enabling hyperthreading

[ironfist241]

Hi all, ive been a vaio-owner for 2days now, im very impressed with it but ive noticed one thing thats prompted me to make my first post:
hyperthreading... or lack of
now i know there was a thread on this before:
http://www.club-vaio.sony-europe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4236&highlight=hyperthreading
however in that discussion it was believed that the grt896hp's cpu didnt support it. After some nosing around with diagnostic tools it seems the heart of the 896hp is a "northwood" core p4 running at ~2.8ghz and according to intel this supports hyperthreading:
http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/processors/mobilepentium4/index.htm?iid=ipp_note+proc_p4p&
Obviously that alone wouldnt be enough however the sis648 does support hyperthreading, albeit with later bios updates. So overrall the 896hp should be capable of hyperthreading if there is a bios update to allow it.
Hopefully someone reading this could point me towards such a bios update and if it doesnt exist i wonder if sony would be kind enough to make it...
Anyway, thanks in advance for any help and sorry in advance for any typos (still not used to this vaio keyboard )

GR

[GarethB]

I was also wondering about this. I too have a vaio, grt715m, which uses the sis648 chipset and a 2.8ghz Pentium 4. I've also, like yourself, looked up information about the chipset and processor and learn both should support hyperthreading. Also two programs, namely Speedswitch and 3dMark2003 both report that the processor does support Hyperthreading, but as 3dmark2003 also reports, it is disabled.
It seems, like you've already stated, it's probably an issue with it not enable in the BIOS. Also, on a similar note, the chipset supports DDR333 RAM, instead of the DDR266 RAM that comes with the Notebook, but when DDR333 RAM is used, it still only runs at 266mhz. This, I feel, is also an issue with it not being enabled via the BIOS.

[ironfist241]

ah so im not the only one. actually i was in the sony shop today (buying a carry-case) and i noticed a grt996vp (i think this is the model#) on display, only difference from mine being an "onyx-black" lcd screen and it was displayed as being "with ht" and it has *exactly* the same sis648 chipset and 2.8ghz "northwood" p4. in its current state this grt896's bios doesnt have a hyper threading option, the bios needs an update, is there someone at sony i can email to ask about this?

[kee-lo_]

The only way you can get a BIOS update is to check www.vaio-link.com

[ironfist241]

thanks kee-lo but ive looked there already and the only bios update available doesnt solve it, ah well its not as if ht is some miracle technolgy anyways =[ only effective in multi-threaded apps

[kee-lo_]

Yeah but it would have been nice if the customer had the choice to enable HT

[tellingd]

HT is not miracle tech but . . .

it does let you have TWO little green lines for processor activity in TaskManager

Yes, I am easily pleased

[kee-lo_]

LOL
Apparently it's good for DV and heavy processing.

[JoeB.]

what if a wizzy programmer would take the bios from an GRT916V or Z and modify it so it could be flashed onto a grt896sp, grt715m or grt816m.... if possible... because the chipsets appear to be the same. i would be interessted in this feature as well.

joe

[GarethB]

You can download a bios editor from Phoenix, supposedly Easy to use according to Phoenix. I'm not sure about other notebooks but you can download a newer bios for the 715m from Vaio Link, so if anybody is confident enough to give it a try, enabling all these settings people want, should be possible.