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ALHDellUser
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April 16th, 2023 23:00
Locked BIOS
BIOS 1.14.1
I'm a resident of a retirement village and after one of our residents passed away, his wife decided to use his laptop but he hadn't documented the password. She brought this to me because I can help with simple IT problems. From what she knows, this is an ex-government laptop purchased from somewhere. Anyway, I said I would load up a fresh copy of windows to which she can create her own password. Then I find that I can't set it to boot from a USB because the BIOS is locked. I guess he never had to go to the BIOS or he set it and didn't document the setting. She is a pensioner and can't afford another PC, so how can this be resolved?
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Posted April 17th, 2023 05:00
Unfortunately the only way to unlock the BIOS is to call Dell tech support and after confirming that she is the registered owner, Dell tech support will help her access the BIOS. Have you tried to use the one time boot menu by tapping F12 immediately at boot. If you are able to access that menu, you can select the USB to boot from.
I am not a Dell employee...I am forum volunteer
Serious work on an E5430 and constantly building and working on an i5-6500 Desktop
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Posted April 17th, 2023 19:00
Thank you for the response but the Boot lock prevents the F12 one-time boot from varying from the given setup. I'll try contacting Dell Tech support but I don't know how she can prove ownership.
ALHDellUser
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Posted April 19th, 2023 21:00
Called Dell Support and they unlocked the BIOS. All OK!!