Windows 7 – XP Mode on Acer Aspire 7720G

Yesterday I was installing Windows 7 on my Acer Aspire 7720G which is my primary working machine – even though I had Windows 7 RC and Beta running at my home pc since the versions were available.

One big set back was when I installed the current Virtual PC RC onto my notebook – I wasn’t able to create a machine because Acer disabled the Intel VT in the bios and there is no way to change this in the BIOS.

After some research in the web I found a great blog entry on marcan’s blog – special thanks to him for this great tutorial! – on how to enable Intel VT in the BIOS by dumping, modifying and reflashing it.

I also found the modified script file to enable VT for my notebook from MaxL in the comments of the blog – also many thanks for this great script which made it work also for me!

DISCLAIMER / WARNING:
This howto only applies to the Acer Aspire 7720G – your BIOS might be different and you can break your notebook by following these instructions!!
In any case I do not take any responsibility if your notebook does no longer work!!
Follow the howto at your own risk!!

These are the steps how to modify your BIOS:

• download and install Python for Windows (http://www.python.org/)
• download the newest BIOS version 1.45 from the Acer website
• download the vtenable.py file from MaxL
• update the BIOS to the newest version 1.45
• extract the BIOS flash tool executable
• open platform.ini in the flash tool folder
• in the FDFile section enter a filename for the BackupName e.g. dump.fd

[FDFile]
FileName=
BackupName=dump.fd

• save the platform.ini file
• run the InsydeFlash tool and cancel it when it asks to update the BIOS
• the tool has now created a dump of your BIOS named dump.fd
• open a command prompt and run 

C:pythonpython.exe C:BIOSdump.fd C:BIOSpatched.fd

This will enable VT in the BIOS settings. The BIOS itself will not be touched only the BIOS settings are updated.
Note: You should not revert the BIOS to the default settings later on as it will disable VT again!

Now it is time to flash back the patched BIOS:

• Undo the changed in the platform.ini of the extracted flash tool (remove the dump.fd filename) and save it again
• copy the filename of the original BIOS version into the clipboard (should be CL50145A.fd)
• delete the original BIOS file (CL50145A.fd)
• delete the dump.fd file
• rename patched.fd to filename in the clipboard (e.g. CL50145A.fd)
• Run InsydeFlash

After that you should be able to run XP Mode and other virtual machines on your notebook.

 

If you are searching for other Acer models please have a look directly on marcan’s blog – there are several very helpful posts over there.

Special thanks again to marcan and MaxL!