I am trying to help in another forum. The computer is a compaq and the owner wants to use his recovery discs. As the recovery starts it requests 'Factory Registration Details' which he does not have. Can anybody tell me if there is a way to extract the details from the computer (before the recovery is done), is the information essential to do the restore or would Compaq(HP) provide the information.
I have seen this happen, when you try to use HP/Compaq Recovery discs on a none HP/Compaq PC. The Bios betails do not match the Recovery Query and it askes for info... What is the Model Number of the PC and the version of recovery software or disk build name.
I have not got the model number from this person yet but they have stated that the computer is Compaq and so are the recovery discs. What I really wanted to know was further information on the 'Factory Registration Details' and how to get around it, is it something that is in the Bios? is there a way to work around it? will HP/Compaq be able to help?
The details may be available in the documents that came with the purchase, i doubt they can be extracted from the computer.
Unfortunately the owner has no papers for the computer. Is there some peculiarity with Compaq computers that blocks using the restore discs without the required key. (The owner does have a key for windows). And would I be guessing right that this is something that is fixed in the bios or would it be in a locked section of the hard drive. If so could the bios be upgraded to clear the security measure or could the hard drive be formated to clear the problem. I haven't been able to find any information on the 'Factory Registration Details' searching on line. Any more help would be most appreciated.
Thanks for all your help so far, but I am really interested to learn more about the Compaq 'Factory Registration Details' if anyone has some more information on this it would be most appreciated.
Its probably in the DMI and would include the serial numbers, service tag numbers, and possibly some hardware numbers. These would be very difficult to reproduce without knowing them before hand, and without knowing the checks involved. It is unlikely that compaq would be of any assistance as they are notorious for providing the restore cds that do not work for all machines. Your best bet is to just make a restore cd from the XP stickies, the restore cd does not include any software most likley. The COA he has is not going to get very far, and this is a moot point at tis time anyhow. OEM is OEM, whether he has a key on the side or not. I think the fact that he has a valid key or not is a non-issue..Why make things harder than they have to be, just make a cd or download one from the threads on the forum premade..
Otherwise just create a OEM SLP with the HP oembios file, if a string is present (there was a utility to check if it is). Some older use DMI data though. Depending on the colour of the sticker you can also activate using the key on the sticker, either that will work without phone, or if there is a OEM SLP in the bios you need to call MS to activate if you use the key on the sticker or use an OEM SLP cd with the correct oembios.bin and key as the utily will say. I doube that anyone will be missing the software on the HP cd's except for maybe the drivers and some sort of bad cd burning program where there are lot's of good freeware replacements that work just as well.