Flashed BIOS needed XP re-activation

just read this:


Flashed BIOS needed XP re-activation

Oh you naughty naughty Vole!

By Fuad Abazovic: Friday 06 September 2002, 15:03


THE GREAT SATAN OF SOFTWARE has really cheesed me off.
I got a new BIOS for a Gericom laptop I'm testing and flashed it with the BIOS, and all went swimmingly.

The good thing about flashing BIOS in a laptop is you don't have to sweat if your power's cut off for any reason since you'll probably have a few minutes battery life left, if you're very fortunate.

All went well at first, and I booted my legal copy of Windows XP Home edition, but when I got the XP welcome screen Microsoft annoyingly told me I'd need to activate my copy again. I could not log at all to the laptop with only activate or shut down available.

Of course, I was not close to any source for Internet access and apart from anything else was really ticked off with Mr Vole as I just could not do any work until I got to close to the Internet once more.

God help you if you're working on ancient relics in the Gobi Desert and you've got XP on your machine, and no satellite phone.

If I was using a non-licensed copy this would not happened. What is the message here, oh Mr Microsoft? Stay trouble free if you using non licensed XP and suffer if you are paying a few hundred Euros or dollars for an XP licensed copy. Pray do tell.

Imagine that this has happened just for a SOFTWARE update since the BIOS is just a few hundred kilobytes of code and I was not really changing any of the hardware, just the firmware.

Instead of writing copy for the INQUIRER, I was spending time messing around trying to make stupid XP work.

Please send me a cheque Microsoft, and now. Because I fear Mad Mike Magee may not accept my BIOS excuse and will penalise me. I have experienced pain and suffering from Microsoft. Heaven spare me grief from the Mageek. µ