Dell vostro 1720

Hi,
This laptop coming in from a customer to repair a broken screen, he also
says he can't boot or install any OS to any internal drive, he says when
he goes to the bios it says HDD froze in the hard drive settings.

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Thanks

Hi!

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Have they been doing some less than totally inspired messing around in
the BIOS setup utility?

It's possible for a drive to have a password set up in its logic that
must be entered before access to its data is allowed. If this password
is set and an incorrect value entered, the drive may become "frozen".
It is typically the BIOS setup utility that will perform the task of
accepting the password and directing the drive to store it and enable
the security feature set.

Some viruses and malware may attempt to set the security feature set
on the drive, effectively locking it and requiring the payment of an
"extortion" fee to regain access.

Data may or may not subsesequently become encrypted, most drives don't
do this unless they are so-called "Full Disk Encryption" capable.

If the password is not known, the drive may be a paperweight. You can
try to recover it (although it's likely the data will be lost) by
using a tool such as HDAT2.

William

Ricky McDonnell wrote:
Hi,
This laptop coming in from a customer to repair a broken screen, he also
says he can't boot or install any OS to any internal drive, he says when
he goes to the bios it says HDD froze in the hard drive settings.

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Thanks

Perhaps whatever broke the screen also broke the hard drive?

Daddy

On 24/02/2010 18:59, Daddy wrote:
Ricky McDonnell wrote:
Hi,
This laptop coming in from a customer to repair a broken screen, he
also says he can't boot or install any OS to any internal drive, he
says when he goes to the bios it says HDD froze in the hard drive
settings.

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Thanks

Perhaps whatever broke the screen also broke the hard drive?

Daddy

Hi,
He says that he tried other hard drives and it does the same thing.
Also screen has a massive crack in it from being stepped on.

On 24/02/2010 18:52, William R. Walsh wrote:
Hi!

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Have they been doing some less than totally inspired messing around in
the BIOS setup utility?

It's possible for a drive to have a password set up in its logic that
must be entered before access to its data is allowed. If this password
is set and an incorrect value entered, the drive may become "frozen".
It is typically the BIOS setup utility that will perform the task of
accepting the password and directing the drive to store it and enable
the security feature set.

Some viruses and malware may attempt to set the security feature set
on the drive, effectively locking it and requiring the payment of an
"extortion" fee to regain access.

Data may or may not subsesequently become encrypted, most drives don't
do this unless they are so-called "Full Disk Encryption" capable.

If the password is not known, the drive may be a paperweight. You can
try to recover it (although it's likely the data will be lost) by
using a tool such as HDAT2.

William

Hi,
It isn't just the original drive though, it happens with other drives.
He has the admin password for the bios as well...

Think a bios flash will unfreeze it current version installed is a02?

"Ricky McDonnell" wrote in message
...
Hi,
This laptop coming in from a customer to repair a broken screen, he also
says he can't boot or install any OS to any internal drive, he says when
he goes to the bios it says HDD froze in the hard drive settings.

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Thanks

MoBo's ferked.

On 2/24/2010 1:44 PM, Ricky McDonnell wrote:
Hi,
This laptop coming in from a customer to repair a broken screen, he also
says he can't boot or install any OS to any internal drive, he says when
he goes to the bios it says HDD froze in the hard drive settings.

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Thanks

Well, the motherboard may not be completely hosed because it does show a
BIOS screen, but it could be damaged by whatever broke the screen.

I would need to see the EXACT BIOS message, because "HDD freeze" could
mean several things.

I think you need to get your hands on the laptop and verify what the
customer is saying, see what happens with your own eyes, and let us know
what's up. Also, make sure that there are not any loose wires, memory
modules are securely installed, etc... Ben Myers

On 2/24/2010 4:07 PM, Ricky McDonnell wrote:
On 24/02/2010 18:52, William R. Walsh wrote:
Hi!

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Have they been doing some less than totally inspired messing around in
the BIOS setup utility?

It's possible for a drive to have a password set up in its logic that
must be entered before access to its data is allowed. If this password
is set and an incorrect value entered, the drive may become "frozen".
It is typically the BIOS setup utility that will perform the task of
accepting the password and directing the drive to store it and enable
the security feature set.

Some viruses and malware may attempt to set the security feature set
on the drive, effectively locking it and requiring the payment of an
"extortion" fee to regain access.

Data may or may not subsesequently become encrypted, most drives don't
do this unless they are so-called "Full Disk Encryption" capable.

If the password is not known, the drive may be a paperweight. You can
try to recover it (although it's likely the data will be lost) by
using a tool such as HDAT2.

William

Hi,
It isn't just the original drive though, it happens with other drives.
He has the admin password for the bios as well...

Think a bios flash will unfreeze it current version installed is a02?


No, BIOS flash will not fix a problem.

Get your hands on the computer, rather than reporting what the customer
is telling you.

First thing is to remove the BIOS admin password, which is a pain in the
ass unless you are a corporate IT person. And definitely a pain in the
ass when one is trying to repair a computer, rebooting regularly... Ben
Myers

Hi!

It isn't just the original drive though, it happens with other drives.
He has the admin password for the bios as well...

I'd suggest removing that admin password, at least temporarily.

It's hard to tell what the BIOS might do if it "knew" that a hard disk
password was set. It could, in its infinite wisdom, try to apply that
password to other hard drives as they are installed.

I have not read of any standard behavior that the implementation of
this security mechanism would follow. There may not be one.

No, I doubt that a BIOS flash is the solution. You should try the
offending hard drives in another computer. As they should be SATA
drives, you can easily plug them into a desktop computer equipped with
SATA and no adapter is required.

William

On 24/02/2010 22:13, Ben Myers wrote:
On 2/24/2010 1:44 PM, Ricky McDonnell wrote:
Hi,
This laptop coming in from a customer to repair a broken screen, he also
says he can't boot or install any OS to any internal drive, he says when
he goes to the bios it says HDD froze in the hard drive settings.

Anyone know how to remove this "freeze"?

Thanks

Well, the motherboard may not be completely hosed because it does show a
BIOS screen, but it could be damaged by whatever broke the screen.

I would need to see the EXACT BIOS message, because "HDD freeze" could
mean several things.

I think you need to get your hands on the laptop and verify what the
customer is saying, see what happens with your own eyes, and let us know
what's up. Also, make sure that there are not any loose wires, memory
modules are securely installed, etc... Ben Myers

Hi,
Customer says he has tried the drive in other computers and it works
fine. wish i knew what this clever bios is doing, however I won't have
the laptop in for a few days yet so I'll report back when I can see the
error and everything hands on
Thanks for all your replies check back in a few days
If anyone has anything else to add please do