[Tsunamai]

*UPDATE*

As per members advice I have removed the cmos internal battery. It cleared the cmos but the password remains. Dell master passwords still dont work

*

Hi to all,



I'm new to these forums as I have never had an issue with dell bios updates (in the past). Here is my problem...



I repair laptops that have virus problems, hardware faults etc. My customer has given me a working 1011 that has had a few malware problems. Re-installing windows and drivers were a breeze (thanks to dell's support site and the service tag feature).

Last thing before restoring the customers data, WINPHLASH dell bios update A06. The bios was backed up to the .bak file and; All 17 blocks erased re-written and verified.

So when the laptop restarted, imagine my surprise when a password is requested. The customer never set a password. After a google search I read posts on here about people having a password they do not know and dell having master passwords to aid this sort of thing. Now I can understand a situation where a student sets a password maliciously and the administrator wouldn't be aware of it. So thank all that is good for dell I thought...

Unfortunately this wasn't the case and the master passwords do not work. If I had set a password and forgotten it I can understand dell charging for a new logic/mother board. But this situation is entirely different. As dell state "Dell recommends applying this update during your next scheduled update cycle" I decided to ignore the "if it aint broke, dont fix it" principle and listen to dell.

Installing the bios update (A06) has created a password that seemingly even dell cannot fix. An hour on the phone to out of warranty tech support, an email with 7 different "master passswords" later, the laptop is now a rather glossy doorstop.



Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated, I am baffled.



Matthew

[lswartz]

Hmm, what a mess. You tried the 1st thing that I would do with clearing the CMOS. Have you tried re-flashing the BIOS, maybe with the original version that was installed?

Added.

Is there any chance that the battery was not left out long enough to fully discharge for the CMOS?

[Tsunamai]

I left the cmos battery out for over an hour. It said when re-assembled cmos cleared error etc F1 to resume F2 setup and when I did either, enter password!

So the solution was to pay a german bloke on ebay £3.68 to take my 5 digit system disabled code (which I emailed to the dell tech who was useless) and send me the 5 digit password that ACTUALLY worked

Hurrah!

[lswartz]

I'm glad you got it fixed. I have always been lucky updating BIOS, but only when there was a hardware need. Guess I have been lucky. Lets hope the next time for you works like it should the 1st time.

Wonder why Dell couldn't have helped you.

[rrfranczak3]

glad you got it fixed, but like I have said on this forum hundreds of times......if it works dont f**k with it, I have NEVER updated my BIOS and probably never will, people just dont learn.....my 1010 is on A10 and the latest is A11, well EVERYTHING on my system works flawlessly for like over 2yrs and will NEVER touch the BIOS, I have my windows updates turned off also, I get the pop ups and I review them VERY CAREFULLY before I even download them....If it dont apply to me....I dont do it......maybe someday people will read enough nightmare stories and just leave well enough alone.....