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Urgent help!

post #1 of 33
7/20/05 at 7:27am
Thread Starter 
I just got my Dell Latitude S600GT without HDD.
I mounted in my toshiba HDD (40gb - MK4025GAS) and when i start the laptop after initialization a password requierment appears. Psw for HDD?!?!
In my Satellite 4200 Pro just works fine, can copy, format, etc.
As I found out so far some laptops have a bios psw for Hdds.
Anyone here have an idea what can I do!?!? Dell users aren't responding.
I took out the mobos battery for 10 min, but it seems it is built in the bios because everithing reseted except that psw.

I'm sad!!!!!
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post #2 of 33
7/20/05 at 9:11am
Very bizare! I would of sugested the mobo bat as well, but you tried it....hmmmm. Is the BIOS chip the same as a desktop,I.E. removable? There might be another source of power for it...did you remove the main battery as well as the mobo battery? Perhaps you should PM gOOnter or Fidget as they seem very knowledgable. It sounds very odd though.
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post #3 of 33
7/20/05 at 12:10pm
Doing a search of your problem Dell HDD password, I have found that there is no way to get the HDD password removed. Dell wont even help unless you can prove ownership and have purchased the HDD from them. Look around the net, you will see what I mean
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post #4 of 33
7/20/05 at 3:19pm
ouch that is a tough one... i have never encountered that problem either. mainly because i dont use dell products very much. that said i dont know of anything that can be done off hand but i will do some searching and asking and see what i can dig up. i cant promise i will be able to solve this one but i will try and see what i can do for you.
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post #5 of 33
7/20/05 at 4:20pm
Very strange indeed. The only thing I can think of is the bios battery, but you already tried that. Do you know a repair shop that will work on laptops that isn't necessarily Dell? I found a guy in a shop here in Chile who's been able to help me get all kinds of stuff done.
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post #6 of 33
7/21/05 at 1:26am
Thread Starter 
I don't know. I gave it back to the guy, He has an other Dell home so he tries to mount that Hdd in this one and figure out how to disable tha psw.
If it's not working I'm not buying. Simple.....but it had such a nice display .
My satellites mobo arrives only at the end of september and the display is DSTn not TFT, and I really wanted a laptop when I go on holiday.
Well I guess I should present some sacrifice for the God of laptops for some luck.
The only services are in the capital (in the other conrner of my country 600KM) and they charge you like hell... they told me they change my ram chips on the toshibas mobo for 50 Euro+transport. I'v got one for 30 with CPU+cooler.
Thanks anyway!
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post #7 of 33
7/21/05 at 2:51am
just curious what country are you in sutozsolt? that is some insane pricing.... i realy hope that you can get the dell working too it would be great for you to have it set up. i so far have not been able to find a way around the password but i will keep on looking.
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post #8 of 33
7/21/05 at 3:06am
Thread Starter 
Romania. But the parts come from somewhere Hungary and Polland.
The Dell really would be great deal for 160 Euros.
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post #9 of 33
7/21/05 at 3:18am
wow thats pretty cool, next year i think i will be going to europe for at least 6 months to a year and i was hoping to make a side trip into romania i have heard it is really nice.
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post #10 of 33
7/21/05 at 4:11am
Thread Starter 
Here comes the starnges part. I just talked to the guy and he told me that he tried it with another dell hdd and ITS WORKING perfectly.
Can it be the toshiba Hdd? It works in toshiba laptops and doesn't work in other modells?
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post #11 of 33
7/21/05 at 4:30am
well... i would suggest that it might be because it is a dell hdd, dell in that vintage was very strange and did odd things like requiring you to buy dell parts for things that you could get others to work with normally. it is possible that it requires a dell hdd and will not work with other brands. i have heard about this before with dell, especially dell's from that age.... still it is very odd. i doubt it is the toshiba drive since the toshiba drive worked in your previous laptop (if i remember right)...

(gotta restart my computer be back in a couple of min... )
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post #12 of 33
7/21/05 at 4:35am
Thread Starter 
Yeah I couldn't test it in other brands, because the ones I know they won't open theyr laptops. I mounted it in my old satellitre 230CX (133Mhz) but it freezes after the Ram count.
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post #13 of 33
7/21/05 at 5:09am
yeah i would not expect it to work in that old of a machine, ideally you would be able to put it in another machine to test it but that is out...i personally would think that it would be working though. i would likely attribute the dells trouble with it to dells obsession with proprietary parts especially in the age that you are talking about. they were weird with that stuff and that i would say is the likely cause of your trouble.
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post #14 of 33
7/21/05 at 6:07am
Thread Starter 
Dell monitors are good. I bought a refurbished one (17" Ep771) and its great. I know at least 5 other who has the same or similar monitor from the sam place and all of them are working great...but their laptops... they are good to but full of stupid psw... thats way i don't like at HP neighter. Their inkjet printers are just stupid I always used Canon. They are cheap, good quality, easy to refill (espacially the new IP3000, 4000).
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post #15 of 33
7/21/05 at 2:48pm
You bought the HDD new right? Then there should be no problem with it and you could also send it to toshiba and they should fix it for you under warranty (it's like what, a few weeks old?).

When it asks for the password, exactly what is asking for the password? is in a dos-like window, or is it in a bios type of window?

As far as I know, dell doesn't manufacture hdd's, they usually use hitachi (formerly IBM) or Toshiba drives, so it seems strange that a "dell hdd" worked fine. When you put the hdd in your other laptop, did you ever manage to format it before it crashed? If so did you format it as NTFS and enable some of the file protection?
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post #16 of 33
7/21/05 at 6:56pm
I remember swearing off Dell because of issues with proprietary parts and inability to upgrade with non Dell parts. I think that sort of thing hurts a company in the long run.
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post #17 of 33
7/21/05 at 6:59pm
Sutosoltz it is too bad you are not closer to me as I just ran accross some good deals in my area on laptops, one is a satelite 2450, they want $700 CDN, will probably take $450, hardly ever used! As our economy tanks in the area people sell off and move.
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post #18 of 33
7/21/05 at 8:14pm
yeah it really sucks that he is so far away...
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post #19 of 33
7/21/05 at 9:54pm
and the prices! wow. I bought a lottery ticket today, if I win I'll send you one sutosoltz! Hell, I might fly us all for a GT to some local for a Toshiba pub crawl. I know that I would sleep more, work less, ooops digressing here...
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post #20 of 33
7/22/05 at 1:11am
Thread Starter 
Well it seems I'm back to my old Satellite.
I'v waited almoust on year to finish it, so I guess I can wait a month to get a new mobo. I could start a new show on Discovery chanel: " A laptop is born".
If it finally gets working I gess I opena thread for it with photos and the whole story on how to build a laptop from scratch!
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