Replacing the BIOS in an HP 250 G5 Laptop

14Mar/180

Replacing the BIOS in an HP 250 G5 Laptop

After visiting the flea markets in Melbourne a lot, I've made quite a few friends. These include fellow shoppers and the odd store-holder. One of these store-holders at Oakleigh, in the South East of Melbourne, pulled me aside 3 weeks ago to ask if I was any good at repairing technology.

I hesitated at first... I love repairing (and breaking) my own things... but I am not so sure of destroying other people's equipment. Anyway, the issue was a laptop BIOS password that could not be bypassed. I mean, how hard could it possibly be?

The Laptop

This was to be a slow process. The markets are only held every Sunday and I was pretty busy during the week, so I could only pick the unit up the next weekend. Turns out the problem child was a run-of-the-mill HP laptop which, as soon as powered on, asked for a Power On Password.

A quick google showed that a visit to BIOS Password Recovery for Laptops would help. All I had to do was paste in that magic code (enter three wrong passwords) and receive the master password. Unfortunately, passwords beginning with an 'i' just can't be done like this!

A Call To Support

For all intents and purposes, HP support online is actually fantastic. I was quickly informed that this unit was out-of-warranty and a real call to the telephone support would be required. I quickly tried the 'online chat' support first and the system was actually really helpful. They take in your details and then attempt to throw you to their own KB articles.

Fortunately, my problem was impossible to fix online... otherwise everyone would just be getting past this security measure making it not-so-secure. I was then asked to provide the original invoice, a letter indicating the postal address of the owner and a hand-written note from the owner requesting a formal password reset.

Unfortunately, the owner could not produce the original invoice. The item was purchased online a long time ago and he had been unable to get it printed again. From my point of view, the online retailer was definitely not going to help me. There would be too much back-and-forth... I therefore googled a little further and realised there was another way to solve this problem.

Hardware Hack

This is my specialty. Why bother with the to'ing and fro'ing when you can just crack the machine open and replace the BIOS chip. I mean, usually these things are slotted... so how hard can it be?

Oh shit... It's a tiny 8-pin SMD IC just near the metal shielding and it's nicely soldered in place.

You'll find pre-flashed BIOS chips for sale on eBay. This one came from Latvia and even had the very latest BIOS installed. It came with a great set of instructions too.

Remove the current chip. I know, I know... I said above that I'm not down with wrecking other people's hardware... but here I got frustrated trying to remove this chip and just cut the legs. It's the easiest method and well... I would've been screwed if it didn't work!

From here, tin the pads and then place the new chip in place in the correct orientation! Then just tap the legs with the soldering iron and set the item in place.

And then... apply power!

Yes yes... as per the instructions, the CMOS settings need to be saved. When past the screen above, his ESC and then F10... set the date/time and then go to the final menu and save.