Was operating my Dell Inspiron 1100 on the web one night, didn't download any .exe's that I know of, and when I went to power up the next morning I reeived a CMOS or BIOS prompt to "Enter Secondary Master HDD User Password" I have spoken with Dell and the code they gave me to input did not work. I suspect malicious activity. Does anybody know of a way to bypass this or some way to get through it to salvage my data? Dell say's I just need to buy a new hardrive, I would really like to avoid that. As of now Windows will not even start.
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Secondary Master HDD User Password
- Thread starter CJWheadon
- Start date
It sounds like you need to reset the BIOS.
As this is a laptop, it may be difficult.
If this is out of warranty you could risk & dismantle it to find the CMOS battery. Once you have found it, remove it & leave it out for ten minutes just to make sure that the BIOS has cleared.
Re-assemble the laptop & restart.
You will need to go into the BIOS to reset the date & time & you may want to change other settings.
If you are feeling really brave you could remove the BIOS chip that is probably under the long cover that is held by one screw.
It is on an Inspiron 2600 anyway.
You must make sure that you are taking proper anti-static precautions no matter what.
Also if you go down this road you must make sure that the chip is removed striaght & when you replace it that none of the legs get bent.
I would much prefer the battery option myself.
As this is a laptop, it may be difficult.
If this is out of warranty you could risk & dismantle it to find the CMOS battery. Once you have found it, remove it & leave it out for ten minutes just to make sure that the BIOS has cleared.
Re-assemble the laptop & restart.
You will need to go into the BIOS to reset the date & time & you may want to change other settings.
If you are feeling really brave you could remove the BIOS chip that is probably under the long cover that is held by one screw.
It is on an Inspiron 2600 anyway.
You must make sure that you are taking proper anti-static precautions no matter what.
Also if you go down this road you must make sure that the chip is removed striaght & when you replace it that none of the legs get bent.
I would much prefer the battery option myself.
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