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News HP moves BIOS upgrades behind warranty wall

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 10 Feb 2014.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. edzieba

    edzieba Virtual Realist

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    Hoooo boy, that's a lawsuit waiting to happen!
     
  3. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    Most people wont even relise its the bios thats the fault. ( 99% of buyers of hp products wont relise its a bios fault)
     
  4. Bungletron

    Bungletron Minimodder

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    Dastardly manoeuvre to try and increase revenues, I bet those idiotic HP execs must be rubbing their hands with glee. This type of innovation deserves to sink any company implementing without trace, not that that will happen!

    As a microserver owner here's hoping it massively backfires in their faces. Similar to other forum members, since the only support I require is the firmware downloads (never contact their support etc) I do not see the value nor buy their stupid after care packages.

    For someone in my position whether they charge for this service or it leads to scaling down or termination (unlikely I know) of the department makes no difference; I won't be able to get any new firmware anyway!
     
  5. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    Won't the firmware downloads just start appearing in other, less wholesome locations?
     
  6. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    That's just the way it is for a lot enterprise stuff particularly on the software side, annual service contracts and licensing, when you supply relatively small amounts of hardware/software this sort of approach is needed to keep the effort financially viable.
     
  7. MrJay

    MrJay You are always where you want to be

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    Yeah id piss off the only sector that is keeping your sorry ass afloat...

    Excellent strategy.
     
  8. Votick

    Votick My CPU's hot but my core runs cold.

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    I think this is a good move.
    Hopefully if the kit is a certian age then they won't supply warrenty.
     
  9. BA_13

    BA_13 Minimodder

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    Aren't the majority of Firmware updates required on this sort of equipment issued in response to defects found in the original BIOS and not used to add additional functionality?

    Regardless I shall now be looking at other micro server options when I get home, I don't think I shall be buying any more HP kit in the future (I already dislike their printers due to several bad experiences).
     
  10. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Yep. A nice time to register a site in Russia and start hosting them. Not that I would do that for advertising revenue...
     
  11. Tuthmose

    Tuthmose Minimodder

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    Fixed it for you

    -Tuthmose
     
  12. azazel1024

    azazel1024 What's a Dremel?

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    I am waiting for this to be extended to their consumer line.

    Oh, and drivers. Just waiting on drivers also to be stuck behind a warranty pay wall (unless of course that is what they mean about firmware).

    HP Drivers and BIOS updates appearing on pirate sites in 3...2...1...
     
  13. faugusztin

    faugusztin I *am* the guy with two left hands

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    My guess is that Lenovo and Dell really like this news.
     
  14. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    Luckily *most* components rely on standardised drivers that can be found elsewhere [GPU, chipset etc.]

    Though as faug points out, Dell et al. if they have any sense could capitalise on this...


    EDIT: though if for some reason this doesn't come back to bite HP... you can expect other OEMs to follow suit...
     
    Last edited: 10 Feb 2014
  15. j_jay4

    j_jay4 Minimodder

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    *Rushes to HP website to download updates for MicroServer before 19th February deadline*
     
  16. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Depends what they mean by "firmware updates," really. I've never used the equipment in question, so this is by way of a question, really: are they talking about major new features, or is it just glitch fixing?

    If the former case, well, maybe fair enough. If the latter, not so much.
     
  17. faugusztin

    faugusztin I *am* the guy with two left hands

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    @Phil: any BIOS updates, RAID card firmware updates etc. Simply put, you won't see the download page for the product you own if it is out of warranty.
     
  18. DC74

    DC74 Doh!

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    Well that's it then HP putting a gun to their own head and pulling the trigger. That's the dumbest idea ever to screw money out of customers. I can see HP filing for bankruptcy in a couple of years, the damage to their reputation is complete.

    I remember a few years ago they were caught putting a cut off switch into their printer cartridges so after a certain amount of time they just stopped working regardless if they had been used much or not. They were sued over that one and it's not like they were cheap to replace either. Since then I've steered clear of HP products. HP has now shown it's true colours, money for nothing yet again, if everyone else just stops buying their products they will learn the hard way.
     
  19. Flibblebot

    Flibblebot Smile with me

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    But for the Microservers, don't most people already use the modified BIOS - which is freely available on other sites - anyway? Or are HP going to start issuing cease and desist notices on any site that hosts a modified BIOS file...
     
  20. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Most often the latter. For instance - and I know this, 'cos I've just bought one - the HP ProLiant MicroServer N54L has a bug in its BIOS that prevents the on-board network port from working properly on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.1. The updated BIOS - available only to warrantied customers, and that's right now rather than from the 19th - fixes that problem.
     

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