System is booting in manufacturing program mode

You have just replaced your HP computers motherboard with a brand new one and see this:

"System is booting in Manufacturing Program Mode

Warning: Your system is not fully configured. Please contact HP customer support."

 

 none of this will prevent you from using your computer, it's just annoying.

Searching on the internet you find that you need all sorts of special programs like sssm.bat, wndmifit or NbDmiFit and that you have to enter a feature byte (and other things) in the bios, but when you try to do that it doesn't work (CRC error) because the font used on the sticker on the bottom of your computer is confusing as to what is capitalized and what is not. you must enter the feature byte exactly as it is shown but without the spaces.

 Here is a random feature byte label as found in the internet:

Don't try to use this one on your computer they are specific to computers and contain information telling HP software what you can install/are entitled to.

To successfully get your computer out of manufacturing mode you will need:

The feature byte

Build ID (BID)

Serial number

all of this can be found on the labels on the bottom or side of the computer.

The hard way to do this is to enter the bios and manually enter them.

the easy way is to download the HP bios configuration utility. If the link does not work, just google it. This is the way I did it, I don't know if there is a faster way, this worked for me.

from an administrator command prompt type the following:

 BiosConfigUtility  /get:"config.txt"

 open the config.txt and remove everything except:

BIOSConfig 1.0

 Feature Byte

 Build ID

Serial Number    

 Manufacturing Programming Mode
    *Unlock
    Lock
    
SureStart Production Mode
    Disable
    *Enable

 Next go to HP Partsurfer and enter your serial number which looks like this MXL1923KCW (don't use this one it's made up).

look for IMG_Desc1 IMG_Desc2 this is your feature byte. copy and paste it in to notepad, first desc 1 then 2, then remove spaces. you should have something like this:

3X476J6S6U6b7N7Q7T7U7w7a8HaBaUapaQaubhdUdXdpdqfJg3hKhZjhk8.5h (not a real byte).

now get your build ID from the bottom label

18KKLSMT6**SABA#DABA  (not a real BID).

 

save your config.txt as newconf.txt and remove everything but this:

 BIOSConfig 1.0
    
Feature Byte
    3X476J6S6U6b7N7Q7T7U7w7a8HaBaUapaQaubhdUdXdpdqfJg3hKhZjhk8.5h
Build ID
    18KKLSMT6**SABA#DABA
Serial Number
    MXL1923KCW

 save the file.

from an administrator command prompt in the folder with the bios utility type:

 BiosConfigUtility  /set:"newconf.txt"

it should report that there were no errors, if there is a problem with the feature byte, it might require calling HP.

reboot.

go back to the config.txt and remove everything but this:

BIOSConfig 1.0
    
Manufacturing Programming Mode
    Unlock
    *Lock

  save as newconf.txt

 run  BiosConfigUtility  /set:"newconf.txt"

reboot, and the  System is booting in Manufacturing Program Mode should be gone. either go in to the bios f10 or it will automatically go in to the bios and ask if you want to commit the changes say yes, and it will reboot.

 edit the newconf.txt to read:

BIOSConfig 1.0
    
SureStart Production Mode
    Disable
    *Enable

save

  run  BiosConfigUtility  /set:"newconf.txt"

reboot and the  Warning: Your system is not fully configured. Please contact HP customer support. should now be gone.

 this is way easier than reentering the feature byte over and over till you get it right.

you might be able to do this in one go by putting the changes in one file and uploading it once, but that is not how I did it, and I cannot try it to see if it works as supposedly once the feature byte is programmed it cannot be changed.

starrsoft win96 does not retain activation license

Windows 10, Starrsoft win96 asks for activation license code key every time you start it. it will report it saved the activation but the next time you start it, it is not activated.

 right click on the program  then select "run as administrator". 

enter license key and this time it should keep the activation status.

Odometer and trip meter repair 1989 Chevrolet C2500 Truck

I was driving my 89 Chevy C2500 truck and noticed it was about to hit 80,000 miles. Sometime after that I heard a loud crack sound, but did not know what it was. It happened when we were either going to or leaving a store.

Later on the way home I noticed that the odometer was stuck half way between 79,999.9 and 80,000.0 it did not move the rest of the drive home. After doing some research I determined that the odometer gear may have cracked.

The plastic in an 88 to 91 chevy truck is old and brittle, do not over tighten any of the screws when putting them back in. You will almost certainly find broken plastic on the gauge cluster bezel, and the screws that hold the headlight controls in place. A new bezel can be ordered from LMCTRUCK.COM

I took the dash panel apart. There are youtube videos on how to do this, it is very easy. I found that this gear (seen below with the red arrow) had a crack in it.

There are youtube videos to explain how to remove the gear, and replace it. Though I do not recommend heating the gear up. I ordered a 924-396 Odometer Drive Gear from amazon for a ridiculous $30.

However the gear has 2 extension from the hub, a large one and a small one. My original gear did not have the small one.

The small one indicated above with the red arrow had to be removed because I could not get the odometer back together with it there. I installed my gear by placing the gear over a vice spread just enough to allow the hub to go through. I placed the odometer in the hole, and carefully tapped it in place with a small brass hammer. Do not use a steel hammer. Be careful of how far you put the gear on, too far and you cannot join it back in place with the trip meter. Not far enough and you can't get the odometer back in place. Once the gear was on I estimated how far I had traveled (about 49 miles) after the gear broke, and advanced the odometer that much. The odometer cannot be moved backwards without taking it apart which would probably be a nightmare to put back together.

Once I had the odometer fixed I worked on my trip meter which had been broken at some point when my dad had the truck. 

The above is a picture from an old ebay listing, and shows the back of the trip meter. The red arrow points at the piece of plastic that was broken. the trip meter cannot be reset if the shaft with the green gears is not in the correct place.

The above picture shows the 2 shafts from the side, the left one has a twisted wire on the top side of the shaft. I did the repair with the gauge panel still assembled as I did not want to take a chance of breaking it further by taking it apart to work on it. I wrapped a small piece of thin steel wire around the 2 shafts twice. The wires must go around the shafts as shown on the L side. with the 2 ends of the wire coming out of the top. I then carefully cinched the shafts tight enough so the trip meter reset would work. I twisted the wires together carefully, and snipped off all but about 3/16 of an inch of the twist. When completed the shafts were now correctly aligned, and the reset works. You must run the wire around twice, as you cannot cinch them together with only one loop of wire.

while setting the correct mileage I noticed that the odometer had a tendency to get stuck, and this might explain why it had broken when it had to move 6 disks. The odometer is driven by a motor, not a cable.

Because you have to turn the truck on and move the shifter all the way over to remove the control gauge cluster, when you disconnect the cluster that may cause a fault. This fault will show up when you get everything back together as the brake light will blink 8 times short and 1 time long then repeat. The error is an open circuit error in the brake controller. The error is false. I fixed mine by disconnecting the battery for 30 seconds.

some of the pictures in this post came from other sources as I was in too much of a hurry to take my own pictures.

google maps see my real time location using excessive memory and tracking stops

on rare occasions someone I know shares their real time location, and when they do their location is updated non-stop instead of like once every 30 seconds or however it works.

since then it has not done it, now this morning he shared his location and it's doing it again. using up all my memory in a very short amount of time. going from 12.7 gigs till either the browser crashes or it just stops tracking until I close and reopen the browser. happens in firefox and in chrome.

here is a no sound video of what is happening. nothing is artificially sped up. it doesn't matter what version of firefox or chrome, when it happens it, this is what happens. I upgraded my memory since the last post and went from 16 to 48 gigs. so now my computer doesn't freeze.

 

yesterday my wife shared her location, and it did not do this. on other occasions the other person shares their location and it does not do this.