Grains OEM Motherboards
OEM Makers
The self propagating outdated business model that some large OEMS deploy can not be described as ECO friendly or Green.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.
In my opinion some of the large OEM PC makers such as Packard Bell, Sony, Fujitsu, Dell and Toshiba do not want to give you the support that you are entitled to as one of their customers, because they wish to make a very large profit from the repair themselves.
Major retailers should make their customers aware of these facts, as and when the machines are sold. "Though shalt return the pc to us for your gross repair bill" if these guys don't know what a ROM or Binary file is they shouldn't be building or selling PCs.
The CMOS/BIOS on all PC equipment should be recoverable. The means to so, should be made available by the OEM manufacturer themselves with minimal cost to their customers, in some cases they are available from the support web sites. Retail motherboards have far superior support structures in place.
We can replace most PC BIOS here for £11.49 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 and repair bills
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.
I am of the opinion that, the solutions offered by most OEM PC makers are inadequate and extortionate, the gross charges made by some OEM PC and Laptop makers for BIOS repair is scandalous.
Many of my customers here inform me of the quotes and difficulties they eperience from their OEM PC maker. Considering some makers will not release the needed ROM or Binary files for certain PCs and laptops. And neither are they available on their web sites for download in a suitable format. Then this issue really does make a mockery of any Green image they care to portray, and also any support structure laid in place by the afflicted OEM makers.
In a lot of cases its actually the makers BIOS update utilities that cause the problem aided by the users lack of knowledge or in other cases the user simply hasn't read the instructions or user guides, resulting in a failed flash update.
Most home customers are simply unwilling or unable to pay the extortionate 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.
In my opinion OEM service and support is somewhat less helpful by design than the support from other leading retail makers such as Asus, Abit, Acer, Gigabyte, MSI, Tyan etc.
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.
Most customers that buy these OEM machines are merely victims of the large OEMs massive advertising campaigns and are not aware of the pitfalls of owning one of these machines.
Stack them high sell them cheap offer 2nd rate web and telephone support and when the customer most needs their help most, kick them in the teeth with a huge repair bill.
They offer their solution with a gross repair bill and 2 x shipping costs + telephone support costs. Usually the whole motherboard is replaced or the entire machine is replaced.
Is this a sustainable buisness model when the emphasis in the EEC nowadays is to recycle IT equipment where possible.? This increasingly prevalent attitude from leading OEM makers seems ruthless and very careless, and is becoming very common place.
Most OEM makers do in fact provide useable BIOS files for most if not all of their machines.
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.
Save your BIOS DMI information to file also. If anything goes wrong during the update procedure, you may well need these files to restore your Laptop or Computer if the Flash update fails..
Most flash utilities give you the option to backup the BIOS and you should do so. A very useful 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 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 Fujitsu, Intel, Packard Bell, Sony and other makers CMOS codes are simply unavailable in a format that can be used to program or restore a damaged or corrupt BIOS or CMOS. I have actually phoned some of their support lines and wasted X amount of pounds there trying to resolve these issues already on behalf of potential customers, all to no avail.
In some cases Packard Bell , Sony, Intel, IBM and Fujitsu are simply unable or unwilling to supply the Vital ROM files needed for BIOS restoration. These issues concern mainly servers and media centres.
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 before buying.
If there isn't a complete ROM or Binary file available for a particular machine that interests you then DO NOT BUY IT.
Unzip the package, or make the bootable disk to check the contents, as this is very often where difficulty lies, by design I suspect.
OEM 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. 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.
Occasionally makers may use a different motherboard in a machine without making any note of this on their support pages.