NEW HP UEFI bios Video

This is a video produced by HP, it talks about some of the new HP UEFI bios features, worth watching.

Bios 09.06.11.avi - YouTube

I have to ask, near the end of the video a question is answered about wireless cards being blocked in the HP bios, the speaker says it is due to FCC regulations, are they pounding smoke?

I have an older Dell that I can put any wireless card in and it works.

 

The FCC thing is total crap.

 

Yup. HP and Lenovo have been whitelisting bios from 2006 and earlier. It's an an effective way of adding built-in redundancy to ensure you upgrade notebooks when need faster/newer WIFI/WWAN. HP have added bios signature checking into their 2nd gen i-core bios making mods impossible (so far at least).

 

Actually, there's some truth here.

Source

The implication is this: If the FCC thinks that a device does not (no longer) preven unauthorized" changes to the it can obviously revoke its certification and followed by other consequences.
Page 3

This "fact" is scaring every vendor, because they will have to pay the fine if the device does not prevent such unauthorized changes for each unit they've sold there. Therefore they want to limit the damage that an "unaware" user might be capable of doing.

However, back to the HP talk. While there's some truth in the FCC ruling, it should only affect wifi card vendors like Atheros, Broadcom, etc. and not HP [Of course, you could argue that HP is responsible for the Antenna design and layout, but that's just a tiny, tiny piece]

Note: This whole "regulatory hell" is also the reason why wireless is such a problem for open-source operating systems. It's because some hw vendors decided to implement the restriction in the drivers, as it saves them
a lot of money since firmware code or hardware is much more expensive. So they can't really release an open-source driver without fear.

 

Thanks zuvieltext, enlightening post.

So it really is crap after all,

I guess those DDWRT guys are violating the hell out of every rule then, Go fine All the router manufacturers that don't lock down their devices from flashing unauthorized Software/Firmware.

HP is using at as an excuse and hiding behind the skirt of the FCC.

 

Depends. The DDWRT folks are mostly interested in tx-power and high-gain antennae, right? Well, I can tell you that most radios can do much more.

For example: you can use them to jam or litter certain frequencies. This is not much of a problem in the "unlicensed"/"free" 2.45 GHz band, but it's a a very delicate matter everywhere "else". Just one example: In the US, the public safety networks runs around 4,9 GHz. This is very close to the band 802.11a 5Ghz radios operate in. So with a bit of knowledge you can get yourself and others in trouble [so let's stop there, OK? ]

And what is even worse: they only have a limited choice of rubbish replacement at premium prices.

 

Frequency hoping to everyone I still remember when this was the nec plus ultra in military radios.