Seeking help and advice to remove bios admin password – HP ProBook 4520s

[Phad]

Dear All,

Hope that this post is at the right place of the forum.

I am seeking help and technical advice to remove bios admin password from HP ProBook 4520s.

The laptop is operating normally and, I am not facing any major issue with it except; the bios admin password that I found about by coincidence only few weeks back.

As the laptop is operating normally, I am reluctant to take it to a workshop to de-solder the bios chip in order to read it by an external programmer, as I am not an expert in doing such a thing.

After a lot of searching and reading, I got to know about the "Intel Flash Programming Tool". Using this tool, I was able to do the following:

1- Generating a bios dump using the command >>> fptw.exe -d output.bin -BIOS

2- Verifying the generated bios dump using the command >>> fptw.exe -VERIFY output.bin –BIOS

3- Using the HPUnlocker on the generated bios dump file “output.bin”, the HPUnlocker generated “output_unlocked.bin”.


4- The main question I have now is: Can I proceed to upload/flash the unlocked file using the command >>> fptw.exe -f output.bin –BIOS


I did not proceed with point no.4 above as I am unsure that what I did so far will lead eventually to removing bios admin password. Also, I did not want to ruin the laptop by making an incorrect procedure.

I shall highly appreciate reviewing this case and your advice on whether to proceed with flashing the unlocked file as stated in point no. 4 above or not.

Attached files for your kind review and verification please:

1- Bios dump file “output2.bin”.
2- Bios unlocked file “output2_unlocked.bin”.
3- Jpg files generated from Intel tool showing bios chip properties.


Thanks in advance,

[Bonzas]

Re: Seeking help and advice to remove bios admin password – HP ProBook 4520s

Do you have bios chip programmer ? in case you failed flash your unlocked bios with flash tool. you can reflash with your backup with bios programmer ( you need desolder it ). I always using using bios programmer for modding or reflash chip

[Phad]

Re: Seeking help and advice to remove bios admin password – HP ProBook 4520s

Do you have bios chip programmer ? in case you failed flash your unlocked bios with flash tool. you can reflash with your backup with bios programmer ( you need desolder it ). I always using using bios programmer for modding or reflash chip

Thanks for your reply.

I do not have a bios chip programmer and, I do not believe that I have the required technical experience to de-solder the bios chip (in case of having the programmer). That's the main reason for inquiring if the "Intel Flash Programming Tool" procedure I explained in the post will do the job (removing bios password) or not.

[SMDFlea]

Re: Seeking help and advice to remove bios admin password – HP ProBook 4520s

Thanks for your reply.

I do not have a bios chip programmer and, I do not believe that I have the required technical experience to de-solder the bios chip (in case of having the programmer). That's the main reason for inquiring if the "Intel Flash Programming Tool" procedure I explained in the post will do the job (removing bios password) or not.

Try this.Hold down the WIN + LEFT ARROW + RIGHT ARROW keys ,start the laptop keep holding the keys for a few seconds. You should see a message at the top left saying flash descriptor unlocked .If you don`t see that message try again holding WIN + UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW (WIN is the windows key)

If it works then try to make a backup again.The flash descriptor will lock itself after a reboot.

.

[Phad]

Re: Seeking help and advice to remove bios admin password – HP ProBook 4520s

Try this.Hold down the WIN + LEFT ARROW + RIGHT ARROW keys ,start the laptop keep holding the keys for a few seconds. You should see a message at the top left saying flash descriptor unlocked .If you don`t see that message try again holding WIN + UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW (WIN is the windows key)

If it works then try to make a backup again.The flash descriptor will lock itself after a reboot.

.

Thank you for your feedback.

As per your advice, I held down the win + left arrow + right arrow keys and, started the laptop while holding the keys for few seconds. The message that appeared for few seconds at the top of the screen says: [Hard GPIO-33. To lock SPI, do global reset or remove AC & DC then boot after updating SPI]. I believe that this message means that the flash descriptor is unlocked.

Then, windows started normally. Later on, I managed to make a “full” backup of the bios chip using the command >>> fptw.exe -d output.bin

Kindly note that before applying your advised method, I was only able to make a backup of the bios section and, not a full backup of the chip.

Please find attached a copy of the “full” backup file and a copy of its unlocked file (made by HPUnlocker).

Kindly review and, advise further recommendations to remove the bios password.

[Phad]

Re: HP ProBook 4520s - Requesting advice to remove bios password

Hello All,

While the descriptor is unloceked, I tried to flash the unlocked/fixed file to the “bios region” using Intel ME command >>> fptw.exe –f (filename).bin –bios

It did not go through and, displayed the following message:

“Error 28: Protected Range Registers are currently set by BIOS, preventing flash access. Please contact the target system BIOS vendor for an option to disable Protected Range Registers”. [Picture is attached for reference]

After getting this negative outcome, I searched this forum and other forums about the possibility to overcome this issue. After a long and through searching I got to know that there's a tool called “prr2.exe” that can circumvent the protected range registers. Regrettably, it did not work! [Picture is attached showing failed output]

This laptop is stone walling every possible way for flashing without using a programmer!

Considering the above, I like to ask:

1- Is there any other way to bypass bios flash protected range registers?

2- If the answer to no.1 above is no, is there any way or method to figure out the admin password from the full bios dump?

Looking forward for your feedback and advice.

Thanks in advance,