Sony Vaio SA/SB/SC/SE Advanced Menu BIOS Hack

PULLED because people do not read warnings and play around with settings they are not supposed to touch.


Sony VAIO SA/SB/SC/SE BIOS hack available

Since the Sandy Bridge generation VAIO BIOSes are almost similar, hacking the new VAIO S series' BIOS was simple.

07/08/2012
Advanced menu hack updated to newest BIOS version R2087H4. Please check if this version is suitable for your particular model before flashing!

Many new options for tweaking revealed. These options most likely interesting for advanced users only.

You find more info to this thread in the Sony Vaio Z2 (2011) Advanced Menu BIOS Hack thread.

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The disclaimer
This project is 100% spare time driven. There is no warranty or support at all. Don't use this if you are unexperienced with computers. All you do with this BIOS is on your own risk! Flashing is a dangerous process. Make backups of your data. Your warranty may void with flashing this hack. Don't fiddle around with settings you don't understand - you may brick your laptop. All settings in BIOS get stored in the flash rom. Disconnecting the RTC battery will NOT reset the BIOS settings since they are non-volatile. If you fail, there is no return since BIOS recovery is unavailable to new sony laptops.

CAUTION! Do not change the following options in your hacked BIOS or you will brick your laptop!

* disable Intel GPU
* set first GPU to PEG


Prerequisites:

- Check at the Sony support page for your notebook if the R2085H4 BIOS (release date 11/21/2011) is available for your model. If it's not available, DON'T FLASH this hacked BIOS as you may brick your laptop!

- Create a backup of your stock BIOS - you might need it later for warranty reasons etc.:

- Download this BIOS Backup tool
- Extract it and run the contained file dump_BIOS.bat. Read the note and confirm. Then you will find the Backup Image as DUMP.ROM in the same directory.



You can use the backup file with the flashing tool as follows if you need it later to recover to original BIOS (e.g. in warranty case).

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Flashing process:

1. Download the hacked BIOS package from the attachment of this thread (see bottom). Extract the archive to your harddrive (e.g. to C:\)

2. Close all running applications. Charge your battery and leave your AC adaptor plugged in until you are finished.
Navigate to the directory with the unpacked BIOS package and run InsydeFlash.exe as Administrator.

3. Press Start and follow the screen instructions. After the flash completed, reboot your laptop. That's it!


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Thank you very much!

EDIT: the flashing process starts instantly after program execution, so watch out

 

Looks slick, I wish I could try it out but my GF has the SA...

 

Updated link with corrected Flashing Utility that now shows "Start" and "Exit" button for your convenience.

 

thanks for your effort +rep'd!

 

I have been running an unlocked bios provided by "camiloml" from here for quite some time now. How does your bios differ, if at all, from this one?

also, Camiloml has not found a safe way to re-enable SATA3, especially as the bios settings are not stored in volatile memory, and all bios recovery options have been disabled by sony. Is there any chance of a hack coming from you?

 

I know camilo and had already a look on his BIOS. In terms of functionality, our BIOSes do not differ so much from each other except that he replaced ALL opcode 0x27 checks and I only enabled one that was necessary for the advanced menu. My opinion is that the latter is the safer way since it can not cause any side effects, but probably you can argue about that.

Almost all current BIOSes store values in flash and sony generally does not implement recovery procedures to push their service sales. These two facts don't actually prevent me from hacking this but it would be easier if I had a SA/SB where I could hook up my SPI flasher to do serious alterations without risk of bricking laptops I don't own.

If I have some spare time beside my Ph.D. work, I will continue working on this. There is a reason that Camilo stopped his development, the AHCI implementation is damn tricky on this one. In any case, my policy about publications here was, is and will be: I would never post something that has the immediate pontential to brick someone else's property.

 

Thanks, but have you managed to get the thermal management settings to function correctly. Even adjusting the thermal limits and fan speeds does not seem to produce a difference in the fan noise on the SA.

 

Since I have no S series VAIO, I can't confirm. It's the same for the Z - changing the fan stuff does not have any effect because the FAN control is coded outside of the BIOS.

 

@pyr0: about unlocking SATA III capability: i still run the original BIOS R1031H4 on my SA which supports SATA III. if you think comparing the two BIOSes could be helpful to pinpoint what has changed, i can dump the BIOS and send it to you if you tell me which program i should use.

 

Compared and analyzed them already, thanks. Found some traces and starting points. Will dig into that deeper next week.

 

Any chance this can unlock the Rotate Screen function?

Sony seems to have banned it from the SE and despite editing the registry, I cannot use the option that existed in my 4 year old Toshiba.

 

Thank you pyr0.

I installed it in my VPCSB and it worked well... The installation was easier and quicker than original sony vaio updater program... . I gone thru the options in the BIOS quickly, and its really an impressive work. Hats off you.

One doubt, does the patched BIOS support SATA 3 ?


Also a feature request - Option to set ATA HDD password

 

Thanks, it was fun to do the hack.

No SATA3 support yet. Sony removed it from the newer BIOSes and I did not find time yet to approach reintegration - but I will.

There is an option for ATA HDD password but it is critical to use at least for those owners that utilize RAID. You can use hdparm in a linux live cd for setting your passwords and doing fancy stuff like secure erase and drive lock.

 

Thanks a lot pyr0. Related to this thread, I just want to ask a question. At the bottom of every Sandy Bridge Processor Spec sheet on ark.intel the following information is given:

"Some products can support AES New Instructions with a Processor Configuration update, in particular, i7-2630QM/i7-2635QM, i7-2670QM/i7-2675QM, i5-2430M/i5-2435M, i5-2410M/i5-2415M. Please contact OEM for the BIOS that includes the latest Processor configuration update."

I have a SB laptop with Core i5 2410M and AES-NI is not enabled. Do you think it is possible to enable this feature via your update?

 

For the safety of others, I would also recommend you disable/provide a big warning regarding the graphics options. In particular, setting "PEG" as the graphics card to use on boot will result in an unrecoverable brick. It would be helpful to remove this option entirely, to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
The "enable switchable graphics" option is safe to use, however the machine will default to the intel graphics if graphics switching is disabled.

 

Hi all

Thanks for the work you have done so far pyr0, much obliged.

I have just installed the bios and it installs fine (on Sony VPCSA-290X), however when I try to change my IDE mode from RAID to AHCI, upon reboot it gives me a cyclical BSOD.

I want to change to AHCI as I want to have another go at installing OSX on my laptop - hit a brick wall months ago when I tried as nothing I could do would get the OSX installation process to recognise my HD (as it is wasn't in AHCI mode).

Any idea why I am getting a BSOD? I have not touched anything else in the BIOS.

 

Are you running on a RAID0 array? Have you enabled AHCI in windows first?

How to Enable AHCI in Windows 7

 

First a warning - Discussion of installing mac OS on PC's isn't allowed on this forum.
that said, this link
Have fun!

 

Any progres on unlocking sata3?

 

Yes, that's what happened to me Still waiting for my notebook return from waranty.

 

Does This Work On Vaio . Bios R019020 ?

 

Update: Changed BIOS backup procedure, so no malware notices will be raised by stupid AntiVirus software.

Please provide the full model number.

 

Hi you mentioned something about Always Enable PEG on the Z1 thread and said "smells like we have freed another nice laptop from bad drivers"

could you elaborate? sorry should we change this setting to disabled?

 

Again, any progres unlocking sata3?

 

Yes I had already enabled AHCI in regedit, and I am not running RAID0 (only one drive). Hmm, ill keep playing and see if I can get past BSOD.

Any other things you think could be causing it?

EDIT: After some further testing (including re-installing a fresh copy of windows), it seems to BSOD if changed to either AHCI or IDE, so anything other than RAID... Not really sure what else to try - btw I am using the latest version of the modded bios, is it worth trying the older version?

 

What progress in unlocking SATA3?

 

What progress in unlocking SATA3?

 

The development is on hold since there is yet to find a VAIO S owner that is willing to collaborate and has a SPI flasher and soldering skills. If anybody donates a (broken/bricked) VAIO S, I will look into that deeper.

I won't release anything that is untested and can possibly brick anybody else's machine.

 

what about the fan speeds/noise - seems a major issue - any progress on that? or a way to control it so its not a jet engine/hoover in the background

 

I don't own a S series VAIO so can't report. You will have to try it for yourself.

There are two things that I will develop further in this thread:

- SATA 3 if I get someone with the tools that tests my hacks or I get a broken / bricked SA for testing
- will release hacks of BIOS upgrades once they come out.

Nothing else.

 

pyr0, first off, many thanks for your effort.

One suggestion for your TODO list though: how about removing that graphic output option that two users reported it has bricked their machine? This would be consistent with your better-safe-than-sorry approach.

Thanks again

 

Unfortunately, I have set the "PEG" option, and the screen cannot start and the laptop will shutdown automatically a few second later after I start it. Is there something I can do to recover it?

It's so bad for my laptop, I just want to disable the Intel Graphic.

 

Nice work!

Beside the request to try to enable Sata3 I was wondering if and how a HDD (ATA) password could be set or according setting be unlocked in the BIOS?

The only option available is the machine password which does not set an ATA password. Checking with Intel Rapid Storage tool it says it is disabled still.

Any ideas?

Regards.

 

FYI, our heroic pyr0 has been on an intense work project for several weeks and I believe is on travel now, so don't expect him to have the time to do any further work on this in the near term, or even the time to respond to questions. At the rate we pay him* for his invaluable contributions and the intensity of his "day job" and studies I think expectations for regular support of this project should be kept at an appropriate level. I'm not criticizing anyone, but I think those who thirst for SATA 3 support in this hack need to decide to settle for "slow" SATA 2 for the time being or go back to a stock BIOS to regain the other-worldly SATA3 SSD speeds.

*Also, I would like to note that there is something incongruous about Mr. P's NBR "Rep Power" of 8 and his peerless contributions to this forum. Unless it is a quirk of the rep system in vbulletin, it suggests that too many people are taking this man's contributions for granted and neglecting to "compensate" him with the only currency available, the very least we can all provide given it costs us NOTHING!

Just sayin...

 

Rep system is wierd. I'm pratically a walking idiot and have a higher rep rating for no good reason.

Otherwise, my only theory is I give a lot of rep (max out how much rep I can give, quite a few times), so that could also be it?

 

I've never really been able to figure out how it all works, but it's doing something right if you have lotsa reps - you are always helping people out or making excellent observations, Jeremy.

 

I just want the sata unlocked.

 

everybody wants that. pyr0 has already explained his reasons and reservations for not wanting to go any further. read the previous posts please before reposting the same thing. (and remember, he does not owe us anything and, in fact, has already done us a great favor by unlocking the BIOS.)

 

Hi pyr0, is the embedded-controller firmware inside in this BIOS? And if yes, is this BIOS encoded? If not, I believe there is a chance to modify the fan lookup HEX values, just like on my Acer. On the Acer what had to be done is to use RWEverything and look for the Fan values and search the EC for those values. It was found nicely so we could edit those values for a more quiet fan profile. Is there anything with this BIOS what would stop technique this from working?

 

How do I flash the original BIOS back? I took a backup with the BACKUP TOOL and it created a file named "Dump.rom". When I run the Insyde flash utility to update, it says it can't find the ROM file in the directory.

 

Hello Pyr0,

Would there be a way to flash the Serial Number based on this mod? I'm using a VPCSB.

 

Check the filename in the .ini file (it has to match your backup when you want to flash it) and copy your dump.rom in the flash tool folder.

The serial number and other machine info like service tag# and model number will not be touched by the hacked BIOS upgrade. That means that if you are running on a stock BIOS, your serial number and stuff will be kept as it is.

 

I copied the DUMP.ROM into the flash tool folder.
In the "platform.ini" Under [FDFile] I changed to FileName=DUMP.ROM
When I press START in the InsydeFlash utility, I get an error message "Load file: File may not have EC rom!"

 

I propose that anyone messing around with the modded firmware post their experiences here, as to encourage or prevent others, so we all have a collective experience.

For my part I'm using the firmware but've been very careful as to touch too much since the reports on the bricked machines. So far I needed a way to change the SATA mode from IDE to AHCI forth and back (to test deployable systems) and that's about all I've done and it works fine. I'm tempted to change the LCD resolution to 24 bit (it's defaulted at 18 bits) to see if that will improve the not-too-impressive display, has anyone tested this setting?

 

Had anyone tried modding an SA4?

 

Hey Pyr0,

I bricked my BIOS, but I'm able to manually flash the BIOS. The BIOS dump and and the original file contain three parts with the same sizes.

How to do it right? Can I directly flash those parts? Or are the settings stored in other regions.

Can someone give me a full dump of a working BIOS (R2085H4) to make a diff with mine.

 

R2085H4_Original-VPCSA_BIOS-DUMP.zip [27/April/2012]
Hope not too late

[17/April/2012] EDIT: Link fixed. If the link is broken, let me know thru PM and I'll re-upload.
[27/April/2012] EDIT: Reuploaded! Previous dump had a password, this one's password free.

 

Someone else helped me out, but thanks anyway!
Now I have a kind of BIOS dongle
Easy to remove and flash, if something gone wrong.

 

+1

Are you interested in testing SATA3-reenabled S-Series BIOSes?