Qosmio Laptops

[Ryan6491]

I bought the Qosmio X305-Q705 last month, in part because the CPU, Intel's P7350, supports VT and I absolutely wanted to buy a new machine with VT capability.  I am a software developer / IT guy and I will be running several virtual OS's using a variety of software packages that do this: Microsoft Virtual PC, VMWare Workstation, XEN, Sun xVM, KVM - I'm looking at all of them.  Some require VT to work at all, others limit you - VMWare can support 64-bit guests, but only with VT, for example.  This is a deal-breaker for me because although VT is built into the chip, the BIOS has no option to enable it.

So, Toshiba's BIOS does not have this option at the current time.  Does anyone have any knowledge or straight answer on whether this will happen at some point?  It can happen, since some other Toshiba models already have it enabled, so what's up?

[Qdog]

Thats a good query... I dont know for sure, perhaps the bios is hard coded to have the feature always on for the P7350. However, i upgraded the cpu in my X305-Q701 to the Intel C2D T9600, and now the bios option for virtualization is not grey, and I'm able to enable/disable it. So maybe it's just the processor.

[Ryan6491]

Ok wait a sec, are you telling me you HAVE that option in the BIOS?  I didn't see it and I did look for it, I double-checked and still didn't see it, and called Toshiba and I don't have to tell you how that phone call went.

I've been reading several sites.  For those of us that care about this feature, it's a problem across many vendors: Sony, HP, Gateway - owners are all mad that their BIOS doesn't have the option to enable although the chip supports it.  Some are trying to hack their BIOS to get it activated (technically feasible but realistically extremely difficult and potentially deadly to the machine) so I'm not sure I want to go that route.

Wow, I'm going to check again.  Once I get a chance to shut this thing down, man I'm hoping for a miracle.

You upgraded the CPU too?  I've read other posts about it.  Is it hard or tricky to disassemble the machine?  Just pop the keyboard gives you enough access?  I was thinking of upgrading too, I only got the P7350 @ 2.0Ghz and would have preferred a faster processor.  I bought this one based on price point and on the fact that VT would be there!!! But hey, it's red and shiny and goofy looking and I'm stuck with it now.

[Ryan6491]

Nope...not there.  And the T9600 doesn't have VT according to Intel's site,  so I guess maybe you were thinking of xD bit or some other feature.  That's a fast chip though, I'll have to find one that I can use if I decide to upgrade.

Oh well, thanks anyway.

[Ryan6491 · Accepted solution]

According to Intel's Developer Forum, the P7350 does NOT support VT after all.  It was a misprint on their website that has been corrected as of 1/17/2009.

So, this is not a BIOS issue at all.  I figured I'd add this post so there is a conclusion to the thread.