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Friday, February 15, 2008

Dell Laptop BIOS Password Removal

I recently purchased a used Dell laptop from PropertyRoom.com, an online auction site. I knew when I bid on it that the laptop was missing some parts, including a hard drive and power cord, and that it was password locked. At this point it was just a very inexpensive doorstop, but I wanted to see if I could get it working with little additional expense.

Perhaps you have encountered a similar situation, where you lost or forgot a password, or you acquired a used laptop which is password protected. This is what I learned and what worked for me.


Background:

Most Dell laptops can have three layers of password protection which can be enabled. Each layer can have a unique password, but usually they will be the same.

  1. The first layer of protection is a BIOS password.
  2. If/when you get past that, there may be "a password authentication system". "You cannot access the data on this computer without the correct password. Please type in the primary or administrator password and press <Enter>." This is what many refer to as the "administrative password".
  3. Finally, there may be a "hard drive password". See HARD DISK LOCKS info below from PWCrack.com, who also sells a replacement security chip.

HARD DISK LOCKS
Some laptops provide a utility to lock a hard disk with a password. These passwords are not the same as BIOS passwords. Moving a locked hard disk to another machine will not unlock it, since the hard disk password is stored in the hard disk firmware and moves with the hard disk. Also, adding a new (unlocked) hard disk to a locked machine may cause the new hard disk to become locked. Also, note that hard disk lock passwords cannot be removed by reformatting the disk, fdisk or any other software procedure (since the disk will not allow and reads or writes to the disk, it cannot be reformatted.) Usually, the BIOS password and hard disk lock passwords are set the same by a user and we can recover the BIOS password directly from the laptop security chip (after it is removed from the system board.) However, it is possible that the BIOS password and hard disk lock passwords may be set different. In this case the BIOS password will not unlock the hard disk. You can test to determine if your hard disk is locked by attempting to access it in another laptop. Password Crackers, Inc. offers a service that can unlock most models of laptop hard disks. Detail are available on our hard disk page.


What worked for me:

After purchasing a power cord, I found, as the auction site had said, that the system was password protected, but I was able to bypass the passwords (yes, there were 2) fairly easily.

  1. My Dell had a BIOS password, which I was able to get past by removing the battery pack, then with the power cord plugged in, press and hold the power button for 5 minutes. This reset the BIOS password to none.
  2. I then encountered the administrator password! The "Latitude_MasterPW.exe" program (but not the original Latitude.exe mentioned below) was able to give me the correct administrator password, even though my laptop is not a Latitude, but an Inspiron. After this I was able to access and edit the BIOS setup, where I verified both the BIOS & Admin passwords were now set to none.
  3. My laptop came with no hard drive, so had no HD password, and this is not set in the BIOS anyway.

Now I just need to dig in my spare parts box to find an old notebook hard drive, and I should be able to make this old laptop functional.


Below are some other ideas which may or may not work for you:
(WARNING!!! I cannot verify that these will work, nor that they will not damage your system or any files you may have saved. Use at your own risk!)

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Try the backdoor password Dell.

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Dell Inspiron BIOS Password Recovery

Each Dell Inspiron has a master password which will clear the BIOS password. You can get this number by calling Dell Technical Support at (800) 624-9896. Do a transfer of ownership on the support web site first and when the info has changed to your name, then you can call Dell and have them give you a master password. Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Inspiron. If you were not the original owner of the Inspiron, Dell will transfer registration of the used Inspiron from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop. To transfer the registration of a used Dell Inspiron, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

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Dell Latitude BIOS Password Recovery (NOT for Inspiron models, but it may work)

Christophe Grenier has written a program that will calculate the master BIOS password for Dell Latitudes from the Service Tag number. That program is available at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~skynet/zips/latitude.exe.

If you cannot boot your Latitude to run this program, you can get the master password for your Dell by calling Dell Technical Support at (800) 624-9896. Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Latitude. If you were not the original owner of the Latitude, Dell will transfer registration of the used Latitude from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop. To transfer the registration of a used Dell Latitude, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

Usage:

  • From a command-prompt (DOS), enter:
  • latitude 5-digit_service_code
  • At bootup, on the password prompt screen, enter the generated password.
  • If you hit <Enter> it will bypass (but probably not disable) both the BIOS and Administrator Passwords at once, which also enables the BIOS configuration, at least for that session, but...
  • If you hold <Ctrl> and hit <Enter> TWICE it should disable (rather than bypass) the BIOS and Administrator Passwords, AND the HD password, if a HD password was enabled!

Note: "Latitude.exe" only works with the D-35B models, with 5-character service tags. If your service tag has more than 5 characters, you will have to use the "Latitude_MasterPW.exe" version. Latitude_MasterPW is a bit more user-friendly than the original, and works without having to use a Command Line or DOS window. The download is a zip file containing another zip file which has no extension, so you will need to rename it with the .zip extension. Inside that second zip are several files, including both "Latitude.exe" and "Latitude_MasterPW.exe". If your service tag number ends in D-35B, be sure to type in all the characters that are displayed on the "enter password" screen exactly as you see them, but without the # character. For example, "FAZNG73-D35B" or "FAZNG**-D35B", as the first screen for the BIOS password may show asterisks. If so, when you get past it, then you may get to the next screen, where the admin password prompt will show all the characters, and you will need to generate another password from that tag.

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Offline NT Password & Registry Editor freeware

  • Download the iso and burn it to a CD using your favorite program.
  • Insert the CD into the drive and boot your computer. You will then be brought to a screen in which you will be asked to download the drivers, select your partition, select your username, and change the password. THIS WILL ONLY ALLOW YOU TO CHANGE IT!

Note: The Windows administrative password has a 120 day freezing period. If you don't use it for that amount of time IT WILL LOCK YOU OUT.

This program will allow you to disable the password lock so make sure you select this option.

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CmosPwd - Password recovery freeware decrypts password stored in CMOS used to access BIOS SETUP. With CmosPwd, you can also backup, restore and erase/kill CMOS (probably won't work with most laptops, including Dell).

Works with the following BIOSes:

  • ACER/IBM BIOS
  • AMI BIOS
  • AMI WinBIOS 2.5
  • Award 4.5x/4.6x/6.0
  • Compaq (1992)
  • Compaq (New version)
  • IBM (PS/2, Activa, Thinkpad)
  • Packard Bell
  • Phoenix 1.00.09.AC0 (1994), a486 1.03, 1.04, 1.10 A03, 4.05 rev 1.02.943, 4.06 rev 1.13.1107
  • Phoenix 4 release 6 (User)
  • Gateway Solo - Phoenix 4.0 release 6
  • Toshiba
  • Zenith AMI

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Try removing the CMOS battery for a day or so; let the charge dissipate completely. This used to work on older bioses! Since the CMOS stores all the settings, removing/replacing the battery will reset the BIOS password.

Laptop computers use far more stringent methods of securing themselves than old desktops used to.

Removing the CMOS battery will NOT remove the passwords on a typical laptop. The passwords are stored in a NVRAM area, usually in the same chip that the BIOS is stored in. Simply removing power to this chip will NOT erase it.

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All BIOS passwords can be removed easily:

  1. Create a DOS system disk.
  2. Copy "debug" (this is a DOS command found in the "windows\command" directory) onto the system disk you created.
  3. Boot the machine with this disk.
  4. At the DOS prompt type: debug then hit <Enter>, and you will see a blinking dash.
  5. Type: o 70 2e then hit <Enter> (also seen: o 70 18).
  6. Type: o 71 ff then hit <Enter>.
  7. Type: q then hit <Enter>.
  8. Remove the floppy and reboot! Power the system off and on by unplugging and replugging the system into the power outlet.

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Most Laptops if you pull the system battery out, unplug it and hold the power down for about 5 minutes, the boot security will be overridden and you can boot the system. Popping the CMOS battery will do the same in many laptops. How do you think the fix your laptop when you send it for repairs? The ones with added security just had an IC with a jumper in a hard to see location (normally well hidden by something) or a reset button that is often RED or YELLOW.

Go get a static wrist strap, use it and crack that laptop open after removing the system battery. Pop the CMOS battery and hold the power down. If that does not work then start looking for jumpers and follow what I posted yesterday:

  • unplug your system.
  • pop the CMOS battery and pull a jumper pin (any jumper pin).
  • turn the system on with it unplugged and hold the power button in for about 1 min or more.
  • put both the CMOS battery and the jumper pin back and reboot.
  • if this did not work repeat with a different jumper pin.

If you just hit <Enter> long enough, some Dells will let you in.

The other thing you can do is get a bootable DOS disk with the newest BIOS version on it, flash the BIOS and poof -- no more password.


Info Sources:

Posted by at 11:58 AM
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