4 ms·

Most enterprise machines (Lenovo Think, HP Pro/Elite and Dell OptiPlex/Vostro) will have a hardened BIOS that you can't reset unless you have proof of purchase

• tyingq 5y ago
  I've used it specifically on 2 of those. No issues.
• bkallus 5y ago
  For HP this is not true. In college I rescued 2 HP EliteBooks from the e-waste bin and both had locked BIOSes. It was as simple as buying a cheap SPI programmer (I got a CH341A-based one) and dumping the BIOS chip, then unlocking the dump with a tool called HPUnlocker, and reflashing it. Didn't even need to solder because the programmer came with a chip clip. These were EliteBook 840 G2s, but modern EliteBooks are still vulnerable to this.
• userbinator 5y ago
  At least for Lenovo/IBM, that's what they want you to think; but anyone with knowledge of the third-party repair industry knows that isn't true at all: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/maintenance#Recovering_BIOS_passwords http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/maintenance#Recovering_BIOS_pa....
  • miahi 5y ago
    That is very old information and not up to date (newest laptop in that list is 14 years old). Resetting a BIOS password for newer models requires a bit of voodoo (booting up with what looks like a debug BIOS to retrieve info from somewhere else in the system).