro to solder new chip on, expensive.

BUT a Big problem, The fan runs continuously, although the air coming out is always cool. The computer just switches off after about 45 minutes.
The fan is slow and quiet during the booting but as soon as windows has loaded when it asks for my user password it goes full blast continuously till it switches itself off about 45 minutes later.
Even though system idle process is 99% and cpu 0 to 2%
Computer unusable in this state. Help urgently needed.

Get this message immediately when first turn on 'ME FW update failed please try again' Any ideas? surprising as the new chip has the backup of my last working bios on it. How does it know the last update failed.

The speaker icon on bottom right of taskbar does nothing with right or left or double click but sound is ok, working and can access from control panel.
The LAN icon (2 little monitors pic) on bottom right of taskbar is not there but there seems to be a blank space for it also does nothing with right or left or double click in that space. Also no wireless icon.
Now working after re-started computer, first re-start because of fan/computer switch off problem.

Any help gratefully received.

W7 ultimate x64

When I first booted I did not check the bios and windows started but seemed maybe with intel video driver even tho I set switch to speed
I then changed bios to static and then it went back to NVidia video.

 

Temperatures of cpu and gpu mostly 38 to 42 C

max cpu 60 C gpu 48 C

Switches off after exactly 30 minutes after start-up every time. What can be causing this?

If I put to sleep after say 25 minutes the 30 minute cycle restarts after I wake it from sleep.

 

Hallo Paul3000h

How can your cpu and gpu idle temp. very cool..?

Is your Z13 have the intel i7 CPU with 3,4Ghz or may be i5 CPU..?

I just change my cpu and gpu thermal paste yesterday with ic diamond, but still get approx. 48-58 cpu temp

 

Also putting this here as people here may not be interested in the other post subject (and visa versa) but it is relevant to both.

I Get this message immediately when first turn on 'ME FW update failed please try again'
The vaio InsydeH20 bios is ok and on the main bios page it gives Bios version xxxx and EC version xxxx but for ME version it says Unknown.
My fan and auto switch off after exactly 30 minutes problem could be that no ME firmware in my bios is the cause my fan/switch off problem?
If no ME firmware in bios is the problem how could I get hold of a copy and how to flash it to my bios now I can access it again?

If anyone knows anything about how the fan is controlled, maybe registry please let me know.

 

Update:

I eventually sent my old, bricked removed bios chip to bios-repair.com who were very helpful and knew all about the missing ME sector problem. They copied my ME sector from it and put it into my backed up .rom that was missing this sector and sent me it as a .rom. I looked at this using UEFITool_0.17.2_win and it shows the ME version whereas my other .roms do not.

When I try to flash all goes well and it reads the new rom and says:

current bios model name VPCZ13C5E
new bios model name Capella
current version R3031C3
new version R3030C3

THEN...

Error: IHISI 15h fail.Internal error 20 FFC00300
FBTS Permission is denied by user

these 2 lines are repeated twice more ie 3 in all.

I have flashed older saved roms and they also say capella as above and also different versions from newer to older and older to newer and they all work
but my roms only contain the bios sectors nor the ME sectors as the new one does, to me that's the only difference???

Hope someone knows a solution.

 

Seems the HDD password functionality (useful to lock down SSD) is broken, you can set a password but it won't ask you for it on boot

 

I'm getting an "Invalid VSS signature" when trying to run advanced_menu.py. It is mentioned that I should find my VSS offset if such error occurs, but I have no idea how to this or modify the script with the correct values. Can anyone help me?

My current BIOS is INSYDE R2171M3, 10/11/2009 (the latest version available).

 

Hi guys, will this BIOS hack work on my VPCZ11 BIOS version R3031C3?

 

Yes

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After the Bios hack is done .. do i need the driver patcher from ComputerCowboy or can i use stock NVIDIA drivers for the 330m ?

 

Stock drivers will not recognise your hardware. You have to edit the .inf file so that it will believe that it is meant for your hardware. You can do that manually by opening the .inf file and adding the hardware IDs etc. or you can let ComputerCowboy's patcher do it for you. Your choice - whichever you prefer.

 

Can someone Reupp the Patcher? Because i don't geht how to edit the .inf file

 

There is a link to ComputerCowboy's website in his signature. You should find everything you need over there.

 

I have checked this before but his homepage is offline!

 

Sorry, guys,
will this method work for my
VGN-Z58GG
BIOS Type Insyde
BIOS Version R5030M3
? And how do I find that right VSS offset? - Thanks a lot.

 

Big thanks to everyone for these instructions and all the help on this thread. I managed to hack the BIOS on my VPCZ12M9E (BIOS version R3031C3) relatively pain-free, and have now got static graphics switching working great with Windows 7 x64 (but waiting for the opportunity to upgrade to Win 10 when the drivers become available).

Although the graphics setup is running much more smoothly now, it seems the dual SSD has somehow slowed down since the BIOS hack. I ran the Windows Experience Index before and after the hack. The Graphics went up a point from 6.3 to 6.4, Disk data transfer rate has gone from 7.4 (amazing) to 5.9 (the lowest score in the test!)

What could be causing this? There's no change to the settings in the Intel RST manager (Write-cache buffer flushing: disabled & Cache mode: Write back).

Of course, there are now exposed settings in the BIOS for each SATA drive (currently set to auto - see pic). Would disabling Block-mode or 32-bit speed things up for a RAID setup? If not, is there anywhere else in the advanced settings that could be causing this slow-down?

 

I had the same issue on my z1's 512GB SSD. The issue is trim not working with this RAID setup. To remedy it is necessary to secure erase all of the SSDs. So steps: backup system, break array, secure erase all unraided drives, recreate RAID and restore backup. Then it should restore perf to as-new level roughly.

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Thanks guho. Ok, so the BIOS hack did something to the RAID array, causing it to run more slowly, and the solution is to rebuild the array.

Is it possible to get TRIM running with a RAID0 on this system? AFAIK you needed a Series 7 chipset and/or an version 11.2 RAID controller/driver (the Z12 may have this but I can't tell). If so, do I need to take any special steps before rebuilding to enable it?


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There was one person at some forum claiming he was able to update the orom but when others tried the modded BIOS they bricked their Z1. So no one has figured out the solution yet.

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OK, I'll break, erase and rebuild and see what happens. Cheers guho.

 

Quick question guho, what software did you use to backup and restore the drive?

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Acronis trueimage for backup. Parted magic for doing the secure erase to restore drive performance.

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Well, I've learned a few things today.

Before rebuilding the RAID array, I decided to do some benchmarks using different settings in the BIOS. The first result (see attachment 1) shows decent reads and sequential writes, but terrible random writes.

I then decided to disable Block Mode in the BIOS SATA setting. The difference with random writes was huge! (See attachment 2) I guess having block mode enabled messes with RST's implementation. So, these are the SATA settings I kept: 32Bit I/O: Enabled, Block Mode: Disabled, Transfer Mode: UDMA ATA-100.

Looking into the WEI issue, a disk score of 5.9 suggests that either Windows thinks it's a HDD (but in my case fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify indicates that TRIM is enabled on my disk) or the test can't be completed for some reason. C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\winsat.log contained the following:

I ran defrag (stupid I know) but to no avail.

I'm not bothered about contiguous space on my array (it is SSD after all), so I'm sticking with the current setup and will no longer worry about the W7 WEI score. Perhaps W10's will be optimised for SSD (i.e. no need for contiguous space?)

The biggest surprise for me though was disabling Block Mode in the BIOS. Anybody else with the dual SSD RAID 0 setup tried this? It might be worth a go unless somebody here knows that doing so will reduce device life or something!

 

Updated the hacked Bios on my Z13 Vaio and could install the newest patched NVidia drivers in windows 10 im very happy all worked well
Thanks all

 

Did we ever figure out the UEFI boot thing with GPT partitioning and secure boot? Windows 7 couldn't do much with it, and Windows 8 was getting there, but now we do have an OS that is UEFI capable.

 

I've tried, no difference in CrystalMark. In fact, looked slower with block-mode off.

My disk score with raid-settings in default is 7.9 (dual SS 840 EVOs). I do on/off also run PerfectDisk SSD optimization (which defrags contiguous space).

 

Thanks @NuShrike. Odd that we get different results. I've just installed Windows 10, so I'll revisit the settings and do a CrystalMark test, see if anything's changed.

 

Is this Z capable of GPT + UEFI? I don't see any bios option for UEFI or legacy-boot selection. I'm wondering if I have to go this route to get Windows 10 to recognize my Win7 RAID0 set up.

Does Win7 even boot GPT + UEFI, or only on fresh install?

 

Nope. psyq321 was trying to do something that would enable it, but that apparently did not get anywhere. The reason I asked was because back then, when he was digging around in the BIOS, there was no great incentive to enable GPT+UEFI because the OS couldn't do much with it anyway, so I suppose he didn't try very hard.

 

InsydeH2O BIOS R5031M3 successfully hacked on VGN-Z58GG (Asian model) ... THANKS so much Psyq321 and all of you, Big time!

VSS_OFFSET = 0x3b0048
VSS_SIZE = 0x00ffb8

PATCH_OFFSET = 0x25A
PATCH_VALUE = 0x01

BTW:
Does anybody of you guys here know how to fix ridiculuously low Write Speeds of the SSDs in RAID 0 after Windows 10 Upgrade? Seems an issue with too old RAID controller ICH9M-E and/or Windows compatibility. Intel recommends me go back to Windows 7...

 

Hi @galaxyge, I noticed slow SSD speeds after patching the firmware of my VPCZ12, and what solved it for me was disabling block mode in the BIOS. Some others didn't have the same issues/results but it certainly made a difference for me. Worth a try anyhow.


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Thanks @timwjohn, tried but no success. I do see reproducable improvement by deactivating TRIM in Windows, but no influence of BIOS' IDE Block mode. CrystalDiskMark counts 6 MB/sec for 4K random writes.

I guess I will go for breaking the Raid, secure erase, recreate, and clean install of Windows TH2.
The only thing giving me headaches is, will it be sufficient to use that stoneage oRom.. or must I recreate the Raid from Windows.

 

Hi all

To do a secure erase of the SSDs, Is there an option to unfreeze them within the BIOS, or what other means do you suggest? Unplug them?

[EDIT] solved - if SSD is frozen, simply put Vaio to Standby (not hibernate), and wake it up again.

 

Hello all,
What a helpful thread, but forgive me being a novice:
Just flashed my Z128GG (Australasian model) with ComputerCowboys's BIOS hack. It worked fine for opening up the advanced options (many thanks to ComputerCowboy and Paul3000h), with one issue left: When I switch from Stamina to Speed, the system freezes.

I saw some post about editing files, but could not quite follow what I should do to fix the issue. Change the BIOS from 'Static' to 'Dynamic', or make changes to some inf file for my NVIDIA card (which I cannot see in the device manager anymore.)

I'm a bit lost here. Cheers.

 

Have you not installed the latest Nvidia drivers yet? download latest driver from Nvidia, go to ComputerCowboy's thread, and follow his instructions to patch the driver, OR exchange the .inf file with the one that NuShrike posted in his last comment.

Clean de-install Nvidia and Intel drivers, install new patched Nvidia, and report back at the other thread if you have issues (this one is for hacking the BIOS - once you set your BIOS to static you need to install non-hybrid drivers)

 

[QUOTE="and report back at the other thread if you have issues (this one is for hacking the BIOS - once you set your BIOS to static you need to install non-hybrid drivers)[/QUOTE]

Thank you galaxyge, will do. Apologies for my mistake believing my issue was related to the BIOS hack. Will report back in a couple of days. Cheers.