Enter password help

AdamScott85

AdamScott85

AdamScott85

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Joined
7 May 2016
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739
Hi guys, so my wifes nursery has been donated some old computer towers from a local school that is closing down. They have asked me if I can get them working and maybe install windows, usually not a problem and I won't be charging them as it's where she works. The problem is, when I boot all of them up, I try to enter the bios and I get a blue box saying "enter password". The problem is, the school has shut down and we have no way of getting the password. I tried clearing the CMOS, tried the hard drive in another pc and its fine, tried booting from a pendrive OS no luck. This system password is blocking access for every tower and I am stumped. Also to add, none of them actually boot up and all of the drives have been wiped already so there is no luck with getting past post. Also no bootable devices will get past post either.

Any ideas guys please ?
 
mattyfez said:
When you say cleared the cmos, have you removed the battery for 5 mins before retrying? With no mains cable plugged into the pc.
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Yeah mate, 10 minutes i left it for. Very strange this, I tried that on all the towers and its the same with them all. I have fixed hundreds of computers but these are just being odd. I am thinking it's something to do with the school security they put on it, but I would have thought clearing the cmos would have removed that.
 
mattyfez said:
Im stumped then.. maybe unplug the psu from the mobo to be sure there's no residual power supply, wait 5 mins.
If they are ex school pc's they may have some kinda locked BIOS, but I can't imagine that's the case, if it is then the mobos are worthless and you'll just have a bunch of spare cpu's and ram sticks.
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Yeah it could be looking that way, I am gonna try and get the nursery to contact someone for the password tomorrow, if that gets nowhere, these may just be for the junk pile.
 
BinnsY said:
If they were setup properly then the BIOS will be set with HDD as the first (or possibly only) boot option and passwords set to prevent the BIOS from being entered. This will probably stop you from being able to flash them (as you wont be able to boot from another device) or enter the BIOS to change the order.

If they are built by someone like HP / Dell / Lenovo within the last 5 years or so you will likely find that removing the battery etc will simply not remove the password as with security improvements it writes to an area of memory that isn't wiped due to lack of power. When you think about it it's actually quite sensible as the password was originally intended to stop exactly what you are trying to do.

I would suggest your easiest way would be to get your Wife to get in touch with the person who donated them and ask them to contact the old IT team for the BIOS password.
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They are older than 5 years. Tried everything and no luck. Gonna check for markings on the board now as above post , i will post back mate.
 
A few images, all I can make out is Intel. The tower make is Stone on all of them.

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BinnsY said:
Yea, even older than that it wouldn't surprise me. When you actually think about it the fact you could ever clear a BIOS password simply be removing the battery was laughable as it completely negates the point of the password. Manufacturers must have caught onto this as I know most modern PC's this doesn't work and the 5 year time frame was something of an estimate based on the PC's I deal with at work.

I honestly think your easiest way would simply be to ask if anyone can get hold of the old IT people in the first instance. If they were doing their job correctly the BIOS password wouldn't match any domain passwords or anything else that could still be in use and it will be fine to give out.
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Yeah mate that is the next thing now, I am gonna goto the nursery tomorrow and do everything I can to get hold of someone from the school that knows the password. It is crazy that removing the battery isn't working and you can't get anywhere, but like you say the fact you can remove the battery to clear the cmos on some does make passwords pointless.
 
Update with this, turns out by pressing enter on the password it does enter bios haha, although everything that I need to get to is greyed out, so I think the actual password needs to be entered. Other than getting the password, is there another way to approach this?
 
Ok guys I managed to sort it out luckily. Got into the bios by pressing enter, it was all greyed out but I managed to get the motherboards actual name, which oddly enough isn't mentioned anywhere on the motherboard!. Then found the manual online, did the jumper and this time it has worked. So looks like the 8 of these can be done afterall, thank god. Cheers for all the help guys.
 
Well, I thought there was a happy ending guys but....turns out I can't get them to boot from a pen drive! Setit up in the bios as usual, tried with UEFI on and off, what happens is I get a flashing underscore on the screen when booting from USB. I can't boot from DVD drive as they come have one and plus I don't have any. I have tried 2 different pen drives with 2 different images and neither are working. What a pain

Gonna try another image now.
 
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