cmos battery HP 255G7

[crsteele]

Hello,

Does the HP 255 G7 laptop have a cmos battery?

I bought this laptop off of Offer Up. It worked when I took possession of it but when I shut it down and tried starting it backup it asks for administrator password. I just jumped through all the hoops in regards to master passwords etc and it didn't work.

The unit will not start in safe mode or any other mode . I've tried everything. Also seller will not respond to my emails..Offer Up is taking care of that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Chuck

[banhien]

@crsteele 

Yes, it does have CMOS (we call it as RTC) battery.

>>> Also seller will not respond to my emails..Offer Up is taking care of that.

Did you check everything BEFORE opening  your wallet ?

Regards.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @crsteele 

The 255 G7 does not have a separate CMOS (RTC) battery.

It has an internal main battery which serves a dual purpose of power and retaining the CMOS settings.

Below is the link to the service manual where you can find the battery removal and replacement procedure.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06208876

Removing the battery/clearing the CMOS will not clear the BIOS P/W.

[crsteele]

Thanks for the reply. I did check the laptop before i bought it and it worked fine. I then turn it off and took it home. I never thought about turning it off and then back on. I've bought at least 6 laptops this way and never had a problem.Then I tried turning it on and that is when the administrative password error came up. I've tried everything,pulling out battery,turning off-on then hit Windows and B key,reset bios, but no master key will unlock it.

Thanks,

Chuck

[crsteele]

Yes I know it won't now. But an IT friend told me last night that there should be a set of jumpers that i could cross that would wipe some data enough that i could get in and reset the computer clock etc.

He thinks the previous owner tried to wipe their data before selling it and accidentally set the administrative password to on.

So now I am trying to locate the jumpers.I didn't have the unit with me at the time and he wasn't sure of their location on the HP.

Could you help with that?

I already been to the manual but I saw no help there.

Thank you,

Chuck

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Chuck.

There are no motherboard jumpers in that model.

What happens is you enter any BIOS P/W 3 times, and the PC generates a system disabled code.

We used to be able to provide unlock codes, but are now prohibited from doing so.

See forum rule 4d.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage

HP's position on this now is to replace the motherboard.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06368824

[crsteele]

Thank you for the input on the jumper,I couldn't find any myself.I didn't want to take anymore tings apart while looking around for them until I was clear of what the next steps would be.  I already tried the "BIOS P/W 3 times" scenario a few times and it didn't work.  I think that there may be something else that is corrupted.

Could I use the HP bios restore tool ...would the computer read from that thumb drive first when I Windows and B key it?

Chuck

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I'm surprised that didn't produce a system disabled code like the G6 and earlier models do.

I guess HP changed the BIOS.

They used to provide SMC.bin files to unlock the P/W, but no longer do that, and you saw their new policy.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any way that you will be able to remove the P/W, or how any BIOS tools work, because I have never used them before.

[crsteele]

Last question...do you know where i could buy a mother board for that model? Does HP sell them?

Thanks again.

Chuck

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, Chuck:

Unfortunately, that I do not know.

Here is the link to the service manual where you can find the list of supported motherboards with their HP part numbers.

See chapter 3, page 16, item # 7

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06208876

Make sure you get one with a part number that ends in -601 as those boards will have W10 product keys in the BIOS.

Here is the link to the HP parts store site.  Enter the part number you are interested in, and see what shows up.

https://parts.hp.com/hpparts/default.aspx

I am concerned that the motherboard cost alone will be about the same as buying a new notebook.