How to Enable Intel VT and AHCI on a Napa/Santa Rosa platform Phoenix BIOS Vaio laptop

[zoogderrick2]

I recently purchased a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ290. I was pretty mad, that sony did not include Intel's VT in any of their Vaio's. Anyways this afternoon I stumbled upon this website, and i figured maybe i could get VT working. 3 hours later and a few battery pulls lol, I am glad to say i got VT working!! I am very thankful to the guy who figured out how to do this on his SZ.

Here is the byte you have to change to get VT working on a VGN-FZ290:

(02CD) [0000] --> (02CD) [0001]

Hope this helps

[dmorris68]

Finally got VT enabled on my new AR670. Pucker Factor was off the scale, as I managed to hang it up on the BIOS screen and had to disassemble to yank the CMOS battery. Somehow I managed not to lose any of the 21 or so tiny screws.

BIOS Version: R1050J8

VT Enable: (027F) [0000] --> (027F) [0001]

I'll try AHCI next but for now I'm good. I need to let my nerves settle.

BTW if you have this model/BIOS, don't change (028B). That's what hung up mine and required me to pull the CMOS battery.

[Calio]

does anyone knows how to enable VT in FE model notebooks?

thanks in advance

[Mobilehavoc]

Thinking of doing this but I no longer use VMWare or other virtualization so VT is not a big deal. Also read that AHCI can lead to problems with backup/restore software like True Image and it doesn't provide a performance improvement at all.

Anybody enable AHCI this way and see any type of benefit?

[dmorris68]

Originally Posted by Mobilehavoc

Thinking of doing this but I no longer use VMWare or other virtualization so VT is not a big deal. Also read that AHCI can lead to problems with backup/restore software like True Image and it doesn't provide a performance improvement at all.

Anybody enable AHCI this way and see any type of benefit?

I just did some backup/restore operations with TrueImage on an AHCI-enabled desktop without issue. So if there are problems, I don't think they're with TrueImage as much as with the specific hardware or BIOS in question.

That said, for a notebook scenario I agree with you -- AHCI isn't terribly useful. It's primary claims to fame are support for NCQ and hot-swapping. NCQ doesn't really benefit single-user systems with typical drive access patterns. It's more beneficial to multi-user, I/O intensive situations. And since Sony notebooks don't have eSATA ports, the hot-swapping benefit isn't very practical either. Although I suppose if you installed a CardBus/ExpressCard eSATA controller then you'd probably want AHCI support.

IIRC AHCI also brought some extra performance in DMA-type transfers between system memory and drive buffers, but I've not seen evidence of much real-world benefit over typical UDMA.

As far as my VAIO is concerned, VT is useful and was worth figuring out how to enable it, but I can't say the same for AHCI.

[Mobilehavoc]

So I followed the instructions and updated the BIOS on my SZ330P/B for both VT and ACHI. Before doing so, I enabled the registry key in Vista to use MSACHI so even after enabling ACHI, Vista booted fine and then at the desktop started installing drivers automatically for the Serial ATA controller, etc.

I then rebooted as requested and now it just blue screens before the Vista loading bar even makes a first pass...blue screen is non descriptive. I think whatever Vista drivers were installed automatically are farked up and causing this issue.

Luckily I can just reset my BIOS defaults and it works perfectly but without ACHI obviously. I need to find a way to uninstall whatever Vista installed itself and then install the Intel Matrix drivers but I can't get Vista to boot with ACHI enabled anymore.

Anybody have any ideas?

[Cougar281]

R0092N0 appears to be the latest BIOS for the SZ-220, so I'm guessing this how-to won't work directly for it if I drop a Core2 processor in?

[glaenen]

Last weekend I bought a vaio cr29xn/b, specially to run xen with kvm.
I was pretty mad when I found out VT is disabled.
On monday I opened a case at sony support but I don't expect to much of that.

Now, the bios I have is the R1100Q0. Does anyone know which lines to change for this bios?
Or where I can find the procedure the get to the cmos battery?

thanks

[Rahul]

To be fair, I hear there's other manufacturers that disable VT as well, Lenovo is one I think.

Do you guys think Sony will ever change their stance on this in the future? I dislike AMD since I had a Turion X2, but I like their VT is on period, whereas in Intel's case, the manufacturers can turn it on or off. Love Sony but they make these non-consumer friendly moves.

[bogart]

Originally Posted by Cougar281

R0092N0 appears to be the latest BIOS for the SZ-220, so I'm guessing this how-to won't work directly for it if I drop a Core2 processor in?

R0112N0, the latest version according to compile date, will work on your model and all other Napa SZs.