Welcome to the world of OEM software (as in vendor too cheap to provide
complete retail XP software package)... ;{
There is hope but it may take luck and a bit of work to resolve the problem.
Give these links a read and see if they help any.
http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/WinXP/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/2004-09/34439.html
or
http://www.techimo.com/forum/t50892.html
or
http://www2.geek.com/discus/messages/27/11186.html?1124315013
"mhoits" <mho...@msn-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:%%K_e.156823$Fp4....@fe09.news.easynews.com...
--
DaveW
__________
"mhoits" <mho...@msn-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:%%K_e.156823$Fp4....@fe09.news.easynews.com...
Here's what I did, and what you should do if you encounter a similar
dilemma:
- Make a BartPE CD:
http://flyakite.msfnhosting.com/BartPE.htm
- Copy the entire file structure of the recovery DVD to a folder on
your hard drive.
- Download the standard MS XP/2K boot image, which DOESN'T have any
stupid code in it to check for any stupid BIOS "tattoo", or rip the
boot image from a standard XP/2k install disk. A Dell disk will work
fine, they don't pull this type of trick.
- Burn a new DVD with the file system of the original DVD, but the
standard boot image.
- Boot from the newly created DVD, and let it copy all the preload
files. Eventually, it will reach a point where it asks you to reboot
the system. At this point, if you reboot from the HDD, it will APPEAR
that it's going to work, and finally bomb out with a bogus
"Configuration Error" message, telling you to contanct the
manufacturer. This error is generated because (you guessed it), HP's
software is doing a second check of the "Tattoo".
Here's the fix:
When it is ready to reboot, boot from the BartPE CD.
- In BartPE, open a command prompt and locate this file:
C:\hp\bin\CheckConfig\cfgchk.bat
- Edit the batch file to be empty. You could just remove the line that
calls "run.py", but it's just as easy to empty the whole batch file.
It doesn't do anything useful.
- Reboot from the PC's hard drive.
Your OS and other applications will install fine. You will once again
be able to USE the software that you have a valid license for,
without needing to pay HP (again) for the privilege of doing so.
As a final step, you should vow to NEVER spend another dime on
HP/Compaq products.
Hope that's helpful to someone.
I already did that when I found out that they don't honor their
rebate offers.