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really dodgy windows problem
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ipab
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RE: really dodgy windows problem
Well, to be completely honest with you, I've done it on several laptops to this date (damn irritating customers thinking they are clever by changing the windows password along with the bios password). HPs seem to be the ones that have them really easily accessible. As for Toshiba laptops, they tend to have the batteries soldered onto the boards. Not so sure about Dells but at this point, for him, it is worth a shot...

The last attempt would be to take the computer to a repair shop, they tend to have the tools (it's a hardware thing) that they can then use to reset the bios password. If you look online, you might find out how to make it, again, I'm not sure about dells, but it's an avenue worth looking into.
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04-03-2008 04:50 PM
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Jarrod
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O.P. RE: really dodgy windows problem
quote:
Originally posted by ipab
Well, to be completely honest with you, I've done it on several laptops to this date (damn irritating customers thinking they are clever by changing the windows password along with the bios password). HPs seem to be the ones that have them really easily accessible. As for Toshiba laptops, they tend to have the batteries soldered onto the boards. Not so sure about Dells but at this point, for him, it is worth a shot...

The last attempt would be to take the computer to a repair shop, they tend to have the tools (it's a hardware thing) that they can then use to reset the bios password. If you look online, you might find out how to make it, again, I'm not sure about dells, but it's an avenue worth looking into.

well he rekons the batteries are under some plastic shit and hard to get out, yeah i under stand the network boot and am on my way to watch the vid, the laptop has been configured to use PXE and i'm thinking i'll need to emulate the settings it already uses... he told me to day when i suggested a 2.5" replacement hdd he said it was actually 1.8" and used a connection which i can't quite remember the name of it but was u"something"...

and to be honest i don't think usb is in the boot sequence, we put a (working) external cd drive in there, it spins up as soon as we power it up then it just spins down

[edit:] after watching the youtube vid, they use vmware server, so i need server? or can i get away with workstation?

This post was edited on 04-04-2008 at 06:13 AM by Jarrod.

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04-04-2008 06:07 AM
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andrewdodd13
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RE: RE: really dodgy windows problem
quote:
Originally posted by Jarrod
well he rekons the batteries are under some plastic shit and hard to get out, yeah i under stand the network boot and am on my way to watch the vid, the laptop has been configured to use PXE and i'm thinking i'll need to emulate the settings it already uses... he told me to day when i suggested a 2.5" replacement hdd he said it was actually 1.8" and used a connection which i can't quite remember the name of it but was u"something"...

and to be honest i don't think usb is in the boot sequence, we put a (working) external cd drive in there, it spins up as soon as we power it up then it just spins down

[edit:] after watching the youtube vid, they use vmware server, so i need server? or can i get away with workstation?
3 things:

1) You can get an external 1.8" USB enclosure off Amazon, I paid £13 for mine when my Zen Touch died. Worked a treat - until the hard drive died about 3 months later.

2) VMWare Workstation is actually better than VMWare Server. VMWare Server is free, and does not support sharing folders. Apart from that, there's negligible difference. (Except for the fact that Server is 100mb dl, WS is around 300).

3) It seems odd that USB wouldn't be in the boot sequence. However this may mean USB flash drive, there may be other options for USB-CD, USB-FDD either (I know my desktop has these at least).

Something else just came to mind... some laptops you can press <Esc> when it's booting, this will allow you to "change" the boot order. Even if there's a password, doing so will generally let you press enter on a device and let you boot straight to that. It only works for devices activate in the BIOS, though.
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04-04-2008 08:47 AM
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Jesus
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RE: really dodgy windows problem
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
Something else just came to mind... some laptops you can press <Esc> when it's booting, this will allow you to "change" the boot order. Even if there's a password, doing so will generally let you press enter on a device and let you boot straight to that. It only works for devices activate in the BIOS, though.
The key to press for the boot menu depends on the laptop manufacturer. Some may use Esc, my MSI uses F11, and a bit of googling taught me Dell seems to use F12.
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04-04-2008 11:16 AM
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Jarrod
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O.P. RE: RE: RE: really dodgy windows problem
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
quote:
Originally posted by Jarrod
well he rekons the batteries are under some plastic shit and hard to get out, yeah i under stand the network boot and am on my way to watch the vid, the laptop has been configured to use PXE and i'm thinking i'll need to emulate the settings it already uses... he told me to day when i suggested a 2.5" replacement hdd he said it was actually 1.8" and used a connection which i can't quite remember the name of it but was u"something"...

and to be honest i don't think usb is in the boot sequence, we put a (working) external cd drive in there, it spins up as soon as we power it up then it just spins down

[edit:] after watching the youtube vid, they use vmware server, so i need server? or can i get away with workstation?
3 things:

1) You can get an external 1.8" USB enclosure off Amazon, I paid £13 for mine when my Zen Touch died. Worked a treat - until the hard drive died about 3 months later.

2) VMWare Workstation is actually better than VMWare Server. VMWare Server is free, and does not support sharing folders. Apart from that, there's negligible difference. (Except for the fact that Server is 100mb dl, WS is around 300).

3) It seems odd that USB wouldn't be in the boot sequence. However this may mean USB flash drive, there may be other options for USB-CD, USB-FDD either (I know my desktop has these at least).

Something else just came to mind... some laptops you can press <Esc> when it's booting, this will allow you to "change" the boot order. Even if there's a password, doing so will generally let you press enter on a device and let you boot straight to that. It only works for devices activate in the BIOS, though.

might try the keypress, also I know for sure it doesn't boot off the usb-cd even if we force it by removing all other boot devices

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04-04-2008 11:39 AM
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RE: really dodgy windows problem
The correct password reset methods for laptops are very model specific (e.g. short two points on the main board somewhere, often accessible through the memory slot cover or by removing the keyboard), are described in the service manuals, and most service manuals are on the net.  It would help to know what brand and model this laptop is.

Failing that, by far the easiest thing to do would be to remove the hard drive, connect it to another computer and use ntpasswd to reset the Windows administrator password.  Hard drives in laptops are designed to be easily removed -- often just one or two screws securing a slide tray.  Once you can get into Windows, you can find some software to reset the BIOS password.

You can put the drive in another laptop for resetting the password, or temporarily connect it to a desktop.  If the laptop's hard drive is IDE, it will need an adapter to connect it to a desktop (2.5" IDE drives use a different connector).  If it is SATA, it should be fine the way it is.

On a final note, you might want to have a chat with your friend about buying stolen goods.  That's the usual scenario where these kinds of situations come up.  It's hard to imagine any reason why a former owner selling his own laptop would refuse to remove or disclose passwords -- the thing is probably hot and the seller won't help you because he doesn't know.
04-04-2008 01:45 PM
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Jarrod
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O.P. RE: RE: really dodgy windows problem
quote:
Originally posted by Adeptus
The correct password reset methods for laptops are very model specific (e.g. short two points on the main board somewhere, often accessible through the memory slot cover or by removing the keyboard), are described in the service manuals, and most service manuals are on the net.  It would help to know what brand and model this laptop is.

Failing that, by far the easiest thing to do would be to remove the hard drive, connect it to another computer and use ntpasswd to reset the Windows administrator password.  Hard drives in laptops are designed to be easily removed -- often just one or two screws securing a slide tray.  Once you can get into Windows, you can find some software to reset the BIOS password.

You can put the drive in another laptop for resetting the password, or temporarily connect it to a desktop.  If the laptop's hard drive is IDE, it will need an adapter to connect it to a desktop (2.5" IDE drives use a different connector).  If it is SATA, it should be fine the way it is.

On a final note, you might want to have a chat with your friend about buying stolen goods.  That's the usual scenario where these kinds of situations come up.  It's hard to imagine any reason why a former owner selling his own laptop would refuse to remove or disclose passwords -- the thing is probably hot and the seller won't help you because he doesn't know.

most of this has already been said, i just found the model number, it's a dell latitude d430 d series . it's an ex-university laptop and yes it is likely stolen.

This post was edited on 04-04-2008 at 08:51 PM by Jarrod.

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04-04-2008 08:44 PM
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