laptop bios bug?

kalel76

hi all im looking for help with a laptop . its a dell inspiron 1525 and im stuck on the boot screen. it says i need an administrator password. it belonged to a friend of mine and i transfered ownership to me so dell want over 50 quid appearantly for the "master" password. the problem is i got it from ebay cheaper and it wont work. it still says invalid password. the guy on ebay says that it has a bios bug and that 5% of laptops get this. has anyody ever heard of this? , thanks in advance for any advice.

JonathanAnon

Sorry can you just clarify... This password prompt is on the BIOS screen and NOT on the Windows login?

ScumLord

kalel76 wrote: »

hi all im looking for help with a laptop . its a dell inspiron 1525 and im stuck on the boot screen. it says i need an administrator password. it belonged to a friend of mine and i transfered ownership to me so dell want over 50 quid appearantly for the "master" password. the problem is i got it from ebay cheaper and it wont work. it still says invalid password. the guy on ebay says that it has a bios bug and that 5% of laptops get this. has anyody ever heard of this? , thanks in advance for any advice.

If there's a master password I'd expect it to be out there on the net somewhere. With a desktop you could just reset the bios using a jumper switch on the motherboard you should be able to do the same with a laptop.

JonathanAnon

The 1525 is a laptop from what I remember.. There is a procedure for BIOS password reset by opening the laptop, but it seems to be a bit tricky...

scotty_irish

ScumLord wrote: »

If there's a master password I'd expect it to be out there on the net somewhere. With a desktop you could just reset the bios using a jumper switch on the motherboard you should be able to do the same with a laptop.

the equivalent of doing that is to remove the battery and then the system battery for ten minutes (which may be difficult to locate and disconnect in a laptop) but if you search for the maintenance manual for your model if should have detailed instructions on how to do it.

kalel76

hiya, yep sorry inspiron 1525 laptop. i already removed the cmos battery for a couple of hours. still the same. it just says invalid password

the_syco

kalel76 wrote: »

till the same. it just says invalid password

Check the manual. On some systems there's a circuit that you must short with a screwdriver to reset the password...

kalel76

any ideas why it wont accept my master reset code? any idea what i need to short?

steveon

Can you get in windows? If so try do a bios update which you will find in dells website.

IF not then remove the laptop battery,

then remove the cmos battery, it will often take a couple of hrs best to leave overnight for the laptop to completely drain, then turn it on without the batterys put back in and hopefully it will blank everything, then return the cmos battery and switch on and hopefully pressing f2 will get you in.

Greyfoot

Have you tried Dell`s failsafe password yet? It is Dell

Greyfoot

Taken from a website here:

"For Award BIOS’ try these backdoor passwords:

AWARD_SW
j262
HLT
SER
SKY_FOX
BIOSTAR
ALFAROME
Lkwpeter
j256
AWARD?SW
LKWPETER
syxz
ALLy
589589
589721
awkward
CONCAT
d8on
CONDO
j64
szyx


For AMI BIOS’ try these backdoor passwords:

AMI
BIOS
PASSWORD
HEWITT RAND
AMI?SW
AMI_SW
LKWPETER
A.M.I.
CONDO


For PHOENIX BIOS’ try this backdoor password:

phoenix"

Worth a shot...;)