software recognizing dell machines?

[bdcrisp]

Why do the cd's that came with my dell laptop only allow themselves to be installed on a dell machine??

 

[Vegito]

to stop pirating, it's for dell only, since it's oem

 

[pulpp]

i would like to know why they wont install on other machines as well, my guess is that the windows setup checks something in the BIOS to verify its a Dell.

 

[MichaelD]

Neat post. This is a problem I've faced in the past too. A few years ago, I purchased a Dell box. PIII 550e. The schiznit, way back when.

Thankfully, it came with a FULL CD version of Win98SE...we'll leave it at that. But it came with a "Dell Resources CD" which if you go Exploring on it, has Win DVD2000, all kinds of drivers, etc. Try copying a file off it though. Crash, lock, error message, you name it. I don't understand it either (know that I know a thing or two about building a pc/loading software on it, this puzzles me even more). I can load anything off this CD onto the Dell, which hasn't been changed at all, save for BIOS updates, but if I try it on my machine, I can't get a single thing off the CD. Interestingly enough, the DVD rom that came w/the Dell, now lives in my rig and is working fine....but I can't load WinDVD2000 from the CD, to my new rig, even though WinDVD2000 is loaded on the Dell, to play with this DVD rom. Stupid Dell.

 

[bdcrisp]

I tried reinstalling the winDVD software that came with the Dell after reformatting and loading a different os. It must read the bios, because it still installs fine on the machine. Some smart people over there at Dell.