BIOS Mod for Sony VGC RA940G (ASUS P5LP-VX) for Core 2 Duo Support

[DTDeniz]

Hi there
I have a Sony Vaio VGC-RA940G Desktop computer with ASUS P5LP-VX Motherboard. I wanted to upgrade this computer and I'm searching for a Mod BIOS for this machine. It has an i945p chipset and the motherboard supports Core 2 Duo Processors till E6700. I got an E4700 processor for this computer and it perfectly fitted into socket. I tried to run computer. Lights are on, PSU fan spins but there is no display or any activity other than PSU fan. This Core 2 Duo E4700 processor is supported by extremely close motherboards such as P5LP-LE or P5L-MX. It was supported by the i945p chipset too. So there is almost no valid reason for the device to prevent using Core 2 Duo instead of a Pentium D 820 with SmithField other than BIOS.

Also 64 Bit Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 doesn't work because of the age of the bios date. Just 32 Bits are working while even my Pentium D is capable to run 64 Bit OS.

Specs :
PC : Sony VGC-RA940G
Motherboard : ASUS P5LP-VX
Current Processor : Intel Pentium D 820 2.8 GHz (I wanted to put Core 2 Duo E4700)
RAM : 6 GB DDR2
Graphics : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 Evga 2 GB
Storage : 1 TB Hard disk + 240 GB SSD + 120 GB SSD

Current BIOS is : Phoenix Award Technologies LTD 1001 (5/18/2005)

The BIOS for P5L-MX in official website of ASUS shows latest firmware from 12/28/2007
Is there anyone has a modded BIOS for P5LP-VX motherboards or Sony VGC-RA840G/940G computers?

https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(ch...press.html
https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/p5l-...pdesk_cpu/
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/P5L-MX.html
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/max...0g.122907/
The reason why I created this forum is because I don't know how to mod BIOS and I want to get lot of advanced features and extend CPU support for not stuck with Pentium D series forever and get Core 2 support.

Have a great day

[DeathBringer]

This motherboard doesn't support CPU with Conroe core because of old VRM10.

[DTDeniz]

This motherboard doesn't support CPU with Conroe core because of old VRM10.

So isn't there any way to mod BIOS at least to unlock features or something else to overclock motherboard, remove whitelist, modify BIOS revision date or something else like that ?

I uploaded my BIOS on the attachments. At least I want to mod this BIOS to change revision date, CPU clock, Memory Clock or anything else ?

  PhoenixTechnologies,LTD-1001.rom (Size: 512 KB / Downloads: 11)

I got a modified BIOS for my Sony VGN AR series laptop and I had success installation and now it works perfectly fine and it has an advanced BIOS. 


I want to do similar thing on this pc you know. I saw people changing BIOS revision date or adding hidden or extra features to their motherboards. Such as changing BIOS date from 2005 to something newer. I watched a guy changes date from 2012 to 2022. 

You know basically I want to unlock this BIOS and I don't know how to unlock or modify ?

[DeathBringer]

Read about special hardware mod - https://www.google.com/search?q=VRM10+Conroe
P.S. Unlocking mods are offtopic in this section.

[DTDeniz]

Read about special hardware mod - https://www.google.com/search?q=VRM10+Conroe
P.S. Unlocking mods are offtopic in this section.

Hello, I'm back
I made few researches and people say the safest bet for this motherboard is Pentium D 9XX series such as 945, 950, 960 and max 970. 

If I want to upgrade CPU from Pentium D 820 (2.8ghz 90nm)
to Pentium D 945 (3.4 GHz 65nm) ? Does it support or startup like a supported CPU ?

I didn't wanted to go with Pentium D 950 because of the higher TDP (watt) usage.

I'm just scared of the launch date of D 820 is Mid 2005 but D 945 is launched at 2006
Does it have the same VRM with D 820 ?

Will D 945 work with my computer?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/...tions.html
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/...tions.html
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(ch...press.html

[DeathBringer]

Current BIOS hasn't support of Presler (65nm), but you can try to boot with it.
BTW: Try to find AWBSYS-00957204-UN.exe - it's BIOS 1002 for your motherboard.

[DTDeniz]

Current BIOS hasn't support of Presler (65nm), but you can try to boot with it.
BTW: Try to find AWBSYS-00957204-UN.exe - it's BIOS 1002 for your motherboard.

I got the title but when I pasted it to google, almost nothing just appeared. So I just searched BIOS LTD 1002 like you said. I found few websites contains 1002 BIOS for really close similar motherboards. 

But if I fail finding a proper BIOS for this thing, I'll try having Pentium D 945 anyways. I got a goal 

Here's the Utility I got : 
  AWDFLASH117.zip (Size: 25.19 KB / Downloads: 1)

https://us.driverscollection.com/_440142...4-bit-free

https://groups.google.com/g/microsoft.pu...hsEY?pli=1

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads...ies.14730/

3/4/2023 I'm back and I got a question. How did you identified the file name and do you have an idea or advice where can I find LTD 1002 BIOS image for this pc?

or do you have a copy of the BIOS file ?

[DTDeniz]

Hello, I got the utility and FreeDOS USB Drive to flash BIOS and for testing I've used the original LTD 1001 ROM but Unfortunately I can't find that LTD 1002 image with AWBSYS-00957204-UN.exe name. Where did you get that name from ?

Where can I find that BIOS file since Sony removed it's drivers from their websites.
or did you have a ROM for that? Reply me soon as possible

Thanks for help

[DeathBringer]

I haven't AWBSYS-00957204-UN.exe

[DTDeniz]

I haven't AWBSYS-00957204-UN.exe

Hi there again, 2.5 years later
I left the country for 2 years and put the PC into a pods container alongisde with other electronics. I was abroad the United States, so I couldn't really do anything abt it. From the older threads, you will remember my attempts to get Core 2 Duo E4700 working on this hardware. I gave up about trying Core 2 Duo's and brought a Pentium D 935 CPU to U.S. from my home in Bulgaria. Now I have the desktop back again working. I tried to boot the PC with Pentium D 935 (to upgrade from D 820), and it didn't worked. You mentioned you don't have the file "AWBSYS-00957204-UN.exe". 

If we can't get, can you mod my current BIOS (Phoenix technologies LTD 1001) to support Presler CPU's (Pentium D 935), and idk if Core 2 is possible, but I'm still very ok having Presler 65nm support. 

This PC actually runs great with the GTX 570 on it, and I'm finding ways to repurpose it, though I'm limited with Windows 7, so I'm using Linux Mint Xfce, and still runs poorly, due to CPU bottlenecking. 

Unfortunately, I don't have the necessary equipment to mod the BIOS. I will appreciate if you can do me a favor and help me getting Presler 65nm CPU support. I want to repurpose this machine with most ways I can, and solving the CPU issue is what I need only. Thanks for taking time to read my post.