[SUCCESS!]Getting Around a Password... Hear me out...

Chanus

This has mod approval... or at least the tentative approval of one mod, which can be revoked in a heartbeat, so no business about haxx0rs. If that's the only way this can be solved, just say, "Haxx0rs is the only way this can be solved" and leave it at that and we'll all go our merry ways.

So HERE GOES!

So, my boss gave me a laptop he got for free from his wife's place of business and he wants me to fix it up for him because, hey, free laptop.

The problem is, it has essentially a BIOS password (but, it's not a BIOS password, it's like some security program installed by the company) and from what he's told me, they don't know whose laptop came from where... it was basically a pile of laptops and they said, "If you want one, take it"... so they don't know the password.

So, I have permission to bypass the password and wipe the computer clean if I can... but I don't know how.

Any ideas how to get around something like this?

Oh: It's a Dell Latitude something or other. Probably five or more years old... so trashing it is an acceptable solution, just my boss paid $50 for it, so he'd like to not have to do that. He just wants a laptop.

Sipex

Open it up. I've only worked with PCs but when I did there was essentially a tiny tiny switch which turned the BIOS password on/off.

I have no idea if they still use that.

edit: I also don't know if it would work due to it not being an actual BIOS password. If it doesn't, try changing the hard drive. Unless the company somehow fit their security piece on the BIOS (or has some weird other memory) you should be fine.

bowen

Are you sure it's not a BIOS password? Can you give me more information?

Zeon

Find out who made the bios password program and google how to get around that. Most of them have a key combination you can hold at start up that bypasses it.

Chanus

It's not exactly a BIOS password... it's a Wachovia Securities screen... like something they've loaded on there... which makes me think it's a non-legitimate-only solution... but i was hoping for a miracle


And let me reiterate me bypassing this password is 100% acceptable to all parties involved if I can do it.

amateurhour

First, there's nothing wrong with a five year old lattitude. It's got a lot of use left in it. Don't trash it.

Second, just load DBAN or a Win XP boot disk (figuring that the laptop has a valid win XP key on it) and just select boot to disk or boot to external drive at startup.

The PC encryption shouldn't activate until the OS loads so you should be able to load the boot disk or wipe the drive.

bowen

Does it happen before or after the POST?

It's probably just a bootloader that's password protected. Worst case, you need to wipe it.

Chanus

It happens as soon as the power button is pressed, essentially.

Like, I get a "Dell" screen, then the password screen. No chance to hold DEL and get to BIOS or anything like that.


Can I make a WinXP boot disc from another computer?

Spudge

The MBR is locked. Easiest way to do this is to take the drive out, wipe it from another machine and slap it back in

Reinstall Windows and call it a day

llamanator

To get to the BIOS, you have to press F2 at the "Dell" screen (It's essentially the POST screen), to bring up the boot menu (to choose to boot from the CD or an external drive) press the F12 key instead. I work exclusively with Dell Latitude laptops here and we have a similar encryption program. the only way around it is to wipe the drive.

cmsamo

We have something similar to this on our work laptops, it's called BeCrypt. It may not be a BIOS password the PC is after, it may be a password for encryption purposes. To get past our sw, if you forget your password or whatnot, they read out a 32 digit number over the phone. There is no way to bypass it but your software may be different.

Best thing to do might be just to buy a new blank hard drive, fit it, and start afresh?

vonPoonBurGer

No need to buy a new hard drive, you can pull the existing drive and wipe it in another system. Given that it's an older notebook, it probably has a 2.5" IDE hard drive, so you'll need an IDE adapter that converts the 2.5" plug format into the standard desktop sized 3.5" plug format. Better yet, get one of those USB to 2.5" IDE/3.5" IDE/SATA adapters so you can work on the drive without having to mess around inside another case.

Zeon

llamanator wrote: »

To get to the BIOS, you have to press F2 at the "Dell" screen (It's essentially the POST screen), to bring up the boot menu (to choose to boot from the CD or an external drive) press the F12 key instead. I work exclusively with Dell Latitude laptops here and we have a similar encryption program. the only way around it is to wipe the drive.

Yeah. You can still get to the bios from the sounds of it. Just sounds like a password protected bootloader, not a password on the BIOS itself.

So what id do is just format the drive and reinstall an OS on it. Shouldnt even need to mess around with the password. Since its a laptop id probably keep the drive in the laptop, just change the boot order in BIOS.

Gilbert0

There are a bunch of different programs that do what you are mentioning (our company uses one called SafeBoot for laptops, has to be connected to the domain or after 90 days drive gets locked).

Like others have said, I don't think there is a way to get around the password to see what's on the drive now but you should be able to wipe and start fresh.

Chanus

Yeah, wiping it is not really a problem. Getting a running OS back on there may be.

I have XP Pro discs here at work, but they're 64-bit and when I try using them it says the CPU can't handle 64-bit, and I have Vista discs at home that I no longer use (meaning the license isn't in use... dunno if that's gray area or not)... but I don't think it can handle Vista.

Doubt the boss would let me use this as my "Learning how to use Linux" machine :P

bowen

Is there a non OEM-key on there? If there is just grab a WinXP-32 ISO and use the key. If not, you might have some issues. This is one of those legal gray areas where I would recommend you doing something that would be 'illegal' but it's not illegal because the machine is properly licensed.

MichaelLC

The PS3 uses 2.5" SATA laptop drives. Could use that to format as well.

Ubuntu isn't too bad; if you only need basic stuff, it's pretty indistinguishable from Windows. Latest solid release (10.04) even comes bundles with OpenOffice.org

Chanus

Well, if it was my personal laptop, I would totally fiddle around with Linux or something, but it's my boss' and he's not really... up with the times, technologically. :P

Chanus

Hmm... after much digging through piles of old, heavily dust-covered boxes at work, I found an XP Pro disc that seems to be at least allowing me to install... I hope the serial key on the bottom works.

/Crosses fingers!

Spudge

If it's a Dell CD it shouldn't even ask for the OEM key

But if it does it should work without a problem. Dell CD, Dell OEM key, no issues

Also what model is it? D500/600/520 etc?

Chanus

It's a D610... The CD I have seems to be installing Windows currently, so I'm hoping this is good to go.

Spudge

Good lappy there. Maxes out at 2Gb RAM and if it doesn't already have that I'd recommend to your boss as that being the first upgrade done; makes a HUGE difference on that chipset

Also, that CD probably doesn't have all the drivers you need (mainly chipset, NIC and wireless radio). Recommend getting them from Dell support and loading them on a USB stick just to be safe

Chanus

Cool, I can grab those from my PC and toss them on.

Also:


Successsssss!

Thanks for all the help, peeps.

I suppose this can be locked now.

ceres

Glad it worked out.