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

Hello. Just wanted to thank everyone for your great work! My Z is back in business!
As a feedback, I've installed drivers 342.01 on Windows 7 Ultimate 64bits. Everything works great in STAMINA, but I noticed that in SPEED mode, the increments in brightness are HUGE! While in STAMINA it takes about 4/8 of the brightness bars to achieve a descent luminosity, in SPEED with only 1/8 its already bright enough! I found that is a problem at night. I tough it was the PWM setting was high, but it was the same as in STAMINA @200hz. So it maybe something related to the incremental steps.
I'll be doing another test sometime in the future and post the feedback.

 

There is a known issue with controlling brightness via the VAIOs fn keys in SPEED mode. All the solutions found in older answers here in the forum don't seem to work anymore.
So I guess nowadays everybody are using the controls built into Windows instead, which also works fine for me.

I can confirm this problem must have something to do with the (processing of the) incremental steps which works for the Intel but not for the NVIDIA GPU.
I am (on Windows 10) able to increase (not decrease!) brightness with the fn key, while it doesn't change in steps but rather continuously.

If you (or anyone) find a solution will be interesting to hear.

 

Hi folks. I thought I had this licked but something odd has reared its head. I completed the original bios patch and the graphics driver patch without any significant hitches. Soon after the Win10 Creator's Edition came out and my machine took the update. It seemed to be fine.
However today, more than a month later, I switched to SPEED, rebooted, tried to project out of my HDMI port. An odd thing happened. The usual ding dong sound turned up confirming that it had found a device (I was intending to project Unfortunately it doesn't present data. Its not the projector.

So. I found an old restore point in May, went back to that and tried again. Same problem.
So.... forming the impression that the NVIDIA driver has been either corrupted or updated, I downloaded CC's patch kit:
- put it into test mode;
- did not try to download a new copy of the driver (assumed my old folder was fine) - I could be wrong...
- used my original NVIDIA folder (the one I used from the Win7 point)
- applied the 3D patch;
- launched the Nvidia installer from the panel - after a long pause it reported that it had removed the original settings and installation, but then.....as it completed the installation process it reported that none of the utilities or the driver had installed. Odd- thought I. I
Then I remembered. Wasn't there a policy we had to force to prevent WIndows from trying to update the driver? Does anybody remember how to enable/undo that? I've searched for that guide but cannot find it.

So.
- Is my suspicion right? Do I need to modify a policy to enable me to reinstall a patched driver?
- Should I download the latest nvidia driver so that CC's patch can be applied? Is the link on the first post of this thread the right one?
- Have I missed anything? How to get the Nvidia to install a replacement driver after applying CC's patch?
As usual I'm on a deadline and need my laptop to be working by Saturday. Big presentation ahead.

 

Just tried again to install the driver using device manager directly. Its definitely a system policy that stops it being used. Help please?

 

You probably activated the group policy to prevent installation of devices by hardware I'd.
It does prevent you from installing drivers.. however Windows update simply ignores it, so I have removed it again permanently.

Call local group policy editor, gpedit.msc and look for Computer Configuration->Admistrative Templates->System->Device Installation->Device Installation restrictions.

Anything active here, you might just get rid of it.


And yes, it absolutely makes sense to use the opportunity to get yourself up to the latest drivers from NVIDIA.

When installing, don't forget to use Test mode or boot into startup option F7 unsigned driver mode.

 

Thanks. Found the group policy, disabled it, did a safe mode deletion of the drivers and reinstalled. Used Rev 342 of the Nvidia drivers, but....
I'm still stuck with not being able to output anything from the HDMI port. Don't understand it. The laptop recognises that something is plugged in and seems to be aware of what the projector's resolution limits, but somehow it isnt delivering audio or video to the projector. The projector isn't at fault.
Any suggestions on how I could by a simple set of tests prove which bit is at fault:
a) The HDMI daughter board
b) The drivers.
c) Something I havent thought of?

Some good thinking would be gratefully received.
(Edit. Paloseco's posts in 2016 suggest that there were problems with some of the Nvdiia drivers, even with CC's patches, leading to partial HDMI port failure - I wonder Paloesco, CC, others - did anybody find the final fix?)

 

Are the other key functions, like volume up down, cd eject etc. working?
first thing that comes to my mind would be try uninstall - > reboot - > reinstall VAIO Event Services - > reboot.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

Hi galaxyge. I've tried that,

• the function keys work;
• Event Utilities were reinstalled along with the sony library;
• replaced the daughter board with one I know works - problem does not go away (so it must be a software problem - right?)
• deleted the 342 revisinn driver and installed at 341.74 using CC's 4.8 patch app (he said he had tested it on 341.74);
• did it by the book, even turned off wireless and networking to ensure that nothing could update the driver without my agreement'

So it should work (given I got this to work 6 months ago) right? Nope. nothing comes out the HMDI port.

• Device manager definitely reports the Nvidia driver being present. However the device manager is not picking up the name and model of the projector - it used to do that. So I can only conclude that the HDMI communications are tripping. The main screen restructures as though the machine knows it is dealing with a lower resolution when I ask it to duplicate screens. But no video on the projector.
• That same projector works with every other laptop I have.

Only remotely related factor - I found that MS updated the Intel driver for the base GPU in May 2017. Is it possible that the base GPU driver has a passive switch which allows the Nvidia driver to take over the HDMI channel? Does anybody have a working copy of the intel driver from a VPCZ13 with HDMI working on Win 10 which they could upload for me to force onto my machine?

@ComputerCowboy are you still alive and kicking?

Any other ideas folks?

 

you need to rule out it's not an issue with the projector's driver. Have you tried sending signal to any other HDMI device like a monitor or tv?

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

Try projecting the desktop - not the output of some media player. HDMI won't project protected video unless it is sure that there is no unauthorised recording device downstream. Extend your desktop and choose a resolution and display rate for the projector that is actually supported by the projector. If you are using the clone mode, the laptop will try to put out 1600 x 900, which the projector might not like.

Have you cleaned the stuff left over from previous drivers? Install the Intel driver first (in stamina mode) and then switch to speed mode, reboot, and install the nvidia driver.

Can you try doing a clean install? Do it on a VHD to avoid nuking your current setup if you don't fancy reinstalling everything.

 

Hi Anytimer. Thank you for the ideas. They helped to ratify my thought process. I had already done all that (apart from doing a clean install). It is odd: I had forced the policy to prevent the driver being changed - and there is no evidence that the Nvidia driver was changed but the problem suddenly appeared.

I think my next step is to ghost off the old system space and do a clean install. Problem is the large number of programs and settings on this machine. If I'm going to spend the time on it, I need to find a way of getting them back without having to find the original media, licenses, etc. I know they aren't around anymore.

Has anybody found a program transfer utility which allows one to extract out and back to the same machine - and works? Laplink's product doesn't do it.

 

I don't know a tool which could do such a transfer. I've gone through this with my VAIO and it was a nightmare.

Therefore, before setting up the whole thing anew (if anyway on this old machine, and you said you are using it for presentations) I'd definitely try a Repair Install first. This keeps all your data, programs and even all the SONY stuff, but restores everything else to Windows default.
If you're interested I'll refer you to more info (basically it means starting a Windows reinstall from an install medium within a running Windows)

Do a test clean install on a vhd if this doesn't work. But I doubt that the result would be any different.
On the other hand if you test the clean install on a vhd and it works, so most probably the Repair install will work as well.
Be sure to have a reliable backup before any of this...

 

I'm a different kind of guy - I do a clean install every once in a while (say twice a year), which very effectively gets rid of the inevitable accumulated junk. I have the drivers and utilities arranged in sequentially numbered folders - just have to run down the list. I have the setup files and license details for all my programs saved on an external HDD. Most browsers will let you save bookmarks and the logins and passwords can also be saved. Takes me a couple of hours.

 

Awesome, NuShrike! many thanks for your help. Works a treat!

 

hi, hacked rom is not avaliable, can you put the file again please?

 

i used this patch in windows10 RS2 but in RS3 nvidia driver using this patch is not installed.
can you upgrade this patch?

 

Just noticed the same as saydeicide. When I installed Win10 Pro Creators Update 1709, it removed the NVIDIA driver 342.01 successfully patched for the prior creator update. When I try to reinstall the NVIDIA 342.01 patch, it gets past the compatibility check, starts installing the driver, but then fails without any error code details. Simply failed driver installation. Any help is greatly appreciated.

UPDATED: Solved! All my bad. I forgot that I had settings in gpedit.msc that prevented the driver installation of specific hardware IDs. Once I had those removed, it installed just fineas it did in the past.

 

please tell me how about editing my option in gpedit.msc.

> sorry. solved.

 

For the benefit of others' future reference:
Details of how to prevent SPECIFIC (NVIDIA) driver updates in Win10 at
https://www.howtogeek.com/263851/ho...from-automatically-updating-specific-drivers/
With thanks to Walter Glenn for the writeup on HowToGeek

 

Patched 342.01 driver working fine on Windows 10 Pro x64 1809 17763.104.

 

Hello everyone, I dug up my old VPCZ1 and albeit still kicking, its screen its broken. I can still use it with an external monitor with the Intel card, but whenever I start it using the nVidia it does not connect to the external monitor nor via VGA nor HDMI. The problem is that the BIOS display exclusively on the laptop screen, is there a way to force the BIOS on the second monitor? The Fn+F7 combination does not work.

UPDATE: Just for the records, I managed to install the Nvidia drivers (thanks to the Windows Narrator!) and can confirm that the 342.01 work fine on the latest Windows 10 version.

UPDATE 2: I unplugged the laptop's LCD and still no dice. No POST on the second monitor.