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US government users restricted rights - use... Bios flash?

X20/X21, X30/X31, X40/X41 Series
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aroundincircles
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Location: Mesa, Arizona

US government users restricted rights - use... Bios flash?

#1 Post by aroundincircles » Sun Dec 18, 2022 4:47 pm

So I opened my NIB x31, went to install windows xp, and kept running into issue after issue, finally got it installed and I literally cannot do anything, can't install drivers, access control panel, look at the system information, nothing. On my video somebody pointed out this screen:

https://i.redd.it/wp5xwhzr6r6a1.jpg

So this looks like it was a US gov. laptop, and has some pretty hefty security on it. anybody familiar with it, and how to remove it? Would it be as simple as flashing new bios?
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Re: US government users restricted rights - use... Bios flash?

#2 Post by TPFanatic » Mon Dec 19, 2022 11:31 pm

I think that's just IBM's copyright statement. They use it verbatim for other things of theirs. Can you describe more about XP malfunctioning? What storage device are you using? I have a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter that I can read data on but laptops refuse to boot OS through. What happens if you boot a Linux live USB?

aroundincircles
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:16 am
Location: Mesa, Arizona

Re: US government users restricted rights - use... Bios flash?

#3 Post by aroundincircles » Tue Dec 20, 2022 3:23 pm

I tried the original HDD, as well as a ide to sata SSD adapter, and got the same results, I'll have to make a video probably to show it, but basically I don't have permissions to do anything. Click on a driver install, no permissions, try to open control panel, no permissions, and I know it's not the install of the OS itself, because I have used this exact CD elsewhere to install XP on half a dozen laptops, and I tried a linux live USB and I cannot get it to boot to anything other than a windows boot disk. (even tried linux distros on dvd/cd)

aroundincircles
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:16 am
Location: Mesa, Arizona

Re: US government users restricted rights - use... Bios flash?

#4 Post by aroundincircles » Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:45 pm

So just to update this, I threw windows 10 on a disk (32 bit) and it didn't load, just gave me a crazy broken pixel screen. So I tried a 32bit version of 7, and... it installed and didn't give me any of the issues I had with XP. but I have no drivers for windows 7, so no wifi/sound/poor mouse performance. so going to try a different copy of XP (other than the two I already tried).

aroundincircles
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:16 am
Location: Mesa, Arizona

Re: US government users restricted rights - use... Bios flash?

#5 Post by aroundincircles » Tue Dec 20, 2022 11:50 pm

I tried my original install of XP on the SSD, and well F me. It worked, no issues at all. No idea what was going on. I've installed XP like two dozen times over the last couple of days screwing around with it, and in the end? it's working. Got drivers from this site, and doing updates via legacy update, and I'm up and running.

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