Probook 4545s Bios Password reset

[russ5265]

Hi Dean,

Thank you for that.

A little update as rquested, pressing F9 on boot up, USB is detected. But  still no luck with the SMC-bin. Also I am finding that the HP is booting straight into SYSTEM INFO screen even if pressing the ESC when Booting. There is someting not quite reight, not sure if it is the HDD or a corrupt BIOS chip. Once the System info page is up the only way to get out of that is to restart and press F9 and and select boot from the HDD.

I am a little confused regarding the bin, you said to make sure that only the SMCbin was on the FAT32 USB drive, and in the email from HP their instructions say (Save the attached file with this e-mail to the root of the USB key as SMC.BIN) would this make any difference. ALSO can you tell me, is the SMCbin BIOS version sensitive?? Could this be the problem??

The reason I ask this is that the BIOS version on the 4545s is ( 68CPD Ver. F.41 BIOS Date 05/20/2013) I think the original BIOS might have been updated??

HP have been very kind and sent me a Driver Recovery DVD and a Windows 8 OS DVD.

The next plan is to KILL the HDD and refomat and repartiton and reinstall  8 this will ensure that the HDD is not corupt.

Please can I ask?? if I am becoming a pain Please tell me and I will stop posting.

russ5265

[IT_WinSec]

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@russ5265 wrote:

I am a little confused regarding the bin, you said to make sure that only the SMCbin was on the FAT32 USB drive, and in the email from HP their instructions say (Save the attached file with this e-mail to the root of the USB key as SMC.BIN) would this make any difference. ALSO can you tell me, is the SMCbin BIOS version sensitive?? Could this be the problem??

The reason I ask this is that the BIOS version on the 4545s is ( 68CPD Ver. F.41 BIOS Date 05/20/2013) I think the original BIOS might have been updated??

HP have been very kind and sent me a Driver Recovery DVD and a Windows 8 OS DVD.

The next plan is to KILL the HDD and refomat and repartiton and reinstall  8 this will ensure that the HDD is not corupt.

 

---

This is just word formatting. The SMC.bin file is the only file that needs to be on the USB drive. Have never tested before and I can also not test now if it will make any difference if there are other files present on the USB drive, as well, along with the SMC.bin file

No, the BIOS version is not sensitive - should not be.

The HDD (even if any issues) is not related to the situation. You don't need to "kill" it - you can test it from the BIOS hardware diagnostics F2 - but this should not be related to the SMC.bin file

Did you contact HP Business support already (again) ? Any news on this front ?

[russ5265]

Hi,

Many thank's for that info but I am doing the HDD anyway, just to be sure. As you said the HDD is not that important re the USB BIOS reset. I had to ask anyway, again just to be sure.

Latest, No I have not contacted an HP Agent yet.

HDD has been Killed Refomatted and partitiond, NTFS and FAT32.

Working on reistall W8. + all other software, etc.

I will update soon as I can.

Regards russ5265

[russ5265]

Hi All,

SORRY TO TAKE SO LONG.

The next chapter on BIOS reset.

The Windows 8 OS has now been reinstalled (clean install from HP DVD) partitioned and updates installed along with the relevant applications and drivers from the HP Recovery DVD.

The reason for this was that there was a problem booting straight into windows 8, problem as follows, power up PC wold only boot to the System info screen even when holding down the Esc key, once the Syst info screen was up if you pressed the Esc key the screen would flicker, you could see the Startup Menu was there in the background, the only solution was to power down and back up and press F9 and select boot to HDD. This was the one and only way to boot into windows.

Rather a pain when updates wanted to restart.

After the reinstall everything was back as it should be (Esc, F1-12 keys working as they should be) ONE problem solved. I hope this might help others. Esc would take you straight into the Startup Menu and all options were available and working.

The BIOS SMC.bin reset still no luck with that.

To date what has been tried, 3 deferent USB flash drives all FAT32 formatted and the SMC.bin is the only file on the drive, used 1 x 4GB, 1 x 8GB + another 8GB tried all USB ports, no luck.

Copied the SMC into the (D: HP-Tools) as per HP instructions, tried that method, no luck.

All USB ports checked out with hardware and in Windows device manager, no problems there.

I have also tried the recommended procedures with a USB wired keyboard plugged in no luck, tried the same procedure with a wireless keyboard same result.

Tried to update the BIOS to the latest unable to do this, BIOS password required.

I have also tried 3 x HDD with 3 x different OS (W7, W8.1, W10) 32 and 64bit still no luck resetting the BIOS password.

I have not contacted HP support yet and the reason is, I have purchased a 512mb USB flash drive to see if the small capacity will work and by the time that arrives the time limit will be out on the bin file, so might as well ask for a new file.

*******What are the chances of the SMC.bin being bad?? Just a thought, also is there any reason that the keyboard 3 x key combination would not work??

I am now starting to think as the last resort the BIOS chip will have to be changed.

I do hope this info is of some use to others on the forum.

russ5265

[IT_WinSec]

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@russ5265 wrote:
(...)

I have also tried 3 x HDD with 3 x different OS (W7, W8.1, W10) 32 and 64bit still no luck resetting the BIOS password.

I have not contacted HP support yet and the reason is, I have purchased a 512mb USB flash drive to see if the small capacity will work and by the time that arrives the time limit will be out on the bin file, so might as well ask for a new file.

(...)

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Hi,

The SMC.bin file is time sensitive - it expires 7 days (168 hours) after it has been generated by HP so I suspect it has already expired. You definitely need to contact them again, refer to your old ticket number and mention that it did not work.

I suspect the smaller USB (512 MB) will not make any difference. When I have used SMC.bin files, I have used 64 GB drives and they always worked.

HP Business Support will tell you all the options on fixing this. 

I am glad that your other issues have been resolved (Windows installed/updated).

Please, reach to HP and keep me/us updated.

[russ5265]

Hi Dean,

Thank you for that information it is appreciated.  The point you made re the USB capacity is interesting, thank's.

I will contact HP via chat within the next few days and see what they have to offer. I just need to get my act together first.

I will up date as and when, again many thatnks to all involved for their support and input.  THANK'S ALL.

russ5265

[russ5265]

Hi Everybody,

Sorry for the late update.

I did contact (eventually) HP regarding another SMC.bin file. Explained the situation re the first bin being time sensitive.

HP asked if I had used smaller Flash drive (answer NO) and suggested I do. That said they sent me the SMC file and also mentioned that if that did not work, it would be an HP chargeable repair.

I installed the SMC on my new 512mb flash drive booted to that and PRESTO job done. Please note the 512mb drive was FAT not FAT32 format, but it worked.

Just to be sure I went through the same ritual with all of the other flash drives I had already tried and YES they all worked and reset the BIOS, with the new SMC.bin.

Just to push it a little more I also loaded the SMC into the HP tools partition and I am please to say that also worked.

So you might say what was the problem? I’m not 100% sure. HP said that there was no way that the first SMC file could have been corrupted.

****ONE point worth noting***** for the first SMC file the Laptop S/N was given HP and for the second SMC file the UUID was given. I’m not sure if the S/N and the UUID are linked.

So for anybody having the same or similar problems I hope the story might be of help.

LAST I also tried all of the hacks out there NO LUCK.

Russ5265

[wevvie]

Been working on this for a couple weeks now. 
BIOS stopped seeing the CD/DVD drive.  Impossible to load a restore disk or system disk. 
Gotten any number of smc command failure notices. 

Attempt to load the softpaq file and create an HP_Tools partition was unsuccessful as I "Already have four partitions on my HD and another cannot be created"

Good times. 

I've been in touch with three techs so far. Each asks me to download the smc.bin file and power off the machine to try to load smc.bin 
Of course, when I power the computer off the tech is gone as well. Next time I look, I have an email stating case is closed. 
I did get a phone call the next day from the first tech but I was unable to take it and it went to voicemail. 
Now merging two partitions on my HD and will install HP_Tools partition, hoping that will help. 
Should it be this hard to get a BIOS password? Sheesh!

[tomhoc84]

Hi guys !

I'm new on forum. I have a Probok 4545s and my bios is protected by pwd. Can you advice me how on seure way remove pasword ? i don't now actual pass.. I try with cmos batery remove - none.. 

Is secure to do this with master password reset ?

[kevin-t]

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