I was on the phone with Dell to unlock the password on this laptop. It appears there is a bug and the master password that Dell will give you is not Valid. I also contacted an ebay based service center with my Service Tag number and they repeated that there is a bug. This is my son's laptop and before I swap out the motherboard is it possible to wipe the BIOS file and upload a new one so that I can remove the BIOS password? The password is set so that I cannot access the CMOS screen and make any changes. I have tried flashing with the latest Dell firmware but that did not remove the password. What I would like to do is to re-flash the chip with a new BIOS and no password or to download the existing BIOS ROM and read/erase/change the password field in the ROM file. Please let me know if this is considered possible. Also if there is a better way to remove the CMOS password I'm interested. I have already removed the power, battery and MB battery to no use. Is there a pin short I can attempt? or is there a jumper on the laptop's MB to clear the CMOS? The BIOS chip is a phoenix. Thanks!
The Dell password(s) are not stored in the CMOS...usually in another memory chip. Unless you can find something on Google regarding how to find & erase the other chip, you'll have to ship it back to Dell.
Thats a problem as Dell tech said the only option left was to replace the MB at my expense. Thanks for the info!