Option part and Feature Byte hell

[mah111]

Got the latest generation of ZBook and just found out that HP's philosophy of customer care (still) sucks.

Also I found out that I am not single person in world that ran into problem with option parts.

As it turns out not all option parts are installable by customer or even authorized service providers.

The magic Feature Byte controls your HW.

It means that you can have a part listed as optional for your P/N and even have a connector on motherboard, unless you have apriopriate Feature Byte in BIOS you cannot utilize the option part.

Feature Byte cannot be changed, it come with motherboard itself. That means one would need a new motherboard with apropriate Feature Byte in order to get the option part working.

[SHThompson]

You are correct, in some cases if you get a machine and realize you needed an option that was not ordered the machine has to be returned and a machine that has the factory installed option ordered.

There is one case where a machine is available without speakers, and you have to return it if you order the speakerless model and then realize you wanted built in speakers.