"Service Manual" CAUTION via eservicemanual.info

Hi,

Here is the reason I wanted the Service Manual. I wanted to find the location of the RTC/CMOS battery.

When I recently turned on my HP Pavilion N3390 laptop, I get an ERROR: "0271: Check Date and Time Settings" during power up with the option to press F1 to continue or F2 for Setup. Also F10 diagnostics is available. No mater what I select, I must enter a password!!!! Note: I never set a password on this laptop, and I never had to enter a password in the past when I entered (F2) setup. I have no clue what password I should enter.

John

The whole idea of the password is to make it so you can't defeat it. In the old days, you could remove a jumper and reset it. Then, there were sometimes master passwords, but you'd find nobody would divulge them. Then, they switched to a backdoor password that was calculated from some machine number...serial number, some number on the boot screen, etc. But nobody would give you the program. Sometimes, you could get someone to do the calculation for you, but that was rare.

With today's emphasis on security, I think you're pretty much screwed. If you find anything, let us know. I've got a Toshiba lifebook with the super password thingie that won't even turn on the screen until you put in the password. I called Toshiba and they just laughed...guess they musta thought I'd stolen it.

Don't suppose you left it unattended and got pranked? I used to take computers to swapmeets and demo them. Some asshole put a password on it. Fortunately, it was old enough that I could remove the jumper and fix it.

There's also the possibility that some glitch caused it to think it needed a password, or that the first boot after fixing the battery always asks for a password and instead of pressing enter, you banged on the keyboard and that got accepted as the new password???

I don't think there's any chance of finding a usable password recovery in published data...certainly not the manual.

It looks as if you'll have to reinstall the operating system on another drive.

Windows 7 (and other operating systems, I assume) have a feature that lets you restore the password from a thumb drive (or possibly other storage devices). This should, I think, protect you from password corruption.

A few business laptops from around the Pentium III series, moved on to storing BIOS passwords in non volatile eeprom devices. Previously some used a private area of flash memory where the BIOS firmware lives, though I've rarely able to reset that by simply updating the BIOS.

However I've hacked into some identifiable eeprom's using i2c, and been able to read the password in plain text! But that was sometime ago, I'd expect the devices now are well hidden and integrated - and the passwords stored encypted.

The OP's laptop is of the Pentium III era. I'd say keep searching (maybe a battey, maybe not), and be aware the machine is in the N3300 series, so many similar variants to match. There are sites in vietnam (of all places!) that have a wide collection of detailed schematics beyond what's available in an official service manual! (I don't have links at present)

Also many BIOS related recovery tutorials on youtube.

On 1/6/2013 2:24 AM, Adrian C wrote: There are sites in vietnam (of all

Schematics links would be very useful to the community.

Should be

Their manuals are free.

The site you used maybe a rip-off type clone version?

Mark Z.

Try this?

mz

I've posted before

(googles me own 2011 post in sci.electronics.repair)

Ahh, here....

Yup, it's still going :)

Thanks, Kind of a scary site. Think I'll go find a live linux CD and turn off everything on the network and cross my fingers ;-)

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the correct site.

Unfortunately that site does not have a SM for my specific model, HP Pavilion N3390.

John

If you fail the password check, does it display a failure code after a System Disabled type message? What is it?

Hi Adrian,

Yes, there is an "invalid" (password) message display, and after 3 tries, a "disabled" message appears. I don't recall if there is a code number.

John