Hi all, Enjoying a lot a reading in here, yes you have guessed it a noob: I appreciate some guidance, I coulden't find it with the search, I have got vista non SP1 on my pc (Dell OEM version, Abit an8 SLI mobo), and would like to install SP1 and wondered if the bios gets modded when you install vista in some instances or is it something I need to do physically. I would like to check if this has already been modded or not (although I haven't done it myself) is this possible? I don't even know whether I have got the Paradox hack or th other one (forgot the name), is there a way of checking that also? If or once my bios is modded is it safe to just download sp1 from m$ and install or do I need a dvd copy? I know I have got a lot more reading to do, and will to take this to the next level so your help is greatly appreciated.
Check your ACPI for a SLIC table with everest. If you got a table chances are that with the right key and cert you can activate your install. Took me a while to find a proper cert for my benq, but im sure dell certs are easier to find and wont require you browse chinese forums Post your SLIC table here and I'll have a look too.
According to google's translated chinese forums a length of 374 indicates it should be possible to activate vista given you got the right cert, took me a while to find the right cert. There's a CERTS.zip out therewith 4 toshiba certs out there, let me know if you need it, would try the most common/default toshiba laptop cert first tho (ones found in activators). Can't do any harm trying them, beats messing up a bios flash on a laptop as those can be hard to recover from. Let us know how it goes.
Thanks for the brilliant step by step stimey, a couple of questions though, at the moment when I go into control panel and system, it shows there that windows is activated with a product id, does this mean that the current version is activated? Also do I need to follow your instructions prior to installing SP1? and is downloading SP1 and installing from M$ is safe? Many thanks for all your help.
When windows says it is activated it is activated Did you use a crack/bootloader or is this with the cert+ultimate oem key? Also installing SP1 is no problem, because windows thinks your pc came with bundled/pre-installed, as long as you got the right cert installed (use my guide above if needed again) it is all good. You can also put it on your vista dvd so when you install it is activated right after install. I use that myself, tho i install from a fast usb stick. Its very easy to do, all you need is a vista with integrated sp1, there's some good ones on the bay straight from ms connect/msdn, you can just edit the iso with ultraiso or something like that and put the required files inside and burn it. Or if you feel brave use vLite to create a custom version of vista. Let me know if you need any help
Hey stimey, I have just checked the key that I already have and it is one of the keys you mention, does that mean I can go ahead and try installing sp1? Or do I still need to carry out the step by step for the cert?
You can install/import the cert anytime you want. You forgot to tell me how you activated your vista now.. some soft mods will keep working after sp1 installlation. My best bet is you try and install sp1 and if it deactivates install the cert and see what happens..
Is the cert. = key or is it something else? Vista was activated from when I installed it or at least it says so in control panel under system, unless this is not the way to check activation?
What i meant is that how you activated vista in the first place The cert is the dell.xrm-ms file you have to import/install. Maybe your install medium had it on there, i dont know. A normal copy of vista without any certs will not auto activate unless it is modified. Some vista dvd's on torrent sites have this already, most of them use an asus cert which may not work for dell. One way to fid out is to try and install sp1. If your vista gets deactivated try to import the cert from the file in my previous post.
I have purked up enough nerve and I am going to install sp1, which me luck, I'll be back as Terminator would put it. Edited: Oh, soz, I haven't done anything myself to activate vista, it was activated when I first installed.
Downloaded and installed sp1, still activated, hope it'll stay that way, appreciate all the help stimey, hope this will help someone in a same situation.
The RSA1 string is in FC module. If u open whole BIOS u must see the string! I had a look on other modded BIOS, they looked like this one. Can u exclude other errors? Like mistyped files?