Please take pity on a weary traveler... I have a HP laptop that I bought new 2.5 yrs ago. I've nursed the original XP Pro SP2 install about as far as it's gonna go and i'm ready to do a clean install of XP Pro SP3. HP didn't include a "recovery" disk and I wouldn't use one of those evil things anyway. Plus, for reasons that I won't go into here, the Recovery partition contents are gone. I *do* still have the original i386 folder intact. Also i've backed up my oembios files and retrieved the original product key. (not the COA key) In making preparations I noticed the the XP SP3 CD that I was going to use for the basis of a custom install disk is a VLK version - w/o a valid VLK-only product key. So I hit Google to find out what to do. I'm a week into this now. At first as I gathered info I felt I was ascending towards the Peak of Knowledge but somewhere along day 5 or 6 I passed over a minor summit and started descending back into the Valley of Confusion. I'm now as *least as* stupid as when i started. <g> In order to make an OEM install disk from the VLK disk I have I understand that I need to write compressed versions of: DPCDLL.DLL PIDGEN.DLL (this wasn't originally compressed!) OEMBIOS.BIN OEMBIOS.SIG OEMBIOS.CAT OEMBIOS.DAT to the i386 folder of the VLK disk (when it gets copied to the HD). In addition I need to change 270 to OEM in the SETUPP.INI - no problem. And, in theory, I should have an SP3 ver of the OEM EULA.TXT but, frankly, and can't think of a bigger waste of HD space. I found SP3 OEM versions of DPCDLL.DLL & PIDGEN.DLL so i'm good there. But i'm **assuming** that I need SP3 versions of the oenbios files that will work correctly on my HP laptop. I've D/L a few but judging from the filedates I don't think that they're SP3 versions. So **if** I need SP3 versions of the HP oembios files can anyone give me a tip? (And if I *can* just recycle my original SP2 files how come no one's mentioned SP version in regard these file in the 1000's of posts I read?) LB
The only difference from a Retail Pro & Royality OEM Pro setup files are the four OEMBIOS files and the SETUPP.INI PID values. That is why its ideal to use as the source to make a clean OEM disk that doesnt have the extra garbage OEM's like to throw in. One thing to remember with HP OEM SLP activation is that some older HP models, mostly socket 370 HP boards, require a different OEMBIOS file set that requires matching the bios SLP string of "HP Pavilion". The newer sets are for the "Compaq" and "Hewlett-Packard" bios strings.
Recently I modded my P5k SE bios to Slic 2.1. In the eventually of install xp I run Oem.exe to known if SlP 1 is in bios and it said: Windows XP OEMBIOS Test v1.0/168/66 (C) 2007 severach @ msfn forums F:Hewlett-Packard OEMBIOS.CAT CRC=00A1EECB F:Hewlett-Packard OEMBIOS.CAT CRC=3BA155E1 F:HP & Compaq OEMBIOS.CAT CRC=CD4E1902 These Royalty OEM install CD's should preactivate (SLP) on your system. Lines starting with E: are not reliably detected when running under Windows Press Enter! I verify the crc and the only that was not obsolet is: F:HP & Compaq OEMBIOS.CAT CRC=CD4E1902, so I download it. In the archive there are 4 files The questions are? 1)Have I SPL 1 in bios? 2)If it is the case, then I don´t need to mod the bios to added Slp1, rigth. As I usually use a VLK key (win xp pro SP2) to activate win xp, can I use that 4 flies to convert it to XP VLK to oem, and how to insert they in xp cd? Do I need anymore files? 3)Is there any restrictios about hardware if I do that? Thanks PD: The original CD was slipstreamed to SP2 first and then this with sp3, Language is Spanish.
Answers: 1) Yes you have Hewlett-Packard strings in bios 2) No, Your bios was modded and the slp string added at that time. If you are using the VLK disk to install, you will need the additional files above. Pidgen.dll, setupreg.hiv, setupp.ini with pid change, nt5inf.ca_, and a .sif if you want to input the serial automatically. 3) No restrictions on hardware. It is activated offline, OEM OS has no hardware restrictions. You would be further ahead downloading a spanish retail sp3 and modifying from there. Then you just need the setupp.ini and oembios files added with ultraiso or equivalent. At any rate, you need to do the alterations to an ISO image.