Laptop Bios locked dell 1000

[Who]

We have a dell inspiron 1000 at work. I came in this morning, turned it on and It goes through the post and then ask me for a password at the bios screen. I tried to put in a boot cd but it won't boot from the cd. I removed the hard drive and that did not help. Any suggestions. Thanks

 

[GrimJack]

Your only chance is finding the password or resetting the BIOS to factory defaults, and hope the user set password is stored in volatile memory...

 

[MKIIINA]

you're boned. You could try removing the battery and see if there's a way to set the jumpers on the motherboard to reset it back to factory defaults but don't hold your breath as I've been 50/50 on that working.

 

[benchwarmer]

You're going to have to reset the BIOS. You have to open the case and either remove the BIOS battery from the motherboard or bridge the jumpers if they are there. It can be delicate work on a laptop, if you have doubts about it take it to a professional.

 

[tlo86]

stolen laptop?

 

[Poodles]

or some jackass set a password on it...

 

[Doward]

Call dell for the Master reset password.

 

[Who]

Call dell for the Master reset password.

Bingo...you win the prize!
After much research it seems that laptop motherboards don't have bios jumpers like desktop computers. At least the dell laptops. The password is written to a security chip on the mboard. Removing the cmos battery does not work either. The laptop is out of warranty. I wonder if there will be any charge?

Everyone in the office swears they didn't set the password. Hope its not some malicious virus.

 

[Doward]

It's no virus.

Just call Dell, and ask them for the master reset.