[sf-lug] Laptop computer(s) and its/their so-called 'root' password(s)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

> Of course I tried all those measures and was surprised it did not work.
> But that is what you get for cheap.
> 
> I certainly got that 6420 cheaply and learned some things using it.

Gosh, I don't think you tried very hard.  Two minutes of Web-searching
on 'dell e6420 bios password' brought up the fact that this model of
laptop has a skeleton-key password that is derived as a hash from the
unit's serial number, and some kind soul has set up a site to generate
the hash for you if you enter the unit S/N.   https://bios-pw.org/

I'm also surprised that you didn't check that you can get into the BIOS
Setup before buying it.  I mean, you've been around computers for a long
time, yet you walked right into that one -- and then didn't spend two
minutes at a search engine finding a way out.