faster xp - Page 3

hi, i got my Ferrari last week, and installed with a normal xp home edition, it took my key nd it activated, try b4 ya go through the hassle of creatin the cd yaself

Hi steevee,

Thank you for the suggestion but my TM8104 comes with WinXP Pro OEM and I don't have OEM edition CD. All I could find was Windows Retail which has the same functionality but just doesn't accept OEM key (I checked it).

There is a simpler way to get your OEM cdkey to work with any XP cd you may have... since you own the ferrari and the cdkey that comes with it, this modification shouldnt be illegal. Here is an excerpt of how to do it...

Unlocking WinXP's setupp.ini


WinXP's setupp.ini controls how the CD acts. IE is it an OEM version or retail? First, find your setupp.ini file in the i386 directory on your WinXP CD. Open it up, it'll look something like this:

ExtraData=707A667567736F696F697911AE7E05
Pid=55034000

The Pid value is what we're interested in. What's there now looks like a standard default. There are special numbers that determine if it's a retail, oem, or volume license edition. First, we break down that number into two parts. The first five digits determines how the CD will behave, ie is it a retail cd that lets you clean install or upgrade, or an oem cd that only lets you perform a clean install? The last three digits determines what CD key it will accept. You are able to mix and match these values. For example you could make a WinXP cd that acted like a retail cd, yet accepted OEM keys.

Now, for the actual values. Remember the first and last values are interchangable, but usually you'd keep them as a pair:

Retail = 51882 335
Volume License = 51883 270
OEM = 82503 OEM

So if you wanted a retail CD that took retail keys, the last line of your setupp.ini file would read:

Pid=51882335

And if you wanted a retail CD that took OEM keys, you'd use:

Pid=51882OEM

Note that this does NOT get rid of WinXP's activation. Changing the Pid to a Volume License will not bypass activation. You must have a volume license (corporate) key to do so.

Hmm.. Well, I tried to replace the setupp.ini file only with the one contained in /i386 folder on the hard drive but to no avail - it didn't accept my OEM key. I didn't try to change only PID though

just try changing the last 3 digits of the PID to OEM instead of replacing the whole file..... then if that doesnt work, try setting the PID equal to 82503OEM...

Ok, I will give it a try later. Can't wait till they deliver new hard drive....

Well, I changed the oembios.* files, DPCDLL.DL_, PIDGEN.DLL, SETUPP.INI and this works. For now I am pleased with what I got and a little bit tired of these experiments. Thanks to everyone for the help

Well a few months after setting this custom windows up, it still works great windows directory is about 850mb. There are two ways of doing this

1. Use oem xp pro and use the key from within your default windows install or under laptop (try both not sure which works now) + wpa files

2. Use any xp pro version and edit those files to allow it to install using oem keys + wpa files

I used method 1 with nlite to slim things down. Not really needed you get great speeds with just a default clean install just wanted to rid of stuff anyways. Drivers were taken care of since I had all of them ready and simply installed drivers for the unknown devices one by one there is about 8 from what I remember.

It isn't as complex as I thought it would be, I saw no need to copy huge directories of files into the cds, just installed as normal used the right keys and wpa files and installed drivers where needed.

this sounds good and all but if someone is kind enought to setup a step by step guide for a noob like me..

coz i changing my HDD to a 120 gb and i know my oem cd wont work cos its designed to work up to 100gb only....

Good God... do you think Acer does this to piss people off or for a reason??
Does your computer not work better with the recover Image??
Why would you want to change the OS or uninstall the default programs that come with it,, it's not like they put a bunch of bull crap,, they give you a FREE DVD burning software thats basicly it and an Emanager tool thats pretty darn great for security and settings.. there are Basicly user friendly computers for the most part untill people like most of you decide you want to change hardware and software without knowing what you are doing, then cry when your computer doesnt work....... Get a freaking clue!!! if you want XP pro, but it with the system pre installed. It will work, if it doesnt Acer will fix it. As far as NTFS you can use the Help on win XP to tell you how to do that and when you want to recover just format C back to fat32.. its a no brainer recovery takes about 15-20 to FULLY recover your system if you ever get virus's spy ware or if your just want a clean OS.