et wrote:
On Wednesday 19 January 2005 06:19 pm, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Deep Thinker wrote: > >> Hello All, >> >> I have a friend that has given me several older machines because >> she no longer needs them. For one reason or another these >> machines will not work. Either bad hard drives or cracked screens >> or whatever. >> >> The one machine she gave me that may be of some use is a Compaq >> Presario 1275. In her words ... >> >> "My husband used that computer for business. He put a password on >> it so if anyone stole it they would be able to use it. I think he >> put a password on it so I couldn't see the emails he was writing >> to his little hussy girlfriends he had on the side. I didn't need >> a computer to tell me he was cheating on me." >> >> TMI, but I got a free computer out of it. Seems she got that >> along with the house and other things in the divorce. >> >> Long story short, the machine still has the CMOS or BIOS password >> on it. I plan to make it a simple workstation to learn and play >> on (of course installing Mandrake on it). >> >> How do I get in? > > If it is a BIOS password, they can be cleared a couple of ways. > Your best bet is to go to the Compaq web site, and download the > hardware manual for the machine, and find the section on clearing > the BIOS password. You will probably have to partially disasemble > it, and move a jumper or jumper two pins for a few seconds to clear > it. This will also reset the BIOS to factory defaults. (There are > programs to clear the BIOS password, but they are not much help if > you need a password to boot...) > > You may also have a hard drive password. The only way I have found > to clear those is to reformat the drive... Not a big deal if you > are going to install a new OS anyway. > > Mikkel
you can always remove the cmos battery and any other powersupply (not necessarily in that order) and clear the bios password, boot with knoptix and see what pOrn is on the hard drive....
I did not suggest that anyone ever do that with someone else's computer....
Removing the CMOS battery isn't always easy on laptops. Also, most laptop hard drives offer a feature of setting a password on the drive itself. So even removing the drive from the laptop, and putting it in another machine, will not get around the password. It can make things interesting if you forget to remove the password before removing the drive from the laptop, and then try using it in one of the USB drive interfaces for 2-1/2" drives...
Mikkel
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