Sony's Lame BIOS

I have a SZ160P/C and recently was experimenting with Parallels, a Virtualization software. Parallels support intel's VT-x, or Vanderpool Technology. On starting up Parallels, it notified me that my processor supports VT, but it was disabled in the bios. I entered the bios, and the option to enable VT (and many other things) was not available.

I called up Sony support, which of course was clueless and useless. The video in this link gives me some hope of finding what I'm looking for:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1478553&postcount=1

Does anyone know of a way to enable a debug menu in the bios (secret key combination?) or perhaps a location to download a debug version of the most recent bios (yes I am aware or the possibility of bricking my laptop)?

 

It's no help to you but I wish to add my annoyance with the lack of VT.

There is a new BIOS out - R0083N0 (7/19/2006 12:55:46 PM), have you tried this? I haven't yet.

 

Where is the new bios? I don't see it on sony's esupport site...

 

I found a link here:

http://www.css.ap.sony.com/vaio/website/General/Download.aspx?ID=54958&Model=VGN-SZ28TP

Could someone tell me if it will work on my SZ90, or has someone got a link for the R0083N0 SZ90 BIOS?

 

Here's the link to bookmark for SZ90 updates:
http://vcl.vaio.sony.co.jp/support/note/vgn-sz90ps.html

Looks like the update is for non-Japanese models.

 

I was JUST about to ask about this.
The links you guys gave refer to the Asia Pacific region --
What about us fellows in the U.S.A. and Canada?
I know there's a Europe site.

 

Email Borg No. One, borg_no.one @ gmx.net, and ask him to unlock the Intel Debug Menu for you. He is very experienced in modifying BIOS files and it will be an easy task for him. this is his website http://www.dstyles.de/bios/en/

If he agrees to do it, send him the R0083N0.WPH bios. It is located in a temporary directory in %temp% while R0083N0_SZ.exe is running and is deleted when R0083N0_SZ.exe is terminated, so copy R0083N0.WPH to another place before it's gone.

 

Thanks mosnimer et al!

 

Please post back if you get VT working.

 

And in case you get a BIOS with that debug menu nicely unlocked, could you either e-mail it to people who ask or even host it or something?

 

That would really be nice if it is possible to get a BIOS version with the options unlocked.

 

I spoke with that person, He said Phoenix bios cant be unlocked at this time.

 

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I'm another user that desperately needs VT support on my SZ260. Why would they disable this option???? Virtual PC 2007 Beta supports VT, but I can't use it on this laptop. I use VPC for work, home, and school work. This totally blows!!

 

I just called and complained too. I got a sz260p and trying to use Parallels. Did anyone tried the new bios on the 260p? Did anyone get the VT work on ANY sz model?

 

I'm also interested in getting VT working on my SZ3. Unfortunately there's no BIOS to download for my model. However, I think I found the byte to change in the R0083N0.WPH BIOS. It's located at offset 0xEF4EC, change 0x3E to 0xBE and VT should be enabled in the setup defaults (and activated once you select 'Get Default Values' in the setup menu).

My guess is that if one person flash the modified BIOS and set the default values we should be able to get the needed bits from NVRAM and activate VT by only changing the settings in NVRAM.

Does anybody want to try ?

PS: It is extremely dangerous and I am not responsible of what you do, I just try to help.

 

i dont think this will work because there are checksums on the bios file that won't match once the value is modified. search for "phoenix bios editor" in google and use it on R0083N0.WPH to see that VT is disabled by default.