Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
2 Posts
0
1158
November 10th, 2003 15:00
Dell "Customer Support"....
Although I have been assured that my response here to Dell's technical support line will be deleted, I can only hope that censorship is not too great an issue, little does it matter as there is already enough speculation on other forums.
After receiving instruction to contact the Dell "Support" line, i found their customer service questionable, their demands irrelavent, and most of all, old fashioned.
After purchasing a Dell Latitude CPi-A from eBay, as I can not afford the prices of a new laptop, i have discovered a flaw - the BIOS is locked. This, to my dissatisfaction presented itself as a minor issue in the scheme of what was to come, however, all in due course.
After scanning through Dell's forums and other webs of links over the net, i have concluded that the only way to remove this password is to contact Dell themselves, although this is not the end of the matter...
After calling Dell I found myself thinking "hmm.. well that particular woman must be new.." So i thought about it, scanned a few more pages across the web, and to my disbelief - what she told me is actually their "technical support". I have detailed the conversation below:
Andy - "I have a second hand laptop here and i have been told that to unlock the Bios i need to contact yourselves for an unlocking method.
Tech - "This is correct, could you specify the Service tag number?
Andy - "Of course...(gives number)*
Tech - "And could you please tell me who the laptop is registered to?
Andy - "...No. I bought the laptop second hand"
Tech - "Oh, well i'm affraid that we cannot help you"
Andy - "Why not? In case the laptop has been stolen?"
Tech - "That's the one!"
Andy - "Well i've given you the service number - has this been reported stolen to you?"
Tech - "Unfortunatley, I cannot help you, Goodbye"
And that was the end of that... This could not pass as technical, or support. I feel outraged by their approach and manner to this situation, and until I feel happier, and they allow NEW registrations of laptops, I will continue exercise my right to air my views.
Ed C
2 Intern
•
3.2K Posts
0
November 10th, 2003 16:00
DELL-Corey
2.6K Posts
0
November 10th, 2003 18:00
Thank you for using Dell's Community Forum.
I am sorry for your dislike of that particular policy of ours.
The reason for that policy as you may realize is to protect the owners of our computers against theft. If Dell was to provide people ways to circumvent BIOS passwords then their systems would be much less secure and we would be doing a great disservice to them.
If you have rightfully purchased this computer and there is a BIOS password, I would first try contacting the previous owner for the password.
If you can’t get it that way, you will need to get with the previous owner and transfer the official ownership of this system to yourself and then technical support will be able to help you with your password problem.
andydrizen
2 Posts
0
November 10th, 2003 20:00
How does this prevent theft? It's not like someone who takes a laptop from an office or park says to themselves - "oh wait a minute, what model is that - let me get my guide out so i can check whether that has a bios configuration password" -- IF my laptop had been stolen, then it was useless anyway, the only thing i wanted to change was to enable the IR port and a few other minors.
Unfortunately, the gentleman i purchased this off had long ago lost contact with the person who sold this to him, so where does that leave me now? I could understand a boot password being overly protected like this, but a configure password? That doesnt stop somebody accessing the files...
Ed C
2 Intern
•
3.2K Posts
0
November 10th, 2003 21:00
If you can contact the person you purchased it from and he can remember who he got it from get that persons name and contact him. Have him contact Dell to transfer ownership to you.
What it sound like is a corperate laptop that had the BIOS configuration set and locked to what the corperation wanted and didn't want the user/s to be able to change it. Then from there it's any bodies guess how it got to your hands.