Dell Vostro 3420 BIOS Password Removal

[sammus540]

I have a Vostro 3420 8H8K5R3-8FC8 that freeze at any attempt to enter bios password or the recovery master password received from dell. I do not have a clean BIOS image to flash.
And as luck would have it happened a couple of months ago right outside of the warranty period (Dec 2023) warranty expired in September. Any help or guidance is appreciated.

[rex98]

I have a Vostro 3420 8H8K5R3-8FC8 that freeze at any attempt to enter bios password or the recovery master password received from dell. I do not have a clean BIOS image to flash.
And as luck would have it happened a couple of months ago right outside of the warranty period (Dec 2023) warranty expired in September. Any help or guidance is appreciated.

you need to have at least cheap programmer, like CH341A and hot air gun to desolder the bios chip. search in Youtube university how to read bios bin from bios chip using ch341a then upload here the BIOS main and Service tag. its usually 32MB 25Q256.

[sammus540]

I have 2 bin I dumped off the motherboard 8MB and 16MB. I found XMC QH64AHIG, XMC QH128AHIG.

[rex98]

I have 2 bin I dumped off the motherboard 8MB and 16MB. I found XMC QH64AHIG, XMC QH128AHIG.

only flash this 8mb do not touch the 16mb.

1st boot, press F2, write service tag, disable Absolute, save (Apply changes), restart. 2nd boot press Alt+F to exit manufacturing mode

[sammus540]

Flashed it 3 times, no screen, no fan spin, power light comes on for 25-30 seconds and then turns off.

[rex98]

Flashed it 3 times, no screen, no fan spin, power light comes on for 25-30 seconds and then turns off.

my patch is working. your bios is not okay, its corrupted its not my fault if you didn't verify your bin after reading. clearme doesn't work this needs bios rebuild and patch.
Lesson learned? ALWAYS verify bios bin.
send here board code so that we can find working bios for you

[sammus540]

my patch is working. your bios is not okay, its corrupted its not my fault if you didn't verify your bin after reading. clearme doesn't work this needs bios rebuild and patch.
Lesson learned? ALWAYS verify bios bin.
send here board code so that we can find working bios for you

Sorry if it sounded as if I was blaming you I didn't mean it to come out like that, I appreciate any and all help you have provided.

Here is the board code GDM50 LA-L241P Rev. 1.0(A00)

[hoaca388]

Sorry if it sounded as if I was blaming you I didn't mean it to come out like that, I appreciate any and all help you have provided.

Here is the board code GDM50 LA-L241P Rev. 1.0(A00)

Try again carefully.
@rex98 , You must connect the bios file before using ME analyzer..

[sammus540]

I merged the 2 bios files and ran it through ME analyzer but I honestly can not tell what it supposed to look like, but it doesn't give me any errors so I am hopeful.

[hoaca388]

I merged the 2 bios files and ran it through ME analyzer but I honestly can not tell what it supposed to look like, but it doesn't give me any errors so I am hopeful.

You can flash the locked version again to see if it can boot.

[sammus540]

You can flash the locked version again to see if it can boot.

Just tried. Did not work unfortunately.

[hoaca388]

Just tried. Did not work unfortunately.

So you've damaged the hardware, pay attention to the components surrounding the bios chip.

[rex98]

sorry my bad i didn't merged the bios files.
try this clearme version. flash both.
if this doesn't work it must be hardware issue.

[sammus540]

I honestly think the bios chip was faulty and that caused my initial problem and all the soldering and programming did not help with its health. I want to thank everyone for their effort and input.