January 05, 2004
There are now nine (9) bioses that can be used with the AMD based Sony Vaio FX series (comparison table) laptops. Do not use these bioses with the NV series laptops.
During the bios flash process on these laptops they will beep with a steady beep. About 1 beep every 2 seconds. This is normal don't panic.
Furthermore, when the bios flash process completes the laptop will automatically shut down. There will not be any warning. It will just turn off. Again don't panic this is normal. The flash process is now complete your laptop is ready to go again. You can verify that the flash process completed successfully by entering the Bios setup, Press F2 at the Sony logo. The Bios version is at the top of the screen. (Thanks for bugging me about adding this Peter.)
Note: If you get an error stating that the "DMI String is too long" during the flash process there is a solution. There is an undocumented switch to the phlash utility for this very problem of "DMI string too long". However, in order to use the switch you must use a dos boot disk and not a made to order phlash disk as you must type in the following, at a command line; (Thank You for providing this information Joseph)
"phlash4 bios.rom /mode=3"
WARNING -- Two people have reported that after flashing the bios their systems have become unusable. Both people had to have their laptops serviced by Sony to restore them to a working state. Be careful. For what it is worth I have flashed the bios on my FX210 five (5) times now without any problems. Many others have been just as successful.
If your Bios update is not successful the folks at Badflash.com or http://www.oyama93.com/bios_order.html can help.
11/27/03 -- If you live in the UK or Europe Jason
Moore can provide new flash bios chip replacements as well. Drop Jason
an email if you need a bios replacement.
Bios version R0102K5 -- This is the bios that shipped on the FX210/FX215 laptops. This bios worked fine with WinME but has issues with Win2K and WinXP. The specific issues under Win2K and WinXP are;
Failure to correctly enable AGP Texturing under Win2K and WinXP
Bios verison R0104K5 -- This bios was posted by the Sony Europe site (During September, 2001) as an update for the FX201 European laptop. (See the comparison table for differences/similarities). This bios does work on our FX210/FX215 laptops. Furthermore, this bios does;
However, this bios still presents two (2) potential problems under Win2K and WinXP. The remaining problems are;
Failure to correctly enable AGP Texturing under Win2K and WinXP
Link to Boot Disk Image with Bios update (see readme.txt files in image)
Bios version WXP01K5 -- This bios was posted on the Sony North America Site November 9, 2001. This bios was posted to address specific issues with WinXP. However, this bios also fixes issues under Win2K. The problems resolved by this bios include.
This bios provides the ability to fully enable and utilize all of the features present on our FX210/FX215 laptops.
Link to Sony North America Site Driver Page
However, some people have had trouble using this bios update because it is wrapped inside InstallShield files. The InstallShield checks to see if the machine is a valid machine for the bios and reports back, incorrectly, that the machine is not a valid machine. Because I still have my machine set up to dual boot WinME and Win2K, this was not a problem for me. For those of you that have done a clean install of Win2K or WinXP I have taken the boot disk that the InstallShield wizard created and made an image of it. The ZIP file below contains this boot disk image as well as the utility needed to extract the boot disk image back to a floppy disk. Once the boot disk is created simply reboot from the boot disk and follow the directions to update your bios.
WXP01K5 Bios update Boot Disk Image
Bios version R0107K5 -- This is the bios version shipping on the new FXA series of AMD based Vaio laptops (See the comparison table for differences/similarities). This bios also works on our FX210/FX215 laptops. Furthermore, this was the first bios that we had available to us that fully resolved all of the issues under WinXP (Sony posted November 8, 2001). However, this bios raises a potential problem on our FX210/FX215 laptops.
The R0107K5 and R0114K5 bios has support for UltraDMA 5 (ATA100) mode. Our laptops do not have this capability built into the Via KT133A Southbridge chipset though (Our machines support UltraDMA 4 (ATA66). The only time this feature may present a problem is if you upgrade the harddrive in your FX210/FX215 laptop to a newer bigger harddrive that has UltraDMA 5 support. The bios will recognize that the drive supports UltraDMA 5 and will try to use UltraDMA 5 mode with the drive. This in turn will prevent your laptop from booting from the harddrive.
To resolve this problem you can go into the bios and turn off UltraDMA 5 support. With the bios manually configured to use UltraDMA 4 (ATA66) the laptop will now boot from the harddrive normally.
Link to R0107K5 bios files (bios only)
Link to R0107K5 bios bootable image file (bootable image 463KB)
This bootable disk image was created by extracting the "bios.rom" file from the download obtained from Sony's site. This was done because the bios application from Sony will only install on FXA3x laptops due to Sony trying to protect us from ourselves :) .
Bios Version R0111K5 -- This bios shipped with the FXA47/49 and the European FX501/502/505 Vaio Laptops.
At this time nothing more is known about this bios.
Bios Version R0114K5 -- This bios was released by Sony on February 27, 2002 for the FXA47/49 as well as the FX50x laptops. According to the information provided by Sony and "ktownsteve", as well as my own personal observations this bios addresses the following issues
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Provided by Sony and "ktownsteve" |
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Added by myself |
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noticed by "toneman" |
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added by myself |
As of today March 6, 2002 I am running the R0114K5 bios on my FX210. The bios should work on all AMD based Sony Vaio Laptops. See the comparison table for applicable model numbers.
For those of you running "Morgan" Core Duron processors and Mobile Athlon processors, this bios does ENABLE SSE support for these processors, automatically. At this time I do not know if this bios improves the other items it is supposed to fix.
One warning if you decide to use this bios. After I flashed the bios on my FX210, running Win2K, I had to reinstall my video drivers. I don't know if this is unique to my FX210 or not. I recommend that you have a copy of your video driver handy if you perform this bios update.
Second warning. See the note about potential hard disk issues if you are using this on the FX210/FX215.
Third warning. See the warning at the top of this page
Link to R0114K5 Bios files (Sony site)
This bios image will version check and will only install on FXA47/49 laptops. If you want to use the bios on a different AMD based Sony Vaio use the link below.
Link to R0114K5 Bios in a bootable disk image (464KB local)
This bootable disk image was created by extracting the "bios.rom" file from the download obtained from Sony's site. This was done because the bios application from Sony will only install on FXA47/49 laptops due to Sony trying to protect us from ourselves :) .
Bios Version R0116K5 -- This Bios was released by Sony on May 17, 2002 for the FXA53 as well as the FX60x laptops. This Bios should work on all AMD based Sony Vaio Laptops produced to date.
As of this writing I do not have any information on what this Bios is supposed to fix/improve/correct. If anyone finds out why Sony released this Bios please let me know.
Link to R0116K5 Bios files (Sony site)
This bios image will version check and will only install on FXA47/49 laptops. If you want to use the bios on a different AMD based Sony Vaio use the link below.
Link to R0116K5 Bios in a bootable disk image (465KB local)
This bootable disk image was created by extracting the "bios.rom" file from the download obtained from Sony's site. This was done because the bios application from Sony will only install on FXA53 laptops due to Sony trying to protect us from ourselves :) .
Bios Version R0118K5 This Bios was released by Sony on around July 8, 2002. The bios was released for the latest FXA53/59 and FX60x laptops. However, the bios will function just fine on all of the AMD based Vaio Laptops.
The only info that Sony has provided about this new bios has to do with a fix for "Blue Screens" when running Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Sony has not provided any other information, that I am aware of, regarding what is new with this bios.
First warning. See the note about potential hard disk issues if you are using this on the FX210/FX215.
Second warning. See the warning at the top of this page
Link to R0118K5 Bios files (Sony site)
This bios image will version check and will only install on FXA53/59 laptops. If you want to use the bios on a different AMD based Sony Vaio use the link below.
Link to R0118K5 Bios in a bootable disk image (465KB local)
This bootable disk image was created by extracting the "bios.rom" file from the download obtained from Sony's site. This was done because the bios application from Sony will only install on FXA53 laptops due to Sony trying to protect us from ourselves :) .
Bios Version R0121K5 This Bios was released by Sony on around September 19, 2002. The bios was released for the latest FXA47, 48, 49, 53, 59 and 67 laptops. However, the bios should function just fine on all of the AMD based Vaio Laptops. I have not tried it yet on my FX210 though
As of today, September 24, 2002, I am running the R0121K5 bios on my FX210. As of this writing I can report no ill effects using this bios on my FX210.
The following things are supposed to be fixed in this bios version
The utility improves over all control with the computer keyboard and touchpad and also resolves the following issues on the Sony VAIO notebooks listed
A blue screen appears while using the Adobe Photoshop Elements application to add or remove color on an enlarged image (picture) file.
After installing Windows XP Service Pack 1:The computer freezes due to a system conflict that occurs with Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) 317277 which is contained in Windows XP Service Pack 1.
After installing Windows XP Service Pack 1:The computer hangs when a USB 2.0 hard drive is connected via an NEC USB 2.0 PCMCIA PC card.
First warning. See the note about potential hard disk issues if you are using this on the FX210/FX215.
Second warning. See the warning at the top of this page
Link to R0121K5 Bios files (Sony site)
This bios image will version check and will only install on FXA53/59 laptops. If you want to use the bios on a different AMD based Sony Vaio use the link below.
Link to R0121K5 Bios in a bootable disk image (467KB local)
This bootable disk image was created by extracting the "bios.rom" file from the download obtained from Sony's site. This was done because the bios application from Sony will only install on FXA47,48,49,53,59,67 laptops due to Sony trying to protect us from ourselves :) .
R0121K5