No activation possible, no softmod solution, no biosmod, what now? [Archive] - Page 2

Yen

08-24-2008, 12:21 AM

Yes,

you can install Everest or AcpiScope. Both are diagnostic programs. They show you what's about your configuration. AcpiScope is made for Acpi tables especially.

If you find a Acpi table called SLIC, you are usually able to activate Vista.
SoftwareLicenseInternalCode = SLIC. OEM programs it into bios for preactivation of Vista. They sell the PC / Notebook together with a preinstalled license of Vista. This version of Vista (license) asks for SLIC.

But: Some bios programmer have prepared the bios to contain a SLIC, which is shown....AND the SLIC contains either no data, or half of the needed data, or even mixed data. At that cases Vista won't activate.

Your possibilities: Mod your bios, or use Vista loader (softpatch)..
If both won't work or isn't possible, WoW is your solution.

In short: Check for SLIC with AcpiScope, if present the patch will work!

nonamex

08-24-2008, 02:33 PM

Hi, could someone please take a look at my ats-report and help me to figure out what I've done wrong..

I have a HP Pavilion d4550 (with an Asus A8M2N-LA motherboard) and have flashed it with the modded BIOS found here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=27453&postcount=9162.

I've followed the guides here on the forum and used the HP cert and SLP product key to try and activate my Windows Vista Ultimate but with no success.

When I look in Everest I can find the SLIC and everything seems to look ok (OEM ID=HPQOEM, OEM Table ID=SLIC-MPC, Creator ID=HPQ). But when I look in ACPIScope I can't even see the RSDT (only the XSDT) and subsequently no SLIC. In ACPIScope I can see in the RSDP that the address of my RSDT is 7FEF3040h but it doesn't show up in the treelist!

What have I missed?

reginakampher

08-25-2008, 05:12 AM

I have reviewed your .ats report and I suspect the checksum for the RSDT table is incorrect. To verify this, install HWDirect and go to "File"---->"New"------>"Memory Dump". Then in the "Physical address" field, enter 7FEF3040. In the "Size" field, enter 10000 and press "DUMP". Click the "Save' toolbar button and save it in the default .log extension and upload it.

free7

08-25-2008, 08:08 AM

Yen,

Does WoW work on intel bios? I have dg33fb intel motherboard.

Yen

08-25-2008, 09:53 AM

Again:
Check for SLIC with AcpiScope, if present the patch will work!;)

Diddy

08-25-2008, 02:04 PM

Hi guys. I have a dell dimension 5100. Can't for the life of me get VistaSp1 activated on it. I have tried the older "loaders" and also any of the latest revisions that ive found about the place. So now i have come into this thread for help.
I have done the ATS report but im a bit lost from here.
I have uploaded my ats report and im ready for suggestions from some kind person who takes pity on me lol.

reginakampher

08-25-2008, 08:38 PM

I have reviewed your .ats report and it does not contain a SLIC table so most likely, the methods described in this thread will not work. Have you tried Vistaloader 2.0 (not 2.1 or above). This version has been reported to work where other versions of Vistaloader fail.

nonamex

08-25-2008, 09:04 PM

Hi Regina,

Thanks a lot for your help, here's the dump you requested. Hope it can give you some more clues to what's wrong.

reginakampher

08-25-2008, 09:37 PM

For problems like this, I usually take a systematic approach so bear with me.

Lets try this first.
In HWDirect and go to "File"---->"New"------>"Memory Dump". Then in the "Physical address" field, enter 7FEF3049. In the "Size" field, enter 1 and press "Dump". You should get 04. Change this to 35 and press "Write". Now check it with ACPIScope again and see if the RSDT table is visible. If it is, see if the SLIC table is visible. If it is check to see if Vista is activated (you already have applied the correct cert and key right?). I may gotten the hex adddress wrong so we may have to try again

nonamex

08-25-2008, 10:24 PM

Systematic sounds good and I have all the patience in the world :)

Unfortunately the RSDT table is still missing, I followed your instructions exactly and I rebooted and tried once more just to be absolutely sure I didn't miss something. I'll attach a screendump so you can make sure I did the right thing.

reginakampher

08-25-2008, 10:35 PM

The pic of the RSDT you provided is different from the one you uploaded (with the exception of the "35"). Did the RSDT table change after you edited that single bit? Change the byte back to "04" and show me a pic again.

nonamex

08-25-2008, 11:27 PM

No, it don't think it changed when I changed from "04" to "35". But I rebooted between the very first HWDirect dump file and the screendump, couldn't that have caused these differences?

As I understand from ACPIScope the RSDT is only 36 bytes long which means it ends at 7FEF3064? And from what I can see my screendump and the previous HWDirect dump file are exactly the same for those 36 bytes (except for the "04" changed to "35"). But I know nothing about BIOS technology so I might be comletely wrong.

I have rebooted again and saved dumps before and after changing the "04" to "35" and have attached these files..

reginakampher

08-25-2008, 11:54 PM

Actually the initial dump you provided here is different from the one you just provided.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=34749&postcount=259

Give me a minute to recalculate the checksum for the new "before.log" dump.

reginakampher

08-26-2008, 12:06 AM

Ok. try "A1". The new RSDT dump looks a little odd. I am no expert either but if you do a side by side comparison between the intial dump and this new one in hex mode, you'll see the RSDT section is quite different.

reginakampher

08-26-2008, 12:14 AM

You are probably frustrated going this route. Having your BIOS remodded may solve the problem. There is another tool, RW-Everthing, that will show the RSDT table even if the checksum is incorrect.

nonamex

08-26-2008, 09:25 PM

I tried "A1" instead but unfortunately it didn't help. I think your advice to remod the BIOS sounds like a good idea so I'll try that. Thanks alot for your help!

twi2e

08-30-2008, 02:37 AM

Hi!

I tried the WoW 1.02 patch, rebooted and now all I get is a grub> promt. I have NO idea what to do now... I used to dual boot XP and Vista, and I think XP is on the first SATA disk (hd0,0???).

I'm stuck at a grub promt and I really hope someone can help me to get Vista booting again, or, please help me get rid of this grub thing. I didn't expect this to happen and I have to access files on my comp, but now i can't boot any OS. I'm NOT very good at bootloaders and stuff... i managed to get dual boot working by following some tips somewhere, and I used to get an option every boot, now all I get is a nasty looking black grub thing... HELP!

Edit: PHEW! I typed all this stuff into grub and I got my old boot menu back (where I can choose XP or Vista):

default 0
hiddenmenu <---- this one returned and error, unrecognized command
map (fd0) (fd0)
map --unhook
find --set-root /bootmgr
chainloader /bootmgr

And when I finally got back into Vista, it still says 3 days until activation... bah! Now I'll have a shot at uninstalling this grub thing. Wish me luck!

Edit2: Uninstall worked. Now I have three days to fix this...

Maybe WoW isn't for me, even though I read "universal" somewhere... I'll tell you what I've tried, maybe you guys know why it's not working:

Had VistaLoader 2.1.3 for several months, SP1 and everything, worked just fine until about a week ago. It's VERY likely it stopped working after I accidentally installed some windows update files (accidentally did "install updates and shut down")

I was promted I had to activate "today"

I tried reinstalling vistaloader, i tried voatk 2.5 to get rid of it, and re-install it, i tried vistaloader 3.0.0.1, and removed it, i tried asus cert+key, but nothing worked.

But I managed to flash my bios to version P32, it's an EVGA 122-CK-NF68 mobo (nforce 680i SLI), now it has asus slic and rsdt.

After that I cleaned my system again with VOATK 2.5 and ran this:

1. slmgr -rilc
2. slmgr -ilc c:\asus.xrm-ms
3. slmgr -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (the asus ultimate key...)
4. slmgr -rearm

But it still didn't work, but instead of "Today" and nag screens, I now have to activate in three days (thanks to the rearm).

Then I tried WoW 1.02 and almost died from a heart attack!

Wow didn't activate my computer, but I typed the HP cert and HP key (but it was the same I thnk) rather than ASUS, maybe that's why it didn't work? I don't feel like going back to grub-land as of now to see if the asus cert will do the trick this time... I just followed Yen's instructions and it had a HP cert in it...

That's my story, now what?

ricardo

08-31-2008, 11:56 AM

reginakampher

08-31-2008, 08:32 PM

........But I managed to flash my bios to version P32, it's an EVGA 122-CK-NF68 mobo (nforce 680i SLI), now it has asus slic and rsdt.....
Did you flash with a modded BIOS? To be sure that it actually has the SLIC table, please install ACPIScope then go to "File"--->"Load ACPI information"--->"From BIOS". Wait till it loads the information then press the "Save file" toolbar button and save it in the default .ats extension and upload it.

reginakampher

08-31-2008, 08:34 PM

ok REGINA & YEN,,after 30 days of using the crack,,,i restart windows & i get (activate black)message
i pressed (activate later) & windows start with black background,,now windows is activated but asked me to get genuine:(
what do you think??
Thanks for the report. So now, AutoExNT method has been shown to not work on a physical machine in real time. Try the WoW.

ricardo

08-31-2008, 09:59 PM

Thanks for the report. So now, AutoExNT method has been shown to not work on a physical machine in real time. Try the WoW.
& how should i try the wow???should i format the computer or what???:confused:

reginakampher

09-01-2008, 12:32 AM

If you want to reformat it, that would be preferred but not necessary. You can uninstalled the AutoExNT service by directions posted here. Reboot then install WoW.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=2580

twi2e

09-01-2008, 02:01 AM

Did you flash with a modded BIOS? To be sure that it actually has the SLIC table, please install ACPIScope then go to "File"--->"Load ACPI information"--->"From BIOS". Wait till it loads the information then press the "Save file" toolbar button and save it in the default .ats extension and upload it.

Sure did, have a look at it:

reginakampher

09-01-2008, 03:54 AM

Sure did, have a look at it:
I looked at your .ats file and definitely the BIOS is NOT your problem. The problem is either the certificate or the key. This is what I recommend.

Suggestion #1

1.Uninstall every and all softmods and Vistaloaders.
2.Reboot.
3.Make sure the asus.xrm-ms is in the C:\ folder.
4.Open a command prompt with administrator rights.
5.Type slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\asus.xrm-ms and wait for the dialog box to come up
stating the license was successfully installed.
6.I presume you have the Ultimate edition installed so
type slmgr.vbs -ipk 6F2D7-2PCG6-YQQTB-FWK9V-932CC and again wait for another
dialog box to show up stating the key was successfully installed.
7.See if it is activated. If not, try suggestion #2

Suggestion #2

8.Open a command prompt with administrator rights.
9.Type net stop slsvc
10.Type cd C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\ Roaming\Microsoft
\SoftwareLicensing
11.Type rename tokens.dat tokens.bar
12.Type cd C:\Windows\system32
13.Type net start slsvc
14.Type cscript slmgr.vbs -rilc (It may take a long time for this to complete, please be patient)
15.Reboot Twice
16.Write down the OEM key somewhere as you need to enter it after your first
reboot.
17.After the second reboot, do steps 3 through 6 and see if it is activated.
If not, you might want to think about a fresh install.

twi2e

09-01-2008, 07:46 PM

13.Type net start slsvc
14.Reboot Twice
15.Write down the OEM key somewhere as you need to enter it after your first
reboot.
16.After the second reboot, do steps 3 through 6 and see if it is activated.
If not, you might want to think about a fresh install.
[/code]

Suggestion #1 failed (done it like 20 times earlier), and suggestion #2 was hard to try because at 14, after rebooting, and logging in, all I got was a dialog box claiming I have to re-install windows to be able to activate.

I thought this would be similar to the XP rescue install (where you chose to install rather than repair, and then it finds old XP and asks again if you want to repair, thus keeping all installed stuff intact but reverting XP to original state with no SP or updates etc.)

But... re-installing vista means formatting and making a clean install, losing everything on that particular disk. This isn't a major issue, but I have LOTS of apps installed and it will take quite some time to get it all up and running, but I'll backup my stuff and have a shot at it when Vista goes crippled on me in a couple of weeks, bombarding me with nagscreens.

One thing is for sure, I'll never ever use windows/microsoft update again :P

apoorvasheth

09-02-2008, 09:18 PM

Hello Flagmax, Yen& All!

This is Apoorva. I use HP 530 Notebook. Well, I tried the WoW_1_02.exe on my HP 530 Notebook and followed all the steps as suggested by Yen but I regret to inform you guys that my Vista Ultimate DID NOT Activate!!!

Now here’s what I did:

I installed Windows Vista Ultimate without a Key on D drive since XP is installed on C drive. Formatted D drive with Vista DVD and than once the installation finished and upon reaching the desktop, I disabled UAC by going to Control Panel – Users and than deselecting the option “Turn On UAC”…something similar to it. Next, I restarted Vista and than ran the WoW_1_02.exe crack. Now here’s something interesting: While running this WoW crack, a command prompt opens with a message which I have attached as a screenshot along with this forum and this message indicates an issue with my partition table being wrong, so if you guys could kindly have a look at it. What should I do about this error message? What’s going wrong out there?

But anyway’z I further continued with the instructions as mentioned by Yen…

Here are the commands which I executed through CMD prompt:

slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS and press enter.

slmgr.vbs -ipk 6F2D7-2PCG6-YQQTB-FWK9V-932CC and press enter.

After this, I rebooted Vista and it still says: “30 days…..”

Also, does your WoW_1_02 crack work with dual boot? B’coz, I am simply tired of formatting my HDD repeatedly.

Looking forward to a positive reply from this forum.

I am dying to get my Vista Activated on my HP 530 notebook and Yen knows well about this since I have asked so many questions to him in this regards and I really appreciate for his efforts for explaining me in details.

Regards,
Apoorva.

OK!

First release of WoW V1.01 patch written by flagmax!

http://rapidshare.com/files/136637647/WoW_1_01.exe.html

WoW V1.02 (text output reduced)

http://rapidshare.com/files/136768235/WoW_1_02.exe.html

WoW V1.02 (MSI_SLIC)

http://rapidshare.com/files/137352100/WoW_1_02_MSI.exe.html

Premise:
You've got a present, but unusable SLIC! (No activation possible.)
To check with Everest or AcpiScope. (Acpi Table, named SLIC must be present.)

-Install Vista, don't enter a key during setup.
If Vista was already installed, remove ALL softmods if present.

-Disable UAC (google for it, if you don't know how to proceed.)

Installation of Wow:

Get WoW_1_02.exe and execute it (double-click), press install, DON'T change path of installation! Press enter to confirm installation and to close cmd window. Patch is now installed.:)

Activate Vista:

You may copy and paste these commands to your cmd window!

-Right-Click on Command Prompt (found at accessories folder) and select 'Run as Administrator'.
-Type slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS and press enter. Wait for the dialog box indicating the license file was installed successfully.
-Type slmgr.vbs -ipk 6F2D7-2PCG6-YQQTB-FWK9V-932CC and press enter.
Wait for the dialog box indicating the key was installed successfully.

(Exchange this key before with other HP royalty key if you don't have Ultimate installed.)

REBOOT, check for activation! You may enable UAC again.

Uninstall patch:

Locate uninstall.bat at C:\wow and execute it (double click!) Press enter to confirm / close CMD window.
Reboot.

In case of your Notebook won't boot anymore (never had before);) you can get this iso. Burn it to CD, boot with it. You are now able to access Vista and run uninstall.bat as described above!!!

Boot CD, patches SLIC as well and allows to access Vista in case of trouble.:)

http://rapidshare.com/files/136633562/WOWcd_auto_HP1.01.iso.html

Enjoy!

Yen

09-02-2008, 09:50 PM

Polyphemus

09-03-2008, 07:33 AM

I haven't seen that error before.

Let's examine the steps you've done.
You've installed XP to C:\ partition, no extra bootloader installed. You've got one physical HDD only. You've used XP setup to set partitions?? Deleted the original ones and made your own?

After that you've installed Vista to D:\
Now Vista's bootloader was installed. You can choose what you want to boot up, XP or Vista, right?

You've booted to Vista, your Vista Installation gets now C:\ allocated, XP is now D:\.

You've installed WoW at Vista OS and the error occurred.

Question: As you've installed XP did you re-set the partitions, or do you use the partitions originally set from manufacturer?

Some manufacturers use their own bootloader to access a hidden recovery partition, could that be at your case? Came your Notebook with any OS preinstalled?
Are you using recovery partition images such as TrueImage?

Correct me please if I got some of it wrong, so that I can think about........

WoW should apply the patch BEFORE it calls Vista's bootloader, so you will get a SLIC no matter if you boot into XP or Vista............

The chain:

-new written MBR calls grub bootloader
-grub boots wow image
-wow image boots into DOS environment and executes Flagmax' patch
-grub included at Wow image calls Vista's bootmgr
-now you choose the OS you want to boot.

The chain is interrupted at step one already. My guess: There is probably another bootloader present (from manufacturer).........
WoW should work with dual boot (Vista bootloader only)

OK, as advised at error message we should use --skip-mbr-test option

Please reply. Is your multiboot system OK? Bootloader is working? Any issue? I'm asking because I don't know why there an error occurred.

After that I'll modify Wow.exe and add --skip-mbr-test command as suggested by error message.

Hi All,

Like Apoorvasheth, I also have got a dual boot XP and Vista installation, on my MSI Wind. XP is on the first primary partition, and Vista on the next (first logical). I used the XP partitioner during the XP setup.

When I install WOW_1_02_MSI, I only get a DOS-prompt with GRUB4DOS. :(

Next, when I type the commands as they are listed in 'menu.lst' Grub accepts everything except the 'hiddenmenu' command.

When I finish with the 'boot' command, I get the Vista bootloader and I can boot XP or Vista.

When I enter Vista, it isn't activated

If I only install Vista, everything is OK and Vista is activated...

Please help :confused: :D

SMALL UPDATE:

When I enter 'map --mem (hd0,0)/wow/wow.img (fd0)' at the GRUB4DOS command, I get an "Error 15: File not found".
When I enter 'map --mem (hd0,1)/wow/wow.img (fd0)' at the GRUB4DOS command, I get an "Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition". I tried to change (hd0,0) to (hd0,1) because Vista is located at the second partition (first logical partition of the extended partition).

UPDATE 2:

Problem solved, the image is located at (hd0,4). :rolleyes:

adrovz

09-03-2008, 07:00 PM

Suggestion #1 failed (done it like 20 times earlier), and suggestion #2 was hard to try because at 14, after rebooting, and logging in, all I got was a dialog box claiming I have to re-install windows to be able to activate.

I thought this would be similar to the XP rescue install (where you chose to install rather than repair, and then it finds old XP and asks again if you want to repair, thus keeping all installed stuff intact but reverting XP to original state with no SP or updates etc.)

But... re-installing vista means formatting and making a clean install, losing everything on that particular disk. This isn't a major issue, but I have LOTS of apps installed and it will take quite some time to get it all up and running, but I'll backup my stuff and have a shot at it when Vista goes crippled on me in a couple of weeks, bombarding me with nagscreens.

One thing is for sure, I'll never ever use windows/microsoft update again :P

Same thing happened to me, after rebot vista wanted reinstall to be able to activate :S

Anyway i tried everything atleast 20 loaders and other software solutions, NONE worked, WOW hasn't worked either, im pretty desparate, how to activate my HP 6820s with Vista Ultimate SP1.

PS.: HELP ME ASAP plz im desperate!

apoorvasheth

09-03-2008, 08:07 PM

Hi Yen! Thanks for your prompt reply! Yes, I have got only 1 physical HDD of WDC.

Q. You've used XP setup to set partitions??

My Ans: No. I have used Vista DVD to partition the HDD and than used XP CD to install it on C drive. Of lately, I do not recollect if I have used XP CD to partition my HDD or Vista DVD. B’coz, the old XP CD which I had could not recognize this WDC SATA HDD since the CD was missing the required SATA driver. Therefore, I had to re-create XP CD using nLite with the required SATA driver integrated.

Q. You've booted to Vista, your Vista Installation gets now C:\ allocated, XP is now D:\.

Ans: Yes, That’s correct!

Q. As you've installed XP did you re-set the partitions, or do you use the partitions originally set from manufacturer?

Ans: Well, time and again, I have re-partitioned and formatted my HDD due to Vista’s Activation issue. So, I believe that by now, manufacturer’s partitions must have been deleted.

Q. Some manufacturers use their own bootloader to access a hidden recovery partition, could that be at your case?

My Question to you: How should I make sure if the Manufacturer’s bootloader still exists on the HDD. And how to check this hidden partition?

Came your Notebook with any OS preinstalled?

Ans: No. It came with free DOS edition.

Q. Are you using recovery partition images such as TrueImage?

Ans: No. I purely use OS CD to do these stuffs.

Q. Bootloader is working?

Ans: If you are talking about the OS selector at startup than “Yes”, that works fine.

Also I see that Polyphemus got his issue resolved by saying in his post: "issue resolved, the image is located at (hd0,4)”. So, how to check if my Wow image is located at HDO, 1/2/3/4…? And which file needs to be modified in this case with the help of Notepad? Should it be “Menu.Lst”?

Kindly let me know your way out of this issue as early as possible.

************************************************** ****************************************

A quick update. Just few mins ago, I installed Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 on my HP 530 notebook and installed Windows Vista into that Virtual PC 2007.

Yen, I followed all the steps as you said and everything went out smoothly but Vista still says: "30 days to activate" after restarting my notebook. Very wired!!!

I created single partition and installed Vista on C drive. I also see "Resetting GLDR... along with lots of text during startup which needs to be dealt with.

Secondly, how to determine if the installed Vista version is RTM or OEM?

Polyphemus

09-04-2008, 07:16 AM

...

Also I see that Polyphemus got his issue resolved by saying in his post: "issue resolved, the image is located at (hd0,4)”. So, how to check if my Wow image is located at HDO, 1/2/3/4…? And which file needs to be modified in this case with the help of Notepad? Should it be “Menu.Lst”?

Kindly let me know your way out of this issue as early as possible.

...

To find the correct partition I typed, at the Grub prompt, 'root (hd0,<tab><tab>', where <tab> is pressing the TAB-key. All available partitions are sequentially showed when you press TAB. It's like an autocomplete of the command.

Grub displayed partitions it sees, where (hd0,0) is my XP partition, and (hd0,4) is, obviously, my Vista partition.

Next I edited the menu.lst in the root of the Vista installation, not in the WOW.IMG. I replaced 'map --mem (hd0,0)/wow/wow.img (fd0)' with 'map --mem (hd0,4)/wow/wow.img (fd0)'.

I hope this will help a bit! :D

Update: To check if Grub can find the wow.img, I simply used the 'map' command mentioned above and tried all partitions Grub showed with the 'root <tab><tab>' trick. Grub gives an error if it can't find the image.

apoorvasheth

09-04-2008, 08:49 AM

Hi Polyphemus! Thanks for your reply!

Well, it seems like you are talking about accessing Grub through Ubuntu. Is that true? B'coz, I have XP and Vista installed on my HP 530 Notebook. Therefore, how to access the "Grub prompt" within XP / Vista?

Also, as you can see in my reply posted above, I tried this patch on Vista Ultimate through Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and the patch did run successfully but what shocked me is that Vista still shows as unactivated and on the other hand, when I see users of this forum posting success about their Vista's activation after applying this WoW_1_02 patch, I got more surprised & curious that howcome this patch did not work for me on my HP 530 Notebook? Where am I going wrong exaclty?

Polyphemus, did you notice any startup text message after applying this patch on your PC?

Update:

Hello All! A quick update. Like Polyphemus, even I reached the grub prompt screen under Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.

I started inserting all the commands one by one as mentioned in menu.lst

While typing, "hiddenmenu" command, even I get an error message as:

"Error 27: Unrecognized command".

While applying the following command "map --mem (hd0,0)/wow/wow.img (fd0)" without quotes, I get the below message:

" FAT12 BPB found with OxEB (jmp) leading the boot sector.

probed C/H/S = 80/2/18, probed total sectors = 2880 "

And when I change (hd0,0) to (hd0,1/2/3/4), I get an error message as:

" Error 22: No such partition".

But overall, this WoW_1_02.exe has not worked for my HP 530 Notebook, very wired !!!

Kindly have a look at the attached screenshot.

To find the correct partition I typed, at the Grub prompt, 'root (hd0,<tab><tab>', where <tab> is pressing the TAB-key. All available partitions are sequentially showed when you press TAB. It's like an autocomplete of the command.

Grub displayed partitions it sees, where (hd0,0) is my XP partition, and (hd0,4) is, obviously, my Vista partition.

Next I edited the menu.lst in the root of the Vista installation, not in the WOW.IMG. I replaced 'map --mem (hd0,0)/wow/wow.img (fd0)' with 'map --mem (hd0,4)/wow/wow.img (fd0)'.

I hope this will help a bit! :D

Update: To check if Grub can find the wow.img, I simply used the 'map' command mentioned above and tried all partitions Grub showed with the 'root <tab><tab>' trick. Grub gives an error if it can't find the image.

Polyphemus

09-04-2008, 12:54 PM

...

Because Grub wasn't able to find the wow.img, I ended up with the Grub command prompt.

When I boot, messages of Grub flash on my screen, I'm not able to read them because it's too fast. The only thing I can see, that Grub loads NTLDR instead of BootMgr, but that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm really not familiar with these patches, it was only a big guess and great luck that I managed to get it to work on my dual boot system.

The message "FAT12 BPB found with OxEB (jmp) leading the boot sector.
probed C/H/S = 80/2/18, probed total sectors = 2880 "

looks like there is another, small partition on your disk, at the very beginning. :confused:

If that's so, deleting it with a partition manager like Acronis Disk Director Suite could be an option..

Yen

09-04-2008, 06:45 PM

Thanks to you both for additional info.

@apoorvasheth

Edit:

The " FAT12 BPB found with OxEB (jmp) leading the boot sector.

probed C/H/S = 80/2/18, probed total sectors = 2880 "

message indicated that your wow.img was succesfully found at hd0,0, you just have to type after the rootnoverify (fd0) command a additional boot command.

BUT:
I don't know if virtual pc 2007 bios contains a SLIC already. WoW is especially created to patch a ALREADY present SLIC, it's no 'ordinary' soft patch like Vista loader. You can use it to patch the HP530 bios, probably not for Virtual PC's bios.

You (we) need info about your partitions! Alternatively you can use XP setup to set new partitions. You have to delete all indicated partitions and after that you have to recreate them from scratch. I don't know why grub complained about a bad partition table.

I'm sorry to say that there is more research and work needed. The patch is very new, and there are less experiences about dual boot, since I (we) didn't try it on a dual boot configuration. Additionally there are different configurations used by different persons...

Fact is that Larus managed it to work at dual boot configuration. We decided to use grub bootloader to introduce flagmax' patch.

Grub isn't much familiar to me I'm still learning about. But I'm convinced that it is possible to install WoW at a KNOWN dual boot configuration.

I've got 2 physical HDD's so my config isn't the same as yours. I cannot test the same situation.
So if you want to and have the time and motivation, you have to try and research at your machine. I can give you my best advice additionally.

You are welcomed to be a part of research of WoW dual boot project.
I know that all the re-installations / formatting are time consuming and sometimes frustrating. But you are in a good situation. You can play with software.

When I was developing bios mod methods and have tried them at my own machine, believe me euphoria and depression have taken it in turns. Sometimes I've almost got a heart attack. But that's a contribution in the name of education and research.

So my suggestion to you:

Don't try virtual pc anymore. Re-set the partitions (delete them all before!) so we can be sure what we have got. A good tool to repair partition tables is http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
If you don't want to delete the partitions and to reinstall both OS you can try it first, otherwise:

Install XP, after that Vista.
Install Wow, use the improved menu.lst from below and see what's happening. IMO it should work now!!!

That's the way that I would do next......

About the Vista license: If you install a Vista retail version and you apply cert. and key you are converting the license from retail to OEM_SLP.

To check your current license type at command prompt
slmgr -dli

About grub:
You may skip the hiddenmenu command, since it's not needed / doesn't work at command prompt

To make grub to find wow.img on hd0,X you can use the find command at menu.lst

NEW IMPROVED menu.LST finds the wow.img at any hd0,X partition, useful for dual boot.

default 0
hiddenmenu
find --set-root /wow/wow.img
map --mem /wow/wow.img (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)

It worked for me.
Polyphemus: Would you please confirm it?

After that I'll update WoW to 1.3

Polyphemus

09-05-2008, 08:06 AM

...

NEW IMPROVED menu.LST finds the wow.img at any hd0,X partition, useful for dual boot.

default 0
hiddenmenu
find --set-root /wow/wow.img
map --mem /wow/wow.img (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)

It worked for me.
Polyphemus: Would you please confirm it?

After that I'll update WoW to 1.3

Yes, I can confirm it (still) works. Thanx Yen! :D

Yen

09-05-2008, 02:57 PM

Thanks!

I'm working on a solution that doesn't need to write MBR at all.... I'll release the update 1.3 and 2.0 (no mbr) after I've realised them......more work to do..........

Polyphemus

09-05-2008, 03:46 PM

Thanks!

I'm working on a solution that doesn't need to write MBR at all.... I'll release the update 1.3 and 2.0 (no mbr) after I've realised them......more work to do..........

I just overlooked something: when booting, I see an 'Unrecognised command' message flashing by on my screen, only I'm not able to read it properly :(

But dispite that, it's working just fine...

Yen

09-05-2008, 04:15 PM

I just overlooked something: when booting, I see an 'Unrecognised command' message flashing by on my screen, only I'm not able to read it properly :(

But dispite that, it's working just fine...

You can try to add the
timeout 10
command to make grub wait. You can see the error message?

I'm trying it right now.......doesn't stop, it's for stop to display menue only....

Anyway, I'm releasing now Wow 1.03, two improvements.

-finds wow.img at any hd0 partition
-finds Vista's bootmgr for sure (uses a marker file, called this_is_Vista.tag)

To apply, deinstall previous Version use uninstall.bat, run 1.3 exe, confirm to replace existing files, reboot.

Polyphemus

09-05-2008, 05:24 PM

You can try to add the
timeout 10
command to make grub wait. You can see the error message?

I'm trying it right now.......doesn't stop, it's for stop to display menue only....

Anyway, I'm releasing now Wow 1.03, two improvements.

-finds wow.img at any hd0 partition
-finds Vista's bootmgr for sure (uses a marker file, called this_is_Vista.tag)

To apply, deinstall previous Version use uninstall.bat, run 1.3 exe, confirm to replace existing files, reboot.

Ok, I tried to add a 'timeout 10', but it simply doesn't timeout. But I managed to get a glimpse of the message when booting 10 times in a row :D It says 'Unrecongised partition table'. I think Grub also scans my USB-harddrive when it's attached, because when I disconnect it, I don't see the message (for as far I'm able to see what Grub tells me).

ricardo

09-05-2008, 07:36 PM

wow v.3 works perfectly with hp 530 after uninstall AutoExNT :)

apoorvasheth

09-05-2008, 09:01 PM

But where's the download link for wow v.3? And which patch is this b'coz as far as I see Yen's post, he has mentioned about Wow 1.03 patch.

Are you talking about the same patch? :eek:

Yen

09-06-2008, 12:53 AM

I've worked at two new patches.
V 1.03 and V 2.00

The general way is the same. They are found at the same page. (Link to is located at first post).
Also instructions / improvements....I'm providing V2.00 right now:)

@ricardo

Thank you for feedback, enjoy!

apoorvasheth

09-06-2008, 08:28 PM

Hi Yen! It is simply wired but none of your patches {which include WoW_1_02.exe, WoW_1.03_HP.exe & WoW2.00 (HP SLIC)} have worked for my HP 530 Notebook. All have failed!!! I wonder how other users owning HP 530 have managed to activate their Vista Ultimate with these patches?

Infact with WoW2.00 (HP SLIC), I ended up with different error messages and since the cmd window disappeared so quickly, therefore I tried to run the commands manually mentioned in install.com found inside the wow folder, and at times, I got an error message like: "Cannot find file bootmgr" and sometimes, "Cannot find file grldr".

I have also attached screenshot of the error message. Things have started going hay wire for me. God knows where exactly I am going wrong?

Here’s what I did,

I already had XP installed on C drive.

a) I formatted D drive from within XP (With “Perform Quick Format deselected”) by right clicking on My Computer – Manage – Disk Management.

b) Booted from Vista DVD and installed it on D drive.

c) Disabled UAC – Restarted Vista.

d) Ran WoW2.00 (HP SLIC). But I suspect that few commands within the install.cmd might not have run properly. However, I further continued with installing license file for HP and product key and restarted Vista Ultimate.

e) Vista still shows as “30 days left to activate…”

Now, there could be a possibility wherein the copy of Vista which I have downloaded and installed on my HP 530 can be different from the copy of Vista which other users on this forum have used & have managed to activate Vista Ultimate successfully on their HP 530.

I do not recollect but as far as I am sure, I have downloaded my copy Vista from the link mentioned at the below website:

http://www.ipmart-forum.com/showthread.php?t=215425&highlight=vista+direct+download+links

I have downloaded all the 3 files as mentioned on that link above and followed the instructions given to make my Bootable Vista DVD.

This could be a possibility that the copy of Vista I am using on my HP 530 itself won’t allow me to activate Vista.

Therefore, I have a request to all those HP 530 users (who managed to activate Vista with the Wow patch) to kindly help me with the link from where you guys have obtained Vista. Thanks.

For Yen:

One information I am curious about is since my HP 530 Notebook displays BIOS information under msinfo32.exe as:

BIOS Version Date: Hewlett-Packard 68MVU Ver. F.07, 3/18/2008
SMBIOS Version: 2.4

therefore, how to check the actual BIOS used for this HP 530 notebook by HP Manufacturers?

I've worked at two new patches.
V 1.03 and V 2.00

The general way is the same. They are found at the same page. (Link to is located at first post).
Also instructions / improvements....I'm providing V2.00 right now:)

@ricardo

Thank you for feedback, enjoy!

apoorvasheth

09-06-2008, 08:47 PM

Hi Ricardo!

I have few questions for you since I see that you have managed to activate Vista on your HP 530 notebook. I also own the same HP 530 Notebook.

My questions are:

Q.1 Did your HP 530 notebook came preinstalled with any OS or did it came with free DOS OS like mine?

Q.2 Have you installed Vista Ultimate on HP 530 and could you kindly let me know from where you obtained this copy of Vista, I mean the download link?

Q.3 Did you check which BIOS has been supplied with your HP 530 Notebook. And should that be the same for mine as well? What basically I would like to ask over here is if Hewlett Packard supplies similar BIOS and Motherboard for HP 530 or anyother HP Notebook, than let that notebook be falling into a home entertainment or a business series?

Q.4 Did you install SP1 after installing the Wow patch and does your Vista SP1 than still shows as activated.

Too many questions from my side....:)

Even Yen is quite excited with my questions as I have asked him now and than...:D

wow v.3 works perfectly with hp 530 after uninstall AutoExNT :)

Yen

09-07-2008, 01:48 AM

OK.

I think we have to go now step by step.

First we check if your current bios is made for Wow patch:
Install AcpiScope at XP, go to file--->load acpi information--->from bios, save and upload the *.ats file. A acpi table, called SLIC must be present. (IMO it is)

It is strange that my batch file didn't find the bootmgr at Vista root.

NOW install easybcd at Vista. Go to manage bootloader, check uninstall Vista bootloader (use to restore xp), press write MBR.

After that your system boots to xp only and you've got a new clean MBR in case there was something messed up or another softmod has done some other modifications before.

Format drive D: /your Vista partition. (To format only WON'T reset the changes of MBR!!!)

Install now Vista again.

Don't make any further changes, we have to work together and to discuss every step that will follow.

At Vista desktop press f1 to enter windows help. At search bar type 'show hidden files'.
At 1. Click to open folder options, click view tab, mark show hidden files and folders. Uncheck hide protected operation system files. Press apply.

You should see now all files. Open explorer and provide to me please a screenshot of Vista C:\ (Vista root)

I'll have a look at it and to check if there are some modifications made by other softmods

I don't know what versions of Vista are available. I know that some other softmods use:

A) A modified bootmgr
B) A modified MBR (Vista loader)

Both of them interfere with WoW. You must install a clean original retail Version of Vista, or a clean HP-OEM Version.
Another problem:

If you have already installed such a modified Vista version before, the modification B) won't go by just formatting and installing a clean Vista version after it. So we use easybcd.

I'm sure that Wow will work at EVERY machine that shows a SLIC at AcpiScope.

HP530 is one of it.

At your case there is one little thing present that makes it impossible to run WoW properly. A unmodified original copy of Vista is essential.

I will help you till it works.;)

apoorvasheth

09-07-2008, 08:59 PM

Hello Yen! Apologize for replying late.

My Mom had hide my HP Notebook this early morning when I was in sleep :( b’coz I always stay awake up till late night doing some or the other work on my notebook. And she says that by staying awake up till late night, someday I might damage my health. That’s so kind of her and what she says is also true but you know very well that people who are addicted to computers do not see if its day or night in the world outside, but they are constantly busy with their PC. But somehow, I managed to convenience my mom in the evening and here I am back with the notebook. HeheheHe :)

And now I am ready with all the information as requested by you.

1. Kindly checkout the HP 530 Report.ats at the following link since I was unable to attach the file on this forum:

http://www.4shared.com/file/62095333/8aa6b4b8/HP_530_Report.html

2. Kindly check the attached file “Explorer Screenshot.jpg” as requested.
(Please Note: I had deselected “Show All Files & Folders” & “Hide Protected System Files” options as per your instructions).

Now, you can let me what’s the next step I need to perform.

Also, how to check the original manufacturer of the BIOS that came with my HP 530 Notebook?

And Ricardo, are you on holidays recently, b'coz I did not receive any reply from your side.

Ok Yen Bye...Mom is shouting from back and is telling me to go to sleep as it is 1:20 IST in the morning over here.

...otherwise I will find my HP notebook hidden again this morning....Hehehehe :D

Yen, you know what's the biggest benefit of Notebooks? Now since my mom is asking me to Turn Off my notebook and go to sleep, all I need to do is simply Shutdown the LCD cover and not turn off the notebook actually...Hehehehe.

Anyway'z, take care...will wait for your reply....Apoorva.

Update:

Yen, please make sure that if I have to run any of your patches as my next step, than it would simply become difficult for me to point out the error message since the cmd prompt appears and than gets disappeared at lightning speed. And things would again start going haywire for my notebook.

OK.

I think we have to go now step by step.

First we check if your current bios is made for Wow patch:
Install AcpiScope at XP, go to file--->load acpi information--->from bios, save and upload the *.ats file. A acpi table, called SLIC must be present. (IMO it is)..........

........I'm sure that Wow will work at EVERY machine that shows a SLIC at AcpiScope.

HP530 is one of it.

At your case there is one little thing present that makes it impossible to run WoW properly. A unmodified original copy of Vista is essential.

I will help you till it works.;)

Yen

09-08-2008, 06:37 PM

Hehehe... you are really funny:)

Don't get into trouble with your Mom....:D;)

Thank you for your report and report files.

I had a look at the *.ats report. It looks as expected, you've got the right bios. WoW will work.

But you've got no bootmgr file located at C:\ also the entire boot folder is missing!
I don't know why it's not there.:confused:

It's also strange that you've got no error at boot......are you sure it's Vista's bootloader which allows you to select the OS to boot?

I've googled about. A missing bootmgr usually leads to an error at boot.

We can try to repair /restore it.
First install easybcd again (Vista). Press View Settings and post please the entry.

Second:
Go to manage bootloader and press backup settings. This will save your bootloader settings.

Third:

We need to know what license you've installed. Turn off UAC (let it turned off all the time). Run at command prompt:
slmgr -dli

Wait for dialog box and show me it as well.

We have to go step by step to avoid to get confused again, I'm sorry....

I've got the suspicion that your Vista was modified.....never saw these files missing.......

But we're getting closer...

apoorvasheth

09-08-2008, 10:01 PM

Hi Yen! Yes, that was funny & I cannot overlook what my Mom says b’coz she is my Mom and always worried about me like all other Mom in this world will be for her son. :)

Anyway’z, this time I am ready with much more information and a screenshot as well and something wired I discovered which will quickly help you in fixing my issue.
With the help of these informations and screenshots, I guess we have nearly trapped the issue & a step away from the solution. Ok, so here is goes:

Q1. But you've got no bootmgr file located at C:\ also the entire boot folder is missing! I don't know why it's not there.

Ans: Kindly have a look at the attached screenshot: “D Drive (XP) Screenshot.jpg” for the answer. It’s strange when I look at this screenshot. The missing files and folders which we are talking about are in this second partition, i.e. D drive.
This screenshot displays my D drive on which XP is installed, b’coz when I boot to XP, C drive becomes XP and vice versa for Vista.

Q2. Are you sure it's Vista's bootloader which allows you to select the OS to boot?

Ans: Well, so far I am able to boot to both XP & Vista without issues, I would say “Yes” but e’m not quite sure about this.

Q3. First install easybcd again (Vista). Press View Settings and post please the entry.

Ans:

EASY BCD Boot Entries:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Q4. We need to know what license you've installed. Turn off UAC (let it turned off all the time). Run at command prompt: slmgr –dli

Ans: Kindly check the attached screenshot: "Vista License Screenshot.jpg".

Q5. I've got the suspicion that your Vista was modified.

Ans: Yes, after looking at the Vista License Screenshot, I would agree with what you say.
Please Note: I have only done a clean installation of Vista as instructed and not used any patches so far.

Anyway’z, now I think that I have lots of work to do. Heheheheeh!

And Yen, could you kindly help me with the link to download Vista again on which your Wow patches works successfully. I have a high speed connection (Its 1.7Mpbs approx), so downloading of huge files for me shouldn’t be an issue.

Waiting to hear from you….

Regards,
Apoorva.

I had a look at the *.ats report. It looks as expected, you've got the right bios. WoW will work.

But you've got no bootmgr file located at C:\ also the entire boot folder is missing!
I don't know why it's not there.:confused:

It's also strange that you've got no error at boot......are you sure it's Vista's bootloader which allows you to select the OS to boot?.........

............We need to know what license you've installed. Turn off UAC (let it turned off all the time). Run at command prompt:
slmgr -dli.........

.................But we're getting closer...

Yen

09-09-2008, 12:12 AM

Thanks again!

This are unexpected news.:eek:

One question before I have to think about:

Have you ever tried to install WoW at XP OS? There is grldr located. Where does it come from? Is it located on your Vista DVD? Hmm it's smaller in size than my grldr...would you please upload it....

CU again...........I'll reply tomorrow......I don't know if it's normal that Vista installs the boot files to xp partition....I'll ask the forum :)

Yen

09-09-2008, 08:37 PM

It's normal:o
I never had such a configuration.
It seems it is all right, except the grldr located at XP partition. It comes from a previous attempt to install WoW at XP or from a included bootloader......
If you don't find it at your Vista DVD I assume it's all right with your version.

Try to install WoW 1.3 at XP, move the HP cert. to Vista partition, reboot to Vista and apply the slmgr commands there. Tell me if it works. The file this_is_vista.tag is a marker file... don't get confused by its name......I'll rename it at next WoW version to this_is_it.tag

Maybe some one can confirm how he installed WoW at dual boot.....installed at / to XP (active partition)?

I've updated the instructions for multiboot config.

apoorvasheth

09-09-2008, 09:21 PM

Hi Yen!

Thanks for your reply.

Q1. Have you ever tried to install WoW at XP OS?

Ans: Well, I do not recollect but I might have ran your Wow patches while logged into XP.

Q2. There is grldr located. Where does it come from?

Ans: Well, I would really not be having an idea where this file grldr comes from.

Q3. Is it located on your Vista DVD?

Ans: How to check this out? B'coz, I tried a normal search on Vista DVD but couldn't locate the file grldr. Seems like it might be inside a compressed file on Vista DVD and if that's true, than it needs to be extracted.

Q4. would you please upload it....

Ans: Well, my Mom has again hide my notebook, b'coz I stayed awake till late night. So need to wait. :)

Thanks again!

This are unexpected news.:eek:

One question before I have to think about:

Have you ever tried to install WoW at XP OS? There is grldr located. Where does it come from? Is it located on your Vista DVD? Hmm it's smaller in size than my grldr...would you please upload it....

CU again...........I'll reply tomorrow......I don't know if it's normal that Vista installs the boot files to xp partition....I'll ask the forum :)

apoorvasheth

09-09-2008, 09:29 PM

Ok Yen.

Now, also wanted to ask you if you observed the Vista License screenshot, it says:
Time remaining: 42425 minute(s) (29 day(s))

This appears to be a timer crack, isn't it?

But that's more wired b'coz I had downloaded this Vista copy from the Microsoft secure direct link as mentioned in my last post.

Secondly, I'll be out for about a week and therefore once I am back, I'll try as you said and will post back on this forum.

Apoorva.

It's normal:o
I never had such a configuration.
It seems it is all right, except the grldr located at XP partition. It comes from a previous attempt to install WoW at XP or from a included bootloader......
If you don't find it at your Vista DVD I assume it's all right with your version.

Try to install WoW 1.3 at XP, move the HP cert. to Vista partition, reboot to Vista and apply the slmgr commands there. Tell me if it works. The file this_is_vista.tag is a marker file... don't get confused by its name......I'll rename it at next WoW version to this_is_it.tag

Maybe some one can confirm how he installed WoW at dual boot.....installed at / to XP (active partition)?

I've updated the instructions for multiboot config.

Yen

09-09-2008, 09:30 PM

OK, let's wait till someone confirms it.
The problem is:

I don't have installed XP and Vista to the same HDD!
I'm using a old additional HDD to test Vista. I'm choosing what OS to boot at bios boot priority...
So at my config XP is always at C:\ (primary partition) and Vista as well.

I had to imagine how the boot files are managed at your config. I've asked at forum here.
It is confirmed that Vistas bootmgr and boot folder will (at your config.) be installed to active partition which is XP at your case.

This I didn't notice before.

Edit: About your Version: I think it's a original one. You are at initial grace period, the time should count down.....

will5

09-15-2008, 08:28 PM

Hi guys, what do you think of this ats report?

will activate any version of vista? with wich oem certificate? it has a complete slic table? the pc comes with vista starter from factory.

thanks!

petar

09-15-2008, 11:46 PM

Hi guys, what do you think of this ats report?

will activate any version of vista? with wich oem certificate? it has a complete slic table? the pc comes with vista starter from factory.

thanks!
You can activate with this cert:
http://rapidshare.com/files/124408093/HP.XRM-MS
and the right OEM key for your version of Vista.

Knighted

09-17-2008, 12:15 AM

petar

09-17-2008, 05:29 AM

Hi,

I removed all softmods (voatktools 2.5) and installed WoW V1.02 on vista ultimate x64. I get spit out to the grub> menu when trying to boot. I then burnt a copy of the iso provided so i could get back into windows to uninstall wow, however it just spits me to a Vaio recovery tools menu, which is interesting since I had format the hard drive and done a fresh install of vista (Microsoft.Windows.Vista.ULTIMATE.x64.SP1.Integrat ed.August.2008.OEM.DVD-BIE) after purchasing the laptop (sony vaio vgn-nr498d). How should I proceed?
As I'm familiar BIE edition of Vista's come with Vista Loader integrated.
Do the folowing:
1. Boot with your Vista installaiton DVD and choose repair.
2. Select your installation of Vista and open CMD from the recovery console.
3. At CMD type:
c:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
4. Restart the computer and then install WoW.

Knighted

09-17-2008, 03:22 PM

As I'm familiar BIE edition of Vista's come with Vista Loader integrated.
Do the folowing:
1. Boot with your Vista installaiton DVD and choose repair.
2. Select your installation of Vista and open CMD from the recovery console.
3. At CMD type:
c:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
4. Restart the computer and then install WoW.

Upon reinstallation of wow I still get spit out to the grub> menu. However, I could get back into windows by repairing with the vista DVD. thanks. should I be using a sony xrm and serial number rather than the hp one? is that causing the problem? which version of wow should i be using? i've been using 1.02 since i got the impression the later ones were hp or msi specific.

petar

09-17-2008, 06:02 PM

Upon reinstallation of wow I still get spit out to the grub> menu.
What mesage is displayed when you get the error ?

should I be using a sony xrm and serial number rather than the hp one? is that causing the problem?
It isnt cousing the problem, but you have to use hp cert in order to activate.

which version of wow should i be using? i've been using 1.02 since i got the impression the later ones were hp or msi specific.
Later versions support multy OS boot and they aren't brand specific (the SLIC can be edited to any one you like).

BTW. Are you using dual boot ?

Knighted

09-17-2008, 06:30 PM

What mesage is displayed when you get the error ?
While booting this first flashes up:

Try (hd0,0): NTFS5: No grldr
Try (hd0,1): NTFS5:

then
-
Booting GRLDR...
-

then
Booting GRLDR...
Turning on gate_A20...

then
Booting GRLDR...
Starting cmain() ...

and then i get to the grub> prompt.
GRUB4DOS 0.4.3 2008-05-07, Memory: 638K / 3061M, CodeEnd: 0x419B0 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completeions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completeions of a device/filename. ]

grub>
and I can enter commands here.

It isnt cousing the problem, but you have to use hp cert in order to activate.

Later versions support multy OS boot and they aren't brand specific (the SLIC can be edited to any one you like).

BTW. Are you using dual boot ?
I'm not using dual boot. only the BIE x64 ed. of vista ultimate.

typing the follow at the grub prompt also brings me to the VAIO recovery center rather than vista:

default 0
hiddenmenu
map (fd0) (fd0)
map --unhook
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /bootmgr
boot

the hiddenmenu command is unrecognised (error 27) by grub as well.

I tried changing 'chainloader /bootmgr' to 'chainloader (hd0,0)+1', but this also brings me to the VAIO recovery center menu.

also tried this series of commands:
default 0
hiddenmenu
find --set-root /wow/wow.img
map --mem /wow/wow.img (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
which also brings me to VAIO recovery center.

EDIT:
Installed version 2.0 of WoW.
works fine, activated! hurrah.

majedalanni

09-21-2008, 09:53 AM

Dear

I have Hp Compaq nx6310, I use WoW v2 and 1.03 its not work.

please check the ats file

I use vista ultimate x86

Regards

reginakampher

09-21-2008, 10:37 AM

Dear

I have Hp Compaq nx6310, I use WoW v2 and 1.03 its not work.

please check the ats file

I use vista ultimate x86

Regards
Your .ats report indicates you DO NOT have a SLIC table. The WoW only works for computers with unmapped, partially mapped, or incorrectly mapped SLIC table. See if your BIOS can be modded or try Vistaloader.

majedalanni

09-21-2008, 08:19 PM

Dear
Many thanks fo ur reply I already use vistaloader 3.0.0.1 and 2.3.1
both not work!!!

its ultimate SP1

Regards

apoorvasheth

09-21-2008, 10:01 PM

Hi Yen! I am back from my tour. I hope you and this community are doing great!

Well, I did exactly as you said but the sad news is that Vista still shows as unactivated.

Here's what I did:

a) Formatted D drive and installed a clean Vista Ultimate as said earlier.

b) Today, I booted into XP and executed your WoW_1.03_HP.exe patch. It displayed an error message which I have attached as a screenshot along with post.

c) Moved(Copied) the cert. HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS from C: drive to D drive while still in XP. Now Yen, did you mean to copy the file or Cut - Paste. I assume that you might need me to use the cut - paste option instead of copy.

d) Booted into Vista and executed slmgr commands for the installation of HP cert. and product key through command prompt and UAC had been disabled while performing all these actions.

e) Rebooted notebook and back in Vista, I still see it as unactived.

Anyway'z, you had requested me to upload grldr file and so I have done.
You can check it out along with this post.

Kindly suggest me with your next step.

Regards,
Apoorva.

"...........Try to install WoW 1.3 at XP, move the HP cert. to Vista partition, reboot to Vista and apply the slmgr commands there. Tell me if it works......"

Maybe some one can confirm how he installed WoW at dual boot.....installed at / to XP (active partition)?

I've updated the instructions for multiboot config.

reginakampher

09-21-2008, 11:27 PM

Dear
Many thanks fo ur reply I already use vistaloader 3.0.0.1 and 2.3.1
both not work!!!

its ultimate SP1

Regards
You're welcome. Try Vistaloader 2.0. Many people had success with version 2.0 where other versions of Vistaloader fail. I had access to a Compaq computer that had a Compaq BIOS that could not be modded so my only choice was a Vistaloader. I tried all versions of Vistaloader and only the version 2.0 worked. Give it a try, it may work for you.

neuralbrain

09-22-2008, 10:12 AM

Dont disable UAC
Open a vista administrative command Prompt
should look like below:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS

C:\Windows\system32>

{
at this point WAIT for a window to popup that saids:
License file C:\HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS installed successfully.

select OK then
}

C:\Windows\system32>slmgr.vbs -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-932CC

C:\Windows\system32>

{
at this point WAIT again for a window to popup that saids:
Installed product key XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-932CC successfully.

select OK then reboot
}

NOTE: use the correct OEM key and certificate file and path name.
sometimes the above stated windows popup minimized.

apoorvasheth

09-22-2008, 02:46 PM

Hello neuralbrain,

I did as you said and the end result was no success. After looking at your reply, I knew that these steps will lead me nowhere but just to keep your respect, I followed it. Vista is still left inactivated.

Now, I have attached a screenshot along with this post which I would request you to have a look at and tell me what does it suggest?
That screenshot was taken when the UAC was disabled.

That’s should be the answer in regards to your reply:

"Dont disable UAC
Open a vista administrative command Prompt....."

Secondly, all the steps that you have suggested have already been followed by me as seen in my last post. But no success. God knows where I am going wrong?

Yen, would you suggest me to use Windows 98se startup CD to change the active partition from XP to Vista?

Yen

09-22-2008, 04:15 PM

Hi apoorvasheth:D

OK, for some reason grubinst is not writing MBR, so the patch won't be executed.

Please verify your partitions:
1. 30000M
2. 30996M
3. 91625M of size

Is that correct? You've got three partitions?

The next step is to try grubinst without to check partition table as suggested. If your partitions are correct I'll send to you a new install.bat.

apoorvasheth

09-22-2008, 04:52 PM

Hello Yen,

Under XP, following information about the partition is seen:

C Drive is: 29.2 = 29200 MB
D Drive is: 30.2 = 30200 MB
E Drive is: 89.4 = 89400 MB

But under Vista, I see it as:

C Drive is: 30.2 = 30200 MB
D Drive is: 29.2 = 29200 MB
E Drive is: 89.4 = 89400 MB

So, what we derived from the above calculations is that the size of drive E remains constant under both the Scenarios but for drive C & D, it keeps on changing as per the OS I boot into. I suspect that there could be a conflict happening between the partition size & your Wow patch in understanding the MBR.

However, while running your Wow patch, I see the partition size as: 30000M, 30996M, 91625M...(as seen in the screenshot I had attached) Hehehehe.....:D I am laughing at my HP Notebook and e'm wondering where on earth could one see such antique HP Notebook wherein partitions size keeps on changing under different scenarios for the same HDD.

I did the above partition size calculation with the help of the tool available on the link below:

http://www.easycalculation.com/bandwidth-calculator.php

Let me know if you require any screenshot(s).

Regards,
Apoorva.

Hi apoorvasheth:D

OK, for some reason grubinst is not writing MBR, so the patch won't be executed.

Please verify your partitions:
1. 30000M
2. 30996M
3. 91625M of size

Is that correct? You've got three partitions?

The next step is to try grubinst without to check partition table as suggested. If your partitions are correct I'll send to you a new install.bat.

Yen

09-22-2008, 07:01 PM

First a question: You did d) so now your grldr file located at C:\ is now 184 kb of size? Please post a new screen shot of entire C:\ (XP) to have a look first.

There should be grldr with 184kb of size and a file named this_is_vista.tag (yes, don't get confused, it's all right)

Well, XP and Vista are reporting the same sizes, since C and D are flipping over.
Grub is reporting a bigger size, IMO Vista and XP are reserving more space.

You did d) so the files are there already. As next step boot now to XP, copy the new install2.bat to the same folder where install.bat is located.
Execute install2.bat. If MBR is written, reboot, if there is any other error don't reboot and tell me what error.

http://rapidshare.com/files/147476702/install2.bat.html

Please reply before you apply the install2.bat

apoorvasheth

09-22-2008, 09:19 PM

majedalanni

09-22-2008, 09:25 PM

You're welcome. Try Vistaloader 2.0. Many people had success with version 2.0 where other versions of Vistaloader fail. I had access to a Compaq computer that had a Compaq BIOS that could not be modded so my only choice was a Vistaloader. I tried all versions of Vistaloader and only the version 2.0 worked. Give it a try, it may work for you.

its not work :(

what can I do ?

Regards

Yen

09-22-2008, 09:55 PM

Hello Yen!

Kindly check the attached screenshot. And yes, now grldr is 184kb in size. I have the backup of this original file ( which is 168kb in size ) stored on E drive inside a folder.

Secondly, the link for downloading the file install2.bat is “not” opening up. I wonder why you don’t use some other options such as http://www.4shared.com/ for hosting your files since they provide people with 5 GB Free storage space and I guess one can also download with download managers. The links are also reliable and stable.

I have my HP ats report uploaded on this 4shared.com link as seen in my earlier posts. And what’s that “IMO”?

Regards,
Apoorva.

Hello again,

thanks for the screenshot, it looks as expected. And yes, rapidshare isn't that good. I'll open a 4share account.

Here is the install2.bat again (*.rar)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lo24k8

I'm hoping it will install MBR now and apply the patch.

IMO is short for 'in my opinion'.;)

See you tomorrow.

apoorvasheth

09-22-2008, 10:54 PM

Yeah!!!! Yeah!!! Hoooraayyyyyy! VISTA HAS FINALLy GOT ACTIVATED on HP 530 Notebook!!!! :p

Great Job and Many thanks to all those members who have participated in this topic on this forum.

My Special Thanks to:

1. Flagmax…. For his brilliant patch.
2. Yen for helping me all the way in activating Vista.
3. To all those people’s excellent minds in introducing the files in Wow patch which finally helps in activating Vista on HP 530.
Even after enabling UAC, Vista still shows as activated. Kindly check the attached screenshot.

And Yen, your install2.bat did work perfectly! I immediately took a screenshot of the cmd window and was quiet confident that now Vista should get activated upon reboot since the MBR had written successfully!

Now, I have few more work to do with Vista. If all works fine, than this patch can work for anyone who owns HP 530 otherwise my Yeah!!!....&….Hoorraaay!!! Will go for a big toss…hehehhehe … :) and the Sharks in Atlantic Ocean will run after me saying: “Why did you screamed Yeah….&….Hoorrraay!” :D

After looking at this Vista’s activation, one can definitely prove that human minds are very sharp, sharper than a Shark’s mind…hehehhee and could accomplish any difficult task which they come across, provided that one’s mind needs to function.

So, except for few issues that might occur while activating Vista with this Wow patch as it happened with me but thanks to Yen for helping me with install2.bat file.

Now task I need to perform in order to make sure that Vista still remains activated with the Wow patch applied.

a) Install Vista SP1.
b) Download all the updates through Windows Updates.
c) Delete HP Certificate from the root drive.
d) Delete menu.lst file.

I deliberately gave “Install Vista SP1” red color b’coz SP1 itself is another name of danger for all Patched Vista in one way or another.

In Indian language, we say it as: “Jeeti Huiee Baazi Ko Palat Sakta Hai”, meaning, it can turn a winning stroke upside down.

Yen, would like to ask you one more question, do you know who’s the Chief Guest of this topic? Guess?

Regards,
Apoorva.

Hello again,

thanks for the screenshot, it looks as expected. And yes, rapidshare isn't that good. I'll open a 4share account.

Here is the install2.bat again (*.rar)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lo24k8

I'm hoping it will install MBR now and apply the patch.

IMO is short for 'in my opinion'.;)

See you tomorrow.

reginakampher

09-23-2008, 02:42 AM

its not work :(

what can I do ?

Regards
Sorry, I am out of ideas.

Yen

09-23-2008, 09:44 AM

Hehehe!:D

As I’ve said to you, I will help you till it works.

Before I continue to write, one warning! Do not delete menu.lst. It is the configuration file for grub!!! Remember: “Jeeti Huiee Baazi Ko Palat Sakta Hai”;)

OK, I’m very glad the see that it works now!

I would like to thank you, too. Your issue and results made me to understand much more about the boot process (dual boot) and grub bootloader. It also brought me to the idea of patch 2.0 without to install MBR (which had been the next option for you).

I’ll update the instructions again and I’ll integrate the new install2.bat to the next version of WoW!

One thing I’ve learned in my life already. To achieve something you should never give up and to be convinced that you can make it! I’m no computer professional, but to research is my profession.

You are a very kind and friendly person. :)

A friend of mine has visited your fantastic country India. I’ve seen a lot of impressing pictures. Since I’m travelling one time a year to Asia, I hope I’ll find the time to visit India in the future.

Hope to see you again, take care. I think you’re the chief guest here, pleased to meet you….…………….

Yen

09-23-2008, 09:46 AM

its not work :(

what can I do ?

Regards

You can post a link to your bios, to have a look if it's definitely unmoddable.

majedalanni

09-23-2008, 10:31 AM

You can post a link to your bios, to have a look if it's definitely unmoddable.

here is the link

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp39501-40000/sp39646.exe

Regards

apoorvasheth

09-23-2008, 08:26 PM

Oh Yes! You are right! I was the chief guest on this topic. However, I am just joking. ;)

But I must say that all the help and tools I have received from this forum are Highly Appreciable & equally for your kind help Yen!!!!

And I am much amazed at the incredible minds behind this Wow patch therefore; one can definitely understand “the level of understanding the person has in regards to the booting process, where exactly the patch needs to come into force to fool Vista and the entire Vista boot process, simply great work!”

Oh Yes, India indeed has very old precious and beautiful momentous and historical places wherein historical events had occurred during 18th century & I have always seen all the foreigners admiring about it when they visit India, and Yen till date, whenever I have been to these historical place, I have never seen a single foreigner without a digital camera & they try capturing as much pictures as they possibly could, I mean they have much curiosity of knowing things and what’s the story behind. Great dedication!!!

Secondly, Goa is where one would find all the foreigners. But I must say that one would like to admire the beauty of India, then he / she should visit places like Ooty, Kodia Kanal, Shimla (all these are Hill Stations) & also see Himalaya Mountain.

Anyway’z, as advised by you, I will not touch menu.lst or any other files connected with the Wow patch. However, I’ll see what happens when the HP Certificate gets renamed or moved to another location. I feel that it shouldn’t affect the Vista’s activation since the certificate has already been installed. The file can only be used as a reference whenever one requires installing the certificate again. I’ll work on the other points and try to quickly post my results on this post for all other users’ benefits.

Once again Yen, thanks for your kind help. I hope that the next post shall be my last one on this forum in this topic but I’ll keep visiting this forum once a month to keep an eye on the latest developments happening in regards to Vista’s activation.

Now, the next time when I shall ask for help again on this forum for Vista’s activation will be when Vista SP2 gets released but I feel that your Wow patch will not be trapped by Vista SP2 as well.

Hey, how about Windows 7? What major changes is Microsoft planning to introduce with this release? I heard that now Microsoft is completely focusing on touch screen technology wherein the communication between a Microsoft’s user and the computer shall be interactive. Secondly, Microsoft is planning to release Windows 7 in 2010.

So, FlagMax & Yen, are we ready for it? Any plans of Wow patch release for next generation OS – Windows 7? :)

Regards,
Apoorva.

Hehehe!:D

As I’ve said to you, I will help you till it works.

Before I continue to write, one warning! Do not delete menu.lst. It is the configuration file for grub!!! Remember: “Jeeti Huiee Baazi Ko Palat Sakta Hai”;)

OK, I’m very glad the see that it works now!

I would like to thank you, too. Your issue and results made me to understand much more about the boot process (dual boot) and grub bootloader. It also brought me to the idea of patch 2.0 without to install MBR (which had been the next option for you).

I’ll update the instructions again and I’ll integrate the new install2.bat to the next version of WoW!

One thing I’ve learned in my life already. To achieve something you should never give up and to be convinced that you can make it! I’m no computer professional, but to research is my profession.

You are a very kind and friendly person.

A friend of mine has visited your fantastic country India. I’ve seen a lot of impressing pictures. Since I’m travelling one time a year to Asia, I hope I’ll find the time to visit India in the future.

Hope to see you again, take care. I think you’re the chief guest here, pleased to meet you….…………….

apoorvasheth

09-23-2008, 08:47 PM

ancestor(v)

09-23-2008, 08:53 PM

Hi apoorva!

Are you still unable to edit your post?

Yen

09-23-2008, 09:03 PM

Hello Yen.

While upating my own post, I get an error message (Kindly see the attached screenshot)....quiet wired...:(

Any idea why this could be happening?

I also tried logging out, clearing Cookies, History, Forms...etc. but did not help. I am using IE 8 Beta 2.

Is it b'coz I ask too many questions? :D

Let me know.... :)

Yen, one more thing, after applying Wow patch, I see some text messages at boot up, I understand that those messages cannot be avoided but couldn't we get the text colour changed to black from white?

Also, could you kindly release a Wow patch for me with that install2.bat file included and the above updation?

Regards,
Apoorva.

Hi,

I've updated to WoW1.04. I did only two minor improvements. I've included the new install2.bat as install.bat and used a new marker file to avoid confusion.
I still don't know how to colour the message black or to disable the message. The message doesn't appear at my test machine for some reason.....
I've to read more about at grub forums. Since the source code of grldr is available, someone with program skills is probably able to recompile it without showing the message. Unfortunately my skills are insuffiicient to do so.

apoorvasheth

09-23-2008, 09:05 PM

Hello Yen & Flagmax,

Can't we introduce this WoW_1.04_HP_530.exe patch in a way so that it gets installed during the installation of Vista itself?

We can get this patch integrated using a software such as vLite tool?

Kindly Think about it and let me know.

Oh yah, it was a quick test only, If I made a nasty bug in my code, you simply remove cd. Yen will put finishing touches on final release as he knows how.

This method WOW, works like this:
1. Search E0000h - FFFFFh for "RSD PTR"
2. Check revision number of RSD PTR
3. If rev = 2, its ACPI 2.0, that has XSDT table, so Store the pointer address to it for later.
4. Get RSDT pointer address
5. Store all pointers in RSDT table up to 30 max in Array.
6. Search through Array of pointers for SLIC.
7. If found, patch SLIC and calculate its 8-bit zero checksum
8. Patch RSDT table oems and calculate its 8-bit zero checksum
9. Patch XSDT table oems if it was found and calculate its 8-bit zero checksum

As you can see, you must already have SLIC entry in RSDT. WOW does not introduce new SLIC. Maybe in future? Yen knows a way but its pretty ugly right now, requires moving lots of data around, but from programming stand point I think its doable and should not add any delay to boot. I need to understand memory layout of all tables first and where to find free space for table following RSDT. And if you have XSDT then same needs to be done to it. We will be doing like you hardcode bios mod but in ram when all tables already been deployed, sounds easy in theory, but it scares me for some reason.

apoorvasheth

09-23-2008, 09:08 PM

Hello,

Its simply wired but all of a sudden, I have started facing this issue. But the issue gets resolved by selecting the check box "Remember me" during login.

However, same did not require earlier.

Regards,
Apoorva.

Hi apoorva!

Are you still unable to edit your post?

ancestor(v)

09-23-2008, 09:12 PM

Ok, think after a few minutes you just get logged off. And when not being loggend in, you are of course not able to edit any postings.

Problems that seemingly solve themselves :cool:

Yen

09-23-2008, 09:28 PM

Hello Yen & Flagmax,

Can't we introduce this WoW_1.04_HP_530.exe patch in a way so that it gets installed during the installation of Vista itself?

We can get this patch integrated using a software such as vLite tool?

Kindly Think about it and let me know.

I don't think it is a good idea, why?

-You have to provide a full Version of Vista with WoW included. This will pay too much attention to Microsoft.

-Since different users are using different configurations it will be difficult to make a universal install (as you have seen at your case).

-Most of the users out there don't know what is it for. They don't know what is a present but unusable SLIC. They just want to activate Vista and not to think about it.

-The patch is installed within a few minutes.

-I don't know what's about flagmax. I don't know if he is still active here at forums.

-We can be proud that here at mydigitallife we have got such a solution. Everyone who is interested in WoW is welome.
But a good idea is to make it totally invisible. This should be another goal of development.

apoorvasheth

09-24-2008, 07:17 AM

Hey, how about Windows 7? What major changes is Microsoft planning to introduce with this release? I heard that now Microsoft is completely focusing on touch screen technology wherein the communication between a Microsoft’s user and the computer shall be interactive. Secondly, Microsoft is planning to release Windows 7 in 2010.

So, FlagMax & Yen, are we ready for it? Any plans of Wow patch release for next generation OS – Windows 7?

Regards,
Apoorva.

apoorvasheth

09-24-2008, 07:24 AM

Hi Ancestor,

Well, its not the question of getting logged out automatically after few minutes of inactivity on the forum.

When I faced this issue, I deleted all the cookies, Temporary files, history..etc....closed the IE browser and opened it again, than logged into the forum and when I clicked on Edit, it shows me that error message.

Apoorva.

Ok, think after a few minutes you just get logged off. And when not being loggend in, you are of course not able to edit any postings.

Problems that seemingly solve themselves :cool:

ancestor(v)

09-24-2008, 08:08 AM

Strange thing...if further problems appear, let me know and I'll have a talk with the admin.

flagmax

09-25-2008, 01:27 AM

apoorvasheth: I have to idea how one would add WOW to Vista DVD. And, since only few end up using this method because most can get their bios modded or use a softmod, WOW is not a general method. As Yen pointed out this method is for half mapped SLICs and bioses we can not mod. Its a last resort method.

As for Windows 7, I can't say if WOW will work or not under it. In my opinion it will because we attack the bios which has nothing to do with the OS. We have to wait and see.

apoorvasheth

09-25-2008, 04:49 PM

Thanks for yr reply Flagmax! Now, after applying this Wow patch, I have noticed few startup text messages, right before the OS select screen but since the message disappears so fast, I couldn't notice what it says.

Therefore, could you kindly post that message here on forum in details.

The only information I could notice was GRLDR....and I have noticed similar message when a Bootloader patch is applied, so is your Wow & Bootloader patch one & same?

Secondly, as I requested Yen, could we get this startup text-message colour changed to black instead of white so that the message gets un-noticed during startup?

Also, would you be knowing from where can I download new themes, visual styles for Vista (Apologize, since this questions falls into offtopic).

Kindly let me know at your earliest...

Regards,
Apoorva.

apoorvasheth: I have to idea how one would add WOW to Vista DVD. And, since only few end up using this method because most can get their bios modded or use a softmod, WOW is not a general method. As Yen pointed out this method is for half mapped SLICs and bioses we can not mod. Its a last resort method.

As for Windows 7, I can't say if WOW will work or not under it. In my opinion it will because we attack the bios which has nothing to do with the OS. We have to wait and see.

JohnnyBlack

09-25-2008, 05:04 PM

I have problem to activate Vista sp1 to! Can somebody can help me....please what I must to do? Thanks!I have notebook 6820s with new BIOS updated!

Yen

09-25-2008, 05:19 PM

I have problem to activate Vista sp1 to! Can somebody can help me....please what I must to do? Thanks!I have notebook 6820s with new BIOS updated!

Try WoW1.04. A biosmod isn't possible. AFAIK your bios contains a SLIC already, right? Please have a look at it, I'm not quite sure about.

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?p=33629#post33629

-Install Vista, don't enter a key during setup.
If Vista was already installed, remove ALL softmods if present. If you want to use multiboot, install Vista as last OS.
Install WoW to your active partition.

-Disable UAC (google for it, if you don't know how to proceed.)

Installation of Wow:

Boot to Vista (at multiboot, boot to your active partition), get WoW.exe and execute it (double-click), press install, DON'T change path of installation! Press enter to confirm installation and to close cmd window. Patch is now installed.:)

Activate Vista:

You may copy and paste these commands to your cmd window!

-boot to Vista, copy the cert. (HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS) to Vista root at multiboot.
-Right-Click on Command Prompt (found at accessories folder) and select 'Run as Administrator'.
-Type slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS and press enter. Wait for the dialog box indicating the license file was installed successfully.
-Type slmgr.vbs -ipk 6F2D7-2PCG6-YQQTB-FWK9V-932CC and press enter.
Wait for the dialog box indicating the key was installed successfully.

(Exchange this key before with other HP royalty key if you don't have Ultimate installed.)

REBOOT, check for activation! You may enable UAC again.

Uninstall patch:

Locate uninstall.bat at C:\wow and execute it (double click!) Press enter to confirm / close CMD window.
Reboot.

Yen

09-25-2008, 05:40 PM

Thanks for yr reply Flagmax! Now, after applying this Wow patch, I have noticed few startup text messages, right before the OS select screen but since the message disappears so fast, I couldn't notice what it says.

Therefore, could you kindly post that message here on forum in details.

The only information I could notice was GRLDR....and I have noticed similar message when a Bootloader patch is applied, so is your Wow & Bootloader patch one & same?

Secondly, as I requested Yen, could we get this startup text-message colour changed to black instead of white so that the message gets un-noticed during startup?

Also, would you be knowing from where can I download new themes, visual styles for Vista (Apologize, since this questions falls into offtopic).

Kindly let me know at your earliest...

Regards,
Apoorva.

WoW and Vistaloader use both grldr to apply the patch. WoW patches a already present SLIC, Vistaloader introduces a new SLIC and doesn't work at bioses which have got a half mapped SLIC.

You can get some free dreams here:
http://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/

http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=50&sort=rating

Sorry no news about to make patch totally invisible :(

About Windows7, forget it! Wait for Singularity!!!
Lol!!
No I honestly don't know. IMO they will make OEM activation more difficult to fool as they did at Vista............XP uses a string to verify, Vista a ACPI table, Windows7 probably a special ROM chip???

See you again, my friend :)

Yen

09-25-2008, 05:56 PM

here is the link

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp39501-40000/sp39646.exe

Regards

I'm very sorry, I (we) are not able to mod this kind of bios!:(
We don't have the right tools therefore......maybe they are available in the near future.....
There is one chance: Have a look for latest bios from time to time at manufacturer website. Maybe Compaq will integrate a SLIC one day. (To check with AcpiScope).
If found, WoW is your choice.....

apoorvasheth

09-25-2008, 07:17 PM

Hello Ancestor,

As said earlier that while using the Quote option, I get an error message, this time, after logging in, when I tried accessing a screenshot attached by me, it gives me an error message. Kindly check the images attached along with this post to get a clear idea and request you to kindly have a check with the Admin and sort it out...Quiet strange, never used to happen earlier...

Apoorva.

Strange thing...if further problems appear, let me know and I'll have a talk with the admin.

JohnnyBlack

09-25-2008, 07:37 PM

HP 6820s
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?p=33629#post33629

-this slic solution not work for me i have 30 days to activate..... :( what now?...please help...

Yen

09-25-2008, 07:44 PM

So you don't have got a SLIC at original bios?
What about Vistaloader 2.0? Doesn't it work?

Since we aren't able to decompress those bioses I think you have to wait. Compaq maybe will integrate it at a future update:(

JohnnyBlack

09-25-2008, 07:50 PM

ancestor(v)

09-25-2008, 08:57 PM

Hi apoorva!

I informed the admin...I'll let you know then.

flagmax

09-26-2008, 01:23 AM

So time ago, I've looked at the messages you see from using WOW method but could not find and quick easy method to disable them all. First you see messages from GRLDR, then some from grub4dos and finally from Windows 98se. WOW itself does not post anything to the screen. It would be nice to make it invisible but I just don't have the time to really look in to it, sorry. I guess nothing is perfect.

Thanks for yr reply Flagmax! Now, after applying this Wow patch, I have noticed few startup text messages, right before the OS select screen but since the message disappears so fast, I couldn't notice what it says.

Therefore, could you kindly post that message here on forum in details.

The only information I could notice was GRLDR....and I have noticed similar message when a Bootloader patch is applied, so is your Wow & Bootloader patch one & same?

Secondly, as I requested Yen, could we get this startup text-message colour changed to black instead of white so that the message gets un-noticed during startup?

Also, would you be knowing from where can I download new themes, visual styles for Vista (Apologize, since this questions falls into offtopic).

Kindly let me know at your earliest...

Regards,
Apoorva.

flagmax

09-26-2008, 01:40 AM

Yen, hi friend. If you are interested in making custom patch for this user then I will do the coding part. We can try use some table like SSDT for SLIC? Or better yet introduce it fresh. Need memory dump to find free space.

edit: After looking at ats some more, this bios has XSDT table thats right after RSDT. This prohibits extending RSDT because RSD PTR has offset to XSDT.

Question: Will Vista activatte if only XSDT knows SLIC? If yes, then we can relocate APIC somewhere and only extend XSDT.

Originally Posted by majedalanni
here is the link

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp39501-40000/sp39646.exe

RegardsI'm very sorry, I (we) are not able to mod this kind of bios!:(
We don't have the right tools therefore......maybe they are available in the near future.....
There is one chance: Have a look for latest bios from time to time at manufacturer website. Maybe Compaq will integrate a SLIC one day. (To check with AcpiScope).
If found, WoW is your choice.....

Yen

09-26-2008, 04:40 PM

Yen, hi friend. If you are interested in making custom patch for this user then I will do the coding part. We can try use some table like SSDT for SLIC? Or better yet introduce it fresh. Need memory dump to find free space.

edit: After looking at ats some more, this bios has XSDT table thats right after RSDT. This prohibits extending RSDT because RSD PTR has offset to XSDT.

Question: Will Vista activatte if only XSDT knows SLIC? If yes, then we can relocate APIC somewhere and only extend XSDT.

Hi flagmax,
nice to hear from you again.:)

I think to introduce it fresh is the better way since I don't know if any issue will appear when SSDT will be replaced.

This is an interesting question. I've never tried a mod in which the XSDT points to SLIC only. I guess 64 bit Vista will, but at 32 bit I'm not sure.

Since I've got an Award bios with no XSDT located I can't test that.
The best way is to open a thread to ask someone with a AMI bios to try for a mod in which XSDT points to the SLIC only before you start coding.

I'll do that and if it'll work, you may start.;)
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?p=37261#post37261

apoorvasheth

09-26-2008, 09:10 PM

Hello Yen! Well, now here’s an update and additional information as well.

1. Yes. Vista still remains activated after the SP1 installation. So, Wow patch indeed works fine.

2. Something strange I noticed after SP1 installation finished successfully. Kindly have a look at the screenshot: “Activation Expiration Message.jpg”. I never came across such screen before. Anyway’z, this screen appeared for once but I suspect that it might return after few days. And even after the reboot, Vista still shows as “Activated”. So that’s good!

3. Kindly have a look at the screenshot: “Vista_SP1_Screenshot.JPG”.
I have highlighted the version information in yellow mark. I feel that the Vista SP1 (Windows6.0-KB936330-wave1-X86.exe, Size: 548MB ) that I have applied could be a beta release after looking at the version information in the screenshot.

4. Now I have 3 files on my disk downloaded long back which claims themselves to be Vista SP1 as per the “Google Search” with their KB number. Very strange…all of different size. It goes like this:

a) Windows6.0-KB936330-wave1-X86.exe – This is 548 MB.
b) Windows6.0-KB936330-X86-wave1.exe – This is 544MB.
c) Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.exe – This is 434MB.

Simply wired that how could all the above files be considered as Windows Vista Service Pack 1 All Language Standalone? I guess that probably one of them could be for Vista 64bit.

Anyway’z now I’ll be trying Windows6.0-KB936330-X86-wave1.exe (544 MB) update and than check out its version. I’ll keep this forum updated with the latest information as I come across.

Regards,
Apoorva.

Yen

09-26-2008, 09:25 PM

Yes, you've installed a beta version. This is probably the reason why you've got that “Activation Expiration Message.jpg”

The SP1 I've installed was Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.exe, 570.269.768 Bytes (543 MB), MD5 checksum: 69A642D26A481947A3F09C145DBB2BF1
But Wave1 came later, it is the right one (final) as well.

We are off topic.....;)

apoorvasheth

09-27-2008, 12:06 PM

Hello Yen and All HP 530 Users!

Well, finally Vista SP1 has been installed and it still remains perfectly activated with the WoW_1.04_HP_530.exe patch on my HP 530 Notebook. So, no issues as of now.

Check out this screenshot: "Vista Sp1 Activated.jpg".

Now, I'll proceed with the drivers installation for motherboard, audio, video, wireless card, etc...

Than, tonight, I'll go for all the Windows Updates that it has to offer and this shall be the final challenge for this Wow patch & e’m confident that Wow will still let Vista SP1 remain activated after all the updates. This should be the the final test and probably my final post on this forum for this topic unless I face an issue with Vista’s activation again or require some other information.

B’coz, that’s what all the users would need – Windows Vista – Sp1 Installation – All Windows Updates – Vista still remains activated!

Regards,
Apoorva.

apoorvasheth

09-28-2008, 11:51 AM

Hi Ancestor!

Just forgot to mention that I was using Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 while this issue occured. So, aren't sure if your website works fine under IE 8 Beta 2.

Anyway'z, since this IE 8 Beta 2 was incompatible with McAfee Viruscan, as the McAfee main windows used to display blank screen, I went ahead and uninstalled IE8 Beta2 and now everything is fine. I'll now keep a watch on login issue for this forum and see if the issue repeats.

(I am now using IE 7).

Regards,
Apoorva.

Hi apoorva!

I informed the admin...I'll let you know then.

flagmax

09-30-2008, 11:01 PM

@ majedalanni:

Hi, if you still have an interest in activating Vista on nx6310, I need more information from you. With Yen's research, we now know Vista activates just with the modified XSDT. So there is a chance this will work for you.

What I need from you: Use HWDirect and do a memory dump in this area,

Physical Address: 7F7E0000 Size: 20000, Save and upload it for me.

Next, we will make RW script to see if it activates. If it does, I will code a custom WOW patch for you.

JohnnyBlack

10-01-2008, 10:01 AM

was able somebody help us with HP6820s and BIOS Version: F.0B A (15 Aug 2008) to Activate vista Sp1 please?

lukasek2312

10-01-2008, 01:32 PM

hello again
I also updated bios in HP6820s (F.0B A) and now I can not activate: /

EDIT:
i call to service, a downgrade bios is safe, i back to F.09 and works.

flagmax

10-01-2008, 05:28 PM

was able somebody help us with HP6820s and BIOS Version: F.0B A (15 Aug 2008) to Activate vista Sp1 please?

Post an ACPISCOPE ats bios report please.

Yen

10-01-2008, 08:48 PM

Post an ACPISCOPE ats bios report please.

Hi flagmax.

I'm assuming at the new bios there isn't a SLIC anymore, so WoW doesn't work.

I thought about to make a universal patch to introduce a fresh SLIC.

First I've seen that right behind the XSDT there are mostly 8 bytes free to insert a new call (to SLIC). This should be verified. I'll check it again....

Secondly, even more important:

Some acpi tables are called from RSDT AND from XSDT!
The RSDT and the XSDT point to MCFG, for example. (Both tables have got THE SAME entry to MCFG, except the address length). Additionally our first mods were made to replace this table.

So the idea:
Since there are two calls to MCFG (from RSDT AND XSDT) what about to replace the call to MCFG at XSDT to the new written SLIC at a free place?
The MCFG will be remained since it's called from RSDT as well. The fresh introduced SLIC will be called from XSDT (only) so activation should work.

Result: MCFG will not get lost, SLIC will be there to activate....

So the new code should check for RSDP revision 2, find XSDT, after that locate call from XSDT to MCFG. Find a free place for SLIC, write SLIC, replace call to MCFG with call to SLIC at XSDT. Finally patch OEM and OEM table ID's to be the same of SLIC.

What do you think? IMO it sounds promising :)

Edit:
To make it even more universal your new code can find a 'double called' acpi table by itself (called from RSDT and XSDT, just find a equal address entry). So the only premise must be RSDP revision 2. AFAIK all newer bioses have got the revision 2, at least Notebook bioses.

botosu

10-01-2008, 10:52 PM

hello all,

I try to activate an hp oem vista ultimate sp1 instalation, on a hp550, using this metod:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=33629&postcount=199

everything goes ok, but the vista is not activated :(... I steel have the 30 days limit.

I attach my acpi file. I do not know anything about BIOS and how to mod a BIOS, I do not even know what kind of BIOS I have.

Could you be so kind to help me ?
Thank you.

flagmax

10-01-2008, 11:31 PM

Yen: That does look very promising as long as MCFG will still be called from RSDT. One thing on my mind is where to find 176h bytes of free space. I wish my PC had XSDT table to test. Can we test this idea with RW first since we got the scripter and it won't take much time to make .rw file?

botosu

10-02-2008, 09:35 AM

I wish my PC had XSDT table to test.
My HP550 has a XSDT, I will help you if you can give me detailed instruction, because I'm new with this stuff.

Yen

10-02-2008, 04:20 PM

Thanks for your offer to help. If you don't mind you can post your AcpiScope report file to have a look at it.
Thanks!

@flagmax
Sure, but unfortunately I don't have XSDT, too:(

We can ask petar for additional help, since he's got XSDT and is familiar with all the needed tools already....

To get the free space to write SLIC I suggest to scan for highest address entry of XSDT and to add let's say a fixed amount (500h) bytes secure offset. Additionally check if calculated needed space consists of FFh bytes. (If not add again 500h and recheck)-->loop. Finally write SLIC and replace its start address at XSDT (where MCFG entry was located).
Or simply add 100000h (1Mbyte) to highest address entry, no check at all.....
Practically you can write SLIC to any writeable FFh bytes physical memory you want to.
According to ACPI specification the OSPM - Operating System-directed Power Management will later at boot process notice it as used (allocated) acpi namespace......this you can't simulate perfectly using rw everything, since boot process of OS is already done and the calculated space for SLIC could be used by drivers or programs already.

The chain to find SLIC destination is: OSPM--->RSDP--->XSDT--->SLIC

The present code to patch a SLIC (wow) I would use as well. First search if SLIC is present, if yes, use the code, if no jump to new..

Flagmax, I know it's a easy speaking I'm doing here. I'm not able to program anything regarding that matter.:)

I don't know if my approach / ideas are going too far or aren't realisable....:o:)

I'll PM petar and ask for support.....petars original *.ats report is located somewhere at this thread.....

flagmax

10-02-2008, 08:19 PM

Yen: Your pseudocode is right on the money. It's how it should be done. One thing I don't understand is memory layout. My PC has 1gb of RAM. Thats 3FFFFFFFh/1073741823d bytes total. My RSDT lives at 3FFFC000. How do I know when to stop scanning for FF's? What happens when you add 1meg and it goes over 1gb, I tried HWDirect to read at 40000000h and my PC rebooted.

botosu

10-02-2008, 09:15 PM

Thanks for your offer to help. If you don't mind you can post your AcpiScope report file to have a look at it.
Thanks!
The one attached to this post http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=37643&postcount=364 it is not good?

petar

10-02-2008, 10:00 PM

Hallo Yen, I've seen your PM and I will be glad to help...:D

Here are my ats report's...:eek:
http://rapidshare.com/files/136241002/petar.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/136366773/petar.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/136504334/petar.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/136505696/asus.rar

There should be a report from the modded, unmodded bios, as well as while using the WoW patch (asus.rar).
I'm not shure at the moment which is which, I just linked them again from rapidshare, so I dont have to flash back at the unmodded bios wright away.

apoorvasheth

10-03-2008, 11:49 AM

Hello Flagmax!

What I noticed from your below post is that this Wow patch is in some way connected to the RAM installed on the system to work properly. I mean the codes in the Wow patch is using some portion of RAM to reside and work properly. Is this true?

Say for instance, if I applied Wow patch when my system was installed with 2 G.B. of RAM and later, if I upgrade the RAM to 3 G.B. on the same system, than will this affect the Wow patch in any way since the RSDT earlier used to reside at a different location on 2 G.B. RAM?

Probably, I'll be requiring some clarification with the way Wow patch actually works and where exactly does all the files residing inside Wow patch affect on the system at Hardware & Software level. I had used WoW_1.04_HP_530 to activate Vista on my HP 530.

Regards,
Apoorva.

Yen: Your pseudocode is right on the money. It's how it should be done. One thing I don't understand is memory layout. My PC has 1gb of RAM. Thats 3FFFFFFFh/1073741823d bytes total. My RSDT lives at 3FFFC000. How do I know when to stop scanning for FF's? What happens when you add 1meg and it goes over 1gb, I tried HWDirect to read at 40000000h and my PC rebooted.

JohnnyBlack

10-03-2008, 02:58 PM

Post an ACPISCOPE ats bios report please.

How I can do this?

Yen

10-05-2008, 02:35 PM

@petar

Thank you for the help, we need to discuss a few more things about to find the right place for SLIC before......

@JohnnyBlack the search function is your friend;)

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?p=36576&highlight=acpiscope+report#post36576

@flagmax.

Oh yes this is a problem. If you try to access a memory address above the installed amount of RAM it'll crash. So just to add 1Mbyte may end up fatal.
My RSDT is located at 3FFF3000h. Highest addressed is 3FFFFFFFh.

So it's critical as well.

The allocation of acpi tables is dynamically. If you upgrade RAM to e.g. 2 GB the SLIC will be found at about 7FFF3000h (highest address 7FFFFFFFh).

So we have to get / read let's say one address of a ACPI table.
At POST the bios checks for the amount of installed RAM. After post the ACPI tables are allocated to RAM (upper end).

To avoid to get out of range, you just have to read first address byte of a acpitable entry (at e.g. RSDP) If it's 3Fh you must not scan above 3FFFFFFFh. (1Gbyte installed RAM).
5Fh will be 5FFFFFFFh (1.5)
7Fh will be 7FFFFFFFh. (2.0)

Something special is the bios EEPROM. It's always found at FFFFFFFFh-size of bios. This address range is found at EVERY machine, so Zhaoliang called it super static.

Since it doesn't really matter where we will write the SLIC it should be no problem. We can also search for XSDT address, subtract 1Mbyte and scan for FFh bytes and going down the address range.

I agree, the SLIC table should be close to the other ACPI tables to avoid fragmentation.

Really important is to read at least one address entry to know to where bios has deployed the ACPI tables. Another way is to scan for lowest address entry, and write the SLIC right before. (to lowest adddress-176h)

Yen

10-05-2008, 02:39 PM

The one attached to this post http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=37643&postcount=364 it is not good?

Ups;)
Yes it's good. Please have a look to here again. We probably need your help next time.
Thanks!

@apoorvasheth
No, WoW reads RSDP, the addresses are allocated already. (Bios allocated them dynamically, so no worry about to upgrade RAM).

botosu

10-06-2008, 08:00 AM

Ups;)
Please have a look to here again. We probably need your help next time.
I give up with vista for the moment, I have xp pro sp3 on my new laptop :( , ... but I'm glad to help..

I will send you a PM with my email address, if you need me and I'm not present here.

Yen

10-06-2008, 02:58 PM

@flagmax

I had a look at a memdump made of an old PC.
Maybe if we have a look at different AcpiScope reports we can find a universal condition, like before RSDT there is always free space....will do more dumps....

Btw: Free areas consist of 00 bytes, not FFh, I missed that.

Yen

10-06-2008, 04:05 PM

@petar

Can you please dump right before your RSDT table to have a look if there are at least 176h bytes of free space (00 bytes).

Thanks.

petar

10-06-2008, 04:39 PM

@petar

Can you please dump right before your RSDT table to have a look if there are at least 176h bytes of free space (00 bytes).

Thanks.
Yes there is enought free space...:D

Yen

10-06-2008, 05:37 PM

Thanks petar.:)

Flagmax, what about to get RSDT address minus 176h, have a look for 00 bytes then write it there. If not empty, go down 176h*2 and have a look again....minus 176h*X till found....no worry about to get out of range. Range must sum to zero....

If there is anything else to do, let me know.....

flagmax

10-06-2008, 10:54 PM

I also checked space before RSDT on two PCs and there is enough space for SLIC and plenty more earlier in Ram.
I will start on the project sometime this week. First I will try to replace MCFG table entry in XSDT later will try to extend it.

Thanks guys.

sadsac

10-07-2008, 11:09 AM

Yen

10-07-2008, 10:18 PM

I just installed WoW_2.00 on an Acer Aspire One netbook (which uses the endlessly annoying Insyde bios). It appears to be working successfully.

I didn't try the 1.02,1.03,1.04 versions, only 2.00. Later I will reinstall everything from scratch in order to setup dual boot with XP. Thanks to everyone involved for the effort on this project.

Thank you for the info. We have no confirmation of wow2.00 at dual boot setup so far.

I guess you want to install XP first to C:\ after that Vista to D:\.
You've got only one physical HDD.
If this is right, your active partition will be C:\. Vistas bootmgr and boot files will be found at C:\ as well. I suggest to you to make a backup of bootmgr file before. (To make it visible you have to show hidden and system files).

The batch file I wrote (install.bat at v2.00) uses commands which Vista knows only. In order to apply it successfully you have to boot to Vista and to choose your active partition for install Wow which is now D:\. Have a look if you find bootmgr at the partition you want to install the patch.
So you cannot install WoW 2.00 at XP OS. (at 1.X versions you can!!!)

If you need any assistance please reply here.
You can check if the renaming procedure of the files are done successfully:

Original bootmgr has a size of 326 KB----> should be renamed to bootmgrv
grldr has a size of 184 KB----> should be renamed to bootmgr.
If anything went wrong you can boot using XP CD and access the partition where bootmgr is / was located. Just delete present bootmgr file and rename the backup file you've made before to bootmgr again. After that everything should be all right again.
Don't forget to move the cert., which is copied to active partition at installation of Wow to your Vista partition, or use the right path when you apply the slmgr command to activate Vista (slmgr.vbs -ilc D:\HPQOEMSLIC-MPC.XRM-MS)

sadsac

10-08-2008, 01:34 AM

I guess you want to install XP first to C:\ after that Vista to D:\.
You've got only one physical HDD.
If this is right, your active partition will be C:\. Vistas bootmgr and boot files will be found at C:\ as well. I suggest to you to make a backup of bootmgr file before. (To make it visible you have to show hidden and system files).

The batch file I wrote (install.bat at v2.00) uses commands which Vista knows only. In order to apply it successfully you have to boot to Vista and to choose your active partition for install Wow which is now D:\.

Yes, I have one physical HDD and plan to install the two operating systems as you describe.

But, I thought since Vista will pull bootmgr on C: with the XP OS, that I should install WoW to C: -- even if I install from within Vista from D:

Is this not correct? Or, if I select D:, will WoW still find both bootmgr on C: and Vista on D: ?

I plan to attempt this tonight so I will try your suggestion first and install to D: from within Vista -- with XP installed first on C:.

Yen

10-08-2008, 06:55 PM

defmania

10-11-2008, 05:31 PM

Yen

10-11-2008, 07:08 PM

Hei, i googled all over the internet and it was impossible for me to find a solution for my problem. So, I'll post here hoping that you can help me. I have a HP Compaq 6715s laptop and it's impossible for me to activate Vista. I tried absolutely everything I can think of but it's impossible. So, can anyone help me? Can anyone give me some advice or solutions to my problem? Thank you..

Can you see a SLIC at Everest / AcpiScope?
If yes, wow should work.

If not you have to wait for flagmax. He / we have got an approach for a new softpatch, flagmax is the man with program skills..........

defmania

10-11-2008, 11:45 PM

Can you see a SLIC at Everest / AcpiScope?
If yes, wow should work.

If not you have to wait for flagmax. He / we have got an approach for a new softpatch, flagmax is the man with program skills..........

Thanks Yen, I owe you one :)..It works like a charm :)..Thanks again..:)

sadsac

10-15-2008, 07:43 AM

Yes you are right. Install WoW from Vista to XP!! This statement isn't confusing.

When you boot to Vista, Vista will become C:\ and XP D:\;)

Ups, this pointed me right to an error at my install.bat at multiboot...have to think about...lol it probably doesn't work this way.

Edit: WoW 2.01 released. :)

Well, 2.00 and 2.01 both work fine. But only if I select C:\ for the WoW installation.

I installed Vista starting the setup program from within XP.

Yen

10-15-2008, 12:24 PM

Thank you very much for your detailed report.
It's working, that's fine.

Well, I've got two physical HDDs and I'm changing at bios what to boot.....
Yes, there are some different ways to install XP and Vista.
I would install XP first, after that boot Vista DVD into its setup and install Vista OS.
I don't like to Install a OS from another OS, I always use the boot setup of the CD /DVD.

Genarally you have to install WoW 2.X from Vista OS to the OS where bootmgr is located. It may be the same partition.

Thanks again.:)

cuso

10-15-2008, 05:56 PM

I have also problems with activating vista on my HP 6820s. I tried everything i know.
I attached an ACPISCOPE ats bios report. I would be glad if someone could help.

Yen

10-15-2008, 06:47 PM

I have also problems with activating vista on my HP 6820s. I tried everything i know.
I attached an ACPISCOPE ats bios report. I would be glad if someone could help.

Sorry, current WoW patch isn't working for you yet.

Flagmax is trying for a new approach. Last I've heard is that he'll try to write new patch....

Flagmax, any news about?:)

flagmax

10-18-2008, 08:10 AM

Update:
I am currently finishing up a version that will patch MCFG pointer in XSDT to SLIC that I introduce infront of RSDT and preliminary test results look good. Hopefully before the weekend ends, I can provide something you can test.

Sorry its taking longer than I thought it would.

Yen

10-18-2008, 11:31 AM

No problem, take your time. I'm curious.:D

flagmax

10-18-2008, 10:28 PM

Hi,

Here is a test version of WOW that suppose to overwrite MCFG pointer address space in XSDT with pointer to HP SLIC that is written at offset RSDT-374. It does not check if the space has 00's.

If your bios already have a SLIC entry, then it will not do anything different than the previous version, the new code is skipped.

Download the rar file. Inside you will find an ISO to make a boot cd and an exe that can make a bootable floppy or usb stick for you. Just boot your PC from cd/floppy/usb and see if SLIC shows up.

Requirements:
-Bios has XSDT table
-Bios has MCFG table
-Bios Does NOT have SLIC table
-Install HP certificate
http://www.box.net/shared/pudxzdjehq

Let me know how it goes. Provide ACPI report for verification.

Thanks all.

petar

10-19-2008, 07:09 AM

flagmax

10-19-2008, 07:33 AM

petar:
Thank you for testing. I will check your reports tomorrow. Great to know that it works.

Yen

10-19-2008, 03:27 PM

WoW!!!:D

Great work, flagmax!
I think best idea is to create a new thread to provide the new version since it introduces a new SLIC now. I'm planing to make 2 versions of it again.
One of it needs to write MBR, the second one uses the trick to rename bootmgr to bootmgrv and grldr to bootmgr to avoid writing a new MBR.

Just give me a green light when you think I should make it. (If you want me to make it)

FTO

10-19-2008, 05:21 PM

Hi Yen,

Thanks for all the support you constantly give in this thread.
I would request to help me as well as I cant activate on a vista ultimate x86 +sp1 HP Compaq nx 8220 Notebook

here is the ats file:
http://rapidshare.com/files/155548079/compaq_nx_8220.ats.html

thanks in advance

Yen

10-19-2008, 07:34 PM

flagmax

10-19-2008, 07:42 PM

Yen;
It's up to you if you would like to make a release to get more results from others.
As time permits I would like to add free space safety check and try to extend the XSDT table as we talked about it before.
I am very curious if the OS protects pre RSDT space once you make an entry to the table like SLIC.

FTO

10-19-2008, 07:51 PM

I'm very sorry. Current development of new WoW patch supports ACPI 2.0 and higher only. Your ACPI revision at bios is too old.

Only chance is to try for Vistaloader v2.0 or to have a look if the bios is modifiable. Have you tried VL 2.0?

i did.. no work... tried 2.1.3, 3.0.0.1 vista loaders, vista paradox, wow 2.00 hp, Windows.Vista.Activator.2007 and many more.. please.. help!

Yen

10-19-2008, 07:52 PM

OK, I'll release a test version, based on the renaming method at this thread later this day to gather more info.

@FTO
Unfortunately your bios VERSION: F.10 isn't modifiable :(

FTO

10-19-2008, 08:05 PM

OK, I'll release a test version, based on the renaming method at this thread later this day to gather more info.

@FTO
Unfortunately your bios VERSION: F.10 isn't modifiable :(

can i update my bios version then? is there anything i can do ?!?

Yen

10-19-2008, 08:20 PM

Your kind of bios isn't modifiable since we don't have the right tools to edit it. To update your bios doesn't change anything regarding to activate Vista.
Only chance is to find a working softmod. A good source is / was vistafans.com. Unfortunately it's a Chinese site. Gkend wrote softmods as well.
I assume Paradox is the only working one, but was disabled after SP1.

Yen

10-19-2008, 09:36 PM

Released WOW3.00_NO_MBR for testing purposes.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?p=33629#post33629

flagmax

10-20-2008, 03:23 AM

Yen:
I can tell WOW to patch MCFG at RSDT for FTO with ACPI 1.0 bios. Is that advisable? Of course this will deactivate MCFG.

Edit: I think I will focus on extending XSDT table as planned and if its ACPI 1.0 with only RSDT then extend that as in FTO case. Stay tuned...

Yen

10-20-2008, 10:24 AM

At first Award biosmods we've replaced MCFG table with SLIC.

I never heard about issues but you have to watch out for PCI express related hardware and power management since MCFG is PCI Express memory mapped configuration space base address Description Table...

As last resort yes.

But to extend the XSDT or RSDT is the most perfect solution.

flagmax

10-22-2008, 05:15 AM

Hi folks,

I compiled a different version of WOW that suppose to extend XSDT table or RSDT table if its ACPI 1.0.
Requirements:
-XSDT or RSDT table
-The table that follows RSDT/XSDT table must have a pointer inside RSDT/XSDT
petar:
Please try it out and let me know your findings as before, ty.
http://www.box.net/shared/py4av79as3

edit: This should work for member FTO. It will not work for VMWARE because the DSDT table thats right after RSDT is linked from FADT table. WOW checks RSDT or XSDT if it has a pointer to the table that it relocates before extending.

edit2: Added support for VMWARE in WoW4.0, link updated.

WARNING: If there is a bug in WOW, your Vista might not be able to load and you get BSOD.

Yen

10-22-2008, 08:24 PM

Too bad I cannot test anything. My HDD of my Vista test installation has died.......
Thanks again for your hard work.

flagmax

10-22-2008, 08:32 PM

Here is vmware 6.0 ACPI report you can look at. My own build of WOW does work with VMWARE but it has hardcoded address to patch FADT so it points to relocated DSDT.

P.S. Sorry about your HD. I know the feeling.

Yen

10-22-2008, 08:38 PM

Thanks again. No worry about the HDD, since it's a test machine, I haven't lost any personal data.....but no Vista right now....

Hope petar will test soon...

Yen

10-22-2008, 08:50 PM

One question: flagmax, do you use the space right after RSDT/XSDT to add a new entry to SLIC OR do you move the table that follows RSDT / XSDT additionally?

flagmax

10-22-2008, 09:05 PM

I search for 176h zeros infront of RSDT and plant the SLIC there, then search for enough space for "some" table after XSDT or RSDT infront of SLIC and move "some" table there. I then patch the pointer to "some" table and extend XSDT by 8 for SLIC pointer or RSDT by 4.

One question: flagmax, do you use the space right after RSDT/XSDT to add a new entry to SLIC OR do you move the table that follows RSDT / XSDT additionally?

Yen

10-22-2008, 09:22 PM

This is great!

I had a look at some dumps again. I've seen that at all dumps (real bioses) right after the RSDT table there are four bytes left before the next table follows. I'm wondering about if this is coincidental.....

Btw: Sent a PM to moderator to change thread title: No activation possible, no softmod solution, no biosmod, what now?;)

flagmax

10-22-2008, 09:35 PM

Yah I noticed 4 bytes of 00's right after RSDT and between XSDT in petar's mem dump. Not sure if this is always the case with ACPI 2.0 or not. This is not the case with VMWARE and my own PC bios both are ACPI 1.0.

As long as OS don't touch the space I allocate for "some" table and SLIC, we should be ok. After POST, there is nothing but zeros in that space. My code searches from RSDT-1MB to RSDT.

This is great!

I had a look at some dumps again. I've seen that at all dumps (real bioses) right after the RSDT table there are four bytes left before the next table follows. I'm wondering about if this is coincidental.....

Btw: Sent a PM to moderator to change thread title: No activation possible, no softmod solution, no biosmod, what now?;)

flagmax

10-22-2008, 10:58 PM

Update: Added VMWARE 6.0 support

WoW4.0 boot - CD iso, FloppyUSB creator, Floppy img for VMWARE usage
http://www.box.net/shared/py4av79as3

WoW4.0 VMWARE ats/dump after boot
http://www.box.net/shared/4pt4zbjut5

Note: To support VMWARE, now WoW scans RSDT for FADT. If found it looks at (FADT+24h) or (FADT+28h) to see if pointer there points to end of RSDT, if success, it moves table at end of RSDT and updates FADT.

edit: To my surprise VMWARE 6.5 is ACPI 2.0 that has XSDT, for some reason WOW does not work yet, stay tuned.

petar

10-23-2008, 03:57 AM

flagmax

10-23-2008, 04:47 AM

Thank you, looking into it. Prolly same issue with VMWARE.
Attached VMWARE 6.5 ats and dump.
http://www.box.net/shared/uqk644asbp

Yen

10-23-2008, 02:32 PM

As long as OS don't touch the space I allocate for "some" table and SLIC, we should be ok. After POST, there is nothing but zeros in that space. My code searches from RSDT-1MB to RSDT.

According to acpi spec. we are OK as long as all tables' chain have got their source at RSDP.

flagmax

10-24-2008, 08:39 AM

Yen:
I have looked at new VMWARE 6.5 and so far I couldn't activate it with WOW. This bios has the XSDT table first then RSDT table right after it. I tried to extend the RSDT table and SLIC shows up but vista doesn't activate. My guess is ACPI 2.0 must have SLIC in XSDT. But RSDT is in the way and cannot be moved because of RSD PTR linked to it.
Do you have any ideas?

Yen

10-24-2008, 05:57 PM

Hmmm,

so we need at ACPI rev.<2 a entry at RSDT to SLIC, at ACPI rev.>=2 a entry at XSDT to SLIC.............

the only idea I've got:

-Replace the entry at XSDT to BOOT with a entry to SLIC. Boot table is remained since RSDT has got an entry to it as well, but don't know if there will be any issues... IMO the BOOT table isn't very important, probably less important than MCFG............

-Exchange the location of RSDT and XSDT isn't possible. This will result to a 64 bit address entry to RSDT and a 32 bit entry to the XSDT. I've consulted the ACPI spec. again. The RSD PTR spec. says that the address entry to XSDT must be the second one and has to be a 64 bit address. To violate the rule causes probably to issues.....

Since we cannot change RSD PTR I fear that we have no other chance.....

The main question I would like to get an answer is: Does it affect if I have got an entry at RSDT only to a table which originally has got two entries (at RSDT and XSDT). Especially at 64 bit OS..........if not we are OK......
To implement that 'last resort routine MCFG / BOOT' doesn't harm......since you've got VM you can test for possible issues........also someone else should try WoW MCFG extensively and watch out for possible issues.......

I'm still without Vista, but I'm planning to upgrade my sys.
I'm very sorry that I cannot support you doing any tests at this moment.......

Yen

10-25-2008, 01:00 PM

Flagmax,

I've thought about the Wow project. IMO it isn't possible to patch ALL bioses to make it activate. There is Vistaloader alternatively. There are bioses at which Vistaloader fails.

Sure WoW gets better and better when it will work with more and more bioses.:)
I think we have to set priorities.

Please let me set mine (just my opinion)

-patch half mapped SLICS, status: done.
-introduce new SLIC in front of RSDT if possible, status done.
-replace MCFG / BOOT entry at XSDT, status not fully realised
-extend RSDT(ACPI1), status realised, but not implemented

less priority: (planed at updates)

-extend XSDT (ACPI2)
-VM support: No matter if realised for all VM bioses. Why? You can try to mod any VM bios as long as you want. You'll never get a bricked mobo.

What do you think, or what is your goal regarding next WoW release? What about to release MCFG version plus acpi1 support (extend RSDT) to gather info? This version will be great already.

Please note that is just my opinion. And yes, the more Wow can patch the better it will be, that's true.....my respect to your program skills.

TiME-SPLiNTER

10-25-2008, 04:50 PM

Hello,

Can anybody help me please?

I've got the same problem as this user in the following post:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=36536&postcount=311

I've installed WOW 3.0

Well I can boot with the Windows98-Boot-CD-Whatever, and also I can type:

chainloader /bootmgr
boot

As commands and it will boot. AND Windows is activated.

What's wrong?

Yen

10-25-2008, 06:43 PM

I need more information:

Multiboot OS? Where is Vista and where is xp? How many physical HDDs have you got?
Where is bootmgr located?
After installation of WoW 3.00 what exactly happened? You must install WoW 3.00 from Vista to where bootmgr is located.
Are you using a original version of Vista (no softmod)?

Also note: WoW 1.x writes MBR.
WoW 2.x and 3 not.

Alternatively install WoW 1.04. Boot to OS where bootmgr is located and try to install WoW 1.04. Bootmgr is a hidden systemfile!

TiME-SPLiNTER

10-25-2008, 07:14 PM

I've got 1 physical HD (100 GB), 1 partion (C:).

There's 1 OS installed (Vista Ultimate). bootmgr's located on C:

I extracted WOW 3.0 on C: so there is now a folder "wow" with install.bat, uninstall.bat and wow.img in it. I run install.bat.

It happened exactly the same as in this post descripted after a reboot: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=36536&postcount=311

Yen

10-25-2008, 07:33 PM

Are you using a clean installation of Vista, no BiE edition?
Have you disabled UAC before?
Could you please post a screenshot of C:\ with hidden files shown?
I have to see if the renaming commands are applied.

Thanks.

Edit: I have to go now. I'll reply later this day. :)

TiME-SPLiNTER

10-25-2008, 07:45 PM

No it is the BiE-Version (but the BiE-Patch is not applied). WOW works, it activated Vista. And the error is from the bootloader (I think), so before Windows Vista is started (I don't know). UAC is disabled.

It' ok, no stress ;).

flagmax

10-25-2008, 10:07 PM

Yen:

WOW code started to get very messy with bugs popping up everywhere. So I've decided to start from scratch. Please take a look at attached pdf and let me know if you find something missing or wrong.

Edit: I've finished coding for ACPI1.0 following the flowchart. The code is clean and organized now :) Hopefully on Sunday I will do ACPI2.0...

sadsac

10-26-2008, 03:52 AM

Also note: WoW 1.x writes MBR.
WoW 2.x and 3 not.

Please clarify, do 1.x versions leave file system alone (bootmgr, etc) and only modify the MBR (and copy the floppy image to \WoW)

Or do all versions modify bootmgr?

I'd use the 1.4 if it only modifies the MBR and not windows files (aside from the copy of the floppy image).

flagmax

10-27-2008, 02:30 AM

Ok here is the finished WOW5.0. It has all the options we have talked about. Works with ACPI 1 and 2. Take a look at the pdfs to get an idea what it does.

I have done the following tests:
ACPI1.0
+Half mapped SLIC patch - Passed
+Creates new SLIC entry after RSDT - Passed
+Relocates table after RSDT if its linked - Passed
+MCFG patch - Passed
+BOOT patch - Passed

ACPI2.0
+Half mapped SLIC patch - Passed
+Creates new SLIC entry after XSDT - Passed
+Relocates table after XSDT if its linked - Passed: confirmed by petar.
+MCFG patch - Passed
+BOOT patch - Passed

This version works with VMWARE 6.0 and 6.5.

I hope to hear from you guys.

http://www.box.net/shared/9mep6bcs58

EDIT: Just noticed that I forgot to remove debug commands in ACPI2.0 MCFG/BOOT routines, results in mcfg, boot displayed on screen during boot, sorry. Once I get some feedback, I will release a new version without debug.

petar

10-27-2008, 07:53 PM

Nice work flagmax...
Works nice when there is no SLIC present, look at the ats...

Tomorow I'll post if it works with half mapped SLIC.

Yen

10-27-2008, 07:58 PM

Flagmax, I'm WOWed..:)
I've read your pdfs, great work......

Unfortunately I have to go on-the-job training. When I'm back I'll test WoW at some machines.

Thank you again for your hard work, I really appreciate.

TiME-SPLiNTER, BiE edition can cause issues. WoW is made for untouched Versions of Vista.

Anyway, there is something wrong: WoW.IMG should be inside WoW folder.
Rename manually:
bootmgr to bootmgrv
grldr to bootmgr and retry.

sadsac. Yes, WoW 1.x versions don't rename any Vista file and writes MBR.
2.X and 3 are renaming some files.

WoW 5.x is the latest to try.......no install yet, boot floppy and cd to try. If you want, any help is appreciated.
After some results I'll make MBR and NOMBR version of WoW 5 as well.......

If you have WoW 1.x installed already you can get WOWfloppy_5.0_auto_HP.IMG, rename it to WoW.IMG and replace it at WoW folder and reboot.

flagmax

10-27-2008, 08:12 PM

petar:
Thank you, now its confirmed. The relocate function works. On your pc, the last SSDT that follows XSDT was moved to RSDT-SSDT length, then pointers in RSDT/XSDT updated, finally XSDT is extended and SLIC introduced infront of relocated SSDT.

Nice work flagmax...
Works nice when there is no SLIC present, look at the ats...

Tomorow I'll post if it works with half mapped SLIC.

Yen:
Thanks for your ideas! Without you guys there would be no WOW.

Yen

10-27-2008, 08:25 PM

You're welcome. Without your skills also:D
If you find the time next days you can remove debug info. I'll open a new sticky and pack it as MBR and NOMBR version when I'm back home again.

flagmax

10-27-2008, 08:27 PM

Sure, once petar tests the half mapped SLIC.

You're welcome. Without your skills also:D
If you find the time next days you can remove debug info. I'll open a new sticky and pack it as MBR and NOMBR version when I'm back home again.

Yen

10-27-2008, 08:38 PM

One more question:

At your workflow ACPI2.pdf, you ask for 4 zero bytes after XSDT.
Is it a typo and does it ask for 8 byte since the entry to extend has to be 8 bytes (64 bit address)?

flagmax

10-27-2008, 08:42 PM

Good Eye!!! ;)

Its a typo.

Check8bytesXSDT:
call GetXSDTinESIendEDI ;load xsdt address
mov ecx, gs:[edi] ;grab table SIG after XSDT
cmp ecx, 0 ;is it zero?
jnz foundsometableXSDT
mov ecx, gs:[edi+4] ;grab 4 more bytes
cmp ecx, 0 ;is it zero?
jnz foundsometableXSDT
IntroSlicXSDT:

One more question:

At your workflow ACPI2.pdf, you ask for 4 zero bytes after XSDT.
Is it a typo and does it ask for 8 byte since the entry to extend has to be 8 bytes (64 bit address)?

Yen

10-27-2008, 08:52 PM

Check8bytesXSDT :D

My few old commodore c-64 assembly skills are never sufficient.;)

sadsac

10-28-2008, 02:31 AM

Could one of you explain precisely how WoW works -- only as it pertains to loading? (not an explanation about slic emulation).

Is the following correct:

1. Boots to grub
2. Grub automatically chooses DOS OS
3. Run WoW (which is a DOS program?)
4. Wow somehow chains to Vista partition.

What I'm wondering is could I setup a small DOS partition as the first partition (having the contents of the WoW floppy image), run WoW executable and then chain to Vista partition? Is grub absolutely required? And if so, why?

I'm like to suppress all the grub text, and if setting up a small DOS partition would do this...

petar

10-28-2008, 04:08 AM

WOW works nice with half mapped SLIC as well...:)
Here is the ats report.

flagmax

10-28-2008, 07:06 PM

Great!!! Thanks for testing petar.

Here is WOW5.1 without any debug info. The stuff you see on the screen is part of grldr, command.com and grub.exe.

I am open to new ideas you guys might have.

http://www.box.net/shared/7b6aqf7gnh

I have done the following tests:
ACPI1.0
+Half mapped SLIC patch - Passed
+Creates new SLIC entry after RSDT - Passed
+Relocates table after RSDT if its linked - Passed
+MCFG patch - Passed
+BOOT patch - Passed

ACPI2.0
+Half mapped SLIC patch - Passed: confirmed by petar.
+Creates new SLIC entry after XSDT - Passed: confirmed by petar.
+Relocates table after XSDT if its linked - Passed: confirmed by petar.
+MCFG patch - Passed
+BOOT patch - Passed

This version works with VMWARE 6.0 and 6.5.

flagmax

10-28-2008, 08:07 PM

Close but not exactly.

First, GRUB is a Multiboot boot loader.
The correct order of operation is:
1. grub mbr - mbr code that executes grldr
2. grldr emulates then boots a "floppy" drive it links to wow.img
3. MS-DOS runs from wow.img
4. wow.exe is executed - patches ACPI tables in RAM, no emulation
5. grub.exe is executed - it releases floppy, finds vista partition and runs vista

note: Yen also has a version that does not touch mbr, instead renames some vista files to load grldr.

note: WOW.EXE is a Dos program written in 32-bit assembly, compiled with MASM. Checkout attached pdf's to get a general idea what it does.

Could one of you explain precisely how WoW works -- only as it pertains to loading? (not an explanation about slic emulation).

Is the following correct:

1. Boots to grub
2. Grub automatically chooses DOS OS
3. Run WoW (which is a DOS program?)
4. Wow somehow chains to Vista partition.

Yes you can put WOW on a small fat16/fat32 partition. You then can make this partition active so it boots and runs WOW. But you will still have to use grub.exe or other boot manager to boot Vista partition from DOS..

What I'm wondering is could I setup a small DOS partition as the first partition (having the contents of the WoW floppy image), run WoW executable and then chain to Vista partition? Is grub absolutely required? And if so, why?

The messages you see are from grldr and grub. Currently we don't know how to suppress them. If you find a way, please let us know.

I'm like to suppress all the grub text, and if setting up a small DOS partition would do this...

xxlogic

10-29-2008, 03:04 PM

I burnt WOWBootCD_5.1_auto_HP

booted from cd and it loged in vista but nothing new

i still have 28 days for activation

plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me but in english words

flagmax

10-30-2008, 08:05 PM

Use a program called ACPI scope and read info from Bios and post the report for me to look at.
I burnt WOWBootCD_5.1_auto_HP

booted from cd and it loged in vista but nothing new

i still have 28 days for activation

plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me but in english words

Yen

10-31-2008, 06:50 PM

I burnt WOWBootCD_5.1_auto_HP

booted from cd and it loged in vista but nothing new

i still have 28 days for activation

plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me but in english words

I'm back again and will release a installer. Have you applied the right certificate and key?

Yen

10-31-2008, 08:50 PM

New thread is opened.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=3366

Regarding WoW5, please reply to there.

IMO this thread we should now use for developing discussions only.

Thanks.

flagmax

10-31-2008, 10:01 PM

WB Yen. I agree, this thread got pretty long.
New thread is opened.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=3366

Regarding WoW5, please reply to there.

IMO this thread we should now use for developing discussions only.

Thanks.

frwil

11-01-2008, 12:46 PM

*Dreams* May be, just maybe, since grub has the open source code, you guys could somehow follow the vistaloader v2 road and compile your code right into grub, rather than into the standalone DOS exe-file?

*More dreams* Always wondered, how a NTFS partition boot sector, being 8 KBytes long, has so much empty space inside, not used by the code... idk if it's possible to at least partially decompile it with the aim to insert some SLIC emulation code ?

Yen

11-01-2008, 02:43 PM

Flagmax is the coder of the wow patch. He can give an answer. For me the next goal is to make it totally invisible.

urie

11-01-2008, 09:37 PM

Personally i think this thread should be locked or separate thread to developers and any one inputting into the development of WOW, things happen and peeps end up going of the real thread.

flagmax

11-03-2008, 06:28 AM

As far development goes, I think we did a great job covering many scenarios and made WOW pretty universal, not much to add right now. However, I don't see much feedback after 94 downloads, not sure what to take of it.

I don't know how to add WOW to grldr.

Yen

11-03-2008, 11:41 AM

For me there is no advantage to combine grldr code with WoW.
What advantage should it be?
No WoW file / folder?
It doesn't matter where the patch is located. At a new file (WoW) or at additional code (grldr). The code must be somewhere.

Next step regarding WoW is to research how to make it invisible at boot. Will have a look at grub forums if I find the time therefore.....

Yes, no feedback so far....IMO no feedback is usually positive.

But it would be nice to get some......

Yen

11-05-2008, 07:31 PM

Flagmax,
there are some new releases of grub, with source included.
Do you think you can figure it out how to make it invisible at boot?

http://download.gna.org/grub4dos/

frwil

11-06-2008, 12:39 AM

Yen, from what i've read on grub forums, to remove text means to play with print function in the source code... As i'm not any kind of a programmer, i just edited grldr and grub.exe in ultraedit, substituting text, that i caught on screen (long live the Pause button!), with spaces... grldr became completely clean, in grub.exe processing the only thing remaining are some "00 01 ...2?"... did the same with IO.SYS to make it also silent... no need to load command com + autoexec.bat during DOS session, just used config.sys instead, with these lines inside:

install=acpiwow.exe
install=grub.exe

(renamed wow.exe to acpiwow.exe, so that it should be alphabetically before grub).

Another approach for grub is to make text color black, i've read this was realised in loader 3.0.0.1 if it's true...

flagmax

11-06-2008, 02:27 AM

frwil
That sounds like progress, thank you for coming along for the ride. Love it when others join in on the fun.

Does the screen cursor jump around?

Here is grub.exe that I patched that seems to not print those numbers. Let me know if you get same results.

edit: Ok killed 2 different printf functions. Still see some messages but to fast to read them.

frwil

11-06-2008, 05:20 PM

flagmax

Yes, cursor is still jumping around in grldr.

Interesting how you did grub.exe, those numbers are gone indeed, cool...

Here are the text lines that i managed to catch on screen in grub.exe:
-----------------------------------------------
Turning on gate A20 ...

Starting cmain () ... (hd0,2)
Will boot ntldr from drive=0x80, partition=0x2 (hidden sectors=0xdigits)

--------------------------------------------------

Also, when i press Pause button, i sometimes catch the menu screen of grub.exe with the title:
GRUB4DOS 0.4.3 2008-05-07 Memory 638

(Even though the "hiddenmenu" is pesent in menu.lst).
This topic is really interesting, i'd be glad to help with what i can...

flagmax

11-06-2008, 08:47 PM

Here is how I disabled the numbers printing in grub.exe. From source inside dosstart.S I found a function that prints a byte in CL register. By inserting C3 - return command as the first byte of the function, disables it.

Source code

print_cl:
pushw %ds
pushw %es
pushal

xchgw %ax, %cx # move CL to AL
xorb %ah, %ah
movb $16, %cl
divb %cl # quo=AL, rem=AH
orw $0x3030, %ax

cmpb $0x39, %ah
jbe 1f
in IDA pro

print_cl
sub_14D21 proc near ; CODE XREF: sub_141AE:loc_14252p
seg001:4B41 push ds
seg001:4B42 push es
seg001:4B43 pushad ; Push all General Registers (use32)
seg001:4B45 xchg ax, cx ; Exchange Register/Memory with Register
seg001:4B46 xor ah, ah ; Logical Exclusive OR
seg001:4B48 mov cl, 10h
seg001:4B4A div cl ; Unsigned Divide
seg001:4B4C or ax, 3030h ; Logical Inclusive OR
seg001:4B4F cmp ah, 39h ; '9' ; Compare Two Operands
seg001:4B52 jbe short loc_14D37 ; Jump if Below or Equal (CF=1 | ZF=1)
In Hex editor after patch - 4d41h has C3=ret

Offset 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

00004D40 CF C3 06 66 60 91 30 E4 B1 10 F6 F1 0D 30 30 80 ÏÃ.f`‘0ä±.öñ.00€
flagmax

Yes, cursor is still jumping around in grldr.

Interesting how you did grub.exe, those numbers are gone indeed, cool...

Here are the text lines that i managed to catch on screen in grub.exe:
-----------------------------------------------
Turning on gate A20 ...

Starting cmain () ... (hd0,2)
Will boot ntldr from drive=0x80, partition=0x2 (hidden sectors=0xdigits)

--------------------------------------------------

Also, when i press Pause button, i sometimes catch the menu screen of grub.exe with the title:
GRUB4DOS 0.4.3 2008-05-07 Memory 638

(Even though the "hiddenmenu" is pesent in menu.lst).
This topic is really interesting, i'd be glad to help with what i can...

offon7544

11-06-2008, 09:18 PM

Hi,
Sorry my english...
Flagmax send me a mail, and explain me the problem you have.
So i take the grub.exe flagmax give me, and mod for remove text string...

So you can try this (test on 2008 server with WOW5.1) :

http://depositfiles.com/files/bdo8xr89d

Ok, so bios use "int 10" for interrupt call when he want to interact with video service.

"int 10" is "CD10" in hexadecimal.

For remove string, you need to cut interrupt call, how ? just remove "int 10" in the code.

Do not change all reference of "int 10" in the disassembling code, you need to find the good call.

This is an example of disassembling grub code :

:0001.1318 31DB xor bx, bx
:0001.131A B40E mov ah, 0E
:0001.131C CD10 int 10

So you need to remove the call, you can put a NOP (90 in hex) like this

:0001.1082 31DB xor bx, bx
:0001.1084 B40E mov ah, 0E
:0001.1086 90 nop
:0001.1087 90 nop

In grub.exe, i test different versions, you can change all CD10 to 9090 (the code is not compress) but NOT the two first !!!
The two first is in the header of the exe, not the grub code.

Enjoy !

EDIT :
You can make the same thing for grldr (find the good call !! don't make "brute force" like some hackers on old version), if i have time i post it.

flagmax

11-06-2008, 09:28 PM

Super job offon7544 !!! I counted 51 total Int10 you disabled :D Its truely is silent now. Can you take a look at grldr. Its not disassembling in IDA for me.

P.S. Thanks for taking on this task. I speak for all as this been requested for long time.

offon7544

11-06-2008, 09:32 PM

Yen

11-06-2008, 09:36 PM

Confirmed 53 at latest exe grub4dos-0.4.4-2008-08-08 (first 2 not counted)

You guys are great!:)

flagmax

11-06-2008, 09:38 PM

53 i think.

Oops did a re count and it is 53, unbelievable!

Yen

11-06-2008, 09:47 PM

So to patch the exe 53 CD10 to 9090 nooperation, what about IO.sys?
Remove command com + autoexec.bat and use config.sys
Wait for grldr to patch also....right?

offon7544

11-06-2008, 09:47 PM

You can try this :

grub.exe + grldr (grldr not tested)
Attention : a lot of CD10 to not changed

@flagmax : For grldr : 23 counted :)

http://depositfiles.com/files/c7o2zno34

Enjoy !

offon7544

11-06-2008, 10:09 PM

For IO.SYS, you just need a hexeditor,
Go to offset : 10AB0 and replace "Starting windows 98..." with space (20)

Offset 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

00010A80 74 20 74 65 63 68 6E 69 63 61 6C 20 73 75 70 70 t technical supp
00010A90 6F 72 74 20 74 6F 20 69 64 65 6E 74 69 66 79 20 ort to identify
00010AA0 74 68 65 20 70 72 6F 62 6C 65 6D 2E 0D 0A 24 00 the problem...$.
00010AB0 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
00010AC0 20 20 20 20 20 20 0D 0A 0D 0A 24 00 57 69 6E 64 ....$.Wind
00010AD0 6F 77 73 20 39 38 20 69 73 20 6E 6F 77 20 73 74 ows 98 is now st
00010AE0 61 72 74 69 6E 67 20 79 6F 75 72 20 4D 53 2D 44 arting your MS-D

Yen

11-06-2008, 10:22 PM

Thanks a lot, offon7544!
Nothing else, great! This we did already at previous packed versions of wow.

If grldr is confirmed I can repack the invisible wow:D

What versions have you patched, grub4dos-0.4.4-2008-08-08?

flagmax

11-06-2008, 10:23 PM

The grldr is being a hard case. I tried your version but it still showed some stuff. So I NOPed every CD 10 I could find but it still says "Try (hd0,0): NTFS5:, so what you think compressed code somewhere or its not int10?

edit: Maybe its mbr code that also need patching? I am testing mbr version in VMWARE.

edit2: YES grld.mbr is what prints that garbage.

You can try this :

grub.exe + grldr (grldr not tested)
Attention : a lot of CD10 to not changed

@flagmax : For grldr : 23 counted :)

http://depositfiles.com/files/c7o2zno34

Enjoy !

offon7544

11-06-2008, 10:26 PM

offon7544

11-06-2008, 10:28 PM

The grldr is being a hard case. I tried your version but it still showed some stuff. So I NOPed every CD 10 I could find but it still says "Try (hd0,0): NTFS5:, so what you think compressed code somewhere or its not int10?

edit: Maybe its mbr code that also need patching? I am testing mbr version in VMWARE.

Hum, don't change the others CD10, this not "int 10" call i take a look...
EDIT :
This is not in mbr, i use Microsoft code and he call grldr, so this is not in mbr.

EDIT 2 :

edit2: YES grld.mbr is what prints that garbage.

In my computer i see nothing, but for old computer with old cpu, perhaps you can see the message, so you can replace the text string in grldr file with space with an hexeditor, offset : 1EA0

flagmax

11-06-2008, 10:31 PM

Ok this is the last peace of the puzzle. It has some real int10s.

@offon7544: I think your grldr/grub are perfect for the no mbr version of WOW. The one I am testing, is installed in mbr.

Yen

11-06-2008, 10:40 PM

The grldr.mbr is a part of grubinst.exe. Both have got 6 CD10.......

offon7544

11-06-2008, 10:41 PM

Ok this is the last peace of the puzzle. It has some real int10s.

@offon7544: I think your grldr/grub are perfect for the no mbr version of WOW. The one I am testing, is installed in mbr.

Oh! yes, also present in grldr.mbr !

offon7544

11-06-2008, 10:42 PM

The grldr.mbr is a part of grubinst.exe. Both have got 6 CD10.......

Hummmm, why use grldr.mbr, you can use the microsoft code to start grldr !

EDIT :

Attention, 5 counted in grldr.mbr !!!
Don't touch the first, this is not a "int 10" call :eek:

flagmax

11-06-2008, 10:49 PM

Hummmm, why use grldr.mbr, you can use the microsoft code to start grldr !

EDIT :

Attention, 5 counted in grldr.mbr !!!
Don't touch the first, thi is not a "int 10" call :eek:

Good point. How do you call grldr?

@Yen, is there a reason why we use grld.mbr? Its even safer not to use mbr for those with other boot managers.

edit: @offon7544, I don't know if you've been following WOW so, what we need to do is run a 16bit dos exe file on every start, then boot Vista. You have any knowledge of best simple way of doing this?

Yen

11-06-2008, 10:53 PM

Good point. How do you call grldr?

@Yen, is there a reason why we use grld.mbr? Its even safer not to use mbr for those with other boot managers.

Ahh, first one isn't:o

Yes, how do you call grldr, offon7544? A alternative way is appreciated. I didn't find one so far....microsoft code?

offon7544

11-06-2008, 10:54 PM

Good point. How do you call grldr?

@Yen, is there a reason why we use grld.mbr? Its even safer not to use mbr for those with other boot managers.

The MBR use by microsoft boot more quickly (there no complex code), he call bootmgr, you have just to change the call to grldr.

Yen

11-06-2008, 10:59 PM

Where do I get it? Save from Vista MBR, how? And how to rewrite it using wow patch archive?

offon7544

11-06-2008, 11:06 PM

Where do I get it? Save from Vista MBR, how?

Oops excuse me, i don't put explanation in last post..

So, microsoft use bootsec.exe to create/repair the bootsector, if you disasemble this file you'll find two search :
-One for the bootmgr (vista)
-One for the ntldr (xp)

You just need to use an hexeditor, change the call from bootmgr (we keep ntldr for XP) to grldr, and voilà... i post an edit with picture, let me 5 minutes...

EDIT :

Like that, depend on your version of bootsec.exe :

Before :

[/URL]

(http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beforeqy3.jpg)

After :

[URL=http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=after2rg5.jpg] (http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=after1ir5.jpg)

Yen

11-06-2008, 11:17 PM

Oh yes I've found it on my Vista DVD bootsect.exe:D

Waiting for you instructions.... this is really nice....:)

Got it..and after I've hexedited it, what command to apply?

offon7544

11-06-2008, 11:24 PM

Oh yes I've found it on my Vista DVD bootsect.exe:D

Waiting for you instructions.... this is really nice....:)

Oh yes, on some computer you didn't find it, so you need to put the file in your WOW patch, the last version in perhaps "6.0.6001.18000" (with sp1)

After patch the exe with grldr call, you just need to put grldr and your WOW files, to the disk, and execute this command with admin rights to rewrite the mbr with bootsect.exe :

bootsect.exe /nt60 X:

X: is your partition, you can add "/force"

EDIT :
You can use the one that 2008 server use, this is the same call to bootmgr.

The result must be :

Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.

not pay attention to other errors.

And voilà, you just need to reboot....
it load much faster than grldr.mbr and without string...

Yen

11-06-2008, 11:31 PM

Thanks a lot offon7544, thanks flagmax and frwill and......

I've learned much this day....:)

Next days I'll repack new invisible WoW, have to go now--I'm very excited...:)

offon7544

11-06-2008, 11:35 PM

Thanks a lot offon7544, thanks flagmax and frwill and......

I've learned much this day....:)

Next days I'll repack new invisible WoW, have to go now--I'm very excited...:)

nothing is impossible ;)
and knowledge is shared
good night !

Yen

11-07-2008, 04:46 PM

Offon7544, I have one more question:

System Vista and XP dual boot: (configuration of member apoorvasheth, remember?)

XP installed first at C:\
Vista installed second at D:\

Result: bootmgr AND ntldr are both found at XP partition, bootmgr is not found at Vista partition.

What is the right command for bootsect.exe /nt60 X:

X= Vista partition, or X= XP partition (where bootmgr is located)?:confused:

I think X has to be Vista, but where does it search for bootmgr (grldr after patch)? Does it search at all partitions or XP partition only?
What about bootsect.exe /NT60 All?

Thanks again.

frwil

11-07-2008, 06:48 PM

Yen, i have the same dual boot configuration, i'm sure X is the partition where bootmgr and BOOT folder are located, in other words, it's C:, as far as in Vista they are always on C.

Yen

11-07-2008, 07:54 PM

Yen

11-08-2008, 03:06 PM

I've created the installer for WoW5.2 invisible:
I could not test if it works, especially the new NOMBR version that uses now the patched bootsect.exe., so I'm posting it here first. Once it's confirmed I'll move the links. I've remained command.com and autoexec.bat at these releases.

Uninstall previous version first and reboot.
Boot floppy only: (also boot floppy in case of system won't boot anymore after you've installed the installer versions.)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/dp5dno

NO_MBR_VERSION:
Removed due to command that could deactivate linux boot.

MBR_Version:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/v7wr2x

Someone please test and report, thanks. Have a look if it's totally invisible.

offon7544

11-08-2008, 03:24 PM

Thanks a lot for your info.
I'm just thinking about to make the installer. So I just have to instruct to install it from Vista to where bootmgr is located. At both scenarios, Vista only, Vista and XP dual......the problem to resolve is: When you boot to Vista, Vista gets C:\, when you boot to XP, XP gets C:\ same problem I've had to resolve at NOMBR version.

I have to make the installer universal. I hope the command
without a given drive letter will update the current partition (partition at command prompt) which will be the one that's chosen by the user at install.

I'll pack it at weekend.:)

Hi yen,

This is where bootmgr is found, but for info ntldr and bootmgr are always in the same partition, "the system partition"

-system partition have bootmgr and/or ntldr
-boot partition have Windows folder

This is not an error boot partition contain windows folder !
This is system partition that contain the boot flag.

EDIT :
So, on a multi-boot system, you have always 1 system partition, and 2 or more boot partition...

EDIT 2 :
You can use the command :

bootsect.exe /nt60 ALL

EDIT 3 :
If you have just one system (vista or XP) on just one partition, system partition and boot partition are on the same.

Ariff

11-08-2008, 07:15 PM

WoW 5.2 works but not totally invisible menu. Could you make it totally black for MBR version as it Vista only OS? Thanks for your effort again!

flagmax

11-08-2008, 07:17 PM

WoW 5.2 works but not totally invisible menu. Could you make it totally black for MBR version as it Vista only OS? Thanks for your effort again!

what text do you see?

Ariff

11-08-2008, 09:07 PM

what text do you see?

First splash screen showing NTFS text.
Second splash screen showed (hd 0) I guess.

offon7544

11-08-2008, 10:14 PM

Hi, YEN & FLAGMAX

1) Here is the grubinst.exe with remove string "Try...."
After test there just a "0" that appears.

http://depositfiles.com/files/6j3vgvtd3

2) To YEN : Why use grubinst, bootsect.exe do the same that grubinst (rewrite the MBR), so the version MBR & NOMBR are the same, but one use Microsoft code that is invisible and boot more fast, and the other grubinst.exe that write grub.mbr in the mbr, but not completely invisible (just a "0" with the version in point 1).

EDIT :
there should be only 4 versions, one with no install CD, one with no install floppy and one with the modified MBR with bootsect, and one with just bootmgr backup and grldr rename in bootmgr. So no problem with grldr.mbr that grubinst write. No?

Yen

11-09-2008, 02:50 PM

offon7544

11-09-2008, 03:06 PM

I've read that bootsect doesn't write a new MBR it updates bootsector only:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/bootsectexe-modifies-the-bootsector-not-the-mbr/

btw: a user reported access denied, do I have to grant ownership / full control of boosect.exe / bootmgr or is it OK to run it as admin only? I still don't have Vista installation to test:(
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showpost.php?p=40724&postcount=42

He also reported WoW5.2 MBR doesn't show any text.

But you're right. Too much different versions are confusing.

I'll release next Version 5.2.1 if it'll be necessary to grant full control.
It's probably enough to make a floppy, CD and the bootsect version only.
Once more tests are done I'll move the links to the sticky thread.

Oops, i write this :o i'm confused i am on an other project, and yes this is not bootsect but bootrec that write the MBR, here bootsect just update the bootsector of the partition, and i said "/nt60 ALL", but this can corrupt a boot system with a linux bootloader in bootsector of an other partition.
So you need to find the letter of the partition that contain the bootmgr.

EDIT :
You can search the good drive letter like that :

for %%X in (C: D: .....) do (
if exist %%X\bootmgr
bootsect.exe /nt60 %%X
)....

Rewrite MBR is not mandatory, so we must don't touch..

Yen

11-09-2008, 03:38 PM

I've decided to discontinue WoW MBR gldr.mbr!

Thanks! The user has to choose the partition where bootmgr is located, so installer will be at right partition already.
Do I need full control of bootmgr to apply bootsect.exe?

Prompt is at partition where bootmgr is located (installer):

@ echo off
cd..
takeown /f \bootmgr
icacls \bootmgr /grant administrators:F
\wow5\bootsectgrldr.exe /nt60
cd..
exit
or

@ echo off
\wow5\bootsectgrldr.exe /nt60 /force
cd..
exit
bootsect will work without given drive letter, right?

offon7544

11-09-2008, 04:17 PM

skyscraper

11-09-2008, 04:36 PM

this is my ats report please provide me the patch and full instructions on how to activate windows i have download rw loader but when i run it it says eacess violation

http://rapidshare.com/files/162145612/compaq6720s.rar

operating system

vista ultimate

compaq 6720s

offon7544

11-09-2008, 04:42 PM

OK, after test,

bootsectgrldr.exe is not enought mod :D

Here it is the good version :

http://depositfiles.com/files/ijsgpotxg

Here, i made a patch for bootsect.exe :

http://depositfiles.com/files/fvmnn0imp

First test
I test with a virtualPC (bios mod with ACER), vista ultimate, UAC=on.
Test with WOW 5.2, by right clicking / use admin rights....
Reboot, i always have ACER slic table, so bootsectgrldr.exe write OK but not enought mod to jump grldr.

Last test
I test with a virtualPC (bios mod with ACER), vista ultimate, UAC=on.
I launch the package WOW 5.2, by right clicking / use admin rights....
Before reboot, i change with my last bootsectgrldr.exe, and execute bootsectgrldr.exe /nt60 X:
not "ALL" like i said previously (multiboot with linux....)
Reboot and
ALL IS OK !! :D i see HPQOEM SLIC.....

PS : Like i said nothing to do with bootmgr file.
I test also with CD version, ALL IS OK !!

EDIT :

Here is : bootsect.exe found on "vista SP1", this is version 6.0.6001.18000
So the last....i think, and the patch to make bootsectgrldr.exe :D

http://depositfiles.com/files/2fmj58k57

.

Yen

11-09-2008, 09:01 PM

Thanks a lot!

I'll try it!

Patch was not that easy ;)

D5A1: 42 47
D5A2: 4F 52
D5A3: 4F 4C
D5A4: 54 44
D5A5: 4D 52
D5A6: 47 20
D5A7: 52 20
D5AE: 42 47
D5AF: 4F 52
D5B0: 4F 4C
D5B1: 54 44
D5B2: 4D 52
D5B3: 47 20
D5B4: 52 20
D769: 42 47
D76A: 4F 52
D76B: 4F 4C
D76C: 54 44
D76D: 4D 52
D76E: 47 20
D76F: 52 20
D7AE: 42 47
D7AF: 4F 52
D7B0: 4F 4C
D7B1: 54 44
D7B2: 4D 52
D7B3: 47 20
D7B4: 52 20
DE5C: 4E 47
DE5E: 54 52
DFB2: 00 5A
DFB6: 02 5C
DFC8: 5A 00
DFCC: 5C 02

BTW: I have to use this install.bat:

cd..
for %%X in (C: D: E: ) do (
if exist %%X\bootmgr \wow5\bootsectgrldr.exe /nt60 %%X
)
cd..
exit

for %%X in (C: D: E: ) do (
if exist %%X\bootmgr
\wow5\bootsectgrldr.exe /nt60 %%X
)
doesn't work.

New WoW 5.2.1 NOMBR bootsect method.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fole58

Offon7544, the 0 at the upper left corner is still there. It must come from grldr! Floppy 5.2 is totally invisible. Any chance to kill it, one more CD10 left?

Edit: I've changed the first CD10 to 9090 of your modified grldr, the 0 is gone but bios message comes up and shows verifying DMI pool data.... patch is still working....

offon7544

11-10-2008, 02:23 PM

Thanks a lot!

Offon7544, the 0 at the upper left corner is still there. It must come from grldr! Floppy 5.2 is totally invisible. Any chance to kill it, one more CD10 left?

Edit: I've changed the first CD10 to 9090 of your modified grldr, the 0 is gone but bios message comes up and shows verifying DMI pool data.... patch is still working....

Don't do this, this is not a "interrupt call".

Here it is (patch include):

http://depositfiles.com/files/p3malhj9t

No more "0" :D

Patch offset 6C60 :

:00006C5D 58 pop eax
:00006C5E B409 mov ah, 09
:00006C60 B90100CD10 mov ecx, 10CD0001
:00006C65 FEC2 inc dl
:00006C67 B402 mov ah, 02

to :

:00006C5D 58 pop eax
:00006C5E B409 mov ah, 09
:00006C60 B900000000 mov ecx, 00000000
:00006C65 FEC2 inc dl
:00006C67 B402 mov ah, 02