Re: VT support for Sony Vaio

VMware Communities

I have just bought an FZ11Z which comes with the Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor. One of the key attractions for me was that this processor is 64 bit and comes with virtualisation support. http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/specifications.htm

I also ran the detection utility on the VMWare website and it confirms it is able to run 64 bit guests, so I can create 64 bit Virtual Machines.

Now here comes the problem. Vmware support the processor, but to get it to work properly I need to be able to enable VT support in the BIOS, but the BIOS is rather basic and doesnt give me the option.

The official Sony line is that VT "Is not supported" (a horrible phrase that!) but there is no explanation to support that statement.

Being the devious teccy that I am, I am sure that there must be a BIOS somewhere that is not locked down by the manufacturer that will enabe me to get to those settings. (Losing warranty is not important to me)

Has anyone looked into this before at all, and be willing to share their experiences with me? (I guess my perfect answer would be a link to a commercially available unlocked BIOS!)

108 Replies

>BTW how much a performance difference did you see in a vm with the bit set?

Not sure what you expect here. VT support is used for 64-bit guests. If you don't have the support enabled, they cannot run. If you do have the support, then they can (assuming you also have EM64T support). The only other cases where VT functionality is used is when it is explicitly spelled out in the vmx file (for cases of running ESX in a virtual machine for testing/learning).

While viewing the VAIO BIOS content with Phoenix BIOS Editor, there's a hidden "Debug Intel Menu" which contains the setting to enable VT. Is it possible to use the symcmos utility to make that menu appear? The menu had this information next to it: "This menu is shown', 0Dh, 'by ESID\[3:2]=01b." I assume 0Dh is a carriage return and 01b = 01(BINARY). Does anyone know what ESID stands for and what it correlates to?

Bfroemel, how exactly did you discover that the 399th register bit had anything to do with the VT option?

I've been working on enabling VT on Sony Vaios and Phoenix BIOS. As a result of a hint about symcmos[/i] from bfroemel[/b] I have successfully solved the issue of working out which NVRAM Token (aka setting) relates to VT and have enabled VT on a Sony Vaio VGN-FE41Z.

I'm in the process of creating a Linux version of symcmos[/i] and also developing some Token symbol-tables so altering the extended NVRAM configuration is safe and easy.

You can find the technical story and progress at Wim's BIOS[/b] forums in the thread What do you know about BIOS NVRAM hacking?[/url].

Message was edited by:

IntuitiveNipple

Sounds like good news! Does this mean i have a chance to enable VT on my Sony Vaio VGN-AR21S ? This would be great!

I just want to mention that i went through the flashing modified bios to my VAIO and not able to boot Windows to flash back the original. After days of work i've found a solution by flashing back the original running Windows ME (not Windows 98) and by modifying the flash program to ignore some system checks. It was terrible but my VAIO is back.

Now thaks to your post VT is enabled on my computer. This was done by editing the 0399 register of the CMOS. (Type: VGN-SZ370 - BIOS: R0096N0)

David.

I own a Sony VGN-AR21S with R200J6 bios from a AR31S (needed the bios to upgrade the cpu - T7600)

symcmos -v2 -lcmos.sav

editing register 195 from to and loaded the modified settings back:

symcmos -v2 -ucmos.sav

VT now enabled on both CPU's.

I upgraded to a Sony VGN-AR51S (T7700 cpu) with R1050J8 bios

symcmos -v2 -lcmos.sav

editing register 27f from 0000 to 0001 and loaded the modified settings back:

symcmos -v2 -ucmos.sav

VT now enabled on both CPU's.

Just got my VGN-FE890 working with VT enabled on CPU 0,1

R0200J3 BIOS using 0x0195

Thanks for the advice!

I upgraded to a Sony VGN-AR51S (T7700 cpu) with R1050J8 bios
symcmos -v2 -lcmos.sav
editing register 27f from 0000 to 0001 and loaded the modified settings back:
symcmos -v2 -ucmos.sav
VT now enabled on both CPU's.

Wish I had come back and seen your post before figuring out VT on my AR670 the other day -- same BIOS and same VT token location. In the process, I had to disassemble and pull the CMOS battery twice. Reading your results would have saved me some headaches!

Haven't figured out AHCI yet, but that's less important than VT to me at the moment.

Has anyone tried this on a VAIO VGN-F21M?

Why is the VT setting not on by default anyway?

Thanks

Damon

I own a VGN-AR31S (with the same bios version, R0200J6, as your AR21S), if I have the same BIOS does this mean I use the same register i.e. 195 ?

Cheers.

Its starting to drive me mad... I've tried 399, 195 and 27F but to no avail... anybody else got it working on an FZ21M please

Yes, you can - the bios is programmed to look in a specific location of nvram for the setting. Therefore the setting will be in the same place for your laptop.

Let us know how it goes - I'm sure you won't be dissapointed.

Had time to do a brief check.

According to 'symcmos -V2 -L sav.txt' register 0x195 is already 0001 !!!

However, vmware still complains about VT (whilst trying to use 64bit Solaris 10)

cpu - T7200 2GHz (is this okay ?)

I ran symcmos from a cmd shell in Vista just to get the file. Is this valid ?

I am working out how to create a boot cdrom with DOS and symcmos....

Usual use of Vaio is SuSE 10.3; wine symcmos does not seem to work it hangs.

Any likeliehood of a Linux symcmos any time soon ?

Cheers,

Dean.

Anybody cracked this on a FZ21M yet or could possibly point me in the right direction... looking at the BIOS there appears to be over 200 keys with a 000 value. Is it really a case of trial and error through all of them?

Damon

@dascod - I used a dos boot floppy, not sure if windows will mask the true values

@damon - I put all the values into excel, marked only the 0 values and used a half split method to find the value on my laptop. It took about 8 goes to nail it.

Sounds tedious but it only took about 30 minutes.

Recap....

User bfroemel on SZ1XP reg 0399

user wdavid - VGN-SZ370 - BIOS: R0096N0 reg 0399

user Gandelf44 - VGN-AR21S with R200J6 Bios Reg 0195

user Gandelf44 - VGN-AR51SU with R1050J8 bios Reg 027f

user hanks - vgn-fe890 with r0200j3 bios reg 0195

user dmorris68 - VGN-AR670 with R1050J8 bios Reg 027f

Thanks Gandelf44

I think I might be doing something wrong... do you expect the changed values to remain after a reboot? For example I change the 0399 value to 1 but then when I reboot it has changed back to 0000. Also if I try and change some of the values they don't seem to sick even without a reboot... for example if I change 0003 to 0001 when I do a dump it reports it as 0002.. very confused..

Damon

Tried doing the half and half thing last night and manged to toast my laptop... spent the rest of the evening trying to take it to pieces to get to the CMOS Battery... managed to get it back to life by about 11pm... this if fun - remind me never ever to buy another sony product ever.

Cold reboot to test the settings change. Warm reboot is no good.

Sorry to hear that - I thought I'd toasted my AR51 at first but I can get to the cmos reset via the memory cover - the worlds smallest lettering indicates a pin you can reset with.

Persevere, you will find it and it will be worth it for vmware.

I'm planning to crack it tonight... starting to hate my new laptop... not a good sign

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VT support for Sony Vaio