You will need to call Dell to get the master password. If your brother has not transferred ownership to you he will need to do that or use all his info to prove ownership. If for some reason he is not the original owner and the ownership was not transferred to him you are out of luck.
It's not a problem now - I pulled the CMOS battery to reset the machine. However, I believe there is a flaw in the BIOS, that accepts blank passwords, but won't let you enter them to provide access.
It was annoying, because I had the password originally. I was just trying to remove it.
At the top of this forum is a sticky post about cercumventing passwords. Yes it's the standard line because to do otherwise would be going against the rules of this forum.
You miss my point. I saw the sticky - but what I was trying to raise was what I believe is a bug in the password BIOS area.
This bug has hit me, and would have caused me to jump through all of those Dell ownership hoops through no fault of my own, had I not found a workaround.
This quoting of a standard line on ANY issue regarding BIOS password is masking other problems. And it seems to me that the standard line is inconveniencing far more genuine users of Dell products (even second-hand) than it is thieves who have stolen laptops.
No I don't believe I missed the point acording to the sticky post and yes there is a bug in the BIOS password feature/function and has been reported many times on these boards. It seems to happen at any give moment, with a BIOS update or when the system battery starts to die or at any time if feels like it. Dell refuses to address the problem other than to suggest a motherboard change which if the notebook is out of warranty can cost big bucks, especially if you have Dell do it. I also hear IBM has a similar problem where as if for some reason you foget the password there is nothing anybody can do other than changing the motherboard, not even IBM. They scrap the old board. I'm just waiting for 1 of my 3 Dell notebooks to do this. I have never set a password on/in any part of the BIOS. But from some of the post it doesn't really matter if you have ever or never set a password. One day it boots to a password screen and no matter what you do it will either not boot or let you make changes to the BIOS and the Dell master password doesn't even work.
Glad to hear you got it fixed and working. I would look at changing out the system (CMOS) battery at the earilest possible time.
My father have a problem like this, he has update the BIOS from his Latitude C400, and now the computer ask for passorwd and my father don't have this password!
He bought this computer at his work, and in the documentation don't say anything about this password, and the network administrator at his work say that they don't have any password!
What can my father do for it??
He can't send a mail to Dell technical help, because they wan't a serial number, and the computer don't start so he can't find the serial number of the computer!!
If he can't find any solution within 5 days, he will return the C400 at his work and never buy a dell computer, it's to complicated for second hand selling!!
If someone have any idea, to find the serial number of it's computer so he can contact Dell Technical service, it could be a ""good step to forward""??
There is no CMOS battery that you can remove. Not only that, but the passwords are not stored in any volatile memory, so removing any/all batteries does nothing to circumvent the password.
Perhaps there is an error in the BIOS version you have, or perhaps there was some other ill-timed event that made it appear that whatever you did caused the password to be erased. In fact, if you erased it in SETUP as you say, then it *was* erased in setup
Get the Service Tag from the white strip on the bottom of the laptop and use it when you contact Dell. For those of you who want to disconnect the CMOS battery, there is a small 2-wire white plug between the Touch pad and the keyboard connectors which is the connection for that battery. The battery lies under the Palmrest on the left side and is a multiple battery unit in a green plastic sleeve.
Well, you were wrong about the CMOS Battery, and you misunderstood these people's problem. It is not a set password that is the problem, but the request for a nonexistent one. On Occasion, disconnecting that battery and leaving it that way for a while has cleared that problem. It did so for me on one occasion.
Ed C
2 Intern
•
3.2K Posts
0
February 20th, 2004 22:00
DBCohen
4 Posts
0
February 21st, 2004 06:00
Hmmm.. I know that is the standard line.
It's not a problem now - I pulled the CMOS battery to reset the machine. However, I believe there is a flaw in the BIOS, that accepts blank passwords, but won't let you enter them to provide access.
It was annoying, because I had the password originally. I was just trying to remove it.
Ed C
2 Intern
•
3.2K Posts
0
February 21st, 2004 08:00
DBCohen
4 Posts
0
February 21st, 2004 09:00
Ed,
You miss my point. I saw the sticky - but what I was trying to raise was what I believe is a bug in the password BIOS area.
This bug has hit me, and would have caused me to jump through all of those Dell ownership hoops through no fault of my own, had I not found a workaround.
This quoting of a standard line on ANY issue regarding BIOS password is masking other problems. And it seems to me that the standard line is inconveniencing far more genuine users of Dell products (even second-hand) than it is thieves who have stolen laptops.
David.
Ed C
2 Intern
•
3.2K Posts
0
February 21st, 2004 12:00
No I don't believe I missed the point acording to the sticky post and yes there is a bug in the BIOS password feature/function and has been reported many times on these boards. It seems to happen at any give moment, with a BIOS update or when the system battery starts to die or at any time if feels like it. Dell refuses to address the problem other than to suggest a motherboard change which if the notebook is out of warranty can cost big bucks, especially if you have Dell do it. I also hear IBM has a similar problem where as if for some reason you foget the password there is nothing anybody can do other than changing the motherboard, not even IBM. They scrap the old board. I'm just waiting for 1 of my 3 Dell notebooks to do this. I have never set a password on/in any part of the BIOS. But from some of the post it doesn't really matter if you have ever or never set a password. One day it boots to a password screen and no matter what you do it will either not boot or let you make changes to the BIOS and the Dell master password doesn't even work.
Glad to hear you got it fixed and working. I would look at changing out the system (CMOS) battery at the earilest possible time.
DBCohen
4 Posts
0
February 21st, 2004 13:00
Very interesting. I guess its cheaper to lose a few customers, and charge some high repair fees, than to fix the problem.
I love big corporates...
Flylio
1 Message
0
February 23rd, 2004 14:00
Hello,
(sorry for my bad english)
My father have a problem like this, he has update the BIOS from his Latitude C400, and now the computer ask for passorwd and my father don't have this password!
He bought this computer at his work, and in the documentation don't say anything about this password, and the network administrator at his work say that they don't have any password!
What can my father do for it??
He can't send a mail to Dell technical help, because they wan't a serial number, and the computer don't start so he can't find the serial number of the computer!!
If he can't find any solution within 5 days, he will return the C400 at his work and never buy a dell computer, it's to complicated for second hand selling!!
If someone have any idea, to find the serial number of it's computer so he can contact Dell Technical service, it could be a ""good step to forward""??
Thank you!
PortableBIOSGuy
4 Posts
0
February 23rd, 2004 15:00
There is no CMOS battery that you can remove. Not only that, but the passwords are not stored in any volatile memory, so removing any/all batteries does nothing to circumvent the password.
Perhaps there is an error in the BIOS version you have, or perhaps there was some other ill-timed event that made it appear that whatever you did caused the password to be erased. In fact, if you erased it in SETUP as you say, then it *was* erased in setup
leduke30
2 Intern
•
4K Posts
0
February 23rd, 2004 18:00
Get the Service Tag from the white strip on the bottom of the laptop and use it when you contact Dell. For those of you who want to disconnect the CMOS battery, there is a small 2-wire white plug between the Touch pad and the keyboard connectors which is the connection for that battery. The battery lies under the Palmrest on the left side and is a multiple battery unit in a green plastic sleeve.
PortableBIOSGuy
4 Posts
0
February 24th, 2004 00:00
leduke30
2 Intern
•
4K Posts
0
February 24th, 2004 02:00