I have an HP Pavilion dv2000 (dv2415nr) that was running Vista. The motherboard was replaced with an after market board. Everything worked fine until I formatted the hard drive. Now the system rejects the HP supplied Restore disks. I need some of that good learnin to make the Vista Restore disks work again. For now, it's running XP. Two questions: 1) Does anyone happen to know what file on the HP Vista Restore disk contains the valid Product Numbers and RIN? I want to make sure there isn’t a space or dash somewhere there shouldn’t be in the BIOS values. 2) What's an easy way to read the RIN in the BIOS and/or on the hard drive? I'm an engineer, but not a computer engineer. Why: This is a motherboard tattooing issue. In 2004, HP installation software started copying Desktop Management Information (DMI) from the Bios to a hidden sector on the hard drive. Namely, it copies the Product Number and the Recovery ID Number (or Software Bill of Material). Software on the Restore disk looks at the hard drive data. If the data doesn’t match one of the allowable Product Numbers and RIN on the Restore disk, the Restore disk fails. Formatting the drive wiped the old (valid) DMI data. I used HP’s HDD_DMI utility to ensure it was fully erased. The Restore disk should then automatically copy the new DMI from the BIOS to the drive. Unfortunately, the Restore disk still fails. Using Hp’s utility to manually copy the hard drive DMI data also had no effect. Assuming the data is making it onto the hard drive, it appears the new motherboard BIOS data may not match the Restore disk. I used a 2004 HP_DMI utility (MANVS3A.EXE) to check the BIOS data. The data matched the board and case stickers. Everything looked OK, but information was limited. I did verify the Product Number (SKU number) exactly matched the sticker on the case. That leaves the RIN, which was not available. A 2007 HP_DMI utility (dv2000.EXE) provided a little more BIOS information, but the RIN remains elusive. It isn’t on any stickers and I haven’t been able to read it in the BIOS. I need a way to verify the Bios and Restore disk values are exactly the same... unless someone has a better idea (not involving a door stop, firearm, hammer or Windows 10).
@CowDoc: Firstly, welcome to MDL. Have you thought about running Windows 7 on that machine? You could easily grab an ISO here, install it and validate it using the Windows Loader or any of the other tool kits here. I'm pretty sure that you could also find a Vista ISO floating around here. You'd have to search, but I'm pretty sure you could find one. FWIW.
lots of new wording ive never read.. ok make sure PCID matches. make sure Original OS shows vista (with hp nbdmi tool) sometimes you have to make backup of those settings with NBDMI and write to new.. but board is dead. likely they sent it with no slic 2.0 for vista. (original OS vista in bios should enable that) run slic toolkit and take screenshot
Thank you Michaela. Yes, I planned to upgrade to Windows 7 and then get the free upgrade to 10 (which is still active but not publicized). That's how this whole mess started. A lot of work for an old laptop... but I'm learnin stuff... old useless stuff You're certainly right. It may be easier to bypass the HP software route.
Thanks LatinMcG. All of the tools I use were from various nbdmi kits. The original OS does show Vista. However, one big mystery is that there is no PCID. No tags anywhere (x2 boards and one case) and nothing in the new BIOS (using nbdmi tools). The PCID is blank. I haven't found anything online about that. I don't think that gets checked by the Restore disk anyway. I sure would have liked to back up the old BIOS, but dead is dead. I'll may into the slic tool kit. I need a better read of the BIOS. Thanks again.
PCID is ALL it does matter for HP.. if PCID is wrong it wont enable Slic 2.0 for vista.. look in SLP marker thread.
I'll continue to look into the PCID mystery. It sure could be a problem. BUT... I don't think the restore disk looks at that value. According to the literature I read, only the Product Number and RIN are checked. It's the restore disk that is failing, not Vista. Still, without a PCID, the install might fail later.
Check for the PCID label under the HDD door or under the battery. When was your system made? It might to too old to have a PCID.
what fails ? install or activation ? might be bad ram or hdd just flash slic 2.1 and install 7 and activate with slmgr.vbs /ilc and /ipk .. done deal
This laptop is 2007 vintage... which means quid wins a cookie. PCID wasn't implemented until late 2008. All of the PCID defined data has to be entered manually. OK, I occasionally do something stupid... like trying to use HP System Recovery disks on a hard drive that has been reformatted. Duh! The recovery partition is gone. In my defense, the error message displays so fast it can’t be read. I had to video the message several times before catching a single frame (1/30 second) of the text, “User partition not found.” Uh Oh! These aren’t installation disks. They’re "RECOVERY" disks. My apologies. I’ll flog myself later. I’ll be looking for a clean Windows 7 ISO and will do as MichaelaJoy and LatinMcG suggested. Any pointing would be appreciated. Thanks to all.