Phoenix Bios

Avril · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 10:25 am Post subject: Phoenix Bios

Hi there,

I have a really BIG problem! If anyone can help me, PLEASE contact me!

I have a gateway Solo 9300 notebook computer. Three days ago I came to my computer with the fatal blue screen of death stating that it had a "KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR...etc 3cc9dab2 - atapi.sys" error. When re-booting my computer I found I miraculously had a hard drive password, which I didn't set! I think I have been the victum of a nasty hacker, as my computer was connected to ADSL (permanent internet connection) I have no idea what to do? I have two years of data, which I am now very sorry to say I cannot get into and did not backup and I've taken it to the only PC techie (who I think is a Guru) I know and he is stumped. It is a toshiba hard drive and I called them, but not only did they say it was stuffed and there is no back door, but that if I put a fresh hard drive in (saving throwing my notebook away) it might do the same thing again! Can anyone help? I can prove that I have purchased it directly from Gateway. I have the receipts (gateway has since moved from Australia) Can anyone give me the information of someone who may be able to help? I'm in Sydney Australia.

The only thing I have been able to do is try one of those password cracking programs and it seems to think that the password starts with a little o with an underscore under it and a u with two little dots above it, but I think that is in ASCII code and I have no idea how to type that in to even try it. I've never dealt with anything like this before, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
Avril

jiteo · BIOS Rookie Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 42

I don't know what happenned there, but what exactly do you mean by password on the hard-drive? A Windows password? Or a BIOS password?

Avril · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 11:34 am Post subject: Password?

Thanks for replying. It seems to be the hard drive password, not the user or supervisor one. I've read about a data retrieval company called nortek www.nortek.on.ca which I'm going to send it to if noone has any better ideas!

jiteo · BIOS Rookie Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 42

My original idea was that you could remove the password by resetting the CMOS. Then I remembered that it was a laptop. So I did a bit of Googling, and I found http://www.pwcrack.com/bios.shtml. If you have access to another laptop, you can stick your disk in there and the password will be gone.

jiteo · BIOS Rookie Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 42

I got the sudden idea that I might have just become accomplice to laptop theft... Smile

Ah well, what has been said has been said.

soupy · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 2:02 pm Post subject:

jiteo · BIOS Rookie Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 42

*growl* ... even after getting a Linux router going I *still* don't know the value of documentation.[/b]

Avril · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:33 am Post subject: Stolen Laptops!

Hi there,

I have the documentation to prove that I bought it, so don't worry, you're not helping anyone who has stolen anything!

I've tried re-setting the cmos and my IT guy has put it into another laptop, the password is attached the the hard drive, not the bios it seems.

I'm going to try a company called Nortec unless noone has any better ideas.

Thanks for your help.

Bright Blessings,
Avril

soupy · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2004 3:01 pm Post subject:

Like our FAQ says, you'll need to take it to an authorized service centre.
_________________
Flash your BIOS at your own risk.

Sharedoc · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:23 pm Post subject:

The problem might be that operating system has been corrupted for some reason.

What you can do is to remove the laptop 2.5" hard disk and connect it to normal PC IDE disk capble with a 2.5"/3.5" IDE-adapter unit. Adapter can be bought from computer shops and they cost ~10 Euro.

PC bios will detect the disk and you can access the files as any disk partition. Best is to find a PC with the same/similar operating system

Ritchie · BIOS Guru Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 761

Can you boot off a floppy? Disable the HDD in the BIOS if necessary?

If you can do this I think you just have to salvage whatever data you can and then do a clean O/S reload.