Hp Bios Master Password

[Nell Barreto]

Thereare more details to my personal use case, which are described in Does HDD password in BIOS affect multiple drives equally?. But here I would like to focus on the main question about master password vs user password, so it will help other people which might not have the same use case in all details.

Still I stand by my report that the BIOS did NOT allow me to use the master pw to remove the user pw. Only hdparm was able to do this. I assume that technically this would be possible in BIOS, just my BIOS sucks.

If this does not work, Call back HP and provide them the case number that has been given to you and mention that the smc file is unable to remove the password. They may have to replace the system board of your PC.

GUy i bought this one , has another one , and that another one has the same problem . So this looks like BIOS microcode issue, that was there from the factory. I believe case is resolved, topic can be closed.

Hello. i have the same problem with a hp 2570p that i have bought from the internet whitout cdrom and hdd. I need Bios administrator password to enter into the bios. help me please to resolve my problem.

I must inform you that these services are not endorsed by HP, and that HP is not responsible for any damage that may arise to your system by using these services. Please be aware that you do this at your own risk.

Problem is, I went into bios menu with the goal of removing the password so my machine would boot right to windows menu, and that's where the trouble began. I stupidly (so maybe I am an idiot after all) clicked the first google link which advised you just need to enter your old password then click enter and the bios menu will prompt you to "disable" or make "inactive" the administrator password "inactive". The bios menu even reflected that i'd change the admin password from "active" to "inactive" (or something like that - I can't remember the exact verbiage used in the bios menu.

This brings me to part 2 of the problem: My original password no longer works, but there is still a password box prompt. I tried simply leaving said box empty thinking maybe that's how to bypass (i.e. I thought perhaps I reset my password to be nothing/blank so it'd just let me press enter once and then move me to windows menu... no such luck).

Problem 3: Pressing/Holding/spamming DEL won't take me to bios (that's always been what I use to get into bios in the past). Tried F2, F8, F12...then figured what the heck: i'll try all the F#s...nothing. CTRL+ALT+DELETE...nothing. Anyone have any insight here other than: "You should contact AMD support"? Although if that is the only way to navigate this, someone confirming that for me would still be helpful though it's not gonna be news i'm thrilled to receive... should've just left well enough alone, but instead here I sit with a tremendous amount of regret wondering what my password could be if I didn't enter a new password when deactivating (or so I thought) the original.

Don't clear the CMOS of your Notebook, because it will not reset any BIOS-Boot password or BIOS-Setup password! Notebooks have better theft protections like an additional (tiny, hidden) IC-integrated module that contains the password. Some manufacturers store the password on a hidden hard disk sector. So, the only solution is a direct contact to the manufacturer's support, where they proof that you are the legal owner of the notebook. Depending on the manufacturer, you have to send him the serial number of the notebook and you'll get (in many cases free of charge) an individual master password to unlock the notebook. Some other manufacturers even offer only the replacement of the notebook's mainboard - which will be really expensive!

If you have forgotten your BIOS Boot-Password, have a look into your mainboard manual, or after opening your PC, onto your mainboard. Many mainboards have a JUMPER or SWITCH to clear the CMOS. This Jumper is often named like: "RTC_CLEAR" , "CLEAR CMOS" , "CLRCMOS" , "CLRCMS". His position is often near by the mainboard battery.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jack Lloyd. Jack Lloyd is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. He has over two years of experience writing and editing technology-related articles. He is technology enthusiast and an English teacher.

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This wikiHow teaches you how to reset your Windows computer's BIOS password. You can do this by trying a master BIOS reset password, or you can attempt to remove your BIOS' memory battery. Keep in mind that not all BIOS manufacturers include a master reset password, and not all computers allow you to access the battery. If none of these methods work for you, then you'll have to take your computer into a tech repair shop or contact the manufacture.

When I set a storage password in the BIOS settings for the SSD (NOT master HDD password, and NOT supervisor password), resuming from suspend (s2idle) always results in an unreadable storage disk until I do a full power cycle. If I do not set a storage password, this problem never occurs. Can anyone else reproduce this issue?

I am replicating this now using Fedora 39. I will update in the ticket, but suspect this will be a bug in how the BIOS interacts. Officially, we recommend LUKS. But if I can replicate this, I will escalate this to the engineering team.

And finally, I went through the ticket replies personally. Everything, everything they asked was correct and expected. The first contact team did everything to the letter as we would expect them to do.

One possibly relevant observation is that the drives appear to relock upon a warm reset. That is, even when doing a warm reboot (without a power cycle), the BIOS still prompts for the passwords for both drives before proceeding through POST. I do not know if this behavior is inherent to NVMe, but my Samsung and Crucial SATA SSDs (in another system) only relock when power cycled.

Anyway, this appears to be a BIOS bug, as either the BIOS needs to save the computed Opal keys in RAM during boot and then later retransmit them to the drives during resume from sleep, or (less than ideally) it needs to prompt again for the passwords before handing control back to the OS kernel when resuming.

Matt also tried reproducing the issue with his own AMD Framework and a WD PC SN740 512 GB, but strangely he is unable to select the option in the BIOS to set the storage password, even though it is visible.

Big caveat: This works only for Opal drives. The WD_BLACK SN770M supports the old ATA security lock (NVMe protocol 0xEF) but not Opal, so if you have set a storage password on it in the BIOS, then I still know of no way of auto-unlocking it when resuming from suspend. I ended up removing the passwords from my SN770M since I am only using it for dmcrypt-swap and non-sensitive scratch/cache space.

Bought a Dell M4400, understand it was a government computer. It appears to have BIOS passwords that prevents it from booting at all. It asks for a password when powered on. BIOS password removal tools do not work because the password prompt appears before the machine can boot from CD, etc. I've tried removing the battery for 5 minutes, and several other suggestions. I'm not very experienced with laptops and at a loss with one. I would appreciate any ideas. Thanks!

Dell laptops use a master password, but BEWARE: Anything with a Haswell*/Broadwell-present processor has an option in the BIOS to block the master password reset. If it's enabled, you have to replace the motherboard!

*Some Haswell business systems had it added retroactively. Ivy Bridge and older is permanently cracked wide open.

PLEASE READ: If you see this and ask about a newer computer, I am usually apprehensive to touch these questions. For the M4400, I'm answering it because anything from the Core 2 (Solo/Duo/Extreme) and the 1st-4th gen Intel Core i (AMD from the same period) is almost always locked due to negligence from a fleet decom. The odds of an old machine like this being stolen are very low, and most people acquire these from places like eBay, recyclers, and GovDeals/GovPlanet. If this were newer, I would not have answered this.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it: YES, I WILL TAKE THE "BIOS LOCKED" DISCOUNT IF I KNOW THE UNIT IS NOT STOLEN AND "RESET" THE PASSWORD ON THESE LAPTOPS TO REMOVE THE PASSWORD WHEN IT IS MISSED, EVEN ON THE NEWER "NO TOUCH" LAPTOPS I WILL NOT DO HERE.

For locked units, if I'm getting it cheap over this issue, I either make sure it's decommissioning age (or there's a reason, such as company closure/downsizing) and get the unit at a price low enough as CYA. When I am alone and can get it done, I'm already working on the BIOS Admin/HDP passwords (as needed). Once I know the BIOS is unlocked, I will erase ALL of the hard drives/SSDs to be sure I am starting over clean*.

*In some cases with older models, the hard drives are high hour/have an issue. In those cases, I will replace the drive with an SSD if the laptop is nice enough to warrant it or only takes SSDs. That said, I always account for it and assume the worst in my offer (especially on machines I know come with Seatrash/Seagate hard drives as the "common drive" of choice).

BEFORE ANYONE CALLS ME OUT: Let's say you were a mechanic (or know how to work on cars) and you saw someone sell a Lexus/BMW/Audi/Mercedes cheap due to a $50-100 problem the seller assumes is a thousand-dollar issue. Would you not take advantage of that and be able to drive around in an S550/S600, even an E class, if you didn't like the cost of fixing the Airmatic suspension? It's the same in IT; we all laugh at it and know it's an idiot deterrent (seriously, we cover for this in the AUP). If someone is offloading an easily unlocked Precision with the i7 and high-end graphics (Radeon Pro/RTX workstation), I'm taking a chance.

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