Help HardDrive Locked

[Team Andromeda]

Right my Auntie Advent Laptop Hard Drive has locked , I'm not sure what the hell the kids have done to it , but it now keeps asking for a HDD password , even password to get into the bios screen (so the kids say) and we're all none the wiser .
Laptop System is Advent 7111, and the HardDrive is an Fujitsu mhv2080bh. Any advise or help will be welcomed .


Sorry I can't give many more details , as I live miles away for my Auntie , and it mainly just asking her boys what wrong , over the phone .

[abigsmurf]

You need to reset the bios. Either take out the bios battery or short it using one of those switch things on motherboards that name escapes me.

I'm afraid you're going to have to figure out how to do this yourself. You won't get any help on tech support forums about where the battery is on that laptop or how to hard reset it. Chief reason is that a good portion of the people asking have stole or bought a stolen laptop. Try to find a diagram of the laptop motherboard.

Will require quite a lot of disassembly, the battery is likely not in a place designed for easy access like the ram or drives.

[Team Andromeda]

Aye fair enough , thanks for the help .

[smouty]

If it is fairly recent then the BIOS reset may not work. A lot of laptops now have a TPM (trusted platform module) to handle security. If so only the password or the vendor will be able to unlock it.

[Team Andromeda]

If it is fairly recent then the BIOS reset may not work. A lot of laptops now have a TPM (trusted platform module) to handle security. If so only the password or the vendor will be able to unlock it.

It was bought as a Christmas Present for the boys in 2006

[Strolls]

I cheerily offer you some more bad news.

However I don't think the locking is always (or even often?) implemented that way in the BIOS. Since Advent is a PC World brand (or exclusive to PC World in the UK, or something) it might be worth popping in there & seeing if their service desk can remove the password. I'm sure they'll charge you for it, but it's your best bet.

I seem to have this idea that there are also companies to whom you can send your laptop away and they'll replace a chip on the motherboard in order to unlock it. I don't know how frequently this is required, but it can't be cheap in that case.

[smouty]

This has happened to me in the past with some of the laptops I support.
Each time the vendor has been able to unlock it using a master key. This was for Dell, IBM and Sony. Sony wanted proof of purchase and scans of serial no. label etc but all worked.

[Team Andromeda]

Thanks for all the help . She took it over to PC world and they asked £120 to fix it , and I'm not joking , she then took it to a look computer shop where it was fixed for £40.