HP 800 G6 BIOS password reset

[Gio]

I purchased a mini off ebay for my homelab and it came with its BIOS locked. I have tried multiple ways to force reset the password (there is no motherboard pin to set unlike older generations): How to Reset BIOS Password on a HP Laptop (Probook, Elitebook or Pavilion)

I also have a CH341a BIOS programmer available and while attempting to read the SPI it just seems to fail. This model seems to have "HP Sure Start" which seems to be some kind of protection against BIOS tampering... has anyone been successful at resetting this password?

While the mini still has warranty I already know HP will want me to pay for a new motherboard for no reason.

 

[thepsyborg]

You can't and HP won't. Why would they when they can rip you off for a new mobo? And thus the enshittification of the universe proceeds apace.

That said, if you do figure it out, by all means post it here and let us know how you managed it.

 

[louie1961]

I saw that unit and passed on it for that very reason. I saw somewhere online that there was a pirated version of a bios editor utility that some people were using to download the bios from the PC, edit it and then re-flash the bios. It looked kind of sketchy to me and I can not find the website at the moment. But that may be an option.

 

[TylerTech]

Just came to say I’m in the same boat, got one off marketplace and it’s totally locked down. If you think of the name or have a link to the sketchy bios editor let me know and I’ll give it a try and report back.

 

[TylerTech]

I wanted to follow up and let you guys know while I didn’t technically get into the bios I got this machine working for me (hp 800 g6 with bios lock). So I’m not sure what did it but I’ll detail what I did….

I took out the nvme drive that was in it, this had a base install of windows 11 with the user that sold it to me as the only login.

I took out the cmos battery.

I put a strong neodymium magnet that I purchase off Temu for magnet fishing on the bios chip and left it overnight…

Imaged a usb drive with fedora server, installed an empty sata drive, 128gb internal into the drive caddy (I actually purchased the sata caddy and it was for a g5, had to dremmel the bracket on the sides but it works fine)

the machine posted and went to a recovery screen giving me a 4 digit code and said hit any key to reinstall the missing os or hit esc to skip, I hit esc and it booted to the fedora install and I was able to complete the setup to the internal sata drive!

I’ll update once I have the battery and an nvme drive back in but so far it’s booting into fedora server just fine, went from a paper weight to a productive member of my k3s cluster!!