Hp tattoo utility

[lucy44]

I have tattooed many Hp's and never ran across those problems, give me a model ## and Ill try and get you a good tattoo

compaq presario sr1923wm. the recovery cds run all through and windows starts to load and then it gives this message "s/w build different from recovery media"
so i am assuming that i need the tatto utility ?
thanks,
Lucy

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers Lucy

If you are running a repair, it might just be that you have updated to SP3 (as you should) but the recovery media is back at SP1a...unless you are running Vista? Was this machine supplied with XP and then you used the coupon for Vista?

Have you changed the hardware on this machine at all?

[lucy44]

hey noo,
thanks for reply. my situation is this, updated the bios w/o backup, i know my mistake... but now it will not run the recovery. so i'm thinking i will have to get the tattoo utility which is very difficult to locate.
thanks again,
lucy

[NooNoo]

If you updated the bios with the bios supplied by the manufacturer, that wouldn't be the problem... and windows would not be affected. What have you actually done? Did you wipe the drive completely? Did you use a bios from a different manufacturer?

[lucy44]

thanks again noo,
i have done everything but a low level format ie deleted all partitions formatted hard drive a couple times and ran through the recovery about 4 times with the same result. hp tech told me i would have to take to a repair center and they would have to reflash it but he said they had no roll back that i can flash it with. no hardware changes have been made.. just the bios update and yes it did come from the compaq/hp website.

it showed no signs of hp on it before the flash but now it has hp invent logo.
if there is any other way to get this thing to run that anyone knows of please let me know.

i had to order the recovery cds from hp and they have assured me they are the correct cds.

the message i get from the recovery is s/w build different from recovery media.
i am so glad to find this website with all the techie peeps

thanks,
lucy

[NooNoo]

I think this is about service packs.

HP usually supply a windows only disk - is that what you are calling "the recovery media"? If so, do you have service pack 3 loaded on the machine... and the media might SP1 or SP2....

All you have to do is slipstream the appropriate service packs...

Exactly what model HP is this?


Edit... you said you have started over from scratch... deleted the partitions? One of those partitions may have needed to interact with the recovery disk.

Need the exact model number to help further.

[lucy44]

hello noo,
my first post was this

compaq presario sr1923wm. the recovery cds run all through and windows starts to load and then it gives this message "s/w build different from recovery media"
so i am assuming that i need the tatto utility ?
thanks,

the recovery cds create the recovery partition on the hard drive. i can verify this by booting into safe mode "only way it will boot after recovery is completed"
if its not the bios problem then i just dont know.. because its all formatted and clean install.
thx,
lucy

[NooNoo]

You know it does help if I read your posts...

OK so you have a compaq presario sr1923wm

Which OS did it come with? I looked through all the downloads for it and did not see a Bios update as such... just something called HP update which fixed minor problems

page 17 here tells you how to use the full system recovery and notes that if you have a Personal Media Drive - you must remove it for the recovery to work.

Please link me to the bios update you downloaded.

[lucy44]

hey noo,

sorry about not using quotes. that would help i think..anyway heres a link to the website where i got the bios ver. 3.11. hope this link works. the os is windows media center.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...208974&lang=en

if anyone has backup of original bios that might help....????

seems to me u have all the work on this forum today. guess everyone is celebrating...and i'm beginning to think we should join them

[NooNoo]

OK there is no way that upset the recovery. Didn't HP reassure you that a bios update won't do that? If the tattoo really has gone as a result of this bios flash then HP are responsible since you downloaded their recommended update and should fix it for free!

The tattoo only comes into play when you change the motherboard.

Assurance that these are the correct recovery disks may be not enough

What is the EXACT error message you get?

And yah, the americans are congratulating their ancestors and many tomorrow will be praying to the porcelain god

[NooNoo]

not good news

Apparently the buildID screws up every now and again. So unless you are into rebuilding the recovery set like this guy did you are stuck with either yelling at HP or forking out for a designated HP tech to spend 30 seconds doing the tattoo to match the media.

[lucy44]

i'm looking into it. thanks so much....
lucy

[NooNoo]

I have legendry search skillz... however, I did have 4 windows open cross referencing various tidbits of info - it wasn't a standard search