September 24, 2002

This whole page is courtesy of "Tony (toneman)" from the FX210 Yahoo forum. Thank you Tony.

Please download the entire folder named "Vaio PowerNow Enable Kit WinXP", from the Yahoo FX210 Forum Files section, before continuing.

The following instructions apply to Sony Vaio PCG-FX210 and PCG-FX215 notebook computers
which have been modified with the Athlon 4 Mobile CPU at 1.0Ghz.

PLEASE NOTE: This fix WILL NOT work with the above systems running the original AMD Duron
800Mhz CPU. This CPU does NOT have PowerNow! support. As yet, this fix has not been tested
with the Duron 900Mhz CPU with PowerNow!, or operating systems other than Windows XP. Please
be aware that you use this fix at your own risk.

This fix is intended to resolve the issue of no PowerNow! support in the Windows XP OS for A4
Mobile CPUs.

PROCEDURE:

1. Locate subfolder "CpuDriver". Go to START, right click on MY
COMPUTER, select "Properties". In the SYSTEM PROPERTIES dialog select "Hardware". Select
"Device Manager", locate the "Processors" tree, right click on "AMD Processor" and select
"update driver". Choose to install from a specific location, select choose driver to
install, then "have disk". Point to the folder containing the cpu driver, then select to update.
The driver will update automatically. DO NOT RESTART THE COMPUTER AT THIS POINT.

2. In the subfolder "PowerNow! Reg Entries" locate the file "XP PN Reg". Double click on this
file. You will be asked if you wish to add details to the Registry. Select yes. This will
add the necessary Registry entries to enable PowerNow! support in XP as recommended by
Microsoft. RESTART THE COMPUTER NOW.

3. Upon restart, locate the subfolder "AMD PowerNow! 2.0 Driver". Double click "Setup".
This will install the AMD PowerNow! 2.0 driver. Restart the computer at the prompt.

4. On restart, go to START>CONTROL PANEL>PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENENCE>POWER OPTIONS. You will now see a PowerNow! tab. You can select 3 battery modes:

• High Performance: CPU will run at 1000Mhz at all times

• Automatic: CPU will fluctuate between 500Mhz to 1000Mhz in 100Mhz increments depending
  on workload.

• Battery Saver: CPU will run at 500Mhz at all times. This is the lowest possible speed
  for the A4 1.0Ghz.

5. If you wish to monitor clock speed in real time, install the utility in the "Realtime
Clock Monitor" subfolder. This is a much better clock indicator than the AMD utility

I have tested the above and can verify it works once these steps are followed in sequence.
I tested on a Vaio PCG-FX210 with a clean install of the R0107K5 bios and a clean install of Windows XP Pro with no additional drivers installed. I used the BP1N battery in "Battery Saver" mode with all low battery notifications turned OFF. At 68 mins run time the battery meter read 0%
battery life remaining. However, the battery continued for an additional 12 mins before
the computer shut off. I therefore attained a total battery time of exactly 80 mins with the
BP1N battery.

KNOWN ISSUES:

IMPORTANT UPDATE 02/23/02: Installing the 5.1.2535.0 CPU driver may cause your CPU speed to drop from 1ghz to 500mhz while on ac power. The only known fix at present is to go to the XP "power options" panel and ensure the power scheme is set to "always on" before installing the PowerNow! driver. It is recommended that you also keep the system in this scheme after enabling PowerNow!. This may also cure other odd results when implementing PowerNow!. There appears to be an incompatibility with the combination of this CPU driver, the A4, and the basic XP power saving functions of "portable/laptop" and "max battery". This problem does not occur if you use the generic XP CPU driver.

There are some issues worth mentioning. In High Performance mode the CPU will occasionally
drop from 1000Mhz to 500Mhz for a split second when an application is launched. It will
immediately snap back to 1000Mhz however and continue to run at this speed.

There are no know issues in Automatic mode. The CPU will adjust in 100Mhz increments between
500-1000 Mhz depending on workload.

In Battery Saver mode, the CPU will occasionally jump from 500Mhz to 1000Mhz when an
application is launched. It immediately drops back to 500Mhz however. This is the correct
speed for this mode.

The above issues seem to be normal operations for PowerNow! and shouldn't be cause for concern.
There appears to be no adverse effects on battery life.

I would be grateful to hear opinions on this tutorial, especially from those using
PowerNow! CPUs other than the A4 1.0 Ghz.

-Tony
 Dec.24, 2001

tone_man2001@yahoo.com