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Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

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    #1

    Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

    So, my wife's laptop was in Tablet Mode. It's running Windows 10. I take it out of Tablet Mode. I'm working on making a Windows 7 installation disc with drivers installed. I was at the command prompt copying the modified install.wim file back to the extracted 7 folder. I go to put a blank disc in the drive and all of a sudden, the laptop says Shutting down windows. I figured maybe I had accidently pushed the power button, even though I didn't think I did. It was the only possible explanation I could come up with. Instead of the PC shutting down though, it restarted.

    When it came back on, it said enter hard drive password! There was no hard drive password. We have an Asus. It had a blue box and showed the hard drive in there. I hit enter and it said invalid password (it asked for a master password). So then I hit escape. It said invalid password, computer locked. It powered off. I hit the power button to turn it back on, it wouldn't turn it. The power button flashed for a millisecond or two and nothing. I had to unplug it and remove the battery. Then I hit the power button again, no password, nothing. Just booted back into 10.

    Has anyone seen anything like this before? I haven't been playing with the BIOS or anything on this machine. It's running the latest version which was updated a few years back. Any ideas what might of actually happened?

    Thanks!
    -- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is Full
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

    i'v heard about this on an asus laptop in the past.
    i'v also seen a common fault on Compaq NC6220 where it asks for a password or smartcard because of bad soldering on a main chip under the wifi card.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

      Originally posted by stj View Post
      i'v heard about this on an asus laptop in the past.
      i'v also seen a common fault on Compaq NC6220 where it asks for a password or smartcard because of bad soldering on a main chip under the wifi card.
      So you think this has something to do with hardware and not software? Either bad solder joint or BIOS being corrupt? Would the BIOS settings be stored in NVRAM on the BIOS? Or doesn't the BIOS have NVRAM?
      -- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is Full

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

        well it could be corrupt bios, or a harddrive problem.
        maybe the drive really is locked!
        try a different drive to find out.

        to answer your last question, modern laptops store the settings in the flash!
        and EFI bioses also store data on a hidden partition of your harddrive!!!

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

          Welcome to my world, I swear everything I own has a mind of it's own. Will only work when it's in a good mood. Glitches come and go so you can't figure them out. Arrrgh!
          sigpicThe Sky Is Falling

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

            To the OP: Have you tried removing the laptop battery and plugging it back in?
            Don't buy those $10 PSU "specials". They fail, and they have taken whole computers with them.

            My computer doubles as a space heater.

            Permanently Retired Systems:
            RIP Advantech UNO-3072LA (2008-2021) - Decommissioned and taken out of service permanently due to lack of software support for it. Not very likely to ever be recommissioned again.
            Asus Q550LF (Old main laptop, 2014-2022) - Decommissioned and stripped due to a myriad of problems, the main battery bloating being the final nail in the coffin.


            Kooky and Kool Systems
            - 1996 Power Macintosh 7200/120 + PC Compatibility Card - Under Restoration
            - 1993 Gateway 2000 80486DX/50 - Fully Operational/WIP
            - 2004 Athlon 64 Retro Gaming System - Indefinitely Parked
            - Main Workstation - Fully operational!

            sigpic

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

              Originally posted by stj View Post
              well it could be corrupt bios, or a harddrive problem.
              maybe the drive really is locked!
              try a different drive to find out.

              to answer your last question, modern laptops store the settings in the flash!
              and EFI bioses also store data on a hidden partition of your harddrive!!!
              If the drive was locked, I wouldn't of been able to boot into 10 after I removed the battery, right? Weird thing is, a friend of mine had the same Tablet Mode problem and he said on his machine, he had the same hard drive master password prompt. I really think that's just a coincidence. I can't see how Microsoft's tablet mode could be playing with the BIOS settings.

              This laptop was made when EFI was first coming out. It doesn't support it properly (which sucks), so we can't install 7 / 10 whatever in EFI mode. Wish we could. Damn Asus. I used to think they were a great company, not so much anymore.
              -- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is Full

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

                Originally posted by TechGeek View Post
                To the OP: Have you tried removing the laptop battery and plugging it back in?
                Yes, that's what fixed it. But my question is why did this happen. Something has to be really wrong somewheres. The PC just restarts and then all of a sudden, a prompt saying something like Master Password
                Enter <harddrive model> password

                Freaks me out. I've never seen something like this just randomly happen. I'm afraid maybe next time, removing the power won't fix it.

                Since you suggested removing the laptop battery and plugging it back in, do you have any ideas what might have caused this problem?
                -- Law of Expanding Memory: Applications Will Also Expand Until RAM Is Full

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

                  dont blame ASUS for the bios, it was m$ that pushed for changes to the existing standard.
                  that said, your better off with a traditional bios than one with it's own built-in o.s. to work against you!

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Scariest weirdest laptop problem.

                    Originally posted by Spork Schivago View Post
                    Damn Asus. I used to think they were a great company, not so much anymore.
                    It's true, unfortunately. I had a scary incident with a Compaq. It just one day (in the middle of my writing my undergraduate thesis) decided to go dark and then never work again. You could hear the computer turn on and booting up and everything, but the screen remained completely dark, and after a few seconds of trying to boot up, would just turn itself off again. It was crazy bizarre. Luckily I had a friend who could help me to get the data off of it, but even he (in his many years of repairing computers) told me that this was really strange and he had never seen anything like it before.

                    Maybe the all of the bizzare, explainable problems are all just part of a conspiracy to make everyone go Mac. :-P ;-)

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