Clean Vista install WITH NO ACTIVATION

[R4000]

This guide worked perfectly on my dv6400 without a glitch. Thanks Orev!

I think this should be a sticky, as it can help many HP owners with their Vista clean installs. IMO

[nephipower]

Just a quick question, when I do a clean install, which folder has the driver for the webcam in the swsetup folder on a dv6500t?

Edit: I looked at the driver details for the "HP Webcam" device from the Device Manager. The only driver file that it shows is "usbvideo.sys". The provider is just from Microsoft, so does that mean that the new webcam in the x500 series laptops just use a generic driver from Microsoft?

[jssssperr]

I followed these procedures for a Sony Vaio FZ this weekend, and everything worked perfectly. The only difference was that Vaios hide their recovery partitions, so I have to wipe it a different way (through the OS). FZ's come with so much crapware installed, so this guide was a lifesaver. Thank you SO much, orev!

[mainak_sarcar]

What AV softweare are you guys using ?? I'm sure its not the Norton's crawling Internet suite... People have talked about Avast, NOD32 etc. Which is the one that shouldnt increase the bootup times and provide a good security for a latop in a wifi environment.

But orev.. ur article rocks.. I've even printed out ur guide and distributed it to guys with laptops at my workplace... And guess what.. they love it..

[nephipower]

I use the corporate version of Symantec Antivirus

[KSC]

What AV softweare are you guys using ?? I'm sure its not the Norton's crawling Internet suite... People have talked about Avast, NOD32 etc. Which is the one that shouldnt increase the bootup times and provide a good security for a latop in a wifi environment.

I now use Avast home version which is free with a simple registration. I used to use AVG Free, but switched after waiting for them to fix the start up issue where the control center doesn't always load when Vista starts. It's been months and the issue is still there, so I dumped it and went with Avast in the last clean install.

Avast is quick to load during boot, and it runs quickly without hogging resources. Avast also works in the 64-bit version of Vista if you need it.

[versachi]

when i run the ABRbeta1.zip it can't find the key. why?

[orev]

when i run the ABRbeta1.zip it can't find the key. why?

This is the first report I've had from a 64bit system. I will investigate and see if I can figure it out.

[rconner]

This procedure worked perfect. Thanks Orev.

[Hansrarius]

It should be noted that the HP Pavilion 6000 Series allows BIOS access to the hard drive(s) that the dv9500t does not. Thus fresh-OS installation measures such as the one mentioned in this thread will only work if want to re-build your machine using ONLY the exact opsys HP sent/pre-installed. You will likely NEVER be able to install other operating systems, not Linux, not Windows Server, and almost certainly not Longhorn or whatever else comes after Vista. See my earlier post from the XP-Pro/Vista dual-boot thread.
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HP Pavilion dv9500t

I sent my dv9500t back - it's junk because of what they did with the BIOS!

I'll explain. HP has had Phoenix make a "locked down" BIOS in the dv9500t. It does not give the option to control the SATA drives which means you can NOT un-hide the hard drives.

I bought the dv9500t with dual drives so I could dual-boot Vista Ultimate (64-bit) and Windows Server 2003 R2. It came with Vista Ultimate pre-installed. When I ran the Windows Server 2003 R2 (Genuine MS) setup DVD, it reported "no hard drives found." So I ran the excellent freeware program VistaBootPro 3.3 and it reported that the hard drives were either missing or "hidden." I'll explain. See, HP tries to lock the consumer down into using only their "factory" installation which includes their tweaked version of the opsys and lots of "crapware" from vendors such as Vonage and Vongo and AOL who pay HP to include their software on every machine sold.

With older Pavilions, you could go into the BIOS and turn off what HP calles "SATA Nativity" mode which woould then allow other operating systems to see the hard drives. But on the dv9500t there is no such option to change the "SATA Native" mode which really ought to be called "HP Hidden Drive Mode."

This has worse implications than just keeping the iser from having a dual-boot machine. It also means you can't run Linux. Worst of all, it almost certainly means you'll never be able to upgrade to whatever comes after Windows Vista! This, because other operating systems simply can't see the hidden drives.

Now the average consumer might not care about this, but nobody tells ME what I can and can't do with MY $4400.00 computer! HP's tech support people are terrible too. Most have no idea what SATA is, none among the dozen I suffered with had ever heard of (TPM) Trusted Platform Modules, and all said dual boot is "possible on the dv9500t but not supported." Finally my support ticket (about the hidden drives) was "escalated" to a Case Manager. This guy was a technical lightweight of goosefeather proportions! HP's tech support people, especially the Bangalore-outsourced script-readers, are useless.

Their totalitarian attitude and design decisions are sad because otherwise the dv9500t is a fine machine. The integrated fingerprint reader was very nice, the UltraBright (two bulbs) screen was gorgeous, the Lightscribe DVD burner was great, and the 4GB RAM option were reasonably priced. Perhaps best of all, the dv9500 is one of the only machines available anywhere right now, along with the Toshiba Qosmio, which is DirectX 10 compliant, both having the new nVidia 8600M GS GPU. (None of the other big brands are bothering to mention that none of their laptops will ever support DirectX 10, as all other GPUs are of the old DirectX 9 architecture.)

But nice as the dv9500t is, it's got the FATAL DESIGN FLAW of the hidden drives, locking the user in to only using the HP factory-customized operating system. Buy the dv9500t and it's Hp's way or the highway - and your support will stink.

I will stand by all I have said and will answer any questions.

- Hansrarius@yahoo.com