[SOLVED] BIOS setup lock

[Kirby]

I have a Dell Inspiron 3475 AI0 with a setup lock on the BIOS. It lets you get into the BIOS, but won't let you change anything until you enter the unlock code. I know a guy who generates these codes cheap, so that's no problem. The problem is that I've already unlocked it twice and it keeps coming back, generating a new unlock code each time, meaning I have to pay every time I want to unlock it.

The BIOS shows no passwords set for Administrator, System or HDD. There is an "asset tag" setting. I went into that the last time, then just hit ESC to get right back out. At that point the setup lock was gone. I turned it off, turned it back on, went straight back into the BIOS and all was well. But then I tried to let Windows boot and it did what it had been doing, logging straight in with the Administrator account, which takes forever, and then it's never responsive. I can't even boot from a flash drive or even the Windows repair. If I cut power 3 times as it's booting it just goes into a Dell hardware test, which seems to test only memory.

They had problems with the computer for 3 months and just didn't use it and finally brought it into me yesterday. Of course, the warranty expired 2 weeks ago. Any ideas how to remove this permanently once I get it unlocked again?

 

[frase]

Have had experience with other BIOS recovery, not Hell though. You can try this - you probably had already.
shorturl.at/flEKN

You may need to contact Dell and provide serial #


Best of luck!

 

[Larry Sabo]

shorturl.at/flEKN

Doesn't work for me -- just provides a dialogue box into which I should enter a long URL to be shortened.

 

[Porthos]

Doesn't work for me -- just provides a dialogue box into which I should enter a long URL to be shortened.

https://www.dell.com/support/articl...r-clear-the-nvram-on-your-dell-system?lang=en

 

[Larry Sabo]

Weird; I went to that page, copied the URL, then entered it in the aforementioned dialogue box and got this URL, which works properly when I enter it in a new tab URL field: shorturl.at/bsxS5.

 

[frase]

No Idea Larry sorry

 

[jack-ant]

My thoughts include updating bios to the latest version and checking the CMOS battery.

Sent from my VKY-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Kirby]

I'm an idiot. The issue was that this computer had an Administrator BIOS password on it. This meant you could get into the BIOS for some reason, but most of the settings were locked. So I paid a guy to get me the code to unlock the settings. The problem is that, after this, it still had an Administrator password on it. The unlock code that worked to unlock the BIOS settings did not work as the Administrator password to remove the Administrator password. When I rebooted, the BIOS was locked again and the code had changed.

I worked on this for a couple of days. The guy at http://biospassword.tech was VERY helpful, giving me the code 2 more times (and it only cost $10 the first time). But I still couldn't remove the Admin password. I found some info on resetting the password with a BIOS update (from 1.10 to 1.70) BUT the BIOS update wanted the password before it would install, so that didn't work.

I finally opened it up (which I should have done first) and saw the PW Reset jumper, which removed the password so I could update the BIOS. Skip a step and turn 5 minutes of a simple fix into 2 days of hard, fruitless work, I guess. Lesson learned.