Turning an old work laptop into a new personal one

[dave001]

[arry]

Urgh, the CMOS battery is underneath everything so the whole bloody motherboard has to come out by the looks of it.

I think I'll give this to my mate to sort

[dave001]

[stinkwheel]

You can sometimes manually put them into legacy boot mode from windows.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/boot-to-uefi-mode-or-legacy-bios-mode?view=windows-11
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Nobby the Bastard]

Allegedly the Dell helldesk will provide a password based on the password hint the bios generates but you may have to provide proof of ownership...
____________________
trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[stinkwheel]

[arry]

Thanks Stinkwheel. I'll have a go at it over the weekend at some point.

[WD Forte]

have you tried this method?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0HBRcl1eHc

Note the ctrl+enter part after putting in the code

Nowadays the BIOS password is often stored on an eeprom so
if it is then pulling the battery wont help
you'd have to go full geek and reflash it.
____________________
bikers smell of wee

[Robby]

I would be surprised if pulling the CMOS battery still clears the BIOS password. That's more of a trick from 15 years ago.

If the laptop was built right (from the company perspective) then you're not going to get full control of it. There may be a trick possible with shorting out some very tiny pins, but I've also seen people fuck that up and brick the whole thing. For added fun, any of those tricks tend to be very model-specific.

[CaNsA]