toddent

I was asked by a friend to find out what was wrong with a HP Pavilion laptop that had been given to him.
My experience is in desktop computers. This laptop has a serious power source problem, but it seems to want to work.
This laptop is setup password protected. The owner does not have any information on the password.
On a desktop, taking the battery out and putting it back usually solves this problem.
I need your help in getting pass the password.
Thanks for the information.
toddent

 

If it's a password that comes up immediately after the PC is powered on, there is probably nothing you can do about it. The passwords (known as a 'power on password' or 'POP') are designed as security measures in case the laptop is lost or stolen, and because of this, simply removing the CMOS battery does not do anything to the password. I'm not sure about HP laptops, but with IBMs, the password is programmed into 3 different chips when the user creates it, one of these chips is (of course) the BIOS. When a password is entered to gain access to the PC, the checksums from all 3 chips must match exactly. So, if you clear the BIOS, it obviously is not going to match the other 2 chips and access will be denied. This is how IBM laptops were made 3-4 years ago and I'm sure things have become more secure (meaning 'more complex') since then. There are some web sites that claim to be able to remove the passwords for $300 or more, but you must mail the PC to them. Sounds a bit shady to me. I have also seen USB 'boot keys' on EBay that will supposedly bypass or reset the passwords. They're about $50 (at least they were 2 years ago; I haven't looked at 'em since then) and, again, it seems a bit shady. However, if you could post the exact model number of the PC, perhaps we can help. I do NOT mean the model number that's near the keyboard or the LCD; that is usually just the series; a popular one would be the dv9000 series (for example) and the true model number is on a small white sticker on the bottom. Using the dv9000 series as an example, the model number would look something like dv9030us.