this is how to enable VT on UX

[ozkaya]

If you are up to virtualization, you already know the importance of VT. If you don't know what it means you probably don't need this information.

DISCLAIMER: This mod involves patching the NVRAM which is nothing but a battery powered RAM keeping certain settings for the BIOS and somewhat risky. Although we are running the same machines, there is a small risk that something can go wrong. The worst case scenario should be removing the NVRAM (or CMOS, whatever you call) battery to the best of my knowledge. However, don't keep me responsible for anything at all if anything happens to your UX, this is just a demonstration. You take the complete responsibility. So, you're warned.

to enable VT:

1. First upgrade your BIOS to R0112N2 if you haven't already: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGN-UX390N®ion_id=1
2. Prepare a DOS bootable USB stick. You can put either Windows98 files or ME files, both are fine. (Search google for this, there are tons of guides.)
3. Search Google and find symcmos.exe, download it.
4. Put symcmos.exe onto your DOS bootable flash disk.
5. Plug in the flash disk to your UX, go into BIOS, put USB flash disk and USB harddisk on top, save changes and exit.
6. Your ux should boot into command prompt. Type: symcmos.exe -v2 -l1.txt
7. Remove flash disk, reboot into Windows. Plug in flash disk, there should be 1.txt in it.
8. Open 1.txt in notepad. Go to the line where it says: (034E) [0000] and change it so that it reads: (034E) [0001]
9. Save the file. Boot back into DOS, type: symcmos.exe -v2 -u1.txt
10. Voila, VT should be enabled. Boot back into Windows and check it by securable: http://www.grc.com/securable.htm

[cimino]

That's a pretty cool hack. I always though BIOS hacking would be more difficult.

I think I'll just wait for someone else to actually try this on their UX first and see if Win7 VT is worth running with only 1GB of RAM.

[ozkaya]

thanks, what you see is the end result, to find the correct register you actually need assembly and BIOS knowledge mine is already enabled.

[Worf]

Most BIOSes are quite similar - there's only 3 or 4 providers of BIOS software, and the manufacturer has to do a few bits to make it work (e.g., what features the BIOS needs to support). Most of the time, it's just adding/removing options from the setup, even though the underlying BIOS code still has support for it (e.g., the VT settings).

There are tons of settings in the CMOS, and the ones you can access are but a small fraction. Flip the right settings and you can enable hardware features that were hidden before.

[souljaboy112]

does the vt make the ux run faster or what does it help in

[ozkaya]

it does help you run windows xp mode and virtual pc under windows 7.(it's a requirement to have VT on) I tried both and saw that despite the fact that UX only has 1gb RAM, xp mode wasn't too slow at all.
VT is basicly a nice to have feature for people who use virtualization, which is running a different OS in a window under your favorite OS. (e.g. linux under windows, windows xp under windows 7 etc.)

[docfun]

Thank you for da solution

it work fine xp mode under win7
even if ux has only 1 gb of ram but some time i use it for test an os iso file

[Cretu]

It worked for me perfectly. Many thanks ozkaya.

I don't want to abuse, but, it would be nice to know how other mods can be done, like it's possible on others VAIOs.

And, by the way, you should know that letting the CMOS battery discharge, or making a BIOS restore defaults (Get Default Values) will render this mod useless, and will be necessary to perform it again.


Best regards

[Benz145]

Thanks ozkaya, I tuned up your OP to make it a bit more readable and stickied the thread. Would you mind double checking to make sure I didn't make a mistake when editing the instructions? I tried to just alter the formating, but may have inadvertently deleted an important char or something.

[ozkaya]

@cretu
check this website for other VAIO models: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5190101&postcount=227
procedure is the same,just change the address in step 8 to whatever is given for your model.
if you meant other mods to the UX, like changing boot splashscreen etc, you need to get phoenix bios editor pro and read all about bios modding,crc checks, flashing etc. it's a long subject, I never tried modding BIOS of my UX, I'm doing it right now for my Packard Bell laptop,which also has Phoenix BIOS.
you're also right in that this change gets reset should your CMOS battery goes down or you deliberately reset the BIOS to default settings. you just have to do this for once again.

@benz
thanks for stickying, I checked the post, no problem..