Grains BIOS Repair
OEM Makers
The self propagating outdated business model that some large OEM makers deploy can not be described as ECO friendly or Green. It would be helpful to their customers if their sales literature made it clear that their machines are not as easy or economical to repair as other generic machines.
The CMOS/BIOS on all PC equipment should be recoverable. The means to do so, should be made available by the OEM manufacturer themselves with minimal cost to their customers. To do otherwise shows a distinct lack of customer support in my opinion.
In some cases the needed files are available from the various makers support web sites. Continuity of support varies from maker to maker depending on their company policies. In Comparison retail mainstream motherboards have far superior support structures in place.
We can replace most PC BIOS here for £12.49 plus postage. A difficult OEM maker will charge you that for the initial support phone call. Only to be told to return your machine to them for repair and all along holding back on the sort of support they should be providing to their customers and the repair sector.
OEM Makers support
It is not uncommon for OEM Laptop and PC owners to be charged hundreds of pounds for what should be a simple repair. Some makers offer excellent support, others offer dismal support for their products.
Most home customers are simply unwilling or unable to pay the repair bills that some OEM makers seem to hand out, and their machines get added to the ever growing WEEE mountain of scrap PCs at an alarming rate.
The support retail makers provide for their retail products is far superior to any OEM support available. Build your own PC , and learn to maintain it, doing so will save you money in the long term.
Most OEM makers support structures are a business in themselves which generate lots of cash from unwary customers needing their help and support using the £1.25 a minute support lines before any repair or spare part is even paid for.
A lot of OEM makers do in fact provide useable BIOS files for most if not all of their machines, however support may only be limited to the warranty period or a little longer in some cases. Some makers who shall remain nameless are now charging for their bios updates.
Before Updating an OEM BIOS
The BIOS is best left alone on these machines, if you don't need to update then don't. If you have to update the flash BIOS on an OEM Computer or Laptop, ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR ORIGINAL BIOS CODE FIRST before you flash the new update code to the chip.
Most flash utilities give you the option to backup the BIOS and you should do so. A very useful 3rd party tool for this is Uniflash, it enables you to backup just the boot sector alone or the complete BIOS. Only works with certain chipset's though. It can also back up your DMI information.
OEM Power Adaptors, Supplies and Batteries
I've noticed that a few makers are now insisting that you use an original battery and power supply for their Machines. In some cases the makers go to extreme lengths to make sure this is so.
Volts are Volts and Amps are Amps, or so one would think. However In my opinion makers like Dell, IBM, Lenovo, also HP in some case's are now implementing feedback mechanisms in the battery and power supplies that should be outlawed.
In my Opinion, the purpose of this implementation is to ensure that you the customer can only use genuine hardware products from the makers themselves at normally twice or three times the cost of most generic parts.
The implementation as seen in PSU or power adaptors involves a third wire in the adaptor Lead. The only purpose this third wire in my opinion is to serve as a reference or feedback source for the Laptop power management system.
If it is absent or has any anomalies then your machine may not run or the Battery may not charge. This also increases the likely hood of faults due to lead breakage by approximately 33.3% making these units Less Reliable.
In my opinion this practice of self propagation at the customers expense is quite disgusting and should be outlawed.
Something is not quite right with sales tactics of this nature, and customers should be made aware of it before any purchase is made
Printers and the battle for the most return on ink
Printers are another source of disgruntlement for me. Why build a printer if it cant be refilled and maintained for a reasonable cost. Most normal users throw them away when the ink runs out and they go buy another printer adding to the WEEE mountain whilst they do so.
Talk about waste management and the ever growing WEE Mountain. Modern printer design should be scrapped and we should redesign the whole thing, only producing the most user friendly devices possible. If i wanted to relieve myself of extortionate amounts of cash for printer ink then I would certainly buy a modern printer.
Again users should be made aware of the running costs of these devices before they purchase the printer. it would seem that by design the ink cartridges I buy are now worth more than any printer.
Some modern Printers are also designed to fail on a service code after so many operations, which results in the printer having to be reset by the makers.
Both of the above practices should be outlawed as they are not very user friendly implementations.
OEM Motherboards
Large OEMs often buy their motherboards from one of the well known motherboard makers. Usually there are no generic equivalents available, and the motherboard makers do not provide support for these boards. In most cases you have to go to the OEM maker for BIOS support or any other kind of support.
If the OEM maker of your PC or Laptop does not provide complete ROM files suitable for BIOS restoration, then there is nothing I can do to help unless you have your BIOS backed up. If you have an OEM machine that does use a stock motherboard then you are very lucky.
Problems occur if the makers have gone bankrupt also. Their web sites are no longer in place on the internet, and in some cases the updates are no longer available.
Missing OEM ROM FIles
Some makers BIOS Files are simply unavailable in a format that can be used to program or restore a damaged or corrupt BIOS.
If a usable BIOS code is available for your OEM machine then we can certainly help. However we cannot help everyone. If a complete ROM or BIN file is not available for your Computer or Laptop, or you haven't backed up your original BIOS code then all we can do is supply a blank chip and socket if need be.
Before Buying an OEM Computer or laptop
Before you buy an OEM PC or Laptop check the availability of ROM files suitable for BIOS restoration, you may well need them one day. Visit their support web sites and if you have any difficulty finding the files you need just reconsider your impulse before buying.
OEM Post BIOS Recovery Issues
If you can manage to get a useable BIOS ROM file for your OEM machine and successfully restore your BIOS, you may still have issues with your system restore disks.
OEM manufacturers use this memory area for Machine ID for OS validation. You may have to restore your BIOS DMI information from your restore disks before you will be able to restore your machine using the restore disks.
In some cases all that is needed is to enter the machines serial number during a system restore, you may be asked for this information so have it to hand.
Occasionally makers may use a different motherboard in a machine without making any note of this on their support pages.