VGN-AR61E Phoenix BIOS R2080J8 - unlocking

Hi there,

Ive made quite some "progress" in the last days, regarding BIOS editing on my Sony Vaio : ^^

-Core2Duo T5450 @1.67ghz
-Motherboard: SANTA ROSA CRB
-4gb RAM
-GeForce 8400M GT (128MB)

bios R2080J8 (12/26/2007) (SLiC 2.0)

I read out my BIOS using the "Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0", which also includes the 8400M GT ROMs.
I can read and edit everything using Andys Tool & Phoenix Bios Tool & NiBiTor 6.0.6. So far so good...

But thats it, as I cant flash it again.


My BIOS is also the R2080J8 and a guy called kizwan managed to insert the platform information from R0032J8 BIOS into it for ths user hippotek
As I dont want to brick my laptop (ofc I dont have an emergency BIOS to use with Fn+B) I ask around the internet and hope for all the additional infos I can get.


The following VAIOs also use the R2080J8 Bios :
VGN-AR760U & VGN-AR730E & VGN-AR61ZRU & VGN-AR61M & VGN-AR61S

As far as I understood, some of these BIOS files got RAID and VT enabled. (I know my CPU cant do VT)
and while browsing the rom files of my backed up R2080J8 I found "Strings" of thermal menu, Merom/Penryn CPU Control Submenu, hide select raid config and various other menuitems.

This forum got my attention because of pyr0 and his Sony Vaio BIOS "hacks" and Id like to get in contact with him because of this.

Feel free to see the 2nd post.

BIOS file
http://www.sendspace.com/file/slmmtp

 

I just stumbled across this post from 2010 :

VAIO: Partial solution to No official BIOS update/Missing Platform Data(Phoenix bios)

In short :
1.)Extracting BIOS with the universal reader will not extract the platform data
2.)Get a downloadable BIOS "close to the architecture of yours" (google around)
3.)Then you can use WinPhlash to Backup your BIOS with platform architecture, while using the downloaded one to make Winphlash believe you do have an original BIOS.
4.)You should now have your BIOS extracted, beeing flashable from now on as it has the platform data inside.

WinPhlash does only to seem to work 100% using Windows XP. :S

It worked, but the newly extracted bios is no longer readable in the phoenix tool.
Thanks to Sml6397 from bios-mods for combining my extracted bios (R2080J8) with the platform part from a (R0032J8), which can now be editet with the phoenix tool again.



I was already told that the INTEL menu is unlockable. If possible I take any menu/option thats unlockable.
I have plenty of room in the advanced tab.

As I found like every String of the following screenshot in the Strings.ROM of my BIOS already, I guess this is also unlockable (?)




If someone is interested or has any hint for me, Ill offer my bios files as download.

The following links to an archive that has 4 files inside:
-Default.txt created with smycmos. (-v2 -lDefault.txt)

-original (old).rom
( read out with universal tool. No platform data, but editable with Phoenix Tool) Size: 1.024

-original data (unreadable).rom (differs in isze, but I got told it still does nto have the platform data)
( read out with winplash, same size as the one below, but unreadable - "Invalid ROM length") Size: 1.027

-platform data added via hexedit (readable).rom
( readable, thanks to "Sml6397" of the bios-mods forum) Size: 1.027

http://www.sendspace.com/file/k9lp31


Im still reading a lot and trying to understand it.

 

Okay,

I shall recieve a slic modded BIOS version of mine made by Yen from MDL. Just to check if flashing works.

Sml6397 of the bios mods forum already added platform data to my BIOS and enabled the intel menu. Though, also he adviced me, to not to flash this mod (yet).

But there is hope, and Im glad such helpfull people exist. Thank you internet.

Seems like pyr0 from this forum became silent since early march. Too bad. :/