Take That, HP Support!

By Some Dude

Don't you just hate it when a manufacturer support technician tells you that you must spend significant money (well, significant to me) to do something you know should be easy as pie - like install a copy of Windows 7 that you already own on the PC sitting on your desk.

First some background. A friend, who is leaving the state, gave me a HP Pavilion a6248x PC with a dual-core AMD processor. She had upgraded to a new notebook and did not want to pay to move the old machine to her new home. This particular Pavilion came with Vista Home and it was running 32-bit Windows 7 Home. To give you a clue where this is heading, the machine is now running 64-bit Windows 7 Pro. Just to assure you that this is a legal license, it's from the Microsoft Action Pack (MAP) that I buy each year.

Over the last few years the top-tier computer makers have adopted a Microsoft scheme that ties their machines to OEM versions of Windows. With each new version of Windows this linkage has become tighter. Most of my clients have Gateway machines and I can reinstall Windows XP on these machines using the OEM Windows install CD from my MAP along with the installation key from the tag on the side of the machine. Once the install is complete and so long as we have the device drivers, it goes through  the Microsoft Activation process just fine. This is most fortunate as there is precious little support available from Gateway these days.

This installation procedure works as well on some older Dell machines with XP, but for other machines I have to order a free replacement "restore CD" from Dell that has the magic version of Windows XP for that machine. The key word here is "free." Dell keeps records for each machine and a replacement restore CD is free only once, something that seems more than fair. By the way, when installing from this restore CD, Windows never asks for a key code and activates automagically.

Now back to the HP Vista machine. Since I planned to install the 64-bit version of Win7, I needed 64-bit device drivers. Naturally, I headed for the HP website and used their support search to find the machine. To my amazement, there were no device drivers! So, I called HP support and asked how to find the drivers. The HP support person then informed me that I will have to purchase an HP restore CD for this computer for about $100 (I don't remember the exact cost.) and the only version available was for the same as originally sold on the machine. When I told him that I already had a Windows 7 license that I wanted to install, he said it would not work and that the only solution was to pay for the restore CD.  Naturally, I took this as a challenge. There was no way that I was going to pay a hundred dollars to install Windows when I already owned a valid license for Windows 7.

My first step was to inspect the motherboard and write down for any identifying numbers. After some digging I found web forum posts saying this machine used a system board from ASUS and gave the ASUS model number. Now I could search the ASUS website for that model. At the same time, more searching turned up another forum post describing how to flash an HP machine with BIOS from the system board manufacturer to "unlock" it from the HP OEM version of Windows.

Now, armed with an Award BIOS from the ASUS website, I was able to flash the HP system board and "convert" it to an ASUS board. ASUS also had Vista drivers for the board itself (supporting cooling and power management), plus all of the embedded devices: NIC, sound, and video. Generally speaking, Vista drivers work under Win7. The board now has many previously hidden BIOS options that allow timing changes and overclocking of both the processor and RAM, something that a manufacturer like HP does not want to support. After a few more hours of work, the system was booting up with 64-bit Win7 Pro. Ahhh, the feeling of satisfaction! The system has been running reliably now for many months.

During my Internet searching I found several websites devoted to the sport of modding and overclocking. Some of these sites offer BIOS modified by third-parties to change how they work with the OEM-version Windows. Such BIOS are likely violations of the VDMCA. I suppose that what I did could be construed as a violation of the DMCA even though everything I used was provided by the manufacturers and used unmodified. (Write your Congresspeople to repeal the DMCA or at least restore fair-use and your right to use the devices you buy as you wish.)
You'll note that I'm not providing any web addresses. If you want to pursue "unlocking" your machine, this article shows only that it was possible for this one model system board. This technique may or may not work on your machine (caveat moddor). The key is to match up the OEM system board to the same model sold directly by the board manufacturer. I suspect that this is easier to do for boards using AMD processors rather than Intel, but I have no evidence beyond my suspicions.

Good luck!
Mr. Dude is a pseudonym for a long-time DACS member.

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