Bypass HP recovery disk?

[cncnb]

I have an older HP Pavilion that is used in the office only to create and print invoices and inventory. No gaming, videos, etc...
When the motherboard died, I replaced it and installed a larger hard drive. I find that the recovery disk supplied with HP will not recognize and reload the windows system.
I've already called HP and when I finally got to talk to someone who could speak english....they were no help at all.
Is there a way to bypass the security crap and get the system to reload?
Thanks

[bill]

I'm uncertain... Did you replace the motherboard with the exact same model? What was the original operating system?

[cncnb]

The original OS was Windows ME...(yeah, I know, Many Errors). I did not use a HP replacement. HP is crazed for what they want for replacement parts. Someone told me HP "tattoos" the BIOS so the recovery disks only work with HP computers. Surely there is a way around this. I don't want to take this system to a HP service to reload the chips.

[texascbx]

My dealings with HP on recovery disk issues were not good. Just go to newegg and buy an oem xp cd for about 85 bucks.

[bill]

Maybe someone else knows how to make the recovery disk work with a different mobo. Personally, I think your out of luck, different chipset/chipset drivers etc..

You might be able to legally salvage your copy of WinMe by a borrowing a OEM disk from someone and using your original license key. Or pick up a copy of XP home for about $80


edit, Texascbx= faster typing skills

[LoneWolf]

Most HP systems within the past few years used ASUS mainboards. Best to find either an exact HP replacement or ASUS equivalent on Ebay and flash it to HP's BIOS, then use the recovery CD's. If you didn't do it that way, the restore CD's will be useless (pretty much every company, be it Gateway, HP, Dell, etc. has CD's coded to their own systems).

[cncnb]

Thats what I was afraid of. Thanks.