VOGONS


First post, by andrea

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Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knows of any tricks, like undocumented command line switches or config file edits, to make a Restore Plus CD work on a computer that's not on its whitelist.
I've tried a D530 CD on a D510 and a DC7800 on a DC7700, and in both cases they error out stating that this system is unsupported.

Finding the proper CD i feel like it's going to be pretty much impossible

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Reply 1 of 4, by eisapc

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I once had the same Issue with a XW4600, Z400, Z600, Z800 Restore CD despite using the correct media for the machine.
The box needed a BIOS update first to get detected correctly.
It looks like the installer checks the machine type in BIOS so you will need the matching media for your machine.
I managed to find the matching machines for my media set on a popular online auction platform.
You might try to patch the machine ID-sting in the BIOS or the machine type request in the installer software.
Issuing commandline switches will be difficult for a bootable CD.

Reply 2 of 4, by andrea

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I've figured it out.

In the Restore Plus CD bootable CD, in the TOOLS directory there are several ini files called RWDBhhhh.ini, where hhhh is a hex number that is the machine identifier. To add support* for your machine, copy/edit one of these files renaming it with your computer's ID. You also need to change the string

[Product]
0xhhhh,"",0,,,0xFFFFFFFF

inside the file to suit your ID.

How do you get this ID? I've ran "TOOLS\RESTCD.EXE" (it's a regular win32 application) though a debugger. Of course it errors out saying it's not for this computer, but in the debugger output you'll see strings such as:

CPQPAL: Initializing for RESTORE_CD...
CPQPAL: >> RestoreCDInit("E:\TOOLS")
CPQPAL: HPQ Brand = 1
CPQPAL: MachineID = 07E8h (07E8)
CPQPAL: MachineName = "Evo D510 CMT"
CPQPAL: MachineSerial = "6S2█████████"
CPQPAL: ROMVersion = "686O2 v3.18 05/28/2003"
CPQPAL: SystemFlags = 00000183

or

CPQPAL: Initializing for RESTORE_CD...
CPQPAL: >> RestoreCDInit("D:\TOOLS")
CPQPAL: HPQ Brand = 1
CPQPAL: MachineID = 0A54h (0A54)
CPQPAL: MachineName = "HP Compaq dc7700 Small Form Factor"
CPQPAL: MachineSerial = "CZC7██████"
CPQPAL: ROMVersion = "786E1 v01.16 08/17/2011"
CPQPAL: SystemFlags = 00000183

In these cases the machine ID are respectively 07E8 and 0A54.

*It's not really adding support per se, you are only pretending your computer is one of the supported ones. For best results use CDs from a machine with the closest HW config you can.

Reply 3 of 4, by chinny22

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Slightly off topic but I was never a fan of Restore CD's but HP was actually really good in this era.

If you just wanted a clean XP install boot off the OS CD instead of the system restore CD.
It would ask for the Restore CD to preform it's BIOS check then ask for the OS CD back and install just like a standard CD.
Of course you had to go and install drivers yourself but meant it used HP's OEM key

Reply 4 of 4, by andrea

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The best restore CDs probably were those made by Fujitsu Siemens. They took a standard XP iso and added:
- oeminfo/oemlogo sysdm branding
- SLP key and oembios files for SLP preactivation
and that's it. Every other software (nero, powerdvd, works, etc) came on its own separate disc so if you reinstalled had no bloat whatsoever.