HP desktop bios locked up

[rans6andrew]

A while ago I bought (junk sale) an HP 3.1GHz i5 desktop machine which, at first power up showed Win7 to be installed. I put it on one side for a rainy day.

Yesterday was that rainy day. The machine booted up but it wasn't quite right. It didn't have drivers for the ethernet so I couldn't get on line. I don't have a Win7 install disk so I was a bit stuck. No problem, I had been considering moving all my email and office stuff onto a Linux Mint system and had made a USB stick ready to get started. I plugged it in and rebooted but the stick wasn't seen. I rebooted several times and eventually found the key needed to intercept the bios. It kept asking for a password but somehow I slipped through and I got into it the bios. It wanted a password, which I don't have, to allow any bios changes. I did find that the start and bios password change fields were not greyed out so I attempted to change the bios password. It let me enter a new password and enter it again but then told me a password missmatch had occurred and didn't actually change anything. It still would not let me move either the CD drive or the USB up the boot options list. I exited the bios and tried to reboot the machine and it started to demand a power on password before it even got past the bios stage. It is still doing this. I have tried removing the cell that keeps the bios and clock alive but it has not cleared even after 15 hours powered down.

Is it locked out for ever? It would be a shame to bin the hardware.

Anyone?

Thanks,

Rans6........

[Saab Dastard]

The standard HP / Compaq steps to clear CMOS & Password settings:

Follow these steps to clear the CMOS settings

• Turn off the computer and unplug the power cord.
• Move the CLEAR CMOS/CLEAR P.W. jumper cap from pins 2-3 to pins 1-2.
• Plug in the power cord and turn on the computer for five seconds.
• Turn off the computer again and unplug the power cord.
• Move the CLEAR CMOS/CLEAR P.W. jumper cap from pins 1-2 to pins 2-3.
• Plug in the power cord and turn on the computer.
• The CMOS settings are now clear. To enter BIOS setup, press the F10 key when the first screen displays upon system setup.

You should search for this using the specific model of PC you have so that you can locate the correct jumper (although it might be printed on the inside of the removal side / top panel).

SD

[rans6andrew]

I scoured the motherboard for the aforementioned jumper but failed to find any jumpers or 3 way connectors with link options. I did find an unlabelled push button switch close to the wee lithium clock/CMOS support cell. I'll see if that does the password clear if used in the above procedure.

Thanks.

Rans6.........

[rans6andrew]

It is now sorted, Saab Dastard, thanks for your help.

Got it up and running Linux Mint by booting from a USB stick.

Then I installed Mint and I am using it to do my Ppruning this evening.

Thanks again,

Rans6................................

[Saab Dastard]

Got it up and running Linux Mint by booting from a USB stick.

Then I installed Mint and I am using it to do my Ppruning this evening.

Excellent! Well done, glad you got it sorted. I love seeing older kit getting a new lease of life and obstacles overcome!