VMWare 6.5 - XP Pro

[spike4real]

Hi All,

I'm having troubles getting XP Pro OEM to activate in VMWare using Dell files.

I installed XP Pro in VMWare 6.5 using an Original MS OEM SP3 disc using
XJM6Q-BQ8HW-T6DFB-Y934T-YD4YT (Dell)

Altered config file & copied bios file (tested this with 2008 Server, works fine)
bios440.filename = "6006_DELL-PE_SC3.ROM"

Copied files from 87870F5A to
OEMBIOS.BIN
OEMBIOS.DAT
OEMBIOS.SIG
to C:\Windows\system32\

OEMBIOS.CAT
to C:\Windows\system32\Catroot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}

I even tried editing the PID in the registry
HKEY_Local_Machine\System\Setup\Pid
to 55274OEM (from 76487OEM) as i've seen Dell CDs use that particular PID.

Still asks for to activate!? Any ideas what i've done wrong?

Cheers
Spike

[zort]

The oembios files you're using only have one small range available for an SLP name and that space is being used by other code so it can't be added there. You'll have to use different oembios files, and perhaps a different bios as well. (You can try the one I just posted.)

DELL (OEMBIOS CRC=87870F5A)
'f000','e827','0021','Dell Quanta'

Offset 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
000FE820 42 EC C3 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E9 AC BìÃ...........é¬
000FE830 9B FA 89 17 89 4F 02 C6 47 04 00 81 4E 18 00 02 ›ú‰.‰O.ÆG..�N...
000FE840 CB 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 53 BB 08 00 E8 AB Ë.........S»..è«

[spike4real]

Thanks for your suggestions,
I've just tried your rom file with these oemfiles D7A77612 but still no joy.

Any ideas?

[zort]

You're using this fileset:
IBM (OEMBIOS CRC=D7A77612)
'E000','0','FFFF','IBM CORPORATION'
'F000','0','FFFF','IBM CORPORATION'

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

000E4110 00 49 42 4D 20 43 4F 52 50 4F 52 41 54 49 4F 4E .IBM CORPORATION
000E4120 00 48 65 77 6C 65 74 74 00 00 03 15 03 00 01 01 .Hewlett........
000E4130 02 03 04 03 03 03 03 34 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 4C .......4.......L
000E4140 45 4E 4F 56 4F 00 4E 45 43 2D 50 43 00 54 4F 53 ENOVO.NEC-PC.TOS
000E4150 48 49 42 41 00 48 50 20 50 41 56 49 4C 49 4F 4E HIBA.HP PAVILION

"IBM CORPORATION" is in RAM at a place that should work.

Try deleting oembios.* in C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache to make sure Windows system file protection isn't restoring old ones, and then overwrite the files in system32 and catroot again.

[spike4real]

I've got it working by making a custom OEM disc so i know the files are the correct versions. Can you confirm you've had it working by copying the files over after the install rather than modding the disc?

[zort]

I've got it working by making a custom OEM disc so i know the files are the correct versions. Can you confirm you've had it working by copying the files over after the install rather than modding the disc?

Yep. I replaced the oembios files with the IBM ones and rebooted and was still activated.