Need Tattoo software for HP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anthony Fremont
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Anthony Fremont

Hello all,

I have a customers pc (Pavillion 7905) here that suffered a failed hard
drive. Naturally the customer never made any recovery disks before this
happened and HP didn't provide any. Now I have purchased a 7 disc
recovery set for $25.00 from HP for this specific model and serial
number, and (naturally again) it will not boot these. HP tells me that
the BIOS "Tattoo" information has "somehow" become corrupted and I will
need to take it to an authorized service center to have the bios
re-tattooed so these disks will work. Of course the "authorized"
service center wants me to shell out another $95.00 for the privilege.

Can anyone point me to some software that will retattoo the bios so that
I can recover this damn system?

spam-me at houston dot rr dot com is my real e-mail address.
 
Anthony Fremont said:
I have a customers pc (Pavillion 7905) ... HP tells
me that the BIOS "Tattoo" information has "somehow"
become corrupted ... Of course the "authorized"
service center wants me to shell out another $95.00
for the privilege. Can anyone point me to some software
that will retattoo the bios so that
I can recover this damn system?
Click to expand...

I was reading the OmniBook 5000 Familiarization Guide
(available online) for reasons unrelated to this a
couple of days ago, and stumbled into the following
text, which I fear will not be what you want to hear:

"The password descramble programs for the HP OmniBook
PCs are protected as HP Company Private information.
They may not be copied, backed-up, printed or distributed.
There are only six official copies of each program.

In addition to protecting the program itself, it's use
is also controlled. Hewlett-Packard and authorized
support providers must ensure with written evidence
that the OmniBook that is being "descrambled" is
actually in the hands of the unit's actual and current
owner. This requires a sales receipt showing the unit
serial number and owner's name, or a written statement
from the owner attesting that they are the owner of the
unit. The statement can be a FAX copy of the document.
The fact that the unit is in the hands of an HP
representative on the behalf of the customer is not
evidence of ownership.
In addition, HP will not descramble a unit for any
non-owner, even if it involves law enforcement agencies.
If you receive such a request, you should notify
management and HP Corporate Legal immediately.
(These requests may require a court order prior to
our participation.)

Further, you must log the name, serial number and date
of the running of the descramble program, and file the
written backup with the log. The log and backup is
subject to standard record's retention process and
review.

The final issue relating to descramble of passwords
is that HP cannot provide information to users that
would assist them in improperly descrambling a
password and opening a unit."

I have no idea whether this applies to later hp laptops,
such as the Pav, nor whether hp's policy has changed.
 
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