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M11xR2 bios password not being requested at startup
Have had this problem out of the box. Despite setting a supervisor (and user) password, my M11xR2 has never asked me for the password prior to loading up Windows. It does request a password prior to going into bios settings.
Thanks in advance for assistance.
m3th0d1c4l
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October 7th, 2010 14:00
That is what the supervisor password is for. Its for security so no one changes your BIOS settings, etc.
Your user account password should be the one for locking access to your Windows account.
paulchinnz
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October 7th, 2010 17:00
Thanks for this. I may have explained my situation incorrectly.
I've always managed to set all my other computers up such that the following happens when I start up a computer:
1) I'm automatically asked for a password BEFORE the operating system has loaded. I think this is in the bios area. It's not to get into the bios settings, but to get the computer to start loading up the operating system.
2) I'm again asked for a password from the operating system itself to access the user account in the OS.
I have no problems getting step 2) to work on my M11xR2. However, I haven't yet figured out how to get it to do step 1) on the M11xR2 despite enabling the supervisor and user passwords in the bios settings. I've had no problems setting this up on other Dell computers (e.g. 640m, Dimension 8250, M15x).
paulchinnz
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October 14th, 2010 00:00
Anyone got ideas? In particular: other M11xR2 owners, what's been the experience with setting bios passwords?
paulchinnz
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October 22nd, 2010 19:00
Still no joy here. Chris-Dell: any thoughts here please?
DELL-Chris M
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October 22nd, 2010 20:00
Doesn't make sense since both the M15x and M11x have the same Supervisor and User Password settings.
Tesla1856
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October 22nd, 2010 23:00
I don't have an AW laptop, but I can't see it being any different from any other laptop running Win7.
Any passwords you set in the BIOS likely controls getting into the BIOS settings (Supervisor) and letting the laptop boot past the BIOS screen (User).
If you want a password on the Windows logon screen, you do that in the Control Panel/ User Accounts. However, be very careful changing your Windows password ... if you don't pay attention, you can get locked out and it's hard to hack a Windows Vista/Win7 account (it's not easy like XP).
There are certain networking features that don't work properly in a peer-to-peer (non-Domain Controller) environment, unless the logged in account has a proper password set on it.
Tesla1856
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October 22nd, 2010 23:00
Hmm ... I just read the thread again. Sorry, I think you know everything I just posted.
I'm sure you have tried setting them both in BIOS. Have you tried making them the same and also tried different? Try erasing (or disabling) the Supervisor password, and setting only the User password.
paulchinnz
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October 23rd, 2010 00:00
Thanks.
@Chris-Dell: that's what I thought, which is why it's frustrating. I thought maybe there was some issue with the A03 M11xR2 bios but looks like it's just me.
@Tesla1856: unfortunately I have tried all manner of combinations i.e. there're two password options (supervisor + user), have set: 1) only supervisor; 2) both the same; 3) both but different. Never been asked for a password yet when loading up Windows. I do get asked for a password to get into the bios though so something's working.
Anyway main thing from the responses is that my issue is not a M11xR2 generic issue, which is helpful.