What's Proprietary about HP's?

[BigBlue66]

Hey Gang,

Greetings and salutations!

I have seen on numerous posts that Hewlett Packards are pegged as proprietary. I have an HP Vectra VE here at work. Haven't thought much about upgrading until now. I am thinking about, 1)Faster, bigger harddrive and 2)Faster processor.

Enlighten me folks. What makes the HP's proprietary? Do they store part of the BIOS on the HD, similar to Compaqs? Will I have untold amounts of fun trying to upgrade the HD?? I don't think the processor upgrade will be too difficult, or will it? I have an FIC board in this machine. Is there anything proprietary, relative to HP, about it??

I am also running WIN NT 4.0 SP6a Workstation. Would I be better off just adding a second HD? The reason I ask is that I really don't know much about NT. If I choose to just upgrade and have one HD, will upgrading the HD and reinstalling the OS be a nightmare?

Thanks.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66


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Woe is me.

[skhips]

Why are you running NT, more secure at work

but... less plug and play ability, not very good for games.

Depending on your need you may be better off with 98 / ME (hear the screams) or a compromise between 98 and NT is 2000

You would then format your HDD and install a fresh Windows O/S.

Your Motherboard manual should tell you whether you can get a faster CPU.

[mjc]

The big thing about HPs that is proprietary is the MOBO, more like a custom job than true proprietary board. Their BIOS is where it belongs, on the chip, but modified to no end. They tend to disable certain functions in the BIOS and also prevent the corresponding changes to the MOBO (eliminate jumpers)...this is more true of the Pavilion line (home) than the Vectra (busines)...the more recent vintages tend to be more "stock" than the older ones.

And one infamous piece of hardware...the Riptide, modem/soundcard...but it goes into an AMR slot and can be replaced by discrete components.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[BigBlue66]

Thanks guys. I am running NT 4.0 because that seems to be the OS of choice for our LAN. We have a T1 line. However, I do have an external Courier V.everything modem for my dial up work.

I don't run games, it's strictly business apps. I transmit payroll via modem, but for such things as our e401k and online banking, the T1 is used.

I am not sure where my manual is for the motherboard, but I of course know how to identify and track it down on the net.

I believe the machine is no more than two years old, if that. Can't remember the BIOS date. I have upgraded the memory recently without a hitch.

So what I have learned so far is that the BIOS may not be an issue with just an ordinary harddrive upgrade. Right? My machine was set up by our net admin guy who has since left the company. I do, however, have admin privileges on the machine. My main concern is setting up the OS and retaining my profiles and all that other good stuff.

I think maybe it's Ghosthacker who knows a bit about NT. How about it GH? Can you describe in simple steps what I should do to accomplish all that I want with upgrading the harddrive? Or should I just add a second harddrive? Wouldn't that be easier? I would like to have more drive capacity, one way or another, but can't have the machine down for any length of time.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66




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Woe is me.

[mjc]

You should probably be able to "ghost" the contents of the old drive onto the new without any problems...(we can rebuild him...make him stronger, faster....NO..NO..I was thinking of a TV show... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif ) Norton's Ghost does support NT.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.