Virtual PC running on my VAIO

Sony disables virtualization on all it’s laptops. It does not provide a method to turn it back on, however, there is a workaround. After a bit of googling, I came across this excellent article. Mostly, I used the steps from this guide, though I did a few things differently. As I have Windows 7 x64, the virtual floppy method does not work, so I found my own copy of the 98SE boot floppy files. Also, the AR41M is not listed, but I checked my BIOS version, and the register to change is 027F, from 0000 to 0001. It worked great! Here’s a rundown of what I did:

Download Windows 98SE boot floppy files (and extract somewhere)
Download the HP USB Disk Formatting Tool
Download the extra utilities required
Install and Start the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool ( Run as Admin )

Install as FAT32
Select Quick Format
Select DOS Startup disk
Use the files from the 98SE boot floppy
Click Start

Copy over SYMCMOS.EXE and the contents of pedit.zip.
Restart and press F2 while the VAIO screen is showing to enter the BIOS.
Make sure Boot From External Drives is enabled.
Save and Exit
Press Esc while the VAIO screen is showing to enter the boot menu
Boot from your flash drive (may show up as an external hard drive)
Enter the following commands:

symcmos -v2 -lcmos.sav
pedit.exe cmos.sav
modify the value at 027F from 0000 to 0001. THIS MAY BE DIFFERENT ON YOUR LAPTOP IF IT IS NOT A VAIO VGN-AR41M. REFER HERE FOR OTHER KNOWN VALUES.
Press Alt-F to access the File menu. Save and Exit.
You may need to restart, I couldn’t type anything further at this stage.
If you restart, enter pedit.exe cmos.sav again to check that the new value is saved to the file.
Having checked that it is, type symcmos -v2 -ucmos.sav
Restart, and Virtualization should be turned on!

Once this is done, you can use the free Windows Virtual PC 2007 to run XP Mode in Windows 7, or load up an ubuntu image etc.

In Bits

After installing Windows 7 Pro on my sister’s Dell D820, it started randomly restarting. The fans would power up to full speed for a few seconds, the screen would flash and then the whole thing would just power off, without restarting. This was obviously a heat problem, so I downloaded the great tool (which needs a better name) i8kfanGUI, which allowed me to monitor the temperatures of the CPU and the GPU. The GPU was obviously the problem, it was idling at 70°C, while the CPU seemed ok, idling at around 45°C. When I forced the fans to full power, the GPU temp didn’t come down.

Having identified the problem, I searched the internet for a bit, and found the excellent Dell Lattitude D820 Service Manual for the D820. This document is excellent, and the fact that Dell make these would make me buy a Dell in future, over other manufacturers, as this kind of information is priceless once the machine is out of warranty.

Culprit!

At this stage, I stripped down just enough to see the GPU and cooling array, which only required taking off the keyboard to have a peek. I shone a light from one side of the GPU, and could see the light shining through, there was a gap between the heatsink and the chip! The motherboard had been replaced due to faulty sound a few months ago, and clearly the engineer didn’t replace the heatsink correctly. The problem had only become apparent now, with Windows 7′s higher graphics usage.

Solved!

I went out and bought some Thermal Grease, and set about stripping down the laptop. Getting to the cooling array involves completely dismantling the computer, and I did get a fair amount of James May style satisfaction from having the entire thing laid out, screw by screw on the table in front of me. Once I got the cooling array out, the problem was even more apparent. Both of the other chips under it had (different!) grease applied, and the plate for the GPU was bare. I applied a liberal amount of grease and screwed it back up. Opening i8kfanGUI again showed the GPU idling at about 50°C, and responding to the fan – a great improvement!