Dell Latitude x300 HD password problem

positivenote

Hi guys,
im after getting a second hand laptop for next to nothing and when i turned it on before XP launchs its asking me for a HD password. Ive tried to launch through the F2 option when powering up but im being asked for a password again. Is there anyway i can just avoid this password or even uninstalll or clear the whole machine and start if off again as a 'blank canvas' ?
Thanks a bunch... by the way it doesnt appear to have a disk drive ...

Martyr

i'm assuming it isn't stolen, but i doubt you'll get an answer soon...

depending on the setup, the password is usually stored in an eeprom on the motherboard.
you can try reading it out manually by desoldering the chip and reading out the contents, with an eeprom programmer.

or.. obtain the datasheet to the eeprom and develop a hardware interface which captures the code to a dumb terminal so you can read it while the system starts.(tricky without electronics experience)

you could replace the board, or depending on the setup, simply replace the drive..(easiest)

positivenote

thanks... its not stolen. I have been advised that if i take out the battery and the small 'watch' size battery this could do it, so im gonna give that a go..
Cheers again

Martyr

taking out the battery on older laptops may have worked.
the actual code is in an EEPROM, it doesn't rely on power to store its information.
you might be able to 'short' some pins on it and erase information.
if you can prove you own the laptop, dell would probably remove it.

find out what eeproms are on the mobo,and search for these online.

10-10-20

Prove legal ownership of the unit to Dell and they may be able to assist.
You may need to contact the original owner to get this done, so while you are at it, you may as well ask him for the password.

Capt'n Midnight

laptops are highly thievable so it's been about 15 years since you could reset the password by removing the battery

can you get in to the BIOS ?

if the password is on the drive then your only option is that some drives allow you to do a low level wipe or just buy a new drive

positivenote

thanks guys

syklops

I had a dell x1 with the same problem, you can short 2 pins on the eeprom with a paper clip and it solves the problem. The name of the chip escapes me, but it can be done.

If you can prove you own go to dell. If you can not prove to them that you own it, pm me.

SouperComputer

If it is actually a HD PW(as you said in your thread), then you are better off replacing the drive, its not worth the effort or expense TBH. Get a nice new drive, start afresh. You cant access the drive in any practical way, shape or form it it has a PW, this includes trying to format it.

BIOS PW, as said above you can generally clear it if you have a decent understanding of circuitry. The days of just pulling the CMOS battery in a laptop went away for most of them quite some time ago.

johnjones

I'm having the same, and came pn a site explaining what chip and how to....? i'm willing to try the paperclip, (le methode francaise), seeing aa I
was given the lappy for nix.
prob diagram doea not match my, lat. c840. the chip to go for is ,he says, is 24CO2, i have looked for a schematic with no joy, any pointers?

Capt'n Midnight

johnjones wrote: »

I'm having the same, and came pn a site explaining what chip and how to....? i'm willing to try the paperclip, (le methode francaise), seeing aa I
was given the lappy for nix.
prob diagram doea not match my, lat. c840. the chip to go for is ,he says, is 24CO2, i have looked for a schematic with no joy, any pointers?

most hard drives store the password on the platter so shorting chips or replacing the pcb or upgrading firmeware probably won't work.

And shorting that stopped working during the C series Latitudes (ie not work on c640) , never mind the D series

Bob.

okay, if its definatley not your bios password, try using a boot cd (linux live or a normal windows os cd) , format the drive, and it might work, this is assuming the password is actually for the hdd.

im thinking it could be bios though, if you dont wanna take apart your lappy google for default or master bios passwords for whatever cmos chip you have, because a hell of a lot of them have default passwords....

or if your taking out the hdd, slave it onto another computer, then format it! only thing is you need a special sata cable for laptop hdd's if your slaving it to a desktop, but you can get dem easy on ebay, search for sata to usb...

johnjones

I have formatted the drive in situ, reinstalled xp.(ahem) everything worked but admin codes stayed in place, also got msg. NTFL? missing"!
reinstalled xp same drive on a different lappy. all worked fine.
When I put the drive back into problem lappy, NTFL missing.l
At that , it worked but the "window" only took up a 6th of thre entire, small (12") screen. I tried changing screen resolution, no joy.
Took the mother apart last night, stupid, but it felt good!
Now it wont power up! I'm not surprised really.
So now, For Me, it is a philosophical Q. A medium sized sudoku.
I'll have a look at that last post agin tho...

Cantab.

Average Joe wrote: »

i'm assuming it isn't stolen, but i doubt you'll get an answer soon...

depending on the setup, the password is usually stored in an eeprom on the motherboard.
you can try reading it out manually by desoldering the chip and reading out the contents, with an eeprom programmer.

or.. obtain the datasheet to the eeprom and develop a hardware interface which captures the code to a dumb terminal so you can read it while the system starts.(tricky without electronics experience)

you could replace the board, or depending on the setup, simply replace the drive..(easiest)

Or simply take out the lithium coin cell battery and pop it back in. This works on most motherboards.

Never tried it on a laptop myself. I've never opened one and I don't even know if they have BIOS chips like most desktop machines.

10-10-20

That don't work with NVRAM - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVRAM
By it's nature, it does not need a charge to refresh the array.

Cantab.

10-10-20 wrote: »

That don't work with NVRAM - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVRAM
By it's nature, it does not need a charge to refresh the array.

So laptops use non-volatile RAM for the BIOS then?

10-10-20

Well, a Flash EEPROM to be specific, usually 2 to 4MB.

Martyr

Or simply take out the lithium coin cell battery and pop it back in.

i had a similar problem with an ibm laptop, the cheapest option was to replace the drive.

if you didn't have this option, and all you could do is replace motherboard..if that wasn't available, then you could read out the contents of the eeprom.

if you look at the motherboard, you'll find it somewhere..usually they are made by ATMEL.
take down the model number and do a search online, if you can, obtain a datasheet.

then approach someone with experience in micro-electronics, who could build interface for it, or just buy eeprom programmer and hot air iron for taking eeprom off the board..heck, its alot of hassle,but it can be done.

Capt'n Midnight

out of curiousity if you irriadiate the mother board with some sort of gamma source or x-rays enough to change the contents of the eeprom so it fails it's checksum on the next boot, would it then reset to defaults and remove the password or not ?

Cantab.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

out of curiousity if you irriadiate the mother board with some sort of gamma source or x-rays enough to change the contents of the eeprom so it fails it's checksum on the next boot, would it then reset to defaults and remove the password or not ?

I take it you're in the running for 20,000 posts status?

10-10-20

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

out of curiousity if you irriadiate the mother board with some sort of gamma source or x-rays enough to change the contents of the eeprom so it fails it's checksum on the next boot, would it then reset to defaults and remove the password or not ?

Nope, likely you'll corrupt the whole NVRAM and the system will fail to post.

Capt'n Midnight

10-10-20 wrote: »

Nope, likely you'll corrupt the whole NVRAM and the system will fail to post.

normally that would be a checksum error and option to load defaults or go into setup, just wondering if the BIOS password is checksumed or if it would become something corrupted to an unknowable one