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UPDATE (2010-01-09 @ 22:58:00 CET):

I have just noticed that there is an updated BIOS available for download for my Sony VAIO VGN-FW190E:

This utility updates the BIOS to version R0270Y0 to add support for the Intel® Virtualization Technology and provides the ability to enable or disable this feature within the BIOS settings.

Well, what do you know? Perhaps seeing that 7,737 Sony notebook users downloaded my unofficial BIOS patch finally convinced Sony that people really want that feature? Whatever the reason the outcome is clear:

Igor Levicki .vs. Sony — 1 : 0.

UPDATE (2009-08-11 @ 20:02:00 CET):

Sony has announced that they will enable VT on select VAIO notebook models. Do not expect it immediately though, this will most likely coincide with Windows 7 general availability.

UPDATE (2009-07-19 @ 00:00:00 CET):

VAIO Z users rejoice — you can finally find the patch for InsydeH2O BIOS here.

UPDATE (2009-03-03 @ 11:37:05 CET):

I finally managed to write an automated patch utility (VTPATCH.EXE) which can permanently enable Intel VT on all Sony VAIO notebooks with AMI Aptio BIOS, and an Intel CPU with VT support. Get it from my website Downloads section. Be sure to read the included README.TXT very carefully before attempting to use it.

Good luck!

Few days ago I suddenly needed to use Virtual PC for some cross-platform testing so I installed it on my new Sony notebook. I went into Options to configure the defaults and much to my dismay I found out that the Hardware Virtualization support was disabled.

Quick reboot, looking through the BIOS options... no dice. Sony has disabled everything except Security and Boot Order configuration. Shame on you, Sony!

After three hours spent in chat with Sony's technical support and dozens of unsuccessfull Google searches I was totally pissed off and I started this thread on Intel Software Network to voice my dissatisfaction regarding the state of Virtualization support by OEMs.

Three days later I started to exercise my fair use rights, and made first attempts of reverse-engineering the notebook's BIOS. That proved to be quite a challenge since Sony notebook BIOS for FW series is actually using EFI. Needless to say, I knew next to nothing about it when I started. A day later, and I already had a small dumping utility to aid me in my BIOS analysis.

I figured out where the offending code which performs VT configuration is located on a same day, however I was lost when it came to patching — I didn't have the slightest idea what to change without messing up the notebook, so I decided not to work on it for a while.

Ten days later Guido Neumann contacted me with some new ideas — basically he pointed out that I can get AMIBIOS flash utility for Aptio BIOS series from their website. Now that I had the official flash utility, and now that I was sure that the BIOS dump I was looking at was complete and wasn't corrupt, I started looking into it again, and I managed to figure out how the configuration process works.

However, I was still reluctant to try anything until I was contacted by someone yesterday. That person kindly offered me to take a look at the BIOS, and to try to patch it for me. I agreed and sent them the BIOS file. They have my most sincere "thank you" for nudging me in the right direction.

They had access to the original BIOS editing tools so when I got the patched BIOS I was sure I can't brick the notebook, and I finally dared to flash it. When I tried to shutdown Windows the notebook hanged — I thought I bricked it. Power button didn't work, closing the lid did nothing either. I took out the battery, and it turned off. I replaced it after a short delay, and pressed the power button expecting it not to power on, but it worked and it booted into the OS. Whew, a lot of nerve cells ended up dead after that experiment!

Unfortunately their patch didn't work. VT configuration MSR was still locked. After a short brainstorming session with my secret helpers, I decided to try to patch the BIOS my way. I figured out that it doesn't have any checksums, so I just changed one byte to prevent BIOS from locking the VT configuration MSR and flashed it again. Since I don't have any Sony Service Center nearby, I couldn't afford to make a mistake so I settled for a simplest possible change with some drawbacks (which I will explain later).

After the Windows has loaded, I have used CrystalCPUID's MSR Editor to check the register 0x3A, and guess what? It wasn't locked anymore, and I could finally enable my VMX!

As I said, the patch could have been done in two ways. The one I used was simple and it has the following drawbacks:

  • Register is unlocked which is a security risk, although it requires Admin privileges to be exploited.
  • It reverts to power-on defaults (VMX/SMX disabled) on each power-cycle. It means that if you put the notebook to sleep it better not be running any Virtual Machines when it wakes up.
  • Enabling VT still requires some utility (like CrystalCPUID or the VTCtrl utility I just wrote), and administrative privileges.

You must admit that for a single byte change that ain't so bad. Of course, the other, more complex way to patch it, is to convince the BIOS that it should enable VT itself.

Since the configuration process is rather complicated, I decided not to try that even though I believe that I have figured out what needs to be changed.

Intel VT on Sony VAIO VGN-FW190E