Tom's Hardware > Forum > Motherboards & Memory > General Motherboard > Unlocking Sony Bios
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just2good4u3434   01-27-2007 at 03:45:06 AM

Hello

I bought a Sony PCV-RS320 computer about 3 and a half years ago, and just recently decided to overclock. The bad thing is Sony has partially locked my BIOS. I can still change a few options in the BIOS, but nothing to do with overclocking. How would I completely unlock the BIOS?

System Specs

Asus P4SD-VX
Intel P4 Northwood at 2.6ghz

My processor idles around 26C and under load at 40C

Forgot to mention I have an AMI BIOS

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sarsoft   01-27-2007 at 04:14:44 AM
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Quote :

Hello

I bought a Sony PCV-RS320 computer about 3 and a half years ago, and just recently decided to overclock. The bad thing is Sony has partially locked my BIOS. I can still change a few options in the BIOS, but nothing to do with overclocking. How would I completely unlock the BIOS?

System Specs

Asus P4SD-VX
Intel P4 Northwood at 2.6ghz

My processor idles around 26C and under load at 40C

Forgot to mention I have an AMI BIOS


You cant. Sony does not allow overclocking. There is nothing you can do to unlock the bios so you can oc. Probably newer sony pc's have the option for overclocking but dont hold my word for it. I know some newer Dell models have the overclocking ability.

Reply to sarsoft
just2good4u3434   01-27-2007 at 04:24:07 AM
- 0 +

First thanks for the quick reply.

This is sad news. I thought I could flash my BIOS or something like that and unlock all the options, but I guess not.

Reply to just2good4u3434
celewign   01-27-2007 at 04:47:52 AM
- 0 +

You don't want to do that. I'm betting it would void the warranty, and a Sony rep would probably stab you with a PCB knife.
-cm

Reply to celewign
Detson   01-27-2007 at 04:50:05 AM
- 0 +

It actually makes sense from their POV; if the machine is under warranty, they're liable for fried motherboards if your overclocking experiments go awry. Otherwise it sucks, of course. Yet another reason to build your own...

Reply to Detson
celewign   01-27-2007 at 04:52:59 AM
- 0 +

Nice PC Detson, similar to mine. I have a slower CPU (3000+) but faster GPU (X850XTPE). How do you like those A64's? Still going strong, eh?
-cm

Reply to celewign
Detson   01-27-2007 at 05:01:17 AM
- 0 +

"Mine's bigger".... yeah, I wanted something clever and witty for my sig, but then I remembered that I'm neither, so I just went with my specs :)

After all the crap I went through trying to get my brother's C2D setup going, what with the p965 RAM issues and that damned ZIF socket on the 775 mobo's, I'm feeling real nostalgic for the good 'ol Athlon 64. I only wish I could afford a 939 X2 before they all go the way of the dodo. Sigh...

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toshinden5   01-29-2007 at 07:30:29 AM
- 0 +

A sony vaio eh? Well I did some research way a way back when i had my sony vaio computer with pentium 4 1.6ghz (512 PC 2100 DDR) 8O. Haha Well I stumbled upon that if you reflash your bios with the general bios instead of sony bios, I think it will unlock overclocking abilities for you. I never tried it, but people say it will unlock all teh features.

Reply to toshinden5
sarsoft   01-29-2007 at 08:01:53 AM
- 0 +

Quote :

A sony vaio eh? Well I did some research way a way back when i had my sony vaio computer with pentium 4 1.6ghz (512 PC 2100 DDR) 8O. Haha Well I stumbled upon that if you reflash your bios with the general bios instead of sony bios, I think it will unlock overclocking abilities for you. I never tried it, but people say it will unlock all teh features.


Yea right...
and where is you proof.... show us some links... :)

Reply to sarsoft
toshinden5   01-29-2007 at 05:19:34 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

A sony vaio eh? Well I did some research way a way back when i had my sony vaio computer with pentium 4 1.6ghz (512 PC 2100 DDR) 8O. Haha Well I stumbled upon that if you reflash your bios with the general bios instead of sony bios, I think it will unlock overclocking abilities for you. I never tried it, but people say it will unlock all teh features.


Yea right...
and where is you proof.... show us some links... :)

http://www.overclock.net/intel-bio [...] -vaio.html :D

I wouldn't say that it may work, but its a try.

Reply to toshinden5
jt001   01-29-2007 at 10:54:46 PM
- 0 +

Actually, reflashing the BIOS may work. I had an HP back in the day with a celeron 1200(yeah I know) and it had no overclocking options. However, upon inspecting the motherboard I found it was an ASUS board and when I flashed it with the proper BIOS it opened a bit of options. This may or may not work in your case.

Reply to jt001
just2good4u3434   01-29-2007 at 11:27:01 PM
- 0 +

Well after doing some more research on other forums I found out that my motherboard isnt supported by Asus and that only Sony supports it. So i cant get an unlocked bios flash since Sony only has updates and even if the had a complete bios flash it would be one with locked features.

Any other ideas on how to unlock my bios?

Reply to just2good4u3434
mitch074   01-29-2007 at 11:53:01 PM
- 0 +

there is one possibility, but I don't recommend it if this is your main rig: see if the chipset is supported by OpenBIOS (kind of small Linux kernel that does hardware initialization and then starts the system) and flash you rBIOS with it.
It's difficult, painful, not guaranteed to work and may make your mobo unrecoverable.

Reply to mitch074
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