Does anyone know if changing the bootup screen on my Z1 would void my warranty? I purchased a 2 year extended warranty when I bought my refurbished Z1 in December 2006.
I have everything needed to unlock the HD but I would hate to void my ext. warranty by replacing Pioneer's bootup screen.
Any insight would be helpful.
Cheers,
Kevin
I don't see how it could. Depends a lot on the wording of your extended warranty.
Well, the wording in the warranty states that if it can not be repaired at my nearest service center, it would be sent back to the manufacturer for repair.
So if it got sent back to Pioneer, wouldn't my new bootup screen be the first thing Pioneer would notice and realize that I hacked into the hard drive?
Kevin
Then the only way they can void your warranty would be if the "hack" was the direct cause of the problem you're having. In other words your screen goes out because the backlight is bad. They can't void the warranty because an image change on the hd doesn't cause a backlight to go bad.
That makes sense. Thank you for the input Josh. I figured if anyone would know, you would. It is Josh right?
Cheers,
Kevin
As long as I didn't do anything wrong then yes I'm josh. Otherwise he's someone else.
Ha ha ha ha,
Well I'm sure you've done something wrong at some point but nothing that I'm immediately aware of.
As long as you save the boot up screen (or I have a copy of it too) you can put it back the way it came from the factory. It's not easy and you might have to pay to unlock it again. But I'm pretty confident that I can make it look original. If someone looked hard, they would see it messed with but probably not.
that's pretty cool guys.... I didn't know you can change the bootup screen
I would be totally interested in doing that,.... once I get my freakin car back!!
How do you do it?
is it just a JPEG image that displys on bootup?
if so, can you pretty much use any image?
http://avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2140
You have to unlock your hard drive in a PC, it costs $50. Then the image is just a BMP which is 500x240 in resolution.
There is a file called OPENING.BMP just change it to whatever you want. Save the original.
If worse came to worse, if I had to send my Z1 in for service.... I would replace the backup image with the original... re-enable locking. Relock the drive and lose my $50.
Whats the $50 all about?
how do you "unlock"?
Is that an interface so your Z1 can talk to your PC?
Whats the $50 all about?how do you "unlock"?
Is that an interface so your Z1 can talk to your PC?
it's all in that post.
How do you unlock and keep it unlocked:
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728
How do you connect to the PC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6812203012
I think the link in that first page is broken and I haven't fixed it.
The software charges you $50 for every unlock. If you stick it back in the Z1 without disabling locking it will relock.... and another $50 to unlock it.
Just read those links.
rgr that... nice reply
You know DucatiBoy,
As I think about this, I agree on everything you said except for re-locking the hard drive.
I think that if I did have to send it in for service, I would change back the bootup image to the original Pioneer image but would leave the HD unlocked, hoping that it would be returned to me unlocked so that I wouldn't have to repay the $50 fee.
Why re-lock it? They would be hard pressed to prove that I unlocked it myself. I would plead my case that it must have been shipped to me that way. And the fact that I purchased my Z1 refurbished, would probably make my case all the more believable.
What is your opinion on this ducatiboy?
Cheers,
Kevin
Why re-lock it? They would be hard pressed to prove that I unlocked it myself. I would plead my case that it must have been shipped to me that way. And the fact that I purchased my Z1 refurbished, would probably make my case all the more believable.
What is your opinion on this ducatiboy?
The Z1 automatically locks any drive you stick into it. Unless you specifically go in and disable the security features of the hard drive.
I would be hard pressed to think that if this company spent the time and energy to write code to automatically lock hard drives upon insertion, that they would have some hard drives in stock that were intentionally modified to disable security and then put into units.
I supposed you could make that claim, but if you keep it unlocked, then there is evidence that you or someone else tampered with it. I probably wouldn't worry about the $50 to take that chance.
Ducatiboy,
The reason I mentioned this is because I recall reading a thread on this forum where someone stated that he could read all of the files on his Z1 hard drive and that he did not unlock it himself.
Do you recall reading this thread? Anyway, it must have came to him unlocked and was probably just a fluke but nevertheless, it proves that it could happen. Agreed?
Kevin
I don't remember that thread. It doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I don't remember anything like that.
Here is the post that I remembered:
jake wrote:i can view the files on the z1 hd, landed up using an ide-laptop case usb 2.0 and plugging it into my mac. its has a bunch of files and folders but i cant make sence of anything.
Pulp_Fiction replied:I did the same thing except I connected it to a PC instead of a MAC. From what I've read this shouldn't have worked. ATA locking doesn't care what computer you connect it to. Sounds like you have an unlocked hard drive.
Did you by chance do this before you ever turned the z1 on for the first time? Because of how the z1 locked another drive of mine as soon as it was inserted and powered up perhaps the inital drives from Pioneer come unlocked and are locked on first boot. Sort of like how smart cards are married in satelite systems for those that know about that stuff too.
Here is the link to the entire thread: