HP Compaq nx6125 Power-on password = broked
Right. I just managed to essentially brick a Compaq nx6125 laptop.
I went into the BIOS utility to remove the power-on password. In the power-on password section I input the current password and left the new password boxes blank. It said password unrecognised. I went to another part of the setup utility and checked that I was typing it correctly, the keys were working, and no modifiers keys were stuck.
I tried it a few times. It never once said 'password changed' and I never once put anything in the new password boxes. At all. But now, when I boot it it asks for a password and doesn't accept the old password, or blank, or any other random guesses.
Something similar to this happened to this exact same laptop before: it had a BIOS utility password instead of the power-on password, and there was an official HP utility that could reset it. It required the password in order to do this, but for some reason the password worked in that utility, but not at boot.
This time is worse. It's the power-on password. I can't boot to run that utility.
Here comes the worst bit. As you'd expect, the manual it of course has the usual section saying that to reset the password you can remove the CMOS battery, with detailed instructions on how to do that. It doesn't work.
In fact, by looking around on the internet, it seems all nx6125 owners agree: removing or discharging the battery doesn't reset the BIOS passwords, no matter how carefully and complicated a way you choose to do it.
So, uh, it's buggered.
I have found two similar and one identical report of this problem on this laptop, only one stated a successful resolution: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1010454
"Finally, i tryed different solutions, without success, and i decided to to connect motherboard "eprom" to my desktop pc, SUCCESS i unlocked bios password, provenance problem is a Hp bios, work unnormaly"
"the idea is to discharge through the back end of the adaptor any remaining voltage that is holding the CMOS memory."
If anyone understands what those lines mean, or has another idea, let me know. Also helpful would be suggestions of hardware-type forums to post to where they might know something I can do. I'm too upset and flustered about it to even bother doing much googling for other people with the same problem. I can't think of any good search terms.
I went into the BIOS utility to remove the power-on password. In the power-on password section I input the current password and left the new password boxes blank. It said password unrecognised. I went to another part of the setup utility and checked that I was typing it correctly, the keys were working, and no modifiers keys were stuck.
I tried it a few times. It never once said 'password changed' and I never once put anything in the new password boxes. At all. But now, when I boot it it asks for a password and doesn't accept the old password, or blank, or any other random guesses.
Something similar to this happened to this exact same laptop before: it had a BIOS utility password instead of the power-on password, and there was an official HP utility that could reset it. It required the password in order to do this, but for some reason the password worked in that utility, but not at boot.
This time is worse. It's the power-on password. I can't boot to run that utility.
Here comes the worst bit. As you'd expect, the manual it of course has the usual section saying that to reset the password you can remove the CMOS battery, with detailed instructions on how to do that. It doesn't work.
In fact, by looking around on the internet, it seems all nx6125 owners agree: removing or discharging the battery doesn't reset the BIOS passwords, no matter how carefully and complicated a way you choose to do it.
So, uh, it's buggered.
I have found two similar and one identical report of this problem on this laptop, only one stated a successful resolution: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1010454
"Finally, i tryed different solutions, without success, and i decided to to connect motherboard "eprom" to my desktop pc, SUCCESS i unlocked bios password, provenance problem is a Hp bios, work unnormaly"
"the idea is to discharge through the back end of the adaptor any remaining voltage that is holding the CMOS memory."
If anyone understands what those lines mean, or has another idea, let me know. Also helpful would be suggestions of hardware-type forums to post to where they might know something I can do. I'm too upset and flustered about it to even bother doing much googling for other people with the same problem. I can't think of any good search terms.