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

I don't know about Windows 10, I'm pretty sure we can figure out how to make it work.
My program will need an update to do that though.

 

I'm downloading Windows 10, I'll be installing it this weekend

 

I am stuck at the Bios Hack patching instructions #8.......

- Switch to command prompt on the USB key, in the python directory and do the "python advanced_menu.pydump.romnew.rom" command

I go to my USB D:\> ......I have typed several things here but nothing works.....I get "the system cannot find the path specified"

In my USB Disk D:\>, my subfolder is Portable Python 2.7.6.1\App which has the "advanced_menu.py" and the DUMP.ROM files.
Can someone type out what this dummy needs to type in the prompt?

 

d:
cd portable python 2.7.6.1
cd app

(it helps if you rename the python folder to something simple)

 

thank you! thank you! When I open command prompt, it feels like 1988 again.....I have forgotten much! I have my Vaio back!

Last question.......do I remain in test mode indefinitely? Or go back to ComputerCowboy's patcher.exe to turn it off?

 

Try both ways and see which one works better for you. I used to turn it off in Windows 7, but in Windows 8 I felt that leaving it in test mode gave me less trouble. Also, keep an eye on Windows Update - sometimes it thinks it has a better driver.

 

Can anyone tell me what the temperatures are like during the BIOS flashing process? E.G. Does the fan go full blast? How long does this take? Just trying to figure out whether I should do this in a heavily airconditioned room, or just after cleaning the fan. I DO NOT want the laptop shutting down during flashing.

 

Aight cowboy, keep us updated, we'll be glad to hear

 

I've downloaded Windows 10, I'm planning on installing it this weekend. We'll see how it goes with the drivers. At this point there aren't any nVidia drivers specifically for Windows 10. The mod and patch will need updating when there are new entries for Win 10 in the INF files. My theory is that the current patch will work with 10 for the moment. I guess we will find out soon enough.

 

Actually it looks as though there is a BETA ready to go.
http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-releases-new-driver-for-windows-10-testing/
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/84233/en-us

 

CC, that driver is only for 900, 700 and 600 series. We need something that will work with the now ancient 330M.

 

Yea, I realized that when I started tearing it down. I should be able to use bits of the INF files from the Windows 7/8 drivers and merge them into the Windows 10 BETA.

In the future I don't think it will be an issue because nVidia generally covers a very wide range of hardware in their releases. I imagine as time goes on they will add legacy hardware to the Windows 10 driver package.

 

Could someone confirm that after applying the BIOS hack I can still use the hybrid drivers (Andrew08) by setting the switching mode to 'auto' in the BIOS? Sometimes I have a lot of working windows open and it is not convenient to close them all, reboot, and then reopen them the way they were.

 

Personally I never tried but it should work. However, since the drivers are different you will not be able to use the latest nvidia drivers.

That's good news, thank you!

 

Y

Yes... that'll work

 

Thanks, Mesenzio and ComputerCowboy.

 

Hey CC,

A bit thank you for this. My VPCZ12M9E is now better then ever. On Windows 7 x64 I have the latest NVIDIA driver (341.44 with 3D patch) running with brightness control, HDMI out running great. Also, my Intel HD running with VGA out working for that too (so the VGA port isn't rendered useless should I need it). I'm actually finding an improvement on the Intel HD in Stamina as I was getting HTML5 video stuttering with the hybrid driver).

There is one issue with the BIOS hack that has led to my dual SSD RAID to run slower than before, but I will post about that in the other thread.

One piece of advice I have is not to install the latest Intel HD driver via Intel's Driver Update Utility as it seems to install one for 2nd gen core processors onwards, and although it worked in Stamina mode, when I switched to Speed it was showing the 330M as a Standard VGA Adapter at low resolution with no HDMI. I cleaned the drivers and reinstalled the Intel HD, this time via Windows Device Manager - and it worked. I now have static switching running fine for both GPUs.

CC, what do you make of what Sony has written here? Do you see this as a problem, or should we be able to install third party drivers separately as they become available?

 

ComputerCowboy mentioned that the Nvidia drivers should work on Windows 10. However I was wondering about the specific Vaio software, such as battery care and the like.

 

I expect we'll be able to install them in compatibility mode, like we do now for Windows 8 and 8.1. Some of them will need to be installed with admin privileges as well. And don't forget that some of the Sony utilities which have updates will need the original version installed first, and then the updated version installed over it. All in all, a bit of a mess, but I suppose we should be able to muddle through.

I'll be installing Windows 10 later this week. If no one beats me to it, I'll put up a step by step guide.

 

I have installed the drivers on the latest Windows 10 deemed RTM 240 release and they seem to be working fine.

Thanks developers.

 

Nice, this is exciting news. Did you need to run them in compatibility mode @rahuldel? How about VAIO software such as Smart Network, Control Center, Event Service, Power Management? How many of these are necessary for full VAIO functionality do you think?

 

I finally got around to doing this BIOS HACK thing - although I am still on hybrid drivers with VGA switching mode set to dynamic - but now I have a problem. The laptop shuts down (overheating?) when I boot up with the switch set to auto or speed. I have to start up in stamina mode, and then I can switch to speed, no problems, but I think I should fix this before setting VGA switching mode to static. Any ideas, guys?

 

@anytimer, get Open Hardware Monitor to see your chip temperatures. There'll be a sensor for each CPU core (which share a heatsink surface with the Intel GPU) and the NVIDIA chip. If temps go over 100 degrees then you're in shutdown territory. Find out which it is that's overheating (if indeed that is the case).

My 5 year old VAIO started to overheat and shutdown when the CPU paste perished, though the GPU has a special thermal pad to bridge the (roughly 0.4mm) extra gap between the chip surface and the heatsink - some have reported that their GPU pads had perished too. I (foolishly) replaced my GPU pad with a Phobya thermal pad first time round, which had nowhere near the thermal conductivity required to keep the GPU cool. Therefore I, like everybody else, needed to order a copper shim to bridge the gap and used the PC in stamina mode until it turned up.

Check out this thread for more info. I also still have spare shims if you need one.

 

Done all the above. I clean and repaste every few months - there's a lot of dust in India. Can't tell what's overheating - the laptop will shut down before it finishes booting. It was fine before the BIOS hack, so I need to look at all the BIOS settings too, in case I messed up somewhere.
I'll run a stress test to see if I can figure this out.
Nice of you to offer the shim, but the shipping charges to India will be prohibitive. I'm good with tools - I'll buy copper sheet and make my own. My original GPU thermal pad is still more or less intact, but after several repaste jobs it is showing signs of wear and tear.

 

I see, that is odd. So switching to speed after booting in stamina works OK. I wonder if the bootup process is causing a lot of stress on one of the chips. I have noticed sometimes that being in the BIOS settings screen can cause the fan to slowly accelerate to full speed, indicating something is heating up - but only sometimes.

Fair enough! I didn't know where you were located, but you're probably right!

 

Well I did an upgrade to my OS to Windows 10, patched my Bios and then installed the patched drivers which worked fine.
I have not gone through and checked the other Vaio softwares, will need to look into them and see if they are running fine.

Also I was not able to update the Intel Display Drivers, is there any possibility to install the latest Intel Display Drivers?

But am very happy with the latest Nvidia Drivers and Windows 10 it has kind of given a new life to the laptop.

 

Has no one tried a clean install of Windows 10?

 

Yes I tried, no issues at all

 

Thanks! Greatly apperciated!

 

Hi everyone,
I've just updated my Z to the RTM 10240 windows 10. Everything went fine except for the 330M....
I was running windows 7 with the bios hacked, i had the 341.44 running smoothly. I've made several improvements on my Z : upgrade to 1080 display, upgrade the wifi card to intel 7260 with bluetooth 4.0 (instead of 6200), removed optical drive and installed a 1TB HD.
I got to say i've been a little surprised to see that nobody had any issues upgrading to win10 according to the fact that nvidia has provided a driver that doesn't support the 330M yet. I tried to hack the 341.44 that i had before and the new 352.63. The hack went good each time but i couldn't go through the install for any of those. I can now only run stamina mode.
Any idea ?

How did you do that ?

 

Can someone please tell me WHICH Intel graphics driver I need to download? I have downloaded 3 so far from the Intel website, but they all say no qualifying hardware found.

The patched NVIDIA driver won't install - says I have to install the INTEL driver first.

Windows Update says the Microsoft Basic Adapter is the best.

 

I got the intel driver automaticly installed by windows update, Intel HD Graphics. I can't confirm this is the best up to date driver, the intel driver utility didn't find any updates.

 

Thanks. That worked. Windows Update gave me the required driver.

Surprising that device manager -> update driver didn't find squat. Intel Driver Update utility also failed miserably.

 

Yay! I now have NVIDIA 341.44.

 

After the upgrade from Windows 8.1 update 1 to Windows 10 RTM 10240, the Fn keys for adjusting brightness are working on both SPEED and STAMINA modes. (Not working in 8.1, working in 10240).

Note: not tested on clean install as yet.

 

I can't make the 341.44 to work on the RTM 10240... Did you rehack the bios after upgrading ? Did you do anything special ?

 

Does Test Mode in the patcher actually work for Win 10? What about disabling driver signing?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

My Windows 8.1 was already in test mode, with all updates and with driver signing disabled. The upgrade to Windows 10 retained all of the above, and even improved certain things, like the Fn keys I have mentioned, and increasing my text and icon sizes to 125% (which I'll change back later). I didn't use the patcher at all under Windows 10; I used driver files that had been patched prior to the upgrade and were still sitting on my C drive.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/vpcz1-upgrade-to-windows-10-10240.779140/

AFAIK, the BIOS is independent of the OS; no need to rehack the BIOS.

 

Thanks for the update, anytimer! Glad to hear that everything works! I'll try tomorrow and let you guys know how it goes.

So in the end for the nvidia card you used the Windows 8.1 341.44 drivers?

Yes, the BIOS is installed directly on the motherboard.

 

Yes. I didn't mess with the Windows 10 beta driver. I'm leaving that exercise to more proficient guys, like ComputerCowboy. I still have to do the clean install I promised, so I'll be busy with that.

 

Hi anytimer.

Are you able to post instructions for a clean install for win 10 on a Vaio vpcz1?

I'm currently using Win7 and would love to upgrade providing all drivers work as expected.

Many thanks

 

I'm waiting for an activation issue to be resolved by Microsoft before doing the clean install. The upgrade in place went rather well, as I have mentioned in a couple of threads, but I want tobe sure that my activation is good before I do the clean install, or I'll have to put in my old HDD and reinstall my original OS from there, and then upgrade.

I expect everything to work, but we might need to disable driver updates - they are automatic on Windows 10 - otherwise we'll end up with broken drivers as soon as we connect to the internet.

 

I updated my VPCZ to Windows 10 and I can confirm that the 341.44 drivers for Windows 8.1 works great with ComputerCowboy VGA Patch, icluding the brightness buttons!

 

That's interesting. I have made the update 2 weeks ago and tried to install the 341.44 since then without success. The patch worked, i could lauch the install, accept the terms of contract but driver setup failed at about 30%.
Fyi, i have my bios hacked for more than a year, and i never had any issues before.
I would love to know how you've proceed to install the drivers.

 

I am now running 341.74, the first Windows 10 driver that supports 330M. ComputerCowboy's patch works fine with this. Installed without any trouble.

Note: my system has been upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1, which was already permanently in test mode, and stayed that way after the upgrade. I might have difficulties when I do a clean install - I think enabling test mode in Windows 10 is a little bit more troublesome - but for now everything is going great.

 

Switched to stamina, then I uninstalled the old drivers, then run Display Driver Uninstaller in test mode.

Back in normal Windows but still in stamina, I ran the driver installer to unpack. Patched the files (I used the VGA Patch).

Restart Windows in test mode, TURN WI-FI OFF and switched to speed mode.

Ran the installer and everything was good.

Nah, same procedure, you can search for "advanced" in the start menu and you'll find "Change advanced start-up options", and you can restart in test mode from there.

P.S. I forgot to mention to swith the wi-fi off before restarting in Speed Mode, so that Windows does not download its drivers for the gt330m! (added in the text now)

 

UPDATE

It seems that Nvidia released the new Windows 10 drivers for the GT330M as well!

 

I mentioned that above. 341.74. Everything works.

 

LOL, totally missed that

 

Big thanks to everyone, i've missed the test mode part...
The 341.74 is running fine.