Bad news for VAIO owners out there hoping to use
Windows 7's XP mode or run any other hardcore virtual machine applications -- Sony disables the required hardware virtualization features of its laptops for "security reasons." That means XP Mode won't work on any VAIOs, but there's hope yet: Sony's Xavier Lauwaert says that the company will re-enable VT on "select models." We'll see what that means going forward -- XP Mode is a niche feature, but it's still pretty lame for Sony to be intentionally disabling hardware features.
Read - The Register
Read - Xavier's post on the Windows Partner Blog (scroll down to his comment)
[Via
Sony Insider]
posted August 10th 2009 1:15AM
theres a guide on NotebookReview that tells you how to enable it, it's pretty simple...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=189228
this one is for the newer Sony laptops
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=350209
Unfortunately, neither of those apply to my Vaio Z with the Insyde H2O BIOS.
Sony is so damn condescending to its users. They think they're all stupid.
Thanks for those links! These are new developments as a hack didn't exist for H2O INSYDE before. I just followed the link, booted custom grub and enabled VT on my Vaio Z. Virtual PC now says hadware virtualization is a go and I'm happy.
But Sony will get a piece of my mind on their blog. The exec guy had actually the audacity to say that they won't enable the feature on Z, period. "Reserved for new models only". It hasn't been even a year since this model was put on sale and the hardware is still the latest (cpu and chipset and memory at least). Should I even mention that most of the drivers haven't been updated since launch (Nvidia in particular - and due to custom drivers you can't just put generic ones)? I paid $2000 for this Z and it'll be the last Sony laptop I will own. Buying a top model laptop doesn't buy you much of a support with Sony - once they got your money they pretend you don't exist. As usual with Sony, an amazing piece of hardware with the most rotten customer support money can buy.
To think that my best experiences were with AsRock motherboards - 3 years later they were still releasing BIOS updates to support new video cards, including the one I sent them an email about. I would certainly not expect that so late in the game, especially given the rock bottom prices. But they are getting my business these days.
They BETTER DO SOMETHIN, I just ordered my fw
@uwaga dude
Unfortunately, that just normal business practice. Especially in technology industry to create market sections, like 4 cores to 3 cores in AMD platform, Sony/Toshiba Cell on PS3.
But I think they should unlock this kind of feature, because users with general knowledge can't tell what the differences....
Speaking of which, when is HP going to unlock it on all consumer notebooks.
A source inside Sony has confirmed that they disable VT to protect VAIO owners from a new Sony BMG CD rookit.
Way to be a dick, Sony.
Exactly. "We disable it for security reasons"
What, as in it makes it more secure so you can restrict that kind of feature to your >$2000 products?
Disabling features for arbitrary reasons? Reminds me of apple.
Sony IS the PC version of Apple.
@Fanman Name me one feature that is available on an Apple that has been disabled. Dont worry ill wait here.
Fnuky,
I had to hack my $2200 Vaio Z to enable VT. So apparently the price point is higher than that.
@Tsing Tao: How about purposely disallowing 3rd party hardware to connect to iTunes, like what Palm Pre and so many others have had to battle.
@Tsing Tao: tethering of iphone to laptop for use as a modem. Ability to use your own ringtones. Available but rejected apps (video, telephony, etc)
Theres a lot more too.
@Tsing Tao: How about the most obvious one of them of all: Apple not allowing OS X to run on PCs, even though they use the SAME PROCESSORS.
wow. a friend of mine just ran into this problem recently when trying to simulate 2 processors in virtualbox on his vaio. i dont think ill ever understand why a company would remove/disable a feature that a well respected company spent years developing....
Because some sites like slashdot run frequent scare articles about the dangers of virtualization.
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/11/0130221
Not that I believe them. But if you are the type to get scared easily, you might think that VT is a security problem.
And they did the right thing. Sony's customer research department recently found a large market of people who enjoy intentionally broken products. Clearly this is the start of their outreach.
Didn't Apple have a patent on that?
where theres a will, theres a way
Haha nice Sony.... really... nice.
Why are they going to just enable it on "select models"? Why not enable it on all Vaio computers that are equipped with the processors that have that feature? It's just a BIOS setting that is intentionally hidden.
intel is also to blame here, by making their product lineups inconsistent with each other (there are Core 2 processors with higher model numbers that don't have this feature, while a lower number ones do).
Many PC manufacturers chose Core2Duo models that don't even have hardware virtualization capability, never mind disabling it. A real reason those Apple and Sony machines sometimes cost a little more.
Well, Apple only charges after you already paid for the hardware for enabling 802.11n.
Intel should definitely be blamed for confusing product labeling, but not for disabling VT on some models. VT is not something that matters to a lot of consumers, so it can be used as a price differentiator for those who need it. But it should be clearer from the product lineup which ones have VT. AMD's version is easier: Semprons don't have VT. Turions, Opterons, Phenoms do.
Screw you all, 3 of my friends died from unprotected hardware virtualization. Sony is doing the right thing!
pfft, the first problem with that statement is that you have friends.
I used to be a normal human being. But when I used unprotected hardware virtualisation, I was transformed into the superhero that I am today. Some say its a fate worse than death.
Unprotected hardware virtualization was responsible for Skynet going self-aware.
...all we know is, he's called the Stig
Security issues like what? A rootkit slipping in at the hypervisor level and virtualizing your whole operating system?
Oh wait...what about rootkits?
oh snap
Looks like Lenovo ideadpad also does not allow it
http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=ideaPad&thread.id=12948
better question, how to we re-enable it ourselves?
The first two threads explain how to do it on most Vaio and here's the link for the Vaio Z:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=345282
And follow the link in the first post on that notebookreview thread. I just did it and it worked for me.
If you read the first post you would see a link to the "fix."
You can always count on Sony to take 'Defective by Design' as their prime directive.
Well, they are still shipping with Windows installed...
Why not just do what Lenovo does with their Thinkpads? Off by default but easily enabled in the BIOS if needed.
What a rip-off! I just bought a new VAIO, like it a lot, and I am pissed. Of all the dumb things for Sony to do, this tops the list. To dumb down a computer without telling customers is fraud. They gave their computers a frontal lobotomy, which was considered to be barbaric at the end of the last century. I don't buy Sony's security reason for one second.
Why not? Apple did the same thing with the iPod Touch 2G's bluetooth.
I'm sorry, but you're a moron. You "just" bought a sony running vista and are pissed off you won't be able to upgrade it to 7 in order to run a virtualized xp. Like I said ... moron. Why aren't you pissed off now?
@schrutefan
Would you not say there's a difference between Apple's "We've not written the software to support this yet, but when we do, we'll let you know" and Sony's "We'll disable this to try to sell more expensive business-oriented products that we don't disable it on?"
Actually it is disabled even on their most expensive machines like Z. If you read the blog, it looks like they expect people who want it to buy their new laptops which will enable it.
According to sony's customer care, it is in their EULA from intel to disable it on consumer machines.
That would make sense considering Lenovo and HP are doing it too, according to comments here.
I hate added proprietary security crap!
I was just re-installing Vista on my brothers Acer desktop... I could not get ZoneAlarm to install because of some Acer Security app that was installed. After I uninstalled the app, ZoneAlarm installed just fine!
Screw security I can't control! I should have FULL CONTROL over ALL security measures on MY equipment.
Example, My Toshiba laptop has a BIOS switch that I can set for hardware virtualization to be on or off.
This isn't new. I've got one of the first Santa Rosa laptops Sony made and found this out as soon as I ran the virtualization test on it.
Join the club. My centrino 2 HP laptop which should have hardware virtualization doesn't have it enabled