[SOLVED] Sony VAIO VPCCA i7 2860QM Quad Core Support

[Cheve]

Update: No BIOS mod was required. It was just msconfig (mis)configuration.

Hi there,

I just bought an Intel i7 2860QM to upgrade my laptop, but I found the BIOS only allows 2 working cores (4 threads). Would it be possible to modify it so I can get the 4 cores and 8 threads?

Here are some details from CPU-Z


And the BIOS  - R0242V2
http://sonyvaiodriver.com/category/sony-...e-drivers/


Thank you in advance.

[Cheve]

Do you know of any similar mod? I guess it should be possible. Any link I could use to see if I could do it myself?

I guess this limitation was imposed by Sony to have power consumption under control (the original i7 2620M had a TDP of 35w and this one is 45W), but since I'm using an external GPU, I guess i have more room.

Thanks.

[DeathBringer]

Disable CPU Core Parking feature .

[Cheve]

Disable CPU Core Parking feature .

Hey! Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I had never heard about it before. Unfortunately, I did a bit of research, tried unparking them all but I still only see 4 cores in the task manager... But now I have doubts about the actual root of the limitation. Taking a look at the device manager, it shows 8 logic cores


Could it be something related with the OS instead of the BIOS? I'm running a clean install of Windows 7 Enterpirse x64.

[DeathBringer]

Try this:

Open regedit and navigate to

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00"
Then search for "0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583"

and set "Attributes" from "1" to "0"
Then open your energy options. You should have a new entry now:

Set the "Processor performance core parking min cores" to 100%

and reboot.

[Cheve]

Try this:

Open regedit and navigate to

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00"
Then search for "0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583"

and set "Attributes" from "1" to "0"
Then open your energy options. You should have a new entry now:

Set the "Processor performance core parking min cores" to 100%

and reboot.

Still no luck 
I tried http://www.coderbag.com/programming-c/di...ng-utility and https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/, and both report only 4 cores.

Any other ideas?

[DeathBringer]

No more ideas. Device manager shows 8 logic cores then it isn't a BIOS's problem. So It's offtopic.

[GizmoTheGreen]

Try this:

Open regedit and navigate to

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00"
Then search for "0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583"

and set "Attributes" from "1" to "0"
Then open your energy options. You should have a new entry now:

Set the "Processor performance core parking min cores" to 100%

and reboot.

Still no luck 
I tried http://www.coderbag.com/programming-c/di...ng-utility and https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/, and both report only 4 cores.

Any other ideas?

check msconfig?

also whats the taskmanager showing now?
just to make sure. you have 4 cores. and 8 threads. that's how it should be reported too. you don't have 8 cores.

[Cheve]

Try this:

Open regedit and navigate to

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00"
Then search for "0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583"

and set "Attributes" from "1" to "0"
Then open your energy options. You should have a new entry now:

Set the "Processor performance core parking min cores" to 100%

and reboot.

Still no luck 
I tried http://www.coderbag.com/programming-c/di...ng-utility and https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/, and both report only 4 cores.

Any other ideas?

check msconfig?

also whats the taskmanager showing now?
just to make sure. you have 4 cores. and 8 threads. that's how it should be reported too. you don't have 8 cores.

Sure, 4 cores/8 threads. But everywhere I check (task manager, msconfig, CPU-Z, those unparking apps), except for the Device Manager, shows 4 threads (2 cores/4 threads).

I would like to check with my desktop computer what does the device manager show if I limit the number of cores from BIOS, but I'm currently far away from it for the following weeks. Could anyone try that for me, please?

I managed to unpack my BIOS, but need to research what should I look for.

[DeathBringer]

Cheve, show a screenshot of msconfig under button Advanced options on current OS in Boot tab. E.g.