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Password remove on Tecra 8000

N

news.rcn.com

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am having a problem lots of people are having with a Tecra 8000 which
somebody just gave me

It has a password they omitted to mention which locks it completely. How do
I get into the BIOS to disable password start or how do I take out the BIOS
save battery to disable this feature? I know I will have to reinstall
everything to the Hard drive if I can't get this problem worked out but
don't care too much as I don't want to access the previous owner's software
anyway. It doesn't SEEM to want to boot from a disc or CD first before
giving this password demand.

I can't boot with my finger on the F1, F2 or ESC keys. If I boot with the
TAB key pressed, I get INSERT EC/KBC BOOT DISKETTE IN DRIVE which
apparently is Toshiba-speak for 'get your finger off the tab key'

WUGNET's Toshiba forum advises to take it to a service centre which WUGNET
naively says will remove the password for a small fee. Not altogether
suprisingly that happens to be slightly more than the computer is worth.

If they can do it, does anyone know how it is actually done?
 
A

Albert Wong

Jan 1, 1970
0
news.rcn.com said:
I am having a problem lots of people are having with a Tecra 8000 which
somebody just gave me

It has a password they omitted to mention which locks it completely. How do
I get into the BIOS to disable password start or how do I take out the BIOS
save battery to disable this feature? I know I will have to reinstall
everything to the Hard drive if I can't get this problem worked out but
don't care too much as I don't want to access the previous owner's software
anyway. It doesn't SEEM to want to boot from a disc or CD first before
giving this password demand.

I can't boot with my finger on the F1, F2 or ESC keys. If I boot with the
TAB key pressed, I get INSERT EC/KBC BOOT DISKETTE IN DRIVE which
apparently is Toshiba-speak for 'get your finger off the tab key'

WUGNET's Toshiba forum advises to take it to a service centre which WUGNET
naively says will remove the password for a small fee. Not altogether
suprisingly that happens to be slightly more than the computer is worth.

If they can do it, does anyone know how it is actually done?
there is a toshiba password dongle that you can get off ebay, this will
do the trick.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31529&item=6760700976&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

or alternatively, you need to make a "keydisk" and boot off the floppy
drive (it will do a floppy seek first) before the password comes up.
i have not tried this. let me know how it works out

http://corky.net/2600/reset-bios-password.shtml
 
K

Keith Jewell

Jan 1, 1970
0
Make yourself the "dongle" that resets the password. The "dongle" is a
device connected to the parallel (printer) port that has certain
combinations of pins wired together. The method used is to attach the
dongle, then power the laptop on. When you do this, the password is
bypassed, allowing you to get into the BIOS and change or clear the
password. Here is the pinout information. Connect these pins on a DB25
plug to make the adapter:

1-5-10
2-11
3-17
4-12
6-16
7-13
8-14
9-15

-Keith
 
A

Asimov

Jan 1, 1970
0
"news.rcn.com" bravely wrote to "All" (21 Apr 05 10:27:04)
--- on the heady topic of "Password remove on Tecra 8000"

ne> From: "news.rcn.com" <news.rnc.com>
ne> Xref: aeinews comp.sys.laptops:3178 sci.electronics.repair:46168
ne> uk.comp.sys.laptops:9674

ne> I am having a problem lots of people are having with a Tecra 8000
ne> which somebody just gave me

ne> It has a password they omitted to mention which locks it completely.
ne> How do I get into the BIOS to disable password start or how do I take
ne> out the BIOS save battery to disable this feature?

Sometimes booting up with something disabled such as the keyboard or
other causes the cmos to go into the setup mode directly bypassing the
pw. It will then ask to press F1 then plug in the keyboard and you're
then able to clear the pw. You can also provoke a cmos corruption by
booting off a custom floppy boot record that zero's out any register.
This will typically corrupt the cmos memory, hopefully bypassing the
pw or setting it to default. Another way is to power off and monitor
the hardware line to the backup battery. Follow the voltage to the LSI
pin, then remove the battery and short that pin to ground for a few
tens of minutes, then remove the short and replace the battery.
Greets!

A*s*i*m*o*v

.... Your E-Mail has been returned due to insufficient voltage.
 
N

news.rcn.com

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'll keep on trying but so far I have tried
(1) the jumper method which didnt work and
(2) the software method. Which program wont execute

(it opens a DOS window in XP and closes it immediately without writing
anything to file), which is just as well because the computer gives the
impression that it isn't trying to read from the floppy before asking for
the password

I have probably shorted some of the wires so I may try that again before
going to the EBay method which I am sure is a great method if you have a few
hundred of these to do? I am a bit shocked at the Toshiba authorised
service station cost of doing something this easy AND the naivety of the
WUGNET sysops who thought that a premier service station wouldn't overcharge
this much.
 
Another way is to short one of the address lines to the CMOS RAM to
VCC or Ground as the system posts. This may cause defaults to be
loaded due to incorrect checksum, and the password will be erased. I
did this on a stinkpad some years ago.

Stepan
 
N

news.rcn.com

Jan 1, 1970
0
i have not tried this. let me know how it works out
Clint

In response to your request, the keydisk program doesn't seem to do anything
except cause a DOS screen to hang, admittedly with a note telling me that
Keydisk has run

Running it may only entail changing some Sector 2 entries on the floppy and
I cant figure out how to see whether these have been changed or not but
anyway, it doesn't seem to let me change the password. I may try to see if I
can enter some hexedit program and see if it did do anything but I did
follow the instructions and press ENTER on first demand for a password and Y
on the next demand and just received a further demand which I take to
indicate that it hasnt run or the unit isnt booting off the floppy or the
app doesn't work?
 
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