Latest VPC-Z1/330M Drivers for the BIOS Hack People

I had a look at the code and there is a check for that, I just forgot to put a return statement after it.

I'll fix it and up and upload it.

 

The first post has been updated and the code has been fixed

 

Hi. Thx for all your work, but I can't download VAIO_Z1_330M_INF_Patcher.exe.v4.6.zip ( I's empty add)

 

My bad, the link is fixed now. Sorry about that.

 

Great work @ComputerCowboy. Can you please update the hacked bios to the version R3031C3. Thanks...

 

That is a bit of a process, I am still running the old BIOS on mine.
Perhaps I'll get to that this weekend.

I have to flash back to the factory old BIOS, then update, dump, patch and reload, kind of an annoying process.

 

I have updated my bios with advanced menu.

 

Can anyone explain difference between 3d vision parch and vga patch. And which one to apply?

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3D Vision Patch enables 3D Vision and HDMI
VGA Patch enables VGA only

If you need HDMI use the 3D patch
if you need VGA use the VGA patch

If you need both... sorry, I've spent many hours trying to figure out how to get both to work with only one patch and haven't had any success yet.

 

Thanks buddy.. I use hdmi so I am using 3d patch now....works great....vga is not required as 99% of the new TV's and monitors support hdmi.

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Fantastic work ComputerCowboy, and thanks to everyone who has contributed in one way or another.
I must be doing something wrong - I can't get it to work. When I run the Nvidia 331.65 driver that I downloaded from ComputerCowboy link, it says "NVIDIA installer cannot continue. You must install an Intel driver first"
I have installed the latest (.2993) Intel driver, and the patch. As I say, probably me doing something wrong but advice would be appreciated. Hugo

 

At the moment I am using W 7 n Vidia V 314.07 (modified with your patcher v3) and thought to update to latest 331.82
I currently have my monitor connected with the d sub vga?? and my tv with hdmi both on and working as extended, if I update will I no longer be able to have this setup?

Many thanks as usual.

 

It looks like the latest drivers 332.21 fixed the black/rippled screen after resuming from sleep issue.

 

I'm not too sure about that. HDMI and VGA should not physically work at the same time regardless of software.

I've heard of this issue, but I don't know anything about it.

Excellent news, I'll give it a try.

 

My Leptop is dead after the finish process not works anymore.. What can i do ? No screen just green light in power button stays like 30 secounds and goes off//

 

You are saying it is dead after flashing the BIOS?
I'm not sure what can be done about that. Perhaps JTAG BIOS flashing, but I can't recall if anyone has ever done that with this model.

The other thing you could do is buy a new motherboard for it from eBay, they ought to be pretty cheap considering this laptop is sort of a dinosaur now.

 

Yes Notebook dead after the 100% complete of this process. Motherboard will be high price.. Any another way ?

 

Other than the JTAG thing not really. Furthermore I am not certain that a JTAG flash has been done with this model, I'm not really sure where to point you for more info about that.

If you read this thread you'll find out that you are pretty much gonna need a new board. It is not the same model, but it is very much the same issue.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/573361-sony-vaio-x-series-bricked-flashing-bios.html

 

The motherboards aren't really that pricey.
I found this with a quick eBay search.
A1754738A PCG 31111L for Sony Vaio VPC Z1 VPCZ Motherboard MBX 206 i5 CPU Testok | eBay

 

And for anyone who has come across this problem, there's a compatibility issue between BitDefender Anti-Virus (also Internet Security) and the VPC-Z11 (and it looks like, a whole lot of other computers). I'm adding it to this thread because it's the NVidia driver that's incompatible - for me, the screen just went black (switched off) after the Windows logo, and when I searched the web it seems that BitDefender treats various drivers (in this case, the NVidia graphics driver) as a virus and won't let it run. Solution - boot into Stamina mode and un-install BitDefender and use a different anti-virus. I'm testing Kaspersky thoroughly now during the 30 day trial before paying anything.

 

@ComputerCowboy I've done something wrong again - now I can't even run Patcher. It brings up the logo (two square chips), then about 1 second later a window opens and an alert box pops up to say it has stopped working. I don't know what this is but nothing I try (run as administrator, pause anti-virus) works. I have had it working a couple of times before although only in between failures to run.
VPC-Z11, WIn 8.1 64-bit.
It's probably something obvious and you'll tell me "check out post xxx" - hope I can at least get past the Patcher and try the bios upgrades again (which didn't work last time)

 

Thanks for help, I should have been clearer, at the moment I can use the monitor on the vga d sub only or or tv hdmi monitor via hdmi socket only or the laptop display extended to a hdmi tv display not both external monitors at once. If I update will I still be able to do this? and which update do I choose the 3d hdmi or the vga ?

I am confused because at the moment I am using a modded NVidia driver (modified with your patcher v3) and it works as above, has something changed since V 314.07?

 

The regular nVidia driver probably is compatible. I think it probably fails because we hack it all up before installing it on the Z1. That is why we need test mode and all this other crap to make it fly.

 

Hi everyone! It's been a long time I didn't post and I'm happy to see the thread is still alive and thanks to ComputerCowboy to keep the Vaio Z alive and kicking after all these years!

I installed the 332.21 drivers with the 4.6 patcher VGA and they work fine, also the HDMI does work with the VGA patch!

I didn't have any black screen resuming from sleep or hibernation so I suppose this is solved, but what happens is that the Windows brightness controls no longer work after resuming. A restart does the trick however.

On Intel everything works fine as usual, including the automatic brightness.

 

I am having problem when on intel graphics. When I boot up with intel graphics right click on desktop takes too much of time to come. Anyone having this issue?

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Yes, I usually have the same problem.

 

Any fix?

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Just wanted to say a huge thanks to ComputerCowboy, psyq321, paul3000h & anyone else who has an involvement for all their hard work in all of this. I patched my Z1 up to the 332.21 drivers tonight as my laptop seemed to be freaking out with video driver issues recently (think the speed switch is screwed). Not the easiest thing in the world to do, but not too bad if you take it slowly. Everything went well & it seems to have made a huge difference over the Sony drivers. About to go into a Civ 5 session on this machine for the first time in months

Thanks again!

Velox

 

hi guys, I am not using bios hack "yet"

just wanted to share some of my knowledge
to get best compatibility for our VPCZ1
modify nvszcn.inf from NVidia notebook graphic driver
then put your
%NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.905A.104D% = Section 0xx, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_905A104D
under
%NVIDIA_DEV.0A29.9067.104D% = Section 0xx, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A29&SUBSYS_9067104D

note remember to modify 0xx to the section

you have to add this 4 times
windows vista
windows 7
windows 8
windows 8.1

save and install

Second thing to share (credit failure13)
if you want better driver
try downloading quadro driver
and find NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M
add gt330m line
save and install

edit
ah yes I do have brightness fn+f5/f6 working for bios hack on windows 8.1

edit2
i join bios hack
i have right click fix also

edit3
brightness control doesn' work well
cuda working

edit4
brightness works with little hack, auto brightness no.

lets see where I am heading...

 

Hi... can you share your work with us?... thanks...

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My program hacks either of two files

Code:

this.FileName3D = "nvctn.inf";
this.FileNameVGA = "nvszcn.inf";

personally I like the results from nvctn.inf better. When I use nvszcn.inf I don't get 3D Vision support for some reason.

Also I don't add lines, I just tweak the closest 330M device Id to match the revision in the Z1

 

Having the Quadro drivers sounds useful, but I have a few questions:

1) Do they give some improvement with 3D applications? I know that you can use modified drivers to install FirePro drivers with Radeon cards, but that they are hardware locked and the changes are negligible, is that so also with Quadro/GeForce?

2)I downloaded the Quadro drivers but I cannot find a nvszcn.inf file. The closest thing I have is nvsmq.inf. Also, do I have to ADD the lines at the top of the post? Where? How should I modify the 0xx?

Sorry for all the questions, but having the Quadro drivers would be actually cool

 

I downloaded the Quadro driver for the FX 880M v332.50 and modified the nvcvq.inf. The driver works. I had some problems with the last two GeForce driver I downloaded when waking up from standby. I don't have this problems with this driver. But the display brightness buttons don't work. I'm happy with this driver but the gpu is still recognized as 330M by the Nvidia control panel. It's not that easy modding your 330M into a FX 880.
Does anybody know how to fix the keyboard brightness control?

The attached file is the nvcvq.inf for the Quadro 332.50 driver. Replace the original file with this one in the Nvidia installation folder. To make the driver work, I added the following 5 lines in the inf-file:

1. In section «[NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0]», I added the line:
%NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.0052.14C0% = Section023, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_005214C0
2. In section «[NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]», I added the line:
%NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.0052.14C0% = Section024, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_905A104D
3. In section «[NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.2]», I added the line:
%NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.0052.14C0% = Section025, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_905A104D
4. In section «[NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.3]», I added the line:
%NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.0052.14C0% = Section026, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0A2B&SUBSYS_905A104D
5. In section «[Strings]», I added the line:
NVIDIA_DEV.0A2B.0052.14C0 = "NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M"

I don't know, if I did anything wrong. I'm not an expert. The driver works for me. I'm using Windows 7 x64. If somebody has got some better input, please let us know about it.

View attachment nvcvq.zip

 

The keyboard brightness control does not work with nvidia.

 

I just installed the Quaddro 334.95 beta drivers for FX 880M. I have to say I think it works somewhat better than the newest geforce 334.89 drivers. I keep getting weird glitches with the geforce one, and also wake from sleep problems. The Quaddros also keeps my fan at a minimum, and for the first time cool air. However, the brightness control even in the Windows 8.1 charms don't work at all. My screen is super bright. I don't know how to fix it. Please help? Gonna try the 332.50 Quaddro drivers. If the same thing going to go back to the Geforce ones. If the 332.50 works I will let everyone know.

Thanks for this great forum!

edit 1
The Quadro 332.50 drivers do the same thing with brightness. I went back to the geforce 334.89 drivers.

 

That's good news, I will give it a try!

It's not a matter of drivers, to restore the brightness control you have to remove this string from [nv_miscBase_addreg__14] section in nvszc.inf file:

HKR,,DDIBacklightControl,%REG_DWORD%,0x00000001

At least that used to work with 295.73 and a few version after.

 

I do not believe this is still a working solution... unless you are referring to control via the charms menu. Removal of this line is part of my patch program, it is pretty easy to see if you have a look at MainWindow.xaml.cs in the source code. This has been a part of the patch for a long time. I have NOT seen brightness control work via the Fn keys on the laptop for a while I think since the 300 series drivers came out. I haven't had any issue controlling the back-light from the charms menu with in Speed/nVidia mode though.

 

Yes, I mean via the charm menu.

I suggested it since we can't use your patcher on the Quadro drivers. Or is it possible?

Also, I cannot find nor the nvszc.inf file nor the line in question. I suppose I have to look in the nvcvq.inf file, where there actually is a "DDIBacklightControl". Should I remove it?

 

If a driver can be patched by means of modifying an INF file then a patch program can be created to do it. As it stands now my program is designed to work with the GeForce drivers. It is possible for me to make the patch also work for the Quadro drivers, but I'd have to have a reason to want to do it. Stability is a pretty good reason. If it is the case that the Qudadro drivers are without the sleep issue then I might take the time to make the patch work for them for the benefit of the community. Bear in mind that my interest in continuing the development of this program lies primarily in making 3D Vision work properly so I can watch 3D Blu-ray movies with Stereoscopic player.

When I find the time I'll do some experimentation with the Quadro drivers and see if the offer a benefit. If they do and it is easy enough, I'll modify the program to patch both the GeForce and Quadro drivers.

This would call for a new major version of the patch program and would likely be a version 5 release.

 

You are a legend sir...

 

Ok, I gave a quick run to the Quadro drivers and I have the same issue as smokinglala and cannot control the brightness from the charm menu. For the rest they seem to work just fine, but checking on software such as Adobe After Effects the card is still not recognized as a Quadro.

I also removed the HKR,,DDIBacklightControl line from the nvcvq.inf file but with no success.

Now, I downloaded the 334.89 drivers but the patcher says '0 lines patched' both in VGA and 3D Vision. Am I forgetting something really basic or did something change since 332.21?

 

Something may have changed, I'll take a look at it and make a revision if necessary.

 

You are awesome!

 

I have updated the patch and the first page of this post to work with the new drivers, seems like nVidia decided to change the file names again, not sure why.

 

Fantastic! All that in 20 minutes! Considering that Sony doesn't upgrade the drivers since 2010 makes you think...

Anyway, the new patcher works perfectly, I just installed the 334.89 drivers and no issue so far.

 

I'm glad you like it. It was a very simple tweak. Only a couple of lines of code. I just had to account for the new file names whilst maintaining the backward compatibility with the old ones.

 

FYI I saw NVIDIA announced that 300 series and older GPUs are considered EOL as of release 340: EOL driver support for legacy products

Was a good run while it lasted. I don't think I'll ever find anything to satisfactorily replace my Z12.

 

I am not terribly concerned about EOL on products like this. The new drivers will continue to support the 330M it is just that they won't be putting any code in that will enhance the performance of this chip. You'll still get some of the new benefits of new drivers, like maybe new control panel layouts and stuff like that.
I agree about replacing the Z12, not possible. The best thing out there right now is the Pro 11 or Pro 13. They are great, but they are not a Z1. I love my express card slot hooked up to my ViDock, I love the Intel 6300 card and third antenna, I love the Intel SSDs that I swapped in place of the Toshiba drives. My Z12 is so tweaked out and customized, there probably will never be another laptop built like this that you can tweak like this. The Z2 couldn't do all this stuff. I really do like that Pro 11 though, one of my best friends just got one on my recommendation and it is really sweet. The IPS display is nice, the weight is nice. The track pad is crap, but I always use a BT mouse anyway.

As far as EOL and EOS products, I love them. My home network consists almost entirely of corporate retired Cisco Aironet gear and retired Sony IPELA security cameras. I even have an old Nortel Baystack PoE 48 port managed switch. Using all this old gear with PoE is awesome. I have a new HP Gigabit managed switch that is powered off the PoE up-link to the main switch. Do I care that I have no warranty or software support on my gear, not really. I write all sorts of my own programs to run my network via direct serial control or SNMP. I can view the health of my wireless network, view live streams from the IPELA cameras, I can pretty much manage every aspect of my network from anywhere in the world. I love the fact that some of this hardware is considered obsolete. I have so many Cisco access points in my house that I am covering every single non-overlapping channel in both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. The 5Ghz N is fast enough that I can stream a 3D Blu-ray to my Z12 and play it out on my projector.

Sometimes some of the newest latest greatest gear is good to buy. I got my Z12 brand new in 2010 and it still has a lot of life in it. Heck I still use my UX490N which I bought brand new in 2007 for way too much.
The brand new thing I really want now is one of the Cisco 4x4 Multi User MIMO 802.11ac access points, 1.3Gbps wireless! Probably slightly overkill for my house, but hey, why not have a $1K corporate grade AP in your living room?

 

The 4.7 patcher does not start on my Z1 as the 4.6 also? Simply crashes though 4.6 did work when it was released. Win8.1 Pro german.

No idea what's suddenly wrong.

p.s. how can i undo the Bios patch if i d'like to?

 

I'd love to fix this for you... but I need more info. Is there an error when it crashes? Can you post a screen shot?