Excelstor's bad support driving me nuts!

I had a customer complaining about a hard disk which stopped worked all of a sudden. He had high confidential financial data and didn't want to send it for a replacement. I've tried repairing the hard disk, but it just had too much bad sectors and it barely worked. So I've decided to have a little chat with Excelstor's online support. Now I've had many different situations and have chatted with so many support guys, but this one was the worst. Actually there was no support guy at all. I've tried writing my question, but the submit form kept refreshing every 30 seconds and my question kept getting deleted. Yeah very frustrating moment for me, thats why I decided to share it with you. Anyway if you have an issue with excelstor, and decide to consult them, just forget their support, its useless, especially online.

HP Compaq 6720s Windows XP Drivers Download

Company: HP (HP?!)
Product: Compaq 6720s C530N


Specifications:

Processor: Intel Celeron Processor 530 (1.73-GHz, 533-MHz FSB, 1-MB L2 cache) System Memory: 1024-MB 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1 DIMM)
Memory: operates at a maximum of 533-MHz with Celeron processor
Hard Drive: 120-GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD
Display: 15.4-inch diagonal WXGA BrightView (1280 x 800 resolution)
Graphics: Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, up to 384-MB shared system memory
Audio: ADI1981HD High Definition CODEC
Integrated mono speaker
Stereo headphone/line out; Stereo microphone in
Communications: Intel Fast Ethernet Integrated Controller (10/100 NIC)
56K V.92 modem Integrated Wireless Broadcom 4311AG 802.11a/b/g WiFi Adapter Pointing Device: Touchpad with scroll zone, two pick buttons
Optical Drive: DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
Battery: 6-cell (47 WHr) Lithium-Ion
Power: External 65-watt AC adapter
Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty


Problem:
No drivers for Windows XP, 'Vista Recommended bla bla' and still we are talking about a Celeron here..

Solution:
First you have to install the hotfix for Windows XP in order for your audio and modem to get recognized by your system and then install the drivers.

Hydrogen Audio Forum Post with download link for MS Hotfix KB888111.exe

Audio Driver ADI1981HD High Definition Soundmax

Download Graphic card & Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver Ver. 14.33.1

Download Modem Driver

To install the LAN driver you have to unrar the intel.rar file, then go to device manager, right click on the "Ethernet Controller" -> Update Driver and then search for the folder where you have unrared intel.rar

Download LAN Driver Intel

NOTICE: In order for your lan to work under XP, you have to flash your bios. Please note that this is a dangerous procedure, as it may damage your notebook if unexpected power break down occurs. There is a tool, provided by HP which flashes your bios automatically, the process is pretty straight forward. While you run the tool, your notebook MUST be connected to your Power Supply Ac Adapter, and you MUST close all of your programs. It takes a while, so don't do anything while it lasts, just be patient. Here is the link where you can download the BIOS flash utility:

Download HP Bios Flash Utility

Download Wifi Driver Broadcom 4311AG 802.11abg

Well that would be it. Enjoy your notebook like you should, with Windows XP! :)

UPDATE: I've heard complaints that some of the links are down. Here is a link with all of the drivers packed in one rar file. HP Compaq 6720s XP Drivers - All

How to unlock your locked bios on an older laptop

Today I've had a case with an Acer Aspire 1350 which had his bios locked with a password and I couldn't boot from a cd to install windows because the boot up menu was set up to boot from hard disk first. I've tried to remove its hdd and then connect it to a different pc, install windows on it and then put it back on the laptop, but that did not work also, because of the windows protection. So after a little googling I've managed to find a code which can reset the bios password and unlock it. If you have a similar case with a locked bios and can't change the bios settings, here is what might work for you. It works with most of the old notebooks who has the same bios.

Here is the model that worked for me:

System Manufacturer: Acer Inc.
System Model: Aspire 1350
BIOS: PhoenixBIOS 4.0

Solution:

If you can't boot from the cd, Remove the hard disk from the laptop and since there is no hdd available it should boot from the cd(because the boot order in the bios is set to boot from cd if there is no hard disk)

Boot your pc in MS-DOS mode. A bootable diskette might also work, but if you don't have floppy drive, you might try with a bootable win98 or make a bootable cd with dos, just google it, you should manage to solve this)


After you get to the c:\> or c:\WINDOWS> prompt type DEBUG and then press Enter.

A hyphen(-) prompt will come up waiting for you to enter commands.

Enter the following commands, pressing Enter after each one. (Note: the o is the letter o and stands for OUTPUT).

o 70 2e

o 71 ff

q

After the q command type exit.

Restart the computer and check to see if you can enter in the bios and change the values like it should.