Need help with a laptop.

Hi everyone,

This question or favor i'm asking is very argumentative and could very soon turn into a flame. Well here it is: I'm always using my brother's laptop for work and fun. I'm going to school for Computer Engineering and i'm thinking of taking some Network Security classes too. My brother decided to challenge me to figure out his password on the laptop. He has a Sony vaio, WINXP. THe password he placed on it pops up as soon as u turn the computer on. *not at the winxp screen*. I guess i'm litterally asking you how to hack my brother's computer. I dont expect many of you to take me seriously or honestly but I had to take the chance. He offered me 500 dollars if I guess the password. For security purposes, I ask that you not post the answer, or solution to my problem in this post but instead PM me. I kindly ask you not to neg me to death because i really enjoy being here and trying to help others while learning myself. If you dont want to help me or cant help me, please kindly say so without punishing me. I've been with AO for a while now and I understand that this kind of questions is not taken very favorably here for obvious reasons.

Thank you for your time.

If its not the XP logon promt he must have a BIOS password, hence the prompt you get before XP starts.
Although finding out his XP password is simple enough, I dont know of any way to find out his BIOS password, the only thing you can do is erase it. However as his challange is to find out his password and not erase it this will not do you much good.

Have you tried Goooogleing to see if there is a way to find out a BIOS password?

I beleive it is quite impossible though, I think you have also lost yourself $500 dood!

Unlucky!!

thnx for your reply. Erasing his password I could still win the money. His challenge is actually to see if I can get in the comp or not. I dont mind erasing the password as long as I dont damage his stuff in there. If i cant get in, i dont lose anything any money. :) .

Are you allowed physical access to the machine (and the ability to take it apart?)

Well the only way to erase his BIOS password is to open it up, but unless you are confident in what you are doing and at the very minimum have a Anti-static wrist strap/mat I wouldnt go anywhere near the insides of his laptop, (not unless you dont mind it never working again that is!)

On a normal PC you could reset a jumper and/or remove a CMOS battery to reset his BIOS password but on a lap to it is slightly different.

First it is not easily acsesable so you will need to strip it down a hell of a lot, what you are looking for is a small battery a little bigger that a watch battery ( it is smaller that the ones on a normal PC) in a PC you can simply unclip this but on some laptops for some strange reason they are solered in, so you will need to prise this out very gentley, then power it up and leave it for about 30 mins, after this turn it off, remove all power going into the laptop, this includes that actual laptop battery.

Now leave it for a good 2 hours , more if you can.

All you need to do now is solder the battery back in and reasemble the laptop, hopefuly if you have put everything back together properly and havent killed it with static, when you boot up there should be no BIOS password!

If you manage to do this PM me and I will tell you how to circumvent the windows password!

Happy Hacking dood!

The problem is how do I get in there. LOL, i took all the screws out, but it still won't pop open, any ideas?

no, you don't have to take it apart.. there are bios backdoors for many of the laptop brands.

I've posted this link before..
http://www.labmice.net/articles/BIOS_hack.htm

if the laptop is fairly new.. these backdoors probably won't work..
so, you can try a utility like KILLCMOS or RemPass.. you'll find links to those at the above link.
there are a few other bios killers out on the net.. search google. many of them will show up to your AV as a virus.. they aren't.. good luck.. and if you get in becuase of the info I provided.. will ya share the profit..? hehehe.. :D

edit : if it's not the bios password that's stopping you and it's an IBM hard drive that is password protected.. then it's near improbable that you'll do it.. unless you want to pay for this service.. it's a highly technical process that does require you to take the laptop apart and solder wires to it with a device and grab a dump of the info and send it to this guy.

http://www.ja.axxs.net/unlock/password_recovery.htm

Quote:

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If its not the XP logon promt he must have a BIOS password

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There are a number of third-party security packages which require authentication prior to the Windows XP logon screen. Most I've seen (I can't think of any names off-hand right now... kinda preoccupied with what's going on around here) were originally written for Windows 2000 but work on Windows XP too. When you log on through them, some authenticate with Windows, immediately openning up Windows while others prompt you to enter the Windows password as soon as you've logged into the other program. Additionally, it may also be that he enabled the auto-logon with Windows XP but then ran a third-party program to protect the computer (one of the guys I know does that on his laptop because he thinks it's more secure than the Windows logon). Just thought you'd want some other options if, in fact, it's not a BIOS password (since, no offense intended to the guy who asked the question... if you can't tell if it's a BIOS password or not, you probably won't be able to hack it)

AJ

if you do want to go ahead and disassemble the comp. and don't have an antistatic mator soldering iron you canpick one up for cheap at radio shack. but then again what on"t you find at radio shack.

mate if the laptop is really your brothers i wouldnt open it unless is really old laptop
other wise go for it ,you have nothhing to lose :) and you will learn a lot :)
Good luck