Dell BIOS Password Recovery

[Scooter]

Ok... I have preached again and again about buying hardware on EBay. I won't every buy anything electronic there, and I tell my freinds not to. A freind of mine bought a Dell Inspirion 3800 Notebook. It is nice looking... PIII, good shape, clean, immaculate screen. The only thing is that is has a BIOS password and is useless. DELL is of no help. While the machine is still under warranty, the "tittle" wasn't transfered to my friend as a new owner, and DELL needs the information of the registered owner to even BEGIN any techsupport, no less help with the password recovery. My freind tried again and again to email the guy who sold it, but he has ofcourse disappeared from the face of the earth. If there is anyone out there that can help me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

--Scott

[MacGyver]

Two words: you're screwed. The laptop is probably stolen.

[Scooter]

I was afraid I was going to hear that... I told him not to do it. He paid like $600 + Shipping too. That's a crying shame...

[DonJ]

Just for grins, you might check out System Setup Program for your Inspiron 3800. It lists keystrokes that you need to enter System Setup. It doesn't mention anything about passwords except for System Security and HDD passwords...hopefully, you'll be able to disable them. Also, notice the links on the left-hand side of that webpage for Configuration, Documentation, etc.
Let us know if this helps you out...Good Luck!

[Scooter]

Thanks for the help, but the password comes up before anything: Before any disk activity, before you can even get into the bios. I can't boot up from a floppy either.

[kvnbrk]

Most laptops are like desktops. Removing the cmos battery will reset the defaults, including the password. Not all laptops work that way. Some of the IBMs I know must be sent off, but it may be worth a try. The bad part of that is on the Inspiron, you have to take it apart to get to the battery. Might be worth a shot.

Kevin

[Scooter]

Ok... I can take a DELL laptop apart and put it together again with one hand tied behind my back. The only thing is, most laptops aren't using CMOS batteries anymore, they use real time clocks, and the circuitry is integrated onto the motherboard, or in this case, the EEPROM of the removable CPU card. The EEPROM does not require any voltage (it is non volatile) to retain information, so it doesn't matter if all the juice is drained out of the RTC, it will still retain the password. Someone has already suggested to buy a new CPU card... but... duh... it would probably be near the cost if not more than the cost of an entirely new laptop.

[Archer]

Heres a link to a site that offeres master passwords for DELL laptops with an ID Tag which ends in D35B for $22 or a tip on replacing the EEPROM to remove the passwords and service tag along with new chip ordering service for $40.

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/thepiercer4u/index.html