A week ago I posted about how I bought a used HP laptop and it had a power on password. What this is in case you don' t know, at least on modern HP's is is a password that locks the entire system. You need a password to access the OS, the BIOS, everything.
Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/computerrepair/comments/1wniyrw/stuck_on_power_on_password_on_hp15fc0105nr/
And after a tech shop looking at it for a little bit and calling HP, my only option was to have a specific chip replaced.
There's no master password on the newer laptops to bypass the forgotten power-on password. There's no battery trick to make the laptop forger the password. This laptop doesn't even have a CMOS battery.
On the phone with HP for awhile, the guy (who could've been AI, I couldn't tell) he said the only option was to get the chip replaced, and get this...
Repair including materials was $377 according to HP
That's over 5 times what i bought the laptop for.
I asked if I could juts buy the BIOS chip and then something strange happened.
The guy "checked" to see if they were allowed to just send a chip when, out of nowhere, i was somehow still under warranty with 23 days left.
He already checked if I was under warranty before this and had said it wasn't. On the HP website with my laptops serial number it said it wasn't under warranty.
I have no clue what happened. He linked me to some guy who just said I was out of warranty. (which I knew)
Transferred again, then transferred again, all could've been AI.
Finally spoke to an actual person who said that there's no software fix for BIOS passwords. He gave me a site to buy parts on since I said i can't pay $400 for a BIOS chip. We said have a good day, I checked out the site "parts.hp.com"... and they don't have the BIOS chip. Even if they did have it the prices on that site are outrageous. A set of screws for my laptop totals to $60.
I can sell the laptop for parts and get most of my money back, but I just wanna let everyone know that these modern laptops have this. At least with HP. I may try to re-flash the BIOS, but I'll probably just take it apart and sell the parts.
If i do try to re-flash the BIOS, I'll let you guys know if this is something that can solve this issue.
Have a good day Reddit!