HP Motherboard Tattoo

[eggy53]

Hey guys, I'm working on a HP Pavilion Slimline s7700n which had a bad memory module, so I brought a new one and computer worked correctly. But part of the service the customer asked for was to do a Factory Default Recovery to the computer because he is giving the computer to a cousin or something.

Well in the middle of the recovery, the recovery stop and a error message appear stating that a configuration error has occured and telling me to contact HP with "Code Purple". Went to HP Online Support chat, and the representative told me, that replacing the memory caused the motherboard to un tattoo itself so now it wont accept the recovery.

Have you guys seen this before if so what you did to solve it and if not what do you think?

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

yes call the HP rep back and have him point you to the Tattoo site that HP has. You might need to register with them and might not be able to do it but its worth a shot.
they have software that will let you re-tattoo the machine =)

 

[eggy53]

Yeah, i had the link but is password protected. techport.info

 

[Jory]

Install using a standard OEM disk and then activate by phone. It sucks to have to do that, but it'll probably end up being the fastest option. When you're done make a backup of the activation files, clone the new install, and then erase the recovery partition so nobody else tries to use it.

You could always try removing the new RAM and trying again, and if it successfully completes add the RAM back in. It seems unlikely that they would literally remove the "tattoo" from the mobo.

 

[eggy53]

Install using a standard OEM disk and then activate by phone. It sucks to have to do that, but it'll probably end up being the fastest option. When you're done make a backup of the activation files, clone the new install, and then erase the recovery partition so nobody else tries to use it.

You could always try removing the new RAM and trying again, and if it successfully completes add the RAM back in. It seems unlikely that they would literally remove the "tattoo" from the mobo.

I tried removing the ram, i knew that it wasnt because ram, but had to try anyway.