Tuesday, May 4, 2010

DMI (Desktop Management Interface)

The DMI utility allows you to manage serial numbers etc for inventory purposes - stored in BIOS it is not a way to control the processor features such as vt-x, SATA settings (Native - Non-Native enable disable) and overclocking parameters.

When you purchase a PC, particularly HP notebooks, the manufacturer can "finger-print" the hardware in System BIOS so that if you change something the BIOS can detect this and prompt you to contact customer service.

The DMI table stores custom information relating to the computer. The name of the particular table will be vendor specific. Some BIOS vendors will provide toolkits to allow you to enter inventory data into your DMI table. Phoenix and AMI have toolkits but they only provide details on their pre-boots to manufacturers.

This post needs graphics to be uploaded from my website

Code Purple

If has been reported that HP has a "Code Purple" that is thrown when you make an attempt to install Windows XP on a computer that was shipped with Vista or Windows 7. This may be due to the fact that the system BIOS has been altered to enable/disable a particular feature (such as SATA support) or that you have changed the hardware, possibly and including  changing the motherboard.


It is also possible to view the contents of the DMI table if you have a computer that is dual booted with Linux:

No comments: