Insyde hacking - New Vaio Z - Advanced menu in BIOS

[XTACTIC]

Is there anyway to set a lower temperature at which the fan spins faster? I tried setting the Low Fan Speed and High Fan Speed temperatures in the BIOS but they don't seem to affect anything?

[solvalou7]

Hi.

Sorry but I wonder if the advanced_menu.py patch will work on the new revision of the bios 3030R3 (something like this) as it clearly says it was made for older version of bios R1180C3

thanks

[pyr0]

Hi.

Sorry but I wonder if the advanced_menu.py patch will work on the new revision of the bios 3030R3 (something like this) as it clearly says it was made for older version of bios R1180C3

thanks

It's R3030C3, the newest version of the VPC-Z1 Bios. It works flawlessly with the advanced_menu.py. No manual changes needed, just follow the straight forward procedure.

[paul3000h]

I hacked my bios successfully but it took a lot of time as the instructions in post 1 and 87 were difficult for me to follow so I have amended to help other less experienced people like myself.

Although it took me hours to work out with the original instructions it should be quick with the amended one's below.
Is well worth it. New intel and nvidia drivers are much better and battery time is much the same as before for both.

ComputerCowboy's patch in post Latest VPC-Z1/330M Drivers for the BIOS Hack People is excellent and all you need to edit the latest nvidia driver which you can get direct from nvidia site. His bios hack would not work on my UK vaio hence me doing it as below new instructions.

Edit: this is now the way to mod the Nvidia inf, or use ComputerCowboy's patch.
(click on little blue arrow next to paul3000h to see the post)

I have a hacked bios z13 and this worked perfectly with latest Nvidia 285.62 WHQL certified. Thanks steberg ......... and shurcool.

Could post 1 and 87 point to this or be amended?

NEW INSTRUCTIONS WINDOWS WAY

Prep work (not as bad as it looks):

- make a bootable USB key with FreeDos. Go to UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads and download the latest version. It will allow you to make a bootable USB with FreeDos straight out of the box. use top distribution option the lower image option is not needed.

- Download Flash t with the link elsewhere in this thread, post 81, and copy it to the key (it is actually spelt with i before the t and NO space but to stop it being seen as a swearword and blocked by notebookreview it shows as a space in these posts. the link in post 81 calls it fla)

- Download Portable Python from Download ? Portable Python (you want version 2.6.1 and not 3.0.1 since you need Unicode per your python script.)

- Install Portable Python to the USB Key

- Download the advanced_menu.py script from the bottom of the first post and copy it to to the App directory in Python installation directory on the USB key

Do the patching:

- Reboot the Z to the USB key.

Don't change any boot options at this point (even though it says something about installing stuff on your hard drive it won't)
Just hit enter at the first menu and enter again at the second menu
then you are at a command prompt

type C: hit enter ie cd to c:

- perform (enter) "Flash t dump.rom /g" process to extract the rom (without the " " and put in the missing i before the t and NO space)

- Reboot to Windows

- copy the new dump.rom file to the App directory in the Python folder

- open command prompt. cd to the USB key drive letter, and cd to the python app directory (\PortablePython_1.1_py2.6.1\App) and do (enter) the "python advanced_menu.py dump.rom new.rom" command (without the " ") IT SHOULD REPORT NO ERRORS!!! IF YOU GOT ERRORS PLEASE DO NOT FLASH!!! ie do not continue with below.

- copy the new.rom (now in the app directory) to the root directory of stick drive

- Reboot to USB key

- at root directory perform (enter) "Flash t new.rom /f" process to write back the patched rom (without the " " and put in the missing i before the t and NO space)

[ComputerCowboy]

- Download Flash t with the link elsewhere in this thread, post 81, and copy it to the key (it is actually spelt with i before the t and NO space but to stop it being seen as a swearword and blocked by notebookreview it shows as a space in these posts. the link in post 81 calls it fla)

The censorship thing threw me for a loop also

the utility is called "F L A S H I T . E X E" you can see how the bold part gets identified as naughty and only the underlined part gets left in the posts. Then everyone wonders why they can't find "FLA" anywhere.

My solution is I just renamed the flashing utility you can get it from my site FLASHZ1.EXE

@Paul
I took the liberty of editing your post a little bit to make it even more easy to understand

NEW INSTRUCTIONS WINDOWS WAY

Prep work (not as bad as it looks):

- make a bootable USB key with FreeDos. Go to UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads and download the latest version. It will allow you to make a bootable USB with FreeDos straight out of the box. use top distribution option the lower image option is not needed.

- Download FLASHZ1.EXE and then copy it to the USB key

- Download Portable Python from Download ? Portable Python (you want version 2.6.1 and not 3.0.1 since you need Unicode per your python script.)

- Install Portable Python to the USB Key

- Download the advanced_menu.py script from the bottom of the first post and copy it to to the App directory in Python installation directory on the USB key

Do the patching:

- Reboot the Z to the USB key.

Don't change any boot options at this point (even though it says something about installing stuff on your hard drive it won't)
Just hit enter at the first menu and enter again at the second menu
then you are at a command prompt

type C: hit enter ie cd to c:

- perform (enter) FLASHZ1 DUMP.ROM /G process to extract the rom

- Reboot to Windows

- copy the new dump.rom file to the App directory in the Python folder

- open command prompt. cd to the USB key drive letter, and cd to the python app directory (\PortablePython_1.1_py2.6.1\App) and do (enter) the "python advanced_menu.py dump.rom new.rom" command (without the " ") IT SHOULD REPORT NO ERRORS!!! IF YOU GOT ERRORS PLEASE DO NOT FLASH!!! ie do not continue with below.

- copy the new.rom (now in the app directory) to the root directory of stick drive

- Reboot to USB key

- at root directory perform (enter) FLASHZ1 NEW.ROM /F process to write back the patched rom

[paul3000h]

For us less experienced could you further edit.... and thanks for all your helpful work.

- Download FLASHZ1.EXE and copy it to the key

[ComputerCowboy]

For us less experienced could you further edit.... and thanks for all your helpful work.

- Download FLASHBIOS.EXE and copy it to the key

No No No, thank you for revisiting this and making it better, this should have been done ages ago

P.S. I added your suggestion to my edit of your post, good call

[paul3000h]

Off topic but there are some bright people here so am giving it a go. Having successfully hacked the bios and updated video drivers I thought updating the Intel stuff, chipset, RST, network and wireless would be easy but not so.
Chipset seems to stay the same even though it does the update. Same with Rapid Storage Technology. Network updated fine but complete disaster with the wireless lan. The update worked as showing drivers in device manager all shows well but though the wireless is on at front physical switch with green light lit in the smart network software with the radio buttons to switch Bluetooth and the WAN Lan on and off are working the radio button to switch the wirelss lan on and off was off when I did the update and now refuses to move to on. Windows 7 troubleshooting is no help.
I have searched hours on Google and un-installed and re-installed old and new drivers many times and cannot get it on. If I cant fix it I have lost my wireless connection permanently. A re-install of windows would be a disaster.
Any ideas to fix this, has the registry got something around the smart software which is preventing it being turned on I wonder.

[anytimer]

Try playing with the 2.4GHz - 5GHz setting in the VAIO Smart network settings. Maybe it is set to the wrong frequency range for your WLAN.

P.S. Remember the adage 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'? We need to update graphics drivers from the ancient stock drivers that Sony provides.

[paul3000h]

Try playing with the 2.4GHz - 5GHz setting in the VAIO Smart network settings. Maybe it is set to the wrong frequency range for your WLAN.

P.S. Remember the adage 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'? We need to update graphics drivers from the ancient stock drivers that Sony provides.

The 2.4GHz - 5GHz setting in the VAIO Smart network settings is greyed out.
My instinct is that because the smart network setting was off for wireless LAN when I updated Intel driver it is still off and smart network will not switch it back on, hence cannot create profile or anything in control panel/manage wireless networks because the wireless lan is actually off as per the smart network control window even tho the hard switch on front of laptop is on and green light on.