[REQUEST] Unlock Insyde Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E/B BIOS

[ufchesi]

Hi,
The machine is Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E/B. As it is currently bricked I cannot provide any screenshots. Opening the file with the AMI tool will show the two Advanced tabs. The first one is the one I was seeing in the BIOS which contains only the Intel VT-d setting. The second tab holds all the settings but is not displayed. I need access to the second one. I don't know if there is a method to access this settings through some kind of a key combination or a special boot routine. As I am running out of recovery options to try and neither has worked, I will bring the machine to a service center today to flash the original rom. If those settings are accessible without flashing modified BIOS, that'd be great! Thanks in advance.

[felipejfc]

Yes, these options are mossable without flashing, read

http://habrahabr.ru/post/182676/

it is in russian so you might want to use google translator

[ufchesi]

Yes, these options are mossable without flashing, read

http://habrahabr.ru/post/182676/

it is in russian so you might want to use google translator

For extra info: PhoenixTool says "EFI / Insyde BIOS". The machine is 2009 or 2010 model and came with preinstalled Windows 7.

I followed the instructions in the link but there was no file with the specified name. I am not aware what the differences between (U)EFI BIOS-es and different versions are, so I pressume the article does not apply to my exact model. However, I did tried the provided parser against the 4-5 largest files (not padding) in the dump folder but the output was always something_NOT_FOUND. I also tried booting accordingly to the instructions and tried with various devices, including USB flash, SD card, microSD card with SD adapter, microSD card with USB adapter but without success. I read this article (from the link you gave me) and it says that it should work on VAIOs but again it's written for InsydeH20 BIOSes which I suppose is not the case in my machine. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[felipejfc]

We can try modding your actual BIOS, link me to it, the one from Sony

[ufchesi]

We can try modding your actual BIOS, link me to it, the one from Sony

I've attached the ROM file in the first post. I've also attached the original executable from Sony in this post. I'd really like to leave the flashing as a last option. I don't know if there is a some sort of a validation procedure or so, so I can be assured I won't end up with a brick in my hands. Thanks again for your time.

[ufchesi]

I can open the file in AMIBCP 4.53 and there is a second Advanced folder in the settings tree, which contains various settings. However changing just anything for example folder permission, setting's optimal value, setting's fail-safe value, bios string or DMI table string, even one at a time yields a file almost half of which is different from the original one. However if I change back all the things I've touched, the program yields completely (binary compared) the same file, which makes me think that the program can, at least to some point, work with this particular image. However I am absolutely unaware of fiddling with BIOSes' settings and how it should impact the structure of the file so I can't tell if the result is OK or not. Any help would be appreciated.

I can see that AFUWIN has an option to flash only the NVRAM blocks. Is there a tool that I can use to see and edit the data stored there and more specifically to change a hidden setting?

Also having the second Advanced tab present in the BIOS doesn't that mean that there is a way to navigate to it in the Setup utility via a key combination or a special boot procedure?