[Daveswaves]

I have a dell mini 910, that I have screwed up the bios password on. The unit was working fine except for an intermittent keyboard sticky key, repeat keys. I thought I had fixed the stuck key, and I had, but when I was entering the new bios password.......the key stuck and I did not notice it.....I hit exit and save.
Now of course I have no idea what the password is. I tried the Russian algorithm to generate passwords but the password generated does not work.
The service tag is ####### and the express service code is #########
I have disassembled the unit a few times to try different "tricks" paperclip does not work, naturally removing battery (coin cell) does not work as the info is stored in the eeprom.
The eeprom is an 8M sst25fl0080A with 4 spi inputs, marked as U10 on the PCB. Does anybody have experience with this particular chip?
Any thoughts, perhaps disconnect VCC and then power up??
Place the chip in "Hold" Mode"?
Replace chip?
Remove chip?
I have the full schematic for the mother board and am prepared to cut traces or add jumpers.
Any thoughts, opinions or suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance.

Service Tag # and Express Service Code removed by a mod

[rrfranczak3]

DO NOT post your service tag # and Express Service Code numbers......it is in your best interest that you keep this information private......I have edited your above post removing this info


PS. Welcome to the forum....

BTW: there are people on ebay that will sell you a default password for the BIOS....many on this forum have done so.....

[Daveswaves]

Thanks, I am aware of the ebay sellers, just not sure which ones are legit. If anyone here has a specific vendor that they have had success with I would be happy to try them.

[pcmaniac]

Not sure it would help but just in case...
Acer Travelmate 3250/2470 has the same bios chip and straight forward password reset procedure.

[rrfranczak3]

Originally Posted by Daveswaves

Thanks, I am aware of the ebay sellers, just not sure which ones are legit. If anyone here has a specific vendor that they have had success with I would be happy to try them.

I would just try searching the board here, there has been some postings regarding the reset...try searching for "BIOS Password" or "BIOS Password Reset"..etc I am sure you will find something.......

[Daveswaves]

Originally Posted by pcmaniac

Not sure it would help but just in case...
Acer Travelmate 3250/2470 has the same bios chip and straight forward password reset procedure.

Thanks I will look into that. I have tried all the suggestions on this board for the Mini 9 and most that I can find on the net. Appreciate the out of the box thinking.

---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:36 PM ----------

Thanks again, I checked out the acer board, it has 4 dip switches that you can clear the bios, unfortunately, the dell mini board does not. I will try the ebay route and post back if it is successful.

[holmes4]

The chip may be the same but the BIOS itself is not.

[Daveswaves]

Thanks Steve. Update, I purchased a bios code from ebay which worked nicely, I was able to get back into the bios and clear the password. Unfortunately the HDD password is now set. It seems that when the bios password fail routine runs it sets the HD password to active status, thus protecting your data if the lap top is lost. Good system. Looks like I will be replacing the hard drive. I will only be using this notebook for one application, on the fly tuning of a 2 stroke efi outboard engine. Has anyone had success just removing the HD and booting from a usb.

[holmes4]

Yes, lots of people have booted Minis from a USB drive. Just keep in mind that the SD slot is NOT bootable.

[Daveswaves]

Originally Posted by holmes4

Yes, lots of people have booted Minis from a USB drive. Just keep in mind that the SD slot is NOT bootable.

Thanks Steve, no problem. Can you run programs from the SD slot? That would be perfect, I could just the the sd card in with the engine tuning software on it and boot windows from the usb. I have made a bootable USB using the HP format and it works fine, just have to reload windows on the USB.