A lass has just asked if i can help her get into her laptop, apparently she was "just doing some stuff on it, when it went off, and now i cant get it to work"
On boot-up I am presented with a black and white Dell screen, which states "Warning! HDD security has been authourised - enter password to continue"
She didnt set a password, but it looks like she must have done so inadvertently! and as such has no idea what she could have done!
I managed to by-pass this screen, and get into the Bios, but every page is locked (big white padlock in top rt corner) and although i can see the values i cannot change anything, even the boot order! Primary HDD is logged as "not found"
Any ideas please?
Thanks!
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Maybe taking the backup battery out and unplugging the machine would unlock the BIOS?
OK even that isn't trivial on a laptop.
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Fri 23 Sep 11 at 23:13
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Insufficient information.
You may just as well ask "my car won't start, how can I fix it?"
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More information is needed, I've not seen this myself yet, but technicians are coming across instances where the BIOS has been infected.
In this case though it doesn't sound like the case. On dell laptops you can often set a password for the hard drive. Rewriting the MBR might cure it, but if you search this issue on google it seems it can be fixed without data loss.
I must admit while I am aware of this feature, never once seen it in use and never had to fix it.
Too many things don't make much sense at the moment, as this feature wouldn't active by itself.
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Insufficient information.
Well dont have much more to add, except it was running vista.
and exactly what "stuff" she was doing isnt clear! (to either of us!)
looked on Google and most "remedy's" seem hitty missy, and require the HD slaving up to a desktop, which im not even going to bother trying.
Rang Dell support this afternoon, and as its a security feature, they didnt seem keen on helping! (probably thought it was a knicked one!), they did however suggest using a data recovery company if there was any data i needed to retrieve.
I`ve thought of replacing the drive to get around the password, but would that unlock the Bios?
Personnally me thinks she`s made a paper-wieght! aqnd it would be kinder on me, to tell her and hand it back! - but i don`t like to be defeated!!
Last edited by: devonite on Sat 24 Sep 11 at 01:23
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Wrap it in a plastic bag and stick it in the freezer 4 24 hours
Should get you back into the bios at least
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>>Wrap it in a plastic bag and stick it in the freezer 4 24 hours<<
Then stick it in the microwave on chaos defrost.
:-)
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Tis in the freezer now! - cheers Z!
Doggie, how long do I microwave chips for? ;-) (and do they come out soggy?)
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>>microwave chips<<
Hehe - nice one!
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>> looked on Google and most "remedy's" seem hitty missy, and require the HD slaving up
>> to a desktop, which im not even going to bother trying.
It's not difficult, places like Maplin sell housings that you can put the appropriate drive in and just connect via USB to another machine. Exactly what I did when the motherboard failed on my HP laptop. The HDD was fine and I now have a useful external hard drive!
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The padlock on the BIOS screens indicates it's also got a BIOS admin pwd set, which will prevent you from removing the HDD pwd.
What's the Dell "Tag number" of this one.....;-}
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HDD lockout! - spamcan61
