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How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen in aDell Latitude



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 12th 19, 06:20 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
RayLopez99
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 897
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen in aDell Latitude

I bought an ex-corporate Dell Latitude from 7 years ago and so far so good, but it has a locked BIOS. I wonder if it's worth unlocking? I don't think so, since I checked the settings and found nothing remiss, for example it is set to "AHCI" for the Sata drives, and Turbo for the chip, the memory is maxed out with memory in both slots, the timings seem normal, and everything seems OK, exactly how I would set it up.

Below is a protocol to get into BIOS. I put this on the net in case anybody else has this problem. I wonder however, with as much spam in Google Groups, are they even searched anymore by Google's search engine? Somebody said they are not.

One academic question I have is if I was to unlock the BIOS, how would you do it? Perhaps reset the coin battery? Or is it related to the Intel (R) Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBx) ?

Like playing around with your registry entries, I would not do anything as 'radical' as unlocking the BIOS, but I know some of you would, hence the question. I'm just curious more than anything.

RL

PROTOCOL TO ACCESS BIOS MENU IN A DELL LATITUDE LAPTOP:

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/a...ios-windows-10

How to Access the BIOS on a Windows 10 PC - Laptop Mag

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/a...ios-windows-10

1. Navigate to settings. You can get there by clicking the gear icon on the Start menu.
2. Select Update & security.
3. Select Recovery from the left menu.
4. Click Restart Now under Advanced ...
The comptuer will reboot to a special menu. Click Troubleshoot. Click Advanced …
5. Click Troubleshoot…

Select UEFI Firmware Settings [NOT PRESENT IN DELL LATITUDE]. If you don't see this icon, and you will not see the UEFI icon with the Dell Latitude with locked BIOS, then press Startup Settings, instead. The PC will immediately restart. When your PC is restarting, tap for Dell the F12 key to access the BIOS menu

You can enter the BIOS but it is locked in some corporate Dell Latitude laptops

Instead, at the "DOS like menu" for the Dell Latitude you see:

"LEGACY BOOT:

Internal HDD
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive

UEFI BOOT:

WEFI: TSSTCorp DVD +/- RW TS-U633J (if this DVD writer has a CD/DVD Macrium Rescue Media in it, then this is the best way to proceed, select this and you can backup from a Macrium Image file on the DVD with no problems. Once inside the Macrium program, you can plug in an external USB drive having the image file and it will be recognized by the PC.

OR, if you have a Macrium Rescue Media USB stick inserted, it would also appear here.

OTHER OPTIONS:
BIOS Setup (LOCKED in many Dell corporate laptops)
Diagnostics
Intel (R) Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBx) (used by advanced users and possibly related to master password, see: https://www.dell.com/support/article...word?lang=en)\
  #2  
Old April 12th 19, 07:00 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screenin a Dell Latitude

RayLopez99 wrote:
I bought an ex-corporate Dell Latitude from 7 years ago and so far so good, but it has a locked BIOS. I wonder if it's worth unlocking? I don't think so, since I checked the settings and found nothing remiss, for example it is set to "AHCI" for the Sata drives, and Turbo for the chip, the memory is maxed out with memory in both slots, the timings seem normal, and everything seems OK, exactly how I would set it up.

Below is a protocol to get into BIOS. I put this on the net in case anybody else has this problem. I wonder however, with as much spam in Google Groups, are they even searched anymore by Google's search engine? Somebody said they are not.

One academic question I have is if I was to unlock the BIOS, how would you do it? Perhaps reset the coin battery? Or is it related to the Intel (R) Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBx) ?

Like playing around with your registry entries, I would not do anything as 'radical' as unlocking the BIOS, but I know some of you would, hence the question. I'm just curious more than anything.

RL

PROTOCOL TO ACCESS BIOS MENU IN A DELL LATITUDE LAPTOP:

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/a...ios-windows-10

How to Access the BIOS on a Windows 10 PC - Laptop Mag

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/a...ios-windows-10

1. Navigate to settings. You can get there by clicking the gear icon on the Start menu.
2. Select Update & security.
3. Select Recovery from the left menu.
4. Click Restart Now under Advanced ...
The comptuer will reboot to a special menu. Click Troubleshoot. Click Advanced …
5. Click Troubleshoot…

Select UEFI Firmware Settings [NOT PRESENT IN DELL LATITUDE]. If you don't see this icon, and you will not see the UEFI icon with the Dell Latitude with locked BIOS, then press Startup Settings, instead. The PC will immediately restart. When your PC is restarting, tap for Dell the F12 key to access the BIOS menu

You can enter the BIOS but it is locked in some corporate Dell Latitude laptops

Instead, at the "DOS like menu" for the Dell Latitude you see:

"LEGACY BOOT:

Internal HDD
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive

UEFI BOOT:

WEFI: TSSTCorp DVD +/- RW TS-U633J (if this DVD writer has a CD/DVD Macrium Rescue Media in it, then this is the best way to proceed, select this and you can backup from a Macrium Image file on the DVD with no problems. Once inside the Macrium program, you can plug in an external USB drive having the image file and it will be recognized by the PC.

OR, if you have a Macrium Rescue Media USB stick inserted, it would also appear here.

OTHER OPTIONS:
BIOS Setup (LOCKED in many Dell corporate laptops)
Diagnostics
Intel (R) Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBx) (used by advanced users and possibly related to master password, see: https://www.dell.com/support/article...word?lang=en)\


Generally there is password protection offered on BIOS.

That's one way to protect the settings.

On a regular desktop (not business class), the password
is stored in CMOS RAM (inside the Southbridge CMOS well).
Pulling the line cord, removing the CMOS battery, causes
the password to get lost.

On a business class machine, say a business class laptop,
the BIOS password is stored in a 2KB EEPROM. Pulling
all the batteries, removing the line cord, doesn't help.

If you want to break into a machine like that, you'll need
help. Some OEMs make you return the machine to the factory,
to have the password reset. Anyone who is the least bit
adept at programming serial EEPROMS, could help with the
EEPROM part of it. The question would be, whether an "all zeros"
EEPROM is what you need to wipe the password, or whether there
is a "special initial pattern" that needs to be in the chip
(so it doesn't, say, lock up). I don't know those details.

And this is one of the reasons I would never buy a used
business class machine for cheap. It's the security features
that scare me. The basic hardware in the box doesn't bother
me a bit. But some security leaping up and biting me, that
really bothers me. Having to neuter a Management Engine
would bother me.

Paul
  #3  
Old April 12th 19, 04:28 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Flasherly[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,407
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen in a Dell Latitude

On Thu, 11 Apr 2019 22:20:43 -0700 (PDT), RayLopez99
wrote:

One academic question I have is if I was to unlock the BIOS, how would
you do it? Perhaps reset the coin battery? Or is it related to the
Intel (R) Management Engine BIOS Extension (MEBx) ?

-
Unless it's a generic fix -- Dell will naturally have both a lot of
information (than you might otherwise find in an XYZ build) in various
hardware forums, as well as responsible avenues to get inside and talk
to Dell people -- some brand laptops and preassembled PCs default,
after a BIOS reset, back to something simple such as USER for a
password.

I wouldn't want a locked BIOS, anymore than a deck of cards that is
shy. A computer by definition is first generic -- you, your resources
component studies make it everything about what it subsequently is.
That is what you assemble to build, including the documentation sent
and a customer commitment for a reason to buy it in the first place.

Buying something else presassembled may be something entirely. And
all laptops cannot be assembled, in any sense remotely near, for what
assembling a PC entails.

I will bet, though I've never owned one, being what Dell is, and if I
called them, it would take long to get to the bottom of that.
  #4  
Old April 13th 19, 08:20 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Shadow[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 195
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen in a Dell Latitude

On Thu, 11 Apr 2019 22:20:43 -0700 (PDT), RayLopez99
wrote:

I bought an ex-corporate Dell Latitude from 7 years ago and so far so good, but it has a locked BIOS. I wonder if it's worth unlocking? I don't think so, since I checked the settings and found nothing remiss, for example it is set to "AHCI" for the Sata drives, and Turbo for the chip, the memory is maxed out with memory in both slots, the timings seem normal, and everything seems OK, exactly how I would set it up.


I had to unlock the BIOS on my Dell Latitude. I remember there
was a webpage that had a little DOS program that you could download.
You entered the service tag and got the unlock code.

Can't find the page

This probably works:

https://biospassword.eu/dell-free-passwords
[]'s

PS WTF ? Win 10 ? Have you gone crazy Ray ?


--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012
  #5  
Old April 14th 19, 08:29 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
RayLopez99
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 897
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screenin a Dell Latitude

On Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 3:21:45 PM UTC-4, Shadow wrote:


This probably works:

https://biospassword.eu/dell-free-passwords
[]'s

PS WTF ? Win 10 ? Have you gone crazy Ray ?


--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012


Thanks to Paul, Flasherly, and Shadow for the answers. I am pleased with my cheap purchase and it's working fine, and I am going to upgrade the mechanical HDD to an SSD (that should just fit into the bay, according to a YouTube video, or it might require a slight shim), and this chip, the i5-2520M, is a dual core i5 not a quad core, is power saving, and, much to my surprise, is rated to go to a high temperature of 100C--water boils here-- before CPU throttling occurs, so with this potentially high internal temperature you have to be careful not to put "duck / duct tape" or even (?) electrical tape and certainly not superglue (apparently it gives off cyanide at high temperatures, you do NOT want cyanide gas in your workplace, lol) in order to fit the SSD into the bay, as it's a millimeter off in some dimensions as some people have suggest. I'll put a mechanical shim in. Anything with glue like tape will melt and leave a goo inside your laptop some people have said.

I will try the passwords that Shadow suggests, excellent, thank you, just for fun, but, as I say, I'm completely happy with all the BIOS settings that are already set by Dell.

As for Win10, I guess I'm crazy Shadow for not using, what, Linux? I forget, are you one of the Linux nuts I troll? LOL. Hey, we already do have Linux, in our smart phones, remember? ;-)

RL
  #6  
Old April 16th 19, 05:33 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
RayLopez99
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 897
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screenin a Dell Latitude

On Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 3:29:10 PM UTC-4, RayLopez99 wrote:
On Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 3:21:45 PM UTC-4, Shadow wrote:


This probably works:

https://biospassword.eu/dell-free-passwords
[]'s

PS WTF ? Win 10 ? Have you gone crazy Ray ?


--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012


Thanks to Paul, Flasherly, and Shadow for the answers. I am pleased with my cheap purchase and it's working fine, and I am going to upgrade the mechanical HDD to an SSD (that should just fit into the bay, according to a YouTube video, or it might require a slight shim), and this chip, the i5-2520M, is a dual core i5 not a quad core, is power saving, and, much to my surprise, is rated to go to a high temperature of 100C--water boils here-- before CPU throttling occurs, so with this potentially high internal temperature you have to be careful not to put "duck / duct tape" or even (?) electrical tape and certainly not superglue (apparently it gives off cyanide at high temperatures, you do NOT want cyanide gas in your workplace, lol) in order to fit the SSD into the bay, as it's a millimeter off in some dimensions as some people have suggest. I'll put a mechanical shim in. Anything with glue like tape will melt and leave a goo inside your laptop some people have said.

I will try the passwords that Shadow suggests, excellent, thank you, just for fun, but, as I say, I'm completely happy with all the BIOS settings that are already set by Dell.

As for Win10, I guess I'm crazy Shadow for not using, what, Linux? I forget, are you one of the Linux nuts I troll? LOL. Hey, we already do have Linux, in our smart phones, remember? ;-)

RL


I was able to successfully swap out the old mechanical HDD with a much faster cheap SSD that did not even require an shim, just screwed the tiny 3 mm flat head screws to the hd bay and it held it in place just fine, and all is well with this laptop, well worth it even with locked BIOS.

RL
  #7  
Old April 16th 19, 10:38 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Filip454[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen ina Dell Latitude

W dniu 2019-04-16 oÂ*06:33, RayLopez99 pisze:
On Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 3:29:10 PM UTC-4, RayLopez99 wrote:
On Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 3:21:45 PM UTC-4, Shadow wrote:


This probably works:

https://biospassword.eu/dell-free-passwords
[]'s

PS WTF ? Win 10 ? Have you gone crazy Ray ?


--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012


Thanks to Paul, Flasherly, and Shadow for the answers. I am pleased with my cheap purchase and it's working fine, and I am going to upgrade the mechanical HDD to an SSD (that should just fit into the bay, according to a YouTube video, or it might require a slight shim), and this chip, the i5-2520M, is a dual core i5 not a quad core, is power saving, and, much to my surprise, is rated to go to a high temperature of 100C--water boils here-- before CPU throttling occurs, so with this potentially high internal temperature you have to be careful not to put "duck / duct tape" or even (?) electrical tape and certainly not superglue (apparently it gives off cyanide at high temperatures, you do NOT want cyanide gas in your workplace, lol) in order to fit the SSD into the bay, as it's a millimeter off in some dimensions as some people have suggest. I'll put a mechanical shim in. Anything with glue like tape will melt and leave a goo inside your laptop some people have said.

I will try the passwords that Shadow suggests, excellent, thank you, just for fun, but, as I say, I'm completely happy with all the BIOS settings that are already set by Dell.

As for Win10, I guess I'm crazy Shadow for not using, what, Linux? I forget, are you one of the Linux nuts I troll? LOL. Hey, we already do have Linux, in our smart phones, remember? ;-)

RL


I was able to successfully swap out the old mechanical HDD with a much faster cheap SSD that did not even require an shim, just screwed the tiny 3 mm flat head screws to the hd bay and it held it in place just fine, and all is well with this laptop, well worth it even with locked BIOS.

RL


Just be sure to backup your most important data to HDD. Cheap SSDs are
more prone to fail in general.

--
Filip454
]
  #8  
Old April 16th 19, 01:08 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Flasherly[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,407
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen in a Dell Latitude

On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 11:38:27 +0200, Filip454
wrote:


Just be sure to backup your most important data to HDD. Cheap SSDs are
more prone to fail in general.


Over provisioning when formatting them isn't such a bad idea either.

My oldest is a Samsung 60G ... MLC, not sure the controller / DRAM
cache specs. $40 on a Christmas sale about 6 or 7 years ago. OS and
programs and I seldom actually write to it.

All subsequent -- HP, Crucial, Samsung -- though written to more
often, are also MLC SSDs, including the newest "cheap-o" $30 256G HP
700 series, dram-less and since revised from last year's MLC planar to
now equipped with 3D NAND.

Cheap 'n good, these days -- closest that seems to be -- is everybody
running to a Crucial non-300 series. Samsung is also close enough to
regular sales, for a few bucks more, to be worth giving Crucial a run
for the money. Should be a 3-year warrantee with either.
  #9  
Old April 16th 19, 04:26 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Shadow[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 195
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen in a Dell Latitude

On Sun, 14 Apr 2019 12:29:07 -0700 (PDT), RayLopez99
wrote:

On Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 3:21:45 PM UTC-4, Shadow wrote:


This probably works:

https://biospassword.eu/dell-free-passwords
[]'s

PS WTF ? Win 10 ? Have you gone crazy Ray ?


--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012


Thanks to Paul, Flasherly, and Shadow for the answers. I am pleased with my cheap purchase and it's working fine, and I am going to upgrade the mechanical HDD to an SSD (that should just fit into the bay, according to a YouTube video, or it might require a slight shim), and this chip, the i5-2520M, is a dual core i5 not a quad core, is power saving, and, much to my surprise, is rated to go to a high temperature of 100C--water boils here-- before CPU throttling occurs, so with this potentially high internal temperature you have to be careful not to put "duck / duct tape" or even (?) electrical tape and certainly not superglue (apparently it gives off cyanide at high temperatures, you do NOT want cyanide gas in your workplace, lol) in order to fit the SSD into the bay, as it's a millimeter off in some dimensions as some people have suggest. I'll put a mechanical shim in. Anything with glue like tape will melt and leave a goo inside your laptop some people have said.

I will try the passwords that Shadow suggests, excellent, thank you, just for fun, but, as I say, I'm completely happy with all the BIOS settings that are already set by Dell.

As for Win10, I guess I'm crazy Shadow for not using, what, Linux? I forget, are you one of the Linux nuts I troll? LOL. Hey, we already do have Linux, in our smart phones, remember? ;-)


No, I dual boot XP and Linux (Devuan). Don't have, and never
will have a "smartphone".
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012
  #10  
Old April 16th 19, 11:14 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
Filip454[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12
Default How to unlock Bios? And a protocol for getting the BIOS screen ina Dell Latitude

W dniu 2019-04-16 oÂ*14:08, Flasherly pisze:
On Tue, 16 Apr 2019 11:38:27 +0200, Filip454
wrote:


Just be sure to backup your most important data to HDD. Cheap SSDs are
more prone to fail in general.


Over provisioning when formatting them isn't such a bad idea either.

My oldest is a Samsung 60G ... MLC, not sure the controller / DRAM
cache specs. $40 on a Christmas sale about 6 or 7 years ago. OS and
programs and I seldom actually write to it.

All subsequent -- HP, Crucial, Samsung -- though written to more
often, are also MLC SSDs, including the newest "cheap-o" $30 256G HP
700 series, dram-less and since revised from last year's MLC planar to
now equipped with 3D NAND.

Cheap 'n good, these days -- closest that seems to be -- is everybody
running to a Crucial non-300 series. Samsung is also close enough to
regular sales, for a few bucks more, to be worth giving Crucial a run
for the money. Should be a 3-year warrantee with either.


Well, MLC is MLC. It can withstand a lot of writes.

I think TLC is the worst choice you can make.

--
Filip454
]
 




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