Insyde hacking - New Vaio Z - Advanced menu in BIOS

Yep, the one from ComputerCowboy works perfectly

 

so i have everything installed to my flash drive... im stuck at 1st instruction

how do i reboot the Z to the usb key? I press F12, nothing happen, F8, nothing to select from the options given..


any help would be appreciated. thanks

 

F2 will get you to the BIOS options
enable external boot
move the USB up in the boot order

 

Anyone can confirm if there is a Fast Boot option?

 

Fast boot for the Z1? I think you must be thinking of the Z2

 

^I meant quick boot in the Z1's hacked BIOS (To reduce POST time)

 

I believe if you disable USB legacy support it's supposed to boot slightly faster, but I haven't timed it myself or really noticed much of a difference as my Z1 usually sleeps instead of powering down.

 

Disabling all other potential boot sources is a good way to speed up the booting process. Especially network booting option. Ideally, leave just the HDD/SSD enabled.

 

Nice work psyq321! Advanced BIOS activated on VPCZ138GG. Much appreciated!

 

anyone can help me find the right offset to unlock the advanced menu?
Link to official bios - BIOS
My version of bios is 3.09. If needed, I'm send it.
I'm find right offset of VSS : 0x000c0048 and size : 0x3fb8. But couldn't find right offset for patch ...

 

Deleted Message

 

Just bumping this thread to let everyone know this method of modification is still valid, alive and kicking, and works great on the m18x, with some slight modification

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/605380-m18x-a03-bios-modification-infos.html

 

"Download Fla (with i instead of 1 as you keep repeating ) with the link in this thread and copy it to the key"

What on earth is Fla? And where is this mysterious link? *confused*

 

it's called "flash" then "it". It's one word. If you type it together on THIS site it thinks you are swearing and then kills it.

 

Ahhh I see! Thanks very much

 

page 9
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-vaio-z-advanced-menu-bios-9.html#post6108270

 

Can i use this mod on my gigabyte Q1585N notebook. Mine has insyde h2o bios, too. I really want to open advanced menu but I don't want to see a brick.

 

Do the modding from scratch, using the python script in the first post. If the script runs without errors, I think it should be fine to flash the advanced menu BIOS.

 

thanks mate, I'll try this as soon as possible.

 

I'm not entirely sure that the offset is the same, you might make a brick

 

If the offset is different, won't the script throw an error?

 

Hello Vaio Z2 Owners
I have noticed this thread and it is quite interesting.
I can see that vaio z is based on InsydeH2O BIOS.
And that is exactly same as I have in my laptop.
I would be very happy if someone can tell me that I can do these tricks with BIOS as you do
And I want to know if it's worth anything,if I will gain anything to open Advanced menu , hm in my case is Main Menu

 

Anyway I'll try to do this mod about 1 week after. 'cause i'm not at home and I have a slow internet. I'm looking web sites for how to do this mod to my pc. Unless i find a acceptable solution, this mod will be my latest option. Thank you for warning

 

Will Memory Remapping Feature or something looks like this be in Z13 hacked BIOS ?
I see 2.93 Gb RAM in Win 7 SP1 x32 and 5.68 Gb in Win 7 SP1 x64 while 6 Gb are installed. In case of x64 0.32 Gb are lost, in case of x32 more than 1 Gb are lost.

 

I have an HP TM2. I did not need to mod the BIOS to unlock advanced menu. I just had to press "A" upon pressing F10 to enter BIOS (Insyde UEFI).

I tried to disable hyperthreading in Power -> Advanced CPU Control. That's all I changed.

And now my machine won't POST. So I tried to reset CMOS by doing the hold down power trick (without battery and A/C).

I've also tried disconnecting RTC (CMOS) battery for 30 minutes. Still no boot.

Please help me! Any ideas?

(My original thread is here: TM2-2100 bricked again... (tried to disable Hyperthreading) , but it seems to be an inactive section)

 

Some sources report that this might help:

Removing battery, AC adaptor, open up the laptop, remove RTC battery short the contacts on the motherboard where the RTC battery is connected. Use a flat head screwdriver or a metal wire. Then wait some seconds, and reassemble the RTC battery. Maybe this helps. Otherwise you might locate the CMOS chip and get a datasheed how it can be reset manually.

 

No go

Nowhere to be found. I did find on one google result that these newer laptops may have some of the user CMOS settings stored on the flash ROM itself, so maybe that's why this is not working.

 

Can you provide an original BIOS update file for your laptop? I will have a look into that. You can also PM me since we are doing OT here.

 

I didn't mod / flash the BIOS for this to happen.

#EDIT: BIOS: bios for tm2.zip

 

Is there anyway to set a lower temperature at which the fan spins faster? I tried setting the Low Fan Speed and High Fan Speed temperatures in the BIOS but they don't seem to affect anything?

 

Hi.

Sorry but I wonder if the advanced_menu.py patch will work on the new revision of the bios 3030R3 (something like this) as it clearly says it was made for older version of bios R1180C3

thanks

 

It's R3030C3, the newest version of the VPC-Z1 Bios. It works flawlessly with the advanced_menu.py. No manual changes needed, just follow the straight forward procedure.

 

I hacked my bios successfully but it took a lot of time as the instructions in post 1 and 87 were difficult for me to follow so I have amended to help other less experienced people like myself.

Although it took me hours to work out with the original instructions it should be quick with the amended one's below.
Is well worth it. New intel and nvidia drivers are much better and battery time is much the same as before for both.

ComputerCowboy's patch in post http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/602497-latest-vpc-z1-330m-drivers-bios-hack-people.html is excellent and all you need to edit the latest nvidia driver which you can get direct from nvidia site. His bios hack would not work on my UK vaio hence me doing it as below new instructions.

Edit: this is now the way to mod the Nvidia inf, or use ComputerCowboy's patch.
(click on little blue arrow next to paul3000h to see the post)

Could post 1 and 87 point to this or be amended?

NEW INSTRUCTIONS WINDOWS WAY

Prep work (not as bad as it looks):

- make a bootable USB key with FreeDos. Go to UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads and download the latest version. It will allow you to make a bootable USB with FreeDos straight out of the box. use top distribution option the lower image option is not needed.

- Download Flash t with the link elsewhere in this thread, post 81, and copy it to the key (it is actually spelt with i before the t and NO space but to stop it being seen as a swearword and blocked by notebookreview it shows as a space in these posts. the link in post 81 calls it fla)

- Download Portable Python from Download ? Portable Python (you want version 2.6.1 and not 3.0.1 since you need Unicode per your python script.)

- Install Portable Python to the USB Key

- Download the advanced_menu.py script from the bottom of the first post and copy it to to the App directory in Python installation directory on the USB key

Do the patching:

- Reboot the Z to the USB key.

Don't change any boot options at this point (even though it says something about installing stuff on your hard drive it won't)
Just hit enter at the first menu and enter again at the second menu
then you are at a command prompt

type C: hit enter ie cd to c:

- perform (enter) "Flash t dump.rom /g" process to extract the rom (without the " " and put in the missing i before the t and NO space)

- Reboot to Windows

- copy the new dump.rom file to the App directory in the Python folder

- open command prompt. cd to the USB key drive letter, and cd to the python app directory (\PortablePython_1.1_py2.6.1\App) and do (enter) the "python advanced_menu.py dump.rom new.rom" command (without the " ") IT SHOULD REPORT NO ERRORS!!! IF YOU GOT ERRORS PLEASE DO NOT FLASH!!! ie do not continue with below.

- copy the new.rom (now in the app directory) to the root directory of stick drive

- Reboot to USB key

- at root directory perform (enter) "Flash t new.rom /f" process to write back the patched rom (without the " " and put in the missing i before the t and NO space)

 

The censorship thing threw me for a loop also

the utility is called " F L A S H I T . E X E" you can see how the bold part gets identified as naughty and only the underlined part gets left in the posts. Then everyone wonders why they can't find "FLA" anywhere.

My solution is I just renamed the flashing utility you can get it from my site FLASHZ1.EXE

@Paul
I took the liberty of editing your post a little bit to make it even more easy to understand

 

For us less experienced could you further edit.... and thanks for all your helpful work.

- Download FLASHZ1.EXE and copy it to the key

 

No No No, thank you for revisiting this and making it better, this should have been done ages ago

P.S. I added your suggestion to my edit of your post, good call

 

Off topic but there are some bright people here so am giving it a go. Having successfully hacked the bios and updated video drivers I thought updating the Intel stuff, chipset, RST, network and wireless would be easy but not so.
Chipset seems to stay the same even though it does the update. Same with Rapid Storage Technology. Network updated fine but complete disaster with the wireless lan. The update worked as showing drivers in device manager all shows well but though the wireless is on at front physical switch with green light lit in the smart network software with the radio buttons to switch Bluetooth and the WAN Lan on and off are working the radio button to switch the wirelss lan on and off was off when I did the update and now refuses to move to on. Windows 7 troubleshooting is no help.
I have searched hours on Google and un-installed and re-installed old and new drivers many times and cannot get it on. If I cant fix it I have lost my wireless connection permanently. A re-install of windows would be a disaster.
Any ideas to fix this, has the registry got something around the smart software which is preventing it being turned on I wonder.

 

Try playing with the 2.4GHz - 5GHz setting in the VAIO Smart network settings. Maybe it is set to the wrong frequency range for your WLAN.

P.S. Remember the adage 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'? We need to update graphics drivers from the ancient stock drivers that Sony provides.

 

The 2.4GHz - 5GHz setting in the VAIO Smart network settings is greyed out.
My instinct is that because the smart network setting was off for wireless LAN when I updated Intel driver it is still off and smart network will not switch it back on, hence cannot create profile or anything in control panel/manage wireless networks because the wireless lan is actually off as per the smart network control window even tho the hard switch on front of laptop is on and green light on.

 

Further to above post 434 NEW INSTRUCTIONS WINDOWS WAY, to revert back to the original sony bios, for example if needed for warranty reasons, does one simply...

- Reboot the Z to the USB key and
- perform (enter) "Flash t dump.rom /f" process (without the " " and put in the missing i before the t and NO space).

or if using ComputerCowboy post 435 version - perform (enter) FLASHZ1 DUMP.ROM /F

Then uninstall new nvidia drivers and re-install the original Sony version.

ie is the dump.rom that was created in the begining an exact copy of the original bios?
or is it necessary at that begining stage to have also created a file called backup.rom?

I am asuming...
1. the endings /g creates the copy and /f writes it to the bios.
2. the dump.rom created at the start was not changed in any way when the new.rom was created.

 

ComputerCowboy

- perform (enter) FLASHZ1 .EXE DUMP.ROM /G process to extract the rom

the red bit is not typed in the command???

When I tried your own (other thread) method my computer would not accept FLASHBIOS (bad command warning) so I had to perform, enter "dir" to see how my computer was labeling FLASHBIOS.EXE it did so as FLASHB~ so I had to use that spelling.

Perhaps it would be useful to add this to your instructions.

 

It doesn't matter if you type the .exe part or not

for example open the command line
type help then hit enter
type help.exe then hit enter
you get the same result

that is a good point about the name, I have edited my post to make the name seven chars before the extension

see updated post and instructions

 

It's really nice that you provide a "Hacking Z1 BIOSes for dummies" step-by-step tutorial, but without basic knowledge in DOS and stuff, one should not attempt to do such things. Fortunately, it seems to me that there were no Z's bricked with this yet *knocking wood* but remember, there is NO software BIOS recovery available on the Z1. Sony did NOT include the EL TORITO standard into the Z1 that Insyde BIOSes normally do provide. See successful recovery from a bricked laptop here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/611727-os-crashed-amid-bios-update-laptop-wont-boot.html

This is NOT possible on the Z1.

 

pyr0

Please could you confirm Is above quote not possible on z then?

 

The quote you provided is correct. When you go through the BIOS hack procedure, the very first thing you do is backup your BIOS with the flashing tool with the command flashbios dump.rom /g (flashbios is the insyde bios flash utility provided here and may have a different name, dump.rom is the original, unhacked flash image - keep it in a safe place!)

If you need to revert from the hacked BIOS due to warranty reasons, you can do so if you flash back the original image with the /f option as described.

Now the answer:
This works on the Z, but your Z must be bootable for that. If you have bricked the Z and it does not boot anymore, needless to say, you can't restore to the factory BIOS anymore.
Some laptops provide functions so you can recover even if the laptop is dead (see the link in my post). This does NOT apply to the Z. If a Z is BIOS-dead, it is doomed - you have to send it in to let them replace your motherboard.

 

I have followed all the instructions above, but when I try and boot from USB, It just stops at a screen saying "SYSLINUX 4.03 2010 10-22 EDD Copyright (C)1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al", with a flashing underscore.

I have tried re-doing it a few times but same thing happens. Any help would be appreciated.

 

No-one had this issue?

 

at the flashing underscore did you type C: then hit enter ie cd to c:\

or type cd c:\

did you follow instructions EXACTLY? You have sony z1.

 

Nothing can be typed (well, nothing comes up when you do). I am familiar with the change directory function, but as described, the screen just sits on that screen with the flashing underscore, no matter what is typed.

Edit: Yes, I have the sony Z1.

Edit2: It boots fine from CD, but then I obviously can't write to it.

Edit3: Tried a different USB. All is well.

 

can't write to the CD?
you need to use a USB stick...