Intel Virtualization Technology

Hi
My laptop is FZ140E with T7100 processor that supports Intel Virtualization Technology.
Now I want to enable this feature but the BIOS has not any flag/option to turn it on, is there any way to enable the VT ? (BIOS update, utility, …)

 

Hi, sorry to disappoint you... but all Sony Vaio laptops do not support Intel Virtualization. This is clearly stated on their support website, however they didn't say why.
Link:
http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponse.asp?id=381809
Sony disables this important feature for some reasons and doesn't allow it to be turned on in BIOS either. It seems that Sony disabled this feature on purpose... probably the best way for you is to call Sony and try to get a "level two" support person.

Please check out this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157158&highlight=virtualization
pay attention to all the posts.

I was gonna buy SZ6, but since Sony doesn't support it, I'm reconsidering my decision. Hopefully they will release an update on BIOS to unlock this feature soon...good luck!

 

I am not certain it is actually locked. In the thread there was a reference to message on the VT forum. I just posted an update there to jmatson. It read:

VT is disabled, but there was no indication that the MSR is locked. That implies we MIGHT be able to use the privileged level technique discussed. If I hear back I'll let you know. This was done on an FZ190.

Gary

 

Well I heard back and the fact that the ISO did not say it was unlocked meant it WAS locked. Sigh.

But there was another response from a guy who was able to tweak the CMOS to enable the VT bit. But the prospects of doing that are VERY VERY VERY scary. Not something I want to attempt.

WARNING!!!!!! DO NOT ATTEMPT ANYTHING IN THE FOLLOWING LINK IT MAY BRICK YOUR SONY.

Response in VMWare forum regarding the VT bit in the BIOS

Gary

 

There is more info on the VMWare thread:

Updated VMWare thread

It looks a bit less scary but still one needs to FULLY UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF TRYING THIS. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!!

Gary

 

thank you Gary for the info. That is a bit risky...
Since I'm not a VAIO owner yet, I can't try...
my biggest question is that is Sony gonna solve this issue officially in the near future?
I contacted PortableOne about it too, since they are an authorized Sony center. They told me they contacted Sony about this, but Sony never got back to them... they are doing some tests by themselves now...

 

Well I heard some more from the VMWare thread. Apparently the VT bit only matters when doing 64 bit VM's and had no effect at all at 32 bits. So I won't be trying to turn that bit on after all.

Gary

 

really? what do you mean? VT will not have effect on 32 bit OS? even if that's ture...then you will only be able to run pure software virtualization like vmware...stuff like Linux KVM or Parellel requires BIOS support...

 

Go to the VMWare forum link and read the last message I received. Maybe that was in the context of VMWare. But I thought from what was said he meant ANY 32bit / 64bit OS.

Gary

 

If it is indeed true that there is no point with an x86 install, then that's your reason why Sony locked it: they do not, and stated they will not support a x64 installation.

 

I am not sure how true the tie between the VT bit and 64bit guests under a VM really is. The context of the messages is in the VMWare forum and as such the advice may pertain ONLY to VMWare and not other virtalization techniques. I'm still on the hunt for info in that regard. Also there is renewed hope for the VT bit: (agian from the VMWare Forum thread)

Gary

 

it's getting very technical there on VMware forum...and I don't have a VAIO laptop to test with..... why Sony made this so complicated... can anyone call them up and see what they can do?

 

Thanks for mentioning and reviving that thread, Gary, and thanks to bfroemel from the VMWare forum for the solution.

I've successfully enabled VT on my VAIO SZ by simply changing a value, and never encountered any "show-killers" explained in bfroemel's post after doing so. Only when I changed every 0 value to 1 did I receive that red prompt, but nothing drastic ever happened when I selected "yes". As bfroemel mentioned before, any changes to the NVRAM can be reset back to default from either the BIOS or the symcmos utility, so if you take the time, it's somewhat easy to filter out the important registers. I've tested this method on the R0094N0, R0096N0, and R0112N0 BIOSes and they all seem to have essentially the same byte pattern, so maybe it will also be similar on other VAIO model BIOSes.

I also managed to find the registers that affected other unaccessible settings. Most notable are the ability to enable AHCI support for the SATA hard drive and Hyper Threading support (even though Core Duos and Core 2 Duos don't utilize it), and disable the appearance of the VAIO/Phoenix BIOS picture or animation during POST and the NX bit. I received a STOP 0x0000007B BSOD while changing a few values, which indicated that I enabled AHCI mode, and in order to get past it, I had to install the Intel AHCI drivers to my existing Windows XP installation. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the Debug Intel Menu appear or change the memory frequency with this method.

Before:
Note that my Yonah CPU does not support EM64T, which is why I'm getting the "This Core does not support long mode" message.


After:

 

could you please mention how could i enable this in sony vaio sz 600 series laptops. will this help to make 32-bit virtual machines faster

 

Hi Bogart.
Thanks for the information for your post. I have also one of the bios you mentioned. I successfully enabled VT by changing the CMOS register 0399 to 0001. Could you please list some other NVRAM registers that you discovered, for example the AHCI?
Thanks in advance,
David.