HDD Bios Password Frozen?

[Haktar]

Hey guy ive got a laptop thats being quite a pain, in the bios it says HDD Password Frozen, and i can't seem to sort it, im begining to think this is one of the rare few that can't be fixed. What ive tried;

Changing the HDD,
Low Level Format the HDD,
Update the BIOS,
Pull the CMOS Battery for hours,

it is a Samsung r505 with Phoenix Bios, ive also looked into password crackers and they say the bios should give a hex code once the password has been entered wrong three times then you can generate an unlock code from that but its not even giving me that, i am certain that this is the customers that brought it in and it is not stolen.

The annoying this is i can install vista and it will boot from a cd no problem so if you let it boot from the cd but don't hit they key to boot from cd it will boot from the hard drive no problem, which obviously means that the hard drive is not locked at all and the bios has just disabled itself from booting from a HDD.

If any of you guys have ran into this before and sorted it id love to know how.

[i2omani]

Does it have Parallel port? i am sure your customer didn't say to you that this is whats wrong with the pc, they just mention that it wont boot!

Did you ask him/her if the know what is the password?

[i2omani]

Originally Posted by AliceKlaar

When working with the samsung nc10 we found that some of the phoenix bios implementations will set "hdd password frozen" when you attempt to access bios setup from after a windows "restart" as opposed to "shutdown" / coldboot.
Checkout samsung's generic bios help at http://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/...!1245758043629
<quote>
For security purposes, to set the HDD password, you must first shut down the PC, turn it back on, access the BIOS, and then select the Security menu.
If you are unable to change the HDD password or an HDD Password Frozen message appears when you enter the BIOS setup, turn the PC OFF then back on again. </qoute>

try to update the bios ( using the latest bios wph) using a flash drive or floppy Disk Drive (usb) i like the second option.

disconnect the BATT and unplug the adapter cord. and there is a key combination that you press n hold while inserting the power jack and it should boot and read from the floppy. But each laptop model is different.

here are some that might give you an idea:
Hold down: Fn+B or WinKey+B (On some new Acer Laptop's Fn+Esc and on some new Fujitsu Siemens Laptop's Fn+F)and while holding plug the computer in to power (do not plug the battery) and pres the power button.

[Haktar]

awesome thanks for your replies,.

its doesn't have a parallel port i2omani, although im interested to hear what i could have done if it did?

also the customer doesn't know about the password issue, they took it into a computer shop for a reformat and it came to me like this from the other computer shop

as for the cold boot and the key combinations ill try them tomorrow morning , although i know the Hdd Frozen Password error isn't because of 'warm booting' from windows because ive barley been in it but i have been restarting by ctrl+alt+delete which i assume would cause the same glitch?