What? Either I do not understand what is stated here, or ????

What is "Compaq locked"? Please explain this unique phrase.

"You can't even get Compaq drivers to work if the component isn't in a Compaq."


I disagree. Strongly. From at least the early Pentium II days, Compaq has used
commodity chipsets and commodity add-on parts (graphics cards, sound cards,
modems, etc.) in its systems. The Compaq drivers are little more than
repackaged commodity drivers. The Compaq BIOS may prevent some commodity
software from working at all, e.g. Intel's sensor monitoring software for P4s,
which requires a stock Intel BIOS. The industry has finally matured enough for
name-brand vendors to have a bit of economics common sense. In earlier days,
Compaq and others twisted arms of chip manufacturers to build proprietary chips
for them. First, cost of software support became a factor. Next, pricing to
build the chips themselves was the clincher.

You are correct about Nero, Record Now and other commercial CD burner products.
Bundled versions are often tied to either the system motherboard BIOS or to the
brand of CD-RW drive.

No further comment... Ben Myers

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 07:34:25 GMT, lid (dannysdailys) wrote:
SNIP

I believe I answered this question befo

No, it won't work, period. I would dare say, your Compaq system is
Compaq locked and no amount of coaxing will undo it. You can't even
get Compaq drivers to work if the component isn't in a Compaq. It
doesn't matter if the component came from a Compaq, it only matters
if the component is in a Compaq.

This is very similar with programs like Nero. Nero comes bundled with
half the CD burners in the world, but each copy will only work with
the burner it came with. They're bios locked.

The posters are right about the OS bios issues as well. Generally, an
OS will not run on a computer that isn't just like the computer it was
installed in. Sometimes they will be able to search and find drivers,
but not normally. Windows ME is the only OS I've had that could pull
it off.

This is the same problem with Ghosting a full system and OS as backup
on CD. By the time you may need the backup, the original machine is
usually long gone, giving you a useless piece of plastic.

I agree with you, if you're tossing the Compaq, you should still own
Windows shouldn't you? Not a chance.

But, somehow I feel that's not what you're trying to do is it? You're
most probably trying to get a free OS for the clone and transferring
the drive was the first step in seeing if that would work.

Microsoft is smarter then that and you'll have to pony up the 89
bucks.

If you are trashing the Compaq, raise cain with them and see where
that gets you. You'll probably hear the double-speak that says, no,
you don't own the software, only the machine. The software was only
for that machine; so in effect, you rented it.