Multi Manufacturer Pre-Activation

[theprawn]

Thanks Guys - I have known about this OEM activation for a few years(Dell recovery CD), but never got around to sorting how it was implemented(equipment has always been data wiped before we get it). This will save me and my colleges loads of MS phone calls (upto 40 a day!! we were letting the customer activate them until recently - hence this search to here plus loads of read and downloads).

A couple of questions (I have hundreds of syspreped Ghost images of different systems from 98SE to Vista).

1. I am re-image old XP Pro a after changing the Productkey in sysprep.inf and copying OEMBIOS.DAT,.SIG, & .BIN to system32 folder and .DAT .CAT to sytem32/catroot{xxx} folder. Will I also need to copy .CAT to dllcache or delete it from there(worried about SFC.exe)? Otherwise seems to work fine.

2. Havn't tried this on XP Home, but could I change an installed Image from COA to SLP as Home doesn't have Sysprep? (KeyUpdatetool or MagicJellybean?)

3. I take it you know how to Activate Royal OEM Vista with OEM.XRM-MS files and SLMGR -ILC etc as you have Vista SLIC certs But havn't read anything here? Found this out about month ago, so thought it was time to sort OEM XP out as well ) plus a bonus Tablet and MCE.

Thanks again for all your hard work and time.

The Prawn

NB. Why Microsoft choose this route, I don't understand, seems double standards and/or greed, but that's another story.

Edited December 14, 2007 by theprawn

[severach]

My problem is that there is often more than one set of OEMBOIS for each manufacturer at oembios.net.

1) Is there a way to try a different OEMBIOS without reinstalling Windows XP?

2) If not is there an easy way to see if an alternative OEMBIOS will work so I don't waste time trying another wrong OEMBIOS set?

This allows you to identify all of the OEMBIOS that will be accepted by the machine. It runs from any DOS disk.

3) I tend to use the same SLP key for each version of windows. Do you think this might cause problems down the road. Think Microsoft will someday decide that I am using an HP XP Home SLP key for a Dell XP Home OS and decide to label the system as pirated?

I try to keep the keys matched with the manufacturers to minimize the possibility that Microsoft will want to detect this condition.

Any reason why a custom MCE 2005 disc make from a MSDN download wouldn't work with SLP?

A custom MCE disk will be installed with a Retail or OEM key. The same OEMBIOS files work for all Windows versions and you can have the OEMBIOS files placed correctly but if the key isn't an MCE SLP key it won't preactivate.

In fact you can add the 2nd CD from the 'Tablet Edition' too

I thought MCE disk 2 contained all of TabletPC disk 2.

1. I am re-image old XP Pro a after changing the Productkey in sysprep.inf and copying OEMBIOS.DAT,.SIG, & .BIN to system32 folder and .DAT to sytem32/catroot/{xxx} folder. Will I also need to copy .CAT to dllcache or delete it from there(worried about SFC.exe)? Otherwise seems to work fine.

Oops, that's the CAT that goes into catroot{xxx}. So far as I can tell SFC does not protect CAT files so the CAT file has no purpose in dllcache. It doesn't make sense to protect CAT files since they are self protecting. To prevent SFC problems you'll need to delete the SYSTEM32\CATROOT2 folder which will be rebuilt the next time the trust of any file is checked. This is easy if you are booting from NTFSDOS or BartPE.

[ZaForD]

I thought MCE disk 2 contained all of TabletPC disk 2.

They are ment to be the same. But I had troubles installing 'Tablet Edition' with the MSDN MCE disk 2 once.

So now I add both lots of files just in case.

[ZenCoder]

Thanks. I will give that utility a try.

To be safe I extract the OEMBIOS and CD key from the original installation whenever possible. I will start matching the keys to the manufacture in case MS changes the rules again.

Quick PS edited MSDN iso to make it OEM and it is working as expected, I feel more comfortable starting out with a 100% stock disc vs one customized by an OEM

Edited December 29, 2007 by ZenCoder

[FreeStyler]

3. I take it you know how to Activate Royal OEM Vista with OEM.XRM-MS files and SLMGR -ILC etc as you have Vista SLIC certs But havn't read anything here?

You are right, that topic is located in the Vista section

[FreeStyler]

Anyone has access to a Gericom Oembios set?

[Techno]

   Manufacturer: Acer
   Model: TravelMate 2420
   41636572

[FreeStyler]

Added Hasee, Time Computer and Seanix(Cicero) to post 202

Edited March 6, 2008 by FreeStyler

[Guest www.dublinPCservices.com]

Could somebody summarise the last 26 pages of posts please? and add some clarity/editorial.

[genetix]

Does anyone have the Asus "ASUS_FLASH" OEM BIOS files by any chance?

[bizzybody]

Just downloaded oemscan, got a Gateway 310S H box to fix. Why are there GatewayA and GatewayC folders when there's just one folder for each of the other brands?

I'm working on downloading all the Gateway files from oembios.net When I get them all, which should be extracted to which Gateway folder? (Would be a nice thing to have in the instructions.)

How about grouping each brand's links together instead of scattering them all over the page?

[Randy Rhoads]

^^

If you look inside the oemscan.ini file it will show you which sets of files go in which folder depending on the crc value of OEMBIOS.CAT. They are multiple sets required for some manufactures because a few of their machines have different slp info in the bios than others so all sets will be needed on the disk to have a sucessful activation.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Randy Rhoads

[Pajero]

Hi, FreeStyler,

Please check your personal In-Box. I wrote my answer to your question posted to me @MDL last December, regarding "AMOI SLP1.0 BIOS Range". Very sorry for my long-time silence, which has accountable reasons, but your understanding would be appreciated.

Regards,

Pajero

[FreeStyler]

Hi, FreeStyler,

Please check your personal In-Box. I wrote my answer to your question posted to me @MDL last December, regarding "AMOI SLP1.0 BIOS Range". Very sorry for my long-time silence, which has accountable reasons, but your understanding would be appreciated.

Regards,

Pajero

I got your message, thx allthough i already figured out that specific issue

I hope your health issues are resolved and everything is looking sunny for you again

[FreeStyler]

Added Targa, Epson, Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Mouse Computer, Sharp and Sotec to post 202

Edited June 13, 2008 by FreeStyler