Bios reset

[cleecayce]

Need to reset BIOS back to factory shipped state. Unsure how to do this. My BIOS has been modified by encryption software, and I need to remove it somehow. I get PXE-E61 Media test failure after sucessfully recovering pc from recovery discs. Under boot menu in Bios there is listings for this other software. Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated

[TheOldMan]

Considering that Windows 7 is installed, it would seem that PC was made awhile ago.  Perhaps during 2011.  Most, if not all, OEM motherboards will not allow an older BIOS to be loaded on the board.  That being said, I am sure someone will point an exception to that.  That is why I said "most".  The BIOS Recovery is meant to recovery a corrupted BIOS from a bad flash and not to restore an old version BIOS to the board.

Here is a guide on the topic.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04126730

[cleecayce]

Thank for your insight.Let me run this by you for your opinion. I had no problems until the software Drive Crypt installed a bootloder and modified my uefi  settings. Under uefi boot it now shows  DCPP-Windows. I don't see any way to remove this from the boot menu. I have tried everything. I was assuming if I could find a way to reset the BIOS, it would also reset the uefi settings. I originally had windows 10 on computer, but had lost recovery drive that was originally on harddrive. I just recovered computer using recovery discs to restore the recovery portion of the drive to try and access the bios reset feature that HP discussed on their website.It is the craziest thing I have ever experienced. The PC will recover from the discs, but upon restart I have a no bootable harddisk found error.Cannot get to any kind of BIOS update screen There is a bios update available from HP for this machine. If I could somehow get windows to load, and update bios. Do you think this flash would reset uefi settings to default? or would they stay the same?Thanks for your help

[TheOldMan]

If you are the one that installed the DriveCrypt software, they should give you a way to remove the effects and put the PC back to normal.  Otherwise, it seems to be doing what it was designed to do - keep spmeone out of the computer.

I suggest contacting the support people at SecurStar for assistance in this matter.  They may be able to help with this type matter, if you can prove to them you are the owner of this PC.  After looking at the webpage for the Encryption Software, it does state that it changes the pre-boot, in an effort to provide no entey at all to the computer.  In the "advertising of the software, there is no way to break the protection"  not even if law enforcement needs in.

If that software is installed, you are not going to get past the security features,  IMHO.

[cleecayce · Accepted solution]

Thank you so much for trying to help me with this dilemma. I finally found a solution. By applying defaults to BIOS I was then able to see anothe listing on the boot order which I tried, and it booted into windows. Hooray! Of course when I restarted, it went right back to the same problem. No matter how hard I tried, the setup utility would not save my changes. So I proceeded to get back into windows using the above method again. I reinstalled DCPP told it to install boot auth. restarted computer, logged into boot auth, and then restarted computer. I then uninstalled boot auth from within DCPP and restarted and finally things are back to normal!! Computer starts normally now. To say I have learned a valuable lesson would be an understatement. Thank you for all of your efforts. I hope by me telling this that it prevents anybody else from having the same problem.

[TheOldMan]

Thanks for posting back.  Most definitely when using an encryption software, the user needs to be able to return to a normal setup.  By uninstalling the software in the manner described, it removed the altered bootup and gave the control back to the user to use the PC as a normal setup.

As you found out, it will not allow a user to circumvent the setup without using the proper, authorized  procedure to remove the software to return control of the PC.

[cleecayce]

Exacly, what was interesting though is that the software allowed me to install the boot auth. again even though some of the problems it created were still in place. I am very grateful, because I almost had a PC for a boat anchor! lol Thanks again!

[mdklassen]

> No matter how hard I tried, the setup utility would not save my changes.

It is possible that the "button-battery" on the motherboard needs to be replaced.

When working correctly, this battery keeps sending power to the chip that stores the updated BIOS settings.

> I get PXE-E61 Media test failure ...

In a "corporate computer network" environment, it is possible that a "boot-server" is present on that network.

Thus, when your computer tries to boot, and fails to boot from other devices (USB, disk-drive, CD/DVD drive), it may try to connect, over the computer's Ethernet cable, to that "boot-server".  Windows will then be downloaded to the computer.

In a "home" environment, there is no active boot-server, and so the Ethernet "media" (the cable) reports "failure" to find that boot-server.

Within BIOS SETUP, "disable" the Ethernet adapter as an eligible boot-device.