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

[Cougar281]

Thanks Bogart; I installed the R0112N0 BIOS on my SZ220 last night and it still works . Now for the stupid question; Since the BIOS obviously works with my SZ220, why does Sony have the R0092N0 listed as the latest for the 220? Any ideas? Seems a bit dumb to me.

[Francus]

Many Many thanks Bogart, I have been able to activate VT using a CD.

I downloaded a ISO image of Dos 7.1 from here http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm , paying $4.00, but may be there are other places where you can get it free. I just spent $4 to save time.

After burning the iso image with Nero, got a bootable dos CD (with explorer there was no file in, but it was bootable indeed). After booting it recognized a A: and a C: drive. I have no floppy whatever, but have a Fat32 partition on my hard disk that was the recognized C: drive. So copied all Bogart's files in a directory on Fat 32 partition and after booting from CD moved to the C: drive where I found the Bogart's files and was able to succesfully follow all Bogart's instructions.

Many many thanks for what you have done

Francus

[hardc0re]

Big thanks to Bogart. I also have managed to enable AHCI on my SZ31 with the R0112N0 bios, using the offsets that were given here.

BTW, I booted to DOS using a usb memory stick that was formatted as a bootable DOS disk. The R0112N0 bios allows booting from usb memory sticks.

One problem I have been experiencing though... I couldn't get the Vaio HDD protection to work properly with AHCI (Vista and Vista SP1). Does anybody who is running AHCI also have the Vaio HDD protection utility working?

[bogart]

Originally Posted by hardc0re

One problem I have been experiencing though... I couldn't get the Vaio HDD protection to work properly with AHCI (Vista and Vista SP1). Does anybody who is running AHCI also have the Vaio HDD protection utility working?

Can you explain how HDD Protection doesn't work in detail? Although I currently don't use Vista, the HDD Protection utility listed here works fine with AHCI enabled under Windows XP. Note that I did not install the HDD Protection driver, only the utility, since I noticed it caused some usual freezing problems.

[netddos]

Now it'd be great if someone figures out how to enable VT for TZ.

[hardc0re]

Originally Posted by bogart

Can you explain how HDD Protection doesn't work in detail? Although I currently don't use Vista, the HDD Protection utility listed here works fine with AHCI enabled under Windows XP. Note that I did not install the HDD Protection driver, only the utility, since I noticed it caused some usual freezing problems.

I believe you need to install both the driver and the utility to get HDD protection to work. What happens for me, is I first install the driver, reboot... ok so far... then I install the utility, and the system hangs right after the utility is installed. This is under Vista running AHCI using the latest 7.8 version Intel drivers.

To check if the HDD protection is working properly, launch the HDD protection utility and look at the X, Y, Z axis indicators while moving the laptop. You should be able to see the indicators detecting the movement. Does yours work?

[bogart]

Originally Posted by hardc0re

I believe you need to install both the driver and the utility to get HDD protection to work. What happens for me, is I first install the driver, reboot... ok so far... then I install the utility, and the system hangs right after the utility is installed. This is under Vista running AHCI using the latest 7.8 version Intel drivers.

To check if the HDD protection is working properly, launch the HDD protection utility and look at the X, Y, Z axis indicators while moving the laptop. You should be able to see the indicators detecting the movement. Does yours work?

All indicators move fine when my Napa SZ is knocked at the right places with only the utility installed in XP. When the driver was installed as well, it would cause freezing during start up (about a 20 second freeze). I knew the HDD Protection caused the freeze because it always happened while the HDD tray icon appeared.

Are you certain AHCI is to blame for this? Have you tried to disable AHCI and see if the HDD Protection works?

[hardc0re]

Originally Posted by bogart

All indicators move fine when my Napa SZ is knocked at the right places with only the utility installed in XP. When the driver was installed as well, it would cause freezing during start up (about a 20 second freeze). I knew the HDD Protection caused the freeze because it always happened while the HDD tray icon appeared.

Are you certain AHCI is to blame for this? Have you tried to disable AHCI and see if the HDD Protection works?

I'm sure AHCI has something to do with it, because in non-AHCI mode, the HDD protection utility is able to install and work (driver also installed).

But you pointed an interesting observation about using the utility without installing the driver. I am going to try the HDD protection utility without the driver and see what happens. (I too and using a Napa SZ.)

UPDATE: I have tried installing the HDD protection utility without the HDD protection driver, and it works! However, I experienced a similar "freezing" problem on windows startup - the system freezes for approx. 20 seconds before continuing with startup, after HDD protection utlity has been installed (but without the driver installed). This is in Vista SP1, and I am using HDD protection utility version 2.0.00.11090.

UPDATE 2: I have now installed the HDD protection driver as well, and HDD protection still works. There is still the same 20 second freeze on windows startup, though - with or without the HDD protection driver.

[bogart]

Originally Posted by hardc0re

I'm sure AHCI has something to do with it, because in non-AHCI mode, the HDD protection utility is able to install and work (driver also installed).

But you pointed an interesting observation about using the utility without installing the driver. I am going to try the HDD protection utility without the driver and see what happens. (I too and using a Napa SZ.)

UPDATE: I have tried installing the HDD protection utility without the HDD protection driver, and it works! However, I experienced a similar "freezing" problem on windows startup - the system freezes for approx. 20 seconds before continuing with startup, after HDD protection utlity has been installed (but without the driver installed). This is in Vista SP1, and I am using HDD protection utility version 2.0.00.11090.

UPDATE 2: I have now installed the HDD protection driver as well, and HDD protection still works. There is still the same 20 second freeze on windows startup, though - with or without the HDD protection driver.

I've also done a few tests and I can confirm that Windows XP loads significantly longer, around an additional 20 seconds, after the login/Welcome screen while HDD Protection (v1.2.00.08140 and v2.1.00.15140) is running under AHCI mode. However, besides the long loading time, it functions fine. Thanks for pointing this out, I'll make note of it in the original post.

[hardc0re]

Originally Posted by bogart

I've also done a few tests and I can confirm that Windows XP loads significantly longer, around an additional 20 seconds, after the login/Welcome screen while HDD Protection (v1.2.00.08140 and v2.1.00.15140) is running under AHCI mode. However, besides the long loading time, it functions fine. Thanks for pointing this out, I'll make note of it in the original post.

Following up, I had both the HDD protection utility and driver installed. I noted that my laptop hung after resuming from a few hours of Sleep mode. Happened twice. I have now uninstalled the HDD protection driver (leaving the utility installed only), and will see what happens.

BTW, the 20 second pause thing happens also after a resume from Hibernate for me.

UPDATE: In the end I have stopped using the HDD protection driver and utility. It doesnt seem to work properly using AHCI (in Vista, at least). I dont mind the 20 second pause during bootup, but sometimes the system will hang after a resume from hibernate/standby.