Can't clear phantom power-on password on Pavilion HDX9300 series laptop

[jharle]

Greetings,

My wife's laptop has suddenly decided to prompt for a power-on password, completely preventing us from using it.  There was never a password set; this started occurring after running some self tests on one of the hard drives.

We went through the tremendous effort of removing the RTC battery from the system board.  After going through that much work, we left the battery out for an *hour* despite the maintenance guide saying five minutes was sufficient.  I'm sure you can imagine our disappointment of seeing the same power-on password prompt, after re-assembling everything and turning it on.

I'm wondering if it's an RTC chip problem or something, especially since it is certain that a password was never set (certain because we both witnessed it occur for the first time).  Unfortunately, the warranty on the laptop expired just last month, which is also suspicious. 

Does anyone have any ideas of things we can try to recover from this?  Sending in this 3-year-old behemoth laptop to an HP service center on our own dime will cost a fortune.

Many thanks,

Jim

[maestrorod]

ok try entering the password 3 times and then you will get a message and code...write the code down and send me a message with the code and ill see what i can do for you ok

[jharle]

Thanks for the offer...unfortunately we don't get a useful code; below is a screenshot of what we see.

[maestrorod]

strange im pretty sure you should get a 5 digit error code once i have that i should be able to give you a password

[maestrorod]

did you go into the bios to run the hard drive tests?? if you did then you probably enabled the power on password by mistake as by default its not enabled....it has to be manually enabled in the bios for it to come on.

[jharle]

There was a separate diagnostics utility that we entered to run tests on the hard drives; it was not part of the main BIOS.  We never entered the BIOS, and therefore never set any passwords inside of it.  Now, we can't even get into the BIOS because of the alleged power on password.

We took the laptop completely apart to remove the RTC battery (CMOS battery, BIOS battery, whatever you want to call it), and left the battery out for over an hour, before putting it back and re-assembling everything, and the problem remains.  I know we got the right battery (and there were no others), as we were following the HP maintenance manual specific to the laptop.  The maintenance manual indicated the battery needed to be removed for only five minutes, to clear any passwords.

I suspect that the BIOS itself is corrupted, and must be fixed by some magic HP [physical] procedure, perhaps by replacing the BIOS chip(s).  We'll have to pay to go down that road, however, since the laptop is out-of-warranty.  We'll likely be comparing the cost of sending the thing in, to biting the bullet and getting a new one.

[maestrorod]

was there by any chance any jumpers on the motherboard that you may have overlooked to help with this problem??

[Antmatbat]

Hi

PLEASE can somebody help me with this same problem. I have an old hp pavilion laptop, been using it WITH a power on password for years now with no problems. Recently the hinges on the screen stopped working. An IT tech atmwork offered to take a look so I thought it would be clever to clear the password in the bios before I gave it to him. It confirmed it was cleared. When I saved and exited it asked me for a password.... and nothing I enter works. Our IT chap said he could remove the battery to reset the password when he looks at the screen but has not been able to, Apparently removing the battery on the motherboard does not clear it.

The model number is zv6000

The error code you get after 3 attempts is 00888

Any chance somebody can help!? The laptop is no better than a brick at this point. The tech couldnt fix the screen either but at least i could still use it as a media server. Also would like to try get all my files off.

Thanks

[REO51ST]

Welcome Antmatbat.

Try.

tdy

or

suwy

or

7892355

Let me know.

I must inform you that these services are not endorsed by HP, and that HP is not responsible for any damage that may arise to your system by using these services. Please be aware that you do this at your own risk.

[jharle]

We never did get past the password issue, and I don't recall any jumpers on the motherboard to "clear" anything, during our excercise of taking the thing apart to remove the RTC battery.  We ended up sending the machine to HP to have it fixed (~$300), and then less than a month after we got it back, the display stopped working.  My wife has been RDPing into the thing from our daughter's laptop, but that is impractical.  We'll probably crack the thing open again to try and fix the display issue.

My learnings - don't buy an expensive laptop every two or three years, buy a decent low-cost ($600ish) unit from Wal-Mart every year.